Volusia County School Board Meeting - Workshop ⧸ Work Session 02⧸10⧸2026

001Yeah, I heard anything. >> Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the schoolboard uh workshop. Today is Tuesday, February 10th. It is now, we'll call it 12:30 and we will go ahead and get started. Uh first items, we're going to ask everyone to please stand for the pledge and then we will have a moment of silence and reflection uh soon thereafter. Thank you. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. Thank you to all those who are present here today and those who are listening online. Like to take this moment to introduce my amazing colleagues who are present here today. Over on our right hand side, we have we'll start on the right with

002our agency clerk, Miss Celeste Gilmore. She keeps us well organized. Next to Mi Miss Gilmore, we have Mrs. Jesse Thompson, representative for district 3. Next to Miss Thompson, we have Miss Jamie Haynes, representative for district 1. Next to Miss Jamie Haynes, we have our esteemed National Superintendent of the Year, Dr. Carmen Balgabin. Uh over to our left, Miss Goodrich uh will be joining us shortly. Uh Miss Brosmer, uh will not be here today. We have our school board attorney, Dr. Evans and myself, Ruben Cologne. I have the pleasure of serving as the chair and representative district 5. First item on the agenda is uh 2.01. And so we'll go ahead and get started with that. Just for a sake of uh order today, I wanted to uh let everyone know that once we are done

003with the teaching, leading and uh learning uh instructional materials and then the quarterly update, we're going to take a 30 minute break in between so that we can reset for the midyear progress monitoring. So just uh for the sake of housekeeping uh FYI and so superintendent. >> Thank you chair. Uh we have with us here today Dr. Desre Rabinski. She's our coordinator for instructional materials and media services joined by Mrs. Heather uh Norris, our coordinator for English language arts. Um they are going to pro provide to us a very short presentation regarding the English language arts instructional materials adoption process. So take it away ladies. >> Thank you um Mr. Cologne, Superintendent Bowman, and uh school board members. Thank you for allowing us this opportunity today to share some information with you about the K12

004language arts instructional materials adoption. To start with, this presentation conforms to policy 321, instructional materials, which includes all of the selection, adoption, and maintenance of instructional materials. It also aligns with our district strategic plan, the goal of all students will engage in high levels of learning every day. specifically guardrail 2 provide conditions that enhance student learning and improve operational efficiency and maximize resources that support student learning. We want to start out by stating that all of the materials all of the processes that we have undertaken to come to this point are in compliance with Florida statutes and our Valuchia schoolboard policy. This is a highle overview of the timeline that we use as we adopt instructional materials. We begin with the call for publishers who have submitted to the Florida Department of Education for the

005state call for adoption. Then we put together our committees that select the materials. They convene. Once they convene and narrow down that selection or recommend for the input of the materials that we have, schools receive um copies of the materials. They provide input. Teachers have the opportunity to provide input and we also advertise for public input digitally. Everyone has um digital access to it via the website and we also um provide provided to in-person opportunities. And then that brings us to where we are today. We're presenting an overview of the information and then this evening at the regular schoolboard meeting, we will present the um the quotes and the agreements that we have so far. After that, we have a 30-day required objection period that is in accordance with the Florida statute. So if there

006is any member of the community that has an objection to the mir the materials that the um board recommends to adopt and purchase this evening that 30 days once that 30 days expires then we will begin purchasing and distri distributing those materials to schools. We start each of our selection committees or our process with review by the technology committee. This gives us um a highlevel overview if of the materials making sure that they are in compliance with what our district needs. So we have three um fabulous technology committee members who help us with that. Uh Chrissy Batrico, Trisha Elward and Katherine Bucko. This meet this committee meets with each of the publishers um virtually. We talk about their rostering and single sign on security standards, universal design for learning to make sure that it meets

007the needs of Valuchia County Schools. We all of this is done in collaboration with multiple departments as well. We want to make sure that we're um having opportunities to have collaboration with each of our departments that have an input into those materials. So, of course, this is the ELA adoption. So the ELA department is top of the list for that. The coordinator, Miss Norris, the specialist, and the resource teachers were present at each of the committee meetings, and they were there. They were not voting members, but they were there to provide um consultation and answer any curriculum questions um that the committee members had. We also collaborated with the ESOL and multil- language learners department. The coordinator and resource teachers were present at um those meetings. They also gave input into the dual language materials

008that are also up for um adoption for elementary. Our ESSE department had program specialists who were there looking at the materials from the perspectives of the students with disabilities as well as the teachers who will be using those materials. And then we all already referenced our technology services department. So this is just an overview of the stakeholders who were included in our um our selection process and on our committee. So over for between K12 we had 71 teachers on the committee. We had eight parents. We had 466 teachers who provided input via ed credible um once the materials went to schools. And we also had 18 um community members who provided um digital responses to us either through ed credible or via email. And we also um just want to make sure that everyone is

009aware that as our committees review materials, the teachers on the committees use the Florida Department of Education rubric that's provided. We input that into uh ed credible and make those um rubrics available to all to our publishers as well so that they know exactly the the criteria where we are looking for. The committees evaluate it. But based on that criteria, the teachers and the parents and then um the ed credible platform allows us to aggregate all of that data so that the committee members can take a look at that as um as it as it is combined together. The next couple of slides just kind of outline the time the timeline for each of the committees as well as the the committee members that were included. So, elementary met on one one day they on

010September 29th to do an initial review of the materials. We put it out for public input from between October and November and then they came back in November on the 17th to make the make their final recommendation for today. This is the list of the committee members that were included. I know it's small, but we always want to make sure that their names are there, their schools, and their grades are represented, as well as the parents. Um, we always when we're together, Heather and I are thanking them profusely for their time and their diligence. They they do dedicate a significant amount of time reviewing the materials while they're there and thinking about and asking questions when they're not with us. So it's important for us to make sure that we have all their names listed

011and that we recognize and thank them for their contributions for the elementary English language arts and spa Spanish language arts. So the Spanish language arts are the materials that are used in our dual language elementary school programs. There were two publishers who submitted benchmark education and HMH. The teachers re or the teacher committee and parents reviewed that. Um those two we sent both of those to schools to review and when the committee came back their final recommendation was benchmark which is the current materials that we are using. This is a new and updated version of those materials. That takes us to our secondary English language arts committee. We met over two days for those committee work sessions. Again we sent it between November and January for teacher and school input. It's a longer period of

012time because of course we had Thanksgiving and um the winter break in between there and then the committee came together in January to make their final um recommendations. This is the list of the middle school English language arts teachers for sixth, seventh and eighth grade and the parent member that participated. Again, we want to thank them for their participation and um diligence in reviewing the materials. Then we have our high school English language arts committee members and parents as well. And again, thank them for their their commitment for secondary English language arts. So this would be 6th through 12th grade. We reviewed three publishers. The committee reviewed three publishers. McGra Hill, Savis, and Think Circa. After the initial two-day review, the committee recommended that only schools review McGraill and Savis. And after they received their

013input from schools, teachers and the community, their recommendation at their final review was the Sabbath materials. So in addition to our K12 English language arts, we also reviewed intensive reading which call kind of falls under that broad category. So we reviewed middle and high school intensive reading programs. Here's a list. Um they followed the same schedule as the um secondary ELA. They um also met. They only met one day because they had a smaller amount of materials to review. And so here's the list of committee members including the parent that participated on that committee. We divided the middle school the secondary intensive reading into middle school and high school based on the conversations of the committee. They met together. But as they reviewed the materials, they were discussing which materials were appropriate for which grade

014levels and which um sets of materials they would use for different um student needs. So for middle school, the they reviewed H.M.H and Perfection Learning, both of those publishers. They were both reviewed by schools and the input um once the input was brought back, the final recommendation for middle school was H.M.H. for high school. They reviewed the same sets of materials appropriate for high schoolers. They um the same two publishers, HMH and Perfection Learning. The recommendation from that committee looking at different needs for different students, was that HMH was their recommendation for students needing tier three reading support, which would be our our most needy students, and then perfection learning for students needing tier 2 intervention. Lastly, we have a summary of the recommendations of the committee just for an overview for K5 elementary benchmark

015education is the recommendation that is coming to the board this afternoon or this evening as an action item. Middle school and high school selected SAVIS. Middle school intensive reading was HMH. And then high school um intensive reading tier 2 was perfection learning and tier three was HMH. And just a reminder that all of these the materials that we reviewed and all the materials that we're recommending here and also once they come as action items are on the Florida Department of Education approved instructional materials list. I just wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of all the opportunities that we provide for public input. Um we do get minimal public input but we want to make sure that we're providing multiple opportunities. All of our meetings are publicly noticed. They are on the website. We

016also um in part of the website advertisement, there's the link, my email to contact for additional opportunities for in-person reviews of the materials. The digital materials are available. They're still available for review um on the website. And I did have about 15 people respond to the website and Facebook advertisement asking for additional opportunities to review the materials in person. I responded to all of them. No one ended up scheduling, but they did ask for the digital links again. So, I sent them and we 18 responses. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but I feel like that's more than what we've gotten in the past. So, we're happy to um take all of that input. and I'm gonna turn it over to Miss Norris for her to discuss the professional learning. >> Thank you.

017Dr. Rinsky has been amazing through this whole process. So, obviously planning for next year. The first thing that our team will do will be revising our curriculum maps because we now have new resources. So, we will start working on that as soon as everything is um accepted and we're able to move forward so that we have those ready for the fall. We are already looking at Valuchia Learns and having our teachers be able to have those opportunities through Valuchia Learns to have instruction on those new materials and the technology. Of course, we know some teachers are not able to attend. So, we look at pre-planning and kickoff opportunities for our teachers and also how we can make sure that our coaches are getting trained. So, we'll ensure that they have that training. We have our

018session in July. also how we'll roll this out in PLC so that we make sure that if there's any teachers who are not able to attend any trainings that we are able to have a rolling sessions at the beginning of the school year to ensure the teachers are familiar with materials, how to navigate the technology. Um for elementary it should be slightly easier. So we'll have it kind of scaffolded for those who are familiar with benchmark and those who are new to benchmark and having those new teacher sessions which will dive in a little bit deeper because the curriculum is a part of it because we teach the benchmarks and that's a big piece for them is understand those benchmarks as well. So the next steps in the process, we've generated agreements with two and

019have quotes from two of the publishers. Um those are coming to the board this evening as action items. Then we will wait our 30-day objection period for those two. We'll bring forth the other two. Once we have um those designed, we'll request as that objection period is over in March. And then as soon as that starts to happen, we get in the queue for purchasing and we will start to um receive materials on site. So we're hoping um that all materials will be there by the end of May. Um and we are a guarantee that they will be from the Florida Department of Education contract with the publishers that they should be there um no later than pre-planning. But I'm confident with our timeline that there should not be an issue with us getting them

020prior to um teachers leaving or at least the very beginning of the summer. Any questions? >> Thank you so much and thank you both for that wonderful presentation. That was very brief. So that was you all went through that very very well. Quick and efficient. I love it. Um thank you so much. I I do love all the differences. I love that the committees went through. I appreciate, you know, that there's different things that are better for different age groups. I did have a question when it went back to the public input. I love the public input piece. I love how it's varied. Um, how were these opportunities advertised to the public? >> So, we put um a banner on the website and also it was advertised on social media, Facebook, and I don't know

021if it was on X, but I know it was on Facebook. >> Okay. Thank you. that was I just I love that it's there and I know sometimes I hear from people like oh we didn't know that that was a thing and so I appreciate that. Um and I would maybe ask Dr. Bman I don't know if we can put it like on the website like a little banner like right there. I don't know how many people visit the website if that's your go-to. I feel like a lot of people do the social media thing and that's great but it just whenever those things come up if we could just have it right there. >> Yeah. >> So it was it was on the banner and that's where I got most of the emails. I

022think people clicked on the banner because my email was there and so those were the people who are asking for more information. So it's getting to some it's getting to some people but again you know >> everybody visits the website at differing time. So >> all right well thank you guys so much. >> Thank you Miss Haynes. >> So I have one question. Um as always you hear some people love the textbook we fix sometimes they don't. So, I have heard some rumbling out there for the selection that we're going to stay with for elementary. And so, did that come up during any of your discussions with them? And how did we reach the point that we're going to stay with benchmark since there there are people that talk about that? >> No, you're absolutely

023correct. There are. So, we might as let's just get it out there and talk about all those things. So the first thing that we always assure the committee is that their recommendation is what we bring to the board because there are questions or chatterings about they make a selection and then things get changed and and so I reassure the committees, Miss Norris reassures the committees that what your recommendation is is what we bring to the board. Um and we had it. So it's interesting the conversations that we had um in elementary and in secondary. I'll let Miss Norris talk about the the content piece in elementary because I think it was a very interesting revelation from that committee. So, one of the things that we decide to do was the day that we came back

024for both elementary and secondary is have them do a deeper dive than just the rubrics that the state has. And so, we had them look deeply at lessons. And for elementary, we even had them switch grade levels. Um, so that there was a mixture of different grade levels and they kind of did a deep dive into each textbook and we just picked the second unit, first week of instruction and we had criteria such as the benchmarks obviously being taught, were there scaffolding, were there ESSE opportunities, um, how easy is it to navigate the technology? So as they dove into it, um, a lot of them, some people still were not always, you know, happy with benchmark, but when they looked at the two options that we had, out of the two, it met the demands

025of our benchmarks the best. Um, I would say probably the ones who were struggling with it the most would be primary, but because we have being a reader as our main focus and we've added so much over the years to address the foundational needs, um, that was like the best out of the two options we had and I think there was a lot of deep conversation. I I think that they all came to consensus to the best of what options we had and so there was a lot of conversation it where secondary was like literally every single person voted for the selection of Savis. So it was a very different experience from secondary versus elementary. Um, so I think though that always remembering that our instruction is based on benchmarks and that's what we always

026held is this is we had our item specs out. We had the um the t the best book out for everyone to look at. So we made it about the benchmarks because that is what we teach. And so we looked at it through that lens. And I think that is kind of how our committee really dove in and looked at as I'm teaching this and I'm looking at different grade levels, which books make the best opportunities for our students and all learners because at the end of the day, no textbook is perfect. We all know that. And so that was really the conversations is how do we use what is given to us to make it the best opportunities for our students that we can. >> Thank you. >> Wonderful. And so, uh, I want

027to go ahead and thank you first of all for, um, looks like you did get sufficient feedback. And so, that's always important to us to know that, uh, several folks looked at it through the different lenses. Uh, and so, thank you for that. Anybody else have any other questions? >> All right. >> I don't have a question, but I I'd like for you, Dr. Dr. Rabinsky to reiterate to the board so that they're aware secondary material was a clear win and I think the reason why because I asked Dr. Rabinsky and one of the things that she shared is the layout. You want to share a little bit what you shared with me regarding the secondary material which I think will be an enhancement to what we had previously. >> Absolutely. >> In terms of

028the layout. So the secondary committee for addressing the benchmark, they felt like it definitely addressed the benchmarks the best um of the two of the final two resources, but there were also a lot of conversations around accessibility. They were discussing that it the the layout of the teachers guide, the layout of the digital resources were teacher and studentfriendly. there were many opportunities for differentiation in for instruction that was provided within the resource. So not having to go out and look for other things that for our English language learners, for our students with disabilities, SAVIS has um the ability to um translate their materials into hundreds of languages. So those were all things that teachers commented on. they were very focused on in secondary um in addition to the benchmarks those features that were supportive of

029teachers and students. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. Very good. So, we're looking forward to the recommendation uh this evening. Next up, we have >> I think I lost my >> um school safety >> school safety update. Captain, >> two minutes >> and it will probably one be one of the shortest that you will experience all day >> like those. >> Welcome, Captain. Tell us the good news. >> I don't fit. Hold on one second. He wants to add some time to the presentation. Make sure that we are counting >> paying attention. Yes. >> Good afternoon, superintendent, chair, and board members. I'm Captain Todd Smith, the director of safety and security for Valuchia County Schools. Today, we will be discussing the quarterly safety report in accordance with Florida statutes. This presentation aligns with

030policy 511, safety of facilities. This presentation also aligns with guardrail 2, provide conditions that enhance student learning. In accordance with House Bill 1473, school districts are required to report four things each quarter. The number and percentage of schools, including charter schools, inspected or reinspected during the quarter. the number and percentage of schools with no school safety requirement deficiencies. In the second quarter, 15 schools were inspected or reinspected by the Office of Safe Schools. This represents 20% of the schools inspected or reinspected. 13 schools had no school safety requirement deficiencies. Therefore, 86.67% of schools had no school safety requirement deficiencies. One school had an issue where a single closed and locked door didn't latch. This was an equipment malfunction. Maintenance did the maintenance on the door and fixed it. At the second school, a non-school-based employee

031propped the door open and left it unattended in violation of policy. The employee was disciplined for the incident. Although not a perfect school score, the principles and staff are taking these audits serious. The results show that they care and we have created a culture surrounding safety and security and we are working hard to ensure compliance. That concludes my presentation. Thank you. Any questions for captain? All right. Hearing none. As I had mentioned earlier, we will reconvene at 1:30. That should give them plenty of time to get the next presentation ready. And we'll see you all in a few minutes. Thank you. You got matching what? >> Oh, that's cute. >> You want me to sign? >> Good afternoon. We will go ahead and recall this meeting back to order. Next item up is one that

032we're super excited about, uh, which is our midyear progress report. This is where the superintendent has the opportunity to share with the board uh the uh wonderful things that have happened or accomplishments as well as our opportunities. So, Madam Superintendent, >> yes. Uh, Chair Cologne and board members, uh, we are pretty excited about this this time of the year because we get an opportunity not only three and a half years ago, we've developed a strategic plan collaboratively with the board and our our uh, leadership team and also stakeholders from within our community, but each of you uh, were in charge of a guard rail and each of you led that guard rail with with staff. So this is obviously as we know as we're progress monitoring this. This is our body of work. And before

033I begin, I want to say thank you to our board members here who understands and always supports student learning where students learning is the centerpiece of everything that we do. So thank you for that go governance where it's very clear that we're centered around our students and their needs first and foremost. But also I want to say thank you to the incredible staff. Everyone all decks all hands on decks when it comes to the the team here in Valuchia County. And that's what you're going to see with our strategic plan. We we often say that our strategic plan is a living breathing document. And that's because it's just not strategies that are outlined for us, but it's measurable strategies that we take the time to look and and collect data and disagregate that data and

034be able to tell where there are some opportunities where are um for for uh for um restructuring or or putting interventions in place. So, it's a living breathing document. With that said, I want to ask Miss Patty Core um who will share with us the format for the presentation this afternoon and Mr. Cologne and and board members. We will make this into one hour and 15 minutes. Don't make promises. We can't keep Dr. B. >> Oh, please. >> We have plenty of time. So, >> we're going to score some points and >> we're we're going to we're going to do we'll do you proud, Dr. B. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Dr. Bavin. Um, good afternoon, Chair Cologne and board members. Thank you for your time this afternoon. Um, this truly is a great day

035and and great time to celebrate our achievements from last year and what we're seeing going into this year. Um, as we all know, uh, we have a strategic plan that has driven this work. And this is our mid-year progress monitoring update on our goal and our four guard rails that support the goal. This presentation does align to all of our parts of our strategic plan. Our goal again is high quality instruction followed by four guard rails from all different sides of the operations house to ensure that high levels of learning happen for all students every day. Uh we have a little change to the agenda. uh since we did just take a 30-minut break. We will not have the 10-minute break after um the goal um update and the discussion if if that's amanable to

036the chair. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. And so then we will take a quick 10 minutes if we feel necessary after guardrail 2. It's a lot of information in a short amount of time and we really want to make sure I know you receive the PowerPoint in advance, but we want to make sure that you have time to digest that information, speak to the members of the teams when they're up here, ask your questions or or give your feedback. Um, and we want to make sure that that that happens um naturally as we go through. So, we will start with Dr. Julio Nazario Vay and the goal and his team. And at the end of the presentation, then we have 15 minutes set aside for questions and answers or responses. And then once we move

037on to guardrail one, we won't be going back to the goal. So if you need to make your uh make notes while we're going so you don't forget a question or something you want to say, please uh do so. Um it's just flows a little bit better if we bring the team up and then once they're gone, they're finished and then the next group comes up and we're not moving people back and forth. So we'll go ahead. >> So for clarity, do you want questions after every guardrail? >> Correct. Okay. >> At the end of the goal and then after each guardrail. Right. >> Wonderful. >> And then we will if you if you if we've satisfied your questions and the conversation has concluded, then we will excuse those members to to go back to

038their regular duties um and get to work. Okay. Okay, so this is how the how the agenda looks an approximate time frame there. And as we know our uh district strategic plan overview, all students will engage in high levels of learning every day. Um that is our goal. That's why we exist as an organization. It's very clear to us at the district level especially that none of us would be sitting in these seats if we didn't have close to 60,000 students walking through our doors every day. They are our bread and butter. Teaching and learning is why we exist. Um, understanding though that those guardrails play a very significant and important role to the impact that is made in our schools every day. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Dr. Julio

039Nazario Vay and his team and um they will take us through here and I'll drive this. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Core, board chair Colong and schoolboard members and Dr. Bergman. Good afternoon. Um I have the honor of um presenting goal one but I do want to um acknowledge um part of the teaching and leading and learning team that is here um present. So um the four executive directors Dr. Bogin has done a great job in making sure that she's very strategic in how we build a team to support the core business of our of of our work and our core work as Miss um Patty Core um that was no pun intended um is teaching and learning right that's the reason why we're here and so when we look at um

040guard rails such as human resources and student safety student services communication operations all of those pieces support really why parents parents send their students to Valuchia County Schools, right? And so, um, I have four executive directors here. The, um, executive director for elementary, Miss Castayanos, um, for secondary, Dr. Drayton. We also have um, Mr. McCallif in student services. Even though you'll hear him in guardrail um one of the guardrails, what you will also um notice is that he works very closely with teaching, leading and learning um to support her who really is under my org chart as well. And Miss Copeland is also um part of that executive team. But then out in the audience, you're going to hear um very closely about ELA. Heather Norris leads the ELA curriculum team. You're going to hear

041from Jen Lassowski, our math coordinator who leads obviously math. Um, but we have another Jennifer Taylor who leads science, Mr. Milholland with our social studies and advanced programs. Um, and we also have Dr. Omen who is our multilingual learners um, coordinator as well. Right. And so within this um team, one of the things that I want to make sure that we're very mindful of is that when we're saying all students will engage in high levels of learning every day, I want to bring close attention to the pieces that we really focus on within teaching leading learning. And there's three pieces. The first one is curriculum. And I want you to think about the curriculum as the what do we have available for our teachers that is driven by the benchmarks that is dictated by our

042state. Right? And so it's not just textbooks, it's also any resources that we might have to help with that. I want to also bring close attention to the second piece of those three almost like a threeprong um effect which is the instruction piece. So that is the how. How do we support our teachers with the instructional components and then the third piece is the assessments. And so how effective are we with the what and the how, right? And so when we think about um assessments, there are two different types of assessments that students undergo, especially when we're talking about the the assessments that is um an accountability measure for the state of Florida. We have our progress monitoring assessment which is a which is given three times a year. It really focuses on an entire

043year worth of um benchmarks that will be taught, right? And so when they're given this three times a year, again, it's the entire year's worth. Three times um a year. And then I want to bring close attention to when the state gives this exam. Um it's only measured on grades 3 through 10th in English language arts, third to 8th grade in math for progress monitoring. So we have other other accountability measures. So you might ask well where is the science in that? Well, it's not done through progress monitoring. That's done in a different assessment. They do get assessed just like in the end of the year course exams for high school. You will get algebra, you would get geometry, you would get biology, you would get US history. Those again are now progress monitored in

044what we call PM. But there are other accountability measures that I want to bring forth to that. And so you'll today will hear our progress of our progress monitoring for the state because we had the first one in the beginning of the year and we've had the second one in December, January. So we have those results for you and you'll be able to compare how we've done from prior years up until this point this school year. Right? Then our district assessments is called the Valuchia benchmark assessments. And you'll hear VBAs. The Valuchia benchmark assessment again three times a year but it's given at the end of each quarter at the end of each of the nine weeks that students are taught material and it it's only giving and assessing students on the material that has

045been taught at that point in time of the school year. The difference is that that assessment is in real time and it gives real time data to teachers to be able to inform their instruction so that they can make certain decisions to make sure that students are being accelerated when they need to and that they're also being given the remediation andor intervention that they need as well. Right? Um and so again it is a it's only on topics they have been taught up until that point. So I want us to really regroup here for a second before I give the mic over to Miss Casayanos is that every single organization whether it's an educational institution or whether it is a business a private owned business you would appreciate this there's always a measure of is

046my business actually producing a return investment right because you can't go throughout the entire year and just hope and pray that at the end of the year, fiscal year or whatnot that you just are and if it's a business that gives you profit that you're in the green. There has to be checkpoints in between. So in an educational institution, we also must be able to have those checkpoints that gives us real time data in terms of how do we then pivot when we need to pivot, provide support when pro when support is needed and not just wait to the end of the school year to just hope and pray that students are just going to somehow do well right in the assessments. So, one of the things that I also want to bring attention to

047is that there are five uh rocks, if you will, that you're going to hear throughout the presentation. Number one is tearing of schools for support. Dr. Bragaban has said this from time and time again, and I've been here for four years um with her, and she has been very consistent in her messaging, her expectations. The reason why district exists is to support schools. And supporting schools means to make sure that every single student get what they need, right? The highest level of students to the students that might be struggling from affluent population to students that might not be um coming from that from that background. Every single student deserves um a great education. So the tearing of schools is because at the end of the day that equates to are we doing the right thing

048for students. The second um rock that you're going to hear well and I kind of just said it is the reason why we exist. And so what you'll hear is not just teaching and leading and learning going out to schools. You're going to hear too um in today's presentation how we have other departments that have taken people that have been teachers and they've taken time out of their day to go help teachers out in departments to do small groups to do interventions especially during this time of the school year. So we're when we say we're all in this together, that's an example of that. You're also going to hear proficiency versus learning gains. There's a difference between proficiency and learning gains and you're going to hear that today in the presentation. And so a student

049might be proficient obviously if they're at level three, four or five, right? If they if they master the benchmarks that are being taught, but what if a student comes with a different skill set, but they don't get to that proficiency, but they get a learning gain, right? So we're going to talk about that today. And then obviously our metrics of success between our goals and guardrails and actually our strategic plan goes up to 2027. And so you will hear today that there's actually a couple of those goals that we've already met that 2027 um threshold of that metric and tracking progress relentlessly. And what does that mean? When you track progress, it's not just tracking progress. What do you do to respond to the data that you see on hand? Right. So, we're going to

050go over through all that. And so, Miss Casayanos, I think this is yours. >> Okay. >> Right. Good afternoon, everyone. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. So, as Dr. Vay just said, our results are not accidental. They're an outcome of intentional systems aligned support and discipline monitoring across our district. Everything that you're going to hear today reflects our way of work. As Dr. Vay said first and I want to hit and so everybody understands, we intentionally tier our schools in the supports that they receive. We look closely at the data, the context, and the need, and we respond accordingly. Some schools will require light guidance. Others need more intensive hands-on support. And I want everybody to know that this is not a label. It truly is a commitment to what we're doing and our way of

051work and meeting the schools where they are and and what they need so that we can help them move forward. Second is schools are not doing this work alone. The district exists to support our schools. And that right there is extremely important that everybody hears that and understands that. Everybody that you're going to hear from today works to support our schools here in the district. So we we are one part, right? We're teaching and leading and learning and we are really the heart of what we do. But we can't do this work alone. And our work goes beyond just our department. We have human resources, operations, student services, exceptional student education and and many more. And our instructional teams, they we work together to in to ensure that our schools are supported academically, operationally, and

052organizationally. the systems. This is systems work and it requires alignment across all of our departments to ensure that our organization continues to move forward and achieve our end goals. Third, we focus on both proficiency and learning gains. Proficiency will tell us whether students are meeting those grade level expectations and learning gains will tell us whether students are making progress from where they started. Both matter and both are essential to the long-term student success. Fourth, as Dr. Vay said, we have a strategic plan and our goals, our metrics of success will be determined by 2027. We're excited to say that we have already reached one of our goals and that was to increase our graduation rate and we know that we have exceeded where we thought we were going to be by 2027. So, we know

053what that means is we're only going to continue to move forward and excel from where we're at right now, which is at that 95.6%. Right, Kyle? We also want to point out that one of our metrics of success is that we're going to increase our district grade from 57% B where we started and our end result it in 2027 is a 68% A. We're right now at a 64%. That's where we were last year. We'll take it because we are an A district. Clap for that one. So, our strategic plan is not just written on a sheet of paper. Everything that we do aligns to the goals within the strategic plan and we make sure that our work is aligned to those goals so that we will reach those goals and ultimately surpass the goals.

054The last thing we do is we track progress relentlessly. We are consistently asking oursel three questions. Where are we now? What progress has already been made? And what still needs to happen to ensure that we deliver our commitment by 2027? So, we're going to get into the data in in just a minute with a progress monitoring of progress monitoring 2 and our Valuchia benchmark assessment 2. But before we move on to that data, I want to pause and highlight some work that's not going to be in here today because those results just came out. So the kindergarten through 2 grade fast progress monitoring too that window occurred after these grades three through five. Um so the data isn't included in our midyear V VBM but I want to tell you there are lots of celebrations

055big celebrations. Uh so overall kindergarten through 2 grade ELA and math have shown consistent growth across the last three years. K kindergarten through 2 grade ELA was at 39 percent proficient last year and now we're at 41% proficient. So that's a 2% increase. Kindergarten through 2 grade math was at uh was at 33% last year and now we're at 40% proficient. That's a 7% increase. >> Thank you. So, and and that's just overall and all grade levels increased or maintained compared to where they were last year. So, we're very excited about those results. So, we know that growth matters in kindergarten through 2 grade is where those foundational literacy and numer and numeracy skills are built and that is where that early intervention and strong instructional practices are must be aligned for the greatest long-term

056impact. So these results are definitely a reflection of our intentional work, our coordinated effort between all of our departments and our hands-on support in our earliest grades. So with that context, we're going to move on to our fast progress monitoring two results for grades three and as Dr. Vay said through 10. Um and those and fast is administered three times per year. the beginning, middle, and the end. And we are reviewing the midyear data. >> Thank you. So, starting with ELA and as Chrissy said, we're starting with the fast PM2 and just remember that this is data that even though it's taken at the middle of the year, it's the endofear expectations, which is how we differentiate between our Valuchia benchmark assessments, which is in the moment instruction after that instructions occurred. So when we

057look at ELA, one of the big pillars that we have this year is the science of reading. So it's one of our three pillars and as you know cabinet, you also attended and had that presentation and we've had training throughout the year for our administrators, teachers, coaches, and even if we have uh teachers who are not in the cohorts, our best practices have embedded the signs of reading throughout. Our big focus has not only been what that core tier one instruction looks like, but also what our small group instruction entails. So, working with Dr. and Alexis Kendy from UCF, she has been facilitating and was today in fact with our secondary coaches um strategies. And so, we are now seeing that being embedded where we're looking at question, prompt, Q, and that explicit instruction when

058we have small group and really narrowing down on what those resources and those strategies need to be. We're also looking at how we tier that support throughout the year. It's not one time at the beginning of the year or after an assessment. We are constantly working as a team with our schools to conduct learning walks, work with them, looking at their data, supporting the teachers. So, our teams are out there working with professional learning communities to help them understand the curriculum and how to implement. We do training on all of our resources and we're sidebyside coaching as well as working with students. For elementary math, we see a 1% increase overall and across each grade level. This year, our professional learning for both our coaches and our teachers were expanded from grade bands to individualized

059grade levels. This allowed both of our coaches and our teachers to be able to focus on benchmark specific lessons and activities as well as be able to look at prerequisite skills and trends across the years to truly identify and pair the students prerequisite needs, the appropriate interventions to support prior to new learning. We also have had specialized intervention block training for our intervention and our support facilitation teachers that will continue this year as soon as later this month. And I'm proud to say that as our teams are out at schools, we are seeing the impact of this professional learning. Those activities are being implemented in classrooms. We can see our coaches during PLC's be able to support the teachers through that data analysis as we move forward. And ELA and middle school with PM, we

060see that we have gone up 3% from last year. And we accredited that to really looking at the curriculum we provided. Unlike elementary, we have to work within that 45 or so minute confines. And so we don't have that dedicated um time for small group, but we've made it happen so that there is dedicated time with our curriculum maps. So we've added layers into the maps to provide those extended learning opportunities for students to meet those needs, whether it is for remediation, intensive, or enrichment so that all students regardless of what level they are being pushed to their best. Once again, we've had science of reading embedded and with our secondary, we were able to have our support facilitators attend some of those sessions whereas in elementary we had our interventionists have their own training

061session and so working handinhand with ESC and Esau has really ensured that our students needs are being met and that they are understanding collaborating together what needs to be adjusted in those lessons to make sure that all students are getting the lessons where they need to be to push them forward. We also have done a lot of work with our secondary teams on gradual release and what that looks like in the ELA classroom. We know it varies from um content to content and how to differentiate instruction. So we know we have that core resource, but how do we adjust that for the needs of our striving readers, those who are on level, those who are already proficient and excelling and also looking at how do we adjust for our students with disabilities and those who

062are English language learners. For middle grades math, we see an increase of 2% overall and three or two% across each grade level. As we look at the three-year trend, we want to make a note that back in March of 2024, the student progression plan for mathematics was updated. This plan was developed by a district team, curriculum, REA, the directors, our chief academic officer reviewed the course progression and the assessment alignment specifically for our grade seven accelerated students. As that course spans both grade seven and eighth grade benchmarks, the grade seven accelerated students took the eighth grade progress monitoring assessment for the first time last year. This created an anticipated decrease in our seventh grade results and an increase in our eighth grade results. What we can say is now in year two of this, both

063cohorts of students, our seventh graders and our eighth graders taking the respective assessments are increasing from last year. In support of this growth, we have had additions to our instructional resources with a specific focus on our small group instruction resources by teacher request. Through our feedback process, we've made additional connections where in each lesson, our students can be identified to needing small groupoup instruction throughout the course of the lesson as well as through intervention. Our professional learning for teachers and coaches has focused on those instructional strategies as well as making connections across the bay bands uh and across the benchmarks. We are in year two of implementation for EXL for secondary mathematics and we see an increased use of the individualized student pathways as well as the fast study plans that are there to address

064in an intervention those prerequisite skills that the students need prior to learning new skills. >> And just to follow up uh with Mrs. Lestsky's analysis on that seventh grade and eighth grade shift. Our whole goal in REA is to measure impact on student learning and the decisions that were made both at the board level to advance the student progression plan and amongst all of our departments. These are our receipts if you uh want to say it like that that the impact on student learning was successful. Right? This is our evidence to see that that blue bar for the seventh grade went down 16% and then up two, right? And then you look at the blue bar for eight to the orange um went up 14% and then from blue to gray went up 17%. So

065what I'm saying there is that the decrease that you see in seventh grade is outweighed by the increase that you see in eighth grade showing that it was a successful impact on student learning to make that shift um ultimately approved by the uh the board here for that student progression plan. >> And with the student progression plan I just want to make note that that's all a part of our student placement. What we did was we appropriately placed students in the correct math so that the skills would be assessed correctly. So sometimes we had students that were not ready for algebra or um geometry and so now they have been placed accordingly. So that's where the shift had occurred as well. Right. for high school ELA. We are very excited to see a 5% increase

066from last year and some of that work is accredited to our teachers really taking a deeper dive into the achievement level descriptors. So when we look at what fast is requiring of students, it's not only the level of questioning but the level of text complexity. So a lot of our professional learning has not only centered on what those achievement level descriptors are, but what task and opportunities are we providing our students to ensure that they are meeting the rigor that is required by the state of Florida. That's taking a look at that text complexity and matching what student and teacher actions need to occur in the classroom. And so we credit that work with the success we're seeing in our high schools. High schools have really embraced small group as well. And we are seeing

067um how many and we are getting that feedback from a lot of our principles as well as just how much our teachers are really enjoying um working with small groups of students and having that opportunity to really meet them where their needs are. We also are looking at how that science of reading strategically is not just in our intensive reading classes in secondary that it is embedded in all of our content areas, but really diving this year into ELA and how what we do is not just about the ELA literature, but also about those reading strategies that need to occur no matter what level the student is at. And I think right now that's gonna head back over to Jen. That's right. Um in um our department we um sorry we serve almost 5,000 language

068learners um in Russia schools across 72 schools. um they represent more than 100 languages um and that's the students that we're really trying to support. So with this growing ELLL population, we want to assure that every teacher is equipped to serve the language learners with high quality instructions and um the ones that also language rich and this has been and continuing to be the focus of u my department. Um, so we restructured our professional learning to be role specific rather than onesizefits-all ESOL training. We differentiated by audience. For example, ESOL teachers received advanced training in using pro progress monitoring data to drive their small group instructions. Uh, PAR professionals were trained on how to reinforce academic language during guided practice. uh general education teachers learn how to embed language supports directly into their lesson plans.

069Um we also deepened our curriculum collaboration with content area departments. Our team co-planned with um ELA, math, science, and social studies to ensure that um language learners receive supports in all content areas um such as vocabulary scaffolds, sentence stems, and heritage language assistance. not only for um the assessments but also during instructional uh activities in class. Um our ESOL staff are using um VBA and um progress monitoring data more intentionally so they can form flexible small groups and um revise trends regularly to redirect supports to where they are most needed. Um this resulted in rising ELLL proficiency um rates districtwide as you can see in the data charts. Um for example, ELA grade 6 reached a three-year high at 30% and grade seven shows the strongest sustaining growth climbing from 15 to 23% over the

070last three years. In math, grade 8 nearly doubled the proficiency rate and multiple grade levels hit new heights. These gains confirm that intentional targeted sports for ELLs uh for language learners is working. Um but our work is not done yet. We're continuing um to work um to hone on our P professional learning practices to scale um those role specific PDS to all secondary teachers. Um we continue to deepen our partnership especially with science and social studies and implement quarterly uh progress monitor monitoring data reviews with principles so we ensure to respond to student needs as they happen. So in the wonderful world of ESC the work that happens does not happen in isolation and that is very evident by all of the leaders here before you today. In ESSE, we service over 13,000 students each

071and every day. And that number has increased over 40%. And with that, that just shows the need for um effective services that are being implemented for our students. And so we have three key actions that we have taken to ensure that we are giving the best service to our students. First being strengthening our small groups and interventions. So, not only are um the other departments supporting our schools, but so is the ESSE department. Not only are we supporting students with disabilities and our general education students, we want to make sure that we have inclusive environments. And that goes even into our small groups and our interventions. Also, making sure that we're prioritizing the consistent consistency, excuse me, of the IEP implementation. We are partnering with our principles. We are partnering with our teachers to make

072sure that they understand what that accommodation looks like, sounds like so that they can be implemented accordingly. Lastly, one of our keys is making sure that we're investing in our teacher training. Teacher training is so paramount to make sure that students are receiving the right supports and services. And so you can see on the right side, the right side of the slide that our progress monitoring data for ELA and math proficiency for our students with disabilities. This data demonstrates that our strategies are moving outcomes in the right direction for our students. This is a commitment to making sure that we're continuing to grow a full continuum of services for all students while refining our instruction and strengthening that IEP implementation so that our students with disabilities are consistently engaged in high levels of learning every

073day. So you've just reviewed our progress monitoring data and this is an important moment at this time just to pause and reflect not only on the numbers but what they represent. Progress monitoring helps us to answer a critical question and that question is are students moving forward from where they started. This data provides a real time insight into student growth which allows us to adjust instruction, provide additional supports and resources quickly and intentionally. So what you saw connects directly to the five major takeaways we discussed at the beginning. For number one, remember we tier our schools and the supports using that data. This allows us to clearly identify where the additional school support level is needed and which schools require more targeted resources to effectively meet the needs of both the teachers and the students.

074We also work collaboratively across all departments. As you saw with ELELLL and our ESSE, we also meet with our principles as well. So, not only are teachers getting trainings, but also our principles and our assistant principles are getting those trainings as well, so that we can make sure everything is aligned. And that is where the cross departmental approach ensures that our decisions related to staffing, scheduling, student services, and operational supports are thoughtful, they are aligned, and we are responsive to our schools. We also distinguished between the learning gains and the proficiency. We recognize that while some students may not be performing on grade level, we have a consistent growth of evidence that our instructional strategies are effective and that meaningful acceleration is both possible and within reach. We measure our progress against the 2027 guard

075rails and this ensures that we are clearly identifying where we stand today, which goals we have already achieved and what work still lies ahead. We track each student relentlessly, not to punish them, but we want to respond accordingly. Our commitment is to ensure that no school and no student is ever overlooked or falls through the cracks. As we transition into our Valuchia benchmark assessment, also known as our VBAs, you will now see how this growth aligns both grade level expectations and our long-term outcomes. Together, progress monitoring and benchmark data provide a complete picture, showing not only how students are growing, but also how close they are to meeting that proficiency on all grade level benchmarks. The VBA data also narrows the focus to what actually is being taught. Unlike fast PM, which measures content from

076the entire year, this shift gives teachers specific actionable information tied directly to the benchmarks. So, for example, teachers can now analyze the students answer choices that may have distracted students and use that insight to make precise targeted instructional decisions for every student. This example is just one of the strategies that we use to ensure that every decision that we make remains aligned to our shared promise, which is delivering on every commitment to our students and our community. So, at this time, we have our team back up again to go over and review our Valuchia benchmark 2 assessment data. >> Thank you, John. I think you took a lot of what I was going to say, in fact. So, when we look at our Valuchia benchmark assessments for ELA, we see an increase in grades three

077through five by 3% overall. And a lot of that is attributed to exactly what Dr. Drayton was um saying where we with REA um we have an amazing data dashboard that really allows teachers to dive in and figure out what those misconceptions based on what their instruction is. So they know exactly what they've taught so they know what students were measured on. So it gives them that even playing field to determine what needs need to still be met. When we look at that data, we work with schools handinhand with all departments to figure out what's the best course of action for the students at that school to help them meet all their needs. So, this isn't just a curriculum and hopefully I don't miss anyone, but just in ELA alone. Not only do we have

078curriculum, we have human resources, education, technology, professional learning, federal programs, ESSE, student services, multilingual, CTE, and instructional materials. all supporting students in small group. What that means is my department has met with different individuals who have those certifications and we have trained them and we have bi-weekly meetings to ensure that if there's anything they need help with, we are there to help them. We've created resources for them. There is a pacing calendar and they are able to work with students based on their needs using those resources. So, it's an all hands-on deck approach to make sure that all students are able to achieve with that those additional small groupoup plans. We have made sure that we have our teachers there, our resource teachers and coaches who are also well-versed and right there in the field

079helping work with those teachers. In elementary math, our VBA has increased 5% overall and four or 5% across each grade level. Just as with ELA, we can see that this data tells us exactly what is prescribed for each school and it is a joint effort. Currently, there are 21 schools receiving additional support for small groupoup instruction and mathematics. 16 elementary schools are receiving support from district personnel and I too will go ahead and read off the departments that are doing this collective effort. We have curriculum, human resources, educational technology, federal programs, ESSE, and student services. Just like with ELA, those people were trained. We went over the remediation calendars that the district has provided both for grades three, four, and five, as well as our lowest cortile and fourth and fifth grade. We meet with

080these people um every other week to see if there's any other supports or concerns as they're working to individualize the support for our students. We also have two schools receiving support for Carnegie learning for virtual tutoring as well as 15 receiving support from the Bailey Education Group. In addition to the remediation calendars, we've had a coach's professional learning that took the district data and drove down a little deeper to their school level trends so that they could identify the benchmarks of concern for each of their grade levels and subgroups as well as what interventions are needed to support new learning. In our middle school, we're excited to see that we have a 4% increase from year-over-year. And just like in elementary, we have other departments that are supporting our schools altogether. From elementary through secondary,

081we have 31 schools that are receiving additional support with this all hands-on deck approach. But it's not just our schools. This is uh Valuchia County. So part of our initiative this year is to make sure that we work with business partners and part of that is to have our reading incentives program. So we have pilot schools that we have reached out to different businesses that are supporting and helping incentivize students for the love of reading. Not just reading to you know do well in school but to be lifelong learners. So with that initiative we are able to provide uh reading nooks for schools. They have reading corners and there's incentives that they are receiving. So they're very excited and we're tracking that through Accelerator Reader and Beanstack. So that that reading isn't just happening at

082school, it's happening at home and wherever students can take a book. So those remediation plans are also still in place at those schools. We have teachers and staff from across the district who are pushing into those classrooms, helping facilitate small groups within those classrooms and helping those teachers as well. For middle grade's math, we have a 4% increase overall. And while when we look at seventh grade, we do see that slight decrease in seventh grade, you can take a look that with a 2% decrease in seventh grade, we have a 6% increase in eighth grade, which nets us 4%. And I believe Mr. Sugar called us that that receipt. Correct. So we can see that as a whole, our seventh and eighth grade students are continuing to grow. We have addressed the seventh grade decrease

083with having a specialized professional learning day for our seventh grade teachers to really do a deep dive on that benchmark analysis to begin to make remediation plans not only to go backwards on the benchmarks that were already already taught but to systematically sequence those benchmarks to support new learning. Currently, nine middle schools are receiving additional support for small groupoup instruction from members of our district team. We have also created those remediation calendars for our sixth, seventh, and eighth grade courses and are utilizing for weekly checks at targeted schools for grades sixth, seventh, and eight. These checks open the doors for conversation between our teachers, our students, our coaches, and our school-based administration to be able to more more specifically target areas of need with our sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. And in high school,

084we have a 4% increase in our ninth, and tth grade students. And very similar to elementary and middle school, we have of course district personnel who are going out to support students at certain schools. And this isn't just the district level personnel who are going out. Our principles, our administrators there, our APS, our deans, coaches, they are all working with students as well. When Dr. Drayton said that all of them are learning, they are they're all involved in the science of reading. They have all been taking professional learning throughout the year and will continue into the next month. and they are learning what to do with small groups as well. For high school math, we're looking at algebra 1 and geometry. And these are different than our other math courses because there are no progress

085monitoring assessments for these courses other than the EOCC. So, we use our Valuchia benchmark assessments to drive our decision-making for where support is needed. It's important to note that that same progression change with seventh grade from March of 2024 also changed how our students progress from algebra 1A to algebra 1 to geometry. This is the first year we would see those students following that progression taking our geometry VBA. And while we have decreased 6% from last year, we are 15% higher than when our course progression was changed. So again, Mr. Mr. Sher, that is the receipt that shows our course progression has worked and our students are more ready to attack the algebraic applications within our geometry course. Based on this data, we currently have four schools receiving additional support for small groupoup instruction from

086members of our district team. Nine middle schools previously mentioned are also receiving support in algebra and geometry. And just like grades six, seven, and eight, we are using the thel checks for algebra and geometry at our targeted schools. Right. Good. Good afternoon. Um I am so proud as I always say when I get the opportunity of our science team, small but mighty, our science teachers and our science students. Um as you can see from the data, they have shown continuous growth for the past three years. Our team attributes this to our four teachers by teachers curriculum maps and assessments. These have been created through cadres and focus groups since I've started. In June, we develop a tiered system of support based on data. And that tiered system of support of course changes as the needs

087change. In addition to our curriculum apps and progress monitoring, we have offered best practice professional learning this year. Each quarter and it's been focused on benchmarks and instructional strategies based on the needs of our students. This year, our biggest change has been the implementation of our K8 discovery ed curriculum. And if you haven't heard about it, it's a 5e learning model. Um, also called constructivist model. So, it starts with an engagement. It goes to an explore. So, all kids have an opportunity to learn from. Students are the ones explaining what they understand, elaborate, and evaluation. Finally, each year we continue to do data cha cha data chats with our students and our teachers and we call this spring training in secondary and we call them data days in elementary school. We analyze the data together.

088We look at student by student, school by school and we create that remediation plan for success um using our penda as well as replays that are created in the district. And I would be remiss not to say if it wasn't for all of our partners that we have in science, we wouldn't be able to do what we do. We have a lot of competitions and you all know because you come. Um we wanted to just thank our partnerships, the Lmens who make sure every fifth grader and every eighth grader gets an opportunity to go to the museum and have that planetarium experience. We have our university partners STSON that just hosted our science fair for 180 students. We want to thank also our partnership with Emery Riddle which hosts science olympiad in two weeks as

089well as multiple opportunities for girls in engineering as well as a robotics competition in two weeks. um as well as our STEM program that you all know about, our STEM buses, uh for all third graders and all sixth graders, as well as our VCS field STEM. Um this week we just hosted Environ last weekend and that has multiple partners such as Futures, Duke, VMA, um MDC, MSC, and so many others. So together as TLLL, as Valuchia County, as Valuchia County organizations, we're able to provide more for our students. So thank you. >> Thank you. Good afternoon in 30 seconds or less. >> You got >> so uh a couple things within social studies. The first thing is uh we have redesigned our curriculum maps so that and they are for teachers by teachers. No doubt

090about it. Uh you'll notice that there is a slight there maybe or there is a slight dip within civics and that is in response to the the new civics and government standards and benchmarks that the state came out with uh two years ago and then they revised some of them uh last year. So that's that's a reaction to it. The the important thing to remember is that um with VBA2 that is our progress monitoring but what's more important is that the EOC the the end of course assessment that the kids take has increased each one of those years. So that is a reaction to to that progress monitoring that we do within within our department and within our our teachers and and students as well. And that's that's a direct correlation to to what the

091hard work is that they really put in throughout the entire year. Um and and we do we also have the best practices and data chats with all of our schools where we focus on tier 2 and tier three schools individually. We go out to the schools and and work with them directly and work and integrating intervention and remediation strategies with them as well. Um, we are supporting our schools with that EOCC prep as as we go throughout the year so that it's not a it's it's not a gotcha at the end, but it's something that they're able to integrate throughout the entire year with with their students. Um we we have additional support now through EXL, Conigo, programs like that. And we are beginning to integrate the science of reading uh which they use in

092ELA because we know that that ELA and social studies are are very closely tied in terms of of the reading that the kids need to do and and so we look for their scores to increase as well as our scores. So, as you heard from our content teams and what you saw on our slides, these are data points. But do you know what those data points represent? >> What are they? >> Children. >> They represent children. And that is what we're here to do is serve our children and to ensure that all of our children engage in those high levels of learning at every day. So we don't look at those as just they're great data points and we do see our work and what we're doing but we know that each one of those

093points are students who are sitting in our classrooms. Um so this is just evidence that what we're doing we have intentional systems. We have a coordinated effort and we are continuing to see that steady progress. So thank you to Dr. Bagman who leads us every day in the work that we do at our district for our commitment to ensuring that we do have those positive outcomes for every student sitting in our classrooms every single day. Thank you. >> Questions. >> Thank you very much TLL team. We appreciate that. Don't go anywhere because now um I did give them two minutes of the board's time for question and answers. So, you all have 12 minutes and 30 seconds for any questions or comments? I'm kidding. Um, anything you would like to ask or comments from the

094board? >> Thank you so much, board. Do you Does anybody have any questions? >> I would have, but they explained that one part. >> Well, I do have some questions. First of all, kudos to you all for being able to align and adjust instruction. you know, when you opened up and said, you know, how many students we serve, it kind of hit me for a second because that's a lot of lives to impact. And the fact that you all are able to use this information to make the necessary tweaks that are going to affect an entire community, that that is amazing. So, thank you for that. I'm curious uh when we were talking about the graduation rate, you know, one of our greatest opportunities. I think we're doing a great job when it comes to

095our traditional valia schools, but what are we doing to support our charters in their journey to uh this improvement as well as we know um you know uh they definitely uh Richard Milbour had an impressive graduation rate without a doubt. However, I think that they also play a role in uh our success and so I'm curious to hear what support we're putting in place there. Thank you, Mr. Cologne, for that question. Um yes, for the support for the graduation students, for the students just um particular with Richard Milbour, we actually have our MTSS chairs that go out there monthly to meet with those students and identify any students that are high-risisk with those students so we can make sure that we're identifying these students and providing the interventions early for them just like we do

096at all of our standard 11 other traditional high schools. So we work handinand very closely with them identifying those students um that we send out our monthly reports to so they're aware of it. Um, and it's just kind of collaborating with them and making sure we're giving them the best possible situation for that student and the best services that we can provide as well. >> What's our greatest opportunity there? >> I mean, it's kind of hard because they're not under our governance, but their results, their success is our success. Yes. And so, you know, while I love being able to say, you know, our traditional schools 98% and as a whole federal graduation rate 95%. >> But I, you know, moving from good to great is hard. And so, what is our biggest opportunity there?

097>> I I would say you'd have to look at it to where you're dealing with two separate campuses that house multiple different variety of students. So, it's making sure that they have a story and know each one of those kids, which is a little challenging. I'm not going to lie, because they don't start out with these kids from their ninth grade year. They get them possibly their junior year or senior year and things like that depending on if the student has um not being successful. But we try to put the situations and the interventions that we have in place at the school base so they're aware and we kind of build off of that. But you have such a wide variety of students needs at one campus that's not like anywhere else in Valuchia County.

098you know, you it's it's quite a mixture. Um, just so you know. So, we we have opportunity to grow there. It's just continue with the partnership and collaboration with RMA, uh, trying to meet the kids where they're at and making sure that we give them every step of the way to be successful and just really individualize and personalize personalizing uh, the learning that's taking place. I will say the reason why he um RMA was not as high as the traditional high schools this year, a lot of it was testing because those students still have to pass the ELA 10 and then the algebra 1 or earn the concordance score with the SAT, ACT or CLT. So that was the majority of what those students who they missed and why. >> Gotcha. Very good. Thank you

099for that. Yep. >> Uh next question was regarding middle school math seventh grade. Explain that. >> Kyle Shaker, >> explain. >> You're you're you're killing me. And so I'm trying to understand what >> Take it down. >> What the logic was. I I I heard you say that we gave them an eighth grade. >> So our seventh accelerated students are taking a course that is sixth, seventh, and eighth grade over two years. So they started in sixth accelerated. They took all of sixth grade and half of seventh. And in their seventh grade year, they moved to seven accelerated. They finished seventh grade and they took all of the eighth grade benchmarks. So their benchmarks are 100% of the eighth grade test and therefore that is fully aligned to their their learning. >> I am not

100accelerated so I missed the word accelerated. So thank you for that. And then the same for ESE math 7th grade. What are we doing? It looked like we have quite a bit of gap and opportunity there. What strategies are we putting in place to help close that gap? >> One of the things that we're working from a curriculum curriculum lens is supporting our support facilitators in that benchmark understanding. Many of our teachers understandably so are not certified in mathematics and therefore they need that additional assistance when they're supporting their students in support of the student not only in that core classroom but also when they are pulling them for small groups. So also too to help support those support facilitators they attend the the PLC's those content specific PLC's as well so that they can

101work with the gened teacher to ensure that when they're working with them they are in alignment. Very good. That's all the questions that I had. Anybody else? All right. Hearing none, we can move on. >> Okay. >> Great work and great information from our teaching, leading and learning team. Thank you, Dr. Vier and team for that. Today, I'd like to welcome up now our first guardrail. Our human resources team, Brandy Hogue, Alisa Fedigan, and Tiffany Fuller will take us through guardrail one. And much like guard rails on the highway, they keep us on track, right? We don't want to be going off into the median or on the other side of the interstate. Um and so as you heard so much about the goal and why we are here for kids and high levels of

102learning in order for that to happen the human resource department plays a critical and crucial role in from anywhere from recruiting and hiring our uh next generation of teachers to be in the classroom with the students as well as our leadership development and our evaluation. So we will take you through that now and we will start with um guardrail one. Our goal the goal all students will engage in high levels of learning every day and the guardrail is to recruit report de recruit support develop and retain highquality staff. Strategy A is cohesive recruitment support and retention systems which will be covered by Miss Fuller. Strategy B support uh current and aspiring leaders to create a strong talent pipeline Mrs. Hogue. and stratey strategy C focus on providing actionable meaningful feedback for improvement and that will

103be uh Mrs. F. Good afternoon. The recruitment support and retention team continues to expand our comprehensive approach to recruiting, supporting and retaining a highquality workforce. Recognizing the varied staffing needs of our district, we have expanded our recruitment partners and initiatives for multiple ongoing recruitment streams that include a focus on both short-term immediate recruitment needs as well as long-term planning and cultivating a talent pipeline for future needs. We have further bolstered our recruitment and job marketing efforts with the support of 21 different staffing partners and recruitment boards and over 42 college and university partners. This year that has included 40 recruitment events for our office alone and over 2500 leads generated from that work from that work. As our work continues to reduce vacancies indicated in the orange bar on your screen, our expanded recruitment efforts

104are bringing more and more applicants into Valuchia County Schools for employment indicated in the blue bar on your screen. 5 years ago, we we processed approximately 4,500 applications with a vetting team of three. This year at the mid-year point, with a complete change in the application system only months ago, we have already processed over 6,000 applicants with just two members of the vetting team. Increased and varied recruitment leads to increased candidates in the pipeline to staff our district and support guardrail one of the strategic plan. As you know, teacher preparation programs have seen significant and ongoing declines in enrollment and further declines in those admitted completing degree programs. In response to this shift in the educator recruitment pipeline, which continues to exacerbate the nationwide teacher shortage, the recruitment office has doubled down in its commitment

105to the strategic plan through the creation and support of innovative pathways to teacher certification. As you can see in the pie charts on the screen, we continue to launch and expand new pathways to bring in and grow our own teachers to meet the needs of our classrooms. Three years ago, we had primarily three primary tracks that we supported, which still relied heavily on enrollment in traditional teacher preparation programs. Now, we are currently supporting seven programs to help staff classrooms and provide pathways for existing employees to pursue and receive their teacher certification. This includes continued management of our traditional intern program, support of the parah toteer program and our student intern teacher apprentice traininee programs, but has expanded to include the certified teacher intern program, the Valuchia associate teacher program, the J1 exchange teacher program, and

106the teacher apprentice program. As a result of these programs, we are currently supporting 96 interns or staff members on their path to teacher certification. this year and 75 classroom vacancies are currently staffed as a result of these efforts. In fidelity to this guardrail, these programs rely on collaborative partnerships with supporting agencies and universities that co-f facilitate these initiatives that allow us to not only grow our staff professionally, but also retain them while developing them into the teachers that we need to support ongoing recruitment initiatives and the needs of our schools. As we expand our recruitment pool, the need for support with certification exams has grown. In response, the recruitment support and retention office has partnered strategically with the learning liaison through teachers of tomorrow to provide access to up-to-date test preparation support for the FTCE

107exams. And now our partnership has expanded to include the new file leadership exams as well. Through this resource, teachers are able to be taught by teachers of the year and experts in their field in the subject areas that they're studying, learning both content and strategy while getting practice on the platform and access to support groups with other educators taking the same test. In addition to the test preparation itself, it provides a community so they aren't studying alone and are further encouraged on their testing pathway toward success. The program has a 90% pass rate for teachers who complete the program successfully and effective just last month, we are able to provide this resource to all VCS employees, removing the license cap we were previously under. As we hire new teachers, the support provided through the new

108teacher academy continues to evolve to meet the needs of the 300 new teachers, 185 secondyear teachers, and the 126 mentors that support them this year. That support expanded to include weekly classroom management trainings and showcase classrooms to accommodate classroom visits both across and even out of the district to meet the learning and the development needs of our teachers. Retaining staff is done in a number of ways. And while new teacher academy is clearly focused on our new teachers, that is not where the focus on retention ends. NTA and Valuchia mentors do a heavy lift in building relationships and creating a sense of belonging which are integral components of employee retention. But professional development and advancement are also key parts of retention work. Through the new teacher leadership pathways and the continued growth of Valuchia leads,

109we are creating increased opportunities to develop teacher leaders and provide choice professional learning at differentiated levels of experience. This includes our newest tech talk teacher series and podcast PD as well as every teacher a leader and teaching with light professional book studies and simply sharing. Additionally, targeted initiatives like our best self-wellness series and the educators thriving program support educator wellness and work to reduce educator burnout by diving into the heart of the matter and creating more work life balance. teaching teachers how to connect and refill their cups before they run empty. This comprehensive and intentional work not only aids teacher growth and development, but provides more reasons and resources for them to stay and continue to find joy, balance, and fulfillment in the important work they do for their students and the ways they lead

110and support their colleagues to do the same. >> Thank you, Tiffany. Mrs. So, >> good afternoon. I'm excited to share today that our leadership pathways are working. We're seeing strong participation, meaningful growth, and clear outcomes. And I'm looking forward to walking you through some of the data that tells this story. Guardwell. Guardrail one strategy B focuses on recruiting, supporting, developing, and retaining highquality staff and specifically calls for building a strong leadership pipeline. While this work is coordinated through the leadership development office, leadership development and recruitment are a shared cross department responsibility supported through collaboration across the district. Our role is to intentionally align and coordinate the work, ensuring leaders experience a clear, coherent pathway rather than disconnected opportunities. We built and aligned eight leadership development programs that support leaders at every stage from aspiring leaders

111to new principles. Through these programs, we've delivered more than 60 high impact trainings in the past year and served over 100 current and aspiring leaders across Felia County schools. What's important to emphasize is that work is not isolated. These programs are intentionally sequenced so leaders can grow, advanced, and be retained in our district. This slide shows the measurable growth across our leadership pipeline over the past two years. It actually goes back three years. Um, ed leadership certification participation increased from 50% 56% growing from 68 to 106 leaders indicating strong engagement in ongoing leadership development. Enrollment in the principal preparation program nearly doubled, increasing 88% in one year. This tells us that more assistant principles are actively preparing to lead schools. The STSON leadership series also saw a 60% increase reflecting growing interest in advanced leadership

112learning. While some programs show more modest growth like Aspiring Leaders Academy, they remain intentionally sized to ensure quality mentoring and readiness. We've we've also successfully transitioned TOAS into administrative dean roles, helping schools build internal capacity while strengthening our leadership pipeline. This growth reflects trust in our leadership development systems and a clear return on our investment. This final slide shows why the pipeline matters. It's leading to real outcomes. 40% of our current administrative deans are graduates of the Aspiring Leaders Academy. In the 2425 school year, 90% of new assistant principles were promoted directly from the administrative dean program. And when we look at school leadership overall, 75% of principles appointed in the last five years came through the principal preparation program. At the same time, 44% of our principles have five years or less of experience,

113which underscores the important of structured preparation, mentoring, and ongoing support across our district. This data confirms that our leadership development system is not only preparing leaders, but successfully placing them where they're needed most. I'm confident that our pipeline is working and it's sustaining leadership across our entire district. At its core, this work is about people identifying talent, investing in growth, and ensuring our schools are led by well-prepared, supported leaders. Together, these efforts strengthen succession planning and build long-term stability for Valuchia County schools. Excellent. Thank you, Mrs. Hogue. And strategy C, Mrs. Fedigan. Good afternoon. So, we have recently fully implemented the FELS, which we uh refer to as the Florida Educator Leadership Standards, and that's an aligned administrator evaluation tool, and we've implemented that districtwide. This work has strengthened leadership practice by clearly connecting our

114expectations to performance and outcomes and by providing a shared framework that supports consistency and accountability amongst our administrators and school leaders. The ongoing training and onboarding on employee performance systems and assessments continue to build confidence and capacity among supervisors and administrators. And as we uh have so many new leaders in our district, that is always a challenge and a a target for us is to build capacity among our evaluators and leaders. As our practices evolve, this investment of time ensures our leaders apply the evaluation framework with fidelity and a shared understanding. We have an we have observed a stronger support focus on learning and collaborative walkthroughs that have been guided by our TLLL division. Evaluators have redefined the purpose of the observation and are using the data collected to inform decisions by identifying patterns of

115practice over time rather than relying on isolated observations. This shift has strengthened our evaluator's ability to identify trends and engage in more guiding growth focused feedback conversations that aligned with standards. They center on improvement and they're grounded in evidence rather than compliance. We continue to collaborate through steering and rubric committees to strengthen alignment and support consistent implementation and trust in our practices. And over the past three years, our evaluation data has remained consistent, reflecting the stability of the system and strong alignment between our hiring practices, our performance assessment processes, and expectations for effective instruction and leadership. Last year's results reinforced that connection with 46% of teachers rated highly effective and 53% rated effective. Together, these outcomes suggest that our evaluation system, our hiring practices, and professional feedback loops are working together to support highquality instruction

116and positive student outcomes. Thank you team. At this time, we'll turn it over to the chair. >> Thank you, board. Does anybody have any questions? >> Miss Haynes. >> So, thank you. Um, your presentation was very clear. I have a question, though, and I already know the answer to this question, but I'd like it to be stated out loud, so I'm going ahead and telling you. Um there happens to be a bill right now that's up in the Senate and there's an entire section where it talks about um requiring um the standards of ethical conduct and requiring the components and pieces for ethical conduct. So could you share with everyone here today and whoever is listening about how we already handle ethical conduct as far as for example under the um leadership piece of their

117evaluation unless something's changed it's component number nine um that they're evaluated on. Could you please share the information? >> Yes, it it was actually standard number nine in our old system. Um in new the new the new standards in FELS it is under standard one standard one but it it is outlined in great detail um by descriptor and our evaluators are not uh evaluated on the entire standard as a whole. They are actually identified as the four descriptors that are under standard one. They are evaluated on each of those individually and they're all equally weighted because our evaluation system for our lead school leaders that was recently implemented values each standard as equally important as one another. So they were part of our old evaluation system and they are part of our new evaluation system

118as well. >> And my understanding is we do training each year also for new teachers that are coming in um or other employees in other areas. We do ethics training. >> We do. And I'll let uh Miss Filler speak to that because that's really part of her NTA group. Uh but yes. >> Yes. So for all employees um regardless of the level of employee, they do receive an ethics um training that's led by our um professional standards office. And for teachers, it's co-led with our our union um our union leadership. And so that's presented to new support members as well as new instructional members. And even our interns get treat um get that that orientation when they come in before they start on their interns in Valuchia. >> Thank you. So what I heard is

119anyone working for Valuchia County Schools does go through ethics training already at this time. So we're already meeting that requirement across the board. And then I'll add to that as schoolboard members, we're required each year to attend ethics training and document it and print out the sheet that we have completed it because it has to be um noticed each year when we fill out our financial form that we have completed that ethics training. So it looks like Dr. Balcomin, we have a 100% of everyone already doing the ethics training. Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, Madam Superintendent? >> Thank you. We'd like to thank the human thank and excuse the human resource team. And at this time, we would love to call up our student services team that is guard rail 2

120led by our executive director of graduation assurance and student services, Mr. Mike McCalliff. Good afternoon, Chairman Cologne, board members, superintendent Dr. Balgabin. Today, our leadership team is going to discuss some closely related strategies that enhance student learning. Although we won't cover each topic in detail, I want you to grasp the overall scope of our work. After COVID, chronic absenteeism rose to up to 34%. Discipline referrals were increased, mental health needs began to exceed our ability to respond, and school and schools consistently requested assistance, but the support we provided was often inconsistent, reactionary, or delayed. At this time, our district systems were not equipped to meet the growing needs of our schools and our students. What we had to do was determine what was needed to fix. We required a culture shift in expectations in accountability

121and how we deliver support to every school every day. >> I challenge my department coordinators and specialists to hold ourselves to higher standards than what we've been required to do and build systems that are transparent, measurable, and accountable for at every level. Every system we've built or redefined is grounded in one principle. Students cannot engage in high levels of learning if they don't feel safe, supported, or present. The progress you're going to see today from my team is a direct result from the commitment to each and every one of them. And right now I have up where with me is Mr. Behringer and Miss Kanes and she is going to go over uh MTSS and MTSS piece with it. You guys are supposed to be walking up now. So okay got up here early. >>

122Yes, they did. So, just to give you guys a little bit of a background information, um we have re actually Miss Kane's and the team or herself since she works by herself with everything that she does with it this summer. She's rebuilt the backbone of what our support system really looks like. And that's the MTSS model. It's not a program. It's an operating system in which we every school identifies students design with interventions and we progress monitor with fidelity. We've moved from inconsistent documentation practices to a new streamlined overview datawide uh driven system that serves all educators and our students. And she's going to take you into a little bit deeper dive to it. >> Yeah. So, Valuchia County Schools has continued to refine our multi-tered system of supports and that individual problem solving team

123process to create a more systematic data-driven approach to student support. Together, these systems serve as our framework for providing successful student outcomes for all students by providing timely interventions um for the areas of academics, behavior, and attendance. So through that intentional system design and strategic alignment with the teaching, leading and learning department, MTSS and IPS now function as a cohesive framework that supports meaningful problem solving and collaboration. As a part of this deliberate redesign, MTSS and IPST has moved to a more dynamic systemup supported approach. We approach this work with a guiding belief documentation doesn't have to be difficult. When systems are intentionally designed with practitioners in mind, documentation supports effective problem solving rather than competing with it. As a result, we aligned our systems to improve efficiency, clarity, and support for educators. One example

124of this work is the reduction of teacherf facing forms by 48%. By streamlining documentation, strengthening capacity through targeted training, coaching, and consultation, centralizing key resources, and enhancing reporting structures, schools now have timely, actionable data that supports collaboration and response decisionmaking. This shift has allowed MTSS and IPST to function as an integrated living system that supports shared ownership, consistent practices, and informed decision-making across schools. The impact of these intentional refinements is reflected in the sustained growth across across the district. Over the past three years, documented intervention plans more than doubled, representing a 132% increase. During that same time period, documented parent contacts also more than doubled, reflecting a 126% increase. This sustained pattern reflects systematic improvement in how schools identify student needs, document supports, and engage families in problem solving. >> When documentation is efficient, expectations

125are clear, and systems are intentionally designed with practitioners in mind, educators are empowered to focus on what matters most, supporting our students. Because where every future begins, student success remains our greatest priority. >> Thank you both. And I'm gonna call up Mandy Elie. And are you doing this solo or is Jay coming with you? >> Solo. >> Okay, she's solo today. So, just so you know, Mandy's going to provide what uh talk about PBIS and our positive school intervention plan uh throughout the district, the framework and the building and the school environments where she knows what's expected, adult reinforcements, positive behaviors, data drives every decision that she'll speak about and we're deepening the implementation, especially at the middle school level and built a year-round rotation and support of infrastructure. So, turn it over to you.

126>> All right. Very good. So, if you're not aware, positive behive behavioral interventions and supports and what it is is a framework for schools to improve um student behavior, strengthen their school climate, and create predictable supportive environments where the students can succeed. So, some of the things that you may see when you walk onto a campus is clear expectations for behavior. We call that our core core behavioral expectations. The teachers explicitly teach those behaviors to students and then there's a reinforcement system to maintain or sustain that that positive behavior. And as Mike said, they do use datadriven decision- making as a strategy so that they can look at the areas that they're celebrating as well as the areas that they still need to focus on growth. So twice yearly, you'll see in the data that

127that we've reflected, twice yearly, the school-based PBIS teams submit implementation data which provides insight and guidance into their celebrations as well as their growth areas. The um PBIS implementation checklist is due every December. So that's what the data is reflecting here. And what we found from our most um our three-year trajectory is elementary schools remain strong rising to from 76% in the 232 24 school year to an implementation level of 78.5%. Middle schools showed the greatest growth increasing from 63% of implementation to 677.5 and then jumping to 80.14. and high schools stayed relatively stable across the years moving from 64.3 to 644.5. Um what we're doing to try to maintain this PBIS focus within the district is we have started a PBIS Valuchia um Facebook page. Follow us and we use that to celebrate at

128all levels so that we are putting out to the district and the community all of the positive things that are happening with positive behavior support. So, we're in our baseline year, so we're just getting there. Um, we will be sure to start tagging and increase that participation so that you can see schools, the things that are happening in the schools as well to ensure ongoing support for the schools in the PBIS implementation and long-term sustainability. We do maintain a comprehensive year-round PBIS professional development calendar. I meet with all of my school contacts quarterly. My resource teacher that works with me is now participating in those meetings as well. Um, in addition to that, we have coaches facilitate monthly team meetings. Those are school-based. We try to make every PBIS team U meeting that we can

129as the district support. And what they're required to do is during these meetings is look at their PBIS survey data. It's all in-house on the Florida PBIS website. Communicate schoolbased needs and questions directly to me for additional support that they may may um need. So, it's very important to me to be able to go to those meetings. They know they can always reach me via telephone or email, but I like face to face. We also work to connect the coaches with relevant professional development opportunities that are provided monthly through the Florida PBIS um website. Thank you, Dr. Elsie. Thank you. Great job. Next, we're going to continue moving on for our school safety and security with Captain Smith and our team. We built a multi-layer of support uh infrastructure that he's going to be addressing

130that combines physical security measures, proactive screening, improved crisis communication, and strong law enforcement partnership. The goal is to create a positive campus environment where students feel safe and where threats are prevented, not just responded to. Captain, >> good afternoon. Every other month, we do safety campaigns. see something, say something, bicycle, pedestrian safety, door, gate, and ID safety, internet safety, and don't vape or do drugs. Based on several recent crashes involving our students, we added in a driving safety campaign for our high school students. At the end of the second quarter, we conducted 72 random screening checks throughout the district with metal detectors. Additionally, we have implemented metal detectors at the entrance of six of our 10 high schools, seven now, where guests are screened before entering. We had not recovered any weapons during our screenings.

131All the schools slated for new cameras now have the Moroi highdefinition cameras in them. This project was completed three years ahead of schedule. This year, we work diligently to improve our crisis communications. In critical incidents like lockdowns, holds, or significant incidents, we work with our communications team to ensure communications are sent quickly and accurately. Additionally, we've been consistently messaging our students and their parents, reminding them of our safety expectations. When we look at the stats at the halfway point of the 2425 school year, we had 25 arrests for written threats to kill. This year we've had 18 at the halfway point, a 28% reduction. Additionally, we had 659 fortified Florida tips. This year we had 304, a 53% reduction. In 2024, we recovered 28 weapons. This year we were at eight. This is a 71%

132reduction in weapons. No firearms have been located either year. Historically, we average two firearms recovered on our campuses a year. This is two years now that we're at zero. Furthermore, K9 Maverick checked 196 classrooms for firearms. >> Great job, Captain Smith. Thank you. Now, I'm going to call uh Jessica McIntyre to come up. She's our coordinator for our mental health um services. And while Jessica is walking up, just to kind of lay the foundation, we set out to make the mental health mental health awareness an early part of our intervention in our district's DNA. Not just a standalone program, but practices embedded to how we hire, we train, we support every adult on our VCS team. Over 18 months, we built comprehensive infrastructures that extends just not from initial staff trainings to ongoing school-based countywide

133throughout the year. Jessica, turn it over to you. >> Good afternoon, Chairman Cologne, school board members. Dr. Bogaman. Um, so over the past several years, we've seen a steady rise in the number of students experiencing anxiety, depression, different traumas, emotional overwhelm. These show up in our classrooms, our hallways, our buses, anywhere that our students are. And our teachers have been saying the same thing. We want help. We see signs, but we need tools. So, that is where we are proud to state that through our youth mental health first aid, we have been showing and providing our staff this education because we know students cannot engage in high level of learning if they are feeling overwhelmed, disregulated or struggling in silence. So, first, we've exceeded our state requirement um for youth mental health first aid training.

13481% of our total district staff have completed youth mental health first aid and 87% of staff with department of education related job codes have been trained. So this puts Valuchia County schools way above the state's 80% threshold. Between June and December of 2025, the mental health team facilitated 25 youth mental health first aid trainings serving 605 staff members. And from January to May of this year, we have 20 additional trainings scheduled, including three now in Spanish to be able to expand for our multilingual staff. Also, youth mental health first aid is also embedded in our new teacher academy. Our onboarding for school guardians and Learns. So, as Mr. McCalliff said, these intervention strategies are now part of our district's DNA, woven into how we welcome new staff and support our students every day. The mental

135health team has completed 75 administrative team meetings which reinforces a united district movement for supportive framework. This is consistent to allow schools to respond early, reduce crisis, and keep our students learning. We've also been doing trauma-informed care and staff capacity to have training on recognizing trauma, self-regulation, reduction in escalation. And through this, we are seeing a positive shift in our climate because we know that understanding trauma discipline decreases, learning increases, and our students feel more supported. Past youth mental health first aid, we are also in the process of developing ondemand microlearning modules because we know that sustainable training requires ongoing reinforcement, not just a one-time session. Through leadership and advocacy, we are seeing mental health champions throughout our district. Our leaders continue to model strong advocacy through open stigma reducing communication, visible prioritization of wellness,

136and that support for emotionally safe and supportive schools. We are also expanding staff wellness to include balance and stress management tools, self-care, and mental health access because again, healthy, supported staff create stable environments and classroom outcomes improve. So, as we look ahead, our district mental health team remains fully committed to deepening this work and advancing the systems that safeguard our students and well-being. >> Thank you, Jessica. Now, we're going to move on to our school-based team with uh Mr. J. Strather for discipline support and school culture. And is Nick joining you or no? Okay. All right. The student service discipline team operates through a structured on-site support model using discipline data and the leadership dashboard. We tier schools based on the need, deliver direct deliver direct support and monitor and progress through bi-weekly updates and

137quarterly tiering of our schools. This is a systematic data-driven and responsive support team which these members of the school are in the schools daily supporting schools and their high needs. Mr. Stler, >> good afternoon. The student services discipline team is committed to supporting a safe and supportive learning environment through a structured systematic approach to student behavior using an on-site support model. The team contributes to the district's tiered support framework by leveraging discipline data from the leadership dashboard as Mr. McCall said to inform us inform how supports are allocated. Progress is monitored through bi-weekly data updates and quarterly data tiering meetings, allowing teams to reset, reassess needs, and maximize uninterrupted academic time. Each week, the team provides provides structured support to 18 identified tier 2 and tier three schools across all grade levels. Through this work,

138more than 300 direct supports have been delivered, including in-class supports for teachers, small groupoup instruction focused on social skill development and positive behavior strategies, and the implementation of systems designed to increase ontask academic engagement for all students. In addition, the team has conducted 20 over 20 school culture walks, structured on-site observations completed collaboratively with school leadership to review the effectiveness of schoolwide systems, expectations, and climate. These walks highlight effective practices such as strong adult visibility, consistent supervision, and positive interactions while also identifying opportunities to further strengthen procedures and enhance student engagement. To support school safety, more than 60 classroom security screenings have been completed using the standardized districtwide process. Two secondary schools are selected each week with two classrooms per site participating in screenings that include metal detection and the support of Maverick, the K9

139unit, and his handler, Deputy Ickley. In addition to school-based support, the team provides ongoing professional learning for administration administrators through monthly administrative meetings, weekly principal huddles, uh to serve as a centralized resource. The student services quick reference guide was developed and made available through the V portal. This one-step resource includes more than 100 tools and references and has been accessed over 1,700 times by almost 800 users, generating more than 161 hours of engagement. Discipline data demonstrates meaningful progress with total referrals decreasing by 18.8% over the past three years. Corresponding reductions are also observed in inschool suspension known as ISS or positive alternative to school suspension pass and vaping related incidents across the grade levels. In the year 2425 you see that we had a total of 911 vape vape incidences on school campuses. To date

140this year we have 548. Um of those 548, 55 of them are second offenders. Several campuses receiving tier two and tier three campus uh tier 2 and tier three supports, pardon me, demonstrated significant reductions in disciplinary referrals. New Summer Beach Middle School, Woodward Avenue Elementary School, and Campbell Middle School each achieve reductions of more than 20%. These results reflect strong implementation of effective school-based behavior support practices across multiple grade levels. >> Thank you, Mr. Strer. And that is everything, but we do have one attendance update we would like to give to you. So I'm going to ask uh Miss Martin if she would come up and speak with this. Uh just kind of wanted to touch base and show you guys some of the steps and the progress we've been making for our all day

141everyday attendance initiative where it was precoid to where it is now postco. The things that we've developed, changed, and put into place. Uh that's a more systematic approach for all hands-on to ensure that all students are in school each and every day. So Diane, turn over to you. >> Thank you. Good afternoon. We know that our students cannot learn if they are not in school. So our all day every day we have been focused on reducing our chronic absenteeism since 2017. And you can see from the slide our precoid we were as low as 14.2% and when COVID hit we rise to about 34% just like all of the other counties in the district and nationwide. But Valuchia is trending down. Last year we ended with 29% and right now we're projected at about 22%.

142So that is a huge huge huge huge decrease for us. As you know it is hard to move the needle with attendance. But I can tell you that our teams in the schools externally at the district level we have been committed committed to reducing our chronic absenteeism. When you look at the next slide from 2023 24 um I want to first make sure that everyone understands what chronic absenteeism is and that is 10% 10% of our students missing 18 days in school. 10% or more suspension, unexcused, excuse, check out, you name it. It is all included all absences. So, looking at having our students reduce from 34% to 29% to now 22% is a remarkable job. Remarkable job. We have been driving the initiative by making sure that we are doing our early and everyday

143outreach with our phone calls to our families, sending our letters, letting them know that we absolutely need them here. This summer, we were able to do over 300 home visits with many of our truent students and families, engaging them to see what we need to do to help them have a great start to this school year. And this year, we have been working with our students, missing five days within a 30 calendar period, so early and often, and making sure that we're having those problem-solving meetings. So we have been doing an incredible job. When you look at the next slide, this is just showing how we have fared across the district. So you see we have reduced um our habitual truency rate 47 to 75% looking at the different districts. Um and so this has

144absolutely been a team effort in making sure that we are looking at working with and strengthening our relationships with our parents, making sure that we are looking at the data weekly, monthly, analyzing what needs to be done at each of the tiers with our students and continuing to remove those barriers. So we've been doing a great job. >> Yes, they have. >> There's a question there. Okay. >> So, you walked out of the room. We'll use um Mr. Clone. >> Yeah. >> Does that mean the numbers >> 50? Well, he's not a good one. So, use mine. So, 57% reduction >> of your schools in your district have reduced truency. >> So, actually, so whoever has the highest number up here has reduced the most. >> Yes. You would just and that's because they fewer

145schools. >> I feel targeted. Fewer schools. >> Yeah, >> you were I was saying what a good job. I don't know what you thought I was saying. I saying good job by all. >> Mr. >> No, no, but that's exactly what that means. >> No, but when I looked at this at home, I was trying to figure out which way are you going. Are you saying, you know, the highest number shows the greatest amount of reduction or is the highest number mean >> we're not reducing? So that's why I had to ask that question. I perhaps read it backwards, but I was saying >> I wasn't sure which way it was. That's why I wanted to know. It was one of my questions I had written down. >> Okay. >> Of two. >> Yeah, I

146was last place. >> I'm like last place. We got to step it up. District >> two chair. Any questions? >> Oh, does anyone have Does anyone have any questions? No. Superintendent, >> great job, Mr. >> But I have to say that Miss Haynes did show great inferencing skills. >> Yes, >> I would. >> At this point is when we would have um the opportunity for a 10-minute break or our teams are here. We can keep keep going through. We have two more guardrails. Okay, we'll take a Oh, it's not I can't call it, but we're prepared for a 10-minute break. You have to call it. >> Oh, at this time, we'll take a 10-minute break. >> Thank you, vice chair. We'll resume at 3:22. >> Thank you. I do it again. Okay, it is now

1473:23 and we'll recommence our schoolboard workshop. >> Oh, sorry. Did I do that in the microphone? What's happening? >> Okay. >> So, we're starting. >> Thank you, vice chair and um audience. We are resuming now and we have two more guardrails to present. So, I'm happy to uh start off here with guardrail three. Improve operational efficiency and maximize resources to support student learning. So uh for strategy A we'll have Dr. who will be talking about our infrastructure and our IT department and how that supports strategy B John Cash and team will come up for strategy B and then strategy C John John Cash and I will cover that um align expenditures with strategic priorities and that's from our finance side. So Matt, >> good afternoon uh chair, school board members, and superintendent. I'm Matt your

148chief technology officer, and today I'll be covering strategy A of Guard Rail 3. Strategy A has four parts and there are four departments within its strategy A is more detailed in the VCS technology plan, which is nestled under the strategic plan. So some of this information comes actually from that VCS technology plan. So recent IT division completed projects, you could see we have a few of those examples there such as improving the way we outfit schools with technology, uh improving the repairs of our technology and analyzing annual staff and student technology surveys, updating our technology use policies. All of our policies in IT are up to date with some recent additions you just approved the last couple of months and deploying new copy machines to all our schools and we're about to also update the

149print shop itself copy machines. So those are division level projects. Next I'll go through the four departments in it. Client services has deployed computers to our students at oneif of the fleet per year. They're now doing that on a regular schedule where we order in the winter, we receive in the spring, we deploy over the summer. That way we don't have any device shortages and it's easier on the budget that way. Uh we've also as a special project last summer deployed special to Chisum Elementary because they be are becoming a Apple distinguished school probably by this April. Um, with that schedule that leaves us with the fall. The fall we deploy to staff. So the, you know, the rest of the year is about other deployments, but in the fall it's about staff. So we

150just completed 1,200 new staff computer deployments. Again, that's one of our fleet. Moving on to the infrastructure department. Uh, infrastructure is that department that you shouldn't hear anything about if it's doing its job correctly. So infrastructure is that foundational piece that's in the background that's really important and does take a lot of money and time to make sure we do it right. We're we implemented a new light speeded uh web filter this year and that's keeping the inappropriate stuff out of our educational technology environment. We transitioned old copper lines to VoIP modern lines and we are now updating all of our telecommunication systems in all buildings to something called WebEx. Um all of our new builds have already been doing that for a couple of years and so we're backfilling to the older schools. We

151rewrote the continuity of operations and incident response plans to make sure that they are updated and uh AG compliant. And we have graded all of our network facilities in all buildings and each month we rebuild one. For example, last month we built rebuilt Manatee Cove. This month uh Dand High School is getting rewired so that it can have new access points put into it. So it's a ongoing process that never really ends. Uh as soon as you rebuild all the networks and all the buildings, you'll probably go right back to the one you did five years ago and start again. Moving on to the software and systems department. Uh we've been talking about that one a lot lately because of the ERP implementation, but they do more than the ERP implementation. They also implemented online

152student registration and online forms last spring and into the summer. Uh that ERP implementation is about 75% complete and 91% less cost for the information and 44% less cost for annual lensure moving forward. Uh we also implemented a Windows 11 migration plan that was successful and finished last September. And we have improved attendance with student services by implementing focus attendance kiosks and automated attendance messages through focus. Now moving to the educational technology department. Educational technology does tons of training for our our um staff. Right now they're doing something called the AI Academy. Last summer they did a lot of training and we're already planning for this summer's training. Valuchia Learns, the admin institute and more. We helped TL launch distance learning courses and we are about to expand that. We have a high school apprentice

153program that went through its first year and now we're moving into the second year. Uh that program really doesn't fully reach its full potential until you have seniors and freshmen in it because you need student leaders and you need kind of student veterans in it. So we're moving farther and farther down the road with that uh including certification programs now with the help of CTE with TLLLO. We also have implemented new software such as light speeded classroom, magma math and brain pop for example and we have integrated AI productivity and instructional systems into school and schools and classrooms such as Copilot, Canva, KIGO, learning progress coach and more. All right. Now we move on to strategy B. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Don't go too far in case we have questions for you. I

154mean, you can go back there, but not too far. Strategy B, increase operational efficiency across all departments within the operations division. Uh, John Cash, uh, Ron Young, Madson Kangi, Heather Deiola, and Rod Smith, and Pat Patricia Smith will help with this uh, section. Go ahead, John. >> Thank you, Miss Core. Uh before we start, I know how much Mr. McAuliffe likes did you know. So I've got some did you know to start on this department in transportation. Did you know that we transport over 20,000 students every day when we look at uh our planning department with Mr. Young is here. Do you know that we monitor uh construction all the time and we're currently monitoring 43 housing proposals for school impact fees and we also launched a reimaging 616 policy that you guys are aware

155of. Also, when you look at maintenance as as Rod is here, did you realize that we serve 89 locations in maintenance? That's what they serve. In addition to that, last year, Mike, they completed 41,893 work orders, in case you were curious. But I saved this one for last, thanks to Heather. So, when we look at Schoolway Cafe, we anticipate this year to use 354,71 pounds of cheese. Now, that's American. That's American and mozzarella, just so you know. It's both. In addition to that, we can't you we like chicken as well. And so this year, we anticipate using 214,596 pounds of chicken. So just a little bit of facts of did you know there. So as we begin, I'm going to go through these slides rather expeditiously. I have the experts to the side here that

156can add any additional commentary if we need be. So we look at strategy B. The first area we're going to cover is under Mr. Young's uh division is design and construction. And as you guys know, this year we were fortunate enough to open two brand new schools. We were opened uh Stark Elementary at the beginning of school and Orange City uh shortly thereafter. Also, Ron and his team with Tom Brown do an excellent job in looking at all of our construction plans and they've saved over $2.6 million by coming in under budget on these projects. I think that's quite an accomplishment to be proud of. You want to add something to that, Rob? >> We've actually doubled that now. Um >> at the time this was put in, you've doubled, >> right? Sarah Soul completed

157the Tamoka project and she brought in about a little over $2 million in savings on Tamoka. So it's over four million now. >> Fantastic. And and the last bullet we have there, which is an interesting piece that we've been doing a better job with, is direct purchases on equipment that we need. That saves us that tax uh dollars that we can be direct rather than going through the vendors. We look at the planning department. You board members know you've been seeing quite a lot of the surplus property that's been coming in front of you. So $13 million is what you see here, but I believe there's one on there tonight uh or some more coming up. We'll move that number even higher than that 13 million. And of course impact fees are something that we

158have to monitor all the time with all the construction happening in Valuchia County tolling over $15 million and we monitor the building permits on a continual basis in that planning department. Anything else that to add on that area, Mr. Young? >> I think you about got it, Mr. Cash. Okay, so we'll move on to Schoolway Cafe and uh these are the goals that Heather has established in the strategic plan. You can see that we're up 1.5 four or five% in breakfast and up about one and a half percentage points in lunch. Anything to add, Heather? We want to talk about Schoolway Cafe. >> No, we're here to feed the kids. >> Thank you, Heather. And they love to eat. >> Sure do. >> So, we have Gangji here and our transportation department next to us.

159As we mentioned, we transport over 20,000 students every single day. Then you can see that we've improved our on-time bus arrivals, 90% in the AM and 50% in the PM. You look at elementary, uh 99 in the AM, 90 for middle in the AM, and 80 for high. But you notice those numbers in the afternoon for middle and high school, they they drop. And one thing I want to point out, I'll ask Mr. Kangji to share a little bit with that. But one thing that I some think sometimes people forget, when school starts, it's at a staggered time that kids arrive. Sometimes parents are dropping off. Bus routes have different timings. When we dismiss, it all happens at one time. So, that's another reason why the AM and the PM uh times could be a

160little bit different. What would you like to add to that, sir? >> Well, first off, thank you, Mr. Cash, um, Chair Cologne, board members, Dr. Bagabin, uh, happy love the bus week. If you didn't know, this is a lot of our schools and I won't take up much much of your time, but a lot of our schools are already out there just showing the love and support and we greatly appreciate that. It really helps with morale. So, although we only have two bullet points in transportation, we fully understand and accept the responsibility of getting our students to school and home at a good time. All right, school on time, home good time. I say good time on that one. Um we our our routing team and our area managers and our our our whole team

161collectively, we always are analyzing and looking for ways to improve. For example, uh we know that in the Orange City area, there are uh delays with our students getting home. Um we were uh fortunate enough to receive more position codes to help with that. um not only for our bus operators but for our bus attendants as well to support our ESC population there. Just some up-to-date information. Just want to just put this out there. All right. For for example, one of our high schools in Orange City University High School, um we've added an additional bus. So, our buses at this point with an average time in the PM are getting to that campus at 3:29 ready to deliver their kids home. Okay, not perfect, but it's where we are right now. Um, River Springs Middle

162School, our average time in the PM of of arriving there, our team to deliver students home is 4:26. These are not perfect numbers because we would like to be there before, but we are working for uh improvement every day. >> Thank you, sir. The last area we want to address here is of course maintenance. And I have uh Rod Smith sitting next to me. I will tell you one thing I want to publicly say. Uh last week when we had that severe cold weather and we opened up that school on the Monday with temperatures in the 20s and like every district across the state of Florida, you had broken pipes, frozen pipes, boilers not working, the things that happen when you have a strain on the system. And I will tell you, Rod and his

163team were up at 5:00 in the morning on site, boots on the ground doing their very best. And I just want to congratulate them for all of that hard work. Some of the things that are highlighted here in the strategic plan that you'll see and I know board members have seen this. They've created two programs for our high school students to intern with our maintenance department trying to grow our own. That's with HVAC and electrical at Mainland and HVAC at Pine Ridge. And I think you guys probably saw last year we had some of the HVAC students out here at DAC and over at Brewster cleaning condensing coils and things like that. So actually out there in the field also the next item here basically what you're seeing there we use some of the ter

164terminology there but this is basically our work orders and you see the response time and you see those days and I'm going to let Rod address that in a minute but I want to point this out. I think it's very important. This does not take into account life safety issues. If it's a life safety issue, HVAC or plumbing or something like that, that is done immediately. That is done that day. They're repaired that day and into the night unless there's a part issue or something like that. A perfect example was Discovery during that cold front. We needed to get an ignition switch and a boiler and we had men on the campus there till 10 or 11 o'clock at night making sure they could get that boiler done. So when it's those kind of issues,

165they're on the ground till it gets solved. Mr. uh Smith, what would you add to that? >> I won't take too long because Kangj went over five minutes, but uh just, you know, our main focus was really to decrease the amount of time that work orders are being open, whether they're safety sighted work orders or proactive or reactive work orders. And uh a big part the big key to us uh being able to accomplish that goal um is the fact that we do talk about uh our KPIs, key uh point indicators, key performance indicators and we make that a priority to all four of our hubs. Um we go over with our workers, our guys will assign them certain things and then we go back and we do check the work orders to make sure

166that all phases have been completed and not just closed out. And lastly, I do want to um shout out to our HVAC students, our student interns. Um you know, one obstacle we have had was, you know, we're short on manpower, but those students in that um HVAC program at Pine RA, they have touched every single school uh in the Deltona area. Uh the work that they do, um it's not just busy work. It actually helps us out. Um some of the things that they've done, you know, they they change out split units, they change out Freon, uh they repair ice machines among some other things. So, uh, the goal is to hire at least two of those students, uh, once they graduate in May. So, we're really looking forward to expanding that program and, um,

167they're they they've just been a blessing to our department. So, I wanted you guys to know that. >> Thank you, sir. >> Any questions at this time? Yeah, I do. >> Oh, no. I'm sorry. Um, uh, John Cash and I are quickly going to channel our inner Todd CE. Uh, strategy C is around fiscal responsibility. Thank you, Rod. We are very happy to report on the our most recent act for audit there were zero findings. Um they and while under um Mr. CE's leadership they had refined their budget practices um especially in the procurement department utilizing our piggyback options when we can to it actually maximizes our our purchasing power but it also speeds up the process. And now at this time are did you have anything to add on? >> No. And I think

168Todd's probably somewhere smiling right now if he's paying attention enjoying his retirement >> online listening attentively. >> Hello Todd. Yeah, I do have a question. And so more and more districts, so this has to do with food service. More and more districts are moving away from the uh requirement for um or doing the free food versus going back to the lunch forms. And as we know, our title one is uh slated to be impacted once again as always. Every year we go through this in our schools. And so, you know, one of the challenges with going through the community benefits is that we can't control how many people go to apply for food stamps, but we can control how many folks fill out the the lunch form. And so, many districts have gone to the

169uh lunch forms again or gotten out of that because what was being reimbursed was not covering the cost of food. Where are we right now? Is it covering our costs? Because I think it it's kind of twofold. I'm looking at it from the title one and I'm looking at it from the cost perspective. >> Yes, we always look at the cost of each meal and make sure that we're balancing out that and also labor. So, there's a a standard um and national standard formula that we follow. 40% food cost, 40% labor, gives us 20% to special projects such as replace equipment, serving lines, dining room renovations. Um, but it really is about increasing meal participation. That's how to balance it out. Um, we still have two years on our community eligibility provision. Um, but we

170do look at it each and every year. Just so everybody, including the public, is well aware, I sit on many phone calls with districts all over the whole state, but also on a national level. Um, making sure that we're keeping pulse of what's going on. On a national level, there is a decrease overall in SNAP benefits. Um, so we're not the only district seeing the decrease. That's statewide. Um, when we go after two years to rebase, we're going to have to look at what our options are. um families are not qualifying on a national whether you fill out the application or you do directly certify they're not qualifying for the SNAP benefits because the eligibility levels have changed. >> Gotcha. And so I I give you all an example just for context. My two high

171schools are preparing to possibly lose title one even though all of our elementary schools are title one with the exception of maybe one. Actually it is title one. And so where they did all kinds of things to help get the families to fill out the lunch forms, they attached it to picking up the computer. They did that. They can control that where if families apply for Medicaid, they can't control. And so when you look at a school that's preparing to lose 200 $300,000 because of something they can't control that they can't do better at that they can't improve on that they can't you know and it's not to say that the children would not be fed if they qualify they are fed. Um but we're losing on the other side. And so, um, I I

172want to say that out loud because I think we're going to have to make some decisions as a board and how do we, uh, continue to support those schools who are going to lose that Title One funding. And so, that's just, uh, my thought and I'm glad to hear we're still breaking even. >> Um, you know, I'm sure you're aware lots of districts are going away from it. So, uh, Miss Haynes, >> so I was going to add, um, there's pros and cons to both sides because what we're doing right now, we're being able to feed every student regardless of what the income is in their home. And even though people want to believe it's easier to collect the forms, it's not easier to collect the forms. I mean, schools have to spend a lot

173of hours and time and coming up with ideas on how to collect the forms, and there are parents out there that won't fill them out or that they're filled out in correctly, and then when an audit is done, then they can be bounced out of it. You know, I'm all about feeding children. Every meal that we can feed a child because we don't know what's happening at home is what I'm for. And that's what finally sold me on going to the community piece was because it allowed us to feed all children. I've already seen districts that are going back the other way and then they're not able to feed all the children because when you go back to the paper form where they're basically saying, you know, I meet these guidelines, but the federal government

174has raised the guidelines, then you can't feed everybody under that form. And I understand the part about schools losing money, but if we go back and look in history, there was a time period prior to 2008 when we um the rug pulled out from under us. We were only servicing 20 schools in Felia County. There were only 20 schools getting title one money. And so there have been things along the way that have increased it. But there's been over the years, if we pull up a history, you're going to see there's a lot of high schools that didn't get it. The only high school that got it for most of the time was Taylor Middle High. And I hear you on that. But unfortunately, it is an aspect of what happens. And it can happen

175either way you go. When we did the paper forms, Taylor Middle was the high school that got the money. >> Wonderful. Anybody else? Thank you, Superintendent score. Thank you, operations team. And our final guardrail communications, Mr. McAlliff will come up and cover this for us. And their guardrail is to ensure high quality community engagement with all stakeholders. >> Good afternoon again. Good afternoon. I'm waiting for Dr. Pierce to come up here. She's going to start and kick us off because we're going to get right into it with strategy A. We have 10 minutes so we're gonna abide by the time. So uh let's get into it. Dr. >> Good afternoon Chair Cologne, board members, Dr. Balagan. >> So our midyear data shows strong momentum across all three indicators, business partnerships, volunteers, and mentors. And each

176is trending upward, either meeting the target or going above the target. and our mentorship has tripled compared to last year, reflecting our sustained engagement rather than one-time involvement. So, we're seeing those mentors starting to come back more frequently. Participation growth across the three three indicators is occurring countywide, reflecting a district level approach rather than isolated school efforts. And these engagements are translating into real student outcomes and real student experiences with internships, pre-apprenticeships, mentorships. So our results really are driven by the community engagement initiative which created that coordinated district-wide approach to building a mutually beneficial actively engaged partnerships. Uh mentor recruitment, retention, and expanded training opportunities have strengthened both participation and sustainability. Miss Goodrich, we'd like to give you a shout out. Thank you for helping us with uh with getting some of our mentor opportunities.

177>> Community engagement teams meet weekly. We also update senior staff monthly. We review um the impact, ensure alignment, and then make strategic adjustments as we need to to build long-term capacity. We were also looking at adding additional programs such as our inaugural BCS leadership which is an opportunity for those business partners to come in to each individual department get an indepth look of what um how we support students in each of those departments and then next year we're going to be launching a community excellence program which is a recognition framework and it's similar to that FDOE five-star program that used to be uh impacted here and uh it's designed to acknowledge and celebrate uh meaningful school engagement. So, we're going to be working to to implement that next year. >> Thank you, Dr. Pierce. Great

178job. So, moving on to strategy B, which is going to communicate openly and effectively with our external community stakeholders. Um you guys can see here that it's all about telling our story and telling our story the way it should be told and the narrative of it and branding our our quality of work. And you can see here by the numbers that you are represented below with the increase of where we're at currently on our social media platforms, which means people are enjoying the stuff that we're putting out there. They're following it more often. They're sharing it more often, liking it, and commenting, which is uh a great thing because we want that positive neutral increase in our media coverage of the things that are going. But this results reflect on intentional narrative strategy. And it's

179not accidental growth. We're not just posting things to post just to say, "Let's get it out there." We have so much good stuff happening in our county, it's hard to get everything out there. I'll be very honest with you, working with the communications team and trying to get stuff scheduled and to make sure to where we're not overdoing it. Um, but it's just that's how large we are and what we have to do with it. Uh, as you guys know, we launched our new VCS truck wraps with our mobile marketing of our 10 fleet trucks. If you guys have seen them around town, it's a great new addition that I think can advertise and showcase the benefits of Valuchia County schools. um we've extended the visibility into our communities where the digital aspect doesn't really

180always reach. So if they're having um digital aspects of it, that's where those trucks and those fleet trucks can really come into hand and helping them out and when they're parked in uh certain areas. As you guys can see, we have a 77% neutral media positive coverage that demonstrates growing trust and credibility with our external stakeholders. Um these are people that are liking and commenting. Um positive comments, I will say positive comments of that 77 increase. Um, so that's a great thing as well. We're trying to make it more um, student-based, student led, so you guys can hear and see it from the students perspective. So, we're just not always telling the story because it's always peers like to hear from their peers. Um, get teachers in there as well to tell their stories about

181what's taking place. You'll start to see a series come out with that of some of our um, resource teachers that are actually tier tier one teaching the classroom in certain classrooms right now at certain schools um, and assisting other teachers and stuff. If you guys look here with our measurable gains uh for stakeholder confidence, you'll see an 8% increase with effective crisis communication from a 69% to a 77%. We have 11% um increase with our informative uh events that are taking place up to 78% and 12% uh higher on social media highlights up to about a 69% now. Year-over-year, we're built we're, like I said, we're building trust in that credible aspect that we're putting out there for our viewers and our stakeholders to be able to see and actively participate and know what's going

182on. It's our job to sell Valuchia County Schools and let them know why we're the best show in town. And this is one of the highlights of what we look to do. Everything that we're putting out there is, of course, you know, happening in our schools. Nothing is scripted. It's live content going out there, but we want all of our families and our stakeholders and community and business partners to see all the great things that are taking place in our schools to help us with our enrollment uh campaign and our marketing aspect as well. When you look at this piece of it, we have some new initiatives that we've started here with uh some of our stakeholder groups and uh we'll talk the first one is our teacher ambassador group uh that's led by uh

183Dr. Vier and his team. He meets with them monthly and gets feedback one-on-one conversation. There's no script. Um, it's kind of that one-on-one direct conversation and dialogue that they get to have to see what's going on and get the pulse from them and their point of view is from all levels. Elementary all the way up to high school is the group that he meets with. Um, he meets with them monthly along with Dr. Balgabin as well. The next thing that you'll see there is um we have as our parent ambassador group. And what that is is we have about 40ome parents that are throughout the district that get one-on-one attention with all cabinet members monthly. And what we do is we meet with them. We ask questions. We clarify their questions. We clarify any misconceptions

184that are out there. Um we look at uh safety and security. Captain Smith did a great job presenting at the last time of safety security. I think Mr. Cologne, you were pretty impressed by it as well with all the stuff that we do have going on that parents and stuff don't really know because of the safety security aspects we're not allowed to put out there. So the parent ambassador group is a great thing that we're building and having them be our voice as well to to showcase all the great things that are happening. We're also doing a book study with the anxious generation with them and that's trickling down all the way from just not our parent ambassadors but our teacher ambassador group but now it's going down to district personnel and also schoolbased leadership

185and principles. And that's just talking about where we're at and the students that we serve today, where it was 20 years ago when we're going outside with no technology and we're coming home when the street lights come on and just see how much that's changed drastically. Uh we have our listen and learns. Uh our salt committee is in the fourth year, I believe it is, taking off. It's great. Some of you guys have met some of our salt students. Uh we meet with them monthly um mostly in person unless they have conflicts and then we'll move it to via teams, just so you guys know. And we're also doing the book study with the anxious generation from them because this is directly correlating with the work that we do day in and day out with

186these students. So it's getting their feedback, their perspective. Um, and as myself, I'll reflected it's it's great to see from my work that I do here, but also being a father of a senior who's about to graduate, you know, and seeing that correlation between both ends. Just so you're aware, uh, we have the increasing our staff appreciations. We've done six uh VCS recognitions, 13 superintendent challenge coins, and we've distributed the 29 um A banners to our VCS uh schools that have earned an A along with all of our VCS pins that we are doing. We also did something very good and creative, I think, as a as a communications team this year with our when it came up to bargaining. Uh that's when we talked about the pay calculator that we were able to put

187out there, the FAQ page and crisis um and making sure that people could actually go in there with their years of service with their longevity and look at it all hand inand and see it right there to their face instead of getting secondhand information that could be misled. So that was a great thing. I think the communications team really did well with the bargaining team to make that visible, very transparent for everybody to see as well. Um and then just turning back to it, it's just into that 10% increase uh growing and effective communication. So we're we're we're headed in the right direction. They have a small but mighty team and we're looking to strengthen it and bring on some right people to continue the good work that's happening in VCS. Questions >> one minute

18830 seconds >> left. I do have a question and so there was a lot of focus on the external communication. What are we doing on the internal communication? >> So um that was strategy C. I don't I don't know that we um enumerated that but strategy B was external. Strategy C is internal. So these slides here are the internal these two slides. So this was external. It's in italics on strategy B and then strategy C was the internal. >> So it would be our listen and learns. It would be our our teacher ambassador groups. It would be salt students. It's all getting that >> Oh, sorry. >> Sorry. It's the salt students. It's the teacher ambassador group. All of get getting that internal, you know, pulse of what's taking place in the school with those

189settings, meeting with the principal council group that I know Dr. B meets with uh monthly. So, it's just trying to always have a pulse on what's going from every perspective that's in a layer inside the school setting. >> Cool. And so, this is my favorite guard rail. Not that I have a favorite, but this is the one I >> You worked on? >> Yeah, I worked on. And so, um, I I'd like to meet to have to discuss some opportunities and how we can, you know, when I think of that, you know, this this tells me we're doing a good job with the folks on this side of the bell curve, but how are we reaching the custodian that only speaks Spanish? How are we reaching the bus driver? How are we reaching, you know,

190how do they get communication? And so, um, I would love the opportunity, if that's okay with you, Dr. B, to to look and understand and sort of brainstorm how we can probably do better. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. >> Okay. To summarize, again, thank you for your attention. We know this was a lot of information in one day. Um, but it's important that we can um share this information with you all and to see where we are as we're progressing through our strategic plan and our midyear point. Um, I hope that what became very evident to you, as it was to me as I was listening, is this theme of it's not just words when we say, I heard it so many different times in different guardrails. If we want high levels of

191learning, then we have to have mental health in place. If we want high levels of learning, then we have to get, you know, kids to school. We have to feed the kids. If we want high levels of learning, you know, we have to have the discipline support team in place and the PBIS and etc and etc. It's not just words. It is our action. It's what we do. Um, so I hope that was clear to you as a theme and also I hope that you that you have taken away here today this deliberate and concerted effort to reduce and eliminate silos between our divisions being here a very long time as you guys know in Valuchia County schools and being on cabinet for a very long time. I have witnessed that myself and I have

192seen uh through Dr. Dr. Balabin's leadership, through her cabinet members, through the other leaders that are out in in our departments and our principles, a severe reduction in the most positive way of silos. Um, people working hand in hand and seeing how much everybody's job and division overlaps with everybody else for the success of our students. So, I I sure hope that that message came through for you today, Dr. Balgabin, Chair Cologne, and schoolboard members, and we appreciate your attention. >> Very good. Anybody have anything else to add? otherwise we Oh, Dr. B, I >> I just want to echo Patty. It's It's funny that you're talking about silos because that's what I was going to talk about is the level of coherence that we see with the work that we do. And really, I

193want to again I want to thank the board because you guys were instrumental. Every single one of you were assigned a specific goal or guard rail that you worked with in terms of with our stakeholders. But not only you worked with those guard rails or goal but you actively support like we heard about Miss even miss Goodrich as she came on you know one of the areas many areas she's been working in but one of it it's mentors mentors we know career and technical education we know reading right CTE programs so I can go on and on I want to thank you for your support of the right work but also this community is built on strong partnership and our success uccess is based on the strong partnerships that we have in this community, which

194is probably one of the best that I've ever seen out of all four counties that I've worked in here. Our partners are truly truly invested for the long term. So, we want to thank them for contributing to our our success. We want to thank every staff member. It doesn't matter what role in which you're in, you're important to this work and without you, it's incomplete. So for every department, you are this success. For every student of the 60,000 plus that's part of Valuchia County, did you know that we are the 14th largest in the state of Florida? Out of 67 districts, we are the 14th largest out of the three 13,33 district nationwide. We are the 57th largest. That tells a story. It tells you that we are a large organization with so many pieces,

195right, that has to interact and work together to create this type of synergy that we see here, eliminating the silo. And this team here and the partnership that we have has been able to achieve this thus far. So I say to you, and I say it in the most boldest way, we're truly blessed to be where we are. And when you're blessed to be where you are, you have to accept that blessing and you have to say, "Thank God for that blessing." Okay? And I say that I thank God for the blessing that we have achieved so far through every single one of us here. And let's continue to praise and be thankful for it so that more can come our way. Okay? The glass can be seen half empty of h or half full.

196And there will always be opportunities, but it's how we come together to address those opportunities in a very thankful way, but also right it's it's your approach. So, thank you to the entire team. One of the best that I've worked with in my career and to this board here, those of you are here today, thank you for supporting the right work which we are seeing that it's impacting our children in a positive way. to our partners that are here and everybody that's watching. Thank you for all that you do to ensure that VCS continues and will remain successful. Thank you. >> With that, this meeting is adjourned. We will reconvene at 4:30. Thank you.