Volusia County School Board - School Board Workshop ⧸ Work Session 8⧸12⧸2025

001Good afternoon and welcome to the Val County School Board workshop. Today is Tuesday, August the 12th, 2025, and it is 10:05 p.m. And so, in just a moment, I'm going to ask you to stand and join me for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence and reflection. So, at this time, please stand and join me for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Here with me today, I'm going to start on my far left. I have Mrs. Donna Brosmer representing district 4, Mrs. Christa Goodrich representing district two, Dr. Gilbert Evans, our schoolboard attorney. On my far right, we have Miss Celeste

002um wait Gilmore. I know I'm like Miss Celeste Gilmore, who's our agency clerk. She keeps us all straight. Then we have Miss Jesse Thompson representing district three. Mr. Ruben Clone, who's our vice chair, representing district 5. Dr. Carmen Ba, our wonderful superintendent. And I'm Jamie Haynes, the chair currently representing district 1. Today we have two items on the workshop agenda. The first item will be Valuchia progress monitoring for the end of the year. And then after that item, we will have a human resources update. Dr. Babin. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, board members, and to the wonderful staff that's here in the audience here today. Thank you, Chair. Um, as you know, this is that time of the year where we share uh in terms of our strategic plan. We have one goal and we

003have four guard rails. So, all of our goal owners are here today. As you know, a strategic plan does not realize itself. Um, you have to have people behind the scene owning those strategies and ensuring that the that we are part of that Florida continuous improvement model, the FSIM model. So the team here um pres the presenters that we have here with us today is Mr. Johnny Cash who is our chief of staff, Dr. Julian Nazaria Va our chief academic officer, Mrs. Stephanie Workman our executive director for human resources, Mr. Mike McAfee executive direct director for grat assurance and student services, Miss Patty Core, our chief operating officer, Dr. chief technology officer, Dr. CE uh Mr. CE he's working on his doctorate. I know he is um he's our chief financial officer and Miss Danielle

004Johnson our coordinator for community information and student services. Now you heard uh I believe at our last workshop where teaching leading and learning shared our official scores as it pertains to our goal one which is to ensure that all students are receiving high qual quality of learning each and every day. But today as they do their part or their segment of the presentation, they're going to be focusing specifically on the how how we have achieved uh those results. How our students have how we have collaborated with the other department, what does the system and structures look like. So they're going to be honing in on the how. Equally the other goal owners, they will be doing the same. They will presenting the what, but also a little bit of the how. So with that said,

005I will ask Mr. cash to join us and commence this workshop. >> Good afternoon, Chair Haynes, board members, Superintendent Balgamin. It is indeed a happy day to be here. Yesterday was the opening of school and I think everybody by now should know that Valuchia County is an aid district. But as the superintendent said, if people really want to know and people want to pay attention, as she just alluded to the how, that's what today is for. We've talked about and the superintendent mentioned it. I thought the rea department did an exceptional job of highlighting all the successes that Valuchia has had, but if you want to see how the sausage is made, that's what you're going to see today. And um we have a lot of experts to come up and share that with you.

006As you can see on the screen in front of you, this is our end of the year, what we call the VPM. We love acronyms in education. It's our VPM. And so, of course, there are our board members. Superintendent likes that picture. We got the right one, Dr. Bman, I'm sure. And then there are the guardrails as a as we alluded to. But this slide is my favorite of the entire presentation because if you look in the middle of this slide, it says all students will engage in high levels of learning every day. That is the heartbeat of our organization. That is the goal of our organization. It's what parents expect. It's what our teachers expect. It's what we all expect that every child will have an opportunity to learn every day. Now, in order

007to do that, you have to have those four guard rails which were mentioned that sort of buttress that work up or put it there. And you'll see those guardrails that are listed there. I won't read them to you as you can see. And as we go on to this one right here, as I alluded to, this is each and every day the mission to teach children. That's why we're all here. And it starts with our TLLL division and Dr. Julio Vier who's going to come forward and have his team present the information regarding to uh how we achieve this dramatic increase in our school performance. Dr. Vaet. Thank you, Mr. Cash. Good is Good afternoon, Superintendent Balgabin, board chair, and board members. Um, it's an honor to be here, and as U Mr. Cash said

008the core business that we um do in every every single day in and out um is teaching and learning. And so there is a art and science to teaching and learning. And so we're going to um review um with you and share with you our three-year journey because I don't think it's just what happened during this school year. Everything builds on what we've been doing since Dr. Belg has taken over. um as the superintendent um in our district. So um I'm gonna have Miss Castayanos and Miss Copeland to come up as I open up because they will be um sharing with you all how did this come about because it has been very strategic work. I do want to acknowledge um there's a team of people sitting behind me and many of them are from

009the teaching leading and learning um department. Again that is our core business. That is why parents um bring their students their their child to our school district is to get educated. And so we have our elementary um represented by Miss Casayanos. We have our secondary that is represented by our directors as well as our executive director Dr. Drayton. Our core content areas. Um so you see them um sitting here um who leads those respective departments. our ESC, Miss Copelan. You also see our multilingual um department, our REA, and our professional learning because that is who supports directly supports teaching and um and learning out at schools. And so when we think about the art of science of teaching, I go back to what Dr. Balgaban talked about is the continuous improvement model. Um, three years

010ago before I even um was um asked and had the honor of coming to Valuchia County, um a little bit over three years ago, I was in the state level and I was the um person that led school improvement across the entire state under our governor um Dantis as well as um several different commissioners. And I would tell you is this school improvement is not just the work of D's and F schools. it is the work of every single school throughout um our district um across the state of Florida. And so the continuous improvement model that Dr. Bogerman referred to is you have to be able to plan and understand what you're planning for. You have to be able to execute those plans. You have to be able to go back and check to see

011if that's working. and if it's not working, be able to get to the root cause as to what's not working or why is it working and then be able to make changes to to that plan. That is no different than any other plan that we have in place um even in our own personal lives, right? And so teaching and learning when we're talking about the art and science, the art comes from being able to be in front of the classroom, so the teachers and being able to pivot when they need to, ask the correct questions when they need to. I see that certain students within this grade level in my classroom is not understanding this concept. Let me pull them in a small group. The science behind teaching is understanding the in-n-outs of those benchmarks.

012Being able to understand how do I plan accordingly so that my students are able to master the benchmarks that is dictated by the state of Florida in terms of that curriculum. Right? And so this morning, both ladies, you'll be you'll be hearing them taking turns in terms of how did we get to this A because it wasn't done by chance. It was done by very careful design um every single year. And what I noticed when I worked with at the state level, sometimes you end up having schools and school districts that you see almost this peak of they've done well and then they focus on some other things. Then probably the next year you see either content areas or um district grade or school grades where they dip again, then they do okay, then they

013dip again. And I call that personally me the roller coaster effect, right? Whereas when you really truly understand that continuous improvement model and what is it that we need to be able to do in order to impact teaching and learning from the macro level from the micro level to the macro level in an organization, you have to really understand the root of why is this happening or why is this not happening. And so understanding that when we took um and I came in as the elementary assistant superintendent at the time and I have 45 schools, one of the things that we put a lot in place were systems and processes. Today you're going to hear some of the systems and processes that started at that level and then bled into middle school and high school

014because the one thing that I do believe and um we all believe as as a TL team is that there are best practices that is able to be replicated no matter what level you are, elementary, middle or high. And so we really hone in on those systems and structures to make sure that are were we getting our return on investment. And what we saw in um 23 school year, 23 24 school year, 2425 school year, now entering this school year is that we did not see this roller coaster effect in our data. The data speaks for itself and you you had that presentation at the last workshop. Here we want you to have a full understanding is how did we get there? Because it wasn't by luck and it wasn't by hope. And no, we

015have not arrived. I always believe there's still room for a lot of improvements because that is what continuous improvement is, right? However, what you don't see is a roller coaster effect and what you do see in our data is continuous improvement in the subgroups and in different content areas and grade levels. And that is what um both Miss Casianos and Miss Copelan will be talking about. So you will start off correct. All right. >> All right. Good afternoon. As Dr. Balgaban had stated that we are going to tell you our how and Dr. Vay went into exactly what we are going to talk about this afternoon and specifically within our schools, right? And and the systems that we put in place. So, we're excited to tell you and when we talk a lot today, this

016this afternoon that you'll hear if I say there's a system that's in place, it's consistent across preK 12. we have made sure that our systems that we see that are working in in all of our schools that they are consistent. So three years ago under the leadership of our superintendent Dr. Carmen Balgaban we set a bold vision and uh Mr. Cash said that earlier that every student will engage in high levels of learning every day. We mean that. That wasn't just a slogan. That is what we truly mean. That every student in Valuchia County will engage in those high levels of learning every day. Every cabinet member, every department, every school embrace the challenge. We knew achieving this vision would take focus. It's going to take collaboration, and you'll hear that a lot. Collaboration, not

017just within TLLL, but across every division, and relentless e execution. We started by examining our foundation. What we found was a gap and it was a gap in our instructional alignment. Students weren't consistently ac accessing grade level uh content area across all schools. The expectations varied and supports were inconsistent. We knew that had to change. So we rolled up our sleeves and we went to work. Florida, we created our clear instructional focus and those are the look fors across all of our content areas, which I'm sure that you've heard about our look fors, but it's just our best practices within our schools, ensuring that all of our students have access to grade level content every day. So, we they we grounded in our Florida best standards. These weren't compliance checklist. They were tools for clarity

018and access for all students. Every student deserves rigorous education. and rigorous instruction. Every teacher deserves support. Every school deserves a path for success. The district just didn't set these expectations. We walked hand inand with our schools uh to meet them. You'll see coordinators, specialists, resource teachers, directors. You'll see executive directors, chiefs, all of us are in the schools supporting the schools every day. And you can see that with that where we started we've ear now earned an A for the first time in 16 years. So seven components reached their highest performance level since 2015 in every core subject improved for three straight years. So these results didn't just happen. It came from the work of working together every single day. We built a rhythm. a rhythm that we met. We looked at data and then

019we decided what needed to happen next and make those changes immediately. We didn't wait for things to happen. So teachers weren't working in isolation. District teams, coaches, administrators all worked together in the classroom side by side to support the work. We modeled lessons. We co-taught lessons. We also pulled small groups. We tweaked our curriculum maps so that we can ensure we had a structure in place that supported the instruction for our students each and every day. We made sure that teachers had the resources needed to be successful. And professional learning was just not a one-off workshop. We made sure that it was built right into the school day so teachers could try the strategies, get feedback, and adjust as needed. So all Felucia high schools earned an ARB for the first time in history. No

020DRF schools, no turnaround schools for the first time since 2008. This is what happens when a vision becomes a system. When departments don't work in silos, when schools are not left to figure it out on their own. When expectations are paired with support and followed by accountability. This is not the end of our story, but it's an important milestone and we're excited for it. So, we all know that everything begins in early learning. Our three and four year olds are very important to the work that we do each and every day. And so knowing that that long-term success depended on how we started the work with our students, we found that we had critical gaps in literacy. So we invested heavily in early learning and early learning literacy. We launched centralized Canvas resources, deployed targeted

021interventions, and prioritized our early learning data chats. Our early learning resource teachers became hands-on partners with teachers modeling and coaching. And so Terry T at the end of last school year had a 100% of their students ready for kindergarten. We had five other schools that had 90% or higher of their students ready for kindergarten. And I just want to say that again. T had 100% of their students ready for kindergarten. So it's very proud of the work that we've done with our early learning programs. For ELA, our focus was twofold. We prioritized tier one instruction, ensuring that whole group lessons were tightly aligned to the grade level benchmarks and they were taught with fidelity. This was the foundation of our work. At the same time, we put a strong lens on small groupoup instruction. That's

022where students receive targeted teaching based on their specific needs. When there is a gap in students understanding, it must be addressed and directly it must be addressed directly and intentionally. As we looked across classrooms, we saw teachers working hard but often without the tools to differentiate effectively. Know we have many teachers who are either new to the profession or have come to teaching as a second career. So you'll hear me saying multiple times, when we see what could possibly be a barrier, we adjust and we support. So we focused on professional learning, on smallroup instruction, giving teachers concrete strategies and dedicated time to collaborate. We revised our curriculum resources to better support this, adding small groupoup lessons and scaffolds for every grade level. The message was clear. All students deserve ed instruction that meets them

023where they are and moves them forward. And we didn't just train and walk away. We came back. We observed. We coached. And we adapted. What does this look like in practice? Curriculum maps. We redesigned for all grade levels to ensure a clear pro progression of learning. Small group lessons were developed to scaffold the benchmarks and provide targeted supports. ELA coordinators, specialists, and resource teachers, that's this team behind me, and their teams. They don't just sit behind a desk. They're out there working side by side with school-based teams. They visit schools regular regularly to model lessons, provide coaching, and work directly with teachers and students. This ongoing hands-on support ensured consistent instructional practices across the district and allowed for immediate feedback and collaboration to strengthen the instruction. Smallroup instruction became a daily non-negotiable practice ensuring that

024every student had access to both grade level content and personalized support. So you'll see that the chart demonstrates the growth in students reaching level three and above on in a three-year period with significant gains in high school ELA rising 10 points from 43 to 53. Additionally, middle school ELA saw a large increase of eight points over three years, rising from 44% to 52%. and math. For math, our focus was on meeting students where they are and building from there. We knew it was critical for teachers to deeply understand the benchmark limits in the hierarchy of learning in mathematics. This meant moving students intentionally through the stages of mastery. There's different stages in math, right? You have your exploratory, you have your procedural re re reliability, and then you have your automaticity. It's important that teachers

025understand that as you're teaching the grade level benchmarks so you're not teaching above the benchmarks, you're meeting the students where they are so they can build upon that knowledge. So to support the teachers in this work, we introduce best practices, which is professional learning sessions. These collaborative sessions allow teachers to work together on upcoming benchmarks and answer key questions. What does this look like when I'm teaching it in the classroom? What manipulatives or tools do students need at each stage to meet their needs? As we reviewed our practices, we identified a gap in our math instruction block. If we were to truly meet the students need, we needed dedicated time for targeted support. So, we added a 30 minute intervention block to provide focused small groupoup instruction for students who needed it the most. At

026the secondary level, placement of students was equally important. If a student create wasn't ready for algebra because they haven't mastered the foundational skills, we created an alternate path for them. This wasn't about holding students back. It's about the opposite. It's about giving students the time that they need to ensure that they understand the math concepts before advancing them into a course like algebra where they need that in order to be successful on upper level math courses. So our district support looks the same as it does in ELA and for science and for social studies and all the core content areas. We have coordinators, we have specialists, we have resource teachers again out in the schools supporting the school teams. They visit classroom regularly regularly. I keep messing up on that word. Model lessons, coach teachers,

027and work directly with students. They bring immediate feedback. They they have targeted strategies that they can help the teachers understand. They follow up and support instructional um shifts where we're needed. So, the combination of clear instructional progression, hands-on professional learning, targeted intervention, intentional secondary placement, and ongoing district support ensured that our math instruction was both rigorous and responsive. We meet the students exactly where they are and move them forward with purpose. There's gains and we've discussed our gains and you can see that they're highlighted here on the screen. And so the work continues in science. In science, we found content gaps that just weren't about the standards, but they were about access and engagement for our students. So our curriculum team hit the road supporting teachers in real time in small groupoup planning and instruction.

028There were tiered supports offered such as our curriculum map aligned to the standards, hands-on learning with make and takes standards aligned canvas modules and intervention tools like penda and replay. So, we monitored this implementation, conducted classroom walkthroughs, and adjusted supports to meet the needs of our students and our teachers. This wasn't just dropping off a resource, but this was about standing beside our instructional staff to ensure that our science standards were being taught at a very high rigorous level to meet the needs of our students. And as we look at social studies, we reviewed our in our secondary classrooms in social studies and we found that social studies instruction was often contentrich but inconsistent in how it aligned to the standards and how it supported our students. So we tackled this directly. We aligned curriculum

029maps across middle and high schools, embedded ELC style type questions directly into our daily lessons. And we did this with teachers, not to them, but with them by gathering their feedback and integrating their voice into the work. And so as we move forward into strategy B, this is where we're taking a look at our subgroups. And our subgroups have also consistently improved over the last three years. We saw gains amongst our ELLL learners, our students with disabilities, and across every major demographic. We focused our support, very targeted support with our English language learners and students with disabilities. This was through action plans that were created for each school based on the services that each school needed. We employed coaching, IEP implementation reviews and also cross department collaboration. We know and understand that every student matters

030and we need to ensure that we back this up with real action. So together we continue to build a foundation for excellence with our subgroups and we know that this work is just starting. We know that we will continue this work understanding that it is every child, every school every day. So priority strategy C is engaging all students in systematic ongoing progress monitoring to inform decision- making. This is probably my favorite um because this is how we monitor students throughout the school year. We don't get to those end results if we are not putting something in place to monitor the students along the way. How can we respond to their needs if we don't have that? So that's where we have our VBAs which are Valuchia benchmark assessments. So in our world we often say

031if it doesn't if what gets monitored actually gets done and that's what we did over the past three years. We have a true system of progress monitoring. We don't monitor for we don't progress monitor for compliance. We monitor for impact. We have to meet the students where they are and that's the importance of those benchmark values benchmark assessments. So our systems and structures that we put in place we have data review meetings. We have collaborative planning. We have tiered interventions of support. And they helped our teachers learn how to use data as a compass to guide that improvement. For example, during collaborative planning sessions, teachers would come together to analyze student work, identify learning gaps, and co-design targeted instructional strategies that meets the needs of all students. These conversations foster shared ownership and ensure that

032every student benefits from thoughtful datainformed teaching. We didn't just look at the data. We asked what now? What can we do for the students? we understand what where their gaps are, what can we do for them, and how can we make sure that they we they understand the content that they're learning to move them forward. We adjusted small groupoup instruction. We shifted resources and we provide just in time training. So, our commitment to progress monitoring has transformed the way that we teach and lead in our classroom. It shows teachers, it shows up as teachers using the exit tickets. U it or verification of learnings to group students based on their learning needs. In coaching sessions, it means reviewing student work and adjusting pacing to better support the learning. At the district level, it looks like

033analyzing performance trends and directing support where it is needed most. When I say directing support, it's taking our resource teachers and putting them in the schools where we see that the data shows that they're needed the most. The shift has been more than just procedural. It's a change in a mindset. Instead of waiting for endofear scores, we're taking ownership of student progress week by week. And that shift has made all the difference. Thank you, Miss Casianos and Miss Copelan. Um, so as you can see, one of the things that I um would like to stress is that this has not been work done in isolation. It has not been done. something with just one year is over the course of the years in collaboration very closely with our schools um with those um folks that

034are boots on the ground um with our principles, their leadership team, but also the teachers on staff because in order for us to improve what we're doing at the district level, we have to also um consider those that are in the front line um that is able to give us that feedback to make things better. So that um effort in terms of the collaboration um has been very evident throughout our years and we've perfected that um throughout the years and it can only get better. So um with that I want to open it up um to questions. >> Hello. You said a quote that I want you to repeat again. Something about we don't progress monitor just for compliance. Can you say that again? >> Progress monitor for compliance. We progress it to to for

035the results for so we can give the students what they need. >> Drop the mic. Thank you. >> Anyone else? I have a couple questions. um under for example mathematics. So we're going to take them where they're at. So have we opened back up the ability for students that are not ready to take of you know algebra 1 is an entire course. Have we opened back up algebra 1 part A and part B yet? >> Yes, we do have algebra 1A. The thing with um algebra 1B is that instead of having students come back another year and start off the second half of the year, then we're giving the full algebra which gives them the review for the first part of the algebra again, the one that they took because these are your most struggling

036students and then they do the second part which obviously gives them the entire algebra 1. So at the end of their second year taking algebra, they'll take the ELC. >> Okay. My next question is on the the Valuchia part of the assessment piece. So when I was in Tallahassee in March, I talked to our rep representative Dana Turnsbully who's was over that piece and she had a lot of questions and there were several of us. There was also board member from Hillsboro County, one from her own county and everything. And she said, she was reading to us emails that she'd received from teachers. And she asked us, she said, "Will you tell me honestly why teachers are upset?" So it's not just a valia thing, okay, of having to give so much lose instructional time

037and give so many assessments. So we told her honestly what we felt is with the progress monitoring piece which I I totally agree with progress monitoring because I think you need a baseline data. You need to see if they're making progress because as teachers we need to know if they haven't learned something. It's on us to go back and ensure that they get that time and practice. But what we all basically told her is it's not specific enough. So therefore, we bring in our, you know, each county is bringing in their own version of assessments. And I think there's a little bit of a control piece with it. I'm being honest with you, but we're bringing in our own assessments so that we have more specific data. So she asked if the state were to

038take the current progress monitoring pieces and they were to put together a group of individuals, you know, because all of this stuff ends up being written by people, you know, we we've had people in the past from Valuchia County sit on the committees to write this and they wrote it more specifically so that the data that you got each time they were assessed was more specific. Would that change what districts are doing and would we stop take doing the progress monitoring piece and then in our case the Blush County piece which would then open up more time for instruction. So do you think that's even a feasible thing for them to look at? >> I don't think it's not not feasible but I I do want to um go a little bit more specific in

039terms of that word specific. What does it mean? because you we really want to look at what is it that you're measuring during that time period because the fact of the matter is as it stands right now you are um we are as a state administering a test that is a full year's test three different times of this year with different levels of um questioning that happens and so for for the first benchmark I can give him that this benchmark um question that is at a easy level but the second one I'm going to give you the benchmark but it may be at a whole different level and so it's not just the specificity is what is it exactly that's measuring that I can use as a classroom teacher in real time to be able

040to adjust my instruction because the fact of the matter is is this across the board I can say but I give them tests that are out of the textbook and I monitor had and if they don't do well on those tests, then that's what I'm going to remediate. Well, remember there's an art and science of teaching. A textbook is a publishing company that is made up to make sure that they have their money um that they're making out of that. Meaning, I can take the same textbook that they use here in Florida and I can go to Texas and just stamp it with the Texas standards. It doesn't measure per se. And I'm not saying that every single um lesson within that um resource is off, but you have to understand those benchmarks to be

041able to then say in real time, can I as a teacher make instructional decisions is going to move my students understanding. So it's not just the specificity, it's also making sure that it's measuring what it needs to measure so that I as a teacher can utilize that assessment results to impact what's happening in the classroom. But to your to your your a short answer to that, which I guess defeats the purpose to what I just explained is yes, it would be that would be something that I would definitely think that would be feasible >> because here's the thing. I don't want to waste anyone's time. And she was interested in learning more about this because she's not hearing it just from one county. She's getting emails, you know, from the area she represents as well

042as emails from other counties because of the position she held this past year on that. And she wants to say, and she has children herself, so she wants to figure out, you know, how can we ensure we have more instructional and practice time or intervention remediation time or even, you know, enrichment time for kids that are ready to move on? And is there a better way to take the state assessment? And look, I know all about textbooks. A group came to Florida one time and we opened them up and it said Indiana inside of them. I mean, they had changed the first chapter. So, I know about that. And probably what I was meaning was more specific in what we were getting from the data because the issue right now I understand with the progress

043monitor for the state is it's very broad and what we've done h we have broken it down. So, I just want to know if we're even open to something like that because I don't want to pursue that because there's several board members um across the state that have talked about, you know, meeting to pursue and having people that they can put on committees to take these assessments and write them so that we get more real life data from them that we can use at that moment to inform instruction. But if but if we're going to do this work and then we find out no districts aren't going districts just want to keep giving all these assessments then there's no purpose. And >> well I don't think I'm ever um wired and of course I will

044always defer back to our superintendent but personally um and and this question is being um asked of me. I'm not wired of of of saying I live within this parameter and I can't move away from that. So I always keep an open mind in terms of of that. I do want to make sure that it again at the end of the day that we're assessing what we need to be able to assess to make the decisions to help our students. But that goes I mean that's how I carry my own personal decisions is whatever I do is it going to help me at the end of the day to get that end result right and so um for me is I I would definitely um not be opposed um to to looking at at at

045at other options. Dr. about >> two things to uh chair to your point uh our senior chancellor Paul Burns is aware that when it comes to progress monitoring that that component is missing which is to truly inform instruction. So actually um that was something that we brought up at our last meeting and there are a few districts that he had asked for input in terms of some of the assessments that we're using to obtain data to inform instruction to see perhaps how they can convene as a team and kind of tweak work with the with those PMS. So that's we've brought awareness at his level too regarding that. And going back to Mr. Cologne yesterday as you guys were talking and you asked the question Mr. Cologne about the check for understanding or ensuring that

046we're meeting the needs of of students right so I was at Mainland High School and uh the principal said to me Dr. B, we, you know, we have one of the highest biology scores in the district. And I said, "Okay, let's go see the teacher." So, we went to see the teacher. Um, we walked in. The teacher was there. And then the teacher works with a she collaborates with another teacher. It's like a joint model that they have. One teacher does the interventions, the small group, and the other does the whole group instruction. So I said to both teachers, we congratulated them and asked what what is the secret to your success because as you know you guys have the highest biology scores in the district. And on rehearsed she said she looked at us

047and she said we teach and we check immediately for understanding because if our students are not getting it we have to make those adjustments timely. I looked at the students and I said, "Do does that work for you? And if it works for you, what do you like about it?" And then one of the student raised his hand and said, "I like that my peers are not left behind, that we're all learning together." So the whole purpose of of assessment whether it's a check for understanding or a more elaborate assessment you as the instructor you need to know what standards you have taught what students should know and be able to do and if you're assessing it's to obtain data to determine who got it who can do it and who can't so that I

048can pull those groups into small groups. group instruction and not wait 8 weeks, nine weeks, 10 weeks later to determine, oh, this student didn't get it, but we taught this back four weeks ago. Because then you have a structural problem which is you are taking a gap that a student already has a a a cognitive gap as it pertains to that subject matter. And by not meeting their needs in a timely manner, what you have done is that you have promoted that gap. you have w you have made much wider. So the whole purpose of teaching and again you don't need to do an elaborate assessment after every chunk of instruction but the whole purpose of teaching the reason why teaching exists is that we have to ensure that ensure ensure that students are learning

049that's the purpose every student. So, I just thought it was very appropriate that you asked a question with what I experienced yesterday, Mr. Cologne. I hope you appreciate my elaborate response. >> Sure. Go ahead. You're next. >> So, I have a question and this is going to be really weird. I'll apologize in advance. What does it look like, and I'm looking back at your TLLL team back there. What does it look like after the progress monitoring happens and the results drop and you realize, holy smokes, we need to tweak? How many I mean, re realistically, how many tweaks are we looking at? Or do do what does that look like? What does it sound like from a pacing standpoint? from a oh my gosh we just realized that across the district everybody got this standard

050wrong and we just how can we what what does that look like and I don't know who would answer that but >> well Miss Lasi come here for a second >> I'm sorry this is what you know a lot of folks don't realize that this is what happens and this is what this is what this is the the real work that you go oh my gosh what we did didn't work, the students didn't get it, what's next? >> And thank you for asking that question because that's um that's key and that's the life that that that we live, right? And so one of the things that Miss Casayiano said is that we we don't we we don't work out of our offices. We're constantly out in schools and we're monitoring um how our um school

051students are are doing to be able to provide that support. But I'm gonna um preface and then I'm gonna uh hand it over to Mrs. owski because it was probably during that second VBA that we saw that that math um lower quartile and the learning gains were not what it should be at the elementary um um grade level especially was it fourth fourth grade fourth grade and we saw that glaringly across the district there pockets of excellence um that we did see as well, but we also saw quite a bit of schools that had dipped. So, I want Miss Aowski in her own words to share with you some of the things that we um did as a result of that in concert with our schools and even brought in some of our schools that

052did do well with some of the other um schools. But I want you to talk through through that. >> Thank you. Sorry again. And I apologize that this is totally unscripted but >> no uh Dr. Bay is exactly correct. We saw um actually on BBA2 and PM2 the the test confirmed what we were seeing that our fourth grade lowest cortile was struggling um and it was by and and far across the district. And so what we first did was go into our benchmark level data to try to find if there were certain areas, subgroups or if it was a general trend and really see what schools needed support with with which benchmark to sequence that learning to help that lowest cortile. We wouldn't start at the most demanding benchmark really what was an appropriate entry

053point for those students to have additional support through intervention. We created instructional calendars that would help develop that learning as well as take our resources that we had and realign them through um through through various methods whether it was through the intervention block or through their do now in their math block to really say here is where we can revisit instruction in a timely manner before new learning was also impacted to try to be able to fill those gaps. And on the flip end where flip end where we saw schools that were being successful to go in to see what they might have been doing, how they sequence things differently because they do have that ability to individualize instruction in their intervention block and meet those needs. We wanted to see what they were doing

054to assist our plan in this year so that we hopefully don't see that same trend happening uh as we do our district uh assessments this year. fourth grade. I don't know off the top of my head, but we were down um 5% in January for our lowest cortile learning gains, and we were only uh one down by the time we got to PM3. So, that effort assisted in bringing those points up, >> which means if if the momentum maintains, we're going to be ahead one to two next year. So, that's >> but that's key um Mr. Cologne because this is the thing to me it would be um what what what's what's the definition of insanity? >> Doing the same thing all over again expecting a different outcome. >> Ignore or just say it's going

055to it's going to be fine. We're just going to let we're just going to let it be because you know our teachers are working hard, our schools are working hard and maybe it was just that one VBA. then what's the use of actually administering it and and taking that time with teachers to align that assessment with the benchmarks if we're not going to respond to that data and that data was not was not something good. I had I mean there were a lot of sleepless nights between between all of us and of course Dr. Balgabin our superintendent asking me during cabin meetings how is that fourth grade going Dr. about it. I need to see what's um what what what's the plan. Um and I will tell you that through the work that we that

056we did in respond to that and it was a lot of brainstorming sessions, not just with this team, we brought in schools to be able to help us through that as well. Um and and and as you alluded to, between the schools that were doing well and the schools that that were not, we even brought them together. Um and and so we we we responded to that is what I'm saying. And we did that in a timely manner because when you're talking about January, you only have I mean it goes by so quick before PM3 um comes around. So, >> and how many folks So, we have 72 total schools plus. But how many folks are in our math department that do what you do? >> I have six elementary resource teachers and five secondary

057resource teachers, two specialists and myself. And so you all work together to make the tweaks, get out there, get the messaging out to all the schools, >> 70 schools, to all of them. You heard what she has. >> And so for those who think that there is an eternal group of folks who are just sitting in an office somewhere, I mean, yes, the work that you do and and again, you you're you're you're the map quest of where we're going. And I'll never forget, I always I used to say this, you know, we're all headed to the same destination, but we really didn't have a map on how to get there. And so everybody was going in which way they felt was appropriate. Um, and so I I totally appreciate, you know, the intentionality behind,

058you know, the work because I'm sure every for every single person who's behind you, because I see lots of heads going like this, you know, when these results come in, it's go time. It's let's see what we can do. Let's see how we can make this better. Let's, you know, how can we support our teachers and students? Because the reality is that none of us up here took this test. This happened in classrooms. This happened with teachers. These are teachers and students. These were their results, not ours. I'm not smarter than a fifth grader. So, I'm not even trying to take the VBA, all those acronyms you guys throw out there. But, you know, that's where the work is done. And so, I'm grateful for you all because you're you're leading the way and and

059it's greatly appreciated. Uh and, you know, even when we get it wrong, we may try to make it right. And I think that's huge because I remember when I first got here, we didn't find us, we didn't find out we were wrong until after the year was done. And then it was a scramble in the summer to figure out how do we course correct and clearly that's not the best way to do this. So thank you again. I appre and again I'm sorry for it's his fault he called you up but I appreciate you. >> They're ready. They're ready. Um I if I can say one last thing is um I I don't know I can't speak to what happened five six seven eight ten years ago in our district. Um I can only speak

060to what happened since 2022 and and to present. I don't believe ever and and I will never um be okay with people leading and as and as um Miss Casiano said from an office space. I don't believe in that that you're not impactful when you don't know what's happening in schools and support schools. So what you um again can't speak to the past but I can speak to what happened in three years up until the present time. My folks um know here in teaching and learning and they take it very seriously that they are out their teams are out at schools. That's what they do is support. I don't know what type of job we have in teaching and learning if you're going to sit in an office. Now, there are times that you are

061sitting in an office having to um look at the assessments and rewrite certain things and get teachers in to help them do certain certain things. Of course, that's within reason. But all of these people sitting behind me, they are out in schools. Um and I will never waver from that because I know that that is the work that we are um that we're supposed to be doing. >> Good. Rich has a question. So my question is how can you remind us again and you've told us this before but just as a reminder how often are students being assessed at the different grade levels and then I want to give you some feedback after that. So in our um primary grades in our in our preK one and two there aren't no type of assessment when

062it comes to progress monitoring. And when it comes to VBAs, there aren't the only the only grade level within that is at the end of the year. VBA um is is given to the administered to the second graders at the very end of the year because that's going to help to place them in that third grade, right? because that is our testing grade. As far as progress monitoring and VBA is concerned, it starts in third, fourth and fifth. And in elementary, you have ELA, math, and science only in fifth grade, right? And so, um, then when you move into middle school, you have your, um, again, ELA, math, and then science, you have it in eighth grade. But then you also bring in civics into that mix because civics is part of the accountability measure

063when you go into middle school. Um and you have that for the progress monitoring for the state three times a year. And you also have that re repeated in terms of our quarterly assessments three times um a year as well. And then you have um in high school you have ninth and tth grade that takes um the um assessment um but then in in high school obviously you have other types of assessment like the end of the year um assessments um that you have and you have biology um there um US history that's part of the accountability component. So you have those assessments. So that's that's the difference between between elementary, middle, and high. >> Okay. So middle school, they're doing they're having six tests a year per per subject that they're tested in. >>

064Elementary would have I mean ELA would have three times, math would have three times, science would have three times, but then you also have civics that you also do. >> So for example, math would have six tests a year, three and three, >> the PM and the the VBA. Yes. >> Are there other tests happening? There are other tests that might be local tests that the teachers are administering in terms of their own classroom assessments. Okay, >> those are the assessments that I am um sharing with you. Those are the assessments that we um collect and monitor andor the state when it comes to PM. >> Awesome. And then my feedback was that I've at each of my schools, the excitement and energy they have about this is awesome. They are they've got their charts

065going. They every time I visit, they love to show me where their progress is and how they're monitoring it and how quick they can get the data. So, it is it and obviously the results speak for themselves. So, it's working. Keep up the good work. >> It's always good to see when um and it's it's validating for for anyone, for teachers included, but um when when you have when you're working so hard and then you show you have the results to show for it. So, yeah. >> Okay. And I'll add to that, third, fourth, and fifth grade do six tests, too. So, any grade level that's taking those assessments, actually, fifth grade does science, so they do more. And eighth grade. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Bachman. So, I'll share a quick story here that

066only maybe Mr. Cologne knows of and the chair. Going back to our way of work, right? Our way of work is ensuring that the decisions that we make, first and foremost, it benefits children. That's why we're we're all here. That's why we do what we do. We would not exist if we didn't have students. They are our primary customers. This is all true. Came back to Valuchia County uh probably three weeks into the the contract. And this is all true. Don't look at Heather. Heather had nothing to do with this. But we hired Heather obviously and Heather was our coordinator for ELA. We start walking schools. And as we start walking schools, we were getting into the classrooms and we were seeing that when it came to the pacing for ELA, it was way off.

067Way off. and talking to principles and every pretty much teachers as we were going, they were sharing the same thing with me. So, we come back and obviously the curriculum maps are already out there, right? Came back and we said, "Guys, we've got a problem here. These maps, the revision does not take into account the pacing that we need for our students." And I was literally told, Dr. B, if you make a decision to change these maps out now at the beginning of the school year, there will be a whole lot of adults that will be upset with you >> and >> a whole lot of adults. And you know, we've had a lot of superintendent here before. We want you here to stay. I am not kidding you. That didn't resonate with me. Well,

068Dr. Vaia, you were with me. >> Yes. >> So, we called I actually called Orange County and got some of our our experts out there that I had worked with in the past to come and validate what we were seeing. And I said, 'Guys, well, I'm going to tell you, if I have to be the next one out, I don't care because I'm here to make decisions that first and foremost are in the best interest of students. And I will not let our kids for a good eight weeks receive nine weeks receive instruction that's off pace. You remember I called you and I told you and I said, "This is going to be unpopular, but it has to be done." So, I say this to you because our team here, first and foremost, every decision

069that we make, we know who our primary customers are. Our staff is extremely important to us. But we're here for children. That's why we exist. And I'm proud to say that this team has really adjusted to this new way of work that if it's not working for kids, you know, we're going to come back and we're going to reevaluate and we're going to make those adjustments in a timely manner. It might upset some some adults, right? Because we're moving their cheeses and disrupting their comfort zone, but we are here for kids. And as I listen to all of you and what you've been saying and even you, Mr. Cologne, with some of the statements, we've come a long way. But at the same time, you know what? I have to commend this team that they

070were ready to pivot and and adjust our way of work so that we can be be what we need to be for our kids. So, you triggered another thought and I had to share that with you. We're here and we're here for kids. You Right. Any other questions before we move on to guard row one? High quality staff. >> Okay. Thank you. We're >> good. >> Yes. Thank you very much. >> Right. >> John, you will introduce guardrail one. >> So that's the way of our work and it's supported by our four guard rails. And did you know it's all about the people? And that's what we're here to talk about now because none of this happens without the right people. And I mentioned this yesterday before I called Miss Workman and her team up.

071We've got to find the right people. We got to get them to come here and we've got to keep them. And yesterday we had over 250 teachers decided to make Valuchia County their home for teaching. We're very pleased with that number and excited about that number. And so to share some of that way of the work about the people, Miss Workman, if you could come forward and bring your team for guardrail one, uh, recruit, support, develop, and retain high quality staff. >> Thank you, Mr. Cash. Uh, first up, I have Miss Fuller joining me. Um, after our students, our employees are our number one asset. They ensure smooth operation of our district from support to substitutes, administration to instruction. All positions are integral in fostering a positive school environment. And that is what we are

072about. The HR department is the one department that is involved in an employees entire tenure within the district from recruitment to hiring to promotion to retirement and all the happenings in between. HR is there to support and guide our employees during their Valuchia County journey. This journey begins with recruiting the best of the best to Valuchia County Schools. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Miss Fuller, our coordinator of recruitment, support, and retention. >> Good afternoon. So for guardrail one um priority strategy A much has been said this afternoon about intentionality um and that purposeful intention that's required for a strategic plan. Um and so you'll see that that's evidenced in guardrail one as well. Um it's integral to the work that we do. And so in priority strategy A our focus

073is on a cohesive recruitment support and retention system that includes innovation, collaboration um as well as increased partnerships. Um and so when we came to this work a couple years back and we were just beginning, we had um a large number of vacancies, we had things things happening on both sides of entrance and ex exits. And so we were looking to make sure that we were doing what we could to expand our recruitment efforts and to be more intentional in how we went about going going about supporting those those openings. And so as we looked at that, we wanted to expand and diversify how we market and how we partner to get campaigns out that would reach out to our community and beyond to bring be people into Valuchia County schools. Um, and looking at

074how to employ them, how they can work with us, how they can get on board with us is we had a lot of people in our local neighborhoods and and local community that were looking to come on with the schools. So we expanded our recruitment efforts. We expanded our opportunities and we made sure that there was ongoing recruitment opportunities that weren't just static to a particular time of the year. Hiring season went from just being a spring and summer endeavor to a full year full-time of the school year and and calendar year. Um, as we went through that process and we expanded those efforts and we began to see results as we closed out the gaps in our numbers for recruitment and vacancies, we also found that there are certain positions that just required additional

075um, attention. there were niche niche certifications and requirements um things of greater areas of of hiring that just had more needs. And so as we started to think about how we could be more innovative as opposed to just relying on things that had worked in the past, we worked with and took the lessons that we' taken from state developed initiatives and from working with local partners as they did grow your own campaigns. And so last school year we were able to launch the VATS program. So, we're really excited because this upcoming school year started yesterday. Um, we have our first cohort of um, Valuchia associate teacher substitutes beginning in classrooms. This was done in collaboration as we worked with um, our state partner who had begun a teacher apprentice program and we took the lessons

076that we took from from that program and our local colleges and universities. We visited other districts who had grow your own and registered apprenticeship programs and we looked at how can we take this model and invest directly in people that work in our district that are wanting to support and work most closely with the area that we have shortage in and that these people most want to work with. So we tapped into our existing pair of professionals that are looking to become teachers of special education of ESC. And so we provided a pathway that now affords them the opportunity to grow into becoming a certified teacher in the classroom. And so we started that pathway um as a way to intentionally attack that area of shortage that we were seeing in the district. Um additionally,

077we've been looking to expand our partnerships with our colleges and universities. Um it works back and forth. It used to be that our education programs were our leading provider of our um teacher population. And as their degree their degree personnel has gone down, they've not had as large of programs. They've had fewer people enrolling in the education program. We partner with them for what are the ways that we bring people into your program and we keep them and retain them in your program so they're graduating with an education degree. And so as we do that, we have our our certified teacher intern or CTI program. Um we also have our our CEDA or student intern teacher apprentice program. These provide new avenues and opportunities for um personnel that are pursuing the education degree to take

078advantage of paid internship pathways and stepping into classroom roles. This school year, we have more interns that will that will graduate that are coming into our classrooms to intern fully certified, more of them than we do traditional interns. And so, this is the first so far that that has tipped in that scale. So, we're really excited. It's been growing for the last two years. Um, but we have more certified interns in classroom positions at this time. And so, we continue to expand that pathway and that opportunity to provide more opportunities to fill o um vacancies and openings in our classrooms. Um, additionally, we have expanded our partnerships with outside vendors because we recognize that sometimes you don't know it all. And so, it's good to tap into people who do this work beyond just yourself.

079And so, we've worked with specific recruitment and staffing agencies to help us with needs like bus driver shortages in order to help procure additional resources to tap into that market where people already have the lensure needed and then just have to go through the onboarding that's required so they can be hired here in our district. along with increased pay that we were able to do last year, we've significantly reduced those vacancies that we were in a much um significant shortage at the start of last year comparative to where we are this year. Um when we look at our new teacher academy program, that's our largest support tool. Um that was something that we revised out of this team and out of this office um almost three years ago now and that came out of the

080feedback that we'd received from teachers. What we found is that we had to talk to like Dr. Bay mentioned being on the ground floor. We went to the ground floor. We talked to teachers. We talked to mentors. We talked to instructional staff members. And we asked them their feedback on what is it that's missing? What is it that you need? What are the pain points? And where can we start to make um improvements to that result? And so from that, we revised our new teacher academy program and since we've had a lot of positive support from that. Um with that, we've changed how we do our induction process. We have a weekly induction that that meets in person so that when you're hired in this district, you're immediately met by this district. We welcome you

081with food and warm faces. We do an onboard in person. We train you in classroom management and the ethics are going to keep you safe in your job and we go through and we do all these things that while some things could be done online in a way, we're wanting to make sure that when you have a question, when you run into trouble, when you have an issue, you're able to reach out and you have a person and a personal connection that's going to help you as you go forward. What we found is that it's helped to reduce a lot of the barriers that are perceived when I'm sending an email into a void. I have a face that connects to my concern. I have a person that I know in payroll or human resources

082um or new teacher academy and I'm directly connect to those people and I'm having more conversation because I'm not just shooting into the void. I know the systems that are built for me and now I have a better understanding of how to leverage them which is a big part of how we support and retain the people that we're hiring. Um, in addition to that, within our classroom management, specifically on the teacher component, we've our showcase classrooms and classroom management, um, teacher trainings continue to be our highest rated. Um, we have teachers that come to our district from other areas, from other, um, counties. They are exempted from these trainings and they still choose to participate and they continuously say that it's one of the best trainings they've had in all of their years across districts

083that they've been in. We have a lot of that to tapping into the talent and expertise that we intentionally recruit from within by tapping into our school and school leadership and teacher leaders at our school sites to run those. Um, in addition to that, we make sure that as we brought on a mentoring program back to this district that in addition to just recognizing their excellence and and tapping them into these leadership roles that their principles have done for them, we also make sure that we train them. And so our mentor training is robust. It's intentional. It's specific. and it's ongoing. As we're asking our experienced teachers to pour into our new teachers, we are constantly and continuously pouring into them. We're providing training. We're providing resources and we're touching base with them on an

084ongoing monthly basis to make sure that we're in touch with that ground floor so that we know what their needs are and what the needs of their new teachers are. Um, they are a big part of our support and our retention leg and so we stay in constant communication with them in addition to recognizing them and their new teachers as they do well and thrive on campuses throughout the months of the school year. As we've come into onboarding, a big part of onboarding teachers is certification. It continues to be a challenge. Um, and it was one of the the challenges that was was greatest when I first arrived. And so, we've partnered with an agency uh, the learning leazison. And part of that responsibility was as we're looking to recruit as as we're looking to

085recruit and expand um the marketing efforts because our universities aren't our only teacher providers and we're recruiting more professionals who come to education from other career forces. Certification support has to be provided. And so we're really excited to provide this opportunity. We have provided this opportunity for principles as they're onboarding new staff members so that those who are coming in and maybe start as a substitute teacher now have a pathway to get certified before the first quarter before the first semester. We're also providing that for those teachers who are changing their certification areas. They're being asked to step into another field or cover an additional requirement. Now they have resources available free of charge that we provide out of our area to make sure that they're equipped to take on the next responsibilities which is

086something that we did not have an answer four years ago. So we're really proud of that initiative. We've had a lot of great success with it. Um, additionally, we've provided ongoing support by meeting with our teachers and our um and our population so that we can help to provide direct answers. We're providing webinars and in-person trainings for existing staff and those that are applicants so we can talk about I want to come to the school district, how do I do that? We're providing that information session where they have free reign and access to the recruitment team to ask the questions about certification, about onboarding, about hiring. So they have a g greater clarification to plan ahead for those things so they're better prepared when they come in as applicants and candidates for hire. So we've

087done that for certification. We've also done that for our pathways into the teaching workforce because we continue to expand those pathways. We recognize that the state has done some favors for us and providing new certification pathways. But we're also looking outside of the box, in the box, under the box, and over the box to find other opportunities to make sure that if you have the right heart for students and you're a good fit for our district that we're going to find a way that you can make an impact here. And so we provided those opportunities that they connect with us and they can plan ahead for success. Um, finally, in the retention, proactive retention strategies, we know that we play the long game. Like Miss Workman indicated, we start with you and we look to

088keep you for, I know Miss Elizabeth Albert likes to say, for 30 years and then some. And so as we're working with them and we're getting all the way to the retention end of the the spectrum, it's an ongoing endeavor. We are grateful for our partnership with Futures. One of the ways they support us is with a partnership called ED Educators Rising. It is a um wellness program because as we started our new teacher academy program, we recognized and did research on what is it that it takes to retain and support your employees whether they're teachers or in the corporate sector or the medical field. And what we found is that in a lot of places that there is that that volatility of of overwhelm and burden and that lack of work life balance. And

089so we made an intentional um value to make sure that we provide that as a resource in this program. So our educators rising is that platform that we're able to tap into those things to reduce the burnout to train teachers with how to deal with the stress provide opportunities for them to engage as humans and professionals outside of just the classroom setting. And so we've built a lot of relationships there. We've grown teachers and developed their teacher leadership capacity there. We provided opportunities for them to step into new thresholds and lanes that adds their sense of belonging that gives them deeper roots in this district and allows them to stay longer and work work better in a more positive environment. Our teacher leadership pathway that's grown out of our NTA pathway. We recognize that as

090we support new teachers and we're keeping new teachers, we have to grow those teachers. And so as we've done that with New Teacher Academy, we've expanded our teacher leadership pathway that allows for more um advancement opportunities. And so we're continue to grow our leaders. We had our new teacher year 2 leadership um training this past summer and we had teachers that had 20 sometimes 30 years of experience that were coming in. We had teachers that wrote into us. We had teachers that cried with us and some said that it's been the first time they've returned to a school year with this much excitement. And so take great pride in that because what we're doing is we're reinvesting and reinvigorating the populace that work so hard for us. >> Thank you, Miss Fuller. And that is

091a great segue into priority strategy B because our next goal is once we get staff on board, we want to build our own leadership pipeline. And I would like to invite Miss Brandy Hogue, our coordinator of leadership and development, to share our most recent update. >> Hi, good afternoon everyone. As Tiffany was talking, my wheels were turning and I'm hearing all these great things that I have the pleasure of seeing her do day in and day out and she gets them to a certain point and then I like to come in and swoop them up and turn them into school and district leaders. So, um it works hand in hand. For strategy B, our focus is all about building instructional leadership knowledge and capacity to create a strong talent pipeline for our district's current and

092future leaders. So, under our first activity, um, we ensured compliance with all of the DOE requirements related to level two educational leadership programs. And that simply means that we offer an in-house program in our district that results in school principal certification. And you might hear that referenced as because we do like acronyms like uh Mr. Clone said, that's the PPP program, the principal preparation program. Um, so we aligned that program with the federal mandates and the state standards and we also aligned all the work that we do to House Bill 1537 and the renewal requirements associated with ED leadership certification. Um, this year we supported 17 leaders in completing the PPP program and receiving their school principal certification. We also enrolled 32 new participants in our new cohort that will be starting up um in

093September, the beginning of September. We have launched a Canvas course where we offer 20 hours of inservice points. So our leaders with ED leadership certification, they can renew that certification um when it's time for their renewal period. and we have had 46 individuals in our district take advantage of that in-house program and complete that program within the past year. Um if they choose not to enroll in that program with us and honestly I haven't come across a person yet they can go to um a local university but obviously there is an outofcost um expense associated with that. So we are happy that we're able to provide that opportunity within our district. So um the second activity focuses on coordinating and delivering monthly leadership training for deans, new assistant principles, principal preparation program participants, new principles,

094and aspiring leaders. Um those are instructional personnel that are in classrooms that are wanting to take that next step in their career and go into um administrative positions. So we have offered over 50 leadership trainings this year and um that impacts a hundred leaders each month that go through those programs. We transitioned 42 administrative teachers on assignment into dean positions this year and that um was a very instrumental step that we took as a district in preparing for our succession planning efforts. I am very proud to say that seven of our new assistant principles were promoted from our dean pipeline and we also have um onboarded 12 new assistant principles this past year. We've completed cohort three of our inspir aspiring leaders program and we began cohort four. We also expanded leadership opportunities for um

095our ALA alumni, I will call them, through a new program we started this year called ALA Plus. So, we're giving them an opportunity that even though they completed that cohort, they can still continue to come and um engage in some professional learning opportunities and the leadership development realm. We also continued our mentoring program for first and second year principles in collaboration with our TLLL department. And for our third activity, um we have strong partnerships with local universities and we continue those partnerships with Stson University and UCF. We um continued our school leadership series cohort that is conducted um and led by Stson University. We hosted informational nights with STSON and UCF to connect aspiring leaders to educational leadership degree programs. And I also continue to collaborate on a regular basis with Orange County, Seminal Counties,

096and other local counties um regarding educational, leadership, professional uh learning communities. So together, these efforts not only prepare and grow our current and future leaders, but they also ensure that we have a sustainable, highquality leadership pipeline to serve the needs of our schools for many years to come. Lastly, I would like to invite up Miss Alisa Fedigan who oversees our evaluation department. Our evaluation systems have changed throughout the years. And one of the main things we have focused on is making it more meaningful to our employees so that they get the feedback and the engagement that they need to better perform in our job because we can all grow. and we wanted our tool to be one that helped people grow, not just be used as a gotcha. So, Miss Fitigan, >> thank you. Good

097afternoon, everyone. So, as Miss Workman has said, my department focuses on uh supporting priority strategy C, which is focusing on providing actionable, meaningful feedback that supports employee engagement, retention, and performance. And so to focus on the work of my department this past year, we've strengthened our evaluation systems by updating training based on our stakeholder feedback and adding guiding prompts to target uh coaching within the instructional evaluation plan. Uh we also introduced automatic calculations in several of our non-instructional evaluations to afford for greater transparity transparency and equity. And we also continued to clarify process language to help ensure consistency and clarity across the district with our evaluators uh to support our activity 2 development and delivery of targeted professional learning for evaluators. Uh we delivered a targeted professional learning for our evaluators including uh tailored onboarding

098that was specific to their position and department and to meet their specific supervisory needs to support them. And then for our administrative dean positions, that was new this past year. We led focused training that included topics like professional communication, continuous feedback, and managing difficult conversations as they uh new entry into uh the leadership realm. We also provided uh monthly help sessions and one-on-one coaching to support all of our evaluators across our instructional and non-instructional groupings. to support activity three uh monitoring evaluation protocols and data to ensure compliance with FDOE requirements. We closely monitored our evaluation protocols and uh data to ensure that we were compliant with those requirements this year and we use trends to guide our steering committee uh discussions. Our steering committees play an integral role in how we proceed forward and and

099constantly looking for continuous improvement with our evaluation plans. We implemented the uh Florida Educational Leadership Standards Assessment or the FELS this past school year to align with state expectations and we also conducted a deep dive into the Florida Educator Accomplished Practices or the FEPS and the VSET indicators and we're hoping that will help us to further streamline and strengthen our teacher evaluation tool in the coming years. So overall uh we really looked at maintaining our focus on continuous improvement. We're always consistently looking for ways to improve our evaluation systems and we look to respond to our stakeholders needs and ultimately our plans are not stagnant. They never are. We're obviously looking to for ways to improve to streamline and most importantly to be able to listen to our uh employees and to help um our

100our leaders as much as possible with that process. Uh we're focused on building capacity uh consistently with our evaluators and we're going to continue to work to shape evaluator practices to provide that meaningful and actionable feedback to support guardrail one. >> That concludes guardrail one. >> Question have any questions? >> Good. >> Never want to miss an opportunity for positivity. I wanted to let you guys know that the overwhelming feedback from the teachers I've spoken to is they're really enjoying all the things being offered um to them to improve their leadership skills, improve them as teachers. And so it's just been really nice to hear that a overwhelming majority of both new and old teachers are very very satisfied. In fact, I was with a principal today that came back from a different district and

101shared with me how much they loved being back at Valuchia. They've been back a couple years and so just again keep working hard. It's showing very much. >> So my comment is for Tiffany. >> Um I think when Mr. Colon and I were attending the first inaugural COSBA conference in Tampa a couple years ago and we sat in a session where the state of Tennessee had applied for the ability to take bus drivers, pair professionals, everyone. and they came up with a plan on how to get them their teaching degrees and so that they could teach and still be paid and at the same time not have to pay for the education piece as long as they committed to a certain period of time of teaching. And just we were amazed by it because what

102was so interesting was in order for them to apply they had to apply so that every state could qualify to do the same thing. And we both came back very excited to share with Dr. Balaban, you know, this is something we felt Valucian needed to do and you're doing it. And yesterday I was at one one um George Marks Elementary and there are three there. Okay, there are three people there that are teaching and I got I got to go into one room and look in the other two and it was just remarkable. On day one, here's three individuals that have stepped up and said, "I want to earn my teaching degree." Um and they came up from a variety. One of them came from HR. Okay. And she was doing fabulous. Another one came

103from already having been a parah and I think another one came from outside in a different um capacity. But they were all in there. They already had their students engaged. And so that's working. You know, the thing of it is in since a lot of our colleges and universities are no longer adding um offering educational classes, they've done away with that as one of the career paths. This is the way we've got to go. And so, I want to thank you and your team because I know that you still had to jump through hoops to get it set up and going, but I saw it in action yesterday with three individuals just at one school. And so that was three classrooms that had a teacher in them. And that's the most important thing. I mean,

104listen, I love our school cafe. They know it because if our kids are hungry, they can't learn. I love our bus drivers because they get our kids to and from and everybody in between. But ultimately, the bulk of their day is spent with a classroom teacher in front of them. And so, thank you for all that you've done. And I hope we continue to have more people that see I can still earn something while taking my college classes and then they have to stay with us and hold and we need to hold them to that piece. But thank you Mr. Cologne. >> Sorry I might have missed this. How many new applications did you guys process for this school year? [Laughter] >> More than that. Yeah. the number >> far come through. >> And that's

105for all positions. >> How many? >> 11,000 for all positions. >> 11,000. And we've hired how many? Just throw a number out there. >> Eight or 900. >> And how many members are in your HR department? How many members were in your HR department last year? Um, overall I think we had 40 >> minus payroll. If you take the amount we have like 28 now down to 24 >> and so you did more with less. >> Right. Thank them for me because I know that despite the fact that we've hired and hired and hired and hired, it's been grateful that they are just non-stop. I know, as you know, I'm very heartbroken by Kim's decision to move on to u help everyone with their benefits, which is greatly appreciated. But that team doesn't stop and

106we appreciate them. We thank them and uh thank you uh and your team because I know that they do with less and I know that we've had record applications uh and you know figuring out who's a right fit for who, you know, if they're a right fit for us, if we're a right fit for them, goes both ways. Um but that all takes effort. So thank you. And one final thing, whoever's in charge of substitutes, I do need to talk to them because I guess you did some kind of sub training this summer and some of the subs didn't in their words didn't receive the notification and principles are wanting to go ahead and line them up for subbing and they can't. >> Well, we have we have created a Canvas course that was push

107pushed out to all principles last week. So, if they have someone Dr. Dr. Balaban wants to come in and sub. She hasn't had our sub training we offered over the summer. They can sit right there, complete the training, sign the paperwork, send it to us, and go right into the classroom. >> So, sit right where? >> Right there in in the office. It's a Canvas course, so they can just sit by a computer and do it. >> So, can I share that with some subs that I've heard from? >> Yes, you may. But I will publicly say that we are having some issues with the um subsystem right now and that has to do with our integration with focus. um its is very aware and and they're hoping to have a solution by tomorrow. So

108we've been working with schools individually on how to solve that problem >> and so if they don't have a computer at home to do it, they can go into the school and it can be done right there and then you'll get them into focus. >> Yes, ma'am. We will get them set up because many of our subs I mean and I will let you know we put that out on a multitude of platforms. We also sent emails to both home and school uh VCS emails. We reached out in every capacity and we had about 400 of our 1,400 subs show up. So that's uh why we went ahead and created the Canvas course so that we could address that as soon as they wanted to start subbing. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. We're

109moving on to guard rail number um two and we're running behind. >> So we'll we'll pick this up a little bit. We have two to go. But just take a moment to review. The teacher in me wants to review. Why are we doing this? Why are we here this afternoon talking about this? We have a strategic plan. Great. But if you don't monitor your strategic plan, how do you know that's being implemented? So that's what this is, the VPM. And what we've covered so far is our way of work. We talked about every kid everyday learning, which Dr. Vet talked about with his team. You have to have assessments. You have to have curriculum. You have to have intervention. You have to have all that. Then Miss Workman talked about, well, you got to have

110the people. So, we've got those two things in place, but what's super important as well, and I think about it as a principal, is what's the environment like that the child is learning in inside that classroom. It goes without saying, the superintendent has made it clear safety and security is number one. But there's a lot more to a learning environment than safety and security. And I'm going to ask Mr. McAuliffe to come up and share that uh guardrail safe and supportive environment. Mr. McAuliffe. Good afternoon. Sorry, put this in front of me. >> Good afternoon. How is everyone? >> Good. >> Mr. >> Good afternoon, Mr. McCalliff. >> Thank you, Dr. Baldwin. Thank you. All right. As uh Mr. Cash stated, you've heard a lot of great things that are happening with HR, with TL.

111Um you're and you've heard about the way of work. What I'm going to talk about is a little bit of forward thinking and what that looks like with our student services team and that goes on behalf of Dr. Balgabin um knowing the importance of understanding the full continuum of services and having students meet everything they need and putting us with TL because if a student's not in the classroom ready to learn or learn, they're not going to be able to learn. Um so we have to do our part as um as sorry guardrail too. I'm putting it right here. And I have a team here behind me that's going to assist um when I get up to it. I'm gonna have uh Mr. R Miss Rushing and James Bearinger come up who are two coordinators

112for uh MTSS and 504. If they want to start making their way up, they can. Um but I want to kind of get into some things real quick about this. When we talk about this, I want to emphasize the fundamental fundamentals of our success story. It's a seamless partnership between student services and teaching, leading, and learning. Uh those two things go handinand. And that is something that used to be separate and in silos until Dr. Balgaban understood the importance of it along with Dr. Vier and his leadership of mirroring the two together because you can't have one without the other. It's just not non-negotiable. Um our student service team didn't just reduce the barriers in learning, they became active and partners with the instructional mission that we have for Valuchia County Schools. When teaching leading

113and learning developed those small groupoup intervention strategies, student services ensured students were emotionally ready to receive them. We rolled out a new curriculum apps. Our behavior support team made sure classroom environments were conducive to the rigorous instruction. Think about it this way. You can have the best curriculum in the world, but if a student is in crisis and experiencing trauma or dealing with behavior challenges, the instruction will not reach them. On the other hand, you can provide excellent mental health support, but without aligned highquality instruction, waiting on the other side, we're not going to be able to fulfill that promise of teaching that student. This year's A rating in our high is our district is our highest point total ever which is tremendous. This happened because the departments have worked as a unified force and

114has won. Collectively student services is now part of TO which has been I believe the missing piece behind this. So thank you on that one Dr. B for realizing that and Dr. Vier. Um our mental health trainings didn't just teach crisis recognition. They taught how emotional regulations impact learning and readiness. Our PBIS implementation wasn't just about reducing referrals. It was about maximizing the instructional time for all of our students. Every data point that you will see represents the integration in action. When student services identified a student struggling behaviorally, teaching, leading, and learning provided differentiated instruction when academic data showed students falling behind, student services investigated the underlying f factors. This two-way communication shared ownership of student success. That is what has now, I believe, success successfully uh transformed our district to an a district. The

115heart of our success lies in the dynamic synergy between TL and student services and the team that I have that's behind me that will come up here and present their areas of focus. It's a partnership that has redefined of how we support students where once academics and instruction was only isolated to where now student services was on their own. We've now broke that divide and we became one. And I think that's what we have to do to do anything in this in education to reach all of our students. So I want to bring up Mr. Behringer and Miss Rushing real quick. They are going to go over their piece of it. And while they're getting set up, you know, I just want to remind you that we're teaching the whole child full holistic approach wraparound

116services. They're going to get into some strategic things that they oversee and that they'd work together. Um, so I want to turn it over to each of you guys and thank you. >> Thank you, sir. H happy second day of school, everyone, and good afternoon. It's it's great to be here as always. Um, so this past year we saw how an effective multi-tered system of supports drives meaningful results uh with a 32% increase in parent contacts and a 7% growth in intervention plans for academics and behavior. Um, early interventions means we're catching those challenges before they become extreme barriers to learning. Um, these over 7,000 parent contacts represent thousands of collaborative conversations between teachers, staff members, and parents um that kept students on track this year. Uh, this data all this data also reinforces one

117of our favorite statements, Miss Rushing and I, that documentation doesn't always have to be difficult. >> Good afternoon. Um, so this slide just goes over we have trained over 170 staff as MTSS chairs and we are gearing up for our next round to start next week. Um, at the time we already have over a hundred signed up and so we're getting ready to start those again next week. um they have been um trained in the MTSS process procedures but also evidence-based resources as well and they'll be trained as well in the problem solving process. Um the real success story though in the data table is the the the com completion rates. So we've created an administrative accountability dashboard tracking compliance with required parent contacts and intervention plans for students identified on our early warning system.

118This systematic approach supports school achievement by identifying students in need of intervention and supports. And again, we know that early intervention is key. And so this this data system really outlines that for those administrators and those principles and highlights those students who need support. Um and then we also have streamlined our our IPST forms which is what we use for documentation of our problem solving process and interventions that students are receiving. Uh we've reduced the forms by 48% which means our staff spends less time on paperwork and more time with the students and actually providing those interventions. Um the 37% increase in communication translates directly to student success. When families are engaged and students receive timely interventions, we see the results in our test scores which we've been talking about all afternoon. >> Thank you

119both. I'm going to go over some data here for elementary, middle, and high. You're going to see each division. Just going to kind of give you guys some facts for it so you guys are aware. We've decreased our total referrals uh by 12,73 referrals uh from this time last year, which is great from 68,517 to 55,814, which is 8.5% reduction. Yes, we still have teachers writing the referrals for the consequences, and we want students to serve those consequences for their infractions. Um, but it's a great thing to see strategies that are being used in the classroom to try to prevent those students um, that's still going to be able to learn. This represents a commitment to providing students wraparound services. Students with disability also decreased by 14% to 3,261 referrals. ELLL students decreased, 1493 referrals.

120Black students decreased 3,788 referrals. Hispanic students re decreased their referral count 2218 and our economically disadvantaged actually decreased theirs by 12,618. So that's a great job overall. Um you guys can see here the middle school comparison with total referrals by each division and and pass which is our inschool suspension and OSS which is our out of school suspension as well. These outcomes reflect the dedication of our administrators, our teachers and our support staff. They've implemented positive school behavior culture focused on student success, expanding our focus on student academic, social, and emotional growth, providing targeted interventions and support for students early and often, and creating inclusive, supportive environments where all students can thrive, strengthening our whole student philosophy. At this time, I'm going to call up Captain Smith to go over his safety and security guard.

121>> 30 seconds. He'll do it. >> I did. >> I need two minutes, not 30 seconds. >> He has the best photo on his slide. >> Yeah, this is Maverick here. >> Yeah. >> Ensuring a safe environment is key to student success. Reporting safety concerns is one of our top priorities. This is evidenced by the consistent flow of tips through Fortify Florida, our tip incentives, and the tips received at the law enforcement and school-based levels. We've established clear protocols and provide regular training to principles, assistant principles, and deans to ensure consistency across school uh across campuses. We regularly conduct security evaluation of the schools to identify and fix vulnerabilities before they become problems. We implement national and state safety best practices, maintain compliance with the office of safe school rules, and ensure every school has

122a safety and security manual. We go to every school and ensure they are prepared for unannounced audits and participate in the Valuchia County Schools Safety Committee to review processes and procedures to ensure that we understand the school-based impact. We've worked very hard to leverage technology and tools at our disposal to create a safe and secure environment. This this includes raptor reunification, strategics, gaggle, high quality layered mapping, all secondary schools having an SRO or SRD, fus, the security operations center, SORAT training, open air response training, fire and active asalent drills, ADA training, random screenings, zero eyes, threat management, vape detectors, school hardening like fences, gates, keeping doors shut and locked, single point of entry, Moroi cameras, five safety campaigns which include see something, say something, door, gate, and ID safety, pedestrian and bike safety, dangers of

123drugs and vaping, and internet safety. Additionally, the sheriff has implemented a juvenile behavioral threat unit to investigate threats to our schools. Furthermore, during the 2024 2025 school year, we utilized random screening and onboarded K9 Maverick, our weapons detection K9. As you can see in the picture there, with an average of two firearms recovered a year in Valuchia County schools, there were no firearms brought into any of our campuses during the 2425 school year. Great job, Captain. At this time, I'm going to ask Jessica McIntyre to come on up, who's our coordinator for our mental health services, and she's going to review guardrail D for us. I don't know if I can beat a picture of Maverick. We need therapy dogs. >> Sorry. Right. So for strategy D, when students are faced with emotional or behavioral

124challenges, the first people they often encounter are our school staff, teachers, aids, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and much more. That's why training our staff in youth mental health awareness training is not just a professional development incentive and initiative, but a district-wide safety net. So you see on here that we have 84% of all of our district staff staff, excuse me, trained in youth mental health first aid. So what does this mean? Additionally, this year we've trained 722 adults to know how to recognize early signs of mental health and struggles that our children face. This means that they can respond with care, not punishment, helping students with challenges before academic or behavioral barriers. They're equipped to deescalate situations, offer support, connect students that yield additional services and help. With 12 district trainers and ongoing sessions, we're

125not just reacting, but we're building sustainable capacity. Every training session adds another layer of protection, empathy, and readiness to our schools. This isn't just about numbers. It's about people. Every trained staff member is a lifeline for a student who might be struggling silently. Together, we're creating a culture where mental health is prioritized and every child has a trusted adult to turn to. So, we know that with our schools, emotional and behavioral challenges can show up in many ways. We see withdrawal, aggression, threats, academic discipline, and decline. This is not just disciplinary issues, but there are signs of underlying mental health needs. That's why staff education is so essential and we're doing what we can to promote this with our teachers. Staff education assists our district with being able to continue to lay the foundation of

126that safe and supportive school environment. We're not just responding to crisis, but we're building resilience. So when what we're seeing is when staff are trained to recognize trauma, anxiety, depression, different behavioral concerns, we can intervene early. Therefore, before a student's struggle becomes a crisis or a barrier to their learning, we're increasing support for the supporters. Um, supporting our employees with utilizing their employee assistance program and trying to bring in outside services to assist with counseling resources and wellness support, which is our expansion of Gaggle Reachout. So with 247 monitoring and outreach, Gaggle Reachout can help us catch concerns that might happen, giving families and staff members immediate access to help and potentially assist with deescalation outside of the school. So overall, with our trauma-informed practices, we are working to remove those barriers. We shift from

127a what's wrong with you approach to what happened to you. Approaching this with healing, trust, and academic growth. So our bigger picture is it's not just about train uh training but about changing the future. Creating schools where mental health is prioritized, staff feel confident and supported. Students feel safe, seen, and heard. Mental wellness equals academic readiness. When we invest in our staff education, we're investing in every child's future and continuing to ensure that all students engage in high levels of learning every day. Thank you, Jessica. And then I'm gonna ask uh Nick Prince to come up here with myself and he's going to go over uh strategy E. How do we improve the student behavior and the culture of a school and talk about things that him and his team have done or somewhat of

128a team. It's just normal normally him. But here we go. >> All right. Well, good afternoon. And uh we don't have a dog either. And I'm going to be like captain. I'm going to be very quick as well. Um, we understand that our schools, our kids do better, they learn better under in in positive environments. So, we uh became very intentional about doing PBIS, walking our schools uh with Mr. Anderson doing the culture walks uh and doing our supervision plans to make sure that our schools and our classrooms feel safe and happy and productive. And as Mr. McAlliff will talk about that's going to be the key um for raising that academic achievement. Now, and I just want to say with with the culture walks of what that really consists of, if you guys don't

129know what that is, that's where the group of student services, we go to a campus and what we do is we pretty much go inside and out from their data to, uh, safety and security maps to their security visions, supervision, uh, before school, after school, and all of that stuff. We're there for about half a day, and then what we do is we debrief with the team. We give them look fors and things that we want them to follow up with at the at the end. And then what we come back is reassess the school. So it's just a way to fine-tune our practices. So we're just never content with just being the same as we always done it or this is the way this Prince school's always been run. So when you guys see

130that culture walk, I just want to make sure that you know that. All right. Thank you, Mr. Prince. Um, and then in closing, every intervention, every parent contact, every mental health training, they all serve our ultimate goal, ensuring all students engage in a high level of learning every day. This year's historic academic achievement wasn't despite focusing on the whole child. It was because of it. When we remove barriers, provide support, and create optimal learning conditions, our students will rise and soar. That's the Valuchia story with comprehensive support leading to comprehensive success. Thank you. >> Thank you. We're now up to guardrail three resources and >> you have you have >> Oh, sorry, >> Mr. Cologne. >> Yeah. So, the gaggle 247 support. How are we marketing that to families to let them know that that's

131available or and to students uh should they have crisis and need intervention? How are we how are we getting that messaging out there? Currently the gaggle 247 outreach is for our SSMP students who are >> Jessica it is se it's the students who have threat assessments that are built into the system that are level a high level threat. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So currently this summer we started the work with Gaggle reachout um because the state requires that any of our students with a medium or high level of a threat assessment during the year need to be monitored um for a certain period of time with those highs for the entire school year. So we partnered to expand with Gaggle to allow their um their staff to reach out to the families over the summer

132months and we are looking to now expand that into our parents in the evenings after hours anytime that they need to have assistance they have that in the- moment support to be able to contact as well. >> So that's for that targeted group not necessarily >> student body. >> We're moving it to to whole student body. It started just with the summer just targeted for those students with the student support management plan. >> Did say we were going to talk about the future. So that's awesome. Thank you. >> Looking forward to that, >> Miss Goodrich. >> So are we documenting all of our parent communication and how are we monitoring that? >> Yes. So parent communication is actually something that we are fine-tuning this year. Just so you know, in focus we have a counselor

133notes where counselors can go in and put their notes if they've met with kids or done anything like that. Um, and also, but it's only visible for admin and counselors. So, parent notifications would have to be done. They can do it in their gradebook if they said called a parent or done whatever or did whatever. But we're actually building a form in focus itself for parent communication that has access of anytime that you speak with a parent in regards to academics, behavior, cell phones, anything like that, it's going to be documented on there and timestamped. We also have uh letter logging that everything that we send home automated to parents through their emails um or actually mail it will show when it was sent and if it was received or read. >> Okay. Um are

134we providing access for parents um that don't have access to laptops or internet or whatever? Do we have another way to communicate with them? >> Yes. So, if they don't have access to internet, um, all schools have, uh, laptops available at the school and I believe some have iPads if I'm not mistaken. Um, but they do have the internet that way if they want to do it. And then we also have paper copies available for families that just don't want to fill out something online or maybe, you know, the internet is not their way of work. But we're trying to get away from the paper copies just to be a little bit more, you know, 21st century with all of our, you know, streamlined process. But we do have paper copies available. they would just

135have to call the school to reach out and request. >> Okay, last question. Are have we been increasing or decreasing our mental health staff and counselors and whatnot? Sorry. >> Okay. Um, mental health staff is different than our school counselors. School counselors, we've been maintaining the same. I'll be very honest. Um, it's been status quo. Middle middle and high school have their amount that's allocated through their student population. um in our mental health area which is Jessica and her team we do have quite a big gap to fill. So her team is constantly you know doing a lot more with a lot less and when I say that with double digit vacancies >> yeah is what are the challenges you're facing? Is it pay or what is it? Well, >> yeah. Well, hold on, Miss

136Workman. Calm down. You had your two minutes. >> It's been two It's been twofold. I would say the one part is what um Miss Workman and Mr. Cash and Mr. McAlliff have assisted us to do, and I'll let you share that, but um the another piece is we we have to have licensed clinicians. So, licensed um mental health, licensed marriage and family, licensed social work. Unfortunately, we can can't have a registered intern with the state who's getting those hours and have has taken their test. So, that really puts puts a pause in a lot of who we can can hire. Um, however, with that, we're hoping now that this shift >> Yeah. And you guys, I don't know if you will, which I'm sure you guys are aware that we had a job description come

137forward to you guys last board meeting that was for our mental health specialists. It took them from a level six to a level eight. And we're doing that to be more competitive with the private sector to try to bring them in to recruit them, bring their years of service in. So if I'm a level six, um I would then go to a level eight um on that piece of it. And if it was my fourth year, I would stay that way. I don't start back at a level eight, step zero, I guess you would say. So if I was a level six, step three, I would move over to a level eight step three. Just so you're aware. So we that's the big piece that we're doing. We know it's it's out there. We're trying

138to get as creative as we possibly can and do some stuff to to recruit and retain. She's got a great team. Um they're small, but they're mighty. >> Okay. So, there's challenges, but you're addressing them and working towards them. >> Yes, they are. >> So, great job by all. Um again, more positivity. I always see you guys working your tails off and this past week when we were able to be with all of the groups of mental health, it was really nice. So, thank you for all the hard work you guys are doing. >> Absolutely. >> So, hold on, Dr. Bman. So when we were having the same issue with our school counselors because if they had to do their internship hours, they couldn't actually be a school counselor and we took that as one

139of the priorities to the state which by the way we have to submit our priority platform soon. >> Yeah. >> Um to FSBA. Do you think this is something that we should submit also? >> Absolutely. because that internship piece is hard for them to do and not get paid. And if we could somehow do what we did with school counselors where we can hire them and they get and they are paid doing their internship hours and the state will change the rules and regulations on it. We would then, my thought would be to say to them, okay, we're bringing you in to do this, so we'd like you to stay, you know, you know, give us two years or some three years and hold on to them for that period of time to try to

140fill your vacancies. >> Yeah. >> So, definitely we need to add this if we can to that uh list for platform for discussion. And my daughter is a mental health therapist. So I can tell you firsthand the amount of hours that you have to I think it's 1,500 hours that you have to complete. I know that's what she completed. I think it's pretty much the same of unpaid. You're not paid. So if there is an opportunity there that we can use interns and provide them a stipen or some type of you know compensation and give them the amount of hours that they need here and then be able to hire right after. That's a good segue in but it it's it's definitely one of those areas and a lot of what gets into the way

141it's the the amount of uh the number of hours for internship. >> Well and the thing is this isn't unique to Valuchia. I mean this is happening across the state because of the rules and regulations >> they have because I have heard from other board members they're facing the same thing. >> I I didn't realize first of all that >> they would not allow them as an intern um to be able to do that. So, I I think that would be a good thing for us to put forward um and put forward put it forward to FSBA because that might be one they want to pick up for the whole state >> and and let me use a disclaimer. I can tell you at least when my daughter was interning that was not the case.

142So, I don't know if anything has changed as of like very recently, but I doubt it has >> has not changed. We do have >> um because we do I do partner with a lot of the universities and have the students before they graduate with their masters doing their internship with us and they're absolutely wonderful and they always ask me afterwards when are you going to have a position open? I would love to be able to hire them, but yes, because they they do have a DO number. Um, but they're still considered a registered intern with the state until they are a licensed clinician with the state. And that's the technicality that that we're running into um with DOE per their reading of statute. There is also another piece and I don't know if it

143has changed so I'm going to use that disclaimer. Um they after you complete the 1500 hours I believe >> the assessment the pass rate for that assessment is very very low. >> Yes. The mental health exam >> very low >> and they've changed it I don't even know how many times >> because I had to give my daughter like a really big gift card when she passed it. It was very low. >> Okay. So I'm gonna ask a favor. would you be willing to write up a statement for us and and what we're going to what we want to ask the state for um since you have all of the language and you know where they're at right now so that we could have that to turn in because I think that is something that

144statewide we could probably all agree on that we need this in order to meet the needs of our children. >> Yes, I'd be more than happy to. Thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. All right. All right. We're moving on to guardrail number three. >> We are just about there. We have two more to go. Guardrail three, as you alluded to, Chair Haynes, is resources and operational processes. And really, it's about maximizing operational efficiency and resources. I'd like to bring up the three chiefs. That's Patty Aor, uh, CFO CE, and of course, Dr. is here. And I'll just say this, I have an opportunity to work amongst these three individuals on a daily basis, and it's always nice when you enjoy the people that you work with. So, these are really good people. bill.

145Thank you. >> All right. So, we begin with um strategy A, which is secure. I I think that's incorrectly written. It's secure a reliable network infrastructure, timely and effic effective technical support, efficient and user-friendly systems, and aligned and impactful educational technologies. Uh this is three divisions. So that's the first one that's under it. And then the other two I will pass it on to Patty and Todd when it comes to their turn. So IT strategy A is broken into the four departments under IT and you'll see that I have highlighted the particular part of that strategy that has to do with that department. So the first department is the infrastructure department and their part is to secure reliable network infrastructure. We've had a lot of work done since the last time we spoke to you.

146We've replaced content keeper filter and the light speeded filter wi with the light speeded filter. We've put in strategics 2.0 and the new cards have been all distributed by safety and security. Zero wise integration. That's the u firearms detection system that is new uh this school year. We've replaced 1500 LAN phone lines and we've retired the analog lines. So when what I mean is we've replaced the handsets themselves, 1500 handset phones. Uh we also are moving the entire district to a new phone system this school year. But that's the first part of it. Internal profiles and user account audits. So every summer we do that to make sure that everybody has the exact access they're supposed to have. uh you know we don't want anyone having access to data that they don't have a need

147for. We've replaced 55 UPS's. UPS's are universal power supplies. These are gigantic heavy batteries that when our power goes out keep our systems running for up to 30 minutes at a time so that it's not broken and hopefully comes back on uh uh before it has to be shut down. and we maintain over 4,000 wireless access points and their switches for a 99% uptime across the district. Just to give you an example of when the 1% of the time the district is not up, uh there are two elementary schools down right now and it's because of a fiber cut and it almost always is. Fiber cuts are where a road crew or um or construction or a down tree uh breaks a fiber optic line that leads to one of our schools. So, usually the

148issue has to be coordinated with our vendors and those construction companies to actually fix the situation, but usually we have it fixed within a day. We work through the night uh when that happens to try to have it up by the morning. Next, we have the client services department and their piece of priority strategy A is timely and effective technical support. They're our largest department in the IT division. Uh the help desk answered um many calls last year and we had 47,649 tickets resolved by our technicians. So that's that's a lot of people one at a time asking for support and that problem was solved. Uh we deployed 952 new staff laptops last year. We deployed another 9,400 new staff l I mean student laptops uh last June. And you might recall the last time

149I reported to you I also reported a similar number that were deployed last September. That's because last school year we deployed twice. That's the only time we're going to do it that way. We did that so that we could catch up and move up the deployment schedule so that we would never have another device shortage like we began the last school year with. So now we are deploying student devices much earlier and uh they're all ready to go before the teachers even arrive. We've also upgraded our CTE labs. I would put our CTE labs technology up against any district in the state. Uh they're really uh great computer systems, very modern and efficient for all of our CTE programs. Uh we've deployed new high-owered desktop computers in GIS, REA, and the Sock departments. New Raptor

150kiosks. So you might have noticed as you go into the schools, those kiosk where you check in on Raptor, those are new computers there. And then we've onboarded a new device repair vendor, AGI. Uh we repaired over 11,000 devices last school year. So a lot of devices get broken, but we've repaired them and they're back in service. Next is our IT software and systems department. Their part of the strategy is efficient and user-friendly systems. They've been very busy with the ERP system. Uh phase one was implemented on time. It was go live on July 1st. Uh it was also on budget, but there are always cleanup projects that have to be done, small integrations, things that don't quite work with other systems. Uh you heard about the substitute system for instance. So they're still very

151busy trying to clean up those smaller pieces that have to work with the new ERP. Sometimes you don't see those until you actually implement the system and then it starts to not work with something that you had connected to it. We initiated a half cent sales tax dashboard uh to start a campaign of being able to show our our community what we use those dollars on. And we've had the information of course in our own systems, but we wanted a better way for the public to be able to see what we use the money on. Implementation of new student attendance kiosk kiosk system. That's in conjunction with student services. uh they're trying to improve our attendance numbers and we're trying to provide the technology for that. Uh migrated the district to an online registration system

152as you've heard uh there's a lot of online forms being filled out now. Uh most people actually are quite happy with that. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback. Uh people say it's just easier and more dependable. you know, they don't have to worry about their student coming home with the forms crumpled up in their backpack and whether they get back on time. Um, it's it's just also better for our systems because when you do it online, it automatically loads into the databases. You don't have to wait for someone to manually key those forms into the database and possibly make an error when they're doing so. >> Um, question, >> Dr. King, >> this has been being talked about on social media for more than a week. >> Yes. Because as parents have tried to

153log in to be a because they a date was put out that they would be able to see their child's schedule and as they're trying to log in they've encountered well you have to complete all these forms until you can get to your child's schedule which would deter them from getting to their grades eventually and things like that. So here's my thing with this. A lot of parents, believe it or not, still do not. They may have a phone, okay, but they don't have the ability to have like a computer or something like that at home to be able to read the forms. And we want them to read the forms. We want them to know what they're signing for. Then I also know that at times there may be a form that a parent

154may not agree with a piece of it. And I know when they've turned in paper copies, they've written what they agree with and what they'll allow and what they won't allow, which by all rights we have to agree to. But right now there's they're being stopped and they can't go any further until they accept all of the forms and they sign them. And so that's, you know, I love moving to an electronic system, but if the electronic system is not meeting the needs of all of our parents and their students so that parents can get to schedules and or grades or other things they need to know, I think we need to take a step back right now because that's that is a very hot topic out there and parents are struggling with getting through

155the forms because say they even have the ability to pull it up on their phone, They can't that that's a tiny print we're asking them to read and agree to. >> Well, there are many parents who are making appointments like they did in the past with their registar to go through the forms. They can still do that. That is still their option. So, if they don't want to do it online, they don't have to do it online. They can go in and make an appointment with the registar. One of the reasons we did put it online is because that often backed up in the past. It took so long to get through all those appointments. Now, there's not nearly as many appointments being made because most people are doing the forms online. I I noticed

156a parent take 20 minutes to fill out the forms. Now, yes, they probably didn't read them all, but it it's not necessarily something that is going to be a really long process that will keep be a barrier for them to access say a schedule or a payment system. And all the forms are also online on our website. So, if they don't want to do it through the app, they can get the forms through the website. like that we have multiple channels to do this. So it's not we're not trying to create a barrier. We're trying to make it more efficient for those who do want to do it online. >> Okay. And I know I'm coming to you next. >> Um Okay. As a former parent in Valuchia County Schools, I never had to make

157an appointment to go in to do the forms. I mean, you do if you're registering your child ideally. >> And that's where I'm talking about registration. >> Okay. But I'm talking about all the other forms we're asking them to sign like the um form for me, you know, media permission in order to be videotaped, you know, have be in photos that the school puts out. I'm talking about the student code of conduct. You know, there's all these forms that we make parents sign. We used to just send them all home in a folder on the first day of school and then pray that they all came back and when they didn't do follow-ups. I mean, but that's the forms I'm talking about, which th those forms shouldn't require a meeting with the registar >> and

158not all the forms are required forms. Some of them are actually opt out forms like saying, do you want to opt out of this? So, and some of them are acknowledgement forms. One of the forms that is extremely important to us is the contact information form. Uh when we do emergency notices, we can have up to 35% of our parents not get the message because their contact information is old or incorrect. So that is one we have made as a required form because we want to make sure they get all of those messages. There are not a lot of required ones. Most of them are optional. There's only a handful of ones like that one that you must fill out to get to the other information. >> So may I ask you a question? If

159a parent would like to have that form sent a hard copy sent home, is there a way to request that? >> Yes. Through the uh front office of their school or they can download it off the website. >> So, is there a way that we can communicate that to all parents? Is it already there like in our communication? >> Does it say in the app that you could go to your front office or something like that, send out a message? I think for the purposes of this discussion, we sent out a messaging to our parents and let them know any of the forms that you can pre you know preview online that you would like to receive a hard copy sign here whichever not sign but acknowledge on which form so that we can send

160hard copies out and that will solve the problem. I know that this is about efficiency but for some you know sometimes I'm a hard copy girl, right? Um, so for the parents that may want a hard copy and just to have it at their disposition, if if we can make that accommodation, then that would that would be fully encompassing all their needs. >> Okay. I'll work with community information to get a message sent out to all parents about that. >> Thank you, sir. Or I think one other suggestion I was going to offer is there a way that when they log in, you know, it pops up and it says there are forms, you know, here that we would we need you to sign for whatever reason and but you know this is the f

161like can you put them in a folder where they can click the folder and do them as they choose. I I want hard copies, but do just it doesn't stop them from getting to the schedule, which is the most important thing right now that every parent wanted to get to last week was their schedule and they couldn't get to the schedules if they didn't complete all the forms. Miss Goodrich, >> are we sending out some kind of document not via anything online to let them know how to access um these forms or fill in these forms or come in? that's not something that they have to do on their computer because we do have a lot of grandparents that are raising um some of our kids that don't have access to a computer. So, how

162do they even know that they can come in? Is there some way that we're communicating that? That's maybe a letter that's being sent home or or could we look at doing that? Sending a letter that you can do it online or we can send you hard copies, send back in your option. So are you saying you want like a postal letter sent to the the families >> or home with the student or whatever way that we can get the information to them so that they have it. Um if they're not >> this is mostly being done by schools themselves where they are announcing you know you you can get these forms at the front office like I was just at Taylor Middle yesterday and I literally saw the receptionist handing some forms out to some

163parents. Um I know Miss uh uh Principal Watson at Atlantic did an announcement this morning talking about the forms. >> So most of this is schools themselves communicating how they are because they're the collectors of the forms really not not the district. They're the main source of collection of most of these forms. So they choose their own ways to put this out there. Now we can guide them on that and I can work on that with the community information and and I know we've already provided quite a bit of that. That's why there is a website that has all the forms on it because that's what we refer our refer our our schools to because we know not all parents can get the app. So, we tell them use the website as a a primary

164source instead of the app. Um, but yes, there are parents that don't have any technology at all and they're getting it from their school themselves. I mean, we can I still think we can send out a district-wide message. Uh but but the schools I know are already communicating this heavily and and the schedules, you know, high schools have started now. So I I'm betting a lot of the students have their schedule now because they've been in school two days now. So I'm I'm sure they're they're getting that. >> I I agree with you. But when we put out a post that said here's when the schedules are going to be available online and parents were going, they couldn't get to them because of all the forms. And so now what we're dealing with, we're getting

165this, and by the way, you guys will need to check your spam/junk folder because there are a ton of emails from parents that are sitting there that are not coming through to us. But what the parents are now saying is, "Okay, so my kid showed up yesterday and got their schedule and their schedule is entirely wrong or they're only scheduled for half of the classes. They're supposed to be there all day or they were only supposed to, you know, be there half of the day and they're scheduled for all day." So now what could have been cleared up if they had seen it a week ago or two weeks ago whenever we released it, we're now putting that burden in the first two days of school on the schools to clean it up. So that

166and and like I said, it just became a really hot topic on social media. They are still talking about the forms and not being able to get to their kids. >> I agree. But I I've also looked at that social media and there's a number of comments on there that say I prefer to do it online. you know, I'd rather have this than try to get it out of my kids's backpack, >> right? >> So, I think there's different opinions on some of the parents preferring to do it online or by paper. >> Yeah. And I would say like I I would prefer to do it online, but we just have to offer some mode for the parents that don't prefer that that's clearly communicated to them. That's what I'm saying. >> Miss Thompson. >>

167Thank you. Yeah. So, I did have to fill out those forms as a parent and I had people come over to my house who are also parents who had no idea how to work anything and they weren't savvy. So, we did that together. It was beautiful time. Um, I hear what you're saying about the information that we have to have as far as the contact information because I think it is vital for the schools to have that. Is there any way moving forward that that's like the one piece that they have to fill out online? Well, there are other forms that are state required kind of information >> and we can have that too. But before they can see like the schedule because I agree there were parents that wanted to see schedules and like

168my kids wanted to know when they were going to have PE and whatnot so they could you know mentally get prepared. I know there's a lot of kids like that too that just need to wrap their mind around it just moving forward making it so it's a little >> I understand and I will do that if if that's what you want me to do but let me explain why we do this. Okay. The reason why we do this is because it is extremely hard to get parents to pay attention to all the forms we need them to fill out. And the only incentive we have that they like the most is getting access to information. So if they have to fill out a form first to then see the information, they do the form. If

169they don't, they don't do the form. That's and you know, I I will change it so that the forms are optional and they can see all the information first, but then we will not get those forms back. I I still think we should make it optional like moving forward. And also I mean and I agree with you. I still had folders that came home yesterday with more information than I had to fill out and I did and I filled it out and it went back. But I just I I feel like we are putting up kind of barriers. So if we can just make it easier for everyone and have something that goes out that every single school can send out on their social media, we can put on our social media that just says,

170"Hey, like don't forget." and do it in a timely manner next time around so two weeks before school starts people will know exactly where they need to go and what they need to do cuz I didn't know I had to do it and I literally was like checking my kids schedule and that's when I saw all the information so >> okay >> I I think we could come up with a a healthy mix yes we're going to still have to offer paper to some people and I think the first thing they should see is the contact because the contact if they're going to fill it out online should be simple, but we're still going to have some that'll need the paper copy. And I know how important that is and how information changes. But if

171the rest could be in a folder that even if when they log in after this, you know, and they get their schedule and all that, a popup says you still have forms in the folder you need to sign or you haven't submitted them paper-wise. If we could just do something like that, eventually we'll get them, you know, and and here's what I found happened. If the kid the parent hadn't sent in the s the one sign for them to be in photos or videos, they they go home and tell their mom and dad that they got left out of that. Okay? Especially if they're in elementary and then they encourage their parents to sign it because they want to be in the picture with everybody else or whatever. So, I just we we got to

172have a compromise here because I think I'm all for electronic and that's how I would do it, but I think it became a barrier and still is because I'm hearing from parents that still haven't gotten through the forms to be able to see their kids schedules. >> Okay, >> thank you. Uh so to move on with the uh objectives met by the software and systems department let's see I was at um let's see implementation new student kiosk >> collaboration >> okay so we have a new collaboration between IT and the REA department uh bringing together our technical expertise with their anacolitical expertise for the REA data dashboard which is a very popular system among our educators uh we transitioned from printer logic to paper cut as the system for managing all our copies and also

173implemented new copy machines across the entire district. Uh we also changed the way we image computers so that it goes faster uh so that we can get computers to staff quicker and that has already shown up this year like all our staff have computers right now but last year we were still working on that because it took longer. Next please. And then lastly is our educational technology department. their pieces aligned and impactful educational technologies. Uh they rest streamline the process in collaboration with the HR department for the transfer fair by integrating technology with a power app. We increased collaboration with TLLL to ensure seamless integration of digital tools in the classroom through Valuchia Learns uh artificial intelligence professional learning canvas elementary redesign for their templates. a launch of a new digital core curriculum in science

174classrooms. Uh piloting and now fully launching VR headsets in mathematics and some science classrooms. Integration of ESSE Ed modified tracking software to align across PRA practices across all schools. We also installed 1,800 interactive flat panels and trained a thousand employees on their effective use for instruction. And we expanded print shop services acquiring new customers and successfully deploying all those new copy machines I mentioned earlier. So that is the four departments in its and their accomplishments. Uh any other questions before I move to my colleague Patty Core? >> Oh >> no. Okay, Patty. >> Thank you so much Dr. Good afternoon, board, and uh thank you for allowing us to share a little bit about what we've done in the operations division over the past year to help reach our goal and become an A district.

175Um when you see that our guard rail 3 is improved operational efficiency um and maximize resources to to support student learning, that is what we talk about all the time in the operations division and it is the reason we exist. We know if those students weren't entering our doors every day that we would not be here. Um, so I have behind me my dream team, uh, who helps support this strategy B of this guard rail along with my two brothers here that we share this guard rail together and we really, um, operate on doing what is best for our students and um, making it as easy as possible for our teachers to teach so students can learn. Uh, so we have five areas under priority strategy B. The first one, design and construction. When we

176talk about operational efficiencies, um we're always scrubbing the plans and looking at ways that we can save money. So, you'll see there's some savings, um these are additional over what we already had reported last year. As you know, we're getting ready to open up Orange City and um Stark this fall. Another little more than a million dollars u we saved through sales tax savings at Orange City Elementary and almost 200,000 at Stark. Um then in addition to building brand new schools, we have major projects that are ongoing. And in 13 of our capital projects from November of 24 through May of 25, uh over $1.5 million was saved through again um doing the vendor process, scrubbing the plans. We say we need a new XYZ. They give us all the bells and whistles and we

177pair it down and say this is what we need to be available for our students. And and we save money that way. Um, and then on seven recent major project bids that we we had budgeted a certain dollar amount, when we did the bidding process, we came in at 6.5 million under budget collectively for those seven projects. What we want to highlight about this is every single penny and dollar saved goes towards another project that might not have been on the capital project plan. So that's why that's so important. In our business and planning services, that's where we work very closely with our municipalities. We look at our capacities. We look at mitigations. We uh look at concurrency. Um that team is a very small but mighty team and they you see they reviewed 53

178school concurrency applications which could result in a potential impact fee generation of $55 million for the district. However, remember sometimes in lie of getting impact fees they uh we get that in the in the form of land land to build a school in areas that are are going to have a high level of student population moving in. Um, we had two mitigation agreements where we collected 1.5 million in prepaid impact fees. If you recall, one came to the board earlier this year and it was originally a development that was touted to be 55 and older and then they changed to be regular residential, so they had to um back pay for those impact fees. Um, and we are uh going through looking at our surplus properties. We have brought some to the board already. We

179have u more out there that we're really investigating to see as we look at our student migration and where the students are in the county. Land that we no longer need in certain areas and maybe land we need in different areas. Um we've identified 230 acres of vacant land as surplus. That increases our marketable real estate portfolio um from 5.25 to about 17.65 million. Now, not all of this property is surplus. I want to make sure that that I state that there. Um, we know our students can't learn if they don't eat, if they're hungry, they can't focus. Um, we're very excited that again we have universal breakfast and lunch, which means free breakfast and lunch for every student in our schools. Um, and we track our participation because we really want our students to

180take advantage of it. Last year, uh, this is our, um, year-long data. We did have a little bit of a dip in our breakfast participation from the previous school year to this school year. that we just finished. Not by much, but uh you'll see that there. We did increase our lunch participation um from the previous school year to this school year by a little less than a percent. Um and then of course those of you who participated in the ultimate chicken wing challenge. Now, this is just one example of many interactive things that Schoolway Cafe does at our schools to include um our students voice in the menu items. Uh we also do um food matters task force monthly where they different vendors give us different products to taste and there's a group across the

181district of schoolway cafe. I know Miss Haynes sometimes participates and they really do go through a testing process to make sure it's quality but also that this the students enjoy it because if the students aren't going to buy it, we don't need to serve it. Um, transportation. If you recall last year, we got off to a little bit of a rocky rocky start, but we ended the year much uh more strong thanks to the board and your um your commitment to making sure that our student uh drivers, our bus operators were able to make a competitive salary. Um that was huge. And so we did start the year with down many routes where other individuals had to drive the routes because we didn't have bus operators. We had vacancies and I think it was over

18220. and we ended the year with only five routes being covered by internally either lead driver trainers or area managers. Um so that happened within the scope of that school year and uh and part of that shortage of operators you see here in the data with our arrival times. Um you know Mr. Kangi has uh hit the ground running taken the lead as our director and had a great kickoff and thank you to those of you who could make it to the transportation and schoolway cafe kickoff at the center. Um, but you heard his mission and his vision and that was a great kickoff and that team is committed and already hit the ground running um, no pun intended. Um, this school year uh, we had a great great start for both of those divisions

183within operations. And then finally in our maintenance department when I tell you this team is dedicated beyond I I don't even have the words um, board but they it's very they take their jobs very seriously. they very much are behind the scenes. Um, we did have every school visited yesterday by a director or cabinet member and we did a debrief at the end of the day and one of the directors said at one of the elementary schools when the principal got there there was an issue with the air conditioning but she couldn't even call the issue in because our tech was already on site because Mr. Smith had the wherewithal to ask uh to have some some HVAC tech work over the weekend to monitor all of our systems across the district and brought everybody

184in an hour early yesterday. And so we had very minimal or no disruption to student learning as a result of you know one of our biggest things at this time of year which is the HVAC systems. Um in addition before I turn it over to Mr. CE I have to also thank Mr. CE. I've said it multiple times, but I think it I would be remiss if I didn't mention it here. When he talks about supporting student learning, it isn't a joke. He takes that very seriously and I want to thank you personally because very close to the end of the year, we came to Mr. CE and said, "Mr. piece. We have an HVAC academy at Pineidge High School, and we have students who want to intern with us this summer, and we didn't

185plan for it months and months and months ago, but we need a little budget to pay these students and the teacher to work all summer. And they did. And they worked from June all the way up to a week before school started repairing air conditions. They repaired five uh air conditionings right across the parking lot at Brewster. They were at um they repaired all kinds of stuff and did a lot of maintenance um that really helped our team out and they worked side by side with with our FMTs and one of the FMTs they worked with is an FMT that graduated from Pineriidge came through the HVAC and we hired so that is Valia County schools four county schools um our students you know and then keeping them inhouse training them and keeping them in

186house and Dr. B got to meet that young man. We thought he was one of the students when we first met him because he looked so young, but he loves what he's doing. He loved working with those students and that teacher and we'd like to continue that. Um, and that helps us make sure that we're meeting our goals here. So, I'm not going to read all the data. We we track that quarterly. Um, and I do want to say about our safety cited work orders. Um, you know, the reason why it's not an hour because you think safety cited, we do need to correct those as quickly as possible, but oftent times it does require vendors and it's outside our scope and so sometimes it's parts, sometimes it's getting the vendor there. Um, but we're

187approaching that goal of nine days. We were at 11:25. We met our two other goals, which are our proactive work orders and our reactive work orders. We did meet or exceed those two goals for this year. So, thank you. Any questions for my team, >> Mr. Clone? >> Say we're going to double the number of interns for next year. >> Yes, heard this. >> Ladies and gentlemen, >> if we have this student, I will tell you it was the fastest uh Ron was instrumental in that too. Mr. Young, I'm sorry. Um went up and talked personally to Mr. CE and it was the quickest conversation um I think we ever had when we needed money because you know you can't always get money. But when he said, "Oh, it's for students." When he was for

188students, he's like, "What do you need? What do you What do you need?" And what? And they had their uniforms on and we posted it on social media. Great media. Great experience for the students. And And they worked all summer in the heat repairing air conditioning, >> getting them ready for the real world. >> Yes. And hopefully so we can hire them. >> And so I want to give a shout out and a thank you because Stark got hit by lightning over the weekend. >> It sure did. and it took out their intercom and fire alarm system and their kitchen and the internet and their phones and everything. And that's what they walked into yesterday. But when I got there, there were all kinds of trucks and vans everywhere. And I mean, it fried some

189of the phones. So, like people were placing the phones, getting it up. They were able to cook today. So, I want to thank all of you. And I also want to give a shout out to Southwestern and um and Woodward and and that you guys did let me know about that because the principal didn't even know at Woodward that Woodward was helping do the food to send to Southwest, but they said the Southwestern people came over and they did it. And so they are still feeding two schools but cooking it all out of one kitchen until we get um Southwestern's kitchen up. And so I just I said to the principal it isn't it great? You wouldn't have to even know about or be worried about it because they all worked together and they got

190kids fed at two schools and we now can feed our kids again at Stark. So thank you to everybody that worked on that >> and thank you to my team. I I couldn't do this without them. >> It's good. church just to thank you for all you guys hard work. I've worked with a lot of you quite a bit this last year and it's been very enjoyable to see how hard you guys are working for our kids. So, thank you. >> Our pleasure. >> Great. >> Thank you, Mr. CE. >> I'm I'm going to take the Oh, Patty, could you Oh, thank you. I'm I'm going to take the opportunity opportunity real quick just to go over to my division here. uh the procurement department and most people don't even know um really puts in

191the controls for spending for the district and they always look for ways to save the district through the competitive process. So their their efforts are not really rewarded with revenues coming in to offset that. But that's the job function that they actually do for us. Their sole purpose is to save the district money. your accounting division. The accounting division actually accounts for all of the activities, all the financial activities through the whole district. So they have to comply with Gatsby reporting requirements, Florida legislation, Florida administrative code, DOE redbook guidelines and also um they just re they as you know um for the last year here just got a clean audit from the Florida Auditor General's office which not only audits the actuals activity but also audits the budgetary information that's included in the district's financial

192statements. May I ask a quick question? Can you share the duration of time that the auditor general's office was here for? >> Please share the duration. >> Yeah, they normally plant themselves for probably about 6 months, I would say. >> So, this is a team that was planted here for 6 months that inspected every aspect of our operation from the auditor general's office. Thank you. Please continue. Yeah, your budget department actually works with the schools and departments um really in developing the budgets. Um it's really the team's collaboration and even with the board to make sure that we're identifying all potential exposure um the resources needed to continue to operate into the next year and make sure that we're managing and controlling those finances. And of course, I'm going to take a little bit of

193credit from John over there because we kind of share that one of the departments. It's a f federal programs department. So, it's kind of an indirect dotted line. He allows me to have in the federal programs area. So, because I'm constantly hounding her, did you find me any more money? Where, you know, so and I'm going to address that here shortly. So really under this gu guard rail is we're we're constantly looking at ways to um save the district um to maximize our resources to improve efficiencies to streamline our operations. That's constantly what we're doing. Dr. Coon's tired of me when I'm going to have my new ERP so I can streamline some of the things that we're going to do here. But he's working tirelessly with his group to make sure that happens for

194us. And al as an example here, we um are seeking to refund our 2016 a certificate of participation board. Thank you for getting back to me on that. We're going to be adding that to the agenda um upcoming in September here. So, it's projected to save the district 3.29 million in that present value savings or 7.2% of the refunded debt. Um, so we're we're continuing to look for offerings over and above what we receive through the normal grant application pro process would would be your IDA, uh, title one, title two. Um, so we're always looking for different grant opportunities. One of those is that the it's called the COPS grant. It's a very competitive grant, though we haven't been awarded it. Um, but we do apply for those type of grants. Okay? and that would

195directly benefit our um school safety program. The procurement department in collaboration with the legal department here um updated board policy 702 uh that went in effect in April 22nd, 2025. And we re they also rewrote our PECAR manual to to strengthen compliance workflows and implement an enhanced vendor link. It's a a a program that we use that's online that allows our vendors to look at upcoming bids that are on the street and actually track our contract information in there. So, management tools and really each of these actions really directly supports what our whole overall mission is to um for the students. So, um thank you. Any questions please? >> Not at this time. >> Thank you. Thank you. So, we're now moving on to guard rail number four, communication and community engagement. >> So, we

196did make it to the final guard rail. And at this time, I would like to ask Danielle Johnson, our coordinator communication to come forward, present the final guard rail for this afternoon. Daniel >> got one in the car. Is here. >> Hello. Last but not least, guardrail 4. >> We'll try to keep this one short. I know we're running a little over. >> So, guardrail 4 is all about communications and community engagement. There are three um main stakeholder groups in guardrail 4. Um uh strategy A is all about partners. Um we know that when our partners engage in our schools, whether volunteering, mentoring or contributing in some other way, um that contributes to the success of our students and provides more opportunities to them to prepare them for their future. Um and so our partners,

197we thank them for the role they all had in our most recent success in our A. Um, uh, letter B is on families, our, um, external stakeholders, our families and our community. Um, we know that parental engagement in our students education is also very vital to increasing outcomes and improving outcomes for our students. Lastly, C is our internal stakeholders, which is our staff members. Uh, again, we know that when our staff are um feel valued and engaged in the work that they're doing, um, they help provide better outcomes for our students as well. So those are the the three areas we're going to talk about. So guardrail four um ensure the overall goal is to ensure high quality community engagement with all stakeholders. So as we start with partners, it's about building mutually beneficial and

198engaging partnerships with the broader community to increase the active uh number of partners, volunteers and mentors. And we define active as um participating at least once a year in engaging in some way whether contributing, attending an event, volunteering um anything like that. And when we talk about partners, it's really important to hit on this mutually beneficial. Um we want to support the partners and we want them to support us. And we see that um as we've talked about internships for example um benefiting each other the HR track students um preparing them for the future but also contributing to our community by having these skilled workers. So for partnerships um you you may note on your slide the years are different. The correct slot uh years are on the screen here. So from 23 to 24

199and then from 24 to 25 is the second column. Um when we started the strategic plan, our partnerships were at 127 and our goal by the end of the strategic plan was to get to 150. Um as you can see for last school year, we were at 215. So our partnerships have greatly increased in the past few years and from last year um two years ago to the year before, I'm sorry, two years ago to um this past year, there's been a 30% increase in partners. And so we hope that will continue. Of course, um when we get to mentors, there has been a decrease in mentors um in active mentors, I will say. And um we have Denise here who can speak to that, but I'll I'll explain it right now. And um this

200is part of the reason why we do these strategic plan and the monitoring is to look at where we are and assess and um see how we can improve things going forward and make sure we're on the correct path. So what we found after doing a deep dive into mentors is that um we're still bringing in the same number of mentors that we always do um we just have more um fewer that are being retained. So they're not staying as long as they were before is why there's been a decrease in mentors. So there are a couple things that are already in motion to improve that going forward. So the two ways um mentors are going to be um assessed and supported are in working with the mentors themselves. So Denise is already following up

201with trained mentors, talking to them, asking um what you know what is your experience been? How do we um how can we help support that experience? Are you planning to mentor again in the future? Do you have any questions that we need to address? Um we're also pairing mentors who are new with returning mentors to help provide them better resources to um continue mentoring and support students. Um the other part is training the mentor coordinators at the school providing additional training. Um there are every school has a mentor coordinator and so uh there's already scheduled the clerical institute on October 13th. There's going to be a training for mentor coordinators that focuses on engagement strategies, uh, retention best practices, and gives them more tools for tracking and supporting participation. Um, so together those things and

202working with our schools for greater support, um, should help get mentors on track. And then thirdly, uh, volunteers has increased a couple hundred from two years ago to last year. Um we appreciate all the volunteers who are chaperoning, working in classrooms um in so many ways we can't even um know all of the ways the volunteers are supporting our schools. So that's just a great number. Almost 11,000 volunteers in our schools um is a great percentage of our our parents and community members volunteering. And on the bottom of this slide um we also have new engagement initiatives that have been brought into for our schools for partners. This past year, we had our first ever state of the schools um which brought 125 uh business and municipal partners to learn more about our school district

203um as well as 20 unique organizations that attended bus uh CTE bus tours to view our students hands-on learning in several programs from HVAC to culinary and many more as well as our first workforce expo for students um this past year. Okay. when we get to be and we talk about our external community stakeholders. Um I wanted to share our survey results because part of when we started this strategic plan um was finding a way to quantify communications. Communications is often a um more of a thing that you qualify and you have um words to describe things but you don't have numbers as much for communications. So we wanted to do a survey where we've done three surveys so far. We do two a year. So the results on this slide are compared from um

204spring 2024 to our spring 2025 survey. Um we had about 300 more responses submitted from the first year of the survey. So that's great. We have about three4s of families and community members who responded believe that communication between BCS and families or the community um was somewhat or very effective. Um so that's on par with what it was the year before. So that's um staying steady. But we also saw an increase in our um feedback for crisis communication andformational events information we're providing and social media. Um also an increase from last year to this year. Communication for crisis 69 to 80% and we've really taken a proactive approach to notifying our families. We've re revamped our crisis communications process for um when a school goes into a hold or a lockdown like providing an immediate

205notification to make sure our families are aware and not hearing about it afterwards. So I think that's one of the methods our crisis communications have improved. Um and social media I'll just note the only reason that's lower than the other ones is because families who are not on social media um would have put do not agree or disagree because there are many people who are not on social media. So that's the only reason that one's lower. All right, the next section is where I want to acknowledge that um communications and family engagement is uh goes down to the schools, too. It's not just the district communicating. So, we're doing a lot to make sure that our families um our schools are involved in engagement with their families, which of course we know they are. Um

206but we're working with them to provide them strategies to help do that as well. So, um this is just some feedback from our last admin institute session. um we talked to them about our legislative updates, of course, and then um some strategies and tools for showing all the good news to their communities. So, a few of the things um we heard back from them that was that they plan to keep their staff informed of their legislative um requirements. They're going to know and share their schools um elevator pitch with their communities. They're going to utilize videos to promote their schools more to really help um the people who aren't in schools get that inside voice um from students and staff who are in our schools as well as use their show social media and updated

207websites as ways to reach external external stakeholders. Um and I won't read these all, but we were able to see from the feedback that our principles feel very equipped to promote their schools based on the continuing um information and strategies we're providing to them. All right, this slide um has a little bit of external and a little bit of internal in it. So, I'll start with the external on the right. Um these were some of our superintendent engagement initiatives with our external um partners this past year as you know the state of the schools. Um attending many chamber Rotary community meetings to help um connect to key leaders in our community who can then spread the word elsewhere. uh connecting with food brings hope and our Limmeran Center of Excellence um who does great things

208for our students in Daytona area and throughout the whole um county actually. Uh DAC meetings with the um DAC chair and vice chair of course, but also the um representatives from all the school sack committees. Um groundbreings and ribbon cutings for our new schools, safety and security initiatives and then the CT bus doors. And then as we go to internal stakeholder engagement, which is going to be the rest of this guardrail, there are many um principal meetings to check in with principles, see how things are going in their schools, make adjustments, as well as different staff areas um such as resource teachers or maintenance staff, different transportation staff checking in constantly to have that two-way engagement between our superintendent and different staff members to make sure um that things are going well or where there

209um could be slight things tweaked that we're hearing about it and making sure that we're improving that for them. Um, lots of classroom and school visits, videos with students and staff to um, show to the community our amazing students um, such as the seniors that we featured in some videos at the end of last year. Um, showcasing our dual language and French immersion programs to student uh, to community members. Um, salt collaboration meetings with our superintendent's advisory leadership team of um, high school students. again staff appreciation recognition events and futures foundation. We work closely with them. All right, we're almost there. All right, lastly um internal uh our internal stakeholders are what we consider our staff members. So we had about 1,700 staff responses to our spring survey. And um from a year ago to

210this past spring survey, it went up 7% from seven percentage points from 65% to 72%. So also almost getting close to threequarters of staff saying that they feel communication is somewhat or very effective and that has exceeded our goal so far for the end of the strategic plan which is um a five percentage point increase. However, we know surveys fluctuate and we have a few more for the next few years. Um one of the things I want to say about our shift in staff communications is really shifting to more proactive communications. Um, we heard back in surveys like staff want to know things before they hear it from a family member or they see it on the news. Um, so that has been a a shift is that our staff are our priority in proactively

211communicating to them. Um, so if there's something that is going to go on on the news, we're going to send it an email to staff first to make sure that they know and they feel that um they are valued as as the first people who need to know this information. And I think that's that's helped with the um I'm sorry I'm not on this slide. Um that's helped with these three areas of staff um which we have written into our strategic plan to improve um how quickly how clearly and how accurately we communicate with staff which have all gone up 6% six percentage points and seven percentage points from a year ago to now. So going forward there will be continued clear, transparent, timely communications, open forum opportunities, support for our staff. Um there's also

212of of course in in that many staff responses and and family responses. Um there were many positive comments, praise for the um information they've received, attention to detail, cons consistent notifications provided by the districts. Um, and then going forward, um, I have more plans to work with principles to share specific feedback from these surveys with them as well to help better serve their, um, families and their staff in terms of communication. And that's the last one for me. >> All right, Miss Goodrich, >> do we have this probably gonna be Denise, uh, is do we have a hundred mentors total in the whole district? Oh, so last school year that was anybody who was trained in signing in at a school as a mentor. >> So just total hundred. >> Yes. >> So where are

213we in the online training process? >> Um they I reached out to your distribution list. Um Miss um Miss Walker is going to do a training the first week of school and we're going to video record it and then we're going to send it out to that list. >> Awesome. just so just because I can't talk to the board about this except obviously here. So what I had recommended we were trying to get the mentors for TAT and what we were running into is the current mentor program the trainings were done at um Olsen or here and a lot of the people that I knew that wanted to mentor quite frankly aren't going to drive there to come to sit to in a class but they'll do it online. So, I had asked that it

214be recreated online so that we could train our mentors um in a way that was more um accessible for them. The other ask that I had was online it showed that mentors had to be available once a week and I I think I would make a strong mentor for a child, but I couldn't guarantee once a week because schedules fluctuate. So, I ask that that be changed to mentors could be available once a week, bi-weekly, or once a month. if a child is struggling and the and we can get them someone at least once a month. It's better than no times. It's better than losing mentors because so many people looked at it and they were they saw what was required and they were like no we can't do that. We we can do less

215but we can still do something. So those are the asks that I made. So thank you for working on those and getting those going. And I think that's part of the retention process too is um if our mentor coordinators are engaging with our mentors and getting that feedback from them then that's an easy fix because sometime in front of our students is better than no time in front of our students as you said. >> Yeah. >> Okay Mr. Cologne. >> So this an this question is a tough one. How are we planning and I don't need the answer today to replace Bob Davis and the work that he did and in finding businesses to sponsor our schools. I don't know that anyone in the hotel lodging who's taking that place. It's something he did off

216the um bottom of his heart and commitment to our district. And so it was something that I've seen other districts do formally, but we were blessed that we didn't have to because he just did it and nobody says no to Bob and so he makes it work. Um, but do we have a plan for that? And I don't need an answer for that today. Um, we are going to reach out to the hotel and lodging association hopefully if they have some kind of board or some kind of meeting that we can get in on and be on part of regularly, but also ask if we can present to their members to let them know that these are this is what available for you to partner with in the school district. >> So, I'm thinking bigger

217because there's lots of other businesses and again I don't need an answer today. This is huge. Well, let me just throw in I'm a member of the hotel and lodging association, so I can help facilitate that. >> So, I'm I'm thinking there's >> I have an answer for you, Mr. >> So, um actually I met twice with an individual. First and foremost, Bob Davis was non-stop as you know, and it would be some people are not replaceable and in my opinion, he's not. Um, however, and this is the f this is a fact. No one wanted Bob's position because Bob has set the the bar so extremely high. But there is a gentleman that that they are training that they're working on right now. He he's he's kind of filling in for Bob right now.

218and once they make it official, he and I will be meeting and and our team will be joining us so that we can we can continue with that relationship because I don't want it going, you know, the progress that we've made. Bob Davis took our school system from where I believe we had about 47% of our school that had a a hotel to partner with to 100%. Right? We don't want that moving back or word. So, I already had two meetings and that's where we are with that. >> Can we consider adding someone from the west side? I mean, again, Bob's reach was just incredible and he got found a way to get a laundry company in Orman to sponsor Discovery Elementary, but I don't know that that is sustainable. Again, nobody said no to

219Bob. Um, and so I wonder if there's an opportunity there to start getting some of our westside businesses through the chamber, through whoever it is, uh, involved um, to try to bolster that up because the reality is, let's say you have two businesses that want to sponsor a school, then that's two, that lessens the burden on the one. And so, and not every business is huge. Uh, and so just a formal program. I know there's people out there that sell this work where they go out and find people and this, you know, we retain a certain percentage of blah blah blah blah. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about like, >> you know, homegrown let's get because really they're just waiting for us to ask. >> Isn't there a CVB um westside version of

220the CVB convention and visitors bureau >> Georgia? Okay. I believe there is a westside convention and visitors bureau. George I believe is a lady's name and she might be a great contact for the west side. >> Yeah, >> Turner. Like I said, it's just I mean starting start starting say starting over but you know maybe we could do this better. >> Dr. Dr. Pierce actually is working on a plan. I know that Miss Goodrid knows a little bit about that plan. So I will I will share with you offline. >> Awesome. Okay, >> Dr. Bwin, anything else you want to say? >> Um, this is the end. If you don't have any other questions, I just want to say thank you to the entire team that was here today. Like as I stated the our

221our strategic plan has arms and legs to it and oxygen that breathes into it for the work to be done and that's exemplified here today as you've seen but a true a team of individuals not just at the district level but also at the school level that enacts on this work. You know, as I listen to our team speak, I hope you've noticed and seen a little bit on a much smaller scope, but how large our scope of work is, right? The level of of breadth and depth that's there to the work that we do here in Valuchia County as you look at each division and all the multip that we need to enact and work with. But what you would have seen here clearly today is that we have a way of work. We've

222developed a way of work and we have a common language that accompanies that work. In addition to that, I'm very proud to share that the team when it comes to our kids, we're prep preparing students for 21st century and beyond. That means that our team needs to be not stagnant with their thinking and their approach but very fluid. And I think you would have noticed here today that we have to really pay attention to data but also be very forwardthinking with our approach because once again we're preparing for students for 21st century and beyond. And we've learned that through COVID quickly that you know having that elasticity and that that that ability to adapt and be flexible how key that is in our industry. So, I want to say thank you to the entire team,

223but also I want to thank this board because as I listen to the team speak, you know, I I go back to where were we and all of the bits and pieces that we had to bring together and really what you see here today didn't happen overnight. It took it took a lot of uh you know, this team and I I would say that this board too, you have been resilient. you know, you have really stood up and stood tall when we needed to do that because we always had to put students first and know that they are a centerpiece of the work that we do. So, thank you for standing up the challenges, but also thank you for being so willing and and flexible to sprint whenever we needed to sprint in some areas.

224So, thank you to the board. But I don't think you guys get thank you enough. But thank you for all the work that you do because we're able to do what we do through the support that you provide. And to my amazing team, it's not something that I take for granted. I feel that we're truly blessed to be where we are. And I'm very blessed and we are very blessed to have a team like this truly dedicated to our students here in Valuchia County. So thank you guys. And chair, >> so we have one more item, but we are we're >> it will be quick. Chair, >> you wanted that it would be quick and >> I really I mean >> it'll be move it to the board. >> Seven minutes. >> No, no, seven

225minutes. We'll do it. Let's do it. >> Seven minutes. >> It's important, I think, to hear where we are with >> Stephanie. Don't let me Don't have me lose on this one. >> No, wait until she sits down. >> She sits down to start. >> I'll start for efficiency as Miss Workman passes that out. Obviously, this ties right into guard rail one, high quality staff. So, a quick update if we have that. Can we bring that up on the screen? And you're >> There we go. Um, very quickly, if you'll look at the screen, you'll see that you've heard the number of 31 vacancies, but now you'll see that it's 44. I want to remind all of us, myself included, that this is human resources and you're dealing with humans and conditions change over the

226course of days in decisions they make, family decisions, so on so forth. So you can see the areas up there in each of your districts and I'll leave it to Miss Workman to add anything to that and see if you have any questions about that slide. >> Um I just wanted to add uh on to what Mr. Cash said. Some of these are issues that have come up with certification um through our screening process. So it's not that they've just quit. Oh, sorry. It's just not that they've quit. It's has been something that has delayed or prevented them from being employed. Any questions on that slide? We did go to the next one, but just to make sure we're good. So, the next one, obviously, the questions you're going to ask, and rightfully so, is

227what are we doing about it? And so, that next slide right here talks about some of the upcoming events that we have to continue our recruitment efforts. You heard some of that in our VPM today from Miss Fuller's uh department when she was talking about even how we're being innovative, and Miss Haynes alluded to that, pulling in different ways to get some of these critical shortage areas. And lastly, we have our allocation adjustment timeline. I know some of you have uh reached out through different entities about classrooms that are large right now. What we are obviously waiting on is to see all of our do not enters. That's how they're coded if they're not here in the first 10 days. Those will be automatically withdrawn by its on the 11th day of school, which is

228August 25th. And then that is when we will review any of our classrooms that may be over uh uh overpop populated with students. However, I know in some of our kindergarten classes, they are currently sitting a little larger than what we would like. So, we have given the um administrators at the schoolbased sites options as to how they can work with within their um current staffing to solve that problem until we know. Yes, you are officially earning a new unit. However, school A may have lost somebody that I need to transfer to school B. We don't want to give out units and allow them to hire teachers if we have to shift and move. >> But before we allocate those units, we need to know where the deficits and pluses are. I do want publicly

229all parents to understand they're hearing those things as kids are starting school. Valuchia County Schools is committed to balancing these classes. We are not going to have classes with kindergarteners that are perceived to be over class size. We will not do that. We just need a little moment to balance them. And I want to echo what Miss Workman said. We have talked to our principles and the executive directors have talked to the principles. There are resources currently on the campus of certified personnel that in this stop gap that we're looking for to to readjust these resources that can step up and help those classes. So, we expect them to do that and they will do that. >> And with that being said, um September 8th is the 20th day of school and that's really when

230we feel like we have a good handle on what our enrollment looks like. So that's when we will sit down as a team with TLLL and ESC and all of our other departments and go through school by school and review their allocations and then we will make any adjustments plus or minus as needed. Um continuously through October the allocation review committee does meet because one of the things that's in the back of our head is making sure we're in compliance with CA uh class size. But then even after that, we do continue to meet as needed for the remainder of the school year if there are any allocation issues. That's it. >> And please bring your children to Valuchia County Schools. >> Okay. So my one question where we already know in kindergarten that we're

231at 24, 25, 26. >> That's all right. >> Okay. Are we going to do it by day 11 we will have be looking at moving somebody or are we going to be using staff on campus to cover till day 20 or beyond because we know with the contract day 20 is not the still the movement date you know there's how many it's another >> correct there are there are days built in for the shifting um of staff from one school to the to the other in that contract language that we have to follow. I think when it comes to kindergarten specifically, we will be looking to do it sooner rather than later. However, what we're going to have to do is look at those schools that may have a decrease in their kindergarten numbers and

232that may be where we start that uh parallel shift >> because I mean seven or eight kids already over per room over the class size is a lot. It's it two I wouldn't be bothered. Okay. But that many I'm worried >> and I don't disagree. And we had um I can tell you we had one school where they have a dual language program and they have 20 kids in each of the dual language and then because of the way their allocations worked out they ended up with like 30 more kindergarten kids. So we had to immediately go in and say hey we've got to make an adjustment here and so they were able to shift and move from within what you know what allocations they had to cover until we can truly put an additional

233unit there. >> Okay. >> Thank you Enz. >> Thank you. I said, "Thank you, Enz. I saw her at Spirit this morning. She's covering one of the dual language classes." She's one of our Esau folks. >> Correct. Correct. >> Awesome. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> This meeting is adjourned and we'll be back here at 4:30. >> Look at that.