School Board Work Session | February 25, 2020

001good afternoon everyone and welcome to the February 25th work session day we're glad to see everyone here with us to this afternoon we're going to go ahead and get started so the first item that we have is our comprehensive annual financial report an audit which is called a capper so we have in accordance with although [Music] if your federal spending I'm not included on the slide but uh another deliverable in the back of your report is a management letter which is unique to the state of Florida required by the Auditor General and there are specific things that require to to address it's a fairly standard letter the one thing I would did identify one opportunity for strengthening internal controls which relates to for non-majors buns which had overspent on this budget according to the state

002statute when that occurs the very next board meeting its supposed to address that overspending or non major funds it was not material that's part of our audit we also issued the standalone letter that looks looks like this it's just a 3-page alert and this letter communicates to to the board everything that our professional standards believes it's important for you to know about the letter is fairly standard there are a couple things that I would disclose for example if we learn of course of our identified need on adjustments errors or if we identify evening errors that were not sufficiently material to require them to be corrected but nevertheless we tell you this letter shows no audit adjustments or passive adjustments during the year there were two accounting standards that were implemented or at least became effective

003to the school board once sb3 on a certain allegations slightly some of your disclosures on your long term slight adjustments to your disclosures that show in the future there are two major accounting standards that I gatsby to the seventh is requires you to report all theses on the current standard only requires capital leases does that include leases that do not extend beyond one year know if there is a total 12 month maturity that helps a little bit if it's one please do present value calculations and says no the other accounting standard then I will bring to your attention is Gatsby forth on fiduciary activities and this is the accounting standard that has a little bit of a controversial school boards because of your students can be funds it changes some requirements as to whether those

004are actually by and large I'm playing the state of Florida everyone is a green TVs but there are so it all depends on your level of involvement in imposing your bill closely that's the standard that went into as part of our audit we look at your internal controls fairly closely we do not look at your controls in order to express an opinion on them but rather we use them to understand in the environment and determine how to this slide summarizes our influence before work we identified their significant transaction cycles to be financial reporting enclose the cash receipts process we do rotate our testing of internal controls to determine we also as part of audit employee data extraction software general contestant to determine if there are any unusual items dead relationship as well as to verify

005that all journal entries are posted we also take a look at your information technology this slide summarizes all the audit areas that I focus on after we have assessed detail on this but suffice it to say we do spend a lot of time I mentioned earlier that we expressed an unmodified opinion on compliance with grants importance from sea water or the beautiful immigrant guides the program that was selected as a major program this year was title one which represents that concludes the required communications this first one is a a snapshot of your general fund revenue your general fund beans or your main operating fund of the school board you'll notice that your total revenue increased by thirty five point nine million dollars for four point three percent most of that increase was as you might

006expect on the expense side you see I told expenditures increased thirty six point five million dollars please excuse my a slight typo on the 2019 pie chart the underlying data is correct but caption was not correct on the instructional services which is actually six hundred and sixteen million so instructional services increased by this slide shows your the breakdown of the restrictive which relates to federal plans this slide analyzes the total cash and investments for the entire district total cash and investments as you will see increased by 200% this is a timing difference this was due to that issue its sales tax bond that occurred in June and so all the other categories were fairly capital assets decreased by twelve million dollars there's a little bit more numbers there about thirty two million dollars of capital

007asset of dishes to construct off this is a summary of long-term liabilities total liabilities increased by $169 again as cash investment is that the portion of the pension liability imposed by the state of Florida I don't know about the word imposed but yeah you're part of the State Retirement System and so this is your proportionate share but but yeah we will never incur that liability we'll never pay it out you and then the retirement system is so the we are those contributions we've already made or will make in the future you make every year last year I'll tell you how much you contributed thank you yeah I think states about to Jack that up this fish this year couldn't consider it work even though even though that depends attention is one of the best funded

008it Mike might get item about about about the offenders say a proposal to increase the times what they've done in the past and they're still fighting that out and talking about it so hopefully they're going to spread it out over the next three or four years the amount they want to increase we want to do it all like a five or six percent all at once this year which would be like an eight million dollar hit to the district and they're only giving us six so that's kind of where we're getting this invasive allocation but they're charging is estimate so we'll see what happens so it's about even there are a lot of assumptions you don't have a lot of fluctuate and the states but it's nested in so we're paying cash on an estimate

009how much well we actually end up paying that amount how our cash is over time but there there's actuarial assumptions there's there's mortality tables there's what's what's the time horizon on that like like it's looking out into the future is there a solid is that like 30 years didn't set the year is this Missouri looking at the average age it takes who who exists today and what what it what you're not you we have been you had the standard now for four years four or five years and we still get questions the good news is that the OPF standard which will in effect last year you do recognize an old have liability and it is not fun for some organizations that have really so in summary it was a well I don't have a question

010I have a comment and I just like to say this is a remarkable report for an organization of this size and it's the kind of thing that we should be celebrating and should be announcing and I'm glad to see that number let's hear from the ledger because it's the kind of thing we want to make sure the public is aware of as we talk about a possible referendum it's a clean report an excellent report and again the kind of thing we want our community to know about as we move forward especially as I think about March I know this isn't an issue for you and it's an issue for us we even folded a possible referendum so just just want to say kudos to Mike nesting and thank you for all also thank you for

011the very concise and clear responses to the questions that's was exceptionally knowledgeable responses thank you it's Connie can I do want to commend our staff mr. prone and his department and all those behind the scenes who aren't in the room here today I served on the Audit Committee for many years probably 10 years and we've been working and working and working towards days like this and I know we continually have improved over the years and I just want to thank our staff and everybody involved for the many nights and weekends that have been spent to make sure that our financial standings are where they need to be I mean after all we are taking taxpayer dollars and serving our children and so there's nothing more important to me than the finances being propria and being

012spent accordingly so thank you for y'all's work I appreciate that and to our staff behind the scenes thank you so much because I know a lot goes on that we are not aware of to get us to this point so it's a wonderful audit and we thank you so much thank you the next item coming before you we have two Charter presentations today so I thought I saw can't be in Vicki Vicki coming up was good to see you and so today we do have the applicants here to present we've asked them to live it to about five minutes to honor your time but also provides an additional opportunity for you to ask some terrifying questions so we are going to start with me escuela Montessori hi I'm Kelly de la Cruz and I'm presenting

013me as well and Montessori the mission of museo Montessori is to provide an equitable to a dual language immersion Montessori education to a diverse group of learners from preschool through eighth grade as you're aware the there's been a tremendous growth in the Hispanic population in Polk County from 2005 to 2007 teen they've more than doubled and in the three years since with Hurricane Maria and with earthquakes from Puerto Rico and with global and economic turmoil in South in Central America that number has increased even further Polk County has the hot the eighth highest percent of English language learners in Florida and the majority of those students speak Spanish as their primary language Polk County students who are English language learners experience a significant academic achievement gap and that increases as they get older so as

014you can see from 3rd grade through sixth grade the their the passing rate for students in the FSA who are English language learners decreases considerably this is partially because in the beginning when they enter school they're learning social language for a great deal of time while their English native peers are learning our learning content knowledge but but there's a strong body of research that shows that supports dual language immersion has a very powerful approach to addressing the disparity in academic performance for English language learners and part of that is because if students are learning in their primary language the knowledge that they have is that base in the middle and it transfers between languages so that content knowledge that they would have missed while they were learning there while they were learning English they now

015let's get to to learn and then it's just a vocabulary linking so there's a need for this type of school because Paul Kony has a demand for Montessori and the demand for dual language learning Lakeland Montessori Cyprus Junction mussoorie and Magnolia Montessori are unable to accommodate over 3,000 applications each year so there's clearly a demand for expanded options for Montessori and Polk County but there's also a demand for bill language learning Polk County has one dual language k2 program in King City at least to my knowledge there may be another one that I don't know about much but when I spoke with world languages that's what they confirmed so that means that there's no opportunities in South Lake Lombardo or mulberry or or in fact in Polk County for most students to become fluent in

016both English and Spanish especially in elementary school and our school has a strong demonstrated interest we have a hundred families on our on our interested list and they have over two thousand students two hundred sorry two hundred students provide me escuela Montessori will provide their core academic instruction in both English and Spanish in a multi grade Montessori classroom with project-based learning hands-on lessons and individual sequence small group and individual lessons and sequenced guided and independent practice and and we have a strong MTS's framework towards standards mastery our targeted enrollment in year one is two hundred and six students in kindergarten through fourth grade and that that will grow by one grade level each year through three or five one will be fully implemented k-8 with four hundred and forty six students our targeted demographics is

017fifty percent of our students we hope to draw English language learners we also hope to mirror ponies demographics in other areas for example economic the area of economically disadvantaged students with IEP s who are an exceptional education the county assists 13.3% will be we've we've aimed to match that and students with gifted EPS as a separate category and we aim to match the county in that as well our targeted area is Highland City Mulberry Bartow and from there we would also be able to pull from port need Juanita and Eloise we have included in our budget so that we can accommodate that our founding board all of the people on our founding board are from Polk County myself Joyce Bentley Lamia Lawson dan Medina Martin marble Johnson era Laurie Albert and Kathleen Drake Nelson our

018board structure is it's three to eleven members with two years renewable terms a president vice president secretary and treasurer and we have a roll up for our for our executive roles and we are we are a 501 C 3 not-for-profit we've moved a considerable efforts to work with the county we have communicated via email and sometimes in person with PSC you saw transportation school safety food services k-12 curriculum and instruction and world languages in many of those cases we sent portions of our application to them prior to submitting and offered them the opportunity to give us critique and let us know areas that they wanted to see changed we also met with the finance with people in the Finance Committee and we shared our budget with them a month before we submitted and met with

019their team so that they could give us recommendations and feedback on our budget and I've communicated via email phone and in person meetings with school board members and then finally we have we have really worked very very hard to form community collaborations and to reach out to local governance to organizations that are that are serving the students that we are hoping to draw to our school and so this is a portion of our list many of these people also submitted or many of these organizations also submitted letters of support any questions miss Courtney I just want to ask if you had any follow up on the other issue we had talked about with the weight isn't yes so I sent an email to the to the board at the beginning of this summer and let

020them know that I am trying to work currently charter law prohibits charter schools from using the tool that magnet schools are able to use to integrate their schools we're not able to use weighted lotteries and I know that when Polk County started using weighted lotteries for their magnet programs they were able to take schools that were that that appeared to be segregating portions of populations and they were able to create a much more representative school but sure schools aren't allowed to do that there's actually a law that specifically says that we can't and so many states across the United States are working to to change that law because the Department of Education the United States Department of Education actually encourages to use equated lotteries and so I spent reaching out to representatives I met with

021representative China for Sullivan felony foul senator kharrus Argyl and I also communicated with all of the coalition and the consortium and so far there's no movement and not although I will say that that everybody that I spoke with was very open to that at the charter school content I did chase down working and I know to expect my my email and I sent that email as well but so far if I have not seen it expense that the question that I have is are you anticipating all time for start-up funds yes so once assuming that we are approved we will of course apply for the charter school program grant and that's a competitive grants not guaranteed but I think that we did have a consultant review our application and give us give us some feedback

022so that we would make sure that we addressed areas that might be red flags for us to not get that funding so we're hopeful with that I also applied for the new school venture fund grant through through the Walton Foundation I did find out we made it to the final round for that I think it was 20 but they do want us to apply for their funding cycle in January and so that would potentially be an additional three hundred thousand dollars of outside funds and then I am currently a finalist for the diverse Carter School coalition's unified fellowship and that is a fellowship that would coach me and help train me in in leading a diverse charter school because there's there's there's a lot of different considerations that have to be taken in into account

023that that maybe someone who's not doesn't have that same goal might not have to target as much for example diversity equity and inclusion statement and how are we going to draw a diverse staff so that the students that were serving see their own faces represented they're teachers and then our board did recently just formed a university equity and inclusion committee so that as we are beginning that that move forward into recruiting teachers and and training you know providing training our budget that we created is not based on us getting any an event funding out there we we applied for a pre-approval for a ninety thousand dollar grant through your Enterprise Enterprise Florida which is a small business grant and and people on our board have a great - guaranteed and our our budget is entirely

024based on us using FAT FAT funding and is fully funded for every year just using the state so we haven't taken any kind of what what's in it a couple of quick comments you mentioned are the one Dual Language we're gonna be happily that's a sand hill and did you tell me that at all are you applying that here or is there exists no actually Sand Hill has a model very similar to ours if in many ways they believe that they have the 90/10 in the kindergarten they may have I'm not sure if they have a slower jump up so language allocation is a really tricky piece in running into a language program and the research does not show that there's one one approach that's stronger than the other but it does show that that

025having a kindergarten program that that really reinforces the non dominant language of society so Spanish so we will have similar to Sand Hill and similar to the programs that we run here in Polk County previously a 90/10 program in kindergarten but when it hits the 1st through 3rd grade group we're doing a 50/50 model and partially that's because I don't know what the what the structure was in terms of students needing to take assessments and you know previously I don't know it's it's really important there's our third grade students have the resources they need just say I mean I think a couple backup coming for us and one thing for you I mean yeah I think if every charter to charter school approached us with this kind of good faith I mean this is a

026last meeting I kind of divided articles into different groups I think this is in a group that's built to be complementary and built to be to extend what we do and perhaps provide a model that we can bring back into our own our own schools like like like that's what it was originally supposed to be and so I commend you for this I commend you for working through it as hard as you are because yeah I I I know how serious you are about it too I think I appreciate you bringing those stats about the span and growth and I think one of the big big big problems we have is we don't have anywhere near enough Hispanic administrators Berkeley we're doing a little better on teachers but we're we're way way way low like

027out of out of out of whack and it's it's something we need to work on as a as a a district I'm glad you're here to sort of prompt that indirectly and I think that that's that's that's fit basically I mean those are two important points and thank you for first sticking with us anything working with us thank you you know I will say Polk County has done quite a bit with trying to draw in diverse I've seen a lot it you know just recently with the administrator there are master's degree programs that are trying very hard to draw in other you know other people so I definitely think it's a conversation that is that is not only on my heart but obviously on the heart of all and I will also mention that that

028there are local colleges that are very open to partnerships I know Florida Southern there are professor Florida Southern he's trying really hard to push for a dual language program so you know it might be that we're just on the cusp of something well and I just wanted that one things about the Dual Language Program at sanest anthill than ours that I understand is that the non spanish-speaking children were really benefit from it as well not not not just affluent flow influence he was Spanish but but English flirt wanted to be if he had been going back and forth the the translation skills are incredibly important I've talked a lot about creating a Language Academy I'm actually not sure that just expanding these types of programs isn't the most efficient way to way to do it

029so I you know it's a big priority for me and I I agree that everybody's aware of the property problem but it's the outcomes aren't there yet we're way way way way behind him at the last time I saw we're like 8% Hispanic with 30 33 percent kids so it's just just some of this gonna take a lot of concerted effort over time well and and thank you we are addressing that we're dressing on our justice fence but we have other areas that are Haitian Creole an african-american week we have been trying to look at making sure that our administrators in our system mirror what our districts will fly and that's what we've been doing so you're absolutely for what that is happening throughout the county right now and thank you for being very obvious

030to noticing that miss Miller and then miss wounds well I do want to commend you on this this is what we talk about why charters were made you know this is something that you're gonna provide for students that we don't have across our district here the need is very high my question for students who need supports a lot of times the barriers and when English is a second language to families is identifying that early on can you talk about some of things you'll be doing to identify those opportunities for students who may need further supports are testing for cognitive disabilities and then what you'll be able to maintain hmm I don't know I'm sure you've done a lot of research on how to do that as far as if you're gonna contract services out if

031you're going to build Medicaid to get services which is another great option you've just got into recently so I'd like to hear more about those students ok yes definitely so there's there's the obvious things that that Polk County Schools is doing that we will also do surveys so that we can try and identify our students they come into school and we're very well aware of the process of how quickly we need to get those students assessed and make sure that they've got a plan in place but but with regards to the students who may require interventions or students who may require special education services we we've chosen a reading program that is a pretty robust and unfortunately a very expensive expensive reading program but I know Polk County has used it as as a summer

032intervention program which is the american reading companies program and and that program has within it if it mirrors it matches very well with with the Montessori approach because it's got a lot of individual and small-group lessons but but within it it has a lot of formative assessment that is that is uploaded into a computer and and then it matches both languages so we can see if the student is progressing in their English reading but not in their Spanish and we can get those supports in those we don't have our decision tree for our multi-tiered support system fully developed yet but it will be similar to the two the decision tree of what how we give interventions how often we get it will be similar to what hope does for their students we will have a

033special education teacher it is we have a full-time special education teacher in our budget with the Espino with the assumption that we're we know that we're going to bring in students who are who have all different kinds of needs but the interesting thing about a Montessori classroom is that there's a flexibility of how we can use that teacher so let's say we don't have thirteen percent of our students that require to pullout services well we can use that teacher in an inclusion model so that they're able to support students in that classroom the other thing is with a Montessori approach and cuz it's multi grade you have three three full grade levels or more of materials within one classroom which means there's not a stigma associated with needing to take a material off the shelf

034as a matter of fact you can work with a younger student and you can be teaching them but really you're reinforcing your own understanding of things when it comes to students who have dual who are English language learners and who have special needs our special education teacher that our position for that it's going to be a requirement that that teacher is identical and that's one of the one of the few positions in our school that is a bilingual position we've set up that we can have either resource or or inclusion model or consultation I with 206 students it's highly unlikely that we would have enough students that a student's free and appropriate public education could be served in our class because it's not appropriate for a student to being a pullout program with only two

035students they need a peer group but as we grow to 446 students if we have a in our in our application we say that any time that we have another we'll make sure that we maintain a ratio of one Yesi teacher to twenty-five students so if we get kind of going off somewhat some of my colleagues have said thank you you've done a ton of work since last year and it's your presentation I think was night and day from last year you were seemed very nervous and you've got it down and my one question for that area specifically looking at Juanita and Eloise is that they are very high migrant populations have you all looked at how to turn forget migrant populations and what do you do when a student moves about because that's where

036the strawberries are for the month of February and those types of things I don't know what you want what you all do with that I do know that there's a there's a two-sided challenge to that on one hand all of our expenses are are derived from this very small pool and so if we have a student who does not show up for months and months then they pretentions nice to have to ease my goal which means that but I also I want to make sure that any of our are equitable in our understanding of those things so I would want to work with I was really hoping that you would have a great it is trickier even so I certainly appreciate the fact that it's on your radar and that you're thinking about it and

037this is exactly what charter schools were designed to be this is something completely different that isn't we can't offer in our public schools right now and that's so I commend you for bringing it forward over spending so much time on it I knew that our CMA they have a charter school that's specifically targeted for students who are migrant students and and you know I have reached out to them to see but what their model is very different from ours we because our students are already highly independent classroom and we're supporting language it may not be something that fully he's kind of here thank you I too want to congratulate you on this wonderful proposal they have a same overseas that person's worth is increased by the number of languages that they know and so I

038can remember years ago when we piloted the Dual Language Program in some of the schools that I serve on the east side of the county and it was interesting to walk in two of the four you know core classes to were in English and two were in Spanish and then they switched and it was really kind of cool to observe that and I know that by learning another language you know I always say you know breathing makes you smart because you can it can take you to places in the world that maybe you can't personally travel to but also learning a language creates they say I'm not an expert but it creates those little synapses in the brain and provides an opportunity for children's brain growth to occur so I'm very excited about your proposal

039I wish you success and if you ever kind of need to know about the institutional knowledge and that I remember one of the principles very dearly who I think is still around he's retired that was very instrumental in doing that at the time we've got folks you know here at the district that may be able to speak as well but I it was wonderful the kids growth not only in core knowledge but in other classes grew and it was a win-win for both kids whether they came in as a as an English language learner or whether they came in speaking English perfectly it was a blessing on both ends of the spectrum so I wish you the best and as the others have said you know anytime we can create a new school and support

040it when it complements what the district is doing I think that's wonderful so best of luck to you in this future endeavor and I hope we can support you in that thank you we'll introduce our next applicant County and their board is here today so I will turn it over afternoon everyone could have it an end we are the four high school for credit accelerate learning program for at-risk over age students from high school we're an accelerated learning school or high school of accelerated learning we're a program to help at-risk overage students graduate from high school prepare for post-secondary success we're local board proud of our community attendance school right here in Polk County and we're excited the prospect of part of their public schools to help serve a special student population students are drop

041dropping out or not graduating for the Polk County Schools for our coastal readings through the fall to their own or to the public schools these students simply have too many convenient life responsibilities priorities or obstacles that make attending and prime minute traditional environment very unlikely we anticipate our target population to arrive more than two years behind their cohorts two years behind respective grade-level performing at some of the lowest levels in the state exams due to low basic skills and not degree low GPA due to a history of failing grades is struggling with fluency be - the need to develop school with child care and responsibilities relief in the area has been identified as an area need for school like ours between George Jenkins high school Kathleen Lake Nipissing Lakeland High into in Iraq there have

042been 949 graduates in the last three years we believe these district high schools would significantly benefit from a high quality option to serve students needed additional approach a flexible schedule and Oryx move for their academic careers I'm wait Woodhouse my colleagues on the board cane is burns and they love the Blanco building canvas has spent most of their careers in Workforce Development when we ceiling were correct over some of the students attend schools like ours although my background is not in education I'm committing part of efforts to bring a better quality of life to our community from an academic standpoint economic standpoint for all the citizens in Polk County after multiple meetings with our selected management company celebrated learning solutions we're reviewing the data on site visits speaking directly with the students we believe that

043this charge force will serve it very relatable now any Accelerated Learning Solutions the sacs accredited currently manages fifteen charter schools in the state of Florida all during the highest a training and commendable after speaking with several students at one of the replication schools in Orange County and the impact this charge was on their lives I was all in and proud to serve as chairman of board our governance structure will include approval to schools operating policies and procedures its annual budget selection of its principal during our meetings we will review contractual measures student outcomes as well as actual financial result results to ensure that the schools are definitely meeting all the expectations and commitments to accomplish our mission one of the key reasons we selected any lessons RDSP is its track record for strong financial management

044ability to fund the school's educational model and the day to day operation we will engage in the management agreement with ALS thereby ensuring that our school opens on time on budget and with all the defined resources needed to effectively accomplish our mission what I'd like to do now if remaining of the time is turn it over to my fellow board member canis burns will just describe more academic academic miss before tomorrow again I'm Candice thank you so much for your time and you everyone so busy but let me just say like it's been a privilege to live and work in Polk County for 15 years I've partnered with the school board and many agencies community-based and this is my passion my work has been dedicated to the student population that we're reflecting in his demographic

045a lot of amazing things are going on with the district and reaching but there's always a need for more partnerships and that's one of the things that excites me about ALS and the program designs that they have because it is an accompaniment to amazing things that are happening like a professional safety net that helps students be more successful that don't fit the consistent traditional model in those program characteristics some of the things that have excited me the most and that I'm excited the student population is that flexible scheduling the offering of the AM and PM options are critical for this model and have been successful especially because they can go fluidly between a.m. and p.m. and is not a rigid only a.m. and p.m. that's been something that they tell it is something they've like

046the most basic skills testing and remediation as any of us in this room know remediation is key to success and it's ongoing it's not one-time it's an ongoing basis and this school is delivering that by certified teachers passionate staff that cares about the population they're serving which is critical to any delivery of any school self-paced mastery which means three of us may come in we come and do different things in according to what we are achieving and then the supports are calibrated it's not on that conveyor belt it is more tailored to their voice and their need and that blended instruction and I'll talk a little bit more about that in just a moment but it's really important the on-site of student services that is housed there in the school and that's critical for when

047needs pop up which by the way they always do and those needs can be addressed and be discussed and plans can calibrate and change on a dime that's really important for the population because this is the way life works things happen students are coming and then they're not and what can we do to help a transition planning is a key component to the school which is so important because the academics and getting the diploma is so important but then what we need these students to fill that empowerment and that excitement and then what are your options we've got college career and technical training and opportunities CTE is huge workforce and employability skills that is absolutely critical to success of all of us including the population and access to options to onboard to the military students

048and those transition planning options are reflected in the ALS schools in all of those like they are going into all those pathways they're increasing those skills gap they're getting recharged and they're getting back out in their communities and going on to do successful things and plug in back in and igniting their families because that's what this does you know when you change one line you change others it's just the way it work the academic design is the blended instruction model and the thing that excited me the most when I toured the school many moons ago when I first got exposed in Orlando area to their five schools is the way that it was actively a blended classroom setting and it moved on a dime there was I seen computer-based instruction I seen educators doing group

049sessions pullouts individual tutoring many things to help the students with all types of topics and needs that was very fluid and they had the flexibility to be so and that's really cool because they're real the reality is for most of us that have come from the education background when we are have a classroom we do a million things but there's a million more we wish we could do with them there's a million more because we always have more to do and that's one of the things that it's so important which is the wraparound service the ability to meet their needs where they really exist one of the key components that was critical and really mimics that a community based school environment is having services of social workers and licensed mental health which is key to

050crisis intervention most of us know that our mental health struggles in our systems are an all-time high right I mean as life is changing out here it's really changing for them and there's so many things that this wraparound services can assist and help them with and I what I would like to do as a blanket invitation to any member of the board that would love to see any of the schools in Orlando that are actively right now as we're sitting in this meeting helping young people change their lives I would love for you to be able to come out and see one of the five schools in Orlando because you would be welcome to tour that welcome to see staff welcome to see just an average day and it would definitely be worth your time

051and you'd be welcome to do so so I wanted to make sure that you knew that you have that opportunity if you wanted to see this actually ongoing one of the things that I would love to share with that goes along with the whole package of this particular model is that it's not one size fits all and the student voice is heard and one of the things is a success story a student that I met this was years ago in one of the ALS schools a student that had went to three counties one of which was Polk County they were a young person in absolute crisis this story will be the most most of us have heard it is family dysfunction extreme crisis one part went into the system the welfare system then back out

052placement with family and so each time we remove a young person from school we know that when they get back they are going to be deficient and they're going to keep being deficient as they try to get back on their feet and we work for that this particular student that I met at Chancery specifically this high school she had come back to school after deciding that she couldn't get her diploma it just wasn't possible anymore and those were her words not mine she's like I'm never going to get it I tried three times it's not going to happen and a friend a student referral which is always also told her come on just come on over to the school and see and she tried it in the midst before she started the school she also

053got pregnant this happens she had decided again that she could not make it she couldn't get her diploma when she went to Chancery she what I would call this she got ignited alright it was not easy she learned that she knew much more than she thought she did which we know happens to young people for the first time ever she passed an assessment the first time she took one after working with stuff that never happened to her it was also the first time she's seen her name on a merit board for progress that had never happened in her deep at one point while she was enrolled at Chancery life happened some decision struggles she stopped going to school she dropped out again while there and the coach in the transition planning department would not stop

054reaching out to her kept chipping away and so finally she admitted it and she said I was just annoyed by him as Candice so I came back and when he came back when she came out he said thank goodness I've been waiting for you now let's get that diploma let's get back at it and she did and she went on to be successful in many amazing ways and it changed her life and she changed my life so the thing that ignites me about the opportunity to come to coal County is I love the county that I live in I believe in the education in this county and I believe that this is a great partnership that we can do more to ignite these young folks that just need a little bit different connection to be

055successful and to believe in ourselves because we're amplifying their sparkle they have this talent and we know it but we need them to know it and we need them to boost these skills and get them back in the community and do great things we don't want to leaving here to go do great things do great things in full County questions [Music] and then my other question is what this thing which is you from new beginnings when I read your application summary a lot of the things that you guys said that you would be doing in the beginning is actually doing that so I wanted to know how does how does your house just differ from that there were nine fourteen we can look at that missus because I had a question also the 914 was

056that a group of cohorts that we later came back and they had a summer completion now if you looked at it that way off you okay okay one time so they could have behind right they could have a summer completion you guys one of the there's there's multiple areas in any specific data I can always defer to a member of our management team which is Angela but one of the things that distinguishes us is with this particular program miss fields this operating model has been replicated in many areas and has had a high critical area of success with this population and that's not to say new beginnings that's not but our numbers are consistently high they have been achieving in this program and consistent enrollments and successful graduation so one of the things that we

057know in the population is that sometimes young people get really excited for something and then those numbers drop off and it's hard to keep them engaged in this type of program this is where they feel the most efficient which is where you struggle the most which is what you don't want to face sometimes in this particular model the engagement and the instruction is definitely more blended than the model that I have seen and with that it yields more success and more empowerment from the student body and that is one area that I can say that I've seen for myself so you've been to new beginnings and I have I have yes ma'am very familiar that would be our new beginnings when you talk about getting students that you know might be at the crossroad of

058dropping out and getting the schools to work with you all places in there beginnings do that so yeah they do yeah and they do it well the other part that I don't know about new beginnings and I'll be very honest about that I do not know if they have licensed crisis intervention staff full-time years ago when I was partnering with them they did not have I don't know they may have had that now and that's very critical to the population that we serve because we're dealing with more than academic deficiencies we're dealing with a lot of social and personal struggles that are making the difference in somebody being successful or not and that is something that I have seen the absolute difference in the ALS model for myself like just working with the population and

059then partnering with people and staff in that area and watching the difference in yes academically I might be able to help you pull this up but if we don't address the other critical needs that are happening you're right back in the same cycle and it's trying to break that in its core level as best as we can it's that it's really that's why I tried to call it that community model because that's what I see it as and that's what I've witnessed it has and that's why I'm being really honest because I have had exposure to new beginnings and that's not something with new beginnings I was able to see I didn't see that offered and like I said it could be offered young and I don't know that it is I just know over

060the last year they're gonna allow things that had to be put in place short because some state requirements and that might be one of the things yeah one of the things that I would say great presentation my my belief is that charter schools should feel the need of the students when there is a need and I don't I don't I don't understand I'm sure that you guys can maybe explain it later why you would be going to Lakeland when you begin to is already in my class and if there's other areas or other areas of the county or other pockets of academy that could benefit from this school rather than going directly to the Lakeland community but again you can answer that maybe over time because I know that we out of time probably and

061other people might have questions as well well we have some key target reasons and we will answer it later but what I will say is we're also open completely to listening to the school board voice on that the idea is to bring it to polk county and to attract me so there's definite flexibility there for serving thank you I appreciate you being passionate about a group of students at often or are not personal list for people to be passionate about amen my question is and this is a district question super did it might how many I affectionately referred them as drop back in but the programs because that number that you stated we have two adult schools it do a lot of work and we have several fresh start we have several programs already catching

062students so I don't know how many we have across the district already doing this does anybody do you know that how many programs polk county already has implemented that kind of do something very similar well you do have all you have new beginnings that's out there just a charter but then you do have tribe that's what they drop out they're going to try this check up there and I know you look at those numbers and that's why I was curious about the numbers because with that group how many of those kids are now completers right now I think that's what we have to really break down the kid is sort of completing because we complete all the way through summer so that portion of how many of them are completers also when I looked at

063their application I notice I I think y'all go to 21 and you split time and that was one of my questions of how are you targeting kids and enrolling kids is it going to be those kids that you know are not in a Travis in a rich tech but that's the other option because I don't know I don't think in the beginning split time such as what they were offering I know what we do have other programs that are very said yes we that was my concern because it would like to see charter doing things that we are not do they're not able to you and working closely with new beginnings and what they're doing the multiple campuses the conversation is how do we get kids earlier so they're not dropping out right and that's

064the continued conversation we're having with that charter I just I I was also questioning the numbers of how many that we're catching in the programs we currently have to get a true number of how many that were truly slipping through the cracks and I don't know that we have that miss fort anything mr. Thomson uh I had the same questions as Miss feel too especially about new beginnings and the numbers I did the math real quick you know seemed like an awful high number I'm more concerned with the management company can you explain a little bit more about analyst I pull them up on Google and it reminds me of mm-hmm can you give me the business model of why you did ALS and just and also you know what what the graduation rate is

065for Alice these kids congratulation right over the past five years you guys waited for 5,000 students what percentage I was curious because enrollment 30% federal infirmary it doesn't work for a model like this as you know that's counting these students who have graduated within their four-year cohort the average student enrolling at an al at school is typically almost 18 years old with less than half of their high school credits so this is a student that should have already graduated or is so far behind that they're not going to make it on time I'm here with those kids yeah as mentioned in the last five years 15 schools here in Florida crack pipe excuse me graduating close to 5,000 students that is approximately 30% of our average daily enrollment and we've got a stability rate of

06680% so this is a student that we can keep students till they're 21 so a student comes to 18 no it's not going to happen overnight these are say it's also on average we skills test every student when they come okay well New Year 11th grade jump back into 11th grade we're gonna figure out where your skill knows many of these students as you can imagine have been to it's uncommon to see as you spend between five and eight different schools when they're in their academic setting of course they've got skill gaps light has gotten eaten away so we're going to test those skills when we start and then we're going to build that individualized program to fill in those basic skills average student across the state in our schools it's coming to us performing

067at the fourth grade level in reading and the fifth grade level and math a great question in terms of outcomes of our 15 schools last year all fifteen earned the highest state accountability rating of a commendable you're familiar with the alternative schools grading model that's the highest rating you can get hundred of our schools as compared to just 20% schools in the state of Florida I'm seventy four percent of our students made a full year of growth in reading making our students functionally literate is in the key priority literacy is a key priority more than half of our students improved by ten great skill levels our schools performed in the highest quartile proccess e in mappings for alternative schools and state we're also one of the first programs to get what they call a district

068level accreditation which I know you're very familiar with with sacs and so all of our schools are fully accredited from the moment that this school would open this is an accredited although that's important because we want our students to know that this diploma is valuable to you as any of your your traditional high schools that you may have come from also important to recognize or think about things like graduation rate as a dropout prevention or recovery program there are many come to us that this is just where they need to be there too far behind they need the flexibility forty percent of our students indicated so far this year I've indicated to us that they're the primary caregiver for a chai of their own child or a sibling and we wonder why you know that

069in at seven for them they are working well I every time I see a educational management company that here on the back my necks because you know faltering taking money and then not performing yeah well we have some history here in okay with that I think I came here what the name of the school was maybe ten years ago that that in Lakeland went under and then and then we've had the acceleration Academy issue so I mean there's a thickened inherent scepticism I may lend it to that point I mean I mean you guys you're you're at your hale ALS something you had a school in jet at accident went under in 2015 is that up is that right Marie Marie Hill all right we didn't go under essentially we had to get three schools

070support for recovery in that area had grown the need wasn't there and so the decision focused on those two campuses versus the one so that's to go close the students were absorbed into the other two campuses one a district run program that but it was a question of you had gotten over extended I guess attorneys like you went to many schools for the market yeah so and forgive me on this if I had missed it in the application but I know you guys are gonna located in downtown light like Lakeland ears I guess the bus terminal tap is that correct failure you know you're looking to rent a facility the general area that we were targeting from the closest site so it just appeared to be an area that had a need that said if

071we missed something or if that's not accurate there's a there's a new beginnings campus and out I don't like mother or doesn't work just off off of it it's bites by the RP funding Center visit right yeah so it's like it's like a half of a yeah and just on on the on the number again again forgive me if I'm business and applications but like you're not envisioning having 914 kids and your your your program there's a it's that's your target audience for W what is is two hundred about where you'd be like look at that's best for the one in jet accident was what's what's the number two division so about 240 or 245 is is the goal of start a five-year plan is to be 500 okay this management thing what percent what

072percent of money did they I mean I know we have to pay a lot for more force to hire management companies or I turn around the schools what kind of figure did I miss that was it in a little tiny addition like what percentage does that company get I guess is my general question budget ninety seven ninety seven point three percent ninety seven percent we better the management company so they're making national investment than the build-out staffing [Music] any other questions okay thank you so much thank you thank you so much it is two o'clock we're going to take a 10-minute break which I know it's going to be probably 15 so at 2:15 we'll be starting we gotta going to get started yes and board members for the city we have guests with us

073today so what we're going to do is have the elite program come next then Kelly and then we'll have the job description right after Kelly's so we're going to have and we have our guests we're here to talk about the elite stands for establishing leaders in teacher education and creating a pathway for them through high school including dual enrollment and on-site college classes to earn an A which they will be tricky late after that to folk state college to complete a two-year teacher preparation program and hopefully be ready for employment Polk County Public Schools this program benefits students and parents by cutting the cost of a college education and it benefits the districts by deepening the pool of locally grown applicants mr. Miller was here at the program's inception which started almost three years ago

074the planning for this program and he's come let you know how we developed it so this is an ambitious goal and we started to identify students early and to give them an opportunity to work toward earning on teacher certification while doing dual enrollment with the opportunity of trying to earn their a one of those audacious goals so just a quick history about my involvement I was approached in December a couple of years ago because of my work with the role meant looking in a way where we put it its students in to an academy this is like teaching education and early childhood and get them on the path to taking some dual enrollment courses so they have to meet some eligibility requirements such as GPA and hurt scores so in February of 2018 about this

075time two years ago we met in oak state and began to talk about plans ways that we could move this so between February and the summer lots of conversation in the weeds with specific courses and credentialing teachers and that type of thing in the summer year-and-a-half ago we coined the term elite the acronym we've identified the three schools that have teacher education or early childhood programs they're part two in City and rich community and then we began to define what the initial requirements were kids students who were going to enter high school so we had a media event the photograph you saw in the last slide with dr. Falcon Eddie and this bird we're at one of the schools to initiate that process so the requirements for students beginning in ninth grade we have to

076start that early if we get them on a trajectory towards getting an associate's degree they need to be maintained a high GPA and they need to have success on the reading and writing portions of the first prior to tenth grade which is very early for students to be doing the perfect traditional so in ninth grade the students must be in one of these Academy courses either the intro to the teaching profession or the early childhood education that's how we kind of identify the kids in ninth grade with potential candidates to move into this path and then what makes this ambitious is that in tenth and eleventh grade as part of their schedule once they successfully complete that course as a night order and are successful on the perk and maintaining a high GPA that they

077would roll into taking two to one roma classes per semester they need about 60 credits about three credits for college course about twenty college classes in their three years so as part of getting under regular requirements for high school they would have these dual enrollment courses that they would take to each semester in the fall and spring right here and then also and take three in their eleventh grade here so they would still be a part-time to what oldest student at our high schools okay and then the path that we developed last summer a year a half ago the thing we articulate to pulse State College and would be taking 15 credits per semester as a 12th grader I in order to meet the 16 right well last year during the school showcase we had

078set up a special area for attracting eighth grade students and parents into joining generating interest for the applying for the program this year are in January last year in the first group of ninth graders were identified out of the three schools that are participating a total of forty students were in our initial group we recognized this as one of the important things is having a signing day the signing day acted as a moment to note the students commitment to the program and it was also a a celebration of their accomplishment for being admitted into the program they had to meet the standards before they got in you can see the superintendent dissipated a number of events all right so that current group this year we're still engaging them by by taking him out to the

079bulk State campus getting them acclimated but even know what their next so going to be we've encouraged each of the programs to take the students out and get them engaged in posting one of the things that John and I have worked on is the program design was effective but we've decided that we've make some adjustments to broaden the base and so that we can include more students into the program we rolled that out in at the school showcase this year John's going to talk about some of the changes that we've made so we did in talking with the teachers themselves with the academies and schools of the students to see what because they're 14 years old they haven't figured out what they're gonna do in life yet I don't know but things changed from one

080week to the next and what their concerns are so in meeting with them and taking into account the whole person's and we decided that we needed to make an addition create a second pathway a little pivot for us to give some students more opportunities and more time and maturity to sit in doing that if we create a second path which we're charming as the pathway accelerated so we now have the pathway AAA and the pathway accelerated that allows for students who in between their ninth and 10th grade year maybe as an 8-3 or thirteen fourteen year old they didn't quite understand that they could apply or what it was and they didn't sign up to go into that or whatever but in ninth grade they heard their friends talking about it and they thought you

081know maybe I wouldn't want to do that so in 10th grade it gives them the opportunity to enter the program now in terms of the dual enrollment the a a piece there is not enough time to accumulate that however they can knock out a whole year of college coursework and they could essentially be finished with their college work in three years instead of four so the the very ambitious goal if you look on your left there the pathway a a would have students taking into one moment classes in their 10th or 11th grade year and then for their 12th grade year they would be doing early admission I just would say I think that you'll find that on the additional sheet that we added the one pager that'll be on the back so this was

082a change and based on feedback that we received from students and parents and teachers at the school it's had concerns about I want to stay in the FFA or I want to I still want to be with my teacher because I love her and you know it's gonna I have to do early admission I have to leave so we want to still offer this pathway for our students the pathway a a because we we do have a number of students at one of our sites who've already qualified and the counselors and then are working with those kids but we do understand that there are students who at age fourteen or fifteen the maturity is changing to allow the opportunity for entry in tenth grade so the current expectations for students it is still ambitious that

083they have to maintain good grades they have to have see in every course a part of that is leading in our partnership with post state have to appreciate them being with us today and all the dialogues I've had but they have to maintain good grades but they can't apply as 9th or 10th grade and they must also meet the requirements for dual enrollment to participate in those courses I did want to add about the per school we had some students that had an issue with meeting the front scorer so extending this year out gives him an opportunity to meet the Earth's core and also we're looking at adding some tutorials so that we can assist the students for my next to last last slide here we have currently we have our group of ninth graders

084that we've identified to do we've got a few tenth graders who saw the picture before now we have at least sixty students who are eligible we're kind of sorting and filtering through some veggies so that has increased partly because of the efforts that we've had at the school showcase events we do communicate with students and schools it's very important for the administrators at the school and the school counselors and we appreciate and certainly the teachers of those academies do a great job we are working closely with 12 state we are planning to have some additional signing day some of them are our future plans include to to develop a job for the teachers while they're in their college program a lot of detail will have to be worked out on that we like to create

085a special class of para or assistant so that they could not only earn a paycheck but also learn while they're in the classroom we're looking at possible financial reimbursement for students completing the bachelor program of both state and the possibility of earning volunteer hours doing an internship over the summer at our summer school programs hook up our future teachers with some of our best teachers and hopefully we will get them experience that they'll be able to use when they're in the classroom I did one say that you know we feel very good about where the program is right now we're still very early and we've got one year under our belt and we've got this the first group on the track for one of those two pathways we've got great cooperation at the schools well

086let me start with first we have great students as always with great cooperation at the schools the teachers are enthusiastic about the program and we have a great partnership with both State College so we're on the track to being successful fighting a good opportunity for students they are they're all female your future plans slide answered everything I was gonna ask about the periods and all that stuff and as a eagle myself thank you very much it was it I have a few so for the bachelors portion currently students are paying for that on their own or is that is that correct currently rain so is that in projecting now are we thinking before they get to start their first year in that bachelor's program that will have something in place to reimburse them Foundation and

087she's already begun the marketing and is that something that we're looking at time to committing to teach in the district so I can tell you that when this idea came about I chased John Miller down and and said we have to make this happen and then after talking about with a finale that was the one come was once they go over the pope state college they were going to try to make sure that they could leave their debt free that was one of the goals you're going to take out the first two and they're going to try to take care of a second too and then they have to come back to us because the whole initiative was we hear the teacher shortage issue but what are we doing about it and we're going to

088try to grow our own right here and then the commitment will be once they get to a point in the college you would have to sign a contract with us that's going to be a guaranteed back into polk county public schools as far as internship requirements what I know for UF it was your sophomore year you did a one-on-one internship or you were partnered with one student doing a tutoring their junior year they were with a small group their senior year they were in a classroom what is the partnership what are the internship opportunities and are we making sure that those students are interning in our public schools we are future teachers and our programs ever have a field study your field experience or an internship outside of Polk County all of that takes place

089here and they begin they when they enter our program the bachelor program they're actually juniors in common and so in those first few semesters they have almost 300 hours of infield experiences that they get before the final internship so we do 10 weeks one full day we don't do an hour here or there okay we want you to show up when the teachers get there and spend the entire day with that assigned placement for 10 weeks one day a week and that happens over three semesters and then the final internship of course is full-time placement or our minimum is 12 weeks occasionally we will have a superstar that might have an opportunity to 12 weeks is our target and yes it did for the post is there anything that their senior year we could use

090these students to maybe I know that Ben Winterhaven has the Ready Set reprogram that we could use these students to tutor some of our elementary students or things like that or I believe the team was brainstorming some ideas and part of the effective plans there actually Michelle was created and now the team is actually talking to the teachers and talking with the college there's some other opportunities that are able to come up now and that's what they are addressing how can we really bring them in early what can they be doing you know a lot more within our school system making sure we really get them acclimated into the classroom as soon as we can as well as why they're going over to the college and are they their junior and senior year and I

091know you said the junior year they have one day that they're in the classroom as do their classes allow that they could become a sub with Kelly services and and are we encouraging them to be that I guess D would be my question absolutely again infield practice is crucial and it becomes your seven or if if there's some other way that they can be involved volunteering it's cool in addition that's great if our full-time daytime students and these students go that route they have classes two days a week then they have one of the third days it becomes their field study day and then they still have a day that they so that we also have a special program if they have a pair of position that on those ten days we honor the fact

092that their five days school with the para and so we work within their work setting to talk to them do reflections and visit other classrooms at that school without having to go to another placement I think that's great because I know even when I was in college moving from PCC to USF we did not get in the classroom until like my thing about senior at the end and people would drop my pleasure I got my job would have a job I don't want to be here you know kind of thing so the earlier they get their feet wet good miss Phyllis enough miss Miller [Laughter] what is the age requirement yes thank you Miss Miller then backed in this Runnels no I appreciate this is a great program in the community it's been well received

093I would like it in what in my life but now I have three can choose but my question is the level support that's provided from the staff at Polk State I want to make sure that we are picking up that support because they're very young that's the only community feedback that I've heard is you're turning really young people into the classroom which is a great opportunity for them especially because the cost but the other side of that are we supporting them at their age and skill level to go into a classroom because it you know that's kind of gonna be both sides because as their students I know that professors are very supportive but are we matching them with peer mentors and to keep that support level that would be my concern I think you've

094had conversations about having a staff person somewhere we've learned a lot from students we graduate from high school with an a a degree whether it's our collegiate program or it's your high schools and come into our vascular program so we do put a few young ones who've already been there helping us learn what kind of supports they need Thank You mr. and as far as the curriculum or the pathways for getting it how prescriptive are these in the sense that if they take an AP class or a Cambridge class or things like that can they use those to replace this and do we have something that shows these are all of the things that meet the humanities requirement these are yes name I we think that that's something in tougher with the curriculum people state

095right now I would love to see us move towards you know I got to UF and realized some of the classes that I took at pulled state that I was assured would be great classes I didn't really need so just making sure that if they're you know if they took human geography as a freshman and they passed that test that if it meets the knee of these things that they're not being told they have to take another biology class if they don't meet it and I think going kind of along with that some are they allowed to do summer classes and then that that way they can still be involved if they want to do drama or my very last question I promise is are we looking at any other schools to put this to

096I note the North East is fairly well covered I'm not trying to say it has to be Winter Haven I know you have three but the Northeast is well covered and then we have Bart so here already but this partnership the work the students need to be taking those classes attempted 11th grade so if that campus doesn't have a prudential person home state is that's part of partnership they have guaranteed that course would be offered so if we expand our most of these classes available online and forgive me I just done is that they the beginning of this so this is repetitive I apologize but how many are we at a point where bad kids go to a certain point yet like like like hi what's the volume to current students we haven't gotten anybody

097yet to like it's to earlier to bit into pulp state right it says yes it starts with us brain right yeah I would just say the the ultimate success of this will be tracked five years out ten years out hopefully if they're still here and I mean that's Savannah ever everybody knows knows that but but I hope that's what role will do it and to miss Villiers point about the maturity you know I think if we're putting the way I have read this in the past it means is we're putting twenty to twenty year olds in theory and into the classroom and and that's a little little different than a twenty three-year-old has gone through a full four-year experience of college of living off on their own and you know it's not it I'm less

098concerned about them being supported than the program that I am when they come into the classroom has very very very young adults and making sure we're putting them in appropriate places and do it we do it have any thoughts about that why we were not there yet do we have thoughts about that I know that we've talked about targeting elementary school love you dated a debate Nader's think pathway takes three years and we're hoping to get them plenty classroom experience their natural curriculum or working for us hopefully they will continue to be connected with the school system this is the idea but what about building parenting class and like I mean certain I think you know Abba obviously have fresh out of college people who come to twenty three twenty to twenty four but it

099did you know the idea of thinking through some of what's involved in parent Harun Aaron Aaron in which of some of the same same things that are involved in that and manage managing kids I wonder if that if there's not a little fragment of a program program is already being used somewhere that we could plug into this just a thing to they have to think about miss Miller having different schools do our dual enrollment programs at the high schools I mean is it is the barrier to putting in another high schools because people state's not they're doing all that provider well that's another reason we should be more dual role Mother's Day the only school but that comes to mind and that could but interrupt this too but it's more it's it's not necessarily about

100wanting to expand the program that's designed it in resources and also we don't want to over saturate you know our goal when you build this out is to possibly put a hundred kids into a year we don't really want to over saturate both state with education students serve so we're not opposed to and we've talked about expanding out but it really needs to be distributed and I would add I would say we need to see this first cohort for the first because there's things as you see we're building out from just this right now on both sides of it and I think we need to see that through first before we say we're going to go out and expand because you can always like you say oversaturated and then we don't produce what we're actually

101going after on either end so I think we see that and then we see you know is it that we need to go for a particular area a particular type you know a student that we're looking for what is it that post state can offer cannot offer and so my goal is to see this first cohort get in and then let's work through that at that point because there may be courses we may have to add in to sure them up even more before we put we send them back over to us to employ other questions thank you and the next item we have coming is Kelly services and this pointing this also has steve job description so after they complete kelly services she will bring the job description that I appreciate all these handouts

102I would like just in general yeah early you've been trying to ask for stuff like this to be so we can review it a little bit ahead of time and let me just that this is part of our discussion items that we had requested and this item was on the list because of the comments that we heard the night of the board meeting that we held at Bartow high school and we had teachers and employees come and speak to us several of them made comments regarding Kelly's services in general and I thought you know the best way to discuss it openly is to kind of hear where we are what has their rates been as far as filling positions contracts just kind of a boom nine yards so that's kind of why when you say

103it was my request it was really the request the garden place that I heard that night and then put it on the list and Miss Byrd thought this meeting would be most appropriate to so I thank you for this because I think it's important I really do yes I had a super sleuth get on that a super sleuth about that because it is not in the contract but they provided me with two ledger links that during those discussions which was well before us I believe that that was a it was promised according to the discussions of the contract and I have those two articles from the ledger which I can share with you I just want to bring that out historical perspective on what we were before we started I know mr. tipped as if

104it won't sit well he's in the back there is a feel rate of about 81% and historically it has been around the 70s and 80s mrs. feels so that's why I think when Kelly that's why I think Kelly service is appealed to the district as a whole bill rate is low and former superintendent Kelly Services and they had a higher fill rate make them and suck that out and so they came in if they had to talk to the district for quite a number of years but financially finance team said you know and and that is true cost more because we're gonna or so so that's where the conversation went and I will add and complete transparency I know what's at it will sit in the back but I believed back then Kelly was the

105only provider and Michael rate at the time with those type services I remember being in the audience for that and I don't know that that and that was one of the questions of community that there were no bigs there were no other outside companies looking to to gain this contract and that was a community that was a community discussion because they were concerned about what paid so if you look at the key measures and results so this comment shows an historical analysis Kelly Services and the district started their partnership in 2014-15 at that time you'll see it's broken down into three areas teacher Teresita and clerical in 2014-15 you'll see that there were total filled essence of 96 thousand maybe 100 or so and unfilled with forty four thousand seven hundred and thirteen and the

106percent fill rate at that point was 95 percent there were nine ninety four thousand one hundred and ninety two total filled essences and then of of the overall absences there were thirteen thousand maybe two hundred that were unfilmed or a overall person percentage so rate of about eighty nine percent so total last year for the 1819 school year we had about one hundred and seven thousand absences overall and that's just on the teachers by level it seems to be talking to mr. for the 1920s whole year it seems to me that we are trending down or that and for the 19 from the school year rather than it will I'm sorry when we come here to 1819 next slide that's good quick quick starts like which one this this includes positions that aren't filled to

107right so so it's still thought a human who's not there it's everything is everything that's an amazing spike sorry for a moment you'll see overall 1413 96,000 that were filled again 4700 that were unfilled in 1516 89,000 that were filled and 5,000 that were unfilled 1617 you'll see it trend up 19,000 that were filled and then 5,000 maybe 6,000 really that were unfilled for a total fill rate of 94% seventeen eighteen eighty eight thousand six hundred that were filled and then seven thousand that were unfilled again a fill rate of 92% and then last year as we discussed 94,000 network filled and thirteen thousand that were uncle for 88 percent Hillary and over all over the past five years there has been a 92% fill rate and that's just with teachers for the tears and

108see that's it's 72 percent don't rate and then for the clerical it's a 96% Bilbray I'm sorry mr. Porteous I think we may I'm confused just to hear this this doesn't include this is just when the automated system gets called and the job is either filled or not though yeah period because then the staff at that school that has unfilled substitutes has to scrounge around and find somebody to cover those classes that's not including when those classes get covered right so Kelly this is Kelly statistics let's get puts in and what got filled correct so it's not a substitute assigned by Kelly then it shows an unfilled vacancy God has has broken up or the principal or the administrator does whatever he or she needs to do to cover the class for the day just

109scramble describe scramble to do whatever so you'll see here the gray bar that's trending down is the unemployment rate okay there's a lot of information on this side in 2012 and 2013 are the yellow bars to the left and that was those are the fill rates for 2013 2012 and 2013 and then 2014 through 2019 are the Kelly services fill rates you'll see that as the unemployment rate goes down then our fill rate I'm sorry yeah as the unemployment rate goes down then our rate tends to trend down as well it is much harder for us to find qualified staff particularly when economy is doing well or when they are competing with something else and that's the overall budget in terms of what based on these so try to increase last year increase that sub

110race and ninety dollars a day however they decrease their markup unfortunately though we decided not to accept that proposal because we had not yet given to the race and so we didn't want to not give teachers a raise and give subs arrays we thought that that would be inequitable essentially so for that reason only 28 percent in markup overall interesting the orange and Hillsborough County are paying the higher rate of ninety dollars a day and so it's causing us some issues in our theory on this it has substitute teachers $80 a day and then co teacher substitute positions at ninety dollars a day what is it what is the difference okay thank you I mean that the decision not to go to 90 was not brought to the board discuss correct and I all talk

111about this like let later but that's sort of a political question isn't it and one that we ought to be in a position to take the heat for if there's something or not you know like I'm not sure that's the kind of decision as I lick the board I'm comfortable just outsourcing to so that's better that's a thing to think about it if we're having a problem filling those seats come throw it at us you know it's nothing so I mean that's well come come come back and that is for the 1819 school year as inclusive just teachers parents are right at about 15,000 overall and then see that and just see that Paris I'm sorry worried about 2,000 overall clerical work right under a thousand you mentioned the mark-up rate going 28% is that

112correct so is that a reduction from thirty five percent to twenty eighty percent okay so they would increase the out the daily rate to $90 and then decrease the mark-up to a hundred and fifteen dollars or fifty the year bonier the next slide is a year a year announced it's my position tight so you'll see that he orange represents 1617 the yellow represents 1718 and the green represents 1819 so in 1617 had 90,000 425 absences per volume in 1718 at 88 thousand six hundred and seventy I'm sorry six hundred and fourteen and then in 1819 we had 94 thousand one hundred and ninety two sixty seventy north don't worry it was ninety three point eight percent in 1718 and Thor it was 92 percent and then in 1819 the fill rate was eighty seven point

113seven percent and that is just for teachers paraprofessionals are the middle column professionals so again orange is sixteen seventeen yellow is seventeen eighteen and green of eighteen nineteen prepare professionals for sixteen seventeen there were ten thousand nine hundred absences for seventeen eighteen there were four thousand nine hundred and sixty absences and for 1819 there are twelve thousand nine hundred and sixteen excesses those fill rates if you look at the diamond in the middle their fill rates for Paris were seventy four point nine percent in 16 17 and 18 in 1718 it was seventy nine point three percent and then in 1819 of a seventy three point five percent it's important um I don't know it me here maybe you're gonna get to this but when you say paraprofessional that's when the again the para has

114gone on the computer and requested the day sick or person or whatever and it's not billed from the computer it's which are we gonna have any kind of data that when those Parra's are taken out of their classrooms to fill the teacher position at the school we would not have that data right I just want to put that out there because don't then the paraprofessional get a supplement for covering a a teacher's class yes I still also wanted to put that out there so they are not just doing it like our teachers are out of the kindness of their hearts but they could be but our our teachers are just not getting confidence in that at all what happens to that money I'm just curious we don't have to pay for the sub isn't it

115general whose rolls back in so once again our teachers are performing a money-saving service for us pretty much okay or absences per volume by the secretaries there it was ninety four point two percent for 1617 in 1718 it was ninety four point two percent again and then if you turn the page you'll see the absences broken down by month I'm sorry I skipped a page let's go back to the year you're over here announces their four teachers Paris and CS and so this is for all staff in terms of the years so you'll see there I think mrs. feels asked earlier what was the fill reading kind of historically what it was and so in 1213 before Kelly took over it was 80 1.7 percent in 1415 it was 93 percent in 1516 it was

116ninety two point nine percent in 1617 it was ninety one point four percent and then in 1718 eighty nine point nine percent and in 1819 it was eighty five point eight percent and that's overall for all of the areas that Joey touches because their feedback on the decline rate good feedback on the decline in flow rate feedback more specifically because if we've gone down to what is it was the last time 85 from at one point 92 do we have explanation of why it would drop the economy in terms of people having various or other options and also the paid more importantly though and so the pilot subs don't necessarily factor into our vacancy so that's about 70 people that Kelly services could use to plug a vacancy however they are not being used in

117that way meaning I am tender I'm a pilot stuff I report since in Iraq high school everyday and so I am just assigned with the flexibility from the principal to assign me wherever he'd like me to be used and so unfortunately but that person has been not heat into the system as filling a position yeah we've talked about that in the past that's how it was back when I was subbing a long long long time ago you made the relationship with the school you were there you were that was your base school you could sub other places but that you kind of got to know your community by adding themselves and I think that's much different than calling in on a computer and trying to find jobs just built community at the school and some

118of our schools that have a low fill rate I think that's even more an area that we need to focus on we do we find in the community what are we doing to reach out the community or Kelly or what their marketing budget is besides the stick sticks in the ground and the car rider line what are we doing to attach commute our community to our schools for subs because I I get the economy I mean I get being real estate I understand the economy but I don't think a lot of our subs are going to teach because it's the chief it's the best thing like I don't think they're choosing even a lot of them are doing it to move up in their career if they're in between jobs but to say the economy

119is better so nobody wants to sub I don't I don't if I'm fired on a lot of our subs are committed to students it's what they want to do they're retired teachers they're going to their parents working to be teachers or in school looking to be teachers so that we have I think we needed to target without a little bit closer I don't know that just because the economy's better because retail would pay them so for instance if we had the same amount of requests we actually would have a 98% I would like to I would like to hear the the the benefit of using Kelly over doing pilot sub sonars all our schools in doing community-based recruitment like your marketing budget what are you doing to recruit to recruit people to fill these positions

120as a company we also do meet and greets challenges with stories we coordinated among our internal sub fool and try to show up they have social media presence which is another tool that a granade postings out to a number of different sources you know those are those are just some of the different recruiting strategies that we employ we also partner with the HR team we participated in virtual job fairs we participate just teacher symposium Friday in front of teachers and ask for referrals we have referral programs for our substitute teachers and also referral programs for our teachers so if they refer somebody back in November we did an incentive where we would deliver a hundred dollars of the school supplies operating it anybody who recruited a substitute teacher for us and then that stuff worked

121ten things those are just some of the things and I'll cut my head that we spend every day to your point about retail I noticed the other day a target Department we had a sign up that said now hiring starting at $14 an hour the same holds true for a lot of fast food locations and the feedback that we get from a lot of our substitute teachers is you just don't pay us enough money we love it get above doing this job and now I worry about the quality of subs with that because I had a parent a parent of a child and disability call one of the signs just to see you know what the requirements were it was pretty much show up in clean shoes and you're breathing and you can sub and

122that's concerning so I think building relationships in the community is a much better you get a much better quality to do teachers from doing it that way than some kind of mass marketing to a point eighty five dollars a day yeah this portney uh I know right wind as a classroom teacher I had people that I can depend on most were either former students or former parents thats up in my room and it was that like they only pick certain people to sell toric cetera that kind of thing but the bottom line is the reason our teachers are taken off and our pairs is because of the negative behaviors and that and in the classrooms and also we can't seem to get subs at certain schools because of behavior issues I myself have written tons

123of reference letters for former students to be subs and their their responses after about I don't know two or three times per get it I I ended it 431 over years the other thing I want to say is this one slide that's that's an average of your ear you're on your analysis of all three for what six years so you know a 91% fill rate because it apparently our Secretary's never take off bless your hearts they're there all the time that's still a Friday a lot better and what we were doing you know overall if you looked at it but again I think those pilot subs in that contact you know I'm gonna say it again and mr. Porteous and I've talked about it is a lot harder to call your principal say mr. Hill

124I'm feel well and then it was to punch a button so it's it seems to me I can't quantify but it seems we always ended up trying to find coverage at certain times of the year for sure in certain days of the week potentially but you know we had good experience with Kelly it seemed like it was a little more efficient in terms of the process we have a cost comparison for those two times like what it was costing us for our schools to fill but the dollars could be used Sybase for incentives if it was if it's like based leadership right and they face week there are there are other opportunities I don't know I'm just that's what the questions are if the dollars are there the individual side face teams can use them

125as it's enough stew to create those relationships to get the subs in their classrooms and they still are I think there are certain celebrations that nobody nobody shows up and that's when you get the problem with our ESA teachers being pulled you know it's still a problem that's the problem last year when we look at the entire year you'll see that we spiked in October on the next slide you'll see that we spiked in October in terms of overall vacancies and then you'll also see that we spiked again and that's usually like the sweet spot what happens is right before Thanksgiving break teachers tend to get restless there aren't really a whole lot of breaks in there and so as a result you'll see more absenteeism in October and then again in April same thing

126we're either coming off the strong break or going into spring break and they tend to get restless right before Christmas break and that's a long time with no break in between Fridays are usually our hire day as well if you look at the next slide it's generally on average our highest state and then the next by after that shows the reason for the absences on Fridays yeah can I say I mean this is not the best data I've ever seen long sides yeah but I was but I mean it's you know to some extent to me which Kelly is like a sub story to this I mean this is a story of vacancy in shortage and if you get right if you go to the next one this is a great six thousand nine hundred

127teachers right now and so we float about one percent so it ranges every week I get the updates it ranges from 56 and it goes up to sometimes as high as 70 in terms of our vacancy rate that's broken down also in terms of ESC positions or turnaround schools etc but our number one reason for utilizing Chile is vacancies the next one is sickly right so those are the same day calling I'm sick I don't do good etc and then a personal charge of personal chargeable to succeed as well what's what's the difference for those two times simply what covers no chargeable to sick leave is I can just call out I don't know it's it's literally a you're not sick but it's taken from your sick leave thing it's like it's like terminal day

128yeah interesting site as well overall you'll see that the large majority of our absences are in elementary school but that's really because we have so many elementary schools others just as a reference or like the chart of Travis rage real bill Duncan etc those are that those schools they're the bank barbed up here isn't filling our vacancies bang for our buck isn't filling no I know I know I know it's very difficult I believe generally and if you remember this Porteous and I you talked about seeing what other districts did about incentives from his own great so here's something that was really interesting to me or to fill the absences so this is for the first pie chart is actually what teachers gave us so some teachers gave us two or more days at the

129lion share of at that 60.4% and then other teachers gave us one day 29% and then some teachers think about those sick leave or sick days that's ten point six per second at a time that it takes for Kelly to fill which was to mean i opening is generally it takes them about a day to fill the vacancy so on average if you look at less than an hour it's 65.1% one to six hours is 20.7% then six hours to one day as 9.5% that's about 95% of the vacancies so when they fill vacancies on if you look back on the filled and unfilled when they fill a vacancy it's generally done within a day so that de means that a substitute generally will pick it up in a day ask you something does that

130include real quick they accept the job and then the next morning they cancel the except of the job and then they somebody else except sin somebody else cancels and I was talking about the vacancy at the school and then somebody else picks up how did that the fill overall this was 17 18 or 80 90 okay this is 17 18 so there were 2,000 people recruited now I want to bring your attention to this part hired by Pope there are 233 of the people that they recruited that were hired directly by our schools to fill our positions meaning they are a pipeline for even us the richest abroad is much broader than ours and so we're able to get those high quality candidates that we spoke about earlier and I actually put them in our

131classrooms as teachers and/or Esperas and so a lot of the late work that they do in terms of recruiting actually does time fo matter subs but as how I got hired are you still in the in that kind of netherworld where their contract subs and they're way way reduced parody coming on as you know you get a lot of top supporters would you like copies of the ledger articles yes all right Stewie I know at one time the district was we had some issues with center schools and people showing up and leaving just from walking in the door so we had a pile in like a pool of subs within the district yeah then did we still do that or is Kelly know well actually Kelly services runs it for me that's how we develop

132the program marriage you know though she said Center I'm having this issue in terms of not being able to fill vacancies here and so what we thought of is something that one the students could get used to because we really didn't want a population we didn't want them our most fragile population of students to to be susceptible to others coming in etc so we thought okay let's assign or think of course of three five so clear that report on a daily basis and then she's free to do whatever whatever she needs to so it really really worked out well at can't seagull at so we do that these are the top Kathleen high school does have a lot but then you have to remember they were the us so a lot of their absenteeism could

133be attributed to the professional development that the teachers had to do that we're a part of that court and then what about six ribs that's a higher so what we've noticed is so that was something that we talked about because of the absenteeism and quite frankly I like what Kelly services does but when I look at the numbers here that's money that can go directly back into teachers pockets and that's what I do mrs. Kappas Oh before she left so realistically we're looking into what other districts are doing to provide some sort of incentive for them coming here okay and I know we've got to move just very quickly I don't know what page this is but they're not numbered but it says school name analysis teachers para clerical like six or seven in on

134the bottom it's got school names some of the highest ones are mine citrus Ridge Laurel Lake Marion Creek and palmetto once again the complaints I hear the most are from the schools on the east side because of their lack of ability to get substitute teachers so my question is I mean we talked we're talking about incentivizing across the board but I also think something needs to be looked at to be able to allow to have better coverage than the schools that are farther out if that's the right word I hear it all the time so I don't know if we've gotten better at it or not but I continually hear that so is there something that you have in place or will be putting in place to meet the needs of those on the very

135eastern side of our County really and I apologize I've been in and out my shop got broken into we were here and I have alarms going off and police also I apologize I had to step out twice trying to deal with all of that at the same time so you may have covered it and I apologized that I didn't hear it but that is a huge concern to me to see the same person every day regardless of your assigned to third grade Sunday 10:00 science or second grade or maybe you're just a building para sure but you're doing small group pull outs but we wanted to ensure the consistency with that population of students however we have talks about it in terms of being on the east side of the county obviously Disney and all

136that is right there and so we have that factor but what we are talking about doing is likely doing building subs up there as well to just make sure it's stable I think we need to look at that I think that's really important you know and also the my second point is and you may have covered it is the increase in pay I heard that in the beginning and then I had to step out okay all right those are my two points thank you very much um just looking at some of these charts it would be really helpful to have it broken down somehow by how many teachers are at the school just because if we're looking at how many absences there are obviously citrus range is gonna have a lot more than England because

137there's 400 students that you would in there you know I would it doesn't concern me when I see those two side-by-side but I think if we could on the left it says absence volume is that so it's going by the percentage so the number of absences is the green bar the star or the little diamond is the repo rate pretty before the pie chart actually that's a great slide the overall amount of absences and absenteeism rate great the the diamond there is the rate and that's the one that's compared to them okay good mr. Townsend well I'm just gonna say what I hear because I I only got the half pay I started the year they stopped giving a hundred percent pay for sick days when you retire that was my first year teaching and

138I'm I never bothered to collect any sick days except enough to get into the valuable sick bank you know because I thought my goodness I could you know you run over I could win my point is a hundred percent pay of those days and I know people abuse the system and I get all that you know they got these big huge parachute things but the majority of our teachers are maybe it would be an option I don't know I'm just throwing it out there you know if they if they elected to go that way a hundred percent pay for the day versus half the paint people that's just not an incentive for them to go to work I just hate to say it really when did that come mr. prohm because I think some districts

139pay hundred percent at least according to their board members I don't know I'm the High Sierra by year by year not two years now yeah you can pay this is the theatre houses to eat your slide I would love I don't know how hard this is to do but on a monthly basis sorry on a monthly basis if you could like you know you had the different categories about like if you could just have on this slide at vacancies color color color coded on this I mean the this slide right right that one I mean this this this slide tells you more about a school than any school of school of school rate does like I mean about if I if I was a parent this is the first slide I'm gonna look don't look

140at its yeah I mean I mean like whether Kelly's doing it like I mean I mean again this this is a much more interesting discussion for me just for absenteeism not and they they concede that it is for Kelly I mean that yeah I think you're fighting the same stuff we're fighting but this is I think if we're ever gonna create our own way of talking about schools our own schools this is where you start like like we're where we have full stuff staffing and we're where people aren't do all the time so I just visit a really good slide I almost but you made it what correlate with student absences to mr. Prodi head you can kinda correct the the statute allows annual payout at the day that we debate multiplied by up to

14180% and then there's a sliding schedule for for terminal payout and it goes it starts at 30 years thank you so much and or the require the certification no certifications and also some of the lips as well so it was reduced from 80 being able to now only being able to 15 pounds so what we're trying to do is really fill a lot of those vacancies case in point are carpenters where I've advertised the Carpenters I think we're probably about a year and we've not really received any great quality candidates just because our job description it's not um I just want to say thank you for this I we had a conversation probably three or four months ago now about our academies and how we could graduate them from our electric program but they couldn't

142come work for the district which i think is doing us a disservice so I think this gives it allows our students to come and work for us which I think if we're saying they're good enough to go out and work in the real world that we should be able to hire them as well so a lot of them it was due to licensures yeah I'm saying and quite frankly piggybacking on what miss Reynolds just said if they do are able to come to work for us or whatever then that through time they're gonna obtain those license shirts and we'll be able to train them and grow them our own way so I think that's a very positive thing because it wasn't like that took any qualifications off just on the licensure piece for a lot

143of them that I read through it said preferred down instead of required which does give younger individuals an opportunity to come and be part of the hope family and learn and then eventually they graduate to the point that they can pass their license exams so I so win-win I do believe yeah here's what I'm thinking and we do it and so in looking at it one quick thing back to the Kelly thing like you and you insist I've got you if we stay we're going to do it we have a particular renewal time for make or be putting it's out to bid what's the what's the status we're going to sorry is one of them in PSG is another one that are some other districts use so there was conversation earlier between mrs. bird and

144I about putting the bid out there to see just because they when Kelly first came on we did not have you know no one else was there but now the market there are some competitors other competitors in the market so mrs. Berg did ask me about it is there a requirement that we terminate to do that is there some way for us to well no I wouldn't either I'm I guess my point is I didn't know if there's a built into the contract where we can't test the waters if we're actively with them like that actress that was that was when I was at asked me about like is there some sort of penalty for us to look out see what's going going on and we discussed that like she said about right before boy

145I can't believe it we were having a conversation because there were other companies that have come about now a little very transparent one mr. Tidwell and allowed him to let you know say that we know they're out there and we think we do need to take a look and it gives him the opportunity to actually come back and you know bring something back to us as well nothing when we talked it was like we ever let them know in 30 we can't go wonder whether Hoover bidding but again whether what I'm asking is can we bid it without terminating them nothing nothing that prohibits you from doing a market survey but if you if you do an RFP that you're sending pretty strong signal all right so are you guys don't have a recommendation about

146that are you just gonna move forward or legs just curious Wes I know to make sure legally rule of thumb is before you before you go out for an RFP make sure you're willing to give up what you got because it typically typically you don't you don't incur savings when you do that because the costs continue to go up so we have a question so ed pours without terminating can you test and that was I don't I don't actually have a particular opinion on this I mean I I just was curious what are the rookie but you have but this was good good data very good thank you on the elections and electioneering which is a nice word all of you saw the information of course mr. bridges has been timely giving us information all

147along we have the information he sent the last August than recently before our last work session and then we asked him to provide information which he did in the back up to today's meeting and so we wanted to discuss a couple different things number one was you know the do's and the don'ts which I think you outlined beautifully in essence of time I'm gonna try to roll it along so we kind of understand that the second piece was mr. Wilson was gonna chat with mr. Noland and bring back some information and you could very quickly miss that update sir I did talked with mr. Noland he said he'd be happy to come to the meeting on the 17th and answer questions specifically I asked him to talk about the torts appalling thoughts about the pros

148and cons of trying to do this by the November election involving our community forming a PAC things like that so he said he'd be happy to do that so if the board is interested thank you and the other piece we talked about was try not to do the the two things as you call it synonymously yeah sure I mean III I had what I thought was very successful discussion with the person I had mentioned I want to check back with this person before I further identify this person but so so your talk about having Dolan her at the at the 17th so so so maybe I could bring this person hers instead seeing that this person is like wine right right right right so they were getting the board wants to schedule some special meeting

149I'm sure if you happy time Sumer so no I know I think I think I guess find out I was I was at trying to be precise all right good so if everybody's on board I guess by consensus I would ask do we want to continue to have this discussion to try to see what mr. Noland can present discussion of polling which would then lead us to the next step of trying to get this done trying to see if we could have it completed and put on the ballot for the November 20 2011 of where we're driving is everybody by consensus that agreement to invite mr. Noland money here I thought we were looking non-supportive effort based on the poll but right now we were trying to do 20/20 is what we were looking at

150but unless the polling says different that's I'm saying we have to move forward with polling and mr. Noland and all of that that is correct right I'm fine with pulling but I do not think we should not in favor of doing it in 2020 so we can move forward with whole language okay so I'm gonna say so we do the polling now and it's looked at that we're not do we pay to poll again before we do before we yeah and and that's one of the things that was addressed in the memo you can't pay for calling and and the board should not a PAC can do that but you got to make sure that the pack is independent that I'm not representing the board and Pat can raise funds for that but you can't

151use you can't use public money for that at all right understood that I just didn't know if the poll that we take now well we would use it would give us enough information oh sure timeframe it's hi brain I don't know if you have enough board members that are on board for 2020 even gonna be like pull my date you know towards st. Paul to really differrent quite quite some questions right I think that's a good question yes yeah I think that's perfect okay then mr. Wilson would you be so kind and contact mr. Nolan asked him to be here then on the March 17th day then if you'd be so kind and reach out to your community leader and we can then move forward with that at Mastro's and mr. bridges thank you for

152the timely information that was easy to read and easy to understand any other questions on electioneering all we move forward just one point of clarification that's unique to me like I have a website I write on its my own that's during a campaign it's paid during live not campaigning it's it's personal I think either of those I'm fine to advocate just like giving a speech yeah yeah you can you can communicate in individually any any forum you can have a personal conversation and it's your own personal website in their district I use for that I don't I don't think that's going to be comfortable okay so at this point we have to information items are there any questions or financial statements I will in the essence of time I'll go through the agenda review very

153quickly right I'm up next yes okay here we go so let's do C 139 C 10 through C 24 C 25 through C 32 on the regular agenda our 33 through our 35 and do we have an attorneys report today mr. Brij no they do not and Miss Matthews do we have an auditors report oh man all right I think that's it anybody have any questions I know I went quick that's okay I look at this earlier it's tonight when we are having the Adult School cafeteria wasn't gonna be tonight right here no that's Eastside remember I hope that where's mr. Parkman that was going remember we decided that to name them all at the cafeteria for that person they're supposed to be here I hope they're not I think they were told Tempest tonight's

154meeting and I yeah I think they're on the very planning to come so my questions I don't see any given the community is so with the you know the new for dark stuff is starting to move over and bump off of a agenda is how that's happening and they bucket those miss Winchester yes would you want to tell them how that and I know the board Doc's training is coming okay and okay so since you're there April 14 after our work session they're very flexible to wait until we're done and you will have it for one hour after that or Doc's training for all of us together okay so please mark that down a couple things quickly I was hoping to have the master board training the next module on April 7th and Susan had

155gotten with them and we had everything set up and then superintendent called me this morning and we're not able to do that now she has a conflict with that date so so one quick question I wanted to ask we contracted with FSB a just so I'm just trying to get it out there because some of you are actively moving forward in it others aren't I think we need to clarify we contracted with them last year to pay $4,500 for these four training sessions we've had one February of 2019 I was going to try to schedule the second one here in April may not happen till the fall so I have two questions this would be our second at a four that's required and my question is in favor of doing this and that contract is

156are you are you guaranteeing that money and like my question is I didn't find much value in the first one and so I'm asking if we have to pick if we will get any money in return if we decide not to do those no I've already asked that question and it's pay go let me just not paid pay go it's install from what I understand no it's paid I don't know what we're allowed to do that I don't know if there's an expiration date I really don't know all that I didn't do that to be completed by by May the first runs about a year but she was willing to extend yes ma'am I'm not sure how far so hold that thought so that's probably first a question could you make a note number one

157if we waited until the new electorate in November of 2020 would they be willing to wait but that would mean we'd have to start over right because that new person or persons not sure so can you ask please see what the cost their friends would be worth if there is one assuming we can do that how does the other board members feel I need the other handit's that was my same thought was that rushing to get it all done in the next six months friend we may have a new situation yes I mean I mean I my feeling on this I thought the first one was reasonably helpful I think overall I sort of agreed to this in the first place is kind of a gesture to go along like um I can't kind of

158go either way what I'd like if there's the majority on either side that wants to go sort away I don't like to have a if we plop down money to do it like that's okay I think all training can be valuable we put everybody else through training and you know if you get one thing from it that's how I used to look at all the ones I went to then it was worth it and we've already paid I don't know who's he have yeah yeah that's good let me just say somebody beats beats me I will sit down with whoever beats beats beats being going go over to training I would be a model I will be a model transition bow to all of you right down with my thanks yes well but I don't

159think we should do that I mean like like we should go ahead and coach to get it done then as a group but I mean and honestly those are those of us who are still around or not still around have to commit to being team players so the people who come behind behind us honestly I mean if that's the point of the whole thing I'm flexible whatever everybody else wants to do but I would offer this they're gonna star guys to start over now they may they may take the money we have here yes bit yet yeah let us do kind of a little bit of investigative work and then we'll get like to Suzette - two seconds and one could be right we double up on a day I don't know so it could

160be prorated the coming sessions are day-long sessions well let's find out we don't know until we ask right you'll find out your options are okay realizing there's an election in November and that we're trying to figure out how to do this okay so the consensus is to continue we're trying to figure out do we do it before the election after the election and if so would there be any prorated dollars towards that I don't know if you'd be so kind and kind of look into it for us I appreciate it I've just passed out the new discussion items sheet so y'all should have one trying to give you dates I mean we're trying to move along here and you can see some of the ones coming up I don't think I have to read them

161out loud but anyways the arts is next on the 14th know she had something more specific I don't know I said the arts in general the awesome that drum programs yeah I think she had that originally on her sheet so I don't know yeah and the next one's pre-k and we're trying to go through them so if you all have any other things that come up I was hoping you would have taken my dates and just transferred it to your original sheet because I didn't have Sarah best words Sarah best words were something I just wrote the artists because I didn't know what it was called because she submitted it to you but instead she took my sheet and just made copies so I apologize we'll get the new ones out to y'all with your

162name down there was more than arts arts and drumming or whatever you had written drug-free program I didn't have it all much I never got during the mail but anyways you at least have dates to pretend I got together and tried to put more dates on those discussion items if you need others here I do have yeah absolutely I have one extra yes yes on April the 28th there's a homeless luncheon that's being held and we should be able to be out in time in order to start the work session at 1:00 instead of 12:30 so if that's agreeable to everybody on the board we'll go ahead and push the work session to 1:00 p.m. and we should be able to attend both events for everybody so we don't have to pick and choose you

163know what we're going to so and I think the one thing I have then is for ducks we talked about the sheets I think I'm good it was April the 20 are not doing April 7th because she has folks coming in from overseas regarding the West's sorry regarding the emotion yeah all of that okay so that he asked us to pretend it clear the calendars for the 6th and 7th and the seventh would have been the day that we were gonna propose for that master board training okay thank you yes so sorry miss rennolds um my question was just today we had and we had a lot of great presentations today from this which I thought that the elite program was on this list before too but it doesn't look like it was um but

164if we originally had talked about doing those on the date that we didn't have our five o'clock board meeting I just somewhere today luckily we had a lighter schedule but the fact that we only had 20 minutes blocked off for charter schools when we know that that always takes us an hour right um if we I just want to make sure that we have time to ask questions because I think that all of these presentations are really really valuable yeah I just want to make sure that yes we're not said you know we can only talk about the elite program for 20 minutes no no and I see those sheets till I just passed him out so I apologize I'll get with Susan we'll get them cleaned up but it was on there the other

165question that to answer your question yes I'm just trying to make sure to insert them as as much as we can the piece I think unfortunately that we missed is tenders presentation had that been sent in an attachment you everybody could have kind of looked at those and it would have been more of a question and answer rather than the whole presentation plus Q&A so I whatever I just didn't realize what you were bringing the information was awesome but we're gonna try to do that I've learned from today quite frankly that anything that we discussed like wes's information needs to be sent at least you know a couple days before this work session so that we can review them but yeah it's very important to me that we cover though these items and if I

166save them for just the off feet meetings we'll never make it to know that ever I mean you know if we do two on the off beat meetings I just trying to cram them in between I mean we're already at four o'clock and we have discipline so sure we got it we're doing our best you'll just have to be patient with it okay anybody else just a question and I know we just add an item before the 17th so if it's if we look like and that's our only meeting yes like it's gonna be pushed over you know sure but we may have to adjust it accordingly because looking at the discussion with Tom no you bet okay that's gonna take a little bit of time okay you're okay okay all right yeah absolutely that's

167flexible what we're working towards trying to get all those on there so so we may be moving I'm at least right yeah look at your gym okay super and we'll talk any other comments are real important to report what kind of thing are we coming to commented on you um commenting on anything you want to call me go ahead board comments is fine good I would know for somebody to show me why we can't put steps for employees into the budget that I would really understand experience steps I get five million coming today if I just have my steps I wouldn't be looking to work at McDonald's you know that kind of thing so we have two salaries yes so during budget you want to say budget with that number and showing you there's a

168reschedule shows is different I know but the salary schedule shows years of experience this is what I need y'all to clarify for me so that when I get bombarded you changed I need yeah that is an enlarger conversation can I meet with you and let you or send me something I don't care I need to meet well I mean I'd like to say what's a range I mean I I mean I can I can generally articulate why but I think in the same way we had really good data here on absences a little thing that spells that out would be helpful serene concurrent Casso well there's also a rule that you can't give a larger rate to write to a grandfather version which locks in that's you but good salad pushes you down I got

169like these are all I don't know who I'm talking to now but these are all my emails about LSI and the stuff they have to do with LSI if they might would like to read them I would be glad I'm just gonna go through real quick robot can't we just listen to the story sad Ellis I don't work burden not of teaching kids I'm tired of not teaching kids being told how to run my class I'm frustrated teachers are afraid that it will affect their evaluation robot again forcing us to teach does not work yeah please if there is anybody listening LSI I get I don't know how many a day that just it it's driving them insane there's stuff on the walls okay sir can we add that to the sheet to be discussed

170we're going to your topic how many times say it no but they need to I think that because I'm here explaining how you here is there's good things so there needs to be some yeah so we need a presentation I think that would be good it's added I have been emailing mr. Hill he is working on it I know but I just want to bring it up for the people that have emailed me I have brought it up thank you ladies gentlemen we do have three discipline cases this afternoon so far we're not aware that we have any parents planning to attend we do that stuff and they're ready I mean I I have six things that I could better more like question statements to like throw out a lot like having discussed I could

171talk about tonight if I could I could run to him rokka rokka rokka rokka roles look right now wish you prefer there's been some back and forth on the new state testing monitoring rules and one of the one of the things I wanted to ask about and the state has sent a number of pretty passive-aggressive notes on on desk we've heard quite a bit from the from the state in the last month or so that all hiring decisions all dis disciplinary decision decisions are local decisions i've also have also heard people saying that as part of the training on the test prop proc proctoring and administering that there's a lot of if you do this or you do that you're risking your service started service certification so my question is what's the mechanism by which

172if I'm at eat a teacher and I go and I wake a kid up now that I'm not allowed to that that gets reported who does that get reported who does the reporting who does that get reported - is there a me like like who's the secret police they're just out of PPS that's the so the scenario would be wonder how many people are in a classroom at any given time giving a test so somebody says come on you could do it that other person has to report them and that's how that week I was curious how that that pipeline work the do on the reading endorsement quick question there seems to be seems to be started with a giant universe of people and maybe the University shrunken maybe it hasn't again the state not

173being helpful and how they may communicate can we clarify this a bit and every certification and they can teach ela to elementary students so that one is your education to be 65 they were covered under their certification to provide any level of instruction that student might need under the new statute any teacher that provides a tier 3 level construction with intensive reading so it is intensive reading intervention they must be reading indoors so it's so I could have an HP certification I have to focus on you next year you may want to consider going regardless of how well they've done it for X number of years and so I think that message and that's why they passed the option in November that if you can pass that subject area exam and demonstrate your proficiency on

174those skills foundational skills that sort of team will endorse showing out okay and that so have we been steering people into that so that's a good question we've been sharing the information so the statement of state rule very specifically said that that subject their exam has a 64 percent pass rate and keeping in mind that the folks that separate that sat for that same previously have a master's in reading because that was a qualification to become certified so we've been telling them yes that's an option however knowing that that's a large investment for teachers to take that exam and money let's let's be wise about it so much like Esau endorsement when an ela teacher provides instruction to any Els to me they also get tagged in 300 hours of ESL instruction in that rule

175they have to take to competency courses and then they can sit for the exam so when I speak with teachers and I speak to coaches and that's where I think I tell me you know look at the content of each of those competencies if you feel like you've got that covered great if you feel like there's a specific area in which you might be deficient or you're not up to stuff you might want to take that one course um he ordered prep books form I had two members and on our team passed last week's we share that information in their experience we do want to encourage that but we don't want to simply say go for and then risk it and so we're trying to help them make a really great in your professional opinion

176do you think this new credentialing is gonna have a measurable effect or a any or a perceptible effect on how tier 3 interventions go so I can share with you my personal experience of an elementary education background so the vast majority of my degree work quite a while ago really wasn't reading instruction and I wouldn't finished my endorsement about a year and a half ago I would say a lot of it was a refresher I'm like oh yeah I know that oh yeah I remember you oh yeah that's a great strategy I will tell you the recent research particularly for example dyslexia once upon a time you know we thought that was kind of a permanent condition we know that that can actually be treated and and not cured but really teach kids strategies to

177be very successful despite that that diagnosis so I will say I personally learned a great deal with that I think we're it's gonna come in handy to be very honest with you it's not the 27 year old veteran that has a degree in elementary education it's going to be these teachers that have joined our forces from outside of Education they don't have that elementary background but they were able to pass an elementary subject area exam right so they have those basic competency skills but they really don't have any coursework in reading instruction I'll also mention the new Peck program coming in starting next year those teachers will also have to have competencies one through four to finish back knock back I'm sorry ace programs whereas before they only had to have confidence this day truly

178is in a concerted effort to make sure anyone providing intensive reading interventions is this credential whether they or they are we are paying for the classes are offered free of charge other districts offering the classes are they each district is responsible we are having to be certified we just dropped we have to be researched by no later than April 1st our submission at least no later than April 1st for the new set of courses because you're saying that evolves somewhat woman I don't have a mom what I mean is are you seeing people that are saying well I don't want to do two through tier 3 interventions anymore I must put club' where I don't have to do to do that you know I say that to me I've not heard that personally but through

179my years as a school administrator you know we had teachers that I may be a Latin teacher and I have don't let a teachable history month I don't really want to have Latin and so they could remove a certification that would make them eligible but an elementary school to be honest in order to teach in you there's core content areas you have secondary well I think that's the core point and I think that's how utterly I don't know you saw that note for this day right that and that is a toxic trolling note so that's it was as passive-aggressive as you're gonna ever see so all right okay baby thank you can I keep going I'm sorry all right miss fourteen I bought the tent tend to be all together now conference yes yesterday for

180LGBT kids in schools and etc a couple of things that came out of that one title for a is a concept I was not aware of but apparently there's a lot of money to be used on a lot of different things and most districts have a coordinator I'm sure that we do I'm sure we're used for you where you use it using and I'm not aware of it but I would love for you know follow up to have somebody sort of address what our title for a usage is there's like 60 million dollars that the state has that you've been that you can go get if it comes from the feds but you can do get it to do any number of things that are mostly humane type things so I wanted to throw that

181out too I think we're an effective way to and I would think if someone cotton non-controversial way to support our LGBT kids who are at an elevated threat for for both both both both clinging and and and mental health issues that come with that is through Pierce peer support through what's called GSA clumps we currently as I do not have any in in the county no not no we don't because that's act doesn't does not exist there I would urge us to pick three or four willing schools to try to set up pilot there I think that would that would be an enormous value moving ahead so just just wanted to throw that out as well I would like at the end of the session if any statement of thanks or opinion on what the

182session was to run through the elected board before it goes out I don't want to be in a position of thanks thanking them again like we did last year just I would like to have a SUP something that expresses the school districts point of view on how the session went I think should be there there should be some some review of it by five I don't know what that mechanism is right but I just wanted to throw that out there and I can't read my writing on the fifth one I me on the sixth one selves no stop I'll try to figure that's about that without tonight okay anyone else have anything they would like to bring up at this point in time Ronald super-quick um in June could we maybe look at doing a

183half-day or full-day to focus on the budget before we start to look over it in July sorry my truth I just want to I know there's been a lot of questions about it and I don't think that's ever gonna be something that will fit in a one to two hour immediately following over session right so if we could maybe look at doing something in June you should have those state numbers by them and beforehand right when are you slated for to bring that to us give you updates as I would say and you know obviously we I want to make sure we get through the school year because our kids are what's important but if we could maybe after school gets out just do kind of its number time some time in this summer Thank

184You anyone else okay we have concluded our work session and foremost we have 4:30 discipline cases you