001Good afternoon. Good. Sorry. Good morning. Use this being an afternoon. Good morning and welcome to the Poke County School Board's work session. Uh we will now call the work session for March 10th, 2026 to order. Thank you to our staff who are available and accessible to help 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 are 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.
002The 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 will 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 manner in order to enhance opportunities for each student and staff member. We will not disparrage 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,
003I would like to turn it over to Superintendent Hyde to lead us in our work session today. Just asking for your patience. I apologize, Mr. Chair, members of the board, but my board docs keeps logging me into the city of Athens as it did last time. >> So, what's going on there? >> I I don't know. Maybe I don't know if there's something y'all need to tell me. Um, good morning everyone and board members. As you know, we've had a little bit of a busy day um with Floral Avenue. So, last Friday, I'll start just by recognizing the staff from Floral Avenue and our own district staff. Um, we had a reunification event. As you know, we had to move Floral Elementary School across the street because a semi-tractor trailer had hit a low power,
004low voltage line. typically associated with telecommunications or with cable that ended up snapping the top of the pole. Um, and it was hanging there precariously and they were worried that if it broke that it would take out all the power lines and create a hazard. So, we relocated students. We assumed we had it fixed, but then today, apparently, we received notice this morning that the city trash truck hit the same low voltage cable and pulled the pole a bit, but no impact, no disruption operations. So, just I don't know what the chances are for that to happen twice at one school, but I I don't know if we should all rush out and play Powerball today or not, but I I I do want to again give kudos to the amazing staff and and I
005want to say thank you to our parents who were very patient, very grateful. Um, we were able to reunify 500 students within a few hours. We were able to feed all of our students. The kids were amazing. Staff were amazing. And this Friday, we'll be doing something to say thank you to the staff there um for the and our sincere appreciation for all that they did. But the amazing team that responded what we we got a firsthand opportunity to really understand what's going to take place in in event of a real emergency. And while thankfully this was not life-threatening and thankfully we were able to, you know, it was a small school. were able to relocate it very quickly immediately adjacent to another campus. Um some of the real issues bubbled up. So for example,
006parents went to social media to announce the power outage and then other parents started coming to the school before we could message and re and identify the process that we would use for reunification. Um and so that creates an issue. But then when the Raptor alert went out and we were in the process of moving students, traffic congestion is the real issue for staff to be able to report in a timely manner to that alternative site. And then we realized that some of our municipalities are not aware of the unique badges that our staff have who are first responders or who are crisis responders on our teams. And so because they weren't familiar with that specialized badge or with a PCPS badge, they did not let staff through. So we were able to work through
007that. Um, but I would say I'd also give credit to the city of Barto fire department was absolutely amazing and law enforcement was amazing. It's great to know that you have so many great partners and of course the sheriff's office sent dozens of officers out to help. And so again, we we'll have our afteraction meeting later this week and go through any remaining items, but we're able to reunify students with parents. We did it through a drive-thru pickup line, which actually was much better than having parents stand in line. If we can ever do that in the future again, we'll definitely pursue that. So, I just wanted to start with giving kudos and giving you a little bit of an update on floral since we're here in this meeting this morning. We have four items
008up before the board today under the superintendent report for today's workshop. The first is um information for the board on prek and summer learning sites for this summer. So I would invite Mr. McNottton, Lori Allen, Miss Fren, and Miss Clark. I'm not sure who's actually presenting. It looks like Joe is. Um who are going to share with you the information about these sites. And this is just as an FYI for your reference. Good morning. Good morning, >> honorable chair Sharpless, honorable board and superintendent Hyde. Uh pleasure to bring uh our staff here and we're going to start off with our prek update. So, I'm going to bring Dr. Lorie Allen and Rebecca Ecman to really talk about what's going on for the 26 27 school year in prek. >> Good morning. >> Morning. >> Good
009morning. >> Okay. I don't know how to do this. Do you hit that thing? Okay, >> there we go. There we go. Good morning. So, there's a couple of things we want to start with. Our successes, as um in the past, we are continually staying fully enrolled for Head Start 942. However, um the fully enrolled is not just Head Start. We have to report that for um the feds, but every program has been fully enrolled with approximately a thousand kids sitting on waiting lists. Um so one of the big um things that we've done with partnership with early learning is we've increased the students with disabilities accessing general education prek classes and you can see the data shows you that back in 2223 we were only at about 4.6% and currently this year about 12%
010of our students with disabilities are included in the early learning childhood whether that's head start or VPK they're getting their services around students that are non-disabled. So that's really exciting uh number to see grow. We track it growing. Every month it gets bigger. Another important thing about that is the federal regulation requires a minimum of 10% be enrolled in the Head Start program. In the past, we have seriously struggled getting that. And two years ago, we had to ask for a waiver. This year, we opened the doors at 9% and we're well over 12 just for Head Start. So, to give you a breakdown and understanding of how our programs are, um, Head Start, Title One, ESSE, PreK, and VPK are all the different programs that children and their families can qualify for. Head Start
011serves children three to five, as does ESE preK. Title One are four and five years old and VPK are four and 5 year olds. Um, you want to talk about ESSE? >> Yeah. So students um that uh in order to go into the ESC preK um those are students that have been found eligible for a disability at age three is the earliest we start serving them. They can come in a couple different ways. They can come in through early steps. They've already been um having some supports birth through two. They come in through child find. We provide them services that way. But once they have an IEP at age three, we provide them those services, whether that's through a um itinerant teacher in the early childhood classrooms or whether that's in a separate class prek
012with uh other students with disabilities. So, Head Start 3 is school eligible, meaning they have to be three by September 1 or four by September 1. Um Head Start is a federal program that is um available to children who are in lowincome families. Um we include health supports, social supports, mental health. Um they have there are four ways that they can qualify. Either they're homeless, they are foster, um 100% below the poverty line, or they they are eligible for SNAP or other type of government assistance. Um our title one families, they the way that works is we only have funds for 22 classrooms. So it's not every title one classroom or every s every prek on a title one. specific ones and then they are eligible much like with Head Start. They have to be
013zoned for the school the title one is funding um for for title one part A and if you belong to that school and are four years old then you can go in there at no cost to the parent. Also, by the way, Head Start is at no cost. VPK is a three-hour program. Any child who is four by September 1 can qualify for that. And we have sites that are either VPK is blended into the other programs or they're standalones where they um get the first three hours for free and they can either go home or the parent can pay for wraparound services for the rest of the day. >> And just to clarify, when a child turns three, it doesn't have to be by September 1st, it's by their third birthday. So we provide
014services to students as soon as they turn three all the way up until they enter school. So these next few pages are just a breakdown of how we have chosen to put school classrooms on school campuses this year. Um to give you an idea of how we've decided with the three programs that are under the early childhood is that we looked at our schools that were the most needy populations and those are the schools that we put Head Start sites on. Then the second round was where we put our title one and the third round is where we put our BPK. Um, some things that we had to consider is not only the number of children, but the number of spaces that we actually have on campuses. Unfortunately, um, you know, if there's not a
015place to put them, it doesn't really matter what the need is. What we're seeing is on the east side of the county is where we have the highest need. It's where our highest numbers of, um, classrooms are needed to be, but it's the least amount of space. Um, yep. So, these are all the different regions. >> All right. So, what we're going to continue doing for this upcoming school year is we're really going to increase the collaboration between our ESC preK department and the early childhood department. We have um staff who are working very closely together. We're training uh crossraining coaches um and ESC facilitators to understand what goes on in preK, what they need to know in regards to classroom management, what they need to know in regards to standards, developmental um milestones. And
016so we're really continuing that partnership in order to increase the um the ability for students to access the general education classroom. >> Oh, that's it. >> Want to talk about curriculum? >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. I also we wanted to add we have just recently um last week did our curriculum review. It was time for our five-year review. Um we had uh a number of people. I think there was about seven or eight people total. We included the teaching and learning department at Victoria McKenzie joined us. We asked the early learning coalition um Dr. Hueek and Cheryl Kelly joined us as well as the coaches for early childhood the partnership with ESSE and ourselves and we had four different companies come and present. We are deciding to go with Frog Street which we're very excited about
017um because I looked at it a few years ago and it they have really stepped it up and the important thing about this was that we all unanimously agreed together what we what we liked about it but the early learning coalition was a very significant part of the discussion and they are actually going to follow suit from what I understand they are intending to um do along the same lines of what we're doing because they believe what PK County Public Schools is doing is really important and leading the other private providers along the same route. >> Great. Any questions? >> Miss Miller. >> Hi, good morning. Thank you. Um, we've made progress. We've struggled with this for a very I mean 15 years that I am aware of. Um, so I appreciate the progress being
018made. When you have the prek classrooms going into gened or that inclusive piece going from 4.6% to 12%. My question is the supports are in place to make that successful because as much as we want inclusion if we don't bring the supports we've seen that um it doesn't lead to to positive outcomes. So can you talk a little bit about the supports that'll be provided for that large of an increase? >> Yes. So we have increased the number of itinerant ESC prek teachers. We now have uh six um to cover the expansion of the number of students that are going into the gened classrooms. Um, as we monitor that and those increase, we'll increase the number of teachers that we have so that their case loads don't get overwhelmed and they're not having to travel
019to multiple schools. Um, we are working with the ESC coaches um, with our teachers, with our facilitators on providing some of those classroom management supports, understanding what's going on there. The data collection is being done by both the coaches and the facilitators to ensure that the the interventions are being put into place and the IEPs are being followed. And if a child is not being successful, an IEP meeting team uh comes together to determine what additional supports they need or do they need um more intense supports in a different environment. >> And with the supports in the pre-K rooms um on the other end of the spectrum, when you have prek units with 17 kids and 13 of them aren't toilet trained and they need help feeding, the curriculum hours are so minimal in those
020units. How are we supporting those teachers? Is there can you talk a little bit about a written plan so they know how to ask for help because by the time I get the phone call or the superintendent gets the phone call it's usually crisis at at that point. So can you talk a little bit about the teachers and the principles how they >> like we would K12 where we actually decide what level of support they need and then figure out who's the most capable of providing that support. >> Thank you. My last question is on page three. It it has the number of hours that are funded. Can you talk a little bit about related services in those units? Are those provided in those four hours or is that or is that additional time? >>
021So that's additional time. That's just what is funded. ESC prek is an unfunded mandate. So we don't get the true funding that we need, but that's additional time. >> Thanks for saying that for me. Thank you. >> Yeah, >> Mr. Sharpless. >> First, I just want to say um a plug for my fellow board members. I' I'm currently serving as our representative on the Head Start Policy Council and I can tell you it's been a tremendous uh opportunity for me. I appreciate you, Dr. Allen, Dr. Lorie Allen. Um make sure uh for your leadership and and running those meetings. Um but anyhow, I highly if you haven't served on the Head Start policy council yet, next time when we come up for appointments, make sure you request that because it's truly a great experience. Um
022you're welcome. And uh I have a question for Superintendent Hyde. Um is it the uh is it United Way or is it YMCA that's running our Mclofflin VPK? >> It's YMCA. >> Don't know why. >> YMCA. Okay. And so I met I met the only reason I I got it confused is because I was at um a United Way uh kickoff event and I was talking to an individual there and they were telling me they were having an issue with uh with with getting those seats filled. So, if we have a thousand students in the waiting list, if you can funnel them down there, I know there's some spaces. >> That's a great question. We actually did do that. I've re I've sent several times the list of names and the students who are on
023weight lists. The problem is is at this point, most of them have found another place or they've decided not to enroll. So, we have shared we actually make that of a common practice that we not only send it to them now, but we send it back to the ELC, the list of parents, so they know the students sitting on our wait list and they work with private providers to get them seats there. Awesome. Thank you. I just I know that they were talking to me. They were have they it wasn't full and they were trying to get more students there. >> Yeah. >> And I apologize, Mr. Chair. I didn't understand your question initially. So, um we've worked very closely with the YMCA. We've asked them to share their marketing materials with us. Part of
024the difficulty that they had with initial enrollment was unrelated to interest. It's that parents had already made decisions and choices by the time we were able to get them open. that parents are very unlikely to uproot a student from a current setting to move them to something else. And so we've really, especially as we looked for enrollment um opportunities for next school year, we have really partnered more aggressively with them to continually advertise that location um to not only parents but to staff um because it's supposed to be a lowerc cost alternative for them because of the partnership that we have. Um but we'll be re-evaluating that at the end of the year and making sure that they are maximizing utilization. >> Yeah. And and so um I agree with you, Superintendent Hyde. I know
025with my my uh my little ones, I'm not moving them in the middle of a school year from VPK. That's for certain. Um we got when you get routines together, you don't try to mess that up. Um um but but thank you for uh for your willingness to to help them out because I know that we were just chatting and I really would like to see that. um you know we if we have people on waiting list I would love to see them fill those spots. So >> Thank you >> Miss Wyatt. >> Thank you. I you know similar to Mr. Sharpless's question about the waiting list. If we have a thousand students what is the hold up from expanding? Is it that we don't have the space? Is it that we don't we can't
026get the staff? Is it funding? >> Yes. >> What Okay. And this may be a question for for Mr. Hyde is that what do we need to do to be able to expand BPK to or preK? >> We had we have applied for an expansion grant a couple of years ago. Um they were not um willing to provide I think one person in the entire um all of United States got it. It's very difficult to get right now especially with the political climate we're in. There's flat funding. Um we just found out the other day we'll actually get a cola which we were not expecting. Um so yes the funding is big. um the cost our overhead costs for salaries are eating up most of our salaries most of our um budgets but we do
027not really have places to put them which Mr. Hyde is working diligently in helping us address that problem. Then we have to think about not only the cost of the person but the materials the equipment to open a classroom is around 90,000. So yeah all of all the above. >> Are we going to see a plan at some point for how we are we going to see a plan at some point for how we >> are looking to expand? I just my thought is, you know, we can spend a million, $2 million on prek on tutoring services in the early elementary years or we can get them in pre-k earlier and not have to to play catch-up later on. >> So, this will actually be woven into our conversation on April 10th, >> okay? >>
028When we talk about school utilization, by and large, we need to finalize elementary and middle school recommendations for resoning because that will then give us a better determination of where students are. But just so the board understands um because some obviously some board members are new and may not have a footprint in in early learning that remains a very fluid placement because student placement makes sense when you have um enough students within a demographic area that they should be at a school where there's vacant space. But as those students grow, unless there's a population to replace them from that same community or or area, it it's just like a bus stop. If those students move on to the next grade level and there's no students there and the concentration of students moves two blocks down
029the street, the bus stop should move. Well, so too shall VPK. And then as you see and prek so as you see enrollment fluctuate as well, that becomes an issue. So unfortunately in this situation outside of a a center school type model for early learning which we have talked about I think the YMCA is trying to replicate that. We've done a great job of that at Elbert and other places are the board approved a number of years ago that in new elementary construction that they would have a dedicated building for early learning and prek. We did that at Willow Oak. Um, we did not do that at one of our other recent builds for cost-saving measures, but that is absolutely coming back. But then there are some opportunities for us to discuss with school consolidation
030and some other things to bring this topic to the forefront because I think a center school model makes more sense because we can get better stability for that population of students. But to Miss Miller's earlier questions and for all of our students, if I can concentrate those students in one location, I can also concentrate their services in one location and we don't end up with itinerant support. We end up with full-time support and and I think that's a much better model for us. So, we will be discussing port a portion of this on April 10th. >> Awesome. >> The um and the the spread the table is super helpful in just being able to see where what types of classes they are. Um, I would love to see a a final column that's the total
031number of classes that also shows the schools that we don't have any classes at. Like I know I have two in my area. I don't pretend to know every elementary school in PT County off the top of my head because >> I can get that for you. >> There's just no way. Um, so it just would be helpful to see where else they are not. >> Um, Dr. Alan, if you'll if you'll send that to my office so I can make sure the whole board gets it. >> Absolutely. >> Um, and then my this is more of a curriculum question so feel free how to direct it. Um and super I asked superintendent height about this last week because when we had some visitors recently on our campuses um there was some concerns of how
032much technologies being used in prek um specifically students just having access to iPads during their circle or um center time. Um, you know, there was one classroom where they went into was on their tour and they were doing heads, shoulders, knees, and toes, but they just had it up on the screen and had a >> Yeah. somebody else leading it instead of the teacher actually engaging in leading it. Um, how does or is it Frog Street? How does that address >> I love that question. So, um, you know, one of the one of the drawbacks of being spread out among different schools is that we don't get to get in the classrooms as often and we do have teachers do things the way they like to do it. It is very much dis um discouraged
033to do that. And of course, we have teachers that do it anyways because they can. That's actually not part of the curriculum. It may be to do head, shoulders, knees, and toes, but not on a whiteboard. So, it really that should not be present at all. Um neither of the two encourage that kind of m that kind of activity meeting teach uh teach teaching strategies for Frog Street. But one of the things we did notice that we really like is there's a lot less technology with Frog Street including um the fact that we get actual paper materials instead of having to download everything from the cloud which the teachers don't necessarily like. I don't like that with with the other program. So it is limited. They are they do spend some time during center time
034on the iPad but we don't discourage that completely because the truth is is that when they star test that's how they have to take it. So we want them to be familiar with utilizing the device so the use of the device isn't what prevents them from scoring well on the PMS. So they do have some time that they can free choice um like do starfall or something like that. >> Gotcha. When we since we know for our little and this again Fred you can interject anytime. Um, since we know that for our littlest learners, technology is not recommended. >> Absolutely. >> Do we give parents an opt out for that like we would with our library books are correct? >> We don't do an opt out because at the end of the day they have
035to take the star test. We do for that. Okay. Apologize. >> So all parents at the beginning of the year and then throughout the year if they object to technology >> or technology being sent home like the issuance of a onetoone device absolutely they can opt out. There are some critical components though. So, as we talk about this, it's going to be more about managing the use versus eliminating the use because some students, for example, may require speech language therapy services and they may require it to be done remotely. Um, and we'll talk about that again at a future meeting, but or they may need to interact with some type of social emotional which which um this s with this program does include is there's some social emotional behavioral components to it, but students may
036need to work on that during independent time um or with a teacher. So there there's a little bit more to this, a little bit more nuance to it. Um, but as far as just and I think the example you brought up earlier, why are we including the iPad in their center rotation when it should just be explicitly linked to a curriculum resource or something that's more for enrichment and or for intervention? And we'll we'll talk more about this because if the board remembers we brought forward an initial proposal for the to cap the total number of minutes that students could access devices and we are pulling that research data um to validate the research quite frankly because I know there was a lot of media attention on a report recently about technology use but sometimes
037you know the proof's in the pudding. I want to make sure that we read that and that it was a validated study and that it was done correctly and it's not presumptive because I think we have to do our due diligence as well. But Mr. McNotton and I just spoke about this again the other day, but so I think we can provide parents with safeguards and and those bumper rails, but they do have an opt out option. they they cannot opt out entirely of certain pieces because that may be part of the child's 504 IEP or other things, but that would already have been agreed to with the parent during those meetings. So, I I'm giving you the best explanation I can that yes, but they can opt out of a 1:1 device period. Um,
038but there are certain usage for usages for them right now that we do incorporate into the classroom setting. But as far as it becoming an enrichment tool during center time or free time, that is something we absolutely should be restricting far more access to. Um, and and the example you use too, just for clarification, you know, while it's not ideal for someone to simply put up on the screen a brain based activity, brain break, um, I also don't know, you would know better, um, having been in the room. I I just I'm a little cautious to answer that sometimes because I don't know if maybe that individual teacher may have a physical limitation as to why they couldn't do it, right? I'm assuming best intent. Um but definitely something we can address. I'm glad to
039hear Dr. Allen share that she is addressing that and we'll make sure to reiterate that. >> Do let me clarify when I say when I said no, I mean we don't do I should have been clear. We don't do onetoone devices. So we don't send those home. Um, that's the way I was thinking that your question was. And to your point, we don't say that it's detrimental, like it's not going to kill a kid or cause, you know, something bad to happen that they use it. It just needs to be limited. So, to Mr. Hyde's point before we would be upset if we were to walk in and see a teacher using it, we would want to know the purpose behind it, how often it's being used. It would just be monitored. So, >> but
040we're not giving that leaving that up to parents for our preK students as to whether or not they want them to be on devices at all. Well, I think once we bring this back before the board before the summer to discuss this topic further, we can establish those timelines or what the board feels would be appropriate use of technology at the early grades. Then we can have those conversations in an opt- out with parents because here's the the difficulty is going to be how do we then provide that same curriculum access that otherwise would be delivered through the technology by the individual teacher. I I that's something we just have to work through. So I think this is a larger conversation for the board. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Miss Wallace.
041>> Good morning. Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you all for presenting. Um we don't have to get into it today, but something I desire to learn more about is the longitudinal data on on how this impacts student learning, you know, as they metriculate into kindergarten and up. Um, and I only asked that question because there's been a lot of chat in Tallahassee over the years about Florida's investment in VPK and that what we see is that there are some initial gains, but if the students are have a lot of disadvantage or they still require consistent support year after year after year and the way our system unfortunately works is sometimes that consistent support isn't there and those gains can fall off after third or fourth grade. And so I'd love to know um if if a
042we have any evidence. Obviously when when a student gets high quality learning and early learning that helps them for success, but more are we setting it up to where that help ends up being sustainable and longer term in terms of their long long-term trajectory. So do y'all have any comments on that or is that something we could explore more when we um when we revisit this at a future meeting? I I definitely will need to revisit it. But I will tell you that we have the last two to three years we have been tracking. One of the issues we have is that um the the state system renaissance that they test with star does not hold historical data. So it's been difficult for us to continue following that through. However, with the SAP upgrades and
043the different things that are changing, I'm anticipating that it's going to be a lot easier to try to track that. we have been doing it individually internally um specific schools in particular that are questioning whether prek holds any value on their campuses but overall I can tell you yes there is an impact um I've read the study several years ago about the third grade fade out um I have several theories on that as well but now's not the time for that right but uh yes I absolutely believe that we can show I we can show you that the data from PM2 of last year to PM2 this year and the students that are already making significant growth. Um, just the fact that we have more children in our inclusion classrooms. Uh, the fact that the
044children that are in those classrooms are in some cases outperforming the gened kids without IEPs um on the on the um PM one and two. So, yeah, I believe we definitely have data we can pull and as the years go and we have better systems, we'll be able to pull that easier. >> Great. Yeah. And if the state won't track it for us, there's nothing stopping us from following that for ourselves and making adjustments as we see fit, which is excellent. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Dr. Allen, Dr. William L. It is so confusing. Just so you know, uh this is this is great. It's clear uh we have a need in in this area. Um and I I appreciate the the vision, just the data that we're seeing and we're discussing.
045It's it's refreshing. Um and you know, just a reminder, I mean, this is part of our referendum discussion. And this really helps us as we're communicating this um out to our community as well. Um and then I I think the technology conversation is quite quite fun as well and you know hopefully we'll have more discussion around that. Uh I just wrapped up uh technopoly a book by Neil Postman and my students are like why are you reading that because it's so contrary to everything that you teach. I'm like well it just gives me a balanced perspective. you know, I'm all about technology and adopting and utilizing, but it's always good to have a a contrarian uh perspective as well. I was curious on the Bezos um academy. I don't see it in here. I know
046there's five classrooms that attached to that. Um do we have a soft launch or is there a a projected date on when that is opening? >> Mr. H, do you want to address that? >> Go ahead. >> Yes. From what I understand, they have soft open. They have already sent out their applications. I think they got theirs out a week or so before us. Okay. >> Um and everything I'm hearing is that they're filling up and and it will be opening um the next school year. >> Good. Good. Another just touch point around this as well which I think is >> they've done a good job with their marketing as well. So they are seeing a slow steady increase in the number of students and I have a feeling they'll hit capacity and and develop
047a a short waiting list here in the near future. And as that happens, we will be re like we've already removed our classroom off that same campus because they will we want them to have that that whole area. We will rem, you know, move that is that's one of the reasons when to Mr. Hyde's point, it's one of the reasons that classrooms change every year on campuses is because we really look at the need. And so if there's a class that we had a difficult time filling because we didn't have a weight list, then we moved that that classroom to another school who did have a significant weight list. As long as there's space, >> right? And I think that's actually was one of my questions when I look at the list. Are there particular
048schools um that aren't necessarily hitting that weight list? Um so just to hear how you shift that. I appreciate that. >> Um tell me just one thing like a bite around the uh Frog Streak curriculum that just appeals to you. Obviously it's been top of mind for a while. Um just some of the taglines on it backed by research um designed to reduce teacher stress. uh some of those things, but you know, and obviously the as superintendent mentioned the SCES uh component to that, but what is it that appeals to you? >> All the things um the the ease of use is what really sold us because the everything is simple to get to. It's it's anybody can pick up the book and teach from it. But the piece that I really love is the
049conscious discipline, the social emotional piece. I used to be a trainer for conscious discipline. Dr. Beck Dr. Becky Bailey who wrote that program is from Orlando. She was a professor at UCF. So she gets Florida, Florida standards, Florida rules. Um, so it's a very significant piece. What I love the most about conscious discipline is it's not really designed for kids, it's designed for adults. So the seven skills that they're required to have. So like composure is the number one skill. I have to as the instructor need to know how to compose before I can teach the child. So it's really about teaching the the teachers, the adults those skills and they're things that are lifelong. >> Yeah. >> Indeed. So thank you all. I appreciate your work. >> Thanks. That's it, Superintendent. Thank you. >>
050Thank you, sir. >> Mr. Keys, >> I'm going to go ahead and echo what everybody else has said. Thank you for the presentation. Very valuable. And I think that early childhood education really sets the cornerstone for student success. Um, so I think when we talked about, and mine is going to be directed towards technology because we've talked about it, I'm excited about it actually. Um, I think it's valuable the way that we test when they get into um, kindergarten and through there and they start doing those PM1s and PM2s and to have familiarity with the technology helps a lot. Um, and I think also we brought up providing services via that route can be valuable there especially those that had to be remote. But I want to give an anidote to something that hits me
051personally. So when we had our two children and we the our second child was a lot harder to find, you know, a place for her to fit when it come to early childhood education. So us being able to provide whatever we can is actually helpful to the community and I I enjoy that. But as far as technology goes, I will tell you that it's very indivi individualized for me because I can tell you that our I was I was really against it. You know, when our first daughter was born, I said, you know, I'm not giving her, you know, technology that early on. and her uncle Daniel um you know tech guy he said no no no she needs an iPad now she's 14 now an eighth grader but when she got that for her
052first birthday around that time we found apps that were suitable for her and I will tell you she could she knew her alphabet and her colors before she could audibly speak through those apps we would say hey what's B show me B show me orange shapes show me a triangle before she could audibly speak she could point those things out so I think it's very individual individualized, but there is definitely if used the right way can be such a tool to to early child education. So, kudos to you and your team what you guys are doing. I think it's fantastic. I think the more and more we see this grow, we can analyze the data and successes of that um that it's going to overall going to help the district out and um we'll see
053gains in that. So, thank you for what you do. I appreciate it. >> You, >> Miss Fields. >> Thank you. My comments are going to be similar to Mr. Keith. I think that we have to monitor and evaluate and make sure that we're not doing too much. However, I know that uh it's important. I know at Girls Inc. some girls have even problems um working the mouse. Uh and so as they get ready to take the test, they need to be able to utilize those skills. Uh so I definitely think it should not be anything that we um downplay. U my question is Head Start. What is the window of time when the kids have an opportunity to be in Head Start? I know it's not year round. What What is the calendar? >> We
054um we take applications all year. Um we usually will stop around March for this year. So the end of this month, we won't take any more kids for this year, but if they're three-year-olds, they can go ahead and register for next year. So when a child turns um three, if they're if they're three by the by September 1, they can apply for Head Start. If they're three and they get into the program, they can stay for two years. So, did that answer your question? >> No. When is the first day of the Head Start program? >> Oh, same the first the first day of the school year. It runs the school calendar year. >> Okay. And then what happened to the to those babies during the summer >> typically? What happened? >> That'll be our
055next presentation. They're offered the early bird or the um summer bridge program. >> Okay. And then my question would be how many of those kids actually take advantage of that? But I'll wait for them to do their >> Thank you. Yes. >> Okay. No further questions. Thank you, ladies. >> Wonderful. Thank you, >> Mr. McNottton. >> Okay. So, and to uh so for uh board member Fields and everyone else, we're going to be talking about the summer learning programs for this summer. So, I'm going to bring up our elementary lead, Tammy Ferren, and our secondary lead, Angie Clark. >> Good morning. Pulk County Public Schools is offering seven learning programs this year from preK to transition years. We'd like to uh give a brief overview of each program with a spotlight on Camp Early Bird.
056So, the first program we're going to talk about is Camp Earlybird. It helps incoming kindergarteners develop pre-ereading skills through hands-on activities and learning centers based on reading readiness while continuing to support motor, social, and cognitive development. So, any student in Pulk County that is transitioning to kindergart kindergarten can attend early bird. They don't have to be um finishing a preschool program. So the dates are June 3rd through June 25th, which is the same timeline as our third grade reading camp. And they're all lo all the sites are located on our third grade camp sites. Uh last year we had 722 students attend at 13 sites. Um, and this year we have 738 seats available at all of our third grade camps and we have 41 classrooms. So, I'm going to talk a little bit more
057about camp early bird. Um, the focus is literacy, early literacy. Uh the program um emphasizes language acquisition with a foundational le listening, speaking and vocabulary routines essential for learning development. Um it takes a holistic approach. Um so there is a lot of integration um with collaborative learning um social motor skills and um group collaboration. It transitions students from prek to kindergarten. So it gives those prek babies an opportunity to be on an elementary site. So they practice routines like going to the cafeteria, how to sit in a circle, take turns, uh walking in a line. So it gives them those um pre pre-sklls before coming into kindergarten. So they they have more acclamation to uh what's expected in in kindergarten. The curriculum that they use in camp early bird is the language for learning program.
058It's the precursor to the intervention programs that we use um in our elementary and middle and high school programs. So you've probably heard of corrective reading and reading mastery. So this is the first step language for learning. So we use that program. They also do a lot of handson activities with math with um manipulatives and um so that that helps a lot too with math conceptual math understanding. Um they spent a lot of time with social emotional learning activities uh collaborative center work turn taking uh routines and uh communication skills as well as emotional regulation and cooperative learning. As I said before, the camp runs from June 3rd to June 25th. Um, it provides multiple weeks. You know, in the past, there have been, you know, spots of schools that have had like a like
059a two week or one week camp for incoming kindergarteners right before school starts. So, the benefit of Camp Early Bird, it's three whole weeks even though it's 14 days. So it it gives them an opportunity to spend a lot of time with those routines over a three-week um period. So the program also balances instructional rigor with playbased exploration and movement to support well-being. So at Camp Early Bird, they do not have any tech. It's techfree. So it's uh they're they're not on the iPads or or use technology. Now the teachers do, but the students do not. um they take a pre um pre-assessment kind of a screener before they start early bird um because language of learning you can start in different places so it's very um individualized. So if a student is coming in
060with um very little skills for um early um language skills they may start at le one but then some students may be more advanced. they did attend a prek program, they may start at a later lesson. So, it's very um differentiated based on the students skill levels coming into the program. Um the program removes financial barriers. Uh the enrollment, breakfast, and lunch is at no cost to the parents. So, anyone can apply and they don't have those those barriers for being able to have their students attend. Um the teachers are certified um Pulk County School Board instructors. So we have CDATS and preK teachers um that provide all of the instruction. Um let's see. Uh throughout the three weeks, the students are doing ongoing assessments. So um parents are informed about how their students are
061progressing through the program on a regular basis. So, just to give you some um trends about the program, in uh the summer of 2024, we had 963 student registrations um indicating that there's a very strong um need and want for a summer prek pro transition program. Um last year we had we offered 684 seats at 13 sites. We actually had 722 students attend. So I know that sounds we had less seats but we had more students attend. So we had a wait list. So if there was a student that stopped coming, we took a student off the wait list so that that seat was filled. So that's why we have um the number of 722. We kept filling the seats as students, you know, didn't returned return. Okay. Um on the next slide um you'll
062see these are all of our schools that are offering camp early bird this year this summer with the number of seats available and the number of teacher units. So we're offering 14 sites, 41 classrooms for a total of 738 student seats, which is um an increase of 54 uh student seats for the summer. Something new that's going to be happening this year that we're really excited about is we are going to be partnering with Pulk State College. Uh they have an early childhood um major. Um we've already had preliminary conversations with them. Um they're wanting to have 10 to 15 practicum students uh do a summer practicum with our early bird camps. Um, so we're in the beginning conversations with conversations with them about it. Um, but we're we're very confident that it's going to
063be a go. So excited about that. Summerbridge. So right now, currently, Summerbridge is still um hasn't been approved for this year. Um, but if it does get improve approved, this will be the second year that we are offering Summerbridge. Um it is a statef funded program in year two. Uh last year the qualifications for that program was a student had to score below the 10th percentile on uh the star early lit PM3. Um we had um we the good news is we didn't have a lot of kids qualify um below the the 10th percentile. So by the end of July, we actually only had four students that finished the program. So we started out with a small number and we ended with an even smaller number. So the proposal this year um from the state
064in for the Senate bill um I believe it's 1090. Yes, Senate Bill 1090 is that they're going to increase the requirement to below the 25th percentile. So hopefully that will um qualify more students to be able to participate in the program. It'll still be a 100 hours. Um they follow the same time schedule 8 to 1 um as our third grade camp and our early bird, but it does extend into July. So we're still waiting to hear about that. Our next program is our third grade summer learning uh camp. This camp is for um our third grade students who scored a level one who do not meet good cause criteria. So we offer this program um to to provide additional um literacy reading um instruction. Um they'll take the ISIP over the at in the
065summer program. um to try to meet good cause criteria to be promoted to fourth grade. Um so this year we'll alo also be offering third uh the fast retake ELA retake test during summer camp. Um so they'll have that opportunity as well. Last year we had a,087,087 students attend at 14 locations. We're estimating about 1,50 students at 14 locations this year. Um it's through June 3rd through 25th and uh we're offering those two tracks again this year, the elevate track and the step up track. So students, so it's a more differentiated experience depending on what levels our students are coming into um the third grade camp. Our next program is the extended school year program for our um ESSE students. It provides critical support for students with disabilities by offering essential services to help them
066achieve their IEP goals. Eligibility is determining determined during the IEP meetings where specific criteria um are reviewed and data is analyzed to assess the need for these services. ESY is available for students in preK all the way through transition years, transition grades. Last year we had 297 students attend 10 sites. Uh this year we're offering ESY at the three center schools and then additional third grade camps. Um we've increased those sites this year. So it'll be at Alta Vista, Laurel Elementary, Lena Vista, South Point, Highlands Grove, Churchwell, Rose Shell School of the Arts, Stevens Academy, Frost Proof, Benh Hill Griffin, and transportation is provided. So this year we're looking at approximately 365 students attending at 12 sites. Think I skipped two slides. It's all right. >> So, let me scroll back. So, the elementary migrant
067program. Um, this this program is designed to provide supplemental academic uh support and and enrichment. It serves students in kindergarten through fifth grades. Um, the curriculum is teacher created material, summer scholars. Um, and it focuses on language arts, mathematics, and it they also have some STEM enrichment activities. Uh the two sites this year are Frost Proof Benhill Griffin and Willow Oak Elementary. And it also runs the same time as our other camps, June 3rd through the 25th. Uh we have we had 46 students participate last year at two locations. This year we're estimating 60 students at two locations. And then our non-English NEES summer learning that's for students in first, second, fourth, and sixth grades. Um enhances students English proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Um the elementary uh curriculum is phonics to reading.
068It's a scripted program. Um they also use imagine language and literacy, which they also use during the school year. And then there will also be some math benchmark um support lessons. The secondary curriculum is the Lyft curriculum and that's also a scripted program. Uh they'll also use imagine language and learning and then they also will receive math support. Last year we had eight classrooms with 104 students and this year we've increased it to 10 classrooms to support 120 students. secondary. Uh so students in grades 6 through 12 will also be participating in in summer school or summer learning opportunities. Um it is for credit recovery and for grade recovery in both middle school and in high school. Um so most of our traditional high schools are offering um you know the summer learning opportunities uh
069as well as our middle schools. Um so um every every middle school is offering it except for our MAD magnet or academy schools. Um so last year about 3,000 students um in grades 6 through 12 participated and about 3,300 courses uh were completed. Uh we're looking uh at approximately that number again this year. uh and um you know continuing to grow our summer learning opportunities for middle and high school students. Uh summer testing is a little bit different this year. Uh so it will be in June this year um per the uh DOE window. Uh so summer testing is June 22nd through the 25th. Uh we will be administering uh the fast reading grade three uh for fourth grade promotion purposes. uh also the fast reading retake uh for high school students for for rising
070juniors and seniors and then the EOCC's which is the algebra 1 EOC, geometry EOC, biology EOC, US history EOC and the civics EOC. Uh so um you know parent letters are being distributed uh and going out to uh to the school sites uh and to notify parents of those testing opportunities. Uh those will need to be returned to the school sites by June 4th in order to get them registered for those testing opportunities uh so that they can uh participate in that testing window. >> Okay, Miss Miller. You guys went through that whole um thing without. So my questions I have a couple that fall into different categories. >> Yes ma'am. >> Um do we know why the summer bridge program has such low participation despite the students so many students qualifying for that program.
071I I I can >> Joe and Joe knows >> just last year for the for the summer bridge program when it was the 10th percentile or below we had I believe eight students in the district qualify. Now we this also includes outside providers and we cannot have you know we can do some communication with the outside providers but the communication was the big part. We actually raised it to the 20th percentile and under. We got a waiver from the state allowing that and it really was a total of 20 kids probably qualified districtwide. So it was a very small amount and for instance some of the ones that were in between 10 and 20 have already were already in the camp early bird. >> You said program the barrier you had with the communication with
072outside programs meaning that the students were in other programming. For instance, there was a private provider for prek, >> right? >> That still falls under our umbrella. So, we had to have the head of their program contact their parents because we don't have a direct line to their parents through the >> the only way we had to do is working through the early learning coalition. >> Okay. For Camp Early Bird, um the demand is off obviously very high. Are we exploring expanding that program to more sites? >> It's actually been expanded every year, I think. Okay, >> I've pre I can reforward that to the board. >> I've shown the growth of the program each year. So, we we do it based off demand. >> Okay. >> Um because of the costs for staffing >>
073and transportation. >> Okay. Yeah, I figured that was um planned. That's how we were planning because the need does continue to be shown there. Um I do appreciate the the presentation and all the information that was shared because I think it helps tell our story. Can you give a little bit of info on how you measure impact of these programs to know that what's being facilitated in the programs is is working for our students so the gains are shown. Do we measure by star date? Like what do we do to to show the impact of these summer programs? So, for example, third grade, our third grade summer camp, I I talked to you last year about two year two years ago, we looked at the data and we realized that there were kids that were
074being successful and there were kids that weren't. So, those kids that are promoted out of summer camp into fourth grade and then there were students that were just struggling, you know, because they they came in with a lower, you know, scale score. So that's when we said well we need to have two different tracks for those students. So one is a more foundational track to give support um and foundational skills and the other track is closer to what they you know what they need to get to the fourth grade. So we're constantly looking at our programs to see the impact of what we're doing in the summer. For example, we have 14 um early bird sites now. Um, two years ago we had um we had lots of early bird sites. We had lots of
075that's really that's really quantitative, isn't it? We had um hang on, I can tell you exactly how many. We had 33 sites across the district. So, not just our third grade camps, but additional ones. So, what happens is you have to have a guardian on all of those sites. So, and then it it didn't um we had fewer numbers, so we had more sites, but they were populated with fewer students. And part of the problem, the part of the goal with early bird is to create an environment where they're practicing socialization skills. So, if you have a unit that only has five kids, you know, you're not you're not doing a lot of socializing and learning those socializing skills. So our uh we narrowed our focus to the 14 third grade camps. Um so the
076classes are larger. They're they're more close to you know the 18. Um so that they do interact with different kids daily and they practice those uh socialization and social emotional skills. >> So so the measurable outcomes vary by age. So at secondary obviously the measurable outcome is course course attainment and and those numbers were included in the presentation. I think it was 3,300 courses were mastered by those students over that summer period of time. So that's the outcome measure for camp early bird. the the greatest or the largest thing that we track and monitor there are are we noticing um much to Miss Farah's point students have to be in an in a more appropriate group size but we pay a particular attention to students that we may need to identify for early intervention for
077social emotional behavioral issues um because some of those students may not have been in a setting with other students before may not know how to share may not know how to deescalate and so this provides us with a little bit more of that. So, we could look to see in the last couple years data how many students were pre-identified for early intervention and supports. Um, that's one thing that we track, but there are no academic outcomes >> out tracked there specifically um other than possibly letter attainment and some other things, but we'd have to look at that more closely. >> That was that was kind of my question with the early bird. I realize third grade is because we need them to move on. I I love the idea of using the Pulk State students.
078I think that's going to be great. Um, but I know as a former kindergarten teacher years 100 years ago that there is an academic if you get them early, you have kids walk through the door who can't recognize their own name. So, and I know with the push for accountability in that early um those early stages that I would like I think it's there, but we would have to show the data that this camp is improving the outcomes based on when they enter that first set of tests that we do right when they come in to see where they fall if there's an improvement for that for that age group. Um my last question is extended school year. You know that as well. you know what what are we I can tell you we've made
079improvements with ESY esy has made to work on IEP goals are we showing that it are we showing that we've seen an increase or that we're maintaining or that we're making improvements with that because in the past um it was very difficult to do that putting them in center schools with new staff who've never seen them introducing them to all of the IEPs and then working on IEP goals it to be very honest it just was more it was more of a social maybe for them it was a break for their parents but that's difficult to do um with intentionality for all of those children so I would but I would like to know that we are when you do have these programs that there is some um accountability for the outcomes of what's being
080provided during that time and if you could just review again ESY is one of the things that you know I do get calls on it's something we've worked on identifying with our staff how kids qualify for that. So ESY is different than the other summer programs because you have to show that you would not be able to retain information which I think our typical kids also fall into this category that the break between the school years you would not be able to retain information without support. I don't love that measurement but that's how it's written in statute or at least through the DOE. So how is that added to an IEP because it's not there unless it's added. Can somebody talk about how you qualify for that? >> I I'm going to defer to Miss
081Ecman on that question. >> And I would like to talk about and we can talk about a later date, Miss Ecman. You know, how we look at these programs to see that these kids are getting not only socialization, but making improvements on those IEP goals through the summer. That's why they're funded, >> right? And that's what ESY is. It's an extended school year towards their goals. Um so the IEP team sits and looks and there are five questions um five different areas that they have to look at. that a child at a crucial developmental stage, is there um is there possible regression? Um is there extenduating circumstances? So, they talk about that during the IEP meeting and the IEP team determines that because what we're currently providing them um in the school year is not
082enough that we have to provide them some additional instruction on towards their goals in the extended school year. Um so, it is a team decision. It should be discussed at every IEP meeting. It's not free tutoring. It's not free summer care. It's not anything like that. It's really designed to have that in that instructor provide that instruction towards their goals. There are a lot of times where we have students who are in third grade and maybe they didn't pass the test. They can still attend the third grade camp because that camp is designed uh specifically to meet those grade level standards. Maybe they won't they don't need extra time towards their goals. So, that's kind of the way I try and explain it is that it's really uh designated and driven by the IEP. >>
083And I want to I thank you for uh for mentioning the third grade. ESY doesn't mean you have to go to a center school for instruction. ESY can happen anywhere. It can be tutoring. Actually, >> it can it can be, but it's not it's not what sometimes people use ESY and tutoring as a synonym that ESY, you know, you get free tutoring. No, you don't. We can use that tutoring as a way to provide ESY, but it's not they're not the same, if that makes sense. >> But you can also be in one of our other camps receiving interviews. >> Absolutely. All of our students all of our students with disabilities are eligible to go to all of the other summer camps um as needed based on their needs. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome,
084>> Miss Wallace. >> Thank you, Superintendent. I had some questions about the third grade summer reading as well. I understand that state law requires us to offer that of the in terms of the most recent trends like last summer we had 1,087 students attend. How many ideally need to be there? Like are there how many students would we have liked to seen that ultimately didn't show up? >> I don't believe we have that information. But we can get that for you. >> Are we able are is there a delta between who we serve and how many we're able to serve? Like like we had a,087 show up, but are do we have the funding to serve more than that? >> Yes. If we need to add additional units, then we would add additional units. >>
085Um, and I'm asking because if we don't get all the ones there, can we open it to twos? Can we have principles refer us to, you know, or just like y'all were talking about with the early learning? Um, I don't think we can have too many, but again, I don't I know that when you guys were talking about offering different tracks and what a two would need is different than what a low skill score one would need, you know, I'm not, but I just would love to see if we have funding and the capacity to serve as many students as possible because I would I wish we could serve twos, you know, I don't think that's acceptable. >> We we would too. >> Y too. Now, we do have some of our host sites, our
086third grade camps. Those principles are choosing to add second grade um classes to their camps so that they can serve their second graders that need more support transitioning to third grade. And then um I don't know just I lived in different parts of the state throughout the history of this law and I know that some districts tended to offer more camps to more grades in years past and I've seen districts kind of go do um so are we are allowed to offer classes to younger grades if we wanted for this purpose. >> So that's up to the ind individual school. Okay. and many not I won't say many but there are multiple um elementary schools that are offering second grade um summer opportunities. >> Okay. And of the well I guess since we don't know
087the exact numbers but about how many students end up getting retained in the third grade as of late once we've interviewed. Do we know? >> I don't have >> Okay, I'll follow up. Didn't mean to put you on the spot. I was just curious. Yeah, I will say that we had um 48 students last year from summer camp be um promoted to fourth grade. Okay. >> And then we had um we had 107 students pass the summer retake to be promoted to fourth grade. >> Okay. And that would also be fascinating because yes, there's there there's a reason they're there and there's a reason that some students need to repeat third grade. Um, so the fact that they end up repeating third grade isn't necessarily a terrible thing in every case, but it could be
088good to know too is is do those students who still repeat third grade ultimately get up to that two, you know, for just to see if we helped get them over the line before they metriculated to fourth grade. I'd love to know that. So, thank you. >> Thank you, >> Miss Wyatt. >> Thank you. Um I know and superintendent high this may be a question for you. We had in previous years or we had piloted in previous years doing the kindergarten ready for any that was eligible for any student getting ready to start kindergarten that was like a week they got to come in. Is that >> camp early bird? >> That is camp early bird but it's only it's not available for any kindergarten incoming kindergarten student. is that >> we do have a
089cap based off of our staffing and our allocation. But again, each year we have grown the camp. Um if you even if you recall, I think even during year two, we actually ran two camps back to back because demand was so high. But now we've really focused on just expansion. So if the demand is there and and this really was we had very low interest in year one until the word got out one or two weeks into the camp >> where parents started responding regardless of our marketing and our messaging to families and then it has grown like I said every single year with parent interest and we've just gotten more sophisticated with our messaging and marketing to get to those parents who because some of these parents have no footprint in PK County Public
090Schools. So with an incoming kindergartener, they're not on our distribution list per se, but now we have the ability to maximize some things in social media and through some of our established partners like the early learning coalition and others will make them aware of the camp early bird. So, I would love to see that program continue to grow, but ultimately it becomes a conversation of finance, you know, and to Miss Wallace's point, we would love to serve as many students as possible every summer, but we may have to in the near future consider a feebased summer program for credit recovery and for other options. Other districts are doing that. It's unfortunate, but we do have limited resources and our resources really need to be focused on during the school year interventions rather than summer intervention.
091Um, I'm a big proponent, as you know, for early learning and getting those students in and getting them identified and getting those supports they need so that when they do transition to kindergarten, they're in a much better position to be successful and that teacher has a much better portfolio on that student to understand who's coming into their classroom. But that has at some point we may have some diminishing returns because the finances just aren't there. That's the unfortunate part. >> Thank you. That was my >> That's the reason why 5% of the if should the referendum pass goes to early learning programs and support for those because this is absolutely an area of need. So thank you Miss White. >> Thank you. And then my last question was on the summer testing. I know this
092has come up a few times this year that students are sent into total panic because they don't pass a test in their high school years and are immediately told that well you can't take your elective next year because you you haven't passed. How are we making sure that we communicate these opportunities to students that may need them? >> Go ahead. >> You know speak I mean >> this is your former high school principal who can tell you exactly how >> we didn't get any complaints from your school just so you know. Uh but no, most schools if not all schools will be, you know, looking at the success we've had with graduation rates over the last couple of years and continuing to want to build upon that. So, we'll be seeking out, you know, those
093seniors um juniors even that may be struggling uh to let them know of these opportunities, also reaching out to their parents through those kind of communications. Like I said, this I was actually referencing a letter that has been drafted from A&E um you know to send out to parents to make sure that parents are aware of these opportunities um you know for you know whether it's the EOCC's if they didn't get the opportunity to take those um to qualify for you know scholarship designations and and such as well as uh to meet the graduation requirements. So, you know, I'm, you know, I would not going to assume, but, you know, it's going to be encouraged that all high schools put that, you know, heavy marketing, uh, on their social media outlets as well as parent
094communication through all of their avenues that they can communicate with parents and then obviously sending the letters home as well. >> Thank you. >> One more thing on that, the state gave us the opportunity to test, do state testing in June instead of July. Traditionally, it's been the third week of July and most kids are on vacation at that time. That's what we found. And also, there's that distance between the learning at the end of the year and testing. So, if you think about for third grade, we had our third grade camp, it ended at last week of June and then there's three weeks and then they test. So, what happened is with state testing, whether it's the algebra EOC or third grade ELA, it's right at the end. I mean, it hits actually during
095summer school. They're already there. >> So, that's one of the things is just that sort of like out of sight, out of mind. I'm in a habit. I'm coming to school. I'm focused on it. Then we have the testing. So, we hope to see uh larger gains this year. >> Awesome. Thank you, >> Miss Fields. >> My question is, do we collaborate with the learner resource center at all? the learner resource center. I know they have some programs as well. >> We do. We have our long-standing established partnership. Um, as you know, we the board approves a contract for them each year. Um, but we will be bringing data to the board this year on outcomes before we renew that contract moving forward. >> Yeah. And the reason why I'm asking is because I know
096they do some summer programming as well. So, that's that's that's where that is. >> Yes, ma'am. And then the other thing uh I noticed I believe that all of the uh programs the kids have an opportunity for transportation. That's correct. Transportation is provided. >> Not for secondary students >> cuz some says transportation provided and some says not. So it varies based on the program. >> It does. It does. >> And I guess maybe superintendent high can answer this question or maybe someone else later. Superintendent. uh what happens with the situation when transportation is not available for parents who really uh need to have that? >> Are you understanding my question? >> Yes, ma'am. So, students can utilize Citrus Connection, students can utilize friends um if they need to to carpool or other family members. Additionally,
097if th those students are also provided, no student gets to the summer and is shocked or surprised that they have credit recovery. We offer that continuously throughout the year with the exception as we talked earlier you and I about a separate issue where on March 13th this third semester credit recovery will cease. So students should never be caught off guard as far as what they should have been doing. And so we do provide the opportunity but unfortunately we are limited in what we can do for transportation during the summer. again, unfortunately due to costs >> and costs, as you know, for fuel prices and things are rising right now. So, it it's going to be definitely something that we're going to have to track very closely uh moving forward. The only other option that we
098could potentially explore in the future um would be some computer-based um programs. However, having done that elsewhere, I would tell you that we would not allow students to test at home. They must come to school to be supervised in a testing facility. They can complete the coursework at home if we were to go that route to make it more convenient. Miss Fields, for those who can't get transportation, but anytime they have an end of uden exam or a final exam, we will require for them to do it at a testing location. And that that's easy enough to do. It doesn't necessarily have to be their high school site. It just needs to be a school close to their home where they can be directly supervised by an adult so that we can make sure that
099they're actually performing the task and not cheating. Um because that's a very real concern for some of our students, >> right? And I know uh what you're saying is correct that the parents and the students know probably by now whether or not they're going to have to do summer school. I would imagine when do we formally invite them or tell them that this is available? When do we start that? What's the timeline? >> So the so as soon as they start testing for PM3, as soon as those results come in, the schools are notifying parents and sending the applications uh for students to sign up for summer learning >> and some first week of May >> fields is going to vary depending on the reason. So if it's credit recovery, students are beginning to be
100informed at the end of the first quarter, end of the first semester, so that they can catch up and not fall further behind so long as they don't mess up the second semester. So that's a different timeline of for communication because that's done in person with counselors and then they notify the parents, they notify the student. for students who don't pass the EOCC at the secondary level in particular, then they're provided that communication because they have makeup testing dates and then they can come in and actually do some additional coursework there. Um, or we can determine whether or not they're going to meet it through concordance score on the SAT or ACT or CLT. Um, so there are options and so the communication timeline does vary by student based off the specificity of why they
101have to come to a a a credit recovery course. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> And Miss Fields, um, to talk about increasing student um, participation in summer learning, we do offer an override option. So, uh, Miss Clark and I spoke to the principles at the last principal meeting and we emphasized the override option. So, if there's a student who cannot attend summer learning at their assigned school, um, we have an override option where they can um, relocate to the closest school where they live or say they're staying with grandma over the summer, they can go to a school that's close to grandma's house. So, we try to eliminate as many barriers as we can in order for students to be able to participate in summer learning. I approve every override request that that
102comes through. So, we want we want as many to participate as possible. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Dr. William Allen. >> All right. Yeah. Thanks for that last comment. That was much appreciated. you know just collectively looking at the last presentation and then this set of presentations you just you know get a vision of how many students we're touching and you know connecting with um from a learning standpoint. Uh then I'm looking at the teaching units uh as well. So just thanks to our our staff that's stepping up to uh take part in this. It's huge um and much needed. It's like the learning never stops. So, um, definitely can see this and I appreciate the presentation. Uh, the Pulk State Partnership, love to to hear more about that. U, Miss Miller mentioned
103it, um, was wonder, you know, can we capture these these students that are going through practicum and maybe land in our future classroom, but whoever initiated that, um, >> that's the hope. >> Yeah, exactly. >> So, so thank you. I don't know if you want to give more details on that partnership and how it unfolded >> in. So, Dr. Hubert from Pulk State, she's um takes the lead for the early childhood program. She actually reached out to me. I don't know how she got my name or who who gave her my name, but she actually reached out to me. And then Dr. Brooks and I um scheduled a a team's meeting with all the all the people involved and so it's just gone from there. >> Okay, that's great. Very excited. >> Yeah, we're super
104excited about that. >> Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Um obviously there were some data points that you um had in your your notebook um that you rattled off so which was great and I think u Miss Wallace u sort of brought that forward but you mentioned 100 plus students from in regards to the fast third grade uh testing from last year >> 107 >> okay 107 uh very precise so thank you for that and it it did you know prompt more thoughts when I think about okay we had 3,000 uh secondary students 3,000 plus courses that they went through. You know, any any data points on some success rates in regards to the um you know the credit recovery or the EOC from last year or anything like that? >> Um I have
105requested that data. Um so you know ultimately looking at you know the the credits that were completed um so completions were 4557 um you know credits that were recovered you know through Egeneuity platform last year between you know June 1st and um July all right first so that's kind of the rough number of the credits that were recovered I do not yet have uh for you the the amount of tests that were passed but I have requested that so we can share that um huge. So, thank you all for the work that you continue to do outside of our um just annual school year. And I would say, superintendent, it was refreshing. It's refreshing the start with academics during our work session today. So, I appreciate you putting that at the front of our agenda.
106So, thank you'all. We're trying to accelerate a few things for the board rather than waiting till we're right on summer because I know that these are questions and this way we can begin our communication to families and the board doesn't feel like how families are hearing this before we've heard it formally so that we can announce the sites and prep prepare for hiring for all the staff that need to help us cover those locations. Um I just want to I did want to provide one point of clarification when I mentioned earlier about feebased approaches. those are typically done for enrichment um and not necessarily for credit recovery. So there but there are districts who do that quite frequently and so it's something for us to consider because should we and we currently don't offer those
107enrichment opportunities during the summer presently because of staffing and and financial shortages. So if we were to begin offering those that might become an offsetting revenue stream for to expand traditional summer school options in the district. So, just something for us to talk through and we'll make sure we bring this topic back before the board in the next few months. >> Thank you. Oh, Miss Wallace, >> that's a great suggestion you mentioned. So, I'm assuming those opportunities could be or do we already offer driver's ed, right? Or did do we no longer offer that? Is that an example of a type of course that could be fee based? >> Well, yes, it could be fee. the but you could students could complete their physical education requirements. They could which frees up time for acceleration or
108enrichment options. >> You know, for some of our students who decide to >> um you know, maybe they they don't start till their junior year for a college and career program or an academy program. This would allow them during the summer to make up some of those credits so they could complete that full cadre or cohort of courses >> um to culminate in that industry certification. So there are lots of options acceleration obviously for some of our students who are interested. Um we have you know I consider it to be a large number of students each year when I ask when I work with Miss Everett um to pull how many students are eligible for early graduation. >> Yep. >> Um and I'm but I'm surprised at how few do it and the number one
109reason cited by students is they don't want to forfeit their senior year. Mhm. >> Um and then we end up really at times for some of those students, I'm not going to say it's a struggle, but we don't want them taking six sections of PE their senior year either. And those students typically aren't the ones who want to look to do more electives, but they're going to do more dual enrollment. They're going to do more AP. Um and so there it's interesting to see where the students fall as far as their interests. So I think the summer opportunity from my perspective when I think about and it's interesting because it's kind of linked to the conversation we had earlier about technology and its impact on potential impact on students. Um you know I worry about
110our students feeling that high stress competitive aspect of having to take all these courses these heavy really rigorous courses during high school and not having an opportunity to experience high school in and of itself. So, if we could offer some summer enrichment opportunities and that created an opportunity for just some of those students to offload one of those courses to a summer, which then they could take an elective during the school year, I would feel much better about their mental health. Um, and some of the things that they're dealing with. Um, and I understand that competitive aspect. Um, I think sometimes it's definitely overstated and overplayed. That's my opinion. I'm entitled to it. Um, I would rather see students be well-rounded. Um and so but we offer those things and so I think there's a
111lot of opportunity here for us to explore that but we'd have to make sure the fee definitively or or will absolutely offset the operational costs associated with hiring that teacher on a part-time basis. So we would have to come up with like a minimum class size those kinds of things. And then we would probably more than likely survey students in high school in particular and say if we were to offer a course or courses, what courses would you prefer we offer during the summer to free up your schedule during the school year? I'd be curious to hear their perspective on what those classes might be. And perhaps we open it up to the students we don't serve because certainly there's charter, homeschool, virtual, everywhere in between where those families would love to see their teens
112um taking advantage. And I can tell you that I can parallel park like the best of them due to my driver's ed course at Berto High School. And I'm glad I'm still alive and here to tell you about it. But um so I I would love us to see or love to see us offer those opportunities where it makes sense. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. All right, seeing no further questions. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> board members. There was a third attachment in there that had the comprehensive list of school sites and program locations. So, that's for your reference. Um, thank you to the team. That was a very comprehensive overview. Mr. McNotton, do you have any closing comments? >> Okay. Right. All right. So, please board members understand that
113this is not our term. This is the term being used by the state and by other agencies um when we refer to it as America 250. Personally, I think we could have do better, but that's what how it's being referred to. So, I didn't want us taking credit for that. Um so, we're here to talk about this because it is an important topic. Um, and we wanted you and the community to know what does PK County Public Schools incorporate into our lessons and activities to make sure that we're giving honor and you know commemorating this anniversary. Mr. McDon, >> thank you. And I do want to thank the team talking about what's happening this summer and also next school year. But this is something that's be happening this school year. So it is America 250.
114So it is celebrating the semiquinentennial. Love saying that word. It's so we have one time to hit our 250th anniversary and what happened is uh Jeff Hancock and Victoria McKenzie and Carrie Foster came to me there was our senior directors of curriculum and they said we have an idea what are we going to do this this year? I go, you can do this. It's worth it. And so what we're doing is we're going to be uh creating curriculum activities in ELA, mathematics, science, and social studies for the week of May 18th through the 22nd. It's the last full week of school. And it's all going to be around celebrating America 250. So our the first idea was to go out to other districts and say, "Hey, let's work together on this except all the districts
115around us aren't doing anything." They say, "Hey, that's in July. We're out of school. We're not doing anything." But we thought it was important that we are going to do stuff. So what we're going to do is we're going to do activities and it's going to be done in grade bands K2 35 68 and 9. Well, it'll be 911 because it's hopefully all our seniors are graduating, right, Miss Collins? our seniors will be graduating so they won't have any 12th graders on campus. Now to make sure that there's no barriers with this uh the resources will be found in schooly but there will also be printed packets. So when you're talking about technology being coming in for for the year we don't want to run into any problems like best intentions have everything on computer
116but then we have the computers taken in. So they're going to be every student will have a packet in grades K through well whoever's there we're going to have service it. So what we're going to do is again being a math person it's 250 days divide it. So each is going to do a 50year time period. And so like activities, okay, social science, I don't really have to go into activities. It's history. We we have that. But for instance, in ELA, we're going to talk about literature stories that really encapsulate the American experience during those time periods. In mathematics, we're going to talk about census data and talk about, hey, look at our movement. Why is why movement? Why did California get so populated? in maybe Montana and so we talk about those things the
117just movement of number in that in science talking about American inventors and inventions that really shape those time periods so it's going to be like one of those things you want to do you know we used to talk about oh what am I going to do that last week of school well this is something that's going to be engaging and it's something that I I saw it New Year's Eve for the first time really America 250 there just started seeing some pop and then during the Olympic coverage. You saw more and more of the commercials. I'm sure it's going to start ramping up, but we wanted to come to the board to let you know that PK County Public Schools is doing something to celebrate uh this anniversary for our country. >> You didn't say
118it. >> What? The semiquentennial. What? Which one? What >> I was so afraid I was going to come up and say we're doing America 250. So every time it comes up in cabinet they refer to as Murka 250 and I'm like the whole presentation I'm waiting for you to throw it in there and you didn't >> I'm trying to be professional here. >> All right, Mr. Keys, I'm just I'm excited to hear about this and during what your your presentation you're talking about you reached out to other district to partner with and to hear that nobody else is doing anything and saying well that's in the summer. Kudos to to you and the whole team for for giving us an idea and what an interesting time too to have it at that last week during
119the school year because we know activities die down. So, um I just think it's awesome that we're paying homage to it and the way you described it, especially on the I was surprised on the math portion. I thought in my head, how are we going to weave that in and talk about census data and how those numbers and the movement of populations? Wow. A lot of thought went into it. So, I'm excited to hear that we're we're taking the lead on this and we're doing something innovative and um just I'm I'm excited to hear what the results of it were and even to be engaged in some of those activities so that we could be >> I know the state does have a website for Florida America 250. So, uh within that uh but I
120think we're expanding it into a full week and so that's one of the uh >> Well, I'm excited about it. Thank you. Thank you for that very innovative idea and I appreciate uh us us diving into it. That's good. Thank you. >> Well, it it is a good resource for us in particular during that last week. It's a good way to engage students. Um, you know, as a former science teacher, I would typically save human growth and development for the last two weeks of school because that was a topic that kids love, middle schoolers just love to talk about and you know, it was just one of those things. So, but here, you know, with this, it's important because as we get closer to the summer months, this is becoming more prominent and students will
121be hearing about it. It's a great tie-in to our civics classes. It's a great tiein to our other areas, but the fact that they took it a step further and they're doing in a cross-curricular manner is is really exceptional. Um, this is also tied to the fact that we put out new guidance for schools about how to address the US flag >> um should it come in contact with the ground. And kudos to our ROC programs who really stepped up. And so to my knowledge, only one has typically held a a ceremony to dispose of flags locally. Now it's expanding to three or four. And and it's going to be because some of our schools need to get rid of whether it's weather tattered flags or those types of things, aged or faded, or for
122those of us attended the Barto Middle School, uh ribbon cutting for the for the gymnasium, the US flag fell over and touched the ground. And so we followed up to make sure that that flag um was treated the way it was intended to be treated, not just simply stood back up and and put back into service. There's there are protocols for that. And so we're really reinforcing that. And and kudos to the team and our principles for embracing it for what it is because there's a lot to this. And we're going to use all of this as an opportunity to educate students. Um you know, even the flag code talks about what's appropriate attire. Um students should not be draping the US flag over their shoulders. they shouldn't be doing things like that. It's there's
123a lot to this. Um, so it's a good opportunity for us to teach students about civic-mindedness and our nation's history and the things that we've grown to expect in this country. So, so I I'm very happy that Joe and a team took on a challenge to do this regardless of those around us. It's sometimes it's best to lead and to follow. So >> well and and even as an afterthought, you know, of my comments, I'm excited to or the possibility of the students taking this home and educating their parents um and offering the So that's it's just fantastic all around. Thank you. >> I apologize, Mr. Keys. Miss Winchester was informing me that the flag the next flag retirement ceremony is going to be April 22nd. So, we'll send that date and location out to
124you in case you want to attend to see firsthand how they address that, but it is a formal process on our campuses. So, Miss Wyatt, >> thank you. Yes, I want to echo a little bit of what Mr. Key said, but I will tell you one of the most memorable lessons in my entire K12 experience was Valley Forge Day in Mr. Smith's fourth grade class. It was a half day. We all everybody brought in cardboard boxes and you had to go and and get your cardboard boxes and create your your space. We had we they brought our lunch trays to our cardboard box villages that we made. Um but it really was just such an impactful hands-on experience. So I love that we're really leaning into that for the last week of school. Um I
125have a feeling that it will be incredibly successful. Um and if so, I hope that we look to continue it for 251 years and beyond. um because I really do think it's a great way to engage students and keep them in attendance that last week of school, but to make it fun on a topic that's not always broadly covered. Um just because of time and how do you cover 250 years in 180 days of school. Um so I think it's a great opportunity and excited to see where it goes from here. >> You miss Fields. My question is will this uh will the activities be reflective of the population of our students and their culture? >> It will be. It will be because one of the other parts is that this is going to reflect
126in our required instruction mandatory instruction which includes um uh Hispanic uh African-American uh so it's going to do every one everyone's included in this. show the the contributions of everything of everyone in our not only our community but our country. >> That's great. Thank you, >> Miss Wallace. >> Thank you. I just wanted to quickly announce that I know that I've noticed that the Florida Department of Education hosts a ton of statewide essay contests for students. Then a lot of times two and four-year scholarships to state colleges and universities are up for grads. And it just so happens for any principles or instructors or watching this um is that next Monday, March 16th, the essay and art contest for the Florida Department of Education, those submissions are due at 5:00 on Monday, March 16th. So,
127I'm already texting a couple of students I know to encourage them to spend their weekend submitting. Just wanted to mention that um because it's a great extra or if there's any teachers who can offer extra credit to this or other I know they they do a great job and I'd love to see a student a PK county student or more get scholarships to go to college. >> I believe that has already gone out in our district weekly communication. >> Awesome. >> All right. Thank you. >> And that concludes questions and comments. Thank you so much, Mr. McNutton. Board members, the next item up is the easement for Bthoon Academy. >> Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the board, Superintendent Hyde. This next item on your agenda this morning is a request from Duke Energy, uh,
128seeking a perpetual easement in two small areas on Bthoon Academy. Uh similar to all private utility providers across the state, uh all of these providers are seeking to further enhance and hurricane proof uh their infrastructure and grids by uh moving their overhead power lines to underground. And Duke Energy in this request uh seeks to accomplish just that. Uh so again uh they're seeking to uh two perpetual uh easement areas uh total 200 square feet. It's two 100 square foot areas. U based on our analysis, we don't believe this is going to be have an impact or school uh campus operations. Um and this is scheduled to come back as a consent agenda during the March 24th uh board meeting. Excuse me, April 24th board meeting. No, it is March. I'm sorry. March 24th board meeting.
129Uh pending your questions. Miss Wallace, did I fail to clear you from the last or are you the first speaker? >> Oh, I guess I'm the current speaker. Yes, I'm the first one. Um, I just this happens to be a area that I know well working at a cable company. And one thing I just wanted to pass along for when we negotiate those things, and Jim, this could be something for your purview, too, is just to make sure that um we're not liable for accidents or injuries that happen when anything's going on in that rideway when they're serving or installing these facilities. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Cool. Because I know uh I've come from a world where a lot of these things have happened. And so that's a huge huge thing to make sure that
130the district when they're um going into that space that we if something happens what happens is even when we're clearly not responsible or liable if these easements and agreements aren't structured properly it can make us vulnerable anyway because we're just it's on our property. So just wanted to mention that as a piece of feedback. Thank you >> Mr. Keys. Um just really short and I I when I looked at the the plan for it I traffic is already you know kind of an issue at that particular occasion. So I was pleasantly um not surprised but I was pleased by seeing that those things are not impeding kind of normal traffic flow. And the other one is just a joke. I think that we're getting you know a dollar for that. If we look at development
131prices a dollar is we're we're shut cutting ourselves short on the 200 foot. So I'm joking. Anyways, that's all I have. There are no further questions or comments. Thank you. Board members, the last item on the superintendent's report agenda. Um, we do have a budget and staffing presentation, but that is the draft of the comprehensive middle school reszoning update. >> Good morning. >> Remember I said that I'm normally cold? I'm freezing. Okay. Um, you guys have a packet again. Uh, and once again, the the picture in it has got the student dots on it that won't be up on my presentation. There's also some student data based on race that is included in your packet that's not on this. So, this first chart is the same one that we had seen last time with the
132added percentages and um, it is to show you how many seats currently are actually available at our magnet schools. And I just wanted you to be able to see that again so you can kind of keep it in mind that we do have seats available already at these schools. Um, and that that's going to be part of what I want to give you like an overview of what we need to consider when we consider are we going to look at doing um dedicated boundaries or are we going to look at doing the preferred zones for the magnet schools. So as an overview, these are the things that we would need to consider for all of the schools. So the first one is what I just mentioned, the utilization of the magnet schools that already have
133current seats available. The second one is the utilization of the surrounding schools. And in a minute, I'm going to get to a couple examples that'll give you more detail to explain this. The third one is that if we look at having dedicated boundaries for the magnet schools, we will be creating seats for concurrency. And when we create the seats for concurrency, it's not an issue of let's say I'm taking seats from BTO and giving them to Union. I may be taking students from BTO and moving them to Union, but I am not taking seats. So this would actually create additional seats that can then be used for concurrency that developers will be looking at. So it's not uh I guess as like I said it's not moving just students. It's actually creating new seats. Um
134and so the fourth thing to look at is how those dedicated seats would impact enrollment at both the magnets and the surrounding schools. Um so for instance we're another example we're going to look at in a minute. We have Dennis and Westwood are already low utilization and how would having a dedicated zone inside their zones affect that utilization. And then finally um we've got or two things the overlapping service areas between adjacent schools and between the magnets and the surrounding schools. We kind of looked at it a little bit last time when I was showing like um JWI and JW overlapping and um how that's going to affect, but they also that happens with their surrounding regular schools as well. I'm sorry I'm freezing. And finally, um this could possibly create a new pocket zones
135or what I would also call an island zone, which we I'm going to go show you an example, but we could be creating a zone that's completely surrounded by another school's zone. So to make all of that a little bit clearer, we're going to start with my first example. So this is Barto Middle Boundary and Union Academy. Now this picture looks a little different than the one I showed you before, but that red line that's on there now, that's actually Barto Middle School's two-mile service area. So that hollow line that lays over what you already saw before of the Union Academy. So you can see how much the BTO middle school and the Union Academy ones overlap. So if we make a zone for Union Academy, whether it's preference zone or a hard zone, we
136will have to look at okay, how are we affecting Barto as well? It's not just how are we getting students into Union, but how are we affecting Barto when we did it. So I went and did a little bit of a um and you'll see that on your forum. I just kind of did a an example. If let's say we took that 1.25 mile uh service line from Union, that would be about 131 students right now. Um and then I just kind of did an average choice out rate and looked at that. And that average choice out rate for our county is about 30%. So long story short on all of that is if we drew that boundary at the 1.25 25 miles, we could probably expect maybe about 90 BTO students that would now
137be scheduled over or going over to uh Union. So each school that we look at, we would have to look at it individually is where I'm going with this because it's just we just again, I know I said it last time, but we just can't do a blanket let's do this one because there's just so many variations in there. Um oh my gosh, I'm going to run in place for a second. I'm so sorry. Um, I'm the one that complained about it being hot, so it's my fault. I know. Um, and so, okay. And this is one of those cases though that this would create that island zone when we do it. It will be completely surrounded by barto. So, there will be kids on the other side coming across and around. So, we just
138want to keep that in mind. Okay. Here's another example. This one is of the Jew schools. Now, the Jwit schools are side by side, so they already overlap each other. They are well within the Denison two-mile service area and a little bit of overlapping over there in Westwood. Um so the yellow line you see is the Westwood middle two-mile and the red line is Denison. This is another one of those cases where whether we draw a dedicated zone or a preferred zone, we still are going to have to be very careful in what we look at because there's just so many factors involved here. The Jew schools both have middle school components. So, we'd have to determine who's going where on that or do we have they can have an option for both, which would
139be confusing as well. But, so it's just another example of how we're going to have to look at these things very closely per school. Um, and there will be questions that will come up. Okay, Dennis and Westwood have low utilization. We're already looking at trying to help those schools. We want to be careful with what we reserve and seats somewhere else. So here is an option that we would like you to consider with the preferred propri zone prior priority zones options. First we would create those zones based on the individual considerations and needs of the schools. So it' be a it'd be a school by school each all 10 schools that we're talking about. We would promote those preferred priority zones to families during open enrollment with a targeted contact. Hey, you live in this
140zone. If you're interested, please apply. We would create a separate priority zone map layer for geo zone that would lay on top so people can see it. And here's the key. For students who move into a priority zone outside of open enrollment window, we could still let them enroll. So sort of like I like to put this like you know how with insurance like if we've got a window where you can get insurance but if you have a major life event you can change your insurance. Well, this would be sort of the same situation. If you move in in April or you move in in June or you move in in September, we're not going to tell you, "Sorry, the windows open later, you can't come in or you missed it, you can't come in."
141So, it would be a way to cover those kids that move in. If they move in right across the street, because if you go all the way back to that chart, we have seats available. We want to say, "Okay, you can come in. We're not going to hold you back just because you're not in the window when you just moved here." So, it's an option that we would like you to consider. And that is it. I'm so sorry I'm cold. Any questions? I'm sure they're questions, >> Miss Wyatt. >> Thank you. I um and I appreciate all of the the data. I feel like we get more data from from this department than probably anywhere else. It's so interesting to see every dot and just how how accessible it is to to pull exactly where
142every student in our district lives. Um a couple and obvious, you know, it makes total sense that it's a school by school basis. I mean, we I think JWT and JSA is a great example because they literally share a property line, but we also just went through this at the other end of Winter Haven with South Point and Chain of Lakes because they're literally a mile from each other, if that. Um, and I think the key to it too is looking at the neighborhoods, which we saw when we did South Point and um, Chain of Lakes, that, you know, yes, it makes sense that yes, that neighborhood is technically closer to South Point, but they literally are walking across the street. like why are we so I think you know yes it is we have
143to look at them each individually but I think we also as board members who I do not expect your very small but mighty team to know every neighborhood in Ptk County and what their typical driving routes are. Um, I think it's also on us to make sure that we know our communities and that when those things come up that we're looking at does, you know, does this make sense for each of our schools, asking our principles, asking our families um to help support you all so that you're not getting the angry emails on the back end. >> Well, we appreciate that. >> Um, my my concern, and I know I voiced this last time, my concern with not making it an actual zone and keeping it priority, I appreciate addressing the that they could get
144in any time. we we would still have to market it. And I think that by not making it a true zone, we're creating a marketing issue for us for 30 years. And reaching the families that are oftentimes the most vulnerable. When we look at our our school areas and their um transition rate between those in those neighborhoods directly surrounding these schools, there is a reason that magnet schools were put into the community where they were communities where they were put into. And I don't know that we have figured out or cracked the code onto how to reach those families, especially when they're moving into PK County for the first time. Um, much less those that are already here. Um, so I I would still strongly advocate for making it a true zoned option. Um because
145I don't I don't know that in any situation somebody moving it even if we're giving them the option to attend the school across the street. I don't know that not just saying hey this is this is where you're zoned and if that option doesn't work and you want to go somewhere else there's always open enrollment options and things like that. However, I think when we talk about what's best for kids we know that often what is best for kids is being closest to their home. So, I don't I don't like the idea of not giving them the actual just telling them that is that is the option. Um, because I think it creates a marketing nightmare down the road of, you know, when they show up to if they're they're technically zoned Elbert, but they
146live across the street from JSA. if they go to Elbert, is Albert then going to have to educate them on, well, you're actually in this this zone and you could go there that it just becomes a a very long-term nightmare of of education is my my belief. >> Miss Miller, >> thank you. Um, and some of this is not it's probably not under your department itself. It's kind of what we've created. Um I think when we look at MAC magnet enrollment and priority zones, we need to recognize the geographic um distribution of those. I don't have any of it. Um and so what does that do for Auburnale as far as choice? What does that do for the students where Winter Haven has multiples and they're pushing into they're pushing now into the city of
147Auburnale? Um I know that wasn't a decision made out of your department, but in the future I think we do have to consider how we distribute those. I have a question about Dundee Ridge um with the utilization of that. Um I know that part of this is a marketing we've said this multiple times how we market to families and it's happening else I I think we need to look at what other districts are doing. I know there's a nonprofit in Orlando who goes into the communities they partner with and literally knocks on doors for families. But when you're that underutilized in a magnet program, are parents not choosing the program or we don't know, they don't know it's available, which I think again is probably not your department, but um something we need to consider.
148Similar to in a the different aspect of to Daniel Jenkins, when we list portable capacity, which I'm not sure there's one board member that loves a portable, um we're kind of masking, you know, the actual capacity of that building. as as a parent, I wouldn't I would not look at portable capacity. I wouldn't I wouldn't choose a magnet that sent my kids into portables if that, you know, wasn't going to if I felt like their needs wouldn't be met depending on what their needs were. Um, but I think what we're doing we have to do here and part of this is is the marketing aspect of it. But we just need to be aware of the differences. Do you have superintendent or facilities or departments? Do we know why Dundy Ridge is, you know, or
149we have that difference in attendance there? It's kind of like my code academy. I think it's um >> you have competition from charter schools. You have competition from other higher performing schools. There are a lot of reasons why parents may be opting to attend elsewhere. Um I do not believe at all that it's it's a marketing issue. I think the data supports with 40% of our students choose to attend a school other than their zone school. That's not a marketing deficiency. >> You don't think because they're being marketed to by charters. >> That's not a That's parent choice. So, we're marketing, they're marketing, parents are making a decision as to where to send their children. They do it all the time. Families leave, go to charter school, come back for high school, but the data
150the board has seen shows the number of students at each school who are choosing to go elsewhere other than their zoned school. So, I don't believe it's a marketing issue. I believe it's a choice issue where families are are exercising their right to choice, whether that's a charter school, a private school, another another one of our schools. Um, but we could definitely look at that community and see where the students but but if it's a magnet school and a choice school, I'd have to look at their attendance boundary and determine how what percentage their students if any are zoned for that school actually are in attendance and if not, where are they attending? But >> I think it's an informed choice and and we can we can talk about data later on that because I
151do think that or maybe one of our surveys that we have access to, we could survey the area to know to see what they even know about our schools. Unfortunately, we have a lot of families even, you know, us Gen Xers who went to one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school, you know, they don't they don't realize of that the options are available. If you don't live in education world, you wouldn't know that. So maybe we could utilize one of our surveying uh you know instruments. I'm just interested to see why you know at one point I can tell you that people um may not have gone to choose magnets because they felt that they weren't you know they only could support one kind of learner. So I think perception of our
152of what we're providing would be useful for us. Um but I do think that you know providing this um enrollment and availability capacity helps me understand where people are choosing to go. So, thank you, >> Mr. Sharpless. >> Could I I'm so sorry. Could I address that real quick? >> What part? >> Um I I just wanted the the the Dundy Bridge. I'm so sorry. >> Sure. >> Yeah. Um so, while I was in the data and looking at it, I did just notice that Bach in particular pulled a lot of kids out of that area. Yeah. That shocked me. I mean, it's kind of close, but not as close as I would have thought. And um so that one really jumped out at me that yeah, I think that area is that they're going
153to the charters, but I agree that we could probably reach them more. Um but it was just that one area just really surprised me when I was looking at the data. >> And I think a survey of our community to find out what it is. Maybe it's the maybe it's a certain program that we don't provide, but it would tell us why they're choosing. >> Yeah, I was really surprised by that one, too. Okay. I'm so sorry. >> That's right. It's not even my district. It just jumped off the page at me. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Sharpless. >> I was actually going to address that. Um, as a former Lake Wells High School teacher, um, I noticed a lot of I had a lot of students, um, a lot I had students coming from
154the Dundy area to Lake Wells High School, um, choosing Charter. And then when Bach North opened up, Bach North Middle School, um, that certainly was more accessible than Bach South to the Dundee area. So, I could see why that would draw some students in there, especially if they're wanting to go to Lakewells High School. That's the only thing I was going to mention, but you guys already said it. So, that's that that it's in my district. So, and as a someone who has a spouse that's work that works at one of those middle schools, I can tell you that's that is the case. >> Dr. Allen, thanks, Superintendent. Uh, trying to maybe figure out which angle I want to go on this, but I I think I did stumble upon was just reflecting back on
155our MSAT grant. So, has the MSAT grant u completely expired is my question because I I think that grant was initially 5 years and that was $15 million federal grant that we utilized to um bolster our magnet options. Is that correct? >> So, are you talking specifically about a particular school? >> Well, and and I guess that is my first question. So, what schools are actually impacted within this um that were under the MSAP grant? So, I know Daniel Jenkins was one of them. Um we've got Stevens that was one of them, I believe. Was Stevens a part of that? >> Yeah, I know I provided this information, Miss Wyatt, but I'll go ahead and forward that to the whole board. Yes, sir. >> Okay. Uh so it so my question is um well Blake
156Academy is another one as well right so has the MSAP grant completely expired the five years >> there's one grant that still continues and it covers five schools Stevens Garner Blake Bthun and Daniel Jenkins >> okay >> it was awarded in 2022 and it expires in September of 2027 the team was expecting or anticipating submitting a request for a nocost extension and we discussed that at a previous board meeting. >> Mhm. Okay. I appreciate that. So then, you know, cuz I was going back and reading it um just to try to frame maybe some thoughts and some questions. So, you know, from your perspective, did we accomplish what that grant was intended to do? And you know and I think because when I read it there were like long-term goals that were established you know
157with that and there was like a sense of sustainability. So I know we haven't really discussed like and if you're sharing that document with me to you know for me to analyze as well to know what kind of success did we have as it relates to those magnet because you know I mean some of these were supposed to be feeders. So like for example Jenkins um with a Cambridge um initiative did do we see success of the students from Daniel Jenkins actually going to uh you know from that feeder pattern in any way? >> I have no idea. Yeah have to conduct that analysis. >> That's typically done closer to the end of the grant. So we still have again a full almost a full year. >> Gotcha. >> Going to September 20 27. Yep.
158Um and then again an additional year beyond that should we want to extend the grant funding um even further. It did address the issue of diversification which was part of the intent of the MSAP grant. But as far as did students who went through that feeder pattern perform better than other students, I don't know that we have that data and I'd have to work with the team to identify what characteristics we're actually going to incorporate into that rather than just merely academic. Um, but we'd have to spend some time with the team to get you all that data. I appreciate that because it I mean it was as you know the board we voted to approve that and there was a sustainability plan that we committed to as a board when we accepted the federal
159funding. So I just want to make sure that we're not undermining you know the grant that we accepted and what we committed to as a board from a sustainability plan. That's you know sort of how I'm maybe um coming at these thoughts and questions as relates to that. So the grant repeatedly like framed magnets as choice-based recruitment models. I think that was important to the grant, not geographically prioritized enrollment systems. Um I mean that was just part of the grant. So I I don't know. I think secondly um the magnets were described as programs designed to draw students from across the district to increase the diversity. So if you said that we've accomplished that um I think that's good. I think it also mentioned um the idea of reducing um minority isolation uh was the
160phrasing that was used in our our grant. Um so I don't know I think as we consider these geographic priorities um you know how do we ensure that we preserve that district you know wide recruitment model that was central to the grant strategy I think is what I was wanting to ask. And then lastly, um I think the the grant helped launch and really strengthen some of these programs. I think that was the intent of the feeder patterns with some of these. And I don't know, I that's the question that I'm wanting to know as well. So, you know, as it concludes, you know, I think it would be helpful, you know, helpful for us as a board to review that. Um, and I don't know at what point we would look at that evaluation
161and the results of that, but I think it would be much appreciated. >> Yeah. So, I think there's a couple things that I I maybe I need to clarify based off of some of your concerns or questions. We're not eroding we're not creating a dedicated attendance boundary. This is adding students to the current process. This is not in any way going to diminish student enrollment from elsewhere. The concern around these schools in particular was students can move in but never get an opportunity to attend that school. And so it maintains the diversity and we can provide examples of that especially for the two schools you've already been provided >> because I expressed concerns to the board previously about unitary status that we also have to make sure that anything we do does not erode our
162unitary status and it does not. It actually continues to enhance it. Um, but there would be a small subset of students that would be included that would be in addition to those current students attending there. Um, so I I don't believe that in any way it moves away from the intent behind the MSAP grant. Um, and then typically we're required to provide an analysis or a summary to the feds upon completion of the grant as far as grant objectives completed. Um, so we'll be happy to see at what I'll get a timeline from the team as to when they typically start that process and then when the board can expect to see that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Um, so are we are we giving direction at this point I guess for clarification that would then
163go to the ABC committee and then come back to the board for approval. I guess uh you know maybe help me understand that as well. So staff, I'm bringing this to the board >> on April 24th or the next possible date because we've got to keep we've got to move forward. Um and the board will either vote it up or vote it down. >> So at the end of the day, the direction I'm giving staff is move forward. We I think we have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to address all the concerns that have been expressed to the best of our ability. Um, and we heard today there's an acknowledgement from from the board that that we understand that it's going to look different based off each school, based off certain unique characteristics,
164and that's where we are. Um, I I am not going to recommend to the board that it be a dedicated attendance boundary. That's not going to be the recommendation that comes before the board. I I've heard the concerns. I I'm appreciative of the concerns, but I'm going to do what I think is in the best interest of our students in our district. And I think that this more than fulfills that. Um so they're going to move forward because this will then in turn have a direct impact on elementary reasonzoning. And we've got to keep this process moving so that because it's just unfair to have done high school and not get to elementary and middle school at this time. So >> good. That's that's my intent. >> All right, Miss Wyatt. >> Thank you. Um,
165I do think it's unfair to try and rush it through to get it done instead of taking the time to to do it the way that best supports students moving forward. Um, but we did have things that we were supposed to get in February on the MSAP grant. Do we have an update as to when it the dollars left or >> I responded to all of your questions in writing, Miss Wyatt, and I'll be happy to read forward those. >> Okay. if you could read forward those because I don't I think we were still waiting on a few things that I I have not seen a response to so I'm I may have missed those. Um, as far as the um marketing, do we have can we get the data on how many students don't
166apply for choice of our is that if that'd be a number I'd be interested to see, you know, is obviously we have 40% of our students that choose to go to other schools, but are the 60% of the students that don't choose to go to their school that they aren't zoned to applying for choice? Are they choosing not to apply for choice because they want to go to their home school or are they choosing not to >> I wouldn't know that. >> I could give you the total number of students who don't submit an application. Absolutely. I can give you the total number of students who don't accept their their transfer choice option. Um but I can't tell you why >> that that it just would be interesting. The data behind who doesn't apply, I
167think tells as much as who does transfer. Because if we have 60% of people that are going to their zone school because they're not even applying for a choice option, we'll never know if it's because they genuinely their their zoned school is their number one choice or if it's because they just don't know. At the high school level, I have a feeling it's because that's their choice is to go to their zoned school. at the elementary and middle school level. It concerns me if we have 60% not applying for any of our choice schools that they may not realize that they can be applying or should be applying. Um, and I think especially once they after I think a lot of people will stop applying after kindergarten or first grade because obviously or the sixth
168grade because there's not as many seats available. Um but especially for those transition years, so the kindergarten and sixth grade, how many people are applying um or and then selecting to go to choice would be a very interesting number to have. >> Okay, I see no further questions or comments. Thank you. >> Oh, I just wanted to clear one other thing. Sorry. Um the the data that is in there with the um the race breakdowns, if you look at it, and I know Mr. had touched on this, but it does show that it's not really statistically going to affect either decision we make because it is we're we're we're we're very very diverse now. And so the numbers kind of match up. You have a countywide line so you can see what the countywide breakdown
169is for the middle schools and then the individual schools are on there as well. So you can see what that looks like. So while we're considering this, at least that portion is satisfied, I think so. But I just wanted to make sure you knew that that data was in there. And thank you. >> Oh, sorry, >> Miss White. >> Thank you. I did have one more thing. Um, just for the record on the MSAC grant, when we approved that in 2019, it was we hosted community meetings for Garner, that those students would have access to those seats, and they do not. And so it is as a Winter Haven person, it is it hits a a hard spot because we went and told the community you're going to have access to these seats and they
170can't. And it I I can't with good conscious vote to support to continue to not give them tr zoned access as they were promised. >> Dr. Allen. >> Yeah, >> thank you Miss White um for that clarification on that too. Um I I think and I was one question was related to the title one. Um I don't know if that's something that we consider as well in our um reszone. Does it disrupt any numbers as it relates to because we did, you know, I'm just reflecting back on the presentation that we had as it relates to our title one funding. Um maybe two meetings ago. I don't know if that's something that's we're considering and looking at as well. >> I'm sorry, I was looking at email. Say that again. >> Yeah, just the title
171one um dollars that's connected to um our our schools, individual schools. So, is that something is that a data point that we look at when we're restructuring numbers? Just curious. I think I mentioned that >> or the number of students. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, I guess Yeah. So, the allocation, I believe we provided you with a copy of the recommended allocations very recently. >> We talked about changes to Title One. >> Yeah. >> Um, and the impact it would have on certain schools, but I'll verify that. >> Okay. >> Um, but no, sir. >> Okay. >> Um, SCES is one of the things we look at, but that's not necessarily always an indicator of title one eligibility. >> Y >> um because that number can fluctuate. Um, >> yeah. >> But SCES demographic data we
172do look at. Yes sir. >> Okay. >> And I believe that was included in the original MSAP grant as well. >> Ah, okay. Good. >> Because that was part of the d of the asurances for diversification >> if I recall correctly. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes sir. >> Miss Fields. >> My question superintendent is on the breakout of the of the race of the races the ethnicities. Are we able to write out what that is instead of A B and and all that? I I mean I have I have a general idea. >> Yes, ma'am. >> That would be very very just not just for me but just for >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. >> I think that was an issue of spacing so we wouldn't have to go to landscape, but we
173can definitely do that. >> Thank you. >> Well, and I pulled it um and I want to say thank you to the IT people who got me the access but pulled it out of focus that way. But yes, absolutely. that. >> All right. There are no further questions or comments. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair, members of the board. The last remaining item is on budget and staffing. This presentation was deferred to this workshop um because we were running overtime at the most recent workshop. So, Miss Jenkins, >> can we get five minutes, please? Yeah. Sure. >> Mr. Chair, >> It is 11:18. Uh, we can take a uh 12minute break. We're back at 11:30. >> Good job, Miss Jenkins. Heat. Heat. Hello. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Hello. We are uh reconvening the uh work
174session today. Um 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. >> And with that, Mr. Chair, I'm going to go ahead and introduce Miss Heather Jenkins. who will take us through this presentation in a promised 10 minutes or less. So, I know board members have other duties and responsibilities. Thank you, Miss Jenkins. >> Good afternoon. Today, we have a short presentation on our budget creation. Last time we met, we talked about the budget calendar and the timeline and the different stages that we go through. Right now, we're in February, March, which is highlighted in yellow. And our highlights are we have just received um or just completed survey 3 FTE. Our sitebased budgets are to the
175schools. We're actually meeting today with the regionals to finalize those and tomorrow to present the recommendations to Mr. Hyde. So we're on track with that. Our indirect cost plan is due to DOE. Our department budget meetings have been occurring with myself and the budget department. And um we are preparing to bring our staffing plan to you in April and May. I wanted to attach the FEFP schedule again just for your references. Right now we are waiting on the conference report. That's what happens when the legislature comes together both the House and the Senate. We do have um a couple different versions of their proposals right now. And this just gives you uh the tenative dates for the third calc, the fourth calc um and our final calc. An important piece I wanted to bring to
176your attention is our FTE forecast. Every year we're asked to choose between three different models and submit that number to DOE. We did talk about this when we submitted it, but I wanted to bring it back around to light. for um our 26 27 school year, our total FTE has increased about 2100 students, but if you'll notice um the main increase was in charter and in our family empowerment scholarships. Virtual has gone down a bit and traditional is projected to go down a bit as well. Um and these are only projections. They're not actual numbers yet. That being said, um it takes us to I've included an example of the house proposal. The first thing I want to point out is the FTE numbers are a bit different because of the timing. So once we
177receive the conference report, we'll have our actual FTE numbers. So that has a little bit of effect on this. Um the items in purple turnaround supplement and our educational enrichment instruction. those um educational enrichment instruction was formerly SAI and turnaround supplement was a separate piece. However, now it's included in the educational enrichment instruction allocation, which is why those two are purple. The other um gold colored allocations are those that are categoricals or can only be spent on specific things. So, as you see, it looks like our gross state and local FEFP has gone up about $65 million. Um, the massive increase is in weighted FTE times the base student allocation, academic acceleration options, and the ESC guaranteed allocation plus student transportation. Um, class size reduction also went up a bit. And then I want to
178break that down a little bit further. Um, our total K through2 funding is projected to increase 39 million once you go through the entire analysis. 7.5 million of that is our charter funds. 4.2 goes to the teacher salary increase allocation, the amount for the increase this year, leaving 28 million in new money not tied to charter or TSIA. Then we think about categoricals. Of that 28 million, 8.3 goes to safe schools. 153,000 is mental health. 709,000 is for educational enrichment instruction, 2.6 academic acceleration, 5 million ESSE, 3.6 student transportation allocation, and 852 for class size. Those are the increase amounts which leaves us with 6.7 remaining in new funds considerations that we don't know yet. We don't know if there's an increase in FRS. Um we are looking at our health insurance plan and our
179health insurance costs. The team is getting a price on instructional materials. We have grant funds. Some are all are considered status quo right now, but they're always pending approval or denial. We have salary enhancements to consider. And um we're reviewing increased operating costs as you all may have seen. Um gasoline and diesel has recently gone up. So those things fluctuate as we move through our cycle. Um, we also have per the uh Senate estimate, the family empowerment scholarship has increased again uh with an impact of $147.8 million in funds that would be allocated to the scholarship. Now, the reason I show you all these things is just to give you a picture that right now we don't really have a linear path to the budget. We have a lot of different things that we have
180to consider and we start putting those pieces together like a little bit of a puzzle and as we move through the process we're able to bring you more information. It's just as we get a piece it slides in and then goes from there. Y'all have any questions? >> Seeing none. Thank you Miss Jenkins. Great job. Board members, remember these are just uh mini experts and we are starting to capture these and convert them over into media. Um we're working with Canva and a couple other software providers um to see if these can be converted into like animated videos and segments so that we can post those to our website so that families and community members can develop a better understanding of how we're funded and how we generate revenue, where we spend our dollars. Um,
181so it's important for me every time Heather presents I'll I'll provide that same statement. Um, so Mr. Chair, that concludes the uh items for me under the workshop item. Um, I do know and I I I will apologize, Mr. Chair, there was an item that Mr. Keys had asked me and I failed to add to this agenda, but I did address it in an email to the board last evening. So Mr. Keys, if that satisfied your question, then >> we don't need to address it again here. Yes, sir. Thank you. And if any other questions come up about any of your colleagues questions and my responses, please feel free to reach out. So, Mr. Chair, I turn it over to you, sir. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Um, the only we have one piece of unfinished
182business on um the agenda, and that is to discuss uh the August board meeting date. Uh currently, it's scheduled for August 11th. However, that is the day after the first day of school and that's going to be a very hard turnaround for our staff to have everything created um and ready for our um our board meeting date. So, um I'm going to ask the superintendent, is there any recommendations um for when to change that meeting date? >> We're going to move it to the 25th of August. Um and and as you pointed out, it's also it was previously scheduled on the election day. >> Um so we didn't feel it would be appropriate to have board members sitting up here waiting for election results while we're in the middle of a meeting. So >> yes,
183I we appreciate that. Um so uh just make sure to reflect that on your calendar August 25th. Um >> and we'll be certain to send out an updated calendar. >> Yes. Yes. Thank you. >> And uh and Mr. Green also for you to make sure when you're not noticing that. Okay. Um moving on to the next uh thing is board member comments. Are there any comments from any of my fellow board members? Seeing none, this work session is adjourned. >> Yes, ma'am.