001go to cnn.com we're going to be just a moment we're having some computer issues I apologize I'm not in it welcome today is Tuesday June 13 2023. this is the Volusia County school board meeting we are starting at 4 37 p.m at this time in just a moment I ask you to join me by standing for the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem which will be um stated and sang tonight by Champion Elementary in Ormond middle then following that we will have a moment of silence and reflection so at this time please join me for the pledge hello this is Mrs polite principal of champion elementary school and I'm here with Miss bloxton in our first grade class we're proud to present the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] one Nations [Applause] hi I'm Miss Amanda shimmy
002I'm the choir theater and dance teacher at Ormond Beach Middle School and I present to you the 8th graders from our show choir here at Ormond Beach presenting the national anthem um [Music] what's so proud ly we head at the Twilight [Music] whose brought stripes and bright stars fight [Music] we were so good at least [Music] red glare the bones bursting in air get proof through the night that our flag was still there [Music] yet for the land foreign [Music] at this time I want to introduce those that are here with me on my far left I have Mr Carl purses representing District 4. Mrs Jesse Thompson representing District 3 Mr Aaron Wolfe our school board attorney moving over to my far right we have Miss Celeste Gilmore our agency clerk Mr Reuben clone representing
003District Five Mrs Anita Burnett our vice chair representing District 2 Dr Carmen balgeban our superintendent and I'm Jamie Haynes your chair this year representing District One items for approval on this agenda are items 1.03 2.02 4.01 7.02 and 29.01 public participation times each speaker will have a total of three minutes to speak please respect the time clock for items on the consent agenda you may choose to speak 6 PM for items of general interest pertaining to public education in Volusia County a total of up to 15 minutes will be provided for public comment at this time will be provided for public comment on any action item before a board vote is called on that item and then time will be provided at the end of the meeting for public comment for items of general interest
004pertaining to public education in Volusia County before items from the board superintendent or attorney for discussion announcement or approval also at this time would you please silence your cell phones out of respect for those that will be presenting or speaking this evening our district vision statement and board member comments is how we start all of our meetings off and that is item 1.02 at this time I would like to invite board members to share Mr cologne you may start graduations were amazing special shout out to all of our students teachers principals I it's often said that high school graduation is the culmination of 13 years in some cases more of the work of our students and so congratulations we also have a celebrity in the house today he's humble valedictorian from Seabreeze Mr Mathias Cabeza
005is here with us today is so we are very very happy and and again thank you all for the support last board meeting I was able to make it to my son's senior Awards and uh graduation of course was really exciting for our family uh and last but not least today is my daughter's 13th birthday so happy birthday Sienna 13th listen to me 16th birthday oh 16. 16th yes today is the 13th tomorrow and so she's turning 16. so happy birthday thank you Mrs Burnett thank you um I I agree that the graduations were amazing they were fun there was many of them that were really fun I really liked there was two schools that um started off with Sweet Caroline as everybody's walking in and I just think that that set the tone for
006some fun to happen and it was really it was I liked it I was kind of getting down with that um and then we all got to go attend the fsba last week and that was nice and I know Mr persis mentioned about the the um the course for the creating a positive culture and that was to me was the most impactful event that I witnessed down there or attended because I really think that that does help and while we while we all need to hold people accountable there there is a right and a wrong way to do that so I just thought that that was a good session for me anyway um so anyway that's it thanks all right Miss Thompson and I'm going to jump on the graduation bandwagon because it was a
007lot of fun but one of my favorite Parts you're right about the two sweet Carolines but some of the valedictorian speeches were absolutely phenomenal and moving and I mean they were great and also set the tone for the graduation and also I know we're going to discuss it in a little bit but just another shout out to the New Smyrna Beach High School State volleyball Champs twice so excited to see them back in here Mr purses uh thank you madam chair uh I want to give a shout out to my colleagues here who attended all 10 graduations or 11 or however many there are I was only at three of three of them so I give kudos to to you guys and it is exciting though it is like so much fun uh I will
008mention one one thing though that none of you could uh were there for and that was the end of the year party at Holly Hill School it was yeah I said you know I haven't been to an end of the year uh party and it was on a Monday and it was after graduation so I I so I could attend and it was interesting to me because as you know how Holly Hill had a first-year principal there and I was just interested to see you know how many people would show up and what the mood was like and I was very happy to see you know just a lot of positivity and people looking forward to the next school year and so I wanted to give a shout out to the staff and the uh
009principal there BJ bogus at Holly Hill school thank you madam chair thank you I'll add to that absolutely graduations are the highlight and um Vol this was their first graduation this year and so that was exciting to see those students walk across the stage but prior to getting to the Vol and the other 10 high school graduations um most of us attended the project search graduation which that's the one that you have to take tissues with you because you're going to cry but they graduated the largest group of our ese students this year and this is in conjunction with Halifax Hospital they take our students that have finished ese programs and they bring them to Halifax hospital and they give them three rotations of learning in different programs in the hospital and those students walk
010out with employment skills and become employed and it's interesting because we've hired some of them back into our own school system to be in schoolway cafe or facilities and maintenance Halifax Hospital and employees them last year I was waiting to see if we'd have one say it this year but last year there was a young man that had gotten a job at Panera and he was thrilled and just to see those students and their families there and the excitement that their child can now go to work and make a paycheck when some of them thought maybe that wouldn't happen it's a wonderful thing and they truly find the niche that they're the happiest in because you can look at them and say oh maybe they'll be happy doing this but they find something that they
011like better and I know that Mrs Burnett gets to interact with them a lot over the hospital site in Daytona but they also work out of the Port Orange Halifax Hospital and the one here in Deltona then I'm gonna I did something none of the rest of you did I went up to Pearson Elementary has a long time standing Day in May similar to kind of like when we did May Day years ago but what this is is it's a part of their fifth grade graduation and so it's outside and the rain held off until just as it finished but each class and sometimes they pair up they come out and they perform and they dance to music and they they prepared their performance all the fifth graders are there dressed beautifully and they're you
012know graduation attire and the little boys have boutonnieres and the little girls have flowers but every group is great but when you watch Pre-K dance for the fifth graders and the fifth graders are excited about it and then when it's over you go inside and they do their awards ceremony but it's a wonderful thing and I also this year got to I couldn't attend Taylor highs award ceremony because it conflicted with another thing but I went to their Baccalaureate and this is what when I walked away that night away from their Baccalaureate this is what I thought to myself the students ran it so their students designed the order they invited five of their local pastors or priests to come and they had a job for each one of them but each one of them
013kind of didn't follow the agenda it was perfectly fine it turned out beautiful because each one of them did a prayer and um they weren't expecting that but it turned out beautiful and a young man played the piano and another young man played the guitar and so it was their service for them and it was just it was an honor to be there but Mr clone and I also went over to the Daytona State Job Fair because I was there and I called him and said if you're close by can you come we could use some translation help because we hit that hour and we're in Deltona and you need a lot of people to help translate and that was really good and then you left off something Mr persis that we did right before
014we went to Tampa principle no the bus Brigade ah the bus were great so Mr persis and I because you know they like to twist our arms and tell us to come get on the bus we went and got on the bus early Tuesday morning um at 8 A.M out at Olson and we had the honor and privilege to visit Timbercrest Elementary Creekside Middle and then on to Port Orange elementary to award this year's Elementary and secondary principal of the year and the superintendent's outstanding support staff and they didn't know we were coming I I I was surprised at how surprised you know because usually you think somebody's gonna leak it and they're going to know we're all survived they were all surprised this year and it was it was just great to see all
015of them and see how surprised they were by the fact that their staff or someone had put them up see how much their staff loved that they were getting that award yes that's what impressed it was and um we brought tears to a couple people's eyes because they were really surprised but the other thing is we also had 43 um current assistant principals finish the two-year principal preparation program and that happened also right before we headed out the door for Tampa and so we had a chance to honor those 43 assistant principals that have done two years of training in hopes that if that's the path they want to walk that they can be added on to the principal list and I think even tonight we may see or hear from a few of them
016but that's a lot of what's been going on it's been a busy couple weeks since the last time we were here we do have one more meeting this month I want everybody to be aware of it will be two weeks from today so it will be on Tuesday June 27th and it's just a school board meeting and then at that point we'll take a little bit of a break and we'll be back in the end of July but moving along we have item 1.03 I need approval for the minutes do I have someone that would like to make a motion move approval of the minutes Madam chair thank you Mr persis do I have a second a second thank you Mrs Burnett any discussion or changes to the minutes okay then I will call for
017the vote all those in favor of approving the Amendments please say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously all right now we're going to item 2.01 agenda changes Dr balkovan are there any agenda changes before the agenda is presented to the board for approval yes Madam chair I would like to recap request that I item 19.01 be moved before 18.01 okay all right board you've heard that the superintendent would like to move up 19.01 which is the only single board action item to take place prior to 18.01 I did ask what I learned of this yesterday and part of it I think is our committee is going to be here and out of respect to the people that have served on the insurance committee we don't want them to have to wait till the end
018of the evening because they have volunteered their time is everyone and any discussion on that all right then I will call for I need a motion to approve that we move eight 19.01 to be ahead of 18.01 motion to approve agenda has amended thank you Mr clone I need a second thank you Mr persis I'll I'll call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed passes unanimously all right we are now at item 3.01 announcements by Dr Balboa thank you madam chair board members members of the audience and for those of you who are comfortably at home listening good evening to all of you just a few items this afternoon I will be remiss if I didn't begin with the why why we're here and yes we attended 11 graduations
019this year close to 4 000 students we've graduated and as I've I've always said this that the work of our graduates it really begins so many important people plays a role in that what we see there but congratulations to all of our graduates and I'm I wish each and every one of you post graduation success you will see the number of AAA degrees that our students have obtained this year it's higher than any other year along with CTE certifications that they have obtained many students have actually gone beyond the two years you've experienced that and board we spent a lot of time together and even though we were extremely tired because we went all the way into the weekend it was so gratifying to sit on that stage and look at our students that are
020coming before us because that's our future that's our why so congratulations to every graduate to all of your parents for their perseverance and being there and supporting you each and every day your family members to our community for your support board to each and every one of you and to the amazing staff that we have serving here in Volusia County Public Schools so again our success your success is our success so I will begin there Volusia learns last week we kicked off Volusia learns and Volusia learns is professional learning for all of our staff members especially our teachers but you will find that a lot of our administrators also attend these sessions and we were at the conference last week when we were hearing a lot of our teachers posting about their learning and it
021was so gratifying again to see how excited they were to embrace these learning experiences because I always and I firmly say this you know what you you you listen to what people say but also you look at what they do and our teachers are committed into doing the right work for students so 1200 participants registered and yesterday we had a session one session because we did the kickoff very early in the morning we had a session where there were nine students nine of our very own students from elementary middle and high and a post a student that already graduated but they were there on stage and it was the student panel student voices and there were some really good questions that were asked in some really good answers that were given but I will tell
022you that I sat there and I saw that for every answer that was given from our students to those questions the audience they were just applauding they were applauding so I love that we have our students speaking sharing their perspectives because it creates engagement it creates ownership for the work that we do so congratulations to all of our 1200 participants who have registered you know what the day you stop learning is the day you stop growing now the bus Brigade I am we have a video because I'm not going to disappoint any of you you're used to those videos but we're going to show that at the end a short video there you go Miss Burnett you're going to see the Elementary uh principal of the year or secondary principle of the year and our
023super superintendent's outstanding Achievement Award winner and again this was a committee formed by our very own Futures Foundation who supports our goals and our mission here in Volusia County but they have orchestrated this whole process worked in collaboration with our district so I'm very thankful for them as well but we'll show that video at the end though what's up coming we have an entire week plan for our administrators and it's called the four day of professional learning focusing on instructional leadership that's the work in which we're engaged into doing so all of the professional learning that will be taking place from uh the 23rd through the week of the 23rd all of the themes have been carefully selected Based on data that we have seen this year surveys that has been done walkthroughs that has
024been conducted uh conversations that we've had from our principles and basically looking at where we're going and getting ready for that so we're going to be facilitating our cabinet members along with myself we will facilitating many of those sessions so you're invited to to those that are upcoming July 24th through the 28th that's that week um and the theme for administrative Institute I think Dr Vaya gave it out a little bit at the workshop earlier it's refining our practices to impact student outcomes refining our practices to impact student outcome and we'll be able to make specifically those connections in every single one of those segments so again we said we've got to continuously learn so that we're growing and reading we know it's a foundation right when it comes to learning reading skills so for
025this summer we're going to have the superintendent's Home Run summer reading challenge and Mr Gomez and his team will be doing weekly Blitz but just to let you know a little bit um their the Daytona Tortugas they're going to be sponsoring this for us over the summer so it starts now through July 31st uh parents if you're listening please log into being stack on our V portal and in being stacked through our V portal you will be able to record or your child will be able to record the readings that they're doing and with with the recording that will be taking place prices will be given away what are some of those prices free meals experiences and I say experiences because it could be a fun experience it could be an educational experience take it
026to the Tortugas games and many many more incentives but you've got to log log in you're reading um minutes in in V portal and if you are not planning on going anywhere Thursday this coming Thursday please if you're an employee especially if you're an employee but if you're a family member as well please go to the Jackie Robinson ballpark this Thursday you want to know why it's Teacher Appreciation Night and we will have a lot of our staff there all they need to do is to present their VCS badge and they will get a free ticket to enter and then prices will will be a part of it as well and the game starts at 6 35 in Dr balgebin and it's a no judgment Zone I want to make that very clear everyone listen
027to what I'm saying it's a no judgment song but I will be honored to throw the first pitch precisely at 6 10 okay and you can't use your cameras to do any videos you gotta practice you gotta practice um it's only 90 feet it will right and last but not least this Sunday it's Father's Day and we have so many of you in here that um your dad's and you know what a special experience that is but also for those of you who serve in the role of a dad or of a father or of a role model to someone that needs that role modeling I want to say that I hope that you guys have a great day where you're able to relax with your loved ones and just take it in really every
028day should be fathers they like the same as Mother's Day but um June the 18th it's official so congratulations and Madam chair that's it for for this evening short video we do have the short video okay [Music] ready to go [Music] thank you they said that you are one of those individuals that you're very very hands on as a leader we know how important that trait is Right you've got to lead by example and that when it comes to students results student learning that is your top priority that made me so happy that your Mantra is always why can't school be fun why and you have a tremendous staff here and on behalf of the entire team on our wonderful board we're here to present you with a plaque I love all of the social
029media posts things that are happening here and I love the fact that he dresses up but you know think back what did he start teaching he started and when you teach kindergarten guess what you have to do you have to dress up and have fun because that's what kindergarten's supposed to be is fun so congratulations on behalf of Futures Foundation our board of directors for you thank you some cash to spend time it is such an honor and such a privilege to be here at Timbercrest and work with the best faculty and staff all of your hard work all of the things that you do for our kiddos is what makes my job worth you know exciting and enjoyable and I appreciate you each and every one of you so much um timbercrest's family as
030you know so I share this award with all of you and I appreciate all the love and support you give me day in and day out thank you to Futures thank you to superintendent and to the entire cabinet I appreciate the opportunity I love my job I love what I do and most importantly thank you to my family [Applause] um my wife is my rock my kiddos are my rock and oh man even as of um last week my wife came in to participate in career day and just those little things uh mean so much to me so I love you [Music] on behalf of the board our chair who's here with yours your with your plaque and our entire team and your most importantly your wonderful family here work family and personal family we
031came here to congratulate you and tell you well deserved we're here because every child deserves a great education and you're one of those people that has dedicated your entire career to making sure that happened from the moment you taught all the way up till now as a principal and I'm so proud to have known you and been able to work with you every year so thanks [Music] and it is truly my honor to serve you guys and this school in this community and I'm going to close with this this is not a comfortable thing for me but I can't thank you guys enough thank you [Music] so I'm looking for a Christy Markland where is she your team here your family here has nominated you ready for one outstanding Achievement Award really we're in the
032business of teaching and learning but to be honest with you every piece of that puzzle is so important and without the support team that we have here at Volusia County Public Schools we couldn't do this job so thank you so much for being that face and for being that person that makes this school what it is today along with the entire team this is a special school the the people the teachers that have uh that's right taught here for years and years they're like just always great but what makes it what it is is people like you yeah [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] thank you we're moving right along now item 4.01 administrative appointments and transfers Dr balguban thank you madam chair board members and members of the audience so we're going to do it
033a little bit differently this this evening there are nine appointments and I'm going to do the recommendations for each they will come up they will speak I think 30 seconds you said right or three minutes five so when we're done I will say we're done with all nine and then at that point in time we will come up one at a time and we'll take the pictures with with the appointed and their families on the board so what we're asking of you is please stay until after we've gotten a photo with you all right so we know you want to go out and celebrate but just hang on a little hang on hang on all right ready Madam chair I'm ready all right so our first appointment um that we have here with us is
034Miss Christy Castellano and I would like to ask Miss Chrissy Castellano to come and join us please to tell you a little bit about Miss Castellano Miss Castellano has been with Volusia County Schools since November of 2022. she came to us from the Department of Education where she served as a school Improvement specialist for the state she's earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Central Florida on her master's degree in educational leadership from National Louis University in Orlando Miss Castellano has also been working in education since 2009 when she started at Dillard Street Elementary she's worked also as a senior administrator in the school transformation office for turnaround in Orlando as the principal and also as a principal at Legacy High School in Ocoee today if you approve I'm recommending Miss Christie Castellano is
035the executive director K-12 curriculum teaching leading and learning to board members you've heard the recommendation from the superintendent do I have a motion to approve motion to approve second thank you so Mr cologne has made the motion to approve and Mr persus has seconded any discussion absolutely it's a board if you haven't had the opportunity to spend 10 minutes with Miss Castellano walking classrooms I will share with you that it was life-changing it was the the level of understanding of curriculum where students should be the standards and how we could do it better didn't take long to just come right out so I am super excited at the impact the greater impact you're going to be able to make in our district and we are grateful that you are here thank you anyone else I
036would like to add to that everywhere I go people are happy when you come to visit them and you give them feedback on what's working great or what they can improve on their campus so so if there's no further discussion I will call for the vote all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye any unopposed all right it passes unanimously yay [Applause] the microphone I didn't bring my my glasses so let me pull it back a little all right good afternoon Madam chair board members Miss Burnett Mr cologne Mr persis Miss Thompson and super into superintendent Dr bagabin I am honored and humbled to accept the position of executive director of Elementary education at Volusia County Schools I want to express my gratitude to Dr balgaman and Dr Nazario Valle for entrusting me
037with this responsibility for their confidence and my abilities as I step into this new role I am committed to upholding the values and principles that have made our organization successful I want to assure you that I am fully committed to serving Volusia County Schools and our mission I will work tirelessly really honestly it had to ensure that we continue to deliver high quality education to our students while fostering positive workplace in a culture to many of the colleagues that I have worked with and currently work with thank you for your support I also want to thank my biggest fan club my family who's here with me tonight my mom Denise my dad's Rob and Ed and my sister Kelly brother-in-law Matt my wonderful husband Arnold and my children Anthony Haley Angelina and Alex I wouldn't
038be who I am or where I am today without their support love them and thank them for everything that they do for me I thank you again for this opportunity I am excited to get to work and make a positive impact here in Volusia County Schools we will not only be in a district but we will be the number one educator of students here in the State of Florida thank you [Applause] thank you madam chair oh and by the way Christy since it was approved your your start date is July 3rd 2023 7 o'clock in the morning uh so the second individual that I'm going to ask to come up please and join us her name is Miss Milady estacio Miss milady estacia earned her Bachelor's of Arts degree in Psychology from Long Island University
039in New York and her first master's degree in elementary education from the city University of New York and her master's degree in educational leadership from the bank Street College in New York City she holds certification in elementary education k-6 English speakers of other languages Esau and educational leadership Miss astacia started teaching in 1994 as a bilingual teacher Ela and move up to assistant principal New York City Public Schools for the past 18 years she has been an elementary principal in Hills in Hillsborough County and also a turnaround principle at several schools today I'm recommending Ms estacio as the Director in elementary curriculum and teaching leading and learning if approved by the board here this evening her effective date also will be July 3rd seven o'clock in the morning okay board you've heard the recommendation of
040the superintendent do I have a motion a motion to approve a second thank you Mr purses any discussion I'd like to say this when I looked over your resume I was so impressed that you know in 2004 you decided to leave New York City and come here to Florida and that you have been here actually longer working in Florida than you were in New York City but to have earned your degrees up there and taught in New York City I have friends that teach in New York City and that's a big deal but we are looking forward to this so any other discussion all right then I'll call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously welcome [Applause] so I'd like to say to all of
041you madam chair School Board superintendent everyone thank you so much for this opportunity um I'm truly honored to be able to contribute to the great work that's already happening here in Volusia Madam chair um when you spoke about the support that's given to our ese students it really touched my heart um so sorry I honestly believe with all my heart that all students can learn and I'm honored to be part of the district that believes that also I look forward to the work that I'll be doing with everyone um to make sure that all of our students are able to reach their Highest Potential hey [Applause] it's all you bro superintendent you have the script I don't get a script she's it's her turn oh it's her turn oh she's gonna tell you it's you
042your next one ready the next person okay ready I wasn't sure our next administrative appointment to join us this evening is Miss wadali's Camacho however yes skipped I am so sorry I'm sorry you guys threw me off a little bit you know I am sorry our next administrative appointment you guys ready I was checking to see if the audience was paying attention it was only our chair um I would like to ask to join us miss Leslie Frazee Miss Frazee now just to share a little bit with you miss Leslie Frazee has been with Volusia County Public School since 19 1991 and this is when she was a teacher at Osteen Elementary she's earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Slippery Rock in Pennsylvania and her master's degree from the University of Central Florida
043she holds certification in primary education Elementary education case six and principal leadership during the more than three decades of service to the students of Volusia County Schools she has been a teacher she's been a Dropout prevention teacher she's been an assistant principal a principal coordinator of title one as long as well as a coordinator of employee performance and Leadership and at one point in time an AP with Vol 12 800 students today I'm recommending Miss Leslie Frazee as the Director in elementary education curriculum teaching leading and learning if approved by the board again start the July 3rd 2023 7 am right you've heard the superintendent's recommendation for Miss Leslie Frazee as director Elementary curriculum teaching leading and learning do I have a motion I make the motion thank you Miss Haynes is there a second
044and second thank you Miss Thompson so we have the motion do we have any um anything we'd like to say any I'd like to say something so I've had the honor and privilege to work with Leslie throughout her career in my career and our paths have crossed at different times and we've worked together and we survived summer schools and all kinds of things but I will tell you she's an excellent principal at DeBerry Elementary and it's hard to let her go from that but I also know that this is something that she's prepared for and when we talked earlier today about all the new assistant principles and principles we have she's the right person to help with that and what they need and so I'm supporting it any further discussion all right I'll call for
045the vote all those in favor say aye aye any opposed all right motion paths thank you [Applause] good afternoon chairman chairwoman Miss Haynes members of the board and superintendent Dr balgubin I'm both humbled and excited about this new opportunity and Challenge on my professional career path I've been blessed by working with many amazing teachers and leaders in this District over the past 32 years there are just too many to name but they know who they are I'm thankful for Dr belgabin and Dr Valle for their trust and confidence in me as I move into this new job role I've always tried to be a positive role model and an advocate for Volusia County Schools I believe in public education and I believe that we do make a difference in the lives of our children and
046our future I want to thank my husband Mike who's been by my side from the very beginning he keeps me grounded in smiling all the time and he's also the father of our two beautiful boys and our three gorgeous grandchildren I pledge to give 100 and lead with Grace and respect thank you so much [Applause] all right so our next administrative appointment fortunately could not join us here this this evening because there she had a pre-planned engagement but I would like to recommend to the board Miss wadalis Camacho as the principal of Luis McKinnis Elementary she has been with Volusia County Public Schools since 2005 and began as a teacher at friendship Elementary Miss Camacho has earned her bachelor's and master's degree from Stetson University she holds certification in English speakers of other languages eson
047elementary education and educational leadership her extensive background includes a range of ranges of roles from administrative TOA and Esau teacher to reading and math interventions to instructional support TOA and academic coach she's also been an assistant principal she's been a teacher and assignment and her last position was assistant principal at Citrus Grove and Freedom Elementary she just completed our principal preparation program and if approved by the board here this this afternoon this evening her effective date again will also be June July 3rd 2023 7. am all right thank you all right you've heard the superintendent's recommendation for Miss wadalas Camacho to be the principal at Luis McKinnis Elementary do I have a motion I make the motion and do I have a second second very good any discussion I've known her since she started teaching
048and I've got to watch her like grow up and develop and everything matter of fact her mother-in-law was a para for me years ago when I taught at Enterprise Elementary and so I um I know that she lives in this community and I think it's been a dream of hers and so I think this will be a really good thing for the DeLeon Springs Community any further discussion we want to wait for the video or Miss Hazel you had mentioned all right I'll go ahead and um call for the vote now please all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed all right motion passes thank you I think we're trying to decide if we have a video or not she may have done a video think she can come to the next board
049meeting and express her sentiments okay don't get out of this that'll work that I like that idea all right yeah all right moving forward ready yeah all right moving right along um I would like to ask Miss Dr Catherine Cortez to join us Dr Cortez has earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education from Stutz University her master's degree in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University and then she went on to earn her doctorate degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Central Florida she holds certification education leadership K-12 Elementary education one through six and has an easel endorsement and a reading endorsement Dr Cortez has been with the Volusia County Schools since 1989 when she started as a teacher at Pearson Elementary she went on to teach at Citrus Grove Elementary and then became
050the administrative teacher on assignment there more recently she was the assistant principal at Blue Lake Elementary and then the assistant principal at Lewis McInnis Elementary today if approved by the board I am recommended Dr Catherine Cortez as the principal at Edith start Elementary and again her effective date will be July 3rd 2023 7 A.M all right thank you you've heard the superintendent's recommendation for Dr Catherine Cortez to be principal at Edith Stark Elementary do I have a motion I make the motion thank you Miss Haynes do we have a second the second thought motion very good any discussion I know yes I've known person she start she was teaching at Pearson Elementary and our paths crossed and her husband is still up there and then she went on at one point to one of the
051schools that has another piece of my heart which is Blue Lake Elementary and worked with a lot of the great teachers there that have been there for a while and I'm so looking forward to you taking on the challenge of Stark Elementary and a new building project because we have a brand new school that we are going to build there and I'm looking forward to that and I know that all the love that you have poured into students along your path you'll continue to pour into the kids there so thank you any further discussion all right I'll call for the vote all those in favor say aye aye any opposed all right motion passes yay [Applause] good afternoon Madam chair Haynes board members Dr balgobin members of the audience from Osceola Elementary with Mary Carpenter
052to Ormond Jr with Walt Bailey to Seabreeze high school with dick Edson I'm a proud graduate of Volusia County Schools after moving to DeLand to attend Stetson University I decided to begin my educational Journey with Volusia County Schools upon graduation after teaching at Pearson Elementary for 28 years followed by two years at Citrus Grove Elementary I became an assistant principal at Blue Lake Elementary and remained there for two years after my second year as an assistant principal at Louise s McGinnis Elementary I'm now ready to begin my first principal ship thank you madam chair Haynes board members and superintendent Dr balgobin for appointing me as the principal of Edith I Stark Elementary School after completing my 34th year with Volusia County Schools I have been blessed to work with many amazing supportive colleagues both at
053the school level and the district level thank you I'd like to thank my husband who couldn't be here tonight he had to fly home to be with his mom our three children Luis Leah and izia who all earned their IB diplomas from Delan high within the last six years and my mom who is here with me today and dad for always encouraging me and for their unconditional love and support to my new koala family I look forward to meeting you working alongside you and leading you with Grace and respect Stark is on the rise growing leaders in every size [Applause] I do have to share with you something that I found out during the interview Dr Cortez is 100 percent fluent in obviously English but also Spanish I didn't know all right our next recommendation
054I would like to ask Dr Chad Miller to join us Dr Miller a little bit about Dr Miller he's earned his bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida and his master's degree in Ed leadership from Stetson University and then went on to receive his educational doctorate degree from Nova Southeastern University he holds certification in Ed leadership K-12 Health K-12 Physical Ed K-12 Elementary k6 clinical Ed ESO endorse NCI certified you'll be able to cover quite a few classes if needed Dr Miller has been with Volusia County Schools since 2015 when he started as a teacher at Palm Terrace Elementary then he went on to becoming a teacher on assignment at New Smyrna Beach High and South Daytona Elementary before becoming the assistant principal at the berry Elementary and now currently the assistant principal at
055Forest Lake Elementary today I'm recommending Dr Chad Miller as the principal at Deltona Lakes Elementary if approved his effective date again will be the same July 3rd 2023 and we know the time so born you've heard the superintendent's recommendation for Dr Chad Miller to be the principal of Deltona Lakes Elementary do I have a motion I will gladly make the motion that Dr Chad millerby the newest principal for Deltona Lakes Elementary thank you Mr clone do I have a second I'll second thank you Mrs Burnett any discussion I've also had the opportunity you have to you know everybody no I ran into somebody the other day I didn't know no no I first got to know Dr Miller at DeBerry Elementary and then he went on over to Forest Lake which is in your area
056and he's done a great job and I know that he's worked hard to get to this point and we appreciate that and we're looking forward to you and what you're going to bring to Deltona Lakes Elementary all right if there's no further discussion I'll call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously [Applause] thank you good evening Madam chair Miss Haynes members of the board and superintendent director Michael Dunn first I would like to thank God for this opportunity and this blessing in my life I'd like to thank my thank my Courtney who is in the crowd today and she's also at Deltona Lakes alumni you're always pushing me to do more I'd like to thank my kids Avery and Archer taught me a new layer of
057patience when you come home from your school day to two kids under five there's some moments of challenge but you will never change a thing thank you I'd like to thank my parents my in-laws and siblings for always encouraging me through this journey in my past administrators especially those principles while I was an assistant principal Miss Freeman miss fettigan and miss Frazee two of which are in the ground have all provided me with a lot of leadership opportunity and shown me different styles and helped me grow into the leader that I am today I'd like to thank Miss Brandy Hogue as the person tasked with preparing all of us Future Leaders for Volusia she really has helped me growing these past two years in this principal preparation program and I found it very helpful as
058you can see I'm very thankful individual and could continue to thank many more of an individuals along my way and along my path I care about the people that I work with every individual matters and I'm glad to make a lot of lifelong friends in the variety of schools that I've been with from custodians to os3 to Future assistant principles and principals I'm very excited for the opportunity to lead Deltona Lakes Elementary home of those Eagles as I look at the map of Deltona which I proudly served this past year and have spent years of my life in Deltona Lake seems to be right in the center or heart of Deltona heart is something that I've always brought with me to every school that I go to I look forward to Bringing additional love and
059laughter to this wonderful school and honoring the traditions in place the mission statement of Deltona Lakes is through collaborative efforts of the school Community students will be enriched motivated and encouraged to achieve their Highest Potential and empowering them to participate in a diverse Global community so I look forward to collaborating collaborating with those teachers and students working within the community and of course motivating and encouraging all of the school Community to help the school continue on their path to success as Eagles these students are meant to soar and I'm very excited to fly with them I really appreciate the opportunity to serve Volusia County Schools in this role and I'm committed to ensuring continued success for all students families and the community thank you [Applause] my next uh I would like to ask Mr William
060rudnor to join us Mr redner has earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Florida and his master's degree in Ed leadership from National Lewis University in Tampa he holds certification in Ed leadership math 612 math 5 9 Social Studies five nine Mr redner has been with Lake County for now since 2004 where he started as a teacher and then became a math coach after that he was the instructional Dean before he became the assistant principal at Eustis Middle School today I'm recommending with your approval Mr William redner as principal at friendship Elementary if approved his effective date also will be July 3rd 7 A.M 7am board members you've heard the superintendent's recommendation for Mr William redner to be the principal of friendship Elementary do I have a motion I will gladly make that motion
061thank you Mr clone do I have a second a second thank you Mrs Burnett any discussion uh Madam chair I had the pleasure of meeting Mr redner yesterday and uh it was very uh inspiring to hear that this is where he wants to be and the students at friendship deserve that and I am super excited at the amazing things that you are going to do at friendship Elementary and we are here to support you thank you thank you any other discussion then I'll call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously welcome [Applause] good evening board members and Madam superintendent I do thank you for this opportunity me and my wife decided during the pandemic that we needed to change a scenery so we decided to
062move to Volusia County and in doing so we upload uprooted ourselves from everything that we have grown to love about Lake County except now we're looking forward over here in Volusia County I have had the honor of working at several different middle schools in the administration level and I bring just under 20 years experience working at Title One schools and I pledge to work hard and never give up on students I am one that believes that all students can learn as I heard a former principal mention a little while ago I do believe there are times where students struggle and they need interventions and getting those right interventions in place helps lift them to where they need to be where they can be successful and on a path to whatever is in front of them
063in life I I also have a as you heard my certification I have a math background but I have a desire to instill the love of reading in children and whatever modality that takes whether it being Facebook live or dressing up in character or doing an animated reading getting that love of children or love of reading with children so they can have those Pathways opened up in front of them I would be remiss to say that my daughter does attend Timbercrest Elementary where you had the video showing Mr Ted Marsh and of course since my daughter goes there I have the Facebook feeds that one one of you mentioned and I have definitely wrote down some ideas from what I see it is from his face but I do thank you for the opportunity and
064you will I don't have a clever a motto yet like uh like the last participant but you will see friendship Elementary rise to the occasion yeah [Applause] Madam Cherry also left out that I believe his wife works at Galaxy and actually since you said that uh you you wished your daughter a happy 16th birthday I gotta wish her a happy 16th anniversary [Applause] [Music] I'll tell you what the competition in D5 Dawn uh we have two more to go Madam chair and board I would now like to ask Miss Carol Sawyer to join us please miss solo just to share a little bit with you um she's got a Bachelor's degree in elementary education from Nova Southeastern University attended Grand Canyon University to earn both of her master's degree one in Ed leadership in the
065second in Reading curriculum and assessment she holds certification in Ed leadership English speakers of other languages and Elementary at k-6 Miss Sola has been with Volusia County Schools since 2009 she began with Volusia County Schools as a teacher and then became an academic coach at Volusia Pines Elementary where I had the honor of working with her very very closely when I was deputy in 2016 she became the assistant principal at Citrus Grove Elementary most recently Miss solo has been the assistant principal at Volusia Pines where she worked with the team to turn that school around along with the principal and everyone else beautifully to say a b a b yeah um I'm recommending with your approval here this evening Missoula to be the principal at Sugar Mill Elementary and if approved for Effective and effective
066start date again will be July 3rd 2023 at a.m there you go American early or you've heard the superintendent's recommendation for Mrs Carol sulo to be the principal at Sugar Mill Elementary do I have a motion I'll make the motion I'll second it thank you Mrs brunette and Mr persis any discussion I want to thank Ms sulo for her service at Volusia Pines one of the you know Volusia Pines borders Deltona and anytime they do the star student of the month you're guaranteed to see her there without fail and so I want to thank you for your service to our students in West Volusia and I know that you're going to do an amazing job at sugar mill and I'd like to add to that I've known Carol ever since she was an academic coach
067and I was entitled one and we've worked together and I will tell you my you know it's a little hard to have you leave Volusia Pines but you're going to become a principal and it's more than well deserved and I know you're going to do an excellent job I just know that they will miss you at Volusia Pines Elementary and Sugar Mill is getting a gem all right any further discussion then I'll call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good evening Dr balgov and chairman Haynes and fellow school board members I want to thank you for this opportunity to be the proud principal of Sugar Mill Elementary to my Sugar Mill family I am completely honored and excited to be your new
068principal I am looking forward to our journey that I am privileged to take with you that starts today I cannot wait to meet you and begin working together to achieve great things because our Panthers will always succeed to my Volusia Pines family thank you for making me the leader I am today I leave this Panther dead to enter a new one but I will never forget once a panther always a panther and you can't hide that Panther Pride administrators that I have had the pleasure of working with you have played a significant part in my journey and I thank you for the role that you have played to Jennifer Williams thank you for believing in me and teaching me so much as a first year AP at such a big school as Citrus Grove Elementary
069the Julie Gordon it'll be hard my mentor for so many years I cannot express my gratitude to you for your support for believing in me and allowing me to learn from you thank you it's not enough it's you it's been a blessing to me to my friends and family I cannot express my thanks enough for your continuing support and lastly to my husband Richard who is here you have been my biggest cheerleader my support system and I'm many times my comic relief when I needed it and I thank you and love you for going on this journey with me thank you so much and sugar Mel watch out I'm ready to be your new Panther principal [Applause] I think her husband needs some back there too I miss Julie oh my gosh Mr Gomez so
070our ninth and Final and before I I share about our ninth uh appointee of appointment tonight I do want to take a quick opportunity to thank the entire committee that that several days they volunteer their time and it comprises two of our very own principles or part of these committees along with District staff and so forth but we've revamped the entire process and they served they serve it's a three-pronged approach very rigorous so really you're seeing folks that are are ready to serve so our ninth and Final um it's a DeLand graduate the land High graduate and I would like to invite at this point Miss Danielle McCann to join us Miss McCann has been with Volusia County Schools since 2013 where she started as a teacher at University High she earned her bachelor's degree
071in elementary education from the University of Central Florida on her master's degree in Ed leadership from Stetson University she holds certification in elementary education and AD leadership and has a reading endorsement as well as an English speakers of other languages endorsement Esau most recently she was a teacher in assignment at University High if approved by the board here this this evening I will be recommending Danielle McCann as the assistant principal at Pine Ridge High home of the Panthers her effective date will be July 3rd 2023 and she knows the time they're on the rise that's right all right board members you've heard the superintendent's recommendation for Mrs Danielle McMahon assistant Prince to be the assistant principal at Pine Ridge High do I have a motion absolutely it would be my pleasure to make the motion
072Mr reeser's back there and I know we've got he just wanted to say that out loud and so I would gladly make the motion do I have a second I second that motion thank you Miss Mr clone Miss Thompson you've got to stop taking the people out of district one they're just coming back home he's been at University she's loved being a Titan now she'll do an excellent job as a panther though I noticed tonight how many of them have moved from it's okay all right so any further discussion and we do this joke like we we do this all the time the two of us we represent the west side of the county all right if there's no further discussion I'll call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye any
073opposed it passes unanimously congratulations [Applause] good afternoon school board members Madam chair and Dr balgobin superintendent thank you for the opportunity to serve Pine Ridge High School as an assistant principal I look forward to working with principal Reeser in the entire Pine Ridge staff thank you to my mentors Mrs Chenoweth Mrs grieve Miss burner Mr Bowles and Miss lewitt for guiding me to this next step in my leadership career finally I want to thank my family especially my parents and my husband who's here with me tonight for always believing me and supporting me in my professional Endeavors once again thank you and I look forward to my new adventure with Pine Ridge High School their community and serving Volusia County Schools go Panthers [Applause] yes Dr Bachman is going to now share with us the
074transfer list and then we'll take photos thank you madam chair so three transfers and and I want to really thank these both all three of these individuals for their commitment and I say to Volusia County public schools because you know I stated this before when your administrator you're working for all 64 000 students however many students we have we're working for all of those students so with that said I want to extend my gratitude and my my sincerest thank you to Mr Thomas Vaughn who will be the next principal for River Springs Middle School [Applause] will be remiss not to share with you that also Mr Vaughn jumped in in a moment of Need for Volusia County Public Schools and went to McGinnis and finished up the year for us there as one of our
075administrators was promoted to a position and he he Class Act of a gentleman so thank you Thomas Stacy gottlip another Class Act of a principal thank you for going to DeBary Elementary as you see that there is a vacancy there and your skill set will continue the great work that has been already enacted upon at the berry and last but not least Miss Madison Miller who is one of our assistant principal at will be going now to read patillo Elementary and again thank you to all three of these individuals [Applause] so at this time all of you that have been named this evening will start at the top of the list with Mrs cassiano and her family and then we will work our way down if you'll come on up if the next ones would
076be ready over here on the side yep bring personal Family School families what to bring all right this way thank you thank you did you see everything [Applause] people always [Music] foreign okay do we want to shift can we shift this way one step to the right you know perfect thank you guys sorry [Music] [Laughter] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] of course thank you [Music] congratulations [Music] thank you [Music] all right we're going that way foreign [Music] [Laughter] I was [Music] crying [Applause] okay wait a minute [Laughter] foreign [Music] the Board Room we're going to take a quick break we will be back in here at 6 10. okay welcome back at this time we're moving along on our agenda to the recognitions piece and we will start with 5.01 recognition of our partnership with
077Stetson University and the Dual language program Dr balkaman thank you madam chair board members members of the audience the first recognition you're absolutely right it's our partnership that we value very much with Stetson University in our dual language program um Stetson has been truly instrumental when it comes to supporting from inception our dual language program through the Nina bihalis Institute impact Grant so as you know we have also two additional sites coming up for dual language and to French academies but project Vibe which stands for Volusia implements bilingual education Evolution implements bilingual education that's what it means is the research project that is supported by our dual Spanish English program that was implemented as you know at Spirit Elementary and also Holly Hill Elementary this past year and it's also providing learning opportunities for both
078staff and families so our students are enjoying the program but I will tell you that our staff and our families also are enjoying the program um Mr vogas as you know he's speaking more Spanish now um so I would like to ask our partners here Miss Betty Haynes Miss Kathy pachura Mercedes traditional and Barbara head we're missing one Betty could make it okay I apologize they are going to share with us a little bit about this initiative and we're as we're moving forward what to expect but first and foremost I want to thank all of you and this partnership that we have with Stetson University and for being so involved in in Volusia County in in public education thank you so very much and also for the support that you'll be providing to the new
079right to do a language that's coming up for us for next year and the French academies so well thank you madam chair Madam superintendent and the rest of the board for allowing us to speak with you at this evening's board meeting we have not been here since before the pandemic so we're grateful to have a few minutes to share the work uh we're continuing to do in the district I am Mercedes stitchner I'm professor of education at Stetson University I'm here with my colleagues on behalf of the Nina B Hollis Institute for educational reform unfortunately Betty Hines director of The Institute could not be with us today however I'm happy to introduce Cassie pachura and Barbara head as part of the institute's team Kathy is also professor of Education she Betty and I were the
080original team members when the Institute was created in 2000. Barb head is a visiting professor of education and has been part of our team for six years I know it feels like she is also our professional development School liaison over the years we have partnered with many Volusia County Schools principals and teachers in the implementation of innovative and exciting projects such as a single gender program at Woodward and the da Vinci Club at Citrus Grove we have supported these projects with time expertise resources and money over the past years we have also worked with Volusia County on the implementation of Hollis impact grants totaling over 350 thousand dollars Kathy will share a few of these grants with you and then Barb will take a few minutes to talk about her role as the PDS liaison
081good afternoon I wanted to say real quick too when she talked about that we known Barb for sick many years because she was part of her professional development when she was a part of Volusia County School um what Mercedes did not talk about and I'm just going to give a little overview of our impact grants that we have right now um the impact grants go run for three years the one that you just mentioned the bilingual Ed program is one of our impact grants it funds ten thousand dollars a year for three years they're considered to be startup grants and then we help the participants look for future um grants and other funding opportunities another one that was Head Up by Mercedes was a garden-based learning project which I know many of you and not
082many of our schools have Community Gardens that have gone into Mercedes and one of our other colleagues at Stetson worked on the garden base project we also fund the hats program the high achieving High academic and talented students program we also do a math professional development right now a couple of the schools blue light Elementary is one of the participants I mean that we're providing math to the teachers foundational math skills professional development that provides books and all kinds of stuff that goes along with that we also run a pre-law camp that a lot of the kids in the summer have been coming to that are doing like mock trials and pre-law we also do a tech track which is a technology and a stem program that a lot of the students have also been
083coming to we just finished a program with our three year which was cyber security which also quite a few of the high school kids in Volusia County it also provides scholarships to colleges that go on that when they go on to college and cyber security and as mentioned before in bilingual Ed I'd also like to say really quickly that half of the people you just nominated are Stetson graduates I'm just saying right yes sir and as a former Volusia County employee principal and now happy happy retiree out here in my Encore career at Stetson University I say good evening to everyone and we are very very excited to be here with you tonight and we haven't been before before the board since pre-pandemic and we feel like you've missed us and we've missed you so
084our goal tonight was to remind you and and share some of the current initiatives that are taking place through the Hollis foundation and Stetson University and the professional development School partnership my job role is as the liaison to the schools so as you know as I did for the 35 years I worked in Volusia County I live in the schools teaching and learning and my current job at Stetson is also School embedded and I want to give a shout out this is my my get where I get to brag on people in Volusia County Schools um we place each semester approximately 15 up to sometimes up to 50 stats in students in our local DeLand area West Volusia County Schools I don't know if people are aware of that our program we have students begin
085at a 10-hour observation where they're just starting out and we're recruiting them into this profession and then they go into our schools for one day a week and then for two days and then the senior internship so any given semester we can have upwards of 50 of our students in the classrooms providing those extra hands and doing all those things teachers need in great classrooms with great teachers I have to give a shout out to what I call the 1792 I-4 Corridor schools and our schools that always step up and have the best teachers and places for our students to learn locally George Marks Elementary I'm very excited about the new principles at McGinnis and we're going to keep out we have always have always have kids out at McGinnis and freedom we get down
086that I-4 Corridor towards the land towards Deltona we get to Spirit Elementary Manatee Cove we get to Orange city we get to DeBary and we get to Timbercrest even out there in Deltona those principals assistant principles and sometimes even those academic coaches work very closely to help me find the best Mentor teachers for our students the result of that is that you guys get Stetson grads every semester straight into classrooms in Volusia County Schools and principals brag on them every single day the second piece of what I do is I work with your four local professional development partner schools and I want to make sure that the board knows who those schools are we work with Blue Lake Elementary Citrus Grove Elementary Woodward Elementary and Edith I Stark and I definitely have to give a
087shout out Holly Bailey at Blue Lake Elementary congratulations on another job well done worked very hard this year Jennifer Williams as always leading I have to say it my school and a fine job she's done for me all these years after I left Citrus Grove Elementary and I've had the joy of getting to know Ms Reeser at Woodward Elementary this school year and what a great job she's done what a great find for the board on that one and of course we're saying goodbye to Edith I Starks Eileen R over to Pride Elementary but no worries no worries she'll stay with us and she will continue to work with us and help us lead and Learn and Grow um the Stetson staff serve serves on the school advisory councils of all of these local schools
088and we work collaboratively to develop unique and Innovative programs and at each school to support student achievement this year we developed a principles Power Hour all four principles and their small administrative teams came together to work with us to learn and grow together to share best practices and Eileen R did a great job of leading that effort and she will continue to I had the pleasure of grabbing Dr Cortez and I think she had to go and congratulating her on joining as the principal at Edith I Stark and we can't wait to have the koalas in our mix and Stark has been on the rise and will continue to rise and we'll be proud to be there and be a part of it as Stetson has been since I was the principal at Stark oops
089I was that too um need you to know that we're doing a lot of school-based leadership development mentoring and coaching in those partner schools and we provide a lot of support for learning initiatives faculty development and financial and Personnel school-wide special events are dear to our hearts science nights Career Day 5K races whatever it takes Stetson is right there to support we appreciate all of the opportunities and we look forward to continuing the work with these partner schools foreign so to close we would like to thank the dedicated teachers and administrators with whom we have the privilege to work we also want to thank Stetson the district the board for supporting the work we do and of course we'd like to thank the Hollis family for funding The Institute without the Hollis family's generous donation
090we could not we would not be able to impact the number of schools teachers and students if Betty Hines were here with us tonight you know how she would close this she would close this by saying by Publix can you please join us for a picture and we have a recognition for you oh foreign [Music] all right we're moving right along to recognition 5.02 recognition of students and staff at Beachside Elementary thank you madam chair and board members members of the audience I see the proud principle all the way in the back can you come up principal Bruner because she's going to share with us about why we're here today and who are going to be recognizing good evening school board members Madam chair Dr bagelman I'd like to call him a straighter up too
091because I'd like a little bit of help I actually wasn't um in the cafeteria at lunch duty when this incident occurred so I'd like to have her come up if that if that's okay absolutely and have her because she came to me and then we emailed someone and the ball rolled so here we are good evening um I was on duty in the cafeteria and I had three young gentlemen come up to me hurriedly but calm and they came to me and they went like this they said she's choking I said what's going on and they said she's choking she's choking so I ran over to the student and her name is was Phoenix and I said she had her hand like this too and I said are you choking and she nodded and I
092said okay I've got you relax I went behind her and I did the Heimlich and got it out oh good for you we would like to present Miss Trader with the superintendent herism award and we have the three boys here too they're here that three boys Phoenix we invited but she's actually sick so we did invite the three boys because they did the right thing administrator is going to be really mad at me because she had to speak oh so I know just gonna say that to everybody Dominic Chauncey and Kai come up here with your and bring your family because we're gonna do a picture with everybody correct yes yes obviously they need their family to drive them [Applause] Chauncey what did he say s hey way to go okay yeah Smile Smile kids
093parents come on parents they're gonna make you come in too come on you're coming in oh wait wait wait we're taking one for the parents when you take your picture coming in for the picture come on and then you'll see that one on on Twitter or Facebook and you can just take it from here come on in come on in here [Music] [Applause] thank you a good life cards now now we're moving on to item 5.03 recognition of students for the beach volleyball stage so I am going to call on four individuals I think they're all here they're very very very proud principle and I don't think you can miss him because look around his neck can't miss him Mr Tim Merrick [Applause] a lot of metal back there a principle is joined by his
094assistant superintendent Dr Mario is uh Gerald Fuller our athletic director could make it made it made it okay come on up and um John Cunningham head coach where's the head coach [Applause] am I missing anyone student you know what they're the stage go ahead all right good evening chair Haynes board members and and Dr balgubin superintendent um we have some more state champions in the house and so uh this year New Smyrna Beach High School is just a state champion Factory uh but uh we're just uh really proud of of the students that are here and the coaches and the athletic director and Mr Merrick so I will hand it over to Mr Merrick all right thank you Dr Barrio thank you uh chairman Jamie Haynes school board members and uh Dr balgowan for recognizing
095us today for our accomplishment um it wasn't easy but it was easy at the same time uh our girls was the 2022 state champions in the inaugural season of volleyball and uh so last year there was inaugural Champions and all the players returned for this year and so the feat was uh was tough you know because everybody wanted to beat you and uh They Know What You Did the previous season so Mr Cunningham our coach he scheduled one of those schedules where we're on the road constantly and playing very challenging teams and uh throughout this process the girls went 24-0 our number one pair who is here Bree Luma and Rebecca overly went undefeated in their career as our number one team okay [Applause] as as we participated in the states it became a tournament
096the unique thing is there is no classification everybody no matter the size of your school you're competing against kids schools with 3 000 Kids 4 000 kids we're 1700 kids and uh we were the last team standing and to become the two-time state champions throughout the season we were ranked number one in the nation and we were flip-flopping back and forth and we ended the season with a national ranking of number two in the nation to a team in California and number one in the state of Florida that I applaud the coach and the team uh these girls play Club many of them play Club some of them double up play indoor volleyball as you do know we won the indoor State title so we have Supremacy over volleyball in the State of Florida right
097now but uh the girls put in the work and the coach kept kept the girls motivated uh knowing what they'd done in the past so for that uh we're grateful and uh like to congratulate the girls I'm gonna let uh coach Cunningham say a little bit and announce to you who's here today we have several girls who are on vacation some have graduated and are on College scholarships and already uh hitting the court with their programs wow thank you Miss America I'm going to correct Mr Merrick real quick we went 24-1 last year and 28-0 this year so our record over the last two years is 52-1 [Applause] I just want to say real quick and I'll announce the girls that are here um yeah we do have uh quite a few girls that are
098on vacation some are visiting colleges um we have six seniors who are graduating this year all 16 years are going off to school to play college volleyball somewhere um two for indoor four for Beach um so very very proud of the girls not only are they great athletes great students with their exceptional human beings so I'm really really proud to be their coach it's really fun to coach them I get to do this I tell them every day I'm proud to be their coach they allow me to be their coach and I just enjoy coaching them so thank you so much for honoring us we appreciate you having us here [Applause] and I'd be remiss if I didn't share with you we have the number one athletic director in the district undefeated yeah undefeated you
099always finds the right man or the right woman for the job and he's very meticulous in making sure that our players are with good coaches and good people so thank you Mr Paul so the uh the girls that are here um first one of our one of our seniors Becca overly um we have two trophies here tonight so they're carrying both of our trophies tonight um second Ryan today another one of our seniors [Applause] two of our graduated seniors incoming senior Brie Luma [Applause] I mean senior Lydia Spencer [Applause] and uh incoming Juniors Marley Rogers I'm sorry incoming senior Molly Rogers and incoming Junior Avery green okay oh oh no okay wait are you serious ly congratulations congratulations coach congratulations [Music] thank you congratulations [Music] Miss Burnett could I bother you to come to this
100side please feelings and and also maybe um can you come to that area to the back we need to and then um yeah how many days you've been wearing those um oh everybody [Applause] at this time we're going to do our public participation that's on any general interest item pertaining to Volusia County Schools I have three yellow cards are there any more Mr Gomez all right so before I start I just want to remind you that the clock is for three minutes please adhere to the time a buzzer will go off and you can also see the timer as it's counting down also within our school board um public speaking piece under the section of decorum I'd like to remind everyone that no signs placards or other visual forms of communication are authorized except as
101part of an individual speaker's presentation speakers shall not engage in personal attacks abusive language or other conduct which interferes with the conduct of the meeting chair has the right to terminate any speaker's privilege to address the board if this rule is violated members of the audience should be courteous to all speakers and shall refrain from making audible comments or applauding during the meeting as we've said in the past if you agree with what is being said you can do the jazz hands which are a quiet piece but please be courteous of those that are speaking I will the first person to speak tonight will be Mr Charlie Hyatt followed by Mr Ernest Winn Jr Mr Hyatt welcome thank you I have started a quest about a year ago and uh needed to have an answer
102to a question I've discussed it with Andrew spahr president of FBA I've talked to representatives of view I've asked for a definition from District Personnel School administrators colleagues that only leaves you the elected policy makers for Volusia County as a teacher I would like the board I mean request doesn't meet the urgency can't demand it from me because you're my employer but I would like a written definition for critical race Theory and woke as a teacher I believe that that is something that I need to know if I'm going to play the game I need to know the rules speak for myself as a teacher but I'm sure there's thousands of teachers out there that would like to know what is the definition of this thing I teach civics the best answer I've got in
103the last year is if a parent complains well I teach civics facts I I don't teach philosophy I don't teach opinion but teaching Civics I can guarantee you there's going to be two or three parents who don't accept the facts and that's how many complaints I'm going to get a week if we're going to use that definition I need to know that and I think the teachers of Volusia County need to know what the definition for those two things are I show Ruby Bridges during Black History Month it's also in the curriculum the end of Plessy versus Ferguson and Brown versus Board of Education it's a Disney movie am I in am I in trouble seventh grade civics teachers are culminating activity is National Treasure it's a Disney movie it's a historical fiction movie is
104it the fiction part going to get me in trouble the facts in there are correct they're historically correct is that going to get me in trouble when I showed a video from Arlington Cemetery for Memorial Day the background music was Lee Greenwoods God Bless the USA is that going to make me a Trumper is it going to have the atheist complaining because it's God Bless America is it going to have the Christians say well we're not blessed because look at the state of the country is in we need a definition for critical race Theory and for woke to keep us out of trouble now when I talked to Mr Spar he had the media contact me and I had three media Outlets call me and they said how do you deal with these issues and
105I said Give me a definition the response was we can't give you a definition my response was then I can't give you an interview I'd ask that the board please put a policy in writing for critical race Theory and woke thank you thank you next up is Mr Ernest when Jr followed by Dr Jerry piket welcome good evening my opinion these are the problems that we have here at Volusia County system how we can fix them I would like to thank the school board for allowing me to speak tonight and please give me the courtesy to finish I am a fifth year PE teacher at Deltona Middle School my journey in education began in 1982. I have over 40 years of teaching with 10 of those years as a system principal I was a direct
106student affairs for 10 years in Union Parish in Farmerville Louisiana I was totally in charge of discipline from 9th grade through 12th grade and I have I have stops in Georgia Louisiana I just mentioned I also am a United States Army veteran in May 2018 I decided to retire from the state of Louisiana move to Florida I had no plans to teach or be administrated again but here I am I would like to apologize in advance for anything I make that might be misinterpreted however you all need to hear this the backbone of learning system is your parents we'll stop you we teachers cannot do our jobs parents parents you are the main problem I will explain why you parents are the problem I would say it in a nice and loving way I start
107writing the book several years ago in Louisiana I develop writer's block for those of you who may not be familiar with the term writer's block is when you start writing and can't finish title of the book is disciplined can't learn without it it is a book a topic issues and solutions there are 14 topics but I would not try to read all of them I would mention three what is discipline why is it important the parents involvements and the students in a child's learning development what can we do to help educate our children what is discipline why is this really important they have three categories that I want to talk about students who are strict parents at home and they dare not cause problem at school that's category number one category number two the students
108who have strict parents at home and when they come to school they vent their frustration on the teachers since they can't do it at home category number three the student who disrespect their parents at home and figure they can't do the same at school um I know I'm running out of time but I'm gonna get to a few things uh the dress code is a joke it needs to be resemed at school we see too much but bus what's belly buttons and bust for the girls butts drawers for the boys the boys are sagging so low they can tie their shoes and reach in their pockets at the same time you can see I am a military veteran um currently I am a two-time cancer survival the first time in 2018 and and I'm not
109I have not missed the day at work I'm going through cancer treatment as we speak I would go through uh chemo in the morning get unhooked get a fanny pack around the waist come to work not miss a day and I'm doing it for the kids I don't have to work but I decided to work some more here in Louisiana please protect our teachers please protect our teachers because we we losing teachers left to right I'm not going nowhere I'm too old and stupid to go anywhere so they can't learn they can't run me off so please protect the students because without the teachers your children can't learn nothing thank you Mr Wen thank you and um we appreciate your service and we appreciate that you are teaching for us in Volusia County Schools next
110up is Dr Jerry piket welcome thank you Madam chair members of the board superintendent schools continuing my focus and concerns with the academic achievement of our most underserved students while advocating against inequalities with faculty and staff district-wide I strongly encourage the superintendent's cabinet and this governing board to organize structure these ideas and please take immediate action let us first again be reminded of goal number one in our strategic plan engage all students in high quality learning every day ensure every student receives high quality Equitable curriculum and instruction consistent throughout the district these words are crystal clear and ultimately it comes down to this are we going to be leaders of our words it starts with empowering communities to be the change we want and need to see and this is done mainly with support systems
111structures and resources not just chosen leaders I'm encouraging the superintendent and this leadership team to please consider the following first let's mandate stipends for current High performing teachers and staff transferring to underserved schools with a three to five year commitment particularly in the core area subjects additionally let's ask school to work academic programs for underserved students facilitated by school Liaisons business partners and mentors let's not forget mandatory Mental Health Counselors for added social support with students facing traumatic occurrences let's not forget mandate academic and steam programs to infuse long-term technology engineering art Mathematics Curriculum along with Concepts like information technology entrepreneurship life skills Finance wealth through investing and real estate ownership these initiatives do not require a lot of planning and execution they just require having the right individuals orchestrating the process correctly and finally
112please let's expand Pre-K Services throughout Volusia County Schools information we all have been truly blessed and we have so much to be thankful for we as individuals cannot turn a blind eye on those who are in need I personally believe that as a district there is Common Ground but Common Ground starts with individuals believing that we all can make a difference A different race a difference for Generations that we need to pass up a time to thank you thank you Dr piket any other cards okay and at this time we're moving on to the public participation for any items that are on the consent agenda and I do have two cards for the consent agenda so if it's okay with everyone we will start with the um two items and then we will move into
113if any of you want any items removed okay so Miss Elizabeth Albert you are going to first speak for three minutes up to three minutes about item 11.1 and then stay for item 12.03 [Applause] good evening Madam chair members of the board superintendent Dr balgaman and members of the audience so very quickly I think I can get both of these items in within my three minutes but maybe I'll extend for the full six never know okay so the first item that I want to speak about is consent agenda item 11.1 this is the district insurance and administrative contracts item I had some questions and am seeking clarification and hopefully some explanation related to two items on the list the first one being the catastrophic Sports I see that this last school year it came in
114about twenty thousand dollars I noticed that next year the the anticipated cost is 239 percent increase taking us to almost sixty eight thousand dollars so that caught my eye so I'm hoping that that will be discussed and we can have some clarification on that I also notice there is an excess automobile item here last year's cost at 159 000 the anticipated cost of 29.10 increase rising to 205 000 a little more than that so again just some clarification please and thank you since we are paying those bills so the next item on the consent agenda that I would like to draw your attention to is item number 12.03 this is the item that proposes Focus School supplements for principals and assistant principles now while I am in favor of paying people more absolutely you'll probably
115never hear me decline an increase to anyone's salary you know that but my question here is that uh you know Rising tide raises all boats and so we've just had conversations about the removal of the additional um learning time at our plus one schools our high poverty schools and that of course is going to negatively impact folks salary we know that there are proposed plans in place to supplement or offset some of that income loss and it's significant for our instructional staff through tutoring and collaborative planning time but it's not going to pick up everybody and it's not going to completely negate any of the loss so my question with this is that if in in one moment in time we're making some decisions that are going to remove salary from certain groups we're going
116to bring this one on on the consent agenda to supplement the principles at these schools the newly assigned principles by the way what are we going to do for the faculty and staff at these sites is there a plan in place to also raise their salary and provide income incentives for folks working there so we just again we're looking for some equity and some explanation I hope that we're able to get that tonight thank you thank you all right board members we're at the consent agenda so at this time I need to know if there are any changes to the consent agenda such as a removal of any items or items Dr Bogman I'll start with you no items to chair but I I did ask earlier for the changes in order between 18.01 and
11719 points yeah but we're not there yet yeah just reminding it yeah all right any board members yes please I had asked um I it was prepared in advance um 11.01 and 12.01 11.01 yes and 12.1 so 11.01 was the district Risk insurance and then 12.01 was the job description addition three visions any other board members want to have anything discussed yeah Madam chair uh yes I may uh just want to get a little bit more clarification on 1203 as well okay 1203 Mr cologne or Miss Thompson do you have any that you want further discussion on I just have a question on 1203 level three very good so can we do it in order let me have 11.01 for us and this will be Mr pendley here's Mr penley and I think it will
118answer the question too from our president thank you and I know you emailed me but I just want to get this out there so others can hear it I will add on Miss Albert's um question as well that that I didn't have in my earlier email but um so the the um catastrophic insurance can you please tell us what caused that 239 percent increase so this is the district's Insurance administrative contract renewal annually it contains all of our excess insurance for lack of a better term these are the policies that we carry the catastrophic Sports policy in particular reflects greater participation based on current student census we there's no increase in the per student cost it's just that we have that many more students now who are participating in sports over previous years from what
119was reported and then I had asked also about the workers comp increase going up workers comp is a result again of increased risk due to bringing on more staff in particular for the area of custodial Services as you know we've gone to beginning in July we will have 100 percent coverage of in-house employees who have to be covered under workers comp for custodial services and that particular risk area does incur significant exposure over other areas so that's why the increase was in workers comp and then she had brought up the excess automobile are you prepared to talk about that at this point or do we need to come back to that at another time just based on what my home auto insurance policy went up 30 percent is actually a pretty good rate right now
120so it's not that we added automobiles it's that the that it just the insurance is going up like other fees it reflects the current risk factor in the market Ms Ryan is here our insurance risk specialist on it thank you insured now so that was what was wrong with the increase that's why it went up so that was a hundred cars is that what I that's what it was reporting to me yes okay so while we're here on this topic this is a request I have for in the future I'd like an updated list of who all has cars assigned to them thank you yeah yeah we we have that actually um Mr West make sure it's updated and send it to the board okay thank you now can I ask a question um we
121have a few vehicles that are being um that we're taking to auction right are those Vehicles still insured no okay I'm sorry they come and go we add them in okay so this doesn't include those vehicles that are sitting there that are going to watch that is correct okay okay then any other questions about item 11.01 for many of the board members so we covered under this the catastrophic Sports the excess automobile and the access workers compensation and I'll be honest with you it it's no different than the recent Insurance piece that we looked at to ensure properties where we're getting about what one-fourth of the insurance that we used to get and we've quadrupled the price that's right we certainly saw a greater increase in percentage for property insurance this year than any other
122category but I can assure the board and Ms Ryan can verify we have gone to our insurance broker and requested the best Market rates and this is what we are told and and have reason to believe is the best market rate for these policies thank you for sharing we're moving on to item 12.01 um Mr Wes and also let's save some time Dr Hazel that's 12.03 from 12.01 was the job description yeah okay all right so my questions were um we got a good list of what was going on with the job descriptions but the last two um it said new on there and so my questions were are they truly new positions or are they just new job descriptions with people that are currently in the job we're just completely giving them a new
123job description the other the other um job descriptions also discussed same salary in this one I don't I didn't know if it was new and if it was adding employees but I was trying to find out the financial impact of how that was going to change so first the titles um frankly you could put kind of put new on many of the titles because they're different in many ways but that particular ones are completely new titles so it wasn't like just an added word the title was completely changed but it's not the last two learning accounts specialist and Technology resource teacher um the other ones are slightly different too for example instructional technology or senior instructional technology specialist and instructional technology Specialists were aligned they they were before an entry level and a senior but
124it wasn't as obvious so the titles were changed a little bit to make that obvious um they're not new positions they're current positions currently held both of those positions are occupied as well as all the others and so the salary is remaining the same no levels of them yep no salary changes it's just to make sure that as part of the its reorganization that everybody has a fresh and relevant and and revised job description as we moved into different departments in some different roles and and that's that's obviously a good thing to do is make sure that we're all current on that just it kind of threw me off the way it was written and so I thought maybe we were adding positions and I also didn't want to pull any more classroom instruction people
125out of a classroom to fill these positions I know you're doing a great job in I.T but we we don't need to lose any instructors either right and at the moment there wouldn't be anybody pulled from classroom since they're all filled but they do typically come from that group right but you know we'll wait till vacancy all right I appreciate you taking the time thank you wait I have a question you don't have to answer it now but could you please send us an email and since this is a new title just tell us who are the people currently in that position that you're just changing their title sure I'll do it for all of them thank you okay Madam chair castle for the record there's a typo on page 11 where it says information
126I saw that that's the second that's the second page of that type but I want to make sure that we know that out of Correction will be made accordingly thank you Mr Club all right now we're moving on to item 12.03 just have a quick question on that one oh on 12.03 or this is for this school year correct what the job description no this is no 0.03 the upcoming school year once it would have this is not new um this is revised and actually it is revised so once you make the change the people that would have qualified for it this year it will be paid out this year and then it will be paid out again next year what has changed is we've added the language to this um well first of all
127there's a couple of things that change the first thing that changed is it used to have a separate stipend for plus one schools but as Miss Albert pointed out we no longer have plus one Focus schools and plus one schools are not necessarily the same plus one schools are based on poverty ranking Focus schools are identified because of specific needs that require those schools maybe they're harder to staff or they might have some grade deficiencies or high poverty could be a factor as well but they're not necessarily the same this additionally had a section for a stipend for principals and assistant principals at plus one schools previously so that has been struck from this as well as a requirement that was in here earlier that did not that allowed this to be paid if you
128also received State Grant funded like uniseig bonuses so that has changed as well and what we've realized is there are schools that are very very challenging but as our state didn't give grades there was a need for the superintendent to be able to identify those schools that are in great need when we're moving these administrators so that's why the language has changed but this is not new this has been in place for I think three or four years revised so basically this is going to cover so as these tutoring programs are happening in our schools this is going to cover the administrator who's there overseeing these programs it could if the if it is at those schools but don't don't confuse the two plus one is not they may be a focus school as well
129as a former plus one school but they're not necessarily the same because plus one was solely based on poverty ranking we're the current focused schools um I can send you that list so I think I've got some that are not plus one but our Focus School sorry correct and this is this is sent to the board as approval because um these are non-bargaining employees that are sent to you any um bonuses or stipends that are given out to teachers have to be bargained okay so my request is a chart that names the school and if they're a focused school and then what I want to know next is are they being funded by the unisig because the uniseig is very specific and that comes down and tells you you know who fault that they tell
130you each year who falls into that and unisiga is based solely on school grade right or are we funding them at the district level and if they are not a focused school then I need a reason as to why they're being funded and I do understand that at one point when we had some schools that were coming in low we had to look at which principles met the requirement because there's very specific requirements that you have to select someone that's already turned around a school and they may not you know choose to go there but we have twisted their arm and told them they have to go there because they have the credentials to go that the state requires so I would I just want to see and you and I had a lot of
131conversation about this and I understand why it was being changed and everything but I would just like to see it complete chart that shows us and we have the dollar amount absolutely and I understand I mean there's nothing I mean the uniseig funding happens but if they happen to be a school that doesn't fall under that but you have a reason for why they fall here or you've requested a principal to move because of that then we just need to know any other question Mr persis yeah since I pulled it off the agenda uh this unisec funding you said was based on the school grades right the grade if the grade was low that right schools who receive unistic funding that's based on the D or F status from the previous year and so they
132receive a grant and part of that Grant can be administrative bonus and so since we didn't grade schools this year what um well actually the funding continues so there's that received units those schools that were drf schools two years ago or that's correct one year ago correct and I think we did it we approved this at the last board meeting did we not State the schools there for unisec I think we did or it's coming up I I believe it was on the last agenda the last one right yeah okay so the so the unisec I'm just trying to get this all squared away in my head the unisec is determined by the state correct okay and now what about focus is that determined that would be determined that would be determined by us um
133the the focus schools would be those schools that have met criteria established by the superintendent so I'll give you an example and again obviously this will be discussed with each of you but it's looking at you know when it we may have a school that it's a bubble bubble F School it's a loaded it could it's that bubble down f-school or a school that might be a bubble down c-school and it's been persistent so we need someone with some specialized skills that have evidence that they can impact curriculum and instruction and work effectively with staff it would be a bonus that will be in place that we would try to attract that candidate obviously to go to that school but a minimum criteria is that the school will have to maintain minimum or improve SC
134so taking up from where it is to a minimum of a c and hopefully growth taking place each year and it will be paid out for a minimum of three years the recruitment year and two consecutive year after that if they meet the criteria right so the first year they get it they get it because we we are seeking them and so we're giving them this incentive just bonus like and but they don't get it the second year unless they've earned the grade or improve the school grade correct can I share something also state has very definitive criteria what unisex schools are you have to be a drf to consecutive year yeah my goal and our goal here is not to become a dnf if we're seeing signs clearly that a school academically is deteriorating
135what can we do like I would like to call the prevent status right so there's no such thing in place at the state level for preventative like preventative care so I want us to have something in place that's preventative so that we don't get to that point hopefully sure worst case scenario where there the state will they have the unisex dollars that will apply if you the criterias are met what I'm trying for us to be preventative and hopefully uh you know working ahead of that I understand and now and so that principle would get an eight thousand dollar right all right supplement what does the assistant principle receive and I think for now we have the principle and I will explain to you why too we're just starting this okay okay and in my
136opinion and all of us here who have led schools we know that we're really when we're hiring instructional leaders or replacing an instructional leader at this school it's to train up and and and lay the vision and ensure the accountability pieces are in place for example like when you heard the AP that's being promoted now but worked with Julie Gordon and she was talking about that mentorship so I'm holding the principles accountable first and foremost right once we see how this works out and how it plays out maybe we'll get to a point where we can say APS as well but since this is kind of like a pilot program for preventative care preventative um uh intervention so to speak I wanted like I wanted us to start with the principle for now okay well
137it you know it just says up top there Focus School supplements for principals and assistant principles and so that's why I asked oh okay it's really supposed to be for principals so let's let's look at the previous one had a plus one three this one hasn't had that but we've changed the language and that that piece stayed there okay and then do you have to re-advert no it's not a policy policy no I wouldn't think so but they just need to strike through yeah because it needs to read Focus School supplements for principals yeah and then lastly uh talked about when the um item C the last one uh that is determined by the state correct um if we if a school has three consecutive D or is an F status then the school would
138go under an external operator we don't have any of those schools currently great thank you or we'll have we won't have any of this say we don't we never will it's the past that's all I have any other questions I I will say this the uniseig piece has been around for quite a while and it's managed by the federal um Grants Department it comes in there and it's very specific and it tells you which schools and what the money can and cannot be used for so that part I was familiar with I wasn't and I was familiar with what they were doing eventually with principles and assistant principles for plus one this I didn't know about okay any other questions so what's the amendment we're making to this just in the title they already removed
139the whole plus one piece because there's no longer any plus one so this is just saying either they're getting you a sick funding or they're going to get this if they're a focused school that didn't qualify for unisig and sometimes those can be a non-title one school I guess my question is to the attorney seeing as we advertise this for Christmas we did not advertise it it's not it's not a policy so it wasn't advertised yes you can you can actually just the title taking the those two words and assistant I mean anything else all right I have a question so were they getting this before and now they're not going to get it even in the unisex schools then no no uniseig is still here and unisig is still happening and we voted on
140it already at a previous board meeting right but here we're getting ready to strike it so this is for this is a performance supplement for principles that are not receiving the unisig funding as a bonus for example if all right when we took Rick Dr rickench and we removed him from Deltona Middle not at his request and we placed him at Champion we did that because Champion was in trouble and the state said we had to change the principle but the principal had to meet all of this criteria and part of the criteria was that he had already been a turnaround principal and had turned to school around so he didn't ask to leave we went and picked him up plucked him out of there and told him that's where you're going and we did
141the same thing with Dwayne Copeland when we sent him to west side because he had met the criteria we only had a handful of principles that had met that criteria so if they happen to be assigned to a school that is not getting the unisig funding that is very specific and it's a grant then they're saying we're giving them this because we've placed them there but does a unisex school also also a bonus to an AP I'd have to read the grant to know what they're doing this year they do they do and so the university so now we're saying at a uniseig school because of the poverty rating the principal and the assistant principal both receive it but if the school is a focus School it's only the principle is that what I'm understanding
142but also the unisex schools we have teachers that have received bonuses too right but I don't want to exclude a group because right here where we'd be currently do they receive it at the focus school or they don't get anything out of focus School they don't get anything at Focus schools right now and and here's the thing this is preventative so it's not a 2d consecutive two F's consecutive we're looking at these schools could become a d school or could become an F school like so for example when Volusia Pines right was that D school that was really from an internal standpoint that was a preventative care we need to get in there act quickly and put a plan in place that would have been considered and we worked with them and the team will
143tell you that they had to do a lot of extra work the principal you know through her leadership but they didn't get anything right so I'm okay with approving this today but I think going to your point of it takes the team to get it there I think both out of unisig and at a non at a focus School the entire leadership it's not just the one person and we've got one example in one place where we're honoring both but then at the one we're only honoring and our goal is not to get it there so it I think fires I think we need to check to make sure we're honoring both because I believe this language had to do with plus one so that's what I'm going to because this was all written together
144that's why I asked we need a chart we can pull it tonight and not vote on it the assistant principles as well and that can be done on a separate date yeah and I think that should be done the second year yeah I mean exactly let's see what happens if the team works and then yeah so we have plenty of time to do that okay so you want it to stay on yeah I'm good with keeping it on our discussion all right any other discussion about any of the items that are on the consent agenda okay then I need a motion to approve the consent agenda a move we approve the consent agenda as printed thank you Mr persis do I have a second I'll second that motion thank you Mrs Thompson any further discussion
145then we'll call for the vote all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously we are now at the point where we are going to move 19.01 ahead of 18.01 so 19.01 is the contract for the group medical benefits Dr balgeman thank you madam chair I am asking Miss Stephanie Workman our director for human resources to come and are you joined by anyone yes ma'am I have Carolyn Snyder our insurance specialist okay and Carol is here so and you've got at least one of your committee people okay so then go ahead um well good evening board members Madam chair superintendent this evening I do have members of the insurance committee sitting in the audience um just to refresh everyone's memory you know we went out for bid on all of our
146lines of coverage this year all of the others have been approved up through the medical which will be hopefully approved tonight each of those rfps were reviewed by a subcommittee of the full insurance committee so tonight in the audience the individuals who reviewed the medical RFP I have John Darby who represented view instructional I have Kathy Knowles who represented afscme I have Emma field who was our non-bargaining member we also had Lori Miller who couldn't be with us tonight who represented View support and we had Marlo Stallone also a teacher who represented view instructional when we selected the committee we tried to divide it up based on the proportionate employees that we have obviously the teachers make up our largest group of employees so we wanted to make sure they had appropriate representation so there
147were two members and then each of the other units had one member the five individuals reviewed the two proposals we received which were Aetna and Florida Healthcare and you all saw the exact same presentation by them at one of the workshops last month after the workshop it was requested that we asked them for an additional best and final offer which we did both submitted additional options for us we asked those same five four of those five individuals to review that information and provide us with an updated recommendation and based on that recommendation we bring forward to you tonight it is that we continue to stick with Florida Health Care okay so if you don't mind I'd like the people that are here that said on the committee to come forward absolutely please Emma John Kathy
148and just so you know we also have Elizabeth who sits on the insurance committee but she did not review the medical RFP all right what I'd like to hear from at least one of you I'm happy to hear from all three of you is a reason why what you've selected and why um because you've done the work and I'm trusting you okay the reason that I went with Florida Healthcare um is because I represent them you know the employees that have are very um low like 12 000 a year income um with this with Florida health care and I utilize it a lot and I know some of our employees are very not aware of a lot of it is the wellness clinic so like after one of you know to explain it to them
149is I went to the wellness clinic I walked in I saw a doctor I needed an x-ray I walked out I go to this door over here got the X-ray come back to her she said okay this and this I walk out of this door and then go just right next door I get my prescription and I leave and I'm out the door for 28 dollars okay if we would have went with Aetna then I had to go to my primary hit the call and get an appointment which might take a couple of weeks okay then they're going to send me for an x-ray then I gotta go and get an x-ray so then now I'm at you know so 20 you know then I got to go back to the doctor and then you
150know so now we're talking it could be four weeks out where I was in and out in 10 minutes you know pretty much and the cost of it is that um so that was a bit a lot of it is is and that's the main thing it is is the overall cost to the actual employee to use the insurance um so and so I just want to talk and I talked to Reuben um and after the last meeting when y'all had when y'all talked about the insurance the and I know a lot of y'all concerns is if we go out of state okay the triple option was not taken away by Florida health care that was taken away by the committee and that was before I got on the committee because I'm a I was
151a triple option person because I come from I mean I was born and raised here but I lived in Georgia for a while and moved back here so there's some doctors I would like to still seen up there so when I have photo book in the triple Lodge and you had I could do that until I got you know settled with doctors here the triple option was took it away by the committee for two years I've been fighting trying to get the triple option put back on but I just kept getting outvoted by the committee so that's the history why the triple option got gone it was nothing to do with Florida Health Care they would give we could have had 20 plans to choose from they don't care how many plans we have you
152know we try to narrow it down where it wasn't so confusing for employees and they could look at okay well if I take this plan or if I take this plan you know so that is a big so that's I just want to let you know why the triple option was taken away and why it wasn't offered it wasn't to do with the company so but that's to say in this is just like a lot of other perks but the main thing is why I went forward Healthcare is the overall cost to my people if we went to you know with Aetna and stuff and some of the costs on there you know my people couldn't afford you know to do it so that's that's my thank you Kathy go down to John yeah you
153spend a lot of time together all right my name is John Darby and I've been on the insurance committee for quite some time and um I can Echo some of the things that Kathy mentioned um they were both very they both had very good presentations to us they were both great carriers but when it comes down to a access for care Florida Healthcare had an advantage they have 22 Wellness clinics that are geographically located throughout the district that our members of members of the school board our employees can go to and get that One-Stop shop for services and it only costs eight dollars and they have they've made a commitment to us that they're in they're opening three more locations one of them in Deltona which was underserved for quite some time which will now
154be an extended hours clinic as well so they provide our people with access to get their services what Edna offered us was three Wellness Minute Clinics and all three of them are on this side of the county which means that all of our employees that use the wellness clinics would be forced then to go to a primary care for the provider or they would be forced to go to a third-party Urgent Care all right over half of our employees and just for the first eight months of this year the current year that we're in we had almost 15 000 visits to the wellness clinics over half of our people choose to go to the wellness clinics rather than to their primary care physician they can go to their primary care physician if they wanted they
155could go to Virtual care if they wanted but they choose not to they choose to go to the wellness clinic so the first offer that we got from Aetna was instead of paying eight dollars to go to the wellness clinic that you're used to going to and getting that One-Stop shop Services you're gonna have to pay 75 dollars to go to a third party provider that then will send you to get your x-rays from somebody else although and then we'll send you to get your Pharmaceuticals from somebody else and do all these other things now when they came back for the best and final they did they magically went from seventy five dollars to Fifteen dollars that's wonderful but it's still almost twice as much as our people who have a difficulty paying for services
156now it would be a twice as much for them to pay so when you think about it in in those terms sort of arrive back at where we were there were some other things as well like the wellness incentives we offer right now currently we offer our members gym free gym access we had and I'm working off a memory here but I think it was like 25 percent of our membership take advantage of the gym offerings there were over 30 000 gym visits from our people going to gyms in order to promote their wellness and their health care trying to stay healthy they can go to over 80 gyms spread throughout the county wherever they want to go there's no limit you don't get you know you might not get some of the extra perky
157things that are in there but you get basic access to wherever you want to go you can go to a different one every time if you want Aetna has a program but their program had limited access they didn't even have anybody available in the DeLand area and it's called peer fit it's called peer fit and you get 30 credits a month and you use your 30 credits to go to this gym at five credits or whatever the credits are to go to this class for five credits or whatever but you don't have unlimited access so if you wanted to be one of those people who's taking advantage of those 30 000 visits to stay healthy you're now limited because you when your 30 credits are gone your 30 credits are gone for the month so
158you can't go every day if that's something that you want to do so these are the types of things because the premiums that they were offering us was they were going to offer us the exact same thing the Florida Healthcare offered us so if you're offering us the exact same thing that Florida Healthcare is offering us but you're going to talk to me 15 instead of eight dollars and you're going to force my people to go to four different locations to get Services instead of the one location and you're going to tell them that they can't go to the gym those thirty thousand times that they want to go they can only go maybe five times or six times this month that's where the rubber meets the road so I apologize for being long-winded but
159no no no this is why we wanted to hear from you okay this is Emma field do you want it thank you Mr Darby well it's been an education so I had never been on a committee before and so I did me and I literally we we had we had a rubric and it laid out everything and it was full of data and I just added looked at what each one offered and I gave it points and we had we ended up having three different rounds and I heard all the stories and it was really interesting but I just trusted the numbers and all of the things he said when 48 of our people are using Wellness clinics then that is a huge advantage and that's worth a lot of points when you when they're
160using the gems that's worth a lot of points over points and so I just trusted the math and the data and every time as a United committee we all were making the same Choice over and over and over again it was just what serves our people better yeah and I would just like to add too when we done this um like a Florida Healthcare in one of our meetings and we talked about like locations I said okay you know what about like DeLand because like on Saturdays like if we have to get blood you know work done or anything like that I said you know we have to drive to when they were something oh we the one adult open I said you know we got to drive to Orange city or Deltona and So
161within a month the one in DeLand now is open on Saturdays you know till noon because you got people like in the Pearson area that employees that we have you know that that so so they open one up and when we went out for bid before you know Aetna was one of our competitors in and they at that time still only had three Minute Clinics that was that we could go to at a CBS and they still had those things they have not expanded in the time frame when the first time they they went out with embedded on us to come back to this time have not expanded their Minute Clinics To None on you know each side you know this just the two the ones in DeLand in Orange City and Deltona that was
162one of the primary points or issues that we brought up with them because they had a very good presentation and offering then as well and to be honest I couldn't understand why you would come back four years later with another RFP and you had the same three clinics that you had four years ago when you knew you were coming back to to compete against someone who had you know 15 or 20 or 25 clinics available that's the delivery model that our employees prefer they don't want to make an appointment with their primary they don't want to wait for that they want to be able to leave work pick up their kids go to the clinic pay their eight bucks walk over grab their medicine and leave and the same thing I mean and it sort
163of Echoes with our employees because with our EAP services at one point we brought that up and although you can get your EAP services virtually or by phone the vast majority I believe was 80 percent 80 percent of the people who were getting EAP services from us want face-to-face services with someone they want to be able to go in and get that face-to-face contact and deal with a person because it does sound great you know your PJs your kid is sick you pop up your phone you got somebody on the phone and they give you a prescription but that isn't always what people are looking for so if I understand correctly it was unanimous that the committee puts forth that we should stay with Florida Health Care yes ma'am and one thing I would like
164to add after that Workshop Mr Gomez did send an email to all staff just letting them know that these are the two choices and if they had any questions or concerns you know obviously they could reach out to one of us and and I can tell you the biggest concern that I received it and I believe Carolyn did too were those individuals who truly have a Florida health care doctor because they said you know okay we know Aetna may be a choice so they started looking if I have to change doctors and what they were finding is doctors in that field didn't necessarily accept Aetna so they were concerned that they were going to have to select another doctor and may have to go to Lake Mary Altamonte maybe to Flagler to see someone so
165most of the emails that we received were leaning towards Florida health care so I think that's important too okay Mr purses you have a question yeah they uh first of all thank you and thank you thank you thank you thank you we I know we greatly appreciate you volunteering your time to go through all this it's a lot it's a lot for you I understand that uh the uh so can I ask you as far as the premiums would go for our employees is is it how how much different the premiums be raised their status quo their status quo exactly what it is this year um the one change that we are going to make is um and this came at the recommendation of an individual in Miss Thompson's area but having a parent child
166that will be a new line that we own one child yeah so instead of saying right so um everything else will will relatively stay the same there will be a little bit of an adjustment with the family because we are adding that that additional line but not much yeah okay so and in our contribution um as a district will stay 565 a month which is what it currently and we're adding the triple option correct triple option will be back great yeah I mean I concur with what you were saying I mean I I used it last Sunday not Sunday two Sundays ago just just like you said it's just so easy so convenient and eight bucks I mean you you you you can't get a sandwich for eight eight dollars I mean any other I
167want to thank all of you and especially the members of the committee that put the time and effort in and set through presentations and rubrics and making decisions and as I stated I you know we're here to hear from you because you did the work and we appreciate that because we know that it was a lot of extra time that you put in to make this decision so I hope that and I and I do want to thank Angel for sending out the information when we requested that that be sent out because lots of times people aren't paying attention to the workshops and things like that um I wouldn't even mind tonight if we sent out a clip just of this piece so that they can hear that the people representing them on the committee
168why they chose this and how it is a unanimous decision from the committee that's been presented to us oh Mr cologne go ahead yeah so just so there's five members five voting members that is correct and what does the makeup of the committee again because I think it's important that everybody hears this because for five years I've heard dissatisfaction with the health insurance and the first time in five years we've actually brought it full-fledged into consideration and I want everybody to understand because what will happen tomorrow is it'll be well the board and mind you we get blamed for everything and that's okay we're used to that but could you reiterate who were the men not the who but who did who were the representatives of the five votes yes sir there are two for
169view instructional two from view instructional one from View support okay one from afsby okay and one for non-bargetting so one is District and the other four are are bargaining years correct very good so it's 80 again bargaining unit twenty percent thank you thank you for your work I appreciate it and um and I will support the decision of the committee because I know you guys have done a lot of work uh in this so thank you is Burnett thank you thank you all again I know you've been thanked many times but it is I'm a thankless job for you guys to do that but uh thank you it's I know it's a lot um and I had asked Miss Workman plenty of questions before the board meeting that she got back to me and we've
170pretty much covered all of them um I'll be honest with you I was looking forward to a change for you guys I don't carry this insurance for myself um but I've heard like Mr clone said so many complaints and I was thinking this was a good opportunity to change but um you the people who use this have spoken and so I I will support whatever your committee decided and kind of going back to what Miss Hayne said I would like to know is there a um like a link or something where anybody can come and look at the members of your committee so they can ask questions or do they all just go to you Miss Workman but I mean they need to know that their representation spoke it wasn't us who decided it wasn't
171you who decided but the members who decided yes they can they can email me the question if I can't answer it I can always pass it on to one of the groups and I out of respect I'm going to to support your decision because I think that that's that's my job is to support you guys and so and and I'd like to add one more thing before um before you vote if you don't mind um one of the other things that I think is very important in this process is when it comes to open enrollment this year for those of you who've been around a long time you know open enrollment has usually been a two-week time period you have 10 days and it's boom boom boom and it's at the beginning of the school
172year it's the beginning of school it's crazy now we have to do it at the beginning of the school we are only because our plan year runs from October to September however what we are doing this year is as each group comes back the 11-month employees the 10-month employees and so forth we're going to start open enrollment on July 24th July 24th July 24th is when it will open and it will run until August 18th now with that being said the other piece that we're going to be doing is education the teacher in me feels like we need to be out there and and Carolyn as well who was also a teacher we need to be talking to our people we need them to understand what it is they're selecting not just health care dental
173vision life all of those different things so we have already worked with um Brown and Brown who is here tonight and um is assisting us as well as Prime benefits which is our enrollment platform and we are going to be doing educational seminars basically throughout the district and we've set them up with different departments as well as we're doing an East Side West Side night one the East Side night is going to be at the news journal so we're going to have computers set up people can come in they can enroll the West Side nights going to be at the center in Deltona we're going to be advertising all of this actually we've already sent the first Blitz out to let them know what the window is so our goal is to help people make
174more educated decisions one of the other things that Carolyn and her team are working on is basically a flow chart that says says okay we have let's you know we have a lot of split families right if we select this as our Health Care let's say so so it's going to be this way but for dental we should one should be this and one should be that we want them to maximize their benefits for the least amount of cost so so we're working working through all of this so that at the end of the day we feel like every person will have that information one of the other things that we've also done in the insurance department is we have brought on a Spanish-speaking office specialist which is huge because that was the biggest issue
175we ran into with open enrollment last fall and we both had been there about 15 minutes so you know we we had to work through that but we you know we know what we need to do to to best benefit our employees so I just wanted that to be part of what he sends out you're talking about Open Enrollment and the work that you're going to do is the provider not here helping you with open enrollment for the staff they do they do they are part of that it is we will have when we have those two nights on the east side west side we will have people from Florida Healthcare we'll have Delta Dental we'll have VSP we will have representation from all of the providers so if they have individual questions about the
176coverage itself they can do that because you can't be the expert at that I mean there's just no way we are we are actually creating experts in the insurance department because it it is a small department but we are going to have a person if let's say you call in and you have a dental question this person will be your go-to they're going to be able to answer those Dental questions and if not they will be the one to reach out to Delta Dental on your behalf so so we're really trying to um pinpoint everything so that everybody feels like they're getting that one-on-one service that they deserve [Music] probably like you know something like paper comment they talk about the insurances and like I say Stephanie and her team can only do like so
177much in the education because I could say you know probably half of our people really don't read their emails and and I think some of the biggest complaints that some people get and like I say did I get to ask me president they talk about it is is and and I know when it comes down to the money when you only make 12 000 a year before anything's taken out of it you know before we even take any taxes or anything out of it you know they go to they say oh the POS is free to me okay but they don't understand and and I know we've had a couple of issues this year is they took it but if you get hurt in any kind of what you have any in any minor thing
178it's 10 percent you have to pay 10 co-pay okay so you don't pay anything for the premium out of your check so like I'm HMO so they take what is it forty seven dollars a check but I have a flat rate so like if I go and get an MRI it's 175 but if you're on the POS and have to have something done you're going to pay the deductible plus 10 and that 10 percent can be your yearly salary like in one visit so that's the part they some you know some people don't realize they say they see this okay it's free but it's free as long as you're healthy and you stay healthy you know you don't have to use it you know so that so that's the biggest thing and like I say
179y'all sitting up there can't do it these people you know and Stephanie and her team you know they can do so much to educate but you know a lot of it lies on the employees they've got to really research their plan and look at their sales and their health because I mean in like in our department with schoolway Cafe I mean you get burnt a lot you they're slip you know you're slipping Falls you're picking stuff up all the time you have back injuries a lot of people have feet problems so you know stuff like that that's what people really got to look at you know is I'm gonna take this but it's it's really not for me to use if you want to make a 12 000 a year so that's the part that
180like I say is in the education part but and I think Stephanie would do a great job at it but I think sometimes that's what the clients come in because if people are taking insurance and then they got to use it it costs them because they don't realize that sometimes you know what it is going to cost them if they have to thank you all right I think it's timed I need recommendation I need a recommendation from the superintendent so Madam chair important members committee thank you thank you for those of you who are here today and those of that couldn't join if you're listening thank you for all the work that you put in and we know you don't get paid for it but it's advocacy and to you my dear congratulations on the
181new chapter Madam chair board members I recommend approval for contract number RFB ins Dash 23-002ls group medical benefits thank you board members you've heard the recommendation of the superintendent do I have a motion yeah Madam chair I move we um approve the recommendation made by the superintendent all right do I have a second a second that motion thank you any other discussion and I'll call for the vote all those in favor of approving the contract number for the RFP ins-23-002 LS for group medical benefits which is a contract with Florida health care please say aye aye any opposed it passes unanimously thank you and thank you everybody thank you to the committee now we're going to back up to item 18.01 for the human resource update thank you chair and board members I would like
182to ask Miss Stephanie Workman to remain seated along with Mr West and Mr Troutman has joined the team as the coordinator for recruit support and retain approximately I believe two months ago you feel like it's longer yeah all right well good evening superintendent of algon uh chair Haynes board members thanks so much for giving us the opportunity to um to present you with another human resources update I feel like it's been Human Resources day today so um really quickly we're going to go through our human resources update today on where we are currently with our vacancies and we've actually had the opportunity Miss Workman and our team has been able to break down our vacancies instructional vacancies by District so um you see the total number of instructional vacancies currently in Volusia County Schools is
183340 structural vacancies that's including all instructional vacancies both classroom and non-classroom vacancies just to give you a little context um I I pull the numbers from last year at this time where we were with instructional vacancies and we were at 486 instructional vacancies total so um with with the process of of first of all looking at our allocation process and reducing the number of allocations that are are needed and also um doing our our expanded recruitment efforts we are at 340 vacancies right now that is a lot but we are early in the process school has just gotten out and we realize that our principles are now definitely going to be focusing on what we need to to do in regards to this so back to our PowerPoint in district one you see that we
184and we've broken this down by school for you so you can take a look at this and and know where we are as of this moment district one is looking at 85 vacancies um yes ma'am and that is the total number of vacancies including classroom and non-classroom positions that we have I understand but that's a large so I don't have to know right now but I would like to know yes ma'am we will take a look at that and get that information specifically to you in regards to to start in District Two there are 49 vacancies and our highest number and I'll just hit kind of the highest number at each area there is South Daytona at nine in District 3 we have 18 so that's that's our lowest number of vacancies congratulations Ms Thompson
185in District Four there are 47 currently where we have a high number at Holly Hill in Tomoka and then in District Five we have 82 vacancies and that unfortunately has our school with highest number of vacancies which is Deltona Middle currently so um um we we have now remember these numbers are constantly changing on a daily basis and what this means is is that we have some principals who have already focused on the idea of moving people around where they needed them and done those we call them npas which basically transfers a teacher from one grade level to another or one subject to another and some of those are in transition so that's constantly moving um we also included the district instructional vacancies at 59 currently I'd like to make a state yes ma'am see
186those filled until you have filled the schools and I don't know how to make that any clearer because I've said this from the day back in April of 2019 our schools come first we can have teachers or people all over the place but if how do you explain to a parent when they come to meet the teacher and there is no teacher there our focus our primary focus is the education of children and the way children are going to be educated is there's a classroom teacher in front of those children and so that's my biggest concern and so I understand now like a school psychologist that's a specialized degree and you have to have a master's degree that could be a different thing but when we're looking at this other stuff and I will tell
187you I've been seeing all the ads on social media about you know I don't know what we're calling them now resource teachers or toas or what we're doing but our job is to educate children so I need classroom teachers so 85 vacancies right now it may look better to you but it doesn't look good to me because what's going to happen you fill these positions what I'm going to be asking of the superintendent is when it comes to pre-planning week and we have classrooms with no teachers I'm going to be asking her to take these people and send them out to classes yes ma'am and that is what we have done is have those folks but not for two weeks be there until there is a teacher that's my thought on it and I don't
188speak for everybody else yes ma'am okay so those instructional vacancies and as you said there some of them are very specialized particularly in the area of ESC with the services they provide and um student services Etc Madam chair yes Mr if I may I I Echo the same sentiments I know that there's an Uber focus on teaching and learning but when I see that you know and and I want to understand the why what I see is a lot of the schools where we felt there needed to be leadership changes that's where the Exodus is are seemingly what happened at Deltona Middle that was a fairly stable School that is causing 16 people or 16 vacancies that weren't necessarily all there last year there's a change in leadership and congratulations to miss Kenisha Williams who's
189going to be a high school principal somewhere we sure will but how many of those folks were leaving because they didn't fit well with the administrative change so now we come after the fact we make this administrative change in this case or in any other and folks have already because of the transfer window they only have so much of a chance to get out of Dodge committed to other places leaving a gaping hole which may also leave that person at a disadvantage because now South Daytona's got a big hole in it now now Deltona Middle has a huge hole in it if you look at this look at Stark start our tiniest Elementary School and we've got 10 instructional positions Orange City so I you know we we don't manage the district but I would
190probably reconsider how many of these positions probably just need to be collapsed and added as we have the luxury to help fill our classrooms because as Ms Haynes said we we have made these accommodations at the beginning of the year but contractually it can only be so long and we've heard dates before and and you know that we can only get them out of the classroom so long um so you know I I get worried when we have this many classroom vacancies does this include the hiring of the international teachers that we're looking at the first round yes 20 teachers that are coming from which which brings its own challenges in itself yes and so I I would you know Echo Miss Haynes I I'd like to see and you know you can't keep a
191position open because then someone apply I mean and again I'm I'm one of five and this is my opinion you know if you leave the position open and someone qualify applies for it then it's going to seem like we're not wanting to hire them and they're qualified for the position if the position doesn't exist then at that point at least classroom positions are where they're at you know and and I get it you know we had one of our CTE teachers at Deltona High great guy we wish him well he came to be our webmaster on it you know it's great but it left a gaping hole in a CTE program that was specialized in now had a sub for the rest of the year that how do I look at a family and say
192that's okay and don't get me wrong we wish folks well we want to see promotion we we want to encourage it but if if we don't have a teacher in the classroom and you know we this is kind of an echo chamber sometimes because you know every year we say the same thing let's get the folks in the classroom you know and you know every year it's well you know we can use them in the first few weeks to get and then they can sort of help the subs and I get it we do have some subs that are amazing and they're not in this figure you know they're not included in here so you know I'd be I'd be interested to see of those high quality substitute that we have what does that number
193really look like so what is our reality and mind you we can't count them as you know teachers but if they were a teacher before and they're certified and they're a sub and and they're going to be there all year then that while it still is a technical vacancy at least I know that you know they're not going to be bleeding because then we need to decide how are we going to make it you know four and four instead of eight at one school and I don't know how we fix that so just a couple of things if I may um I could because a couple of points that you made are very valid but I I do want to and I I don't know I think you came in when we were talking about
194the metrics from last year when we took the same date and looked at instructional vacancies from last year it's about a hundred less ons about 150 handed out positions last year that were above the format about well we stated that that was because there were some adjustments and allocations and because there's an increase in retention so what we're doing is looking at are we tracking along on the same same route now we are making good progress with that the other thing I want to point out because and I think it's a good point is the transfer Fair window that is something that we do negotiate so when we're looking at timelines I think it's a valid point that we have a discussion about when is when does the transfer fare window occur and when do
195we start making administrative announcements for administrators now part of the problem with that too is we're finishing up the year the testing calendar is changing so that is going to require some careful thought and not a reaction to we see some teachers following others but really that doesn't that doesn't um amplify the vacancy problem if a teacher leaves from one school and goes to another school that does it creates a vacancy at one but it's not creating more vacancies we're we're keeping the same number of vacancies so can't they okay even though we hold the transfer fair I know that there's a time period in which they can still transfer so up until two weeks before school starts right so they have this month and they have July basically that if they want to transfer
196but it's once we get within that two-week window it would require both principals to be in agreement and it would require the approval of the Chief Human Resources officer right so even though we hold the transfer Fair early and a lot of that is for people that are live working on the west side but live on the east side and finally a position may have come open at a school that they're trying to go to or vice versa that's what what the transfer Fair does really is it gives those teachers who have committed and said I want to make a change the opportunity to get their name out there before open hiring right and so um it isn't it is an important date and if that is something that we will look at as a
197negotiating team as well and one thing I also wanted to mention because when you said it it made me think that we made a number of administrative appointments today we've made a number of and and Dr balcovin said I think nine times today the effective date is July 3rd at seven o'clock in the morning so we all know exactly when they're starting however those transitions are beginning already the principals are working out with each other um the transition dates and introducing themselves so what you're going to see in the next few weeks is a lot of settling a lot of principles are getting where they're going to be and they're going to start making those hires um right now when we had schools like Miss Miss Williams I think she's almost Dr Williams just um
198I knew she was moving I don't know how many hires she has made knowing that she wasn't going to be the one so she may have left it for the new principal I don't know the answer to that the other piece of information that you said was the permanent Subs that is something that an um probably is it I usually started in the middle of July I'm sure you do too calling principals and saying what's your plan here's we know how many vacancies you have what's your plan and then we're able to analyze how many District staff do we need to send to that school we start putting those plans in place and we also start looking at the need for the unit so that happens usually about mid-july right now the plan is higher
199is the is the plan that we give the principles but that only works if you're not taking additional staff off of campus and leaving them with more spots they have to hire correct I think and I just want to go back to what you just said you call them let's think about how many of them are new to this job or how many of them are less than three years as a principal and you're asking them for what their plan is why aren't we helping them with what the plan that's exactly that's exactly what it is uh Miss Haynes is we will reach out we'll talk about what vacancies they have and then start to talk about how we can strategize to either help them with District staff or if they have a permanent sub
200so they'll they we will help them figure out what is the best plan many of them opt to use a paraprofessional or something like that to start the year at least it's a familiar face within the building until they can get some people on board we're hoping that the change in the certification where they can now do the five-year temporary that has helped us a lot that that would have been 180 some people we would have lost who now have two more years so so we're hoping that some of those people who didn't want to hang around will now hang around and we're down to 26 of those that were questionable um that we hopefully buy uh June 30th will get them across that finish line so miss King is constantly in communication letting them
201know this is what you need to do this is what you need to do so we're wanting to bring as many more people on board as we can with that temporary certificate as well well and we've been advocating with our legislators you know to extend the drop piece we've been advocating that they reduce the year sitting out you know to could they reduce it to the summer we've been advocating for different things to try to help fill this vacancy there's pieces that they've put into place when you look at like the military and things like that and I know everybody wants to go up in arms but the reality is look at how many colleges and universities have shut down their education programs okay what we used to say years ago is we would get
202an occasional person that came through the back door so they didn't come in with a degree in education they came in with a degree in something else and then had to do the credits and requirements to do that I mean and and let's be honest pushing the temporary certification out for five years and giving people more time there I mean there's a lot of things that are happening but are we do we have a sense of urgency on this and are we looking at are we projecting what we need to project and making the best decisions to ensure that children have a teacher right and so one of the I apologize while you spoke on that I just want to address that real quick um we do have a sense of urgency and we've actually
203um thank you board members for and it didn't come in uh because it was under the consent agenda and and appreciate Miss Kraft helping us get through this process um and working through of course and and Mr penley as well um we were able to work with another company Eep that um is also going to be able to afford us some additional International teachers as well we know that one of the companies the tpg that we've already committed to they were only able to give us those 22 um International teachers because of the Visas that they have and then this new company is going to be able to afford us more and we've already been working with that company we've actually interviewed like about almost 50 teachers additional that uh we're looking at as well
204we'll take them on the west side of the county we'll we'll just have to share about that understood yes ma'am yes ma'am so I did want to mention that we we do have a definite sense of urgency and I'm gonna let Mr Troutman talk about some of the things that we're doing as well in just a moment but I wanted to yes sir yeah and so to your point Dr Hazel so Orange City eight vacancies there's a change there Pride a vacancy starts to change there Sunrise five friendship eight Deltona Middle fifth 16. so I think these were the symptoms of a something and and mind you you know my ears per because you said we have 180 something folks who have a Lifeline for two years but what does that tell us that tells
205us in two years we're going to be hurting again and begging and hoping that the legislature would come back and say we're going to give it another two years although they are providing an alternative we're going to be working with them to get them certified well but there's also an alternative correct to the general knowledge exam where they can do a proctored teacher something or another correct and there's also something being taken to the state board on July 12th that will allow if they've had three years of consecutive effective or highly effective we are going to honor that even though June 30th technically is their date we're going to honor those individuals that are in that boat that they need that to be certified so far we only have two but I've already reached out
206to both of them let them know they have a job next year please come back so again in a year and a half that's 180 dropping right off based on based on the current you know we got a lifeline well and and also one other thing I'd like to add with the Recruitment and Retention office we are looking at entering into a contract that will help with certification exams so we will be working with them with a study guide helping them take those certification exams I mean we're trying to put every safety net into play I appreciate it thank you for those that June 30th is a drop dead date right now because it's the new legislation takes effect has anyone called those individuals and told them that that's what you're going to do so
207they can stay because I don't want I mean there's more than two because we got a list from Rob I mean we didn't get the names Robin King said there's 46 or something there's 26 total but of those only two the GK test the General Knowledge Test was the only thing preventing us from extending that certificate they just they just need that piece others need coursework others need other testing and so forth and and Robin has been communicating with them since well back into the winter letting them know hey this is what you need this is what you need some of them have just opted that that's not they no longer want to continue to teach so they haven't done whatever that requirement is we had two people it was just a matter they needed
208to submit their 75 dollars and they've done that we got on and we said hey do this so so we can get your certificate moving because you know the state sometimes takes six to eight weeks to process that so um you know I feel like we're doing I mean I can call every single one of them again but but some of them have have determined that they just don't want to return so um Mr colon anything else I'm done Dr balkovich the team knows that our priority is to ensure that every classroom has a teacher like we did last year you're absolutely right they weren't there for a few weeks and then came back out and we deployed back again all the way in December until now going back to the resource positions at the
209district level I spoke to the team and actually of the numbers that are there I think it's what 40 something you had shared yes it's it's to do pretty much what you were talking about some of you a full revaluation of each of those positions to see truly what is needed now miss Haynes and all of you you know that some of those positions are specialized positions you said that it wouldn't make any sense not to have them advertised but the others were going to do a full evaluation to ensure that first and foremost classrooms are a priority now what you saw today nine appointments we had to really keep at this because to your point you were asking about Stark and you were asking about Deltona Middle and I can tell you personally from
210those two schools it's not necessarily that the teachers have left the county but they have traveled or they will be traveling with their principals or if they were making an extenuating circumstance for the principal who was there now that the principal will no longer be there they have gone to another school it's it's pretty much how can I say recycling within our district that what what has transpired so that's why we wanted to ensure that those schools they have their principles that we can reset that button and now with Mr Troutman here and the team what we told them we're going to have job fairs that will be at specific schools that have high vacancies like for example next week we have one at Deltona Middle that's where it will be housed we will have
211those specialized in addition to continuous job fairs until the end I've also asked the district to look into nearby counties where we can do that Outreach in other words go to those districts and set up shop because obviously they can come to our district and if those teachers are certified it will be honored their certification will be honored so we're going to keep at it now jumping away until we get to that point because again the team knows that if we have a classroom without a teacher unfortunately it is what it is it's a priority to us and we're going to have to make sure that our resource teacher is in there or for what it's worth all of us right all of us know no exemptions directors administrators You Name It We will make
212sure that there is someone in a classroom with those students as we begin the year that's what that's what I think you're talking about this is Burnett thank you I I typically don't say uh I Echo that and that that's not my typical uh response but I want it to be on record that I Echo these these um these same feelings we need to fill the classrooms before anything else because we know the importance of of the students having a teacher in front of them and the behavioral issues and and that stability does help so like I said I typically don't do that but tonight I am so thank you all right you can continue thank you so and we all Echo that thank thank you Miss Burnett I mean and it's good that we're
213all on the same page our principles Echo that too that they do realize and recognize fill the classroom vacancies first is what we've said and they're working towards that as well I'm going to move on to the non-instructional um we have a number of paraprofessional vacancies um currently we have 111 pair of four positions that that is a large number that we are obviously focusing on and I'm gonna I'm trying not to distill too much of lashawn's Thunder there of the of the um job fairs that we have set up but we have targeted the areas that we know we have some of the concerns and we'll be talking about that number of Transportation vacancies we have uh 35 operators and 11 attendant vacancies with I'm sorry 15. um edep and before the bill update
214we have 38 vacancies there but that is drastically down from last year's numbers our school Way Cafe we currently have 37 across the district our custodial update um we still have 81 that are vacant but we realize that as the termination of this contract is is quickly approaching those numbers are are hopefully we're going to be filling those very quickly and I'm going to let Mr Troutman speak um so just to update you we've had two job fairs in the month of May at the end of the month of May May 30th we've held a job fair at Daytona State College in deltona's campus that was during the daytime that was from 10 to 2 and on the next day May 31st we held another job fair at Horizon Elementary School in Port Orange and
215that was an evening opportunity from four to seven six departments represented um to support hiring it was edep extended day enrichment program School Way Cafe exceptional student education maintenance custodial Transportation um we had six schools that were also present at these uh job fairs it was high Banks Learning Center Port Orange elementary Horizon Elementary Mainland High School Campbell Middle School and Long Street Elementary uh the events promoted were promoted on the district website on social media on local news on the air streaming at the event sites themselves they posted signs uh they were shared with the schools current staff VCS members families um and with the help of the Community Information the events were promoted through City uh managers elected officials Mayors Commissioners the Hispanic chamber and the NAACP the VCC PTA printed Flyers were
216also dropped off at local businesses and uh at offices and again from those efforts we had over 203 people to register for those events 194 walk through the doors 108 new applicants were begun and over 40 job offers were made in those two events um after reviewing the data uh regarding the highest vacancy locations and we've just seen that through districts one and five and in balancing the daytime versus evening uh offerings we've uh scheduled the next three job fairs and you've heard a little bit about this so they started as soon as next week June uh June 22nd at Mainland High School that's in the daytime from 10 to 2 the following week we visit University High School that's a daytime on June 27th from 10 to 2 and then the following day uh
217at Deltona Middle School and that's an evening job fair from 4 to 7 pm uh we're continuing to work with our businesses and University Partners our schools our department Our Community Information teams to promote hiring events and opportunities with the Volusia County School Board in addition to promoting upcoming events the recruitment team continues to expand and stretch and marketing opportunities to the work of our schools this past week we secured a partnership with the Daytona Beach International Airport and now we have a dynamic advertisement that will run an entire video while promoting career opportunities for Volusia County Schools so that's something positive to say at that's happening at the airport um and next uh last week we partake uh part took in a Volusia Mentor training the training was planned by a committee of members
218of the Volusia County leads team uh the goals were to introduce everyone to the new teacher Academy formerly known as tips so this is what we're going to do for our new teachers it will Define the roles of those mentors and that's what those mentors were there learning how to retain the teachers once they're there these are new teachers um they created plans of actions for campus day these would be the days doing pre-planning where the teachers are coming on campus in the month of August and understanding the resources and levels of support that we provide to them for them for these new teachers uh the Volusia mentors training was a way to introduce new classroom management plans to share ideas and to receive feedback um from the mentors this was the second layer of
219professional learning for our mentors the they previously completed a mentoring and action uh book course that they did on canvas so they had planning before coming to this meeting uh the mentors were excited about the work they were excited about their goals they were confident in their training they understood their roles as mentors and they were ready to meet these new teachers once they arrive in August so they were very very excited during that training um the recruitment intent retention team is very thankful to all those those that supported us during this event view was one and we look forward to support their support throughout the school year Futures foundations continuously support the teacher leaders leadership in the Volusia County School the federal programs that help we also had a lot of vendors and community
220members and even some of the district uh District Camp members came out to support us at this event um just yesterday we met with tll teaching leading and learning committee to share about the new teacher Academy so that the principles understand where we're coming from the leadership that they have the support that I have for these new teachers thank you Mr cologne what is a pair for an ESC pair of a professional who works in a multi self-contained classroom EBD multi 18101 they're the highest paid whatever we're doing is not working right so I mean 111 and we have instructional vacancies 340. so whatever we're doing is not working so have we considered going back to their representation to see if we can offer a bonus and I don't advise people well no but so
221so here's my thing so I think of a few things I think we have we have offered talked of signing bonuses before sign on bonuses you know with a contingency of a time frame clearly we're you know whatever we're doing is not working so I think we need to go back to the drawing board I don't know if we go back to maybe offering four-hour opportunities where folks I don't know I don't know what the answer is but that's a lot so oftentimes these um these paraprofessionals are it's IEP driven so I mean we would love to be able to offer I guess maybe a four hour position but if if a para has to be there with a student like on a one-on-one position for the entire room now we have a hundred and
222eleven we have 111 but we have like probably I don't know how many paraprofessionals do we have Amanda yes so I mean I get it so a quarter of your current Workforce is is in vacancy and so you know clearly that then you know is reflected so if these are IEP driven and we clear I think we may need to redefine that because if you can't provide the service then you're going to be out of compliance with your IEP because you're not providing the service something's got to give this isn't normal and and I get it this is a hard because we're competing against everybody in the world who may be and it's a hard job and some of these students are very difficult but I don't know how and and again I don't know
223this world well but I can tell you that whatever we're doing is not working and we probably need to go back to the drawing board to figure out how we can impact this in a positive way because this really doesn't I mean this is saying that we have a third of vacancies in paraprofessionals and we do teachers crazy I mean you Mr Cullen can I address one thing that we are doing right now in in terms of our support staff out of the last negotiations one of the things that we agreed to do was have a committee to sit down and review the job descriptions for all of the paraprofessionals and then all of our office staff because I think you know you make a good point in that we're competing with a lot of
224different things and we're asking them to put themselves in situations that different than being in a McDonald's or Wendy's or something like that so we want to make sure that the job descriptions are truly meeting the need of the position which means we may need to develop a pair of five or we need may need to look at what we are doing and tier them a different way so so that committee for our pairs we've met and we have a recommendation that as soon as we finish the clerical that we are going to bring to the superintendent so we understand where you're coming from and we're hoping that this may help us separate some of those true a pair of fours out and we have paraphosphere Forest threes two and and be able to have
225a higher salary schedule for those people in those those positions I'm going to say this out loud and I can't believe I'm saying this but this is the fire that's closest to us because this is what supports you know we have very little control of certification of all you know of the the the pipeline in education and the colleges closing down and and so the only thing we have that we can support them with is the support and so if you have no teachers in the classrooms you have you're missing that support which obviously somebody felt was necessary for that Student Success then this may be closer to our control and maybe the fire that's burning closest to us whether we need to reevaluate I mean you can put every IEP that every student needs
226a one-on-one but we know we don't have enough people to do one-on-one so at what point do we speak to the Department of Justice and say what gives what good is it to have it if you're going to fall out of compliance because you can't fill it so something is but this I mean in my opinion is the fire that's closest to us that we may be able to impact because it's a hard job you know it's a hard job it's these folks put themselves in a position where you know sometimes it's very difficult I actually think this is another piece we need to go to the legislators because what they did is they changed the criteria for being a para several years ago and they basically came out with they had to have X
227number of credit hours they either had an Associates either have to have an associate's X number of credit hours some were able to be grandfathered in by taking what they called a pair of protest so up to that point we you only had to have a high school diploma okay you could be that Mom that said okay my kids are in school now and I'm willing to go in and be a parent okay and a great pair I mean I've had Paris go and do what they needed to do to be teachers but then we changed the criteria and said no you have to have this many credit hours or you already have to have a degree in order to be a pair if we develop our own program could we not and this is
228rainbows and unicorns but could we not could we not query the department for an exemption to be able to prepare our own paraprofessionals because I mean I want to research that requirement I believe it is a federal requirement I think and it is not it is it I believe it's Federal with the federal funding requirement because it is under idea any federal dollar so whether they're idea Title One whatever dollars you use but they change the rules on us okay it used to not be required but they were correct and when they changed the rules we lost people that we couldn't get even grandfathered in and at that point we couldn't bring anyone in unless they met the criteria could you have a substitute Para you have it so to be a substitute pairer you
229need a high school diploma no I hear you I just I just wonder if I mean if we need to get on the wire with the folks and say hey this is a problem then you know the absence of not doing that is where we end up where we are I just want it could be so we call Congressman Waltz it's not hard to do you know we call you know Berry cotton it's at a what's his name's office Scott Rick Scott's office I mean Barry Cotton's local all right can we move on to Miss Thompson sure Miss Thompson thank you I'm going to go in a little bit of a different direction and I know chairwoman Haynes has mentioned this before but I really do want to bring it up because I think it's
230important do we have any upcoming job fairs in like the Taylor area because speaking from experience there's a lot of people in Seville Pearson daily on Springs Barberville with all due respect driving to Deltona University in Mainland is a hike we did take a look at that after our last board meeting and looked at the areas that we need frankly it's the numbers that we're looking at right now and we're looking at I hate to say the use your terminology but the fire is as closest to us uh as far as the number of vacancies of where but we we did tailor last year and we definitely will probably try to get out there again as well it's just that these these we're trying to start off at the areas that we need where our
231biggest state is but University where you're going by going to University and was it Deltona higher Deltona Middle Deltona Middle and they're both on the south end so we're not even hitting the DeLand group we're not hitting the Taylor group I mean we've gone to the South End right of district one and the south end of District Five and we're holding them and those those two places are only a couple miles apart so I'm looking at where our highest numbers are and that's where it is it's the south end of DeLand and Orange City and obviously Deltona so you have nothing into land I'm saying when I say the south end of DeLand I'm sorry I'm butting you up the university high is sitting on this yes but it's on the very tip I mean
232we will look at Taylor or the Taylor area or to land or just not land Deltona North the land area with all duration I mean you basically have done two you don't have an airplane that are just this far apart but they're both sitting on the south end of okay the west side of the county thank you thank you thank you this is Burnett thank you um I'm glad we have the Volusia mentors and the the team that presented for that in the past has been very energetic and exciting it was great it was great it was um and so I want to make sure that we keep the momentum going after the school starts and so I've heard the the um plan for meeting with their mentee their new teacher whatever if we want
233to determine is that name um before school starts but what is the plan once school starts when everybody gets busy what is the plan to keep them engaged with each other and giving them the opportunities to meet so that they can keep mentoring them and keep building them up and keep encouraging them to stay in the field and do better and improve we do have some meetings that are scheduled during the year where our mentors are going to be getting back together but remember what we're trying to do is is to train the trainer model so we're we're getting them now getting them trained up on what what um we want them to be excited about and moving forward with and and providing that at the school one of the things that LaShawn mentioned that
234they specifically we actually meet with the new teachers as well we're going to have virtual meetings as well as the face-to-face so and are most of the the pairing is is that uh teachers that are currently where the new teachers will be um placed at the same school so that they have an immediate connection they can you know you can pick up the phone and call your your Mentor right then or you know within the day or we did have representation from every school except a few schools that didn't need to hire anyone but we still wanted them to participate so we were getting back with those schools to make sure they have mentors just in case a new teacher comes on so we had representation I think from four schools were missing so just
235maybe going in in the future after school starts if we can all get a update on what how how it's working out once school starts because I think what happens and it happens at a lot of places it sounds great it's wonderful but everybody gets busy and it falls off and I kept hearing from many of the older teachers or more experienced teachers how they liked the what was it the the pair no the bars the pars program and I know that I know that there's challenges with that and we've moved on but just I don't want us to drop this if there's such great momentum and great enthusiasm about it you know I just want to make sure that we we keep that going anyone else Madam chair Mr persis just want to say
236that since you guys are in the field and this is your business and you know it better than we do because it's what you do um you know if you if you think there's something that we could do as a board to help you I mean I don't know what that might be but if you think you know if the board would would allow us to do this we think we could attract more people into the into the field I mean if the board you know what I'm saying because we can't do anything I mean we can say we want you to do more but we we don't know what that is but you may know what that is uh like Mr cologne said well let's give them a sign let's give them a signing
237a bonus well you know that recommendation would have to come from the superintendent and then that's a budget issue and then that you know that creates a whole other problem for us but uh you know I just want you not to feel like your hands are tied and and if there's something you think we could do I I don't I I I'm going to speak for kind of the group here oh I'm sorry you got your hand up share our posts retweet we're on Facebook we're on Instagram we are giving Flyers out just please keep promoting it and pushing it out as much as you can um that that's the main thing that I keep seen as I'm new in this position to keep driving that to see I look daily to see how many
238people have liked it how many people have recommended how many people contacted us to say that I'm interested in attending this job fair so I'm glad that we have three more lined up I have a great time just assisting with filling out applications with folks and we're open with welcome arms we came with uh about seven computers and it was just two we didn't have enough so the tech came and gave us more so we're prepared with more computers that we need to set up so that we can get people in to register apply and make sure they're vetted and trying to pursue career that's great yeah so I'm I'm going to ask for something I'm glad you asked that question we have five regions and we know that the board and each member are
239very particular about their region they're very competitive so how about we have a job fair I would like for you to talk to each board member identify a spot I think you already have one for each region and I'm going to ask each board member because you know your constituents and you can help us cheerlead and get the information out and rally then get them ready and going and if you can help us with each region by having your presence there but most importantly help us to become an ambassador for those job fairs can you help me with that that'd be great the Ormond Beach have it at the tiki bar and I guarantee I guarantee you we'll get something there will be some well we may not want to hire them but there'll be
240a lot of people that will show up can we get a list of all the vacancies by school including instructional non-instructional because I I learned that we were even offering four-hour custodial positions which include health insurance I mean word got out on that there's no reason for that not to be filled if word got out on the school Way Cafe I was very disappointed here we weren't hiring on the spot at the job fair we've updated that beautiful yes ma'am yes ma'am day we are looking at vacancies and sending a report of the numbers in fact I communicate with Dr bagelman every day about this is our total numbers I don't go down by school but I get the report by school from HR every day and if there's ever any anomalies like I see
241a spike then Stephanie will tell you I'm making a phone call and saying call the principal let's find out what's going on or if we see um sometimes we see numbers go down pretty rapidly we're doing a countdown yeah maybe a shared document where we could see that I don't know if maybe on teams where we could see that sort of ticker of where we are because I'm a little competitive and I've got some ideas Stephanie and I are we listed on the west side of the county we're in trouble because everybody else is ahead of us they have less positions we're going to take them from over there you and I are huh no I know they have there's we have more schools I have the large numbers they are the well and here's
242the thing and Dr Bob I appreciate what you said about you know getting with us here's the thing my district goes from the furthest point North to the furthest point south you get three parties there's not a place okay that works in district one because you're clear up in Seville and you're all the way to DeBary with everything in between and pull in Lake Helen and all of that and so it's not a condensed area where you can go we can kind of pick something centrally located that everybody can get to and I just I do appreciate that but I think we forget that we go all the way to Seville so we really appreciate the fact that it's we recognize this it's a team effort it really is um you ask the question and
243I'm going to tell you I've probably got the most creative team in I feel like the universe we get together we're trying to brainstorm and stuff but you all bring us ideas as well and the recognition that we really are all in this together um it is powerful and Miss Thompson you you've said it before recognizing that it's not just a Volusia County thing it's definitely a state thing but recognizing that we're all realizing it and working together I I think that's going to put us in the best possible shape that we can be in so um so we have some work to do obviously but um but I feel like we have some very positive things going on so thank you so much for your time I appreciate it everybody that's good we're going
244to take a break we will return at 8 55 foreign action welcome back our next item is 18.02 the school board attorney evaluation go ahead Dr Hazel and come up so what I'd like to say is each of you have in front of you the school board attorney evaluation Miss Hazel and I met back in May and we just compiled the results of what you sent in so we put each person's name and where they ranked in each of the categories so I'd like to give everyone couple minutes to read through this so that you can see and also give Mr Wolf time to read through it motion we don't we're not going to vote or anything no no there's no voting no vote there's no voters Mr Wolf we'd like to thank you for
245your services and as you can see it's reflected in this evaluation we are very happy with the services you're providing thank you thank you well well thank you I really appreciate all your comments and it's been a real pleasure representing the board uh for the last nine months thank you thank you I would just like to make one suggestion for next year because we talked about it but then we didn't do it I'd like for there to be a non-applicable column because there are two items that I marked as being non-applicable um one of them and I did put a comment there about reviewing and implementing School Board policy with consistency since Mr penley predominantly he and his staff update and review the policies I I mean I put an explanation for why but I
246would just like for us as we're looking forward to next year to possibly add a non-applicable calling but no we do um appreciate Mr Wolf um and so as you see your overall evaluation is great [Applause] all right all right anything else Mr purses did you want to speak no I okay you said let me see let's see okay thank you Mr Wolf yep then we're going to move on to 18.03 18.03 Dr bhagavin is your evaluation once again miss Hazel and I met you want to go ahead and you want to say anything or yeah I appreciate everybody getting their feedback in a timely manner got it in and this is a summary what you have is a summary document there's not necessarily an overall rating but you have a summary document of everyone's
247comments and their ratings thank you Dr balderman thank you Mr Parsons you haven't even been here a year right it feels like it feels like you didn't have to say that now you know please call reading this you know yeah I know it feels like three each each covered year equivalent to three so what I'd like to add is in in my comment section I hope that I explained because to me you know our categories are proficient reasonable progress toward expectation and needs Improvement and Dr Bogman has no needs Improvement to me reasonable progress especially in your first year is still a great thing because you can't master everything because she relies on a lot of staff and I did comment on that um that you know as she delegates items I hope staff's listening
248I need them to complete the items so that she does not have to follow back up to make sure that they did because that's a lot of time and I said this to the assistant principals that just finished their Pathways to principalship um last Monday I said to them a wonderful principle that I had the privilege of working with said if you want to know what a true leader is it's someone who knows their own strengths and weaknesses identifies staff to work with them that will complement their weaknesses and then they assign them the task and they trust them to do them until such time if what you hope never happens that they prove that can't do it or they won't do it or they don't do it and so I encouraged all of them
249I said I think one of the hardest tasks as you move up into leadership is learning how to delegate and hold people responsible and um my thought is you can share whatever you'd like with your cabinet because some of my comments are directed in a way to help you relay to them the things I think that could be goals for next year does anyone else have any comments I I would just say this is our first year with this instrument first year with you so it's a lot of Firsts but it certainly would perhaps be helpful to the board if after you look at the instrument if you felt like there was an item or two that the wording you know wasn't very clear which is often the case with these types of things you
250know any recommendation that you think might be helpful so that you get in inaccurate picture of what feedback we're trying to give to you I'm sure we'd be receptive in that if you wanted to tweak this instrument a little bit thank you Mr Parker thank you I'm reading through them I I didn't look at it before so yeah you've done a good job I mean there's been a lot of challenges and so we're appreciative and I hear a lot in the community that they're grateful for you and um there's always naysayers we know that but I think the overall the overall feel of everything is is that you know Volusia County Schools is being led by a good leader and so we appreciate that and to your point about the you know the the tool
251if you do see anything and more importantly I think we need to do is be consistent um with whatever tool we're going to use and like for the attorney and for this we need to to be consistent so it doesn't look like we change that depending on who's in the seat sure yeah thank you thank you Miss Burnett and I too agree we are so thankful that he took a chance on us and returned here to lead and every day there's a new challenge or something new that comes up but I will say that you take it head on but we want to we don't want you to burn out okay so that's to the group over there along the wall and in this section we don't want her to burn out Rose said uh
252but um please be supportive because I don't think I don't think anybody else wants to take her place right now and we want her to be here so um our wish for you is that you take a little bit of time in July and do some stuff with your family and um you know just rest okay you can send us pictures though absolutely because you're going to Alaska right I sure will yeah she's taking my favorite trip yeah all right are you good yes I am good um I I want to take the opportunity really I will tell you that you know this is and I will go on record and say I've worked in four districts in Orange counties where I spent most of I was a student there and became a teacher a
253district member I worked for the district for several departments and became a principal a master principal executive director of cabot you name it out of the four districts that I worked I will tell you that the one of the reasons why I am here and I'm going to go on record and say it's because there's something special about the people in Volusia County there really are and when I go to events even as as early as Monday morning I was there at the evolution learns getting ready to address the team the crowd and the audience and several teachers were coming up to me Prince I mean teachers from schools where we've had to make a change with their principleship and they were just Dr baugman we love you we have faith in you and we
254know that you're going to look out for our school so what I want to say and and it really was very touching because again I am going to say this to you I love kids I believe in what we do I don't put on a show for anyone because I don't need to it's who I am it's what you will get 24 7. in every profession that I've served or any every title that I've served I've been Carmen Baldwin which you see right here so in other words what you see is what you get right and I think you knew that but I also want to thank you for believing in me because it goes both ways and I enjoy working with a team and I would say this board in my opinion is probably
255also one of the best that I've worked with and I will go on record and say that why because you share a passion you share a passion for the welfare and well-being of the students of this County and for all parents and constituents and that is an attractive feature so I enjoy actually working with each and every one of each of you have your own personality and that and I love that about you but together we always stand ground when it comes to always doing what's right for students and I think we've been the epitome and living proof of it through covet it doesn't get worse than that right so again I want to thank each and every one of you because I appreciate the relation the professional relationship that we have and the healthy
256ways that sometimes that we disagree on things but we will still come back to the table and always do what's right for children that's healthy I want to thank my team this is year one they're learning me I'm learning them if there's one thing that that's becoming even more clear for us it's our way of work moving forward and I would say that's from the grassroot every school level to District level so you know what I I pray and I hope that I'm here for years to come but my goal for Volusia County is to leave a legacy and to have systems and structures in place and a staff will train so that for years to come the students in this County will benefit from from those systems and structures and the culture that we're
257building and that's what I'm all about but actually this is a reflection not just of me and thank you for all of your kind words and I know it's very genuine but also a reflection of the entire team and before you know it Miss Haynes and board members it takes about three years but with three years if you're consistent with what you're doing whether it's good or bad it will become permanent so in three years from now they will be able to anticipate me miles away but we will continue to work together in the best interests of all students here and purpose of this County and that is more than a promise foreign yes my name's Mr clown I wasn't going to say anything because I'm tired but you know one of the things that
258I will say and I shared this with the superintendent mind you we did this evaluation long before the fsba conference you know in my experience I'd always gone to the fsba conference and you sort of walk away somewhat jealous of other folks because everything always seems well when they're presenting and for the first time we went there and you go to a session about student learning performance doe Etc and it was almost like listening to your team talk the I don't know that they offered a whole lot that we weren't doing then we sat in a session where there was some superintendents and school board members speaking about good school board and superintendent relationships and I don't know that I took anything away from that because there was very little if nothing to be jealous
259of and so I I say that because I'm grateful you know that we we didn't get here easily there were a lot of bumps so there were a lot of speed bumps you know we had to get through a few speed bumps to get to where we are right now but it really really felt good to hear other folks talk about how difficult it is to work with their superintendents or things they would like to do better and to sit there and sort of say you know what we don't have that problem doesn't mean we don't have other problems or other opportunities I don't like the word about this but but I think that you know there are some things that we can't explain there are some things that certain folks are privy as to
260the why there are things that are better not said you know last meeting you know there were some folks who came and shared some opinion and you know what the reality is that I am trustful that over time the results in our student learning is going to show itself and we've already started seeing that you know and I'm excited about where we're going and and I think we're going to get there as long as we continue to have conversations it's when we stop talking that we don't move forward and I'm grateful to each and every one of you and the superintendent because you do put up with our craziness you do put up with this is what he really meant to say even though he didn't say it as eloquently because he doesn't really understand
261education but you know I think we all truly have what's Best in our students heart and you know and at heart so thank you Mr versus yeah I I just want to uh say to you Dr Baldwin I I I know it takes a great deal of your time to do those individual Direct reports as you call them [Music] uh so I just want to thank you for taking that that time uh I think as a as a board um I think one thing we can do to make sure she sticks around is to re respect her time she gives us that hour or whatever it is that she gives us and if we can reframe from interrupting her days other than that hour that she gives us I'm sure she would appreciate that she's
262got a lot to do we we hired her we're paying her and we should let her do her job without interfering in your day as unless it's in emergency emergency but I think most things can wait three days until you have that time when she is giving it to us to re to respawn to to you because otherwise you know I could call you five times a day because things come up in my head I think I like that I like to tell doctor about Goodwin I like to share something with you I want and I think no because if I called you five times a day and you called her and you you you wouldn't get anything done so I respect your time and I respect what you do and I'm grateful that you
263give us that time because not every superintendent does that I I will tell you that and uh sometimes when it's the when it's the board meeting week coming up the superintendent may say if you have any questions about the agenda you know call me but that's about it but you you schedule our time we all know when our time is that we're going to have you privately if we want and I greatly greatly appreciate that in just as Reuben said when you go to fsba and you hear what other folks are doing it's it's like yeah you know we do that and more so uh the relationship that you've helped create with each of us is uh is to be commended and I just want you to know I value it very much appreciate it
264anyone else all right we have public participation up next and it's Miss Elizabeth Albert starts if I could miss Burnett I have an answer to your question about the mentor if you'd like to hear it but I don't want to use my three minutes [Music] or everyone might want to know the answer so my my um your question was about the requirements of the mentors and the interactions with the mentees once the school year gets up and running so the mentor and I know this because we've worked very closely with Miss Rowan her team and Dr Howard and I actually attended the two days of the training and it was very good and we were very glad to be a partner with the HR team to do that so the mentors will be assigned to
265five teachers and they don't necessarily need to be new teachers they could be early career novice teachers just somebody that needs that support that guide on the side not a coach very different from a coach which you may or may not be familiar with but I'll wrap it up but the point is the ask of the mentor is to meet with those mentees at least one hour a month and they don't have to meet individually for a total of five it can be a combination but they're connecting with them as a minimum one hour every month to see what they need to help guide them they have a wonderful book of tasks that's driven month by month on supporting things that they can do for these new teachers or early career teachers to help them
266understand how to Be an Effective Teacher classroom management instructional delivery all those things that would help someone so that's the answer thank you for sharing that and really again I hope that we get some feedback on the program and how I'm hoping that it's positive and helpful and and helps with retention since even even the new teachers who sometimes are leaving too yeah I think it's going to be really powerful I just well I'm glad that it was positive for you as well thank you believe it or not we do think we're part of the team I hope everybody believes that okay so you ready all right amount of chair members of the board Dr balguban members of the audience so um want to come back and make some clarifications um first there was a
267comment about the transfer fair and so I happen to travel with my contracts and so there's a lot of words in here and sometimes they we just you know get need a little reference to the book so the language about voluntary transfer requests for a subsequent year or during the year there is specific timelines that are articulated in the contract about when those can occur but specific to the transfer Affair the language says the district will conduct a transfer fare for current employees prior to the conducting of the spring external job fair that's it and so I can tell you that there is flexibility there and so in the last four years or so the spring job fair has occurred earlier and so that's part of why the situation is the way that it is
268it's not a bad thing it just would mean we need to proactively start planning in advance for when we're going to roll things out and make changes that's all it's not bad it's just we need to be always looking forward domain one planning but the reason I'm back more specifically is I want to reference agenda consent agenda item 12.03 because I think perhaps in my use of plus one as a reference it may have muddied the question because I really didn't get an answer to my question and my question was what are we going to do for the teachers and the staff at these Focus schools to help with the situation there interesting that we've had the HR report in the interim my kudos to you for your data analysis and your CSI skills members
269of the board and having the good conversation that you had about the vacancies and making the connections to the transfers that was something that I was looking at as well but I wonder how many of those schools with those larger vacancies in fact are our Focus schools and so I am not a fan I'm going to go on record of signing bonuses I do not believe that that keeps people here for the long term I think it creates division for your current employees who are the people that are doing the work so if we could look at something more sustainable my wondering about 1203 is if we could maybe look at something for these schools in need perhaps the ones that are identified with the greater vacancies and then I'm just curious like if this
270is a three-year plan and I appreciate that Dr bagelman mentioned three years will come to fruition to see if something's working or not great that seems to be the driver here three-year cycle but are we creating like a hybrid like super principal pool where they're going to rotate around to the schools that need help and every three years we're going to see a transition like I know when I was at one of my former Title One schools one gal who used to work for the district came in and and she was the fixer she brought her blueprint taught us how to do things and helped move schools that were low performing so that's kind of the wondering I know that the stock takes showed that we're moving in a better Direction leadership is is important
271but it's the teachers and the staff that get it done thank you thank you Mrs Alver we're now up to item 21.01 items from board members superintendent school board attorney for discussion announcement or announcement Mr cologne yeah so bored I wanted to see consensus to bring back policy 319 which is our graduation policy I would like to solidify the aspects of graduation including approved cords as we saw in one of our schools despite the superintendent's Direction and best efforts we had to watch a student in the military who wasn't allowed to wear his army sash hold it up and wave it that's embarrassing and the only way we can solidify this process as far as cords and what's allowed and what's not is in policy uh it's not I've gone online and seen other school
272districts have we have a decorum policy and so I'd like us to revisit that policy in order to spell out so that everybody is clear on what the policy is because again it was it was very sad my initial argument was for the allowing students to wear the cords that they earned however that student who waived the military sash that he wasn't allowed to wear graduation just broke my heart and so I'd like consensus to bring that back I'm sure we've tried this once before and the argument was this is just the way we've always done it um I can tell you that one of the most amazing graduations was Deltona High hands down and the fact that there were folks who tried to play Down what was a amazing celebration of our students accomplishments
273didn't play well with me and so I think we truly need to solidify in policy what is allowed what's not allowed and um and kind of give some energy to the part of you know if the school principal wants to do I mean who cares if we were wearing vans it's part of that school culture it's part and it doesn't mean it's going to fit everywhere you know I I don't think that one of Miss Thompson's schools on the East Side could get away with that kind of a graduation and so I really would like us to revisit that and and sort of solidify the the cords the sashes and and that so that every student is allowed to wear what they earned and what's deemed appropriate thank you so do we have consensus I
274I agree I mean I think we definitely need to look at it and it's three I definitely think that there's some other things that you know graduation yes there's some decorum that needs to be followed but it also needs to be fun and I think that sometimes it's so processed that we're not making it fun and um I'll say this I have no problem with them decorating their caps they should be approved in advance and if you don't come with that approved one then you chance not graduating but I mean you got to make it fun I mean it's a big accomplishment and how many did we see that were first time students going to college and their families make it fun it's amazing yeah so I you I agree I agree um because truly
275it was heartbreaking to me to see that young man unroll his military sash when they asked the students going into the military to stand and that he couldn't wear it I I just I anyone that is has previously served in the military is currently serving in the military and these young men and women that are entering the military you know we need to honor them and and I think that was probably the the hardest thing like I wouldn't know if somebody's missing their German Court I really wouldn't you know what I'm saying but the military sash piece was really hard so I'm concur with that completely and I will give it to you as I am Deltona did have the best graduation if we gave out awards for that kind of thing but I think
276it's that piece where you're right it was fun the kids all had their cords they had the culture you know it was it was fun and it was nice and so I agree with you and so for anybody listening at home and if you didn't look at the pictures look at the pictures we all wore Vans and I have to tell you for that like almost two hour period of time my feet were very happy that we weren't in heels after you're doing alone graduations I know right yeah yeah and so we all wore Vans and at the end of the ceremony including every student sitting out there you know they had walked across the stage we all put shades on and it was fun Tom Cruise Tom Cruise Shades yeah we put Tom Cruise
277shades on that had the Deltona wolf in the center car yeah I did miss out you missed that one I would have looked good in those vans too and you know but anyway sure Mike is listening I know I'm I'm he's probably sending me a pair now I uh I just would say that uh I totally agree with the uh with the military uh part um at the same time I think as a board we have to be respectful to the Traditions that these high schools have and uh while there are some things that I think can be Universal and probably should be there are other things that are near and dear to that particular schools and that some of these schools have been around for a hundred years uh uh so we don't remember
278they they are graduating from Deltona High School New Smyrna Beach High School Seabreeze high school not Volusia County School okay we are Volusia County School Board but they are they are when they leave they're remembering Deltona High School not Volusia County okay so uh we just have to be respectful for that and about that and anything that we did here um I certainly know we wouldn't do it in a vacuum that we would make sure that the that the principles were aware of what we were thinking about and got their input in there too so uh that's all I don't want to step on toes because we saw a student car you missed it you weren't there well you know you were there wait wait wait I said I was in agreement about the military
279thing but let's not just keep keep going and going and saying and I think every school ought to ought to do this and I think every school ought to do something else and I think you know what I'm saying we just sort of say what schools should should be doing you know just we we got to be we got to be careful about about that because I know it's sensitive you may not realize how sensitive it is but it is a sensitive out there the military thing I'm all for it because I thought that was just the faux pas there that should not have happened but other things I can see where schools may be uh resentful if we've stepped too far into their tradition that's all beautiful all right anyone else okay we'll wait
280one final thing Mrs Burnett had a birthday happy birthday happy birthday birthday you're still celebrating yeah so whether people realize three of them three Geminis on the board within eight days right now eight days I'll have a birthday we're all in June yes yes you do that explains that could be scary when would that when would that ever happen that you would have the three yes ma'am maybe Mr Gomez should sing Happy Birthday to all of us oh it's English and Spanish we have another celebrity in the room we know you can sing Madam chair do you notice the other celebrity in the room at the mayor of Port Orange yes in the house welcome welcome to see you earlier nice to have you here I think I think he's checking on me he didn't
281believe that we were still working this late all right well if there is nothing else this meeting is adjourned thank you