Williams if let's bow our heads in prayer Our Father and our God first of all God we want to tell you thank you for your love and for your kindness god father as we approach this new school year God we pray for students God who have a hunger and a desire to learn God and Father we pray for teachers who have a hunger and a desire to teach god father look over the law enforcement God that's here to protect staff as well as the students God and father just have your way this year and this season God protect them keep them safe and protect them from all hurt harm and danger father we love you we thank you and we appreciate all that you do in Jesus name I pray amen am amen 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 thank you the Clay County school board meeting of August 1st 2024 will now come to order welcome citizens of Klay County I want to take this opportunity to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to attend tonight's Schoolboard meeting this meeting is our opportunity as your elected representatives to collaborate openly and make decisions that will decide the future direction of our public schools and the education of our children here in Clay County if you wish to address the the board on an agenda item there will be an opportunity to speak for 3 minutes please fill out a card located at the side entry door indicating the specific item number or topic you wish to speak about and turn it in promptly to one of our officers if you have items that you would like to present to the school board or superintendent please hand them to an officer who will distribute them accordingly speakers who wish to address specific agenda items will be heard following the recognitions and awards portion of the meeting meeting speakers wishing to address non-agenda items will be heard following the business portion of the meeting after the adoption of the consent agenda no additional cards will be accepted once the board moves to the public comment section under presentations from the audience your participation is welcomed and appreciated all right so seeing as we have uh no recognitions and awards or presenters this evening we will be moving right into public comment um and this is a agenda items only which we have none so uh discussion agenda item D1 is to explore with the intent to engage internal audit Services um I don't suppose we need to begin with a motion Mr blocker or can we just begin with discussion you can serve with discussion ma'am if there's any action we'd have to have a motion in a second okay okay all right I'll open the floor would anybody like to begin okay well I can start um just based on our discussion last week um why don't we just begin with kind of where we left off I think uh we all agreed that we needed to move forward with this item um there was conversation surrounding whether to engage um in hiring an individual or to look into contra acting out for the service um so I feel like that's kind of the direction that the staff is looking for us to give tonight as to which direction they should pursue um filling this need um so when we left our discussion off I think myself Miss Bola and Miss Clark agreed that we would like to move forward with the firm um I think Miss Hansen Miss Skipper you wanted to hire an individual um has there been any change to that I guess would be my question will we be part of this hiring process since they report to us as a board if it's an individual or if it's a firm either either one so my understanding would be um if we were to hire a firm where we're Contracting out for service Mr bler would that require an RFP yes sir that would be the preferred so then um for an RFP that um with other services in the district will sometimes have a board member sitting on the committee that um kind of does the interview process once the RFP bids are received and we would kind of Follow That same process with this yes ma'am that's correct so have you are you familiar with that process so I mean kind of I mean it's kind of I want to say self-explanatory but at the same time um that doesn't give us the flexibility to vet if that makes sense I want to make sure that um that we have the ability to choose essentially well so the committee makes a recommendation so you would have an RFP and that's really your vetting because it's basically that firm has to fill out an application that is extensive and most companies complain about having to fill those out um they they cost a lot of time for the company that's you know responsible for producing the bid so once all of the bids are received um then the interview selection process happens with the committee and then the committee of those um applicants will then make a recommendation to the board so it is ultimately the board's decision and if you're not comfortable with who the committee recommends we have the ability to send the RFP out again who is on this committee do we pick the committee well it's not established yet because um it's not a standing committee it would be a brand new one so yes we would um decide which of us would sit on the committee we can't all because it would be a sunshine issue right um but as far as the other members who are on this committee would we as a board or or we only have one spot in this committee so the way that committees have worked in the past I believe it's two staff members to one board member is that correct doc go ahead and weigh [Applause] [Music] in good afternoon yes on the committee as you St it's 2 to one um the one key person that's in that committee is the purchasing agent who actually works directly with whomever is on the committee to decide on the scope of you know the who the scope of work what what we need to place in that RFP what are the things that you do want in there so that it's placed out there but yes it is you know uh again it's the board me it's two to one and the board would um would be partially through that one Committee Member responsible for um stating what they're looking for with the RFP correct like you would develop the RFP together right it would be a collaboration between everyone okay so I have a question about that one to two thing that we just talked about so I know for a fact in other counties you can at more than one board member can attend any committee you have to advertise that there'll be more than one so you have to advertise it so it does not break sunshine I I I think that maybe where Miss Skipper was heading a little bit is that we we're not necessarily restricted to one but it's how you am I is this right Mr blocker that you would have to advertise it more than one School Board member would be present if there more than if there's more than one school member present you'd have to advertise it both of them are going to weigh in on issues yeah you would have to advertise that as a sun to satisfy Sunshine a lot of times most most districts will not do that because they don't want to go through the advertising process and not make it a public meeting but actually would have to be a public meeting with public input so that's generally why it's limited to to one board member but it doesn't have to be limited because I know people who don't so I is that something that so I'll just say my concern with that is um you're essentially conduct e e and that I think is where my concern of an individual came down I was like one person's not going to be strategic is not going to be a specialist enough in all of the areas we don't have a specialist in every area of the school system but if we hire a company now the next step though in this RFP is to be able to say so what are the scope of services that we want in this company do we you know I know that there are companies out there that evaluate school systems we all know that and there have been a number of them that we've looked at and I guess setting up that scope of services and saying okay we want a company to be able to do all of the areas that I just mentioned and then some maybe not whatever that whatever that might be and we I would assume as a board need to say what are the key areas that we're most concerned about right that would then help lead whether we do it in a public setting or in a one you know a typical RFP I've sat on rfps with more than just three people though and it depends on what the RFP is for so depending on depending on what we're looking for and if we want to make it a public like when we hired our attorney would if we want to make that a public thing then yeah we can go to the public and say we're going to do this as a team yeah so I just wanted I just have a really small amount of clarification I would like a team effort and since we're talking about dollars taxpayer dollars we're talking about ta I mean all the way around whether you're talking about funding whether you're talking about allocations whether you're talking about operations all that that's all taxpayer dollars for me that is transparent us uh one working together as a team um and I don't know that I would limit it to okay we want you to focus on X Y and Z because that might just be today you know what I mean I would like the right and I'm sure that they could come in and say so traditionally I've gone through all the counties traditionally there will be a development of an audit committee and the audit committee has numerous people on it we would have to decide it also has school board member on it um a Dr Lago has citizens from the county they actually take the time to generate our priorities and so it's it's not as difficult as it seems because if you go through all the different counties pretty much everybody almost has the same priority some schools have you know maybe a larger District might have something different maybe it is more with internal accounts because of the money but what I found out after our last meeting was some people um need clarification and exactly what we're talking about so an internal this is my this is what I believe that we're we're seeking and then I an independent udit helps the district achieve its objective by systematically evaluating and improving the effectiveness of risk management control and governance and the implementation of best practice to keep us transparent to function properly and this is where I have the biggest concern about how we're going to go about getting either and I hear you either a firm or an individual my biggest concern is to function properly Auditors must be independent of the activities the audit is auditing such independent permits Auditors to perform their work work freely and objectively and that part is Guided by Florida statute they have access to everything right and can be denied nothing so that is a guarantee right and that is why I think having a firm instead of an employee would and so the whether I'm okay I know we're doing a great thing here and I'm okay with whatever we decide but a school board auditor reports to the school board through the audit committee and so they will be um providing the independence it's the audit committee that provides the independence to objectively appraise operations of the school district so I don't think us we can't really come up with it right now and and because it's prioritized by a group of people and we might even want to get some experts to weigh in on this but I just wanted to make sure that people knew that through auditing these processes we protect ourselves provide transparency and allow the board to have governance over that budget so it sounds like Miss ski you'd prefer that the the board direct all of it Miss Hansen you would prefer that the board appoint a committee to direct all of it and I think eventually we have to um is that right Mr blocker eventually we will have an audit committee yes ma'am an audit committee would be required um the audit committee doesn't necessarily have to be in place for you able to make your selection you a board can choose some priorties whether it's individual or or into or firm and then the audit committee could be set up but you will eventually have to have an audit committee I would prefer having the audit committee established first that's what I was just going to ask is there anything Oppo opposing that no ma'am I don't think so there there there's no so the audit committee actually receives a report from the auditor then provides it to to y'all's a board that that's the format for if we had the audit committee to start with then the committee could make the determination as to where though that scope of services sort of the direction of where that and that would then help us with the RFP to determine do you have to go through that whole process or can you just have a meeting and invite certain people to the meeting who have can objectively provide the information we need to make decisions like do we have to have that audit committee done before we well I I what I was going to recommend to to if I me to the board is I think right now what would be helpful is for the board to give direction it was kind of chicken chicken versus the egg I think the staff you know Mr brosky and myself and staff need direction from yall if y'all want to go you know what what direction youall want to go then I think we have some do outs to y'all we need to bring back some some Alternatives some some different options for how to go through the selection process whether we're going to set up the committee first but there's a lot of work a lot of Staff work that we're going to need to do and start based on yall's decision here today okay so if we could if if it's helpful to the board if we can get some direction as to whether you want an individual hire or a firm because I think that will give us the direction that we need to come back and kind of map out the legal ease of it uh we do need to form a committee we're going to have to modify some policies that you'll have in relation to this and you know look at the RF RFP process that one of the benefits of the RFP process is you're looking at the finances which is important that's one of the reasons youall want to do this um the other option is how you all have selected firms before you know for all yall collectively to interview so each each has benefits and downsides based on what yall are trying to do but I think today if we can get direction from y'all as whether we're going to hire a firm or a an individual then that will kind of give us what we need to start preparing I'm so we're going have to do any we're going to have to set up a committee modify the policies but I think the direction as far as how how we do that I think we owe you all some more information on that so well also would I mean I think a firm would cost more and I know one point we were talking about being coste effective and maybe not having the um monies available at this time to have one but there I think there is benefits for both right so an independent auditor would get to know the district would be here all the time doing their job as they know how to do their job they're kind of like an IG and Inspector General they'll probably be less expensive to have an just an independent udor as defined by the state of Florida versus a firm I know that we have a firm now and it's a wonderful thing but I also know that the it did cost us more but the value was worth it so I'm interested in your reasons why you guys think the firm because I really didn't spend a lot of time thinking about that why you think a firm would be a better place for us I I thought the opposite I thought a firm would be more cost effective um for a lot of reasons but when I looked at the rfps from other counties um they ranged but hovered around 80,000 for a firm to do this service um if we were to hire an individual I would assume the salary range would probably be in the same ballpark but then you'd also have to cover benefits for that employee um you take on liability for that employee um I I think just for costeffective reasons but then also um what you talked about with the the need for separation which again was another reason why I wanted a firm for our legal team was just the separation from our staff they're they don't exist here every day they're not there's not those relationships that it's instead it's an outside entity giving a black and white opinion um so that was kind of my reasoning for and I I could be wrong but I believe if it's a higher then they are obviously obligated they're responsible to our superintendent and so that's the independency that we need well not necessarily because I think this position would be like the attorney's position where they would be responsible to us it's under Florida statute for school board responsibilities okay but the whole thing is an opportunity for improvement and I think the state was smart in making it at the half billion mark because if we're under that the ability to recoup what we spend is difficult but but as we're growing we might as well realize that this is going to be necessary to make sure operations everything is as smooth as possible and I think we're probably making harder than we realize because I think the state can probably help us well and it came to my attention that apparently fads offers a service like this that's far less expensive than going with a firm so I don't know if that's something you guys want to consider as well that we could just see what that would look like um as Mr blocker said if we were going to use somebody other than an individual show us what those options are um what are the pros and the cons and what's the cost attached to it I think I mean I'm listening to you guys about the firm and if it's anything like about having the depth like our our law team has then I would I would think that as long as we make sure that you know according to state law we keep that independent that it's it's an authentic independent person trying to help us do better right that's basically what we're talking about is someone to help us go to a higher level and um do better at our job so I mean I'm Miss skipper do you have my thing is is I just want us all to have a say um whatever that looks like and then um because I don't I want it to be transparent but I also I want to make sure that we have a say and knowing that our whole decision was for ab and c and that we're not over here on XYZ you know what I mean so I just wanted to make sure that for the audit itself are you talking about just just in general exploring the hiring process the point of why we're doing this and and making sure um that we as a board have the say and you know something that just occurred to me part of the RFP when you look at what it cost other counties may have to do with the scope of work so if we are smaller or we have specific things that we want to Target as opposed to a more General it may be more cost effective that way too so um and then also another reason I think a firm would be great is when you commit to an employee I feel like that's a much bigger commitment than committing to an annual contract for a firm um because if we're not happy then we have options you know I'm fine either the way I could we could make a motion and vote now I'm fine either the way and I appreciate your research Miss gilhousen and being able to explain that process which we're not that familiar with um right now I think it's just a huge Win For Us in general and I'm glad that we're on board okay so um can I have a motion to move forward with um let's see how should we word this engaging internal audit Services through a firm I'll make a motion to approve to engage an internal how do we want exploration in that like it says here just engage engage internal audit services with a okay I have a motion from Miss Bola do I have a second I'll second okay which one of you rock paper scissors I'll take the second from Miss Clark any further discussion all in favor please say I I I any opposed motion carries 5 Z all right we have no Human Resources special actions this evening so the next on our agenda is a public hearing to approve as advertised modifications to the 2023 2024 student progression plan I'll now open the public hearing if you wish to speak on this item this does not require a yellow card you just need to approach the podium so I know that you'd like to speak all right seeing none I will close the public hearing and bring it back to the board for a motion I move approval I have a motion from Miss Bola do I have a second a second second from Miss Hansen any discussion all in favor please say I I any opposed motion carries 5 Z and item C5 approval for the purchase of vocabulary.com grades 7 through 12th secondary Ela and intensive reading for 2024 through 2027 and this item was pulled to discussion by Miss Hansen so miss Hansen you have the floor so I'm grateful for the district because I ask for several items one is I wanted to know currently how many how much curriculum do we have and how much time are students online and so there was four different things this would make a fifth um program that would be according to our Workshop I guess 30 minutes a week I really just want to talk as a teacher right now so this is a quar million dollars of taxpayer money and we had attached a contract when I went to do research and I'm going to tell you I'm a no but I'm not a hard no so be patient with me when I went to do research with the company there were claims of being data driven and I could not find where they came from I could not find um whether or not the this program is aligned to Florida standards and we have quite rigorous vocabulary standards I started thinking about when a a little more than a year ago we um removed a chieve 3000 and um I actually caught a lot of flack for that but I'll tell you what happened we started to reinvent reading people were working really hard because they didn't have this program to rely on and our reading scores went up I was never fearful for one minute that our reading scores would go down because of the loss of an online reading program I will also say they in the the um the item agenda it specifies that there's a need for such a program based on test scores I'm saying that I would want that data in front of me to make that decision with a quarter million dollars of taxpayer dollars I'm saying I would want to know how it vertically aligns with Florida's standards because it is taxpayer dollars it is a program that we have not hired um I have not purchased yet so it's not taking anything from everyone but my biggest concern when I researched and I did leave my paper at home so it's just gring from my head right now the number one reason kids lack vocabulary skills is because they don't read in general if we would just start an onslaught of trying to figure out how to get re kids reading happily reading again so as a read reading teacher vocabulary is built through exposure you have to use vocabulary words 15 times 15 different ways you have to generalize vocabulary words you have to see a word in context out of context you have to learn morphology how they put words together Latin roots Greek Roots how the suffix can change a root so for example scientific I the study of ology the study of when I was an ese teacher vocabulary was the most fun thing I did ever in my classroom we would do skits we would do um one of the real fun thing is denotative and connotative language very very fun to do with kids um games with your we have in Florida standards at each grade level kids have to learn these roots right Marano did a huge study and the study was what kind of words are kids seeing on high stakes tests what they found out was if you teach the word un which means not that is a word that shows itself 33% of the time on a test and from there on out this is 177% like disappear I went through the entire year a vocabulary entrenched in Reading entrenched in novels entrenched in fun having kids talk to each other making visual dictionaries acting out words giving out candy when they used one of the roots in a new way every single day what I'm saying to you is in aard to fix a problem by using a quarter million dollars of taxpayer dollars to me I would rather invest that money in teachers and revamping the way that we teach vocabulary it can be done there are teachers in this district and I'm not bragging but I was one of them that could raise every kid including an ESC teacher and most of the time it was through vocabulary study and for kids to be engaged in Reading I think adding another program and like I said maybe it is what we do maybe we need to do some research because research right now when you get online is a big tossup elll students by far benefit from the repetition of digital technology and learning language they have to see words over and over again over and over again with pictures but when it comes to regular students there is no conclusion usion as to whether or not this would help because in 2017 they thought it would help and in 2021 after they researched again they said it didn't really have an impact what I'm saying is we need to start thinking conservatively about the money that comes before us and I think we can do better we have a district that raised our reading scores a district that went into classrooms helped teachers we can utilize Master Teachers call them together find out what they're doing how do their kids learn to read every day versus finding a program to put a kid on and that's all I wanted to say that's from my teacher heart any other board comment questions I don't know enough about the program I mean I feel like I'm at a loss so so Madam chair to the chair I speak just a couple of things points of clarification I thank I thank Miss Hansen for comments on the importance of vocabulary and the reading process and then she is absolutely right in in that fact but a couple things to consider here related to this topic one that the the board has already approved through the uh through the reading plan the the use of this product already on pages three of the reading plan 14 and 24 all reference that including the money is already there through the reading grant that money is there the program is already being used in some schools the number of minutes in which is on the chart that Miss Hansen references for the 7 through 12 piece which is what this program is used for is only used in intensive reading classes so for me when you look at it the the schools that are using it it's proven to be successful the number of minutes on the chart that you reference uh Miss Hansen is actually uh overblown cu those are students that are in intensive reading only that would be using the Lexia product so there's a couple things you've already approved the this is now the contract the contract by the way is a three-year contract with it being front-loaded 115 the first year and then 50 something I can't see that far are you saying that Lexia this is part of Lexia it's not part of Lexia we're using it already but the number of minutes that you reference for students being intensive reading class of secondary as well right so that's two programs so so the the problem that that you're seeing here is the number of minutes that you're reference like 4 a 7th grader is 9 minutes for penda and 10 minutes for Alex and then you also see it has 21 minutes or 22 minutes for Lexia that that's that is not the whole school of students that's only the students that are in intensive raing so one you've already approved the product uh through the through the reading plan already and the program is effective so so we approved the product and now we're supposed to approve the money for the product the contract is coming before you yes it's been used previously in other schools which is why it's already in the curriculum guides and already used what schools have used it and do we have data on that I mean can we start providing this right yeah and so yeah coming up and questions the day before it comes forward is probably not a good way to do business wasn't questioning I was talking I was not questioning I was talking about so do online programs help our kids read better okay so we got the experts here that can go ahead and answer that question Hi how are you um Heather Tito chief of Elementary oversee lead literacy as well and so I have Michelle s here who is our curriculum specialist for intensive reading she works with all the high school teachers and she's been supporting them so I want her to be able to speak to and answer any of your questions okay hi good evening thank you for um taking all of this into consideration I um I can answer some of your questions I uh first off just want to say that um I have the same heart for the kids that you do I've been an Ela teacher an ese teacher and I taught intensive reading in the high school um I have a passion that our kids become literate and I 100% agree with everything that you said tonight what I what I need to convey about this program is I personally used it when I taught intensive reading for 10th graders at Fleming Island high I also used it for when I was the ELA teacher for the standard seniors at Fleming Island high and it was the one thing that when these kids have come that far through their academic career and they haven't met the concordance score um this vocabulary program because of the way I used it I used it specifically for morphology so I don't have to tell you that a morphograph is the smallest unit of meaning in a word right but if we give our kids those codes I like to tell them it's cheat codes because they they can relate to that right it's it's gaming you know like if so we're going to get them to the next level here's your cheat codes this unlocks the English language biology bio means life Loi means study so it's going to help these kids gain what they have missed throughout their academic career and um another point that I wanted to clarify is yes as Mr brosi said it is going to be used in the Intensive reading classrooms and the one of the reasons why our scores were so great was because we started using a direct instruction program Sr if I say SRA most people in the room know what that is I I was taught on SRA a hundred years ago right but um so that that is what the kids are getting in 7 through 10 is this corrective reading program so they're decoding they're picking the words up off the page for the first time in their academic careers so what I wanted to do was add this vocabulary sorry I'm nervous um vocabulary.com piece in to be able to bolster their vocabulary and background knowledge the way the program works is the kids will see those words that I would I would create a curriculum scope and sequence that will tie in with um the spelling through morphographs direct instruction program and those kids would use it maybe 15 minutes a week to to um bolster that program and bolster their ability to unlock our our language and and be able to read those books so I think we're on the same page I just wanted to give you my experience with it um I I had I had seniors graduate who what do it look like so with Lexia because when I was using Lexi it's pretty pretty intensive yes especially your one-on-one instruction yes so how does that in that one reading block five times a week how is that what does that look like so what the way I set up for the teachers last year was that there were four days of the direct instruction so they would be doing the spelling through morphographs for the lesson and then maybe there was 15 minutes of Lexia at the end of the spelling through morphograph Le uh lesson um then on Fridays I said those are flexible Fridays for the teachers because you know if you taught the Ese and the Intensive reading kids they don't like to come to school because school has not been a happy place for them it's not been a place of success for them so there's many times when those teach when those kids have been absent during the week the teacher needs to pull them and do the lessons with them to make you know to get them caught up to where the rest of the class is so flexible Fridays teachers can pull these small groups and work with those kids um one-on-one so they're using Lexia for um the other kids who are working I did that as well absolutely so did I and and so then I would just see this as being another station or you know if you want to think about it as small group stations or what have you but really this is um it's a phenomenal product and I would love to like show you more about it if we had more time yeah I wish you would have showed us that would have been great I was there at the workshop sorry and I you know I'm I'm she's such a humble woman um she's done a phenomenal job our teachers and our leaders in the in the schools have done amazing jobs but when you look at the astronomical gains that we saw this last year that was intentionally designed last year and Michelle s was part of that team as she said using the direct instruction model through SRA and I think what we're seeing now too is our kids can read right so our high school students they can read the problem is is that the level of rigor and being able to use metacognitive strategies to get get what they're reading and to answer the complexity of the text is really based on the vocabulary just like you said so I think sometimes there's a misnomer that our children can't read but the truth of the matter is they can we just have to level it up and that's where we need strategy instruction when we think about using vo vocabulary.com spelling through morphographs actually two days this summer um I provided an inference strategy through the University of Kansas with um a co-op individual that I worked with in the past Rosanne AR we know that that's our next layer because this first layer of attack was really like okay who are those kids that are really just they just needed that nudge for that decoding and then okay now those kids that are still struggling it's those metacognitive it's thinking about what you're doing in reading and getting it out on the paper so that's really where we wanted to provide this as a tool and a resource and again it's not used every day like she said but to give teachers an additional resource that they can use because spelling through morphographs is a tool that we're using in fourth grade and we're also using it in intensive reading in certain grade levels but we need to level it up and this was just a resource you know to provide to our teachers to give them another resource to use sorry I'm a little close and so doing a program and learning some word Parts doesn't make us Master those word parts so does this program and maybe you already know what I'm about to ask you that repetition on the short amount of time they are there does it rete and if they don't know it Rach again yes to Mastery and then are they able to use it in different ways in different context yes ma'am and um they will see it again and again until they do get Mastery and it'll show them at the bottom it it kind of has a little coin and it shows them at what percent they are towards Mastery I personally use it to increase my because I am I'm a word nerd so I've got 4 million plus points on this you know game the kids see it as a game so I'm with you on you know vocabulary should be fun I just want this to be one piece of it um the uh well there's other pieces that need to occur in the ELA classroom correct correct content areas right yeah content areas what we've been really pushing too is that literacy is something that's universally everybody's responsibility and this resource could be used by other individuals like te you want you know some extra so my my biggest concern was I really didn't want everybody having access when we first started Lexia everybody was using it it wasn't just done so the kids kind of got bored with it because we were using it wrong at the very first year and you remember this like and then you moved it into intensive reading listen I'm going to tell you the last two years we've spent a lot of time with Lexia to refine that what you said the same thing here like we really refined that and really um strategized about how the best usage is with feachers and proving guidance there so I I don't disagree at all I agree that we need to be very specific about the implementation who and when they can and generalize across curriculum right I mean they need to be used in the word Parts everywhere it's like a whole school effort and you hit the nail on the head it's a universal responsibility of all of us and that's part of the work that we've been doing too I just wanted to add that um it also shows them the word in multiple contexts so they have to know that it means something here in this context so they're reading you know like a little paragraph and it might be something pulled from um history or literature or science or a news article um speeches by presidents that kind of thing so they're reading those things that's working on their background knowledge they need that too so this program does more than what a teacher could do well more than the website says it does I'm Mel M for the supervisor of reading for Michelle and I just wanted to jump on too because one of the things it does do it does have those Ela B Mark aligned so we can pull those things that we know that they need additional practice on to really start leveling them up so it might not be Florida standards but is Ela like so connotative it has like the same structure as what our kids are tested on yes yeah so because we did a lot of research to make sure like because we want that right they need we they need multiple layers and making sure that a program that we buy provides that because we're really working to become more diagnostic to know exactly what each child needs because they're all different like we all have different needs right and this was a program that was easy to do that for teachers to really kind of dive down to what they need well I appreciate your time and effort because believe it or not the number one priority of a school board is to drive student achievement and if you don't know you're not supposed to vote on anything unless you know it's doing that and and that's why I brought it to discussion and I appreciate all of you thank you and if I could add also it's a team effort with the school board and the and the entire staff and thank you for that information Miss Clark do you feel like you know it better well we would love also the opportunity Wordle in connections you know what I we would also love the opportunity anytime to kind of tell you um and maybe even have during a workshop sort of the vision the work that we're currently in right now I mean we're doing a lot of you know we're lifting not just early literacy but but like you know again fourth and fifth grade are going to be a huge Focus for us as a district but it's also across the board our goal is to create literate citizens that are going to be productive citizens in our community so we would love at anytime if you want for us to come out and come to the next Workshop we'll be happy to present sort of like what our initiatives are what we're working on so you have a better understanding of the work and literacy in our district I I love morphology and I'm just hoping I get an invite so I can go play and try to catch up with her she is lovely thank you thank you Miss Tito Mr vosy was there anything further no I I just want to reassure the board before we would bring something to the board for a vote you see the people behind the scenes and the clear expertise among these folks the results kind of show that when you look at 10th grade reading we are fifth in the State of Florida these are the kind of folks that are making these kinds of of decisions bring them for you we'd never bring that something to you that we didn't think would benefit our students now the board agenda comes out two weeks prior to the board meeting so the board agenda came out if there's anything on that agenda that you want to uh to be featured in the workshop we'd be glad to feature it but but we don't know what's uh what's the item that you would like more information on unless you tell us you need more information on an item and then we can pres present that to you so thank you so much for listening well I just wanted to say I love the school showcases but I love that more you know it's it's great to to see the professionalism and expertise all right any further discussion do we have a motion I move to approve okay I have a motion for approval from Miss Bola do we have a second I'll second a second from Miss Clark any further discussion all in favor please say I I any opposed motion carries 5 Z it is all right next is the adoption of the consent agenda do I have a motion I'll move have a motion from Miss Hansen do I have a second I'll second second from Miss Skipper any discussion uh no there were no agenda items um it was all General comment all right any further discussion all right all in favor please say I I any opposed motion carries 5 all right next on our agenda is the CCA update Miss Kidwell anything from you guys no um no oh I'm sorry you are correct I skipped over that forgive me thank you Miss gell uh public comment is next our first speaker is Travis Christensen just as a reminder when you come to the podium please state your name and address for the record Travis Christensen 2871 affirmed Court wanted to talk a little bit about books and literature has been a big subject in Clay County but for us want to say you know you know sound like a very good effort on you all parts to try and like increase children's reading ability because basically anything else you learn in school if you forget it or you don't learn it you can learn it later if you know how to read and if you don't you really can't and you know it's very good Clay County fifth in Reading in the state of course if I'm going to be like literate tonight I just want to pull pull out a quote from the Greek philosopher pictus you know a weak man appears strong until a stronger man comes along anyway I don't know test scores based against what standard just wanted to say lits okay okay some people have problems with some of the books in our school like this guy over here and a lot of times that it's based upon there's some racy stuff self-destructive behavior in there I just want to like put something past you but but it's often countered by well there's literary value or it teaches empathy whatever I want to put something before you but the last book I read in English was um was wild pretty popular book in women's literature I think it's a few years old now but still probably a lot of people read it and um awful lot of self-destructive Behavior described by the author in that book but it does got two things in it I believe it's just beautifully written great use of language and imagery and um the other thing I think is even more important it's got a Redemptive Arch to it this lady she's having a bad this is an autobiography lady's having a bad time that leads her to make bad decisions would cause her to have even more of a bad time and she goes walking in the mountains for a long long time and figures it out kind of a Redemptive Arc I feel and this is a very general thing I haven't really looked at this a whole lot that a lot of the books that arrive in our school that people are objecting to are really just induct due to like the kind well the type of book they are like lgbtq and POC stuff very popular at this point in time and I think the Publishers are just sending it because it's going to it's going to sell could we maybe evaluate some of the stuff to come in and see if it's worth reading if it's something that you really want a kid to read like if they are having a bad time you know maybe they can get a little bit of Redemptive art stuff going on as well thank you thank you for all you do all right our next speaker is uh Chris Harris good evening um I get more than three minutes CU we skipped over it right no okay um I wrote this down I'm usually an offthe cuff kind of guy but I wrote it down so um I want to first of all thank Mr brosi and the school school board members for your time and attention and allowing me to speak tonight uh this is something that I've wanted to do for years but for various reasons have not done so however my fiance is very quick to always tell me that if I'm going to complain about things which I like to do then at least I can do is address those in a decision making capacity so here I am uh Klay county is again an a school district and according to the US News and World Report uh Florida is the number one ranked state in the nation for the second year row uh on based on a combination of strong performances and higher education and K through 12 metrics and yet Florida ranks 50th out of 50 States including the District of Columbia so 51 in terms of teacher pay only West Virginia Falls below Florida in what other industry would this be the case where someone or a group of people would be voted the best in their field and yet be paid the worst I can't think of one first a little bit about myself uh I became a teacher because of my mother who we lost 13 years ago uh she always wanted to be a teacher she loved children and ran an inhome daycare in our house growing up and um she taught me a love for teaching and for children and that's why I became a teacher um I've been a teacher for 20 years I've been blessed to have most of those 20 years at op which I consider to be one of the best schools in the state uh I'm not the best teacher but I am proud of the work that I do and I think it is what I was truly meant to do I want to say that I have nothing against new new teachers and I'm happy that new teachers uh get a starting salary that they now receive they deserve it and the county and the state as a whole has underpaid teachers very drastically um so much so that we were faced with the teacher shortage that we're dealing with Statewide therefore um the government and Tallahassee had to ra raise teacher salaries in order to get people in the door Unfortunately they did nothing for veteran teachers in my opinion which I know is out of your hands um however I know that CC put a proposal uh to increase uh veteran teacher salaries and I strongly urge you to consider that I know I'm running out of time so I'm going to skip some of this other stuff and just give you just a a brief snapshot of myself as I said I'm a 20-year teacher I didn't become a teacher to become rich or wealthy I never had that in my head however when I did become a teacher we did have a salary schedule uh which has long since been made obsolete so at 20 years teaching I barely grow $50,000 a year um that's not considering the thousands of hundreds let's say of hours of free overtime that I put in every year um I have a hard time making bills uh I have one child who I share the financial responsibility with uh my ex-wife uh I have a a very modest mortgage neither my fiance or I have car payments we don't live a lavish lifestyle or go on crazy vacations um and every day I have to worry about if my car breaks down what am I going to do I've had to foro medical procedures because I can't afford them I can't afford long or short-term disability under the County's insurance so that if something was to happen to me that I could afford to take care of my family um and so I had a lot more I'm a very wordy person but since I'm out of time I just strongly urge you guys to um really think about the people on the front lines that are giving us these scores uh when you look at the proposal for raising veteran teacher salaries so that we can have a livable wage so to speak thank you for all that you do thank you Mr Harris I don't think anybody here disagrees and by the way Mr Harrison you are one of the best teachers we have all right um our next speaker is Bruce fredman tell you where you can save some money Bruce fredman address on file I've completed 74 book challenges this month pretty much just to see if I could 73 of them are books I would not give my child or yours one of them is a really good book so why am I challenging a really good book I mean a book that made me feel that I had grown when I finished it that was written with some style and Pizzazz on the about the author page at the End of This Book is a link I'm not going to say it out loud it's a very innocuous sounding title I clicked on it it took me directly to trip X adult pornography it's found in a couple of your Junior highs and four of your high schools I brought this to the attention of some of you more than a week ago now I brought it to the attention of the press they're going to run with it going to enjoy that immensely some of the things that came up from others speaking tonight get kids happily reading again well 73 of these won't make that happen one of them would if you could get the horrible porn link out of the back I'll leave it up to you and your scissors to find it somebody said level it up you want the kids to read better books to know better words I want that too this is not how you get there your libraries are filled with a lot of rubbish that's why you're getting this pil of challenges the Trevor Project link that I referenced in the past which actually facilitates grooming of children private chat rooms with kids 13 to age 24 with nobody monitoring the 24 year old could be 44 or 64 that was just a warning well now that we're past that point and I found Ault old pornography in your Junior highs that's a click away from your children someone has to go Step Up read every book and assume every link is suspect pull them all regarding the books 500 or so that have already been found to violate law that are stored God knows where get them out of these buildings I've been asking for two years what happens to them I want them gone if they're still in the building they're still accessible to children just because they're under lock and key kids are crafty if it's handy they'll find a way these books need to leave they need in some cases to actually be destroyed some of them are that dangerous it's up to you what happens next I'm going to deliver these to your officer I know you're going to rule on those appeals Madam chair all 500 of them I doubt very much any of you read most of those books like I did which was no fun the fact that you're acting as a quasi judicial body instead of Protec of our children is a great concern I'd like you to revisit your whole mission statement consider that you ought to be child Centric we didn't hire you as a quasi judicial body we hired you to protect our children have a good night next is Echo NOA Madam chair I just want to just address I want to give the speaker an opportunity to speak first of all state law requires you to act as a quaity Judicial matter so I would encourage you to continue to follow state law in addition State Statute has changed we do not accept multiple challenges to books based on the abuse that's gone forward so we can accept One Challenge tonight per state law so I would encourage um if you would direct the the speaker to uh select which challenge he would like to submit for this month we can except one challenge so Mr Freeman according to legal advice based on State Statute there's you're allowed to submit one so we'll leave that to you to decide and uh hand to one of our deputies our next speaker M yeah thank you Mr our next speaker is echon NOA hello I am echon NOA representing guality Florida Today address is on file with the school year coming in about two weeks for the students I thought it would be good to take a couple moments just to review the current state of uh trans and lgbtq protections that we have for the students uh since to been in the news for the past too many years um and there's been a whole bunch of stuff happening with the schools in particular so first with the couple of bad things the anti-trans bathroom bill or law and the fairness and women sports act are still in um enactment so both of these bills both of these laws treat trans kids as basically second class they are less than equal to the other compatriots in the classrooms today there could have been good news regarding these two laws uh because August 1st today would have been the enactment of the Biden administration's revamping of Title 9 which extended protections to trans students uh however however Florida is one of the 23 states where that will not happen because it is UN currently challenging in the cours this is also in conjunction with a couple of other things happening around the state that doesn't necessarily affect schools and that much but will affect the students the um bomo the boards of medicine and osteopathy have a uh conflict regarding medicine that will affect students and the executive branch has also basically banned trans people from changing their licenses to reflect who they are names and their gender identity there are a couple good things though that we can work on um in particular the don't say gay settlement that happened in March through equality Florida um basically summarized in two very short snippy lines you can say gay in classrooms and gay straight alliances are allowed so with with these two statements I would like to ask the school board and the superintendent to work to foster a community of acceptance and respect to ensure that identities are accepted and protected that preferred pronouns are accepted and protected students and teachers and staff to ensure that names and dead names are also respected as they should be um to allow the gsas to come back um and really flourish as they are now allowed to do so and mostly just to ensure that people are respected as they are so thank you very much all right now miss Kidwell do you have a presentation for us tonight and then so good evening um thank you for the opportunity to share concerns and needs of our Educators as they revealed to me because they email me and text me all the time um last December we worked together to ratify a contract that represented well over $4 million in new compensation this district and our school school board has shown the willingness to stretch to meet employee needs first I want to say thank you um we see that and we acknowledge it it's very positive however there's so much more to do and that's my job to tell you what we need to do as you know CCA and and Clay County are in open books for 2425 negotiations we've had three sessions and our Educators have been very vocal about needs CCA has had advisory groups come to us and meet with our bargaining team to help craft language to meet the needs of their special job classification the contract needs to address the concerns to those of those who serve our students special areas like Health rated professionals and ESC areas CCA has passed many proposals across the table and we even shared some proposals for compensation on July 25th we will have more proposals in the next session August 22nd and 26 our spring survey gave specific feedback to us stressing further corrections to improve the salaries of Veteran teachers veterans were left out of the state's mandated focus when the state mandated focus on base salary increases for three years these State mandated increases raised the base salary nearly 10,000 and compressed all other salaries we have been directed by Educators to continue to help the district District understand how unfairly our veteran teachers have been treated by salary compression and the loss of steps and to convince you to continue to work with us to Target veteran teacher salary Corrections we know that negotiating is never easy There Is Never Enough public school funding to meet the needs of our Workforce the evidence of this issue is clearly proven by the latest statistic that shows the average Florida teacher salary ranks have dropped from 48th to 50th CCA is committed to serving the needs of all our Educators as I know you want to do these bargaining details that are out there have been submitted they're across the table and they are now public record educators are discussing them they're calling me and we hope that Schoolboard members will be examining them closely too we have heard you say that you want to pay Educators more and that you are open to thinking outside the box this is very hopeful for us budgets do reflect priorities that is what my predecessor Rena Lee used to say and while we all understand the necessity for fiscal responsibility we urge you to have a budget that considers the needs of your Workforce these proposals were crafted to reflect critical Workforce needs and Clay County District school we know strives to provide services that meet the needs of every student our amazing instructional staff is why Klay County district schools is not only an a-rated District consistent ly but exceptional in many other ways we understand that limited public school funding will never allow increases that reflect what Educators and Clay really deserve but we invite you to join us in the commitment to stretch for robust increases that will improve recruitment retention and lead us to fully staffed Clay County district schools our community places the highest priority on exceptional schools and we know that this board shares our desire to provide the best working and learning conditions in clay we can do it together I want you to notice and really examine that paper that's what teachers look at and that makes them so unhappy you see that salary scale from 2008 remember we only have an entry only salary scale so even though it looks like our 20-year teacher that was just up here would be above 50,000 he's not because he put on that scale wherever he comes into the district and never moves on that scale again that scale is entry level only he only way he gets a raise is when we negotiate it with you and you give it to him so there's nothing ex there's nothing that they can expect and that's why they're so unhappy and that's why teach veteran teachers continue to leave let's see if we can fix this thanks thank you Miss Kidwell uh do we have a sespa update tonight okay superintendent Broski all right excited to go back to school we had our last uh meeting with principles this morning and uh you know we went over like everything like the last minute stuff eyes were like this wide because everybody figured out teachers are back on Monday students are back um on the 13th so we're looking forward to that before we do that I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the following State assessment results some information about new school year Transportation immunization as well as some upcoming events so first our our state assessment results came in since our last meeting and if you're looking for how did Clay County do the most objective way to do that is compare yourself to others that are in the same environment that you're in you can't compare people that are in different environments under different circumstances so when you do that the fairest thing to do would be to compare our district to others not like it's a competition but it's a measuring stick as to where you rank in comparison to other districts so when you see that let me just kind of point out a couple things to you second in overall social studies in the State of Florida first and seventh grade civics fourth overall in US history our our history folks from the days of Kelly watt working in that group have been rock stars every every year you'll see that clay ranks at the top of the state in the top five in all social studies category I know that in Clay County in particular the Civics is a particular important eemp emphasis to our to our citizens and we're very proud of of that particular ranking but it doesn't end there when you look at science in eth grade we're fifth in the state in biology we're sixth in overall science we're sixth in the State of Florida like this is facts it's not Facebook it's it's real okay I forgot what's the other one facts not Facebook information not Instagram thank you okay math fourth in the state for geometry I remember when we were in the 20s in geometry in algebra we're sixth in the State of Florida uh in algebra and of course Algebra 1 is a gatekeeper just like reading is to graduate you have to pass the test or you don't graduate right so that's a that's a whole thing and grades 3 through 8 9th uh in 3 through eth math and overall math we're in in 10th Place probably our biggest Improvement is in Reading okay we went from 12th last year to eth this year in El so when you look at that grade grade levelwise for six grade uh we're seventh in the state for seventh grade we're ninth in the state for eighth grade eighth in the State of Florida ninth grade is sixth in the State of Florida and 10th grade is fifth in the State of Florida so I would kind of offer this up to people that are just listening like hey maybe the programs that that are being recommended and the things that are being done are those things that are needed in order to illustrate and make that success happen you know it's great teachers in the classroom and and I'm so sorry that Mr Harris left because I was going to announce a big Opa op statistic Orange Park Elementary School uh is the number one Public School Statewide Public elementary school when it comes to student achievement like how about this Patterson Elementary School is the number 10 school state that's all school out of the thousands of schools number 10 in the State of Florida it's it's like when you look at the success the success is because there's a an intentional plan for how to deal with that it starts with curriculum guides it starts with our curriculum specialist providing support to each teachers each teacher within the classroom it comes to picking um uh materials wisely that are in alignment with the standard it comes to training and professional development it's much more than just you know a book or a textbook or those kinds of things and of course ultimately it comes down to the teacher in the classroom right when it comes to Student Success the number one highest uh index is the teacher in the classroom followed by what any anybody want to take a guess what's the number two leadership of the school is the number two factor for Student Success so so I think I can draw some conclusions from this I'm just going to go out on a limb and make some conclusions from this and you guys know what I'm going to say this is not a good school district this is a great School District not because Dave brosi says so or because I'm superintendent because the facts bear that out that's why and there's an intentional plan to keep that going so I'm very very proud of that you can tell I'm passionate about that sorry you know sorry for that uh you know when it comes out I sit there nervously at the computer like like you know like I'm giving birth or something I'm like I'm ready to like oh oh and then I look at this line look at and and then eventually I calm down and I look at it all and I I take a step back and I reflect and say I'm just so proud you know of everybody I kind of feel like uh you know there's a tremendous weight that I always feel on my shoulders because I take it personally right I want the best for our students and so this illustrates now is there more to be done my dad said if you if you weren't first you know second place is first loser right and so there's there's obviously work to be done but to not recognize that as an exemplary uh report card on a district in so many ways would be remiss I I think it would devalue the hard work of teachers it would devalue the hard work of Administrators and Leadership and our support staff so I'm going to I'm going to go ahead can I break the rules do it okay can we get a big round of applause from the peanut gallery thank you I just wanted to show you how the rest of the state did so you can kind of get an A little Glimpse and I'll go quickly through these I you know I love this stuff and I know I'm passionate about it but not everybody is so when you take a look at this 67 to 80% we blew away the rest of the state when it comes to to social studies you can see in the history portion of that 67 to 81 uh you know a difference of 14 there when you're looking at the state average by the way you know I always try to I don't mean to do this but I think it's also important to realize that in per capita income Klay county is 26 out out of the 67 counties and what you would see is it almost most direct correlation between um um per capita income and student achievement and so to me when I look at that I take a little extra pride and I it means that our folks are are certainly punching above their weight still more work to be done right but but by golly uh we should celebrate the work that's been done as we gear up for a new school year uh Clay is sixth in the state of biology six a 10-point spread there from the rest of the State of Florida Algebra 1 you can see a 16-point gap from the rest of the state and clay in algebra one geometry now here here's the part when I started doing math uh on the flly like this I'm like okay 16 is I I believe I thank you Miss Troutman Miss Troutman smiling she's a math teacher uh when then you're looking at Ela 8th grade uh where eth in grades 3- 10 sixth in the Middle School category 6 through 8 fifth in 9th and 10th if you look at that Statewide that's just not me saying it it's facts not Facebook writing achievement how about this second in the state in writing 91% sixth grade writing thank you Miss watt Miss watt keeps me straight how about this I can I can hear you over there so so so another thing that's it's kind of a little bit challenging to um to explain there's such a thing called atsi and what atsi is is the federal government is also involved within States even though that education is a state-run organ organization and therefore all of our marching orders come from um the Florida Department of Education the state the federal government also looks at how students do par l in certain subgroups how do your students with disabilities do how do your students that are economically disadvantage do how do your African-American students do and there's a series of subgroups and last year you know we had uh 25 schools that were on the atsi list meaning we needed to pick up how those subgroups did in our schools this year after these results there's only four of those on the list now keep in mind every school even our neighbors to the east has schools that are on that particular did I did I get it right East East yeah I'm not calling them out you know publicly or anything like that but when you see that it means what it means that the intentional plan that was implemented last year worked and I'm going to throw a shout out to to DR Sanders and our ESC folks I know sometimes it's very difficult especially with students that that have a disability as a parent it's very difficult and to move the needle as much as we have move the needle for our ESC folks is um impressive in fact I saw that the folks from the state sent an email saying hey we want to come out and see what happen had that happen Okay that kind of thing very very proud of that I'll also throw a shout out to miss Collins who kind of organized the walks we did that through a variety of techniques we went out to each one of those schools uh and walked the schools went in the classroom we rounded classroom instruction we implemented an action plan in each one of those schools all of those things just don't happen by accident they're all intentional but they're all the things that people don't see right people wouldn't know that because the work is happening behind the scenes in order to make those improvements so so extremely proud of that our ESC Summit there's examples of that 300 attendees you can see them there they all came there's over 60 different sessions for ESC you know that we have 21% of our students fit into the ESC a little bit more than that 21 to 22% uh are in ESC so developing strategies High leverage practices that work for ESC students are also good for Gen ed students also and that restructuring of services is also going to make a big difference in this upcoming year so a lot of work with the ESC folks I wanted to recognize them not because I'm married to one of them but because they they're sincerely doing great work within that department okay for a new school year how about this are we not excited to come back students return on the on the 13th so parents don't send them when everybody else sends them on the 12th send them on the 13 please uh our onboarding camps are going on and continuing on for next whether it's web crew or web link for the junior highs or the high schools it's a great opportunity going to Junior High is kind of scary and going to high school is kind of scary it's one of those times where there's a big transition where you're in elementary school and then you're going to Junior High and you're probably as a child nervous about that and then when you're going to high school for the first time there's a little bit of nerve that go with going to high school for the first time we will be attending Camp Blue Devil on Tuesday there you go there you go there you go so part of that transition very proud of that transition in service day is August 8th this is just a little smus board 67 different sessions for teachers uh as far as professional development our professional development department I maybe I haven't given them a shout out but I would say I'm going to call him the best professional de Development Department in the State of Florida how about that wo every time I I go to a superintendence meeting and I kind of explain what we're doing in Clay County they say well well how do you do that like who does that like how does that most of that comes out of that that department so so kudos to Dr Shepard and all all of her group back to school information we got a handy dandy link for everybody that wants back to school information and you can see all the categories that are on there um I wanted to also point out Transportation I I'm just going to say it because I said it to principes this morning uh Mr Crawford and I hope he doesn't get a big head Mr Crawford's a rock star okay in the transportation world so all routes have been established how about this we actually expanded the number of routes to cut down on student time on the bus because if you have more routes then the buses have to go less miles and so the student is on the bus less that means you have to have hired more drivers right if you have more routes you have to hire more drivers right now and he's going to hate the fact that I'm saying this because he's going to think he's jinxed because I'm actually saying this and we not only have every driver filled but we actually have extra drivers uh more than the routes that we have you did say this last year and you jinxed it well I'm just so darn proud cuz he he showed me the numbers I was like oh my God we've never been to that level of Staffing at this point now I think too he creates an environment where people want to work and that's an important part of of why people stay and to the board's credit the board also provided him support you probably don't remember maybe you do remember the area managers and the things that you put out there in order to help facilitate that 13,000 people are involved in that program uh students I mean plus the employees that are involved you can't just have a director and a supervisor and think it's going to all work out in in the end and so you guys provided the support that he needs he has the personality and the drive I'm going to tell you hard worker like you know we're talking 67 at night all kinds of stuff happens tries to be as polite as as uh as uh possible through some difficult situations so I said to the principals you know I gave this you know Kudos this morning and I said now does does that mean that a bus is not going to be late no not on not in the first couple days I I encourage all parents board members everybody to realize that when you start school it may be the only organization in the world that I'm aware of that's that is not there and then all of a sudden at one time after a couple of of weeks time you turn everything back on again and when you do that that creates some challenges Personnel wise technology-wise there's all kinds of stuff that that happens on those first couple of days uh Transportation support for families just go to the the uh bus at my myoneclay.net for bus planner you can see here comes the bus app you you want to register for that so you know where your bus is so if your bus is late you can chalk it in real time and know when the bus is going to be there bus routes uh are now available if you have questions there's the hotline it's 336 00001 option two and let me just tell you he has a a whole group of people there to sport you we ask for patience the first couple of days I mean everybody's on the road at the same time right now people aren't used to buses being on the roads and so it's it's kind of easy to get around if you're around at that time when everybody's on the road at the same time it's creates a whole different Dynamic and uh patience is the order of the day entry requirements for kindergarten in seventh graders you can see the listing there that's the state of Florida's uh certification of immunization want to remind parents of that schools send out reminders to individual parents that are in need want to make sure that they know fair grounds first come first serve $15 for any child to receive their their their uh necessary vaccination upcoming events teachers return on on Monday students on the 13th Labor Day is the 2nd College and Career night can you believe that's already here College and Career night at the fairgrounds on the 3 6:00 p.m. if you can't tell I'm I'm extremely proud and I appreciate the support of the board and the community well thank you Mr braski All Good Things lots of celebrations um School Board attorney remarks Mr blocker anything from your office no ma'am I think we're good thank uh School Board member remarks anybody have anything to add Miss Bola I've got a couple of things um I am proudly wearing my a thanks to miss halter from Clay High um and I believe clay highw was a an a school this year awesome um a couple of different things um first of all a quick comment about Dolly Parton Imagination Library continue those donations please and continue for any children who are in the Green Cove Springs area or the Orange Park Town area um we are taking registrations and a huge shout out huge shout out to Miss Clark thank you so much for contrib attributing some of your election funds to the dolly part and Imagination Library with donations like that we can continue and their plans for they just had an event at Culver's at middleberg making additional money I mean whatever it takes guys we are there to do whatever we can for early literacy because early literacy as you pointed out with parents as well as families helps the teachers ultimately in the class room as well um a shout out to first of all Melissa matz who was our state Teacher of the Year Melissa and I and that was in 2023 if I'm not mistaken um she was a teacher at Argy Elementary in the math department she's now one of our math I say coaches in general but I know she's much more spec specific than that but this year we had another teacher who formerly taught with us at Argy Elementary and her name is Jamie Suarez for those of you who remember Jamie at Argy I believe she went on to doe as well and unfortunately her husband took a job in another County and she is now the teacher of the year for the State of Florida for 2025 out of her Nando County so special congratulations to Jamie we are all so dang proud of her it's not funny and having taught with both of them it is they are amazing teachers amazing teach teachers um the last time I was in the classroom as a teacher was eight years ago and I know it's the beginning of the school year because I had a dream the other night and it was the first day of school I was assigned a second grade class and I walked in I didn't have a list of any of the students names I had to find the supplies this was obviously not my classroom because the classroom was not arranged the way I would have arranged it and I woke up that morning and I thought at least I didn't have to do sub plans I mean I was just like oh my gosh so I know it's the beginning of the school year I also know it's the beginning of the school year because I was behind a couple of buses this week and they were out practicing and I was driving along and of course they stop and they put out their stop signs and they open the door and they close the door and they close the stop signs and keep going going and I'm thinking nobody got off that bus what is going on but they're out practicing so that not only do they have their routes set but all of these drivers are practicing their routes so that they know that they can do it in a timely manner and oh my gosh bus service stuff the bus yes when the director says oh wait I've got the keys to that bus I'll pull the full bus out and bring in a second bus from stuff the bus and then we saw them last Saturday at the thrash horn and once again stuffed with backpacks as they're handing out backpacks to Children it was that team of bus drivers and transportation people is truly truly amazing um the first day of school is for teachers is coming up on Monday if I'm not mistaken and I can't I I it makes me almost sad because I miss buying some of those school supplies for my classroom and things I miss going into the Tools for Schools I know that there were two events this week for um our new teachers and the the upcoming one is is next week for our our current teachers um and students are coming on that first day of school I am unfortunately going in for some surgery tomorrow so I do not want to miss that first day of school activity and one of the activities that I love is stepping out to the bus compound at 5:30 in the morning to say thank you to our bus drivers so if for some reason I don't make it which could happen I just want to say thank you to all of our staff members our teachers our students you know people always say well teachers get the summer off based on what I've been seeing and the training that has been going on in this County throughout the summer I know for a fact teachers do not get the summer off so if any of you are taking a day or two now just to relax please do so stay away from school come back Mond Monday and enjoy because it's going to be a great year thank you anybody else Miss Skipper yeah I I'm I'm mine's really brief and kind of all over the place um because I'm actually balding right here due to early literacy and um my kids being home for the summer so this has been real fun know that I should uh admit that but it's it's actually true um it is I think it's going um Mr brosy you pointed out the operations department or Transportation operations um I sometimes get get to go visit over in that department and Mr Crawford has done a very good job the last two years just us being on the board he's made um signific significant changes in his open mind and um outside perspective I think has been very beneficial for that department and he's done so well um so I just wanted to piggy back off of that because he has worked his butt off um I've seen it and I've got to hear some of his ideas and um especially with the situation that he had um overcoming all of that so I I do want to say that I'm extremely proud of him and um and that whole area all the employees over there are great too um which everybody is I don't mean to just boast on on on them but you had mentioned that and um I get to talk to them here in there also I want to go on record to say without getting in trouble um that this board um is for veteran teacher pay I just want to say that um very loud and has been the last two years so um that I have I I don't know about before I'm sure they were too but I'm just saying I want to go on record without getting into too much trouble that um that where I stand and then um also I'm just ready for football season here here whether it's High School Georgia Bulldogs um I'm ready for for all the fall festivities and and getting our kids back to school next week um sorry for you teachers but come get mine Miss Miss Clark did you have anything are you sure I want to say kudos to all the teachers and all the support staff for those teachers for bringing in an atmosphere that children want to learn and for helping one another I mean that is key um it's a very to me what I see is a very positive attitude and that makes all the difference in the world so thank you uh Mr Crawford it it has been amazing what he's done the last two years years that he's been here in fact I noticed when we had the retirees there were very few bus drivers that were leaving and that's a good sign and Mr Crawford is one of those that if they're short bus drivers he'll get in a bus and drive it and there aren't too many Transportation directors that will do that and uh so he's he's amazing and can't say enough um Dolly paron Imagination Library first thing when I got involved was doing the numbers and we're back to with the number of people in this County 240,000 roughly give or take whatever the census is for this year it only takes 700 people to give up one pizza a month that's $25 a month on a reoccurring situation and every child in every zip code would have the opport opportunity if their parent wants to sign up for those books for that early reading that it's it's doable that's all we need so it's real easy got the QR code for donating um you know we just it's real easy and they're wonderful books there's no porn in them so you know it's anyway whatever we can do and I was was happy to give any donation so thank you that's it Miss hon so real quick we were really sad at our house this week because I was hoping my daughter could hold on to being a teacher and had to walk away this year and it was very very sad for us you know two kids and I understand what teachers feel and I think everybody knows where I stand on that the other thing is I had a conversation with Mr brosy the other day and uh he was saying how nobody knows how hard we work I'm going to tell you we need more of what they just did standing right here people need to know and they do not know many teachers do not know it shouldn't be a secret what we're doing to help this lower cortile of kids the passion that you had when you spoke up here reinvigorated me why we don't know about the work is probably our greatest loss because because any parent who has a child in high school in a reading class wants to hear what these lovely ladies had to say tonight I say part of the problem is that we don't know and we should know and what I mean by that is our community should know about your walks and what you're doing if you do not advocate for yourselves and help people understand how much you're doing for them they'll never know I if it was up to me I would have one person talk every time for five minutes about what we are doing for kids so parents are more educated on what is going on to help their kids learn to read and so it took that for me to understand that maybe there is more we can do and what that is is helping people understand what we are doing for their kids so I thank you all right well I am all for a literacy Workshop m i the bibliophile and me got real excited listening to you guys talk and I think it'd be wonderful to have them present and showcase I mean especially with the way that you guys have moved the needle here in Klay County and the state I think it's a perfect opportunity for us to really highlight the work that's being done and celebrate in a meaningful way together so maybe we can look at scheduling something and then we would love all right let's make that happen um to all the parents all the kids out there getting ready for school um I just want to reiterate at every turn throughout my personal journey through education here in Clay County my children's journey through education here in Klay County we have encountered the most kind compassionate engaged um human beings in the school district and I'm so grateful um for the opportunity that my kids have had to learn here that I've had to learn here and um I just want to encourage all of those with the first day jitters to know that you're walking into um a building filled with people who care about you and know you before you've even gotten there they've studied up on you guaranteed um so don't be afraid to ask those questions to meet with the um teacher and the leadership at your school about any concerns um I always encourage whenever I get emails have you talked to the teacher have you talked to the principal um those are those are the most important people in your child's life outside of your home so make sure that you're building those relationships and that there's close communication there the teacher wants it just as much as you do as a parent it's vital to your your child's success and then for all the teachers and the administrators which administrators I know you've been working all summer um thank you for what you do thank you for the selfless service that you give everybody here knows it you don't do it for the money um and we're thankful for your heart for kids and for education and with that this meeting adjourned