001I'll call the uh Buton County school board meeting for uh March the 4th 2025 to order and um Linda Miss Wagner will do the Pledge of Allegiance and followed by the prayer of our chaplain U Miss gilard please stand I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all let us pray father in the name of your son Jesus we have assembled here today to conduct the business God of this school board God every item on the agenda we pray for your Divine guidance as we have prepared ourselves we have studied we've asked the right questions God now we just pray that the decisions that we make will be in the best interest first of our
002students God and of all our stakeholders or constituents we pray for peace we pray oh God that you will continue to bless keep our schools safe and our children we ask all this in the matchless name of Jesus amen amen amen all right board members we will start with a presentation by feeding the need Representatives miss isold and miss uh Bramley and and and company thank you for giving us the opportunity to come before you today I'd like to introduce our board Bo represented um at today's meeting we have uh Denise bramlet Renee Huff is coming in we have Ashley mcol Stacy isol um myself Becky Moes and did Bud get here yet bud mck not here yet and Bud McKinnis who will probably be coming in um most people in our community have heard
003of the feed the need of putam organization our whole team works hard to advertise what our organization does and how it benefits local children in need of food support which is more critical um than ever with the cost of groceries ever on the rise but all of our efforts would not benefit a single child if it was not for the work of the fine people we will be calling up before you today we wanted to highlight our local school pantries coordinator at each school and with that I give you Stacy to call out the names thank you Becky much better at that than I am yeah so we have a few people that are busy today and were un busy with their duties at school and were unable to make it they were just too
004busy but we want to recognize them publicly because the school pantries is a lot of work and they put a lot of their own time and effort volunteer time um did they are outside of school hours working on the pantries to make sure the kids get the food home on the weekend so we just want to make sure you all know how important it is one of our feed the need volunteers Terry Dallas and um carlen Emery I know her name I just forgot it for a second they um are our pantry coordinators at brown brownie Pierce Elementary they were unable to make it today and as I call your name if you just want to come up um Odell Ford he is um our James a long very important pickup person and we appreciate
005him very much you just stand we'll bring it to you in a second you're our first get in the middle Odell they're gonna take pictures I'm sure certificate okay Holly John's from James a long she was also unable to make it but she's very important to um our James aong pantry and they also have a they got out of order okay Tina Alford is unable to make it today also but she is our pantry coordinator coordinator for interlocking um Jenkins Elementary School here's your James thank you and um at James a long they have a teen volunteer Braden Meyers he's a senior and um he comes every afternoon and spends at least an hour of his time organizing the pantry and get making sure that the food is ready for the kiddo um shanana was
006not able to be here today from Kelly Smith Elementary School but she is our coordinator there Alice Henry are you here okay she's also from James aong I was really hoping she would be here today we will get someone up there with you I promise and fr howl um she's from melon Learning Center she works very hard to keep the pantry together for us hopefully y'all recognize some of these names even though the faces aren't here at the moment and from Middleton Bernie I see you um Dakota Whitley if you'd like to come up here and josela Laura from Middleton Bernie also these ladies do a great job and one of our other feed the need volunteers who also does pickup for Middleton Bernie arbano he is unable to make it he has a little
007baby at home that he takes care of his own baby and from Mosley Elementry Alicia Hall Bud McKenna showed up he can come in the door and from Aquilla Diane Williams there you [Applause] are and from Paca senior junior junior senior high school Michelle Parnell and from interlock and high school Melissa Winnington she supposed to be here she's not here okay and lesie Smith from interlock and high school is also unable to attend but they both do a great job there and um we also wanted to not miss the day without recognizing um our chefs um from Interlocken culinary arts program um Aaron Walker and Kathy Hoy Kathy Hoy thank you all and Becky has a few more things to say as you have heard this work does take time energy and organizational skills and
008these people do not get comp compensated for the work they do for feed the need but so many young people benefit from their efforts so we wanted to take this opportunity to show our appreciation for all that they do and we wanted to be sure we recognize them for their dedication to our community and our young citizens as we prepare for the next school year we do have a few campaigns we will will be promoting one of our missions is to raise awareness about the importance of nutrition and healthy eating habits especially for food and secure youth most of our pantry items and work will be focused on educating our youth about healthy food options we will also be advertising ways for local groups and citizens to become more involved in our mission we are
009always wanting to connect with individuals who have a desire to help young people thrive and build a healthier Community for all of our citizens so if you like to get involved please reach out to one of us and we will connect you with opportunity and Miss bramlet has a special recognition so we have um several of our schools are over a hundred kids um I believe Militan Bernie James a long Mosley 120 kids in each school and that's a lot of work um we are proud that uh two years ago culinary arts um and interlocking came on board and we send them um produce uh you got a lot of eggs just recently didn't you he said that was worth gold um so we send produce meat and um poultry that we don't use in
010our regular school so we've partnered with the culinary arts and interlockin and they um he teaches the students how to prepare even freeze how to cook um you know items that they might not necessarily do and so we would like to present you with a special recognition um thank you for all your help in our fundraising uh Chef is always goes above and beyond to help prepare desserts for our fundraising help prepare dishes puts his kids to work and we get a lot of compliments on the the um food that they help us with and we would like to present you with $1,000 to be able to buy the things that you don't necessarily have the means to and that's from the feed to need board our team and our volunteers and everybody that you
011know makes this program happen and we appreciate all of y'all tremendously thank y'all thank you we can't just all stand up stand let's just stand up okay that work thank thank you thank you the board would certainly like to thank all the representatives of the feed the need uh they do outstanding job want to especially uh recognize our former School Board member bud mckennis bud welcome back good to see you um and again uh just amazing work that they do to help uh insecure children with food okay board let's move to our presentation by Education Foundation Mr Sims you are and your team are recognized all right good afternoon everyone good afternoon so my name is Evette Jones and I am a board director with the Education Foundation of putam County and joining me here
012today is our board chairman Le Sims we also have another board director Miss Joyce Oliver and we have Wayne mlan from Beck Automotive um he helped to sponsor our successful Citizen Award and this is our first time giving out this award and the successful Citizen Award recognizes students who actively work to improve their community and demonstrate a commitment to making a positive impact this year we are proud to honor two outstanding young women Jamie docker and Shay Delaney ladies can you come [Applause] up so each of our winners will receive a $250 check in recognition of their achieve achievements first let's recognize Jamie Dockery So Jamie was nominated by Andrew beler and here are some of the things that Andrew had to say about jimie he says that jimie um is an active 4 AG
013member she is the putam County council president which which means that she oversees all of putam County 4 events such as community outreach being the president of the putham county Council she speaks with many different youth from all across the county and she sees how they are doing in their communities through 4 not only that but she's the president of her 4 Club her Local 4 4 Club boots and Bows she's also an executive board appointed member which means that she helps to plan all of the state events and she helps them to make the best um the best plan the best I don't know the best bet which is what 4 tries to do being on the executive board she is the voice in Florida 4 world and everything that they do and talk
014about um Jamie has been involved in several different projects including um helping the victims of hurricane Helen and hurricane Milton in Florida and also helping the people in Tennessee and so we just want to recognize Jamie and all of her efforts and that's why we presented you with with the successful Citizen Award next we have Shay Delaney Shay was nominated by Stacy Frasier and these are some of the words um she was Stacy said about Shay so it says that sheay suffered a devastating loss of her father from cancer her sophomore year of high school she however did not let it stop her from being an amazing young lady who is always thinking of others and putting others first she volunteers countless hours in honor of her late father to help organize and participate in
015the Sha Delaney golf Memorial which raises money to be able to give putam county seniors scholarships to pursue a college career without the scholarship these students may not be able to attend college through this golf Memorial Shay has had the pleasure to hand out scholarships to 21 putam county seniors with the hopes to continue this program for many years to come Shay has also organized on her own a free community prom dress lendon closet this gives others in need the opportunity to attend prom and or homecoming WorryFree Shay posted on social media about the prom closet sent out text messages made Flyers that she put around the school and in the community and called around asking for ations sheay spent several hours collecting over 60 dresses and lending out 12 dresses thus far she went
016above and beyond and got the approval from Administration to set up a discret location in the school to allow the students to pick out and try on these free Jes sheay also mentors others and sheay stepped up when her father passed away um to help in the community like her dad did Shay is truly an example of what what perseverance determination and selflessness looks like Shay has made a profound impact on others in the community just like her parents and it is truly an honor for us to honor Shay Delaney oh sure picture I think we fit in this one [Applause] and to follow that up real quick um I'd like to say thank you Mr Wayne mlan and the entire Beck Organization for sponsoring this program it was a pilot program we we we
017started this year with Dr Jones um we're trying to recognize students that um are doing something in their Community you know uh a lot of kids you know get the scholarships it's like the top five or eight% get the same scholarship over and over again uh I was never one of those um so uh we do want to recognize uh these kids are having a bigger impact and the second thing I wanted to to note I was in here last month uh Linda you weren't here um but I told told you that we were working to reach our goal of $300,000 to return to the teachers and the students of putam County after going through the books that night when I went home and and and and I realized at that point we were already
018at $315,000 a little over $315,000 that we have awarded as of last month and to top that off by June we will be at $517,000 that we have will have awarded this year to the teachers and students of putam County so thank you for your support thank you a Thank You Les appreciate that appreciate uh all of your team being here Wayne thank you for your work and uh the support of Beck Automotive really appreciate it great job everybody okay uh board we will move to our last presentation by Mr bowling on or no I guess on Mr berett Mr Bernett anybody want to ask can all right on the marathon Clinic up date good afternoon Bor how are y'all good good good deal yourself I'm doing well okay once I figure out how to
019work anyway I'm going have some uh handouts for you real quick um Susan is going to send these out to you too by email these are some uh they're pretty small print of uh designs of the of the facility and if you're like me sometimes it's easier on a computer when you can blow it up and get a better look at things also give you a copy of our uh presentation as well um and what we're going to do is I'll give you um just go over the brief presentation with you um and then at the end if you have questions you'll be able to ask those I have a Travis Woods here I'm anticipating that you'll probably have some questions about the facility and he'll be much uh more able to answer those questions
020then I will um first off uh just want to thank my committee members that have worked on this with me I think I'd be a little remiss but didn't thank them uh Mark Modo Michael greenan Paul Smith and Tammy Heath from the union side and then myself Mr bowling Diana Drew and Jonathan Odum from admin um also Tammy Collins Sandra Redmond uh Miss Wagner uh Richard Frederick and Benji Bates from Bates and huitt um we put a lot of work into this and some of these was seem like small blips but we were meeting we meet once a month it's just our regular Insurance meeting but we were additionally meeting once a month again just for the just for Marathon to make sure we worked out any issues or uh you know problems that might
021arise so you might see just a small bullet point but there was a lot of work that went into the small bullet point I'm sure Linda can attest to that um one thing any before you do that could you just kind of explain for people here that may not know in in our video what marathon is and you know what what we're doing I mean we kind of take it for granted all right good question um yeah we did you know it's a it's a clinic well I and I'm not going to say Clinic anymore I need to say a a Wellness Center I'll get into more on that in a in a minute but um it's a shift in you I'm not a health care expert but a shift in delivery of health care
022that's started around the country um you know most of us are used to the old system where we have our doctor and we go to that and they refer us to other Physicians or we go to the emergency room um big shift lately is having a Wellness Center where people can go and what the idea is it's more of a holistic approach um maybe through your company or through or another organization where you go you can get a lot of your healthc care needs taken care of with the emphasis being on prevention and hopefully being able to catch a lot of things before they happen so so you can you whatever may may come up um something we've been considering for a while I mean and for a while Mark could probably speak better than
023I could probably before I even came on the committee just as a member was things that have been tossed about and we knew we would have to go self-funded first which we've done several years ago so we knew we had the reserves available to do this and we always knew in the back of our mind that we weren self-funded we wanted to have something that our employees can go to um a lot of our employees we found don't go to the physician for whatever reason we try to incentivize as much as possible um for the employees to go at least once a year to see see their physician because it lowers their health premiums but for whatever reason they don't um so that was important to us to have a facility that they could use
024so we can take better care for our employees education is a stressful job I mean and it gets more stressful by the day not a doctor but it does have a big impact on your health I was talking with Miss France earlier before we came in about just the stresses that we have and the uh physical stress and and how it deteriorates your health um but I will also say this as an administrator you know we're we're in competition for great teachers um great employees when you have benefits like this and some of our districts that surround us already have St John's have had a marathon Wellness Center for several years now Flagler is in the same position we are they've started but we're in competition for you know for the talent that's out there
025to teach our kids and you know I see Miss Gillard looking at me cuz I worked with her in a school and you've got good teachers and good employees in their in the classrooms a lot of that other stuff kind of takes care of itself so that's another reason that we wanted to go this route I don't know if that answered your question yes sir yeah thank you okay and um I'm more of a oh perfect I was going to say I was more of a MacBook man so when you got me on this it's a little harder but putham County well Wellness Center powered by Marathon Health that is the name of our Wellness Center and I want to say Wellness Center and like I said because it's not a clinic a clinic is
026something you just go to but we're talking about Wellness something that our employees can go to where it's about all of their health so service provider um Mark and I interviewed well I shouldn't say we interviewed how about we reviewed two uh great candidates Marathon did the initial interviews for us we selected one of those um both were uh both were great applicants but um we decided to go with Miss Brittney bracewell um she's an advanced practice registered nurse family nurse practitioner she currently works for Marathon which was a big big bonus for us she has experience in rural communities and and we had discussions with her you could tell she was a real advocate for the wellness model we had a great discussion just kind of happened organically about glp drug use um that's
027uh you for diabetes pre-diabetes and also it's called on with a weight loss now um and you know those are some of our high or the highest our our payouts or our prescriptions that we have with our group so um it was just a great conversation we had with her so that that is going to be our provider um our facility some of you may know it's at the old training center on husten Avenue it's currently in the process of being remodeled we did have to push back our Target date a little bit till till the end of June you know we anticipated things that were going to happen like that quote I gave you from a President Eisenhower you know plans are worthless but planning is indispensable we knew we'd have to have to
028make some changes and modify our game plan and so we did that and we've pushed that back fees for service I know this might be a area of interest for all of you as well we're going to go with a zero fee for all of our eligible reme members regardless of the plan that means if you need to go to the clinic you can go and you won't have to give any money out on that visit we thought that was a big incentive and also incentive for people to want to join our health plans to know if hey if if I'm on this health plan I have the option or even my family members on the plan I have that we have the option of this Clinic you don't have to but you have the
029option um all employ employes spouses and dependents on a sponsored Health Plan will have access retirees on a pcsd insurance plan will have access to the wellness center as well they're paying in to to our insurance fund and we want to reward them for their longevity of being here so they will have access as well no Off plan temporary or contracted employees will have access like I said you have to be a member of one of our plans to have access um and employees I said may be able to use the wellness center during contractual hours we are um working with that with the union and I will say this all of the union members and uh admin members on the team are are wanting to do something we just haven't um put together the
030language to be a little clear like if I worked for Miss Gillard and I was a teacher I could come to her and say hey I don't feel well can can I run to the clinic real quick so we want to get some rules in place because we want to have that option for our employees and we but we just have to get it down on paper what that looks like and what the procedures are for that so that's that's what that means Health Center hours um you can see those for yourself Tuesdays and Thursdays stand out because those run later um we had some pretty good discussion about this this is what we went with for now and if you remember going back heck when we first started talking about Marathon that the the
031thing that we liked is that we could adapt the the wellness center to our needs once we look at and get feedback from our employees if we look at that and we see we need to change these hours that's a easy fix we can do that so this this is initial start we looked at different options but we felt let's go with this one first see how it works we'll get feedback and if we need to change we can do that so um and just for the future just some of the things we've batted around in our meetings addition of services as we go forward hopefully we're going to drive more people to our plans that'll give us more money and then we can look at as we look at those savings we can add
032more services uh different wellness centers we've looked at they've had PT certain days they've had a a dietitian on certain days mental health certain days so if we have some ideas about where we'd like to go in the future um we can also adapt plans around the use of the wellness center again to drive more people there I talked about modifying our operational hours additional sites we've already started talking about what that might look like in the future you know it's good to have a goal and a plan and we've thought about because it's a long drive and that's one of the things when we talked about if you had a sick employee during the job that want to use it that was one of the say more difficult parts to work out was um
033if they're coming from Crescent City as opposed to Paca obviously that's a longer drive and then if you're an administrator then you're having to plan around maybe more coverage for that classroom or that employee so we're already thinking about additional sites a big thing is going to be employee education it's going to be new for us and that's something we're going to be working with marathon and pushing out um student services things we talked about in the future too like sports physicals you know in the future is that something that we could possibly do help our families out help our athletes student athletes out to where they'd have a quick place to go to get an exam so they're eligible to particip iate in sports um and as we collect data we can make changes
034on this and we're going to listen really to our employee feedback employees will have the option after each visit to give feedback about the wellness center about their visit you know what they liked what they didn't like we'll be meeting every month with Marathon to look at that and then make decisions accordingly and so how many how many employees would qualify for this now roughly Jonathan you know how many 9 everybody that's on the group Insurance 900 plus okay I have I have a question go ahead um is it was Saturday ever hours ever talk I mean you said this is flexible but Saturday ever an option we we discussed weekend and like I said that might that might be a uh consideration in the future um but it it speaks to the flexibility we
035have with Marathon um being able to adapt it in in a pretty quick Pace you know to to what best suits our employees needs I'm ju I'm just thinking when I taught you know I I I hated to miss work and so you know like I mean maybe an evening but then I coach so Saturday would be really good for Saturday is not off the table you know Saturday morning so that I mean that's just something to think about I think it's great I appreciate all the hard work that that y'all have done for sure once we get that once we get that feedback coming in I would be like I said it's it's not off the table we'll consider anything we you know that comes up if it meets our employees needs any other
036questions by the board no I just have one Andy the uh um Mr Braswell will be a sole practitioner or will there be anybody else in the office yes they will have some office people now I could get that's fine I just want to make sure by she want be there by herself alone right okay all right uh any comments questions okay thank you very much appreciate the information I appreciate it thank you Andy all right board we will move to public comments um have one speaker card um Miss far you can come up and state your name and address um please limit your remarks to three minutes and uh please direct all comments or questions to the chair you're recognized okay um my name is Dr Sharon fa I live at 200 Silver Lake
037Terrace Paca 32177 District 5 earlier this year I emailed evidence to you superintendent ccy of the transgender problem in the putam accounting public schools and I copy the school board that evidence is available on my website Wellness society.org Dr Cy you chose to ignore my concerns and to not reply on February 18th I emailed you all again for my personal email via my laptop but was automatically notified that my email was blocked on February 22nd I emailed you all again from my company's email address via my company's computer but was automatically notif ifed that my email was blocked in other words I a taxpaying resident of putam County have been completely blocked so here I am in person last month president Trump issued two executive orders to eradicate transgender ideology in public schools they are
038available at White house.gov newws and his January 20th executive order named defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government and his January 29th executive order named ending radical indoctrination in K through 12 schooling president Trump addressed many issues four of which are one he defined woman as adult human female man as adult human male girl as adolescent human female and boy as adolescent human male two he itemized and cancelled all of Biden's numerous executive orders that Force teachers in every single USA a public school including those here in putham County to indoctrinate children into transgender ideology three he directed the Department of Education to eradicate transgender ideology from public schools four he announced that those public school districts who actively or passively permit even one teacher to directly or
039indirectly promote transgender ideology to students risk losing all federal funding however president Trump's Common Sense executive orders cannot protect putton County Children without your support hence I urge you to be proactive and start to address the transgender problems in our schools now rather than wait until you are forced to do so by the federal government and potentially lose their funding will you school superintendent ceny instruct your teachers to one trash Biden executive orders that push trans gender ideology two immediately Implement president Trump's executive orders three see do it that all those teachers who are certified to teach by trans activist such as Dr Rebecca Cordova are provided additional education as needed finally Fair we we don't we're not making any personal attacks against any any employee or the superintendent so your three minutes is up
040thank you for your comments okay board we'll move to the consent to the consent agenda um any other public comments before we move on okay I don't see just a just a brief comment we would uh we would be bound by anything that the State of Florida has told us we're Bound by so I I just don't see that being something that's going on but it you never know we but that's it that's all thank you DAV all right um so we will start with you miss Wagner any any consent agenda items to pull I do not have anything to pull thank you all right M gilard I have been taken care of sir thank you Mr buffer I was in yesterday I've been in today and I am doing pretty good good Miss Pickins
041I have nothing to pull my questions were answered okay I'm good too I had a conversation with the finance direct or the um what's your title now Jonathan I get thank you CFO CFO that's important all right I will uh the chair will entertain a motion for approval the consent agenda Mr chairman I would make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as as presented second go ahead all right I have a motion and a second for approval of the consent agenda all in favor signal by by saying I I I oos like sign carries unanimously all right let's see all right we have no unfinished business um our new business is the uh consensus to advertise policy update so I'll entertain a motion on the new the new business and I think you
042can just read them all whoever wants to do it right councel yes yeah identify them by number correct y agree I'll make a motion we approve or or we we read them in and then and then go from there okay I just thought you were waiting on a motion there all right all right so we will be uh the chair will entertain a motion for policy updates on 2421 24 55 563 30 8420 per the Neola update second no I had to have a motion in a second I was just reading them in I make I make a motion now and then we'll do for discussion but I make a motion we approve the the uh new business that the chairman read off to us each each policy update all a second all right I
043have a motion in a second any discussion um I I do let me see if I can find it um I had quite a few questions but um Miss Drew spent some time with me today um on the 7101 M the BCA or subcontractor serving is that is that Travis or is that who that's my question who is our building building administrator yeah building code administrator that was my would that be Travis put his name okay I just needed to know as well just who it was any other questions I okay are you good Miss Pickins any comments yes okay all right so I have a motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying I I oos like sign motion carries unanimously wow okay so we are now on reports by board
044members no no no miss one oh oh forgot the purchase Oh top of the next one yeah how can I miss that okay um so I will open it up well let's get a motion on the floor in a second then we'll open for discussion and question Mr chairman I make a motion that we proceed with with the uh purchase of or the attempt to purchase the property that has been presented and that's on Round Lake Road yeah on Round Lake Road next to Kelly Smith 10 acres cool property correct with a house I it's eight or 10 acres I'm not sure right off hand what 10 acres with the home and you have the appraisal and should be in your packets or was sent to you as a separate item so the um we
045do need a second don't we to yeah we need a second second for discussion okay I'll second for discussion chairman can I yes you can do I understand Mr Buckle's motion to be that we approve the contract that's uh on the agenda and that all of you have been provided I think he moved to I'm I moved to to look at purchasing the property oh as the emergency item yeah it's not no not emergency it's new business new bus okay so okay I guess my question we have a contract that's on before the board for approval and I think it's in your packet and all of you have have reviewed it so um I I was just asking if his motion was essentially he said to attempt to purchase my question is is is his
046motion to basically approve the contract Mr homes I'll I'll amend it I my my recommendation would be that we try to purchase the property approve the contract approve the contract as presented okay thank you and that was a second M that was your second I've looked at it at nauseum the last few days being there we have Mr Bowen here and uh and Mr Woods if you have any questions or anything about and Mark sping thank you yes okay do you have any comments with counselor on anything contract wise or no I I'm I'm comfortable with the contract I mean the terms are self-explanatory and I believe the addendum protects the school the school board so I'm comfortable with the contract correct so the appraisal came in um slightly below the uh contract price so
047we do have the authority to approve it but it has to be by super majority vote so um just for your just for the record okay any and that's very relevant so because I think the contract just if you don't mind no go ahead sir um the addendum in the contract contemplated that we might not have any an appraisal back when we were trying to when they were working diligently to try to get the contract signed we weren't sure if we'd have the appraisal back so the addendum basically um if you'll look at it provides that at paragraph 2A uh the contract and the school board's obligation would be contingent upon an appraiser um appraising the property and coming back with a value that was in excess of the purchase price um we didn't we
048weren't sure that we'd have an appraisal you do have an appraisal now right and so my my question basically or my request is that you consider going ahead and um in light of and in spite of the provision that says that your approval would be contingent on your coming back and considering it again after you received an appraisal you have the appraisal now so we could essentially eliminate that that contingency if it pleases the board Mr chairman that that pleases me y you know I think that 's of your Amendment come and just the um civil engineer going to take a look at the property just to make sure there aren't any wetlands and and the property is everything we think it is and we think it's high and dry um and it'll be the
0499.9 Acres would um do a lot of things to help that site not just grow but grow um in a way that we can use that additional property to place buildings or ponds or driveway or whatever we you know desire um we don't have an architect for it yet we've looked at some some renderings and some early runs of just possibilities but it would certainly help a lot it solves a lot of problems but I asked Don to bake in if you will in the contract and out for the board um if it doesn't come back everything we think think it is so can you elaborate on that certainly um basically you have a due diligence period but the addendum uh gives you an additional U time frame at your discretion should you desire and
050should you not have your inspections back so obviously staff will diligently attempt to obtain all of your inspections and get written reports back that meet in staff and your sold discretion your needs but if the 60 days isn't enough we built in and the buyer the sellers were kind enough and uh Cooperative enough to agree that you at your option could build in an additional 30-day inspection period to allow for the inspections to be completed Andor the results to be received so we believe uh that with a 90day due diligence period you'll have time uh and I know folks are already working on those uh those inspections you'll have time to to satisfy yourself that the site meets your needs correct we're looking at three weeks three three to four weeks three to four weeks
051so um and I did a preliminary analysis on it looking at the soils the hydrology and wetlands everything looked good to me there is a man-made ditch out there but that's that was man-made not not natural um the elevations are actually higher than the elevations of the school now so um and then you know access to it is um off Round Lake Road so we purchased well pleased with the site and we purchased the other five acres so we have a earlier rect a rectangular piece of property now that we we will have a lot of options to work with and the the total amount of acreage with this property is 9.9 when yeah that that property is 9.9 as you remember we we added we added an additional 5.5 to the 13 point something
052that was already there and now another 9.9 so it takes it close to 30 Acres total okay and then the concerns we had a while back it with the school that's in existence now with the uh circul so that will be even taken care resolved certainly won't yeah yeah yeah yeah we're looking at a lot of options with respect to traffic impact traffic circulation and once we we retain an architect we'll be looking at a individual impact um traffic impact study and um I think we've got some really good options for um offsetting and also working within the school zone that the state you know doesn't seem to want to expand like dot doesn't like to do anything else so anyway I I feel very comfortable you know both um land use planter and also
053a realtor throw a little plug in there um with the uh with moving forward with the acquisition so any any other questions from the board okay thank you Tom any yeah thank you Thomas um any other comments Mr Woods Travis you got anything you good good good okay I do want to Mr superintendent yeah I just want to say the um talking about the acreage 30 Acres the other two sites that we had looked at the other two schools were much less than that and also they're pretty landlocked too so so this will give us those options of parking additional structure so there's and and in the future maybe um you know if we need to add a wing we certainly will be able to do that because gross moving that way okay Mark you
054good and it also it it prevents us from having to move students out of Kelly Smith to another school while that one was being necessarily no we'll have to move we still plan on moving them that one year 27 uh because we'll have to demolish the building but um you know the existing building minus the the sixth grade Wing that will stay in service so Thomas can elaborate on that your concern is my concern I wanted um to see if this would allow for an option to have a phasing plan because we now have additional acreage um so students wouldn't have to vacate that school for year um and when we we're we're still in the process of doing an RFP but when we settle to uh just a handful of Architects one of the
055challenges that we want to present to them is just that can you show us a design that that that you know will allow us to essentially have a phasing plan and keep the school in service um and plus I want to see what it looks like just um how do you how do you construct a school in general but then also show me a phasing plan again the early runs are saying it's best if we vacate for a year but you know that's that's why we look for the best talent you know we don't know what's available I certainly don't um I I'd like to remodel my back porch but I I I don't know what's available I need somebody to come give me some options or something that's the first question I asked too
056would that allow us to do that but you know there are some other considerations there we need to consider but and I'm making light of it but seriously we we intend to uh get the best best talent available to show us what they can do with it so I hope that's an option but I don't want to sell it at this point it's a lot safer to say atent City they doing excellent job with building around the school but you don't the difference the difference you know it's a headache in a night and another thing every every building in at the Crescent City Junior Senior High School is being raised and replaced um we're trying to maintain keep one of the buildings at Kelly Smith the sixth grade Wing um special needs shelter Wing um
057in service so when you start keeping buildings in service while you're trying to do that that it becomes more difficult um but not to say it's impossible yeah and and we certainly couldn't consider that without this property doing you know the the phased in so yes okay any other questions board members comments thank you okay we're all good all right so we have a motion and a second on the floor the um I will uh move the call the question all those in favor signify by saying I I poos like sign carries unanimously all right thank you everybody for that all right now we will uh move to our board reports and uh Miss Pickins we will start with you okay first I would just again like to thank the foundation for all they've done
058and will do and are doing for our school district uh it's amazing um all they've done you know it really is um I Miss Wagner and Miss Gillard and I went to the crown meeting um not last week the week before um with our so we were with the the fsba members in our area and it was extremely informative um they showed a short video of um some problems with traffic on the bus that we've mentioned over and over again but it was just a short clip the the people that were supposed to come come and um present could not come and so they are going to be at the summer workshop um in Tampa but it it was really very eye openening I I know that we had talked about speeding through you know
059the school zones but this was passing buses when the Stop Bar was down and kids were crossing the road it was amazing and she mentioned different counties I think Hillsboro and maybe D brow and already adopted them the cameras on the outside the buses so you know that I um I've never seen that happen in perp person so um I've seen people going through speed zones but not not actually running a bus when it was stopped I've I've never seen that so um that was eye opening and also um Andrea minina um did encourage us strongly to continue update and look at our policy uh she posed to us the question what is your policy on making policy and um she said that it was good practice to review policy occasionally and and I know
060we've had that discussion before too um and then probably the most exciting um there were a lot of there's a lot that we just um covered in our agenda but the mou with space Florida to me was just just really exciting and what an opportunity for our students and my last thing is um I believe it was Jennifer the Loach posted about how pacah high Junior Senior High had done a CTE awareness within their school for the eighth graders and they got to visit all the different areas of CTE and just talking sometimes to different people in in your Comm Community a lot of people are not really aware of all the opportunities that we do afford our students um through our CTE program through everyone's aware of our athletic programs maybe the jrtc but
061um you know I just thought that was a great way to share with those young people who then went home and talked to their parents and then their parents talked to their friends um just exposed in you know I'm tired of people saying we don't have some of these vocational type classes and we do and when you tell them they're you know like oh I didn't know that so um you know I just thought it was a great way to educate and you know a program that we definitely uh hold a lot of significance in our CT and and you know we encourage it so um that's all I have thank you thank you thank you for that report Mr buckles and I I've got a few things that kind of close to my heart
062here this is a copy of a vision plan for the children of putam County that we prepared as a school district in April 18th of 2002 and was provided to at request of the putam County Commission and distributed to Commissioners and it passed the better place plan uh in putham County which they have a sales tax in revenue and I I wanted to mention that because in this in this plan I one of the parts of the highway thing and I and I'm going to go into a little detail here I'm going to read you first just about a paragraph and then I'll I'll say a few comments about a call I received from Travis Weaver last week this one paragraph absent the widening and for laning of some of our highways we have death
063traps connecting our communities student drivers face terrible prospects on many of our narrow two-lane highs ways one funeral involving a young person who has lost control and overcompensated after they veered slightly off the payment is too many this danger continues to impact our schools with parents or loved ones who perish as well widening such highways as 100 and 315 between granon and interlocking will pay huge dividends in avoiding loss of life so I'm going to stop with that because that covers not only that it goes into homeless and food and everything else in putham County but I probably need to get a copy made to redistribute to County Commissioners because I know all of you know that we've had some serious accidents in the last last week particularly in that area of Highway 100 I
064received a call last week from Travis Weaver our school security off our school safety security officer trying to find a way to reroute traffic because it was an early release day from uh Qi Roberts and we we had an old easement that belongs to Indian Lake estate for a property owner and anyway I went back and we contacted the Property Owners Association and they said it was an emergency we could route buses through there to get them home if the road was blocked well fortunately unfortunately the traffic was back towards Caraway and not on the on the uh west side of the the school so we didn't have to but I would like to thank the homeowners association because they said they knew it was an emergency and if we had to Route buses through
065there like we used to we used to uh go through the Lake Estates and and all but the homeowners association make that kind of difficult anymore but um I got involved in in that to some extent and I just got to tell you there's way ways and things that need to be done you know I told you before I took a petition with over 3,000 signatures I think to Lake City and delivered it hand delivered it and was told not enough people had died put a a stoplight in up at pal met Bluff Road and 17 in Bostwick I've seen several rollover accidents up there this year there is a a a procedure or a policy that will allow school zones to have cameras speeding cameras and and and and uh to set up on
066a highway or in a municipality like patka or Crescent City or Melrose wherever you have a municipality that the fees can generated the school district can't do this but the county can Travis Weaver has has worked on this and he's getting more information uh it was brought to my attention by a former by a Palaca police officer about a year ago uh we were in a meeting and they were interested in erecting those in school zones in patka no and nobody likes a a speed trap type camera but when you got people being killed and and wreck on a regular basis it's something you need to look at and Travis uh at the request of at my request he he's researched this and obviously the county can request that that a camera according to Travis
067be put on you know in certain areas throughout the county and different municipalities the municipalities can can control it and I would just like to let the uh superintendent work with Travis to see if if he can deal with the County Commission maybe and uh or different municipalities and try to find a way to slow people down especially on the state highways on the state highway you know I it's it this is near and dear I mean these are people we love and care about and uh it's just and it doesn't seem to end uh get worse it it's getting worse and and I will I will say that the governor of the state of Florida and I think the world of Mr desis has done too good a job too good a job there
068are too many people want to come to the State of Florida no state income tax and I get it and that's you know that's the reason to look at a lot of things that we need to look at that we tried to overlook some years ago and uh it you know the county what what kind of you know I know that working with the county to do this um I think we're going to have to work together uh we're going to I would hope you know our chairman would be the one that maybe work with the county to look at some of these situations because because I know they're looking now at I've heard uh at trying to find a way to in in increase safety on our highways locally so uh I wanted to
069bring that to your attention um uh Travis is going to continue to gather the information um it's just something we need to look at and and figure out a way to if we can save one life I mean we've had we're this close a school bus took a door off a truck that was parked in the middle of the highway with the lights off not too many weeks ago and I mean kids going at night to a trip in the truck in middle of the highway parked on 100 with the doors open and fortunately nobody was hurt but we're we're you know makes my heartbeat fast when you yeah think about a school bus getting flipped over much less somebody you love and care about get killed on the way to school by somebody that's
070absolutely gone nuts and telephones are a problem uh you know just too many people you know used to have arri live at 55 I know people aren't going to want to go back to 55 mph speed limits but something's got to happen and and if people are going to speed they going to speed anyway and I've I've had people cuss me out on that Highway pull up to a red light lady blowing her horn because I didn't speed up fast enough when I pull out on pulled out on 100 this in in the last couple of months all right so I wanted to bring that to your attention and that's my that's I'm done I appreciate that very much and I I agree with pretty much everything you said and I have talked with the
071um the County Commission chairman Mr Wilkinson um and they are very concerned and I think there's going to be a uh a presentation made at their board meeting on Tuesday in some additional discussion about it but um as a land use planner and having worked on projects you know both in putam and Clay County I can tell you that dot is one of those agencies that we need to get Mr musk down here from DC and have him go through and clean house I mean it's it is a bad it's a bad situation um so anyway um Miss gilard I'm just kidding about that okay um just ditto to what um Mrs Pickin stated in regards to the uh crown uh the regional meeting that we had there in Bradford uh very informative uh just
072gained so much information from it and also gained some points toward our recertification um also following that uh we uh Mrs Pickins and I went to it was Middleton High School's uh class reunion and they had cheerleaders there that were back in they they've lost a couple of moves here and there but they they had their pom poms it was it was just great the turnout and one of the speaker uh is an MD that was a former student there that that was not the best student Behavior wise but the right person spoke the right things to him and and he was motivated to go on and succeed and so he came back to share how important Putman County is to him and he's not ashamed to tell anybody in New York that he came
073from a small town in Florida called Crescent City and so that was great I didn't get to State for the food but Holly said it was okay so I'm good with that uh following that the uh concerned citizens from uh South puton also had the the Black History Parade and they had a day in evalon Eva Lions Park there were vendors everywhere with all kinds of foods and things uh to share there was a band there from Daytona Mainland yes I was I was pleased to see that just just a great event and I thought it was great uh the incident that well the accident that you're referencing out on 100 we were at Kelly Smith at that time our sorority we were doing a reading for black history month and they informed us that
074the accident had occurred but it was beyond where we were also want to commend uh I know um Mrs MCU works with uh Sheree Clayton Mrs Clayton and and and the other committee Mrs McDaniel and all the others that are part of the black history committee they pulled the entire D9 out uh I got a chance uh the uh Dr Jones was there uh there was several of the various sororities and fraternities were there for the students to see and be a part of it I did hear that the superintendent asked where I was I was working we had an expulsion so I was I was working I told him your picture was out here in the U in the for Lobby yeah but I was working all right and the final thing just want
075to uh again personally say thank you to Miss Kenna Foster the question that I asked in regards to the the students taking advantage of the the free screening and everything that was going on she we played phone tag at first but when we finally got each other she took the time and shared some important information that that is just great and I see it honestly doing what it's supposed to do save lives an ounce of prevention and I think thank you for having her to call me yes ma'am and I think we had Serge you know that total like 350 almost 400 almost 400 students thank and that's great that is great yeah so thank you sir very good M Wacker um well I won't go into the crown meeting again since it's already been
076discussed twice but uh it was very enjoyable and I just something that I do notice at most of the fsba events is um the difference in how our board relates to each other um as opposed to other counties it it is obvious I had a conversation with someone um on another County's board and it every time I speak to somebody from another board it's always about the conflict and always about the dislike for each other and the making it personal and all that and I just sort of sit there and go we don't do that in butam County so uh we can disagree and we definitely don't always agree on things but um we can also be around each other and smile and and and enjoy an event without racing to someone to to discuss
077any any bad things because we just don't have that kind of relationship so I appreciate that they they advise people you know well you might want to you know why don't you sit with other people that you don't know and get to know some new people I spoke to a few people but then you know we we generally unless it's going to violate any Sunshine laws you know we can be around each other so it was it it makes it enjoyable um I I wanted to commend them on the successful citizen Awards um that was a real moving um testimony about that one girl in particular the I just think it's so wonderful to um acknowledge the kind of work that these girls were doing and and they're not the only ones um but I
078think acknowledging that in public is just such a boost to them and to others striving to do things um the you know I'm on the insurance committee also and the marathon this has been very very uh educational to me and really exciting uh for this Wellness Wellness Center I will call it now um there have just if anybody has any uh question at all there's been an awful lot of indepth discussions lots of information provided um Marathon does seem my personal opinion I think marathon's been a good choice and uh so far everything there's just a lot to it but I think it's going to really be beneficial um at least maintaining our um competitiveness in in bringing in teachers and maybe the retention as well there's some really good benefits that are going to
079be available to people and like you said some things are still having to be worked out um and then the last thing I did want to touch on what David talked about um I worked at the University of Florida during the time the student murders happened and I remember during that time uh my husband was dropping me off at the door of Rights Union because he wouldn't let me park and walk a block to that place and where that's not where we are here but every day during that period of time we hated to pull up the newspaper because we were afraid they were going to have found somebody else and Highway 100 in particular is becoming the same thing every single day I don't even like looking at Facebook anymore it is daily if
080it's not in the grandon area it's out on the far side of Keystone heading to Stark where there's a curv by the dump I am tired of of worrying about it my kids are grown now and they're not all in the area but I know a lot of people in that community and that corner is awful it is awful the the angle of it is awful people pulling in from from the right if you're heading that direction they cannot see you coming around that corner the LA one of the times I was trying to get down here um an entire semi Tru had overturned right there at the intersection it I don't know how many people they need to have die on those intersections but they do need they absolutely need to do something my
081children had to ride from Melrose down 100 to 315 to go to interlock and I was scared every single day um because they're great drivers but when they're 16 or 17 they don't have the experience and that that intersection in particular just terrifies me and it has for 20 some years and it's becoming more and more and more people are on their phones they're not paying attention and it infuriates me um you know it just it's just infuriating that something can't be done um they've got some you know warning lights that there's an intersection but it's not the people on 100 that have the biggest issue it's the people trying to pull across and I I hope something gets in the works soon with the county that that they can do something like that because
082it really is reminding me back of you know when we were dreading looking at the paper so and not to not to end on a a a down note there but uh but that's what I have okay thank you Miss Wagner okay um I'm going to move through a couple things and then discuss the uh the memo if you want to take a look at that and the table that um U Susan had uh passed out today to the board the first thing I'd like to say is that um I and absolutely thrilled with the work the Education Foundation is doing and and the effect it's having the positive effect it's having with both the district and and and you know overall our teachers and and U support staff and the community um also feed
083the need gosh filling a huge void um in uh student uh food insecurity which we have uh in this County and it's is very significant and gosh what a great job they do and and how it's grown it's it's just amazing um I agree with all the comments that have been made about the highway 100 issues uh I intend to to work on those I also am hoping to to uh meet with someone in the governor's office when I'm up there in two weeks or for um our meetings with the School Board Association and the small County Coalition about this um so I I'm very saddened by uh the accident and life it took of the mother of you know children in our school system um so quickly uh and also would like to say
084that we may want to do a joint board meeting with the school board to discuss several items count commission I'm sorry with the County Commission with the commission do a joint County Commission school board meeting at at some point in time in fact the superintendent um spoke about it here just a few weeks ago and and thought it might might be something we could we could look at since there are a number of issues and now that we have this U information that Mr Buckle brought forward today I think it's even more pertinent um the impact fee the the the I I moved forward uh after discussing with both uh Dr Cy Mr bowling about uh talking to the consultant that's currently doing the um impact fee um analysis for a potential ordinance that the
085county will be adopting uh you know based on on growth and um and need um and funding and um she and I had a excellent uh conversation uh she kind of spelled out and it's in the memo here what the process would be potentially what the cost would be and then um you know I attached a table showing that every County surrounding putham county has impact fees and the misnomer that's been spread by people that impact fees um uh have a negative uh connotation with respect to development and new development and that type of thing is completely erroneous I mean look at St John's probably one of the fastest growing counties not just in the state but in the nation Clay County um Flagler County valuchi County um and um you know I think elasha
086was in the process of of uh looking to adopt impact fees I think they were one of the six school districts that the The Firm that I talked to here with um the Public Finance group um one of the six C uh school districts they're currently operating in and and you know if you will remember probably a year ago before during our budget process I said you know weird definitely going to have to look at some options outside the box for raising funds and you know not looking to increase the millage which I think is um you know a huge uh impact to our our current homeowners and and property owners and and Commercial uh entities in the county um I'm convinced um that impact fees are the way to go because it's paid by
087new development in the last three years years um after discussions with the the Planning and Building Department at the County uh we've seen seen an increase in um residential home development single family units or houses or Condominiums of over a 100% we three years ago right after you know covid hit we saw an increase there was um approximately 150 new residences built in 2023 there were I think close to 300 this past year that was over 350 we're definitely seeing the growth and there are several major projects on the drawing board that haven't been um you know hadn't proceeded to either the city a city or county uh for approval in the in the resoning and the comp plan process what I'm you know presenting this to you today for I'm not expecting us to
088have a lot of discussion but maybe we can come back and either have a discussion or a workshop on it to to get your ideas and thoughts about moving forward with at least the study which I think will clearly show that it's something we need and if you uh like I looked at our five-year work plan you notice there's two years in there where the majority of the money that's being raised in our Capital outlay our 1.5% millage is going into a fund specifically for paying back our portion uh the 30% of of our portion of Crescent City High School and you know we just don't have you know 1.5% obviously in St John's or clay or valua or Flagler is significant amount of money in putam County it's it's not so um we're we're
089really kind of um caught in in between a you know a two-edged sword from the standpoint of our needs are going to continue even with new schools and a new high school we're not going to be able to uh even though we're our plan is to move to new construction for for uh Interlocken high school would be our next project with maybe some other Affiliated um schools um maybe some additions or reconstruction um looking at what our growth rate's going to be um and so we're going to need that money to do those projects and to um pay our you know the salaries for um you know all our capital and maintenance and projects come have been coming out of that fund we transferred that to the general fund uh a year ago in order
090to save money to be able to make our um you know our payment uh to the state for our 30% Jonathan you jump in here if I if I mess up anything um and so you know my discussions with um with our CFO today you know will it solve everything no it's not going to solve our problems but if you look at what these other counties had we've been you know had an impact fee as we probably should have for the last three or four years we would have generated you know um conservatively one to2 million that we could have used to supplant uh those funds that would have continued allow allowed us continue you know special projects and doing uh maintenance and reconstruction and all the other things that that our um our department
091does so with that um uh a little more longwinded than what I anticipated but um I'd like for you to review this and and if you have any questions um you know please um reach out to um uh Miss camp and personally personally I would prefer if we do anything a worksh okay all right I just it's a lot of material to discuss so so Mr superintendent could we schedule a workshop is that the consensus of the bo Phil can I ask you a question yes sir I know the County's undertaking this now and I know when they did it years ago I knew how unpopular it was and I don't think it's it's going to be any more popular now but the C the schools were part of what the county did Jonathan is
092it is it your knowledge that the schools are not part of what the County Commission is studying last year they reached out to us and weed out of the impact fee study okay well but you're you're talking about formerly uh School concurrency was in and it could have been Incorporated with the county to know if you could just serve on the committee with the county and and maybe just include this or do we have to pay for a separate we do surve own late now yeah because they're they're really looking at at different things even though some of the data that they used in the in the county study they'll use an ours which is you know I mean it'll lowerer the cost if we if we decide to move forward with a study uh
093ultimately it's a it's apples and oranges so um I I remember when they did away with them we had to come up with the money to pay back what we had collected well years ago but I I you're you're you're spot on with what you're saying it's just it's just crazy that we've got one governmental agency doing a study and we're going to have to do another the same study but I that's not your fault or our fault I mean we we did um you know opt or not we but you know the the the administration decided that that it wasn't the time it wasn't right for us to opt in with the county I understand that um but I think now at this point in time um I can tell you that the uh
094the just the developments on the drawing board um for uh the state road 20 section between the you know the the Paca City Limits between the hospital and uh in Francis uh three 400 units um and they're I think they've already purchased the property and and things are you know underway um I think that's just the the first phase and of course we got the Dr DR Horton project that will be going to the County's development Review Committee on March 18th um and uh you know that's 300 and something units I I just anticipate um the growth is going to continue and again this this we we we're going to have two choices I think it's it's going to come down down to uh we're going to have some projects that are going to that
095need to be done that aren't going to be able to be done um or you know if we need them and it comes down to it you know increasing the millage rate which none of us want to do that I don't think um and or you know evaluating what an impact fee can do um and again they're from A to Z uh and it doesn't affect any current homeowner and in fact I think that it would allow us to over time once things got in place you know lower our uh Capital 1.5 uh Mills that that we currently have now to maybe 1.2 or 1.1 depending you know my goal is you know how do we offset uh some of these cost that that were they are going to be occurring for us with this
096new development New Growth I mean it's not you know like it was um you know in from 201 10 or 20 you know 2010 to almost 2015 2020 very slow growth it's the Paradigm has shifted so I I'll stop there and answer any questions and then we'll work with the superintendent on work do we have a do we have a consensus is that something consens I just didn't know if the attorney Mr Holmes there's no way we could pay to the county I mean it Sur surely it's not a big deal I I mean we've got all these matching counties how a study would the County's already done it we didn't join it but there's no way the statute requires that any impact fee that's passed be supported by specific data regarding the aspect of
097infrastructure that's at issue so um I I don't consider myself a expert but having gone through it at the city level with our impact fee study I can tell you that um they may not have data on the particular component that you'd have to have to justify your segment of the impact fees and that's the key you have to have data to support the fact that you're going to be having an impact fee which will be essentially it'll correlate to impacts in a particular area so might be for roads that's not going to be the city the schools but it might be for roads it might be for Wastewater it might be for water in your case it's schools understand so when they did that study or and I don't know if it's finished or
098not it is the Count's just finished their when they finished their study uh it they wouldn't have addressed the issue of schools the the group that they hired would not address the issue of schools because they you know that that wasn't a component they were they were building building support for is that a fair explanation corre that's good and and I in my discussions with Miss Camp from Public Finance group um she basically stated the same thing although some of the data they can use and us being a small school district she did think the cost would be you know at the lower end of of the range that was you know that she she had given me Mr chair uh Susan and I were looking at dates um and I think the um P
099the uh people that are doing the impact study for the county are going to report it back to the commission my understanding was the end of March uh sometime in March or the end of this month yes so I was asking if uh we have two dates in April that we could do a workshop prior to the board meeting April 15th and April 29th and um we could do it at 2 o'l if that works out for everybody uh which of those dates would be hour and a half which one anybody have a PR on the date I'd like to do it sooner than later and Miss Camp says she could um participate participate by video from her Tampa office so if you wanted uh we could do the 15th at 2:00 if you can
100make a note of that and um April 15th yes sir that's a bad day is that a bad day tax tax day yeah take our mind off of you I'm kidding but it is a bad day well talk about taxes you know well I just I know I know how unpopular this was years ago and I know but it's we're in we're in a a different environment and we're going to have to figure out out something what are you hunting Sandy well you know I I think that it's uh based on you know and you in the table you'll see I think 27 of the current 67 counties already have impact fees for schools there's another six that um Public Finance group is is doing a study on now that will be adopting um and
101as even the rural counties you know the Panhandle counties and as you said earlier you know people are coming to Florida com and drove and we're you know it to me it's just not a fair um not fair to our existing property owners and taxpayers to put the burden of the growth on them that you know and that's the whole impetus behind the impact fee and an impact fee ordinance so um you know that's and um you know we did it in Klay County when when I was planning director up there and most of these Counties have had impact fees for years I mean St John's County even with the impact fees you know is had to pass a special half cent I think a half cent sales tax or Penny sales tax to keep
102up with the growth that they're they're requiring and you know um anyway so I'll just stop there and chair is you're going to invite the individual you're talking about yes sir is there anyone else that you want attend that meeting so we could make a note of that I'll ask her if she think there's anybody else okay just just let Susan know we I will I'll work with Susan on it all right let's uh move on Mr Mr homes you have any anything Mr superintendent yeah I'm I have a few and I'm going to run through them really fast so um first of all I want to congratulate the inarch Eng Jor Senior High School jrc robotics team they went to Tampa and participated in in the Vex robotics state championship and they finished number
103two out of 31 teams that's great and as you know our last meeting was a night meeting and that followed the the event of naming the isable after Jim mol so we've already talked about that but on March 14th we're going to have another event at the Jim M field at the historic Zabo and we have invited or inviting the three championship teams from the 1960s wow that was uh 63 65 and 66 I believe and uh those all coached by Billy Bennett and we are trying to get in contact with all those individuals and U I've already talked to a few people who've been able to name them and anyway just it's going to be a very simple ceremony right before the uh the game begins it won't won't be anything like the gy
104M cool event but they'll come down the field we'll recognize them so we thought that was important because this would be the the 60th anniversary of the Class of 65 or the team of 65 so I do want to make you aware of um the legislative session started today today and there is a very interesting piece of legislation that I think going to really benefit our district and many other rural districts and it's called the rural Renaissance bill Senate bill one one0 and actually there's a number of components to it but it is really focusing on the needs of small R school districts and counties you know and a lot of the infrastructure in our counties and also some of the funding in our school district so I'll keep you updated on that but that's
105really exciting hopefully when we go there for Rural days we we can U get more information um congratulations to Tracy Taylor principal at melon Learning Center she was actually selected as the Florida Tax watch principal leadership um principal of the year if I said all that right it's essentially um she was not nominated they actually picked her out because she they their um achievement based on their demographics has been you know very phenomenal compared to other schools in the state so U we had a ceremony there and she was able to uh give a scholarship to one of her students his name is Dylan Costa and she presented that to him and he was very grateful for that but if you get a chance congratulate Tracy on that honor we were very fortunate to have
106the the new superintendent and his staff from Baker County come and visit putam County and we actually met in here and they just heard some great things about our school district and some of the academically and otherwise and they wanted to pick our brain and U our staff was here and really shared a lot of information so we are here about helping our neighbors and U CU we've had other ones do the same for us we had a ribbon cutting event at Qi Roberts Junior Senior High School U celebrating the AV ation equipment that they have as you know there's a great Aviation program there as well as all four of our high schools but um colonel lowski wanted to show us the a lot of the ground equipment you know the simulators and all
107that second to none I mean it's phenomenal our CCE Department actually provided extra you know power because those things take a lot of electricity so we had to upgrade the power to that building but um it's just a great great day to celebrate our um our flight acmis or Aviation acmy and we actually uh recognized two of our students who were have solo flight have done a solo flight actually one the young man has and the young lady's about to so I was really proud of that not many districts Can U talk about that I want to congratulate the Black History Month uh committee who put on the celebration at um CEO that was this past month I believe and iday last Friday last Friday uh fourth year in a row and it's gotten bigger
108and bigger and bigger so what a great event and uh want to thank Terell Hill he's really for the third year row he has actually helped finance that so good job this past month February was CTE month been all kind of things happening and U thanks to Renee huff and her staff they've really gone to different schools and really celebrated all the things we're doing for CTE and the final thing I want to say is we are now opening up nominations for product to putam it's that time of the year and I'm going to read you a little short thing that I want to make sure our newspaper gets says I'm excited to announce that nominations are now open for the 2025 product of putam award an annual celebration of the outstanding putham County School
109District graduates who continue to shape our community in remarkable ways since 2019 we've done it since since then so this is like our sixth or seventh year this award has recognized individuals excelling in Education Health Care law enforcement agriculture entrepreneurship public service and so much more we know there are countless graduates making a difference in putam County I encourage everyone here and in our community to submit nominations let's make this year the most inspiring yet and the nominations will close sometime in April she's going to see how many we get get but April so you have a month to get the nominations in and the honores will be recognized in the black of daily news on social media and if you recall at their High School graduation of their Al Alma moer and that's always
110a big deal you can go to our website or social media and there will be links there where you can nominate people by the way when you go into the district office we have a board of right there in the hallway it shows all the past winners and we we put a new plaque on there every year so that's getting to be a very prestigious award and so many people here have U appreciated that and it really just shows the valuable uh contributions of graduates of our high schools and how they have come back and poured into our great community so Mr chair that's all my comments thank you and I just before we close I'd like to Echo um superintendent the the Black History Month Ashley uh celebration was outstanding I mean very historical
111perspective um with a dis a presentation on the the 1964 and 65 uh Civil Rights Act and the in the Voting Act and um and and the sororities and fraternities that came up there outstanding jobs I learned a lot and uh again thank you to uh Terrell Hill for his uh supporting that financially and look forward to next year so Mr chairman before you close this is a copy of what Travis we gab be with the yellow part of the school's own cameras if you you keep that for yourself or give it to the board attorney whatever you want to do with it but you'll hear more from him I'm sure on that all right is there um any other comments by the board or staff okay we'll stand the journ thank you'all