001e e e don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain yeah was I not loud when I wasn't here good afternoon welcome to the valuch County school board meeting today is Tuesday March 11th 2025 we want to welcome all of you that are here in the audience those that may be in the Overflow area or those that are listening from home in just a moment I'm going to ask you to stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance which will be led by a group of students from Coronado Beach Elementary followed by the an our national anthem which will be performed by the 2025 valua all count Middle School band then once those two items are finished we will have a moment of silence and reflection so at this time please stand hi
002I'm Carlos Scott proud principal here at Coronado Beach Elementary I'm here today with Miss cl's third grade class one of the best classes here at our school and we're here today to recite the pledge for you alce to the flag of the United States of America the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] [Applause] la [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] la a [Music] [Applause] thank you you may be seated I'd like to take a moment to introduce those that are here at the front with me on my far left we have Mrs Donna brosmer representing District Four then Mrs Christa Goodrich representing District Two Dr Gilbert Evans our school board attorney over on my far right we have Miss Celeste Gilmore who is our agency clerk
003then we have Mrs Jesse Thompson who represents District 3 on the phone with us um this afternoon is Mr Ruben clone our vice chair who represents District 5 then we have our wonderful hello then we have our wonderful superintendent Dr Carmen Balaban and my name is Jamie Haynes and I am your chair this year and I represent district one items for approval on the agenda this afternoon are items 1.03 2 2.02 5.01 7.02 and 17.01 through 17.04 public participation times the first time is for any items on the consent agenda so if you wish to fill out a card for the consent agenda please see Miss Sarah Lux or Miss Darlene tasselli over here on the side and they'll give you a card we also have public participation at 6:00 p.m. or shortly thereafter for
004items of general interest pertaining to public education in Valia County a total of up to 15 minutes will be provided for public comment at that time then time will be provided for public comment on any action item before a board vote is called on that item those items tonight are items 17.01 through 17.04 and then finally time will be provided at the end of the meeting for public comment for items of general interest pertaining to public education in Valia before the board H the superintendent or the attorney have any discussion or announcements that will be made so we're now moving on to item 1.02 District vision statement and board member comments our vision statement is to create lifelong Learners prepared for an everchanging Global Society at this time I invite the board members if they
005would like to share anything Miss Thompson thank you madam chair so so this past week was super busy and I'm sure all of you know that if you have kids in the school that there's a lot going on right before Spring Break um but two major things it was a national school breakfast week um so I went to a couple elementary schools middle school high school served breakfast it was all delicious the kids were polite and it's it was a lot of fun just to see the different options I'm sure a couple of you guys win as well and it was just I don't know School breakfast is better than when I was in school Val County Schools like it just it smells better it looks better the kids seemed happy so that was a
006lot of fun and it was also read across Amer America and so I went and spent some time with some kindergarteners which if you're ever having a bad day a Kindergarten class is a great place to go like they are just the sweetest little things they're so nice and they have so many little questions that may or may not be about what you're talking about but that's okay because they're precious um also really fast I know we have a lot of state champions We are so lucky in our County we have so many amazing school athletes and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the lady cuda's basketball team are state champs so yay congratulations to all of them they played their hearts out and it was just really cool to see uh
007See the team win it's fantastic and thank you to all the community members from new samna and Edgewater who took a bus over there just to support them so they wouldn't be all by themselves and yay love that and that's it for me thank you Miss brosmer I went and served lunch uh three of my elementary schools I I chose schools I had not had a chance to visit yet so I went to Westside champion and Morman Beach Elementary and uh one of the first things I learned is that I haven't moved that fast since my kids were little uh you really have to have to have your game on when you're serving that many kids and uh and there there was a point um I think I was at Champion where three little girls
008wanted to have their picture taken with me and I made the comment that if I squatted down someone might have to help me get up and the little girl next to me said I'll help you and she did she helped me get up it was adorable um and I've been to um a few of my sacks seab Breeze Pathways and pine trails and I spent a lot of my time over the last two weeks visiting with my principles which I will talk about later but that was my two weeks thank you miss goodr it has been a very busy couple of weeks um I also served breakfast at several schools and was also wildly impressed by Art the breakfast selections it it's we're serving our kids really good food and I learned a lot about
009the process of what we go through and what the schoolway cafe does to choose select good foods based on all of the different allergies that exist and all the different um various needs kids have and then have our kids taste it was just a really neat process and so it was nice to see schools with good food in it it's been a long time coming and glad that valicia is representing as well there um and so thanks to all of our amazing cafeteria workers congratulations congratulations to Mr and Mrs Mainland um I went to that last Friday night that was really fun amazing performances given by several of the students I was blessed to get to go to the women in Motorsports um event over at the new smrna track and we have a lot
010of really amazing young ladies that are looking at careers in Motorsports and automotive industry so that was fun stopped over at Silver Spring or Silver Sands on the same day I still Silver Springs every time Silver Sands the same day and got to par participate in the cupcake challenge um highly recommend if you get an invitation or if you don't get one just make up your own invitation and go to that that was incredible it was some of the best cupcakes I've ever had in my life and the um Chef in that um class was amazing she was just so passionate so good with the kids and really did a great job then went over to t t did um walking in the shoes in their shoes event where we were able to gather enough
011shoes to give back um 70 pairs of shoes um to kids in the community that needed shoes um that don't have shoes and that need is still out there so if you have new shoes new shoes um big need out there the young ladies um also Express that they don't have undergarments that are appropriate so feel free to give any of those my way and I will get them to them um also was blessed to meet some community members for some donations at Campbell Middle School um to uh purchase some musical instruments and drum heads um some people just want to step up so that was fun very excited to see that it's Arts month we'll talk about that later enjoyed the CTA teacher of the year event um the state of the schools went
012over to mois um with Horizon night there which was another great event attended the ter to Yamaha um bite giveaway which is another great event and then red at Long Street so yes it was a busy couple weeks but we have some really amazing things going on out there soone should be very proud of what we're doing thank you does Mr colog wish to speak yeah so I will I will uh reclaim my time for next time so have a coughing fit so um get ready because next time I have quite the list thank you all right um so last two weeks have been very very busy there have been so many things going on I will share a um a tip I learned a couple years ago for all of you that are newer
013on the board I actually did eight schools last week because I learned early on if you choose an elementary and a middle that are close together you can get to two at one time and uh because I have a large number of schools that's the only way I found to work to be able to get to as many as I can but I have to give a shout out to schoolway Cafe yes the breakfast that they're serving and the fact that they're allowing kids to sample stuff and you know chime in and say we like it or we don't but when I got to Middle School um last week I knew that they were doing this at High School but I didn't realize we'd moved down to middle so I'm letting everybody know and as
014you know we serve breakfast lunch supper and or afternoon snacks to all of our students for free so no child has to pay for a meal and therefore no child should ever go hungry but this is the new thing at high school and middle school Coffee iced coffee did everybody know we're serving iced coffee at middle and high school high school is it's like an old habitar already and I was at University high and I don't even know how many they made they just kept putting tray after tray of iced coffee up now I did appreciate the southwestern middle had a sign there it is decaffeinated coffee okay I think everybody thinks it's got caffeine in it but it doesn't and it does have vanilla and caramel flavors at the middle schools they were really
015Brave they put the Dome Lids on it and they added whipped cream to it but when I was at Delan middle the other day they had made 239 of them prepped and ready to go we ran out so I said next time you're probably going to need 300 but here's the thing about the coffee you can still choose whatever breakfast entree they're having that day and they were having bacon egg and cheese on a doughnut and parents there's no glaze on them so they look like donuts they have that fluffiness of a doughnut and they go fast but the coffee goes with it and if they choose the coffee because they've got the milk and the cream and all that in it they just don't get a milk and so everybody thinks it's fabulous they
016all have a coffee that looks like they went to Starbucks um so that is increasing our breakfast numbers and my thought is whatever it takes to get them through to walk through that line for them to take something to eat because we know if they don't eat and they're hungry they will not learn so thank you to schoolway Cafe to figure out how to work within the guidelines and so that our students more students are coming through the line but there were other things going on um Mrs brosmer and I attended the Florida Schoolboard Association quarterly meeting um right in Orlando and um I served on a panel discussion for the end of that where we shared tips and hints because your first year is a lot of learning and so we answered a lot
017of questions for new board members but Mr cologne and I then um attended over at the center at Deltona the West valua um Crystal Apple Awards and this is done on the west valua side of the county so it covers all of the schools there were 39 teachers this year Andor staff from schools that were honored um at the Crystal Apple Awards event I love that they now do it as a breakfast it's such a nice way for them to start their day off but there's always four winners each year so our winners this year were from Taylor Middle High Dand High Dand middle and from Stark Elementary and this year they um of the four winners there was an opportunity for one of them to receive a vehicle and the other three received lifetime
018oil changes and I'm thinking I'd like the lifetime oil change envelope quite frankly because why not um but the teacher from Stark element who is an art teacher she received the vehicle yes I know my Fine Arts people in the front row are happy about that um the interesting thing that day about her when she came up on stage when they called her name she reminded me of my first grade teacher she had on a dress where the students had painted their photo like photos they had drawn of animals and things like that her entire dress had been made by her students artwork and when I was in first grade a long time ago um I had a teacher that we each got a square and we did something on the Square she sewed all
019those squares together and wore a long skirt to the first open house and I'll never forget that but it was just precious to watch her walk up there and have her students artwork now this I'd be remissive I didn't talk about this where's all the football fans in the room do we have football fans out here today if you didn't hear Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl so we have a young man who grew up in DeBry his mom is a teacher for us out at valua Pines and listen the way she raised him is phenomenal so he came to University High School which is where he graduated in 2019 from University High and it was a surprise it was all kept Hush Hush they brought him there he had the opportunity to speak to
020a group of students about how important academics are he talked about what his GPA was when he graduated from high school he went on and had a full ride to Cornell University and now he plays football and he won the Super Bowl with along with the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles and his name is jayx hunt and he was here and and he wanted to go visit his Alma moer well I didn't find out till later that the young lady with him who was doing the videotaping for him also graduated from University High so we had two people that had come back to University High that day and he then met with like the athletic um director and the student athletes and some of the athletic trainers and all of that and he shared his
021story with them but here's the minute I met him he's humble he's humble and he was so excited to be there that day that it didn't matter what kid walked up to him if they walked up and said hey will you sign my shirt he signed their shirt if they handed him a Post-It note and said will you sign this for me he signed it he stayed I think a whole lot longer than what he planned but that's because he was really there to see the kids and he wanted to be able to have an opportunity to talk to them and sign things and you don't see that very often but what his mother has done a wonderful job because he is a wonderful young man down to the point that some student that walked
022up to him was wearing the same cologne like his favorite cologne and so he opened up this bag across his chest and he took the little bottle out and he gave it to the kid and he said here we both like the same colog and I thought who does that you know but that's just who he was and it was a wonderful opportunity we also had um our futures tomorrow leaders they had their seminar number five so if you don't know that's our um High School junior students that apply to be the Futures tomorrow leaders they were here in the boardroom um last week and Mr cologne and I had an opportunity to meet with them and talk with them and kind of tell them the story of how we ended up doing what we're
023doing and some of them I've never had this happen before but I guess they filled out a survey and they sent us the comments and they were really very nice comments and then we did go to the CTE teacher of the year where we named um a middle school and high school CTE teacher of the year and we honored so many of our CTE teachers but I also was up at Taylor last Friday Taylor Middle High you know we have an attendance thing we're trying to get every kid in school every day well for second quarter they were the top high school that reduced their absenteeism they reduced it by 177% in the second quarter of the year so we went up there to honor them and they get a beautiful banner but they get
024a $500 check to go along with it they were very excited about that and I was too but there's a lot of wonderful things that are going on here and I just have to say it's a blessing to be a part of this community community and the school system and see what our kids are doing from the day they walk in the door but there nothing warms my heart more than when they come back because I've always said when those kids walk across that stage if you have a chance follow your path Follow Your Passion but if you have an opportunity come back to valua County and if nothing else share your story with others and encourage and possibly sign up to be a mentor and so we have a large audience tonight so if
025you ever want to have 30 minutes of your day be a wonderful blessing to you sign up to be a mentor at one of our schools elementary middle or high one day a week go in and go to lunch and sit down with a child that's been assigned to you and all you really have to do is just listen children just want somebody to listen to them and be an encouragement and so so if you've never done that or you have the time I'd ask that you please consider signing up to be a mentor because we need mentors thank you so at this time Dr balaman we are moving on to item 1.03 approval of the minutes board members had an opportunity to read the minutes from the last meeting along with the special session
026do I have a motion to approve the minutes motion to approve the minutes thank you Mrs Thompson second who seconded it thank you Mrs brosmer any discussion okay hearing none I'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving the minutes from the February 25th 2025 special session and regular session Schoolboard meeting please say I I I any opposed it passes unanimously we're now on to item 2.01 agenda changes Dr bin are there any agenda changes before the agenda is presented to the board for approval Madam chair I have no changes for my end thank you then do I have a motion to approve the presented agenda motion to approve thank you Mr cologne and a second a second thank you Mrs Goodrich any discussion hearing none I'll call for the vote all those
027in favor of approving the presented agenda for this evening please say I I any opposed okay it passes unanimously we're now moving on to item 3.01 announcements by Dr Carmen Balaban our superintendent thank you madam chair board members all of you in the audience Welcome to our school board meeting and those of you tuning in from home or virtually thank you for joining us um it's it's kind of short tonight and Mrs Haynes has actually helped me out so it's going to be even shorter than anticipated but I would I will let you know that I have two videos minimum for you um our state of the school I I do want to say thank you to our board for your ongoing support I want to thank all cabinet members all staff members I see
028our Performing Arts you guys were we're there our Communications Department um all of you our school base really we had an opportunity to really celebrate with our shareholders after 155 years right 155 years are first very inaugural uh state of our schools address um it was well attended you know we're very grateful to have the community that we have additions of Financial Credit Union they were our primary sponsors but we also had there with us and I like to thank them Florida health care plans fla Family Health Care Source the Joe Hearn events um launch Credit Union and Futures Foundation um they have sponsored this event and it it really I I the business community that were there we had Community leaders that attended we had elected um governmental agencies represented there educational Advocates who
029joined us but the I will tell you that our students they were the um highlight they were the star of the show and wait until you see the video and I like to again thank our performings arts department and all of our principles that attended from the principal Council staff members that were there thank you it's a collective effort of every single one and really what it does it showcase the strength of aluia County and the work exemplified by staff and the outcome that our students have achieved so far so it really it's it's a celebration of where we have gotten to the point of where we are um how we've gotten here but also where we're heading so again I want to say thank you and you will see that video at the end
030Crystal Apple Awards I think you you talked about that but I'd like to thank um congratulate Brett bradner he's from the land high school there were four winners um Nicole Steel from Stark Elementary she won the vle drawing we had um Kermit quizenberry from Taylor Middle High and Carrie peek from um the land middle school again again uh thank you to everyone that was there at Joe Hearn thank you to the chamber thank you Delan Kia thank you I mean again it's it it really showcases how wonderful our community is and supporting our teachers and our students tomorrow's leaders you spoke about that but the only thing I would want to say is thank you to our futures foundation for hosting this event year after year there's 128 students I believe that applied and 40
031were selected and they were seated right where you are and I will tell you rest assure that our future will be in very good hands the questions that our students ask in this boardroom I'm tell when I was their age I wish I could think that critically but um what they love the most about that program is seeing the interconnectiveness of how all of the different organizations in the community come together to support the the mission of that Community which is to have um productive citizens so again thank you Futures foundation and School breakfast I know all of you were there serving and I believe from what I heard that all of you are on a call list so if there was a call out you might get a call just letting you know and
032you know that's an early show up in the morning Miss Bronner very early I did have repeated invitations to come back at any time you are you are like on five lists from what I understand um but I will share with you one of the things that I learned you're absolutely right when it comes to pattye and I we went to Hinson but they have really seen an increase in their breakfast participation Hinson alone 120 more students are going for breakfast in the morning because that coffee that they serve which is a nutritious meal because I mean beverage because it's counted as you know for milk um it's it's it's it's quite a it's the from what I understand it's delicious and it looks just like a Starbucks coffee and you don't have to pay
033for it it's free it's free so that makes it even better um CT teacher of the year we attended so congratulations goes out to middle school CTE teacher of the year is Louisa Estrada from Hinson middle and our high school CTE teacher of the year is Kelly marklin from new samna Beach High um one of the things that we've notice again is that our our CT Department along with our CT teachers they're doing an amazing job in preparing our students for the level of Workforce education that that's needed and also I want to thank all of our business partners that were there but also to all of the our business partners that are part of this let's secure 500 internship opportunities for students for the summer paid internship opportunities and we have already secured I
034believe 230 plus um paid internship opportunities so thank you to all of our business partners for embarking on that Journey with us the reading challenge as you know we're going to have a couple days off next week and it's really good that we continuously feed our brains so the um spring reading challenge is on please guys make sure that you log in your minutes into bean stack because uh the Daytona Lagoon they have some exciting prices for you and we will be celebrating you in a in one of our board meetings we do have a video about jix hunt so I'm not going to say any more about that and that's it team are you guys ready with the two videos they're queued up thank you but here we are and we're delivering it for
035you and you are part of History we're going to engage you for the next hour and a half in a conversation we're going to be sharing with you some successes and it's not VCS success it's our success I couldn't think of a better group of indivi individuals to be seated here today do who have done this work with us and who will continue to do this work with us but I couldn't think of a better crowd to be celebrating with we know that our students come to school and that our parents send the best that they have to our schools to get educated and that is the umbrella and it's a huge umbrella of teaching leading and learning did you know we employ 8,000 people in Luchia County so our mission is to recruit retain
036and support the highest level of people that we can find our commitment to Student Success we are going to continue the educational excellence and first and foremost make data- driven decision-makings in everything we do to make sure our students are well equipped to graduate in four years or less we transport over 20,000 students every day to and from school we feed them we are Universal free breakfast and lunch we're feeding over 60% of our students free lunch every day um so it's an amazing team and again it's all that work that happens behind the scenes uh the its division is a smaller division we're just a 120 staff but we have a big mission to procure Implement and support technology for the whole school district for operations teaching and learning fucha conone we believe in
037strong schools equals strong communities also leads to strong businesses we've been doing a lot this past year there's a whole bunch of things that we've been working on but they all kind of fall underneath that enhanced engagement with strategic Partners you guys are all here right we wanted to make sure we could get you all in a room to talk about this important information as partners in education you're there for us when the sun is shining but also you're there for us with on rainy days we are happy to welcome uh jayx back to campus um 2019 graduate never coming back here is really full circle because it all started here in the sense and to be back here and to be honored means a lot to me so uh it's great to be [Music]
038back it's pretty remarkable what a good kid he was always hardworking kid did all the right things he was always great in school he was lovely to have on a team he was a great teammate a really talented Runner but he was just fun to be around there's no way I was as small as he did when they cross that stage I say please return to Valia County Schools to encourage the next group of students that will be graduating and that's exactly what he's done here today he came here to encourage these students and share with them his story I've literally walked these hallways don't be afraid to be yourself don't be afraid to make mistakes at every point in life you're going to be embarrassed about something at some point and it's better to
039accept it than to run away from it uh cuz you learn so much more by embracing it and um be excited about life to have a negative outlook on life so early is detrimental to your success and like your growth as a person so I would say just keep an open mind be humble uh and enjoy the [Music] ride and new samna Beach High I know you talked a little bit about this but the the girls basketball team their state champs as you know um first in history and also their wrestling team also made history this past week the principal is actually texting me over the weekend um two wrestlers w a state championship in their indivi for their individual division so we're going to be celebrating these State Champs at one of our future
040board meetings and last but not least the 14th March the 14th teacher Duty day student holiday no school uh March 17 through the 21st you know what that means you're laughing spring break means keep your children home uh the 17th through the 21st it's uh our spring break no school and March 24th is when we will resume classes and that's it you know we have quite a few students sitting here in the off and with us and I'm sure that they are are very happy that come Thursday afternoon spring break starts for them are you guys excited yes yes I don't see a whole lot of excitement they'll be missing school well I think if we told them they had to show up I don't think they will come oh miss Haynes we're not we're
041just gonna leave them off the hook for now all right then at this time we're moving on to item 4.01 one of my favorite times of every board meeting we have some recognitions we sure do and I would like to ask our amazing uh Performing Arts team to come on up we've got a few Specialists here with us Mr John dup Mr Craig uppercue and Mr Bryce Hammond and they're going to share with you a little bit about our All State Arts students All County stomp students um and and a little bit about silver silver SS Middle School choir and and but they'll tell you all about it go ahead guys all right well hi there and good evening Miss Haynes school board members and Dr balabin we are honored to be here today to
042celebrate arts in our schools month encompassing music dance theater and visual art this is a time to recognize the invaluable role that Arts education plays in shaping our students academic success personal growth and future opportunities from my extensive research and upcoming dissertation defense I can tell you that that the Arts as you know are not just an extracurricular activity they are truly an essential component of a well-rounded education and many Studies have shown that participation in the Arts truly enhances our cognitive development improves problem solving skills and fosters creativity students who engage in the Arts Mike's really going to like this part are really likely to have have higher attendance rates and Dr VA they Excel academically that is the best part of tll they have um incredible appreciation for culture and self appreciation here
043in Village County we are proud to offer a diverse range of Arts programs including Visual Arts music dance theater and digital media our schools provide students with opportunities to explore their talents through classes performances exhibitions and extracurricular activities I would like to point out that the centerpieces were made by 44 teachers that's right just wanted to point that out anyway people wanted to take it take take those center pieces they were telling me about it it's they're all going back no they're all going back and we'll bring it back next year and I think they would have purchased them too well arts arts education extends beyond the classroom our Partnerships with local Arts organizations museums and performance venues allow students to engage with the Arts on a deeper level these collaborations provide mentorship scholarships and
044real world experiences that help prepare students for careers in the creative Industries and Beyond from award-winning student musicians and performers to young artists who work whose work has been displayed in state and Nation exhibitions fuchia County Schools students continue to shine every day their achievements are truly a testament to the dedication of our Arts Educators and the support of this awesome school board and our leadership so I just got back from Jacksonville picking up all of our gold key winners for state they're in my truck right now I'm throwing that into the script sorry um we also anyway while much to celebrate we also recognize the ongoing need for support continued funding for the arts art programs access to Quality instruction and professional development for our teachers are crucial to sustaining and expanding Arts education
045in our schools investing in the Arts is an investment in our students Futures oh am I on the next page yeah right it's on my yeah recognize sure oh I just drove up all right so um High School Visual Art right now we had 117 State Scholastic Art Award recipients including 32 State gold key Awards those are on my truck right now um and five gold key portfolios we received from Dilan High School um ameran Visionary national award which is humongous and then we are I just heard that we have three National Gold Medal Awards and one National Silver medal so the the national gold medal award winners will be at Carnegie Hall they're work the frontes as we celebrate arts in our schools month we welcome our school and Valia Community to attend student
046performances visit school art exhibits and continue the wonderful support our district is known for together we can continue to ensure that every student in Valia county has access to a rich and fulfilling Arts education thank you for your time and for your continued support of Arts education the Arts Inspire connect and Empower us all so now we're going to do the best part of all which is to recognize our students and our teachers that are with us today and um when we call your name we'd like for you to just stand and we'll hold our Applause and then after we're done reading the names they can sit down and then maybe after we're done with that we can take a couple pictures with you if that's all right I've got a list ready for photo
047fantastic okay that's great so um first up uh is our all count stomp Ensemble um under the direction of very three very T talented teachers and as you know these students started rehearsal the very uh second week of our school year as knew that they were going to be performing at the um State Convention and so that was under the direction of Miss Chris light from Orman Beach in Coronado ele Elementary as well as samoya Reed from Edgewater public school and Miss Chelsea Greer from Sugar Mill Elementary School and they haven't seen it yet but this is the first we've ever received one of these and this is from the Florida music educators Association and so we're going to find a very very uh special place to proudly display this um here at the school
048district uh building and um it's such an incredible honor so kudos to the staff exced that they had the opportunity to perform at the state conference and another one of our groups that performed at the state conference this year um had to go through an audition process to do that and uh they were selected to perform in front of um a large audience at the conference and so we want to give a big round of applause and recognize Silver Sands Middle School show choir and their director Miss Taylor [Applause] gel and now we get to recognize our All State students you'll be very pleased to know that we had 41 students selected to perform in all state ensembles um we were the fourth largest District in the entire state to have that many students selected
049the only three are the three largest districts and that's Miami Dade and hillsbor and Orange County they had far more students um because they have far more schools than we do but we're the fourth largest and that's a really really big deal 20 are able to be with us today out of that 41 and so as we call their names they're going to stand and after we get through all 20 names we'll clap and then have them up for for photos the first uh is Colin Ahmed next is Riley Babcock Olivia babot Charles Blicks Aiden Brennan Logan Corley brayen drywa Caleb Finley Nicholas gillot Susan Hoyer Jeffrey Jabar and I'll stop after this name and pass it to Mr D but I'm very proud of this student because she's my adopted niece and that's jacine
050Fe all right next is Victoria morta Phoenix nanov uh Andrew Pullen Riley reading Cooper Roman Alicia sudas Logan wble and Christian zik Fus so these are our All State students are there any others that we didn't mention yet all state here today for the ensembl I think I think this is all of them deal yeah big round of applause okay with you we'll move into the picture time and so maybe the we're going to start with um the the teachers for Stomp and if there are students here for they do have their St students here to have them come up and join us too so we're going to start with that group if we could go ahead and get that [Music] group all right so if there are parents here you're more than welcome to
051come up and collect pictures here if we can fit you in we will try to do that and the kids are I can always take the photo for you too all right everybody if we can get into like two rows really close together that would be awesome congratulations you on the other side or here the middle Kylie Kylie come up come on Kylie she was also okay Soh I'm gonna count down for you uh so go ahead and just keep smiling we got some other people up here to take pictures too okay so ready three two one three two one and then one more set ready three two one and then look at these cameras as well get out of the guys's way I'm very tall I'm sorry you guys [Applause] to okay all right
052you you can come be awkward with us siland middle school middle bew this was a very big deal for her to be if I have you step right in between Miss bosma just right in the middle so even and then I actually have you is it okay if I have you stand right over there next th in the middle between the two all right everybody ready two one three two one and then one more ready three two one there we go guys thank you so much thank you congratulations right so we're gonna do your certificates after so come up in the interest of time come this [Applause] way all right all all state students up here all right you're very you're taller than of you guys so if you're taller than me you got to
053be in the back if you're shorter than me you got to be in the front 510 good question you're 510 you can be higher you got to be in the back okay 41 have a you have a booster all right guys this is a really bigp so we to get as close to the wall as we can okay close to the wall as we can love each other mus I need some people to come awesome we might have to we might have to create another no I think we'll be good so what I'm gonna do move this chair can you see everyone I can see everybody I'm going to count you down and then there's like a 100 cameras I can feel them behind me so just make sure you keep smiling okay ready three
054two one three two one and then one more set ready three two one and then keep smiling just keep smiling I'm gonna stay still so I don't get in the camera can we just get in front of you I love that come on don't trample me that's no [Music] smiling you guys might have to do shifts little got I can also air drop you [Laughter] piur all right thank [Applause] you thank you should wait in the hallway we'll give you your conratulations way to go all right okay I'll see you tomorrow to see you how are you Miss good thank you appreciate you yeah no problem no problem it's I mean you know like I was tearing up my achievement just imagine if they'd all been here we'd had to we probably would have had
055to say Middle School in a photo and then High School in a photo but but if you look at size and they were the the fourth I mean that's that's pretty impressive all 40 some of them had had to we maybe would had to take them out on the steps and have done it Jimmy can I have some of your thank you thank [Applause] you okay we are now moving on to item 5.01 administrative appointments and transfers Dr Babin thank you madam chair I have two for this evening first I'd like to ask Miss Karen Swain to join us is she here coming in now okay okay we just somebody El we could wait for a little bit as she enters okay um Miss Miss Swain can you can you please come and join us
056come up to the this seat right here the middle yes thank you I'd like to share a little bit with you about Miss Swain she's obtained her bachelor's degree from the University of Connecticut she has a jurist doctorate degree from University of con Connecticut school of law certifications in the following areas English 6 through 12 she started an associate as an associate attorney at willinger and willinger became the legal council for survival rival Group LLC went on to becoming an aun faculty at the University of Phoenix Sunni Empire State College Southern New Hampshire University and then became a teacher at hamell Hall County day school in Connecticut and also at Dand High I'm currently serving as a senior writer for outlier magazine I'm recommending with your approval here this even this afternoon board um that
057Karen Swain becomes the new Ada legal compliance officer for the chief council's office if approve her effective start date will be March 12 2025 and uh Dr Evans will work everything else out yes board members you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have someone that would like to make a motion for Karen SW to be our new ADA compliance officer I'd like to make the motion thank you Miss second thank you Mrs goodr and thank you Mrs BR anyone have any comments I do so what's interesting is you have some of the same characteristics that Dr Evans has you both taught and English was your subject but you also pursued um um your jur Doctorate Degrees and so when I was reviewing your resume I was very impressed by that and the fact
058that you came and taught it to land High you know um so I am I'm very pleased that you've chosen and you applied and you want to come and work with this wonderful gentleman here um because we have a great District but and we have we just have to have great people in the right places and that's an area of need that we have so I appreciate that if there's no other discussion we'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving Mrs Karen Swain to be fucha County's new Ada legal compliance officer please say I I any thank you Mr clone any opposed passes unanimously congratulations it's your turn well thank you to the school board and to Dr Balaban and Dr Evans as you said I I came from Connecticut I began
059my career as an attorney in Connecticut before transitioning into education and then for almost 20 years I taught English and history uh and I coached and I advised at middle school high school and college level and I advocated for students with varying abilities moving to D land five years ago from Connecticut my family has been immersed in this community as you mentioned I taught at Delan high for three years my oldest daughter Maya graduated from D's IB program and is currently uh in her first year at UF gogators and my youngest daughter who is here with my husband and mother today is now a freshman at the land high so it's very exciting to be able to marry my experience and education with my background in law to help Advance Equity at fua County schools
060and I thank you again for this opportunity to serve our community thank you and so you can't you can go ahead and join your family but you can't leave yet because when we have one more to do and then we're going to call you up for photos okay thank you but thank you [Applause] so our second appointment the young man that you see in the front there with that pink tie Mr Kyle shiker to join us please I think we're all very familiar with this gentleman but I will share a little bit with you is that um when it comes to his education he's obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of North Florida a master's degree from Stetson University he holds certification in the following areas educational leadership math 5-9 and 6- 12 exceptional
061student education he's been with valuan County school since 2014 uh started as a teacher at the land uh Delona mle then became a teacher at Pin Ridge High went on to becoming an assistant principal at P Pine Ridge High and currently has been serving as the analyst in assessments and data res search and accountability what we could refer to as Rea um today with your with your recommendation I'm recommending but with your approval I'm recommended that Mr Kyle Shaker becomes the interim coordinator for research evaluation and accountability and his effective start date would be March 12 2025 we're not letting anybody off the hook we're making him report to work tomorrow morning he knows the time miss miss he's been doing it for a while he knows it's 7:30 pretty sure okay board members you've
062heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have someone who'd like to make a motion I'll motion to approve thank you Mrs Thompson do we have a second a second was that thank you this is good Rich all right any discussion yes trying to wait for him go and so you know when we talk about all the places we go you know Mr shiker is a good example of that um you know we were uh very uh what's the word I will use I'm trying to be politically correct here we were very uh when we gave them away to the district uh it certainly was uh something that uh we knew would be at a loss for our schools but um a benefit to all of our students across the county and it is great
063to see uh Mr shiker uh sitting up there although I can only see the back of his head um uh at this table today because I know that he has dedicated himself to improving education in Valia County so uh congratulations and uh and I will support this motion thank you thank you Mr col all right at this time I'll call for the vote all those in favor please say I I any opposed any opposed okay congratulations it passes unanimously good evening chair Haynes Vice chair cologne Mrs brosmer Mrs Thompson Mrs Goodrich and superintendent balabin I am incredibly honored to sit before you today as the interim coordinator of research evaluation and accountability I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the school board and superintendent balaman for entrusting me with this incredibly important opportunity here
064in vucha County Schools as I step into this role I do so with great respect for the strong Foundation already in place and I want to take a moment to acknowledge the leadership of Dr teron under his guidance I have learned an incredible amount about approaches to research assessment District level leadership and state accountability his dedication to datadriven Excellence and his passion for Education have truly been inspiring and I am grateful for the knowledge and mentor ship he has allowed me to have as I step into his shoes I would also like to recognize some people who helped me along the way when I became an assistant principal as I was not able to make it to my appointment seven years ago I would like to recognize Alicia Douglas who believed in me from the
065very beginning and offered me my first position at Deltona Middle School and later many more leadership opportunities all these opportunities are impacting my role with research evaluation accountability from sack chair School Improvement plan creation testing coordinator and CTE facilitator her continued support and confidence in my abilities has set me on this path and I'm forever grateful to her Dr in has played a pivotal role in igniting my passion for data driven decision-making his insight and Leadership has opened my eyes to the power of using research to help students succeed I am also deeply appreciative of the principles I had the privilege to serve under as an assistant principal Mr Meers Dr Nar and Mr reer each of them has taught me invaluable lessons in leadership shaping me into the leader I am today they instilled
066a core belief in me that the smartest person in the room is the room using the knowledge across all people in the room and leveraging that knowledge to the students and the success in the classroom I want to take a moment to thank every teacher I've been able to collaborate with in my career as a teacher as an assistant principal and now in Rea keep keeping our conversation Central to Student Success has allowed us to move valuchi County to where it is to my parents thank you for instilling optimism and work ethic into the fabric of my existence to my wife thank you for unwavering love support and the ability to deal with spreadsheets Illuminating our bedroom in all hours of the night as I take on this new responsibility I privileged to continue the
067great work already being done by the gifted and experienced team at Rea we will work to support our School principles and their teams providing them with research data and insights they need to make informed decisions that put our students first we will leverage data to strengthen our schools Empower our Educators and most importantly create the best possible opportunities for our children thank you once again for this incredible opportunity Schoolboard and superintendent balabin thank you so at this time we'll start with Miss Swain and your family if you'll come forward for the first photo and then we'll move to [Music] Mr my H Kevin to [Music] all righty guys are you ready we're gonna go ahead and get a little bit close together as a group yeah and Miss actually that's perfect you knew exactly where
068I wanted to you that's wonderful I am going to give Mama all right everybody ready I'm gonna do a couple more cut down for three ready three two one and then one more ready three two one thank you everybody congratulations [Laughter] thank you conratulations really for you all right next congatulations [Music] get everybody Clos can we inad of you guys lining up like that can you guys make two lines for me two lines come in and Stagg for me well actually you don't like forward for me Mr C you can go next to miss goodwi there we perfect there we go there we go all right everybody ready do a couple three two one three two one and then one more ready three [Applause] two these the little I always have to fight want to
069have a yeah that'll do a lot if you want yeah yeah absolutely yes ma'am okay at this time we're moving right along and we are up to the consent agenda so at this time Dr balaman or school board members is there anyone that wishes to remove any items from the consent agenda he miss brosmer I have four and I hope they won't be long but I just some questions these are not for separate votes they're they're just some questions okay so what numbers oh um 12.05 yes 12.09 12.6 16 and 1401 okay Miss Thompson I also was going to just pull 14.01 for comment so sorry I've been pulled Okay so we've got two that want 14.01 yep all right um Mr cologne all right miss good Rich are good I'm good all right then
070we're going first of all do we have any public input for consent items all all right then we're going to start with item 12.05 Mrs brosmer okay um I couldn't really make sense of this contract um and I I don't know who can answer these questions let me ask let me ask this is what I'll do miss brosmer because you did give us uh so we're prepared Mr milholland is here for 12.05 once we're done with Mr milholland I will ask to ask like to ask M Mr uh Dr and uh Miss core to join and then after that um Miss core and Mr Ron young and in that order okay right good evening social studies is alive and well and so is Advanced programs um I I may be able to kind of condense
071this if I can just ask you what didn't compute for me on on this okay absolutely okay um and and thank you for that what I read in the initial contract was that um I should preface this with I don't read every word of a contract I look mainly at the term and the amount and and then try to just uh figure it out from there and the initial contract was uh from July 1st 20124 to uh June 30th 2025 for 300 [Music] ,000 then the amendment references a contract dated October 22nd and I didn't see any date that that related to and then um the amount that is amended onto the contract is $500,000 so the total is $800 and in in only a few months that just seemed like an enormous jump um
072and the dates didn't quite go together so I was trying to figure out how that worked right so the the the second increase at for for the 500 is to cover the AP exams that our high school students take um and and that is funded not through the district directly but it's funded from the state and in order for that bill to be paid once once the AP exams are completed and college board generates the invoice in June excuse me in June because it's in the contract then we can pay the invoice and and there is a separate budget proposal that goes along with it um but the the way the funding works and it works the same way for uh AP exams Cambridge Ace exams and IB exams is that when students uh earn
073passing scores on those exams it generates additional income to the district from the state and that income is is used used primarily um to pay for exams because there is a state statute that that says that if a student is enrolled in a course uh an AP IB or an Cambridge Ace course they cannot be charged to take the exam so so the original contract did not include the cost of the exams because it fluctuates every year depending on the number of students and and now that that we do have that definite number for for the AP students and the number of exams now that's what that additional increase is for okay thank you so is it safe to say this is kind of a standard way that this happens because of the way the
074funding occurs yes okay that's that's all I needed to know I just I couldn't I couldn't tell that from what was in front of me so I just wanted to figure out how that worked yeah and it'll it'll reoccur when we come back for Cambridge Ace exams and IB exams as well okay that's all I needed thank you all right then we're moving on to item 12.09 an expenditure increase for the motor vehicles good evening um we also have with us Enid who runs our uh procurement Department who ran this bid so just in case it's a question we can't answer so specifically I'm trying to figure out my notes okay um the expenditure increase was I thought kind of significant um when we get into numbers like the half a million and the and
075the uh 233,000 I um I start wondering if they should be on consent but um this is for four vehicles and are are they leased they're purchased okay um and this is a piggyback contract yes um can you tell me what term is being renewed oh there's no change in the term as you'll see on the uh agenda there so the contract that we pckg you back is the state of Florida contract they did the solicitation um that contract is good through May 16th 2025 so we're making some purchases right before that contract goes back out for bid um we purchase I would say 95% of our vehicles off of this state contract because it is the best pricing available I I know that's um that's a standard practice too uh piggybacks are are convenient
076that way um and efficient uh that was the only question I had thank you thank you then we're moving right along to item 12.6 a piggyback contract for educational school supplies because of the dollar amount again and so Ron young director has joined us as well but this is a procurement item and this would this is relatively simple also I couldn't tell from the contract it covers such a broad range of types of items that might be procured um is this for educ ational materials or is it for like furniture and things like that that were also included in that contract sorry yes it's our FFN we have some uh science labs that we're about to embark on revamping and so it would be for science labs Furniture but it's also for class regular classroom
077Furniture as well okay so it is as broad as it's worded yes okay that was that was my own question on that one thank you thank you now we're moving on to item 14.01 um acceptance of the donations to valuch County Schools the only thing I wanted to say on that is that it's such a significant amount we we have an agenda item almost every meeting uh almost every agenda um with a similar list and and I I would really like for these folks to be acknowledged for the support that they give the district that's the only reason I pulled it um just to be able to say thank you and I feel like I would like for us to do that at each meeting every time we have a list like that because that's
078a significant amount of of community support and I and I don't want it to to just be kind of lost in the consent agenda Shuffle so that's all go ahead and that's why I also pulled it was because it I mean you're talking just as much month 57 over $57,000 and you have some phenomenal amounts and so all these programs benefit from it and I know that a lot of these programs wouldn't be able to do what they do um without all these donations so just huge thank you to everybody because this benefits our students in so many different ways that was all so Celeste would you like to share what you do after you collect all of this information because hello board because every superintend collect this you do something every time so each
079of the donors are um sent a thank you letter by Dr balabin for their um donation and also the schools often thank them personally this information is also shared with our um business Partnerships so they can also you know thank them and see where else they like to join us yes Miss Bros I don't mean to suggest that we don't do that I just wanted to do it for the benefit of the public yes and I will say um this is something we've worked on and Celeste has been very good with communicating with the schools because we weren't always receiving the information from the schools and yet the donations go directly to them and so she's been working really hard um for the last year and a half getting them to submit it to her
080so she could put it on a list because if you go back a couple years you'd maybe only see a couple listed and we knew we were missing out on people so the principals and their staff have made a concerted effort to get that information to her she kind of you know says it's time and I need it because we do feel it's very important to post this and also allow people to see you know who's giving to what and um but I do appreciate that she follows up and gets thank you letters out to all of them anything else on the consent agenda okay and then at this time I need someone to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as it's written this evening do I have a motion no moved thank
081you Mrs brosmer do I have a second second second thank you Mr cologne any further discussion okay hearing none all those in favor please say I I any opposed okay it passes unanimously at this time we are going to take a short break and then we will be back here we are going to come back in at 6:10 p.m. when we come back in we'll be moving straight into public participation so we'll be back at 610 thank you e e e right good evening at this time if you could take a seat we're going to continue we are up to item 16 .01 which is public participation on any matter having to do with education I'd like to remind everyone that when someone is speaking the expectation is is that you will be quiet and
082listen so your cell phone should be turned off at this time and there is no clapping booing anything like that if you like what the person is saying you can use jazz hands or a thumbs up if you don't you can do um a thumbs down but we will respect the speakers I will call the first two speakers speaker number one will come forward speaker number two will be ready to go next so our first speaker for this evening is Valerie Jessup followed by leesa bird welcome Miss Jessup good evening I would like to point out some things about our vision statement and the mission statement that our school board came up with from The Stance of a parah and a parent you say you want lifelong Learners prepared for the everchanging global Society well
083you will have lifetime Learners because students are taught to test and not taught to learn they are falling behind on a lot of fundamental skills that make them successful in our Ever Changing world with the amount of time we are spending on testing it's ridiculous and leaves no time to teach foundational skills or even retach Concepts that the students need extra help grasping moving on to the mission statement Thea County Schools will ignite the passion for learning in all students to be productive citizens there are many issues with this as lack of consequences for students that break the code of conduct and tying the hands of administration so that it looks like our discipline numbers are going down your goal is all students will engage in high levels of learning every day here's why we
084cannot live up to your mission statement guide rail one recruit support and develop and retain highquality staff your staff members on all levels are begging to be treated better you are losing highquality veteran teachers and support staff due to lack of support in the schools and adding on responsibilities but not adding extra time to do that you have staff that come in exhausted because they are having to work multiple jobs to support their families and they are running on fumes due to poor wages that you pay all staff the teaching profession has gone from teaching to learn to teaching to test teaching has changed due to the poor decisions and lies that the state and County have about testing there's supposed to be less but there is nothing but more guardrail 2 provide conditions that
085enhance student learning there are so many violent and vulgar situations in classrooms there's all um there's a rotation of coverage for vacant positions things are not taught to the highest quality due to lack of consistency and preparation of materials the students are already disrespectful to the teachers and support staff they even worse to the rotation of Subs um to ensure your I'm going to skip to guardrail 4 to ensure high quality Community engagement with all stakeholders I just want to remind you that teachers support staff parents and mostly most importantly the students are stakeholders in valua and they are not being communicated too clearly the students have questions why they must test so much the parents wonder why they are always hearing about testing and why their child is having such anxiety about tests most
086importantly there is no clear communication with st your three minutes is up and I do apologize that it was not showing here on the clock there is an issue with it but we did time it you got a little bit more than three minutes thank you thank you give Miss Lisha bird you're going to be next followed by Justine roboam is it working yet can you try it not working okay Dr Evans can you set a timer for me you may start thank you three minutes a crowd is here to celebrate the appointment or celebrate teacher um students who have some type of achievement well today my crowd is here to support me for being dismissed from belalia County I'm hurt and I'm disappointed the reasons why is because I sat in a classroom at
087ter small I sat in a classroom at Campbell Middle School I sat at in a classroom at Mainland High School I was a school bus driver for 10 years here and now I'm a teacher I was a school bus driver of our epic teacher Chris Gibbs I was his bus driver we ended up at UCF together we was excited to finally teach at TR together I asked for $6,000 for a vending machine that the admin took to make y'all make her budget looks look good once the commissioner found out that that $6,000 had been spent I became a Target at a school that I had so much passion for ad me and boss sitting in the back she came to the school one day you had all the principles there she asked me to get
088the girls ready I got my girls ready in 10 minutes to dance for you all my girls have earned $1,000 $250 $6,000 V vending machine all of these things I brought the the opening of t t small i f the teachers I had my friend to produce a $1,000 cake my friend produced a 360 Booth to celebrate TI small being open and now the same miscalculations of $6,000 I'm being dismissed because I mishandled a book fair I didn't train my parents to work on the cash register and the students at trt all had a chat saying how they were stealing from the book fair my parents came to support me and in a meeting they decided that I mishandled my book fair and so now 21 years of teaching educating kids I have been dismissed
089and I'm here to say that none of those allegations were true my parents have supported me my students have supported me they even held up signs and those that little boy y'all seen holding up birds he wasn't holding it up to be dis disrespectful he held it up because he a 4-year-old associated that with Mrs bird's name and somebody wanted to make it look like it was something bad when it was just a kid there trying to let y'all know that we want Miss bird back in the school read Across America was last week you won't see not one picture at TR small that celebrated read Across America there was no book fair there for six years until I got there there was no dance team there was no Cricket Club there was nothing there
090before Miss bird got there and that's all I wanted to say so on March 25th I hope that you reconsider thank you Miss Burton next is Justine roboam followed by eonia Newman welcome good evening I'm Lisha Bird's mom you expect for me to get up here and say all the good things about her and I do as a mother but as an educator myself look at the people that showed up for her doing it like she's done something wrong to the school kind of school will lose a valuable valuable person if Lisha burried I just need him to investigate if you could one person should not make a decision for someone's life that has worked so hard for her kids driving the bus she had so many obstacles in her way but she went back
091to school after her kids and made it possible she's a wonderful Christian and a wonderful person and I know you guys as a school board you hear all and I'm sure you guys will look into it right from Miss bir God bless you all thank you Ebon Newman followed by Trisha Vargo welcome welcome thank you good morning board my name is eonia Newman and I'm speaking on behalf of my co-worker and friend Lisha bird for the last several decades she has dedicated her life and passion for education by ensuring that all students receive an equal and fair education her passion and dedication has enhanced the school environment and culture between the faculty the staff the students and parents while working with Miss bird all decisions and programs that she has implemented has been for the
092for the better of the lives of the students within the school Community I am here to support Miss bird and I am asking the board to reconsider their decision on her dismissal yes an error did occur however I do believe this matter could be rectified with a different outcome than the one that has been posed upon Miss bird as an educator myself and believing the mission that valua County school board has set in place Miss bird excuse me excuse me Mrs bur has ignited a fire and passion for learning that will burn within the students and the school Community due to her love and passion all students will be productive citizens within the school within the school community and the outside community in conclusion I leave you with these questions to ponder has Mrs bird
093made an impact within the school communities that she has serviced Holly Hill Westside and TI who is most likely to be affected with the termination decision of Mrs bir again I ask that the members of the board to Recon consider her DEC to reconsider their decision and to reinstate her employment with valua County School District we want to continue to ignite the fire of learning and I believe and I believe having Miss bur to leave Valia County school will dim or burn out the fire within the students the faculty and the staff within the school Community again I want to say thank you thank you next up is Trisha Vargo followed by Sharice web Moore welcome my name is Trisha Vargo and um I'm here on behalf of Miss bir my daughters had her as
094their fourth grade teacher she's very caring loving compassionate teacher she cares so much about her job she's brought different programs to our schools um it's a very big Injustice that's been happened to her and if this isn't rectified our children future children are going to suffer from this because she is a wonderful teacher and our schools deserve her she deserves to be teaching in our schools thank you thank you shice swore followed by Elizabeth Albert do you want to go to the end of the evening okay all right then it'll be Kelly Markland following um Shere swore welcome thank you honorable members of the school board I stand before you today as a concerned school counselor a colleague and an advocate for our students I am here to share the profound impact of Mrs Bird's
095dismissal on our school Community this year alone I have witnessed at least 15 staff members leave to te since the start of the school year their absence has not made the impact that Miss Bird's absence has after all I am the school counselor and I get all the true feelings of the students and our staff and I am telling you the impact has not been this profound Mrs bird was more than just a dance coach a media Specialist or a teacher she was a Beacon of Hope a shining example of dedication compassion and and Excellence for over 21 years she has poured her heart and her soul into our students inspiring them to grow learn and Thrive after all we encourage our students to keep pushing and she did just that by way of beating
096all the odds against her as a child a product of uchia County Schools becoming a bus driver and then a phenomenal teacher her influences extend beyond the classroom she was a mentor a me a motivator a confidant a Creator and a guide and I will tell you I have wiped many tears since she has left and I am exhausted Mrs Bird's dismissal has sent a shock wave throughout tur te students are struggling to come to the terms with her absence as a role model and just a person that they could truly trust many have expressed feelings of sadness anger frustration and not even wanting to come to school the other day I checked the absence we had 167 students absence Miss bird would have been able to help get some of those kids there with
097me the impact of our students daily lives has been significant our school library is just a hub right now there is no activity there is no learning there are kids left unsatisfied I thought we were embracing education I thought we were embracing learning I thought we were inspiring reading our library is closed there are kids walking in there they can't check out books they can't read books they're just there this is particularly concerning giving our District's emphasis on promoting literacy and encouraging a love for reading as a school counselor I have witnessed firsthand the devastating impact on the decision I urge you to reconsider the consequences of your decision by dismissing Miss bird it not only affects the dis the dismissal of her not only affects everyone but the children's feelings their experiences and achievements
098Mrs webm more yes your time is up that's fine thank you thank you so next up is Kelly Markland followed by Elizabeth Albert welcome Miss Markland good evening everyone my name is Kelly Markland and I'm the Medical Academy director at new smor Beach High School I have attended valuch County Public Schools my entire life and I'm happy to stand before you today and just simply speak about the incredible impact that our high school has had um not only on its students but on our community as well we've seen outstanding achievements across the board from academics to Athletics and everything in between these accomplishments are not just the result of individual effort but a testament to the nurture environment that our school provides I wanted to highlight just a few areas where our high school has
099made an impact Career and Technical education Workforce preparation and Athletics our district CTE program has earned a well-deserved reputation for excellence this program empowers students to explore various fields from Healthcare to technology to criminal justice allowing them to gain hands-on experience and skills that are directly transferable to the workforce whether through internships certification or Project based learning students are leaving high school with a Competitive Edge ready to take on the challenges of their future careers you see it's not just about earning a diploma any longer it's about providing our students with skills experiences and confidence that they need to Su to succeed after graduation whether they choose to pursue higher education or step directly into their careers our students in new Samara are ready we provide opportunities for job shadowing internships and apprenticeships as as
100well as training in fields such as agroscience construction and culinary arts a a couple examples are that our new suno PD just recently hired three graduates who just graduated last year they went through the Criminal Justice Academy and now serving in their City we also have a recent graduate who went through the Medical Academy she's halfway through nursing school and she's ready to start working in our community as well um I'm honored to say that I was just awarded the district CTE teacher of the year and I a proud CTE teacher at New samna Finally we cannot Overlook our exceptional Athletic program over the years our school has consistently produced state champions and this year is no exception the dedication hard work and teamwork displayed by our athletes not only brings Pride to our school
101but also inspires every student to strive for greatness these athletes have shown us that success is not just about talent but about perseverance discipline and the ability to push through challenges qualities that extend far beyond High School sports we have multiple state champion weightlifters our girls basketball just became state champions for the first time in school history and we had two wrestlers make history for our school since 1998 new samna also has multiple district and Regional Champions as well our high school is a place where dreams are nurtured hard work is rewarded and the future is bright from our CTE programs to our state champions and Workforce ready graduates we are not just shaping students for success in high school we are preparing them for success in life I'm incredibly proud to be part of
102a community a smartland that believes in our students thank you go Kudos thank you next up is Elizabeth Albert welcome Madam chair members of the board superintendent Dr balabin members of the audience before I begin with what I had intended to say tonight I want to just say this to you obviously there is some that needs to be explored further here uh I would encourage each and every one of you to ask some questions and to uh dig a Little Deeper we've been talking about issues at this site for many many months and so I would just encourage you to do your due diligence and then make make your decision but tonight um as we've evidenced here everybody in our schools matter everybody makes an impact uh and so uh it's very important that we
103recognize this and it's not just our instructional staff as uh we have learned tonight there are many employees that start in one position and they move into others but what what I want to speak to tonight is our office specialist to me and I hope to each of you we recognize that nothing happens in our school and in this District without the support of our office Specialists they are the people people that uh run our schools they're there in the morning to turn the lights on and usually they're there to turn them off at night when there's issues at schools you go to your principal secretary because that's the person that has the keys to the kingdom let me tell you that's the person that you make your friends with when you first get hired
104as a principal secretary and the head custodian so our office Specialists deserve to be acknowledged for the consequence of House Bill 1473 and I know as well as you do that the legislative session has just gotten underway but I don't put my hope and my faith in the legislators that don't work in our schools every day to see what's happening with our office specialist I want to share some data with you because I know that you like data so we put a survey out to our office specialist and out of those who responded uh 83% of those who responded stated that they have to stop what they're doing when there's a knock on the door and manually open the door and they uh have to get up and walk there less than 30 of 30
105of the respond said there's actually a buzzer system in place right so there's there's a small percentage of folks through this District that actually have a mechanism that would provide some relief um additionally we ask them to average the amount of time they have to stop their work and go open the door during the course of one week the the answers or the responses ranged from 48 times to 700 times per week but the most frequent answer that we received was 100 times per week so if you stop and you divide that by an eight hour day when you actually do the math it's two and a half hours that they have to stop what they're doing during the course of the day to go open the door and so to me that is an
106inefficient process if I have to stop what I'm engaged in that is arguably a process that is efficient to run the business of our schools to go answer the door um additionally they shared that their constant interruptions are causing them to fall behind they're concerned about security issues when they have to get up and there's children standing outside and get this if they're on the phone or they're doing something else and the and somebody knocks on the door and they I'll just finish with this they can't get there you know so please take a look at this thank you thank you m Alber at this time we are now moving on to item 17.01 which is request to advertise proposed amendments to Schoolboard policy 610 the naming of school facilities Dr baban Madam chair I
107would like to ask Miss Patty core our chief operating officer she will come forward so that she can share some information with everyone regarding policy 610 oh welcome Miss core good evening again I went into another area now I'm going back um we brought this forward um Dr Evans and I previously and there was a recommendation made to change one of the pieces of wording in this policy so we've made that correction and I will um read that to you momentarily and this is the naming of school facilities and it includes the dedication plaques that we put on the exterior uh wall near the entrance of every new school when we open a a new school or a um a rebuilt school um the part in red that you saw there or approval of contract
108was already in there U Mr cologne U mentioned that he would like it to see unless otherwise determined by we struck Schoolboard and we added superintendent because this is operational in nature that's why that change was made and then of course if um if approved here tonight we will put this out for 28 days advertisement and then it will come back again for a vote Dr pachman your recommendation I recommend Authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 610 which is the naming of school facilities board members you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent to have someone would like to make a motion I motion to approve thank you Mrs Thompson is there a second I'll second was that you Mrs goodr it was thank you all right any discussion Mrs
109brosmer I just wondered what the reason is for the change it's it's one of those policies that if you look down below had not been updated for a long time and we've been going having Dr Evans we started the process before he got here just to update everything and we did run into an issue when we were going through a period where we had people filling in as interum superintendent while we were working on hiring a superintendent all that and an if we had stuck with exactly the way it was written an interim person would have been named and so they caught that and so this is part of the group that's 20 years like in the 20 year to zero year range that we're working on updating and I'm glad that we're finally there
110because we started with policies 1983 remember we had one we had policies that I don't disagree with that I just wondered about this particular change so thank you you're welcome all right any other discussion okay hearing none I'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving um for policy 610 to be advertised which is naming school facilities please say I I any opposed okay then it passes unanimously thank you Mr cologne we are now moving on to item 17.02 request to advertise proposed amendments to school board policy 702 purchasing thank you madam chair Miss unit uh Enid cons Enid she's our director for procurement she's going to share with you more in regard to policy 702 and and our CFO Todd CE good afternoon um if you all remember back in January we
111actually brought this policy forth to the school board um workshop and uh we had great discussion um essentially the policy changes are to increase our spending thresholds um before comp itive solic solicitation may be required um currently that threshold is at $10,000 and we look at that as an annual spend per supplier um and it's very easy to to spend $10,000 especially in today's economy um so we are suggesting to um increase those thresholds we're also recommending um adding a few uh delegation of authorities to allow um our coordinator some authority to sign contracts up to 5,000 000 and then also raising the limits on some of our other positions within the district Dr bman your recommendation I recommend Authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to Schoolboard policy 702 purchasing okay board members
112you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have anyone that would like to make a motion to um advertise the proposed amendment to 7 policy 702 which is part of that change is also moving it from the title of purchasing to procurement I'll make the motion thank you Mr goodr do I have a second second brosmer huh I'm going with M brosmer thank you Mr cologne we know you have a delay watching this at home and we apologize all right so hearing the recommendation we have a motion in a second any further discussion yes Miss BOS it won't work so I know sorry this is I know this is going to sound really picky uni but I'm a grammar freak and there's one grammatical error I would really like to correct it's on page
113three and and I don't have it in front of me the but the phrase is the superintendent and their or their design change it his or her or her can we just just eliminate the pronoun it can just be superintendent or design yeah that's completely correct and that I'm happy so thank you that's all I wanted Okay so we're going to just remove the word there yes and thank you is everyone here okay with that I need a new motion do I need a new motion to remove a single word do I have to resent okay at this time I need to resend the previous motion because the word there was I need to resend the motion that you resend the motion no do I resend my second yes is that how that okay all
114right so we've rescinded the current Motion in second because we're removing the word there off of Page Three out of the statement the superintendent or it will not it will we now the superintendent or designate is authorized to approve contract amendments or change orders so I need a new motion to approve this minus the word there I'll make a motion to approve it minus second all right we now have a new motion and a new second any further discussion hearing none I'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving to advertise the proposed am Amendment changes to Schoolboard policy 702 which is moving it from purchasing to procurement and also we removed the word there please say I I I I any opposed it passes unanimously thank you we are now moving on
115to item 17.3 thank you madam chair I would like to ask Miss Dred wimberger she's going to join us she's our director for budget and she will present to you policy 717 and CFO todis yeah okay sorry about that board good good afternoon board um what we're bringing forward in front of you is a travel expense reimbursement policy change um for 717 uh the language change that were suggesting here is all reimbursement claims for travel expenses shall be submitted within 60 days of return um granted related travel should adhere to policy and procedures set forth by the provider and in accordance so that was the change that we made to this policy Dr B you have a recommendation I recommend the authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 7117 travel
116expense reimbursement policy thank you board members you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have someone that would make a motion to as a request to advertise the proposed amendments to Schoolboard policy 717 motion to approve thank you Miss Thompson do we have a second second thank you m brosmer any questions or discussion I have a question yes Mr cologne and so in our last conversation we talked about the possibility of of uh reviewing and bringing for approval travel that potentially went in excess of a certain amount did they have a chance to look into that before proposing these changes I I'm not aware of that um as I believe when this was was brought to the board I was in here at that particular time um so I would have to follow up
117with that what I can add to this having worked in um Federal programs and grants the reason I think they're adding this is because we've had issues with people submitting their travel in a timely manner and some of our grants have set dates that they have to end and if people have not submitted the travel by that point and they submit it afterwards then we can't take it from the funds that were set aside for it so then you have to look for other funds or they can't be refunded so I personally at this time support this I do hear what you're saying Mr clone and and Mr C she weren't here when we brought this up about if a trip was going to exceed a certain amount because you know anytime we're going to
118doy travel it has to be voted on in the public um we had discussed that but I would not want to hold this up because I know that this has been a problem in the grant area correct where people don't submit their things in a timely manner but they expect then to be paid and the grant is in a air is in a time zone in which you you can't pay it yeah what normally happens when that when that occurs if the grant closes now and they're seeking reimbursement after that then it has to be paid out of the general fund so those are the so those are the problems that we're currently having so wouldn't we consider making this 45 days and having language in there that includes you may not be reimbursed if
119not sub submitted so the statement that's been added is that within 60 days of return for Grant related travel they should adhere to the policies and procedures set forth by the provider and they should submit their paper work in order to be paid right correct and so if they don't submit it I think there should be something in there that says um you know they will not be reimbursed if it exceeds you know a certain time frame because even 60 days sounds crazy at my job you have 30 days to submit it 60 days is a long time after you've taken a trip well okay so there's a few steps when it's Grant related I'm assuming in your position and if I'm wrong you can correct me you go turn it directly into the person
120that's going to process it for payment when you're dealing with grants it has to first go to your principal for your principal signature if you are a teacher or um staff on campus then from there the principal has to sign it and they have to submit it to usually their director and then from director it's going to go into Federal programs and grants where the grants are and eventually find its way to the desk of the person that has to sign off there that says yes this was approved and then it will finally make its way over to payroll in order to be paid and that's why I believe there's a 60-day time frame in which to get that finished because a person could turn in within a week but this policy this policy on
121talking about the submission so this is not dealing with the other side of the approval process this is how long they have to submit it 60 days is a long time okay so are you asking that we not move forward with this this evening I think I think 45 days is enough time and it actually gives us on the operational side more leeway to be able to ensure that we have the time to ensure those following steps are done but if you don't get it until 60 days later you're going to run that risk of not being able to get it reimbursed and then it comes out of the general fund all right so what we're going to have to do is we have a recommendation I think we're going to have to vote on
122whether or not we're going to move forward with advertising it if it's voted down then we can discuss other changes am I correct okay so at this time I'm and call for the vote all those in favor of moving forward with number policy number 717 travel expense reimbursement to be advertised please say I all those not in favor of moving forward please say Nay Nay Nay all right so the motion I'd like to make a motion that we amend that 6 days to 45 and advertise it that way I'll second we're good to do that okay Mr cologne is making a motion that we change the 60 days which is in paragraph number four to 45 days and Mrs Goodrich is seconding it any other discussion okay then we're now going to make a vote
123on this all those in favor of approving to advertise the proposed amendment to school board policy 717 travel expense reimbursement policy paragraph four would change from within 60 days of return to 45 days of return please say I I any opposed okay now it passes unan unanimously you will just make the one change before it is advertised thank you Dr Evans all right we are now moving on to item 17.04 but we have public input for item 17.04 before we discuss it so Mrs Albert welcome good evening Madam chair members of the board superintendent Dr Balaban members of the audience so I'm here tonight to speak to you about the policy number 801 this is your public participation policy it's no secret I've spoken to you uh in the past about this several times U
124part of the roles and responsibilities of a school board member are to represent uh the of the community remember please that public participation is the opportunity for the public to inform the governing body on their views and opinions and concerns and issues that they're experiencing additionally public participation allows the public parents employees members of the community and voters to provide input to the governing body which should then be taken into consideration before making decisions by your own policy this evening if you look in section E1 citizens remarks should be directed to the presiding officer the board as a whole and to an individual board member these comments should not be directed to an employee of the school board of the school district by abdicating this critical component of your role you're sending a message to
125the public that you are not interested in the concerns and input of those who elected you to your office the perception of disconnecting from the public will be evidenced should this policy receive approval tonight so let's let's think about this had two employees previously now you only have one and if this policy were to go through now you no longer have the authority to facilitate and preside over public participation by surrendering the authority of the chair or other elected board member um this is the most important part of the meeting for the the general public that's why you see that the people have cleared out after public participation perhaps a solution uh should you not decide to move forward with moving the authority of public participation to an employee would be to pass the gavel
126perhaps if the chair doesn't want to preside over public participation pass the gavel either to the vice chair or to another member of the board but I I just would like to end by um reminding you that you are elected by the people for the people employees of the school district are not elected to represent the interest we work very hard to uh help our community members but you're the elected officials we should be speaking to you process thank you you do back I recommend Authority be granted to advertise the proposed amendments to school board policy 801 public participation in school board meetings Okay board members you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have anyone that like to make a motion to approve to advertise the proposed amendments to Schoolboard policy 801 public
127participation in Schoolboard meetings the motion dies or the recommendation dies we're open for discussion rosmer very simply I I think Mrs Albert probably summed it up pretty well for me I'm not comfortable making this change I do think that it's the responsibility of the board chair um to Pride over the meeting and and so I would not be able to support this as it's written you Mr cologne yeah I'm just uh again nobody's surprised at my uh feelings on this as I've been very open however I think it is important that uh we do revise this policy and so um based on the feedback which at times seemed very lonely uh so I'm actually pleasantly surprised this evening um I'd like to make a motion that we advertise this with the original language uh in
128other words the board policy will be updated because the last time it was revised oh it was 2023 so that's not too bad but it's probably time 2025 um and so uh with no changes uh effectively so ultimately it's going to be the same version just it'll be revised and updated and so that is my motion okay can you can you restate your motion clearly so my motion is that we uh revert back to the original version which basically strikes the uh where it says chair and goes to board attorney to remain as chair and uh at which point then that will uh update the policy effective uh 28 days or whenever the next board meeting so I mean seeing as we're looking at it we might as well go ahead and and advertise it
129and approve prove it Miss Thompson if we're not making any changes is there any reason to read vertise it then can we just leave it Al that's my thought too I'm with you because the last time it was up if it was one of these that you know was 20 years out yeah I but you can see it's one of the most updated policies probably we have because it it was 1984 1991 1995 2016 2018 18 2019 2022 and 2023 that's how many times it's been updated if if we're not changes yeah then I don't see the point of doing anything with it tonight because there would be advertising cost involved too that we don't okay all right then I'll retract my motion my thought was we've already done this work we might as well
130go on and get credit for it and have at least one more updated but I'm good with that all right there's a lot of energy spent on this Dr Evans do we need a motion um to vote and a second to vote that we're going to leave it as it's currently written think it's it's dead all right did he resend his motion Mr cologne will you reender yes I did okay I did all right then at this point in time we are moving on to item 18.01 public participation Miss Sarah Lux are there any more cards may I please have [Applause] them okay we have two cards um for public participation at this time the first speaker will be Miss Jennifer Kelly followed by Miss Kim short okay Miss Jennifer welcome good evening board members
131superintendent um I want to speak on what was just discussed but I didn't get a card in for that because I didn't know it was going to go down that way so one thing I did want to bring to your attention um even though it's already done the Section in E the changes that were going to be made where it said um and to an individual board member which it prohibited that beforehand that piece does need to change due to um lawsuits that had been um the judge had given a um not a ruling but a um they decided that you that you can direct your comments even if it's criticism to an individual board member so right now the current one says that we cannot do that it has to be directed to the
132board as a whole but there's new um legal stuff that says that you can so that piece does need to be changed but I do agree with the other part that it should stay with the chair for um running public participation thank you thank you Miss Kim short I guess she left okay we'll put un applicable all right then we're now moving on to item or announcement Miss BR I mean Miss goodr um two things that I really wanted to just touch on today is I do think we need to look at the exterior doors lock situation um I've experienced that personally on numerous visits to school it's extremely disruptive I've talked to um staff at the various schools I've been at for all different activities and to have a student standing outside and and
133it's happened multiple times when I've gone for visits where we're just standing there and they're like well I hope someone shows up that can let us in because you're standing at a door in Atlantic high school and there's no one around there's no buzzer there's no way for anyone to know you're there it takes away from the staff's time the teachers time the kids it's the kids can't be learning if they're stuck outside the door and so while safety is of the absolute utmost importance if we've got the exterior of the school locked and secured and then the doors of the School classrooms secured I I feel like we've done a pretty good job there um at what point do we start giving up our kids ability to have the full educational experience because they're
134locked out and for our staff to be inefficient so I do think that needs to be looked into um the other thing I want to bring up was T te's cafeteria um the first time I there I didn't even realize that was the cafeteria because it's so small and the it's a the beautiful grandiose area that we could stand in on your way there is um I'm not really sure what that's supposed to be used for so if there's something that I'm missing please feel free to share but to have a tiny cafeteria for all those kids and it overflows and it's just it's something that it seems like a pretty simple construction fix I think it needs to be looked into so those are the two items um I'd like to see looked into
135for now oh I'm sorry I have sorry one other thing I was very excited to see um the art season uh the boo art season on the consent agenda the riverfront arts district has been working on that for a tremendous amount of time and I hope everyone can join us out there and see all the beautiful artwork and all the different things they're doing it's going to be a really fantastic um event so excited that that's coming that's all thank you can we we're going to go with Miss brosmer and then we'll go to Mr cologne all right Mrs Bros okay um I mentioned earlier that I have that I spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks visiting uh principls and attending sack meetings and um my message to my principls
136has been the the purpose was to for us to get to know each other um we might have met in passing but had never had any kind of substantive discussion and um and some of those some of those visits were in conjunction with with um serving breakfast but others were were just an opportunity to go and and visit with them and my my message to them has been uh fairly simple in that I just tell them I don't do photo ops but I see my job as as needing to make make their job easier so if there's anything that I can do that might facilitate what they do can they tell me what it is and I've gotten some great feedback and this is kind of a com my list is kind of combined between
137what I heard from my principles and what I heard from sack and I haven't seen all of my principles so I may have another list at the next meeting um but um there had there was a variety of perspectives on testing some of the principles loved it uh some of them felt stressed by it uh and and some of them didn't seem to have a strong opinion either way the only um substantive comment I got back about testing was that the kindergarten uh the [Music] K3 testing or I'm sorry the the element testing I'm getting my grades confused um those tests are too long that the kids just can't sit still for that many hours um and and so they they would like for the test to to just be shorter uh because the high
138school tests are shorter than the elementary tests are so that that was the only real substantive comment I got on that um one consistent request was to please separate uh in the ESC classes please separate the learning IEPs from the behavior IEPs because the behavior IEPs make it very difficult for the learning IEPs to to learn and and quite frankly I got the same request from the gened classes that the disruptive students take away time learning time from the rest of the class and they're so few but they take up the majority of the time um in school suspension is preferred over uh sending students home I heard some of that today in in some of our presentations some of our discussion and and I remember in the fall uh when before I was on
139the board and and um the board was discussing what to do with multiple vaping offenses and I remember Mr cologne saying uh well if we just if we send them home they're just going to sit on the couch and they're going to vape and be on their phones all day and at the time I thought well at least you know they're not in class so they're not disrupting anything but I um as as I'm listening to my principles I see the real value of doing of keeping them in school in a classroom where they still have to do the work but they're not disrupting anything and I realize that there are staffing issues involved with that um but I wanted to pass that on um one request I got was that we should offer third
140grade map uh third grade math um Camp during the summer like we do with the laa uh they seem to feel as though that would really make a big difference in scores going forward and that made sense to me um one proposal that has been tried that I realize is a potential funding issue and so we would have to figure out how that could be done um is to to allow the teachers one paid hour per week for planning just for planning uninterrupted and like I said I I realize that there are funding issues involved with that but it has been done and tried and was very successful where it was tried and so I wanted to pass that on as a request and the last comment is was just an observation by a sack
141parent who said kids are being asked to type their papers but they've never taken a typing class so they're very very slow having to type their papers on on a computer um and that made sense to me because I had to take typing in high school so anyway um I wanted to pass on on the feedback I got and I'll give you my next installment after I see the rest of my principles thank you Mr colog so uh one thing is um I mentioned before the possibility of a uh budget Workshop budget priority Workshop uh where we could sort of uh provide input on what are our budget priorities so I'm hoping that we will uh if I think we sought consent however um I I don't know when that is planned for it I
142know we're getting into that season pretty soon another thing that came to me and you know Dr B knows that I actually do read uh the daily report that we do get and I'm starting to ask myself and and I'm just throwing this out there to you all if we need a similar program for Vaping uh that we have for Vaping uh in a lie of sending someone home for some sort of a counseling program that maybe we can develop for students who are who are young and making threats uh the kid who's in first grade who gets suspended for a day because he said something to another child he's going to go home for a day but I wonder if there's an opportunity to provide uh counseling Andor some sort of program and again
143I'm in talking in the world the rainbows and unicorns um in lie of uh sending a child home uh where they're probably not going to uh have the opportunity to understand why what they said was wrong and why they shouldn't say it again and so I'm just dropping that uh as a thought maybe something we can look into for next year because as we are appropriately taking these uh statements seriously um I think that we may be missing out on an opportunity so um again I I I don't know if that's even possible but uh certainly can be an alternative for the students who are um you know as a one-time deal for students who just may say something that was not the wisest at the moment um so that was the only other thing
144I had um and that's it thank you thank you m Thompson thank you and Dr doin you mentioned this earlier in the meeting and I really I speaking as a Schoolboard member but also as a parent I I know I believe we all sat through to learn about all the data that we get through our bbas and I understand it and I do appreciate that we get way more information from that than we do from the state that we can work with and I love that our teachers get all of this data because there's a lot of data and it can help our students but as a parent it would be really helpful and I know you mentioned the cards and I really really think that we should do that because if parent there are
145so many parents that want to help their kids but they have no idea how and especially if their children come home you ask them how they did on the I ask my kids how did you do on the test oh good um there were one or two questions that were hard that was it but they don't know specifically and so if parents could have access to that data that you know your child might be struggling with XYZ then they might be able to help a little bit more and that might help our teachers as well if parents were also working on the same things that they were in class so I really really would love to see that get done thank you all right then I have a few things um Dr balaman had asked
146tson University to revise their ESC program to help with our ESC teacher shortage so we got an email um in between the workshop today and this meeting uh from one of the professors there that said that they're going to start a cohort in May and they want this announcement to go out to teachers and I would not have normally um announced it here except that tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. they're doing an information session so if we have anyone out there that is wanting to get their degree in ese um statson university is starting a cohort they have an information session tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m. and we can maybe get this out quickly so that it shows them how to sign up they do also have scholarships available and the classes will will be starting
147in miday and I will say this about STS and they do a good job when they start cohort groups like for our leadership and things like that and so they have worked on this to bring back an ESC cohort so that we can um get that information out to teachers then um we were talking earlier and you were going to look at dates because we need to do a workshop on where we are with the budget and finances and looking ahead to next year so you we left it as are we going to add a workshop to this month or are we going to look at the ones that are upcoming Celeste give us the topics of the workshops that are upcoming we don't the option is to either add a workshop to the board
148meeting at the end of this month or we may have to readjust what we put on April's Workshop because this is very very important right now um looking ahead for the budget and the finances and where we are for next year yes okay can't wait till then you want to add a workshop I I don't know if it's going to work for the board members if not then we will have to ask advin help if they're okay with us pushing back there's the other is inow so we can handle that one no I looking at add in a workshop on March 25th team does that work can you look at your calendar it will be you and Patty um we're looking for what date it was did you said March 25th you said correct or
149or we go to April 8th but we have to remove what we have on April 8th I I request if we could do April 8th it's going to give me a little bit more time esecially with spring break coming up here so um if I could get a little bit more time to put together some information for you and present to put together a cohesive presentation so Celeste what was on April 8th again it was Advent health and Erp Erp is inhouse Miss Haynes we can handle that one I would just need to make sure Dr uh V call AB and help let's see if we can push it back okay now now because I know cuz may is already full too it's fine do we want to for the work for the um second
150meeting in March or I mean the second meeting in April do we want to go ahead and add a workshop there so we would do two workshops so you have a place to push those items from the eth to that date that's fine with I need to know from everybody here so normally on April 22nd we would only come into the boardroom for a meeting starting at 4:30 are you available that if we take the items that are on April the 8th and we move them to April the 22nd we would have two workshops in April but we would start at 12:30 for those two items so that we can open up the eth to deal with budget and finances and where we are for next year I'm okay with that I'll need to get
151back to you all right Mr cologne agreed what I just wonder I just wonder if that's enough time and so I'll share with Dr B and Dr C's uh what some of my thoughts are can you hear me yes hello yes can you guys hear me yes yes okay sorry about that I said you know the idea is to be able to share with Dr CE some of our thoughts and Direction so that he would have enough time to do something with whatever we give him I'm afraid if we go too far into April when does that first budget get presented well the first budget's not presented until June that's the superintendent's proposed budget okay then April is good then I'm good okay I don't know that we're all on the same page for what
152that meeting needs to be we're looking at did each of you have a individual conversation today with Dr baban and Mr CE Mr colone did you have an individual conversation today I did okay so the eth I think we're looking at where we're at financially right now and helping to give guidance on what we may have to do with the budget so I don't know that it's for Grand schemes of things that we add so much as we take an honest look at where we are at because there are some House and Senate bills that could drastically change our lives in public education and we need to have a plan and be prepared so are you okay with April the 8th and what we're looking at talking about could we not just make April 8th
153a longer day could we start earlier I am fine with starting earlier okay so we would start with the budget and then leave the other two items at the normal time that would leave our staff yeah would that work for everybody so yes ma'am all right so we need to be able to have everybody get into the building and get to their office and get their materials and supplies to be down here so are we starting at 8:30 or 9 go ahead tell me for the for the sake of most people and for the sake of me getting my first cup of coffee and can we shoot for nine o'clock you want nine or n o' can we have nine because I have to drop kids off at school no no no that that's what
154I'm asking for and and and aiming at 10 Mr clone does not like to get up early no let's do 10 why yeah can we do can we do it in two hours yes yes we can have this conversation yeah it would just be the start of the conversation um as far as where we currently are sitting in our proposed long range Outlook um I I think that's a a good starting point okay everybody in agreement for 10:00 a.m. on April the 8th we will start we will do the budget and where we are financially we'll have a 30 minute break between that and then moving into the Advent health and the Erp okay is that good sounds good the only thing I would request and say you know we're in the world of unicorns
155and rainbows is that uh Miss C rich bring uh Crispy Cream Donuts that morning this is this is this because I passed Crispy Cream on the way here yes ma'am okay I'll try here Mean Streak we we've got Mr bills here in downtown to land if we need to go there um all right and then what I was going to say is four of us are headed to Tallahassee for next week to meet with our legislators as well as um participate in activities with fsba um I have to do a board of directors meaning they're going to provide some training for us I will say this and I I'm not expecting anybody to go back and watch or listen but uh on last Tuesday there was um an education committee that met with three bills
156in it one of the bills um is impacting our diabetic students and I actually totally support what they're looking at for doing for that unless somebody can tell me some reason why not to but basically it's that we would be required to have it's similar to an EpiPen but it's for students that have diabetes we would have this available and people trained to administer it because this is the case where giving them a shot of orange juice or whatever is not going to do it and this could save lives of children and there's just that's a minimal cost piece to that um to have it on hand there is a piece though about hazardous walking conditions and all three of these passed out of the sub committee like quickly and the one on hazardous walking
157conditions that's why I mentioned that the Florida um Coalition of school board members yesterday had Transportation as one of their topics and each of us can go and pull up you know the form that was shared by one of the counties and they're asking us to put together our information and I did send it over to um Miss core so that she has it but they track tring in this County how much of their how much their transportation is funded and basically it's funded districtwide or Statewide 40 to 50% so you know we have the two mile radius right now that if they're under two miles it's the parents responsibility to transport for years I have really wished that for elementary we could take that down to a smaller amount there were there was a
158parent that actually traveled four hours that day with her own children to stand up there and speak for a few minutes about what her own children had faced with hazardous walking conditions we never want to lose a life um of a child out there walking but I will say this the representatives on that committee asked some great questions they asked well what are we funding right now for transportation well nobody really wanted to answer it but the truth of the matter is only 40 to 50% % of transportation is funded which means we have to take the rest of it from another fund which means general funds if we were to drop down to a mile say for elementary students Andor students that you verify it's a hazardous walking condition and who's going to do
159the verification that you know it can be you think it's Hazard and somebody else doesn't there was nothing no mention in that bill of any funding so it would still remain as a partially funded mandate and that's why districts are trying to think of other ideas in case in point if you have students out in a rural area sending a van to get them versus an entire bus so we have to start thinking about that but I have a feeling that bill will probably pass I could be wrong but I don't know where we're going to get the money for it yes um just listening to you describe it and we had talked about the that bills existence I I had noticed it also I wonder if we could identify the specific areas how many
160areas we have in the county that would fall into that category and and maybe figure out who owns the roads uh where those segments are and work with that local government um and see if we can get some kind of cooperation that way with them um you know they're going to tell us their money's tight too but you know it might be something that they can do in in um partnership with the school district just a thought I will tell you um for years now we typically get emails um Mr clone and I get them from some parents in Orange City that are on the opposite side of 1792 from River Springs Middle and and when because our our people are out there our crossing guards are out there for elementary but they don't stay
161they're not out there for middle and so a parent you know typically says so last year you crossed my child because they were 10 years old and they had to cross across 1792 to get over to manate Cove but this year you're not crossing my child who's 11 years old that's now in sixth grade and they still have to cross four lanes of 1792 and so that's that's been a hot topic and but they're under the two mile some of them are only at like 1.2 miles but it's just across the highway but yes we could the other bill is the one that I think everyone should be paying attention to and I mean everyone because I believe in choice and the parents should have choice I don't know that I ever thought we would
162be at this point with choice but the other bill has a lot of pieces and parts that they've put together and I don't necessarily like it when they do that because people get hung up on one piece and pass it and don't realize the ramifications of the rest but it is about first of all and you guys want to listen back there miss Albert to what this is all right this has already happened in Florida and it just most recently happened in alacha there's two ways it can happen the parents that a school can decide that they would prefer to be a charter school than a public school and they can bring forth that they would like to be a charter school and the only people that get to vote on turning them into a
163charter school are the parents so the teacher staff and Leadership of that school camp can't vote that there's no vote from the district there's no vote from community members even it's the parents can vote to turn themselves into a charter school the other piece is a city could choose to turn a public school within their City into a charter school once again the group that gets to vote is the parents with no one else voting and then the city can take over running the school as a charter school If the parents vote without the city backing them for it then if it passes the parents then get to choose a charter company to come in and take over that school it has already happened in Florida there are two counties where it's already happened we
164need to be well aware that that is something that could happen here if this bill passes what they did say that day when everybody threw every question and I have to give Orange County credit Orange County sent people to stand up and speak because they also tied our land into it so Patty and her team know this and that's why they've had meetings with you so I'll use Deltona as an example so you know 40 years ago when they saw that Deltona was going to start you know expanding and they were advertising moveed to Deltona that's what they were advertising up north moved to Deltona the district was smart and they started started buying property while it was still at a very reasonable rate and look in you know 35 years worth of time look
165at how many schools we built in Deltona I mean there were no schools in Deltona the very first school that opened in Deltona was Deltona Lakes Elementary there were no high schools no middle schools no elementaries well they're now going to say that in this bill if it were to pass we would have to Surplus any property that we had we have been Surplus in property that we cannot or will not build on because we're already built out and we have the schools to cover it but they're also saying that if we have declining enrollment of five years then they can force us to Surplus all property we have so we have a piece of property here in Dand it was supposed to be something back in 2008 but the recession hit and the plans
166for that got stopped but there are new plans for that piece of property but if this were to go through we might have to sell or give up that piece of property and then we wouldn't be able to move forward in orand as I said to you Miss brosmer and Miss Thompson in you know the southeast area where you're at we already have land set aside because of the new communities and developments coming in there if this passes they say we can't land bank which means we'd have to give those properties up and then when it's time that we need them what they could not answer and this question was asked repeatedly I sat for two and a half hours and watched this they couldn't answer if or when we would ever be able to
167buy land and who would approve that we could purchase land in areas yes there's areas out there where enrollment has declined in Valia County but there's areas that are growing where enrollment has continued to grow and to take away the local Authority for us to know when and where we need a school and when we should hold on to a piece of property because it's a good price versus giving it up should be at the local and should not in my opinion be decided by the state and that bill because they just keep putting things into it it's going to end up harming us two questions is this a position that the board is comfortable with us taking when we speak to legislators that's first question um on behalf of fuchia County School Board and
168um and also it occurs to me that land is a despite the fact that that we don't buy land as an asset you know we buy it for a purpose or for an intended purpose but it the fact is that it is an asset land very rarely loses value and when it does it gets it right back and and more so given the fact that the state is always arguing with us about how much they're going to fund it's almost like money in the bank to have that a those assets available to us and it seems to me that that's an argument we could make to legislators to allow us to hang on to to those assets until the market is ready for us to to sell them or until our need arises and that
169helps us to enhance our own funding without uh without looking to the state for anything additional I agree with you and that's why you know Patty and her team started analyzing everything we had more than a year ago and they found the places where it's like okay this is never going to be used because some of the pieces in Deltona that were bought like an odd part came with it and we built a school on the bulk of the property and we've now Surplus to the other which somebody could use for something but we're not going to build a school there and I mean I feel strongly about this that we should not have to lose pieces of property we already have set aside where we know growth is coming or has already started because
170whatever we were able to get the land for we're not going to get it back for that price and who knows better and can analyze the area than what we analyze I mean we we know where the growth is taking place head head out 17 going north and you'll see all the land is cleared for building you know head down into the southeast and you'll see they've cut all the trees down to prepare but if we lose those pieces of property we have there I don't where are we going to put kids because that area is going to grow but I just wanted to bring that up there is a whole list of things happening right now up there but this what they're saying is when we purchase a piece of land if we don't
171use it immediately then we have land banked it and wasted taxpayers money I actually think if we were to ask parents and the taxpayers I don't know that they would think we've wasted their money having property ready to go for the next School I don't feel like my money's been wasted but but just think about those things because next week when we're up there I'm sure those will be some of the items that they'll be covering under fsba of the Hot Topics one of those items and it could be the charter piece they've already chosen to skip the next committee they have pushed it on to the last one so it's going to hit that last one and we could have parents deciding to turn public schools into charter schools here in fuchia County I
172have two minutes yes all right so I I like to address a few things that that's been brought up here tonight um Miss Goodridge you were talking about the cafeteria for TTI and just to share a little bit with you and I think some of this you may know um Mr colong went out there one day and then you obviously visited TTI I've been to TTI all of us I think have been and it's one of those models that were adopted a few years back it's Unique to fuchia County it's the only model in vucha County so um it is a good model for collaborative spaces but we we see some areas there right for improvement so that you know I believe that I had initiated an email to Patty core where her team would
173be going out and and walking that to see what are some mitigations that we can put in place because I do agree with you and we have agreed to a staff that that the space is is very limited um so she she's been out there with her team once we know when that analysis gets back what that would look like we will definitely share with you but they're in the work so Patty if you'll please keep this Goodridge um in the loop of that second I like to share Mr colong Mr colong The Vaping that you brought up regarding uh fifth grade and starting that at the elementary level I believe we did have a conversation about this a few months back at after one of the presentations that Mr malli did here in the
174boardroom and Mr malli since that is a homegrown program that we have developed here in vucha County I think we did say that we were going to look into starting proactively and starting with fifth grade at the elementary level so I know that Mr mcalli is looking at that um so I just wanted you to know and I you had brought this up a a few months back um testing Miss Thompson I agree with you the baseball cards is one of those um PTA as well the uh VCC our president for PTA Miss wesler she had also mentioned that to us in our monthly meetings so we're looking to see how we can ensure that our parents have access to that um mind you that will necessitate more space on our um rea site and
175that's one of one of the main logistical factors that we need to work out but moving forward um teaching leading and learning they will be ensuring that when report cards or progress report goes home that there's a printout that shows exactly how detailed um when it comes to all of the formative and Su summative so parents can see exactly where their students are really doing a you know good work in in areas that that that would need Improvement and how to do so so I wanted to address that uh Miss Copeland um Miss brosmer Miss Copeland did a presentation here for ESC um when we talked about you know moving towards that full Continuum of services so this is one one of the things that you can share to the point of where you said
176looking at those uh multiclasses and where we can separate cognitive from Behavior so as we're working towards that full Continuum of services that those are one of that's one of the changes that we're looking at for doing those separation between cognitive and behavior severe Behavior so that's next year and the next Point regarding the k3d testing and if it there could be shorter period of time I don't know I think that Rea when they met with board members individually one of the things that they were supposed to share is that we're looking to see how we can just allocate a time frame for assessments and if the students completed within that time frame they do if they don't they don't but at least it's not going to be an all day uh scenario but for
177those students that may need because their accommodations called for for extended time then those students will be placed with someone in a different setting and that's that's they know that that might take you know more than that allocated time frame for testing so those are some of the things that I want to address so you guys will know that it's in the works that's it I have one final thing um do you want to go ahead first yes go ahead um at the last board meeting the board chair had asked each board member to submit um legislative issues that you think might need to be addressed or reviewed and I did receive from Miss Bowmer and um the chair along with Miss Thompson and I have put that comprehensive list together for each of you
178in a packet and also I listed those significant um legislative issues that were presented to us by Chris Cary who is our legislative liaison so I have those listed for you as well so perhaps you can look at these and when we go to Tallahassee you can choose which of these you think might be most pertinent and need to be discussed so I'll give each of you this packet at the end of the meeting thank you Dr Evans for doing that um final thing I have talked about this for a while now we have um a half sales tax committee we have one person on that committee that has been a long-standing member from the original time that it's started we have changed some members and um I I had a great member on there
179who I was happy to leave um but he then after serving for quite a while had um chose to move on to something else because it is a voluntary voluntary position no one is paid for serving on the half cent sales tax committee but thanks to Miss Sandy Bishop who has served the entire time and helped lead the you know getting it voted in the first time and then voted in the second time along with a lot of community members that put forth support there I don't know how I describe it but at one point in time prior to Dr Evans being here there was just some disruption on the committee from previous staff members that the committee had worked very well together for many years and then when the resolution was read to them
180for what their purpose was it didn't really match for what they had been doing and so I have I had mentioned it after we um hired Dr Evans in August that once he got settled we need to go back to the hon sales tax committee and we need to repair what has happened there and rebuild Bridges and make sure that they know how valuable they are and also the new members that have been added to the half cent sales tax committee so my understanding is Dr Evans is going to set up a meeting to meet with them along with Patty you've said it they've got it set um because here's where we're also at if that funding which ends in 31 which would mean at least three years prior to that if we're going to
181continue to go with it we've got to have a campaign ready to go with that funding and it didn't just fund buildings or Wings being added and things like that it also funded our technology so that when we hit the pandemic piece we could actually get the technology and all students have it and without that funding I don't know how we would have put technology in all the students hands and it's also funded upgrades to our science labs and things such as that but that committee is very important because they help oversee that what we said we were going to do we actually do and they've done a great job at it but we need to rebuild the relationship and so I wanted to bring that up tonight so that you guys would know I'm
182happy that they've already scheduled a for it and so they will be meeting the end of March to rebuild that also to bring the new members in that have joined um and give them a foundational piece and Dr Evans knows that my personal expectation is is we're going to be kind and respectful and we're going to take the history that's there along with the new people and we're going to build a great team so that we can continue to move forward with that group yes Miss BR I don't know anything about the history along the lines of what you're describing um but I have been interested in having a presentation made to the board uh to kind of give us why they were created what they've accomplished and and kind of set the stage for
183renewing it if uh the only way we can convince anybody to renew it is to show what was accomplished by having it and and so I would like for us to move in that direction what Mr cologne yeah so I think it would be a great idea if maybe and I know we're probably looking at June July unfortunately because of we've already taken up April but I think it would be great to have staff put together a presentation on the half send um for a workshop I think that's a good idea because it's been a minute bless you sry did we understand what sorry um I I said I think it's a good idea as soon as we uh you know of course the schedule allows to have a workshop um presented by staff regarding
184the half cent committee where we are and so I think that would be a great idea yes that's I think it would be a good idea too because I don't know that each of um if everyone knows who represents their area um but everyone does have a representative um one of for one board member you have two Representatives but that way we can but as I said we need to let Dr Evans and Miss core just basically rebuild a relationship with those that are still on there that we kind of broke the relationship with and at the same time bring in the new people and bring them up to speed on it and so I I thank you guys for going ahead and setting up a meeting and I think it may not be a
185thing that we may we may not be able to look at it till June um simply giving them time so that they can acclimate everybody and they can all come to an agreement because I wouldn't want them to come in here and not have a clear message um I'd like to hear what the clear message is and I think that we should honor and respect especially those that have served for a long time on that committee because it's voluntary and when we ask all these people to serve in a voluntary position we need to be kind and respectful to them does anyone have anything else so related to what Miss brosmer said do you do we want to set up a workshop where staff could kind of come in and she's looking at the date
186okay we're looking like at J but no we want you to we want want you to start meeting with them okay bringing them up to date the new people you know catching them up explaining what the purpose is I need I would say probably the first meeting you just need to listen it's kind of like what I said tonight for kids you know you just need to listen I think we need to listen and hear where what their perception is and especially those that have been on there for a long time how it ran the first round how it started the second round and maybe where it broke down at and how do we repair that and so I would assume you guys will have a couple meetings with them and then we could have
187them here in the boardroom and our first meeting is set for March March okay well thank you and we appreciate that Mr Cash and you can stay right there with them in the meetings if your it's choice if there's nothing else then at this time we're um at 7:49 p.m. and we're adjourned