001Call the March 24th uh school board meeting to order. And today we will have uh Ms. Pickens will lead us in the pledge and Ms. Gill Yard in our invocation. Please rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let us pray. Father, in the name of your son Jesus, God, we pause right now to tell you thank you. Thank you, God, for blessing us. God, thank you for the opportunity to serve the young minds like these young people that are represented here today. God, we pray for your divine guidance that as we go through the agenda, God, we will look at everything, God, from the perspective of making sure that we
002do what is right in the eyes of not just our community, but we do what is right, God, that will bring forth the very best that we have for our children. God, we thank you and we give you praise and honor in Christ's name. Amen. All right, everybody, we will start with the uh Interlachen Junior Senior High Competitive Cheer. Uh Ms. Faucher, are you here today? Uh yeah. I think we should clap for them as they come in. That is great. Look at that. I'm going to stand up here. You can stand. Cammie, do you want to tell us Yeah, please. the story? There you go. So, I'm coach Cammie for those those of you that know me or sometimes you might hear Miss Fauche. So, it kind of goes either way cuz I taught
003kindergarten for 19 years and I've had 3 years of privilege of teaching avid at the high school. Um Mr. Helms a while back when I had Trinity, Cameron, and Deanna in eighth grade tried to convince me to coach cheerleading. He was very worried about Cameron and he wanted to make sure somebody was watching her and watching out for her and I kept saying, "No, no, I don't want to do that." So, when he finally convinced me, I I said, "Well, if we're going to do it, we're going to do it all out." So, we started doing competition. Um and it led from one thing to another and they have grown tremendously. Uh super proud of my squad. Um just can't say enough about them. So, in 2023, we went to regionals and we were top
00410. And after 2023, our goal was state and so we made it to the finals in state. Then in 2024, we were fourth in regionals. And when I say they're dedicated, my my girls and gentlemen practice um on weekends, you know, when we do our choreography, it's like 9:00 to 4:00 or 9:00 to 5:00 on a Saturday and then after church from like 1:00 to 4:00. Um they have very little off days and what a lot of people don't realize is cheer season for us is about 11 months out of the year. Wow. So, you have sideline, of course, and then from sideline you go right into competition season for the winter season. Um so, they're extremely dedicated and they went back on 2024 and they qualified seventh. Girls, come join us. I got them
005out almost towards the end of class. And um 2025, they were able to become regional champs and they finished third in the state. So, I thought, well, let's try to go nation. Let's try to go nationals. So, I'm constantly pushing them and so this past year they were regional runner-up and my heart I felt like they were probably champs, but we had a music glitch. Um we didn't drop any stunts, but our music messed up and they wouldn't let me do it again. Um but then we went on to state and we placed third again in state. And then we went to nationals and made it through the semi-finals and finished fifth in the in the country. That's huge. Um very very huge. On on top of that, um it's a lot of fundraising. So,
006we want to say thank you to our community because they support everything we do. Um they're just amazing to our cheer squad JV and varsity. Um they have to raise a lot of money to be able to foreign this. They went to um the Wild World of Sports, just like if you did travel baseball or travel volleyball or basketball, that's where they were at. Um and I just couldn't be more prouder. Like the first place team I think was from Alabama. So, like that just speaks volumes that our little town of Interlachen I think third place was Mississippi, fourth place was I want to say California. So, like fifth place, that's pretty awesome to be, you know, that's the entire country. People were flying in all over the place. I have two amazing gentlemen here.
007I I'm seeing bright futures for them. Uh one of them keeps going to clinics at UCF. And they both are were also football players, so I kind of recruit guys sometimes for competition season. With that being said, I want to uh say thank you to my assistant coach, Megan Fleming, who does all of my choreography. Um and she has done award-winning choreography because she has had us win, you know, fifth in the country and third in the state and also regions. And then with me alongside is Alyssa Turner. She is my JV coach. She was one of my cheerleaders back in the day. Um and she also goes to college. She graduated with her AA and she is also coaching, which is crazy to me. Um and her girls placed 12th in the country. They
008also went to Worlds. So, we brought them along with us, a few of them to represent because we think they're doing an amazing job and even though I am losing seven seniors, um that are amazing, I know that a lot of them are coming back. Cameron is helping me a little with my daughter, Jayna. And while they're in college, for the fall anyways, and they're just they believe in the program, which makes it um when when your students and athletes believe in the program, then it's easier to build. On top of this, they're amazing students. Um every year that we have had competition, they have come back because of their academics. So, they're not only athletes, but they're also academic, you know, they're also scholar athletes. So, I'm very, very proud to be their coach.
009Alexa Um I just wanted to do a couple uh stats for the JV girls. I was super proud of them this season and last season. Last season was our first year jumping into competition and we kind of just jumped in it headfirst. Last season they were able to place first place in every single meet that they went to. Um Um they also had a few first place placements this season. Last season they were top 10 in Nationals and they were the only team in Florida to reach national national level. And then of course this season we placed in the top 12. There were a lot more teams in our division this year. But another thing that I'm just really proud of them for is that um every past two seasons every one of the team
010over 75% of them have been brand new first year cheerleaders and jumping straight into competition season and learning the high paced choreography and it's really stressful a lot of times you can ask them. Um And then a lot of them we compete in a junior varsity division but a lot of my girls are actually middle school girls so they're competing in a division above what they should be competing in and for them to be doing so well in that division I'm just really really proud of them. Okay, I guess I'll speak too. We I'm just going to reiterate what Cammy said. We are so proud of both teams from Interlachen. This program has grown exponentially in the past couple years. We're about to have tryouts that actually starts on Saturday for us and we have
01150 to 60 girls and a majority of them are coming from the elementary level, which is absolutely fantastic. We love to see those younger girls getting into our program so they can learn as they go. Um but as for competition, these girls have done and guys have done absolutely amazing. To think that um a small school from Putnam County is being represented at the national level is just amazing and I could not be more proud of how they've done this year. Two weeks squeeze and get a picture. Listen, that's not work. I'm leaving. Thank you, girls. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Congratulations. Stay as long as possible. >> Now y'all go cuz you're loud. Very good. Very good. Thanks. I just want to say something I'd like to add to on that. You can hear
012every one of those. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank y'all. You worked so hard to achieve I did. I came to one of their meets and I can tell you, boy, it was way more exciting than football game. And it was loud, too. Yeah. That's the best. All right, we'll move to J. A. Long or Lion Press and Shay Freeman. Is Freeman are you here? Oh, please come come up and bring your crew and tell us everything about It's so amazing. Oh, yeah. Even when they came in. Thank you. >> They already got got a Well, thank you. Thank you. Okay, give us your give us so we have the record your name and what's I know what school but say the school you go to. Um my name is Brooke Carpenter. I am the
013site coordinator at James A. Long for our 21st Century after-school program. Um I'm also a fifth grade science teacher. And this is Ms. Shay Freeman. She is the editor-in-chief of our Lion Pride Press as well as the sixth grade ELA teacher. Um and these girls wave. Say hi. I'm going to do it from the back of their heads but they're going to wave as I say their name. Kaydalyn McGahee, Taylor Sanders, Taeja Session, Leilani Fountain, Palyn Strickland, Charlotte Young. I think that's Kaylin or Cadence Fuquay, Markerria Williams, Ava Cribbs, Sophia Parfait, Talia Session, and Kaylin Hightower. And they are our journalists and I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Freeman to speak about the Lion Pride Press. And she lost her voice so please bear with her because then if not I have to
014speak. Yes, I do sound quite awful but I didn't want to miss this opportunity. Um thank you all for having us today. Again, my name is Shay Freeman and I get the pleasure of being in charge of this group of girls. Uh we meet every Monday uh during our 21st Century program. Uh and we create what is the Lion Pride Press. And it is them being student journalists and giving uh voice to our school. And they're very passionate about it, and they come up with their own ideas in telling stories. They're journalists, they're photographers. Um, they're wonderful storytellers. And we are a monthly publication, but it's given us this platform to reach out to our community and um just be more present in our schools. And uh we are just really grateful to be here
015today and have this opportunity to recognize them and their hard work and dedication. So, we thank you for having us. I want to also say we we uh actually filmed a podcast with Ms. Freeman. What students were in that podcast? Raise your hand. If you went with me to the podcast. Right. So, has that been released yet? Have you seen it? Okay, so that They've been asking. Okay. Mike and Melissa McDaniel take care of that. So, at what some point in the very near future it should be out. So. Awesome. Thank you all for being here. Very impressive. Great behavior, too. Thank you. Thank Okay, well they are filing out we'll ask Mr. Burnett to come up and he's going to give us an update on the autism night. Andy, come on up. Bring your
016team. Yes, and the steward you come on down. Y'all come on up. >> board. Good afternoon, Andy. Andy Burnett, ESC director. Um very happy to call something to your attention um that our district has partnered with uh the Zeta Mu Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta um say uh autism awareness resource source event on a Thursday, April 2nd 5:30 to 7:00 at CL Overton Cafeteria. Um really neat thing you know, there's a lot of different resources for parents regarding autism, but they're spread out all over the place. They're either government, school, private, even churches. And so just a really neat event that they have helped and we have helped with them to bring together for our parents to come at a kind of a one-stop shop, get resources that the community offers and then take
017that back that they can use with their students and with their kids. Um we also provide child care in there so they can you know, that's not a barrier if they want to come and bring their kids. We have some things for them to do as well. So we just wanted to bring this to your attention and recognize the Zetas for helping us put this on. Outstanding. Outstanding. >> Mr. Nail, give you a lot of trouble? No, these are great group of ladies to work with. Absolutely. >> way, we recorded a podcast today. Melissa, when will that be released? That's what I thought. Tomorrow. So that would be released tomorrow to talk about the uh autism night. So. Awesome. All right. >> Yep. Can we get a picture with our weapon? That'd be good. Yeah,
018Miss Gilliard says that she can't ever get Miss Pernell to do anything. I don't know. Thank y'all for being here. I appreciate All right, board. We'll move into our public comment. And only had one speaker card, and I can't find it, but I know who it is. So, Mr. Hotel, you know, if you'll come up and and give your name and address for the record, and the rest of y'all will look and see if I may have passed that to you when I was passing out the materials. Somewhere up here. Anyway, you recognize her. Tim Hotel, 105 Riverside Way, San Mateo. I gave you a couple of pages of a handout as uh earlier I made mention how privileged we are to y'all to to serve these children. Part of that service includes your oversight
019responsibilities. And it's either last month or 2 months ago, I believe there was a request for a workshop to cover the audit matters. And a couple of other matters. My knowledge, the those dates haven't been set. So, we're going longer and longer. Uh so, I thought I'd give you a a couple of pages of uh what the artificial intelligent computer says that are uh things that board members are uh can do, should do, responsible to do. And in this case was basically the irregular sole source contracting which I brought to your attention. Um which I guess is probably best summarized by the statement that is made by that fact that the only place in all of Putnam County that any of your district vehicles can find a battery to buy is at Bohannon's. And that's
020what a sole source is saying. And that probably isn't a fact. And there's a couple of other matters here that I think would be worthy of of digestion. But again, it comes back to the last section number six there. My my thoughts about the the value. You can't get anything done once a month. My opinion. Mhm. Uh and if you had a uh inspector general office funded that answers to you that you could have somebody go out and find these things. So, you don't have old white-haired guys getting up and yelling. We uh yeah, we do have the She She's getting it. >> Okay. I'll hand it to you. All right. Um Yeah, we're we've working on the they will all be next month. So, um April 15th. Okay, I I guess this got cuz
021I hadn't had hadn't had a date and and I remember Yes, sir. This the audit workshop will be April 14th in this room at 9:30 and the sole source purchasing and and purchasing in general discussion and workshop will be on May the 12th. I'm sorry. Be before the board meeting. May the 12th, you said? May 12th. Um it'll be before the board meeting, probably 2:30. 2:00. 2:00. So, both those are set. And for the public listening again came to my attention when you had all the fight over the the last appointment and and you know, the board had mandated that they become aware of any directors um before they were appointed and that hadn't happened. Um it just Okay. So, again, the uh Ms. Piggott, do you want >> it as April 15th at 9:30.
022It's April 14th. Yeah, I'm wrong. I hold on. Sorry. There's 14th we have expulsion hearings in this room at 9:00. >> And I've got a strategic planning at strategic is 3:00 2:15 to 3:15. Yes, ma'am. That's the 15th. Is that What was strategic planning? I have that at 2:30 on the The strategic plan. >> Yes. At 2:15. Oh, 2:15. Okay. Yes, the 15th. Structural materials at 9:00 a.m. Yes. And then audit at 9:30. Audit workshop at 9:30. Okay. And that's the 15th instead of the 14th. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Hopefully the two pages will will help out. Be useful. Thank you. All right, board. Everybody got that written down and >> May 12th. May 12th will be the the purchasing workshop. And that'll be at 2:00 before the board meeting. Okay. Okay. And
023we will have These will be posted, so Yeah, I'm going to get that information to me. >> All right, board Before I go through on the consent agenda, I just wanted to a D6 or E6 has been pulled and E6 and I'm going to have asked JD to come up and explain that cuz it it it goes it's connected to the emergency item. So, JD, come on up and give them the explanation you gave me before the meeting. Pulled for a meeting. I'm sorry. Pulled or removed. Uh pulled for We'll pull for discussion. Pulled for the discussion. All of you received the number six is um put on the is the roadway improvements for the school out there. There's two um Get the right packet out here. What we're looking at today in in that
024package see there there's a there's a cost for the sidewalks as well. We're looking at the paving only in this one to pull the sidewalks because there's a possibility we're looking at the possibility through the through the BOCC and the state state funding down the line to put sidewalks in it once once school is in place. We can't do that the state won't allow us to do that while while we're building it has to be an active school at the time. So, just want to clarify on that because there's an add often on that for the sidewalks, but in all the conversation we've had we need to do the paving now and then we need to do the sidewalks after the fact. Ms. Sharon Spell, the director of transportation, is looking at busing any students
025that would be within that 2-mi radius to get them to school safely. So, we're through We've got we've covered that. Um and I spoke to each of y'all about the funding store some funding source questions, but just clarifying on that we're looking at the paving not the sidewalks. >> Okay. on that. >> Very good. So, that would be the issue that that needs to be I guess we're I guess just clarify that we're voting on the sidewalks portion it without the sidewalks portions. Very good. Questions on that? >> Any questions from the board on that? You're good. Okay. Um Ms. Wagner, I'll start with you on the consent agenda. Um I do not have anything to pull today. >> All right. Ms. Kilgore. Nothing to pull, sir. I'm good. Ms. Pickens. I'm good. All right.
026Chair will entertain a motion on the consent agenda. Mr. Chair. >> Go ahead. I'll offer a motion that we accept the consent agenda as printed. I'll second that. Okay. So, do we have the magic words? >> E6 being pulled. >> Pulled. Right. Yes, sir. That's it. >> I'll second that with item E6 being pulled. Yes. Okay. All right. All in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Motion carries unanimously. Now we need >> got to vote on E6 separately. Yeah, we You want to do E6 separately? All right. Entertain a motion on E6. I'll offer a motion that we accept item E6 uh the change order number nine Crescent City Pre-K Elementary. Second. All right. We have a motion. Without the sidewalks. >> Without the sidewalks. Correct. I'll put that here. Yeah, hopefully
027we'll get them built built for free. Um all right. Uh all in favor of the motion signify by saying I. I. Motion carries unanimously. Okay, board. We will now um move into uh an emergency um go to um adjourn the regular meeting go into the emergency item uh an emergency session under I1 um OCO number 10 the Crescent City Pre-K and the fire marshal changes with with A. Jackson and that's um We have James Marini here too from A. Jackson. >> up and talk about it. >> Yeah, this is a change order. It We got some numbers swapped over here with the the the biggest part of this is the fire marshal came through and they do their walk periodically. This is in the middle almost post construction. We're getting close to the end of
028the school. And these are things the fire marshal brought up that needed to be done. Firewalls needed to be extended. Valves out by the water tank that needed to be reversed and and done differently. So, that's where that 87 198 comes from. Um I just we we discussed it in our in our um our pre-meeting, but it's really the fire marshal can dictate what needs to be there and that's why we had to go through it. It was above and beyond what was expected in the drawings. May I? Yes, sir. I would really add that the team pushed back on his first requests, which were not really required. And so, this would have been a lot bigger lift had the team not pushed back. And so, it wound up with this compromise and a lower
029cost. I have a question whenever. I have a question. >> Yes, sir. Go ahead. I I have a question. Go ahead. >> So, does the fire marshal periodically inspect during building? Yes, he does. And so, without getting into it too much, he he comes through when construction is in progress, when he can see things, and then he may, at his whim, bring those things up later. He doesn't tell you that maybe that wall >> He may or may not. It it it Yeah. Um it's he doesn't have to. Okay. But I mean, obviously, that's the desire of the team. If if he sees something he or she sees something that, you know, may need attention, obviously, early in construction is best. Um sometimes that doesn't happen. Okay. Yes, sir. Would it have saved money had
030the items that have been identified now been identified earlier on in the process or is it a wash? It's It's It's not very significant. I I don't know that it's a wash. Um Uh but you know, a lot of these are first cost type things. Like Like, for example, one is adding ceiling tiles to some of the electrical rooms. And so, there were no ceiling tile, there are. So, that's a first cost. It's not, you know, it's not like you're going back and changing the tile the ceiling. So. Is there any logical reason that you're aware of why you He would not point out things to you as early in the process as he possibly could? It's It's a personality thing often times with stick with fire marshals. Sometimes it just depends on, you know,
031how diligent they want to be up front, how um communicative, how much they want to do in writing, those types of things. It can vary from fire marshal to fire marshal. It really can. Very diplomatic answer for saying no, right? Yeah. Yeah, well, I Well, if you remember the the I remember Phil talking about the the well head at Kelly Smith primary site and uh how it could be moved or couldn't be moved. And then we're then we fall into county guidelines and you have to resolve that. And then if you don't do what they recommend and you have a fire, then you've got liability concerns and questions there. So, I just Well, I I understand that fire marshal you un- unless you're able to negotiate a change of mind on his part. Never. You've
032got to do what you know, he he requires. I was just wondering if there was something like Enough said. You know, you know, you know what I was asking why I do. Yes, sir. The problem is is that um the fire marshal works for the state fire marshal. He doesn't answer to the county commission who employs him or anybody else and he knows that and and uh with clients I've had, non-school clients, uh um you know it's it's been very difficult to work with this individual and I mean if he can make it more expensive for you, he will. And uh this is one of those cases I don't mind telling you it just is. Is it the bottom line that he has to sign off? Yeah, he's Yes, ma'am. You got to do what
033you have to do. The other silver lining is there's no additional it's basically essentially cost of the work in here because the roadway work took a little longer. So we're we're going to do that work concurrently so there's no like you know additional work related to extending time or anything like that for this. So that's a good thing. I mean we All right. Thank you. >> Did we Did we Okay, we need a motion Thank you, James. and a second. Thank you. Okay, I um I'll make a motion that we accept emergency item I one, the change order number 10 for Crescent City pre-K six fire marshal changes. All right, can I have a second? I'll second. All right, I have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.
034Motion carries unanimously. All right, board we'll adjourn this the emergency session move back into our regular session and we have no unfinished business so we'll move or new business so we'll move into reports and Miss Biggins I'll start with a report from you. Um I don't have much today. I'm just I hope that all of our teachers and students are well rested and ready to go in for the home stretch um the last nine weeks. Um Uh I just would like to to say, you know, good luck to all of our students that are show showing tonight and tomorrow night at the fair. I know that it's a tremendous amount of work for students, for their sponsors, and for their families. Um And then the Interlachen cheer squad, my goodness, what a wonderful um accomplishment
035and a coach that sets goals a little bit higher and a little bit higher um making them constantly reach for for better and they those girls are answering um that challenge. So, good job to um coach Cammy and all of the girls. Um and then this newspaper that the students young ladies at um James A. Long, it that's amazing. That's a that's a uh thing that, you know, every school could get on board with at least that has a 21st century program. I I I'm extremely impressed by it. Um and that's all I have. All right. Mr. Buckles? Uh I'd like to ditto everything that Holly just said. It was We've got some wonderful things going on with our kids in our schools. It's super fantastic. It's a busy time of year. I'm back into
036the watching grandkids show livestock at the fair and kid is playing in in all county tournament today for softball. So, we've just We've got a lot of things happening, but I I wanted to point out that you know, all the all that stuff we've heard I I looked at the latest social media hit from the state of Florida on the cost of Florida's unaccountable vouchers. And just out of Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Polk, Duval, Pasco, Osceola, Pinellas and every other school district was a little lower, but we're talking $47 million that can't be accounted for that is gone and can't be utilized in the public school system. And this is this is the Florida Auditor General report. And you know, I I just something's going to have to happen in the state of
037Florida. I don't know and I Rick sees it in his superintendent meetings and you guys go to the school board meetings and you hear the same stuff. You know, who's not for alternatives if as long as it's rational, but it's it's got to be some kind of way to hold on to this money and not just let it We're talking about you know, what goes on with the fire marshal. This is to serve kids and get them back and do from home and and uh try to be as as good as we can on on doing that and everything else that comes on along with being responsible for these young people. So uh just something needs to happen and I know you guys will be supporting some kind of changes that are rational at the
038state level to maybe secure the future for Putnam County and the state of Florida. But that I just I'm headed out to another evening. I'm trying to catch my breath here to decide if I'm going to the watch the hog show or not or first and feel I guess you'll be there too. So or the or the softball tournament. So Miss Gillard, I'll pass it to you. Okay. Um just want to say thank you in case they're listening to the Ever After Farms in Pomona Park that's allowing Crescent City Junior Senior High to use their facility free of charge so that they could have their prom and as you said that's this time of year when things are coming to a close. So we want to personally say thank you to them making this happen
039for our students. Um Also the University of Florida with their tutoring program uh for our students in K-5 the math and reading and then the AI that will be offered to our 6th to 12th grade students. And this is just awesome. This is just something else to keep our children abreast and ahead of the game, so that we can close the learning gap and do what we need to do. Um Mrs. Pickens mentioned the newspaper that the students from James A. Long brought in, but I just want to talk about their behavior. The way they came in, well-mannered, waited for their teacher, sat there patiently and listened. And we as adults and leaders, those children see us and they emulate us. So, we have to be mindful of how we conduct and carry ourselves. So,
040a thumbs up to James A. Long and after-school program. And the final thing uh I just want to mention uh while I was waiting to go in and see the superintendent and his team, I passed by uh Mrs. McDaniels' uh office and and I didn't get permission, but I kind of stepped in and started reading on her door. And on her door, every one of our administrators have given a positive note about things that they are going to be doing at their school from now until time for the test the state assessment test. And and it's powerful. Their commitment to their students and some of them even mentioned uh what are they going to do for the ones that are at the uh lower end of the spectrum. What are they doing for their third
041graders that may possibly uh be retained, but what they're doing is trying to make sure that they don't be retained. And so, this is to the superintendent and his leadership team. When they bring our principals down here, they are focusing in on their students. And I just want to give them a thumbs up and say, "That a way to go." And I think their theme is something like uh they're be be all in. And if you catch it, it's the grade B because we were so close as the superintendent has been sharing with us. And again, I go back to our crown meeting when they reminded us that that's our reason. Our focus is is on student achievement. And that's what we are to be pushing, our student achievement. And I think we're moving not
042think, I know we're moving in the right direction. And just a thumbs up to all of you for the great job and the focus. Thank you. >> I'm done, sir. Thank Uh, Miss Wagner. Um, just a couple things here. I wanted to also, um, comment on the kids today. What I noticed right off the bat was how they walked in, um, as you said, calmly, respectfully. They sat down. They paid attention They heard everything going on. And it about brought me to tears when we did the pledge of allegiance because that's what I heard. And it it it just about got me. Um, it was my favorite pledge I've heard since being on the board. So, I was really proud of them for that. Um, so someone is doing something very important in these kids'
043lives and it's it's very obvious to me. Um, just a couple of things. I know that, um, they're proceeding in Melrose. There's a a lot of questions now from people who aren't up to speed saying, "Why are they taking all the trees down?" Um, it's looking a little bare along there, but it's uh coming along and I've been getting a lot more, um, positive feedback. I think word's getting out of what's going on and and I'm really excited on that. Um, I was happy to see that, uh, Putnam Virtual is actually needing to move their graduation ceremony instead of being here in the board room because they've grown so much. So, they've outgrown our board room. Um, glad to know there's that many kids, you know, graduating through, uh, this alternative program and it's that's
044good to see. Uh, and And thing is the, um with the Marathon clinic we've we've had some um information coming through of course uh to the insurance committee. So if you talk to anybody who's gone to this clinic, they're just they're just it's overwhelmingly positive. I know I've been a little maybe overboard um as a spokesperson up here, but it's amazing. It is absolutely the best experience I've ever had in any doctor's office in my life. I just it's easy. It's great. But I speak to a lot of other people about and I get that same thing, but that what they really are needing is feedback from people who go there. So if you've gone or if you know someone who's gone, they usually send a an email. Please do respond to that. It's really
045really important when they start We have a lot of leeway on what we do at this clinic. We can extend hours if if teachers aren't able to get there until we could we might reduce those hours if nobody's using them. Um they can open up on Saturdays if we have the need for it. We can We're in charge of this. So it's extra important that people report um their good experiences or let them know, "Hey, I I'm having a hard time getting in here because of this reason." So it's They will take all of that into consideration. So just want to encourage anybody who has um gone or goes in the future, please look for an email and don't just delete it. I know I have a bad habit of that a lot of times
046if they're asking me for anything. Um but it's really important because that information helps us tailor it to our employees so we can have better usage all over. So and that's all I have. Okay. Very good. Um just wanted to um reply on Mr. Buckles' comment on this voucher thing. There was a legislation a bill passed in the Senate to set up a a separate entity under DOE and I guess the uh CFO for the vouchers it didn't pass in the house and you know um even though I'm not up there and you know on a regular basis and part of that process anymore I've never seen the acrimony that's occurred the last 2 years between the speaker the governor and the Senate president and of course there was no budget that passed when they
047sine die you know last week and so there'll be a special session for the budget but I couldn't agree with Mr. Buckles more that you know it's millions and millions of dollars they can't account for and stuff and and it's just and it's hurting the public school system I mean it's a priority that bill was a priority for the school boards association and the superintendents and the fact that something that's going to you know basically establish a separate entity that would track this and and would do the distribution of the vouchers and that whole process which can't be done the way it's been done now I mean that's obvious that it wouldn't even get a hearing in the in the house I've never seen anything like that you know I've been around I've been around
048that process for over 30 years but at any rate hopefully you know we have some things in the budget and so far they look good that we're not called in any any kind of crossfire on that but they're also be looking at at other things that um but they have to pass a state budget and if it's like last year you know it was I mean Jonathan was waiting and we couldn't really plug in our numbers and have a board workshop on our budget until we until they adopted theirs and so we we may be in that same boat this year I'm hoping that it'll occur sooner than than what it did last year but I I don't we'll we'll wait and see and of course just been a a of information from both FSBA
049and from the small school district consortium and they're doing a great job up there with with everything that's going on and I echo everything y'all said. I just do want to make a special point about the fair and and the animals. I mean there's this is the largest number of animals that they'll be selling going through the you know both show pigs and steers and honestly there have not been the buyers the last several years and I'm really worried that some of these kids are going to lose a lot of money and you know the majority of them you know just come from average families average incomes and this is something to help them you know I would really stress everyone please come out and try to you know buy one if you can't buy
050one you can always do an add-on where you can put $10 on and that goes towards the purchases and towards that particular animal so I'll be up there tonight for the for the pig show tomorrow night for the steer show and then Friday for for the sale so um that's all for me counselor nothing nothing superintendent Thank you Mr. Chair product of Putnam nominations are still open through April the 1st it's great way to recognize one of our graduates making a difference through leadership career success and service and like to encourage the community to submit nominations in the following areas agriculture business community service education health care industrial manufacturing and public service and again echoing about the fair not only they have the the animals but our FFA is out there 4-H they do art
051dance and they're having pageants out there So, uh please come out and support them. Uh next week, March 31st, they're having a women in blue collar careers night, which will be at Crescent City Junior Senior High from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. And they're going to spotlight women succeeding in skilled trades and other hands-on careers. Students and community members are encouraged to attend to explore career pathways, meet professionals, make connections for the future. Uh women working in blue collar and male-dominated careers are also invited to host a table and share their journey with the students. This event also highlights PCSD's continued commitment to career readiness, workforce development, and expanding opportunities for students. And if you need any information, just contact uh the high school. And finally, uh join us for our upcoming superintendent's community engagement session,
052which will be next Tuesday night, March 31st, at 6:00 p.m. at Middleton Bernie Elementary School. That's the one that's currently open. And that'll be in the cafeteria. Parents, families, and community members are encouraged to attend. Your voice matters, and your participation is important to us. If you can't make it in person, you can actually tune in live. And there's a link that's on our website, and it's also on social media. And that's all I have. Okay. All right, board, uh any last comments? Any questions? All right, seeing no further business, we will stand adjourned. Thank you.