School Board Work Session | April 28, 2026

001Heat. Heat. officially. You you could see I have the power. I think only did that cuz he wanted to yell. He could have talked into his microphone. I don't I don't know if y'all if y'all saw that, but we actually like each other and work really well together. Yeah. >> Roll over. >> Okay. No, we can message our team. >> Good afternoon and welcome to the Poke County School Board's work session. We will now call the work session for April 28th, 2026 to order. Thank you to our staff who are available and accessible to help and address any questions. As a board, we strive to work with you to ensure we achieve our mission to provide a highquality education for all students. I would like to start by reading our who are we statement. We

002are the Pulk County Leadership Governance Team. If we were to pick one phrase to define us, it would be student centered. Because when we come together to work, we lean on our diverse backgrounds and experiences to ensure that our decisions are focused on providing a highquality education for all students. The four most important things to our governance team are operating with integrity, respecting our students, staff, families, and each other, establishing a culture where stakeholders feel valued, supported, and have opportunities for personal and professional growth, and supporting an approach of continuous improvement to ensure student outcomes. Collectively, we need to work on behalf of the children we serve and find avenues of agreement so that we can govern the district in an effective manner. There is no acceptable alternative. We will always collaborate in a respectful

003manner in order to enhance opportunities for each student and staff member. We will not disparage others. Our students will thrive because we will remain committed to supporting the whole child. We hope to engage and empower our students and stakeholders to create a community of lifelong learners. At this time, I would like to turn our work session over to Superintendent Hyde to lead us today. >> Thank you. Good morning, good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board, members of staff, and visitors. The first item we have before us is our inside PCPS item. So, I'd like to invite Miss Kim Long to the microphone, as well as our class chair, Mark Zimmerman. Hello everybody. Thank you so much for allowing us to join your work session today. Chairman Sharpless, members of the school board, and Superintendent

004Hyde. Uh we are here to honor the 2026 graduating class of Inside Pulk County Public Schools. My name is Kim Long. I serve as the executive director of Pulk Vision and we are proud to be the producing partner of Inside PCPS. >> Good afternoon. Uh Mark Zimmerman with Visit Central Florida and um I have the honor and privilege of being the class chair for this wonderful class, class 4. Um and so we are going to start off with a video that Janette has promised me will work. Inside PCPS gives community and business leaders in Pulk County an in-depth look at the triumphs and challenges of a modern public education system. This 10-month program provides an immersive experience exploring what it takes to manage a $2 billion organization responsible for offering a highquality education to all

005students from prek to high school and everything in between. Well, I would definitely recommend Inside PCPS for anybody who wants to learn more about Pole County's public school system. Anything from business owners to community members, parents with kids in the school system. It's all very eye opening with regards to all of the challenges and unique opportunities that the school um faces on a day-to-day basis. I grew up in P County public schools and felt like I had a good grasp on everything that went down and everything into all of the work that they do behind the scenes and I was kind of just mind blown to realize how much I actually did not know. I am a parent of two young boys. I wish I would have had the ability to learn so much about

006inside the public school system um when I was trying to be involved with um my boy's life. There's so many opportunities for kids to get involved just today alone. Just learning about the careermies that has opened up my eyes to realizing that my son has options once he gets into high school. Um, and it just it just makes me feel like the opportunities are endless. And that's how you should feel when you have students that's navigating the world of of being in school. >> There are so many programs that really are developed for the quality of life for a student and really the the heart behind uh all the things that a student may need. U whether it's books or papers or pens or safety or security. There are so many things that just the

007school board is working on that you just aren't aware of. >> It really brings the entire community uh in P County schools together which is what we've been trying to do as a company and I think we need to get more people in the community involved with this program and I would highly recommend it. If you are an entrepreneur, a community, a servant, someone who's in the public eye or whatever you're doing and you're living in Pulk County, this is one of the programs you want to be a part of. >> There's so many different ways to get involved with the public school system that benefits children. >> What I really appreciate about Inside PCPS is that you get to find out about all of these great things and then share them with others. Yeah,

008I feel like >> if you are interested in being considered for the next Inside PCPS class or if you want to find out more ways to support Pulk County Public Schools, please visit pulkschoolsfl.com/getinvolved. It worked. Uh thank you the communications office for that video and uh great uh establishing uh quotes and support from this class. We heard a lot more of all that positive feedback throughout the program year and especially in the talkback session this afternoon with members of the school board and uh Mr. Hyde earlier. Uh we're now completing our fourth pro fourth program year. And I I would be remiss if I didn't remind everyone that this idea was brought to us by then Sarah Beth Reynolds and she and I dreamed about this um throughout the co years and uh were able

009to bring it to life finally with support of mi Mr. Hyde when he joined as superintendent and I could say it's been a resounding success. we've grown grown in our understanding of um how to reach out to the community and get them involved and it's really been a rewarding uh endeavor for Pulk Vision to partner with the school district in this issues. Um th this course I have to tell you I believe it to be in incredibly transparent. Um you allow us to look at the complexities and the challenges and the triumphs of this great big beautiful uh school district. one of the largest in the nation. So, including the class of 2026, we have provided this deep dive to over 100 community members who now possess a better understanding of what it takes to

010bring a high quality, equitable education to all students in Pulk County. So, in addition to the video, throughout the presentation, you're seeing a snapshot of what the experience looked like for our class. Something I'm sure all of you have seen. Um, each session wasn't just presentations. The most impactful moments were in the classrooms, in the cafeterias, on the school buses, and getting a behind-the-scenes look at how everything operates. It really gave us a firstirhand understanding of the scale and complexity of the Poke County Public Schools. These are the kind of moments that really made the learning stick for all of us. Here you have a list of the class. We're you're going to get to see them all individually as as they come up. But what makes this class especially impactful is the diversity of

011perspectives represented. We had leaders from healthcare, education, nonprofits, local government, public safety, finance, construction, and small businesses. That range of industry means the conversations weren't one-dimensional and also reflects the broader Poke County community. These are stakeholders who interact and support our schools every day. And importantly, the class doesn't leave just informed. They leave as advocates within their own organizations and networks. Here you see the full journey of the program. Each day focused on a different aspect of the district from finance and facilities to transportation, mental health, academics, but really the most relevant to was today. Today was the final day, the chance for us to talk to the superintendent, a chance for us to talk to the schoolboard members. Um, and we had a great closing session, a lot of uh very insightful comments made.

012Um, and really a a group of people that want to be very active. Um, and at the very end as we were trying to decide on what how this class would leave its legacy, one of our class members said, "I will offer up the first $1,000 to fund whatever we're going to do." Which was quickly followed to a total of $5,500 all from class members. So, we'd also like to uh thank our schools and our principles. It would not be possible uh to bring these this program content forward without their cooperation. We visited 23 loc locations crisscross the county from elementary schools to technical colleges celebrating the diversity of learning opportunities from arts, agriculture to aeronautics. This was made possible through collaborations among district staff. And as you can see, it is as diverse as

013the student population you all serve. So, we have a few other thank yous who are not listed on here. Um, I want to start off with thanking our bus drivers, uh, Crystal Roberson Robinson and, uh, Tony Pipkins. Um, hopefully we were better behaved than the students. Um, but we also could not do any of this without the incredible work of the community liaison. Um, and I know they're not listed here because they put this presentation together and they're but yeah, I I would like to personally thank all of them. Ashley, Erica, Britney, Crystal, and Reeba. Thank you for all the work you did. Without this, none of this happens. And one more person that really keeps us everything kind of going and on schedule and snacks and drinks. Uh we'd like to thank uh the

014program manager from Poke Vision, Anna Sevedra. >> Fill me. Sorry. Go for it. >> Uh so we also want to thank um and extend a sincere thank you to the community speakers. These individuals took time out of their schedules to s to share their insights and perspectives helping deepen our understanding of how our schools connect with the broader community. Their contributions are invaluable to our experience and they are listed on your screen here. >> Uh we had some great food while we were while we made our way around the county. I think a lot of people uh are surprised at the quality of food and the level of service that our careermies, our culinary specialists provide. We were very impressed with their level of professionalism and uh it was a uh as good as the

015food or even better was the ability to interact with those young professionals and their career aspirations. We also would like to thank our sponsors who provided funding uh to offset the costs of those meals and we want to assure you that each of our culinarymies received donations through these sponsors for that service. >> So as we wrap up today I want to take a moment to personally thank you. Um it has been truly an honor to serve as the chair for inside PCPS class 4. Um, and as I told the class this morning, um, I was also a graduate of class one. Um, and I understand why test corrections are a thing now because I got a lot more this time through. Um, so, um, but this experience has meant a great deal to me

016and I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity. Um, I also want to sincerely thank the members of class 4. Thank you for your engagement, for your openness for learning, and your perspectives brought to each session. Um, it's what makes this program so meaningful. It's been a privilege to work alongside you and watch this group grow throughout the experience. I also want to thank the district and Poke Vision for trusting me with this role. Um it's something I I really do appreciate. Um and this is the probably the first of the things that Kim is losing me on. She tends to just suck me in and get me to volunteer for more. Um but um so uh and again, thank you all. Um at this time I'd like to introduce uh one of the community leaison who

017really really played an important role in supporting this program and in our class and she is going to come up uh and so we'd like to welcome Reeba Coyle who's going to announce all the graduates. >> Thank you Mark. All right we would like to announce the graduates of class 4 for inside PCPS. When I call your name please come forward and get your picture taken with uh Mr. Mr. Zimmerman, Mrs. Long, and we will start with Julie Adams, City of Winter Haven. And class, please remember just to line up on the side, please. >> Chanel Bolato, Skate World of Lakeland. Mark Bennett, Pulk County Board of County Commissioners. Kim Brunson, Watson Clinic Foundation. >> Shambria Campbell, University of South Florida. Sarah Casease, next level planning and permitting. >> Eric Crump, Aerospace Center for Excellence.

018Kelsey Elmharwi Rada Construction Shri Mory Goch UFAS Extension Pulk John Helms, Barto Executive Airport, Michelle Helms, Barto Chamber of Commerce. Leia Johnson, City of Fort me. Travis Keys, Pulk County School Board. Jessica Lawson, Peace River Center. Iliana Canes, United Way of Central Florida, >> David Little, Crosswired Electrical Services. Cody McGee, City of Auburnale, >> Tracy Porter, Pulk Education Foundation. You guys all feel like you're doing like school pictures. >> Dess Roberts, Southeastern University. >> Mitchell Rogers for Lakeland SOS Church. Laura Rodriguez, Lakeland Vision, >> Brian Rogers, Mid Florida Credit Union. Jennifer Rouse, Pulk County Public Schools. Captain Ryan Chay, Pulk County Sheriff's Office. Troy Smith, inspirational speaker, servant leadership coach. >> Lauren Springfield, Lakeland Regional Health. Tina Sweden, American Red Cross. >> Axe Torres, Pristine Remodeling LLC. And John Williams Jr. is not with us

019today as his wife had their baby this Saturday. So they're still in the hospital. So we'd like to congratulate him. And then Don Willis, Orlando Health Watson Clinic, Lakeland Highlands Hospital. And now we are going to take one group photo. The tallest Okay. Step down. >> There you go. Everybody smile. Ready? >> On three. One, two, three. >> One more. >> One, two, three. Thank you. Good to see you, >> sir. Congratulations. >> Congratulations, >> so as they flee the room, >> this is the shortest day they've had >> on tour. I told him that >> did share that. Use your words. >> It's unfortunate that everybody actually left because I wanted to again publicly acknowledge their ability, their time, their dedication to learning more about PK County Public Schools. You know, I I think

020every class leaves with the same understanding or they're basically a shock and awe. They don't realize what goes in to managing a district of our size quite quite frankly of any size um to that matter. Um but the feedback we got today was the best feedback we've gotten of any class. That's not a criticism of of prior but their willingness to share opportunities um and feedback as far as I mean they even asked that we add another day to the session. They were very receptive to mirroring what the sheriff's office does in their community advisory program um of having a half-day shadow day where they could pick from a list whether it's doing a bus ride along spending half a day breakfast and lunch in a cafeteria um assisting with custodial services. I mean we'll

021come up with a comprehensive list and the feedback was very positive. Um, the other thing they asked was, you know, there's so much information. Is there a way for us to provide a summary at the end of each day with three priority points from each one of the departments that presents? So, definitely some opportunities for us. Um but I was very appreciative of the feedback um and transparency and they were again always supportive and I I always find it amazing how how impactful the program is because there's so many areas that have to take place on any given day. They in particular highlighted custodial services um you know and that everybody assumes that the magic doesn't happen in the school outside of a teacher but they were very impressed by custodial services, food services, transportation

022services and basically a general acknowledgement that it's very much a team effort every day to make the schools work and make the magic happen. So it was very exciting to see this group today. So great idea and concept um that we've really done an amazing job um implementing and each year we take their feedback um and we learn from the process. We make tweaks and revisions throughout the process. The last thing they asked for which will be interesting to see it may not be able to done be be done with the class um but we had a conversation today about creating a second tier for um those who've already completed the class. But they did ask, would there ever be an opportunity for the class to go visit Tallahassee during legislative session? Um, and it's

023interesting, you know, for for an incoming class, they don't have the benefit of all of the background knowledge. So I I that may or may not be beneficial, but again, as I mentioned, for the alumni classes, if they wanted to do that, that might be an interest and something we could partner with to get them up there for an education day with our local legislators to have a conversation during session. So, um, so thank you to the amazing team that helps make that happen. And we have some speakers. Miss Wyatt, >> thank you. I just want to say thank you to you for really championing this. I think most of my colleagues have probably heard the story, but we had a meeting on March 13th of 2020 with all of the departments. Several of you

024all were were in that room where we went through what each department was going to be presenting on when we launched the applications the following week in March 2020 for the 2021 school year. Um, so obviously that did not happen. So, um, Superintendent Hyde came in and really championed and brought it back to life and and has made this more than I think any of us could have ever envisioned in those initial meetings. Um, but I also want to encourage each of you because this actually came from um, Central Florida School Board Coalition meetings. Um, Orange and Simol were doing something similar now having seen their programs and what ours has become. Ours is way better than theirs could ever have imagined being. But um so these are you know just a great um opportunity

025to to learn from our colleagues and take their their good ideas and make them even better. So thank you to to everyone. I know it's a huge lift for staff. So thank you staff for planning your days and making sure that that our community learns. You know the goal originally was we want to make sure that people who love us are equipped to go out and spread the good word, but we also want to educate the people who may not love us 100% yet as to what the challenges are. and I think that this program has really grown to be able to do just that. So, thank you all for continuing to support it. >> There are no further questions or comments. The next item, board members, uh before you is the fiscal year 2024

0262025 annual comprehensive financial report and audit. Board members, if you look at your email, as you know, Board Docs is still down. keep checking it, but you received an email from Miss Jenkins that included all of the attachments, and you can find that at 12:40 p.m. And the title for that is ACFR presentation item A2. Miss Jenkins and team. >> Good afternoon. I'd like to introduce our auditors from Clifton, Larson, Allen. They along with Miss Hinton will be presenting today and I will be here if you need have any additional questions. >> Good afternoon. >> This is Miss Julie Fowler >> and I my understanding is Mr. Giri has copies of the presentations >> should. All right. Good afternoon. I'm Julie Fowler. I'm a signing director with CLA and >> Fowler. I'm going to interrupt

027briefly. M Rouse, would you please go next door and find out if they can pull up the presentation? I did receive a message that Mr. Giri has copies of all presentations. So, >> okay. >> Thank you. >> There we go. >> Thank you. >> My apologies. >> Nope. >> Correct. >> Okay. All right. Well, thank you for having us today to present the results of the audit. Um, you do receive a copy of the annual comprehensive financial report. That document is over 200 pages of light reading if you're so interested. But what we're going to be presenting today is a very highlevel summary of that information. So we just want to remind you to refer to that complete document when you're making financial and other decisions for the district. I wanted to first of all

028give you a summary of the services that we performed. When people hear we're having an audit, that can bring to mind a lot of different things. So to clarify the services that we perform first of all and pime our primary purpose is to audit the financial statements and we are looking at the statements to see if they are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. In addition to that we also perform some compliance audits specifically related to the grants that you administer. Um, of course the district expends millions of federal dollars every year. So we based on a riskbased approach determine which grants are going to be tested every year. And uh this year three different programs were selected for testing. There are also some uh examination procedures that have to be performed to

029determine if the district is in compliance with Florida statutes. The auditor general requires us to look at some additional items to make sure the district is following um some, you know, various policies, statutes, and to make sure you're not in a financial emergency or deteriorating financial condition. And finally, at the conclusion of all of this, a data collection form is submitted up to the federal audit clearing house. That's where all the audits of those who spend federal funds get collected so that federal agencies can look through those and ensure that any findings are followed up on and that the expenditures are being made appropriately. In addition to all of those things, we also issue a report to you as the group that's required to uh govern the school district and it includes the items that

030you see here and it talks more about how the course of the audit went. And the good news is we didn't have any difficulties in performing the audit. We didn't have any disagreements with management. Uh any potential adjustments to the numbers that we identified, we were able to resolve with them and make those adjustments. And finally, we're not aware of any consultations with other auditors that you may have had in the course of the audit. So to recap those reports that we issued, first of all, we've issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statement. So you can think of that as a clean opinion on the numbers themselves. So that's as good as it gets when it comes to auditing financial statements. The audit is performed under government auditing standards. So that's a little higher

031level of standards than what you might have in a for-profit organization. We don't issue an opinion on the internal controls. However, as we go through the course of the audit, we are evaluating the internal controls and if we see areas where there may be weaknesses or areas for improvement, we are required to report those to you. So, we had one item that is included in that letter. Specific to the single audit, that grant audit, um, as I mentioned, we had three programs we tested this year, and you can see those listed on the right side of the screen. and we did have some findings related to those programs and we'll talk about those in more detail in just a minute. We also had a couple of recommendations in our letter that we call the management

032letter. And then finally for that examination, we believe that the district is in compliance with the statute for investment in public funds. So to summarize the findings we had first of all in the internal control over financial reporting these are the controls over whether the numbers get put together correctly we did have one finding and that's related to material audit adjustments. So the auditing standards say that if during the course of performing an audit we identify a material item that needs to be adjusted for it to be correct, we need to report that as a weakness in internal control because we're looking at you know what in the internal control structure was missing that allowed that error to go undetected. So the finding we had this year was related to one of those adjustments. When

033we looked specifically at the single audit, this is the first time in the district's history that we're aware of that student financial aid, specifically PEL grants, reached an expenditure level that that program needed to be tested for specific compliance. That is a program that has many compliance requirements that are very detailed and very specific to this program. And we did have a number of findings related to the Pell Grant specifically. Some of them are related to timeliness of things getting reported, policies that need to be in place, um those types of findings. And finally, in the management letter, um we had two recommendations. One relates to the consistency of how payroll is documented for approval and the second relates to uh just the investment policy itself. So next I wanted to move on to just

034a couple of fund balance trend highlights. So you see here the trend over the last five years and uh you can see that while fund balance did come down a little bit um this was really due to mostly expenditures increasing in the prior years you had some significant COVID related funding that was still in play that you were able to charge some of your recurring expenses to and that funding of course has wound down which now requires it to be in the general fund. But when we look at where the health is of the general fund fund balance, you're still at 6.76% of that ratio that we look at and that's still, you know, a very strong financial position for the district. So, those are the highlights of our reports today and I'm happy to

035answer any questions you might have. >> Miss Miller, >> thank you. I wasn't expecting to be first in line. Um always look forward to this presentation because I think having um you speak from the third party and from the auditing perspective is so important to us and I I've already contacted our internal audit department just to ask some specific questions. But I think the one thing that I um that stuck out for me was the PEL grant finding and so I this probably is more directed to the superintendent on the corrective action. Is that something policies that you were that was had been notified or requested that are in place is that is something that's over will be overseen in workforce or is that something overseen out of the grant department? How will we implement

036the corrective action for that piece? >> So board members, you were provided a handout today that outlines all the corrective actions specific to this area and that will be managed directly through the workforce department. >> So staff and workforce will manage those pieces. >> That is correct. Thank you, >> Miss Wallace. >> Thank you, Superintendent. First of all, congratulations to the district on overall and our staff for overall having a clean audit because when we have a multi-billion dollar organization and all the um moving parts, it's virtually impossible to be perfect, but to hear from a professional like yourself that overall we're doing a good job is reassuring. So, thank you all for all of your hard work. Um I did have a couple of questions myself. Um, the report cited a 45% year-over-year increase

037in transportation costs. And I obviously I know there's gas and other things that are um, uh, increasing, but just wanted to understand that context. >> Good afternoon everyone. Um, thank you for the question. So I had a little bit of time to do research before the meeting and last year's audit. So prior to CLA, uh, the state auditor general comes in. So every 3 years they come in they prepare the Afur and in 23 24 the auditor general had prepared that what we found was that some of the transportation costs that you're seeing that are now in in this year as an increase were in general administration in the year that the AG did it. And so I can provide you three years worth of data to show that those numbers actually are pretty consistent

038from year to year if you're grouping those two categories together, which ideally we would not, but without having AG input today on how they recategorize some of those things, that's why you're seeing that 23,000 or >> figure difference between the two years. So the year prior when CLA had done it, it was actually increased, dropped down when the H did it, and then went back up for transportation. So it does look like an exponential increase, but from year to year it actually was not. It's just how it was classified. >> Yeah. So now in in essence, we're reporting it more clearly. >> Correct. >> To help understand. And then I do have a follow-up question. May I superintendent? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Um there was a long-term debt increase reported as well from 263

039million to 327. Yes. Five. Could we explain that context? >> Yes. So, actually what I believe is there's a typo on that page and it should have been 124,000 in the 2024 year. So, the one dropped off and if you add 100,000 to the bottom, it's actually 363 and goes down to 327 in the current year. So, it's a typographical error. >> Got it. That's good to see uh that going down versus in the other direction to see. >> Thank you, Mrs. Hinton. Appreciate it. That's it, >> Mr. Keys. >> Well, thank you, Miss Wallace, for taking my question. So, I'll go back to the other. Um, I just want to say thank you to Miss Fowler and the old team. Um, having served on the finance and audit committee for six years and the

040chair of the last three years. I know it's an intensive uh process. So, thank you to staff and Miss Matthews team as well for providing information. I know there's a lot of conversation back and forth and hand to hand. So, um, and and to echo what Miss Wallace has said, it's it's um, so pleasing to see that we come back and saying that, hey, we actually know what we're doing and doing a good job at it. So, appreciate everyone's work on this. Mr. Sharpless. >> Thank you. And I want to echo Mr. Keys's um Vice Chair Keys uh his his sentiments. Thank you for all the hard work. Um I do have one question. Um and that is I'm wondering why uh or if you can just expound on um the material weakness in the

041internal control over financial reporting how that's you know that was also found the previous year and how come there and why wasn't a correction made or I don't know if you can just expound on that a little bit. I'd >> be happy to. Um so the financial reporting component as a material weakness is a larger umbrella and there are different factions that are performed throughout the year. So the the findings that we have discovered in previous years were targeted to uh recognizing our deferred outflows for our pension plan. So it may have been that that recording was done wrong or an acrruel was done wrong. So while they fall under the same umbrella, each one is actually in its own little faction and we are addressing them as they come up. We are tightening our

042internal controls. I do believe that our ERP upgrade is going to help us identify some of these things before we close the fiscal year. So, moving forward between some of the checklists that we're creating in our department along with an ERP a long overdue ERP upgrade. Uh we will see a reduction in those those findings. We are addressing them as we go. >> Thank you. And so from what I'm hearing uh for anyone viewing uh this video is that it's even though it is a repeat finding, it's it's the umbrella >> Yes, sir. repeat finding that the individuals uh you know when you drill down to it it's really not a repeat finding. >> Well >> I mean when you drill down to the the spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe spe

043specificity. >> Yes, that's correct. And I'd be happy to provide a summary from year-over-year what those specific findings were related to to show while they are under the financial reporting umbrella, they are in kind of different areas. >> Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> Dr. Allen. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Yeah, I think my fellow board members have hit on majority of the questions that uh I had on my list, but I can't get to because of board docs being down, but is back up. >> Oh, it's back up. That's great. Very good. That'll be helpful for the rest of the meeting. Uh this one mostly for a superintendent. You know, I I really appreciate the um you know, long-term like the last five years as relates to our fund balance health. You know,

044obviously there's a loss of those uh you know, federal stabilization funds at this point. um and you know we don't want to have any impact on our instructional um priorities moving forward but would you say that this is the comfortable range where we would see maybe within the you know next 5 years as it relates to our fund balance uh I think it's sitting at like 6.76 >> comparatively that's not our fund balance >> no that is what they audited our fund balance to be and does not include the caffer and other information that will come in between now and September Plus, it does not include the impact that will occur, not that may occur, it will occur based off increased insurance costs. So that when every time we talk about fund balance, it's very

045careful that we that we identify whether this is our true and final fund balance or presently projected fund balance. And so the two are very different um because this becomes a matter of contention very frequently. >> Yes. especially with our employee groups who feel like well you know we must have 5% anything above that the reality of it is we have additional costs that have not been costed out against this yet um so am I comfortable yes the board chose to go above the state mandated 3% 5% is is obviously a lot better than being below 3% um comfortable we'd love to be at 10% or more but still be able to provide fair compensation and wages to our employees and we're a long way from that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Helpful. >> Thank you.

046That's all I have. >> There are no further questions or comments. Board members, would you like to take a quick fivem minute break to allow you to pull up board docs? I hear yes. So, I'll let the media team behind the magic wall, magic curtain, briefly take us to a recess for 5 minutes to allow board members to pull up board docks. Board members, we're not sure if this will be sustainable, so please keep your email open as well for those subsequent attachments. So, there you go. Hey. Hey. Hey. time. I would like to call this meeting back to order and turn it over to Superintendent Hyde to finish leading off our work session today. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair, uh members of the board and for those in the audience and those who ultimately

047will be viewing this online. Um just want to provide a little bit of clarification um as to first of all our initial delay and then second of all the the reason why we just went and requested a recess. Um unfortunately Board Docs is in the process of transitioning platforms. We don't know if if if today's or the outage over the last 48 hours has been related to that transition from board docs to diligent new company and but at the end of the day it has unfortunately impacted our ability to make sure that you have all the attachments. So we did get them emailed so we have a backup in case it goes down again. Um, and we are sorting those emails for tonight's meeting to make it a little bit to to improve the flow

048rather than having to jump around in your email trying to find an item. So, we'll continue to work on that just in case. Um, but just wanted to provide that clarification to everybody in the audience and again, those viewers who may watch this meeting after the fact. Obviously, it's beyond our control. It's it's been a a great system for us. We're excited about the transition to the new platform with the upgrades. Um, but at the end of the day, it's it's having an impact today. U Miss Winchester did whisper that it's unrelated to their transition, but they they do have a dashboard up that we're monitoring for potential outages, and we'll just keep you apprised as we go along. Um, that being said, board members, the next item we have before you today um is

049the district strategic plan goal outcomes. We had to trim during the retreat um two topics and that was um strategic plan goal summary four and strategic plan goal summary 5. The fifth strategic plan area will be covered on May 5th. Yes, we have backtoback meetings. Um that was a direct result of the placement of high school graduations. So we'll definitely work with you to see if there's a better way to structure that next year. Um, even if we have to have a board meeting at the RP funding center, we'll figure we'll figure that out. All right. Next up, as I mentioned, we have Miss Heather Jenkins. >> Good afternoon. >> Today, today I'm very pleased that you all get to meet many members of our finance team. So I have with me JD Felout who

050is our senior director of budget and Andy Baldwin who is our senior director of federal programs. Goal four speaks to equitable and efficient use of resources. The areas that we focused on were departmental reorganization, resource maximization, federal grant evaluation, incident IQ automation, that's a ticketing system that we implemented, technological enhancements, and sitebased budgeting. JD is going to talk with you a little bit about sitebased budgeting and how that fits into our strategic plan. Good afternoon. Objective 4.1. So we're ensuring the use of the district funds is transparent, strategic, and aligned. Um to do this, we started with a sitebased program. We implemented it about uh three years. We're going into year four this year for 2627. And the first year we had six schools. Second year was 42. And this past year we moved to

051100% of our traditional schools. Um also in that we are ensuring that we are are training and keeping up with their development and understanding of the program. The this past year when we implemented we had all principles all key district admin and other executive staff trained on the program. We also have implemented a app instead of using Excel sheets in the past was what we were using. So we have an app now that we're using this past year. We revamped the app that we had to make it better and more pleasing for the the uh school admin. uh we have also okay so through this process so some some of the outcomes through the process of this our school leaders have began to understand uh the budget process uh how it works what what goes

052it what drives it um and everything for their schools not only their schools but districtwide for us and then also this year through some revamping as Well, some revisions. We had 42 schools last year that were what we would have considered red schools. They was started as red and through some of the revisions of our our program and what we were doing, we we dropped it down to 20 schools or 22. Yeah, 22 schools this past year. That's that's it. That's >> there are still >> that's that's it for 4.1. Sergeant. >> Okay, >> do >> Mr. Sharpless. >> Sorry, >> I have one question. Um, so great job in reduction from 42 to 22 schools in the red. Um, my question is what specific supports or intervention interventions are being provided to the 22

053schools that started out in de deficit? So that way next year they're we've reduced we already reduced it from 42 to 22. Let's go from 22 to zero. Right. So >> yes. Uh >> well let me let me address the obvious answer on the front end to take the pressure off of you. >> Um so you don't have to tap dance around this. Some of our schools will never come off that list because by virtue of their enrollment and their programmatic needs, we may have to continue to supplement schools to a certain degree. So that's that unfortunately the reality is for some of those schools and we'll be happy to identify those so that the board has comfort knowing that that's not a fluid list. It really is programmatically driven or should a school see

054due to resoning new school opening different issues. Some schools may see massive changes from year to year and we want to make sure we maintain some stability. So we'll identify those instances for the board. So schools like Barto, Rochelle, other schools like Harrison and Lakeland that have to share a budget because they're under one m school identification number. There are always going to be programmatic things that we have to resolve. So there are times where we have to over budget. So they will appear to be in the red, but we cover that deficit as a result to ensure that they can sustain their programmatic supports for students. So if they're do we okay so if we know they're going to be in the red every year don't we adjust their why don't we just adjust

055their budget to where they're not in the red anymore >> because they don't have the student enrollment and that's not how sitebased budgeting supports that. So, however, >> we'll identify those for you because they're not in the red for long because we offer the supplement to cover that, but initially they indicate in the red. We then provide coverage. But to the board, to your question, be happy to provide you with a summary of those schools and a justification or or an outline of what we've provided and why. >> I appreciate that. Thank you, Superintendent. >> We still have the staffing plan and we follow the staffing plan. So, for those schools that are in the red, it is based on the staffing plan. So, we're giving them those funds also that are putting them in

056like they go in the red based on their revenue that they generate, but we're giving them those funds above and beyond to make sure that they have what is needed based on the staffing plan. >> Correct. >> Thank you, sir. >> Miss Miller, >> thank you. I um have a question and I'm probably the most cautious on sitebased budgeting. Even sitting down with Heather and having her explain to me how all of those lines end up back at the school. I have great concern for the schools who have extended knees, whether it's um English learners or title one or ESC. So, what can someone just give me? I I have, you know, looking at the budget, when you have a principal who, you know, is learning this, they're relatively new at the the budgeting process.

057What is their support systems? Does the app share Is there an overview of the app or is the does the app share with them how funds should be allocated or is that something a regional double checks? What does that system look like? >> Miss Collins will join as well. >> So, so within the app, we do have the recommendations like I was speaking to the staffing plan. So, we build it in and it's a recommendation of what the staffing plan would show for them. Um, and they can we we don't want them to follow directly from that, but we want them to meet the needs of their school. So, they can make changes to the recommendation, but the recommendation is what drives a lot of what they get. >> And that's where my concern lies.

058People have very good intentions of meeting the needs of all children, but when when the when the the grade and things are, you know, when your accountability process isn't on all of those categories, it's easy to shift funds to those. And so, who oversees that? Miss >> Collins. Hi, that would be us. So, we work collaboratively with Miss Jenkins team um which includes staffing as well as is HR and all of us work together. But the approval process and who coaches them through that really is the regional and myself. And so once a once the money is there, a principal has an opportunity and I know that JD mentioned there's this app now that they can do it and in that app they can build several different scenarios and it will change and deduct as

059I add personnel or take personnel away. um they can build as many scenarios as they want and then that conversation really goes between the regional and the principal to say this is probably the best one to meet your student needs and then it's submitted then it goes through a multitude of layers of approvals from the regional the ELLL department looks at it these department looks at it title one looks at it to make sure we're not supplanting and that we're leveraging the dollars the way we should and then ultimately it's either completely approved or if it's ever denied, it's sent back to the principal in the regional and the principal work together. I'm currently still working with one school that we can't find resolution about because there's a lot of different competing priorities. And to

060your point, how do we do everything well if we only have this many resources? And so in those specific cases, um Mr. Dr. Hyde is very open to he and I get together, we bring in the school, we look because we're committed, we're not going to not meet the needs of kids. But on the other hand, and I do have to say this, it's very much like your home budget. And I have really had to work handinand not just with the principles, but the regionals, there's nice and there's necessary. And a lot of times they don't understand. We've always done it. We I've always had this The reason, one of the reasons we shifted to sightbased budget was so that we could actually align what we're generating with what we're spending and not to continue

061to keep pulling. That's why we really couldn't afford raises for a long time schools and I this isn't popular. A lot of our schools were overstaffed and so this really writes what we generate with what we can offer. And then we have a very supportive superintendent and board that expects that where we do fall short, we don't see gaps for the kids. Does that help? >> I think to Miss Miller, if I may, to your I think back to the core of your question, which is and I'm going to speak candidly. If if there's a sentiment from the regional, from Miss Collins or even from my office that the administrator is not prioritizing the right things, then those conversations are had and then that would be reflected in their evaluation or in if it ultimately

062adversely impacts their students, it will definitely be addressed with them in writing because those are the types of decisions as Miss as Miss Collins pointed out, what do you want to have versus what do you need to have? And that need is not just based off of enrollment. It's based off the specificity of student needs. So if a school chooses to eliminate counselors to add additional administrative staff or they're administratively heavy and support staff low or they're deciding, well, I'm going to have four instructional coaches on my campus and yet my campus has very little turnover yeartoyear, but I'm going to cut other support positions. Those are the types of critical conversations that we're having and where needed we tell them you make this decision but you live or die based off that decision and

063and that's the reality of it. That's the accountability. We have to maintain the fact that the sitebased budgeting gives autonomy and flexibility to the building leader but with that comes increased accountability for those outcomes and those decisions and we don't allow that to persist from year to year. >> Thank you. And I know you understand this being a former principal of a high school. So you have when I hear this high school's losing three and four units, especially ESSE units, >> right? >> And so we all know that like the superintendent just explained, it's not about always the student individual, but it's the need of the student. So you can have a class with 10 who have the needs of 20 in one with within those 10. >> Um you feel with the support system

064that's in place and the training that's happened that the principles understand that um when they're making those decisions. And the other piece which Heather and I went over is things that are paid for out of other um categories even idea, >> right? >> Do principles understand what is covered? I mean I I I know a lot of principles and they are great at their job. This is the first time they've been given this side of it and it and it's lengthy and there's so many avenues. I just wanted to publicly have it explained so they can go back to this video and watch it again. >> Absolutely. So to your point and I think JD touched a little bit on this this has evolved for some schools they are in year one because we didn't

065bring all schools on in year one so there is a learning curve so do I think all principles understand it to the depth absolutely not I wouldn't I wouldn't expect them to I think we are evolving um as far as other the first few years we really focused on their school and their site. This year we tried to expand perspective by saying how does school budgets how does that fit within the bigger picture because I think that was a missing piece. They just saw this is happening in my school. So one of those pieces for instance I know we talked about the red schools. Red schools could simply be because the FTE generated by the kids just doesn't cover the cost of opening the school. The teachers, the principal, the counselors, all of that. So

066automatically that puts you in the red. Well, we have to open that school. We're not going to not open a school with a principal or a counselor or an AP or whatever. So that money has to come from somewhere. That money comes from the general FTE that's generated. So once we started explaining to principles, you don't necessarily keep every dollar you generate, right? There's indirect costs in the district and everything. And so I say all that to say they are understanding it and they are getting different perspectives. I still think and you have to remember you hit on it. I was a principal forever. We were on allocations. And so what we did was we just gave them teachers may may or may not have been what they needed but that's what you got. So

067the power of this is now I can meet the needs but the responsibility is I have to be responsible with the dollars I have. I think it's getting better. I think we are probably a little ways away from understanding the power of these dollars and how to leverage them best. But there are safety nets. >> That's Thank you. Thank you for explaining that piece because I think that's where we hold the liability while they're learning. >> The liability of student achievement and student safety. >> Yes. >> And so that's the safety nets are what I want to ensure are in place. >> One I'll give you a good example and then I I will leave or answer any other questions. So financially we basically say for a elective teacher the general expectations they're going to

068teach about 180 kids a day on a high school or middle school level right six periods about 30 kids per class. So you get your ROI your return on that investment in the teacher at about 180 kids. Some of our electives can't do that. They're very specialized especially in our workforce areas. Um, so I understand if I'm going to commit to this program at my school on the other hand, I have have to have something that can absorb that. I can't have a bunch of small. Does that make sense? Because those kids have to go somewhere. So, the same thing if I'm a if I'm a principal at Lakeland High School and I really want to birth a program around AP humanities, not a requirement, but I believe in it. Then I have to financially

069be ready to say, okay, I've got to absorb that cost somewhere else. I can have a class of six kids, but that means somewhere else I'm going to have to give in my budget. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Keys. Buckle your seat belts. Okay. >> So, I think number one, I I'm glad that very first that we talked about deficits and how subtle that is program specific because we have a variety of situation all across the district. So, that's good to know. Two, we talked about funding some of these programs, some of these schools above and beyond. Are those noted in the app? So, this is what you're we got via FTE before and this is what the supplemental is that we are adding to. Is that noted in a separate categorical? So if they're

070given extra support because I think when you know what your starting point is and what you're supplemented with, knowing that gap is important, too. Does that make sense what I'm saying? >> I believe it shows as a negative. >> Okay. >> But does it but does it show in that category this was this is supplemental addition to your budgeted dollars that you were So for instance, let's easy numbers. If my allotment was a h 100,000 and I was given 25,000 because of and that was addition two is it noted this was additional a lotment that you were given above and beyond. It's going to show a negative obviously in the overall but >> yes it it I believe and JD has looked at it we continue to make improvements but it shows at the top

071the amount that's left from your holdback because we have an amount that we ask the schools to hold until we ensure the FTE comes in. But when you look at your positions, you may have like one teacher would be your recommendation and then they can select what they want for that position and then it shows you that yes, this is the cost 475. We do it on an well it's a little bit different because it has benefits but we do it on the average position. So then when all those add up you see what the total salary was total expense because then you add your operating it adds that as well. um you see your total expense and then you see your negative. >> So, and I've got a couple and I'll try to be

072quick. Um as far as saying that we give different scenarios in. I think that's a great idea. Um are they able to save those scenarios and go back to them so they can you know go across and manipulate each one? That's great. Um so I think of it because we went from the from spreadsheets to an app. So I'm thinking it more as like tabs and a spreadsheet, right? Is the different scenarios. Okay. So four, I got long-term horizons and trends, right? Because we know that this year is not going to be the same as next year, right? And when we do make staffing decisions based on, you know, current FT, that may not work next year. So are we able to show trends in the in the new app saying this is what the

073subsequent year is? What I mean, we we can't guess what next year is going to be, right? We don't see that funding. We don't have that budget. But are we able to see trends historically going forward saying this is what you were at for 23 24 25 that way the decisions you made there see the real effect of them later on whether that be as Mr. Mr. Hyde said, you know, we're not getting that extra counselor. We have it in extra administrator, so on and so forth. This is what that caused now. We made that decision here. This is where it ended up here. >> We do track that information. Um, a portion of the history is in the app. And because we've just expanded to all the schools, we won't have the history for

074all those. They're also developing reports that we'll be able to take a look at that and see the trend. And the revenue is calculated. um we we recalculate or initially calculate it each year whenever we receive our FEFP and the FTE because it changes. So the school's anticipated revenue cannot always be expected to be the same. But we can provide them enrollment trends etc to review and that's part of our initial conversations with them. We have a meeting and we look at all the enrollment trends and see how it's affecting your funding. And then and this is one of the last ones and we we talk about giving the principles autonomy to make these decisions and that's great. I guess one of my things and and Miss Miller I kind of said that she was

075in like that definition we gave of a safety net. At what point do we step in because I heard the narrative of hey the we're let them make the decision right and this decision is made and then next year we may have to talk about that. What if it doesn't warrant we can't wait until next year some of the decisions you're making now. At what point do we step in with the regionals or district staff saying, "Hey, this isn't making sense what we're trying to do here." At what point do we say, "Okay, >> so I think glaring things are really easy for us now to say, okay, let's stop and think about this." So my initial answer to that is I would hope that we would head off anything like egregious. However, there's also

076unexpected. >> So the budgets are based on the FTE forecast. And so that's not just a random number. We go, hey, you spent this last year and let's So there is a FTE forecasting process that they get their budgets by. Miss Jenkins explained that they either hold back 3% or the equivalent of three positions as a savings account because there's always the chance you don't make your FTE, what you're projected to make. There's also the chance that wow, you're way over your FTE. And so we have processes in place for that, but we also um keep our finger very much on the pulse of the schools, not just operationally, but academically. And when we start to see gaps between the staff that they have and the needs that they have, and where it's starting to

077impact student, the student experience, the whole experience, then we do work with Miss Jenkins and Mr. Hyde to say, "Hey, we have a situation. Would you be willing? could we possibly consider? And that's another safety net. Does that answer? >> That makes sense. And then this is the last thing I'm going to note. So I am a spreadsheet nerd. I've got spreadsheets for everything. Um so my question is is there a possibility that we get to that I can play with the app? Like if there is there a beta type version where I I'll give you a perfect scenario of this. When I went through University of Florida in banking school, right, we were able to run our own bank and we pulled a lever, right? and this lever had this result, this lever had

078this result. Is there like a mock version, a simplified version, a beta version to where you can go in and create a user ID profile and say this is my theoretical school. This is what I'm given as far as dollars and when I do this, this is the outcome when I do this, this the outcome. because I think as one of our roles as the fiduciary responsibility here, if the better understanding we have of how that app works and how sightbased budgeting really works, the more empowered we are to make decisions when we're talking about these things. And I just want to be able to have the opportunity. I'm not I'm not, you know, and maybe there's something there we see that gives feedback. Hey, this would this is awesome we do this. And I'm

079not I'm not saying I'm going out. I just I want to see what it looks like from the administrator standpoint. So specific to your question, we can create a fictitious school and allow you access to the app, >> but that's really the extent of the board's purview. You're not making decisions and directing how we staff schools or how we allocate funds to schools. That's a function of FTE enrollment and the allocation model. So again, there are safety nets in place. There's an appeals process in place. I receive a budgetary allocation to ensure that schools we track and monitor those positions. So if a position's added to a school, they're told I email and say I'm authorizing these positions. They will not be funded next year. You need to make some different. We have to meet

080right and I'm going to go through personally and say this is not where you should be spending your dollars. But I want to hear their rationale because again we can't claim that it's sightbased budgeting if all the if the district is micromanaging budgeting. But we are there to make sure that certain things and needs are being met. Um but that school may have a very good rationale for certain things. Like many of our schools ask for additional deans. They ask because of discipline concerns. They may ask for those types of things. The other thing that complicates this because outside of the app, what you're not going to get necessarily is insight as to our secondary schools who have fairly large budgets, >> savings accounts essentially where they should be using some of those dollars that

081they're generating based off student outcomes for AP, ACE, and and those types of things to offset their operational costs instead of the district always funding 10 AP teachers. They should be split funding those. And and that's the point is that for years we have been giving schools I mean there's one school in particular was receiving almost a million dollars of additional funding without any justification. It was just simply done. Um and you can only sustain that for so long in this decreasing revenue environment. We're we're not seeing dollar revenue go up and there are districts that are challenged and so we've got to level the playing field now. But I think we've done it very intentionally. It's been done incredibly strategically by rolling it out so that you would have schools that were very successful

082in year one. Those principles and schools were selected very intentionally based off their knowledge, their skill set, their experience. They then became supporters for others. So then we brought in a larger group in year two and now districtwide in year three. So there are actually even outside of us they have experts that they can tap into. Um, but in the app, happy to give the board members a password and a login, let you go in there and mess around. I would just ask you to be specific. Would you like an elementary, a middle school, or a high school? >> So, and and and I'm glad that you gave that recommend or that that explanation, superintendent. And in no way, shape, or form I want to go in and see what all the schools are doing

083and pull levers at each school. It's simply being able to see the tool, use the tool, so I understand when we're making these presentations what these things look like. And you say, "Oh, we moved this to here. we have this or you know we have um a staffing plan and this what it looks like if you can put I'm a very hands-on if I put hands on it play with it it serves me you know well beyond the means that I need but that is that is great so just you know as far as that is concerned you know for me I would the most complex it can get you know K8 I think is a big one you've got some different aspect I would like to see what a K8 is you know and

084and and play with that model um you know or a high school with you 17mmies. You know what I'm getting at? But something complex. Start me off at the top so I can I can really play with that's all I'm saying. And then the last one is more of a statement and not a question. Um, superintendent, you mentioned the difference between wants and needs in some of these facilities. And I would venture to say and and and my line of work professionally has a lot to do with relationships. And I wouldn't say some of those decisions I wonder if they're made when you say wants and needs defining on relationships rather than reality is that some of that happened to you've got staff members are there. You've got you want to promote within and being

085cautious of those things and really say what is the what is the end student result and how does this meet student outcome and I think that should always be the focus. But listen I get chill bumps when I talk about this kind of stuff. So thank you for the presentation and for that. I I get really excited. I just want to play with the app. You you did touch though on arguably the mo I think what most people are struggling with is am I really going to cut that position? That person's been with me >> for x number of years. And in some of those instances that person's job title may not reflect how they're being utilized on a daily basis. So I'm going to say this cautiously because that's not always a bad thing.

086meaning an administrator's ability to ensure that they are making good decisions in the best interest of everyone, but also being empathetic towards their team and their staff and all the work and the loyalty and the things that have gone. That's not a bad thing, but we have to coach them on those conversations that this is not it's not you, it's me kind of kind of conversation. Um, but that's the hard part. That is the hard part. We talk as an organization of being so relational, building a culture, building a climate, building relationships with our staff and our students and our families. And then at some point, someone's not going to get what they've always gotten. And that becomes the breakdown, right? And those are difficult conversations for some of our administrators to have. And and

087and that's where the coaching comes in. But a lot of times, like I said, we want to hear the thought process so we can help them into that conversation and navigate those conversations in a meaningful way. And there may be other alternatives. Um it may not be necessarily still static in that role. It may have to move into a different role. So there are opportunities for us and it's a learning progress process. I think you give this last group of schools and administrators who segueed in another year um possibly two and we will be in a much much stronger place as far as competency to manage their budgets efficiently and effectively while maintaining everything that students and staff need within reason. Well, I'm I I think we're on the right track and like anything else,

088when you implement a a new policy and procedure, it takes time, but I'm in I'm so excited to see where this is going to go long term as we get these administrators, you know, well processed. >> Sorry, hang on. >> Some of those things overfitting. I'm excited about it. So, thank you. >> Apologize, Mr. Keys. I hit the button by accident. Dr. Allen, you're live. You're >> Thank you, Superintendent. It's good to see uh my fellow board member get all excited over here. and he's got all these metaphors of pulling levers and I'm like, "Okay, is this like a slot machine that you're pulling on this or whatever?" But, uh, no, it's a thorough conversation. I appreciate it. And, uh, you know, obviously, you know, I I hear positive and challenges that our administrators are

089working through on this one. Um, and you know, I'll just commend you, superintendent. you know, I did have a principal and I I've know that I've shared this with you and other experiences uh in other situations as well, but that they had a chance to reach out, you know, personally and advocate for um particular need and that adjustment was there. So, I know that you've afforded that to our principles and I appreciate that very much. I'm I'm still trying to wrap my head around too because I know when we look at our FTE counts, we see it holistically, right? when when I see those you know um the conference and the projections um collectively but are we seeing them like from your angle your perspective is it per individual school and those forecast? >> Yes.

090Yes sir. We um actually pull the numbers from focus >> and we we start with an estimate and then we use our final survey 2 numbers from the prior year to to generate reports that we send to the school. So it is individually by school and we can see those weights that help determine your funding. >> Yep. Um because you know if we look over um the past years typically that base student allocation is you know moving up right and whether percentage- wise is where we want it to be is the bigger question. Um but the base student allocation is not reducing in any way. So when I think about the formula that's built into the the app, uh would there what would be an example of a principal when they look at their budget

091for next year and they see the forecasted numbers and let's just say those numbers are steady um or they've had a slight uptick um in regards to our conference projections. Is there a reason why the budget number would decrease? There is um we do the budget number could decrease overall because there is a calculated indirect cost rate. So there's a cost to the budget department, there is a cost to the regionals, there's a cost to the school operation. Um, and within that amount if you're typically that wouldn't happen if you had an increase in FTE, but you could see a decrease in budget year-over-year predominantly driven by a decrease in FTE or a type if you had um basic education students and your or I should flip it around. If you had um a high

092number of highlevel ESSE students and then those students moved on to another school and you had basic ed students, your funding would be less because they're at a lower weight >> program. Correct. So, and that that's good uh information. I think sometimes that that can be arbitrary at points, you know, when like a principal is looking at that bottom, you know, bottom number, hey, my FTE actually increased, you know, why now am I seeing a decrease in my budget? So just as long as we can provide some you know really good communication around um so it's not arbitrary in nature. Um I think of one conversation that I've had recently um from a member a SAC member from particular school that's been with that school for a long long time and a very strong advocate

093within our community and they had concerns that they brought forward as it relates to programmatic so specifically around say the IB program right where um this like the IB and those specialized programs as Miss Miller was noting as well Um, how are we doing with some of those? Because like, you know, the communication was, hey, you know, we went in and this particular unit was cut and this doesn't meet what the requirements are for the IB programmatic changes and things like that. So, are we how are we handling some of those uh issues? >> So, I don't believe well, I know I never have and I don't believe the message has ever been like, well, you're just going to have to cut it. is a programmatic requirement, then we're going to find a way to

094make that work. You brought up IB, so I'll just use this as a generic example. >> Um, I may teach some IB students and I think for a long time we operated I teach IB students all day long. I'm an IB teacher. I think the paradigm has to shift a little bit. I'm gonna teach students and wherever the students are, that's where I'm going to teach. So, I may teach four periods a day of IB, but maybe I pick up two periods a day that aren't IB because I'm I'm a teacher at Barto High School or I'm a teacher at Haynes City High School. So that's been some of the mind shift, but I know we work really intentionally particular around our Cambridge, our I IB, both PYP, MYP, and DP programs. So I don't

095believe, well, I know for a fact Mr. Hyde's directive is we are not cutting programs on the back of sightbased budget. We're not doing that. Academic programs or even CTO, CTE programs. I don't know if that answers your question. >> Yeah. Well, part of I'm I'm gonna >> Yeah, please do >> contribute to that as well. So, I think this goes back to just because you had it before doesn't mean you generated that or or the rationale is there to sustain it moving forward. When you have classes that have very small classroom sizes comparatively to every other department, I think that raises questions. I think when you're sitting on over a half a million dollars in internal funds that largely were generated and I'm being generous with my low number that were generated based off

096student outcomes, why are those dollars not being spent on those positions to supplement? So, this is a good example where this is not, oh, wo is me. This is you need to be responsible and own up to the fact that you were overbudgeted and overstaffed for years. And let's be honest, at the risk of jeopardizing other schools that had just as much need for students who are underperforming or other students. Um, but those schools in particular are sitting on budgets that they could easily be spending to supplement their positions and that's been the conversation with them the last two years. And this year moving forward, we're not budging on that. If you feel you need other positions, you've got those dollars available. you spend them because this can't be something that we sustain forever and

097ever moving forward. We support the students. We do this isn't just about a staffing review. They do a master schedule review so that they can identify disparities in the scheduling for all of our students. Um so if a school wants to run guitar with six kids, as Miss Collins pointed out, if you're insisting you're going to run that, where are you going to put 24 kids? because you need a class size average to go across the board during elective periods. Those 24 kids have to go someplace else, which now means you're either increasing class size and then putting us at risk to have to pay a penalty at the end of the year to the state of Florida or you're having to add another position at the cost of running a class with six kids.

098That does happen. That happens consistently across the board. So, it's not just a matter of reviewing their allocation model. It's also a subsequent review of their schedule to make sure that the schedule is making sense and it's operating efficiently and effectively. And also we talk to a lot of our principles. Some of our principles are really good at this. They've been doing it for years. They won't even ask me for a full allocation or if they do they'll say, "Mr. Hyde, I'm appealing to your office based off our review. I'm asking for a full position, but I'm actually going to break that into six additional period supplements versus hiring one person." Fantastic. Um, so they get six extra periods instead of just five by hiring a traditional full-time employee. So there there's a lot of

099creativity and things. So there's there's a there's a lot more to that narrative that people layman may not know because all they hear is the narrative of we're losing positions. Well, not exactly entirely true. Um, and that's where I get frustrated because school-based administrators need to take more ownership of their decision-m rather than trying to defer responsibility and blame. Also keep in mind one of the reasons why enrollment may have gone up, but a school's overall budget may have declined slightly. We reallocated Title One funds this year. So that's also a contributor to this so that we could prioritize those dollars in other settings. So there's a lot to the narrative to explain all of that. So thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Much appreciated. >> Miss Wyatt. >> Hello. I have two questions. Um

100the first is so when we talk about the sitebased budgeting um one of the things that I think the district very wisely did when we moved to sitebased was use the averages and so it cost you whatever $60,000 for a teacher plus benefits whether that is a first year teacher or a third-year teacher because the concern originally is you don't want to encourage schools to hire all first year teachers because they're cheaper. We want to make sure we have long-term teachers. My concern is that it came up this year when we did the reallocation of the um title one dollars that if you are buying with your title $1 a position, you are buying at the actual cost as opposed to buying at the average. So that there two is encouraging schools to hire a

101first year reading coach instead of a reading coach that's been with us for years or whatever it is the position that they're hiring. >> What is the R why can we not use the averages for title one? I would assume at a title one school basically everybody that teaches there is is qualified to be paid out of that. >> Sure. So with the title one part A we have a strict uh statutory requirement to conserve what's called rank serve. So any school that has a higher poverty percentage has to have at least as much or greater uh uh per pupil allocation of title one dollars. So if we were to do an average, we would not be able to accurately budget the total amount that it's going to cost the school for the next year.

102>> But we have to budget on that or we have to spend on that. >> Both. >> Okay. So when we submit the budget, it has to be based on the real cost. >> Our our schools for title one are oper operating on a very tight margin. So if we were to budget um based on averages, we would definitely go over for some schools on the rankserve and be out of compliance. >> Okay. I guess I I would love to if we could get an example of that because I I can't it's hard for me to reconcile in my mind how that's happening especially because obviously I think the backstory is they were able to use teachers for so long and they would you everybody has a first year teacher so they would use their

103first year teachers to be able to get more bang for their buck but it so it's I I guess I'm having a problem reconciling how all of the sudden we're worried about being able to meet those budget areas that we're not spending enough on teachers. >> Since I've been in the title one uh department, which has been about 12 years, we have always budgeted based on actual salaries in title one because of that ring serve requirement. Um last year we say uh relaxed our restrictions against classroom teachers, which is where some of our schools chose to pick up some classroom teachers. We ran into a lot of problems where several schools were going to go over their um their budget with uh or were were very close to going over their budget and rank serve

104using classroom teachers. So that's why this year we reverted to our previous policy of not allowing the schools to use classroom teachers because there are additional expenses that occur whenever you have a classroom teacher especially the sub costs whenever um you are paying for a full-time staff and then additional staff costs for that role as well. >> Okay. Miss Wallace. >> Sorry, I was waiting for I had another question. I was waiting for >> Miss Wyatt >> was that Sorry, there it sounded like there was more to the answer. >> No, and I think we've talked about this before because we build again of title one on a projection and so some of these schools had staffed their schools based on and then they actually fell out of title one eligibility. So then I didn't

105have a budget but I had planned I had reappointed my sitebased budget with these people and then I had these people that I really needed like I'm math teacher I need >> and so they didn't have a title one budget now and so that was problematic as well. >> My second question is we have several regional programs. So for example we may have self-contained maybe we have one school that has a unit for a regional program. My understanding is that if they are required, you know, you have nine students that are in this classroom and you have to have a teacher and a parah that's coming out of the schoolbased budget, even though the three schools surrounding me don't have to do that. So obviously, so we as a district are imposing you have to

106have this program. How are we reconciling that? And why are we not funding that from the district as opposed to funding that >> making the school fund it? So, I I I think I know what you're saying to me. Um, we've made some adjustments and we can talk about preK was a was a big one as far as I'm not generating enough for what it really costs, but I'm being charged. So, I'm going to let Miss Jenkins, we back basically took those units back this year because again, I work at an address, but I work for the schools. Like, it is my job equally to advocate. And I saw that there was an impropriety there and that we had forever amortized that over all schools in the budget and now it's just stuck over here

107and I'm having an ine equitable experience for my kids. So we revisited that and we pulled those back. But some of those units particularly like the access point units or or maybe a self-contained regular state, they do generate weighted FTE for those. And so they're they're generating money to sustain those units. >> Okay. And we've checked for any of those that they are self- sustaining that there's not because my understanding is that we have some that are not that that may not be recognized in their budget that they're getting those extra dollars but that's coming out of their budget. Does that make sense? >> So I'm going to tell you >> I'm not going to tell you because I don't know. Okay. I I want to tell you yes, we can get back to >>

108because they c they understand how their FTE is calculated >> in the waitings, but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna guarantee it because I don't know. >> Okay, >> this that's her job. >> Um so basically I just echo what Tracy said. We also looked at the guardian program because we had charged um the high schools for guardian or the elementary for guardians whereas we don't charge the high schools for SRO's. So when we brought that back in, we had to redistribute um the funding because that had been allocated in the the sitebased pot as well. So as things come up, we are reviewing them and it's it's we're in year four of revisions to ensure that we're making it run as smoothly as possible. Um if there are specific schools, we would definitely look

109into them because I'm not aware of any, but we we'd like to know as well when things pop up. Back to Dr. Allen's question that kind of goes with yours. if we see an anomaly like, "Wow, why did they go down so far?" We dive in because we want to know that too. We want to be able to explain it to the schools. >> And then my last one is we have a couple schools, specifically our CFAA programs have a second site which then requires them to have a nurse, a guardian. Those are those types of things they have to come out of their base because we're requiring them. We as a board have have put programs in place that gives them extra. Does that come out of their base? >> They are. I I

110don't know their budgets from heart. JD might be able to speak to it as well. But if it is require if it is a requirement, yes, it comes out of their base. And then if that is one of the instances that because they have small enrollment, they may be a red school, they would fall into the we make sure you have enough dollars to at least fulfill the site based budget >> requirements. Okay. Thank you. And then I have one comment and I promise I'm done. I too would love to play on this app that uh Travis is getting to play with. Um, but I think it would be a great opportunity with our inside PCPS group >> to let them also get a a school to play on the app because I think it's

111so hard. We we did something very similar. It was pencil and paper because it was, you know, almost 10 years ago now when I went through leadership Florida and just having to I know Dr. Allen, you would have loved it. It it um was very impactful, I think, you know, giving different scenarios of, you know, do you choose to lose a guidance counselor or to lose a dean of discipline? you know, this is the environment of your school that >> I hear you want us to build a simulation for the board. Do you want to be a small elementary and do you want to be a big high school and we can build this simulation for you? How we balance? >> It'd be great to have a couple different I mean I know that's just

112me. I would love to be able to explore a big high school that has a millionmies and then also the small elementary school because I think in my district you know I have Inwood which is the sweetest smallest school that there's no way to have that many students you can adequately fund the the AP the the nurse the guard all of those things to support it but there's something so beautiful about having that true neighborhood school and then you have Winter Haven High School that's spilling into every crevice of P County it feels like some But it um that's really just doing a million different things and and so >> seeing both end of the spectrum and how >> perspective I mean I think we all go that's how inwood stays afloat >> because of

113the we get funded on FTE so Winter Haven's cranking it out some of that is being used to support >> and hence our conversation at the board retreat. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. >> Um you're welcome >> Mr. Keys or pardon me Miss Wallace. >> Thank you. I have just two quick comments and then a question. Um, I think I don't know where appropriate. It almost sounds like we could put a simulation on YouTube and I I don't know. Again, I don't know. But it just it's like if we're trying to be more transparent, help the public understand, you know, what considerations we make, we can make up the school to not put anything on display. But it would help me. I'd love to refer back to it. we could show our partners in the community

114when we're talking just an idea if it doesn't bake out in real life. I understand but that's just a reaction is we can it's just another way to communicate with the public how we sitebased budget and I love that we do that and thank you Superintendent Hyde and to the team for implementing that process um so that everybody's more transparent. um echoing all of my colleagues comments and I think I just want to say and I'm saying this because I've toured close to 20 campuses now and then have been going I'm almost to my goal of visiting all 23 programs and schools in my district as I promised when I was sworn in. Um but one thing that's apparent is that there's still many staff who just don't understand the why given all the given

115all the questions right like if enrollment is up why are there fewer paras or why are we losing even up to principles and what happens is is when people don't know they make up in their head why and 98% of the time whatever they're making up in their head isn't accurate right and then that can affect morale that can affect perception right so I think that to the extent that y'all can reiterate to all of our principles to uh take the time to communicate with their staff and say here are all the changes that are happening this year and here is why do an FAQ make sure everybody in the room understands right even if we don't like them at least that just knowing the why is threearters of the battle in my view and

116just in talking to um teachers and staff I think a lot of them have an understanding of five to 10 years ago and it's not reconciling. So, it's like we know we can't overcommunicate. So, I just wanted to provide I know you guys are working hard and that it's not like you're not telling them, but just please reiterate to principles to make sure everybody understands why. And then um if one principal um said that they noticed that the district had a different understanding of how many units they had vers versus what they actually had. Like for example, if you had x number of units teaching one subject, the district had a lower number than what they actually had. And so if if there was a misunderstanding about, you know, like if there was a recordkeeping

117issue, um they've raised that and there's been push back and I just want to understand like what would be the right way for them to go about like who do you ask? Do they talk to the superintendent? Do they talk to who do they talk to? Typically we we ask the the principal to go within division of schools. So they would escalate a concern maybe to the senior director working with them or the regional whoever that is. >> Okay. >> Most of the time those questions can be answered but then beyond that would be me. >> Okay. >> And I would hope that I could resolve any of those concerns or questions but if not certainly I mean the superintendent's always very available to his principles. >> Great. >> Um >> great. But yeah, thank

118you all. This is awesome to not awesome like it's fun to have to pick and choose between all these priorities, but awesome in sense that we're helping the public understand our staff better understand. And then like what Superintendent Hyde was saying is when certain schools were overspending by a million dollars, that's how we're being held or more responsible to the taxpayers is making sure that we're allocating more equitably, which is uh especially when we have underenrolled schools in certain areas and overenrolled that all folds into reasonzoning too. So thank you all. Thank you, Superintendent. >> You're welcome. There are no more questions and comments on that slide. Um we will move to the next >> um this slide. In this slide, Mr. Bald Baldwin will speak to our federal programs and the changes or strides

119that we have made in those areas. Um, in developing our strategies for the strategic plan, one of the areas we wanted to address was evaluating our federal programs, specifically our programs funded by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. So that would be your title one programs, Title 2, Title 4, etc. And what we decided to do was to um conduct formal evaluations for each of these programs. Each of the programs has kind of an informal evaluation that's due to the state, but it doesn't really go in depth with our programs. And um one of the things that was really one of our focus is making the evaluations easy to read for everybody. Sometimes in the education world we get lost in acronyms and jargon and statistical references. So um on once these evaluations are ready

120to be published I think you'll see that they have been written in a way that is easy for the general public to be able to readily read and understand. We were very fortunate uh about two years ago now to be able to hire a federal programs evaluator. His name's Adam Roberts. He works in our department and he works with all the other subsequent departments to collect data to make sure that he's analyzing that data correctly and then representing it in those reports in a way that's easy to digest by everybody. So, our goal is to have by June of 2026 a formal evaluation in progress for each of our ESA programs. And I'm happy to say that I believe that we are on track to be able to provide you with all six of those

121pro uh program evaluations by the summer. And then we have a program a process in place to be able to continue to do those year after year without substantial uh investment of time and resources. >> Proceed. >> Um the next uh strategy that we wanted to look at was to um the slide changed. Oh, sorry. Yes. um was to uh in combination with the federal programs evaluation was to look at our comprehensive needs assessment uh process and to u make our process a little bit more uniform especially given that we already do comprehensive needs assessments through our strategic plan uh reviews uh school improvement planning process and mid-year reviews. So what we've done over the last couple years is to make that process more uniform and have it aligned to strategic plan uh metrics and

122outcomes uh that are identified in strategic plan. >> Proceed. >> Um the last slide speaks to uh the we upgraded are upgrading the district's business system. Um we have completed we're in the final testing phases of success factors which is the HR module that's the module used for hiring and we are beginning the upgrade process for S4 HANA which is the financial system. It includes the financials um purchase orders anything payroll anything related um with that. So, we are going to be able to eventually submit leave via electronic um options. We are reviewing our payroll process to ensure that approvals are easier. They we talked about that in our audit. Um and we're overall looking at the different processes and procedures as we move through There are no questions or comments. That was a let

123down board members. I thought for sure that one of those three Let one of those Oh, Dr. Allen, here we go. >> I'll I'll add a comment to that. No, I mean, this is great. Um, when Mr. Baldin uh mentioned that and in the back of my mind I'm just thinking about uh we've had so many public comments over the years asking for that and um so I just want to affirm that process and that initiative that's that's a really um something that we've been asking for and so I just want to say thank you for that. >> All right does that help? >> Yes sir. Thank you. There's a lot of work that goes into SAP upgrade and payroll. As you all know, you know, Bill Beasley likes to talk about there are three

124things in P County you don't mess with. You got to pick up your trash. You don't mess with their kids and you don't mess with their pets, right? And and I we own the kids part. Um for us, it's don't mess with my benefits. Don't mess with my payroll. So there has been an incredible focus on payroll of recent because we're coming to the end of the month when obviously some of our employees will receive their once a month paycheck um to make sure that those things are done correctly and anytime where we have found an error and there have been minimal errors to date um we're able to rectify those quickly as quickly as possible. Um the one thing in our system we need to figure out how to do a little bit faster

125and it's unfortunately it's it's it's a result of the existing timelines. So as soon as payroll ends we're processing payroll again and there are times where it's difficult to to basically the term we use is cut an off cycle check to pay someone in the rears for something that may be owed or because something was under reportported there was an error whatever the issues were. Um, but we're trying to figure out a better system for that so we can be more responsive because the last thing we need is for an employee who arguably may be living in a very tight economic situation to have to go without for 30 days or or 15 days. Um, so those are the areas that we continue to strive to focus on. But I want to say thank you

126to the whole team because they have made sure that these things are a priority as the SAP upgrade goes through. And to Dr. Allen's point, there are many improvements that are captured in this SAP upgrade that have come as feedback from employees, from our principles, from other district staff. So excited to see this over the next 8 to 12 months come to a conclusion. Um not in its entire it'll always be an editing process for us, but thank you um to the team. >> There are no further questions or comments on that. Um, next item we have is the student code of conduct. Board members, I would ask that we try and get through this topic um, and then Frog Street curriculum and then we could take a quick break if you're okay with that.

127I see nods. Okay. So, Mr. Wigs Good afternoon, sir. >> Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Uh code of conduct. Uh just couple of updates and uh changes to uh the code. I think you all have the change sheet uh there. Uh I won't read everything. Some of these are going to be formatting end up being formatting changes before they go print. Uh, and to save you all the uh, uh, soothing of my voice to read every one of those page changes, uh, it'll just be some format changes uh, that we'll put through. Um, so you'll see page three, table of contents. So, that's what I'm saving you from is everywhere where a table of contents change was, I you know, that that's going to happen, right? Uh, page 10, ID badges. Uh, we're adding

128the bus because now that there's widespread use of IDs and what it's causing getting on the bus, we want to make sure that we include buses. Uh, uh, that that's covered. Technology use, we're uh, cleaning up that section uh, and just removing a phrase that was just sitting out there. Um page 20 3.02 progressive discipline. Um making sure that um parents know that it's at the discretion of the principal. So we're cleaning up the language uh in that section. Page 33. This is actually something new. Uh section 4.1. We're going to add this section to the code. Section 4. It'll be 4.12. 4.13 uh based on formatting um page 33. Want to add a new section. A student who disrupts, circumvents, or acts insubordinate to direct instruction at any uh process of a school or

129bus safety drill, random search, or critical incident. Is guilty of unacceptable behaviorable unacceptable behavior. Punishable as follows. uh from inschool suspension, out of school suspension, short-term out of school suspension, long-term and alternative ed. And the purpose is so that we can provide consistency across the district. Um because now, you know, we want to demonstrate that we taking drills and school safety serious and we just can't tolerate um misbehaving during those incidents. Um we're deleting language page 42 for under 5.10 use possession or purchase of drugs. Uh and that is to uh update it based on current trends and uses uh and vape pins. uh progressive discipline. Again, cleaning up the language uh so that we make sure that principle parents understand that principles have the discretion and the authority to determine where it starts based

130on what they're doing. Uh simple battery, uh we're adding expulsion, uh wherever there are cases of simple battery. And then the remainder of it from page 58 is the glossery that we want to add more language and terms so that parents will know exactly what it is. >> Miss Miller. >> Hi Mr. Wigs. Thank you for presenting today. Yes, ma'am. >> Um I just want to confirm for the public that there's still a meeting that includes the community members and interested parties to review our code of conduct annually. >> Yes. A uh to review it annually. Yes. After this meeting. Um, uh, Mr. Green's office will publicize a 30-day notice that the public will have 30-day notice before the next board meeting that they can come and voice their concerns about it. >> But there

131is that committee that's still formed. >> There is a committee. Yes. Okay. We did meet we met um in person and uh they met virtual. They could do it either way and we did that back in March. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Mr. Sharpless. >> Mr. Wigs, thank you for being here. Thank you for presenting. Mr. Butler, thank you for being here as well. Um, I want to uh uh I have a question on the page 42 uh 5.10 where we deleted that line about if the offense constitutes a felony, the principal shall assign the student to an alternative education program talking about the use of possession and and purchase. Um, and the rationale was to update based on current trends and uses. Vape pens contain a liquid or resin and by law it's automatic

132felony. This was not our true intent. So, I was just wondering if you could talk about the that's not our true intent. So, if you could just discuss that a little bit because I I'm a little hazy. You guys want to >> because now it's by law enforcement they change statute and law so that a vape pen is now a felony and so that's no longer to the discretion of the principal because it is now statute. It's now law that they can be arrested and if they are arrested then we go through the uh our protocols of where they'll be assigned. If it's their first one, then it's a suspension and a program. If it's their second one, then it can result automatically in alternative ed placement. But we had to clean it up because

133of statute change that it is now because vapes are prevalent and they changed the law that it is a felony. We can't present it as though if it is going to be it is a felony and they're being arrested. >> And I can clear up a little bit more. So, you know, in your vapes, it is liquid, you know, cannabis tar. So, therefore, it automatically counts as a felony. In the previous years, when this part of the code of conduct was written, most people had their little bag of weed, their little marijuana joint, and that was not an automatic felony. But once they started making the vapes with the tar oil in them, that constitutes a felony. So the old language that was talking if it constitutes a felony, you could be put to alternative

134ed on the first try. Meaning if a kid walked in with a bag full of marijuana or six or seven bags of marijuana, it wasn't a felony unless it was for distribution. Well, with one vape, it becomes a felony. So therefore, our intent was to give students the education not to do it again. So we offered the Phoenix program through Mark Wilcox on the first offense. The second offense, you've had your first time. Now you're going to our alternative site. If we don't take that out, they automatically go each time. And that defeats our true intent of trying to educate the students to begin with. Give them that opportunity to be educated on drugs or alcohol. and then on their second time they would go to our alternative program. Does that make more sense? >>

135Yes, Mr. Wigs, Mr. Butler, thank you for that explanation. >> Yes, sir. >> Miss Wyatt, >> thank you. Um, historically for student code of conduct, we've gotten a um summary that has where all the red lines are so we don't have to scroll through and that just summarizes the changes being made. Could we get that before the board meeting? >> So, we can give you a copy right now or it was also emailed to you by Mr. Hyde. believe we actually sent that email to you all and the board members when board docs went down >> it okay >> not in the attachments I think that's the problem is I went back to the attachments >> code of conduct committee is there the code of conduct updated is there which is the exact same document

136and then the code of conduct edited redline version is there but the one pager that we discussed is not attached here to the board docs I can look at the email and if it's there we can go ahead and attach it but >> so you'll know if >> let me make sure I'm clear on what you're asking. >> You want to have a page that'll tell you where the red lines are. >> Either where the red line normally it's a, you know, page 42, we took this out and then it because of statute and it's just a quick onepage summary. It may be something that already exists. >> Well, Mr. Butler, >> go ahead. It's not attached electronically either in the email that I received >> the chain. You don't see a change? >> I

137see. No, I do not. >> But this is what I'm looking for. >> That's it. >> Okay. I don't know. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> So, if you email this specifically, we'll get it attached, >> but board members now have a physical copy. So, >> thank you, >> Dr. Allen. Thank you, Superintendent. Uh, appreciate it, gentlemen. Uh, more of a just a discussion item, not really a question. Um, but I I think it goes back to what you were saying in regards to consistency uh across the district. I was just thinking, you know, just sifting through the code of conduct, I think we've got two very minor references to um artificial intelligence uh usage, students uh usage of AI. And I just wanted to know um you know because I I can't imagine the

138variation of usage across the district. Um, so how can we ensure like more consistent expectations and usages um or recommended usages districtwide? Is it a good place for it to be in the code of conduct or superintendent, what is your vision for um how we sort of bring some consistency around artificial intelligence? >> Yeah. So board policy currently has addressed that as well as our technology utilization form that students have to sign and agree to. Um, we are in conversation about being a little bit more specific, not um, limited to AI, but other devices that are now potentially being used to record information on campuses like glasses and other things. So, we are talking about language that will specifically address that. um we do not have AI being utilized at scale which is probably why

139you've not seen an AI specific um topic addressed here specifically or isolated in the code of conduct but that is soon to happen. We've been intentionally um slow rolling our AI contingent upon exactly what took place today. The state had intended to address AI and becoming crit based off what was being shared. The intent was to be very restrictive which would have put us in a difficult position had we initiated and then have to pull back or or cease and desist any activities. Um so we got good news today that the house has no intention on proceeding with that topic and we'll close session today and then return later to address the budget. So that will allow us now to move forward. We do have an AI committee that is formed and they'll be convening.

140Um part of the reorg that will be discussed with you at the next meeting will outline how the IT department is being restructured to provide more explicit supports on the academic side um and for innovation um instructional innovation. So that being said, I think you will see the code of conduct be updated yet again as it is annually to include more specific restrictions, but we don't have an AI procedure yet. We don't have AI outlined as far as utilization yet, but it is addressed specifically um within board policy which does give us the ability to then apply student code of conduct um because there are some broad technology use misuse allowances. So student cannot reproduce someone's image. They can't do certain things. Um I believe that that policy and the student code of conduct will

141continue to evolve. >> Okay, >> great. Thank you. >> There are no further questions, gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> Next item, board members, before we take a break, is the Frog Street curriculum. Is Miss Allen here? Oh. Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon, Mr. Hyde. Good afternoon, board. I'm excited to bring before you today our recommendation, our department's recommendation for a new curriculum for our early childhood programs across Pulk County Public Schools. uh need for this updated curriculum is rooted in the fact that our current curriculum provides limited explicit instruction in social skills and in literacy skills. In contrast, the new um program Frog Street offers a comprehensive research aligned researchbased approach to both literacy and social skills development and it's included in the Florida state approved curriculum list for low performing providers. In contrast, our

142current curriculum is not. However, I have to explain that we have an even more exciting aspect to this adoption, and that is that it was done in collaboration with the Early Learning Coalition of Pulk County. Um, which is brand new, very different than what we've done before. Um, and what that means is that we will be able to collaborate with them in a couple of different ways. The first way is ensuring that all students across Pulk County, not just Ptk County Public Schools because they all become our students, right? All of our students have access to that same curriculum. So it includes continuity and ensuring that all of our students are getting that as well as an opportunity to again collaborate with them to provide professional development to not only our teachers but private providers

143which they get very limited professional development. So if we are developing our teachers and building that capacity I think in developing those guys if we're doing it bringing them in that's that's a gamecher for our kids. Um, and the impact of that really it it can't be understated because it ensures that our kindergarteners as they're coming in have receive quality standardsbased instruction prior to entering our schools. Um, from my understanding, this also would be the first of its kind in the state of Florida in my con uh conversations and Dr. Allen's conversations with um uh Dr. Huek that that would be brand new in the state of Florida. So it stands to become a model in the state of Florida which I think is um really important and and kind of cool for um Pulk

144County. Uh now to the documents you hopefully have in front of you. Um it outlines the budget impact um which is extremely important. Uh the first quote encompasses our programs which is Head Start VPK and Title One VPK units which totals 105 classrooms. Um the second quote outlines the cost for our ESSE preK classrooms um which total 69 classrooms. This part's particularly exciting for me because it ensures that all students enrolled across all of our programs in Pulk County Public Schools receive the same materials and curriculum which includes strong differentiation tools to meet the needs of each student across any of our program. No matter which program they walk into, it is the same. The total budget impact would be $7128 12 $712,810 to provide standardsbased researchbased very different our current curriculum is not researchbased

145um as it's which is why it's not approved through the state of Florida for low performing providers um curriculum to all 173 classrooms and students enrolled in one of our programs. Two quick notes. This includes all resources that the teachers will need. It's not just teachers manuals. It's not all those things. It's also the u manipulatives and the other materials that they will need for their classroom. So, it's not like teachers have to go out and buy stuff to put along with these things. It's everything that they need in one one shot. Uh finally, the digital program is not included today for your approval as it is still making its way through the pure process which we all know and love. Um, however, I want to note that the digital content that you will get

146before you is all teacherfacing. We are not there is no student technology component within this preschool program's curriculum. Um, and also even though you're not approving it today, the budget impact there is no more. This budget impact that you're this budget that you are seeing today includes everything including the technology. We just can't approve it today because it's not approved through the pure process and I'm willing to take any questions. >> Dr. Allen. >> Yeah. Thank you, Superintendent Miss Stewart. Amazing. I really appreciate your excitement around this uh and then Dr. Allen's work as well. I remember this came to us um maybe last month uh during work session. So, and then superintendent, thanks for your your time on that board and serving uh on the board with the early uh learning coalition. So your

147presence there I'm sure is um much appreciated for these initiatives types of initiatives as well. So thank you. Um just you know as far as uh you know sake of clarification the pure uh approval process right this is based on state law that we can't use software that shares third party um data or student data in essence. So do we see any uh issue? I mean will this be an order? Will we will get it through the pure process in time so we can have that fall launch? I >> I believe so. I believe it will get through specifically because it really doesn't include student data, right? I'll let Mr. McN speak to that. >> It doesn't include uh student data and one of the main things is just making sure it's aligned to all

148the other programs that we have and our systems itself. So, it's just a to check to make sure we don't buy something and then it doesn't work in our system. Just being fiscally prudent on that. >> Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you. That's all I have. Superintendent >> sir, Mr. Sharpless, >> Miss Stewart, um, thank you for being here today and presenting this. Um, I I would just want to say fellow board members, um, last month at the Head Start Policy Council, um, which is part of my board assignment, uh, the Frog Street curriculum was presented to our parents at that. They had an opportunity to look at it, um, and they seemed very excited. So, I can tell you from um from the end users um and our parents and our constituents, I think this

149is going to be a great thing. Um the question I have um we talk about the the program objectives uh is to improve kindergarten readiness rates to increase student achievement, which this is something we have seen um you know, Poke County lags uh the state average in. I was just wondering, have we um will will there be goals created on how on um you know where we would like to see that that kindergarten readiness uh score go with the use of this? Uh you said it's researchbased, so we know some of that. I was just wondering um you know what how do we know we we have have have uh succeeded? I that's a great question and we will if within that when it says researchbased right um that actually research part of it was

150done in Hillsboro County and we have the research we have the kind of the process that they use there so that is something that we could model that after um if if we you know all decided to that to do that and if of course if that's something that everyone wants I think it is a good thing that we are looking at that and I think another thing that we really have to look about u look through Dr. Dr. Allen and I have talked about this before is that many times actually is we need to see our prek not only and that pre-k readiness rate, right? But how does that translate to third grade scores? How does that translate to all of those things? So um we are looking um into you know tracking that

151data throughout and um increasing those school readiness scores because that's that's really where it's at. I do believe right now it does not include a literacy component and that is huge and for us to readopt the new curric the new creative curriculum which does include a literacy component they charge more and they're not researchbased. So I truly believe that this is the right one and again I do want to say it was not the just the determination of Dr. Allen and I or anybody on our leadership team. This was taken to a group of teachers and our coaches and our leadership team and everybody and including the early learning coalition was there to watch the presentations. So I I'm I'm confident that that literacy component because we all know kindergarten is not the kindergarten we

152went to, right? It's not the same um will increase those school readiness rates. >> Thank you much. Thank you so much, Miss Stewart. >> Miss Miller, >> thank you. So, I appreciate you explaining um how you came how you determined to use this program. That was going to be my question. What other programs were looked at and if there was teacher or parent input? Um sometimes um vendor promoted programs, you know, work for a few and not the the many. So, I'm glad there's been more eyes on this. My question and concern is always implementation of programs that we invest in. Um we invest in some really great programs in a district this size. um the roll out and implementation of those programs can sometimes waver depending on the process. So I'm assuming that there's

153a plan and a and a goal to make sure that all of our students are reaching or being able to reach this curriculum. Um my question is you said there were no more cost but you mentioned consumables. So is there an ongoing cost for manipulatives and things that are being used in the classroom? >> No, those manipulatives I'm sorry if I was didn't clarify there. They're not consumable. their manipulives that are used. Um, think pattern blocks, think math manipulatives, unifix cubes, all of those things that the teachers will just have in their classroom. So, they do not incur any additional expenses. It's not like they have to go out and purchase things. Um, there are no additional costs. This is for a five-year implementation. Um, that's it. There are no additional consumable costs, workbooks, anything

154like that because we don't really use um black line type M >> and we'll have data collected on the results from this program within the 5-year implementation. Right. For sure. I would think we for the I think within the first year, you know, one would hope that not this time next year, but the next year after we get our um kindergarten readiness rates back, we would really be able to to bring some of that research back to you as we do it. You asked about program rollout. >> Um we do one thing that early childhood programs does is our CDATS actually which service some of our teach our teachers um there there's some te some um programs have different things but they all have CDATS. they their contract is comes back like 2 days before

155um everyone else. So we have something called starting out right. Um so Mr. Hyde um spoke at it last year and um I'm sure he will be back again this year to get them all ready to go. Um and that is where we plan to roll out that. Also we will have on contact day there will be a um full um kind of everybody you know full court press on that day and Frog Street is there. If you look at the budget, the budget um statements, you'll see in there that I there's a cost I want to say off top of my head 3,000ish dollars for them to come in and provide that Frog Street themselves and we've talked to them about what that looks like. We also will have dig um office hours where

156they can come into teams meetings, things like that, ask questions, and my team is very will be um become very well verssed in this program and go in along with our coaches that um serve our early childhood programs as well. >> Thank you. I'm going to just interject real quick because I've heard it mentioned now twice about the data side and kindergarten readiness. We will track the data for these students. Our kindergarten readiness rate is largely affected by the general population that does not attend preK or attends a family supported or a community-based prek that does not address early instruction. letter sounds, those types of things. Um, so that's important to note that the data that we collect will be specific to the baseline that we collect for the incoming population, but that our overarching

157kindergarten readiness rate is largely outside of the district. Um, unfortunately, and and Mr. Hutchek is very quick to point out that our very low kindergarten readiness rate is a direct result of low prek engagement in PK County. Um, so I just wanted to point that out that when we look at the data, we are going to separate the two data points because it's it's not fair to hold us accountable to a kindergarten readiness rate that we have no impact on or no involvement in. So, Miss Wyatt, >> thank you. Because that was one of the things I had a question on. Well, do when we get incoming kindergarteners, do we know where they've I mean, obviously self-reported, but do we know where they've come from if they're not from us? So if they were at

158a private preschool or other programs, >> not always. It depends on whether or not they participate in ELC and it depends on other factors, but again, as you mentioned, self-reported data, but the ELC does partner with us to a certain extent. So, and they only continue to partner with high high quality providers, but that's a small percentage of the overall pre-K enrollment in Pole County. It just I would think it would be great if if we can capture where kindergarteners are coming from. Um because yes, we're using Frog Street, but if you know, you mentioned that everyone in ELC will have access to it. It would be interesting to see if our implementation has a greater effect on kindergarten readiness than some of our partners. Um it also may be an opportunity for us to

159approach partners and say, "Hey, we're doing this with great success. This may be something that you want to look at as well." Um, so just a >> our established partners through the ELC don't seem to be the issue. The issue is again the overwhelming percentage who are not engaging in a traditional prek setting. Um, and and that's due to a lot of reasons, financial and others, mostly financial unfortunately because it's incredibly expensive as you know and others know. Um, but the reality of it is that's that's outside of us. One of the things that we've talked about is that when we're doing trainings and the room is half full, should we go ahead and offer a more a broad invitation to others who may not traditionally partner with Pulk County Public Schools to come and

160just see? So, if we're doing an early literacy um training, why not advertise it even if those students are not within our system, even if they're not in one of the ELC programs, simply because arguably long-term those students are going to benefit. And and if we're training 50 people, what's the difference between 50 and 200? Um, so that would be something that we're going to be talking about moving forward with our ELC early learning focus and and potential expansion as we talk about the expanded utilization of certain campuses and opportunities that we face there. But this is a good example of that where we have to be very strategic with our data and very intentional to tell that story. And um, the other problem with kindergarten readiness is the timing of the test um, and

161how it's administered. So there's a lot to that and and I think we actually might want to bring Dr. Hutchek back >> to speak about that because he is such an expert and and I'd like you to hear it from an outside person um who will affirm a lot of what we've said here today because that's we are partnering aggressively in that regard to help increase overall participation and enrollment um in quality programs. So >> thank you. And then my other question and I appreciate you talking about technology because you know how I feel about screens with our our littlest learners. Um before the meeting when I was researching just Frog Street and because I saw the addendum about technology piece so of course that raised raised flags for me. Um it talks about their

162partnership with ABC Mouse. I'm assuming that that is something that will be parents can use it if they want outside but can you talk about how we're we're engaging that piece? Is that something that we just share with parents? And >> yes, you you are correct. It is it is definitely something that they're doing at home. We're not going to have kids on ABC Mouse cuz we're they're getting a lot of that at home. They're they're getting a lot of that at home. So when they're with us, we want them teacherf facing working on, you know, playing um in centers doing things that are math-based and literacy based and and playbased because that's where it really is. Um so yes, that those are programs that are home. We have those now. We have a few

163that are directly to parents. We have some that are to students through the curriculum that we have and those are primarily home not primarily they are homebased programs. >> Beautiful. And so just to clarify there are no digital components for students to be on devices. >> That is correct. >> During our pre-K program when we adopt this >> that is correct. The only digital anything digital they really will touch is in the testing phase of the STAR program the kinder kindergarten readiness assessment. Yes ma'am. >> Thank you. >> Anything? >> Okay. >> Mr. keys. >> The awesome part about being last is that all your questions get answered. So, my first was on the cost. So, thank you for clarifying that. Um, but then the discussion we've had over and over again about data really

164intrigues me because I wonder at some point we talked about low engagement on those outside of us and we went through this. It wasn't recently, now my my youngest is in third grade, but we struggled to find quality programming for our second child. And it was it was really about what they were doing. Was it just a social program or were they actually getting, you know, any kind of academics and curriculum with that? So, I'm interested in seeing is we we say there's low engagement outside of of what we can control, right? But how do we measure the effectiveness of this against those? And I guess we really can't. There's not a method of. So, do we when we say we the question was asked where do these students come from? Do we have and

165lack of a better terminology for it like an an entrance exam, right? Or so information, hey, you know, when your child is enrolling in kindergarten, was there there it's it's, you know, two questions. Was there any early learning before any prek? And if so, where? And not that we're, you know, gathering on this and we can measure against it, but I I would really really love to see on those programs outside of us using this, how much more or less I would assume more that those students their readiness or they are achieving at higher levels than those that did not to get engaged in this. >> And to go back to Mr. Hyde's point, I think it it's a a lot to do with and to go back to Mr. Hyde's point, I think it

166it's a a lot to do with ELC. They have a little more of that information. Of course, there's some information we don't have at all. Um, but I think putting processes, procedures, and structures in place to possibly be able to track that. I mean, I think that's something that we can we can definitely definitely >> even even the limited data what we can get say, hey, this is the use of this is the the absence of and measure those results against each other. I would love to see some kind of data within that 5-year period that shows us, hey, these this is the, you know, preparedness preparedness readiness of that of that child coming in to kindergarten. and the difference it made. I'd love to see some data on that. >> That would be exceptional

167data to see. >> So, the best data set we'll be able to provide will be in year four. >> Okay. >> Um, we can provide annual performance metrics towards I hate to say towards kindergarten readiness the assessment because just the way it's administered and the timing of it and some other factors, but that's the best measure we'll have. Um, and we'll look at other performance indicators that we can work through with our staff, but year four will be the first cohort hits third grade. and then then we can do a comparative analysis or although we will have some literacy data in K 1 and two um and and we can start building to that but benchmarking against the state assessment might make more sense. So, we'll provide annual data and updates because the other part

168to it too is we may be able to identify the sweet spot with use um and the impact and and as you know, Miss Wyatt said, we're we're we're going to be having a conversation soon about in the intentionality of our use of technology in a classroom. Uh and screen time is a much broader topic than just instructional screen time. Kids spend far more time on a personal device than they do on a school device. It's just a reality. At the end of the day, however, if parents are going to segue into other utilities because by virtue of an automatic relationship with this program like ABC Mouse and others, I don't know how we're going to collect and analyze that. And that could that but this is important because engaged parents have better student outcomes.

169Yes. Period. >> And that's hard to measure because now we're starting, it's very subjective. we're guessing this parent's more engaged than this parent and that's not fair either. Um, so we have to be very intentional. So what I'd like to do based off the questions that the board and the comments that you've made is have Mr. McNotton as our chief academic officer work with the team and work specifically with Miss Riley Hawkins to outline how we're going to monitor this, what are going to what we will measure, what we won't measure, and bring that back to you. >> Yeah. because I think it's going to be really easy to capture the use thereof, right? And I love what you said against state, you know, the state average. That's something that we can make a clear

170designation on, right? We know which students have engaged in using this and then we can measure that against the state outcomes. I think that's going to give us our first metric. So, I'm I'm really excited to see that. I know it's far out, but wow. Um, what an awesome opportunity that we're engaging in. I think it's going to be um great benefit to us. >> I just think it's important for you to know and I know Dr. Allen and I talk about this quite frequently. Data is data. you can make it say what you want. >> Oh, yeah. >> Um, so the variables and the intentionality of how we're sorting and analyzing data is really important. So, I'd like to outline that for you and then let the general public understand that as well. >>

171Thank you. >> And, and what I'd like to do is at the same time bring forward the topic of um our proposal for screen time. Just make it one comprehensive conversation. Okay. >> Fantastic. Thank you. >> Thank you all >> members. This is the agreed um location where we agreed to take a break. Um so, Mr. Chair, would you would you like 15 minutes? How would the What's the board's >> 15 minute break? We'll be back at 3:25. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. At this time, I would like to call this meeting back to order and turn it over to Superintendent Hyde to finish leading off our work session today. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Um, at this time, I'd like to

172introduce Miss Candy Amato, senior director for charter schools. Miss Omato has the next four items on our agenda, >> but these are typically very fast. >> They are. Well, the last room. So, good afternoon. So, item number six is a 10-year contract for Masquala Monastery. We followed the model standard contract um and we agreed on any type of revisions um between both parties. So, it's pretty standard and straightforward. >> Seeing no questions. >> Okay. Moving on to item number seven, which was a U charter contract for Mackielle Academy Malberry. It is a five-year contract. Again, same thing. We followed the standard contract issued by the state of Florida and agreed on any revisions. >> Mr. Sharpless. >> So, I noticed our next item is uh the contract renewal for Mackielle for 15 years. >> Correct.

173>> Um so, this this to make sure we're clear, the M the Malberry campus for 5 years and then the system for another uh 15 years. >> Correct. Two separate contracts. >> Gotcha. And so then maybe um once they're done with the 5-year, I would suggest maybe applying for a 10-year, then they can all be at a 15 mark. >> Um it will depend on what the what their board wants to do. If they're high if Malberry Academy becomes a high performing, then they're automatically eligible for a 15-year contract. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> No further questions or comments. >> Okay. And then uh the following item, as uh board member Sharpless just mentioned, is the school of Mackielle Academy. So, it will be all three of their current campuses that are operating and they

174are requesting a 15-year contract. They are a high performing system and again followed the standard contract and agreed on um any revisions. >> Seeing none. >> Okay. The next item um is not as quick and simple. Um so it is uh Bridge Prep Academy uh Middle High submitted a charter application for review. Uh so the charter review team conducted a comprehensive review um and we also had an external evaluator assist with that process. They do plan if approved uh to open in August of 2026. So yes, that is in just a few months around the corner. Um so I will be bringing our outside consultant Vanessa Glenn to uh the podium to present to you um our findings. She brings just to give you a little background she does bring a wealth of knowledge from

175both the state of Florida and the national perspective on what's happening in charter world and through charter sponsors. Uh she takes an unbiased approach guiding the charter review team which consists of district staff to ensure a thorough and fair process while maintaining the integrity of the entire review. We are incredibly grateful for her dedication and the her extra work she put in. Just so that you know, we typically have 90 days from the time an application drops until the it has to come to the board for approval. But according based on our spring schedule of graduations and spring break, uh we had 37 days to review this process. So not only was our external evaluator working double time, so was the review team to ensure that we met the May 5th board meeting so that

176we could get this approved um and still meet our 90 days. So, it was an extremely tight timeline that everyone put in some overtime to get done. So, I just want to make sure that was publicly recognized um both by by Mrs. Glenn and our review team. So, with that, I am going to turn it over to Mrs. Glenn. Thank you and good afternoon. Today, I'll be walking you through the charter application for Bridge Prep Prep Academy of Pulk Middle High School. This presentation is intended to provide context on the application, explain how it was reviewed, and highlight key findings, including both strengths and weaknesses. I'll begin with the statutory framework that guides the charter app application reviews, followed by an overview of the proposed school, and finish with the charter review team's recommendation. The

177board is scheduled to take action on this charter application at the May 5th board meeting. Under Florida law, the sponsor has 90 calendar days to act on an application and is required to use the state evaluation instrument. The statute and Florida rule work together to ensure the process is consistent, transparent, and grounded in statute and best practice. Standard two of the Florida principles and standards states that a quality sponsor will implement a fair, transparent, and rigorous application review process to ensure applicants with only applicants with demonstrated capacity are approved. As part of the process, the sponsor reviews the educational, organizational, and financial plans, conducts a capacity interview, and bases its recommendation on the evidence presented. Just a quick overview of the application overview. The application proposal is for Bridge Prep Academy of Pulk Middle High

178School serving grades 6 through 12 through a phased expansion with grades 6 through 9. The school projects 204 students in year 1 based on 100% enrollment. The current school is undergoing a contract renewal that modifies their existing K8 structure to a K5 and this application adds a middle high school program. The education service provider is smart for the ESP management and the proposed opening date as Candy mentioned is August 2026. The evaluation process begins with the submission of the charter application followed by detailed review using the state required evaluation instrument which the board has received. A capacity interview is conducted on April 8th to address clarifying questions developed by the charter review team. The full team reviews each section of the application in detail, document strengths, concerns, and any unresolved questions, and then makes a

179recommendation to the superintendent. Before I move forward, I do want to give a shout out to the charter review team for their time, expertise, and thoughtful participation through this review process. There were several departments that provided valuable input as subject matter experts, and I truly appreciate them. The mission of Bridge Prep Academy at Pulk Middle High School is to provide a challenging academic curriculum that will encompass an enriched Spanish language program, technology, and experiences that will enable students to develop in all areas. With that, the team saw a strong mission alignment and clear instructional vision. The applicant also brings expertise operating within an existing charter network. At the same time, several concerns came up around documentation, alignment between the narrative and exhibits, and overall readiness for implementation. From an instructional standpoint, the application demonstrates multiple

180areas that meet the standard. The mission reflects a clear commitment to academic rigor, bilingual enrichment, and whole child development. The proposed education program includes a second language model, plan supports for diverse learners, including ESC and ELLL students, and curriculum aligned to Florida standards, all of which support the school's mission and intended outcomes. Instruction is grounded in the gradual release of responsibility model and supported by research-based practices such as explicit instruction, collaborative learning, inquirybased tasks, and datadriven differentiation. The program is further strengthened by technology by a technology-rich environment and a multi-tered system of supports including targeted interventions, tutoring, and enrichment to meet student needs across performance levels. In student performance and assessment, the applicant demonstrated an understanding of state accountability requirements and included multiple assessment tools. However, the team identified concerns with outdated assessment references and

181incomplete assessment cycle and academic goals that were developed prior to the school start. So, those would need to be recalibrated with actual student data. Organizationally, strengths include an established governing board, clearly identified school leadership, access to centralized ESC and instructional support, and an employment framework is consistent with the existing Bridge Prep Charter network. Bridge Prep has identified Miss Robin Pano, who serves as the current school principal, will transition into the new middle high school principal role. From a governance perspective, the structure aligns with statutory requirements. However, no governing board member participated in the capacity interview, limiting the team's ability to assess board readiness and understanding of statutory responsibilities. There was also limited detail on how the board will evaluate and hold the ESP accountable for their performance. These factors are important in determining the board's

182ability to provide independent and effective oversight. Reviewers noted that the applicant demonstrated awareness of financial risks, including a contingency plan, should enrollment hit below targeted numbers. There is also evidence of the ESP's experience in managing charter school finances. There were several financial concerns that were identified during the application review process. These include inconsistent budget assumptions based on enrollment at 95 and 100% with no single definitive baseline identified. The 50% enrollment scenario was not clearly exhibited and a 425,000 contingency commitment was included in the narrative but was not documented. Also also a required uh financial statements such as a balance sheet and anticipated fund balance were not included in the application. From an operational standpoint, there were both both strengths and concerns. Strengths include collocation with an existing campus, which reduces facility risk, and evidence that

183the facility meets code requirements. Concerns include conflicting classroom capacity calculations and a transportation plan that lacks private transportation vendor and cost detail and in implementation clarity. One final note on operations. The applicant did clarify plans to utilize the a school resource officer through the Pulk County Sheriff's Office and to participate in districtled trainings. A review of addendum DD in the application shows that the applicant and ESP operate multiple charter schools with documented academic performance and clean financial audits. This brings us to the charter review team's recommendation, the moment we've been waiting for. Following a comprehensive application review and discussion, the charter review team conducted a formal vote and voted unanimously 16 to zero to recommend approval of the application. This recommendation reflects the team's determination that overall the application demonstrates sufficient capacity to open and

184operate a charter school with identified areas to be addressed through contracting and pre-opening process. Thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent. So, I would think there would be no secret that what I jumped to um based on my knowledge of things um was the budget item that did not meet standard. And I want to pick out a couple of the notes that were labeled in there and then I'm going to ask a follow-up question. So they didn't identify a single definitive enrollment figure and after using the 100% enrollment reference smart management if it fell below 50 but didn't provide documentation for the commitment. That's concerning. And one of the big things is in my profession is the lack of even submitting a balance sheet. So that concerns me, right? Um and then you know anticipated fund

185balance. And then the last you know thing that I'll compliment on or comment on it says doesn't clearly distinguish financial oversight responsibilities. Another one. So the only thing that I'll have I'll say positively about that is there is a history of being financially I guess able to run these schools. But I'm I this is where my question is coming in based on those statements that I've made and this is an assumption I understand. Do we think that perhaps it's because the application was rushed in such a short amount of time that the supplemental information wasn't given? Um because that puts kind of every I guess us under a pinch and saying, "Hey, we don't have this. We're we're we haven't we've partially met the standard, but we're trying to push through it seems like quickly,

186you know, to start a school year without having everything that I think I mean a balance sheet is a pretty basic function. Um these things aren't in place." So, I guess I'm rambling a little bit here, but that's my question. Do we think it's because it was rushed that we're not getting some of these? And is there is a history with this system overall of not providing these things? >> So, during the capacity interview, they did indicate that they did not provide the balance sheet because they would have to wait until their audits were done. >> Okay. >> So, and then they would going to have to they would submit three different balance sheets based on their projected numbers. And if I can add to that, if the application does get approved and if a

187contract does get approved, statute states that they are required to provide a balance sheet and as well as any estimated revenues as well any changes to fund balances to the sponsor. >> A balance sheet, not three balance sheets, >> correct? >> Okay. I'm just I'm clarifying that because if I handed my CPA three balance sheets, you kind of do one of these things to me. Okay. >> No, it'll be uh submitted on a monthly basis. Okay, that's that's my my only concern in that is that the lack thereof and it I assumed that it was because of the rush of getting to and not having their you know audits done. Thank you for clarifying that, Miss Moto. But yeah, those were my concerns. That's all, >> Miss Miller. >> Thank you. I appreciate that um

188thorough presentation. And I think having the third party um really be a part of that review team is so important um especially when we have multiple concerns with schools in general. It's unfortunate that none of the board members participated. I think that's been the issue before and I don't know that they're mandated to, but that just um it would be helpful and show interest in the community if I could get their participation in these reviews. Um Mr. Keys asked some of the financial questions that I asked, but I think um the one that's outstanding is the requirements that that you've that you've shared as far as the balance sheet and other things that are required. Is that followup done through your office, Miss Amato, or is that the department of education that has to like

189who is the accountability factor for this? >> I would follow up between um the charter office and we will collaborate with our finance team to ensure that we have all the documentation that we need. >> After we're after it's approved, it's your your office that follows up. What if you do not receive the documentation? Like what is the pro I don't I don't know the protocol for the the big box charters that aren't here. I don't have a board member to call and and ask. >> So we do they do have a local board member um Okay. That is a P County resident that >> Oh, good. Maybe they'll be involved. >> That is one of their current stipulations in their current contract for their existing K8 school. Right. >> We will continue to try

190to embed that language into their future contracts. um which is kind of the whole point because they are a big box so to speak. >> Well, we just have a lot of local charters here that have old like relationships which I think is helpful. This school I mean does very well. We need we're in need of space out there. I think it'll do it'll do fine and expanding it is probably good for them. I just that collaborative piece is helpful when we have those relationships and we've done so well with that. Um, and hopefully we can do that in the future. >> And most of the staff that they currently have that operate the K8 school will still be will still be our point of contact. We do have um working positive working relationships with

191them. So, a phone call, an email um and they're they're typically pretty responsive. >> Yeah, I can imagine a lot of this was just because of the time frame and it'll all be resolved by the time um that you're requiring those documents. Thank you. >> There are no further questions or comments. So, this will come to you next week for um a vote. Thank you, >> board members. The next item we have is a comprehensive agreement for the new high school in the point Sienna area. At this time, it's I'll introduce Mr. Fix and Mr. Green is also contributing and we have some guests with us in case there's some questions. >> Har, you want me to tee it up? Pardon? >> I like tea it up if you >> Okay, go right in. Sir,

192>> um just to kind of um give a little history of how we got here. So um currently the district and Fortress are operating under the interim agreement. Um that was signed back in April of 2025. Um one of the final steps of that agreement was for the uh 90% plans to be accepted by the district. Uh that happened on April 14th. Um and the next step after that according to the interim agreement was that the parties w will negotiate the comprehensive agreement. Um we didn't wait for that hallmark uh to happen before the process. We actually started it well before that. Um the district sent an initial draft to Fortress in March and we finalized the draft you see before you. um right around the time of the almost to the day uh of

193the acceptance of the 90% plan. So that's just uh what happened and what you've got before you kind of as the the next step in the process here and I would just add it's really thick brought a copy of this with it. So as Mr. Green said we've uh back in last year of April when the board approved the interim agreement and then we've built upon that and of course um because this hasn't been done and I'm not sure if it's been done at all at the high school public high school level in Florida a uh triple P um program. We had to take some time in putting together this document. We had our not only Mr. Green involved and but we also had um Brian Williams involved as well as John Murphy involved in

194our school board's interest to make sure that we got this agreement and got all of the um safeguards that we could in it. Um much of the staff of facilities and operation was involved in it too to make sure that it followed our processes as well as we could with everything in it as well. This is a unique process for us as you know we typically don't do things through this process. So this is new for us and um one of the as you might remember one of the reasons that the board had wanted to go through a P3 process is because this way we could also acquire the land at the same time which you now know we've already done. So I stand for questions. Dr. Allen. Thank you, Superintendent. And uh I had

195reached out to Mr. Green just to clarify on a couple things. Um and just wanted those to be brought forward. Um just for clarity sake as it relates to two things. one um you know giving some background information on the how we came to that 10 thou $10,000 per day as it relates to the caps on uh developer liability. Um and I you know I think then um it's capped out at 2 million. We would hope that we don't you know have to have a 200 day delay uh to even get to that amount uh in general. Um but seeing that the caps on the liability as it relates to the um language on the broad relief events and these are sort of excusable delays that that go beyond just like natural disasters. So I

196I'm just curious how those coincide, right? So the beyond the natural disasters which we hope uh that would not um be an issue to delay uh construction but we have government approvals that's a part of that language and utility delays right those are two that you know I don't know are we certain that we wouldn't have utility delays um or uh governmental approval delays is >> we we're we're pretty confident that we that we're we're good with those things. Now, one of the reasons though and it's funny um that actually um Princel Myers is here when we opened up um I always want to say 21C um South Point. We had delays there and we were able to work with the with the builder and with the company and we were able to accommodate and

197get in there and do everything that we needed to anyway. But we started looking back at that contract saying, "Wow, you know, if we had to have done had to have done something even more extraordinary off-campus, found a way to house the kids, the costs that were in that contract wouldn't have begun to cover it. And so in this instance, we said, well, let's look at these things. Let's look to see if we can protect ourselves a bit better. So we started kind of beefing those portions up a bit. And as we go forward, we'll probably continue to do the same thing. We were just trying to be very cautious. However, even in this instance, a high school is built with multiple buildings. Even when we opened Davenport High School, we were able to open

198it up and get the buildings um enough buildings open to get the children on campus and and going. One of the other things that this district typically does is you typically don't open with a full school the first year. So that makes it easier to accommodate the student bodies as well. But this was just in case we needed a little more um assurityity to cover any of the unintended consequences for the board while we were looking at those. >> All right. >> I don't hopefully that answers. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Sharpless. >> I've got a few questions. Um thank you for being here, Mr. Fix today to present. Um my first question is uh in the agreement um it mentioned that the total lump sum that we would pay Fortress is 177 uh,544,822. Um

199and I'm wondering how if if we could I would like to have um a very clear uh whether that's a document or something to show what the BAFO was that they originally uh submitted. what costs have we incurred up to this point like we purchased land. We had, you know, we had know we had other costs as well. Um and then um plus the lump sum of 177,000 and compare that to the BAFO price that we originally had and see where we're at. Um that would make me feel very comfortable about uh you know voting to approve. Um so that would be something I asked just so to have clear uh clarity and transparency. Um that would help me. So >> and Mr. Green's uh signal to me. He's got that. >> Oh, excellent. >>

200For us, >> if he could if you could please uh let the board have that as well. >> I I draw your attention to appendix 5 schedule of values. I believe I believe that information is embedded there. It's got the u the baffo price, the current price, and what's what's included in that current price. >> Sorry, I didn't see I didn't see that. I'll have to go back and look. Okay. It's >> going to be it's going to be um >> What page is that? >> Sure. Um it's an appendix so it's the very end. >> Um >> Joshua just page 113. >> Okay. >> Page 123. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. 11. >> Excellent. That'll help me. I appreciate that. >> Yeah. So that gives pretty good detail of the um the

201detailed cost breakdown of each of those items as the the amounts paid. uh includes the design, includes the property um that that was purchased >> and then um what was and then also comparing that to the baffo price. >> So the the baffo is listed if you look at line well it's not a line number. It's an initial budget amount. >> Okay, got it. >> See that there? That's the baffo and then the the agreement price is above that. That's the and the total the 177 amount. >> Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. >> Yeah, sure. And I sorry it's okay. Um I just didn't see that in the appendices. Um all right. Uh the next really I'll ask just one more question. Um so I noticed on page 67 when I was reviewing this

202um me go back and look at this. Yeah. uh when it talks about relief events. Um that differing site conditions is one of those. Um and so if there's some sort of different site different differing site condition like an underground issue or something that's found uh that wasn't in the interim agreement assessment that we did, who's going to bear the cost of that remediation in order to in order to be ready for construction? Well, they'll be bearing the fortress will bearing the cost of that. And that's one of the one of the beauties of this is that all this is covered in there. >> All right. I just want to make sure because it because it talked about the relief uh the relief events and one of those being different different differing site conditions that

203it kind of kind of just flew a red flag to me. Well, and bear in mind we we all there's a lot of language in here that was trying to anticipate any in in in every thing that we could think of that could come up. So, it's a very broad agreement with respect to that. And in fact, I I can imagine that if districts choose to use the P3 process, many of them will probably be contacting us for a copy of this. >> That That's my last question. Thank you, >> M. Wallace. >> I just wanted, we've discussed this through so many meetings, and I know this seems like a very plain thing to bring up, but could we remind the public where this school is going to be located and what students um you

204know, what high schools will be pulling from? So, everybody, you know, if that makes sense. We've been talking about this through several meetings and I think it's important to remind everyone. >> Sure. This is this is um I would call kind of the norththeast portion of PK County in the um the the plan unit development called or it's a um point Sienna which is up there and of course it is a an what we call in planning circles an antiquated subdivision that was laid out many many years ago uh by the General Dynamics Corporation. lots that were laid out. Um, these lots do not in either Ocula or Pulk have to meet the test of any concurrency at all. Um, as the as one builds on those lots, they pull a building permit, they pay

205their impact fees, and then they're able to proceed forward. We already know that we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 to a,000 young people that are uh Pulk County residents that are attending schools in Ocola. Now, not all those are high schoolers, but a number of them are. Now, when this school opens, we don't expect that they'll all come back to Pulk overnight, but we know we expect that there'll be a transition to those students as well. However, this school is mostly and um I believe we've already laid out the attendance boundaries where it's going to be relieving Hayes City High School. >> Yes. So, relieving Hane City hopefully retaining more of our students who are crossing district borders. >> That is correct. >> And then it'll have the capacity to serve how many

206students ultimately? >> I believe it's 2500. >> Yeah. >> Great. Thanks. I know that um again basic stuff, but when we talk about it over several meetings, it's good to remind the public. Yes, ma'am. It's good to put it out there for the public. That's >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> I can address a few items as well. So, uh the the specific location, it's appendix one of the project site is located at approximately 700 Bay Street and unincorporated PK County and the the actual uh legal descriptions uh included in appendix one as well. Um going back to uh Dr. Allan's question about liquidated damages, how we arrived at the that particular amount of $10,000 a day. Um it was um liquidated damages can't be a punitive amount. So um in coordination with Mr.

207Williams. Um he looked at case law and what what would be a reasonable amount for uh the district um in the event that substantial completion wasn't done by May 1st. Um what would we have to do as a plan B? And that would involve things like u getting portables in place and how many portables, you know, 2500 students. There was an equation, there was math put into that amount. Um, it was negotiated and and agreed to by Fortress. And I think it shows their good faith that they intend to have this substantially complete by May 1st because they don't want to we want the school open and they don't want to be um having to pay damages for any delays. So, I think that shows uh good faith on their part. >> Miss Miller, >>

208thank you. Um, I appreciate the question about location because we have talked about this for a very long time and for whatever reason the public was confused with this and the other land that we've been discussing. So, this was good that we made it clear today. And I also want to thank um Mr. Green and the superintendent for answering questions. I can say from the almost eight years on the board, this is the most vetted project that I've been a part of and the questions have been thorough and answered multiple times. So, I appreciate that and look forward to bringing some of those students back into PK County and relieving Hayne City. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Fix. I see no further questions or comments. >> Thank you, >> board member. The next

209item um up um is a request or or for your interest to gauge your interest for a change in the retreat date. Uh presently the uh retreat date for July is scheduled for July 1st. Knowing that that's a holiday weekend and knowing that you may have other commitments, um we'd like to request that we reassign the board retreat to July 13th. And if need be, um I think the recommendation, Miss Winchester, remind me, was to piggyback on that retreat date with a board meeting. It would be a board meeting and announcing those administrative moves over the summer. >> It it would be a board meeting meeting a short board meeting simply for the purpose of announce announcing administrative changes um prior to the end of the school year or prior to the start of the

210next school year. So I I essentially I'm looking for an indication from the board as to whether or not July 13th would work for your schedules in lie of July 1st for the board retreat. >> We absolutely can't do July 1 to bring cake. But 13th >> I am happy to bring cake. >> He brought me cake for other >> I did. >> The 13th is my >> Okay. >> The fifth is my birthday too. So it's okay if we move it to the 13th for me. >> So I have two yeses at least. >> You can. >> Miss Wyatt, it's a yes. >> What would the time be? >> It's 9 to 3. 9 to2. >> Board meeting was joined at >> 9. Well, we would advertise at 9 to 3 with the board

211meeting to immediately follow at 3, but we would conclude the board meeting very quickly as I mentioned >> and this would be in place of July. >> July 1st. Okay, >> Dr. Allen, you're the only one that looks hesitant at the moment. >> Oh, >> we'll bring the territory. >> She might need cake. >> We we would we can definitely provide cake to go. >> And and again, not a vote roll call vote, but Mr. Sharpless, I just want to make sure it works for your schedule. >> Yes. >> Perfect. I will vet that with Miss Fields. But at this time, board members, um we will bring that as a formal change on at next week, Tuesday. Next item we have, board members, is under capital projects and deferred maintenance, Miss Jenkins. Good afternoon. >>

212Good afternoon. >> Today's presentation is based on some questions that were asked at our last work session. We wanted to clarify. >> So during our last work session, we talked about the proposed projects for borrowing. Here's a list of those projects again with our current fish capacity, our new added permanent fish capacity, and the resulting total. So, you can see the total budget for the additional capacity and renovation added. This is a base slide. The facilities team put together the deferred maintenance. The way that this chart runs is the sites are across the top with the categories along the left hand side. These are the projects that have deferred maintenance uh that require deferred maintenance that we're seeking to borrow on those on the renovation as a whole campus. So you will see Alta Vista

213is a little over 2 million, Floral um a little over four, Wanita around three and Lake Alfred at 5 million. These numbers also I'd like to point out are only for the next five years. So the deferred maintenance plan does does go out further. Um this slide is about our revenue estimates. So there's a lot of information on here and and I wanted to put this together to try and help help you understand um what these these projects will do and how it will help us use our dollars differently. So we have our project again on the left side. We've included the increased fish capacity. And why is that important? Because we can use impact fees when we increase capacity. And then that frees up other types of capital. Our main sources are LCI, local

214capital improvement, which is our 1.5 mil impact fees and also CO and DS. And sales tax. we have our sales tax revenue for our bond. Um, so for these projects, the column that says sales tax or LCI, if we were to pay cash for those or we to were to pay as you go, that's the funding source we would use. The deferred maintenance, I've added this here just to kind of give you an example to show you what the whole picture looks like. So, if we look at Alta Vista and we want to do that project without borrowing, we would plan to spend about 13.2 in impact fees. We'd spend 46.7 in sales tax. Um, and then that project completion would include the $2 million for deferred maintenance. So, that's not an additional expense you'd

215have to pay on top of that. Because these projects would include work that is also considered deferred maintenance. It it takes care of that obligation. You don't have to do the work. We would have an additional 14.5 million that we could reallocate to other sites for deferred maintenance. Um does do and along the bottom we have our cops. Um I've called it series 2206 for 2728 um 2930 and 3031 with our comps borrowing. We are looking at having $21 million left over after our our what we currently have in our budget, our current projects, our current fixed costs. That would leave us with 21.4 million. And I've just projected it out over the next four years to give you a picture. If we do not borrow with cops, we would have 48 million left over

216to budget towards these projects. That amount does not include any of the projects stated above. So, we would have to to assign a priority to those. Essentially what the cops borrowing is doing is it's allowing us to complete projects in a timely manner, redirect $238 million that would be spent from sales tax to another use and um providing flexibility. Mr. Sharpless, >> thank you for presenting this. I I appreciate the breakdown. You know, we we talked about this at the last work session. Um, you know, it was a something we brought up was that how much of how much is this going to actually you the renovation going to take away from our deferred maintenance and now you gave us that. So it that helps me. So I appreciate it. Thank you. You're >> welcome.

217>> Mr. Jenkins, I see no further questions or comments. Board members, um, I'm just going to clarify for the general public because we did address this largely at the retreat. Um and so essentially what you're show but what you were shown here today is that by replacing and renovating those campuses that deferred maintenance cost is no longer an investment need on our behalf and those dollars could be reallocated elsewhere. I just I needed to say it that way so that the general public followed that flow of that conversation uh for transparency purposes. And again, we do have some limitations as far as what pots of money are available to us because they are restricted, meaning you have to add space capacity. You can't that's the reason why you don't see anything next to Mclofflin Senior

218Middle School for their auditorium. Arguably, it doesn't necessarily add fish capacity. Even though there might be some classrooms associated with it, you're not getting a large fish capacity impact. So, we can't defer and utilize those other revenues to offset that cost. that has to come out of our traditional funding mechanism for capital investments. So, interesting that, you know, the replacement cost for those schools would essentially offset and save us almost $15 million that we could defer to other sites um and help expedite our replacement and repairs or the manner in which we address deferred maintenance. So, thank you, Mr. Chair. There's two items remaining. There's the donation report and then there's a recommendation of bid award for superintendent's approval quarterly report that are attached. Um and I will defer to you at this time sir.

219>> Thank you superintendent. Um board members uh are there any um questions over either D1 or D2 right now? Thoseformational items for the superintendent. Seeing none, uh we will go ahead and do our board agenda review, which um I'll ask for questions. Uh thank you. Um this time I'll give you a second to switch over in board docs over to uh the board meeting tonight so that way we can go over the agenda review. All right. Are there any questions on items A through E? Miss Miller, I believe you're stepping down for special recognitions tonight. You're welcome. Any questions over items F through K? Board member Wallace, you have the floor. >> Yes. And um item H, we are getting a bunch of bid recommendations to be approved that cumulatively are worth $20 million, which

220uh know is part of the um ordinary operations for the business. But um none of them I think one was single source and the others were um renewals and I was hoping a superintendent if you or your staff could just let the public know why we did not bid those out. I would I can >> Can we find Mr. Davis, please? This was his the the majority of those contracts fall under transportation. Um, as I explained to Miss Wallace separately, the the additional reason for no bid. Um, in many instances, we're able to piggyback off of another school district's bidding process, which saves us time and a great deal of energy for our staff. And we find that those rates are very competitive. Otherwise, we would not piggy back off of those. Okay. >> But

221we are in the process, as you know, we've addressed two legacy contracts that are already being put out for RFI and RFP, and we will continue that process and outline for the board the additional contracts moving forward. The the um the soul source provider can't be competitively bid because the whole point behind the soul source provider is they provide a service that far exceeds anyone else in the industry. And so be based off that specific nature that they do more. Um there isn't a competitive agency that could submit a bid. We could if we parcled out the interest, but that doesn't serve us in the best interest. We tend to get more cost savings as well. But if Mr. Davis wants to come forward, um Mr. Davis, the question is why were they not why

222were the um the bid renewals not bid out? I explained that we piggyback off other districts, but if there's something else you can contribute to provide an explanation, I'd appreciate it. >> And while you're pulling that up, Mr. Davis, um I generally trust the staff. It's just more that when the public sees us voting in millions of dollars of contracts, I feel like it's a good exercise just to explain that process from time to time. And with me being a new board member, I appreciate you indulging me. So on the first one, I apologize. Sorry, walked out at the wrong time. Okay, so for number one, the 008 DW-0924 fleet management services. This is a program that we um we have been in um in partnership with Enterprise uh fleet services since 2023. And this

223was a renewal for this um contract to continue on that services. So the the reason it was renewed is because the old contract was phasing out and for us to stay in compliance, we had to renew that contract. the uh fresh produce one. I spoke with Mrs. um Katie Taylor. This was also bid out. It had a 4-year option to renew and this was in the third year. We're in the second year of renewal. The company that was awarded is Bliss Produce and they have met or exceeded the expectations. Great. >> So that's why it was renewed. And these are um the first contract was a a contract with a outside agency. This one was a um RFP that was done internal by the school district. >> And I'm going to stop you there. I

224don't want you to feel like you have to go down line by line, but just more in general like it sounds like that we were satisfied with these vendors and it's to save time and keep working with our partners. Yes. >> And then Superintendent Hyde provided some good helpful context before you walked in. So, do you have anything else to add? >> No, I think that's good. >> Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. >> Is that all, Board Member Wallace? >> Oh, yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> You're welcome. All right. Um, is there any other questions on items F through K? All right. Are there any any questions on items L through N? Dr. Allen, you are now recognized. >> Thank you, Chair Sharpless. Uh, first of all, it's good to see the demolition

225of portables on there. So, thank you, Superintendent Hyde, for that continued movement um away from those. Uh, one question, this would be on L 9 and this is the approval for the use of funds uh as it relates to the portable generators. you know, this is obviously a part of our bigger initiative with state appropriation and so forth. Um, and I'm just reflecting back on our halfsent sales tax oversight committee and I know that there were some specific advisory suggestions that were brought forward uh by that committee as it related to to that particular item. And I just wanted to make sure that we took all action that the committee had requested and you know advised regarding these purchases and um pretty simple question just want to make sure that it's on the record. So

226when I've got committee members that are reaching out to me uh regarding this item if you could clare which committee sir >> this was the halfsent sales tax oversight committee. uh these items were brought before that committee uh during our last meeting and it was a pretty fruitful conversation around it and I think from a an advisory there seemed to be some recommendations that were brought in that meeting. I just want to make sure that we um met what those expectations were. >> I guess I'm not familiar why this would have been presented to that committee. these generators are being funded directly from an allocation through the state and are unrelated to half penny sales tax. Um, and so I really do need Mr. McLemore or Mr. Fix. Um, Miss Jenkins is here. Um, and

227she can answer, but I I don't know what those recommendations were. I know that the procurement was delayed because the initial bid would have allowed us to partner with Caterpillar. Caterpillar refuses to sign that none of their parts and supplies come from overseas, which is now a requirement. As a result, we had to go out and and and bid the item out again. Um, the problem was the initial specifications changed and so then we had to come back. So, Miss Jenkins, if you can add, I'm I'm not familiar as to why it would go to half penny sales tax if it was a direct allocation. >> There's it's a a grant and there is a match to the grant. So it was taken to the sales tax committee to request to use sales tax dollars

228as a match. The committee did cap um they set a cap and that is what we have are budgeting. >> Okay. >> Were there other recommendations that were made um to Dr. Allen's point that we're taken into consideration and if we don't have an answer to that it needs to be addressed this evening by staff. >> I don't have an answer to that sir but I will get you one. >> If we could get Mr. McLemore and the team to be prepared for this evening or yourself. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Just um you know, for the sake of the committee. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Is that all, Dr. Allen? >> Um that is all from that one. Yes. >> Thank you, sir. >> Are there any

229other questions on items L through N? >> Okay. >> Seeing none, we will go to se sections O through T. O through T. All right, seeing no questions, we'll go to uh U, our action agenda. Any questions on our action agenda? Any questions on V, our public hearing? No. All right. Then we have uh our superintendent's report. Superintendent, you'll have a report tonight. I will, sir. >> All right. Um, and then we have our attorney's report. >> Yes, sir. Two items. Two items. Uh, M. Matthews, do we have an auditor's report? I don't have anything here. All right. Thank you. Um, and then we'll go to our board member reports and then, um, we will wrap up with, uh, public comments. Are there any other questions on the agenda as a whole? Seeing none, we

230will go back to our uh our meeting, our work session. Please give you a second to rejoin that. All right. Um under new business, we have a discussion. Uh we talked about it briefly just to introduce the idea at our last work session, but um we have our FSBA advocacy committee. uh election tonight for the committee representative and an alternate. So is there any discussion on this item we have this uh this will be for oh Dr. Allen I'll recognize you. >> Thanks. Yeah, I mean I I think in in my capacity currently as a board of directors with the FSBA, um you know, I'm happy to continue serving in that role. I know that will expire, I believe, next year. Uh but I don't know if there's anybody that would be willing I would

231love to nominate someone uh if they would be willing to serve in this capacity. >> All right. Thank you, board me board member Allen. >> So I will just listenbody's interested in serving. >> All right. Thank you, board member Wallace. You are now recognized. >> To that end, um I have a passion uh for public policy advocacy. That is my line of work. I have a 20-year career in that space. And if the board is willing, that's something where I could um I'd be I'm willing to raise my hand um to serve as an alternate or whatever the organization needs. However, we have so many seasoned, experienced board members that I I'm I have confidence that any one of us could do a great job. But I just wanted for y'all's awareness to know that's

232something I would be interested in. >> Board member Keys, you're now recognized. >> I'll echo what Miss Wallace has said that I have enjoyed serving as the advocate uh the alternate on that committee. So, um whatever is the desire of the board as a whole, I'd be more than willing to serve in either capacity. >> Thank you, board member Keys. Um I know currently um the rep representative on that committee is board member Fields. She is not here. Um she did mention that uh she is willing to serve again, but um if someone else really wanted it, she also is fine with not serving on that committee again. So it's really up to you guys. So um we're going to look for a motion tonight for for somebody to be nominated and an alternate. So,

233um, is there any more discussion from my fellow board members? >> Well, no, no, we're I we can discuss now who uh, you know, potential motions that could be made tonight. Um, we just will not we're not voting on anything now. So, if anyone has a opinion on that, they can certainly voice that now during a work session. So, We're in the sunshine. Yes, we are. Okay. Since there's no other uh comment, um I would ask that someone have a mo well someone. Well, no, we really need to kind of figure this part out what the motion's going to be for tonight so that way we can have it in our board docs. So, uh is anyone really interested in serving? I'm I'm a little confused because we've already expressed that and what we made

234at the board meeting is a nomination and then that person we would vote on it then. >> It seems like we're making a nomination making a nomination. >> No, there's we we talk about it and then there's a recommended motion, okay, tonight at the board meeting. So, I would like to have someone say, "Yeah, I'll be I'll be interested in ser I would like to serve, you know, um so we can have it for certain." If not, um, like I said, board member Fields also said she'd be willing to, but she doesn't need to. So, this is where we discuss. Board member Wyatt, you're now recognized. >> I stayed quiet as I am not a member of FSBA. I know that that that it's whoever is rep they are that person is representing the full

235district on FSBA. Um, but that's why I have stayed quiet is because I'm I'm no longer a member, so I'm not eligible. But I think any of you would do a great job and I know Miss Fields has done it before. I did it for several years. Um it really is at least in the during session it is a little bit of a time commitment because they do have calls every Friday Travis they still do calls every Friday. Um which are really really informative but whoever is doing it I just would want to make sure that they're available to jump on those calls or the alternate so that we can be getting that information. >> Thank you. And as a point of clarification, I just want to say that as a current executive officer of

236FSBA, um I I'm already on that committee, so I would not be our district's representative. Um so I just want to make that clear. I I should not be serving in that role. So Mr. Keys, you're now recognized. >> So then for clarification sake, I would be willing to step in that role as previously having served as the alternate. >> Okay. if it so pleases the board. >> Right. Okay. Sounds board member Wallace, you're now recognized. >> If uh first of all, I would want to defer to Mrs. Fields. She's the dean and if um she expresses that she wants to keep serving, I would absolutely defer to her. if she's truly impartial and would like to see some new blood um I would be supportive of vice chair keys um succeeding her and that

237I will offer myself as an alternate given that I'm newer to the board yet this is one area of expertise I happen to have where I feel like I would probably be like a duck to water in that regard but um given um my colleagues experience bases I feel like it'd be best to to advance either of the two of them >> thank you board member Wallace All right. Well, I've kind of gotten some direction for a potential motion tonight. Um I think unless there's anything else on that on this item, um we will continue now to uh board member comments. These comments are for our uh liaison positions. Board member Wyatt, you are now recognized. >> Thank you. I this is not necessarily a liaison position, but I um Mr. Sharpless and I both

238went through the um sheriff's advisory council this year and as one of my um you get you have one that you get to choose where you shadow and I chose to shadow safe schools and I apologize because I may have ruined it for everyone um in that I shadowed safe schools last Friday when we had our incident at Davenport High School. Um but because of that I got to experience firsthand our safe schools team. Um, truency shows up and supports, which I I did not realize that they were as supportive as they are. They show up every time. Um, which gives that layer of consistency of the doers. Um, and just people that can, you know, they know what the system is and because every school you have a little bit different layout, a different

239team of people. Um, I did not realize that they always show up. That was um, extremely comforting just having seen it in action. Um, but I just want to give kudos to the Davenport High School team because they did incredible. Um the situation was secure before we could even get from Winter Haven to Davenport. Um that really a lot of the the management on the back end was just checking students out of school and crowd control um and checking several students out of school. But I um Superintendent Hyde, you should be proud because they really it was incredible to see. I hate that I had to see it, but it um it was very reassuring just watching the intricacies, how everyone works together. Um and it really it's it is handled beautifully that it gives

240it should give everyone great comfort um with how our our safe schools are handled. So, I just wanted to give kudos to this that team. >> Thank you, board member Wyatt, for those comments. Any other board members? If not, this meeting is now adjourned.