OCPS | 2026-03-10 School Board Meeting

001Well, good evening everyone and welcome to the Orange County School Board's regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday, March 10th, 2026. Thank you all so much for joining us this evening. Let me double check. We have members Ferrant, Douglas, member Bird, Vice Chair Bird today, members Vanos, Gallo, and Felder. There you go. Thank you. Vice Chair Salamanca could not be with us today. As a reminder, board members will not be engaging in outside electronic or digital communication during the meeting so that we can focus on the business in front of us. And to my fellow board members and district staff members and members of the public who may be speaking to the board, please make sure that when you're speaking that your microphone is turned on and speak as directly into it as you can. You can

002probably tell already. The microphone is very, very sensitive. We'd like to make sure that all of our YouTube and Orange TV viewers have an opportunity to hear what you're saying. We will now pause for a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Now for the pledge. 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 have no idea what happened down at the end of the disguise. Oh yes. No, I thought it was an Apopka thing. One nation under God, right? One nation under God. Not one nation under God. It's one nation under God. One nation under God. No, it's one nation under God. We're not moving on. Maryland, I would say, God rest

003his soul, but is not resting right now because he would tell you un emphatically, unequivocally, it is one nation under God. and Mr. Palmarini will back that up. We've never had this conversation before actually, but I've been on this board for seven and a half years and I have been listening back and forth to the different iterations. So, this is our first time of publicly discussing this. Welcome to Orange County Public School Board meets. actually, we have Mr. Pomerini I can confirm the first time I did the pledge in front of John Land Mr. Pomerini you know you did it incorrectly right so yeah he has absolutely no pause within it so yes thank you for absolutely that's where that's where I learned that's where I got he didn't correct me but that's where I

004learned it was hard to miss it also he always always started out with a piece of interesting history Mr. Palmry. he would always start out with a really piece a really interesting piece of history when I called on him. So with that in mind, I was going to call on member Felder for an interesting piece of history. Thank you chair. Good evening everyone. Today is March 10th and this is the day around in 1990 the United States government declared this day to be Harriet Tubman Day. Harriet Tubman was a woman who was fearless and this is Women History Month March. She was fearless because she had the mitigated gall the ump to after she was freed from slavery. She went back went back without having a navigator without having she went back led by the

005spirit of God to grab other slaves to bring them to freedom. And we are living in such a time now that people are concerned about their freedoms. They're concerned about their rights. and as a public school entity here, Orange County Public Schools, we do our best to educate our children and to let them know that they matter. Harriet Tubman was not able to go to school. She did not know how to read and write, but she understood through her passion to do that which was right. That slavery was not the natural cause of an individual. That is not the natural state of a person to be enslaved. So as we women on this board, John is our lawyer here, but the women on the board, this is March Women History Month. I thought we would

006make that tidbit of information known to you. Thank you so much, Chair. Thank you, Member Felder. Thank you. And now it's time for our spotlight recognition. This is an opportunity for board members to celebrate exceptional employees. These are individuals who represent the very best of our district. Board member Bird, would you please share with us a little about your honores? Yes, I would love to. Thank you, chair. in fact, I have to apologize and thank my honores for having to wait two weeks or a month actually because they were supposed to come last high at the last board meeting, but I was home very sick. So, so I appreciate you guys holding out for me. I am so thrilled to share with everyone a true passion project in our community and, it's a fabulous annual

007event that I host with three amazing schools. Really, all I do is help provide the funding and say, "How can I help?" And that's pretty much it because they are the ones that do all the work. it's a fabulous event. We call it the community celebration. And at this time I would like to invite the team that's behind the heart and soul of this event to come forward. We've got LaMarcus Jackson who is a program coordinator at Wakiva High School and his beautiful baby who's back there too. He's so precious. what what what happened to the baby? I know. Why is the baby not up here? The baby's like the star, but the baby will be here in time for pictures. We have Kayla Burton, who's senior manager of community schools at Wakiva High School,

008and she's the social worker for Piedmont Middle School as well. Impressive. Randy Thomas, who is a dear friend of mine, who I'm thrilled to have here. Now, my script says the program coordinator at Pedmont Lakes Middle School, but she is actually the media specialist now at Pedmont Lakes Middle School. and then we have Mandy Austin, who's the program coordinator at Lakeville Elementary. So, these are just the handful of the people that make this event that we have every year possible. But I also want to thank, Fred Ray. He's not here tonight, but he is now the principal at Koli High School. But this event was started when he was the principal at Pedmont Lakes Middle School. And him and I one day in his office were like, we should do this event where like we

009bring the community together and all the families. And maybe have have a few schools participate. And so we did it and it just has gotten bigger and bigger every year. And now he is actually doing it over at Akoi High School in the Akoi community as well. But this celebration is all about one thing. It is about it's about making sure that our students and our families and the people of Apakka feel connected to one another by opening up Waka the Wakiva High School campus. These leaders here create a space where you aren't just a face in the hallway, but you're a neighbor and you're part of a family. It's a day for families to grab a bite to eat, for kids to play, and for everyone to build the kind of relationships that make

010our town feel like a home. It's such a fun day, you guys. Seriously, it's like my favorite thing. Last year, we had a DJ, petting zoo, bounce houses. We were giving away backpacks and books. The entire gym is filled with different community resources for people to check out. all the schools come together and show kind of the activities that they have. Students can students in the elementary school can learn about the fun things they can sign up for in the middle school and in the high school. the FFA is out there from Wakiva High School with all their animals and that gets all the younger kids excited. I think we got the water polo team in one of these pictures showing. It's just it's this cool event where the elementary kids and the middle school

011kids and the high school kids and their parents and their families all in a popka can all come together in this space at Wakiva High School and just be a community for a day. And it's just so much fun. And I remember last year as I was walking out to my car as I was leaving, there was a family walking near me and the little they had little ones and the little ones were just jumping up and down. They had all their prizes and all their stuff and they were like, "That was so much fun. I had the best time, Mom." So, it's just it's such a cool feeling when when you see families out together having a good time and feeling like they're part of a bigger community. and I really just love the

012idea that our younger kids are getting to see all the fun and exciting things that are in store for them as they age up through the system and it gets them excited about going to school and excited about middle school and high school. So, it's a super fun event. These people work their tails off all year long getting ready for this event. coordinating everything, coordinating all the different school groups that show up and it's just they make it work. So, I am so incredibly grateful to them. and I appreciate all of you allowing me this time to recognize them and recognize their hard work. So, mark your calendars because the third annual community celebration is happening Saturday, April 11th at Wakiva High School. So, let's get some pictures. time. smile. One more. One, two, and

013perfect. Thank you. Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Yeah. Families. Families. Yes. Oh, yes. Just a baby. So cute. Any other babies? I was Frank. You read my mind. I was looking around. I think that's the only baby in the audience. He's adorable. We have a very cute little one over here. Up for adoption. Good. Big smile. Look up. And on three. Good. One, two, and three. Look up again. Hold on. We got the baby. And we got a little belly going on. Is that the babies or the dads? There we go. Stay there. Perfect. Thank you. I love it. All right. also joining us this evening is Nora Rodriguez Patterson, chief communications officer, and Stefani Montto Montalvo. Stephanie Montalvo. Montalvo. Yes. Thank you. Your version is just mine. Montalo. Montalo. Thank

014you. And I'd also like to invite Debbie Pedraza. Padrazza, executive director of the foundation for Orange County Public Schools to join them at the T at the DAS with their team tonight. Addition Financials is here to present a check to the foundation for $59,69787. These funds represent a donation for every swipe purchase made by credit union members using their co-branded OCPS debit cards. In 2025, our community used these cards for almost $2 million in transactions. It's a powerful reminder that even the smallest gesture adds up to something great. To put this partnership into perspective, since the program began, Addition Financial has provided more than 920,000 in total donations to the foundation. $920,000. We're quickly approaching the $1 million mark in total contributions from these transactions alone. And on behalf of the school board, we're honored

015to have this continued support. These funds provide vital resources to invest in our students. Thank you, Addition Financial, for your commitment to our district. And thank you to every member whose daily purchases made this possible. Do you have some remarks for us? I hope I do, but honestly, you said it so well that I'm not quite sure how I can top that. So, you know, I came with a fancy speech. Let me skip that all together and let me just speak from the heart. We at Financial were founded in 1937 by Orange County teachers. It is not necessarily something that we brag about for the sake of bragging about. It's really our roots. It's our honor to really keep tight to those roots and to that heritage and to really pay it forward. And so

016today as we come and present this check to you is really an expression of gratitude from our humble beginnings to where we are today. Today we are a large organization but we really remain committed to our education roots and we just want to say thank you. So thank you for allowing us to be part of who you are. Thank you for allowing us to partner with you and thank you for just really delivering quality education to our Orange County students. Thank you. Thank you. And Miss Padza, while you're at the dis, thank you so much for the critical role you play. We don't often get an opportunity to to recognize you and to appreciate all you do. You want to take just a minute to to to explain to the audience the role of the

017foundation. I would love to. The foundation for Orange County Public Schools is the designated direct support organization for the district. We exist solely to make sure that our students, our teachers, our schools, and all of our programs have the resources they need. So that's what we do. We seek and secure time, talent, and treasure to make sure that everyone has what they need to help all of our children reach their greatest possible potential. It's an honor to do it. My team is phenomenal. as every department is, we are little but we are fierce and we are very proud to do this work and it is such an honor to work with partners like Addition Financial again to make sure that our kids are able to reach their potential. They are our greatest treasure, our kids.

018We want to make sure we invest in them every day. And your team is fierce. They're fun and they're fantastic. Yes, they are. But mostly they're fun. Mostly fun. Miss Padrazza, I've always wanted to know what year was the foundation foundation. Established. It was established in 1987. Okay. Okay. So, we'll be we've got a 40th anniversary coming up next year. Yeah. And some fun plans. Yeah. Absolutely. I remember early on probably very early on being at one of your lunchons. Yeah. And it was so cool to know. So, a lot of you probably don't realize, but the funding that we get from the state is it's pretty limited and based based on the cost of living, it's it's actually becoming more and more limited relative to the expense of of living here. And so a

019lot of the costs that our teachers experience with trying to make sure that their classrooms are properly equipped. It's it's kind of sad to say, but the foundation is critical in helping us raise additional funds for just those simple things like making sure there's I was going to say paper clips, but that would age me because we probably don't use them anymore. but yeah. Oh, there we go. That's not quite a paper clip, but it's close. anyway, but they're they're just instrumental in so many ways, making sure that our employees have what they need to do the job for our students, to make sure our students have the opportunities. So, thank you. And Additions Financials, you're part a huge part of making that happen. Why don't you guys come on up and we'll get a

020photo. And I want to bring up the whole team if we could. in the middle. Middle a little bit, please. That's better. in there. Big smile again. One more big smile. And I'll ask any family babies. We need more babies, by the way. We need more babies. Yes, it's borrow a baby day here in Orange County Public Schools. All right. Dr. Vasquez, let me check with you. Are there any changes to the published agenda? No, Madam Chair, there are no changes. All right. Seeing there is no changes there, is there a motion to adopt the agenda as published? Motion by Vice Chair Bird. Second. Second by member Douglas. All in favor favor, please say I. I. Motion passes with all members present. Voting in the affirmative. Dr. Vasquez, do we have any newly appointed administrators?

021No, Madam Chair, we do not. All right. Thank you. And we're also pleased to welcome students from Winter Park High School who are joining us this evening as members of the Superintendent Advisory Council. Would you like to introduce them? I would. Thank you. so this evening we have two incredible students from Winter Park High School. Jron Williams and Lena Schmidt. They are both members of my student advisory council and they will be sharing with us some of the great things they are doing at school to help students feel connected and build relationships. This one working it works. It's I'm asking it to to There we go. All right, that's better. That is better. Thank you. my name is Jeron Williams. I'm I'm our current student body president at Winter Park High School. And I'm Lena

022Schmidt. I'm our current student body vice president at Winter Park High School and I'm a senior. I'm a junior. Sorry, pardon my voice. I'm losing it a little, but it's okay. every year at Winter Park High School between the summer, SGA and administration meet together at the freshman campus to discuss what's been going on over the year and how we can improve. And this started 2 years ago, might I add, and it's been a tradition ever since. In those two years ago, we had a problem. We had a problem of overall involvement, morale, engagement, and how Wildcats needed to feel at home. As you can see by the statistics, confirmed student engagement was in the low 20%s and SGA statistics as a whole. this is in relation to homecoming is where we had less than

02330% participation at our homecoming parade. That's one of our pride and joys if you know 20% of our clubs entered and only 30% of our sports entered as well. And so as a result after our meeting with the administration, we wanted to get right to work. And so we started creating some initiatives that we wanted to bring to the 2024 2025 school year. And those initiatives started with our clubs. And so at Winter Park High School, we have the inter club council at the ICC. And we wanted to get them more involved. We wanted to really bring them into our school and make them feel connected. And so one of the ways we did that was have them participate in our homecoming parade, which like JRON said is one of our pride and joys. And

024so we incentized them to come and gain their school requirements by being involved. And this not only encouraged them to be in it to get to maintain their goal and maintain their requirements, but it also made them feel connected to not only their school but their community as well. And it got them to show this is what I'm prideful of. This is what I do at Winter Park High School and this is what I'm involved in. And this also we could see with our school with our classes. And we had our classes perform a skit at the parade. And this friendly competition was really fun in my opinion. Like I'm a senior and I wanted to beat Jon who's a junior. And I think that friendly competition really made me feel connected within my class.

025It made me want to participate in things and it made me want to show my pride as a Winter Park High School student. And here are some of the SGA statistics from our homecoming. And as you can see on the left, that's our statistics from 2024 and our statistics on the right from 2025. And it kind of just shows our increase in participation in our not only our homecoming, but also in our parade as well. and that because students felt connected, they wanted to participate in our parade and they wanted to come to homecoming. And that was really just through getting more people involved. I just want to preface this the class skits are rigged every year in seniors. Okay. but I digress. But I digress. come 2025, we met with Dr. Vasquez was and

026she wasn't just listening to the problems and the things that the students felt that they needed to improve on and she felt that Dr. Vasquez could improve on but SJA as a whole was listening as well. we gathered club presidents there and they discussed what they wanted to be seen done and we have to remember that change can only start at the top so much and it really starts with the student base. We want to connect students with different resources at a deeper level and using clubs as a vehicle again and this also relates back to the mental health aspect that we want to focus on as well going into the year. connectivity day, resource counseling, things that we want to provide for the students here already that we can make a change to make

027them connect with the school even more. And so like Jon said, we want to con continue keeping that connection going. And so as we entered this year and we had our meeting with Dr. Vasquez, we wanted to continue those initiatives and kind of keep that connection going. And so we created a few more programs and one was the pack boys at our school. And that's just a group of our most spirited Wildcats. And their job was to come to our games and really connect with kids and make them want to participate and want to like see their students play and really cheer them on. And so that was a huge big hit. And they came to our pep rallies. They came to even more sporting events and they got a lot of kids to want

028to come to the games and want to participate. And we also focused on working with dance marathon which they hosted a park palooa event which was a huge community event and that not only connected us with our school and with our peers but it also connected us with communities and schools from outside of just Winter Park High School and we got to talk about oh this is what Winter Park does. We got to connect with more than just the people at our school. And then we also had a pie a teacher event where students got to actually pie one of their teachers and that was a huge success because who wouldn't want to pie one of their teachers? I mean so we actually raised about $600 and we were able to really have people connect

029with their teachers cuz they were like oh you should come and so I can pie you. And as a result, once again, it just shows in our homecoming statistics how we've just increased with our numbers over the years. And we've really had more people want to participate because they feel connected and because they want to be at our school and because they feel like it is a home and they do belong. And that kind of brings me to the future of Winter Park and how this is going to look in years to come. And since I'm a senior, I'm kind of giving this into the hands of Jon, but because of everything that I have put forward and my also fellow SJA mates have put forward, we just hope that we can continue this school

030and only grow as a school and just continue that connection and that feeling of belonging as we, you know, move forward. And I know our SGA will have no doubt and we'll do that. So, thank you guys so much for your time. Thank you. Thank you. your she would love it. Oh yeah, we would all love it. Yes. Yeah. If you pied her. If you pied her, please. We were complaining earlier, we don't get notice of everything happening at school. If that happens at the school, we want to know. She doesn't need to know. Hold on. Is that fire? Yeah. One more. Look happy. Thank you. All right. before before you all head out. member Vanos, you have some rebuttal here to say or what? I noticed you wanted to speak. Hey, if if we

031can bring more people into into the event, I'm I'm happy to to be pied. but I just want to say thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for sharing what you're doing at Winter Park High School. And I love that you sort of understand that foundation that when students feel connected and they feel valued and an important part of the school community, they're they're they'll show up and they'll continue to work hard and continue to meet the expectations at your school. and I also I was actually at the student meeting last year with all of the club presidents and was just so impressed with just so many of the different issues that they brought forth and just the candid conversations and the ideas that came out of that meeting. And I also

032just want to give some kudos to your principal Dr. Meechen who I know continues with the student town halls and really engages with students to to get their feedback as well which is so important. So thank you so much for being here. So proud and proud to be your school board member. I have a couple board a couple other board members. Vice Chair Berg. Yeah, I Good job you guys. U Terrific. I every time we get to hear our young students speak, I'm like h I just love it. You guys, our future is in such good hands. I'm so excited by everything you're doing. I wanted to get just a little more detail on you said you have a summer meeting with your principal. Is it just is it the inner council or is it

033just the SGA? It's SGAA and the entirety of administration. So that goes from principal all the way down to all of the vice principles and some instructional leaders as well. Okay, that is really cool. Do all the high schools do that, Dr. Vasquez, or is that just something? I we would have to confirm that. I do believe that many of them do that. Okay, that's awesome. I think the answer is not yet. Not yet, but they should because that's just what a great idea just to sit there with the students and reflect because I know you guys all schools do that, you know, at the end of the year probably with staff and everything, but to be able to like sit down with student leaders and discuss how they viewed the year went and what

034they would like to see different next year, I think that is such a cool idea. And thank you for listening to your students in that way. and the inner club council, I think all of our or most of our high schools have that too, right? That's Yeah, that's another great thing. But anyway, I just wanted to tell you guys, you did a great job. Keep it up. Member Farant. Wonderful. Thank you. And thank you both for being here. And principal, thank you for being here as well. I just wanted to say how incredible it is when I first of all, I always say this to Dr. Vasquez, but all the students that come in and share what's happening in their high schools. It is so fun for us and then for board members who you

035aren't in my district so I may not know all the happenings but it's fun to hear and then be able to take that back to my schools and share with them but it's amazing what happens when students take initiative to improve that school culture. It is one thing for the adults to be pushing it and we might have the same ideas but the minute you all cool and fun and you guys have that initiative all of a sudden the classman start saying wow this is that's a great idea we should do that let's go so really exciting it was fun to see the difference between the two years and be able to contrast of that and then just showing that you can't wait around for someone else to make a difference and the fact that

036you rose up and you said, "Hey, this is what we want to see. We want to see a change. What can we do to help be a part of that?" And you did it in such an awesome and constructive way. So, really proud of you what you guys have done and excited to see the continued trend. I'm sure we'll hear more next year on the how that's trending forward, but excited to see that. And thank you again for being here. Thank you, member for member Gallo. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to echo what everybody's said about what a great job you did. It is it we love having the students come and speak to us. It just reassures us of how fabulous our teachers are and our schools are for you guys to

037get up and present in front of all these people and all the cameras in the back. Kudos to you because you guys did a great job and that's a little nerve-wracking. so just thank you again. And then I did want to give a shout out to your principal cuz I heard that he was at Good Morning Winter Park and that he knocked it out of the ballpark. I got several text messages from people at that meeting that thought that you just did a phenomenal job and you really hit the nail on the head. I think one of the slides said if you want to know where your future workforce are, they're sitting in my third period class at Winter Park High. And I don't know how more eloquently we can say that than that. So,

038I just want to say kudos to you. and I wanted Dr. Vazquist to hear that as well. So, thank you. Thank you, Member Galla, member Douglas. the talent that we can see in OCPS, it's amazing. These are our future leaders. And I think our really future is assured because when we see these wonderful kids that already make a difference being in high school, what can they do when they get into the workplace, that's just amazing. I love your presentation. I like the way that you presented the before and after and the difference that you have made in just one year. It's just amazing. It's just amazing. I just want to say thank you to your principal as well for all the work that you do for the kids and without you, you know, a lot

039of those things may not happen. So, thank you again and really very proud of you. Thank you so much. And the baby there. dad and the baby too. Dad just took Dad just took the paper away. And I think that was very rude because Arthur was trying to clap for that. Well, member Felt, you're recognized. Thank you so much, chair. I just want to sort of again reiterate what my fellow board members have said that we're just so very proud of our students in traditional public schools. I think that people miss out on so much because we really do have so much to offer. Our students are just phenomenal. And again, as I've always said from Miss Das, it's a poor frog that don't praise his own pond. So, I'm telling you, we're so very

040proud of you all. And every time another school comes up and they share what they're doing, I just want to ask the question, why not public school? Why aren't you in traditional public schools? And why aren't you in schools at Orange County public school district? And so we are so grateful that you all seem like you're having a great time being in school. You love your school and you love what you do and we love that you love what you do and thank you so much for sharing with us. Thank you. Well, thank you member Felder. I don't I think everybody said everything, but let's see. I haven't said anything, so I just want to take a minute. I They all said it, but it's so cool. It's just so cool to see this take

041fire like this. Dr. Vasquez, it was it started, it started with Dr. Vasquez, but the real life and spirit of it lives in our in our youth. And you guys just recognizing how important it is for kids to be engaged. And it's so easy to go through high school and just kind of feel isolated and just, you know, just bumping along and not really caring about anything and wishing you could get out early or stay home. And it takes the enthusiasm that you all bring to make kids want to come to school and that's what it's all about. And it should be fun. I mean, it should be something that you look forward to. And it's so you're doing it. And so, God bless you for that. and Principal Mechum, thank you for being so

042such a collaborator with these kids and you know and leading with heart and with purpose. It's very obvious from what we see from your students that you have that wonderful spirit and our kids are just blessed to have you as their principal. All right, we are going to move on and this is the opportunity for all of you all who came here to celebrate to leave if you want or you're welcome to stay with us all evening. It's your It's your call. We're going to take a brief break while everybody exits and we'll resume our meeting in just a minute. You're good. How long are you? Not long. for the strategic plan. Yes. Yeah, but I we Yeah, thank you. Because they're coming to the thing. Yes, I am. I just It's not quite as

043celebratory. Yeah. Yeah. But thank you because they're coming up and now I'm got a little flustered. All right. We'll resume our meeting. Next, I'd like to acknowledge Clinton McCracken, president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association for some comments. Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Jacobs, board members, and Superintendent Vasquez. As we move through another year of difficult decisions, educators keep returning to three simple pillars. Respect, invest, support. Teacher pay and benefits are top concerns, but how we treat our educators ranks high as well. These pillars matter most when the district faces difficult financial realities. We recognize the pressures coming from Tallahassee are real, but many of the choices that shape our district are made locally. the number of principal leaders, senior executive directors, senior directors, assistant directors, chief officers, managers, senior managers, senior administrators,

044and program specialists. Those are decisions made here. At some point, we have to ask where our resources are best invested and whether those investments are strengthening classrooms or pulling resources away from them. Because schools should be the last place to feel the impact of funding challenges. Yet too often it feels like schools are the first and sometimes the only places where those impacts are felt. The sense of imbalance is also felt in how accountability is applied. It must exist across the system, not just in classrooms. Too often in education, when something goes wrong, the first place we look is the classroom. Low test scores, it's the educators. Reading proficiency drop, it's the educators. But if we truly want improvement, we must also examine the decisions being made across the system and the pressure placed on

045schools to meet expectations that may not always align with the realities of teaching and learning. We see this play out in small but meaningful ways. When a principal leader visits, schedules may shift to accommodate the moment. Yet, if a teacher adjusts a schedule to meet the actual needs of students, that same flexibility may be questioned during an observation. That inconsistency erodess trust. Strong schools require strong classrooms and strong classrooms require a system built on fairness, trust, and consistency. Before I close, I want to speak directly to our educators. The collective bargaining agreement that you work under today. Those protections didn't appear by accident. They exist because we all stood together for years through this union and worked to build a contract that helps guide our work across this district. Those protections matter and the work

046you do every day ma matters even more. So, as we head into spring break, I want to wish all of our educators a well-deserved break. Please take the time to rest and recharge. You do not need to work during your break. You've earned that time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's correct. You've earned that time. So, please, please, please take it. All right. Next, I would like to acknowledge Ron Pard, president of the Orange Ex Education Support Professional Association. Is Mr. He has he left? Okay. All right. Well, I acknowledge him. He's not here and we miss him, but he was here earlier and we always appreciate his important role as well. and last I'd like to acknowledge Sanjay Brown, Middle and K8 Schools principal, and he's representing the Orange County Association of School

047Administrators, otherwise known as Okasa. Welcome, sir. Thank you. good evening, chair, superintendent, and members of the board. I am Sanjay Brown, the proud principal of Persian School representing the Orange County Association of School Administrators. I'll take a moment here to recognize my colleague James Moriceetti who is the principal of Village Park Elementary School. Thank you for coming here in support this afternoon. I stand before you tonight to express our deepest gratitude for your unwavering support of our district's leadership. It is your vision that allows us to cultivate an environment where both our staff and our students can excel. We recently saw this spirit of community in action at the Okasa Gulf Scramble last week. This wasn't just a day on the course. It was a powerful gathering of administrators, teachers, and community partners, all united

048by a single mission. I am incredibly proud to announce that through the collective generosity of our participants, we raised over $20,000 for our graduating seniors. Okasa's cornerstone mission is to provide $1,000 scholarship to a student from the graduating class of every single high school in Orange County. By hitting this fundraiser milestone, we are ensuring that financial barriers do not stand in the way of the bright futures our students have worked so hard to build. This achievement is a testament to what we can accomplish when the district and the community move in lock step. As we transition into the final quarter of the school year, the home stretch, I want to specifically highlight the incredible work of our school-based administrators. This is the most demanding time of the year. Our principles and assistant principles are currently

049on the front lines, meticulously preparing students for final assessments and ensuring that the instructional momentum remains high until the final bell rings. Beyond the academics, these leaders are the anchors of our schools. They play a pivotal role in maintaining order, fostering a culture of high achievement, and providing the emotional and structural stability that students need to succeed. They are the architects of the school climate, and their dedication is the reason our district remains a beacon of excellence. In closing, thank you for your continued partnership. Because of your support and the hard work of our administrators, we are not just finishing the year strong, we are launching the next generation of leaders with the resources they need to thrive. Thank you. Thank you. so much. All right. under our celebrations and observations, all 2526 proclamations were

050adopted by vote of the board during the August 12th, 19. Yeah, I was going to do that. 2025 board meeting as designated celebrations and observations. The list will remain on the agenda for the entire Porter, you're recognized. Dr. Porter, you're recognized. All right. Good evening, Chair Jacobs, members of the board. I'm pleased tonight to be joined by senior executive director of research, measurement, and strategy, Dr. Jennifer Sasser. senior director Ben Allen, director of strategic improvement, Casey Libertat, and today we're going to share the results of the school start time survey. Presentation will begin with background information before we share the results and next steps. Ben will take over the presentation. Thank you, Dr. Border. I'll begin with some background on why the district administered this survey. School start times are described in section 101.42 42

051of the Florida statutes, which mandate that by July 1st of 2026, middle schools start no earlier than 8:00 a.m. and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m. The statute also mandated that districts must inform stakeholders of the health and safety benefits of the change and specifically calls out groups such as parents, students, teachers, school administrators, and athletic coaches. In 2025, Senate Bill 296 amended this statute to allow for districts to opt out of changing start times if they submit a report by June 1st of 2026. This report must be in a format provided by the Florida Department of Education and document how the community was engaged in the process. The school start time survey project timeline begins with the August 19th presentation by the operations division to the board. During that meeting, you requested the

052district staff gather information from the community. In October, the OCPS strategic improvement department established a cross-divisional team that included members from divisions across OCPS, including strategy, communications, learning, and operations. This team worked to ensure that the school start time survey collected the necessary information and reached as many stakeholders as possible. Dr. Vazquez also began incorporating this topic into superintendent town halls. The team fielded the survey from November 11th through November 21st. Data analysis and reporting took place in December and the data was initially shared with the board in the board planning session on January 20th. That brings us to today where we are sharing the data in this public board session. I'll now turn the presentation to Casey Libertat to discuss the outcomes of the school start time survey. All right. As mentioned previously, the

053school start time survey was administered in November 2025. We received responses from over 71,000 percent participants, 12% of whom were OCPS staff, 14% students and grades 6 through 12, and 74% family and community members. Staff received their survey link through email. Students used a link posted on their Launchpad while family and community members accessed an anonymous link. The survey was available in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Arabic. The state identified specific groups in the statute, including parents, students, teachers, school administrators, and athletic coaches. The number of participants in each of these groups is displayed here. Survey participants self-identified which roles applied to them and were able to select more than one option to best reflect their part in the OCPS community. Each survey began with an introduction linking participants to a document that

054shared an example of a possible schedule and information on the scientific research discussing the importance of adequate sleep for middle and high school students. The current schedule example shared had high schools starting first at 7:20 a.m., elementary schools starting second at 8:45, and middle schools starting at 9:30 a.m. The possible adjusted schedule shared had elementary schools starting at 7:45 a.m., high school starting at 8:40, and middle schools starting at 9:35 a.m. Four research sources were shared, including those from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cambridge University, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. All participants, regardless of the stakeholder group, were asked the question, "Do you support the proposed changes to school start times?" Overall, 60% of participants opposed changing school start times, 34% support the change, and 7%

055were neutral. Let's break down those numbers by survey type. You can see that the numbers for each group are similar. When asked if they support the proposed change to school start times, 59% of our family and community members oppose the change, 35% support the change, and 6% are neutral. Of our staff members who participated in the survey, 56 opposed the change, 36 35% support the change, and 9% are neutral. Our students shared a similar view with 66% opposing the change, 24 supporting the change, and 10% neutral. Participants who noted their opposition to the change in school start times were given a list of possible concerns to select if they applied. Participants were able to select all that applied to them. The top ranking overall concern was the disruption of family routines with the disruption of

056work schedules coming in second. Negative impact on student activities and safety concerns were also rated as common concerns. Participants who expressed support for the change in school start times were given a list of possible benefits to select from, which helped explain their reasoning for supporting the change. Participants were able to select all that apply to them. Health benefits for students were listed as the highest reason for participant support with academic benefits for students coming in second and safety benefits for students coming in third. I'm going to turn the presentation back to Ben to talk about next steps related to this topic. One of the major topics that the report asks is about community engagement. We discussed this briefly in the earlier timeline and here's a more detailed description of the community outreach and conversations. Our

057conversations on this topic began in August 2025 with an OCPS schoolboard work session. We also discussed this topic at a planning session in January and now at tonight's event. Dr. Vasquez incorporated this topic into superintendent town halls earlier this year. Families received information about the starttime survey through parent square and staff also received information about the survey through that platform. Schools were encouraged to directly reach out to parents and provided language for messaging and graphics for email and social media posts as well as flyers to post at school sites. Students in middle school and high school were able to access their surveys directly through Launchpad. And schools were provided language and graphics for student reminders as well as a slide and script that could be shared during morning announcements. The cross-divisional project team worked to

058send out reminders to specific groups throughout district contacts which included athletic coaches, music, theater, and art teachers and community members who engage with the district. This topic also garnered media attention and was publicized in various print, television, and radio stories. On February 20th, 2026, the state board of education approved the report format the districts must submit to not implement the new starttime requirements. The district can submit a single report that will include all non-charter schools. Charter schools may also choose to submit their own reports. As shared in the Florida Department of Education's weekly memo on February 20th, the report must include at a minimum the start times of elementary, middle, and high schools in the district, documentation of strategies considered to implement a later start time for middle schools and high schools within the district,

059including the number of board meetings, public hearings, and opportunities for parental input. a description of the impact of implementing school start times and identified unintended consequences to the district, students, and the community by implementing the start time requirements under the statute. Districts must submit this report to the Florida Department of Education by June 1st, 2026 to be considered in compliance with section 101.42. The board has before it tonight a resolution declaring its intent to relate related to school start times. If the decision is made to keep start times the same, OCPS will submit the required report to the Florida Department of Education by April 30th of 2026, well before the statutory deadline. And we'll turn the presentation back to Dr. Vasquez for any comments or discussion. thank you Ben and Casey for a terrific job

060as well as the rest of the team in taking on this dis this endeavor. board me board members as you can see the majority of the stakeholders do agree with keeping start times as is. We are now prepared to take any questions or comments from the board related to changes in start time. Thank you Dr. Vasquez. let me begin with member Vanos. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. First of all, thank you so much for the work that your team did in sending out the survey. I know you asked for our input on the survey and tabulating and pre preparing this report. I see that I believe you said that charter schools may also submit their own report. So does the law not require charter schools to comply? They're not required to comply with all

061of this work. If they wanted to take advantage of the report to opt out of that start time requirement, they would need to submit their own report and not they can't be submitted on the district's report. So, they would have to go through that process on their own. Got it. Okay. Thank you. yeah. I also just wanted to say I have been an outspoken supporter of later start times for high school students. I think it is I personally think it is unfortunate that sort of the inconvenience and not wanting to change schedules sort of went out over the health and academic benefits to our students. But I do respect the survey process. I am so thankful that so many people responded to the survey and shared their opinion so that we can make a decision

062that reflects our communities our community's desires and needs. And I would just use this as encouragement to pay attention to the surveys that come into your parent square and to please participate because what you say matters and we take that into account when we make decisions. So thank you. Thank you member Vanos. Member Ferrant. I just want to say thank you for all your hard work. I appreciate all the different methods and the ways that you reached out to the community to make sure we got everybody's input and their thoughts on it. I think everybody you know you can see it from the survey. It is pretty clear what people are wanting but there is that group that would like to see some change. but you know ultimately it's I think the way we are

063able to present it with the survey is really great. I think it gives parents that option. Not only parents but students, teachers, everyone was viewed on that. And it is it's a difficult thing because it's not just changing one group or one like if we could just change the high schools or just the middle schools. I feel like they end so late. Like there's certain things as I was talking with the team. There's just so many moving parts and finding the buses and how would we revamp all that? And I'm sure we could figure that out if we if we really were stuck with it. But it really is bigger. It's it's a bigger problem to solve than just one simple thing. So I appreciate all your hard work behind the scenes to get this

064information to us and for submitting this to the state. Thank you. Thank you member for member Gallo. Thank you Madam Chair and I'll echo the thank you for all the work that your team did, Dr. border and all of you all to give us this information, do the survey. the last time we talked about school start times. I think the board was unanimous in our consensus that we know that starting later is good for our kids. The research is very clear that high school starting later is beneficial. if it was a perfect world where cost wasn't an issue, busing wasn't an issue, and we could run, we didn't have to run three, maybe four routes to get to schools, I could see us making that change, but that's just not where Orange County is right

065now. so I'm not surprised by these results. We saw them when we when we did the exact same survey back in 2000, I think it was 19, wasn't it 18 or 19? 19. the community overwhelmingly just did not want us to change start times. And so I'm I'm happy, you know, I said that I would abide by what the community wants. It's clear the community doesn't want us to change start times. So, thank you for the information. And when we're sharing this, we by law, we have to share this with the Department of Education, correct? When do we have to send it up to them or have we already? So, the report is due June 1st to the department and after the board's decision tonight, we'll have our direction to be able to complete that

066report and submit it before the June 1st deadline. Okay. Okay. So, if the board decides tonight not to change start times, then you we just have to submit the report and nothing more is required from Orange County. Correct. All right. Perfect. Thank you. Well, I will be supporting it tonight. I believe it's important we listen to our community and I'll be supporting not changing start times. Thank you. Member Douglas. when I was a teacher, I mean, you know, I'm still a teacher at heart. Okay. Always a teacher is a teacher. Okay. I had that discussion with my student in high school and they were adamant that they did not want the start time to change and that is kind of a reflection of what I have experienced in the classroom. I know it's we're talking

067about sleeping pattern of the kids. but I think as parents, we need to also be mindful that we are in control of our kids and we have to make sure that they go to bed on time and they don't stay up and play games until 2:00 in the morning. We have to check on them. We cannot all put on the schools. We have to make sure that our children are doing the right thing. So, thank you so much for your survey and what you've done. you always do a great job and I thank you so much and Dr. Border, your team just wonderful. Thank you so much for the survey. Appreciate that. All right. Thank you. and to the whole team, thank you as well. And so we will move on to the rest of

068the agenda. We're not taking a vote at this time. No. Thank you. No, we're not taking a vote. Consent. Consent. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Ben. All right. we have a whole process by which we can solicit public input on matters that are coming for the board especially public hearings. one of those is to email board members and to email our office of school board by I think it is noon yesterday so that we have access to comments that maybe people that aren't able to attend or don't choose to attend those are part become part of the public record. We have an electronic signin system here in the building and we also have an opportunity to sign in and register ahead of time today. I wanted to check with Mr. Palmer Pomearini regarding any public comments

069that we have before we begin. Yes, Madam Chair, you have five speakers signed up. one two of the speakers have indicated that they want to speak to more than one of the school closures. I've reminded you of your policy BEDH which says no speaker shall have more than three minutes per meeting to address the board during any agenda public comment period. So, normally we don't allow them to have we allow them to have three minutes total, but it is up to you all if you would allow them if you want to allow them to speak twice or not, but this is the rule typically is they get three minutes total. Understood. Thank you. And how many speakers do we have in total? Five. Okay. So because this is a public hearing public hearing differently we

070should allow them to speak on every right any dissent on allowing the two members that want to speak on more than one school. All right so let us begin with our first hearing. Hold on just I think I skipped over one on 3.01 01 pardon me. Yeah. Yeah. Let me announce the hearing and then we'll take comments from the speakers as they do. The other speakers indicate what school they want to speak on. So that's the issue. There's the first three of our speakers don't indicate which school they want to speak to. Okay. And then I have one that has indicated three school consolidations. Then one speaker has actually indicated the two schools he would like to speak to. Okay. So for individuals who haven't indicated which school they want to speak to let me

071do this show show of hands who are the five people that wish to speak. Okay. do you have specific schools that you want specific school you want to speak on? Okay. We have at least two speakers that don't have specific schools. So why don't we hear from you first and then we'll have your input throughout this process and then on the others we'll hear from them before we take up each of the each of the individual schools. All right. So the two in do you happen to know the three speakers? Okay. So the first one is Stfana Ferrell. Welcome, Miss Frell. Hi, Bor Stefan Frell 34787. As you all know, I am not a parent of a student impacted in one of these schools. However, I am I am an OCPS parent and I have

072friends that work in these schools and I have my husband actually went to one of these schools as well when he was a child. So, I wanted to come up and say, you know, I appreciated hearing all of the efforts to involve the community and get the community out. I would love it if we had more communication to our parents so that they are aware when they make an individual decision to remove their child from the school, while that money might follow their child to their next choice, there is money that is lost that does not that would otherwise fund the school itself. the you know when one child decides to leave an entire school there really isn't a change to the number of that of teachers that are needed the utility costs all of

073those costs they don't change when one student decides to leave the school and we lose that funding and so we know that Orange County largely votes to tax themselves a little bit more to better support our public schools that they show up and they vote for people that advocate in intell Teleahassee for our public schools. What we need now is parents to understand just how important and pivotal it is. you know birth birth rates are declining. Parents are leaving Orange County because it's too expensive to live here. We have families that are leaving the state because it's scary to live here. there are a lot of decisions that are influencing why families decide to leave. And more than ever, we need parents out in the community talking to their friends about why it's so important

074that we stay connected to our public schools. So, I wanted to take that time. I appreciated if if you haven't watched that portion of the meeting to see the different events that our communities, schools are putting on, participate, show up, speak out in support of our public schools and advocate in Tallahassee because ultimately it's funding decisions that impact why our schools are closing and it's it's we're in a tough spot and more schools will have to close if we don't do more as a community to show up and support. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Frell. All right, next speaker. The next speaker is Cynthia Harris. Welcome, Miss Harris. Hi. How are you? Cynthia Harris, 12 Channon Avenue, Orlando. And I am a proud member, a product of Orange County Public Schools. I'm here today

075because I'm deeply disappointed about the proposal to close our schools. My commitment to this district is not just words. I have served as an addition school volunteer for 35 years. which has shown me firsthand how much we are truly invested in the success of public education. I have listened carefully to your views on how low enrollment but to be honest the new math is just not mathing. We are talking about Ekston and Washington Shores. If Ekleston maintains higher enrollment levels, why are we taking students away from a school rich in history just to fill the gaps of a lower enrollment site? We are disrupting established cultures and routines just for a spreadsheet. When I was a student, we had what was called the wheel. It was a system that afforded every student a chance to

076learn real vocational skills like home economics and wood shop. These programs gave students a reason to be excited about coming to school and a path towards a career. If you want to increase enrollment, don't close the doors of our schools. Bring back vocational education. Give families a reason to choose their neighborhood public schools over a private school voucher program. We can no longer afford to let our kids fall through the cracks. History has shown us that our schools, especially in underserved communities, already re already received the lowest levels of funding. Now, we're told there's a 41 million gap and the solution is to shut us down. I know you're frustrated and your hands are tied, but our community needs you to be our champions. We need you to be creative. Instead of converting these sites

077into healthc care facilities, use them for our children. Don't just manage a decline, lead a resurgence. Reinvest in trades. Honor the history of our schools like Eckleston and show our students that they are worth more than a consid consolidation plan. Let's be creative. Let's be bold. And let's save our kids. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Harris. All right, next speaker. Next speaker is Frank Vassel. my name is Frank Frank Vassel. I live at 1438 Rainy Avenue, Orlando, Florida, 32825. cheer Jacobs, members, neighbors. You have an email from me regarding public schools. I was a I'm a public school. I'm a product of a public school. Our children went to Union Park Middle School. and the email you got from me will tell you how to save public schools. But we are at this point now

078where there is no saving. It's too late to save the public schools. So I'm here to urge you members look at Longwood Elementary School is closed in 2006. About 5 years later they had to reopen the school. They had to renovate the school to reopen it. So bear that in mind. The schools you're closing may have to reopen. There's a pure research 2013 regarding shuttering schools. There are memorabilia in our schools. Please make sure those memorabilia are saved. We have portraits of principles in Union Park Middle School lining the wall. Find a place to put those portraits if that school is going to be divested or or sold or whatever comes to that school. There are books and periodicalas in our media centers. Make sure those are preserved. We already know what you do with

079furniture. It ends up at John Young Parkway. We already know you'll be keeping the furniture. charters may be our only hope for the buildings that are going to be left vacant. The properties that are going to be left vacant, the charter schools are probably going to take them. From the research that Pew did, the charter schools took about 42% and this is a 2013 report. 42% charter schools took properties across the nation. So see that charter schools get the buildings at least to preserve them. You're going to be left with a huge task members to sell those schools, get help, get the the local real estate people around who have the skill of selling. You're not in the business of selling schools. But you're going to have to do something with them. Otherwise, they're going

080to sit idle. The weeds are going to grow because if you don't maintain those schools while they sit idle, the equipment is going to go down. The pests are going to move in. The insects are going to move in. Spiders, you name it. Okay? And vandalism is going to be one of the other issues with those schools. They're going to steal the copper. They're going to steal the steel, the aluminum, and you're going to be faced with another problem in the neighborhoods. So members, I beg you to consider those things as you go forward with the schools that you can't save at this moment. But my email, my email members, I sent all of you the email 13 points to save our schools going forward. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Your next

081speaker is Coulson Fry. I normally announce in advance, come on forward. that one of our rules in the chambers during our public meetings is no audible acknowledgements either in support or opposition primarily because the opposition can be rather rude. but I didn't say that at the outset. So let me say this. If you have opposition to something somebody's saying, just give us a thumbs down. if you have support, give us a thumbs out up and we'll be paying attention. All right. Thank you and welcome. Thank you. Hello. Good evening, chair, superintendent, members of the board. My name is Coulson Fry, zip code 32792, and I'm an organizer with C Alliance. Today on the agenda is a vote to close and consolidate seven schools in our county. It is important to emphasize that this is not

082just a financial decision, but one that will affect the lives of families and communities surrounding these schools. Schools are community anchors. They are gathering places for families, spaces where neighbors connect, and institutions that help shape neighborhood identity. When students are transferred, they face challenges adapting to new environments, teachers, and peer groups. Changes that can impact academic success and social stability. Changes to transportation routines can also affect attendance and engagement. Closing a school affects far more than just enrollment numbers. Even if the consolidation decision moves forward today, community engagement must continue through the transition. Families should have a voice in how these changes are implemented, and communities deserve transparency about what will happen to these public school properties. For those affected, these closures are not happening in a vacuum, but they're happening all over Florida. ongoing

083issues such as school voucher programs that lack financial accountability and drain funding from public schools, schools of hope that expand privately run charter schools using taxpayer money, and declining enrollment linked to the terror in our community about ICE, all contribute to the pressures facing our public schools. I encourage the board to hold community transition meetings to discuss timelines and answer questions, host listening sessions with impacted students and families, and provide transparency about futures of these public school sites and give regular public updates. I also encourage community members to continue showing up to these schoolboard meetings, to continue staying informed about issues, and to continue making your voices heard. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. So your last speaker is Steven Holtzman. He has identified item 3.01 and item 3.05. Okay. M so we

084are about to take up 3.01 you want to speak to both of them. What you want to go in order? Yeah, come on up. We'll take up 3.01 and then we'll we'll have you back up for 3.05. Thank you. Yeah, this is good evening. Stephen Hollesman. Tonight I am a representative representative of the group Orlando Yimi standing for yes in my backyard. We are a housing advocacy group. you know I've followed this process. my old training as a demographer is kind of kicking in. but tonight I'm kind of you know mourning a little bit and you know publicly we you know share our thoughts about what these school mean schools mean to us and with you know I went to Howard Middle School the old Orlando High School that had a lot of history. I

085know there were lots of projects to keep that around. when I was in middle school there was a museum club run by the art teacher Clinton McCracken. and we did a local museum project on all the folks that went to our school and one of them was John Young where I guess that parkway where all that furniture is going to end up. but you know I you know it's it's kind of cool. You're you're you know getting your head around the world or or the moon. and you see oh the an astronaut went through these halls and you know maybe that's going to be me. and I know other students do that too. not an astronaut yet. but you know and that and that school has a lot of history with William R. Boone. you

086know that was you know we couldn't go more than a couple weeks without hearing the ghost stories every knock and on the window or whatever. Oh that's the ghost of Boon coming back to honest for not doing our homework. with with Bonavville Elementary School you know there famous alum that have gone there. there's you know, state rep Dr. Anna Eskimani walked through those halls and went on to do great things and I think she'll continue walking on to do even more great things. and I you know think of all the folks and the especially the young girls that were walking through that elementary school who maybe heard that story or maybe her heard Dr. Eskimani go and speak. and maybe that was the decision where they said, you know, may maybe I could go you

087know, make it to the Florida legislature. I don't know why you would want to do that. but they would have the courage because we need strong strong folks to go and do that. and so, you know, you know, just I guess maybe a moment of silence. I don't know if that's a little hokey, but I'll wait out my time u for for Bonavville Elementary. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And thank you for the 30 seconds of silence. do we have other speakers at this time? No. Mr. Holtzman will come back up for 3.2. Okay. Thank you. all right. I'm going to call in the superintendent in just a minute. I think that your comment that you're in mourning, I think, believe it or not, is something I can relate to and I'm pretty

088sure most of the board members can as well. This is this is not a happy day there. This is very disappointing and a very sad point in time. But a lot of what we are dealing with with the declining enrollment is as somebody mentioned and maybe it was you is declining birth rates and the shift in housing. we're seeing certain areas where yes, some students are going to a charter school or a private school, but a lot of it is just a decline in the number of school age children in those communities. And that's that's a demographic shift. And yet in other areas, we are still bursting at the seams. So the declining enrollment is not something that we have much influence over because of the factors I just mentioned. But the funding is a

089very real problem. I know we've explained it and covered it and covered it. I think there was a comment that our lower socioeconomic schools are receiving less money and that's actually that's not true. The funding for each school is tied directly to the students. The funding comes from the state. It's allocated per student. If a stu if a school has lower enrollment then they are going to have less funding. But it is not a matter of funding being divvied up based on economics or race or ethnicity. I am happy to say those days are behind us in terms of the funding formula that the state uses. So with that there might be other things in terms of community input and I do and I do want to make sure that it is clear that superintendent

090has held meetings our staff has been at meetings at every one of the schools. Our school board members have been at meetings at each of the schools. that doesn't help from the standpoint of it's still bad news and it and it doesn't change, but there has been an effort to get out and tell that story. So, and some have complained that effort should have been made earlier and I think we've tried to explain that legislation changed just this past year. that makes it extremely precarious for us to try to continue to operate schools that aren't financially viable. so with that, Dr. Vasquez, I'll recognize you for them. thank you, Madam Chair. and thank you all for being here. This is certainly one of the most difficult days in my superintendency. never would I had thought

091that we would be closing schools in a in a district that values public education that has the support of our community. And so it has been an incredibly difficult process for us. this evening we will take each one of the schools individually. we'll have the presentation, we will have an opportunity for the board to have discussion and then we will take individual votes. I do want to assure everyone that regardless of what the outcome is for each of the schools, we will be sending communication out to staff and to families informing them of next steps. if the vote is to consolidate, if the vote is to keep the school open, we will also communicate that. I do want to add one point. The reason we came to this difficult decision is because we wanted to

092continue to have schools where all of our children have access to the supports and the resources so that we didn't have the halves and the have nots. And so, ironically, that is why we we chose to bring this proposal the proposal for the seven closures before the board. I wish I could sit here and tell you that this will be the end. Sadly, it is not the end. We continue to see declining enrollment. we are looking at projections of 5,000 more students that we are losing. And so it is our intent to listen to the concerns that you've stated and we will be going out much sooner to those schools and informing them of their numbers reviewing their trends before the end of this school year. that way there is time in the summer to

093be able to see if if families can be recruited back and then we'll have more conversations in the fall. but the numbers that you will see for the schools that we are bringing forward are huge numbers of students that are no longer there for the various reasons that were stated up here by the board. And so, with that, I am going to turn it over to Stacy Neil. She will begin the presentation. I'm sorry, Mr. Greg Moody, executive leader for, school choice, and then he will introduce the team. All right. Before we begin, member Felder, do you want to speak now? I guess probably we should wait. I probably should wait till Miss Neil makes her presentation, but I wanted those persons that were here and I know many of them that are here. They're

094in support of Equinson not closing that they need to understand we take a vote as a board, but there's also is there not going to be an opportunity for them as community members to vote on the closing? No. So, this is it. This is the final. Okay. All right. I just want to be clear. All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Mr. Moody, you're recognized. Thank you, Madame Chair, board members, superintendent. I introduce Stacy Neil, senior director of student enrollment, will walk us through the first and all resonings here today. 3.01 Bonavville. Good evening. Before we start, let me introduce my staff. With me are Thomas Moore, our demographer, Ranada Propsheet, senior administrator at student enrollment, and Dr. Andy Westerman, senior administrator, and Amy McCormack. And I am Stacy Neil. Okay. We are

095presenting seven school consolidations that would redistribute students to 17 additional schools. Together, these recommendations address under enrollment across 24 schools. Before presenting each advertised option individually, we will begin with a review of the resoning timeline. Community meetings were held on January 14th, 15th, 21st, and 22nd. Schoolboard work session was held on January 27th. A rule development workshop was held on February 3rd. And today we are conducting the school board public hearing. We will start with sorry I don't know why. We will start with Bonavville Elementary Schools consolidation. Let's start by reviewing the map to orient you with the current and proposed zones. Red lines indicate current elementary school boundaries. And the schools involved in the resoning are Bel Bonavville Elementary, East Lake Elementary, and Colombia Elementary. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Purple is

096East Lake, green is Colombia. The next slide displays the demographic breakdown for each school both before and after the resoning. The first column shows the name of the school involved in the resoning with the school's Florida Inventory of School Houses capacity, also known as FISH. Fish capacity refers to the official number of students a school is designated to accommodate as determined by the state. This figure is maintained by district staff in the Florida Inventory of School Houses, a comprehensive database and includes every room in all district-owned schools. The next column displays student enrollment from October 15, 2025 with a percentage breakdown for race as white, black, and other and ethnicity as non-Hispanic and Hispanic. The third column shows the difference between enrollment and capacity. The fourth column displays the current number of students residing in

097each zone. The next column shows how many students will be residing in each zone if this resoning takes place. It also includes a percentage of race and ethnicity. And the numbers below show a range for the projected enrollment for the 202627 school year. The next column is farms which stands for free and reduced meals and shows the percentage at each of the schools before and after the resoning. The next column shows ESE which stands for exceptional student education percentage at each of the schools before and after the resoning. The last column shows English language learners, ELELLL, the percentage current and proposed. I will give you a moment to review the numbers for each school. Community response summary for Bonavville's consolidation. We received a petition with 116 families and one additional survey opposing this resoning after

098the rural development workshop. If approved, this resoning will commence in August 2026. And this concludes our presentation for Bonavville Elementary Schools consolidation. Dr. Vasquez, member Gallop, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I want to thank student enrollment and everybody that had a part in this process. This was not easy for any of us. I went to my two schools when it was discussed at the school level. Student enrollment went to every to all seven schools. and it was hard to it was just it's hard to close schools. It's hard to look at a community family, a staff family, and know that you're going to be breaking them up. It's hard to look at students and know that they could be separated from their friends or that they're going to be attending another school next

099year. It's hard to look at a school like Bonavville and that's been around for decades and know that it's going to no longer be like there's just no easy way to put it other than it's just it's gut-riching. And if there is anything that we could do differently than closing these schools, if there was any way to keep these schools open and still be able to maintain the high quality of education that we give our students, we would have found it. We would have been creative. We would have thought outside the box. We've been thinking outside the box for a long time and we would have done it. the issue is just the students aren't there. They're not projected to be there in the next 10 years and there was absolutely no way with marketing

100or anything else that we could have filled these schools up to the capacity needed for them just to break even just so that they paid for themselves and we weren't adding to it. It is it wasn't going to happen. so I just want to say I know that this is difficult and it's it's awful. and we don't make this decision lightly. We're not ju This is a domino effect. So, it's not just the students at Bonavville that are going to be affected by this closure. We're also affecting the students at East Lake Elementary. the students at Columbia Elementary. This is a domino effect because when we push them, we have to push them this way. And East Lakes's going to lose students. and Columbia is going to pick up other students and other students that

101are going to East Lake will now be going to Columbia because they're closer. So, it really has been a domino effect that's really been really hard. But I do commend the student enrollment because I've gone to them several times about East Lake going, "Can we do this? Can we do this? Can we move the boundary? Can they do this?" And each and every time they've listened to my concerns about my community. They listened to the wants of East Lake and Bonavville and Columbia. And for that, I appreciate it because while this is a horrible situation, it would have been even worse without student enrollment and y'all doing the great job that you did. So, thank you for that. I'm being so kind when at the community meetings cuz they were angry. I mean, they had

102a right to be angry. They were angry and it's hard to deal with people when they're angry and they're hurt. I mean, there's just a lot of emotions at play. So, thank you. I do have a question just to refresh my mind. Number one is I know that we've paused some of our schools on open enrollment and I'm assuming probably until this vote tonight and once this vote happens we will we will open up the open enrollment for those schools. So like East Lake will still be open enrolled so if students wish to stay there and not go to Columbia they don't have to do like a psychological transfer they can just do an underenrolled under capacity transfer. Is that correct? So students being reszoned from East Lake to Colombia can actually grandfather. Okay. in

103any grade. Any grade as long as they're currently attending East Lake Elementary rising or incoming kindergarteners may have to apply for the controlled open enrollment transfer, but anyone currently attending, okay, K through five can well K through 4 can grandfather to remain at East Lake. Wonderful. And after this vote takes place, the controlled open enrollment will open up and so those families that may have a kindergarten come in so that the siblings could be together. Yes. Great. And then with in reference to Wedgefield, the students in Wedgefield with unique abilities, this may be a Wendy Ivory question. where if they like live in Wedgefield, would would they be zoned to Columbia or would they be zoned to East Lake? Do you know like the students that are like say would go to an ASD unit

104or a contained unit? I'm looking to see if Miss Ivory is in the back. No. Board member Gallow, are you referencing the ESSE students? Yeah. So, like Wedgefield doesn't have like an ASD unit. So, I was just curious the students the students that live in Wedgefield and are zone for Wedgefield, where would they go to school? Would they go to Columbia or would they come over and go to East Lake? Yeah, the it's where the you Again, if they are in a self-contained unit, they would go to where the unit has been moved. And I apologize. Miss Ivory is not here, but Oh, she will be back in just a minute. Okay. I'll ask my next question then while we're waiting on that. actually, it's another Wendy Ivory question, so I can't So, no. if

105anybody else has any questions, I can pause and come back to me when Mrs. Ivory enters the room. You're the only one talking. you'll talk. We should talk about that. those were my questions were regarding the Wedgefield students. And then I just wanted to be reminded of which ASD units would were going to stay at East Lake. I know that we were talking about their VE VBK. I'm just wondering the status of that to refresh my memory and to refresh the community's memory of the status of those those units because I think we've gotten everything else squared away. I'm happy to hear that the open and controlled open enrollment will open back up because I know I've I've received questions about that as well. And if I could sing and dance for y'all to make

106this moment a little lighter, I would. Do you if you think it's going to take a couple minutes, we can table this for a decision. Okay. Hi. Sorry about that. so I was just asking if students are in Wedgefield or Wedgefield, they live in Wedgefield and they want needed to go to an ASD unit, would they go to the one at Colombia or would they go to the one at East Lake? Bonville, not the Bonavville students, the students that are in Wedgefield. So without placed in like if they're placed in an ASD unit, where would they go? They go to the closest one to the school. Okay. So they would go to Columbia. Yes. Okay, awesome. And then can you just remind me of which units are staying at East Lake and about I think

107they're keeping their VE VBK class at East Lake. So right now we're moving one full day prek, one half day prek, and three of the ASDK through five units. Okay. So they're not keeping the one prek that's going to Riverdale, I believe. Yes. Riverdale from Bonavville. But your question was East Wedgefield. A Wedgefield. And you and you answer that. You said it would go to Columbia because it would go to the closest school. Okay. Yes. Okay. So, how many units will East Lake have now? East Lake will have four. Four. What one? They have the three they'll have the three ASD K through five and then they're retaining their one IND K through five. So they will they don't have the VE VBK anymore. That's going to Riverdale. Yes. Oh, I thought we were keeping

108that. I'm looking at my people and they look confused, too. Where is it going? Columbia. Colia and Yes. Col. Some go to Columbia, some go to Riverdale. It depends on where they live. Yes. Okay. Okay. And Okay, that makes sense because I know that we had discussed and I had mentioned that some students in certain areas it made way more sense to go to Columbia than to go all the way to Riverdale and you made that happen. So, thank you. You're welcome. I appreciate that. Thank you. That's all I have. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. We have we have no other comments from board members. No other comments from the public. So, the floor is open for a motion regarding 3.02, 02 which is a request approval for the consolidation of

109Union Park Middle School and the recommended I'm sorry 31 I'm sorry 3.01 Thank you Mr. Palarini. and I'll make the motion. You'll make a motion. Thank you. I with a very very heavy heart I move that we close Bonavville Elementary. Thank you. and reszone the students to East Lake Elementary. Do we have a second? I just want to make sure that the motions in the proper frame. So, it's approval of the consolidation of Bonavville Elementary and the recommended attendance zone for Colombia Elementary School and East Lake Elementary School to commence. I think you only said Colombia, so I just want to make sure it's Colombia and East Lake. Yes. What John just said, that's what I move. Is there a second? Second by member of Annos. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Motion

110carries with all members present voting in the affirmative. 3.02. Dr. Vasquez. thank you, Madam Chair. we will now move to Union Park Middle School. On this map, the green lines indicate current middle school boundaries. The schools involved in this resoning are Union Park Middle School, Glenn Ridge Middle School, Legacy Middle School, Discovery Middle School, Roberto Clemente Middle School, and Odyssey Middle School. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Pink or Salman color is Glenn Ridge. Yellow is Legacy Middle School, green is Discovery, purple is Roberto Clemente, and orange is Odyssey. The next slide displays the demographic breakdown for each school both before and after the resoning. I will give you a moment to review the numbers for each school. Summary of the community response. There is one family supporting and two families opposing this resoning

111after the rural development workshop and if approved this resoning will commence August 2026. This concludes our presentation for Union Park Middle School's consolidation. Dr. Vasquez. any comments from board members? All right. thank you, Madam Chair. This is another one of my schools. none of them are easy. Bonavville, it's it was around for decades and it's heartbreaking. Union Park is as well because it's it's it's a great school with a lot of history and so much potential. and we've tried so hard to engage parents in that community to go to Union Park and we've been doing it since before I was on the board and we just haven't been successful. We I mean we've tried magnets, we tried different programs, we've done everything that we could think of to enroll more students into Union Park and

112yet consistently year after year they choose to go to to a nearby charter. now there's another charter that opened up down the street or we have another magnet school that is a K through8 magnet school that they choose to go to or they choose to go to one of our open enrolled because Legacy is underenrolled and so is Discovery. so for that reason, we just our projections for Union Park just remain critically low and it's a huge facility that in order for us to even break even, we don't we're not even coming anywhere near the close to the numbers. The numbers at Union Park are below most elementary schools. And so that's just the situation we're in. so again, it's heartbreaking, but I will make the motion with a heavy heart. to close Union Park

113Middle School and reszone the students to Discovery Glenidge Legacy Odyssey and Robert Clemente Middle School and I'm so very sorry that we had to do this. Thank you, Member Gallo. I appreciate that. I mean, I appreciate the difficulty of this. Is there a second? Second by member ferat. All in favor, please say I. Opposed. Motion carries unanimously. All right, we are moving on to 3.03 Chickansaw Elementary Schools consolidation in this map. Red lines indicate current elementary school boundaries and the schools involved in the in this resoning are Chickansaw, Englewood and Deerwood. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Purple is Dearwood Elementary School and green is Englewood Elementary School. The next slide displays the demographic breakdown for each of these schools both before and after the resoning. I will give you a moment to review

114the numbers for each school. Summary of community response. There were zero families supporting one family opposing this resoning after the rural development workshop. If approved, this resoning will commence August 2026. This concludes our presentation for Chickasaw Elementary School's consolidation. Dr. Vasquez. All right. Thank you. All right. This is this is in member Salamanca's district. I want to apologize to anybody who is here on behalf of Chikosol. member Salamanka. had really no choice. Her she just she just had first baby so she is not here with us this evening. I know she would have been. so there are no comments from board members I will open the floor for a motion on 3.03. And in the absence of a motion, I know it's unusual, but I will move approval of 3.03, which is the request for

115consolidation of Chickasaw Elementary School and the recommended attendance zones for Deerwood Elementary School and Englewood Elementary School to commence school year 2627. Is there a second? Second by Vice Chair Bird. All in favor, please say I. I. Mo opposed. Motion carries with all members present voting in the affirmative. 3.04. Our next resoning is Eckleston Elementary Schools consolidation. In this map, the red line indicate current elementary school boundaries. Schools involved in this resoning are Eckleston Elementary and Washington Shores Elementary. The purple area is the new proposed zone for Washington Shores Elementary. Here is a demographic overview for each of the schools. Please review the numbers. Summary of community response. We received a petition with 116 families opposing this resoning after the rural development workshop. If approved, this resoning will commence August 2026. And this concludes our

116presentation for Equinson Elementary School. Dr. Vasquez. Thank you, Miss Neil. Member Felder. First of all, I'd like to thank Miss Neil and her group, her colleagues. We have been going I don't know, I think I must have had four or five meetings with her doing what I could do and with Dr. Vasquez trying to to not close Equeston. If you ever go in my office, you'll see a picture of me the first day of school, first grade at Ecston. That's my school. So, in addition to the people looking at Anna Escammani, they would have had a board member that have walked through those hallways of Eckleston. When Dr. Vasquez explained to me what would happen if I continued to fight to keep Ekerson open that they would be without maybe an AP. They wouldn't have

117a media specialist. and there are some children at Echoso with varying abilities. they may not be able to have the help that they need to continue success in learning and I wouldn't know how to share with the members of my constituency that the children at a school at Panther Lake say or Zelwood getting these kinds of services and the children in Echerson are not getting those services. I wouldn't be able to explain why that has happened other than the fact that we don't have the money to do that and we couldn't afford to do that. It would appear and seem unfair and for a minute. I thought it was a black thing, but I realized it's not. It's across the district. The east, the west, it's across the district. And what I found out later

118on when I talked with Miss Neil, she showed me this shaded area kind of graded area about I think it was 400 about 300 kids. Was it about three or 400 students who are in Equeston's district in that zone, they're not going to Equeston. They're being homeschooled or they're going to a charter school way across somewhere. They're not even going to the school 300 kids in that area. And I was just what? And I can't go house to house. That's if a principal wants to do that. That's what the principal did at Orange Center. She went and got her children. She went house to house and got them. And so I'm like I how can we work this? And I have friends in Richmond Heights who are my age. We are great grandmas now and

119grandmomas. Ain't nobody having no babies. Not not my age. That's a miracle, baby, if that's going to happen. And so I I'm just so frustrated because not just Equeston, it just seems such a dichotomy for educators to close schools. That's that's that just does not make sense. But when you don't have the money and each year, we don't know from from each year we're getting cut and we're having to share the little pie where we may have to have shared the pie with the first two rows of people sitting here. Now we got to share that pie that is now cutting cut in half again with this whole room. That's how crazy the money is. I got to be real with you. When we first had the pie, just the first two rows, we could

120work that out. Now we getting a smaller piece of the pie and we got to now share it with the entire room. That's what we dealing with. And I it's it's just awful. In the words of board member Gallo, it's just awful what we're having to deal with. None of us are happy about what is going on and I see 116 opposed. I appreciate the fight. I appreciate the fight, but the fight is not with us. You got to go to Tallahass. You got to the vote. You got to go to the voting booth. You got to see who say they represent you. even if they don't, you have to go and deal with them because when they were cutting programs, our programs from different schools, IB and and programs like that, parents became angry

121in Orange County, and they made a beline to Tallahassee I 10, and we got the program. The money was there. We got the programs back. Yes, you must express your dis taste and your your disagreement with us as a board. But once we have done, we are marked by statutes that we have to follow. When you come here and it doesn't work, then you got to go there because that is where the dollars are coming from. And by law, as board members, we must follow the laws of the land. We must deal with the statutes that have been given to us. Our responsibility is governance and we have to work with that. And to my fellow constituents, I'm thank thank you for coming. I need you to come to more board member meetings because there

122may be some other stuff coming down you ain't going to be ready for, but you need to start coming. You need to start coming so you can see what's going on. I appreciate the fight, but you have to understand and I I want you to know that none of us are happy about the decisions that we are going to have to make. And it's not this ain't the end, beloved. Know this, some other stuff coming. But I need you to put your boots on. And you talking about boots on the ground, you need to have some real boots on the ground. So, I just needed to share that Miss Neil and board members and superintendent that we have been fighting. You know, vanity is in my way. My picture up there, baby. I don't want

123the school to shut down. It's more than that. It's my picture. The fact that's a legacy school named after Dr. Eckleston who fought and knew that children who had physical disabilities should be in school. And because he fought so hard, they got a Eckleston homes children's school. So the children go to school and they named the school after Dr. Eckleston here in Orlando. So, I just needed them to hear that and I needed you to know that rather than have the children in Ecston suffer the things of an outrageous fortune, not having the money or the help that they need compared to other schools and other in in other part of the district. That would wreck my nerves to know that they're not getting the same treatment as other children are in the rest of

124the district because they're small school. And let me just end with this. Schools in district 5, not be known to any of us, we have always been underpopulated since integration has occurred and that crazy busting that went on by federal government. But it did not affect our spending because the money was not taken and we didn't have to get it chopped up for private schools and homeschooling other charter schools. The money was still here and OCPS did what they needed to do. Whether we had 300 kids there or 20 kids, they got the same amount of money. We don't have that leisure anymore. We don't. We don't. Thank you. Thank you, member Felder. We have no other members of the board wishing to speak. The floor is open for a motion. Thank you. Madam Chair,

125board members. Okay. And that motion would include the recommended attendance zone for Washington Shores Elementary School to commence school year 2627. Is that correct? Yes. All right. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second by member Douglas. All in favor, please say I. I. Motion carries with all members present voting in the affirmative. Yes, Mr. Pomry, you have a speaker on item 3.05. All right. Thank you. we'll take the speaker first. Thank you, Speaker Steven Holtzman. Okay. Stephen Hollesman on behalf of Orlando YMBBS in my backyard 32812. and every school is going to have u those heroes that move on to to bigger things with McCoy. I was at one of those u community meetings. Remember Salamancco was there who attended McCoy. and this one this comment is not going to be so

126rosy. you know, I I went to Conway Elementary. I'm looking at th those enrollment numbers and they're pretty similar to some of these other schools that are getting closed. and I would be just as heartbroken if, we're here next year, and Conway Elementary's on that list. I met a man last night, playing dominoes, and he's probably 10 years older than me. He went to to Conway Elementary. I met somebody probably 30 years younger than me at the green schools expo the other day at Lake Eyola and we're learning about the community garden projects and this kid walks up and he says he goes to Conway and then the district's going to be putting a garden in to to Conway you know next week or maybe that was a couple days ago. imagine putting that garden

127in and then the word comes out well well Conway is not going to survive either. so my request to the board going forward and the staff generally you know making sure that this is not a surprise and that especially when we're going to the ballot box in the fall that this is on folks minds. I would love to see warnings go out to schools not just those at risk of schools of hope but your school has similar enrollment numbers to schools that just closed. you need to be aware that your school is endangered. I I want to see those those files easier to use the student enrollment summary so that we as the public can not just you know download the PDF and try and export it into something and figure out which schools are

128at risk. I want it in an Excel file or a CSV file so that we can look at it or some of our reporters here maybe can look at it a little bit better and flag those schools earlier. and I want to bring back a comment that I think Chair Jacobs that you made at one of the work sessions, you know, where you related an, relate an anecdote, where you were walking around with John Morris thinking we're going to have to close schools. I want to know why was that not the headline years ago? And I know there's county history that you were witnessed to and clogging up the zoning. Orlando Yimi is very much in favor of opening that up. where the you solved a problem of overcrowding and now we're dealing with seven

129problems and it's going to multiply. you know, I'm you know, just disappointed that we're here like everybody. Yes, we exist in Florida. Yes, there shenanigans down from Tallahassee, but there's also a local story here where I believe that county departments or individuals were myopic. So, thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Holen. let me put in context the conversation with Mr. Morris. I was discussing the I think I covered this during the work session. So I was concerned about the schools on the west side of town that we were building and there we were building them and immediately putting portables because we have enough enough capacity. And so upon getting on this board I talked to Mr. remorse about was there a way for us to build additional like flex space because these schools well

130initially I just thought the schools needed to be built bigger and that's when he pointed out that there is this demographic eb and flow in communities and newer communities tend to have younger families having kids and as the community ages you tend to see less and less kids. And my neighborhood is a prime example. my kids went to Metro West. It was I think almost double its capacity and all the neighborhoods including my own were bursting at the seams with kids. You know, my four and now there's barely a child in the neighborhood. We're having a little bit of a resurgence, but you know, we used to have parades that I organized that were just, you know, Halloween parades and there were so many kids. We set out at Halloween now and the only people

131that come by are teenagers in cars from other neighborhoods. So, he was right that there are es and flows. But the point we were discussing at that time was if we built new schools for new communities at the size they needed to be, we would eventually be in a situation where those schools wouldn't have enough students. We would see the declining enrollment. So yes, that's the conversation that we had and yes, that's where we are today. That is the eb and flow and we have discussed making sure that moving forward we notify parents as soon as possible that we're seeing these declines in the hope that they can help with our efforts which are underway in trying to bring kids back to Orange County public schools. Bring those families back. So totally agree with you

132that needs to be done. There there is truth to what we have explained that we did not anticipate being in this situation this year because we did not anticipate the legislation that allows these schools to come in and occupy every vacant space that we have in any school. And if the school's half empty initially, the way the legislation, if the school was half a empty, they could take those that 50% and not pay overhead. Now, that I'm pleased to say that with the advocacy of a lot of schoolboard members, including the members up here, we were able to get that legislation modified. So, it's more reasonable. But at the time that the superintendent came to the board and said, "We really have a crisis, we really had a crisis." And that expedited the time frame.

133But back to your point, I agree with you. We've all said that's what we're going to do moving forward is engage our communities sooner in the hopes that they can help. It's it's their neighbors who are sending their kids to charter schools or to private schools. And to be honest with you, we can do our best to get out there, but nothing that any of us can say, I don't think, is as powerful as your next door neighbor and your friend saying, "Hey, you haven't been here in a while. This is a darn good school. Why don't you come back?" I do think that's more powerful than we can be. But you're totally right. Those parents don't even know when they're needing to be doing that unless we tell them. and we tell them as

134soon as possible. So, thank you, Mr. Holtzman. All right, with that, Mr. Moody. All right, we'll move on to 3.05, the consolidation and reszoning for McCoy Elementary School. Once again, red lines indicate current elementary school boundaries. Schools involved in this resoning are McCoy, Shannondoa, and Ventura elementaryaries. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Purple is Shannondoa and green is Ventura. Here is a demographic overview for each of the schools. Please review the numbers. Summary of community responses. We received no input from families supporting or opposing this resoning after the rule development. If approved, this resoning will commence August 2026. And this concludes our presentation for McCoy Elementary. Thank you, member Ben Vanos. Thank you, Madam Chair. I know this is member Salamanca's school and she's unable to be here for a very good reason and

135I know she she would be heartbroken to to have to talk about this and I know she's very just sad about the closing. so I just wanted to say a few words about it. I did actually attend the community meeting at McCoy and I mean so much has been said already up here. remember Felder, you did such an excellent job and there there are so many factors out of our control. you know, whether it's immigration policies, whether it's birth rates, whether it's it's affordable housing. and I think when we think about some of those issues, it's not so much about bringing students back. They're students that never were here. They're they're it's not that they were here and they left. They're they're not here for in many of that those circumstances. and then of course

136with, you know, the effort to to move public dollars to to private charter schools and or I'm sorry, to to private entities that operate charter schools and to the taxpayer funded voucher program. That matters because that's money that could be used to sustain these small schools that we now don't have anymore. and but I also want to highlight the things that are in in our control and Mr. Dr. Hollesman brought up some of those comments and I've received a lot of engagement from parents that we I think we've learned through this that we do need to be more outfront, communicative and transparent and I think as the process has gone on that has been more the case and I know that we'll continue to be the case in the future. I am I am proud

137to see the engagement of our families and I'm proud to see the engagement of our communities. and I hope that continues for all of the reasons that have already been mentioned. I would also just want to just have a request to the receiving schools out there. it's not easy. It's not easy for students and for families to leave schools that they've loved and to go to a new school. And I really hope that the receiving schools are taking in these families and students with open arms and really giving them the respect that they deserve and making it as easy a transition as possible. and then I'll just end by just saying that I appreciate the moment that we had to reflect on on what's happening here because it is it is important and these schools

138including McCoy Elementary, they are treasures and just it's just a sad day. So, thank you. Thank you, Member Banos. you know, your comment about the schools welcoming those students reminded me of when one of our schools suffered so much damage that they weren't able to open. I forget what storm that was. I Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember what storm it was. It was Oh, okay. And what was it? East River that took the Yeah. And as and it was the coolest thing, wasn't it? Because those East River students and the principal had big welcome signs for the kids. Two schools, one river. Yeah. Two schools, one river. Yeah. So, it is a really nice thought and hopefully these schools will also like you said welcome the kids kind of roll out the red carpet. It's

139a little thing but I think it could go a long long way. So, all right, member Fant you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. While McCoy is not in district three, which is my area, Shannondoa Elementary is one of the schools that McCoy will be split into. And so I just wanted to publicly thank Principal Hitchman Hutton for your efforts. I know that she was at that McCoy community meeting and spoke with families and has been very warm and just already preparing if this were the direction that we would would go. Already preparing and seeing what she can do to make sure that those families know that she has a warm and welcoming school at Shannondoa. And so for the families that will be attending Shannondoa, I know you will be welcomed with open arms and

140so again, thank you to to her efforts and we'll continue. All right. Thank you, member for the floor is open for a motion on 3.05. Yeah. Okay. So I motion for the consolidation of McCoy Elementary School to Shannondoa Elementary and Ventura Elementary. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second by member Vanos. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries unanimously. And I think that's particularly fitting that you made the motion since a lot of those kids will be going to one of your schools. Thank you. All right, we are now on item 3.06 regarding the consolidation of Meadowwoods Elementary School and the recommended attendance zones of Southwood Elementary School and Windham Lakes Elementary School. Mr. Moody, you're right. Yes, ma'am. Stacy Neil. Again, red lines indicate current elementary school boundaries.

141The schools involved in this resoning are Metalwoods Elementary, Windham Lakes, and Southwood. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Pink is Windham Lakes and purple is Southwood Elementary. Here's the demographic overview for each of the schools. Please review the numbers. Summary of community response. We have received input from two families. One family supporting, one family opposing this resoning after the rule development workshop. If approved, this resoning will commence August 2026. And this concludes our presentation for Meadowwoods Elementary School. Dr. Vasquez. All right. member Fant, you're recognized. Thank you. so Meadowwoods is in District 3 and as every board member has stated, it really is probably one of the wildest things that we've had to or myself I've had to walk through as a board member. it is very difficult to sit in front of families

142and talk with them knowing that, you know, I've got five kids myself. I understand the struggle. You want to keep your school. it is schools become your little your kids kind of like home away from home and their little school family and you want to keep everybody together. but as has been stated, it really as we look at all the different aspects, the key is making sure that every school has all the resources that they need. And when the school is below capacity and is you know, underenrolled and we don't have that, it doesn't have the funding it needs to sustain itself, then that's when when we can't provide everything. And so we want to make sure every kid has an exceptional education. And so that is I mean really we have crunched the numbers

143like everybody said. And I don't think I've ever thought that we would ever be in this in this predicament. I honestly thought probably five six years ago I remember thinking why do we build our schools so small and every school has portables right? I mean, I think all of us have thought that at one point, like, why don't we just build them bigger? And now we're thinking, why would we build our school so big? Like, right. It just is kind of a it's I guess sort of the eb and flow of of community life at some point. I mean, our housing, there's a lot of reasons. I keep telling everybody it's sort of a you know, we're in this perfect storm, if you will. It's a little bit of everything. is hitting at the at

144one time. but I know we have a lot of families in district 3. Our housing is we're not expanding. it's more of families who have been in their house. They a lot of families just stay in the area. Their kids move on to college. They don't leave. And so little ones are not in those homes anymore. they don't want to leave because the housing market is high. And so where would they go? and so there's that issue. there's other issues that I may talk about later. you know, there's just it is frustrating. just kind of the situation we're in. I hear a lot of talk of, you know, pointing fingers to Tallahassee. and you know, we can point fingers anywhere we want, but really as a board. So my task is to look at our

145schools and say what can I do to make sure that our schools have the best that they can that they that they need everything that they need that we have in our capacity in our hands. whether we're given a lot or we're given not enough what can we do to make sure every kid has an exceptional education that parents feel heard. because there is a lot of blame and we can blame all we want. but I will just say this I feel like I have to say this frustrated because as a parent I sat in this audience in 2020 2021 when this audience was full of parents frustrated with what was happening came to this board some on the board were not here but came up to this board and said please could you help

146us there's we feel frustrated began to see things you know not just with the COVID things. But after that, it was we began to see things in the schools that were frustrating parents. And I heard board members say, "If you do not like what you're seeing, there are other places you can go. You can go to other private schools. You could homeschool your kids." I heard board members say those things. And so, unfortunately, we have there's parents and families who have lost trust in our public education. And so as a board member, I want to make sure I do everything I can to earn that trust back because we're at a point where we want we I want our families to choose public schools because they're awesome. I love what we're seeing. We're heading in

147the right direction. but we have to earn that trust back and for some families that trust is lost. But we have to look within and make sure that we're looking at everything we can. but before I end, I just want to say thank you especially to Principal Mincy from Meadowwoods for all of your efforts, everything that you have done to just be a support to your community, your families. thank you so much to the staff. I know you've been exceptional. Thank you to Principal Figureroa and Principal McCade at Southwood Elementary and then Windham Lakes Elementary who have attended the community meetings and are again will they'll be ready with open arms as well to open to bring in students. and then also a special thank you to Miss Wendy Ivory for answering all of my

148questions, for your hard work ensuring that all of our ESSE students who are in special units are in good hands at their new schools. and then the efforts to try to ensure that those staff I know we can't guarantee staff follow those ESSE students but thank you for at least trying to do that because I know that helps those students and the families feel you know like safe that those those teachers are continuing with those students. so with all of that said, I will, make a motion to consolidate Meadowwoods Elementary School to Southwood Elementary School and Windham Lakes Elementary School. Thank you. Is there a motion or is there a second? I'm sorry. We have a motion. We have a second by member Douglas. All in favor, please say I. Opposed? Motion carries. Motion carries

149with all members present voting in the affirm affirmative. We are now on item 307. Correct. Yes. Our next resoning is Orla Vista Elementary Schools consolidation. Red lines indicate current elementary school boundaries. The schools involved in this resoning are Orla Vista Elementary, Oakill Elementary, Ivy Lane, and Eagle's Nest elementary schools. The colored areas are the proposed zones. Yellow is Oakill Oakill, pink is Ivy Lane, and green is Eagle's Nest. Here is a demographic overview for each of the schools. Please review the numbers. Summary of community response. We have not received any input regarding this resoning after the re rule development workshop. If approved, this resoning will commence August 2026. And this concludes our presentation for Oral Vista Elementary Schools consolidation. Dr. Vasquez. Madame Chair. Thank you. we have member Felder queued up to speak. Thank you

150so much vice chair. again another one of my schools or Vista who they have been in that area for I met a woman when we had our town meeting there. She said all of my children have gone to Ola Vista. She says, "And I went to Ola Vista and I, you know, I just felt bad because it has such rich history being in that area and what I was so appreciative of is that there were the principles from Ivy Lane and her staff was there to welcome the people from Or Vista and to let them know that they want, you know, they wanted to receive them. And again, as I explained in the closure about Eccleston, the fight is not with this board. It's with the legislators and the legislation in Tallahassee. Those laws that

151have come down, those statutes have come down and regarding the money because we can only work with what we have. And when you're given an amount and you have you've been asked and told you have to distribute it, then that's what you do. And when it when that amount has been cut again and again and again and then you have more people that you have to share it with it, there becomes a strong deficit. It does. And I explained to the people at Ora Vista said no one wants school closures. No, I mean we're educators. We don't want school closures, but we would not want to be sitting at the helm where students are not getting the same opportunities as other students across the district because we want to be fair, but if we don't

152have the resources to do it, we can. So the best way we can do is to consolidate so the children can go to a school close which would in this case would be Ivy Lane and they could get all of these resources that's needed. But I certainly appreciate the community of Ola Vista. They were oh there were so many of them that came out. They had many questions and their concern was that you know is my child going to get the same treatment? and are they going to have the love that we know they received from Ola Vista and the principles and administration and teachers my heart goes out because I know you've been there some some teachers have been in or Vista since it opened they've been there for a long time teaching and

153they have a love for the children for that community and it is with deep regret because Oliv has been there for quite some time is the city the town the area of Oliv Vista have gone through so much with the hurricanes and the flooding and just a whole lot. Now the school closing and I just my heart just goes out. But I want you to know in sincerity that I want the best for the children and I have to look at it from that perspective. And if it means that we have to consolidate for them to get the same access as other children in other schools, then we must we must do that. You we have to I have to play the hand that I was dealt. I might not have the high joker or

154the low joker, but I got a ace in every in every book. So I might can win that game. So I we just have to do what we can do. And so, chair and, board members, superintendent, I will put forth a motion, I move that we consolidate Ora Vista Elementary School. Thank you. And the new attendance zones would be Vista Elementary School, I'm sorry, Eagle's Nest. Eagle's Nest, Ivy, Lane, and Oakill Elementary School. Correct. Okay. Thank you. So, we have a motion from member Felder. Do we have a second? Second from member Gallo. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries with all members present voting in the affirmative. member Felder, I apologize for stepping out for a minute, but believe it or not, I was there at the opening of Oakill that

155when they rebuilt Oakill. Yeah. Because it was my it was in my district as a commissioner and Meadowwoods. And Meadowwoods was honestly a fight between the communities as to where that school was going to end up. And it is so hard to believe that we're closing both of those schools. These are I mean these these are not 50-y old schools. Yeah. Now Oakill was a rebuilt built school, but still it's just it's Yeah. Or Vista. What did I say? Okill or La Vista. Yeah. Yeah. It's not Yeah. It's not that it's just not that. Yeah. Yeah. All right. with that I think we are on to the consent agenda. are there any questions or concerns about the consent agenda? If not, the floor is open for a motion. Is there a motion? Motion by member

156Gallo. Is there a second? Second by member Felder. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries with all members present voting in the affirmative and we have no I'm sorry we have request approval I forgot about that we are on request approval of the recommendation to renew the charter school contract with Lake Eyola Charter School for 15 years and Mr. Mr. Moody, is this your item, sir? It is, ma'am. Thank you. Dr. Kia Scott is making her way down. It's always a pleasure to be here before you. Good evening, Chair Jacobs, board members, and Superintendent Vasquez. Before you this evening is item 17.01, the recommendation for the approval of 15-year contract with Lakeola Charter School. Lakeyola Charter School opened July 1, 1998 as an Orange County public charter school following approval of the

157school board. The school is located at 135 North Magnolia Avenue in Orlando. Lakeola serves approximately 182 students in grades K through eight. The renewal committee comprised of school choice staff, district personnel, and others in school, excuse me, and mental health personnel, and conducted a renewal visit on January 15th of 2026. During the renewal visit, the committee interviewed the governing board, teachers, students, parents, and other stakeholders. In addition, documentation of the school's records for the past 15 years was reviewed regarding critical performance in areas including educational performance, financial performance, and organizational performance in future planning. The board of directors is requesting a 15-year charter renewal term. Lake Eyola Charter has met all the requirements regarding renewal outlined in Florida statute 102.33. Specifically, section 7C 1-2. Section C2 states the 15-year charter renewal that may be granted

158pursuant to subp paragraph 1 states that must be granted to a charter school that has received a school grade of A or B pursuant to 1000.34 in the most recently graded school year and that is in not in a state of financial emergency or deficit position as defined by this section. Such long-term charter is such subject to annual review and may be terminated during the term of the charter pursuant to subsection 8 based on the school's overall academic, financial, and operational compliance. It is the recommendation that Lakeola Charter School be renewed with a 15-year contractual term. Madam Chair, back. All right. Any comments, questions, concerns from the board? Right. before opening the floor for a motion, I think it might be helpful for the public to understand the decisions that we make with regard to

159charter schools because we've had some conversation up here about the declining enrollment that to some extent we are we're seeing enrollment declines to charter schools and to private schools. So, if I were tuned in or sitting in the audience, I would probably be asking why the board is considering this renewal and why we approved it in the first place. And so, Mr. Moody, I'm and I'm not saying that we're we're not going to approve it. But I just think it's beneficial for the public to understand how these decisions get made and the context in which they come to the board. John, I'll punt to you. So, Madam Chair, members of the board, Florida statute is very explicit on what we do with respect to renewals of charter schools. So in 10233 subsection 8 it says

160when we make a decision to renew or not to renew a charter school it's the same as the termination standards. There would have to be a demonstration by clear and convincing evidence which is a higher standard than a normal prepoundonderance that one of the following three grounds has to exist. One failure to participate in the state's educational accountability system i.e. they don't test their students. Two failure to meet generally accepted standards of fiscal management. due to a deteriorating financial comm condition. They don't have that condition obviously. And three, material violations of the law. Their committee has reviewed there's no material violations of the law. So based upon that, we would not have the cause to not renew their contract and we would not have the clear and convincing evidence necessary to not renew their contract.

161As such, I would of course recommend that we approve the renewal. Thank you. and another word on our on charter schools, there are many charter schools that serve I want to say a specific unique population and do it extremely well and are supplemental, I would say, to the role that Orange County Public Schools plays. So although there are concerns that we have about when we have a school come into an area where we're already seeing low enrollment and there's no added benefit that creates additional stress on our schools. But again we have other schools that play a critical role in charter schools in filling a need that is not as easily filled through our traditional schools. So, with that, member Vanos, you're recognized. I see you pressed your button. Thank you so much. You you

162stated it well. I did just want to add, we had a previous meeting, and I did ask, the question I always ask, which is, is this charter school part of a franchise or some larger charter school umbrella? And the answer is no. This truly is more of a grassroots charter school. The other question I ask is about the building that they have. and I understand that they fund raise for their own building and own their building, which is not always the case with charter schools who are involved in real estate investment deals. So, yes, just wanted to point that out. Thank you for meeting with me and sharing that ahead of time. Yes, ma'am. Member Vanos, and thank you for raising that issue. I knew most of us that have been on the board for

163a while that you know this the same concerns and some of us didn't ask because of that but I'm glad you did and in light of all that I'll be pleased to support a motion to approve. Do we did we don't have a motion right now. Floor is open for a motion. Motion by member Ferrron. Is there a second? Second by Vice Chair Bird. All in favor please say I. I opposed. Motion carries with all members present voting in the affir affirmative. All right, we are now on 2, which is a request for approval of a name for 97-E2. Why in the world would we want to change it? It's so catchy. I mean, I think we should keep 97-9 SE-2. I can just hear the victory song, right? When the kids win a game.

164Yeah. good evening, Chair Jacobs, schoolboard member, Superintendent Vasquez. before we begin, I would like to recognize the principal of 97E, Tony Duke, and we have some of her new staff members that are there. So, thank you for being here tonight. Are you also disappointed to see the loss of that catchy name? Yes. Hopefully. Yes. I know it's very catchy. Hopefully your community has come up with a great solution. Okay. Tonight, I am here to present three recommended school names for site 97E-2 based upon input from the school's community stakeholders. From January 8th, 2026 until January 22nd, 2026, students, families, community members, and OCPS employees zoned to attend 972 were invited to submit school name recommendations through an online Google survey. A follow-up online Google survey was sent on January 23rd, 2026 to all stakeholders on

165the school name recommendations submitted. Based on those responses, three names emerged as the most suggested. The names in alphabetical order are innovation elementary school. This name creates a link with Innovation Middle School and Innovation High School and also promotes a consistent school identity for families and the broader community. The second school is Story Park Elementary School. This name represents the community in which the school is located. The third name is Parkside Elementary School. This name reflects the surrounding park oriented communities and is geographically inclusive of the broader school zone. I will now turn it over to Dr. Williams and to the board. It's quite clear the interest and what the community has decided on. And with that, I would turn it back over to the board member. All right. and to Dr. Jones. All right.

166Dr. Rahee. Oh, turn back. I'm sorry. Dr. Raheem Jones, in the absence of the board member, so at this point, it's quite clear that Innovation is the name that the community has selected. So, Chair Jacobs, I will turn it back over to you. All right. So, on behalf of I can't really do it on behalf. I'll move that we begrudgingly change 97- e-se out every time. Oh, yes. -2. Remember, we don't have the southeast and west anymore because we're not geographical. So, now it's just elementary and middle. I know. I miss I miss the W. I miss the 97-E2 to innovation. Is it just elementary school? There we I'm adapting to it already. We have a name. Y is there Huh? Vote. I need I need a second. Need a second. Second by Vice Chair

167Bird. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. The motion carries with all members voting voting in the affirmative. Mr. Paul Marini, just for the record, as the parliamentarian, you asked me to call for the vote and I didn't have a second. No, I said we have to vote. Oh, okay. We were clapping and I was like, oh, that's usually happens after we vote. So, darn gosh, I thought I caught him doing something wrong. Okay. All right. Next one. So, now I'm here for the for the second school. And before we begin, I would like to recognize the principal of 126E, Patty Harelson, with her mighty team to start the year. So, thank you for being here. W-4. Yeah. 126-E4. Okay. tonight I'm here to present three recommended school names for site 126E-4 based upon

168input from the school's community stakeholders. From January 20th, 2026 until February 2nd, 2026, students, families, community members, and OCPS employees were invited to submit school recommendations through an online Google survey. A follow-up online Google survey was sent on February 3rd, 2026 to all stakeholders on the school name recommendations submitted. Based on those responses, three names emerged as the most suggested. The names in alphabetical order are Flamingo Elementary. This name signifies the master plan community and retail center near the school. Ovation Elementary. This name represents the master plan community where the school is located. Winter Garden Elementary. This name represents the address of the school. I now turn it over to Dr. Williams and the board member is here. Board member Douglas. Yes. I really would like to announce the name of the new elementary school

169at Horizon West. It's Ovation Elementary School. So give an ovation. Are you satisfied, Patty? Okay, great. Okay, I see the problem. Mr. Palmer. So that needs to be in the form of a motion. It has to get a second and then we have then we then we vote and then we clap. We're just happy for a name. Well, I'm happy. I didn't declare it the name, but there was so much enthusiasm. We just got ahead of ourselves. All right. So, you have a motion. So, so moved for the ovation as the name of the new school. All right. Is and we have a second for member Ferrant. All in favor, please say I. I. opposed. Motion carries with all members present voting in the affirmative. So now we can clap now. Yes. Okay. All right.

170Thank you everyone. Thank you Dr. Jones. All right. You missed it. It was an exciting moment. All right. Next we would normally hear from Dr. Vasquez. I am I did try to send her home and she was not feeling well but I'm glad she's on her way home. Miss Dr. Bridget Williams do you have anything you want to provide in way of comments for her? No, not tonight. Okay. But thank you. A wise decision. Yes. Very wise. Okay. I'm the sub tonight. Mr. Pomearini. very briefly, members of the board, I did want to give you an update. If you remember back in June, with respect to the Disney litigation, this board voted to transfer the money to the tax collector and escrow $120 million, which we estimated would be the, tax liability that we would

171have to pay back based upon the Walt Disney World Company's actions against the property appraiser about their valuation of the property. So we transferred that money over to the tax collector to be held in escrow to satisfy those judgments and settlements that are coming out of that litigation. subsequent to that we have we had a $1.8 8 million came out in the form of a judgment with respect to one of portions of those property and the tax collector did not take the money out of the escrow funds. What the tax collector did is took it out of the distribution that was being made to the school board of the of the property taxes instead of taking it out of escrow. What the tax collector said was if we ever took more money than we were

172going to distribute to you all in property taxes then we would go to the escrow fund but we would not take money directly out of the escrow fund. So as a result we decided to ask for the money to come back to us. the property appra or the tax collector has in fact initiated the transfer of the $120 million back to our account so we can hold it because it made no sense to us having our money sit there if they weren't going to pull from the escroed funds in the first instance. So we're doing that. before you move on, can I ask you a question regarding that? have we been earning any interest on th those funds? Yeah, that there was interest earned on the funds and that would be coming back to us

173as well. Okay. Want to make sure of that. Thank you. All right. Next. So that so that is plays into a backdrop. We also, as you all know, the Renaissance has challenged the money that came out of the $1.8 million judgment saying they weren't sure of the calculation or they're not sure that they owe it. We think that they do. Renaissance asked for mediation. through the charter statute. We have agreed to mediation. The state has asked us or given us a mediator. We have agreed to the mediator. So, we will be scheduling a mediation. I just wanted to give the board the update on that. We will be going to mediation with them. hopefully we can work out a solution. But our view is the charter statute's very clear that this school board can't pay

174the debts of charter schools and any overpayment of property taxes would be a debt of the charter school. So in our view, we cannot cover that liability. So I will keep you updated on the mediation after it happens to let you know where we are and what comes out of it. so that's the one thing item of business. The other item of business of course is everybody said up here tonight, we're all very sad about what we had to do here. still hit me home a little bit because as you all know my grandmother taught here from 1988 to 2005 at Ora Vista and so when I was at Valencia I would go visit her at least once a week or so for lunch when I was there. So I had a lot of fun

175times at Or Vista and it's very sad that school's no longer going to be there and I just lose another little piece of my grandmother. So, thank you. Thank you, Tom, for sharing that. Member Galla. thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, I just have a couple of things to report. because we're at that section, right? I'm in right. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, my I had a teacher email me and she has been working with the city of Alland. yeah. city of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to do a proclamation. He did it last year and she's asking them to do it again. So, I just wanted the board to be aware that I will be asking for this proclamation to be added to our list of proclamations. The proclamation is about the global pay

176it forward day which is recognized by people in the United States and around the world. It comes from the pay it forward novel where it's just an act of kindness. It's just where you pay, we've all seen it, right? you just pay it forward and you act kindness, an act of kindness. I thought you know, we need a little bit of that right now. We need a little bit of kindness in this world. And if we could help promote kindness through a proclamation and support a teacher, I think that's that's a good thing. So, I just wanted you all to be aware. I have the proclamation. I can have staff send it out to you. and I would like to add it in June. I think it's July, Bridget. July. We'll be adding it to

177July. Yes. Thank you. the other thing that I wanted to mention, I had the absolute pleasure, this favorite part of my job, to go speak to the national Junior Honor Society students at Avalon Middle this morning. We met from 8:15 to 9:15 and it was they have like 92 students in their national honor society. The junior honor society is fabulous. so I was there and they wanted to learn about my job which, you know, is so exciting. You know, there was there was a lot of yawns and I was like, you know, when you're losing your crowd. But then I got them talking about like what I do and how their voice matters and how, you know, when they can, they've got to register to vote when they go get their permit and how important

178it is to to pay attention to what happens, especially locally. So, that aspect happened. I learned two I learned a lot. I learned that there was a student program called the pause ticket recognition program that was created by students and what it does is it creates it was all studentled, student initiated is they are giving away pot tickets when they see people doing acts of kindness or doing good things or following the rules. It's it's outside of just academics. So these kids that are just at school being good kids will get recognized and then they have a menu drop down menu that they can they could choose from to spend their paw dollars. So I just thought that was so cool that was initiated by a student. She stood up and explained it to all

179of us and I was really impressed with her and her ability to to articulate the program. Second, I asked them okay what are we doing well? And I got clubs. So, I got a few other things, but when I said, "Okay, what can we do better?" That's where they kind of came alive. And so, I promised them that they would hear this tonight. So, I'm going to go through a couple of things that they would like for us to do better. number one is Cello. I know we've talked about Cello, but for whatever reason, it's not working really well with the students in middle school. And here are just their complaints or their Concerns, I should say, not complaints. Thank you, member Felder. when they go into Cello because they have to choose their classes

180through Cello for 9th grade. The classes that are listed are sometimes old classes and classes that aren't available anymore. And because it's generic classes, it could be classes that their that their high school in this instance, they would go to Timber Creek. It could be a class that isn't offered at Timber Creek. And what's happening according to the students is they will fill out their schedule on Zello and then when their schedule is compiled, the class that they really liked or got excited about wasn't available and then they're getting put in a class that they don't want and then they have to go through a whole schedule change and do all that and it's creating a lot of anxiety for middle school students which anxiety already exists going from middle school to high school. Yeah.

181they said that Zello was overwhelming. and that the descriptions for the jobs like like the they compared it to an aptitude test. They said it's like taking an aptitude test. and they said the job descriptions attached to that are the descriptions aren't correct, that they didn't feel the descriptions really match the job descriptions, and they felt like the career was being chosen for them based on the questions asked and wasn't a true reflection of their passions or what they would like to see or be when they grow up. so they mentioned that. I hope I got everything because there was there was a couple things with Zello and I was trying to write them down as fast as I could, but they really just said, you know, it's overwhelming that Zello is overwhelming. So, I

182don't know what we can do to help navigate that for middle schools, but anything that we could do could be appreciated so that they could have a better experience with Zello. And I have to mention it wasn't just one the when the first student mentioned Zello and the problems, I had about 20 hands go up so that they could all tell me that the problems that they're having with Zello. So, it wasn't like an isolated incident. it was kind of consensus on the issues that they're having with the program. The other thing they mentioned is dress code for sports which I clarified with Karen Mrs. Ferano and I'm going to talk to Dr. Vasquaz when she feels better but they have to wear baggy shorts when they're practicing for track and it's very uncomfortable and

183they wanted to be allowed to wear other attire that was more comfortable in the heat of the sun. you know most like those volleyball shorts that kids wear which Mr. Mrs. Ferrano told me that they can wear as long as it's you know long enough. It's the shorts have to be long enough and appropriate. they would like to add a study period which I found very interesting. So I don't know Dr. Brown Cannon if that's something we could do but when they miss school they said it takes forever for them to catch up which I personally was like yes because you want to hear that right? Like you want to hear if you miss a week of school it should take you two to three weeks to catch up. It's a lot of work to

184do. And they said that they would love a study period that possibly we could do tutoring in. Like they're envisioning like have a different class once a month or a week and they could have a signup schedule and that way if they're struggling in math, they'll go to their math teacher. If they're struggling in English or science, they'll go to that teacher and then it would be an opportunity for the teacher to help them with their issues and then have a study period. I explained to them that, you know, everything has to be coded. And we used to do study periods. that kind of got away from them because of legislation that got passed down on how we code classes. So, I would love if we could look into that. and then their sound system

185is broken. I'm going to address that with Dr. Border in an email, but there they spend a lot of money on their sound system. They're getting ready to have a play and they can't hear like it's so discouraging when parents come to the school because they really they can't hear the play. They can't hear the people speak because the sound system's so broke. And more importantly, it's the same sound system they use in the cafeteria. And if something were to happen, it's a safety concern because if something were to happen during lunch, those kids would not be able to hear whoever's in the lunchroom directing them to do what they need to do. So, it really is a safety issue. So, we need to look at at the sound system. I just got a thumbs

186up from Dr. Border. And then, they want this one I loved. I'm telling you, they were on fire. Competitionbased learning. They want us to look into do more compet competitionbased learning. They say that when you get kids in a room and you dive into compet competitionbased learning that everybody excels and grades go up because kids are competitive and it's coming from someone who is uber super duper competitive. I'm like yes that's a great idea. And then finally this AC units we hear that all the time. And then another one I'm going to send to Dr. around Canon. I had a student that was in seventh grade but reading at a 12th grade level but still was not allowed to check out the Lord of Flies cuz it was two grades above his reading level and

187he was upset about that and he wanted to check it out. He had parental permission to check it out all of that and we still wouldn't let him. So maybe that's something that we could address. And that is my report from Avalon Middle and I hope the students the teacher promised me they were going to clip this and let the students watch. So students I promised you I'd bring it up from the dis. I will have answers for you as soon as staff gets back to me. So, thank you so much and thank you for including me in your National Junior Honor Society meeting this morning. Excellent. Excellent. Jacobs. Yes, Dr. McGallo, would you please send that list of concerns and I will work with Dr. Martinez and Dr. Shonda Brown Cannon and Dr. Border

188and Dr. Schuler and Dr. We'll get answers to you as soon as possible and Dr. Bixler and everybody Olive cabinet. We'll go. Thank Thank you, Dr. And these middle school kids. I'm They were I so very impressed with their articulation, with their ability to speak up and verbalize their needs. I was just super proud to be there. So, thank you. Absolutely. It sounds amazing. I feel is Mr. Pacheco, was he left out? I think he might have. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Because I felt like pretty much everybody in the back row there had a job assigned to them. Except for you and students who voices. I know. It's pretty cool. And what great input though. Wow. Yeah. Very helpful. Super. All right. member Vanos. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. as you all know,

189sunshine applies and so we don't really get the chance to talk to our fellow schoolboard members. So, it is extremely gratifying to hear when the schoolboard member next to you is hearing the exact same things that you are hearing from your students. I had an unrelated question for Dr. Schuler about dress code for athletics. and if and I think it is something that I think we probably do need to address when we talk about the code of student conduct. I think our goal should be keeping kids in sports and being they should be able to wear what is comfortable for them and they should not be singled out because of their body type. so definitely something to follow up on. same I've heard very similar concerns about Zello. I can share because of my conversations

190the purpose of having all of the courses on there is the school is supposed to take what a student wants to sign up for and incorporate that into the classes that they offer. so I believe that's why everything is on there even if it's not a class that is typically offered at the school. What what I hope to see is that happens that we our students are inputting classes that they want to take and we see the result is that then those classes are offered at their high school. but I've heard the exact same thing. I also wanted to request that OCPS, someone from the community reached out to me as well about a proclamation and so I have talked to the superintendent about it, but would like to officially request that OCPS recognize March

191as brain injury awareness month as part of our OCPS proclamations. We make that decision once a year so it would be incorporated for next year. So that's my request. and then also wanted to provide an update on the Eatenville initiative advisory committee in connection with the doctor the agreement that we reached with Dr. Phillips charities. I had been asked to serve on the advisory committee. We had our orientation last week and I am very very excited about it. this advisory committee was something that Dr. Phillips promised would be part of the moving forward and at least half of the committee is made up of Eatenville residents. and so I am just delighted to see that the resident's vision continues to be the guiding force in the development of this property. So just wanted to update

192the board on that. Excellent. Excellent. Thank you. Member Fant. Thank you. I love hearing from the students and everything that they're thinking and seeing and sometimes things sound awesome up here and then when it's in motion, you see that there's some kinks in it and what we can do to to help with that. So, I appreciate hearing all of that. I just wanted to give a shout out to a school. I don't know if I should really maybe say the name, but this school, it was an elementary school. I went to a school visit and sat with the principal and the vice principal and I could tell something maybe had been going on and just was kind of wondering what was up and so as you know we're they're sharing kind of the things that

193great things happening at their school and I said you know you guys are doing okay everything well and they said actually we do need to you know we're really hoping maybe you can help us. We had a a real crisis with a family and a family in crisis. They had a family member pass away. A father had passed away suddenly. and the family was in immediate crisis. Mom had just had a baby. They've got a lot of kiddos and I mean just the amount of effort that this whole school like the principal, vice principal, it was everybody. There was the safe coordinator. Everybody stepped up to help this family. I mean, immediately it was at the home making sure we had some if staff members were hung out at school with the kids while we

194figured out what was going on with mom and just everybody working together. And they said, "Is there anything that you can do? I don't know what to do. Maybe you have some some some connections with people in the community." And I said, "Well, I know somebody who seems to know everybody." It's like 1-800 Dr. Williams. Could you help me? And sure enough, of course, the foundation, OCPS Foundation stepped up. I mean, immediately within seconds, the foundation had food cards and gas cards and whatever this family needed, clothing, I mean, you name it. Supported this family, everything that they needed. supported the school, supported the teachers. So, just a shout out to that to the school, the family, OCPS Foundation, of course, Dr. Williams, thank you for taking, you know, the time to just really help

195this family. So, you know, a lot of times we go into the schools. I love I love our school visits. we're seeing what's going on and we're focused on education, but really there are times when we have to stop and see that there there's families that need help immediately and what could we do and so really just a reminder as well to all of us and our schools, anybody who's watching if there is a need the OCPS Foundation is amazingly helpful in that and so just so thankful. I know sometimes we want you know we want to do those frivolous things and sometimes budget doesn't allow it but we have a foundation so really thankful for that and that's my report for today. All right. Thank you member Fon. Member Felder. Yes. I just I

196just want to shout out to the principal and the Washington Shores Elementary family. Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost visited the children at Washington Shores and he also play the drum play the drums for them. and I just wanted to shout out to the principal and the fact the children were so well behaved. They had all the questions set up for him and he and one of the teachers at Washington Shores was his fourth grade teacher and the principal at Washington Shores was also his principal at his middle school I think at elementary school when he was there. So I'm just so happy that our children are getting this was a student government council group. So they are getting these experiences at traditional public schools that you can't get being homeschooled. You have to come to a

197public school and get those kinds of experiences. So I'm so grateful for him coming out and not taking thinking it robbery to spend time with the children and it meant so very very much for them to know that their principal was also the principal of their congressman. So I just wanted to share that it'll be in my newsletter the pictures and everything. I want to tell you guys that. Thanks. Well thank you member Vanos. I forgot to mention when I was so excited about the Eatenville advisory committee that I did not mention that there was an election in Eatenville this past Saturday. Eatenville has a new mayor, Ruthie Kritten, and two, Congress, Congress, not Congress people. It's been a long night. new members on the town commission, Angela Thomas and Luana Jordan. So, congrats to

198them and really excited to work with them in the future. Reseen. Thank you, member. Thank you, member Vanos. Member Douglas. I attended the Southwest Middle School production of Beauty and the Beast this Saturday. Oh my goodness. I just could not believe that middle school kids could have such talent. It was amazing. We were captivated from beginning to end. It was well done. The setting was beautiful. And I They had a standing ovation. The the room was full and they had to have that production at Dr. Phillips High School. Oh, okay. Yes. Because their auditorium was not big enough. Okay. But I'm just telling you, it's so amazing what I've seen that those kids can do. I just I'm still I'm still in Cloud9 and the talent in OCPS is really limitless. I think kids are

199very we have so many of these wonderful kids and OCPS is wonderful. So I just want to say that next time you see the Southwest Middle School whatever production and the teacher is Sally Majama or Majama. Okay, just the kids were in tears because they were graduating and go to high school and they were leaving her. So they were crying. it was just amazing. So I just wanted to share that with you. Thank you. Thank you. It sounds phenomenal. All right. Well, that concludes comments from the board. no committee reports and then the meeting is now adjourned.