School Board Work Session | November 18, 2025

001[music] Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Well, good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. >> All right. Very good. Very good. Uh welcome to the PK County School Board's work session on this fine day. It is now uh November 18th today and we are sitting at about 12:30. So we'll now call this work session to order. I would like to thank our staff. I see you all lined up back there. Uh still trickling through the door as well. Um appreciate your availability today. um and your accessibility to help us address any questions we have. So, thank you. Uh we're humbled to serve alongside uh you and the most highly educated and dedicated workforce in the nation. I would like to start by reading our who are we statement. It says that we

002are the Pulk County leadership governance team. If we were to pick one phrase to define us, it would be student centered. Uh because when we come together to work, we [snorts] lean on our diverse backgrounds. uh our experiences to ensure that our decisions are focused on providing a highquality education for all students. Uh the four most important things to our governance team are one operating with integrity. Two, respecting our students, staff, families, and each other. Three, establishing a culture where stakeholders feel valued, they're supported, and have opportunities for personal and professional growth. And then lastly, supporting an approach of continuous improvement to ensure student outcomes. Collectively, uh we work on behalf of the children that we serve and we find these avenues of agreement so that we can govern the district in an effective manner.

003There's no acceptable alternative to that. We will always collaborate in a respectful manner in order to enhance opportunities for each student and staff member. We will not disparage others. Our students will thrive because we will remain committed to supporting the whole child. Uh we hope to engage and empower our students and stakeholders to create a community of lifelong learners. At this time, I would like to turn it over to Superintendent Hyde to lead us in our work session today. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board, members of community staff. Thank you for being here today. So, several exciting topics this morning or this afternoon on the superintendent report. The first I'm going to provide a little bit of introduction um as I invite uh Miss Tiffany Theur and Jessica Ziskovich to please come to

004the podium. Um they'll be doing our first presentation on wonder here. um board members um as we look, you know, and and I'm proud of the fact that we started this conversation actually before it was arguably necessitated now by some changes in Florida statute that essentially will allow charter schools to move into our schools without having any costs associated with it whatsoever. And and our issue with that quite frankly is we incur additional costs when we add students to a campus. Whether that's through having to add additional lunch shifts, whether that's through transportation costs. Um in addition, the schools of hope who would have access to schools. This is all over the state, all over the news. We're not alone in this. Um as you know, we received three applications. We were able to deny

005those applications for various reasons. you were copied on all of those. [cough] But [clears throat] specifically getting back to why Wonder here is here is that as I looked at the landscape, the emerging landscape here in Pulk County and across the state, there is a growing interest in smaller school settings and smaller programmatic interest areas. [clears throat] Excuse me. >> We need one more book. >> I don't have them. >> Excuse us. >> That's okay. I wasn't pausing for you. >> So, as we look at schools and we look at opportunities, how do we innovate as a large district? And innovation shouldn't only come from within. We should look at successful programs that are outside and look for opportunities. And so, I see this as an opportunity for the school district rather than wait for

006a charter school proposal or someone else to come in to arguably siphon off additional students. Why are we not innovating in areas where there's a high interest or a high desire for a very different type of approach to instruction and teaching and learning? And how do then do we why would we not maximize our school occupancy and provide the best ROI to our taxpayers and to our parents and community members? And so this allows us, it's a very unique program. It's a very unique approach um based off of the design of two of our former employees actually, which I learned when I got the pleasure of meeting them over the last year. um this is unique opportunity for us to consider essentially bringing in a partner. They would assist us with the curriculum. They would

007assist us with training, but we would retain the staff. We would retain the school. We would retain the students. And in essence, it would operate as a school within a school on one of our campuses based off parent interest. It's not something students will be assigned to. This will be an intereston. parents would have to apply as they would with our traditional magnet and school choice options. So, I I see it as an innovative option for us to be more competitive and potentially look at programs like this or other programs in the future that would allow us to be more marketable to our families who are looking for something unique, who are looking for something different than a traditional K12 education system. So, I'm thrilled to have them with us here today. Hopefully, I know

008I stole a little bit of your thunder. Um, but I need I need to set the stage for the board and for the community who are watching and for audience members to understand why we're looking at this and how does it benefit our students? How does it benefit the district? How does it benefit parents? I think I covered that fairly well. So, I will turn it over to the two of you. Welcome. >> Thank you so much. Well, we are so excited to stand before you. My name is Tiffany Thenor and this is my colleague Jessica Zipovich. We're really excited to share with you about our work at Wonder here and the potential to collaborate with our local schools. >> You're gonna click for me, >> please. Okay. Fresh out of college, I was fortunate

009enough to land a um land a teaching degree, a teaching job, excuse me, um at the school where I interned at, Philip O'Brien Elementary. It was there that I learned how to classroom manage, plan to use a curriculum map, and manage to teach to feed 20 kids in 23 minutes. I loved that school. I was very good at my job and I believe very deeply in the curiosity and creativity of our kids. But teaching within such a rigid system has cost mental health, anxiety, and the piling on of tasks that did little to nurture the natural curiosity of our kids. I wondered what we would do if we had the power to do it a little bit differently. So after eight years of teaching at Philip O'Brien, my dear friend and I quietly left our

010classroom to try to reimagine school a little bit differently. For the past decade, we have been developing, refining, and dreaming of the day that we would have the opportunity to share our work back in our schools. So we are super excited to do that with you today. In today's conversation, we will walk you through wonder here in our projectbased learning model. We're going to show you the results that we've had over a decade of doing this work on a our little farm in South Lakeland. And we're going to dream with you about what's possible if we decide to do school a little bit differently for a little a few of our elementary schools. What might learning look like if we strip back the extras and return to the reason we're all here in the first

011place, for children? With a freedom to innovate, to test, and to learn, our wonder here design has drawn from the best of Montasauri, Reio Amelia, and Finland. Over the past decade, we've been able to intentionally research, develop, and refine a model that honors the ideas of the child, invites our parents back in as true partners within the education system, and our educators as mentors and not just a facilitator. At Wonder Here, we believe in simple truths that all children deserve a joy-filled and meaningful education. When school is experienced through hands-on curiositydriven education, real and lasting learning will finally occur. Neuroscience shows us that joy and curiosity unlock the brain for learning. Positive emotions release dopamine, strengthening memory and increasing retention by up to 25%. Curiosity [snorts] alone can help students learn two to three times

012more information. But the magic does not happen just there. When students feel safe enough to take risks, fail, try and try again, they continue to learn. In an environment like ours, the kind created through project-based learning, students show significantly higher levels of grit, curiosity, and problem solving. Studies from Stanford and the Learning Institute show that when children are allowed to experiment, prototype, revise, and try again, they develop stronger resilience and demonstrate greater master of content than their traditionally higher pressured settings. This aligns with what we also know about psychology. When the fear of being wrong is removed, motivation increases and students become more willing to try and persist through challenges, which is one of the strongest predictors of lasting learning. And autonomy matters, too. Research shows that when children have voice and choice, intrinsic motivation

013can double. Through the wonder model for project-based learning, we help we help schools cultivate environments where the risk t taking is safe, where effort is celebrated, and where learning is a journey, not destination. When we bring joy, choice, and low stakes exploration back into learning, students don't just achieve, they come alive. I wonder here, we've been doing school a little bit differently for a decade, testing our ideas, researching, trying, failing, and trying again. We consult with educators. We host focus groups and conferences. And we conduct case studies, and we collect data. We have been doing our own project on transformative project-based learning so that we could be the proof that learning filled with wonder it works. And how exactly do we do school so differently? I'm glad you asked. Let us show you. All right.

014So the first characteristic of the wonder here designed is projectbased curriculum. When we started Wonder Here, we searched high and low for a curriculum that was playbased, keeping fun at the center, that was project driven and allowed students to have autonomy, that was crosscurricular and helped them learn under captivating themes, and most importantly was relevant. We wanted to answer that age-old question, when am I going to use this in the real world? And it just we couldn't find it. We couldn't find that whole package. And so we decided to create it. So, we've developed a library of 30 plus um science and history unit studies that have accompanying novel studies, math projects, and learning games that our students use every day. And in that booklet that you all have, and I do apologize if there's

015not enough, we can definitely fix that. Um not right now, but [laughter] you will be able to see um a sample of our favorite uh unit study, which is our solar system unit study. So, you'll see all of the elements in there. Okay. Um our second characteristic of the wonder design is personalized learning. Um, we believe that children are not standard, they're extraordinary and their education should reflect those extraordinary interests and abilities. And so everything begins and ends with the child. We craft individualized work plans for each child. We set up systems in the classroom for games and resources that help target their exact learning level. We follow their pace in order to decrease learning gaps. And we monitor their progress holistically. And so again, you'll see some photos in there of real life examples

016of these from our classrooms and our students. You might be wondering, this sounds great, but what does a day in the wonder here students life look like? And so what that looks like for us is a 2-hour work cycle. And during this two-hour work cycle, they get direct instruction in language arts and math. And they get that in one-on-one settings with their teacher and also small group instruction with their peers. They get extended practice using leveled language arts and math bins with games and resources at their disposal. They get to participate in practical life trays that reinforce um real world skills. They also get one to two hours of project time where they engage with these unit studies. So they're they're getting to learn through inquiry and exploration as their basis for learning science and

017history topics. um they get to do the unit study lessons and invitations and also they get to do their studentled projects during this time. They also get an hour of novel study which the teacher is reading aloud the mentor text that accompanies the unit study. So it's following the same theme. They're reading aloud these highquality mentor texts. They're engaging in Socratic discussions. They're learning many lessons on different language arts skills. And then they get to end the six weeks with a book club party to celebrate all of their learning. They get one to two hours of unstructured play which I'm sure they would tell you is their favorite part of the day that's woven throughout and then an hour of enrichment like Lego robotics, art and STEM and so on. The third characteristics of the

018wonder design is progress monitoring. Thank you. Oh, yep. I forgot [laughter] all. Uh at Wonderh here we believe that data is not scary. It simply tells a story. So when we be began developing our progress monitoring methods, we kept in mind our why of wanting to return to the public school system to this very moment. We intentionally created a system of data collection that honors the whole child, but can also be clearly communicated to parents and stakeholders. So instead of letter grades, we use benchmark checklists to track their progress. Teachers are trained to take detailed anecdotal notes of children as they learn, both in that one-on-one and small group instruction, but also as they circulate the room and observe their learning habits in real time. They then use those notes to craft a personal narrative

019reports on each child that are shared with the parent. Teachers um meet with parents regularly to set and review goals using our um developed goal setting guide. We invite parents to opt into their their students into standardized testing like the Iowa test and the STAR test because we believe that the data is important. And the students get to this is probably their favorite part. They get to show off all of their hard work in our portfolio showcases that happen every six weeks. Um and you'll see photos of that in in all of this data in your booklet as well. Um and then you'll see here is just a sampling of our data. Um this is from our one of our primary classes which is our K first grouping. But we are proud to say that

020in the 2024 2025 school year, 100% of our students made growth commensurate to their ability from the fall to the spring semesters. The Iowa assessment showed consistent gains in retention and problem solving. Our case studies that are done in conjunction with a school psychologist showed increased motivation, attendance, and confidence and decrease in anxiety. And we believe that this data is in alignment with the Pulk County School Board's out desired outcomes of high student engagement, achievement, and positive behaviors. And the fourth [clears throat] and final characteristic of the wonder design is parent engagement. We believe in prioritizing parent partnership because the parent is the first and most important educator in a child's life. And because of that, we can confidently say that 100% of Wonderare parents are highly engaged. We have learned that when you create

021a culture of parent involvement and set a high standard, they will rise to the occasion. We facilitate this through our parents at work model, which you'll see a handout in your booklet as well that lays it out, but essentially we invite them to participate in their child's work cycle. So about four times a year they come and they are part of the class and they see what their child is doing and see their learning in action. They come and participate in work days to help beautify our campus or do any sort of activities that are necessary to keep everyone's buy in. And they are invited to come to workshops which are educational inspirational presentations that our teachers and our staff put on to keep everyone remember remembering why we do this kind of learning. And

022of course events like portfolio nights, field trips, [clears throat] and parent book clubs help keep the fun. We believe that parents are integral to their child's success and it really does pay off. And you'll notice there in your booklet as well there are a couple pages of just parent testimonials um and just their perspective of of this. So I think Albert says it here best. It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. At Wonder Here we have been inspired by today's schools to relax a grip and let our kids breathe. Let our teachers breathe. Breathe in wonder and maybe even let our children lead. We are proposing the opportunity to bring our work back into the very halls

023where wonder here was first imagined at Philippine. At this school it is filled with promise and it has a principal my former student intern Mrs. Gibson who knows our community so well and she leads with both heart and vision. And while the campus is currently in turnaround status, that simply highlights what we already believe that this place is ripe for renewal, for fresh ideas and the and for approaches that rebuild from a place of both hope and possibility. This partnership is a chance to bring something new into a school that holds tremendous potential. With a bit of wonder and the model grounded in evidence and experience, we are confident our impact will speak for itself. within currently available classrooms on Philip O'Brien's campus. We we would like to pilot two primary school units which is

024our K1 grouping design the wonder way that's natural wooden and airy and we will bring in which is a project space with all of the fixings with technology lots of cardboard and research material just everything that the child will need to bring all of their ideas to life and lots of cardboard. We know that not everything that matters can be measured, but we also know that numbers speak for themselves and numbers talk. So within our three wonder campuses, two in Florida and one in South Carolina, our students are making progress and our parents are deeply engaged. And this is a dangerous combination. And together with district support and parents empowered, students will learn and that learning will last. And not only will they learn, but they will want to come to school. Our children run

025into the school every day. With your support, our team is ready to partner with you to bring meaningful and lasting learning and change to Philip O'Brien first and then to other elementary schools within our district. Until every child has a wonderfilled education, until every child trusts their own ideas and every parent believes that not only are they welcome into the classroom, but they're necessary, we are excited to do this shared work with you. This is our wonder launch team. Together we will support every layer of implementation, curriculum, instructor coaching, school leadership, collaboration, family engagement, of which there is many, district partnership. This team will be on campus. It will be in the classrooms, and it will be in our community. With an investment of $75,000, the campus will will receive full curriculum and program licensing,

026ongoing training, and complete access to our wonderer systems and support. At $50,000, we would also like to hire a full-time wonderyear director to provide full-time daily partnership with our teachers and the leadership. Together, this innovation investment will lead to meaningful long-term outcomes for our for all of our students, higher engagement, deeper belonging, and a greater academic confidence with leadership like Superintendent Hyde, with a passionate and the partnership that we have in Philip O'Brien's principal, Mrs. Azure Gibson and the experiments we have with our team at Philip at wonder here. We are confident in our ability to launch a very strong pilot. Our plan is to implement with excellence scale slowly and steadily and open the doors for other principles to see what is possible through our model. As momentum will grow, we hope to build

027school-toschool support and cultivate a district-wide understanding of what learning could look like if wonder is prioritized. We are truly excited for the opportunity to collaborate with our Pulk County schools and to have such an innovative leadership working tirelessly to provide such a various and child- centered opportunities for families in our county. Wonder here would be so honored to pilot with you and to partner with you first returning to Philip O'Brien where a lot of curious kids are currently enrolled and then for all of the curious kids to follow. >> Thank you, >> Miss Miller. Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for joining us today. Um, I'm sorry about my delay. I just want to share that what I know from Wonder Here, I know from your students and parents. Um, and I I think the my last

028the only time I visited was before you moved the location. Um, so I'm sure the new location provides many opportunities. [clears throat] Um I'm interested in learning more about this partnership logistics of who would who would participate, how would that be selected, how would they work within um the structure of the school as it is and you know it all starts with the admin team and buy in especially when we're doing programs within schools or you know separate schools within schools. Um so I appreciate this information and I'm sure I'll have many more questions and I look forward to asking them um of you and the superintendent. Thank you. >> Thank you >> Mr. Sharpless. One thing that was mentioned during the presentation was the fact that Philip O'Brien is in turnaround status. Um I

029was just curious superintendent with this school being kind of a a micro school within the school. How does that impact anything with the turnaround? Is there any impact of the turnaround plan? Do you see a net positive in performance or will these students not even will not be counted in the uh >> in the assessment data? I mean just kind of just any kind of information you can give there. There's no change to the school or its population. It the stu school will be scored and graded based off the performance of its students within the qualified content areas and grade levels and so long as they hit that minimum enrollment number of at least 10 students, right, to be considered and calculated. So there's no impact whatsoever. Um to to some of Miss Miller's questions

030because I covered some of that um earlier. Um this would be open for application based off parent interest. So it would be marketed to parents as an option could be both for students at the school or students who wish to participate in a program like this who would like to attend that school. Um and then again these staff are our staff. So there's no change in the administration. There's no conflict. There's no nothing other than making sure the administration is also aware of the instructional strategies and pedigogy taking place within that classroom. And I'm going to clarify again that parents have agreed to and have desired. So, this isn't something we're just doing and selecting two classrooms and just throwing this curriculum in there. This is open because we want families who like this model,

031who are interested in this model and want to retain a footprint in the public education system rather than feeling like I have to go to a charter school. I have to go someplace else to get something different for my child. So I I think it's >> that was that was actually one of my my questions is because with schools of hope that's a private school coming in and taking part of our or or a charter school sorry taking part of our um our property and so this >> in our spare bedroom basically. [laughter] So this is there, you know, again, this is our actual said our staff, our school, and we're we're managing this >> and we we've been we started this conversation well over a year ago because, you know, I have an interest

032in innovation, right? And how do we empower staff to innovate? So I think this is at the front leading edge of that, which is we have other staff right now who are in classrooms who may have a great concept or idea. How then do we create a structure and a system to allow that to take place? I think this is again that's that initial opportunity for us because it's well founded, it's well documented, it's well researched. Um it's it's flourished over the last 10 plus years. I've been on their campus multiple times. They have incredible parent engagement at their school. And again, it's parent choice and we keep saying that. So if the state values parent choice and we value parent choice, why not create opportunities that we currently don't offer and make that part

033of our program option for families to choose to participate in? >> So then would this be um us capacity that we might not might have been under capacity where we're actually filling capacity at the school because that's one thing that the charter schools were targeting were the capa we might not have been at capacity at those schools. This a way for us to fight against that basically is my way to say. The answer is potentially. And I'm sorry to give you a mixed answer like that, but it really is going to depend on how many students or families at the current school, Philip O'Brien, may desire to participate in this in those early grade levels. So then once those seats are filled, you know, then we have that or we'll have a traditional lottery system.

034So it's hard to answer that question because there is space. The classroom space does exist, but students, we do utilize some of those spaces. So, it's a little bit of a mixed answer for you, but I'll get you some different numbers later. >> I appreciate that. >> Make better sense of my answer to you. >> Okay, >> Miss Wyatt. >> Thank you. >> I'm really excited about this opportunity because we need more play in our in our early school years. Um, my questions really are more for Superintendent Hyde. I know the proposed timeline is a December board vote, which I'm excited to see it moving quickly so that it can um launch next fall. my as one board member, I would hope that we would allow it to be open to the students at Philip

035O'Brien first. Um it's no secret that I'm in Winter Haven and in North Winter Haven, you can't go to a zoned elementary school because we have so much choice. Um, but I want to make sure that the kids that live in that neighborhood have the opport that we don't ever get to a situation where they don't have the opportunity to go to the school in their backyard that has an incredible program because it's filled by all of these kids from South Lakeland or Bulberry or other places throughout the county that parents are are engaged and are willing to drive them there. Um, so I just want to make sure that there's at least some threshold. um whether that's just how we set it up, whether that's in in language somewhere um that gives first right

036of refusal to the students that are at the school before we expand it to um other areas um really is my biggest biggest concern. Just making sure that there's a place for students zoned to Philip O'Brien at Philip O'Brien if they want to be there. >> So what will Okay, I was just trying to think through the timeline. So, we may have to have a slight adjustment in timeline because I'd have to bring back a revised proposal to show you and and to their credit, they wanted it to target Philip O'Brien students and I told them no. >> I had to tell them no. And I said, however, we could do a 50/50 potentially where 50% of the enrollment is reserved for Philip O'Brien, 50% becomes choice. Because again, I I want to make sure

037we have enough parents who are truly interested and are going to invest because this is not just about the school and the staff delivering the program. This requires a high level of parental engagement and involvement and to be successful. So, I just wanted to make sure we had that and that we were honoring our current magnet process, but very happy to create a process or a system that would I I'll provide two options to the board prior to a board vote, bring it back to you and see where we're at and if we have to modify from there, we can the timeline slightly for two more weeks, we'll make that adjustment. >> Thank you. And I just for what it's worth, I don't know that our while our current magnet process is great for what

038our magnet schools currently are. I don't know what our magnet schools currently are is the best process where when you have schools that kids can't go to because there's no school in their neighborhood or near their neighborhood that they can get into. Um I don't know that that's the best process to be shipping kids across the county to to go to their zone school. So it may be a model for for other areas as well. Yes, ma'am. They're smiling because they're getting what [laughter] Miss Fields >> I didn't even talk to. >> Thank you. Uh, Superintendent Hi, we had a conversation before the meeting. I have very little knowledge about wonder here, so I would love to have an opportunity to uh schedule a visit [clears throat] and uh ma'am >> field trip for everyone.

039>> Yes. >> Okay, that'd be fine. U make sure that we're within sunshine. [clears throat] >> Yes. [laughter] Okay. Okay. Oh, yes. Just kidding. >> I I think I think my thoughts are similar to um Miss Wyatt wanting to make sure about the selection process. And then my other question is if children are going to be transported in, will the parents have to do their own transportation? And then the last piece is uh making clear I'm understanding the $75 is basically for licensing one to hear curriculum and then the 50,000 is for uh onsite director. >> You're Yes ma'am. With the addition of that the 75 would include the training for the staff and the support for the staff consistently throughout the year. when we first met and I threw this idea out to them

040um they were very excited and but I said I I don't want to just license your curriculum the pedigogy around this is really important so they will actually be involved so while this will be our employees it's important for them to be involved in the hiring process as well so that we're hiring the right people to fill this role and so there's ongoing training support and coaching from that individual But that's also part of the $75,000 for the licensing. Yes, ma'am. >> You're welcome, Miss Miller. >> Apologize. I have two followup. Um, you [clears throat] know, when we started talking about how the students will be selected, I want to bring back the conversation I have with magnet schools when we do that that we do and we did try at Garner to target the

041students that were already there. But this is when it comes to part of having social workers and other people go into the community. we still did not get the majority of that community um as much as we tried. And so I understand the parents that want this program that will be involved especially with the commitment of having to be hands-on with some of this. But I would like when we start planning um the day-to-day and how this will work that we do target how we will reach the students who do not have that kind of support at home because those are the students that we're going to miss. And the second piece is these learning environments are have shown best practice for kids of different learning styles. So I want to be very clear that

042this opportunity will be open to all learners and that it will not be like some of you know we've done in the past which we've we've made improvements in but we're not going to limit um kids who may need support or made a different style of learning um not able to access this program. Um I appreciate what you do. I I know lots of little people there. I I've watched you grow and so um thank you for for me I heard the meeting was happening but I did not stick my nose into it as I usually would do because I knew you guys could could really um share and sell what you do on your own and with your data. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> We're really grateful for that. They welcome >>

043Mr. Keys. >> All right. Thank you for your presentation. Um, you know, I kind of looked into some of this beforehand and very excited about a, you know, another choice for our students and our parents as well. So, I'm very much an advocate of that, especially from the fact that we presented as a way we're attracting students back into the system that may have left the public schools for something else. I think that's that's valuable. Um, I also think parental engagement is one of those things we suffer with all the time and this program having to have a high level of parental engagement is is encouraging to me. I think some of my [clears throat] questions are to the students target and we're we're looking at Philip O'Brien and I want to I want to

044be able to after the fact crunch the data, right? Are we identifying students who have maybe not met the metric they they want to and give access to those students first, right? So we can accurately accurately track progress and see improvements. um you know I I would wouldn't necessarily think not and I'm not saying that not all students are worried that but those students that are high achieving students right they're obviously high achieving at a higher level any kind of curriculum deviation may not benefit them in that particular circumstance so I think about it that fact but and then this is where I come into my role is I think about the money part of it so I am I'm curious as far as the 75,000 a year which I think these are very small

045numbers [clears throat] in the in scope of $2 and half billion dollars. I think about where does this money come from? And I'm not a fan of adding programs without eliminating some programs, right? To look at some of those are ineffective. And then I'm even thinking more creative is that as we hopefully see this program achieve and have successes, how does that relate to sitebased budgeting, right? And saying if this this particular administrator wants us on their campus, find room for it, right? Um as far as that $50,000 on-site director annually, right? And if we can take somebody who's already on staff there and kind of flip that, I want to I want to be creative with that. I think so those are, you know, that's my only concern with it because in a nature

046of we're trying to find money to do other things, right? I want to see that we're make sure we're those programs that may not be successful and we can see that you actually track the data that you have success how we can, you know, find a place for it without adding to. So those are my comments. couple things and you mentioned part of it which is if we're getting families to come back to PCPS >> part of that revenue is coming back in the return of FTE right >> right >> not all of it but part of it >> um in addition to which um you mentioned the sitebased budgeting and and especially the site coordinator now in our discussions not every school is going to have a site coordinator >> right so as we

047grow that we'll reach a breaking point much like we do with junior achievement as to when do you reach a certain threshold where you need to add additional staff um to provide those supports. And it it's I'm going to leave it at that because I I don't want to styy innovation, >> but I do think that we have to put some bumper rails up to make sure that and we have had a history of this and it's not it's this is not a negative comment the way it's going to seem, but it's it's a thoughtful comment. When we allow a current administration to get excited about something and adopt a program and then that person retires or gets promoted or moves on, we have to then be very intentional about whoever goes into that school

048needs to have that same passion for that same program because otherwise and we have seen this happen repeatedly and it's not it's not a systemic issue in PK County alone. This happens everywhere. the next leader comes in, has their own idea or their own passion points, and guess what? The one that was there before starts to diminish slowly over time or even overnight, and then we're moving in a different direction, and all that investment is now gone. So, I I just want to be very intentional in how we approach this. This is why we agreed to a a very limited pilot um and then allow for the growth to occur each year and then again in other areas or pockets across the district. So, all of that absolutely we're committed to. Actually, I never got

049a good read on you guys sometimes because I'm going to be honest with you, [laughter] I didn't expect some of your questions so far and the support already to move forward with this. I was expecting a little bit a little bit different conversation today, but I'm excited because it it's an innovative idea. It's really different and it's not one that's easily embraced by many and and for the for this board to be that willing to try something different and unique with some understandings that there's there's going to be assessments, we're going to have data, we're going to have management. Um, we're going to have parental involvement and it's and and what I love about it is we're innovating this in partnership with someone who has a proven model rather than having to bring someone else

050in or have somebody else take kids from our school district in outside of the system to do the same thing. Why not innovate and allow that to happen within our own district? So, that's what excites me about this because this won't be the only idea that comes before you. If this is successful, I promise you that we will have and I'll present a whole a whole I'll map the whole thing out for the board and I'll probably do it then earlier rather than later. But we've been playing with this idea of how do we start to create smaller unique opportunities in our schools, maximize our enrollments, bring families back, attractor programs that really are outside of what we currently do. We do a lot. We have greatmies. We have great magnet schools. We have all

051those things, but still families are looking for something else. And so I think this is an opportunity for us to essentially create and stimulate um innovation amongst our staff. And so if you think about it, my vision, as grandiose as it sounds, is why aren't we holding an innovation fair once a year and having teachers come forward with ideas like this and saying, "Hey, I'd like to try this." And so long as certain conditions and criteria can be met, why aren't we allowing things like that to happen? We talk all the time about giving autonomy back to our staff, you know, it's a high stakes assessment area and we've got to be comfortable walking that fine line between accountability and innovation and doing the right thing sometimes or I shouldn't say doing the right thing,

052I should say doing something different and better and unique for our kids. So that's where I'm at. So, I'm very excited to hear the board in your questions and your comments because it it continues to empower me and refuel me and reinvigorate me to keep pushing for innovation like this and great ideas like this. So, thank you. Appreciate it, >> Mr. Allen. Dr. Allen, I don't know if I need to follow up on that. I appreciate the energy and passion around that. But uh I do know when when this uh came uh before us as we did our agenda review um the first question I asked was you know is there enough outdoor space because I mean obviously that's very much embedded in in what you do. So and I think uh Philip O'Brien is

053definitely that location. They've got plenty of outdoor space. So it's great to see our administrators there and they're nodding. Yes. Um so you know very excited. U from an innovative standpoint for sure. Uh and I you know you you punted or kicked this off with the discussion around you know what's happening as far as the state board of education ruling around the schools of hope. Um this is something that we're you know we're bringing from within and I I think that's how it should be done. So I I appreciate the innovation that's happening around this and uh the presentation itself. I think the one question I had was around facilities and obviously when the schools of hope situation has unfolded you know we've been asking a lot of questions and like shared spaces how how

054do we share parking lots uh drop off you know cafeterias just been all kinds of uh questions that we've been trying to roll around so obviously those would be my questions around facilities and I'm sure you've been on site quite a bit obviously you spent many years there um but you know obviously the district's been responsive I you know we've got a parking area in the very front, which is great. Uh we've got a drop off location in the back now with some extended sidewalks. Um I think the tree trimming that took place at the beginning. So obviously the district's been very responsive. Um but this is new, right? Um so if there's any need for necessary modifications, I want to make sure that we can respond to that, especially in the midst of a

055pilot opportunity. So >> but uh thanks for being here. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Sharpless. All >> right. I had one other question. Um, well, I don't it's a it's a comment. Um, so we talk about competition, we talk about competing for students, and you know, something like this um guess would be for you, superintendent. Do you think um a program like this would be something that we could advertise on step up for students marketplace to potentially capture some of those dollars FTE or do you think that this would or would just completely bring back the student? I mean, how I mean which one do you or do you see both happening? >> I think it's both. Um and I didn't pay you to say ask that question or make that comment before the meeting.

056[laughter] Um >> no, I'm I like to compete. I like to win. So, >> why are we not just being honest? That's the point here, right? It's it's about innovation. Like we keep using that word and I can't overuse it because everyone who has a struggle with public education feels like it's it's no different than it was 20 years ago and yet so much has changed. We're so much better and we do so much more for our kids than ever before. But if that's not what you're looking for and there's something else, why are we not creating that opportunity? But to your point, we are approved to be a provider under stepup. And if a family has decided to do this and they want to come back on a full-time or a part-time basis, absolutely

057we'll take that FTE back. That you're absolutely right. This is about competition, but it's also about doing the right thing and and I think you can do both. So, thank you for the comment and the question. >> I see no further questions or comments. Thank you ladies. Really appreciate your time. We'll see you again soon. >> Thank you. Board members, the next item we have is your favorite item each month. It's the rule development. So, we'll bring up Miss Griffin and Mr. Davis is on backup just in case. Miss Griffin, it's all yours. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Um, we are winding down with the policies that I'm bringing you um for a short time. So, I'm bringing you 26 today, but that's really only about 11 different groups because these are all the

058HR policies. And if you remember from previous times I brought HR policies, they're grouped together. The um like 1000s, 3000s, and 4,000s, they're usually the same. They're just administrative, instructional, and non-instructional. So, you'll see it um as I'm going through these that a lot of the policies are sorry [laughter] um that a lot of the policies are grouped together. Um and then these will come for public hearing in January. So the first group are our employment policies, employment of administrators, instructional staff and support staff which are being revised as a result of House Bill 1255. In the policy, it removes the January 1st, 2025 date related to um the AA clearing house. And then it adds a statement about individuals um who apply for employment um how they're governed. And then there's some additional revisions

059in policy 4120 that address when a person is ineligible for employment. And those that language is already included in 1120 and 3120. It just when we updated those um about a year ago, for whatever reason, they didn't get walked over to 4120. So we're just making that update now. our background screening and employment history checks policies. It's 1121.01, 3121.01, and 4121.01. This is also some revisions related to um the AA clearing house. And so it just specifies that we have to provide a link in all of our job vacancy advertisements and also a link on our website um to aa and then our drug-free workplace policies are being updated to so what's happening with with this is we are rescending our current policy for um drug-free workplace and adopting a totally new policy and this

060is just um Florida statute says that if we this is just a more like in-depth policy that there could be some benefits to discounts for worker compensation. I did speak with um Linda King and she says that we're already receiving that discount, but there's it's never a bad idea to beef up your policies, especially those around um a drug-free workplace. So, that's what's going on with those three policies. Our conflict of interest policies are being updated based off of the office of management and budgets revisions to the uniform grant guidance regulations and I brought several policies to you earlier um I think in September that were all updated based on the same guidance and so it's just to improve um federal financial assistance management transparency and oversight and there's some optional language that's added in

061there where we define nominal value of a gift that may be accepted by an employee and staff recommends using the $100 threshold because that aligns with the Florida ethics law. Our educator misconduct policies are being updated to incorporate Senate Bill 1374, which requires that instructional personnel, administrative personnel self-report any felony or misdemeanor listed in the statute within 48 hours. And then additional provision has been added to 3139 um that what is it? School boards adopt a policy that temporarily removes instructional personnel from the classroom within within 24 hours after that notification. So that's only in policy 3139 because that's our instructional um version of this policy. >> Hold for one second, Miss Griffin. >> Mine could have waited to the end, Miss Griffin, but thank you. I just want to say that the um I

062appreciate the summary as I went through these. It was very helpful. It was it I could tell exactly what was changing and also this makes it available for me to print. So, and I still print things because Gen X >> I do too. >> Um and so this makes it easy for me to print and keep for the um six month and annual review of what we did change. Um I know some of this most of this was legislative changes. Um, and I know that you are you will alert us to what's legislative and and what's just the a review, but I think this format is very helpful. >> Thank you. >> Proceed, Miss Griffin. >> Okay. Our standards of ethical conduct policies incorporate provisions from Senate Bill 348 regarding stolen valor. And there's some

063additional revisions in there regarding self-reporting. And then our student supervision and welfare policy, it's just updated. We did a similar policy not too long ago where we're just changing Twitter to X. Um it's not based on any change in the law. >> Osmma Griffin. >> Mhm. >> Mr. Sharpless. >> Yes. So um the three policies, student supervision and welfare, obviously there's three different areas. Um all three policies and it lists out you know you changed you know X now instead of Twitter. just a suggestion and I'm just pick one of them. I think I'm on 1213. Okay. But under that area says it's not recommended that staff members engage with students in personal non-educational social media and online networking sites such as Facebook. Then you that's where you change to X. Could we just not

064put a period after media to where we don't have listing Facebook X, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, all those? So that way every time a a name changes, we don't have to go back and revise the policy because I think >> just don't list examples or there's a new platform. >> Yeah. Or Yeah. Our new platform gets added. So we I mean if we just say in non-educational social media and online networking media, I think that covers it all. >> And I would do that for all three of those policies. Is it just a recommendation? >> Yeah, if that's general consensus, we can just make that change. instead of um changing it to X, I'll just X out that end of that sentence on all three policies and maybe that'll be less changes we have [laughter] to

065bring forward. >> That's all. Thank you. >> Proceed, Miss Griffin. >> Okay. our professional learning and development policies amended based on house bill 875 which is the school community professional learning act and it's just related to different criteria for professional learning activities. It changes the name of it was listed the state's educational leadership standard and now it's the Florida educational leadership standards and then um this act also focused on professional learning and activities for instructional personnel and school administrators. So that's why you'll see a slight difference in 1242 and 3242 compared to 4242 because 4242 does not include administrators or instructional staff. [cough] [clears throat] And then our final three policies before you today is 3130 appointment assignment transfer and promotion of instructional staff. And this policy is just to align more so with Florida

066statute 104.04 04 related to qual the qualifications of instructional personnel and teacher preparation programs. Our compensation policy is amended um based on House Bill 1255 and that it just renames critical teacher shortage areas as high demand teacher needs areas. And then policy 3430.03 is our sick leave policy and it aligns with Florida statute 1012.612A1 612A1, which just says that instructional staff are entitled to four sick days on their first day of employment compared to um our other employee groups which get four days at the end of the first month. Any additional questions? >> Seeing none. >> All right. Thank you guys. Board members, the next item up for the workshop is attendance update data and wraparound services summary. Mr. Butler, >> good [clears throat] afternoon. As you know, Specialized Student Services has many different departments

067within the department. So, I want to be able to turn this over to the assistant director of attendance so he can go over the full review of the wraparound services that we currently have in place. Mr. Rosson, >> good afternoon. Good afternoon. [clears throat] Thank you, board chair and school board members and Mr. Hype for allowing me to speak today and kind of discuss what we've been doing with our department to support the strategic plan goal five and wraparound students for the whole child. Um there will be a lot of data that I'll be reviewing, a lot of numbers, a lot of numbers I've I've learned over the last few years, last four years, uh to kind of address attendance here. So, as we kind of go through this, feel free to answer any questions

068or ask questions as we kind of go through. Um and I'll be happy to stop and answer those. So, who are we? Um we're community outreach department. As of right now, there's 14 outreach facilitators. We started with eight including myself. That was roughly around 20 to 25 schools per facilitator. Um as of right now we have six bilingual people on staff. I have uh a call center person in the office who's also bilingual. Each one of those facilitators is stationed throughout the district. So currently we have 14 facilitators. Um so they're strategically placed throughout the district to make sure they are supporting the students and families in their needs. And so as of right now, they have 10 to 12 students, 10 to 12 schools a piece. So now we're able to kind of get

069in more involved with the specific needs of our families. So how are we leveraging our our outreach facilitators? They're they're making calls, home visits, doing district referrals, district referrals for different supports like Hazel Health, youth family advocates, social worker social work referrals to try to eliminate barriers amongst our our families. And so we're designed, our department's designed to find out the problem and then outsource that problem to the necessary department to make sure those barriers are removed. And so as we kind of move forward and we look at the approach of our our support and how we go about that, there's three three things. So when I started this with my department, I said we have three different ways to go about this. One, community outreach, attendance, and then truency. So I'll start with attendance.

070So attendance being that when students hit that 5-day mark in the 30-day period, we start to kind of introduce and provide information to families to support them to eliminate some of those barriers. When we get to the truency side, if they're kind of getting to that 15-day mark, 15 and 90day where they're considered habitual. So there's a lot more intense services being provided to those students. Now, when I talk about community outreach, community outreach is probably one of the most important of those services. It goes beyond the 9to5. It goes beyond the the 7 to 3:30. It starts way before that. Sometimes it's 5 in the morning. Sometimes it's showing up at the bus stop, meeting parents and the students at the buses to help them figure out what bus stop they need to get

071on. Sometimes it's on Saturdays and Sundays to help stu help parents move into different housing units. So those are volunteer services from my team that they do outside. Even to the point where this week one of my staff members delivering turkeys on his own outside the office to make sure some of these families had Thanksgiving. Some of it's rep repairing cars. I've done it. Repairing cars, make sure if students are are getting to school on time. Whatever the barrier is needed, we're there to support that. So data, I know everybody loves data. So if you look for the 2425 school year, we've made roughly around 42,000 phone calls and and emails and text messages to families and communicating back and forth. It's like we're at roughly around 5,000 home visits across the district and and

072trying to encourage and support that. So if you looking at that, you're looking at a quantity approach. We took the approach to try to touch as many families as possible over the course of the last three years. As we kind of shift into this school year, we're starting to look at the the in-depth approach as far as the student as a whole, an individual student and their individual needs. So, as you look, we've done about 259 home visits up to quarter 1. And so, as we move forward, we're starting to increase those as the needs are are being met. So, currently, we're at 607 home visits for our students. So, those numbers are have already doubled from quarter 1 because the needs are becoming there's there's more need for from our students and our families.

073So when we go to do our home business, I focus on a home business because in order to get to know a family, you have to go see them. You have to go meet them in a community. And so I spend a lot of time I go out there in the community, meet with my students as the same thing with my staff. Sometimes it's just playing a basketball game in the in the in the in the in the community. It's those little things go a long way in encouraging students to come to school. So when we look at district-wide attendance, so in the 23 24 school year, we're at 90%. So that's a cross between the present days, absent days, and the amount of days enrolled. So this year, we are sitting at looking appearing

074to be about a 1% improvement. So I'm estimating between a half a percent and 1% improvement in our overall district percentage. So we're going in the right direction. Okay. So as I kind of start to move forward through the data stuff, you're going to see me get a little bit more excited. So, school improvement. Last year we had 80 schools improve their attendance. The 74% of our schools that are out of our 116 schools non-charter that improve their attendance. We're going the right direction. End of year absence counts. What I want you to focus on here is the bottom number. Bottom two numbers. 23 24 25. As you notice, we're going the right direction. We're improving our attendance. We're about almost about almost 9,000 students improved their attendance 21 days or more. Those are the

075kind of numbers that not just from community outreach. That's from schools, social workers, that's from all department, ESC department, that's all departments coming together to unite to move our student body. Nothing happens if the kids aren't in school. So, district hearings, this is something new we started implemented about a year and a half ago. I put in place. All district hearings are done with me. Very much like a discipline hearing, a level two, that is the last effort to try to relieve all barriers with our families. So we did 30 last year, 26 of those were removed from the list and improved their attendance. Four of them got submitted for parental prosecution. The remaining ones that you see here are some of them are from charter schools and some of them are from years of

076movement from schools making those efforts to move remove those barriers and attendance not being improved. Quarter one attendance as you see we're at 93.4%. That's the highest it's been in the last 5 years for quarter 1 attendance. So we're moving the buck as they say the right direction. What are some of the factors that affected last year? Hurricane. So in quarter one, we had less days last year than we do this year. And we're still moving the attendance the right direction. So absent students 10, 15, and 21 days. Here's the big jump. 21 days, 4573 students missed more than 21 days in quarter 1. were 501 absency by race. As I said earlier, our facilitators are placed strategically throughout the district based upon the needs, including having a bilingual person in my office to help

077coordinate it. I'm a firm believer that language is not a barrier. This is 2025, 2026. I can speak Chinese if I have to. If my sunglasses can speak it and I can hear it, I can speak it, too. And that's something I preach to my staff and I preach to all anybody I come across. Language is not a barrier by gender. So, as you see, everything is pretty much in line with males and females. It doesn't change based upon the drivers. No drastic change. Maybe 100 or 200 students. So we're we're again the the the the focus becomes more on the race to determine what sort of supports we need in in our district. Parent reasons for absences. So based on my communication log that that we put into place, we rolled it out last

078year and I'm very proud of this. And so the communication log is designed to capture the reasons from parents providing us information. As opposed to using a survey, we're using our staff. We're using school staff to determine what the reasons are parents are saying that they're not coming to school. So as they collect that information, we put it into focus. It's a very simple way of inputting it and then that information collected into another report. So how does that help us? So when we look at a school for example and they have a high level of documented homelessness, we can now look into not just for the school but in for that community area to address those concerns if that's a specific need. again if we see sick and we're getting that communication we are

079pushing out hearth so recently we just received my department received the opportunity to now do referrals on behalf of parents so we've been part of the common language is offering hearth I mean offering hazel health every time we have a conversation with the parent now if they act upon it or not that's up to the parent but we're offering that as well as other services now we can offer the the service and the parent says yes I would like that we can do that on behalf of the parent so when that's documented in the system just like you in here you see sick there will be another document in there will show that how many referrals are going towards specific needs how many do we submit so when we look at attendance versus the support

080from Hazel health do they align is a student's attendance improving based upon providing those services so kind of backing up here so when you see a student says student refuses to go to school as a second reason that's what the parents are informing us so based upon that we are now doing a referral based on youth family advocates. We're doing a social worker referral and we're also possibly doing a Hazel Health referral. We're giving them everything they possibly can use to not use as excuse and have them come to school outreach support over 15 days. So students over 15 days. So we've done a roughly around 11,893 different communications with those families. I will tell you as of November 4th, we had 327 elementary students K through five that were compulsory aged that were over

08115 days 15 days. Every single one of those in October and November, my staff has contacted, reach out, communicated with. We're working on the intervention plans, communicating with the CST teams, attending those meetings to make sure that those students are getting everything that they need in order to come to school. whatever the barriers are need and the barriers are endless and the needs are endless. Um the child study team meetings currently this is documented in the CST team for quarter one we had 54 I know there's more than that it's just whether or not they're being input into documented correctly into our system or focus system which which will captures the attendance information. So we're working through that and we're getting through another form of documentation to kind of help that support that DJ DJJ

082referrals are the same as your YFA referrals which was which those case staffings are held in my office. Those are being held today. Um currently we have I think there was 10 10 of them on on the board in the YFA uh for the YFA case staffing is being held today. So again when we look at Hazel Health referrals we see here where it says Hazel Health that will now change to Hazel Health offered and Hazel Health submitted. So now we can capture that accurate data to support our families. >> Mer >> popular today. Um thank you for this information. And I think this is really great for us to understand what you do. I I'm not familiar with your department or your liaison. I have a couple of questions. Are these people split over

083the district? Are we have do we have people living in these communities? Um you have 14 people that work on this. >> Yes. So what I when I when I strategically place them, I looked about where they live and I try to put them in regions where they live to service those communities. But it's not always the case where that's what our district needs based upon the students, right? And so, for example, if we're looking at Malbury, we have a high Hispanic population, Malberry. So, I'm going to assign someone that's bilingual to be able to support that area. And that's kind of how they're strategically placed. And I think that's smart that um that's your strategy because even though we have Google Translate and lots of things, we have communities that unless you are a

084native speaker or or live in their community, they do not trust what you're telling them or um I know my experience with students with disabilities, they're very concerned of giving information to people who they don't understand um understands their language or their or their culture even. So I think that's important. Uh my last question is I see that you we are working we are reaching across and connecting people. My question is when you have success and you've you've they've gone back to school or you see their attendance goes up you've connected them with certain uh services whether it's social worker whether it's even the ESSE department which you can you can connect but that doesn't mean that like when do you close their case do you go back and revisit that? How do you assure

085that they h their needs have been met and we just don't you know hand them off to make sure that we told them about the services >> based upon a lot of the reports that I've built and for my staff they never come off the list. So if we're looking at a student that gets to say because of the new policy we use IQ right we get to a student that has a district referral per se and they've kind of gone through all the efforts once that district referral that actually comes to me specifically me I review that case and then I turn around give that case to employee to try to help improve that case even further and so that is it's an ongoing process so part of that process will to help to

086make sure that we have a piece of accountability there to make sure those kids don't come off so it ties right back into students that not enrolled. So when we find a student that's not enrolled then it the the expectations as a school or my staff inputs that into the IQ. So then that information goes is also activated in there so we can turn around and get those students enrolled. >> So yearly your staff is not clinical social workers but they ma'am they they connect to those teams. >> Correct. Correct. Yes. Miss Fields. >> Excellent pro uh presentation. >> Thank you. Uh, we made an investment about a year ago, Superintendent Hut, and I have been wanting this information for a long time. So, thank you for helping us to understand that the investment has

087definitely been worth it. A couple of questions that I have. Define for me if you can. What is a chronic absenteeism? >> Chronics absenteeism is more than 21 days, whether it be unexcused or excused. It's a student that's missing school for more than 21 days and that's why I've used the data for the 21day mark and that's what gets reported. >> So what do you do with a child who is continuously absent from school? They might not be in the chronic stage but they're continuously absent from school. What what does that look like? >> So if we're looking at a student that's considered unexcused chronically absent meaning they don't have a reason to be out then we have a series of different systems. So this year we revamped our letter system. Instead of just doing

088the one that's been in place for the last 20, 30 years, now we've vamped up that letter. So when they are absent within 5 days, within the 30-day calendar period, they receive now a letter that has the Hazel Health, YFA, Hearth, any any of those supports that we can potentially offer right away, we're able to give those to those students. So when those students trigger within a 5day 30 for in a 30-day period, the schools are making contact with those families. My department department is also running the reports that we've built to make sure that they're able to try to capture those students before they get to the point where they become uh habitual or chronic. So the goal is to provide that's kind of going back to community outreach attendance and uh truency is

089to try to be the community outreach was being the the the bridge to try to try to give those parents and those students the opportunities to come to school based upon the services they have at an earlier stage as opposed to waiting till it's too late. or too long. >> And I would imagine sometimes you just have parents who do not value education. >> 100%. 100%. >> And that is a opportunity and a challenge in itself. >> It it is. It is. And that's why home visits are so important. That's why going out those parents and those families on their terms, you know, uh we just uh started doing a mentorship program with uh North Lake Elementary. And so immediately once I had that information, I went to the house. I said, "Well, you supposed

090to go to school." I said, "I'm going to the house." I said, "And I got to meet the the kids and the mom at the house and got to interact with them there." So, my response when I went to the school that following week to meet my see those students in action, it was a completely different response than when I walked up to the school and met them on on the school, our turf, not their turf. And I got to interact with them completely differently. And so, um, that interaction does go a long way. >> Your relationships. >> Yeah, absolutely. 100%. But thank you for your passion. >> Thank you. >> And thank you for your team because it's a team effort. >> It is. It is. It's a district-wide effort. It's not just I'm

091just one piece of the puzzle. You know, our team's one piece of the puzzle. It takes it takes a a whole community to kind of change change this path. >> Great job. >> Thank you, Mr. Keys. >> I want to say thank you as well. And I think you hit the nail on the head by going to where they are doing those home visits. I think is instrumental. I think that showing um that we care and offering extending, you know, that hand and saying, "Let's help you through this process. Let's find out the reasons why these kids are chronically absent." Um and then having a conversation together and how we can correct that is is of vital importance. So, thank you for going out and being the boots on the ground. It's vitally important. Appreciate

092it. >> And there's some places out there that we shouldn't go. >> All right. Thank you, sir. >> Thank you, [clears throat] board members. We're going to do one more topic and then we'll take a brief take a break. Um, next topic up is the new technical high school and we have Miss Bennett and Miss Webster. Okay. All right. Good afternoon. It's not morning anymore. Um, we're here to propose the concept of a new type of high school, a technical high school. So what this would look like would be a 9 to12 school where students focus on a CTE program study starting in the nth grade and following it through till graduation. It would be a little bit different from what we offer already because while they would take their core academic classes on this

093campus, the rest of their day would be focused on CTE. So they would get more time in their CTE program and that would enable them to be a high school CTE concentrator or completer as early as 10th grade which would then allow them to go on and dual enroll at one of the technical colleges. There's a high demand for skilled trades and technical instruction. So this is a kind of a timely conversation. Students are interested in our technical college options. They they they come to us for dual enrollment every year. They're really interested. However, the current model we have only allows them to enroll in 11th grade. We don't have anything that allows students who are interested in this type of instruction to come earlier. So, a vocational high school offering 9th grade enrollment would

094add an additional education option. We just got through talking about choices. So, this would add an additional choice for PULK students who wanted to try starting these programs earlier. They would choose a CTE program as their focus when they enter the program. And having the core academics and then focusing on CTE would give them more space in their schedule, which would allow students to again be a concentrator or a completer as early as 10th grade before they dual enroll. So you all have a copy of this presentation. Okay. So there are several slides that follow this and I'm not going to read all of them to you um unless you want me to. But there are several slides that follow this that give an example. space in their schedule. >> And then I think that's

095the last thing. >> Um, automotive. I think there's one more. >> Okay. >> Welding. So, so we have several just it's they're just examples of what it might look like and how they might complete those programs while they're still in ninth and tth grade and then go on and be able to complete a dual enrollment program. >> The intent behind the examples was to provide you with some background information as to what the course progression would look like for students, not necessarily which courses would be selected. Um, some of that would be driven based off survey data, but it's important for you to understand that as we expand options, what are they specifically doing in nth and tth grade so that we ensure they're not wasting time attending the program where they're not actually getting

096hands-on experience with those respective areas. And so, um, just wanted to provide a little bit more background there. Um, we are proposing, um, if if the board has an interest in moving forward, depending on your questions or comments today, we would propose expanding into one of our current locations. Um, and we um would help offset that cost through a legislative appropriation request if need be. Um, but at the end of the day, it would take an underutilized school and allow us to expand the program options there. Um, the second option would actually essentially colllocate the program on the campus of one of our existing vocational trades colleges. Um, because there's an existing facility there that we could be that could be used. Now, we don't have to go with the first option. If if the

097board has an interest in pursuing this and we can answer or address any of your questions or concerns that you have, then this conversation will be an ongoing conversation until we reach that point or until the board says, "Mr. Hyde, we're not really interested in this at that at this time." and then we'll let it die there. But at the end of the day, um, wanted to go ahead and show you that we're continuing to look at options. Part of what's driving this as well, and I know I had a conversation with Miss Wyatt earlier, so we're going to pull some data for her, is we do have pretty strict limitations at our current locations for our high school students. The way the funding works, they their their enrollment can't exceed a certain percentage. And

098so we'll pull that data for you to show that the enrollment at the school, not the program enrollment, because the program enrollment is not what we're talking about, but the school's enrollment essentially is capped and restricted, which forces students then to make choices about they'd have to go back and attend classes and coursework at night, which then takes takes away their opportunity for earning potential through employment and/or participation in their extracurriculars. what these programs would allow, especially now with the way that the Florida High School Association and other groups now allow very much an open opportunity for all students, regardless of what school they attend to participate in extracurriculars. They could very well, if they choose to enroll at this school, they could still go back to their zone school to participate in those program

099options. So, wanted to pro a little more context based off my conversation with Miss Wyatt and again open it up now for any further discussion or conversation. So, Mr. Sharpless, >> first I want to start off by saying this. I'm very excited. Anyone that knows anything about me knows this is right up the wheelhouse and my passions. Um I I think this will be huge for retention of students. Many times students get burned out with the academic endeavor and um this will help keep them engaged in school. they can say, "Okay, I'll get through those, you know, those core classes so I can get out there to my CTE because that's what their passion is, right?" Um, you know, I've said this many times, students, um, you know, we're not fitt fitting them into a

100box. Every student has their own passions and I think this will capitalize on some of our students passions. Um, I'm not going to talk about the progressions and all that because I think it looks good. Um, uh, I will say to have two I have a question and then I also have a comment. I'll start with uh my comment first. Um Ridge and Travis, if we think about where they are located within our county, they are located in Northeast Pulk and in the Lakeland area. And so I I would say for I don't know if this is a a term or not, but for geographic equity, our students, we're not having to try our our I'm I live in between Lake Wales and Frost Proof. So I'm I live in the south end of the

101county and so if there's any way that if we locate this on a current campus if we could potentially look at the south part of the county the kids that are wanting to take CTE classes and I I have my own idea but I'm not going to say that on the dis here but um I I just I would say South Poke County is somewhere that would need something like this. Um that's my comment my question. So with the progressions here um they look great. Is this are these students going to hit all the requirements for a high school diploma or is there a CTE diploma option or anything like that? Like what like what are they what are they going towards? Are they getting a certification and a diploma? Like can you just talk

102on that? >> There is a there is a CTE diploma option, but this is built on a standard 24 credit high school diploma. So, they would earn all of their academic credits and then they would earn hopefully an industry certification in their high school program as well as a certificate of completion in their dual enrollment program. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> That is all. >> Miss White, >> I just want to confirm because there's no, it doesn't look like in any of these programs there's an arts of physical education. Some of those that are required under that 24 are these. So no longer required the initial nth grade year it would get covered between 9th and 10th grade so that they've met those um requirements early on. They do not need an arts

103requirement. Most of our CT are now practical skills requirements for graduation. So it's one or the other and this would >> okay >> these would meet that. >> Okay. So for all of them okay they do the intensive. So what happens if they have to take intensive reading? It limits the availability in their schedule. They would not be able to take this because they have to have >> they might lose one class here or there or they might lose some hours in their dual enrollment program and have to come back and finish at the end. >> Do a P. >> I we did build it in in 9th and 10th grade as an extra elective in case they need intensive reading. Um but it could easily be built in in 11th and 12th grade. We

104have students at Travis and Ridge that are taking intensive reading >> and then they would just have to continue after graduation to get their career certificate at the technical college. they would just roll over similar to how our students do in other dual enrollment areas to finish. >> But for the cosmetology, they would not be able to roll over because that has to be done all in high school. >> And they will get because isn't cosmetology, they can't get that certification until they're >> 18. Something in the requirements of the program, they won't allow a dual enrollment program. And I think it's probably the board of cosmetology for the state. But so will they be certified when they graduate? >> Yes. >> Okay. That seems odd that they can't do it as dual enrollment, but

105that they can >> some of these >> be certified for high school. Yeah. I And thank you, Superintendent Hyde, for chatting with me on this this morning. I don't feel like we have enough information in this proposal. Um, partially because we need a lot more data, I think, on what our high school vocs at our vocational colleges currently look like. Um, you know, one of those is in my area when I've gone out in the past to walk through a high school classroom, there's 10 kids in the class. So, it's hard for me to believe that with 10 kids in the class, we're meeting the 50% and we have a waiting list for students. Um, so I I feel like I need to see more of that data. Um, also what happens if they don't

106if they decide they don't want to finish? Do they have, you know, if I think I want to go into cosmetology and I do two years of it and realize I hate it, then am I transferring to a different school? Um, I just feel like there's a lot more information needed on this. Um, you know, this proposal has come up before in conversation over the past 10 years at least, um, and has always ended up being tabled because there really isn't, not that there's not a need for it. There hasn't been a huge desire of students to leave the traditional high school setting to go and essentially do early admissions in a college type setting where you're only taking the classes that you need. um that I just I would have trouble supporting this in

107the current um how it's currently proposed because I feel like we don't have enough information, >> right? And this was very very early just kind of a concept idea. >> So yeah, I I'm not a fan of the concept of taking students out of their current the traditional high school model. I think there's a lot of things that are gained in high school outside of your traditional even your CTE classes. I just I I would not be again I would not support it in its current form, but I'm excited to hear hear more, >> Miss Fields. >> I think it's a great opportunity uh choices, options, and I know a young man who's currently in a private school that would love to have this opportunity. This just immediately comes to my head. Um, I do

108think we need more information. I know Superintendent High doesn't want to dispose uh expose the location. I think that would be important for me. And um the transportation piece, making sure that wherever it is, there's going to be transportation for kids who otherwise wouldn't be able to get to the school. Uh and then the um application process, how would that work as well? Uh but definitely would be interested in learning more. and the cost quite naturally is always going to be a factor. So, thank you, >> Mr. Keys. >> Well, number one, I I like to see [clears throat] that there's the focus is on first completing that education, that high school education and getting the diploma as part of it and seeing those um carveouts for intensive reading, I think, is important um for

109the potential for using that. I think number two, I think in marketing, you have to catch these students early on. we talk about a traditional high school setting, you have to get these students. They're in nth grade, they're looking career-minded, so catching them, and start advertising in seventh and eighth grade, but I think it's an enormous opportunity. I love choice. Um, we talk all the time about how successful our CT programs are, and I think this is an enhancement to that to kind of get it on a path going that way is good. Um, one of my, um, and then another comment I have is, you know, I think it's a great idea to potentially use or utilize some of our existing technical colleges like Ridge and Travis because in some of these programs, specifically

110like the welding program to reout a class at a high school they already have is is quite cumbersome to do those things and automotive as well. So, that's also important to look at those. But, I think finally, one of my comments is going to be how often we look at these programs of study. So you know I see on there and this is um something that's very near and dear to me having some of the lensure that I have. We talk about the high school construction progression that's going to be not so popular here pretty soon when the market's going down. We know that market is very cyclical. So, how do we look at those programs and say, "Hey, these are things that are probably not going to go away." And we're not putting students

111through programs that they may be at the end of this program saying, "Hey, because of the cyclical nature of the economy, construction goes up, construction goes down." That they're saying, "Hey, I've completed this program. Now, what are my job options afterwards? I have to what we don't want leave the district to find opportunities somewhere else where it's booming." We want to keep those students here. We've invested our our talents and resource into them. So, let's keep them here. So that would be my I guess really my big concern out of those is we look at programs that we can positively identify like the first one on the list you know LPN progression the healthcare need is going to be around I think and it's going to sustain for quite some time um also automotive unless

112that new program with they're doing flying cars now in pulk we may need to modify that a little bit but but again I think that's I'm I'm beating a dead horse here but I think looking at those programs and saying hey can we sustain these throughout that you know I'd hate to start something up and the popularity of or the need in the industry for those job positions to go down and now we can't provide these students with gainful employment afterwards. >> Miss Miller, >> thank you. Um, I also have a lot of questions and this probably needs to be another uh work session item or retreat item. This has been talked about in the past. I think it's people do it well. Hillsboro County has a tech high school. I would like to see

113data from some of those. I would like to visit one of those. Um I have not looked into those programs but knowing that this this is something we have talked about. I have great concern the kids you want to c and what you've listed here in these more trade skills uh certifications the kids that we try to capture are usually the kids who may struggle and need intensive reading or intensive math. if they're going to be held out of this um because of that, if we can't cohort classes and provide intensive supports within within the CTE setting, then I'm I'm not sure what the outcomes will look like. And maybe someone's doing it well and can help us with how they've set it up. I know in the past we've had very high functioning kids

114with great academics go through a medical program and never touch medicine. It was just the next highest level thing they could do in high school. So, I think this needs to be intentional. um we have to look at what it will look like after graduation with this targeted student students. We cannot forget that some of this is age-based. I saw of course um some of the things that we've listed here, but in the past we've had first responder training and things that were all limited because of age um what that looks like. So I think it's how we set it up. It's I'm definitely not against something like this. I also have a ninth grader and understand that somebody can start nth grade with great ideas. Um, but then that change mid high school and

115what do we do then? Um, I think it's a putting a lot on a family and a student to say in eighth grade decide that you want to be in cosmetology or a welder. Um, not that we want to limit options, but I think that we need to look at data and look at the people who've done this already to make sure that we're making those decisions wisely. As far as location, there have been locations in the past even putting one of these schools near one of our VOTE schools so they could have both. Um, I'm interested in what that looks like. Unfortunately, our county is very large and for people that live in South County, um, you know, we have programs that they get on a bus a long time to go to, but

116I think fiscally this would have to go where we see the need. Um, we see the need. We have a high school that was very tech ba or techbased. Roosevelt was always known for what it could do in the construction side and and what can we do already, I guess, is my question. Could we bring these stronger programs into our high schools with underutilized space? So, I have lots of questions, Superintendent High, but I sure you'll be bringing this to us again. Um, and I hope that we can look at data from other counties that have these programs. Thank you, >> Dr. Al. Thank you, Superintendent. Yeah, I definitely want to see more and um I think my fellow board members are asking the right questions as well. Um, I would be curious how the

117curriculum aligns with our uh technical colleges. uh in a sense, you know, because I could definitely see them as this is a feeder pattern as you're mentioning. So, you know, does does it currently align with the curricular endeavors that we're doing currently with our technical colleges? I think that's important. Um and I, you know, I I understand the narrative around students changing their minds. They're starting in 9th grade and and so forth, but I mean that happens all the time. Right. I just went through advising season probably close to 30 students um within my discipline and students are transferring you know to different disciplines all the time. So that's just going to naturally take place. So um I'm not afraid of that by initiating at the nth grade. I think that's that's going to happen

118in general. Um I don't know. I I think I wanted to hear more about the appropriation ask uh superintendent and and how that would look on this. I definitely would be in favor of this. I think um building infrastructure is important for us because you know I think Orange County right has five technical colleges. Um you know and if board members if you have not had a chance to go visit Manatee Technical College I would highly recommend it. uh cream of the crop around the state of Florida. And I think we need u more uh infrastructure around our technical schools. I think uh they should be a part of our 5-year capital improvement plan and they're not. Um so um I'm I'm definitely in favor of this and uh for us to continue building infrastructure

119around that. So thank you for bringing it, >> Miss White. >> Thank you. And I apologize. I had one more and my my question was um just to add to your your list was looking at our current infrastructure if until we're able to add new infrastructure are there opportunities for some of our high schools that are located close to the to our technical colleges to be able to share some of those spaces. So similar to how our aerospace programs are. Obviously we didn't build an airport at Winter Haven High School when we added aerospace. Is there an opportunity for a Hannes City or a school close to Ridge to be able to um to use their construct to use a construction program that can then go to Ridge for two periods a day or whatever

120it is to use the the automotive academy or to use their facilities um would be my my other question without increasing the enrollment at the technical college. Yeah, I mean, and I can answer some of the questions that have been asked here today, but we'll go ahead and make sure you get a more formal response to several of them, but you know, it's you mentioned just now, Miss Wyatt, that could we look at high schools and their available space. And the answer is we can, but we don't have unlimited unlimited capital funds, nor is there an unlimited res, you know, um, number of qualified people to teach this. So to be able to replicate programs in five or six locations versus being able to consolidate them in one becomes incredibly difficult in sustainability. But it

121also doesn't address the question that many of you have raised today which is so what happens if the kid changes their mind. So the same question applies there the same situation applies there. I've I've transferred away from my zone school to participate in a program and now I really can't I don't want to participate in that anymore essentially because of by virtue of how we allow magnet and academy participation they're supposed to go back to their own school that doesn't happen all the time um the question was asked well what happens if a student needs reading intervention and if you recall we we spoke about this and I I posed that same question to the board because we've got a number of students sitting in classrooms in our magnet schools who never get access to

122the program because we allow level one or level two readers to apply and get accepted into the program. And so by virtue unless the parent opts them out of the intervention, they're not able to participate in the program with the whole basis of that magnet school. So we have that system now. And so it's a much bigger conversation. I'm glad to hear you guys bringing it back to the surface because we're going to have to have it again. And I'm encouraged by it because at the end of the day, it's not about restricting access for students. It's more about what flexibility are you willing to provide or or are you going to provide direction to me on as to how do you want me to address that? Do you want me to lengthen their school

123day? Do you want me to shorten their class period so we can add an extra period? I there's a lot of solutions that we can put in there. I also shared with you previously we could tier their interventions based off the severity of their need. So if there's a student, so not all level one students are the same. We know that with literacy and numeracy issues. So you're asking a lot of great questions. The point today and they wanted to provide a lot more. I asked them specifically not to. I said let's just tee up the concept. Let's see where it goes. So here's what I'll do. I'll capture all the questions that you asked today. We'll provide responses at the next workshop because I'm not and I'll send them to you in in written

124format as well prior to the workshop. But if you think of anything else between now and the next meeting, I would ask you to just go ahead and shoot that email to me or funnel them through the next chair so that that person can funnel them to me because I think it's important for us to keep the conversation going and evolving. Um, so if I can get those questions ahead of the meeting, then it makes it far easier to prepare for that and keep the dialogue moving rather than, you know, getting questions that could have been asked previously that I could have prepared for and addressed for you. And that's not what happened here today. That's not what I'm I have a bad habit of saying something and having it come across as me somehow

125being rude, but that's not the case. Stop shaking your head, Miss Miller. [laughter] Um, that's not the case. It's just I want to keep the conversation evolving and it's an important conversation for us to have because it is about opportunity. It is about maximizing choice and and and I I'm looking forward to sharing the data with you because the profile of a student who's pursuing career teched is not the profile that we used to think. It has changed significantly because students are looking at this instead of having to go to college. So those college kids or kids who potentially could be college ready and want to go there are now opting to go to the trades because the return on investment for them and their interests are driving that very differently than ever before because

126the wages and the earning potential there right out of certification is far greater than they'll make leaving college potentially with four to six years of debt. So, it's a great conversation to have. So, I'm excited by your questions and we'll we'll keep this evolving and moving forward. Miss Bennett and Laura, I will get back with you because there were several questions about data that they've asked for. So, we'll have to pull those numbers for them to be able to show the interest and then we'll develop the survey to go out to high school students to garner their interest. And then the last thing about and Miss Miller's right. It's a difficult thing to ask sometimes of eighth graders, what are you really interested in and what are you going to commit to in high school?

127You know, it it's interesting that when I think I won't speak for you. When I was in high school or in middle school, I wasn't thinking about which high school I had to go to. I went to my zoned high school. There wasn't a lot of school or programmatic choice back then. The biggest decision you had to make is what college you going to go to? What are you thinking you're going to study? So, you were lucky if you got exposed to those topics. But now in middle school with school links and everything else we're doing and with junior achievement and biz and everything else that we're putting in place, kids will have far more information and exposure to potential career pathways and areas of interest than ever before in Pulk County. So, it does

128all funnel into this topic. So, it's a great conversation for us to have. Thank you ladies and more importantly, thanks for being patient with me because I know you wanted to do a lot more today and I told you please don't. >> Thank you. >> All right, Mr. Chair, I'd like to see if you'd like to take a recess. I know that board members probably would like at least 15 minutes. Is that enough time, Miss Wyatt? Miss Miller, >> I can pop in on later, but I'll wait. >> Okay. >> All right, board members, we're going to recess until 2:25. 225. >> 20 minutes. is a C. If I change my [clears throat] mind now, I want to go to college. Do I have to take ad [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >>

129[music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, >> [music] >> I'd like to call this meeting back to order and I appreciate the innovative chat and questions we've uh enjoyed uh um as we've moved through these agenda items. So, superintendent, I'm going to pass it back to you uh to wrap up our time today. >> Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, wow, you're trying to push me through the agenda. We have two topics left um in the superintendent report. The first one is the superintendent's advisory council. Um you may recall that the last meeting um vice chair Sharpless requested that I bring this topic back. I had presented it to the board about two and a half maybe three years ago. um started to implement it and then ran into some logistical issues,

130but I think we've resolved those. So, I'd like to go ahead and take you through the superintendent student advisory committee. And the purpose of uh vice chair Sharpless's questions was, you know, many school districts across the nation and also in Florida typically will have a student advisor. Um, you know, in our conversations, the only concerns that and problems that typically arise from that is number one, is it possible to have one student voice that represents the voice of the entire school district. And the answer is no. They just can't connect with their peers the way they need to. Um, some because they just won't. Um, not not necessarily the individual who's selected, but other peer groups. And so the recommendation at the time was to revisit the superintendent's advisory council uh student advisory council. And

131so essentially board members um what it entails is um the SSAC provides high school students across P County public schools with a direct voice in district level conversations. The council ensures student perspectives are represented in our decision-making while also building leadership, communication skills, and civic engagement for our high school students. Now, the goal would be in year 1, which would be the 26 27 school year, or I could begin it as early as the second semester here coming back from winter break, um would be to have a successful year with high school and then phase in middle school. Um I think it's going to be too difficult for elementary school and elementary schools might be better served by doing individual site visits versus the the format that I'm about to explain to you. And so

132as you as you move forward, the purpose again is to make sure that we're getting feedback from our students and that they're getting to hear from us firsthand about some of the decisions that we're getting ready to make or proposals that we're bringing forward again to ensure that we're aligning with their needs. I think that's one of the most important things where school districts typically or more often will fall short. Right? We don't listen to our community as far as what the needs are within the community. emerging industries, emerging needs in workforce and labor or opportunities. And then again, we don't listen to our students enough as far as well, this is how we've traditionally offered school and we're not listening to our students as far as where they'd like to see us go, what

133interests they have. Um, you could look at everything from if just 10, 15 years ago as gaming started to kind of build momentum in our schools and now each school district has a gaming team. They've learned it's gone far beyond that. um the analytics behind it, the data, the planning, the it's not just about playing games. So there's a lot to that that were that was stimulated based off student interest and needs. And so the other part is what I really like about it is it gives a voice to every community. And that's really important for us is to make sure that it's representative our demographics of our school district and our communities. And so it's we'll work with schools on the selection process. There are criteria for how students are selected. Again, I just

134summarize here. The membership structure um would be one representative from each high school and then in year two, one primary representative from each middle school. There is an alternate required for the high school and middle school um because if that person can't participate because they're either out of school ill, they have another commitment, they may be participating in extracurricular event, we don't want their voice to be lost from their school. So, it will be one primary and one alternate. their term of service would be one year. So long as a student continues to maintain eligibility criteria because what we don't want to do is continue to allow a student participate when they really should be rep prioritizing their coursework or other needs within the school or in order to make sure that they maintain trajectory

135for graduation. A student can be on the committee more than one year. They could be on all four years at a high school if selected, but the school will have to host make that decision and recommendation each year. So, school principles will select their school's representatives and the alternative alternates using the following minimum criteria. Um, board members, you you've probably noted by now why most people will say we have to have a minimum GPA. I [clears throat] always add what I feel is one of the most important pieces to that, that it has to be in our core academic areas. I think GPA is great. But I'm more concerned with ensuring that these students have at least a 2.5 GPA in their core areas before we select them to participate in this. They can't have

136any excessive disciplinary referrals or suspensions. I'm less concerned about the referrals, more concerned about referrals that result in suspensions, especially for specific reasons that they may have been suspended. Obviously, we want to make sure that they do not have chronic absenteeism or truency issues and that they're able to communicate effectively and that they're going to be truly representative of their school and they'll be given tools that they can actually use to get feedback from their peer groups. As you know, we have plenty of survey tools and and availability. So, they'll be able to make sure that their voice that they're bringing to the table is not just reflective of their personal interests, but that of the collective group of students or community of students on that campus. Obviously, with all things, especially with the parent

137bill of rights, but just because it's the right thing to do, and I think we always operate transparently, we would need a parent permission slip because I'm not asking students to drive across campus. That's typically one of the greatest barriers to these to these processes is that in order to meet with in a very large geographic district like this, essentially if you wanted to meet in person, you'd have to ask some students to basically drive themselves or we'd have to arrange for an activity bus and those kinds of things, which actually takes them off campus with the commute time. So, we really don't get as much meeting time as we'd like to get. So, long story short, we'll use a Teams format and then we'll have an in-person culminating event at the end of the

138year. Now, we may increase that to twice a year, do a midyear and an end of the year, but we'll have to see how it progresses. Obviously, board members, you'll be invited to that end of the year event. Um, each each time, each monthly meeting will be recorded. We'll provide a transcript and essentially then that group becomes responsible for um communicating that and bringing it to a schoolboard meeting. And I'll I'll copy I'll cover that here in a moment. Again, as I mentioned, monthly meetings will be done through Microsoft Teams. uh additional meetings, we may have to call for some ad hoc meetings with these students based off their availability. Uh so let's say that there's an issue that has come up that the board now needs to address because there's a last minute change

139in statute or there's some other priority that we have identified as a need and so we want to get some student voice behind that. I could I could schedule an ad hoc meeting for those students. Typically in this situation for high school, the nice part about it is their academic day ends at approximately 2:00. So, we have a little bit of time there to play with. I would not be pulling them out of class, but in a rare instance that we have to call an ad hoc meeting, we may have to do something midday, early morning, um we we want that parental consent, but again, I'm not going to call those meetings unless there's a really significant need for us to get that information. The agenda development is not just an agenda developed by my

140office. It will be done collaboratively. There will be topics that I will bring to the table for our students uh to get voice and input on. For example, if we're changing our student progression plan, we're changing grading scales, we're changing topics like that, I want to get the students perspective. AI policies, we want to get student perspective. So yes, I may populate that agenda item, but then the remainder of the agenda, much like what I do with our chair, is are there other topics that we need to address or would like to address or that the board would like more information on? And so in this case, students would be able to seed and give me suggestions for topics that they feel are priorities for them. Um, you know, school start times, um, grading, um,

141dress code. I'm thinking of the ones that are typically most, uh, access to Wi-Fi, um, it filtering, all of those things that, you know, we you get complaints about, you get questions about are the same things our students want to get answers to. And so we would be able to provide that support. Uh the agenda would be published 48 hours in advance and I will provide that agenda to the board so that you'll be able to see it. So the goal would be to make sure that it could provide it to you on that Friday update going into a Tuesday meeting with those students or potentially a Wednesday meeting of the next week, but you would have it with plenty of time um to ask any questions that you may have and to ask me

142for specific feedback. And then lastly, the quarterly um presentations to our school board. Minimally, I would ask the committee of students to nominate three to four, maybe even five members of that collective group to come attend the schoolboard meeting and to provide a summary of topics and provide any feedback on other relevant items that are before the board or that they would like to see us address in the near future. Um, obviously that I I expect that that the the number of times that they would be before the board is likely to increase based off interest, based off topic, based off need. Um, and just based off the fact that at some point at some point um they're going to take more proactive, they're going to take more ownership of this and want to have

143that voice. And that's the whole point here, right? was to provide student voice and input to the board um so that you can get some collective feedback from them. There are some minimum expectations for participants. Again, they have to participate and attend their meetings regularly and actively. Um this is kind of like going back to when we did virtual instruction during the pandemic, right? I I don't want to see the ceiling fan spinning behind you. I want to see your face. I want to see that you're engaged. I don't want to see your text messaging while we're on. I mean, it's this is part of the responsibility, right? you've chosen to do this, dedicate that hour to the conversation that's before us. I think they'll be able to do that. And they need to be

144able to demonstrate respect for diverse and divergent viewpoints. Um, they're going to have to learn to agree to disagree. Sometimes they're going to have to learn to formulate their discussions and their disagreements in a productive manner. We'll provide, if need be, we'll provide some training and some support around that or work with schoolbased admin admin teams to ensure that students are getting exposed to that, how to how to properly debate a topic. um and minimize any confrontations that may that may occur because of differing opinions. Um they'll again they'll have to provide key updates and feedback to my office as needed and they'll they'll be they'll serve as ambassadors for our school district. This is not just about them having a voice and providing input, but these become marquee students that we can put in

145our advertisements and and show them as representative. And so when I go to community meetings, for example, if one of you were attending a Rotary meeting like you do or a count or a um or other meetings that you that you may attend through Thank you, Kowanas and and others, why would I not extend you an opportunity to say, "Hey, contact this student or we can contact them on your behalf and ask the parent if they can attend with you." Um and let that student lend their voice and show how informed they are about the school district. So, it's a good opportunity for us to look for opport for for opportunities to expand our student engagement as I've mentioned. Um, obviously there's benefits to our students from participation. That civic engagement I think is one

146of the most important pieces that we can teach our students is that, you know, regardless of your age, you have a voice. Um, Dr. Allen will recall and and Miss Miller will is now participating um through Junior Achievement as she has been. Um, especially with 3DE, you've both seen opportunities where our students voice and advocacy has resulted in actual practice in the school district. Dr. Allen and I had the opportunity several years ago. We were asked to come to Lakeland Highlands Middle School. There were two of our students there who said they wanted to do a presentation for us about water fountains and they did. And as a result, we have touchless water fountains in our schools. Um, and that was on the tail end as you know coming out of the pandemic. It was

147interesting. we had the funding, but at the end of the day, their student advocacy, the details that they provided in their data analysis really led to some change. Most recently with 3DE, um, especially out at Tener, we had students who were, you know, advocating for us to do more. One of their case projects was Travis and Ridge. How do we increase participation? It's interesting. We had that conversation earlier today. How do we increase participation? How do we increase people's understanding and knowledge about this? And so the students had to develop a presentation and a proposal as to how we could address that. So we are actually right now working through several of their suggestions and I promised to bring them back to them during in the near future. It'll probably be January so we can

148show the culmination of what their ideas were and how we are using them now. So I think that student voice and showing them that they have they are empowered to elicit change or to create opportunities in PK County. I think that's important for our students to learn. Obviously for us we get a great great deal of information from our students. We start to develop even a stronger understanding of the implications for our decisions and how it may impact students at the end of the day. So that concludes the presentation um for that topic and I'm open to any questions or comments that you may have. Mr. Sharpless. [clears throat] >> Yes. Uh superintendent. Um this was an item I asked at our last work session for you to bring and um uh thank you for

149the presentation. Um, you know, like I said last work session, we we have our motto is student first and um we lack that voice currently from the students. Um, I think this program won't won't add very much cost. It's going to be virtual. Um, and you know, so we're going to be uh cognizant of taxpayer dollars, but yet we're also bringing in student voice into decision decision- making. Now obviously um they are still they're minors they're but but we I think it's important if you think about who our customers are um you know they will not only represent themselves their school communities but their families. So it's another way for us to hear from families. So I think overall this will this could um certainly bring in some some much needed voice. And so I

150I'm curious, you said the principles will select um uh the representative and so uh based on just the minimum criteria, but I'm I'm curious how our different principles will select them. Uh because it could be you could select your the highest performing student that you have in the whole school. That highest performing student may not be representative of of the student body as a whole. Or you could select somebody else that may be the most popular or whatever. you know there's a lot of ways to select obviously there's minimum criteria but um you know I know we also have school based our schoolbased administrators um you know our leaders that we u trust with the students education obviously but I'm I'm curious to see how the different selection processes will go um I just I'm

151I'm curious >> so we did outline that a bit for them previously okay >> um when we were first initiating this proposal >> um so I will revisit that and forward that to the board because that went out as an email to all of our principles okay saying here's the process, here's the criteria, here's how you need to select, this is what you need to convey, and what this is what we're looking for in a student participant. Um, but what I don't want to do is make it so restrictive because, you know, one of the amazing things about our school-based leaders and instructors is they see the opportunity that may be hidden in our students, right? They see the potential. And so I don't want the criteria to be so restrictive that it can't provide

152an opportunity for someone to flourish in in this area. So, you know, advocacy and voice and civic engagement can take on u many different faces and I'm excited to see what the schools come up with. But so long as those students meet those minimum criteria, we are asking that they be representative of their student population and that we take consideration to make sure um if they have an alternate and a student that we're respectful of of gender, we're respectful of all those different things, but they need to make a decision based off of who they feel is going to best fulfill this role. And it that's why I think the GPA of a 2.5 is a strong one. um because I think it accounts for students who quite frankly um may be that middle-of the

153road student and you know the old adage I don't I'm not saying I agree with it but C's get degrees kind of mentality where they're just coasting and they do the bare minimum but they're being successful is this the trigger for them is this the impetus is this a stimulus for them to get more involved more engaged and and think about that what we've seen as far as student outcome improvements in 3D alone finding something and finding an opportunity to lend students and give students the opportunity to develop a voice has changed the dynamic for those students. Their GPA have skyrocketed, their attendance has improved significantly. I mean, you just and listen to them when they present their the ability for them to stand in front of so many strangers by their senior year and

154the poise that they have is absolutely amazing and and so I'm excited. So I that's that's a really long explanation as to why that we don't want to be so restrictive, but I I I will trust our principles to do the right thing and pick the right people. >> I have one more comment. Um I think the I think the point you hit on about teaching our students to have civil dialogue is really important. If you it our students could actually serve as role models to many of the adults that we have around us where we they can actually engage in civil discourse. I mean, you think of what happened, you know, this year with, you know, assassination, with various other things that happened. I mean, it would be great for our students to be

155that shining star. For them to learn that in this kind of program will be great. Thank you. >> Thank you. And Miss Fields. >> Yes, sir. U Thank you, Superintendent High for having uh this outline very detailed. This is not the first opportunity that we've had this. done this before when Superintendent Bird was our superintendent. I think that it's just more detailed and in depth. My question is, are we going to have the middle school students and the high school students together or >> So, no, ma'am. um outside of specific schedule events because of their dismissal time and and how their schedules work. I would have to do middle schoolers slightly differently in their act in their day. However, we could coordinate a quarterly meeting and we can talk about that more based off the

156>> I'm not saying that we need to. I just wanted I wanted clarity on it. >> Initially, I am not putting them together in the >> I would not um >> I think that could that would be more problematic. Yes. >> Right. I think so too. And then I think that many of your principles would have already gone through this the selection process from the previous administration. So I don't think that's going to be a big factor. >> Nor do I. I think they'll be excited by this. And it doesn't take anything or require anything on their part because the students already have oneonone devices. They just have to go to a a location where they can access the meeting. And we'll we'll use Teams. As I mentioned, everybody will sign indicating they know that

157the meetings are being recorded and there'll be a transcript so we can keep a record of everything that's said and we'll keep a track of anything that's done in the chat rooms. So, if somebody were to ever do anything inappropriate, we would have that record. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. >> Thank you. Seeing no further questions or comments on that item, board members, the last item I have for you today and I will have additional comments, more specific and more direct comments tonight um pertains to the referendum update. Board members, I'm pleased to share um that our board of county commissioners today did go ahead and in accordance with their ministerial responsibilities and constitutional responsibilities, they did go ahead and approve for the referendum to be placed on the ballot for next November. So, it's

158an exciting time u for that to happen. But I will address some of the comments that were made today directly um because this isn't the first time that those comments have been made and and I think they need to be addressed um directly and and tactfully and professionally, but they will be addressed. Um board members, you've received uh some information in the past. This information, our website, which has been developed um to reflect the same FAQ information we've been developing and sharing with you for your review and and reference and questions. Um that website will go live probably tonight or tomorrow um following this board meeting so that our committee can see that. It'll be a banner and so we will be able to draw attention to it, but it answers a lot of questions

159that people may have about the referendum. first and foremost, why why do we need a referendum? Why is this needed in Pulk County public schools? So, we do address that and we show um competitive salaries and how we will remain competitive here in Pulk County, how we're lagging in salaries compared to others. We talk about our workforce. We talk about our budget. Um so, the FAQ is quite comprehensive. It's even gotten longer since the last version I've shared with you. Um in particular, we want to make sure that people understand and we're addressing some of the myths and misconceptions that exist. for example, all the district staff is over and overhead is bloated. And board members, you've seen this and so I'm proud to continue to say this, but Pulk County Public Schools has one

160of the lowest, if not the lowest administrative costs in the entire state. We put our money in our classrooms. We do not put our money in district staff. And so you'll see that both reflected in the staffing breakdown of where where positions and where they're employed, at what level, and where they're placed, but you'll also see that in how we spend our dollars. And again, all of our information that's on the FAQ is backed and has research links to it that go directly back to the Florida Department of Education or whatever reporting body shared that information. We unfortunately rank very low in state funding. Um we're actually three from the bottom. We're 60 60 sorry, four from the bottom. We're 63rd out of 67 in funding. We actually generate about $300 on average, $300 less

161than some of our surrounding counties per pupil. So, we want to make sure that people understand that our need for a referendum or the reason we're pursuing a referendum to be competitive for salaries um for recruitment and retention purposes is not because there's mismanagement in our funds. And the board knows we're audited annually. We're proud of that. We're proud of our findings um that show that we run a very efficient school district. Um and we're very transparent as an organization. This has been a topic before this board and before our community for over six months and so much so that I was proud of the board um and and proud to be your superintendent when we took the extra step which was not required. As you recall, we are not required to have held a

162public hearing on the referendum. You could have simply voted, but we chose to advertise a public hearing to pro provide additional public input and we didn't have any at that time and then the board took action and I think that demonstrates your commitment to your community and the stakeholders that you serve and I believe that transparency is our best is our best tool um to ensure so now the hard work starts. Now the work starts to educate our community, inform our community as to our financial re realities and how the how a referendum may benefit us and then other things will start to fall into place as well as far as those who can support the referendum directly. Um so wanted to provide that that update for you and answer any questions you may have

163surrounding that or the events that got us to this point. Seeing none, Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, I turn it over to you, >> superintendent, did you want to move through any of these items with the budget and staffing? You got two items there. >> Yes. I apologize. Um, staffing updates, Mr. Pittz. Good afternoon board members. Um today before you is just a job description change. Uh we are changing um the name and a little bit of um the job description and scope from a PBIS facilitator. Now you know we love acronyms. Um so PBIS stands for positive behavior interventions and supports. Um and we're changing the title to multi-tered system of support implementation facilitator. Uh the scope of work has changed and the focus is on implementing the MTSS framework as a whole rather

164than just focusing on um PBIS. Um and this job description review has gone through human resources and the and also uh working with PA union to approve what's in this job description. This will come back um if you approve this will come back uh in the December board meeting for approval. >> Miss Miller, >> I just want to ask for a point of reference and what PB PBIS is mainly an intervention um for behavior where MTSS is also an academic intervention as well as behavior. So this is really a whole new why not just make a whole new job description and delete what we have. I mean I'm just asking because I don't is it gonna this person this position is MTSS is it still going to have the academic piece? >> Yes the MTSS

165what happened is uh when when the title was originally done they just focused on the behavioral piece of it and so the academic piece was done. So it's really the whole system instead of just one part of it. >> So we didn't have another interventionist for academics. So that's where the confusion >> no that's where the confusion was. So, and that's what probably uh led to the confusion at schools about what MTSS really was. It was always focused on the behavioral instead of really what it really is is academic and behavioral systems. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Sharpless. >> I didn't see this in the documentation um because it just says, you know, the teacher salary schedule is the pay grade. Um, will there be any difference in um in salaries between the PBIS when

166we're changing that description to MTSS at all? Will we incur any additional costs? >> No, sir. No, sir. It's it's just a job description change. It's still the regular teacher salary is how they're paid. So, there's no no change in salary. All >> right. Thank you. >> There are no further questions or comments. >> Thank you. Mr. Chair, members of the board, the next item, in keeping with our commitment each month, we committed to providing you with a short presentation on various financial topics. And so I'll introduce Miss Jenkins. >> Good afternoon. Today we're going to talk about certificates of participation or COPS. And I have um some help to explain that topic to you today. I have Laura How. She's um a director for PFM. They're our financial advisors. And um Mr. George Smith

167is also going to step up. And you all know Mr. Pitts. So, as the superintendent alluded to earlier today, we have a lot of major projects that we need to complete over the next several years for construction um between 2526 um out through 2930. and those include a new high school. Um we're doing [clears throat] work to several school gyms. We've highlighted that it's either new or a renovation in capacity work. We're also um renovating Alta Vista, Lake Alfred Wanita, um Lake Marian, Mclofflin Middle, Senior, and our new Northeast Elementary. And then we have work to do at Floral Avenue, Lena Vista, our New Northeast Middle School, Stanba, and Crystal Lake Elementary. All that comes to a total of about $816 million, just as an estimate. Other expenses on top of the new construction and

168renovation are deferred maintenance, which we estimate to be over a billion dollars. We'll have those figures for you sometime around February of 2026. We already know that we have some critical needs with our HVAC equipment. Um, and that is a topic of conversation a lot. The total for that's around 29 million. We have yearly maintenance, safety and security, technology, including our SAP upgrade that we're going through right now, transportation expenses, our buses and fleet vehicles, athletics and fine arts. A portion of our maintenance and bus driver salaries are now being charged to our LCI, which is local capital improvement or the 1.5 mil tax to that fund allowable by statute. We have debt service payments and our school lease. Um, an important point is that the total of just those items is around $212 million

169and our local capital improvement tax, the 1.5 mills, is estimated to bring in about 116 million this year. So, that brings us to the topic of new money needs and how we can approach this in a way that will allow us to do more work. Um, our district is considering the issuance of a certificate of participation series 2026A to fund a portion of the new northeast high school. We list 166 million here. That's the amount just for construction. Um, Wanita renovation and capacity addition for 45 million and um, Alta Vista renovation and capacity in the amount of 60 million. So, I'm going to let Laura tell you a little bit now or actually George about what is a certificate of participation. >> Thank you. I'm George Smith. I'm your disclosure counsel. It's a pleasure to

170be before you. Um Heather, uh I just wanted to introduce the rest of the people in the room since there's a whole team of us here today. But, um as disclosure counsel, I do your securities work. So I prepare the the offering statement that looks like the perspectus that's given to investors and I give an opinion at the end that you've complied with securities law. Um Mike Weiner from Holland and is your tax counsel. So he's given an opinion that the bond or the cops the debt is exempt from federal taxation. So you have two outside attorneys that you hire that the market wants our opinions that you comply with tax law and securities law. Then you have two investment bankers. Um Rick Patterson from Remy James. Thank you. And Mike Baldwin from Jeff. So

171they'll actually underwrite the debt and sell that to your investors. So um Miss Jenkins has presented the projects that uh that are that are um slated to be financed. And the way that investors look at this is obviously they want to see how your school district is run as well as your 1.5 mills is your is your primary source of revenue that you repay that debt. How under however under the constitution you are not able to pledge that revenue source your um certificates of participation. So you simply tell investors this is how we intend to repay you and a structure has been developed over the years in Florida where the school board sits both as a school board as well as the leasing corporation. So when in time comes to approve this debt, you'll meet

172not only as a school board, then you'll uh adjourn that meeting or recess your schoolboard meeting where you approve the debt. You'll also meet as a nonprofit leasing corporation where you approve that debt uh so that you can comply with the constitution essentially. So it's a little bit of a convoluted method, but it's just like borrowing for your home mortgage or any other loan that you would that you would repay. But because of those elements of the lease incorporation as well as the school board, we thought we'd give a little presentation today how how that actually works. Um, in case you're called upon to explain it. So the school board for instance for the high school, the school board owns that property. The school board under the state constitution, we can get as deep into

173this as you'd like, uh, enters an actual ground lease where you lease that to your leasing corporation. Then the leasing corporation builds the school. However, they assign that responsibility back to the school board. So, the leasing corporation has no employees, has no assets other than uh facilitating these and no purpose really other than facilitating the financing. When the school board, the school board ground leases it to the uh to the leasing corporation. Leasing corporation leases the facility back to the school district and the school district pays lease or rent payments and those are designed to repay your investors who lend you that money. So when you borrow that those that financing, you'll see a ground lease. You'll approve a lease schedule and there is all meant to comply with the statute in the constitution. But

174underneath there'll be a lease payment and that's essentially your debt payment. Um and Laura how as your financial adviser and the underwriters will structure that you know in the most advantageous um fashion to to your school district under that master lease where you're leasing those facilities from the uh corporation. There's an all ornone appropriation and that is what is required on the state constitution to allow you to say we are not pledging our avalorum taxes although we're repaying you with avalorum taxes but it gives you the ability legally to cancel that lease in any year. However, should you cancel your lease, you would be letting lenders know and other investors, hey, we can walk away from this and not repay you. But that was essentially it's not a safety net. is essentially a uh almost

175like a bankruptcy or a nuclear option where if you're walking away from that lease um you have much bigger much bigger problems in the district um Mr. keys. This is sitting here as a banker going, "How does this all work?" But much bigger problems. But under that master lease, you have two existing um series of debt that that are outstanding that finance other schools within the district. If you were to exercise that right of non-appropriation, you would have to nonre appropriate for the new schools that we're financing as well as the schools um that you've already financed. So, it's kind of all or none. And investors look at that and say, "Okay, 20% 30% of their students are in are at these schools. It's highly unlikely that they'll walk away from all these schools." So

176when you see all those agreements, ground lease, lease schedules, certificate of participation, just know that that's the structure that's come up that's been developed so that you can use your 1.5 mills to repay that debt. Is that what you're looking for, Heather? >> Thanks. >> Thank you. It's a pleasure to see you guys. >> Um, and so to pick up, just so you all know, this it was validated by the Supreme Court in Florida. This is the majority of school districts in Florida use certificates of participation to issue their debt. Um, and what George was talking about the all ornone appropriation, that's how investors see this as a secure asset because you wouldn't just walk away from that. And it is built into the budget that you approve every year those debt service payments. Just

177to clarify some of that. Um, and this is just the terms basically that George had walked through. Um, it's later on that we'll talk about the timing, but when he was mentioning we do plan to come um to the board in December for approval. And so that's the documents that will be coming before you then for approval. Um so for the projects that were mentioned that Heather had walked through on this um with this graphic, I know we had talked back, I think it was in June, um through all of the debt outstanding. We've honed in just sort of on what is being utilized by your 1.5 mills, your local capital outlay dollars, um for debt service. And so the the tan bars at the bottom in 26 to 28 um are those two schools

178that George had referenced that are under the master lease. We had included the school lease with the public school development solutions that does go out to 2043 even though it's not under the master lease. You're still using those $ 1.5 mill outlay dollars to pay for that lease. Um, and so when we're looking at, you know, potentially issuing debt for you all, we want to make sure that we keep that in mind. Um, even though it's not under your master lease, um, it is a requirement for your 1.5 mills to go towards that. Um, so all of the other bars on top of this would be what we would be talking about in the new money. And this is just an example of structuring. Um, as we get closer to potentially the time of pricing,

179we'll revise this. Again, as you know, George had said, the underwriters are here. um we'll work handinhand with them, talk about, you know, investors, what's going on in the market at that time to try and price this as best as possible to take advantage. Um but so we were looking at three different sources um of revenue dollars to help pay for this debt service because it is about um it is around $300 million of a project fund. Um, and so the solid blue bars that are layered here on top of your current outstanding debt is using the 1.5 mills, the local capital outlay dollars. The stacked bars right on top of that that are the um striped lines up and down um are projects that are eligible to be paid for by impact fees. And

180so um you don't have to use impact fees to pay for that debt service, but you're eligible to. So if you were to crop crop that off which I think Heather said the intention was at least for the next several years to use some of the impact fees um to pay the debt service which is why in 27 and 28 you see that spike um was the intention was that those dollars would be used to offset debt service in those years um if for some reason they go away that's why it's not the first security pledge on this you all still have plenty of capacity um I probably should have started mentioning that this little yellow line over on the left hand side of the graph um that starts around the 60 million and crops

181off where you can't see it anymore. That's 50% of the 1.5 mills. So those revenue dollars that are coming in. Um we like to keep it under the 50% legally. You can go up to 75%. Um but you'll see you have plenty of capacity moving forward even if impact fees zeroed out tomorrow um in 27 and 28 to pay for that debt service. Um [clears throat] but we're looking at you know continuing out and then from 27 to 33 the polka dot that is for the HVAC systems that we would use sales tax dollars to pay for that. The sales tax expires in 2033. Um and so we wanted to advertise that earlier on in the structure. And so that's what you know to kind of explain why there's so many different variations going on

182just for the 2026 issuance um to walk you through on that. So if you were to not use any other sources of revenues and only use your 1.5 mills, you would be um at your maximum annual debt service, which is in 28 um you utilizing 0.59 of the 1.5 ms. Um if we're to remove, you know, the debt service that's being paid for by other sources, you're only using.33 of the 1.5 ms. Um, so just want to talk that through with you and I'll pause here before I move since this is a lot of information if there's any questions on this specifically. >> Go ahead, >> Dr. Allen. >> Yes. So the true interest uh cost that's noted there at the 3.65 65 um you know that's uh 103 million in interest on the 300

183mil borrowed is can you explain that interest rate and I know you mentioned um you know the market uh component just a moment ago but how does that compare to uh school district financing across the state >> um so the school district's credit ratings are very attractive double A2 um and so that's you know on the higher side there's no AAA credit ratings for school districts in the state of Florida. Um the 3.65 was, you know, Raymond James um had provided the updated scale as of when we did this presentation, the numbers a couple weeks ago for us to pull based on current market rates. And I'll show you later on sort of where we are with market rates. So that will continue to fluctuate, but you're talking about going out um you know 18

184years at 3.65%. That's very attractive. Um, I know people think about where the mortgage market is right now and kind of get wrapped up in the 30 years at 6 and a half%. So, I mean, this is still very attractive borrowing. Um, in a public issuance, it's standard to have a 10-year park call. So, if for some reason in 10 years rates dropped, we could always look at refunding as well, but um, that's a very attractive and that's part of the reason we were sort of trying to structure some of the debt earlier. Um, so it would limit the amount of interest you'd be paying on this long term. Thank you. >> And the earlier debt, the earlier debt is also for um the replacement of the HVAC equipment. So you don't want to finance

185out past the life of the equipment. >> Y >> and this [clears throat] is just an example in the documents that would come to the board. Um >> for approval, there'll be resolution parameters where we'll set the final maturity. Um you know, we had talked about 2043. Ideally, I think that's what we'd like to do, but based on sort of market conditions, have that flexibility um for this when we go to actually price to try and structure it in the best way possible for the district. Um, okay. So, we we covered this. Um, so the the market update and this was as of November 7th. Um, to kind of answer the questions of where we are. Oh, sorry. >> Yeah, sorry, Mr. Sharpless. >> Thank you. Yeah, I had a question too. A couple. Um,

186so my first question is for uh Miss Jenkins and Mr. Pittz. Do we currently have any coops right now that Okay. Um, what is our current amount of debt that we have with that? >> It's 20. I wanted to say 26, but it's down to 22 million. We have a very um we have very low debt service and we have a very high capacity because we lots of >> Oh, thank you. >> Yes, it's um series 2019 A we have 32.3 million and then um 2010 C we have 2.8 million >> and those expire in 2028. >> They do. One of those um is is referred to as a syncing fund. So, we've actually been paying ourselves and then we invest those funds and then we make that payment off the final payment in 2020.

187>> Just to be I just want to be clear 30.2 and what's the other one? >> 2.8. >> And we'll be debtree in 2028. >> In 2028. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um my other question, um they said the new money needs specifically there's uh the new Northeast High School Ala Vista Ren. I'm looking at the slide um four um the Alta Vista Wanita and the deferred maintenance on HVAC. So I what I heard in the presentation was that basically we're using the collateral of the property to get the coops. Is that to get the funds? Is that what the the investment company is looking at? Um >> it's a it's um what we call a master lease program. And so there's a ground lease on the property. um that if for some reason you weren't

188to appropriate the funds and it's handed over to the trustee, there's a lot of in-depth that I'm sure bond counsel can sort of talk through to you um for it to be collateral for essentially. So it's not technically a a mortgage per se that you know was mentioned, but there's a ground lease on that that then if for some reason you're not to appropriate, there's a trustee on the current cops outstanding. There's there would be the same trustee um on the 2026 issuance and if for some reason you were not to appropriate, it's handed over to the trustee then to to figure out what to do with those buildings and all those students would have to then be moved to a different facility, which is what builds sort of the credit behind this is because

189schools aren't going to walk away if half of your kids are in schools that are under the ground lease. um they're not just going to say, "Oh, well, we're not going to appropriate this because all of a sudden, you know, we don't have kids in that area of the county and they're all up here." Um because you would then have to house all the other students that are under the ground lease as well. >> Okay. Um, and I was just curious because one of the things that said it was the the new Northeast High School BBB. I I don't if you can recall, if you help me out with that, um, you know, like the one school, the Scenic Terrace K8, with it being the private public partnership, we actually lease that ground. So, we

190don't own it yet. >> Correct. They're two different schools that we're referring to. Scenic Terrace is different. And so I'm so I'm asking with the BBB, will we own that property or is that something we're going to be leasing because that that would change how much collateral we potentially could have for this? >> We will own it in its entirety once it's finished. It's a a public private partnership diff as well. Yes. But it's structured differently. Um whereas we actually own that property and school once it's completed. >> All right. Thank you. Those are some concerns I had and questions. So thank you, >> Miss Miller. Um, thank you for your presentation today and some of us have had these long presentations about bonding and [clears throat] cops and all the things that are so

191exciting. Um, you have been with us for a while. I um, when Mike Peron was here, I think as we were still using that's you were who we were using and at one time we were not in a great place with what we had to do because of the economy and all the things that happened in in in the early 2000s. And I think we made great progress moving from that. Um, and I just I think this is a good presentation today to assure the public what we are planning to do and how that money will be used. Um, I just wanted to confirm that this team will be the team that has has not only seen us in come out of those darker times but will lead us in a more positive direction um

192for future builds. That's what I wanted to confirm. Thank you. >> Yes, we'll be um part of that team. And so that's why I was saying the parameters that will come instead of it just saying final maturity in 2043, we might say out to 25. And I was going to kind of talk through that with you in the market, we could potentially do it shorter, but then when we get to the time where we want to price the bonds, just sort of take the best um reading of what's going on in the market and see if there's any way we can optimize the structure since we do have so much flexibility with the revenue streams um and the capacity for the district. >> This is a it is a pretty complicated topic. Um, so that's

193why we wanted to have someone from each area of the team here to answer any questions you might have. Um, because each piece is a little bit different and it is a lot to take in. >> Go ahead. >> Okay. Um, so the market update as of November 7th, the graphic on the right hand side, the tan bars are the 10-year averages um for each of the maturities in years 1 through 30 with the dark blue being where we were um on November 7th of this year and the lighter blue being where we were last year. So you'll see um in the first 13 years the rates have actually decreased um compared to where we were one year ago, but past 13 years out they've started to inch up. Um and so this is something

194you know we're a little bit above midway of the 10-year historical averages um to answer the question about rates, but this is something that if we can optimize sort of where the the yields are and investor demand is, that's what we'll try to do before we price to take advantage of that. Um, and the chart on the right, or I'm sorry, on the left just shows you where we were one year ago in the yellow, one month ago in the the dashed gray, one week ago in the red, and then where we currently are in the solid blue. Um, so we'll get through the draft, the documents have been drafted. Um, so we're getting to the point where we're going to be coming before the board so that we can get the approval then to

195access the markets um to close. And so I think a lot of this has been talked about. Um I think maybe we'll yeah so George introduced the team already for us so we won't go through these slides again. Um and so these were sort of the next steps I did want to take you through. Um coming to the board on November 9th for your consideration for the approval the school board meeting and the leasing court meeting. Um we would Heather has been working very closely with disclosure council and her team to get the preliminary offering statement updated. Um so we'll have another draft of that coming out mid December. This is what basically tells the investors all of your financials um and gives them that snapshot if they want to invest. Um we will have

196ratings calls um here at the beginning of December to receive those ratings um by December 12th. We are going to request insurance bids. There's two providers out in the market that provide insurance. If there's an advantage to including that on there, meaning that there's some sort of a benefit to the interest rates that you get based on the quote they provide, we would use it. If there's not a pricing advantage, we would not include the insurance in the transaction. Um, and so we'll have a due diligence call at the start of the year on January 6th. Um, and that's just going through with the team and the underwriters, um, with Heather and her team. Basically saying there's nothing within the district that isn't already outstanding in the POS that needs to be discussed before we

197post for the investors. Um, and so we'll post on January 7th, sell the bonds on January 13th, and we'll close either late January or early February. I think that that's it. So, any further questions? I see none. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Chair, I turn it over to you, sir. >> All right. Uh board members, you can note thoseformational items. I appreciate the addition of the superintendent's evaluation. I just want to draw attention to that as well um to see um basically I just want to make a statement real fast before I move on. just says basically we as the board we've completed the superintendent's evaluation and I'm pleased to report um a strong performance across all competency areas with an overall average of 3.74 and this was uh reflecting a continued improvement um from

198the previous years which was 3.52. So well done superintendent on that. Um your your board is supporting your leadership. Um, our district has achieved meaningful progress. Huge. I mean, I I can't say enough about that. Uh, obviously, we've advanced from a C to a B rating under your leadership and the board has confidence uh in the student centered approach as reflected in a lot of the innovation uh talk that we've had today. There's been physical stewardship as well that was noted and a commitment to engaging our community and stakeholders. So, superintendent, thank you for your continued leadership. >> Thank you. >> All right, moving down board members to our agenda for tonight. So, I'll give you a chance to switch over to your agenda and we'll go through that quickly. >> Yes, ma'am. Miss Fields,

199you're recognized. >> Thank you. I wanted to know when are we going to get the compilation of the other uh employees like we got superintendent hy. >> Yeah. So those should have been sent Miss Vega. Correct. We've sent um the compilation of uh our attorney not our attorney rather uh Miss Matthews that's been sent out to the board. >> She Mrs. Fields is asking for the the top portion that you did for Mr. Is that what for a point of clarification? Yeah, that should be in that attached item. >> It wasn't. >> No, sir. >> The only one that we got with the superintendent. >> Yeah. Was that the one that I sent? >> Were they all in there? >> Well, maybe you can. >> Yeah. Maybe a point of clarification. Are you talking about

200with superintendent evaluation? >> Talking about where everyone's rating is shown so that the staff can see how each board member perceives their performance. Yeah, I did submit that document. >> Okay, thank you. >> Can I interject that? We got an email on that back on it was looks like the 23rd of last month with some of those included on there in the evaluations and the results thereof. I've got one anyway. >> It just didn't include the breakout of >> Oh, the breakout of the comments. >> No, it did not. >> Oh, you want >> But I'm sure that it will. >> Yeah. Yeah. Are you asking for the spreadsheet with individual qualitative comments from each board member? >> Yes, I'm talking about how I rated every area >> and the same thing for the other

201board members. That's what I'm talking about. >> Yep. So, in and maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're asking for, but in the PDF that's attached to this item, if you notice at the top, each district is noted with what your overall average was per category. >> I didn't see that. I'll look >> it. We have that for the superintendent. We don't have it for any of the other employees. >> Yeah. And that I did not do that. >> Can we get that? Yeah, I mean I can share the spreadsheet with you. Y >> it's public record. >> Yeah, that's what I'm asking. Y >> sorry I'm not clear. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> So what? >> All right. So we're moving to Thank you, Miss Fields. We are moving to our agenda for

202tonight. >> [snorts] >> Um, we do have a guest uh student as well from Winston and pretty excited about that. I've never had a student, by the way, that has expressed interest in being a cgrapher. So, that is our guest student tonight. I thought that was pretty interesting in their bio. Uh, so we'll go through our pledge or call to order. Uh, and then we do have uh the oath of office. We'll transition. Did you say something? >> Cartgraphy. I was just curious if that was still >> Yeah. >> profession. >> It's amazing. >> Given all the AI and that >> satellite imagery. Well, I guess that's where the application comes from. >> Well, I mean, yeah, it's interesting. I mean, we use a lot of GIS data. >> Talked about kids not knowing what

203they want to do when they grow up. >> That's right. >> Spell it. Do we have a >> We do not. >> Oh, man. That's that's coming. Um, all right. So, we do have oath of office. We'll move through that and then we transition to the reorganization of the board. Um, as you note last goround last year we changed that process and it seems to be uh quite equitable and if you have any comments about that let me know. Uh, so now we're going to move from D and through K. So D through K. If you have any comments [snorts] D through Kendy script this >> and then from here I'm gonna go K through P. K through P. Mr. Sharpless, you are recognized. >> Yes. Um, I want to request that item N2, the

204purchase of the Lake Marian site, um, be moved from consent to action. Um, it's a $9.2 million purchase. Um, and one that I would like to have at least have discussion on. I know I've sent the some questions to Superintendent Hyde on it. Um, and we'd like to be able to have discussion over that purchase rather than it just being on consent. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Sharpless. We'll make note of that. And that will move to the action item. Mr. Keys, you're recognized. >> I was going to say the same thing Mr. Sharpless said. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Keys. Miss Wyatt, you're recognized. >> I apologize. I'm going back to C1 and C2 because in the description for both of them, it has the old process. So, just to confirm, the

205new process is that we open it up for nominees and then each board member will vote which of those nominees they're voting for. >> Correct. Okay. >> Can we get the description updated on the break just so that we have because what we were sent via email was the new process. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. [snorts] Thank you, Miss Wyatt. >> All right. Uh T through W. T through W. That will wrap up our agenda. T through W. Mr. Sharpless, you're recognized. Um are we going to be discussing the committee appointments? >> Yeah, I was just going to bring that up. So I I appreciate you drawing attention to that. So W1 >> Yep. So if you remember uh we filled Mr. Nol's um slot. So if there was a recommendation from

206the board whether you would uh like to remove that item as an action item and table it to the next meeting or uh this would be the responsible of the new chair to um call for those appointments tonight. >> We'll do the rest in December. Correct. All right. >> So, if you have a recommendation, >> can we pull that item or do we need to do that? >> Mr. Sharkless, you're recognized. >> Yeah. I mean, >> um I would suggest that we uh I mean, we could keep that the in the individuals that were appointed for that. we that could stay through to the next meeting and I would suggest we just have all the committee appointments at once rather than stagger them. To me, it would make more sense. Okay. All right. So, I've

207heard from two board members now, so sounds good. All right. So, we'll remove that item. Those appointees will stay in place until next meeting. [snorts] All right. Thank you, board members. and then we'll go from there to our uh individual board reports and then we'll wrap up with public comment. Any other items [clears throat] that you want to bring forward at this time? >> Miss Miller, you are recognized. >> Thank you, Chair. I just have a quick question. Um someone had shared with us our expense reports. Are you going to Is that going to be addressed now? I just had a question. Um, in the past the board had a budget outside of the expense reports that covered chambers, especially chambers that are are business memberships where multiple people can attend. Uh, similar to a

208Rotary has a membership that if one member is if one person is a member from the company, they can anyone can come to represent that company. I see that's now being issued by board member. So, I'm not sure when that changed and I don't know if this may not be the time to discuss, but I think maybe we need to talk about that at a retreat or at a different time on how that's budgeted. Um, I don't see Lakeland Chamber listed here. I do see Auburnale Chamber under my expense report. Um, so maybe we need to schedule some time on how that on how that's done and how it's been done in the past. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Miller. Mr. Sharpless, you're recognized. You know, last meeting I had a suggestion for Superintendent

209Hyde to bring back for a work session. Um, and I appreciated him bringing it back today for the student advisory council. Um, one thing that you know I I attended the Florida School Board Association Board of Directors um, leadership training in October and I I told the board I mentioned this to the board and one topic of discussion that [sighs] I would like to see us look at that they talked about at or in Orange County and I know you know Marian County is also looking at this. Oyola counties, a lot of counties that are looking at this is affordable housing for our employees. You know, um, one thing that I I don't want to get into all the um the potential on the purchase of the Lake Marian site I because we'll have discussion

210on that tonight as an action agenda item. But one, you know, one question I had for Superintendent Hyde was, you know, what where are our properties around Pulk County that we own that we're not using currently. And um one thing that you know when I saw those properties, one thing that came to my mind is affordable housing for our employees. I know we bank land for various different purposes, but I it's just hard out there right now for a lot of people. And I feel like one thing one way that we could attract employees and I know that again I've seen it in different districts and one thing I would just um I would ask the superintendent to look into um potentially have a presentation at a future board uh work session is how we

211can address the affordable housing issue in P County with some of our staff. So I don't know superintendent what what any initial comments or >> it's it's our it's been an ongoing conversation actually and your chair our chair has been party to one of those conversations with a potential provider who was well established in Texas and is now in the final stages of a contract with one of our neighboring district or one of our our sister districts here in the state of Florida. Um problem was when they sent us their contract, there were a lot of things that were potential financial exposures for the district in thatou that they provided for us to look at that made me very uncomfortable. I've sent it back for further review. So this is an ongoing conversation that we've

212had um and that we continue to pursue and so when we get to the point where we feel like we have two or three viable options that we can recommend um love to do that. Unfortunately, you know, converting a school for us would be incredibly cost prohibitive. And at that point, when you're making that kind of fiscal investment or financial investment, then we might as well just build something new. We've looked at everything from modular homes, mobile homes, um, duplexes, quadplexes, multi-level facilities. We've considered purchasing motel or hotels that are no longer in operation. And I think that that really I'll be honest with you in P County I think the city of Winter Haven's leading the way there having converted I think what was an old Howard Johnson's into into apartments and studio apartments.

213So we are exploring all those options presently. So, I would ask the board just give me a little bit of time, probably January, February, probably closer to February if you would allow me because of the holidays, um, to bring back a series of recommendations or or at least be able to summarize what we've explored, what we feel we need to continue to explore and which options we've already put aside to say long-term this is not a quality investment for us or for our employees. And I'll give you a great example. The cheapest, fastest way for us to do it would be potentially modular. Um the problem with that is the wear and tear, hurricanes, tornadoes, all the other things that come along with it. It it becomes, you know, and you know what we spend

214on portables and essentially that's what you're doing, right? And I hate to oversimplify it, but it's the easiest way so that the listeners will understand that they age very quickly and they become a maintenance issue for us long term, whereas maybe a traditional physical build makes a lot more sense. Um, now it could be that we find a site that we no longer use and it would make sense to go ahead and raise that. The problem with some of our undeveloped properties is the hookups for power, utility, and other things. One of the options that we are exploring or the option that we are exploring is not just a PK county public school solution but how then could we partner with our municipalities or the county to provide a shared use option. Um so for

215example maybe it's a 60/40 mix where the school district retains 60% of the doiciles and the county or municipality could have access to 40 because affordable housing is an issue for nursing, for firefighters, for police and also for our educators. >> Absolutely. And in Orange County, that's one way that they're structuring that is that the school district has so many of those uh those >> units and then also, you know, various different other professional trades have, you know, various uh you know, allocations, so to speak. So, I I just something I I just want to I appreciate the the feedback. I I want to make sure that we are helping our staff and [snorts] the community find some affordable housing. So, thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. >> You said fe You said January. Februaryish.

216>> I prefer February, [laughter] but I'll take January if I can get it. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Thank you, Mr. Sharpless. >> All right. Board members, seeing no other business to come before us at this point, this meeting will now be adjourned. We have no discipline. [clears throat] >> You're welcome.