001Well, thank you for joining us. As a reminder to our board members, we do not engage in outside electronic or digital communication during the meeting because we want to focus our attention. But I don't really need to remind them of that because whenever we have a chamber full of people we're celebrating I don't think we could pull our attention away from the crowd, could we? Okay. we will begin our meeting with the pledge of allegiance. Actually, moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. I'll invite you to join us. And now for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. He didn't do the one. I always love that.
002All right. Before before we start, Dr. Vasquez, do we have any changes to the agenda? No, Madam Chair, we do not. All right. Wonderful. With no changes, I'll entertain a motion to adopt the agenda as advertised. So, I'll second it. All right, we're off to a good start. I have two first two seconds. I'll I'll go with vice chair for the first and I'll go with member Ferrant for the second because I think she was the second first. And all in favor? Motion carries unanimously. we missed any member Felder. all members. Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry. All members, but member Felder voting in the affirmative and I believe I hear her. There you are. Member Felder, are you in favor of the agenda? I am. Yes, I'm in. Thank you. Okay. That vote is not surprisingly
003unanimous. So now it is time for the recognition portion of our meeting. We've h obviously we have an unusually high number of honores this evening which is a wonderful problem to have but here's what we're going to do. So it looks like the chamber's full and it is but you probably know there's a whole another group out waiting to come in. So we are going to split the recognition ceremonies into two. I'm going to ask for your patience during this. We want every honore to feel special. So, please stay with us until this first group has been recognized and then I'll give you some instructions for how we're going to handle the traffic jam in a couple minutes. Okay, let's get started. So, since school started in August, we have recognized hundreds of students, teachers,
004schools, departments, and programs for their bountiful accomplishments. I know I speak for the entire board and for the superintendent when I say that all of you make us so proud. The end of the school year always brings us a wonderful variety of recognitions as many programs, tournaments, and sporting events conclude. So, let's start by honoring our Battle of the Band Battle of the Books winners. Each year, avid readers in elementary, middle, and high school compete during Battle of the Books. They face off by demonstrating their knowledge of grade level text chosen by Florida media specialists. Students began reading and studying the books last spring. This year, students from Sunrise Elementary were Yeah. Sunrise Elementary. This is their second year in a row as winners in the elementary school. I love it. And Discovery Middle and
005Apopka High won their respective categories. And we have an absolutely wonderful director of instructional technology and library media and everybody at the disg agree with me on that. So, let me invite Allison Kibby to the podium. It's a pleasure to get to introduce you to the brilliant young minds who won this year books competition. As you mentioned, these students have really demonstrated an exceptional dedication and a deep understanding of the books that they've read. some of them have each read 15 books, which is a serious strategy and a serious commitment. the books are chosen from the Sunshine State Young Reader Award or the Florida Teens Read Book List. And then they practice and they practice and they practice. There's so much practice and every team has such a unique strategy to doing this. So, it's
006been incredible this year to watch these teams and to watch students come back and rejoin teams and go to middle school and go to high school and continue being on the Battle of the Books teams. So, it is my pleasure to introduce you to our elementary school team, Sunrise Elementary School. Congratulations and this is their second year. and this is also a really excellent recruitment opportunity for Discovery Middle School. so I'd also like to introduce our middle school team, Discovery Middle School. Somebody's mom's calling. You can go up and stand by them. And then finally, I'd like to introduce our high school Battle of the Books winner, Apakka High School. Get a little bit closer. Good. Phenomenal. And on three. One, two, and three. Stay there. One more. Now I'm going to come in just
007for the blue. Great job. It's amazing. Congratulations. All right. Member Gallo, you have a few words. Why, Madam Chair? I would love to say a few words. First, I would like everybody to recognize that two of those schools came from district one. So, clearly clearly in district one, we love to read books. We may not have gotten the most minutes, but we read the most books in the battle of the book. So, I want to thank Sunrise and Discovery for all the good work that y'all do for pushing your students to read. I'm I'm so I'm so happy for y'all. And congratulations again. And way to go, Sunrise. You guys are bringing it every year. So, thank you. And congratulations on Papa Hi, too. It's fabulous. Well, member Gallo, thank you. And as I always
008like to remind you all of them are mine. Yes. Yes. I don't get a lot of privileges but I do get that. That I don't get any privileges but I do get that. Okay. So moving on. This spring students of all ages competed in the seventh annual OCPS chess club tournament. It was organized by Nancy Golden, a program specialist from curriculum and digital learning. In all, 733 students from 78 schools participated in six intense round of rounds of competition. The chess, the game of chess is actually, I didn't know this, more than,300 years old and one of the oldest and most popular games in the world, which is pretty cool. And you would think at my age I would have learned how to play by now. I have not, but research does show that there's
009a strong correlation between learning to play chess and academic achievements. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. You know how to play chess over there, huh? I mean it's not that I haven't tried but course member Salamanca. Okay. So and also it play chess improves cognitive skills, increases attention spans, builds creativity and confidence. I maybe maybe it's not too late to take it up. So now I am going to ask Nancy if she would say a few words about our tournament winners. Miss Golden, welcome. Thank you, Chair Jacobs. We did see some truly remarkable performances, and it's an honor to be here tonight to recognize our exceptional chess players. We're going to begin with our individual competition, starting with our youngest. in the K2 division, we saw a fantastic turnout of 136 players. Congratulations to Logan Zinski. Oh, I'm
010gonna mess it up. Logan, you're gonna have to help me out. Last name. Kazmir, can you stand up, Logan? A brilliant second grader from John Young Elementary School. Logan won all six of his games and earned top spot for K2. Which school? Which school? On elementary. And moving on to the highly competitive third through fifth grade competition where an impressive 415 participants Oh, you gonna take his picture first? Okay. Sorry, I wasn't sure if you wanted to do all the individual. Okay. Good job. All right. Congratulations. Congratulations. Hey, mom. How about in the picture here? Good. Big smile. Big smile. Hold on. One, two, three. One more. Perfect. Thank you. It's bad when you have zero doubt that you could not beat a second grader, right? Moving on to the highly competitive third through fifth
011grade division with an impressive 415 participants. Another player demonstrated exceptional skill and focus. Congratulations to Bodie Herman, a talented fifth grader from Ottabon Park. Bod also won all six of his games and her and earned first place for the three through five division. Oh, way to go. Sorry. In the strategic battlefield of the middle school division fe featuring 164 players, we witnessed another undefeated champion. Congratulations to Ashish Jagon, a seventh grader from South Creek Middle School. Oh, I'm so glad you brought your trophy. Ah, yes. Oh, I love it. Great job. Congratulations. Congratulations. Yeah, absolutely. Yes, you guys. Oh, come on up here, guys. Wait, wait, wait. Who Who is this woman running over here? She must be part of the group. Thank you. Congratulations. Finally, in the high school individual division where 53 players
012vied for the top spot, one individual emerged victorious with a perfect score as well. Congratulations to Phipe Delia, a skilled 12th grader from Lake Nona High School. Congratulations. Congratulations. Great job, buddy. Congratulations. Yeah. Very nice. As soon as ready. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh, chess coach. Perfect. Thank you. The chess competition also is a team competition and we're going to recognize the outstanding team work and dedication that led to the success in the team competitions in the K2 division with 34 schools participating. The champion were Avalon Elementary School. They had five impressive play they had two impressive players who finished in the top 10 each scoring four points. Congratulations to the chess team and coaches. Congratulations. So fun. Congratulations, guys. So cool. Elementary kids. I know, right? I know. Seriously. Congratulations. In the in
013the third through fifth grade division, we had 34 37 schools battled out. The champions are from Ottabon Park. They had three players in the top 10 and two players with 6 and0 records. coached by Miss Quinn. Congratulations. You've got all the hardware. You've got some medals, trophy. One more. Great job. In the middle school divisions, we saw a nailbiting competition between South Creek Middle School and OGA. But ultimately, South Creek Middle School emerged as our championship. Congratulations to South Creek, coached by Emily Best. Oh yeah, I thought that was a dict. Congratulations guys. How are you? Does she hear us? Yeah. Yeah. For your Oh, stop. For your non gym, they might have won. Exactly. money. Okay, Angie. Awesome. And in the high school division, Lake Nona claimed the top spot. They had five players
014in the top 10 and four players that achieved a perfect 6 and 0 record. So they're coached by Miss Hernandez Padilla. You could come forward with your team, please. This is a repeat for you, right? Two years. Two. Yeah. They also brought their trophy. Timber. Yeah. winner. Oh, okay. Wow. Well, last year's champion, but then my assistant here. Don't worry. Thank you. Thank you. I get to stay. Thank you for the clarification. All right. Great job, guys. Miss Golden, thank you for your leadership and your support. Oh, thank you. Of course, strategic thinking doesn't stop at the chessboard. This spring, OCPS's students also put their problem solving skills to the test in a different area, math. We're proud to recognize this year's math Olympic winners. Teams to of third to fifth graders from 26 schools
015around the district tackled challenging puzzles and equations based on the fifth grade standards. It was fun. It was fast-paced competition that showcased our students math math mastery. Congratulations to the team from Stone Lakes Elementary who came out on top. They came out on top of the 156 students who participated. Congratulations. me. Hold on. Now you got a lovely parent. Congratulations. Okay. I think I think we're going to move on. Am I who where's Lisa? I think I don't want to dismiss. Am I we ready? Okay. Okay. Oh, of course. Member Ferrant, you're recognized. I just want to say congratulations and I see a lot of my district 3 folks out there. So, congratulations. John Young, South Creek, you guys are in mine. And we've got a lot of you guys out there. So, congratulations to
016each of you for coming and for winning and for just trying your very best and doing something that maybe wasn't, you know, something maybe that you knew when you came into school and now you've figured it out. And thank you to the teachers and staff for supporting these initiatives for parents who are, you know, picking up and dropping off and running around. And so, thank you for to each of you and congratulations. I look forward to seeing you guys here again next year. Thank you, member. Thank you, member. Member Salamanca. Thank you, chair. Well, District 2, where the dreams come true, also did fantastic. we have Stone Lakes. It's so exciting to see you all here. And, your awesome principal. Thank you so much for supporting these incredible programs. That's what makes this school so
017beloved in the community. is all the work that you've been doing all these years. So, thank you for that. and then obviously my amazing Lake Nona High School showing up winning all individual team sports, you know, we're just doing great great stuff overall. believe we had to beat everyone to get to where we got. So, there's that. and just congratulations. I know it's it's a lot of work and very cool. We love we love this the competition we get here. It is because we're all so proud of you. So, thank you. Yeah, we're as competitive as you guys are. I tell you, the brain trust in this room, I would love to see I would love to see what you all end up doing in your lives. So, keep in touch from time to time
018with your teachers so that they can let us know. But this is a room of overachievers and I just can't wait. They're going to knock it out of the ball field. Okay. So, this concludes our first portion. And again, so that we avoid a traffic jam, here's what we're going to do. Everybody in here that is here with their students that we're recognizing, we're going to ask you to go back out the back. So, we bring everybody in this side. Okay. So, on your mark, get set, and take your time and go. Good job. I went over this yesterday with Lauren several times, but She's gonna be spending all of her funds. These two No, the bantering between Gallo and Oh my god. Oh, the OG. That was very something. Oh my god. What happened?
019Oh my god, that was the best. Listen, she had to wear quarterback. I did not that before a series of unfortunate events happened to you. I know. I love that more than likely. We were the underdogs. Have you ever Are you having fun? She was so sure. Interesting. It wasn't any good. I'm happy to know my son's school is actually a great school. Nikki's she's such a My son's he's a senior. He's just graduating next week. Yep. I'll be at the graduation. See, we had that conversation. Who is that? No. Football with the foot. That's what we have on the B. F O C A, but on the east side F. Oh, really? Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, we don't have real football team. Well, I am not a football football American. I'm a
020soccer. That's right. That's what I said. You got to come to district two. We only know how to play football with And you said football. No, she's not here. She's right there. Oh boy. After that, we done almost. There's hardly anything on the agenda. You probably got some administrators. I like this. I ordered one of these. Oh, yeah. I love it. Easier than carrying the laptop. Oh, what is that? culinary for not before I get some for my kid. But where is my school? That's not fair. Somebody did something. You make sure that you avoid the west and go to the east. see me get any awards. Will you get awards? You'll see. You'll have Oh, I know I will. I know I will win the mirror and all that. Oh my goodness. All right,
021everybody find a seat. All right. Well, good evening everyone and welcome. I'm sorry. Oh, Lisa, not yet. Oh, not yet. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I think we must have a few more joining us. She's one of our communications she came back seems to be very And we are waiting for a few more of our honores to join us. Oh, what? All right, I'm looking for the signal from Lisa. I think we might still have some people coming in. I'm wondering if like maybe white smoke comes up after the last of them are in. I was hoping there'd be like a taste. Oh, I know, right? They do. I know. See, they're enticing us to come out and check it out. Hey, Laur Oh, thank you, Lauren. Thank you. I was hoping somebody was going to
022give us the queue. All right, we are ready to begin. So, welcome to all of you who are just joining us for the second half of our recognitions. We're pleased to have so many wonderful things going on in OCPS that we can't find enough room for all of you at the same time. After this portion of the recognition, you'll be free to go. You're welcome to stay around for the rest of the meeting, but I suspect you probably have celebrations to do elsewhere. we want every one of our honores to feel special. So, please stay until the entire group has been recognized. And now I am going to turn to our superintendent so that she can introduce support advisory committee member and special recognition. I'm not going to say who it is. Thank you so
023much. this for the second year in a row I have had the privilege of having a support staff advisory committee that meets with me a few times a year. They come from across the district representing our elementary, middle, and high schools. And we meet I get to listen to their questions, their concerns. They share ideas amongst each other trying to make us a better one OCPS. And so I wanted to publicly thank them and recognize them for taking the time to come out meet with me and for being honest and willing to help us become better versions of ourselves. So when I call if you're if you're here when I call your name just come up because we want to be able to take a picture. Okay. So, I have Danedi Sanchez from Dr. Phillips
024Elementary. Didra Johnson from Metobrook Middle School, and I apologize if I'm mispronouncing your name. Jay Beige Nuth is from Olympia High School. just a note, he opened Olympia High School 25 years ago. Joselyn Brumy from Brookshshire Elementary, Justine Moika from Maitland Middle, Lehan Harris from Walker Middle School, Monica Watson Silver Pines Academy, Pamela Johnson from Transportation, Patrice Upshaw from Catalina, Risa Cardanas from South Creek Middle, Randy Thomas from Piedmont Lakes Middle, Robin Baston from Legacy Middle, Middle School, Chenica Cook from Discovery Middle School, Sariah Missy from West Creek Elementary School, Victoria Marshall from Sadler Elementary School, and last but never least, Mr. Ron Pard, our Oesma president. Open three, two, and three. Stay there. One more. Perfect. Congratulations. Nice to see you. My son was here your first year. Yep. He's a great leader. And
025now I have a special recognition. as many of you may know, our team, came up with the idea of having Mondays with Maria when I first became superintendent and have recently added a podcast. And we have one very special individual that has had an integral part in both of those programs. Caleb, are you here? All right, Kayla Prester. So, let me tell you some things about this incredible young man. Caleb has taken a rigorous course load as part of the international bachelor diploma track at the Jones High School. He is the senior He is a senior class president, served as junior class president, has won numerous accolades, including the city of Orlando's MLK Youth Humanitarian Award. His commitment to academic excellence is matched only by his passion for film and television production. Caleb was a
026big fan of my Mondays with Maria talk show and we brought him on for a special appearance. He made such an impression on our team that the video services team offered him an internship. He is the voice of Mondays with Maria and my podcast and he's been an important part of several v video projects that we have put together. His positive attitude and eagerness to take on any challenge made him so valuable that his his internship was extended twice. So as he heads off to Wake Forest University on a full ride. I see mom in the back. we want to say thank you and we have a small little token of our appreciation so you can continue your work. Let's give them all a round of applause. Mom, come on. Hold on. We have to
027get the group big smile. Look happy. And can you do the opener so they all can appreciate? Go ahead. There you go. There you go. Welcome to Mondays with Maria presented by Addition Financial Credit Union. Here's our superintendent, Dr. Maria Vasquez. Congratulations. Best of luck. Dr. Vesqueus, was that your finale? Oh gosh, I This is so amazing because, you know, I've enjoyed him so much. I had no idea how accomplished he was. I just knew he was just a joy to be around. Wow. Yeah. And I know that doing Mondays with Maria was not kind of your first thing you wanted to jump into. Dr. Vasquez when I yeah when well she was the vice principal AP at my kids school but beyond that in role as deputy superintendent she was not real big on
028public speaking and I actually can relate to that because I am not and haven't been still after all these years but she has just turned into quite the celebrity. So, in case any of you have not tuned in to Mondays with Maria, you really should. And it's not a lie when I say that she'll be walking down the street and people actually say, "Oh, there's Maria. Monday's with Maria." So, she does a phenomenal job. And I think I think we can give Caleb a little assist because whenever I have to do anything in the back, just having him around is just like I said, it's a calming, uplifting experience, as is the case with so many of our students here in Orange County Public Schools. When people get depressed about the future and they ask
029me about the future, I always tell them the same thing. Forget about the present. Okay? The future is really bright. And I know it's bright because the amazing kids that we see here every day and the amazing teachers and the coaches and everybody from security guards, custodians, everybody that I come into contact, we're going to talk about one of them in just a minute are just remarkable individuals who are constantly giving to other people. So let me then move on to our ne next recognition and that is a I want to give a proper send off. Now we already did give the send off to Caleb. Bear with me one minute because I know somebody is sitting in the in the audience and I'm just really dying to introduce that person. Nice. I next I
030would like to recognize Olympia High School's Oh, Aerom Magagic Flyers Team. I was not aware of that. Are they in the audience? The aromatic magic flower team. There you guys are. Thank you. can you all please stand for just a minute so that we can recognize you and then we'll explain what it is. Right. So, these students won the state champion governor's award at the 2024 realworld design challenge. This is the 14th year that their coach John Roller Rollers Rollers, it's easy for you to say. You've had a lot more practice than I have. has led the team to a state win 14 years. Wow. So this annual STEM competition provides our high school students with an opportunity to work on a real world engineering challenge in a team environment. I was really excited about
031this particular event that or thing that they created. So this year the students wanted to help firefighters after seeing a devastation from the Los Angeles wildfires. They designed an unmanned flying vehicle that could deliver critical firefighting supplies in rugged conditions. Pretty cool, huh? They conducted extensive research and completed engineering work. Their final 17 73 page report includes detailed specifications. The Aero MA Aeromagic Flyers represented Florida at the World Championship in Washington DC earlier this month. Yeah, we are so very proud of our Titans for their excellent project and for representing OCPS so well on the national stage. I would like to invite Olympia math teacher, high math teacher John Rollers. That's just hard for me. I'm sorry. Who is coaching and guiding the team to say a few words and introduce his super students if
032you would. No, come on. take the microphone. And Mr. Rollers, it's no reflection on you. I have so much admiration for you. I just there's certain sounds I have I struggle with. So, thank you for being here and thank you for your patience with me. I just want you to know. Okay. Come on up, guys. Okay. Congratulations. Okay. Congratulations. we weren't able to go to Washington this year because too many teams were not able to do the funding. However, this was the first time they tried to do it before the pandemic and it just didn't work out. So, I don't want to take credit for that right now. But, right now, I would like to recognize, the parents. I would like to recognize the Rotary Club. And I also like to recognize Derek Chakan who
033is the CEO of his own company. And Derek actually looked at the notebook and Derek said that he wanted to improve upon it. But he said, "John, I couldn't improve upon it because it was so impressive, you know." So this is a professional saying how professional these kids are. They're great. They're super. Now I would like to introduce our backto back to back to back Whoa. state champions in core academia. Okay. So what I was I was going on script but I'm not going to go on script. I'm just going to call their names out and tell you a little bit what they did. since she's sitting to the far left of I'll call out Patel. Perva Patel. She was part of the business case and marketing. with Perver, we were showing that we were
034making money and we were also saving lives at the same time. Thank you, Perver. Next we have Shashelle Powell and she did the avionics and she also did a little bit of the weight and balance. Thank you. Next we have Anna Andert and she also did the avionics to make sure that the aircraft stayed on track and she did the weight and balance. weight and balance. We had three different loads and she made sure that the aircraft stayed in perfect CGR, center of gravity. Thank you. Next is Maria Santos. Maria Santos was responsible for our solar power, solar energy, and she also made sure that the aircraft and all of the components was mobile. So when we finish one mission, we can go on to another mission and make some more money. Thank you. Next,
035we have Anna Azavido. I hope I didn't mess it up too bad. Anna is an excellent illustrator. She draws and she illustrates all of the drawings basically in our notebook. And thank you. It made it look so much better. the MVP Anderson, our project leader. He did the CAD, computer AED design, and he also helped out with the aer aerodynamics to make sure that the aircraft, excuse me. Could fly correctly. Thank you. And we have an no and an was also responsible for some of the CAD and he was also responsible for the aerodynamics and we had a couple of what patents in there and he had you know his hands on some of them. Okay. And finally we have one oan I forgot your name. Juan Juan Oento. Okay, let's say Juan. All right,
036I forgot. I forgot his last name. Juan. I was practicing it all all afternoon. Juan is our mechanic. He also he's the pilot, so the aircraft does fly away or something. He takes control. And also I want to let you know that there are 185,000 teachers in the state of Florida. You looking at the only one with 14 straight state championships. Wow. Right. That's it. Mr. Rollers, it's Juan Okando. Okando. Okando. I just Yeah. I just I feel your pain. So you guys don't have Okay, that looks good. Let's just center it. Yeah, just good. If you can't get back up, I hope you look right toward me. You can bring your He's had 14 years of practice doing this. And you can you're in the photo. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, so like you're There
037we go. Pull that top tight. There we go. Drop your ends just a little bit. There we go. Good. Look toward me. Look happy on three. Good. One, two, and three. Stay there. Hold on. Look super happy. Perfect. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Awesome. Congratulations. Awesome. Awesome. Absolutely. Congratulations. Mr. Rollison, I am so glad to hear about the patent because when I when I learned about this, I was like, I hope these guys patented some of this. So, very exciting. That helps the aircraft land. Yeah. And what it does, we call it. Yeah. And it preserves the aircraft using elasticity and it preserves the structural integ. Awesome. I when we have a little more time, I'd love to know your background because y'all are pretty fortunate, huh? Yeah. I get this. I'm the luckiest teacher of
038Yeah. 14 times in a row. It's a lot of luck, my friend. Of course. member Douglas, you want to brag, sir? Of course, I would love to brag. Of course, I would love to brag. I am so excited. Mr. Rollison, truly amazing teacher. Thank you so much for what you do for the kids and I can see your relationship with the kids because I I am an Olympia teacher. All right. I was okay. So I saw you interacting with the kids and it's amazing. And I have two of my beautiful students right here. I kept looking and I'm like familiar. Looks familiar. Those two beautiful ladies were in my class. Right. Okay. So nice to see you. It's a pleasure to have you and Anna. Beautiful. Okay. Yes. Oh, that's so cool. All right. Thank
039you for sharing that. Okay. As many of you know, Wakiva High School is home to the district's magnet magnet academy of culinary arts. And if you don't know, you should know, and you need to stop by and visit them. And while you're there, grab a bite to eat. And this year, they reinforce this program's national reputation. Today we're recognizing students who excelled in one or more of the five different Florida or national culinary competitions. These students created a food truck and served their signature dish from the truck in Chicago. They made the ultimate banana split. I love I know, right? I'm like, shouldn't we all have had a banana split? Chef Bates. We're coming out for our banana split. Yeah. Okay. They pitched he they pitched a restaurant concept and responded to real world scenarios
040in front of industry judges. That's pretty cool. They won first place for a recipe that featured a specific seasoning blend. We've had some of y'all's seasoning blends in the past. So, I'm looking forward to tasting this one. and they created a top pasta recipe for astronauts which they served to judges at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. These students not only brought home trophies, the teams earned thousands of dollars in scholarships. But before Chef Bates introduces his talented students, Vice Chair Bird would love to weigh in and brag on you and this group. I will slightly spare the board because you know I could probably speak all night about this amazing program. if we had a banana split, we'd listen. I know. well, let me just say this. So, I understand that you guys always
041want them to bring something, but you have to you have to get that they're at the end of their year and this culinary program catered get ready for this number. Nearly 92,000 meals this year. Whoa. I thought you were going to say 92. 92,000 meals. Wa they catered and cooked this year. So, they're a little tired. Chef Bates, as you know, is the phenomenal director of this program. You're going to see some pictures on here of their winnings this year. They have literally traveled everywhere all over the world. And he's going to give you a few details when he not over the world and country when he comes up to introduce them. But, you know, they've from the get-go this program has been award-winning. They're only in like the what their fourth year, right? Fourth
042year of being in a magnet program and they have won state titles, national titles. And one of their national titles this year, there were international teams there. So now we're saying that they're one of the best in the world because of that. But this is their NASA team right here. Picture of that one. so he's going to explain all the winnings and all the things that they've done. But Chef Bates is just amazing. He's built this program into what it is today. this is the food truck they designed that they designed it and then it got made and now it's going to be at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago next this week. Next week. This week. and some of you are going, right? Yes. You're getting like VIP service because you were first in
043this. Correct. And that's why you got your food truck made. Yes. It's very cool. Very cool. so it's just phenomenal the accolades, the accolades that they've gotten this year. But not only that, the amount of scholarship money that these kids have gotten through being part of this program and the opport this is what it's all about, right? It's about opportunity for kids. This is why I pushed to help get this program to become a magnet because I saw his passion and I knew that it could be something really special. It's why we push for all these unique and great programs in all of our schools so that we give our kids every opportunity they can have to do something just innovative, neat, something that's going to last them for years to come in their future.
044These kids that are sitting here have all won so many competitions this year that this group of seniors has already been awarded $679,000 in scholarships. Yeah. Yeah. I met a mother. We had they had their annual award dinner Friday night and one of the moms came up to me afterwards and thanked me, you know, for my support of the program. And she shared with me that her her daughter has just so much money for college, we don't know what to do. And I'm like, wow, that's such a great problem to have. I'm so excited. I am so excited for these kids. I'm so excited for everything that they've done. Chef Bates, it the amount of hours that you invest in this program is just insane and we are so thankful for you and thankful for
045you providing these opportunities. Now, I also want to real quick recognize someone super special and that is a volunteer that they have in their program that I think if you talk to anyone in the program, they'll tell you that they probably couldn't do everything they do without her. So, I would like for Miss Leslie Sheepac to please stand up. Miss Sheepac taught for 42 years in districts all over the country from kindergarten to college. She retired from Wakiva after teaching reading for seven years and has helped the Wakiva culinary program for the past 5 years. She has traveled all over the country with their competition teams, tailored their uniforms, listened while they practiced. She even coached their champion waiter relay team which has won at the state level multiple times. In just one year, she
046amassed over 500 hours of volunteer work helping with the culinary program to be successful. They call her their culinary godmother and she has certainly earned that title. So, I just wanted to personally thank you for everything you do for the program. I know that it's all possible because of you and you are so special to them. As I heard the other night as well at the awards, one of the students said that she was the first person that told them congratulations when they got accepted to college. It was super sweet. So, that's all I'm going to say. I could say so much more, but I'm going to pass it back over to the chair. All right. Thank you. well, you said a lot. I do have some questions about I was limited. I know you
047were I know you were but I do have some questions. Have we validated 42 years you taught? Yes. Okay. Is that crazy? I mean not that you taught 40 42 years. Well, it might be. What What level did you teach? Kinder high school. Okay. So, there was a middle school in there. Okay. Anyway, no, what I meant was that's for you to have spent 42 years as a teacher and now one I can't believe you're that old, but well, young young, but you are but to then commit so much time to this and you all couldn't see it in the back, but what I loved the most it was sorry it wasn't what you said, but when you said it, I don't know if you were able to see the students nodding. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
048And that's so cool because the connections that you've made and Chef Bates have made. So I am going to call up Chef Bates. Not much more needs to be said except for he is not he is as as talent as he is. He is more passionate and inspiring than anything else. and the kids are so lucky. The little bit of time that each of us get to spend with you is like I said always inspiring. So take it away, Chef. Oh. thank you so much for having us. It is my privilege. I'm going to I'm going to introduce students in groups and explain briefly what they did. so we're going to start off with the ProStar culinary team. that is David Maldonado, Noah James, Jasmine Thomas, Diego German Quinn, and Erica Geraldo. Just kind of
049we're going to kind of make a little thing up here. these are the guys who made the ice cream. Congratulations. These team, this team actually did something remarkable. for the first time in OCPS history, they took second place in state level competition, beating out 86 other schools. it's our first. They are also the creators and executors and winners of the banana split showdown ice cream competition. we would love to. They actually said we should take some of the ice cream chef and then we ate it. Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. They just got a $6,000 rolled ice cream machine. Yeah. to Oh, you're testing it still? Yeah. They were you know my number. Give me a call. Just saying. so they just got a $6,000 machine from the Florida Dairy
050Council, right? So, they're gonna they're going to start taking this portable rolling ice cream maker to different places on the road. So, you know, you can definitely bring it here. Are you hinting? I am. I will tell you this. The ube dark chocolate espresso ice cream and the black sesame ice cream with the salted caramel, right? And what was the Oh, no, sorry. The miso caramel sauce and the bad cherry koolie, right? Oh, wow. It was they caramelized the bananas, brulayed them with nuts. you know, I've we've invited the board to come and have their meeting at our school and we'll feed you. Oh, there you go. Yes, we should do that. Yes. Let's do one big one. Okay. A meeting at their school. All right. So, these guys did some amazing things. let's go.
051Let's bring up the next group. All right. next up is our NASA Hunch Culinary Team. These four students, took second place in national competition. Actually, I suppose international competition now. that's Apollo Gonzalez, Miguel, Emma Thomas, Arson Dali, and Parker Menke. Yeah, I'm sorry. Don't you mean Intergalactic. what this competition is, by the way, Waka High School is the only Florida school to ever go to the NASA competition. And when this was our third time, this is our third second place in the nation win. so we're doing something that nobody else is doing and we're doing it over and over and over again. So we just keep winning and winning and winning and winning. Anyway, these guys just did an amazing job. Also up here, Apollo won the Voodoo Chef Recipe Challenge. That's a statewide competition,
052and got a $10,000 scholarship for a spiced it was spiced. No, it was pork pork bow, right? Yeah, pork bow. It was a pork bow. Amazing job, guys. Now, Parker's already up here, but let's look at the rest of his other team to come on up. That is the National ProStart restaurant management team. come on up all of y'all. This is Aubrey Pew, Isaac Eris, Sarah Edwards, and America Castillo. This is we are the only OCPS school to ever win states in this particular competition. It's a it is the Olympics. It's the Rolls-Royce of the culinary competition for high schools. we've won it twice at the state level. We've gone to nationals twice as a result. This is the first time any Central Florida school has ever gone on stage. Congratulations for your fourth place
053national win. That is they beat out 4,268 other schools. Wow. Whoa. last but not least, could the EcoLab guys just stand forward? Step forward. this is my Ecoab team. They are the ones who designed the food truck that you saw. they won first place in the nation. This is our and their food truck. They designed created a menu for it was built for them. It was wrapped for them and it is going to be at the center of the national restaurant show in Chicago this Saturday where they are going to be introduced by Shabuzzi. I don't know. Somebody or other don't know. Couldn't tell you. But he won a Grammy and now he's going to be introducing my students. So, I couldn't be more proud. it's kind of hard to put it into place, say
054anything more than Vice Chair Bird already said, but it is an honor. We finally have gotten to the ranking because of a number of factors. Serve safe pass rates, certifications, prostart certificates of achievement, amount of scholarships won, amount of students in the industry who are going into it, amount of scholarships for industry. We are now a top 10 ranked program in the country. Wow. One opens. You all have to. Come on, parents. We'll do one with and one without. Thank you. Good. Good. Big smile. Big smile again. Hold on. Let's bring up those fabulous parents. Yes. You can hug. You can pinch cheeks. That would be good. Amazing. Oh my god. Unbelievable. So impressive. Thank you. Oh my gosh. So wonderful. You must be proud. You must be so proud. Oh my. Wow. Unbelievable. The
055accolades just blows me away. okay. Our final recognition. I would like to recognize esports athletes from three high schools. Each of them took home took home state sorry took home state trophies for the 202425 school year. Please welcome Lonnie Flores, district senior administrator of athletics and wellness services who will introduce his teams and coaches. Director Flores. Good evening board chair Jacobs, school board members, Superintendent Dr. Vasquez and all the OCPS staff here today. It is my honor to talk about our newest program. You know, they are now in athletics now for two years and to have multiple state champions. I couldn't be more proud. So, the first team I would like to recognize is a Dr. Phillips state champions for Mario Kart. If you could please stand. After competition during the fall season, the core
056of their team returned for the spring, dropping only two sets to Windmir in the regular season to secure second place at the end of the season. Taking what they have learned back from the losses to Windmir and with the help of their third and second place teams, they practice hard and hope to overcome those losses. On the day of the finals, their first match was against a fellow Dr. Phillips team to decide the winner of the semifinals and to advance to play in an all CPS championship against Windemir. After a rough first set, they were behind Windemir. coach noticed this and thanks to some motivational words from the team for the team and having the crowd at their backs, they were able to earn back-to back spring season state champions. In only the second year
057of the program under athletics, this is the second state esports championship for Dr. Phillips High School. At this time, I would like to recognize the student athletes, coaches, and staff for Dr. Phillips High School. Can we bring them up? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Coach, if you would come over. The principal for Dr. Phillips is Miss Jaxi Ramsey. The athletic director is Mr. Jason McDaniel. And the head coach who's going to introduce the players is Mr. Mason Corbin. Coach, it's all yours. Congratulations. Congratulations. All right, coach. Thank you guys for having us once again. I couldn't be more proud of this team. as you may remember, at least four of them were here last year when we won our state title. last year we went on to win the national title, bringing the first national championship
058to OCPS in esports. winning $6,000 worth of scholarships for that competition. but without further ado, I would like to introduce our players here. So, first off, in the middle, we have Jacelli Wheat, Jelli Senior, our youngest member of this team as a freshman coming in and claiming a state championship in her first season with the team. next to her we have Cameron Weekes who just last week signed with Warner University down in Lake Wales on 50% scholarship to continue playing Mario Kart at the collegiate level. I love it. Standing next to him, we have Isaiah Biennami who next as a senior next year is going to be going to Valencia to pursue music at some point after that. our team captain, Dyson Stzzer, also a senior, is currently evaluating multiple offers from colleges and waiting
059his final decision on that. we and last but not least but not least we have Issa Rivera who is our team president and team manager doesn't play the game manages our match chats runs our social media runs everything and because of that signed with Waldorf University on 80% scholarship to run and start their social media program and streaming for the college. and I would also like to thank my assistant coach Emily Dohy. without them this year would have been very difficult because it was long going back to back in national championships. so I I really appreciate all of everything they have done and I can't wait to see them succeed in college, right? I know. I love that dress though. Huh? Congratulations. Congratulations, you guys. That's so great. The next team we'll recognize is the
060innovation esports team who are state champions in Super Smash Brothers. If you guys could please stand. The team finished the fall season undefeated and then placed third in the playoffs after losing to Florida Virtual School in the semifinals. During the spring season, they earned Florida FASA league championship after defeating the same vertical team they previously knocked them out in the semifinals. Koshi won the solos bracket tournament held at Dr. Phillips High School. Their overall 2024 2025 record in play versus Koshi had a 54 and9 record and Shoma had a 52 and 11 record. This is Innovation High School's first ever state championship in esports. At this time, I would like to recognize the student athletes, coaches, and staff for Innovation High School. The principal for Innovation High School is Mr. Chris Davis. The athletic director
061is Mr. Brian Bruce, coach. And the coach for Innovation High School is Gabriel Lopez Bonia. this time if you'll introduce your team. Right. So, thank you everyone for having us here tonight. you know, of course, tonight is all about them. They've worked extremely hard, you know. this is our first go at the state championship and lo and behold, here we are. so big shout out to principal Christopher Davis and athletic director Brian Bruce. you know really supportive of the program they have been so far this year. and I just want to talk about a little bit of each of these individuals real quick and the history of Smash Brothers in in the area for just a second. so on the far left we have Koshi Saitito. He is my main man. He's a club president.
062I want to say pretty much I go to him for everything. He communicates with everybody. he's working he's been working extremely hard the past couple years. I had the pleasure and the privilege of coaching him at my previous school as well. and he was, you know, he's he's been improving steadily every semester, every season that we've played and showcased that by far by beating one of his toughest adversaries at his at his finals competition. And right next to him, yes, they're related. That is Shomito. That is his younger brother. Okay. So, we've got his second year. He's kind of our protege, so to speak. younger but pretty scary behind the thumb sticks. you know, Shoma actually had lost his first match in the finals against the same opponent that he went won during game five
063and beat him. So, he came back for the comeback win and got us a win in game five. Kind of secured the position for the whole team as a whole. So, thank you, Sha. So, we've got Matteo Ortiz, one of the two freshman on the team right now. They've kind of gone under the wings of of the Seaitto brothers as we like to say. and they're doing a incredible job at coaching up these two freshman that we've that have joined the team this season. and so they've improved vastly this season alone and I'm really proud of both him and Matias Casset is right next to them. So thank you both for you know improving as much as you have and I know you guys have committed to learning the game even more so now. So
064thank you. And just real quick, I just wanted to say as someone who graduated Cypress Creek 2014, to see esports be where it is now is it's it's really impressive. I have, you know, I'm very honored to be putting this in the in the spotlight. you know, if you didn't know, Super Smash Brothers has a really big thick history here in Central Florida. At the time, I was a freshman at Cyers Creek. There was a senior that went by the title of Hungry Box at Freedom High School. He's one of the, you know, one of the greats at the global level in this game. So to see this tradition carry forward in these young men is really impressive and again just very honored to be here and supporting them in their journey as well. So
065thank you guys. I know. We left an important fact that galls. Wow. That's cool, huh? Whoa. Yeah. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Oh, I know, right? Oh, the last team I'd like to recognize, and unfortunately they could not be here tonight due to AP testing. so I do still want to talk about their accolades and recognize them. That's the Timber Creek Esports team who are the state champions in Rocket League. During the fall season, the team finished undefeated in the regular season, which ranked them first place in the playoffs. They ended up finish second place last year, using that experience to achieve an undefeated season this year in the spring season. This is the first time in OCPS esports history that a team has become back-to back champions in the league. I couldn't be more proud of
066Timber Creek. So, need to say go Wolves. I would like to thank the board members and staff for their support of esports. And I'd be remissed if I did not ask Mr. Steve McCale to please stand. He is our program lead for esports for the district and he's brought on esports at every single high school in the district and we're now at half of the middle schools. So I would be remiss without recognizing Steve Male and his job. I would like to thank the board and the OPS staff on on taking a chance on something new. And I am so proud that we are the tip of the spear when it comes to esports in the state of Florida. So I'm very honored to be up here. And if you guys don't mind, if I
067can end with my fist bump, I'd appreciate it. Absolutely. So proud of you. Okay. You like to see I know you're doing great. Okay, you're coming back. You're coming back. All right, we have one more set of recognitions. Oh, I'm sorry. Of course, member Salamanca. Thank you. Thank you. I just I just I wanted to amazing description of all things that Innovation High School's team has done, but a small little detail on them making to the championship is also this is their first year. and you know they don't have seniors yet because it's a new high school. So, even more so impressive all the work that, principal Davis and coach are doing with this team because without seniors and first year of a brand new school, that's a lot of work. So, thank you so
068much for all the extra hours you're putting to build the culture of a team to get students excited about getting involved and all the support that Principal Davis is doing to to have this exciting wins. so thank you so much for for all the hard work this year. Excellent. All right, one more set of recognitions. Dr. Vasquez, you have any newly appointed administrators? If you say no, I'm gonna Okay. No, you do. You don't. You do not. Okay. Oh, well, that made that short. All right. With that, then you all are free to go. Thank you for coming. We're going to board. We're going to take a very brief recess. Grab a picture. You don't want to say hi to me. And you Oh. Oh, that's the way you treat me. You treat me this
069way. There it is. It's something with something with your What's going on? Because it works for me. I know. I when I do that air, you know, oxygen thing, I go through the same thing. They're like, "Is she alive? I I did that time. Okay. All right. I am so sorry. at this time, I'd like to acknowledge Amy. Hi. The audience has all left. It wasn't me. I promise. No, everybody's gone. good evening, Chair Jacobs, board members, Superintendent Vasquez, Deputy Superintendent Arm Brewster staff, and community members. As we've just heard, I'm Amy McCale, the current Okasa president and proud principal of Sunridge Middle School in Winter Garden. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight on behalf of Okasa, the Orange County Association of School Administrators. I'm honored to share some of our highlights of
070the year and our accomplishments from the past year with you. This year, one of our most meaningful progress, collaboration, and impact was our proudest effort was meeting with individually with each member of this board to gain your unique perspectives, priorities, and hopes for the future of our district. These conversations helped us align our work with the district's strategic goals and ensured our efforts were targeted and relevant. Your insights, priorities, and commitment to students were invaluable in shaping our focus for Okasa. These conversations have helped us align more closely with your vision and strengthen our collective efforts and we appreciate your time with those meetings. another highlight, we've continued to foster strong partnerships with our district leadership through ongoing collaboration. We've worked together to support administrators and staff in delivering the best possible outcomes for our
071students. Together, we've tackled challenges, celebrated successes, and built a stronger foundation for our administrators and the educators that we support. This year, Okasa proudly launched our student scholarship program. This scholarship program is designed to support high school seniors pursuing a degree in education. We're thrilled to announce our first two recipients. We're not going to say their names yet because they don't know. It's coming this week. But I can tell you one of them is from Oakidge High School and one of the winners is from Timber Creek High School. these future educators represent the next generation of excellence and we're honored to play a small role in their journey through this scholarship. This initiative is a step towards strength strengthening our pipeline of passionate well-prepared teachers. Okasa has become more active in advocacy efforts as well,
072ensuring that the voices of our local educators are heard at the local, state, and federal levels. Whether it's policy, funding, or resources, we're committed to influencing decisions that directly impact our schools. We've also focused inward to support some of our members. This year's member development series offered training in budget management, contract adherence, and even some personal financial wellness for our administrators. These workshops were designed to equip our members with practical tools and to support their overall well-being. And thanks to strong out outreach and engagement efforts, our membership has grown to over 400 strong, a milestone that reflects the relevance and value of the work we're doing together. As we look ahead to next year, crazy. We're going to finish out these next 10 days now. We're energized by the momentum we've built and grateful for
073the trust and partnership we share with this board as well as our district leadership. Together, we're making a difference, not just for today's students, but for the future of education in our community. In closing, this year has proven that when we listen, collaborate, and stay committed to the mission of serving our students and schools, we can make a lasting change. Thank you for your continued support and partnership. Have a great evening. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. I also want to recognize out in the audience, executive director, Dr. Anna Diaz. Anna. And Anna Diaz was with us last week at the county commission meeting for their actually it was their first reading of Orange Code and they're going to have a work session on specifically on Orange County Public Schools concerns
074and that will be next Tuesday. So, we knew that wasn't going to be a topic of discussion, but Dr. Diaz brought with her, I think, like 13 administrators who almost all of them stayed with us to the end, which was 8:04 in the evening. So, Dr. Diaz, thank you for your commitment. I've also learned after all these years, I had no idea what an incredible writer she is. And the guidance that I got from her on in this process was really exciting. I did say I don't know where she's been all my life and she's probably worried that I'm going to be calling her right and left, but thank you for taking on the important role that you've taken on. I know Dr. your arm Brewster. Certainly not an easy one to follow, but you're
075doing a phenomenal job. So, all right. Now, moving on. Proclamations were adopted by vote of the board on August 27th of 2020 2024 and board meetings as celebrations and observations. The list will remain on the agenda for the entire school year. Next, Mr. Pomearini, do we have anyone who's come to speak to the board on any items on the consent agenda? No, Madam Chair. All right. With that, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion by Salamanca, second by member Douglas. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Mo motion carries unanimously and don't think we have any public hearings. so Mr. Palmerini, no we don't. Do we have any public hearings? All right then. Dr. Vasquez, I think we are. No, you had you do have an item 17. Oh, I Oh,
076sorry. That's not a public hearing. Yeah, it's just 1701. do we have anyone who's come to speak on 1701? No. Okay, Dr. Basquez. thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we are delighted to be opening naming one of our new elementary schools for this upcoming school year. We have Miss Dr. Raheem Jones who is the executive leader over all of our elementary schools and he's got a you know cheering squad in the back with pompoms no less. I know they need to come to the front. Come. You know, if you driven all this way, you got to show off those pom poms. Shake it. Shake it as you come down. Yes. So, is teal one of their colors? Awesome. I love teal. Okay. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. Have a seat. Yeah. You guys can sit up here.
077Have a seat up here. Oh, perfect. Yeah. Come sit. No, no, no. They're for Thank you, Dr. Jones. before I begin, I would like to take a moment to introduce our principal of site 130-E2, Laura Permener. And Laura Permener, would you like to introduce the rest of the team? This is our tiny mighty team of four. myself, Laura Permentor, our secretary, Miss Torres, secretary bookkeeper, our resource teacher, Megan DS, coming from Laurat Park Elementary, which we're the relief for them. So great resource. And then our bookkeeper, Linda Gordado Lazar, sorry, tongue twisted. Our registar, and this is actually the order that we joined, January, February, March. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. Good evening, Chair Jacob, school board members, Superintendent Vasquez. Tonight, I'm here to present three recommended school names for site 130-se based upon input
078from the school's community stakeholders from January 21st, 2025 until January 27th, 2025. Students, families, community members, and OCPS employees zoned to attend 130-ES-2 were invited to submit school name recommendations through an online Google survey. Two followup, online Google surveys were sent on February 18th, 2025 and March 5th, 2025 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 Luminary Academy. This name represents the street where the school is located and is a feeder elementary school for Luminary Middle School. Academy is defined as a place of study in a special field. Luminary Elementary. This name represents the street where the school is located and is a feeder elementary school for Luminary Middle School. Somedale Elementary. This name represents a community
079near where the school is located. I now turn it over back to Superintendent Vasquez. thank you, Dr. Jones. For those that are not may not be aware, you know, the process of naming a school involves a great deal of community engagement several times over where you put out to the community suggestions, we vote, we narrow it down, we vote again. And so now according to policy, school board member Salamanca will be able to make a recommendation to the board. I'm looking forward to it. I drive by the school every day. It's kind of in my backyard and so I'm glad to see that the walls are up and there's people working every day. So excited to see what the new name is going to be. Well, I am so excited. Thank you for coming. You
080see the excitement that we have here. This is the staff. Come out to the luminary corridor. there's a lot of really we got new middle school and now we're going to have this new elementary school that the community is very excited for. even though I love 130E2 as a name, it's quite a mouth mouthful. So, I I talked to so many parents and community and it was an overwhelmingly amount of support for Luminary Elementary. So, no question there. Not really surprised, but I think folks are going to be excited. So, I I make the recommendation that I think has the most community support, of course, and just in general, everyone's so excited for our new principal and the leadership and the team that you're all putting together. And the community is going to love you.
081It's going to be a great time. All right. And the colors look great. So, we have a we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Second from member Ferrant. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Rory, is Rory here? I don't know if you had anything to do with the You probably did with the land purchase, but great great move because Luminary is a great name and you probably wouldn't have come up with it if it wasn't on is it Luminary Street? Yeah. Yeah. I love it though, right? Oh my gosh. Yeah. Such an inspiring name. And I'm so glad you went with elementary. It just makes sense, you know? So, all right. Great job. Thank you. Yeah. Let's get them up here, guys. Thank you. Now, we can
082get those benches clos. Thank you. All right, come on up, guys. Ladies, gray, navy, and teal. Gray, navy, and teal. Yeah. Oh, look at you. How did you pull that off? Gray, navy, and teal. So cute. It would be good if you could It would be good if you guys could get a little puppy. No live animals. Yes. Live animals are a good thing, John. They spread good. Much better than Right. Why does he have to say live? Like, what do we think? All right, you guys ready? Such a kill joy. Killjoy. That's funny. Is that on purpose? Live animals killing the shaker. Yeah. Thank you guys. Congratulations. Barely. Did you do that? No, I did not. They weren't dead animals and you said it. Okay. Oh, darn. I don't know how it happened over
083there, but I hate I hate when I miss a good laugh. No, I'm like temperature related. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. All right, Dr. Vasquez. I think we jumped past your report at our last meeting if I'm not mistaken. but so we're anxious to hear from you. Yeah, the last meeting had a lot going on and so I think we were all absolutely all ready to go. So I do have a few announcements. I'm going to start first with the budget. as many of you are aware, we do not have a budget from the state. We understand it's being pushed, the session all the way to the end of June. we don't quite know what that's going to do to our timeline, but we are definitely taken aback by the events of last Friday. we are
084still concerned with the potential cuts that are coming our way both programming what they are proposing for the BSA or the base student allocation. we continue to struggle with dollars that are being allocated and attempting to provide the very best education to our students when that BSA continues to be decreased. So, our team has been working and continues to work on where we can become more efficient. As you know, all of our district departments took a 2% cut. In addition, Dr. Armbster alongside Dr. Brown Cannon have been combing through our programs resources to see where there might be replication looking at academic return where we're getting the most bang for our buck and I look forward to the upcoming board's budget priority work session coming up in just a few days. second, I am so
085excited that graduations are going to be starting next week. It really is the culmination of a year that has had some bumps along the along the way, but overall has been incredibly positive. And today was just another example of our incredible young men and women who are in our schools, the wonderful teachers and staff and administrators that work day in and day out to provide the best learning environment. And of course, the parents and community that are there alongside supporting us. Next, I've got some celebrations for our reading challenge. So, if you will bear with me, I have several to put out to our board members. Dr. Brown Can, do you mind standing because I do want to recognize Dr. Brown Canon under her leadership the team has made this quite an interesting challenge for
086our board. you know we set a goal of 20 million minutes and those were achieved within six weeks and that is thanks to our board and your support and I am proud to be able to announce the following recognitions and thank you to Dr. Brown County for helping keep track of this. All right. District 1 board member Gallo had 4 million296 221 minutes that were read during that time frame. So congratulations to district one. District two, 3,700,510 minutes that were read. District half district I'm going in order of district not numbers. district three 6 million 356,347 minutes. Wow. District 11,740,764 minutes. Oh, proud of the kids. Good job, guys. District 5, 4,90,617 minutes. District 6, 4,823,396 minutes. District 7 4,955,277 minutes read. All right. And now some special awards. The district with continued increase in
087participation. You know, they may not have been at the top, but they kept improving. And that is district one. Another district that had continued participation was board member Ferrance district three. That's awesome. We also have board member Felder that is being recognized for continued increase in participation as well as board member Douglas. And the challenge winner for having the most minutes read and the highest participation overall is board member Douglas. Thank you. Did you see the competition though? Did you cap it? Wait, wait, wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait a minute. I know you and I don't get anything. We just I thought that last one was going to me. Oh, member Douglas. I'm sorry. really I had I had I had more participation and more minutes read all really I can share okay perks
088of our job the perks well I we really are so thankful that first of all board member Bird brought this idea to us that's huge honestly in in in her district and it's had such an impact we have almost finished all of our testing and I am excited to see the results of our students efforts and I do believe that all the work that the board has supported in the area of literacy is going to pay off with some wonderful wonderful scores. So thank you madam chair that is my report for the evening. All right thank you. I see a number of people that want to be recognized. So let me start with member Salamanca. Oh no from before. All right. member Gallo. that's for policy related for later. So, okay. Thank you. Member Font,
089anything for now? It was just for like Okay, no problem. all right, Mr. Pomeray. thank you, Madam Chair. So, just to make you all aware because we've been busy with meetings today. the challenge on with respect to Delta Dental and their challenge to the third party or to the dental insurance claim will be heard on June 4th and 5th. Miss Cotus and I will be working diligently on that. we filed a motion to dismiss. I've sent that to you all so you all can peruse it and let me know at your leisure if you have any questions. and switching gears, really briefly, I did want to publicly, congratulate a member of my team, Kashara Cowins. she's not here tonight, but I felt I needed to be said on May 23rd, she's going to be installed
090as the president of the Orange County Bar Association. Wow. And yeah, Kashara is Kashara is a brilliant lawyer, an even better person, and I can't think of anybody better to lead the Orange County Bar Association for the next year, as they engage in their activities. So, we are very, very proud of her. And, to mirror lastly what the superintendent said, graduation is the best time of year. I will be attending a graduation in every one of your districts. So, I will be making the rounds. Of course, I would like to send a special shout out to the one special one that I have. I have a son going to graduate this year from Apaka High School. So, I'm very proud of my son, Robert. I love him very much. But congratulations to all the class
091of 2025. You all deserve it and you all are great. Thank you. Awesome. Awesome. all right. Do we have I well let me start with member Gallow in terms of board related issues or or topics. Yes. Yes, it is. Thank you. I have I have two items that I wish to discuss with the board this evening. The first one is regarding the FSBA board of directors. we usually come June we will h be responsible for nominating a new board of director and a new alternate. We usually we always do it at the June conference. It's a two-year term. And the way that we've always done it in the past to be fair to all board members for anybody who chooses to serve on the board of directors is whoever the current alternate is for the
092board of director and right now Melissa is the board of director and will remain the board of director until July 1st. then we the alternate usually takes the director's place and then we appoint another alternate and then when that term is up that alternate moves up and that's how we kind of make it fair so anybody who wishes to serve gets to serve and one person doesn't take all the time especially now with term limits. So, with that being said, I would like to I would like to nominate Vicky Felder as our new next board of director and Stephanie Vanos as the alternate board of director for FSBA. All right. Nominations do not require a second. Let me ask if anybody else has nominations though. With no further nominations, assuming that both are willing to
093accept it, if Okay. All in favor of the nominations, please say I. I opposed. Motion carries. Wonderful. member Galla, did you have anything else? I do. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, the other item I'd like to bring to the board's attention is I recently did a webinar with COSPA where we were going over the legislative agenda and their continuing resolution along with their reconciliation and we were kind of walking through that. during that webinar, CASPA asked us to provide them some some information on the impacts that some of these cuts federally would have to Orange County Public Schools and we did. We provided COPA with the information. After reviewing the information, I believe all of you should have been copied on it. It came from Dorine. I would like to do a resolution to our
094congressional delegation letting them know of the impacts that removing Title 2 dollars and the reduction in Medicaid will have on our district. What we're what we're hearing or what we're seeing is that many within our congregation do not understand the amount of money that we get in Medicaid dollars that we get in reimbursement. They think it doesn't go through the education process up in DC. It goes through health services. So many don't even understand that when they reduce Medicaid or they reduce the amount in that pot that it's actually going to have a negative impact on Orange County Public Schools because we still have to offer those services and now we won't be reimbursed to them. So I did take the liberty of having Jack GPT take the information that was given to me and
095throw it in to generate a resolution which I will share with Dr. Vasquez. I just need the I need consensus or the permission of the board to create this resolution just to sh we could share it with our community and share it with our congressional delegation just so they understand not only what we're up against funding statewide but it's like the perfect storm because it's coming federally as well. Absolutely. Any objections? No. All right, then you have a consensus of the board and we look forward to your well, thank you for your leadership on that. We certainly look forward to disseminating it. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's all I have. Okay. member FAT. Thank you. I wanted to propose something to add to an agenda item for the future board meeting. to add
096a directive where we would provide our sixth through 12th grade students during their human development classes where they would be presented a video on human development where it would just show the development of a baby in the womb and just like they receive in science class they would receive that like a development of a frog or an animal and such and so I would just like to bring this item to a few on the agenda for a future board meeting. Okay. Dr. Vasquez, so it's not it's not a policy issue. It's a curriculum issue. So I'm I'm going to defer to you. Normally, if it's a policy issue, we kind of take the read on the board because if it's a policy that doesn't enjoy some level of support, we don't spend time on it.
097But this is a curriculum. So I'm going to defer to you. Right. And what we'll do is we'll have the team review the standards also see if that's something that's being done in any other districts and then we'll come back to the board with a response. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else? Member F. Do I have to wait? Is there like another time to share anything that No, this is also time for committee report or anything else you want to share? anything like well what's happening in the my district that kind of stuff. Okay, great. I just want to make sure I'm not going to get like you got to wait till later because I always say it at the wrong time. okay, so I just wanted to share I know tonight we voted
098on the curriculum new adopted curriculum and I just wanted to share I had an awesome meeting. I was super thankful to to Shondaanda and your team for meeting with me. I had just questions wanted to know kind of what was you know what the different selections were, why did we select them, how were they selected. you know I had all the questions just in case people had asked me and whatnot and I was really honestly blown away by the items that were selected. I think they align beautifully with the science of reading that we're really trying to focus on the phonics phmic awareness. and I think this is really gonna we're going to see a huge change in in some of the school visits that I've had in the last week or two as everybody's
099been gearing up for testing. it was actually no this past week when we did the impact letters. So, I was at schools, they were doing testing and the principles were already just like giddy about their scores just they're already seeing things improving because we have pivoted to that science of reading and really focusing on phmic awareness and all of that. And so, I just want to thank everyone who is really pushing that, getting the training and all of that. and so that's it. Just to say thank you and thank you to Shondaanda and your team. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, member Thanos. Thank you, Madam Chair. I have to say last week delivering the project impact letters was the best part of the job. It was it was so wonderful seeing teachers and just
100lots of tears and appreciation and they said this is and so many of the teachers shared with me that this was the best thing the district does for them. and it's it's just a good reminder of of how we can make our teachers feel appreciated and loved. so I'm just grateful that I had the opportunity opportunity to deliver some of those letters. the only other thing I wanted to say was I brought this up in the public comment period, but there were some students that came in and shared just shared the love about a beloved teacher that was unfortunately her position was not will not be there next year and the students were asking you know how and it was what I loved about it was the students really understood that the money to pay
101the teacher really comes from the state. and it's something that I find I'm explaining to constituents often and they've done the research and they understand how it works and I was just so impressed with that. But they were looking for ways to to advocate and so, you know, I would just say if there are students or parents or, you know, teachers out there who are interested in advocating up at the state level to please email me. I know there are people who would just like to share their stories and just be engaged with democracy and I think that's such an important thing. so just wanted to share that and again thank the students for coming today. Thank you member Vanos. any other I should have initially asked if there were any committee reports. I think
102the board members if you do have one, nobody will be bashful about jumping in but member Bert. Absolutely. Yeah. The thank you. The communications committee met today and we had discussions about just about many of these things we've already discussed. specifically how we want to move forward with communication around our decrease in funding, our the declining enrollment, how that affects funding within the schools. and we the communications committee had not met in a while. So we had a lot of just discussion, brainstorming. but we, you know, thought of some good things that we can possibly do, to just make it clearer to the public, you know, so they understand the way our funding works and the effect that, the declining enrollment and the, you know, increase in voucher, the voucher program and all those different
103things affects the classroom. So, it was a good discussion and we're going to have another one probably within the next month or so. So, all right. Very good. Member Salamanca. Thank you, Chair. one of I Dr. Vasquez and I met with Commissioner Jim Gray maybe a week or two ago and something that came out of the meeting that I found really we both found really interesting was some of the limitations that county and city have when it comes to scooters. So, I think all of us get a lot of calls and complaints about scooters and what we learned was that legislatively they're kind of defined similarly to a bicycle rather than a motorized vehicle which causes the city and the county to have very different treatment of them. And so one of the things that
104I wanted to propose and we can talk about it later in the legislative agenda or committee is more of what this could be an area where we could talk to representatives that it would make a huge difference for the safety of our students as if we kind of advocated for a more specific definition of them not as bicycles. I mean some of these scooters go like 30 40 miles an hour. They're very dangerous. Sure, we're having really, bad accidents. And so, to the degree that we as a school district can show up in Tallahassee and communicate this, so, as folks hear more from the community and talk to, I think this is one of the things that legislatively we can make a difference in. And so, I just wanted to flag that for folks because
105I don't think we appreciated that semantic and definition before, the same way. And I kind of just kept asking like, what's going on? Why why is like we know our hands are tied right outside of our campus property lines but city and county seem to also have a lot of limitations because they're treated as bicycles which we all know from our constituents that they are not having bicycle like in accidents. So right thank you member Salamanca. Yeah. Yeah. you know, on that same subject, I cannot get over the number of kids I see on ebikes and schools. Besides the safety implications, which are very real, the health implications, I mean, we spend so much time as a country talking about fitness and making sure our kids get out, have exercise. What in the pard me?
106Scooters are so fun. They're so fun. Yeah, they are. Yeah. Yeah, but they're not exercise. But they're not neither. Yeah, right. Yeah. I just Yeah. Do Yeah. Yeah. I don't have a scooter. I do have an electric bike, but I do pedal it most of the time. cuz I take it out for exercise. Yeah. but most of the kids I see and I just like I just Anyway, it's not it's not in our control, but I do like the idea of including that kind of as a sidebar because it's outside of our you know our primary mission. But I think it's something that we ought to make sure that our legislative delegation and anybody else who will listen to us takes it seriously. I don't and I really think that's a nonpartisan issue kind of
107except for Yeah. I mean I'm okay with e ebikes. You're okay with e scooters. Just a question of safety getting to and from schools and stuff. So all right. Anything else? All right. I popped on real quick. Sorry. Oh, that's okay. You're late. We're done. Member Vanos. Member Vanos. Not Vanos again. no. I just want to say I know Winter Park High School, some of the students were working on developing a video, just like sort of a student safety video, but it maybe a way to engage our students in advocacy as well. That's awesome. Thank you. You know, and I'm I'm glad we paused for just a second because I am so sorry. I should give you all a quick update on our efforts with Orange County. every time I say we're making progress, something
108happens, but I think we're making progress. I had an opportunity with me with to meet with five of the six commissioners last week, and that was very worthwhile because, most of them did not really understand what our issues were and what we were hoping to accomplish. I think after leaving, I mean, they all seem to get it and understood that we need a plan for the funding that we're losing and that even though we have declining enrollment, we also have a lot of growth and we just need to know that we kind of have an insurance policy of the things that have worked in the past. and most of them had no idea the decline that we've seen in capital funding. So, and then I met with the, county administrator, Byron Brooks, and that just
109happens to be, Bridget's, brother for those of you who might not have might not have known. And, we had a really good conversation that was also helpful to clarify where we were and what we were asking for, most important, why. So, that's the that's the latest update there. Next and M member Vanos, thank you for for joining us. the next meeting will be a work session on Tuesday the I think the 20th is a Tuesday, correct? Yeah. and I believe it's going to be at 9:00. We're trying to confirm that. And that one is going to be devoted solely to the concerns that OCBS has. They decided it was too much to try to include last week. They let us know ahead of time. So, are we do we have a work session next Tuesday?
110I think we do. Yeah. Yeah. And I know it's important and I know most board members need to be here, but I will probably be attending that. Our staff's done a tremendous job on this. I know it's taken a lot of time. u Mr. Salam Bean has been very very helpful and so anyway, I just wanted to thank Dr. Vasquez. I want to thank you and your team for the support we've had throughout this process. So, we'll keep you posted. All right. Without any further business, this meeting's now adjourned. Thank you. All right. Dorine, do you have just a minute before we leave? Okay.