001[Music] good after afternoon and welcome to P County school board's work session uh we will now call the work session for December 12 2023 to order uh I would like to thank everyone for being here in this Christmas um month especially our staff who are available and accessible to help and address any questions uh that we have we are humbled to serve alongside of you and I would say the most highly educated Workforce in pul County uh I would like to start by reading our who are we statement so we are the P County leadership and governance team if we were to pick one phrase to Define us it would be student centered because when we come together uh to work we lean on our diverse backgrounds and experiences to ensure that our decisions are
002focused on providing a highquality education for all students the four most important things to our governance team are number one operating with Integrity number two respecting our students staff families and each other number three establishing a culture where our stakeholders feel valued supported and have opportunities for personal and professional growth and number four supporting an approach of continuous Improvement to ensure student outcomes collectively we need need to work on behalf of the children that we serve and we're going to find Avenues of agreement so that we can govern The District in an effective manner there's no acceptable alternative we will always collaborate in a respectful manner in order to enhance opportunities for each student and staff member we will not disparage others our students will Thrive because we will remain committed to supporting the whole
003child we hope to engage and Empower our students and stakeholders to create a community of lifelong Learners so at this time I would love to turn this meeting over to superintendent Hyde who's looking mighty fresh today to uh lead us in our work session superintendent Hyde I know about fresh but thank you um good afternoon thank you for everybody for being here we're going to go ahead and get started the first item before us today board members and community members and staff I'm going to introduce Steve Cochran and Laura Webster um to speak to you today about 20 high school student interns good afternoon um I just want to start off this is not a new program the 20 High School interns that you see before you for your approval uh we have been doing
004this program uh running internships and apprenticeship during the summer uh for the past two years uh in uh 2021 we had 22 students involved in internships and pre-apprenticeship uh last year we had over 40 involved in uh internships and pre-apprentice ships um what had become the problem and what we thought we had solved going into year going into last year was we had been paying students under a CSA um and while we had problems with it the first year there were delayed payments there were issues with the students properly filling out the paperwork uh we started over we put the team together we did it again the next year and we got almost the same results delayed payment uh students were being paid very late and additionally there was some confusion uh on the students
005part on how to do their paperwork properly so uh this year Laura and the team uh got together with uh Andrew Baldwin uh Chad Smith uh who else was there Chad Davis Chad Davis I'm sorry um we worked with Mr Warren we worked with J Short um several people from from HR Finance payroll pretty much anybody that we could think Mr Pitts all the way up to Mr Pitts anyone we could think that could help us come up with a solution to this problem so we think the best solution was uh to actually hire the students during the summer uh a position was created in cooperation uh with the uh human resources department titled intern High School CTE Academy um these students will be paid $15 uh an hour um we have the money for
006this program has been uh procured through title 4 uh and thank you to uh Andrew Baldwin for making that possible uh we have put $40,000 we hope to spend all $40,000 on our students but that is the highest amount if every uh if every one of those 20 students does the uh the amount of hours that we've allotted for them then uh we will spend uh $40,000 um are there any questions about the uh internship program Miss Cunningham thank you superintendent Hyde I just want to say this is awesome anytime that we can give our students an opportunity to have hands-on experience um is just magnificent so I totally support this program and hopefully as the years go on you can add um more students to the program so kudos to you sir and your
007department um I know it's difficult raising the money um but I think those students will leave here better prepared as they move forward um in their Academy so thank you sir I think this is a wonderful wonderful program thank you thank you Miss Cunningham uh I I did want to add uh that uh there will be more than 20 students involved in this program these will be the ones that we are paying for there will be students that are in a pre-apprenticeship program that will be paid uh through a pre-apprenticeship program there are uh students that will go off and be employed by a employer in the community um we've set aside this money uh for nonprofits for positions with P County Public Schools uh in fact the once this is approved the first intern
008will start working for the pep organization uh in Winter Haven at their request so uh we hope to be placing these students uh throughout the district but but but this will provide uh an excellent opportunity for these students uh to work out in the community to work for nonprofits to work for us because we need to we also have employment needs um uh so we feel like this is going to be uh the best way to do this are there are there any other questions there are not sir thank you very much all right thank you like to bring up Miss C candy aato please Miss omato is here to review several Charter School application renewals right good afternoon so before you today are three charter schools that are currently in operation whose contracts expire
009on June 30th 2024 um I'm not going to R you the statute it's the same statute that you've seen multiple times but this is the statute in which we follow the bulk of the review process and the review process that the district and the Charter office takes is we're looking for the following three items is the is the academic program a success is the school of viable organization and has the school been faithful to the terms of their Charter and the contract so we will start with Ridge viw Global oops Yeah so those of you who have been around probably know Papa frier Mr Ralph frier who opened Ridge viw Global when it was a p County Public School they did convert to a charter in 2001 something unique about rid viw Global is they
010are a hybrid model so their Elementary building is a conversion we own it it was our building they have since secured uh USDA loan funding to build their middle school and their high school so those buildings are considered startup and they do receive capital outlay for those buildings they do not receive it for the K5 so it's a unique situation that they have going on there um so we conducted a charter review site visit on October 11th and they provided us an extensive information their review was in was very detailed and involved um because they did have a lot of history to share and we had members on the charter review team who have never made their way to Ridgeview Global so we were excited that they were able to share their history as you
011know they are a high performing school they earned that status back in 2011 and they maintain that status still as of today um something that was really important to the mental health uh component in the riew 94% of their staff had completed the youth Mental Health Training remember last year we needed 80% at the school site and they exceeded that by achieving 94% they have had consistent leadership since the beginning and extremely low turnover and everyone loves Papa fryer including the kiddos who call him Papa fryer um so it's it's great to see that connection and the history that they have there their board is extensively experienced um they operate over 20 bus with 16 different routes which our transportation department was very pleased to see and hear they have 40 different countries represented on
012their campus which ties in nicely to their Global Studies um it fits and ties nicely into their into their Pro into their thoughts and how they seek uh they're educating the students and they are classified as a title one school and they are seeking a 15-year contract and as a high performing Charter School statute lends them to be granted that 15-year contract and I'm frozen all right yeah know it's frozen it moves up and down and sideways all right obviously school grades came out yesterday which was after this PowerPoint had already been created but as you can see their performance levels uh dating back to 1718 they have maintained that a status obviously the year of no grades and the year that they could opt out um that we still you they still use their
013data to make data driven decisions these are the demographics um they are approved to serve 1,580 students as of today they have 1,571 students enrolled so they are pretty much capped out and ridge viw Global so this is the overall review and a quick snapshot of how they met the standards as you can see they were meeting the standards on all of the items that we reviewed they are seeking to maintain their K12 status serving 1 1580 students this was the charter review team's recommendation 17 out of 17 voted to renew 17 out of 17 voted to give them their year contract as Allowed by Statute any questions on Ridge viw or do you want me to hold those till the end Miss Miller thanks Miss Amato I just want to point out that um
014not all of our Charters look the same in demographics this is an excellent example of how you can serve all students um if you particularly look at the ESU population that they're serving they have increased it to almost uh a percentage that matches the district percentage so when they're looking at students they're not looking at a specific student they're also very um diverse in who they're selecting and and they're keeping them um and that Al that just goes to show that when you move every population that the the school will benefit because of their grade I just wanted to um publicly acknowledge that and thank them for for having that model for students go on M M okay all right moving on to Chain of Lakes Collegiate High School so something unique that they will
015be doing this year is they would like to be adding their 10th grade so however the review was only on 11th and 12th grade because that's all they've served since their Inception uh they opened in 2006 serving just grades 11 and 12 they gained High performing status in 2016 we conducted a site visit on the 11th of October again a lot of great information site visits um were made available for the charter review team their ESC services are provided via consultation and support facilitation and all of their IEPs were current in up to date which is um a huge feat for the schools all the schools um they do not provide transportation but the students are eligible to receive a bus pass to utilize the Winter Haven transient system because there are students in grades
01611 and 12 a large number of those students can drive we did have conversation of how they will entertain 10th graders coming on board there's a significant number of 10th graders who are not of age at the beginning of the 10th grade year so they will consent continue to entertain and find ways to address those that matter um the school is financially solvent they've earned their s their cognia accreditation um if you'll recall pulk state is actually the their governing and which their members are appointed by the governor they've had strong and consistent leadership with minimal staff turnover they continue to achieve a 100% graduation rate um and actually 60% of their students earn their AA degree by the time they graduate high school and that is the design and the purpose of their program
017they also are seeking a 15-year contract adding grades 10 as high performing as a high performing school they are eligible for that 15-year contract and are eligible to ad grades that are currently not served so long as they do not exceed their building capacity um this is their student performance because they only at the time served grades 11 and 12 they are only rated on a few components of the school grade calculations College and Career um acceleration and graduation rate and at times they could be evaluated on the US History EOC depending on how many students are actually enrolled in the course remember you must have at least 10 or more students to be eligible to receive a score for that cell um these are their demographics again remember they are this is only based
018on 11th and 12th grade students they currently have are approved for 350 students they currently have as of this morning morning 312 students enrolled um at the end of the evaluation here is the snapshot uh they did meet the standard on all areas with the exception of learning support and that had to deal with some other 504s and they are seeking for their next term for their 15-year contract grades 10 through 12 with and maintaining the 350 student enrollment and this was the charter review team's recommendation 15 out of 15 recommended to approve 15 out of 15 recommended the 15-year contract any questions on Chain of Lakes Miss Wyatt thank you um just curious with the so for our Charters they typically are a lottery system to get in correct is that the same with
019Collegiate yes yes okay so it won't because I know at one point they had requested they were requesting per scores or things like they had to have passed to be able to take those college classes they still in order they still need to take the per scores um and I actually there are representatives from the school so I'm not trying to put them on the spot but they can correct me if I misspeak so they the students do need to take the part the part test to as part of the application process um that also ties into the actual purpose of the program which is the Collegiate you have to have specific cut scores to be eligible to take the college classes okay because so just as they're because that's something that normally our students
020were taking often times going into 11th grade to be placed in those classes so now they would be taking that during their nth grade year if they're applying as a 10th grade as a 10th grader they would need to take that and probably at the end of or probably around this time okay thank you no further questions okay and then we have Navigator Academy of leadership Davenport K8 um this is their very first renewal because they opened in 2019 and just to put a little caveat they have not had a normal fiveyear application or opening because they opened in August of 2019 and we all know what happened after that um that we shut down we've had a year we had a revolving year of online face to face so their first five years has
021been a unique start for them so they are happy to be back underway um operating as in normal setting they have had some change in leadership um but the current principal has been working very hard to change that positive um School culture and promote teacher Recruitment and Retention they do offer after school tutoring to remediate and review skills they are part of the national school lunch program and serving in the area that they in the Davenport area that is a huge feat for them to be able to offer that free breakfast and free lunch for students they are seeking a five-year contract um they current they meet all fldoe rules for school safety based on the data that we have they did not meet the 80% for the Youth Mental Health Training but we are
022working feverishly with them to ensure that they meet that requirement their 504s were out of compliance and those conversations have been have taken place um based via communication um on the review document they received um IEPs are current and services are provided through that inclusion model um they do an they do have an education service provider who works for the day-to-day operations of the school they are another leader in me school um in the Davenport area and they are seeking to become a light Health um school and they do have a very healthy weight list these are their scores again remember 1920 we did not test they do not have any data prior to that so we really only have one year worth of a school grade not counting the one that was came that
023was issued yesterday um in 20 the 2021 year they did opt not to receive their grade these are the demogra the demographics they currently are also approved to serve 1,000 students and have this morning they had I've lost my paper I believe it was 990 students enrolled as of this morning yes 990 students enrolled so they are very close to their target um of approved PTM the was how the overall snapshot that the chart snapshot that the charter review team identified um again meeting the standards on all areas with the exception of learning support and that ties back to their mental health and their 504 they are seeking to maintain their 1,000 students for the next five years of their contract serving students in grades k through eight the charter review team's recommendation um 16
024out of 16 repres are recommended to renew 14 out of 16 recommended the 5-year contract and one out of 16 recommended three one out of 16 recommended a one-year term um however because of Statute language that I did provide on the PowerPoint for you a school that has received no grade low has received a grade lower than a b pursuant to statute one 8.34 in the most recently graded school year must be renewed for no less than 5 years so one and three years are not an option and are there any questions there are no oh this cutting ham I'm just not fast enough at trigger today um just wanted to say thank you I think that was a very detailed review um we appreciate that I know you and your staff go to huge
025lengths to visit the schools and go through things with each of them and make sure that they are providing our students because they're all our kids across the district with the most rigorous and relevant education and um and thank you for always coming before us and providing a really great synopsis so we kind of know what to expect so thank you so much Miss Amato Miss Cunningham I'll piggyback a little bit off of what you just shared because I think it's important to note that when you look at the committee reviews you're finding far more consistency in the committee reviews and recommendations than we had previously if you recall in some instances the review committees were split and so I think here especially in the in the sense of this final application for Renewal um
026you see an actual explanation provided why the recommendation was for less than what the statute would have required in order to ensure compliance but we are getting we're getting much better at identifying what corrective action needs to take place in order to get a school to a place where they can be renewed without any sign ific concern so I want to say thank you to miss lato for leading that initiative amongst the committee so I do have one followup too superintendent um so miss Amato I really appreciate the um the survey results that's a a different look as well and maybe speak to that I was noticing the the time on the survey um so when the charter review team gets the survey it's it's post evaluative um I would assume and and then the
027options that they have to choose in the survey would be basically those years and then I so I was just thinking what what were the the fields within the survey itself so we have obviously we like to keep it Anonymous so that those names not called out so basically is the it's a simple question so the charter school actually gets to request what term they would like to ask for so in the in the census of Navigator the question is very simple do you recommend renewal yes or no do you recommend and the School asked for five years so we only gave them the fiveyear option as one of the selections we put five years and then other and and then that's how the the review team actually provides their answers okay thank you there
028any no further questions or comments thank you Miss Amato the next setem before the board here today with our workshop I'll invite Mr Chad Davis and Miss Teresa Griffin down we have several policy updates as you recall board members if and I I'm guesstimating but I believe there were over 80 rule changes that require us to update policies and procedures so we're bringing those to you in small clusters as they're being revised and so I will turn it over to miss Griffin and Mr Davis at this time thank you Mr Hyde you're welcome um as Mr Hyde mentioned we're trying to work through all the policy updates and we should be getting another one um from niola in January so it's just going to add to that list so but I'm trying to bring them
029to you in small chunks this first group is um policies 2520 2521 and 2522 all three of these relate to instruction materials or Library materials and they're being um updated based on statutory changes in House Bill 511 and House Bill 1069 and there's a lot of the same language in in each of these policies especially 2520 and 2521 if you look at them um some of the changes but it requires that the superintendent um provide certification to the commissioner of Education by July 1 for allocation of State funds it also defines library media center to include materials in the classroom um there's also a requirement that the superintendent um certify board approval of the staff development plan by August one it goes into details about duties of principles as it relates to instruction materials um
030the adoption and publication like on our website where parents can limit their students access to material so the requirement that we have that on our website explain that process for parents um um the process for objections by a parent or resident to any type of instruction materials and then there's an update um for New World's reading initiative so those are all of that group of policies and all of those changes are they're pretty much highlighted in green or struck through in red on the on the policy um clearly outlined for you and then policy 75 4.02 is um web content apps and services so this is basically our web policy policy this um is straight from Nia's recommendations um Senate Bill 258 and House Bill 379 there's some statutory changes some of these we've talked
031to you a little bit about before and we brought some other it policies forward like um the like prohibition for different um applications on wireless um cellular devices and then it prohibits downloading of specific applications on the school district's internet there's um it prohibits the use of Tik Tok or any type of successor platform requirements related to wiping and uninstalling prohibited applications so it's it's really those are highlighted in green um you'll see that um on the policy do you guys have any questions about any of those Mr sharpless yeah I have some questions um on specifically on 2522 okay um so so uh I'm just going to start with I guess from the beginning of the policy and work my way down kind of questions I had does that work for you yes that's
032fine and I'll try to answer anything that I can't um and I know this is all this is all based on again legislation has been passed and we're just re we're you know through neol we're reacting to this correct legislation and then also this is a replacement policy but we also walked over language from our existing policy um to make sure that that was included in this policy as well okay so I I have some I have some questions um so on page three I'm start with uh under b um it's the second X it says well says upon receipt of the information the superintendent shall after advising the board of the complaint and there's a couple times I saw this advising this word advising um I just kind of was wondering what if we
033could Define or that what does that mean advising um you know does that it's in the policy so I'm just curious yeah I mean that like the board would be notified I don't know if I'm speaking correct turn yeah cor yeah the board is not advised as far as the challenge itself you're provided a context to the information surrounding the challenge the school the complaintant anticipated timelines those types of things gotcha so could we could we maybe make that a little clearer in in the policy you know exactly what that means that advising piece I was just that way you know it's for me when I'm reading it it's clear a we receed documentation schedule whatever that is and is that appropriate is that appropriate to put in the policy change to notifying I I
034would simply either apprise or notify okay okay all right um and then under one through four um we're still under B yeah we're still under b 1 through four here it says one or more parents and then it says one or more instructional staff one or more lay persons knowledgeable in the area so I was I was wondering can we make that more defined because one or more could mean of any of these groups literally one of one and eight of another or three of it just doesn't seem I would like the review committees to be consistent and so if we could have more a defined number there rather than just one or more um I think this where it gets a little blurry though okay board member sharpless in that this is policy this
035is not the procedure the procedure clearly defines the membership and the number of members and we have provided that on numerous occasions so while policy says it must be at least one our procedure does State who needs to be involved including students at the high school level so so so my question then is is I thought procedures flow from policy they do but the policy here stipulates the minimum number of of participants per classification are board my procedures that I develop as a direct extension of the board establishing a policy states exactly how many minimally again because it does involve more than one parent does involve more than one faculty member in fact if you as you'll recall when it relates to faculty it requires the media specialist it requires the principle or his or
036her design it requires an English language arts teacher it requires multiple staff as an example of who needs to participate in that policy does not explicitly state that the procedure does so that's that's where I get confused between the two um to me I just think policy should flow from or procedure should flow from the policy if it's in the policy it should be in the procedure and vice versa um that's just again that's just my opinion on it um another question I have uh on page three as well on D um the criteria that's there um I noticed above it talks about the statutes that it's flowing from right it's a you know Florida statute 847.011 so I was curious why that language isn't down there when it talks about evaluating the question material
037because to me those those one through four seems it's subjective um whereas the sexual conduct's very concrete right is there's specific things in statute that is defined by sexual conduct so what what what are committees actually reviewing so that that that's where I'm just unclear so if if it is it a subjective or objective are we looking at the what standards and so I would like to see potentially that down there in D we have it above but when actually looking at the policy and what they're evaluating the material on I would like that to be included in that part that's just my opinion on that um and I think the only other question I had um on page four under G um why did we start what was the uh justification on striking out
038the 30 and putting in the 15 um when it says the complaintant May appeal this decision within 15 business days why did why was 30 stricken out from that um if I remember correctly and Stacy you can um correct me if I'm wrong but we were trying to be consistent with where it was the 15 days earlier in the policy um yeah we were trying to be consistent sorry where there was a there and previously we actually noticed that it said 15 and 30 so we were actually clarifying that language to what the original intent was so I guess you would say that was an error in the previous document that I actually read both if you look back to the previous one so there's no need to provide respectfully from from my position there's
039no need to provide an extended timeline because the the complaintant is notified immediately following the convening of the meeting if they choose not to be in attendance so they are prised almost immediately of the decision of the committee either to retain or remove a book so 15 days is more than enough time for that complaintant to file or request a secondary review only because in F the one right before that it says that the committee's recommendation shall be reported to the superintendent in writing within 15 days so my thought was hey if they if it's 15 days where they they tell the superintendent of it how long are they getting the complaintant because if if you're saying well you have only have 15 days to appeal but yet we can get the information to you
040within 15 days it's kind of like our our procedure stipulates that okay so again outside of policy procedure are the actual steps that we follow I am never apprised 15 days after a meeting in fact Miss Davis does an excellent job of notifying me the day of okay a review um and especially in situations where you have multiple reviews taking place on multiple campuses and then the board will note that you don't get those the same day that I get them but you do get them in a Friday update so I've always provided you with an update on any book challenges including anticipated dates in which subsequent book challenges will be concluded but you always get a summary you always get told how many how many votes there were yays and nays um I've addressed
041questions based on that but no it's it's not a 15-day wait period that I have to get that information Miss Davis does an outstanding job communicating that to me all right as I was just where I was confused in the policy so and then the complaint no it's a it's good clarification right so and then the complaintant is notified in accordance with our procedures and then they again the clock starts for them to file a subsequent appeal they choose to do so I think that's all my questions and if I can quickly address your your previous concern about that section D um you do Hit Upon something that I think is very important to point out um this is I know you all recently had presentations on uh the the Miller test and some of
042the changes that have been made uh the Miller test of course is the the Supreme Court decision that uh you look towards a community standard you're looking at appropriateness whereas the section you pointed out above that highlighted the Florida statute with sexual conduct that is the change that's been made by the law and absolutely these committees should be looking for that that should be a standard they're looking at and uh you know many districts they don't even have committees look at it because that objective materials already found and they go ahead and pull the books so um I think that was a good catch on your part um however you want to uh handle that but uh that that should be something committees are looking at and ultimately it will come back to the board
043uh with the authority to determine that if it gets up uh to you that'll be what you're looking at too I think part of it too is it's within the rubric is it not contained within the rubric Miss Davis and the directions that are given to the committee yes so the um State form actually changed as well and the state form has all of the criteria that were mentioned above um and then on our form our form asks the question about whether material is age appropriate um could it be offensive for any of the following reasons and then there is I would a checklist or a rubric that would outline all of those reasons including pornography sexual behavior and so on and so forth language so it is a checklist that the committee members are
044asked to evaluate as they read the book in its entirety and complete the for and they're they're allowed to fill that out individually and then they submit those at the end that essentially tallies their vote additionally they also get a copy of the complaintant form that's now that state adoptive form that we have posted on the website that includes all the information required by the state on the form Mr Niti I had the um similar question what Justin had and I think it's been answered but I just thought that you know when you as long as long as everything's done in a timely fashion because I know sometimes things work out and you you know you get to have 30 days rather than 15 it's uh somewhat of a help but I understand we if
045as long as everything's done in a timely fashion everybody's thank you we' we've not received a single complaint about the timelines or the communication timeline again a complaintant is notified within 24 hours of the meeting in those instances where they're not actually physically in attendance and even then I believe we send a follow-up communication just to make sure that we've documented it's been done but then they have 15 days from that day in which to submit an appeal um so that's 3 weeks that's that's more than enough time quite frankly yeah and I'll follow up on that as well as it relates to the timeline mine would be specifically on page four um I could see maybe in F uh letter F you know and again superintendent noted that on Friday updates we do we
046get the collection of the appeals that are happening or the reviews that are happening uh around the district I would like to see just a time frame noted on that one that would be option one letter F page four and then letter G um that one just basically notes the complaint May appeal this decision within 15 days uh to the board through a written request to to the superintendent who shall forward the requests and all written material um I'd like to see a time frame there so when when the appeal is issued from the complaintant of just a time frame specific uh in letter G when that appeal would come to the board um and I I don't know if there's been an appeal yet um so I would just like to see that from
047a timeline standpoint um and then just to follow up on you know I'm going to switch over to 2520 when it relates to selection uh and Adoption of instructional materials and Equipment um I'm still hearing from teachers in regards to maybe a classroom material that they had in their library that they've used uh from a pedagogical standpoint and we're feeling frustration that you know it wasn't necessarily um captured in their school library and they can't use the book in the classroom I just want to make sure superintendent we can just reinforce um what that procedure looks like we have very clearly defined that procedure on multiple occasions yep and I appreciate the YouTube content that's out there and I just want to say that publicly that it is a a streamlined process and um you
048know I think we had mentioned that you can have that book approved within 24 hours is that correct like if a teacher was to note that um I can't guar no I'm not going to State here that they can get it approved within 24 hours respectfully what teachers were instructed to do last year when they pulled materials from their from their shelves based off their own private or collection of classroom materials was we provided them with some explicit Direction on what they could do we also told them that they could search those books and if they were currently in any of our media centers that that book was considered approved and they could retain that book for its for for its use and within the classroom setting or for free reading materials for our students
049however if a book was not included in our school in any of our school libraries and again we're not asking to look at their school library we provided them the master list of books for the district um and so many of them had review processes and they went through and reviewed their own books to make sure what was included in our collection and approved for anything that's outside of that there is a process for them to submit that for review um but again I'm not going to say it happens within 24 hours because especially when we were first having to do this due to the change in in State Statute and and and Rule and policy um the number of B books that were being reviewed was quite considerable but Miss Davis and her team
050do a very good job of s researching each and every one of those books and getting a timely response back to staff the timeline if a if an instructor is looking that I need to use this book within the next day and I do mean this respectfully that's a planning issue that that issue should have been addressed well in advance of I need this book tomorrow because that's just simply not attainable given the volume of materials that we have to review on any given day and book challenges constitute a very small portion of what Miss Davis and her team are challenged to do every day for a district dis large and the volume of instructional materials that they have to review and ensure in compliance plus all new book orders that have to be reviewed
051I mean Miss Davis's team and she do an amazing job so I I won't State here that it can happen within 24 hours I would ask teachers to give us enough lead time of at least a week or two so that they would have adequate time to provide feedback and if a book is cannot be approved to provide recommendations for an alternative resource that that teacher could then utilize in their classroom without any worries and can I can I add that um we had over 2,000 appeals from the time that we asked teachers to valuate their classroom libraries and we're also talking about books that they're making available for their students for self- selection not instruction so instruction would come from adopted curriculum so that's a little bit of a difference that we have to
052clarify sometimes so oftentimes we'll get a teacher that submits something but it's actually something that they're intending to use for instruction so we redirect them to another to their literacy coach maybe for further guidance on that or if it's art curriculum to F arts for that um because it's not really something that the student is going over and selecting off the classroom Library we received 300 appeals after August for books and we have completed those appeals and imported those records um and staff will be notified whether or not those books can be added to the Shelf at the next opt out window so that's another thing that kind of extends the process for it if we were to have imported those books um after the August opt out then parents would not have had the
053opportunity to view those 300 titles and opt their student out of that so those 300 that we received after the August opt out have now been reviewed and will'll be ready for teachers to use in January if it was appropriate I will also add that I think it was good for us to go through this process because we did discover um that we had some books that may have been better suited for Middle grades that might have been in an elementary library or high school that was in a middle school library um and teachers also were able to see you know items that kind of have been on the shelf for a while just like in libraries we need to um you know have colle collection maintenance and and weed from time to time so
054I think that was a good process for them too um and we appreciate the teachers patients as we move through this process as well right thank you there are no further questions thank you thank you Miss Barkin Mory next item board members is the Head Start cost of living adjustment in the Q q1 2023 Staffing requests good afternoon superintendent he B members we submitted the um we came a few see that's what I always do that's why we were supposed to touch it uh we came a couple months ago and asked for approval to apply for the cola and the quality improvement funding we did submit the application it was approved we received the cola funding of $488,900 42 children in a very large district and we currently have one social worker that's trying to
055meet the needs of those families so being able to add a social a second social worker to lower her case load we'll be helpful to ensure that families are provided their her services in a more timely manner and the office system specialist is a second person to help answer our phones um at our office because as are we're increasing and word is getting out the sheer number of calls that we're getting is to help increase response times to parents especially during the peeps when the applications are live is around the corner and when parents just have questions or need directions to the right uh person so that is our request today and again the benefit is these are funded positions um and when we hire someone into these positions knowing that we have some new
056members to the board if someone's hired into a grant funded position we must inform them of such so that way if the grant funding is not renewed then there are rights within the collective bargaining agreements or within our overall District policies and procedures about how to revert them back to a previous position um depending on their tenure longevity those types of things so I just wanted to give you know board members comfort knowing that if someone makes a decision to leave a current vacancy to take on or accept a promotion or another position within a grant funded area that there are safeguards for those employees but they are told in advance that this is a grant funded position and if funding runs out as you see stipulated in the document that were provided for you
057that they will have to revert back to a different position so we are very transparent with our employees regards that we're very careful with this as well with grant funding I typically um make sure and ask staff to make sure that we can fund a position for a minimum of two years before making that transition because an annual Grant becomes very difficult to manage and to maintain that um employment status for for our employees so Miss Miller I just want to say thanks for coming back today um sitting on the Head Start committee and I would encourage new board members or board members who haven't served on that committee to do so this need is great for these positions and I think they'll be well used to reach families I'm impressed with how many families
058that you reach and the fact that you reach so many families early to be able to engage them and keep them engaged would be our goal um so I I happily support this and and hope that other board members get to experience that committee thank you thank you ladies there are no further questions or comments had one other thing I did want to share um we have preliminary data from our fast early STAR testing um understand that it's only one piece because they will also factor in attendance and the class observations that are that are going through so but just looking at our data from the fast testing um the state average is 49.2% Readiness rate when we look at P County as a whole including everyone not just P County Schools we are sitting
059currently at 43.1% however when we disaggregated just P County Public Schools data it looks like about 69% wow yes so we're very pleased to see that so we're excited about what's coming and we're anxious to see the rest of the data but currently um it it's looking pretty good so you will receive a far more comprehensive um accountability report in January when we return I'll I'll touch on school grades today and board members you received the summary from myself a draft summary as we continue to analyze our data there's a lot of really strong things for us to be proud of and and to accelerate other opportunities where we need to continue to strive to do better um but in in a time when you know cut scores were escalated and elevated contrary to what
060was recommended by the educator panel and the reactor panels um ratcheting up the accountability in a year where learning gains were absent again we made it tougher to be at on grade level in reading and Mathematics this year um and again with no learning gains to buffer that it is impressive when you looked at that data last night of how our Public School schols performed and I'll be very happy to provide a short summary of that today um but we will go far more in depth in in our January in that Workshop um especially as we're setting baselines for for subsequent improvements and how we're going to Target those issues uh much to miss cunninghams Mr Sharp and other and Dr Allen's points um who are constantly talking to me about how are we going
061to make get these improvements how are we going to improve our trajectory um and I'll share some inside information today about um graduation rate and how a district can be adversely impacted Ed by Charter Schools um for example we have a charter school in our school district that has a 14% graduation rate as a result when people look at The District's overall graduation rate last year at 78% if you were to pull that student population out of the numerated denominator we go up over 82% in the graduation rate so it is important to know and we've talked you've heard me talk about this with algebra data why is 9th grade algebra data so low because we test the overwhelming volume of those students in 8th grade and the high schools don't don't get credit for
062that algebra component on the ELC passing rate and so that's why it looks like high school algebra is not performing very well because they're testing a very small population of students who do struggle with mathematics so there's a lot of things like this that we need to keep talking about so that people better understand what the grade actually entails and what it actually means and what it doesn't mean um in this high stakes accountability era that we live in um but it continues to serve as a trigger and as a message and as an indicator of areas where we need to continue to infuse additional assistance so while that school is a charter school that's underperforming in their graduation rate there's also a reason for that there're an alternative education center and so we have
063our option right now is to work side by side with them to figure out how do we get those students back on trajectory through Credit Recovery to get them back into their graduation cohort and that's going to require some work with the Florida Department of Education to basically be allowed to accelerate their learning using a competency based instructional model rather than a seat time model which we currently Embrace so there's a lot of conversation here this is not about blame this is about identifying where our deficiencies are and then what are we going to do about them um so that we can make sure that we hold ourselves accountable that we're also investing our resources our time our money and our staff in the right L places so I appreciate you bringing it up but
064again board members you will receive a far more comprehensive analysis of all of these things including industry certifications and advanced coursework and all those things that we've talk about all the time because that's part of our strategic plan goal objective um for for evaluation and for how we're going to measure the progress of our school district so thank you Miss Allen thank you car Barkin next item is Miss an Pasco assistant superintendent for Information Systems and Technology who's here to provide you with an update as far as our sap upgrades that are taking place good afternoon everyone Mr Spruce we changed our system on me all right I'm here to talk about an exciting topic today which makes me very happy we have it is exciting uh we have our sap upgrade that we are
065going to embark on but first i'm very thrilled to tell you that we have full support of our sap team they are represented here in the back we have our business analyst if they will raise their hand we have our programming Department if they will raise their hand and our senior director of payroll and they all here to show solidarity that we're all excited about our upgrade right team it's two and a half days to the break trying we're trying to get everybody to Friday all kidding aside this is a great team to participate with I have been very pleased with the collaboration from these departments um utilizing some of our ability to communicate digitally via teams it's quite exciting to see that a problem occurs and the team jumps in and starts problem solving
066it and by the time I find out about it it's here we've identified the problem and here are three solutions so that's a pretty exciting team to actually have in our corner to go through this upgrade we also have Brian Warren and Heather Jenkins who co-opted me to present today but they are fully aligned with all that we are doing so with that let's jump in we talk about sap what does it really mean so this is the backbone of our operation this lets us do our materials management Warehouse plant maintenance all of our capital projects our human Capital Management so everything that would go into HR from some benefits payroll organizational employee Administration and then some of our asset management so I say use that to mean that we the state has changed the
067requirement and any assets above $5,000 will be clarified as assets any items such as a computer that are below 5,000 are not kept in sap they're kept in a different system so the first question is why would we do this why would we upgrade so there are a couple things we want to make sure that we're updating our technology so that we have it for agility and for Innovation that's going to be extremely important for us as we continue to lead P County that we have systems that let us move quickly and be agile as our leadership is making decisions that need us to Pivot in order to meet the needs of students and teachers the database itself is simplified which means it makes it easier for people to manage the speed is faster currently
068right now because the database is so complex we take a lot of processing time to run reports and things of that nature so this will help with our efficiency we have more capabilities which means less customizations which also helps us be a little bit more efficient it will reduce our cost in the long run obviously there's cost to upgrade but we're looking at the long-term cost and it will reduce that because we won't have as many redundancies and we will be able to reduce some manual processes just like ear earlier you were saying you wanted to make sure that we got things in a timely manner reported those require manual activities anything we can automate should help us move things along a little faster additionally sap has decided so this is not P County deciding
069this is sap deciding that they are going to make ECC that's our current platform end of life on 2027 sounds like we have a lot of time but we don't they stopped making changes at 2016 so that was their cue to us you you're going to need to move on right now we have to extensively customize in order to meet the business needs which is what this staff back here does they are constantly customizing the system making changes as a new need comes in the student interns we talked about earlier requires a change in the system so anything that we're deciding to meet those needs requires that the system be updated batch latency is what I just talked about these reports take a long time if you've ever run a report gone to get lunch
070gotten a coffee come back it's still running that's the kind of EXP delay that we experience labor intensitive it requires a lot of people to do things and it requires on-prem support so that means as we've talked about in the past anytime we can move anything to the cloud that's a good model of support for cyber concerns so the next question is why not just buy another one well we've already talked about that a little bit employee familiarity we're we know it we're comfortable with it we might get frustrated sometimes but we we know it so you have to weigh the the balance of training on something new we've also customized it for our needs every District should do what's best for their students and their teachers which means we customize a system for that
071if we were to go to a new system we would have to adjust our processes for a new system and as a as a district we've decided we want to be able to customize so what we're going to do is we're going to shift and lift we're going to take our system and we're going to shift it over and lift it up so that we can maintain our customizations but maximize new efficiencies in the new system and we have a limited time table I know I told you 2027 but I'm already getting a little heartburn about it so it takes us that long to actually go to a new system and I'm going to talk you through some of that in a second so here is our timetable full transparency as we go through these
072types of Tims we will make the right decisions for the district so if we run into a challenge we meet with Mr hod we find something that um is going to cause us to slow down we'll make the right decision for the district and so we may modify that table as we go through that's also why we want to start that now so that we have some wiggle room if we have to make changes so currently we are in the middle of taking our SQL ba database and we're converting it to something called Unicode means just what it says um it's text that any database can read because that's what happens with Hana is you go to a new database so this is the first thing we have to do we finished our testing we'll
073be doing this over the winter break and then in the spring you will see that we will upgrade to enhancement pack 8 we have to do that before we can get to Hana all of this will help us and we make sure we do testing for data accuracy functionality and for our enduser compatibility so you'll hear a lot about District people saying I have to go test I have to go test that's because we always test before we roll out a new product it's how we make sure that people know what they're doing and they catch any bugs quarter three and quarter four of 2024 um we will go through we'll assess our current environment that's basically where they give us the price of what it's going to look like for a new one and
074we get a cloud trial so that we can go and test some things out and look at it and pick what we need to do then we go through our project plan we start to appropriately size the upgrade essentially what that means is anytime you go to a new system you're deciding what data do you keep and what data do you not keep and we have retention policies in our board policies that determine what data we keep so we need to appropriately size that phase two we will Define then what what does the training look like we do a re Readiness check we do a prototype that's getting us into 2025 then you see that our deploy takes quite a bit of time we're going to convert we're going to use functional training functional CH
075changes testing training so you'll see a lot of activity surrounding it at that point the very good thing to remember is none of this in affects instruction so teachers are very minimally affected by this and we will be very purposeful to ensure that our upgrade will make sure that principles also are as minimally affected as possible so we keep our business running as we need to and then we have our go live at phase four we do have to look at that with our year end close so we have to make sure that all of the finances that happen under Mr J Miss Jenkins purview can occur and we also get to our new system so that basically is a fast overview we expect to constantly be bringing you updates but wouldn't really make sense
076if we hadn't given you that overview so Mr Hyde any questions I am not seeing anyone so you have thoroughly confused everyone so yes good job Miss Pasco thank you much um but but kudos to her and her team because not only they work on this I think the part that doesn't that gets understated here is they do all this work while they're still maintaining their daily requirements to to so that our district continues to function um so this is above and beyond what they already are working on plus kudos to them for missing for for meeting not missing let me restate that for meeting and exceeding every single deadline they established to make sure that payroll changes will take place as we had committed to prior to the winter break so um they have
077done an outstanding job and and the ad hoc reports are quite considerable you don't realize you know you buy a software platform for our student information system or our learning management system or our our you know any Department that you're trying to operate and you buy it and then you realize very quickly that your your your the way you utilize it needs to be a little bit more unique than the standard off the shelf so you end up having to work with the company to program and write script and our team does a lot of that behind the scenes on their own so we're very proud of the work that they do and I want to give them credit even though they all fled the room as quickly as they could it's okay the last
078item here under superint tenant report um prior to my providing you with a brief summary on academic attainment this year and school grades is safe School summary um this is required each year so we have both major Seymour and Captain Ryan Shay here with us today uh first off I'm a little disappointed in myself had I known that we could have worn some I have one in my office got a backup in my office would have uh I'm not sure my boss would have been too happy with choice of uh attire so um I do apologize that I'm not in uniform quite yet um I'm still recovering from my Hipp rep placement so uh I should be back to full Duty in January so I'm looking forward to that I know my major is as
079well and I'm not sure how this thing works so just swipe swipe oh there he is all right perfect I don't think my wife would [Laughter] approve um so uh good afternoon everyone um as uh superintendent Hyde said I'm Ryan Shay so I'm your director of save schools um I've been here since about April now um I've only seen you all a few times so I'm excited to actually present in front of you for the first time um so for us obviously the big change came when uh Jill Seymour was promoted to the rank of major so that was a change for y'all um she now wants me to be your the the face uh of our team and this thing just keeps moving without my doing so all right there we go um so
080with that we have a really great team um I have three lieutenants that work for me um Tracy Smith Cory lanir Mike rushing uh many of you may know Mike's name um as he used to be the grip Sergeant uh but major Seymour was able to get Mike promoted to a lieutenant so we were able to keep him within our safe schools team um probably the most important member of our team is Alexis you guys get a lot of emails from Alexis keeping you updated as to what's going on um within safe schools so uh we really do appreciate everything that does for us um but without further Ado I want to get into the report that I've provided you all a copy of um so it's the annual report from 2022 2023 um just
081as a reminder the information related to this report is confidential um and it shouldn't be copied or shared with anyone else um so we're going to jump right into page four U which is our uh Gaggle monitoring um which is designed to monitor school-based drives files oh yeah thank you um documents which are accessible to students in an effort to detect early safety concerns so for the 21 or excuse me 22 23 school year we had 171 Gaggle alerts um which uh was a excuse me a big increase from the year before um over a hundred U more from the previous year but it only led to 24 students um being taken into custody under um mental health evaluation um the other part is the uh Florida safe schools assessment tool this is a really
082big part of what we do to ensure the safety of each campus um it's required by the state for us to do an assessment of each and every campus that's public schools and Charter Schools alike um so um it's a it's a it's an all Hands-On effort when it comes to that so the state releases this report for us to begin in May however everyone tends to wait until the very last minute um to complete the report so we have to have all that information back to the state by October 1st um we require all of the schools to get that information to us by September 1st so we can relay that or we can review that information to make sure everything um is up to State par um I'm happy to report everyone completed
083their reports in time and we're able to submit that to the state um prior to October the 1st um and everything so far has been uh good that we've reported back um page six uh we talk about our lockdown drills I'm not a big fan of the word drill um I think it gets overused um I think it's pretty militaristic but it's what we use for the state as of right now I like safety training I think it's a little softer I think it gets people behind what you're trying to do um but these drills are really important to what we try to do not only does the Department of Education and the office of safe schools complete unannounced visits but so do we through our local office so we'll go out and we'll make
084a surprise visit on a campus so that way we conduct a drill right then and there and they have to do it in front of us so that way they don't have time to prepare themselves um so we do 30 of these um throughout the school year um so far we have done at least half of that um with our team um we've been out uh as recently as last week doing those assessments um the schools are improving uh I'm I'm happy to report that they are improving with these drills um we've had to make some changes to the form that we use to bring it into compliance with the state so all of those changes are being brought to their attention um and it's helping with making sure that these drills run easier for
085everyone involved um as a as a result of alysa's law which requires Florida school districts to implement a panic alert button um we have partnered with raptor Technologies as all of you are aware um raptor is a big help to all of us um it helps with document storage with our critical incident response manual it also has the different videos that we utilize run hiide fight um see something say something our hard Corners video um and also any of the the recent PSA completed by superintendent Hyde and Sheriff Jud on um the verbal threats and stuff along those lines making sure that we uh make sure the kids have work in a safe environment and they don't say anything they don't really mean uh reunification this is uh a really big part of um where
086we're moving um as far as um safe schools goes um but we're trying to do that through Raptor um this is something we've been working with Anne Pasco and her team on um making sure that everything is up to date all the school rosters are up to date um as we move forward with a reunification training exercise which is coming up um next month so we're excited about that I can't give out too much information as um there's 100 um District employees that are part of that reunification um and they'll receive some sort of alert when that training will be where it will be and what time that training will take place um so that way we don't give out too too much information as to when that's going to take place and they can
087prepare for it um emergency preparedness um that's going to start off on page seven which is fortify Florida um this is the Statewide reporting tool operated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that allows students in the general public to report concerning activity um in instantly to law enforcement agencies um similar to Crim Stoppers you can report anonymously um the uh the big thing that we've noticed from the transition from 2122 to the 22 23 school year um is the increase in the number of tips we've received um it seems to be a direct correlation um as we jumped um to 81 four to5 Florida tips um just um last year which is 53 more than the previous year um we believe that's probably attributed to um class link so kudos to the school board
088bringing that online and us getting more tips um it really helps us out in getting that information quickly um Crime Stoppers um that number stayed about the same there was only about eight tips that came through from uh the same school year um our annual safe schools training uh this takes place usually the week or two leading up to school um this this past year we were very fortunate to uh um have the Florida Department of Law Enforcement come in um do some very Advanced um active as salent training with us um we were able to do utilize um the Sheriff's Office training center but we were able to bring in in every municipality every um safe school officer and put them through this training um for the entire week long so uh what a
089great opportunity that was for everybody um obviously putting on the youth Mental Health Training that's required um and also um many of you have heard that we're transitioning from seag to the Florida model Mental Health Training I'm happy to report um I know that's more towards the 23 24 but we have brought all law enforcement officers into compliance for the Florida model training as that transitions in uh January of this coming year tin Court uh this is a real big part of what we we try to do what a what a great opportunity that um the state attorney's office provides to us um locally um this Juvenile Diversion program um based on the philosophy that juvenile offenders are less likely to reoffend when punishment is decided by a jury of their peers um it brings
090in student volunteers that get to be attorneys they get to see it you know as both a prosecutor and as a Defender uh the the cool part about it obviously is is there's a real judge there that oversees this process um so they get to see firsthand what the judicial process would look like but they face less severe penalties um you're not going to see you're serious offenders in this type of program um but what a great opportunity for um these kids um in lie of facing some sort of juvenile criminal record they can go through this process part of this process though is the parents have to agree to allow their child to be a part of this process the student also has to admit their guilt in front of their peers so that's
091a big part of it as well um so during the this past school calendar year there were 1,126 cases that were referred to team Court during the year so that's quite a few cases um the Sheriff's Office obviously had the vast majority of those is we had 588 referrals um so it's just it's a real good program that we we support wholeheartedly for the simple fact you know if you can get kids to admit when they do something wrong we're moving in the right direction as a society um Explorer post so obviously this is a partnership that we have with the Boy Scouts of America um this program though uh and I'll report more on it come next year um is getting ready to change as we will no longer be partnering with the Boy
092Scouts um we're moving to a program called the public safety Cadets um this public safety Cadet program it gives these students that are involved in this program the opportunity to go to national conferences and National um training competitions um so we're really excited to bring this to them they're excited to be a part of it as we have seen an increase in the number of students that are now participating in this program with applications coming in Daily um because of the this recent change um but just to kind of bring you up to speed as to where we were for the 22 23 year um the most popular program that we obviously do is the operation pop top where we're trying to curb the sale of alcohol to miners um we conducted 41 operations during
093that particular school year um over 400 stores were checked I'm happy to report there was 20 only 24 violations of those 400 stores got a little work to do as we try to get that message out but there's always going to be one or two in there for sure um our school crossing guards um as we do training with them they're required to do a a two-hour um Statewide uh training class each year um if they renew for the the followup year they got to go through additional training and certification um currently we have 133 staffed Crossings throughout the county um but we have 163 crossing guards to cover those um particular Crossings and and we're moving roughly 24,000 kids through those Crossing sections um during that time frame so our school resource training this
094is uh on page 15 uh we they all go through the formal training program um through the school resource unit we do annually 40 hours of training um this past year we were very fortunate enough we received some grant funding to where we could send every person within our unit to the Florida Association of school resource officers conference in Orlando um what a what a great opportunity that was not only to get some really great training for you know about 60 Law Enforcement Officers but the camaraderie of bringing everybody together because obviously most of the time they're working independently you know at a school far away from our in our main office so it was a really good opportunity on um to get that training taken care of um I already mentioned the Florida model
095training where we're moving things over um the save program continues to be a success with our sixth grade middle school students um getting everyone pushed through that program to talk about um substance abuse and violence education um and our Guardians also go through the uh the youth Mental Health Training as well always one of the fun parts of our uh program is uh gang resistance Intervention Program um so grip unit implements Innovative juvenile crime prevention and intervention efforts by providing a Gateway towards successful academic and career opportunities in order to divert at risk or gang affiliated youth um the goals of the grip unit you know the um is uh to you know eliminate the harm caused by delinquent behavior and gang affiliation the needs of atrisk Youth the needs of the community and potential
096victims involved and the obligations of atrisk Youth in in regards to previous actions so um during the 22 23 school year you you'll see the numbers um there's a chart that I provided to you guys I believe it's on page 22 uh those numbers actually went down um our contacts with gang members actually went slightly down um I'm I believe that that's probably attributed to the fact that we're doing a lot of the interactions with on threat assessments so many times these gang members or Associates may not even admit their membership they're going to keep denying keep denying but the uh the threat assessments continue to Rise um all throughout um the district so um we're still making the a a a large number of contacts as they were contacted over 695 times which is
097um a huge part of this and we were able to intervene on 17 particular cases which is really good we provided you um some examples in the report there um for your review um so that's a an an opportunity for us to learn and how we can improve this program monitoring I don't know what one this is oh so we continue uh through the um the grip unit we still interact with over 160 youth that are on grip sanction probation um so many times it depending on the the specific crime what we're seeing a lot of with juvenile offenders now is the conveyance burglaries where Firearms are being stolen so those um particular offenders are quickly identified by the the juvenile judge and are placed on grip sanction probation um should they be um found
098um guilty during the trial process so that brings our numbers up but they again they may not admit their gang membership but they may be put on grip sanction probation um so it keeps our numbers going up to where these are offenders that we made contact with on a regular basis um to make sure that you know we can try to keep them on the right path and not have them reoffending I want to add um there's 900 over 900 kids on probation in P County right now juveniles on probation we have 160 that are on grip probation and that entails us being really involved handson with kids so I just want to mention that you know out of 900 we only have 160 but that's still a big number for 15 deputies to try
099and monitor and have weekly contacts and make sure that they're meeting their curfews having their grades attending school and having contact with the parents they have really good relationships she's a grip Dey um they have um intense relationships with the parents making sure that we're all on the same page they're holding them accountable at home we're holding them accountable at school and everybody's getting on the same page to get them turned in the right direction what is the AC gri gang resistance Intervention Program gang resistance intervention getting down towards the end here um obviously with the Marjorie stowman Douglas High School public safety act um it brought to the Forefront the idea of threat assessments and part of that threat assessment process is the individual threat assessment on the student who may pose the threat
100but it also gives us an opportunity to go pay the home a visit as well to determine what their access to weapons might be um so this has become a very effective process for all of us um but I think one of the big parts of that is is where we're now doing this with the assistance of mental health so it it's really improved where we are as a state um I from attending the um Florida school safety specialist training this past June Florida was the first state where they interacted school safety Specialists and mental health evaluators so it's the first time that that had ever occurred so it was really neat to be a part of that process but you can see that this is working as we continue to do more and more
101of this type of work so for the um 2223 school year the office of State schools received 511 documented law enforcement um threat assessments that's an increase of 316 from the previous it's not to say that there's a bigger problem in our district it just means we're getting better at reporting it and recognizing what is taking place so I think that's a a real good thing that we have moving forward is we have examples both positively and negatively of how we need to move forward with this process um for the 22 23 school year um we had excuse me 57 um risk protection orders that we completed so that number if you compare it to the 511 threat assessments you know it's roughly around 10% um where we're actually moving forward where we feel the
102need for a risk protection order against that particular student and his family all right um y'all are familiar with the uh the continuity of law enforcement services and the change that we made um based on some recommendations from last school year so this particular school year we' already begun that process with 15 schools within four municipalities um with those 15 schools we put 17 Deputy sheriffs into those schools um we added eight um additional grip deputies to help with those threat assessments that are going to come um with those additional schools um we added two additional sergeants um to the office of safe schools and the additional uh Lieutenant obviously with more things to come uh for the 24 25 School schol year just a couple things I wanted to add um that are not
103related specifically to the annual report um the sheriff was uh nice enough to allow us to have a second safe schools analyst um so that person uh her name is Vanessa Pigman she just began um this uh week ago correct yes so we now have two analysts that help us complete our daily responsibilities um Sydney Rogers who's done a fantastic job for us um we were seeing that need with uh the number of events and things that we are dealing with on a daily basis um with the increase in schools and understanding what's to come ahead of us we wanted to get to the Forefront of it so this is a position that y'all aren't paying for this is something that the sheriff had the foresight to make sure that we had this moving forward
104um for our office and obviously we still have the the support of the 24-hour um realtime crime Center um which is fantastic especially when we get the Gaggle alerts uh late at night to make sure that law enforcement is immediately getting notified of those alerts and we're responding out at the time that we received them rather than waiting until the following morning when something could potentially be um taking place um and our newest uh member of the office of safe schools many of you have um had interactions with Docker Eddie um what a fantastic part of our team um I I really applaud um the state for making this happen this was something that you know is a need um I look forward uh to to the opportunity um where we have more of these
105available to the district but right now Doc's doing a fantastic job he's uh interacting um at a lot of the schools um I won't tell you how we're doing those interactions um but if you get with me later on I can kind of let you know and um if um Doc's going to be in an area that you are responsible for or if you request uh we can make that happen so I will entertain any questions that you may have Mr sharpless first I just want to say captain Shay major Seymour uh thank you and the entire po County Sheriff's Office for what you guys do um you know personally I've got my entire family is on a school campus every day and so the fact that you help Keep Us Safe um from the
106bottom of my heart I just want to say thank you first um I won't say what school or what uh what family member but I did have a family member be a part of one of your uh drills someone came on campus and they that family member said Hey where's your badge at and that was part of the thing so awesome so that was um yeah she's like the family member was like Hey you know look what happened to me today I said oh okay um but anyhow also I I did have a question for you I was curious if you could give us any feedback how the transition has went um for your agency um a little bit you talked about transitioning some of those schools from the municipalities uh police departments to the
107Sheriff's Office and how just you know how that's been how that's been going okay um so I would say the vast majority of it is has been positive have we had to make some change and realize the the realm that we have gotten into and um what certain agencies did that maybe was not what we were used to dealing with absolutely that transition has been made and we're getting things to where they start to understand how the PO County Sheriff's Office handles our business um and I I really like the interaction and the communication where that has improved specifically with the schools that initially may not have been um excited about us being on their campus but that has vastly improved and we're getting nothing but positive feedback at this point in time it didn't
108come without its hiccups I mean I I'll be quite honest with you I mean that's always going to happen but it's on us to be the proof in the pudding to make sure that they understand the work product that we're going to give them you want to add anything thank you Captain Shay that's all I have thank you Mr Niti uh following along with that uh I can't or we can't thank you enough for great job you do it's every week I talk to somebody in different parts of the country fraternity brothers or friends golfers and they always bring up uh Sheriff Jud and the great job you guys are doing and uh you're all to be commended for it and uh wish we could do more for you but uh thank you for keeping
109us safe and uh God bless and have a good Christmas appreciate it thank you sir same to you there are no further questions or comments thank you oh I your lunch buddy hey my lunch buddy is that what you said listen I get forgotten all the time um it's fine I just want to say that was a huge presentation and spending the day with you when I did get to go to lunch I didn't realize how many people are are in that office and the multiple programs that you do um I am a proponent of the peer holding peers accountable I think that works not everybody I talk to thinks that's a great idea but I think the data shows that that's what is working for a lot of students um when the expectation of
110their peers is high they they tend to fall in line it's interesting to know that we have that many of um the youth that are on probation that you're overseeing that many of them um does the other 800 fall or 750 fall under somebody else's perview how does that the whole County I yeah the districts they have those juvenile probation list and they just like regular probationers you know they have probation officers assigned to them okay but deputies also can go to the house of these juveniles at are on probation and check their curfew we just hold them a little bit more accountable when they have the grip sanctions and with the changing over of our resource officers some of the Cities especially the smaller municipalities were concerned with having that level of commitment and
111that level of um being able to get with students and families but that we talked about planning for that and that's not changed like we still have people that know families and know these students and know that they're not at school um we're just creating those relationships at a broader level that's what I that's what I introduced to folks is that what still you think would be a good explanation and I think that overall our relationship with the city agencies are are improving okay good Captain Shay has come in and he has really I mean he's reached out I mean we have great Partnerships with those City agencies they're they've even you know transported for us which we didn't expect to do um so we we have a really good working relationship with these City
112agencies and I think that it has improved overall and and they are still coming to the campuses and keeping that Community involvement so Captain Shay can I do a real Ride Along because she made me ride in my own car and I didn't and get to see all the fun stuff okay just come see me in January when I have do that thank you you're more than welcome to anything you steal one white elephant gift I see no further questions or comments at this time uh board members and for the IT team Communications team behind behind closed doors we're going to take a quick recess we will return at 2:30 that's a 15minute break for everyone uh when we return I will address two remaining topics I'll provide a a p County Public Schools public
113school grade summary I will not include charter schools at this time that requires further analysis and then I will also provide a summary on an additional topic related to the hatcha construction program or construction of a new high proposed new high school and then Mr Pitts will go over the district Staffing updates so again we will recess until 2:30 thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] all right welcome back from our adjournment and I would like to call this work session on December 12th back to order and I'm going to hand it back over to superintendent to finish off start with apologize I'm going to start with uh a reminder and an update um for the board each meeting I've tried to provide as much information as
114I can about the progress being made towards the hatcha high school proposal um before us today just let me provide you with a brief synopsis we are in a process we last week we received the uh beyond the fish um Let me let me figure out the best way to explain this so everybody's going to understand I don't mean board members but I want Community to understand as well there there are two types of plans and classroom lists that we receive one is a fish capacity list which we then subsequently report to the State of Florida to make sure that their room sizes are conducive and supportive of the programs in which they will they they will serve um fish capacity also um ensures that we have enough student seats for for our students um
115beyond that we ask all of our developers Architects to provide us with a room list um initially when we first started going down this path and building tomorrow schools first approach us about a P3 proposal I'll start with this group um they were we provided them at the time with a list of Davenport classroom spaces and the reason for that is we wanted to emulate what we had built in Davenport because of the size of the campus the number of classrooms we felt we would need not only for current need but also future anticipated growth we liked the larger Auditorium which would give us another fine Performing Arts venue that we can partner with the community on there's a lot of benefits to emulating and replicating what we did in D import as of last
116week Mr pittz was in receipt of that list so now we can actually start to do the Apples to Apples comparison between a traditional design and build and what building tomorrow schools does which through their P3 proposal what I can share with you today is an interesting update in Miss Cunningham don't be upset because we had another apple fall from the sky so I'll explain that here in a moment but let's start with billing tomorrow schools and these are important numbers for you to recall and I'll provide you a written summary of my comments today but unfortunately this morning I was busy working on the summary and a and a press release so that we could provide the press in our community with a statement as far as school grades and we'll cover that next
117building tomorrow schools has submitted a proposal that would build a campus the high school campus and emulate the Davenport High School model at $149 million that is Allin that's land that's the construction it also includes turfing of the fields and as you know a High School Athletic Field is at least a million dollars for for that type of issue what we don't have and it's approximately 130 Acres so it's it's an appropriate size site you've heard at length about the benefits of that site as far as its location its elevation it's already cleared we would probably we would probably we anticipate having fewer environmental concerns we did receive an interesting update recently um when you have to do the environmental remediation studies that's basically you have to go out and determine how many endangered species
118there are and then what the steps are to address them unfortunately in the past they've been restricted based off certain seasons of the year and there was only one window there are now two open Windows each year so for a school district like ourselves if we missed that window previously you had to wait an entire year to be able to conduct that study again and develop your remediation plan that's no longer the case there are now two windows so we don't anticipate any subsequent delays there what we do not know at this time and so I want to be clear while we received a proposal for $149 million Allin what that does not include is specific program area needs so when you take think about the Davenport High School model we have a culinary program
119there those classrooms we were not going to replicate culinary in the hatcha Community High School we wanted an automotive program this cost at 149 million does not include that program build out that's a subsequent meeting that will have to take place however I wanted to give you an update $149 million keep that in mind that's inclusive of the land and the construction Miss Cunningham thank you so my question is while the current proposal that you receive does not replicate The Culinary I get that because we don't need two in the east west side of the county east side of the county my question is did they factor in the fact that it was culinary at Davenport high school and it might be Automotive or something else at the hatcha branch to where the costs would
120be very similar they did not the space was there but the program costs were not there we no program not even culinary just to put it all or figure that is correct so just just to be clear with the board the 149 million one last time is inclusive of the facility and the the the land it does not include specific program costs at this time so there's an opportunity or or a possibility that we will see a slight increase it will not be10 or $15 million it will be but it will be an increase above what's already proposed the second issue and this is linked to the backer property if you recall the original property that was first brought to our attention was a property across the street from where this current site is and
121it subsequently was pulled back off and it was basically entered into an agreement with the county and they were subsequently going to build I believe 2500 units in that area they are no longer going to build 2500 units a large portion of it apparently is going to become an environmental preserve but since the residences are not going to be built there just so I want to make sure I walk every way through this it does have an impact on the cost for the building tomorrow school proposal because the infrastructure will not be immediately across the street any longer we will have an additional cost to bring power and utilities to the site we don't know those costs yet and that's what we have to continue to explore with them but again in full transparency 149
122million we do not I can tell you right now is not the final cost right there will be program costs based off what we bring to the table and request of them to be able to build and add to that facility for our student needs and then we anticipate some infrastructure costs as a result however as we meet with them they very well may have could have anticipated some of that there may be enough in that budget that in their proposal that it won't have that significant an impact on their original submission to us as I just mentioned the backer property we met literally last week we were asked to meet with them they have they have offered the property back to us reminding the board when we went out for planning for this High
123School I came to you and said this has a price tag a new high school has a price price tag of $200 million excluding any land purchase and then we decide then we figured out through our team that through value engineering and actually engaging the design firms and The Architects and the engineers that that $200 million estimate would be closer to about $150 million okay so when we look at the Baxter property 150 million for a building you're looking at about 13 to 15 million for the property it is a smaller property it's 123 Acres of which only 104 are buildable so again building tomorrow schools is at 149 if we were to take 150 plus the 15 we're at 165 if we were to go with the backer property and a traditional design and
124build the third option was the one that we spoke to previously which is the mctier property the mctier property is on the same side of hatcha road as the backer property the north side however it's a little bit further down the road going east that property our estimates when we did the Real Estate research on it is that it would cost 13 million that's the value of it it will be it will cost us more than that more than likely depending on what the land owner wants out of it however only about 60% of that property is buildable they'd had far more considerable marsh land and areas where we could not build it's still sufficient for a High School site however again infrastructure becomes an issue there so again take the core price rough estimate
125of 150 million plus our estimate is 13 million for the value it's going to be higher than that and I'll share with you why because when we first did an estimate on the backer property it came in at roughly 9 million but they're asking 13 so if I take the same rough estimate of $4 million above the realtor's estimated costs add that to the 150 we're at 154 plus you add in the cost of the property we're about 165 again 168 so I'm just giving you rough estimates as we start now now we have enough information though that we can actually start drilling down and we can sit down with everyone and make sure we get the actual programmatic impact costs and we get any costs and fees associated with bringing the infrastructure to the
126sites because that could have a significant cost regardless both the M mcer Property and the Baxter property and the property in which building tomorrow schools has currently retained all have the same infrastructure needs some have fewer it will cost less because they're closer to the existing infrastructure tie-ins however again all of this will be weeded out and fil filtered and you'll be provided with a summary again in January during the workshop and then the hope is by the second meeting in January I can make an official recommendation to the board so we're trying to move this along as expeditious as possible but we finally have the ability to give you an Apples to Apples comparison we have the approximate land values we have the approximated cost of building we have what building tomorrow schools has
127submitted we know exactly how many classrooms they're going to build for that dollar amount what we have to finalize with them and solely with them excuse me is a programmatic aspect of the costs right what's a cost additional to the building the space to convert a classroom space or that type of space into an automotive Bay right with the lifts the Hydraulics and all the equipment that goes along with that so there's some programmatic needs that have to go in there don't anticipate that being too much all three properties we have to get estimates on what it will cost us to bring infrastructure to the front door so that's an issue for all three properties regardless so I'm just again summarizing for you the status of where we are right now it's very clear that
128one is considerably cheaper than the other but again we need to verify and validate that that's going to satisfactory suff sufficiently address our needs but that's been the case all along so any additional questions Miss Cunningham again or yep okay okay so now that we you've reviewed all three um you brought up on the P3 school um that there was no submission for any type of programs so to be fair the cost that you gave for Baxter and mctier were both of those inclusive of programs the 150 cost would be inclusive of the program what that was only mctier both of those if they went to a traditional design and build process which we currently have going on simultaneously yes yes ma'am that is included in that so in the Baxter value and the m
129tier property value to build the school those both included um what are we calling it a program yes ma'am the program specific cost program specific however have you already identified what program or programs were going to put at hatchin AAL yes ma'am we did okay is it only Automotive no ma'am it's agricultural Automotive environmental medical um I could provide the board with a full summary I'd like I've never seen that so number one I'd like to know how many programs and what they are and then what are the costs above and beyond the traditional because I know at Daven Port it's culinary I forget what the others are but that's that was all inclusive if they replicated that model like we're saying then they would have program costs in there even though they're not specific
130am I right they would if they included the equipment costs and that's where we have to get down drill down because really what we're we're talking about now Miss Cunningham is FFN Furniture fixtures and equipment exactly and so while they may build that physical space for the culinary program to exist but if they don't put walk-in coolers and freezers and all the kitchen and hoods I mean that's a multi-million doll cost to build that restaurant type space out sure to your point if that was included in their $149 million bid we're done I would make an argument that that's going to come very close to what's going to cost to build out the automotive space however the team needs the time to be able I understand that okay so I'm just trying to make sure
131we're comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges so that correct you know what we're saying for P3 we're also applying to Baxter and mctier because neither one of those costs for programs are included in these values which you just gave us so correct they're all about the same for average numbers 150 million except the 149 art includes um right includes the land whereas the other two do not so and and turfing I mean I don't want to Short change them at all their proposal financially is very sound yes ma'am okay okay all right so it's for the facility the land and you said in turfing okay so okay and we were insistent on turfing because if you recall there were a lot of concerns from the hatcha community about runoff yes sir and the
132adjacency to the water and the headwaters of the Everglades and so we wanted to take that into consideration and be as environmentally sound as we could Absolut well because that is just I mean I live out it's absolutely gorgeous and has so much Wildlife that we want to preserve cuz I think kids will learn from that as well so correct thank you superintendent Hyde you're welcome Mr sharpless you said something that just really pequ my interest with the backer property um you said said that the county is now putting that into environmental and only reason I ask is is just because I was I was out there this past weekend I drove past it and there's already houses being built there well there's two properties there the the backer property the land that we were
133looking at is immediately adjacent to where they're currently constructing okay okay that's where I was confused there is a current proposal for that land to become the property of the county and the state and to be reserved as an environmental site under certain federal guidelines and state guidelines we like that idea from the standpoint of number one we get to maintain a larger plot of land and not have it built out especially with zero lot line type homes from a school district perspective we like the concept because it creates a buffer for us um however the remediation and other factors have to continue to be re-evaluated so again we'll provide you with I'll do a breakdown of costs including what we expect the cost would be to do the Environmental Studies and then get anticipated
134remediation if you also recall the backer property will require a lot of physical mediation because of its topography we would have to bring fi dirt in there and so originally when we were first talking to Baxter they were going to take remaining Phil as they leveled out the housing areas they were going to bring Phil to us at a minimal cost well that's no longer in play because they're not building out those residences and well actually the fill if I recall correctly was coming from the retention Pond areas and the other things that they were going to have to put in so there there is I want to make sure I give you all the but just looking at the physical building and land there's already one who's clearly ahead financially in that regard but
135I I do want to be fair to you and to our community and make sure we give you all the cost breakdowns so we can make a fair decision I just want to say thank you for the update you're welcome I've got one question too superintendent Hy yes sir uh so I'm going to continue to advocate for that financial analysis as relates to the scenic terce build um so you know I'm not sure where that's in the timeline and I would like to do a comparison and a comparison um to our probably most recent traditional build so I think Southwest Middle probably because uh timeline wise we broke ground about the same time now square footage wise they're pretty similar but one's Middle School one uh is a K8 so I know that variation there
136but the square footage is similar um but also the factor in time of delivery so um you know we're looking at approximately A 7-month variation between um when we broke ground when we open from the scenic Terrace to the Southwest Middle so to factor that into the financial analysis as well so I I hope to see that in in that conversation as well so so we will not be able to do that type of financial analysis and let me explain why Southwest Middle had additional costs above and beyond because it's also it's a reconstruction of an existing site with with additional costs that come with it because we're building on a shared site if we were to do a cost analysis South Point would be the most appropriate or we could look at bisita because
137bisita has a middle school component being built immediately adjacent to it there's no interruption and no necessarily additional cost in that regard the speed in which the building was built did not save us any dollars there there's no inherent savings there there were however as I've disclosed before $4.5 million in change orders that were never buil to us and I have already shared that with the board um so from a financial analysis perspective we provided the financial analysis before that proposal was even approved so that you could see the cost per square foot you could see all those things and make sure that we were making a good decision additionally we would have to pull the escrow dollars out of any estimate so I want to be clear so when we look at schools and
138we start to do comparisons we chose to Escrow 20 years from now the roof replacement we've never done that in another building so that those dollars would come out of the estimated as well um and the cost analysis because we don't do that any place else additionally when we look at that we'd have to look at um some of the other space issues that we created there with middle school so the best I could do is do a cost analysis and comparison to South Point and to Bellis and give you that but again right from the top I believe that the escro amount for for us to do preventative maintenance or deferred maintenance that we're already paying for is is a considerable savings because we're investing now for what it's going to cost us in
13920 years um for all the major Mechanicals for the roof for the paint and all those things um so I'd like to talk with you and other members of the board a little bit more specifically about what you'd like to see because there are some problems with trying to do an I hate to keep saying this but an Apples to Apples comparison but it's not fair to do it with Southwest because again it doesn't include the elementary components it so we want to look at other k8s that we've built and we could look at surrounding districts who have built k8s as well and see what they have had to pay we also have um an inherent savings at the time because of the interest rates we did the leas to own while we may make
140a selection I'll make a recommendation in January uh to the board about which proposal I believe is for that we should vote on to move forward with it is unlikely that we will do a lease at this time because the interest rates for us are much better right now than what we had previously negotiated it would be it would be more cost beneficial to us to do a traditional um borrow and build at this time but we'll have to do that analysis and we'll have others look at it too because we want to make sure that we're doing the best thing to provide the best Roi for our for our stakeholders um so we will try and do the best we can to do that's that financial analysis because that's the complication with it is
141there are some things that we built into that school that you know the change orders that's that's a savings from the get-go 4 half million change orders that we weren't charged that because once they bid on that project and we accepted it there was no unless we requested changes there was nothing billable back to us um so when they ran to be on time I give them a lot of credit cuz you know the reality of all of our schools in opening this year because of construction delays and materials delays they're still impacting us concrete is a great example windows are another great example labor is the best example um there are some contradictions there so I I'll spend some time with you and others offline to make sure we give you what you're looking
142for yes sir okay the second item I'd like to share with the board um I sent you a draft summary last evening um with the understanding that we would be reviewing it and revising it again today um we always want to make sure we have multiple people looking at something before we make it public um so while school grades were released again a couple reminders this year's school grade grades um we can choose to accept grades um so for example if a school improved and it would allow them to exit differentiated accountability status we can choose to do that you may recall during my first year here we had that option as well there is no negative impact to a school this year primarily because of several factors it's a it's a first year of
143the assessment there were no learning gains components including in this because they need two years of comparable data in order to issue learning gains for stud students so the only scores that reported are proficiency and some of the others acceleration points graduation those that were outside of the learning gains components additionally while we expected the commissioner to adopt the recommendations of the 300 Educators who served on the educator panels that reviewed cut scores and that of the reactor panel in which I served both of those committees made a recommendation that was not accepted and so the commissioner raised the ball even further and made it harder to earn grade level Proficiency in reading and Mathematics so I say all of that to say when you look at the performance summary that I sent you last
144night and there's just a couple edits in there there were no errors it's quite impressive what our schools were able to do and so as a school district our overall District grade is a c yet we're only three percentage points away from a b which is an improvement from where we were previously and so we're at 55% of point earned 58% of eligible points is what would allow us to make that transition remember what I mentioned earlier our graduation rate right now is being adversely affected by one School site and admittedly one of our own School sites tenar Rock High School that has a graduation rate reported graduation rate at this time of 67% which is completely unacceptable and so we've been working aggressively to make sure we're raising that graduation rate there are points
145that we continue to leave on the table that adversely fect our overall District grade calculation what I'm about to share with you I want to make sure everybody understands and I'm saying this more for for the communities benefit and those in the audience than yours because you already know this based off the draft I sent you what I'm about to share are public school settings only it does not include any private schools does not include any parochial schools and it excludes charter schools in our January summary I will give you a comprehensive analysis and I'll also break out charter schools and public schools so we can see how all of those schools fair so I think that's a fair analysis but what I'm most proud of and when we look at school grade performance and
146again you will get this updated summary in 2020 21 we had three a schools we now have nine in just two short years later B schools we had seven we now have 12 an increase of five C schools we had 43 in 2020 or 2020 2021 we now have 73 or 30 more C schools and a lot of people rightfully so should say well your C School your C grades are going up but so are a schools so areb schools but you know what has to happen your dnf schools have to go down we have zero f schools f-rated public schools in P County at this time when I first arrived here we had eight Elbert who I am incredibly impressed of Miss Wise has done an absolute amazing job in just one year of
147moving that school with her staff from an F to a c again in arguably one of the most difficult academic grading environments we've ever seen I can't wait to see what happens when she gets learning gains included in her overall calculation because I think even more schools are going to rise so kudos to her and to others who have shown significant Improvement the number of D schools when I first arrived here we had 42 d-rated schools degraded schools we now have 11 and some of those were schools this year that declined from last year from a c to a d and when you look at the range once we get learning gains back in there now please don't misconstrue what I'm saying because we shouldn't hang our hat on learning gains alone because we've got
148to move proficiency but right now we're seeing some improvements in our preliminary data and we'll have data come mid year and I'll be able to provide you an analysis of all of the schools that we currently are tracking and monitoring that Mr Green and his team are doing all the intensive work with but clearly it's paying off to virtually eliminate or to have eliminated all of our f-rated schools and to reduce by over 31 school sites the number of d-rated schools in just two years is is significant and I'm very proud of the work that they have done and that we continue to do each and every day so as I said there are zero f elementary schools Elbert improved from an F to a c 10 schools in the elementary group improve their 202
1492022 school grade from a d to a c and I've given you a list of those schools here they include Inwood Elementary School Lake Ship Auberndale Davenport Kathleen Spook Hill Eagle Lake James E Stevens Socrum Elementary lofman Oaks and Elbert elementary schools in our Su schools for our elementary schools 11 schools improved from a letter grade of a d ORF the prior year to a grade of a c 28 schools maintain their C grade from the prior year we did have three schools decline from a b to a c in 2023 that was bethon Lake Alfred and James W Sykes B schools eight elementary schools earned a b grade in 2023 as compared to just seven schools in 2022 those were Southwest Elementary School BTO Elementary Scott Lake Elementary Chain of Lakes elementary alteris elementary
150Sleepy Hill Elementary dundy elementary school and wend Watson elementary schools five schools improved their C grade to a b that includes Chain of Lakes alterus Sleepy Hill dundy Elementary and wend Watson a schools six elementary schools earned an a grade in 2023 as compared to just four schools the year prior those include Cleveland Court Lincoln Avenue Highlands Grove Valley View Elementary Frankie briam Academy and Winston Academy of engineering one Elementary School improved this grade from a c to an A and that was Winston Academy one Elementary School improved its b-g grade to an A and that was Brigham Academy in Middle Schools we have zero f Middle Schools traditional public schools here in P County D schools one school earned a d-grade in 2023 an improvement from 20122 when we had three degraded middle schools
151one school did decline from the prior Year c-grade and that was Crystal Lake Middle School two middle schools as I shared improved their 2022 d-grade to a c those those were Lake Gibson middle congratulations and Lake Marian Creek Middle School SE schools there were 12 middle schools that earned a SE grade those include Southwest Middle shelle s boon Dennison middle jwi middle stall stall middle Barto middle mbery middle Kathleen Middle Lake Alfred polych Academy Lake Gibson middle Lake Marian Creek Middle Sleepy Hill Middle Schools two two of these schools improve from a d to a c as I mentioned Lake Gibson and Lake Maran Creek B schools three middle schools earned a B- grade Daniel Jenkins Academy of Technology Lakeland Highlands Middle School and dundy Ridge Middle Academy one school improved their CG grade to
152a b d was Daniel Jenkins academy and of our a schools two middle schools earned an a grade those were lottin child's middle middle school academy and Union Academy high schools 11 high schools earned a c grade in 20123 we have zero f rated high schools Lakeland senior Winter Haven auale Barto Ridge Community High tenor Rock High mberry Senior High Lake Gibson Senior High hanne City Senior High George W Jenkins Senior High and Davenport High School two schools declined from a B in the 2022 school year to a c those were Lakeland High School and George Jenkins High Schools combination schools those are our k8s or our middle highs there was one a school for 2023 that was Rochelle School of the Arts there was one b-rated school in 2023 that was DAV ort School
153of the Arts there were eight c-g graded schools in 2023 no combination schools saw a grade level decline from the prior year and there are no D or f-rated public combination schools in po County Miss Cunningham that's okay I I'm on there to ask questions oh yes ma'am um Middle School acceleration there was a considerable amount of effort placed on Middle School acceleration we saw 4 percentage Point Improvement across the district in our Middle School acceleration increasing to um um from 2022 to now be at 67% we were at 63% previously and I've shared the rest and so I think quite frankly again while we have a great deal of work to do there are continue to be several key priority areas High School graduation has to continue to be something that we focus on
154I will actually be coming to you in January with a proposal to help address High School graduation um more specifically um and unique fashion and then additionally to that we have to continue to address attendance and we have to keep plugging away at overall reading Proficiency in math and numeracy and I think that right now again as I've shared the preliminary data I should be getting an analysis now that testing is completed um for the second period second round of Assessments I'll be able to show you how our students have progressed from the first assessment to the second we'll be able to share with you any specific strategies that we're implementing any schools where we're not seeing Improvement but I think again as you look at these grades in one of the most difficult academic
155environments or scoring environments that we've seen in a long time our schools continue to rise to the level of success that we expect of them and that is a strong Testament to the people at the back of the room here um the people who work in our classrooms each and every day and everyone else who works in support capacity and our amazing building leaders as well and to you as a board for continued to support initiatives that quite honestly place our investment where it matters most and that's at the classroom directly in front of students so thank you for the opportunity to share that summary here with you today Miss Cunningham I wanted to know um thank you for thank you for providing the summary to us last evening um and I tried to go
156on to the site where fsba sent us the link and I couldn't get on it wouldn't take my email but whatever so my question is I would like a breakdown of all of our schools normally we've received like a I know it's been one day so okay nothing tonight or tomorrow just in the near future I would like to see what we've had in the past which is a list of all the schools from A to Z basically you can find it doesn't have to be by any kind of level of Education whether it's you know Elementary or high school and then each school's name you know and what they did last year and what they did this year and is there a change or if not I can read and decipher that that's really
157helpful to us as well I know we're looking with what you sent that's very statistical and trying to compare the overall that we're moving forward but I would like to know individual schools because there's one that I think there might be a discrepancy on but we we'll deal with that when I see the when I see the list so we have we do I should have shared we do have a handful of schools um that currently have an eye there are multiple school districts that have an eye and those are typically due to the fact that they may not have tested 95% % of their students or other factors and so while there are those and I saw an article that that showed our ranking as far as our C grade remember that there are
158six other districts that still haven't received a grade and you know the other problem too just to be candidate since I have the opportunity and you've heard me say this before we advocated very aggressively against the new assessment system that would report grades in a manner that was consistent with what they reported last year meaning their can't be any more a grades or b-grades or c-g grades or d-g graded schools or districts than we had reported previously I think that that's a flawed approach quite frankly at the end of the day it should not matter if 99% of our schools are re attain an a grade there is an allowance within statute that directs the department and directs the legislature to make changes when that happens but as you saw in my summary to you
159last night I included a comment if last year in a was 90 or above and this year it's 95 and above is that fair do we maintain consistency or are we increasing accountability for the sake of increasing accountability and not because it's what's right to capture the efforts that are happening in our classrooms every day this is where and you know my heart when it comes to and I led School Improvement I led accountability at the state level I believe in it what I don't believe is creating a false narrative that automatically predisposes schools or a school district to a lower performance indicator simply because we can't let too many people rise and that's what it that's how it comes across to me that's a very disingenuous system yeah it's not true an a is
160an a right let it be and in a time when less than 40% of our kids across the state are reading on grade level or approximately 40% of our kids are reading on grade level what rationale do we have to raise the bar yet again and you you've heard me say there's importance in when you actually drill down into the data and you look at the percentage of kids who cannot meet graduation requirements because they've not passed the state English proficiency assessment and yet they meet graduation requirements because they can pass the SAT or act and meet via concordance score and be eligible for graduation you really have to ask yourself a question is it the test or is it the kid that's really where we are and I don't often criticize this because I
161believe in in accountability I truly do and we need to do better our proficiency scores are abysmally low and we have been striving to make that Improvement and I think we're going to see some steady growth this year however there's a truth behind this that needs to be stated publicly and not because it's defensive it's a truth we can't keep moving the target we can't keep moving the needle let schools attain let students demonstrate what they're capable of doing before you move the bar yet again and so there are some inherent flaws in in the process and we advocated very aggressively against this because I believe that the statute I know the statute already addresses if the state sees that too many schools earn A's and B's they are mandated by Statute to revise the
162system we are not there yet so why continue to do this because it really at this time when we talk about teacher shortages and salary discrepancies and all the other frustrations are going on in the world do we really want to continue to disenfranchise the people who are leading our classrooms that's all this does it's The Scarlet Letter and we did well I don't like being a CA District but we're seeing improvements Zer F schools 31 fewer D schools we are moving the needle incrementally but that's how it should be because guess what guess what's not happening we're not seeing schools bounce back and forth between low performance and and better performance we're sustaining that Griffin Elementary School Laurel Oaks all of the others we're doing well they're doing great so that's my soap M
163soapbox moment for the day Merry Christmas to everyone had to lighten the mood a bit so Miss Miller I didn't want to interrupt the preaching that was going on over here but I do have one question because I'm going to be asked this and we do have a charter and I know I don't know of any public but when they're not testing I understood that the public schools that don't get that 95% have to bring kids in until they get that 95% what does that apply to Charter what do we do about the schools or do we have any purview over the school Charter Schools who aren't testing the 95% it might be by air I don't I'm not sure how that happens so they can get a true so they can receive a grade
164or so parents can understand what's happening because an ie people are confused by that make sense yeah and there is a process and Sand's not here but there is a process of review that takes place to make sure that the students that were reported were actually students that should have been reported and sometimes that helps them hit that that threshold in that bar um we are also incorporating other assessments that will allow us hit the 95% in other areas and let some of the other schools hit that and districts hit that with the inclusion now the CLT and we're finding we have been piloting that I'll provide a summary of that in January and we've had great success with the new assessment that the state has authorized um we've been piling that as a matter
165of fact at one of your high schools and um we're now ready to to work to expand that into other schools to provide opportunities for our students um because we're finding a high success rate and passing rate with that assessment thank you you're welcome I see no further questions or comments there um Mr pittz themed staff such as West Bridges and superintendent H um there are there are three opportunities that come before you to talk about positions one of those is the school-based Staffing model which you see every year come before you and we'll talk about you know what that model looks like to staffer schools um the second is through grants and that happened earlier today when headart came up and talked about a grant proposal and including some positions in there um if
166they don't fall into those two categories that's when I come up and talk about a couple positions here and there that we want to um add throughout the year to be responsive uh to our staff needs um and District needs um and I provided you with some documents um and what we're looking at we're going to talk about two positions today um that would come back before you if there's no concerns or extra information that you're looking for we will come back to you to vote on um at the end of January at that board meeting so the first position that we're going to talk about today is funding an additional curriculum specialist in mathematics um the this curriculum specialist position is being requested to provide much needed additional support to the mathematics intervention programs
167in the district that supports struggling students which will lead to improve student outcomes this position exists to focus on student learning by providing support and assistance to teachers and school-based administration additionally this position will provide extensive responsible leadership in mathematics curriculum development um the creation of mathematics assessments and the analysis of curriculum and school performance um we will initially fund this position using um some of available eser dollars uh through September 30th 2024 that's when those eser dollars uh begin to dry up um and we are investigating being able to use tital $1 to fund that position after um September 30th and Mr Hyde alluded to that earlier today that anytime staff come on under um grant funding um they're made aware that it's a limited employment agreement um should those Grant funds and um
168they're just made aware of that UPF front um but our our for both of these positions you'll see that they're Grant funded but the intention is that we keep these uh positions for a long time that position would report to um the senior director of K12 mathematics which is currently Carrie Foster uh this position would have no subordinate positions um the total cost with benefits is$ 104,5 82 um on the picture of the or chart this is how it would look where this position would lie underneath um Carrie Foster's Direction and we'll talk about the second position today this is to fund a senior analyst it programmer um and specifically to work uh in Workforce this position is being requested to handle programming specifically for the postsecondary focus student information system the S significance of
169this role is expected to grow given a renewed interest um from the Florida Department of Education and CTE and adult education this position will act as a technical resource for programmer analyst and will also serve as a liaison with users this position will interface with other technical staff to coordinate planned um changes to software applications and will conduct unit testing to ensure compliance and specifications funding for this position will be provided through the workforce pipeline Grant through June 30th 2025 at that time other funding sources uh will be explored um and this position uh will report to the coordinator and I cut that off on my slide here um it's we'll report to the project leader coordinator uh which is under Eric Saltzman uh in the IT department currently we have other programmer analysts that
170are that are doing this but it's just time that we have somebody that can focus solely um on those adult programs here's a picture of um where that position would lie inside of the it chart I've also provided um cost breakdown um and I've highlighted on this cost breakdown just the two positions that we're talking about today which um mentioned the December 12th Workshop next to them um and the second position that I just proposed um the total cost of that position uh with benefits of $ 78,3 49 are there any questions that you have about those positions not seeing any no I like that I like no questions thank you thank you Mr R you're very welcome thank you sir Mr chair that concludes the superintendent report in budget and Staffing there are three
171informational items there um then I will turn the rest of the meeting over to you very good so if you uh would take a moment to open up your agenda for tonight thank you superintendent um board members if we could just we'll take our uh our time here to really go over the agenda for this evening and I'll break it down by sections so you can then offer some feedback uh so basically I'm going to start with sections a through C if you have any questions on that let me know okay and I'm going to go down from there to section d where it starts with our public comment and I'm going to carry down to section f with the consent all right very good and then I'm going to go for section g and
172through I actually I have something all right Mr sharess you are recognized so um I just have a comment um H1 Varsity Tutors um I just want to thank the superintendent um and staff um that the the information you included on the item for the um for the actual board agenda um I just want to make sure the public knows that the usage of Varsity Tutors has increased our academic performance and that's something that we've I mean it's a significant investment but that's something that I'm pretty proud of um as well as the usage data so both and so um just wanted to publicly thank you for for providing that data to us thank you great thank you Mr sharpless uh anybody else on that we're in section g through [Music] I very good we're
173going to move down to section J through m j through M all right sections in through p and I do have a couple things there if you don't have anything all right very good so I want to take briefly uh here an opportunity to talk about uh P2 and P3 this would be uh in Tradition to make sure that we lock in these appointments uh if you notice I did give you an email uh with my rationale why not really trying to appoint all committee uh appointments and liaison this meeting with the hopes that we're going to look at that in January that very first work session uh I've given you a copy I want to just uh say thanks to IET and Linda uh on working through compiling some of these things as well
174but what I did also was um I attacked and looked at pretty much all policies that we have in relation to our committee of appointments so if you could maybe just do a refresh during your break this is your homework by the way I'm assigning y'all homework during the break and and then we'll assess on it when we come back in January um but you know reflecting back uh and I know that we've probably slowly been moving this direction and uh going back to last year uh Miss Wyatt had noted this and actually was going back to superintendent Hyde's comments last December on this as well um that we we we need a manual we need uh some descriptions on our our committees specific specifically and you know and just to be you know uh
175for one example um in in relation to the appointees as it relates to the county value adjustment board looking at that policy the policy actually states where uh in addition to the one a board member at Point T we're actually as a board it's our responsibility to appoint uh one citizen member who owns a business occupying commercial Spa uh space located within the school district uh to the value adjustment board so what I'm hoping that we can do is a really nice audit uh in a sense on on our committee appointments and leaon um and then have that um Blossom out into a full operational manual and I know that's been worked on uh you did get several examples as well I've uh reached out to uh fsba Andrea massina um had sent me some
176examples of operational manuals as well and I know superintendent you had one that you shared as well so we've got a lot of things a lot of moving Parts out there so just want to bring that to your attention so that's what the plan is uh now as it relates to tonight you can see on the paper that I have before you as well um you have the pulk vision board of directors so um just to go back historically uh this is typically a two-year term so and then going back uh to 20120 December of 2020 is When U Miss Sarah Beth Wyatt was initially appointed to that that board and she served a 2-year term and then continued so she's actually right in the middle of her 2-year term um I did have a
177chance to speak with pul vision and just hear some of their vision and some of the things that they're working on and I my recommendation is that we uh allow sth to finish off her second term so they can continue that vision and what they're working on collectively um so that's going to be my recommendation um then the second one here is the P County value adjustment board um I've been hearing and I appreciate there was a little bit of interest that came from Miss Miller uh that would be interested in serving the P County on the P County value adjustment board um at that point that's going to be my two recommendations um if that's can you just remind me um of when they meet I've not served on that before and I'd be
178interested in learning any new um committee I just need to verify when they meet but it'll be fine I just G have it yeah so was that yeah so I'm gonna you bump this off here give me a second here all right so yes I did hear your uh Point thank you Miss Miller and that's again that's one that I don't know and Miss uh Fields Who currently serves in that role is not here s Beth may be able to speak to that but that would be one that we're looking for I'd like us to clean up on all these for example what we didn't have was the uh accurate timeline for PK vision the directors and Kim long was able to provide that that um so we can update that but I think we
179definitely need to make sure that we're getting all those um accurate so when we're selecting those in January uh we don't run into the situation with Mr sharpless and that conflicting with when he was appointed to the um value adjustment board at that time so I'm going to now move to miss Wyatt you were recognized I think you just turned me off okay well there you go awesome thank you um I was just going to speak to for Value adjustment board that one is in the mornings um I believe it's typically either a Thursday Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. um I served as K's alternate last year so there was it used to be not in the morning so that's why we had to change and um K graciously filled that last year so and
180I am happy to if we still need an alternate for that I'm happy to serve as it that is one that they have to have someone from the school board there to be able to do the meetings so if you are unable to attend there has to cuz K and I got into that it is at the County Administration Building that's fine that's so and I oh miss Miller you recognized and I think this is a great time to mention that I am serving on a committee that was vacant that's with the county and when you when for January I'll send you that information it's the transportation planning organization's disadvantage Transportation um Rob Davis's office is the is the person that would fill in if I can't go um it main it has people from
181all over the county and it discusses um education falls into that because it discusses all the programs that has to do with Transit of of our students and grants and things along with other programs for the disabled and for um lowincome but that's something that I had discovered because somebody mentioned it to me and when I went to the county it they said it had been vacant so I don't know if there are other committies that have set vacant um just maybe people hadn't had rolled off and and just didn't get it filled again but forward you that because that may maybe should be added and other people may want to learn about opportunities with Transportation with the county on the county level thank you Miss Miller uh so we're we're looking at January 9th
182is when that work session is um so expect an email from me and I'll do very similar ask for your three top in regards to your committee and liaison interest at that time the other element that I've included as well in some of the documents that you have uh is our committee appointments so the committee appointments that we have and we get to take part in uh and placing trying to collect all those and give that to you as well because I think we do need to do some work on those committee appointments to make sure that we're in alignment those term limits for those appointments are are up to date their attendance uh your appointee attendance is up to par as well so there may be opportunities for us to consider appointments and make
183sure that we uh secure all that and get that moving forward as well so if you have any questions on that as well miss Wyatt say is now the appropriate time to to make any comments about the documents or do you want to wait until we get through the yeah I would I prefer that we move that to the January work session okay well some of it is that there's and like it just ch different information from what is on the the document that may be pertinent before I just meant do before do you want to get through the agenda first or do you want comments on yeah so you're talking about the committee appointments or the both I a comment on so my comment on the so for the Committees for pulk Education Foundation
184um Susan Copeland and I went down a rabbit hole two years ago trying to find exactly what our policy was for PF and for this what school board's policy was about PF appointment and what pf's policy was about the district or the Schoolboard appointment um because it historically for several years they had done it rotating from seat to seat meat that is not actually required it was done because at some point somebody I think everybody wanted it and so they said we're just going to go in order um however one of the things that Susan mentioned at that time was you know we have some members that have been on the board and already had the opportunity to serve if there's somebody who hasn't had the opportunity opportunity to serve on PF board and is
185interested that she would always like to have to be able to expose all of the board members to what they're doing um so I just want to make sure that it's noted that it does it is nowhere in our policy or in theirs that it has to rotate um because they obviously would like for everybody to have a chance for that one because the more that you know about the organization the the better we can all serve so I just want to make sure that that's noted before everybody puts in their selections thank you Miss Wyatt uh actually noted that parenthetical and I appreciate your followup on that what I did is I went all the way back probably three or four different board chair positions and watched uh the committee appointments and how that
186uh transpired so that statement in regard to rotating the next District member each year had been noted almost every time consistently and again yeah uh you've got the copy of all the policies that we have on file in relation to the Committees and yes there is no policy in in our bylaws and so forth as it relates to pulk Education Foundation I just went back to the historical reference all right so let's uh let's continue on so that wraps that up so thank you for your willingness to serve on those two um and that will come before you tonight so going from there we have our um public hearing that would be section Q any questions comments on that one all right and then we'll have superintendent's report I would assume that you're going to
187do a report very good and Mr Bridges looks looks like you have something for us as well if if I may Mr chair Miss Fields was um was either listening in but texted me the value adjustment board meets at noon on Fridays is what she shared oh that's my okay every is it every Friday no it's like twice a oh no that's fine it's not have enough okay that's fine okay good that's fine I couldn't do every Friday but I could do that okay Miss Vega can you note that yep so we can update that file thank you all right thank you Miss Fields since you're listening and out there okay um and then we have an attorney's report yes sir all right very good single item to get some authority to advertise policy changes
188all right the New Year great and M Miss Matthews no audit report um for us verbally tonight you should have received one the most recent one that you received would have been November 29th so if if you wanted to take a look at that and had any questions you could bring those forward uh to Math Miss Matthews when you have an opportunity um and then we'll have our board members report just so you have a heads up I'm going to go alphabetically by first name so yeah so that means you first Mr sharpless okay and then we'll go that order um from there and then we'll have public comments and then adjournment any questions on the uh agenda all right very good and at this point we will adjourn this meeting oh wait board member
189comments yeah oh yeah that's right we got things to say I would assume okay so let me see what y'all got here oh very good Miss Wyatt do are you you're on board for this okay so typically um we'll stay with tradition right and these would be opportunities for you to report out on your uh committee appointments and your uh Lia on work as well so Wyatt you were recognized so mine is not on a committee appointment it is wrapping up things from my term's chair we officially have all of the evaluations in um so I have gotten with our team we are looking because it is already a few days before Christmas break um I know in talking to many of them the first week in January is a much better time than trying
190to squeeze it in before Friday um so we'll be I'll be reviewing those with each of them um that first week in January and then I'll have them um ready for Dr Allan you to hand out at the January meeting great thank you very much Miss Wyatt and Mr sharpless you are recognized yes um so I am a alternate for the fsba board of directors so I want to just um briefly talk about the fsba conference that happened at the end of November um I attended the fsba conference with um Dr Allen as well as Mr ni um and I actually part of that uh Dr Allen and I attended the chairmanship academy um where we were trained on on how to be chairs of the school board and as Vice chair I felt it
191was important that I attended as well um I also want to congratulate Dr Allen our board chair on being elected to the nominating committee for fsba officer selection so he's going to be um part of the committee that helps uh set the Slate for nominations for the organization uh president uh president-elect uh secretary no president-elect vice president and treasurer of the organization for the following year so I think that's pretty important that poke county has a voice in the fsba um and one other update I want to uh I'm I serve on the uh fsba leadership Services committee and we met during the uh fsba conference and um the leadership Services committee is the group that provides uh the TR or guides provides vision for the trainings that fsba does and we're looking at ways
192to offer more trainings virtually or in conjunction with other fsba events because I'm sure um board members you'll appreciate this it helps with travel costs hotel costs if we can do some more of those virtually kind of like how how the uh ethics training is done virtually and that so um hopefully we can have more trainings that won't you know cost the District as much money to send us to and that my full report awesome thank you Mr sharpless uh next up is Miss Miller you are recognized thanks I have two quick things first for for a head start that was here earlier um I just want to make an announcement because I know a lot of Staff watch these videos meeting with Head Start we learned that a lot of the schools didn't realize
193that Hazel health is available for the young for the prek units you know for some of the pre students most of the parents had no idea and so I want to make sure that that parents that are listening and staff that may be listening understand that those services are available for those students um in that prek unit that may assist families um and the parents are very excited about it that were at the meeting they were taking the information back to share so I would like maybe if we can in the beginning of the year just run a report of who's using those Services superintendent um because I think you know we we invested in a program to help family and I want to make sure if we can run a report on which schools
194are seeing the most use of it we might be able to Target the others with some encouragement but Head Start was super excited about it um the other thing and I hear I have a lot of board members who like to play pickle ball I totally made that up but I'm just guessing you guys do um pul education foundation's the superintendent said he'll help he'll be the first in line um the pul education foundation's big fundraiser they used to do Dancing with the Stars we remember that for so many years um they've changed up a little bit and they're doing a pickle ball tournament it is in January but they're still taking teams if you want to contact the P Education Foundation I'd love to see some of our 13,000 staff members get together with
195a team Janette Crowley I'm going to name her because she's excellent pickle ball player um maybe we can get some PR people together and represent our we have companies from all over the district that will be playing in that and it's a m it's a multiple game like it's a big deal I had no idea how this works but the um January 26 and the park here in Barto will be the tournament so please check that out with P Education Foundation it raises awareness for the scholarships I can tell you that our foundation is one of very few um organizations where the dollars go to the students and to the scholarships it doesn't have a big overhead the district pays for those positions and that's done with it with purpose and intent so that all
196dollars raised can go to kids so I encourage you to get out your pickle ball paddles thank you thank you Miss Miller uh I would be willing to be somebody's partner in pickleball team just so you know's teaching a clinic before what's the date of the event January 26th all right very good I don't see any other board members on the list there uh just a brief update on the Junior Achievement things are moving along uh there was some discussion on um classroom programming at our last board meeting and you know you've got representatives from Publix mosaic uh in Saddle Creek and a couple other organizations that represent um their organization in connection with Junior Achievement and just a resounding we we value the classroom programming and we want to continue that so I um
197that was affirmed uh at the board meeting and then there was discussion on the expansion of the 3de uh initiative that we have currently at tenaro and the possibility of two other sites and then there was um again continued conversation on the biz toown Finance Park and you know we've uh narrowed that down to uh potential site um at the ten Rock space so um you know again we're going to go through the legislative process and would love for some appropriation and some opportunities for you as board members to um Lobby for that as well with our legislators so that's my update with Junior Achievement all right so at this point I would say that this meeting is now adjourned there we go