[Music] heavenly father thank you for this time of year um where we can prepare for um the students that are coming into our schools in the fall when we have time to collaborate and strategize and um just get ready for a school year that will bring um success and reward for everybody who participates pray God as we uh begin this meeting father that our heart's intent would be to First and above all things School by you um and then secondly to Faithfully conduct the service that you've called us to um for the betterment of the students that we serve the families that we serve and the employees that we are responsible for it's in your name that we pray [Music] amen I pledge the flag of the United States of America for it stands One Nation God indivisible right the school board meeting uh workshop for June 17th 2024 will now come to workorder and um the first item on our agenda is to review the agenda for next week's meeting yes ma'am so so traditionally this meeting is is uh quicker than most because you have one board meeting beginning of June then you have second at the end of June to account for the July 4th U week so I think we can get through our work here in in in short order uh I do have some people that I want to introduce Kelly if you can come forward you know Laura Laura's retiring this is Laura's replacement Kelly G for Kelly wave say hi everybody to it fresh on the job day one today day one it's the first business is she's here with you we also have Lance Addison that you know assuming a new role as the Director of of so and planning I think that's it for new people uh here today so to start with the agenda you know this is the time that we we celebrate our retirees we have3 retirees that's a total of 2,271 years in Clay County Schools so traditionally we we use this meeting to honor our retirees there's a 13-minute video that honors all of those folks during that time frame because traditionally there's less of the student celebration fee so it's strategic that the video of course is 13 minutes but 13 minutes versus uh 2271 years I think our return on investment is pretty good in that case Okay and then we have a short presentation on the Fine Arts after that and then as we go into the discussion agenda currently there are no special actions or no discussion agenda items at this point when you go into the consent agenda we have the minutes I didn't see any any challenges there payment of the uh fads uh equivalent then our Personnel consent agenda pretty standard stuff and then you have dual enrollment agreement with uh emry R who you know is at Fleming Island keone middleberg Oakleaf and Orange Park all those students can take dual enrollment courses through Henry R it's great program total cost is is approximately $40,000 next is our agreement with AMI kids uh you know they serve up to 44 male students mostly with uh some difficulties in their lives it's a great program yes sir excuse me is there any way that we can increase that program I think it's their capacity to handle that is the challenge so we need to ask so yeah I can I can certainly contact Maria and see if there's any way that she's interested in expanding that there's no way to conquer on about it's uh yeah we we have a very positive relationship with them they do a great job you know DJJ has their own set of accountability how we have a grading system of ABCD app for schools they have their own grading system for DJJ programs like Bas and uh Ami kids but they do they do awesome next is letters language Essentials for teachers of reading and spelling you this is the this is the uh professional development course that that teachers take in order to become certified and or endorsed in Reading uh it's a fantastic wellestablished program that we've talked about a few times here at the board work shop next is our Ser which is our comprehensive evidence-based reading plan you know that this is every year at this time the plan is Rewritten it's adjusted and brought forward to be in compliance with State Statute remember it goes over it goes over um all of the areas of evidence-based reading the end of it is shows you all of the charts related to tier one tier 2 and tier three strategy related to those six components of reading to have an evidence-based [Music] plan okay next is the uh contract with Preferred Physical Therapy for for the athletic trainers within all of our secondary schools I I noticed that previously that was something that St Vincent's covered every yeah with other so yeah so we've checked with other people to provide that we had a very unique relationship with them that nobody else had we also took a look at how other districts do this other districts hire a person individually to do that so we believe that this is this is saving us um about $115,000 per School in comparison to other districts for example Coler which is similar in size their their cost is 6.55 for is ours in uh St John's uh their their their cost is 553 so we believe that that through our partnership we have preferred they're picking up the other partion of the of the cost so this is actually a cost saving um Venture if you want to look at it that way compared to other districts duall hirees individual people in order to do that work so this is an example of how the district has used a creative processes in order to save the district money for a necessary um safety component for our [Music] students okay next is the charter renewal for Florida uh Cyber Charter Academy which you know that under under the statute we believe that they meet the requirements to be to be renewed it's a 5year renewal [Music] next is the contract with Lexia if you recall we we did a presentation a couple months ago related to Lexia and Lexia is used uh uh within our schools in order to supplement reading instruction provide uh a a path for students to follow and improve their reading and uh last year we work 12 in in the state in ela which I think that's a many components of course it's the great work of teachers on the ground floor you also have to have supplemental programs in order to do that so under mtss kind of diagnosing which area of the reading process the students deficient in and then providing instruction in that area so that the instruction is targeted makes a lot of sense and Lexia helps us do that at the secondary level provides more systematic and direct instruction in our um in classes so that's Lexia next is penda which does a similar thing for science but science is unique and that it's assessed in five 8 and 10 fifth grade 8th grade and 10th grade so when you take the fifth grade assessment you're being tested on standards for a couple of years some of which you haven't covered previously so there's a whole component to penda and while penda is in a certain portion of what we do and I think it takes a lot of a lot not only great teachers in the classroom but also the curriculum that's provided supplemental pieces to it the coaching that's provided so overall we were fourth in the State of Florida in science and uh Pena's piece of that uh success um Mr Brasi yes ma'am I just I'm going to cite my concerns with penda again I'm not saying that I need to pull this or um when I was in elementary scho teaching it was a fact that some third and fourth grade teachers used only penda which is an online platform during small group that actual physical Hands-On science which is a high-order critical thinking process was not happening um and is not happening in all classrooms and and I know that it's not happening in all classrooms however my biggest concern with penda is not actually the program self the topics are interesting my biggest concern is the fact that many teachers use it for let's say homework it is not accessible as homework for our ese population grade should not be given if we don't have direct support to our level ones and twos while completing penda um I have sat down with my own granddaughter to do penda and it is very very high order and very difficult so when you put level ones and twos who cannot read on what we call technical text so all kids struggle in technical text it's probably the highest area of struggle Across the Nation and that's text like the Constitution um panda is a technical text there's lots of diagrams and pictures and um large vocabulary words I am going to suggest and I would honestly think that the District would think this is a good idea that our level ones and twos should not be using penda without help as homework um there has to be some kind of a system for that and I do know kids who are level one ESC kids who have received very bad grades on penda as a homework grade um kids have they struggle with that and I don't know what your thought is Mr brosi on that but if we're going to keep penda which has great content and helps kids I believe we need to have some instruction one-on-one instruction for our kids direct instruction prior to giving penda as an assignment to be done alone okay I would my reaction to that is that that perhaps increased training related to how to use the program properly would be appropriate based on your comments there and so we can certainly do that I think I can also make the argument that in that um virtually every program every single program that we have um does every single person use every single program on every single day the way it's supposed to the answer is no I mean it would be uh I'd be remiss if I didn't kind of say that and so with that in mind certainly increasing the training related to that and the grading portion of that I know that grading is a topic that is going to happen here yeah do you have documentation as to the type of instruction for the parameters of use of I mean I have not seen it when it first came out I actually used penda right and never saw anything about how to use penda or the limitations of panda when it should be used when it shouldn't be used you know I I don't know what the district has done we can certainly ensure that those things are occurring within the glass and well thank you okay next on the next agenda item the uh the purchase of the ELD supplemental curriculum from thisa Higher Learning [Music] next we have the CTE overnight out of state travel you know that our um our CTE programs are wonderful in our district and they actually tell you a year ahead of time when they're going to various competition then we have our K12 out of state overnight travel next is the insurance renewal from Arthur gallager I know that Dr guno sent an email to everybody and uh some folks that cure related to it perhaps the the best chart is on the second to last page of it and it's actually a cost Savings in insurance which is uh column three on the second to last page related to it and uh I've always said it's it's always amazing that insurance doesn't go up every year so here's a there's a cost savings related to insurance [Music] next we have a proposed allocation changes for 2425 and you can see the the movement of cafeteria assistance and secretarial positions Etc on that page next is the power school contract renewals these are the programs that we use for uh HR for job postings Etc it's how we manage all of our applicants it's also our professional development system as well as our Erp which is our District's uh financial management security and transparency program through Power [Music] School next is the monthly reports followed by the budget amendments and Doc apologizes she's actually at a CFO meeting that's why she's is not here today deletion of certain items and here's the bid renewal for milk products is the next item followed by the bid renewal for small scale construction and you can see the companies that were awarded those contracts below [Music] $300,000 next is our uh srf fire safety report you know this is kind of interesting because maybe the board didn't realize this happens there's an inspection there School site that we have that happens and often there are things that need to either be fixed replaced redone Etc during the course of the year and then there's a process by which all of those things are done and it could be anything from the way the emergency lighting Works in a particular building to how the door operates to all kinds of stuff you can read all of those things so each one of our facilities goes through that inspection every year and then those things that are are noted are fixed or remedied whatever that is related to that similarly the next item is our um health inspection report same sort of process where they go ahead and they note a a certain um area that needs to be improved or redone and and those things are then done during that particular time frame next we have the outdoor warning system this is a this is a system that allows you to to measure the the heat stress on athletes as well as lightning and weather conditions that are out there most districts have gone to this where if lightning occurs in the area it sends an alarm off which would then tell you to get the students off the field the athletes off the field it measures the amount of time between lightning strikes it's a it's a safety uh process that we're implementing does it do weather in general as far as it does it does so you can monitor yeah so you can you can monitor it more closely and more localized because sometimes one of the challenges is what's happening in Keystone isn't happening in oaklea right so how do you kind of measured that so I would it would be great if there was a way to noyers too CU there's a Miss between the bus about to leave and being out on the road when when it happen well I can tell you that God has put an umbrella on over where I live and we've not had rain in 2 months but I have driven through rain in many other places and the Black Creek is filled back up so I know someone's getting rained you can never tell what the district spread out that far what the weather's going to be Sue and I were riding bikes yesterday and it rained in one portion of Fleming Island but not another it rained in the portion that we were in uh next is pre-qualification of contractors that's an every month event next is uh proportionate tier mitigation uh between the school board and Triple B Ranch anything you want to add to that uh no sir that's just Annabel Island Annabelle island has five phases phase one and two already had concurrency when they actually did the development plan phase 3 four and 5 has been sold therefore for that developer that they sold it to they have to get portion of share for the rest of the phases on that so that won be uh I got to I got to look and see who they sold it to I can't remember exactly what Builder it was but um all of them are in that area KB dream finders they're all there um Miranda all of them are over there yeah exactly I just want to some enough money what are you going do and we don't either so next is the Keystone Heights visitor concession stand contract award and people in Keystone will be thrilled with that no want know what to do but it's hard to believe that it's half a million dollars to go concessions down it's just I I mind bling on all M you have to run and everything I mean it's a brand new site yeah next is uh proportion share mitigation between board and Creek View in Highland Trail you want to add to that Mr yes sir so this was a proportionate share mitigation that we um entered into I believe back in 21 however the developer has approached us and approached the county to Annex a certain portion of land onto that proportionate share we are not changing any of the terms as far far as numbers student generation or anything like that all they're doing is annexing that land and most likely they're going to put um um age restricted homes on that land so it will not affect us as far as the school district but as as part of the entire development agreement they have to transmit to the state they have to Annex it onto the proportionate share agreement next item is the guaranteed maximum price uh related to Lake Asbury Junior High classroom editions and then you'll see the same sort of thing for Oakley those next two items and that's followed by the uh the uh preliminary for the Lake Asbury project and the preliminary for the Oakley uh item anything you want to add to that um so we had the bid opening for both of those preliminary bid openings about a week and a half ago um the preliminary numbers came in right at about $20 million they're sharpening their pencils they have to vet the contractors um make sure that scope of work matches what we what we did and um we're about 58,000 Square ft somewhere around there just to put it in perspective right now Florida doe they're averaging about they're allowing $46 per square foot the actuals coming into doe right now are $430 a square foot and ours are coming in somewhere around $340 a square foot so we're actually looking pretty good um as far as how much we're paying per square foot we'll also have a 7% savings on Direct purchase so we're going to purchase all the building materials ourselves in the end we'll be able to to recoup that Savings of 70% okay then the last item is the um the kitchen cafeteria renovation at linkside elementary school and that completes the agenda but before I I turn it back to you because I know you got two discussion items here just one of the more popular questions I get from people in general is what do you do during the summer anybody ever get that like like the implication is um you know we're just relaxing and and taking it easy so so far just to kind of give you a and everybody that works you know in K County Schools know summertime is kind of intense to get ready for the new school year so just a quick update on the school system in general so if you recall last uh week we had our one clay Leadership Academy which was about 800 teachers that came in the idea one of the ideas behind that is to um Empower teacher leaders right because if you look at our school district when you are towards the top end of the districts it becomes harder to go one more step further right if you have a lot of room for growth becomes easier to have that growth if you have little room for growth then you have to look for ways in which to increase that growth to make the the most of it when you look at Clay County Schools you know I think we're second in social studies fourth in science nth 9th in math and 12th in language arts so there's there's still room for growth but the growth you need to look for alternate ways in which to maximize strategies when you're in that type of scenario and so we we working on this really for four years which is empowering teachers to be teacher leaders among their group and to do that through the PLC process in which we focus on what do we want students to know how will we know if they achieve that what do we do if they don't achieve that and what do you do with the students that have achieved it right keep them motivated keep them going and so that was a fantastic uh fantastic event a lot of positivity uh I was very very surprised at how we gave out a trophy trophy the trophy had a maximum value of maybe $150 like it was like from the um I'm I'm kidding it was kind of a very meager trophy but they were fighting for the trophy they were that competitive uh related to that so that was very interesting this week starting tomorrow and the reason why the meeting was moved to Monday Tuesday we have our leadership so this be all administrator school-based administrator so some of the topics just so you have an idea some of the things we're working on for next year intentional Benchmark aligned instruction which which is a simple way of saying teachers should be teaching the benchmarks the standards right it makes sense that if students are assessed on the standards it would make sense that you're teaching those items right so as a teacher you have autonomy in some respects but the what the what you teach piece of that really is determined by a group of Standards that's given to us by the state right so that's part of it then we are also talking about grading practices I know Miss Hansen had brought this topic up and so we're addressing the challenges of grading from a teacher perspective and we started off with a very simple you know three kind of guiding principles for the grading and has to do when when it's graded the type of assignments that are graded and uh the communication piece with parents related to that cuz many times arguments come up related to that now grading itself you can probably spend a whole day just on this topic because it's very complex the intent is to start off with the very the most simple pieces of it and ensure that that's being done correctly across the district um I put a lot of thought into this because it's a very complicated you said I think an area that I would love for everyone to start thinking about is that limiting and I will talk about once again our lowest cortile our ESC kids um the large majority of ESC kids and I'm just going to be super focused on the fact that 40 I'm 40 something per I don't know the actual final numbers of children students in Clay County cannot read on grade level and so I would say my own grandchildren have teachers that wait their grades at 40% for a test 30% for quizzes and then they have only two or three of those in the course of a quarter I don't understand why we have not set some kind of parameter we know that our lowest core tile cannot read on grade level we know that they suffer test taking because they can't read on grade level yet teachers are allow owed to set these weighted standards as low as third grade that skew what I would call Master standard grading and what that means is we should not allow anyone to make a total of Assessments more than 30% as the State of Florida has set their final assessment at 30% there is no way a kid who is eight or nine years old in third grade should have most of their grades waited on assessments especially knowing that almost half our student population doesn't read on grade level so Mr rosi I don't know if that's a good starting point but many teachers don't even understand the graded system so for instance I know a parent who brought me their information and the lady had waited participation is 10% but didn't put a grade in she didn't even know that that then that weight is averaged into the other percentages that that pulls a kid's grade down a whole letter grade not to put a grade in so what I'm asking is is we can come up with some kind of parameter for these testings um and assessments to not be more than 30% which is where by the way most universities are and our state of Florida sets their limits so so you you be happen to know a whole team of people been working on this issue for the presentation Bey to know that we're going to to bring forward so you are correct I think one thing I would kind of add with the with the reading data that you presented is that you always have to present data in context right because everyone else in the state is in the same boat that you're in so when you look at that and you use that data in context Clay County is second in the State of Florida second in the State of Florida sixth grade Le literacy six in the State of Florida for 10th grade literacy overall literacy is 12th in the state well not arguing with you hold on I agree that means that 55 other districts would love to have the data that we have now can we improve the answer is always yes to every every time you ask the questions can we improve so I didn't want to get into a long tangent about grading practices but I agree with you and the reason why we're attacking this or one of the reasons why is because you brought the the issue up I would just ask you to realize there's a whole team of people uh that worked on this to kind of get how do you bring this forward right cuz it's complex as you admit so now we've developed a strategy and you got to start off with baby steps towards people and that's kind of the approach so grading practices and then support of novice teachers one of the things that we're focused on is how do we support our teachers if you hire almost 400 new people a a year then the process and the people that are involved in order to support those folks is important and we tear those teachers right some some require more help than others uh ESC and Esa structures as well as uh our school Improvement plans we worked on we're also going to talk a little bit about student Behavior interestingly enough in student Behavior the data shows a decline in cessor cessor events and um how to create schoolwide expectations and classroom expect ations for better student behavior of course we're going to talk about the ser and mtss Esa practice attendance was another topic that the board brought up uh So the plan to increase attendance as well as I know through the attorney we've had two meetings one with uh with the Ada and one with with uh judge Whittington about truy court and bringing that back to have the ultimate uh end repository for those that don't follow the law but most attendance issues there's usually barriers as to why the student doesn't attend so you have to deal with all those barriers first and then uh the ones that don't listen to the help then there's there's other avenues you have to go when that when that occurs and so attendance is another big part of it uh as well as curriculum in general a whole a whole day has been dedicated to school safety right as as for 1473 is implemented and the new legislation it creates new um uh opportunities for Clay County schools and requires a lot more um uh thought related to that so that's kind of what we're doing this I just wanted to give an update as to what we're doing uh related to that and so with that I'll turn it back over to you okay the um next item on our Workshop agenda is review of the Neola proposed policy options uh specifically related to public participation at board meetings um I didn't bring my hard copy with me I don't know if you guys have it um and I know we're two board memb short um but are you guys comfortable with moving forward on that you have input regarding it is this the way that our board meetings are run so can we review that schol oh thank [Music] you um so miss gilhousen you did read um yeah this is different is do you is this the only copy you have Miss I have several that's different from what this it is yeah her has school visitors on the [Music] front let's do this is the only one yes Miss baa I'm sorry I'm your your comment was disjointed I didn't understand the topic that you repeat please of course we are looking at the um public participation at board meetings policy that niola gave us at our um thank you policy Workshop thank you got it and so my question was did you guys have any input on um any modifications you'd like to see or are you comfortable putting it on the agenda for um next week as is so when that's concluded evening our policy as the three minute yes timing limit yes and also the only thing that I would question is that if we have more than a certain number of participants perhaps providing the chair an opportunity to limit the comment time to two minutes in other words we had a meeting oh gosh it's been a couple of years but we had close to 100 participants if I'm not mistaken right um and if each of them took three minutes that's a really lengthy period of time yes but they all wanted to be heard as I recall and I'm wondering if we could build into the policy that after a certain number of cards have been completed the amount of time for public time will just a thought I know that some counties do that I've heard the same school district do that and I think um another option that we have is instead of limiting each person's time to 2 minutes is we could limit the time of public comment so you could designate 30 minutes or an hour or two hours if you really wanted to for public comment and then whatever cards are left I don't know how you would handle that if you would give them an opportunity other parameters for something like well and that's where you would be able to look at the number of cards say okay if we have if we say 2 minutes per card then that will limit us to 3 hours of public comment let's say okay and I'm saying this is this is in one of those you know situations where it's a Hot Topic and everybody wants to talk right so Mr V has there few and far between I'm just wondering if he want right let me uh Mr bler has some legal advice on that so let's see what he yes thank you madam chair thank you Mrs B for bringing that up that the one the biggest challenge you have with public comment is making sure everyone has equal opportunity to be heard so we need to be careful that we do not limit for one group like hey you'll have one or two minutes and another group will have the full three minutes so what would may be better is to consider I think what the chair recommended um at at the last hearing was maybe um kind of let me at the very beginning saying hey at this me but everyone has to have the same opportunity to be heard at the same amount of time now the board can limit that y'all could set up where y'all have one public comment period that you come comment on everything and it's going to be limited to to one or two minutes generally the courts have held one to two minutes is considered ample time but we want to be careful that hey after 50 people now we go to 1 minute per person you just have to make sure it's equal for everybody whatever the par is set on does that make sense so Mrs B does that make sense yes it makes sense as I said it's really I love the three minutes I love the I didn't like the big numbers at first but I like them now because it's very obvious and it's um it gives everyone the opportunity to speak I think in a and if if the policy is pass and we we publish the changes or any alterations that we made that way we have that that that that opportunity to say oh yes everyone's going to get the opportunity to speak however because of the volume of people may need to limit it something to that so if we look at the word wording that's in this particular policy that they gave us um it does provide those options so um if you look where it says letter A guidelines regarding the amount of time an individual has to address the board that's where the 3 minute duration is established and then um letter B procedures for allowing representatives of groups or factions on a pro proposition to address the board so for example if we had um a special interest group show up and all of their members submitted a card to speak and they identified themselves as part of a specific group the chair at that point could say would you all like to designate one person to speak on behalf of your group rather than each individual um in order to save time and then there's another option on letter d uh what's set out in here is a designated period of time for public comment of 30 minutes and then it would take a vote of the board to extend that time um outside of the 30 minute limit so miss gilhousen our current policy says as we did the last meeting if you want to address an agenda item MH it seems to me when you address an agenda item that 3 minutes is people sometimes run out of time because it's a they're addressing something complicated or something they don't like about an agenda item if we do our public comment at the end like we were talking about is it possible then to limit that to 2 minutes I think what he's at the end regardless of what they're speaking regardless everybody has to have the same opportunity to speak okay so public comment is at the end then we would be able to vote on extending that time limit if we needed yeah on either like so we currently have agenda public comment agenda related public comment section that I think by this policy would be 30 minutes and then we would have another 30 minute section that's general public comment and where where in would the general public comments take place the end at the end like we did this last time so we do the um agenda related public comment prior to taking up a vote on the consent agenda and then we we take action on the discussion and the consent agenda and then we hear general public comment once the business is taken care of M just one point of clarification so for general public comment for the law does not require general public comment that is at the pleasure of the board so that is something that yall could limit for agenda item public comment you have to give the public the opportunity to be heard and you have to do it equally so so we could do two minutes for General comment and three minutes yes ma'am okay yes ma'am you go and some some boards I represent do do that they they will say look you you have two minutes and they they can limit it now you still want to make sure you're not arbitrary because because the courts look at it well if they're saying something that youall don't want to hear then you start cutting it off so you want to be just very control but Florida law only requires requires it for agenda comment on on the agenda so that's where that's where we have to make sure we're just equal what we do and and we did discuss putting it at the very end of the board meeting so where it was at the last meeting was kind of in the back one third right yeah and so I don't know what the what the outcome was of our discussion about putting it at the end of the meeting many school boards do that for the general comment I mean what do we think about that so I have a couple thoughts first I know we talked about hearing general public comment at the conclusion of the meeting um my concern you like that idea I like that my concern is that we do have board members who want to respond to General comment and if we're going to do that my feelings are that we need to be in session um because I I worry that we would end up discussing something that could potentially once at some future time be voted on so just in order to keep us and I don't know if you share my opinion on that um to keep us in the sunshine I think would be the best practice simply because there are times when General comment is made and we'd like the superintendent to respond to set the record straight or we'd like um you know if they're making having questions or accusations about something a board member has done and a board member feels like I need to respond to that for clarity um just I I can think of times where that's happened in the past but I worry if we hold it to the conclusion of the meeting then you're we can't you you so there wouldn't be an opportunity if if we did it at the end we would have to add another section to the agenda for us to respond is that what you're saying no I'm saying if we conclude the meeting and then hear public comment we wouldn't be able to respond the the reason I thought we put it where we did was because we still have board comment and superintendent comment and legal comment after the general public comment so that way you do have the opportunity if you don't want to which I don't think it's wise to get in a back and forth with somebody who's come to the DI I think the best practice is let them stay what need to say and then when it's our turn to speak if we want to address it we can I agree so our options are we could public comment could be 2 minutes and we could expand if we need to remount of time um by vote and that vote happens at the moment at the meeting right yeah we could look at you know how many cards we have and make that decision M sure what you said is absolutely correct most boards that do it that way do it exactly as you described it at the very so one of the agenda is general public comment then the superintendent then individual board members the attorney can respond um the the the the one other the one other thing I'd have to look at your rules again but the chair can also decide to extend public comment without a board vote so that's something that y'all might want to consider not limiting the chair in that regard just by by right the chair can always say hey I'm going to allow an extra 10 minutes of public comment you there any objections from the board and make it a little bit more informal that way doesn't require a formal vote just just a thought um I know some like to do a formal vote but it's understood that your has you know is your role is to run the meetings and kind of assess the mood of what's going on and say look I'm going to I'm going to allow an extra 15 minutes of public comment are there any objections from the board if there are then a board member could object and then you can ask for consensus but I'd recommend not limiting the authority of the chair in that regard making a formal vote just making a little bit more informal does that make sense can the chair if someone is speaking when they go past their two or three minutes I have seen where chairs allow them to finish is that also in the gray area of we're not giving everyone the same amount of time you know it it it could be there there has been a couple of Court decisions on that where it appeared that so the example not getting too into the weeds there was a there was an issue I believe it was in Jack bille where there was some attacks on the city council but then someone got up and was speaking and praising the city council and and and the mayor and so they said well we're going to give an extra few minutes to let them finish the pr and so you do need to be careful you know cuz it could look like it's being arbitrary and that's the biggest complaint it almost becomes a First Amendment issue at that point that that you're restricting speech that is favorable or not favorable so i' encourage not to give people more time that minute I mean I mean someone's mid M you know sometimes you say you have an extra 30 seconds but you kind of want to do that for everybody and then it kind of creates where we're giving people even more time um you know again it's up to the chair you know and you're kind of rolling the dice is someone really going to go Sue over that maybe not so in the moment maybe right right so usually usually the courts have found that the chair is in the best position to kind of assess the mood of of public comment but you really do want to try to stick to those rules and then the chair can say look we have another 30 people lined up said look we're going to I'm going to extend it for 15 minutes are there any objections from the board if there are the board can be heard so okay well you know let's get consensus and then kind of go from there but the board chair really makes that call you know so that would require altering this policy so um the designated the letter d on the back side designated period of time for public comment um so the portion of the meeting do you guys first of all do you want to keep the 30 minute limit do you guys like that I I do not you do not want to and talk me out of it but I'm just thinking if we do have a group and it goes beyond that you know I just want to make sure everybody feels equal in the 30 minute time we've never limited it in the past Yeah in our policy so I'm I'm fine with continuing on with the way it doesn't happen that often it doesn't and we just the board could extend cuz the board the chair could give the rest of the people the opportunity to speak anyway right if we set the 30 minute limit then yes the board we can what he's saying is we could give the board chair the authority to extend Miss Gil yes Miss Bola I am not I am not in favor of limiting them M of time for public comment okay my intention earlier was if we have an inordinate number of people who are wanting to make a public comment simply to say okay we've got a hundred people who want to make a public comment about the athletic field we are going to be limitting comments to two minutes that was my intent we normally do not have that many people at our meetings making public comment I would prefer to just disregard my my statement from earlier because we're now getting week where we're saying oh we want to limit the public comment I do not want to do that at all I don't want to limit the time that that up to a 30 minute time span I think that is far too far too limited and I like the idea of of allowing public comment before we speak in order to respond to the public comment if that's necessary thank well I'm I'm comfortable with um like I said keeping things the way that we've always done them I don't think we need to limit public comment um in those instances in those instances where it has been lengthy we've implemented some procedural things like having people stand in line as opposed to waiting for their name to be called um and like you know I think it gives us that opportunity here under letter B when you have a large group of people and they're all saying the same thing the board chair can then say um you know in in the essence of time is there anybody who would prefer to just allow one representative to speak for your group and then it's it's up to them it's not the board saying you can't speak um are you guys comfortable with that so what we could do is just strike D from this policy all right we'll do that under a number two where it says the time period may be extended by the presiding officer okay the first a or the second a first day first um just for the simple fact of what Mr blocker just said I think there are times when um whatever the person is saying it's important for them to be able to finish their sentence not even enough difficulty speaking exactly so I I like to have that option are you guys comfortable with that okay and then um we have some options following D um hold on the presiding officer of each board meeting at which public participation is permitted shall administer the rules of the board for its conduct so here are the rules a public participation shall be permitted as indicated on the order of business and before the board takes official position on any action item under consideration we already do that so you guys want to keep that right participants must be recognized by the presiding officer and will be requested to preface their comments by an announcement of their name address and group affiliation if and when appropriate we already do that so check that all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer no person may address or question board members individually staff members shall not be expected to answer question questions from the audience unless called upon by the board chairman or the superintendent that's what we do already um tape or video recordings are permitted under the following condition no obstructions are created between the board and the audience no interviews are conducted in the meeting room while the board is in session no commentary adjustment of equipment or positioning of operators is made that would distract either the board or members of the audience while the board is in session I don't think we have those rules but I like them D3 so at our last board meeting when people were running around carrying large equipment right if we had had this policy I think that would have given us kind of a leg to be able to say please don't put your camera in people's faces the table there that was very intimidating and I I felt like disruptive to the meeting so but I think it's set up in one place but right but they don't need to be putting the camera in audience members faces right all right letter E I agree with that the presiding officer May interrupt warn or terminate a participant's statement when the statement is too linky personally directed abusive obscene or irrelevant we do that currently so can check that one request any individual to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum m g can I get some clar clarification on E1 I know that um if let's say someone were to get up to read something that wasn't obscene or abusive but was let's say we have children present at at some point does that fit in here it might not be these things but there's 25 f-words about to come out and I think that would be considered obscene yeah so the chairman could then say that fits under that I I think so yes ma'am that's correct okay I just want to make sure it could even add inappropriate inappropriate I think would would be a great thing to add because at any time there could be something inappropriate and would give us more flexibility I'm not a lawyer but no I I think that's absolutely correct I mean these are not free speech zones these are not considered these are business meetings so you AR allowed to limit you know profanity and also is being videotaped or reported so that's that's another reason to keep it so should we add um inappropriate I would like to add inappropriate okay I'm fine with that are you comfortable with that Miss CLK well I'm almost thinking that everything else covers that but if we want to be more clear that's fine [Music] okay do you do you think obscene and profane are the same do we need to add profane just it I guess profanity would be inappropriate right maybe yes I don't know if there's a legal definition that we have to meet here or well I I I guess I'm was just thinking with inappropriate might cover you know there's some as our society kind of evolves or evolves you know there's terminology that maybe 30 years ago was not inappropriate but now it's considered inappropriate so it allows the board to be more current with okay you know well maybe in appropriate time right exactly so should we add profane or do you think we're I I I think I think that's probably covered under under obene but inappropriate I think does make sense because there might be something that was not inappropriate 10 20 years ago but we might say look you know we need to avoid okay a terminology here uh so item three request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person's conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting that's already something that we are allowed to do and then call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to Warrant such action I haven't ever seen that done but I guess it would probably get to have and and just just as a legal you know this is where we as lawyers are boring get to read you know It's always important Miss Gil I know you and I have had this conversation It's always important to identify this behavior is disruptive on the record please remove I think the one time I I've seen this since year was then Mr Freeman started reading some very profane I think um M Gil Howen correctly said you know this is disruptive so those are the magic words that have to be uttered you this is disruptive to the to the good order and discipline so just something to keep in mind so all right the last section no board action shall be taken on requests made during public discussion unless the board declares the matter to be an emergency in accordance with current law any other requests that the board chooses to take action on shall be placed on an agenda for a subsequent meeting which that's our current policy requirement for public comment on action items does not apply to an official act that must be taken to deal with an emergency situation affecting the public health welfare or safety if compliance with the requirements would cause an unreasonable delay in they V of the board to act an official act involving no more than a ministerial act including but not limited to approval of minutes and ceremonial proclamations a meeting that is exempt from the public meetings law or a meeting at which the board is sitting in its quasi judicial capacity these exceptions do not affect the right of a person to be heard as otherwise required by law or board policy you guys good with all that all right so Mr nor I think we can let Neola know that we want to make a few adjustments and then we can add it to um next week's meeting all right last agenda item is discussion of the internal auditor um Miss Hansen that was your item yeah thank you I appreciate putting this on the workshop I know we had discussed giving the board time to do some research on this and I did some research as well um I would first like to address uh Miss B's board comments at the last meeting I would prefer that board members do not speak of other board members especially during a time where we cannot re address or make a point of that conversation um she chose not only to address just me but it was a 20- minute speech that in my opinion was hijacking what we had decided would be on a workshop agenda item for us to research and for us as a board not one person as Authority we are equal members five board members five equal board members a lot of the detail that came out in board member comments um I'm just going to give some examples she cited comments or quotes Source from Greta from St John's County what she cited was I've been to many Financial forums with fsba and this person from St John's County they don't have one they have a million dollar budget it went on and on and on but what Miss POA failed to mention was it was Greta at the last Advanced Finance form that put the slide up and made us know and made us become aware of this law it was very conflicting to me that the same person being used as a source was the person who with her co-present yes with her co-present was the one presenter that put the law up there to make us realize the importance of an internal auditor at that time the CFO who is not a lawyer by the way the CFO very nice person from St John's County GR who is not a lawyer did not speculate state or Say in any kind of way at the advanced Finance form which I was the only one there that oh no this law really doesn't read or work as it sounds so I was confused as to why we were speaking about a person who gave me the information in board comments as if I hadn't been there to see her give me the law Miss bolo also cited two main reasons why we should not have an internal auditor um her first reason was the many audits that take place in the district I went and saw um someone to get some information about audits um we do indeed have audits we have state audits that happen every 3 years but those audits are only on certain things no one's coming coming in to look to see if they could help us improve our security no one's coming in as a gotcha moment to ask somebody what's going on over there they come to look at certain items indeed we do pay for an external internal audit once a year I have a copy of how that occurs um because I requested this information and we've had the same person I don't know maybe seven years years they too we know ahead of time what they're going to look at basically and so for me that's not really what an internal audit is for it was suggested at the advanced Finance Forum that you hire someone different every couple of years without parameter to come in and look that's how you Safeguard taxpayer dollars so the fact that the audits that everyone in the state of Florida it goes through every 3 years by the audit General is not what an internal auditor does it's just not the second thing the main reason is we couldn't afford it well I'm here to tell you if we can't afford an internal auditor then that's why we need one with a half a billion dollar budget plus an increasing budget to say that having an extra set of eyes on taxpayer dollars is not needed when we also say we can't afford them we can afford when we need to to start up a whole truancy program we can afford a whole ESL program we can afford redesignating people into higher positions to give them a raise we can afford taking seven mindsets from 70,000 to $23,000 we can afford pretty much every single thing that anyone has ever needed or requested to say we can't afford and the average cost in Florida is 65 to $85,000 to say we can't afford which is like one position administrative position at a school level is absolutely ludicrous I do not appreciate the attempt at authority over a workshop item when school board members don't or can't respond it was inappropriate and that conversation should have been held today when all of us could have a time to talk about that and so the main reasons that I and and Mr blocker do you have the law that I I left it at home on my paper um yes ma'am I believe so let me see here could you read it it's so it's short and it says shall but I can't remember exactly what it says uh yes ma'am so it's um I believe it's Florida statute 1 1000 1.42 there's a section L I believe this is the one a while back that that you had called me about so I I can if the chair were allow let me see here um so internal auditor May or in the case of a school district receiving annual federal state and local funds in excess of 500 million shall employ internal auditor the scope of the internal auditor shall not be restricted um to include every functional program area of of the school system so I think um when I was just reading this again to kind of refresh my my recollection so y'all May y'all May hire an internal auditor you know just kind of CH discretion but you shall when it it's required when the school district receives 500 million in federal state and local fund which is essentially y's funding sources yall do have some grants and stuff like this but how did that statute start did it see the school board or the school district um it says may the internal auditor May or in the case of a school district receiving annual federal state and local funds and access of 500 million shall employ an internal auditor the scope of the internal audit shall not be restrict so who shall or the district the the the school district school district it says School District not school board that's different than what we've been discussing but it also goes into there's a second part about who the internal auditor reports to reports to the school board unless we designate that report to someone else but we don't hire them I'm sorry and just and my colleague here just point out I'm sorry CU I was um so so this statute actually covers that the read here this statute this statute one one 1.42 is the heading is powers and duties of the district school board school board so it actually flows from that it outlines the actual authority of the school board so even though it says the school district when you read this is a long this is a long statute this is a a 40 page statute but it starts out with the authority of the school board then the the way I would interpret that is a school board can can vote and then the school district would hire but it's actually under the authority of the board we would direct the superintendent or because we can't direct the superintendent he's elected so correct so this is where it's a little you these statures are not greatly written so um it's not it's not so the way I would interpret this it's not left just at it's not just at the discretion of the school district I think you all have a role in this under the statute youall have a role in deciding this so I think if youall vote to move forward with internal auditor then obviously the superintendent you know that would be a policy you would vote on a policy to hire um you know where we would want an internal aitor and then sorry and then um I I think from what Miss Bola shared and just from what I've experienced having been on the board the district does have an internal audit every year absolutely and that's yeah correct I was just trying to answer your question about what was is this specific to the district or is this under so it was brought up as aerated power like our ability as a board it is listed under State Statute as a power of a board um I'm always very careful to make sure it doesn't at some point the board must have impr approved funding for this internal audit that we've been using forever but this was specifically given at the Florida School Board Association advant Finance form as a power of the board it is it's you know we district superintendent have their powers and this was one of the powers listed I guess so I guess my question is so we have the power to authorize that position to be filled right and we've already done that because the the district has an internal audit every year they have an internal audit they do not have an internal auditor that works for us we do one day I'm confused by that because I think the way that it the way that I'm understanding the statute we authorize the position but we don't do the hiring the district does the we don't do the hiring but to have an annual audit report is much different than hiring a yearound full-time employee an internal auditor is completely separate it has nothing to do with hiring someone to do an internal audit a year so I disagree because I think have opportunity to speak yes Miss bu can you give me one second to finish my thought and then I'll recognize you so I can you hear us okay Miss bolo yeah okay y oh yeah so I'm thinking you know the way we do legal services in the past we had a attorney who was um on his own that was an a district employee and then we moved to what we have now where we contract with a firm for legal services so to me this is kind of what we're what we're asking or what I'm hearing you ask for is kind of a reversal so to go from having a firm that does the internal audit yearly you'd rather have an employee that does the internal audit yearly it's not an internal audit it's an every single day person I I I'm not sure how to explain this it is somebody that doesn't look at one thing or it's it's an actual position and maybe they spend the next three months working with the district on securing our internal Accounts at our schools maybe it's they have they are allowed to look at whatever they like maybe they want to go in and look at how secure our technology is maybe they want to look at how secure is our bank transfers from this is somebody who looks at every aspect of our procedures our policies works with the people to make sure that everything is locked tight they in general in general they find they make their money back within a month of their salary they Safeguard the money they come to the board and say you're doing all this really great but there's an area of weakness so okay what district does that I don't I don't have I mean there are districts that do it I don't have a list of them I have to go home and get my list but I'm my what's fuzzy for me is that from what I'm understanding from Mr Blocker we have the authority to authorize that position but do we have the authority to manage that position or does that fall to the district office so it it's it's it's it's it's it's unclear so essentially the statute is is I'm reading it and I've read this several times it's not can't believe it's poorly written but it it is outlining the authority of the school board you all have the authority to create budgets oversee budgets obviously the district has a role in that what this is saying is I'll read it again the internal Auditors that's the heading May or in the case of a school district receiving annual federal state and local funds access of 500 M shall employ an internal auditor the scope of the internal audit shall not be restricted and shall include every functional program area of the school system so This falls under a statute that is empowering the school board but going to your point I think I think the the board has the authority to hire outside Auditors as well well I don't know that it has to be an internal position it authorizes the board to hire an internal position it can be an outside auditor as well I think this is just giving y'all as a board the authority to hire an internal auditor um you may do it if it's under 500 million if it's over 500 million then then it's it's required that internal auditor so that employee would belong to the board that would be like what our legal council is that's that's the way that's the way it's written that's that's I guess so I don't want to be the first School District to do that no no I I I complely understand there are other districts who have done it and done it successfully um because should there be a legal issue I don't want to be the presedent I I completely understand so I've reached out to other colleagues I think generally what is done is that outside firms are hired so it's not an internal position well I think I think some do I I just have not spoken to I think in our region it's generally an outside firm is hired to do it but I but but help yeah sorry Miss B yes the statute interal go ahead thank you okay initially when I brought this up at the school board meeting at our last Workshop numerous people spoke about the internal auditor not just one individual School Board member it was a discussion we were talking about something that was not transparent to the community my intention with my comments were to be more transparent to the community as to what we were discussing we currently have an internal account auditor it's my understanding that I believe it's Lake County hired their internal accounts auditor who had worked for them for close to 30 years as an internal auditor but that person was very familiar obviously with all of the all of the different accounts with District within the other areas um I spoke specifically to rechen Saunders who is the CFO in St John's County she specifically pointed out in the statute it says sh not will and we have had this discussion before on other statutes sh means we have the opportunity to hire someone it is not a requirement by the state from my standing this was pointed out by her because she had just gone through an audit with the state they do not have a specific internal auditor for their $1.2 billion account we $1.2 billion um yeah their budget so when you're looking at an internal auditor hired the school board there is not and that's I just don't believe it's necessary for us to hire an additional person when we have the audits that we're doing they are published if we want access to any account we have every opportunity for access to every account I know that our internal account auditor we are hiring an additional person to assist that person to because of volume of internal accounts that we have in the schools it is our responsibility as a board as Miss Hanson has pointed out that we are in charge of the budget we have to also allow the professional to be Prof when we are hiring or when we're buying some of these programs it's based on the invaluable research that's done by the people who are in the trenches to get the programs that are going to best benefit our children and opportun did hire Mr Blocker we hired the entire firm we have absolutely increased our legal expenses over the last year and that's about we are spending money that we haven't spent in the past I look also at the scholarship that's coming directly out of our budget yes we can afford programs that are going to benefit our children in innal auditory that's going to cost $50,000 it's going to cost more like $110 to $120,000 because we would have to hire a CPA we would have to hire someone who Curr use we have every year we do an rfg for our our CCA firm just because we happen to use C gr more than once doesn't mean that we are settling on one accounting firm we have the RFC we have other accounting firms give us bitter cost and basically we have used Serv this grade because they have probably come in at the best cost one of the benefits also is that they do understand all of our account they understand the requirements they understand the federal guidelines they understand internal accounting and what we are doing to improve our internal accounting within each of the schools ctis gr knows us they know what our accounts are and within their within their audit if they see in a SK they are certainly going to report that and that's what we as I said the most recent Pur gr about it is sitting right there under transparency my intent at the Schoolboard meeting was to educate the population to let them know what we have in currently what our concept we not what we said glad the previous year we spent $2 million on family scholarships and now we're spending 10 to 15 we have to budget 10 to5 million for Parental Choice scholarships that that's huge in relationship to our budget our budget is half of what the down count budget is our budget is min comparison to what the count budget is and bottom line they're looking for a missing billion dollars the internal auditor would not help them with that they are in need of finding sources where they can save money as well our I mean we could go on and on about a reserve fund last St John County had to take $26 million out of their Reserve to pay for salary we don't even have $26 million in our Reserve with 16 million we have to be cost efficient and just to go out to get an internal auditor for the sake of having another employee of the school board I think is absolutely bu so I think would be incredibly irresponsible of thank you so um I'm we attended a um conference School Board member conference last week um where we learned a little bit about um budget uh management options and one of the resources um that was suggested was um er strategies um and the way it was presented was that ER strategies would work with us as a board um to delve into our budget and give us some suggestions on um how we could improve on uh processes on spending on all of that so before we move forward with um hire like creating a new position and spending that money um I think it would behoove us to do some study and to what what are we currently doing how is it working how is it not working um and kind of have a third party um analysis of that um that's my personal preference and obviously it's a a board decision um but I was impressed at the um training conference that that might be a really good option so that we know what we're looking to accomplish before we spend an amount of money to accomplish what's the goal what's the end goal what are we trying to achieve I think we need to establish that first and then you hire or not according to what needs you've identifyed but I I think we need to identify the financial need and financial objectives first um I don't know if if that resonates with you guys and obviously with Hansen not here weigh in on it may I add my two cents please do it might be three or four actually work I like your last comment because I think we as a board don't know what direction we want to go into and what we want for I know we've talked about that the system and I've talked to Dr legut the system is Antiquated and it's very hard to pull information and I'm still waiting on info from questions I asked a month ago the workshop um and that's not blaming anybody it's just not easy to get the information so I too after Miss Hansen and Miss baa spoke about the well after you miss Anson visited Mary Kirk I took it upon myself to also visit Mary Kirk and to learn more about the processes of the schools um I was very happy to meet Mary perk I'm glad that we stole her from St John's I think she's doing a wonderful job but she's has a very tough job because she's having to teach Old Dogs new tricks and that's never easy um one of my questions was when you go to the symphony when you go to the zoo even you can't use dollars everything is changing to where you know it's not that it's not a trust factor it's just it's too much when you go to a football game and and there's different ways of taking in money and buying tickets the control is very difficult and everybody wants to do it differently and Mary's job is to consolidate and make it to where it's very simple upfront and she is not I don't believe and M TR you can find out but I don't believe her title is that of H um I believe hers is more of a control um what would be the right I don't know I wrote it down she told me coordinator um regarding all the school's funds and it's it's a really title basically when the state comes in purose spr comes in they're doing what drco has to make sure that we've done and that that we're in compliance with the red book but you can have multiple types of audits and I think that's where we're at we have to understand what type of audit if we're going to do it that we really need and I would like if we're going to do it I would like for them to say Hey you know these are the needs of your system as far as upgrades to where it is much more transparent and we can pull an item and see all the money you know where that line item is coming from all the transactions that relate to that so I think we ought to get to the point where we find out exactly what it is that we need but uh I I'm not I'm not in the mindset that the school board has just been spending money with getting a new law firm or the police um I think what the law firm has brought to the table is such a large umbrella especially with the TRU you know we can get a handle on that that's 8.5 million dollars that we're losing um there's a there's a big savings I think with with going with this Law Firm for this district and as far as the police uh I'm not seeing a big difference I mean I was I will admit now I was very Rel this last year to go with Advanced um Communications but all of this is coming from the village money or could come from the village we spent 65 million between in the schools for this audio enhancement and we felt it it was very important but we didn't we didn't question that so we're not even spending that on the police so I you know I don't [Music] know I I just don't want to give the public the assumption that we're just out here wasting a lot of money because we're not and I think coordinator of internal recur thank you so she is she is not an auditor and we are so blessed to have her I know a lot of people probably are fighting with trying to set it up with Clay bucks or you know whatever it's termed but it's very important that we have control and that every school would do it the same way um but anyway CLK I did notan insinuate that you're wasting money I'm just saying that as we grow we definitely are going to be required to spend more money that's given oh absolutely the bottom line though is that there's still so many uncertainties and some of the requirements that the state has placed on us that we have to be able to accommodate those as well the money most definitely I I understand mes for safety we have used that money for Safety and Security the best way that we can possibly communicate the best way we can possibly Harden our schools the bottom line however is that the money is a a mill that is voted on by the by the community exactly and if for some reason and I can't imagine that they would say no we don't want safety in our school however we are not we we are not guaranteed that honey and so we have to obviously send that with the greatest amount of Str possible so that we can in the event if and God forbid that ever happen that any event that the the public not approve that not we would have to have some money to back it up because we could not afford it in our budget perog so that I'm not in I am not insinuating that we wasting money I basically indicating that it is cost more for what we need to do and the position that you're talking about the title is an internal accounts auditor but it is um a support person position and the additional person that we want to hire and I don't believe that the the additional person that's been hire yet but that is also a support person position that works with drco can I make a point point of order I'd like to respond I'm sorry my phone went off I was trying to actually get into my home computer which I can and um I guess I'm disappointed in the month that's gone by I guess there's less than oneth because it's a short term in between that we as board members I feel like haven't done our due diligence because one of the documents and I'm just going to make a couple copies and I'm going to read something from Orange County Public Schools and maybe that will help with what you are asking about miss gilhousen one it is never irresponsible to have a second set of eyes on gigantic amounts of money we don't need to say it's irresponsible to have someone guard our taxpayer dollars along with District resources that is not irresponsible so internal Auditors by the way are not all CPAs and so Orange County Public Schools there's other schools too but this is what I could get into right now let me take these off the internal auditor department they have a department it's more than just an internal accounts coordinator provide independent objective assurance and you guys could go home and look up orange um County Public Schools Consulting Services designed to add value and improve the district's operations improve the district's operations it helps the district achieve its objectives by systematically evaluating and improving the effectiveness of risk management control and governance and the Implement implementation of best practices we're so focused on dollars that we forget there's a lot that needs to happen around taxpayer dollars the scope of the work is quite lengthy I could send it to you if you guys would like um internal audit scope includes EV valuating District's internal control systems and its processes on achieving stated goals and objectives suggesting improvements reporting to school board and other functions as indicated by Florida statute 10001 42 the bullet points that they have assess the district's risk management governance and internal control systems provide an overview of the effectiveness of the internal control system Miss B talked about we have a close relationship or they're close to us so they understand what we're doing that's what you don't want you want someone looking in saying this is real risky here there was a county in Florida that sent a 16 million check via a secure line to a contractor for a new school and it was hijacked this is what these people do this is riskmanagement of your funds assessing issues and concerns at school board or management requests review specific matters review existing operations or programs to determine if results are consistent with those expectations develop of new systems to determine if progress result results and testing are consistent with established goals and objectives perform value added process analysis notice they don't say go in and look at something to see if it's right this is a holistic job and it safeguards there I learned at the advanced Finance form many many districts are losing millions of dollars based on cyber security how smart Crooks have gotten their ability to mimic with AI our voices if there's voice controls at bank AI can call and sound like Dr lecko there is a lot going on right now systematically evaluate the district's efficiency we get so much paper all the time I can tell you to evaluate our efficiency as Miss Clark stated there are better systems that we could be utilizing that save money and time District's efficiency and Effectiveness and coordinate the work of outside auditing firms this isn't about looking at how are they spending the money this is about what can we do better how can we protect it I would implore the board to start looking at why other districts do these and why legislation might have indicated that it whether you believe it's shall or will whatever I can tell you I have concerns after being at the advanced Finance forum and hearing onslaught of problems that are brand new and specific to today's problems that have not been tightened up in budgets the security systems have not been tighten up there's no one looking other than the home drum onee annual audit an audit is separate this isn't even going to look at where was this money spent this looks at when it was spent could we have done it better do we have recommendations for the board that could save money can we protect the processes better this is not the same thing is what we are thinking it is um also miss Skipper is not here um and I don't know if I can ask the chair to read her letter because she's not here on the phone um and before I do that though Mr blocker wanted to clarify some of comments if if if I could I apologize um Madam shair when you asked me I was trying to you I want to thank my colleague um Mrs miles for pointing out so there are a number what I was trying to figure out was how other districts now I had reached out to some of their surrounding districts but it appears at Orange County does the board does hire an internal auditor P County I believe Duvall County I think you found several others so so it is the board directly hiring an internal auditor that reports directly to the board so I will I can circulate that y obviously this is y'all's decision I'm not tur away in one way or the other but I was um I out a couple other counties it's obvious every County handles this a little bit differently but Orange County PO County I think Dov all um I think were there any others that you if you want to elaborate on that I'm still looking that also I like your idea about um doing some sther research and I appreciate Mr blocker having done some of that research could we please and and I'm I'm going to be S of a suggestion of being for spe specificity be specific um could we get the county if they have an internal auditor or not and I think they might be able to get this Statewide actually somehow um how what they do for internal accounting purposes in that respect internal accounting or not and also the value of their budget because I don't I mean clay County's budget versus Evol County's budget versus Orange County's budget I think it's it is a fact that we do need to take into consideration as well and with your suggestion that you H and about doing further research I think we might want to go that direction thank you um so Mr buer if you if you wouldn't mind sending that to all the board members so we have the information really the the research portion of it is from a legal aspect is what I would like to see um how do they go about it are we creating a job descript are we creating a policy um what is the management of that position who does that who's Authority does that reside with so what's the legal way to go about standing that up would be my question for you and then the research portion of it that I think we should do as a board um the ERS um the education resource strategies company that was referred to us by the conservative Coalition of school boards I think would be a really good first step um and I think you agreed with me in Miss heart but I think um to have it essentially is having them do exactly what you were talking about have you looked at their website AO B okay um Mr bler said that I'm not Distributing information to board members can you send that out as well yes ma'am I I will and I and just you all know it may come from Mrs miles as as well so she's she's going to help me kind of research that but we'll pull the actual legal documents that the boards have used I think Orange County is using a charter they actually have a charter that their board created so we'll we'll prepare those and send those and again when you first asked the question I I was going off some my conversations from the local St John's but obviously other counties are doing it differently I just want to make the board aware of that so I didn't lead you the wrong direction so all right so um Miss Skipper's comments uh this is from Aon skipper she addresses board members I'm writing to express my strong support for moving forward with the vote to establish an internal auditor position within our school district the implementation of an internal auditor is a critical step towards ensuring transparency accountability and financial Integrity in our operations an internal auditor will provide an independent evaluation of our financial practices help identify areas for improvement and ensure that resources are utilized effectively to support our educational Mission I believe that this position will not only Safeguard our financial assets but also enhance public trust in our District's governance it's imperative that we take proactive me measures to maintain the highest standards of financial oversight and compliance I urge the board to proceed with the vote and approve the establishment of this essential role because it is law having another set of eyes on our taxpayers dollars should never be a question thank you Aaron Skipper so um on this website for um strategies uh let me just tell you their approach um it says ERS empowers school system leaders to make transformative shifts in resources structures and practices so that all students especially those with greatest learning needs and those furthest from opportunity attend a school where they can learn and Thrive we believe that every school that for every school to succeed for every student schools must look very different from the bridgid class sizes fixed time box and undifferentiated teacher roles that still Define school to today ensuring that student and teacher learning is designed in a fiscally sustainable way will require significant resource shifts that's why our work focuses on the larger picture how resources work together to create high performing systems ERS supports the creation of high performing school systems that establish the structures and conditions for highquality schools at scale allowing all students to attend a school where they can learn and thrive in order to achieve our mission we publish free tools and publications run Invitation Only learning sessions and webinars convene and support cohorts of District leaders working together on these issues across the country and offer just in time Services directly to districts and States on strategy design professional learning implementation support and more we approach all of the above using a do now build toward theory of systemwide transformation which involves taking doable steps grounded in data and research that address critical needs while building toward an inspiring bold financially sustainable Vision so I think this would be a good place to start to help us develop a strategy and some benchmarks and goals that we'd like to meet before we move towards hiring somebody and then not giving them a a vision or a plan for what it is that we're asking them to do does that make sense Miss bulled yeah okay so um going forward Mr blocker said he would send the information about what other school districts are doing what the job descriptions and um I think some of them like he said had a charter that establishes the position so we can look through those materials and see you know get some ideas for what we would want in our district and then meanwhile um I can contact ERS and see if they could come um what the price would be if we were this is the the link from the the training yes um and can I send that to everybody yes ma'am we just want to be careful that there's no responses no board members can respond um you can just send you want to send directly send it to me I can send it that that way no one inadvertently responds okay I'll send it to Mr braski and he can disseminate it to you guys I'll send individual emails perfect so you don't have to worry about responding so we're going to do this before we take a vote I don't know if this will require a vote but I want you guys to have the information um so then we can and discuss what our next steps would be um and whether that's I don't know at what point we need to authorize the district to spend money to also tell you we're not the only District right now under the current very complicated technology that is out there I mean there are so many people just trying to get our money that's really the way it was very scary actually listening to school districts present I will tell you we are in the Forefront of our thinking right now because there's many districts looking to move forward um in this direction because it's not your typical Finance audit it is looking at how to protect us protect our money so and I think that's what this would provide and what what I like about them is that they work with a lot of school districts so you're not hiring somebody who is only working with us you're you're working with an organization who does this not just even in the State of Florida but across the country um which you need somebody who knows specific Florida financing because it's different obviously across the country but I think this is a really good first step so miss Clark's point is this something that's like can we put some kind of um objective or deadline or goal here because if we to move forward at some point we have to vote on something and we've one month is gone by we did not have that information um prior to last week right so at what point the next Workshop can we come to some kind of a decision have a presentation make a decision so like I said I'll Mr Brasi can send this link out you guys can peruse it and then um I will reach out to them meantime and see if they could come do a presentation for us maybe give us I don't know if we would need an RFP I don't know legally for us to purchase these Services what that looks like um it's different from having like a membership with fsba or a membership with a different organization this is a service that we're um looking to get so I we would need to you know how do we go about that legally so um let's jump those hurdles over this next month and then at our next Workshop meeting um hopefully we could have some direction from our legal team and um I don't know Mr superintendent if you guys need to do any of the leg work if we need an RFP or so we'll look into that when they give us a cost involved that that will then trigger what it is we need to do in order make make that a reality all right perfect well I'll I'll work on that reaching out to ERS and um if you guys will make phone calls or you know look at what other counties are doing if you want to reach out directly to ERS I'm sure they'd speak to you guys as well um and so hopefully by the next Workshop we'll have um maybe a cost Associated to having this training or the service provided to us as a board and uh at that point we can decide what next steps are if we need to put an agenda item on the board meeting because if it's not something that we need to vote on we wouldn't need to agenda it it would just um we would give consensus and direction that that's where we want to go make sense yeah I think I think we all have to understand that we do have multiple audits but they're looking at different things we have to understand what they are looking at when I spoke to the state aitor she was quite clear we only look to see that we're in compliance with the red book that's it so we don't know what we're missing I don't think there's person room that really understands all the audits so miss bu does that sound amenable to You Yes sounds great thank you okay all right well that and that gives us a months to disc to look at everything to talk to of the people my other um Mr blocker could you include the just the general budget numbers like the total budget for each of those counties yes ma'am thank you yes ma'am I I I will will get those and I will include that I'll do send an email to all the board members or I actually will send it individually so we avoid a potential in avert sun sign issue and I'll list the county that or ask Miss Mrs miles to do that as well kind of what what their budget is and what kind of their their the web link for their legal documents and yes ma'am okay thank you yes and and getting the information will be very helpful thank you yes ma'am thank you all right so uh I don't think we have anybody here from the public so no questions from the audience U Mr superintendent did you just a couple quick clarifications so you would have to do a job description because it's in your policy to do that so that's that's the answer to that question so if you're going to go the other route also you ask to look up information other districts also contract that service out which would be St Lucy Mary and delua seal mon Sarasota aola and Galler which are all similar size to to us the advantage of Contracting out is you get to specify exactly what you want them to do they do the work then that's it you're not on the hook forever related to to the cost could we um could we also get those counties and um who they're using to if they contract the services out who are they using and what are they paying for it but thank you and just those two just those two items [Music] um School Board attorney comments did you was there anything from your department I wanted to update everybody on truancy we did meet with judge Whittington the chief judge last week on treny um the meeting went very well superintendent was there we are going to have a follow-up meeting in July um with the judge that actually has volunteered to take over truancy Court he's very interested in that he's going to be present superintendent Mr blocker the clerk's office um and also the state attorney's office who is very involved in this as well okay what Edge is it that would be forus forus yep uh School Board member comments does anybody have anything to add I just wanted to ask you know I didn't ask you during power school right um so we do find more efficient ways to do things a lot if I go through the last year and a half on the board how many programs we've bought to be more efficient save man hours um and I I didn't talk about that during your agenda review because I don't know how many dollars we've spent on all these programs to do things better but what I was talking about was another one of those type programs to do things more efficient um I I I totally get that and would agree that we always want to be more efficient who would who would say we wouldn't but like I would also point out that we do things to become more efficient you mentioned seven mindsets that's actually a cost savings because we restructured the two deals the state required uh instruction with seven Li that's is actually call savings and and i' also kind of point we should always do that and I'm in total favor of everything you guys have said today regardless of this topic but I also got to provide a little context when you're looking at I think one of the motivations is we we of course want to pay our employees you know well and so therefore resources are tight and they always are if you take a look at Florida being 42 in funding right it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you got limited amounts of money to pay employees and over the last three years we put an additional 44 million yes I didn't stutter an additional 44 million let me say it again in case you didn't hear it an additional 44 million that's the largest for year took we are cost savings and applying that money that's a fact it's not Facebook it's not Twitter what do what do I say about Twitter TR not Twitter truth not Twitter I haven't come up with an i one yet but that's a fact so you are doing some of those those things so I I think you need to take a little bit of credit for the things that are going on first of all and of course we always want to improve and so I hope through this process whatever the process is going to be that there's Improvement but to kind of to kind of look at it this nothing's happening would be absolutely false and I'll correct that record publicly and loudly related to that so thank you m chair I would say information not Instagram oh there you go there you go accurate information not Instagram uh any other school number comment I've got a list but I'll wait you have the floor may I say something absolutely I just want to send out a congratulations to Mrs Clark for another four years and to sasi for another four years it's after June 14th and happy election congratulations thank you you just have to put up with me for another board sorry I only I only have to put up with you until November Miss I was waiting for that oh I guess this is the official announcement that I'm not running there you go no sign waving for anybody this summer wow all right uh I have nothing brother so this meeting is [Music] aded yes I don't know back there but he is