001Hello, covington community and esteemed school board members. My name is Holly McGee and I'm just so excited about the opportunity to be the next superintendent of Covington Community School Corporation. I'm unable to be there tonight. I wish I could, but I'm still working in Pensacola, Florida as a principal right now. So, I thought I'd make a short video so you guys could get to know me a little bit better and know what I'm about. I also just want to share again how thrilled I am for the journey to come. I bring 25 years of public education experience to the job. Most recently as a principal, as I said, in Pensacola, Florida. I have played the roles of classroom teacher, middle school teacher, special ed teacher, crisis prevention intervention instructor to adults. I've been an assistant
002principal, an intervention specialist and and a principal. I've worked at all three levels, elementary, middle, and high school. I also ran a program for students with severe behavior problems that could not remain in their traditional school and had to be removed for a period of time. We worked on some behavior management strategies and then we would help make them more successful and transition them back into their traditionals. However, when I think about my most amazing, meaningful chapters of my public education career, it would be my time as principal at CA Weiss Community School. You see, that was my first principal job. And during that time when I was appointed, Weiss was one of the lowest schools in the entire state of Florida. Actually, there was only one school that year lower than us in the
003entire state. So, I knew I had a big job ahead of me. And we were able to completely have a comprehensive transformation from what the school was to a trauma responsive school and a community partnership school. We were actually the first community partnership school in the state of Florida. What did we do? Well, we started off by in just four years moving the school grade to a grade of a C. Before I left Weiss, we had a fully embedded pediatric clinic on site at our school. So, our families in our community, kids under 18, were able to go and see a pediatrician at no cost. We also had adult education classes. Those classes included GED classes and the prerequisite to GED classes for for people who needed a little extra work before they were ready
004to take the GED. We also offered classes like financial management and we had a parent resource room that parents could come and utilize computers or anything they needed during the day. We also had a very robust after-school program. It was free to our students and it included a large academic portion of the time where university students going into education would come and work one-on-one with our kids. It offered a hot dinner every night to our students and then after that we would transport them home. There were also very good enrichment programs that the students could participate in while there. Things that our families would not be able to afford otherwise. things like dance, ballet, golf, tennis, coding, Spanish, oh, and so much more. We had two full-time licensed mental health counselors on staff to help
005our families deal with situations outside of our school. See, we also served the women and children's battered shelter and we served two other homeless u projects that kept our women and children in the local area. So they were all housed twice as well. So there was a lot of things happening outside of the school that we were able to help with. We had programs like Weiss's eyes where eye doctor came every year and would give eye exams to students. During that time, if a student was um found to need prescription glasses, they were given a free pair of prescription glasses. And we also had a healthy ambassador program where our older students, fourth and fifth grade, were able to help out in the pediatric clinic. They would do this during school hours. some, you know,
006throughout the day and then they'd also work after school and on the weekend when the clinics were open. One of the stories I remember so well was a little girl that looked at me and said she had no idea that a woman could be a doctor. And that was so eye opening to me that we were able to expand her world from a very, very small world that she knew of, often not getting out of her housing project that she lived in, and be able to see that there were things out there for her as a young child. We were able to connect families, staff, and students through our initiatives. See, my time at Wise taught me one thing that education truly is the change factor for so many families and children. However, before that
007we can really monopolize on education. We we have to do so much more for our students and families. These are things before they get to the classroom or even the school door. We have to meet the needs of the whole child and the whole family. And in order to do that, every once we do do that, everything begins to shift and we truly can start making a difference. Most recently, I served as principal of MacArthur Elementary School, a completely different kind of school, but an amazing school in itself. When I got here, we were a low seat and we worked so hard, have a wonderful staff, and in three years were able to flip the school grade of a C to an A. We did this again with the most amazing staff. But we did
008it through instructional leadership, systematic support systems, and paying close attention and care to not just our students, but our families and our staff members. Currently I'm working on a doctorate in organizational leadership. I have all my classwork done. I'm just finishing my dissertation right now which is about the variance in teacher burnout as it relates to teacher attitudes towards trauma-informed care. So you see the research allows me to dig deeply and explore the intersection of trauma-informed care and teacher well-being. Something that I believe is just vital in our public educ education system today. On a personal note, my husband John, he's a middle school teacher. We are both excited for this move. He's really never been to Covington and is not from Covington, but excited about the close-knit community and everything I've shared with him
009over the years. We have three sons. Andre, he's our oldest. He's 24. He's at the University of Florida working finishing up his doctorate in mechanical engineering. Marcus, our 20-year-old, he's in digital design at the University of West Florida. Both of these boys will stay where they are and finish their college career. We'll see what happens after they're done. My youngest son, Ross, is 15 and he'll be be going into 10th grade as a Coington Charizard next fall. We are very excited about this. He's excited, too. In the last few months, I've traveled to Covington and I got to meet with the schoolboard members and I actually got to meet each of the principles at each of the schools in Covington. And I have to tell you that I was just very impressed with everyone's dedication,
010their kindness, and their passion for our students in Covington. I cannot wait to begin doing work with all of these leaders and to expand that into the community and and get to get reacquainted with many people in Covington and acquainted for the first time with so many. I'm truly filled with excitement and hope on what we can do together leading learning and loving together and see how we can elevate Covington to the next level. Again, I wish I was there tonight. I can't be, but I will be coming soon. Hopefully, we will be moving in the middle of June and I'll hit the ground running at the beginning of July. Have a wonderful evening and I'll see everyone soon. All right. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order and recognize that we
011have one member absent, uh, Heather Martin. Everybody else is present. If you would please stand. We say the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'd like to read our vision statement. The vision statement of Coington Community Schools is equipping every student to achieve their aspirations. Um, at this time I need a a motion and a second to approve tonight's agenda. I'll make a motion to approve tonight's agenda. Second. We got a motion and a second to approve the agenda. All in favor? I. None opposed. And the agenda tonight, the sole agenda tonight is uh to approve the superintendent contract and to officially hire Paulie McGee as our
012next superintendent uh of schools here at Cington Community Schools. Um nobody has signed up for public comment, so there'll be no public comment uh this evening. So, um, I need a motion and a second to approve Holly McGee as the next Coington Community School Superintendent. Make a motion to approve the contract. Holly McGee, our next superintendent. I'll second it. I've got a motion and a second. Any questions? All right. All in favor? I none opposed. That was a short and sweet meeting. Uh no, uh no other public comments here at the end. Um I will say it was posted before that Holly will be starting July 1st will be her official start date. Um looking to move in the area mid June and hit the ground running July the 1st. So, we're super excited about
013Holly coming on board here and just uh excited about her love for this community and just getting to know her again. So, uh we're looking forward to to working with her. Um going forward, her dates of interest coming up. We have a regular session board meeting on May the 12th at 6:30 here in the high school library. And that is all we got. So I would ask for a motion and a second to adjurnn. I'll make the motion to adjurnn. I'll second. I have a motion and a second to adjurnn. All in favor? I I meeting is adjourned.