the Schoolboard work session begins in 2 minutes please take your seats again the Schoolboard work session begins in 2 minutes e the Schoolboard work session begins in 1 minute please take your seats again the Schoolboard work session begins in one minute e [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning everyone I now call the June 20th 2024 administrative briefing and work session of of the Maran County School Board to order at 9:00 a.m. please silence your electronic devices to avoid disturbing others I'll Now read our board commitment statement we are the Maran County School District leadership team when we come together to work we are efficient effective and productive our three most important characteristics are dedicated transparent and individually responsible to work well together we must demonstrate respect confront reality and be accountable we will always put students first and we will leave a legacy of success mirroring and modeling how our students begin each day I ask that you please pause with us for a moment of silence at this time thank you I now ask the Schoolboard attorney to explain the rules for this public work session good morning attorney Powers thank you Madam chair this work session is a public meeting as defined in Florida's Sunshine Law the board is dedicated to full transparency in its meetings and its work in compliance with the Sunshine Law the board has adopted uniform meeting procedures including the right for citizens to participate the board will allow public comment regarding any work session item listed on today's agenda at the appropriate time speakers must fill out a request form located in the lobby and hand it to the board clerk after the board and superintendent have completed their discussion on a particular agenda item the board clerk will call speakers names in the order received each speaker will have three minutes as required by the Sunshine Law the board must maintain orderly conduct and proper deorum throughout this meeting speakers May criticize subject matter and decisions in a respectful manner but not people finally speakers must be very careful not to violate the Privacy rights of others especially students and their family members by mentioning their names or other identifying information thank you for your attention to these important roles thank you attorney Powers good morning Miss Martinez would you please provide the proof of today's please provide the proof of publication for today's meeting the notice for the June 20th 2024 work session was published in the Ocala Gazette on June 7th 2024 proof of publication has been attached to board Ducks under proof of publication thank you Miss Martinez and we will now begin the work session with the superintendent's administrative briefing good morning Dr gullet good morning Madam chair members of the board great to see you today I have just a few updates um as you know we're very busy and and summer school is well underway as I mentioned last time we gathered I do want to provide an update on summer school in addition to the number of students I mentioned last time about 5,000 um you might be interested to know and the public might be interested to know that we've already served 81,00 meals breakfast and lunch so I'm I'm going to reiterate a lot of people in the community think summer school there's not a lot happening um many of our staff aren't working but we're actually very hard at work um I've been engaging in summer school sites and really enjoying the Hands-On learning very focused learning for each of our students and I again want to thank our all of our teams out there principles assistant principles staff clerks um par professionals teachers in in all of our teams custodial staff everyone that's out there ensuring that our students have high quality learning this summer so again appreciative to all of them uh had the opportunity to um join in and speak to a number of our teachers yesterday we have a two-day training exceptional student education um held at Westport HIgh School want to thank the team from ESC Department that held that um that training for teachers and for par professionals support staff uh they had some speakers and they had breakout sessions but um again Greatful for the opportunity for learning for our our um staff that helped to support our students our ESC um students in the classroom for their success and last but not least kindergarten Kickstart starts on Monday already so June 24th um is already going to be coming up U very quickly on Monday and that's when our kindergarten Kickstart occurs in our elementary schools so looking forward to having our students coming in and and getting a head start to uh their upcoming year for Success so thank you thank you appreciate all those great updates all right well without further Ado we'll get started in our work session would you like to introduce first item attorney powers do you want to SP start with the first item I think that was listed first that was yours yes please um as to the sale of the old Warehouse uh Attorney John McGraw was scheduled to come speak with us today uh and answer board questions and also provide some direction he's indicated that uh there's going to be some additional time needed because he's uh still waiting on a few items from the uh title search and he needs to review those previous title commitments and reports in order to properly provide an opinion on exceptions encumbrances leans everything else that he needs to do so um I am tentatively setting this for our July 11th work session and if he's able to complete review prior to that time then I would of course uh try to set a special board meeting or special work session for us to discuss but at this point I'd like to place it on the July 11th work session sounds like a good plan especially since the district is essentially closed the week of the 4th of July yes okay anything else nothing further all right I thank you so much I don't think we're going to ask for public comment on this one because it's essentially being withdrawn yes okay all right Dr goet thank you um members of the board so you're going to have me hear me introduce Miss Boston Ellis for all of our items this morning actually for the three items that we have on the agenda and the first I'll have Miss Boston Ellis come forward and she's going to introduce members of the team and you'll be provided with an update on our funding program specifically with regard to the self funded um health plan that we have for for our um employees thank you good morning chair thrower board members and superintendent gullet La lingal is part of the benefit team at Gallagher Insurance you may recall she was here with us April 11th and presented part one of the 2024 2025 funding projections for our self-funded health plan Laurel is back today with a a couple of folks from Gallagher um we know Mr bus and she also has their intern with her today as well so she's back today to talk about part two of the presentation um we were delighted for the information that was provided to the uh the insurance committee and we hope that you are exceptionally excited as well about the good news with self-funded plan for health insurance thank you thank you love Good News Bring It On good morning cheer thrower board members Dr goet attorney Powers um as Miss Boston Ella said my name is Laura lingal I'm with Gallagher Benefit Services um and we do have some exciting news about the self-funded health plan we'll also talk about the RFP process for um some of the other benefits that we've been reviewing this year and I'm also going to provide some detail about the wellness program as we usually do that this time of year um so your benefits team Stacy Roth out of the risk management department myself Thomas um and then Sally Donovan is the actuary that um really works hard on preparing the numbers that we'll present um in this program and as Miss Boston Ellis said we have Sarah pagels with us today um who is interning the summer from the University of Florida um with Gallagher so just a review um of where we were at in 2023 as a reminder the board funded um at an 8% increase for the 2023 plan year and although um claims were 12% higher than they were in 2022 we did see a a nice increase of 5.8 million um into that Reserve fund so for 2024 the board approved the 4% funding um with that 4% we are projecting another gain of approximately 7 million um for the 2024 plan year this is with claims through April of this year and this is an update over the previously presented number um when I was here in April we were presenting based on claims through February and we were projecting a $4 million increase at that time um with the updated claims they feel confident um with increasing that Reserve amount by approx proximately 7 million we are seeing higher claims um a couple of reasons for that one um just the nature of everything increasing in cost um and we did do those plan enhancements for the 2024 plan year so many of these claims increase were expected as we were anticipating that people would be utilizing the benefit enhancements um particularly the medication improvements and we'll talk about that in a couple of slides um as a reminder of the requirements for Safe Harbor um particularly as a a um public entity that self funds their Health Plan um with that 7 million we project that we'll be at 28.5 million um that 60-day Safe Harbor based on our current claims is about 9.7 million um so well within that 60-day Safe Harbor that is required again we see that most like to Target 90 day Safe Harbor or even up to 120 day Safe Harbor again our 28 M or yeah the 28 million um puts us well above those Safe Harbor requirements um when we look at the next slide I'm going to focus on the calendar year um 2024 and then looking into calendar year 2025 that top section is um the cost requirements for what we anticipate the medical claims and Pharmacy claims to be so you will see in 2024 we're at um approximately 49 million or just over $700 uh per employee per month when we go down into the fixed cost we've got the stoploss premium um those are the safeguards that we have for high cost claims that exceed the threshold set by our um stoploss plan we have the administrative fees that is what we pay Florida Blue to administer the claims and provi provide the network um and then we have some internal expenses um that's related to um some of the positions that are funded um over in the risk management department um so that comes to um about $5 million or $83 um dollar per employee per month when we combine those two total expenses we're looking at um approximately $54 million or just over $800 per employee per month as you can see though the projected board and employee contributions are totaling about 61 million or $900 um per employee per month so that is where we are getting the projections of the additional $7 million that we will be able to put into reserves um 6.9 million you can see there at the projected gain loss when we look down at the bottom um some of the assumptions there you'll see the average enrollment um did increase over last year a significant portion of that increase was due to um we had some improved enrollment in our families because of the decreased cost to employees for that family coverage um you'll also see that we have medical Trend and Pharmacy Trend listed at 7% and 9.5% for this year um we are going to talk about why we increase that that trend for 2025 when you look at the um calendar year for 2025 you will see that we are projecting a small loss that projection though is based on funding at 0% so you can see down at the bottom the numbers that are provided there are based on um if we we had a flat renewal for 2025 again you'll see that we increased medical Trend to 7.4% and 11% um this was just based on some of the increases in claims that we were seeing um and again everything is increasing in cost and we felt like it was safer to kind of hedge the bet with increasing those um Trends so while those numbers are based on a 0% um increase we do have some considerations that we would like you to take into account um with our final recommendation for board funding so Again Medical Trend 7.4% Pharmacy Trend 11% um if if claims stayed the same year-over-year we had the exact same claims the the cost would just naturally increase by 7.4% for medical and approximately 11% for pharmacy the cost of doing business in the medical field increases those percentages year-over-year again the changes that we are seeing in some increased claims this year particularly due to to the enhanced benefit we felt we needed to increase the trend numbers that we were using so if we do nothing with increasing the board contribution we will still see cost increase just based on on medical Trend um again I mentioned the increase independent enrollment actuaries love when things remain consistent so when we add 200ish new contracts to their world they're not all always exactly sure how to account for what that might look like they are not accustomed to those employees and those dependents being on the plan it is not always as easy to navigate what the claims may look like so anytime there is an increased enrollment um actuaries like to um again hedge the bet a little bit with funding um Pharmacy has increased nearly 20% when compared to the rolling um prior rolling 12 months as a reminder on plan one which is the 100% board funded plan and the plan that the majority of the employees are enrolled in prior to 2024 it was essentially a generic only plan there was coverage for some brand medications insulin um a few cancer medications and some HIV medications other than that employees only had access to generic medication for 2024 we went to um a more a more brand medication friendly formula um and we are seeing employees take advantage of that which is wonderful if employees are getting the medications that they need to manage the medical conditions that they have we know in the long run that is going to be advantageous however we are seeing nearly $1 million increase in those Pharmacy claims so because of that you know we we believe that we may want to um consider some additional funding I put an example there of Manjaro you probably see commercials for this um it's a very popular medication right now but you can see that um claims have increased nearly half a million dollar just on that medication Alone um historically the claims that we see in the last quarter increase fairly significantly when compared to those that we see in the first three quarters of the Year people are meeting deductibles people are meeting outof pocket maximums and so so in that last quarter um the claims that the board is paying you know increases over over the prior three quarters the other thing that we see is employees are off work for the last two weeks of the year and so frequently surgeries and things get scheduled for that time of year as well which increases that cost and then we also know that the district has the desire to continue to improve the benefits that they are offering to the employees I think we've had an overwhelmingly positive response for the enhancements that were made for 2024 and I believe that the the board members want to continue to see what improvements can be made to not only improve the lives of the current employees but also when we're trying to look to um hire and retain new employees um so with all of that being said and just the claims that we've seen over the last four years we are recommending the board consider a 2% increase over the current funding our prior recommendation with the numbers that we presented in April we were recommending between three and 4% again with the additional two months in claims and the positive trends that we are seeing with those two months um we felt confident in decreasing that to a recommended 2% increase over current funding um before we go into the rfps and then the wellness program are there any questions um about the information just present presented on the self-funded plan any questions or comments from the board okay excellent all right um we will move forward to the RFP and audit timeline um similar to what we presented I do want to clarify something um because Dr Campbell approached me and and when I looked at it I was like yes that is kind of confusing um medical claims audit um our internal audit team at Gallagher is working with Florida Blue to audit medical claims this is recommending with a self-funded health plan as the the board and the district are essentially paying the cost of all of the claims that come through they take a look at the contracts the plan designs and then they do a sampling of the medical claims to ensure that the claims were paid uh according to the contract so we should be finalizing that um here towards the end of um this month beginning of next month and then should be able to work with Florida blue if there are any discrepancies in what they found the dependent audit is something that was done even when you were fully insured um now even more important as you are self-funded this just ensures that the um dependents that are on the plan qualify to be on the plan so um the dependent audit is uh wrapping up as well for the rfps and again this is where um there was some confusion and I apologize that for that Delta Dental um is currently the dental contract holder but we are in RFP for the plan year of 2025 through 2027 at this time there has not been a final or formal decision made on who the contract bid winner will be for the dental plan um the short-term and long-term disability and basic life and voluntary life is currently being held by the standard um the short-term and long-term disability will be um moving to us able with board approval us able is a um sister company to Florida blue and after the RFP process they were chosen by the committee as the um winning vendor again you will uh most likely see those contracts coming through either next month or in August for your approval and the basic life and voluntary life will continue to stay with the standard um they were the winning bidder after the RFP process next year we will be going to um RFP for the health plan admin administrative Services again currently held by Florida blue and the pharmacy Benefit Management program PBM that is currently embedded with Florida Blue um as you are self-funded you have the option to carve that benefit out so we will be um going through an RFP process to determine the best um contract for that process and then um 26 for 27 we just have the vision contract which is which is currently held by human and again this time of year we generally provide an update um on some of the wellness initiatives that we have um both in partnership with Florida blue and then through Partnerships we have in the community we continue to offer on-site biometric screenings to all of the employees of the district this is in coordination with Advent Health they travel to all of the um schools and transportation departments um administrative locations to provide that screening to employees that are interested it is um cholesterol blood pressure body weight um glucose and then they get some education that goes with that for employees that participate they also get some movie vouchers um that they really enjoy for their time um we continue to offer the diabetes Management program this has been in place since 2008 um we have between 250 and 275 participants in this program they receive diabetes education they receive a foot exam an eye exam blood work um and then for participation in those items they get access to some free medication some of their testing supplies at no cost um the freestyle Libre was recently introduced into the program it is a continuous glucose monitor they wear it on their arm um and they have an app on their phone they can check their glucose at any time throughout the day um and so we are seeing some positive outcomes with the coverage of that program um it's also tied to the enhanced benefits on plan one previously because um that plan didn't cover brand medication employees were not able to access the freestyle Libre but now that it's covered um those employees that are part of our program can access that as well um we have a pre-diabetes weight management program that is in um conjunction with Florida Blue they use a um third-party administrator called Cera to um administer that program employees that qualify receive a year um of either online Health coaching or they can do an inperson program through Weight Watchers so we did a uh marketing campaign in coordination with salera in February um there were three emails sent to those that qualified or if an email was not on file they received that direct mail piece um again this was to members that qualified based on their risk for developing diabetes so they are in that pre-diabetes category weight BMI A1C are the criteria that they used to determine which employees or members were going to receive that communication so they sent out 1,65 emails to um employees and then again those that did not have an email on file 131 members re received the direct communication um so we had a total of 92 um enrollments um or commitments to enrolling in the program and then of those 58 actually enrolled and are participating in the program um from January through April we have 70 new enrollments again 58 of those coming as a result of the camp campaign um and we have um 132 that are uh currently participating in the program so they may have started um in 2023 and they will continue um for the next 12 months some of the special initiatives that we have going on throughout the year um the mamogram event happens every year in the fall I see Miss thrower um smiling because I know that she was integral in um getting this program started started um this is a Saturday that Radiology Associates commits specifically to the employees of Maran County Schools you can see the numbers there they do remain fairly consistent over the years um essentially we we book the entire day um which includes uh approximately 64 exams we have spots for 60 employees um and then we sometimes get some walk-ins so we make sure they are seen as well um the other thing that this does is it just increases awareness so even even though we only are able to see 6 um4 employees on that day they have other Saturday um screening dates available and so they are able to schedule our employees on those days if they call in and we are booked they are able to accommodate them so increasing awareness reminding employees of the importance of having the annual mamogram and Radiology Associates has been an extremely um great partner through the process um in ensuring that have that one specific day for our employees and then making sure that employees that can't attend that day are given other options for getting their mammogram done um 12 days of Fitness is something that we've been running for the last couple of years in December um it's it's like the song they do activities it accumulates over time um we had approximately 400 submissions during the 12-day challenge in December and we also coordinated with fans this year and the um PE program were encouraged to do the 12 days of fitness with their students which is what I love to see um we should never have program Silo if our employees are getting fit I love to see that our students are getting fit as well as part of that initiative um and then we had a health education series for the transportation department this was in coordination with the uh Marian County Hospital District they had um each month over the three months they had a different topic so you can see that we did did some Financial well-being nutrition physical activity during that physical activity the transportation department did a step challenge um between the zones and you know how competitive that can be so that was extremely successful and um then they did their Wellness screening in May after that after that three Monon series and then most recently we finished up triathlon month this was um an update um it was previously Marathon month we had an employeer reach out to us and they said it's difficult with um some physical limitations that I have to do walking challenges and that seems that those are the only challenges that we have and we said love it we can make it Triathlon month so they had the option of walking they had the option of doing the swimming portion or they had the option of doing the biking portion during that month we had employees that were doing all three we had employees that were picking One path so we felt like it was an extremely inclusive challenge um and you can see that the number of submissions that we have um indicated that the employees felt so as well um and I have a little we we had another intern as part of the wellness program in the spring from the University of Florida um kolina Dominic was here she's actually a product of Marian County she went to Shady Hill Belleview Middle and Belleview High School um and then came back and was able to um do her internship with us and so she was primarily responsible for those two initiatives um during her internship so that was great um we had to have the presentation in before we got final notice but we have um worked with the hospital District to bring back the Step Challenge I believe you guys are in the middle of your Step Challenge right now yes so the district um employees will be able to um participate in a a district only Step Challenge from October 1st through December 20th next year um again the hospital district is always a great partner they provide the incentives for the employees who participate um we we do some individual prizes but then we also do some team prizes for the school or District location that has the best participation so looking forward to bringing that back for this school year um and any additional questions or comments happy happy to help thank you very much Dr goet I was just going to say you had to mention the Step Challenge so I know t Blackman's putting us all to shame oh oh no some of us have to remember to have our phones in our hand and our watch on to at all times I would add thank you so much for um always the thoroughness of what you've shared and also that the employees have voice in this and that because of that even the triathlon piece was so powerful I didn't know that story so thank you for sharing that um and I met with the hospital District again yesterday so I know there's some more things to come excellent wonderful some out of the box ideas to help continue to promote this this great part partnership but thank you for all that you do absolutely thank you board I was going to also thank you for ending up with a Step Challenge also I believe um Dr James and I are participating in that we need to make sure that CH thrower here has wearable technology on when she's out playing pickle ball because she would get so many steps in uh so I I appreciate that and all that you have done here serving on the insurance committee is a is a pleasure of mine and just the way that we've been able to enhance benefits for our employees while also saving the district money when I think of four plus years ago whenever this was kind of just a start to what was happening and where we are now it's just exciting to see the continue Mo continued momentum and Improvement that we're having for all the benefits for our employees and every time we can enhance and encourage Wellness as opposed to the opposite side of having to pay for those prescriptions and all is just going to be a win-win for everybody so thank you guys for being great Partners abely thank you board member Campbell board member James um thank you this is all really great information I love that we're saving money and you guys are always doing great work um I had mentioned the dent WR dental program last time you guys were here did you guys figure anything else out about that yes we did look into it and so um from what I could tell it it is one specific provider that offers it now they do have a couple of locations throughout Maran County um but there are other providers that also offer programs like that and just because of the district's um rules about promoting one item over the other I don't know that we can promote something like that since other dentists have um there might be an option to say that there are like discount programs or or membership programs might be a better way to phrase that we could say that there are things like that out there the other thing we might be concerned about is we don't want um employees to think that it's full dental coverage yeah because we wouldn't want them to pass up on having you know dental insurance thinking that they were they were getting the same thing but we we can discuss how we might be able to effectively show them that there would be other options available without promoting one program over the other yeah I just think that there's value in people knowing options Beyond just the dental coverage we have especially if you don't have a lot of dental needs and just need cleanings and the minor um the minor dental work the dental insurance costs more than what the services would cost if you just had like a discount plan or paid cash and so just wanting to make sure our employees understand all of their options in our community would be my only hope is some way to communicate that to them yes and I think sometimes when we work with employees um you know if they're putting money into a flex spending account or a health savings account and they're in a similar situation where they say I don't really have that many Dental needs you know we most certainly recommend that they could fund one of those two accounts to pay for the services instead of having the dental insurance so um again we just have to be careful about that it doesn't appear like we're promoting any one thing but I think that you know making sure that people know what options are available is important I mean how many dental providers do we have in Maring County not I I can't imagine we have 100 oh yes we do m I have two right across the street from me so we have I mean do we have hundreds of dental providers in Marian County yes uhhuh okay okay well if my goal would just be if there was a way to summize all of the different membership options that would be beyond what our coverage could be if that was a possibility for our employee so they would know other options just because sometimes dental insurance is just Out Of Reach for people it's one of those lower lower on the totem pole items and so just trying to help meet them where they are oh understood thank you thank you Miss lingle for your presentation this morning um really just want to say I appreciate all the hard work you have put in and your team has put in um for all the fitness challenges and all of the proactive work um in getting healthy and and working towards uh a healthy healthy lifestyle um so we can be our best at work every day so thank you for your work great thank you thank you Vice chair Conrad and yes always it's a pleasure to to partner with with all of you and I'm just thinking I'm wondering if um hes steps could count they say they're doing all the work but I don't know that that's really true uh it's it really has been fun to see the evolution there was U we weren't really sure how it was going to work out when we went self-funded but it seemed like a bold move to try and it made a lot of sense and we had confidence in our partnership and look how far we've come it's a great cost savings and it has expanded the array of services available to our employees which really is a great Recruitment and Retention tool as you mentioned miss lingle when I talked to other school boards around the state their benefits are nowhere near comparable to to what we're offering and we're planning on offering even better ones as as we move forward so it's just again wonderful to have this partnership and thank you for for mentioning the mammograms um I can say just personally that I had a scare Last Summer and Women's Imaging was incredible they got me in the very next day on a cancellation and I did not have to wait more than 15 or 20 minutes before they came back in with my thankfully negative result so any anyone that is worried or nervous about going in to get a mammogram don't be I would have to say that they are the most compassionate and efficient uh medical providers that I've ever been associated with honestly for over 25 years so it's it's nothing to put off it's like preventative Dental Care you know we we have the opportunities so the more employees Avail themselves of that the the better and healthier we're all going to be and we'll save money so that's right that's right all right thank you thank you if there's nothing else is there any public comment all right hearing none have a great day go forth and be healthy all right Dr gullet thank you madam chair I'll bring Miss Boston Ellis back up for now to roduce our general insurance renewal thank you hello again hello again um as you know we've been self-funded for General insurance for many many years today we will provide you with an annual report from our consultant benw and Company the presentation will give you an overall view of what's Happening nationally and locally and how that impct our general insurance with things such as property casualty workers comp Auto liability insurance I'll turn it over to Ben Fu ivth thank you good morning good morning chair thrower board Dr gullet attorney Powers I'm benf of Ben F and Company uh risk management and insurance Consulting um I to have good news uh I guess relative to last year anything is is good news uh so we'll get right into it uh a little bit about us our firm is an independent risk management and insurance consulting firm established in Fort Meers in 1993 um we are not tied to any retail outfit or Carrier um we have the capability to operate as a risk management department or in a supplemental capacity to our clients established risk Department um and that is a role the ladder um that has um that we've served for the district since about 2011 so as the market goes both Property and Casualty uh last year I I sat here and gave you the the gloom and doom um that increases were anywhere from 30% to 300% uh the sky being the limit um many Market Publications are using the word stability in 2024 and indeed uh through the first two quarters um the market is considerably less volatile than it was this time last year as you will see when we get to the actual numbers um in fact over the last couple of months we've delivered um several large property renewals where the rates are actually down um premium may be up due to increased values but the the rates themselves have consistently been lower than uh the expiring programs um as casualty goes that really has has remained stable over the last few years and is exposure dependent um if you've had a bad loss year say in in Auto for example you can rest assured that that uh that renewal premium is going up um I think we we all have experienced this at one time or another in our personal lives uh and and knowing what the uh the influx of population in Florida over the past couple of years has been um that's it's not hard to uh to understand that type of thing but largely for public entities uh especially those that are self-insured for the first um1 to $200,000 um it's it's been a stable few years so this is what the renewal pricing would look like uh based on a $30 million loss limit uh last year if you'll recall um we went from a $50 million loss limit to 30 million uh to avoid some of the price hike that um really everyone was seeing especially as it relates to Florida property uh exposures um the top portion is the the first party property portion um if you remain at a $30 million loss limit um that's about a 3% decrease year-over-year um and I will mention uh I'll get to it in in a subsequent slide values are up just over 5% they've been trended um and there's another uh another item I'd like to discuss as we get into the further into the presentation with respect to two values um casualty you can see uh generally speaking uh there's no more than a 10% increase and largely um these are these are due to increased underlying exposures uh especially as it relates to um your your liability package and excess work comp this is effectively um because of an increase to payrolls um the casualty total of course uh consider ably uh it moves the needle much less than property above about an 8% increase year-over-year okay uh so your totals uh down about a percent year-over-year this is um this is strictly Insurance costs um and I know I'm not supposed to deviate but I do have better news um that number is actually more like 117,000 decrease year-over-year in the time since we submitted this prop uh this presentation um the incumbent broker was able to further negotiate uh suppression on on renewal pricing so um it's see what was that what did that work out to about a three and a half% decrease year overy year so better than what was submitted initially um I definitely think that's an improvement um especially over last year this represents the funding requirements for these self-insured um excuse me if I Madam chair could I ask you to speak into the microphone a little bit louder sometimes the Acoustics are hard up here and the receiving end and it's hard to tell down there if you don't mind that's a refrain that I get all the time I'm sorry I I also have to remember to breathe uh there you go well I apologize no no worries repe would you like me to repeat anything on the last slide is there anything that stands out that you I I think you could just repeat the last slide that maybe as a summary that would be great thank you so much we appreciate sure year-over-year what we're showing here is about a 1% decrease uh in Insurance costs and and what I what I I kind of went off on a tangent there I know I'm not supposed to deviate from what's being presented but in the time since we submitted this uh for the proposal deadline um the pricing has further gone down uh so your decrease year-over-year is $117,000 um so it's it's a 3 and a half% decrease year over-ear I thought that was good news um it's again a development that took place uh between submission and and now these are the funding requirements for your liability program and work comp um what we're showing here uh is based on a 2.9% uh interest rate based on Actuarial analysis you have two done each year um the uh I'll start at the end and kind of work backwards Ward uh the replenishment figure is $765,000 prohibitive um effectively what this is telling you and and I will say uh this replenishment figure is the lowest that we've ever come to you with uh through one of these presentations last year it was 991,00 or thereabouts what this is telling you is that uh this claim year were exposures to remain stable um you have uh been especially efficient with regard to resolution of claims uh you're resolving them faster than than they can than you can incur them this is all good um you know it it it what it what's telling you is that reserves despite having taken on the exposure of one yet additional year of Self Insurance the reserves have contracted such that um it's telling you your your program is functioning exactly the way it's intended to uh so it's a good thing so just a handful of things uh we like to bring up each year uh as part of this presentation um exposures things to keep in mind things on the horizon um as the property exposures go um your total insured value is at $1.2 billion you are steady growing um what we've done each year is is try to Trend the value that we know uh are increasing due to increased construction costs and replacement uh values and this resulted this year in a just over 5% increase that I'd mentioned previously um using the current risk management solution software um and this goes back to a conversation that we've had a number of times the reason you select a property loss limit is because you can effectively go broke trying to ensure your entire uh property portfolio uh it would just be uh several million dollars it's just not feasible so what we do is we use this uh this analytical software that says here's what your statement of values is here's what we know about the history of storms as it relates to Florida uh the United States the southeast um and specifically this area and here's um what we think think your um given the numbers what we think your maximum probable loss could be uh in the event of a 250e storm now they stratify this at different levels thousand year 500 year the standard really uh for public entities um for a long time now has been the 250-year mark now what we're showing um is a $34 million PML for the 250y year uh uh loss limit now i' mentioned again I have to deviate slightly but this is good news um I'd mentioned previously the renewal was based upon a $30 million loss limit that price decrease that I mentioned to you included an additional $5 million in limit so that is that's great news um we were able to negotiate the full 35 at 117 under expiring so that's just uh and again I apologize for that not being in here by by submission deadline but uh that transpired afterwards and that's you know that that's excellent news the reason we do that um Carry at the 250e limit is because if you go to FEMA for assistance and historically what you had to do was submit um a letter of reasonableness uh and that kind of governed where your program went for a number of years depending on who was reviewing that letter in your program at at um at that level um but what you don't want to have happen is have FEMA come back to you and say no no we can't we can't do this because you didn't you know your program is not reasonable so what we do is we adhere to these standards and and securing the $35 million limit uh fully eclipses that 250e PML study so we're confident that if something if the worst were to happen um you would be able to successfully procure um funds necessary from FEMA and there would be no insurance uh trip up um as casualty goes essentially every day is a a uh new adventure when you're a school district um you guys are into everything uh and so I am uh constantly reviewing contracts new exposures especially as they relate to Technologies um for appropriate risk transfer um it's really there as I say every day is a new adventure there's always something new in a secondary school district um and again as I say new technologies seem to be the the certainly the order of the day uh so there's always um development and insurance markets related to the emergence of these new technologies so uh we try to we try to stay ahead of that and it's important to keep that conversation going I like to bring up the guardian and law enforcement um exposure that that um the district took on a few years ago it's relative to other public entities indeed uh you're not a city with a a police or fire a full-fledged police squad but it's important to remember that um there are additional exposures that come along with the law enforcement exposure uh liability claims not being subject to sovereign immunity um certain benefits owed to sworn law enforcement um none of this is is um necessarily an issue it's just it's a different kind of exposure we feel it's important to to bring as a reminder each year um the coverage um relevant to relative to such is not especially cost prohibitive for your particular program um but again I just I think it's an important reminder other considerations uh this kind of all goes back to property um I would strongly recommend considering or at least investigating a replacement cost appraisal for new properties uh I believe the last time one was done was in 2013 um you all in reviewing your building reports uh from facilities you you guys continue to proliferate which is a a convers which is great in a conversation we we tend to have at at various times um each year indeed it's what drives the the main portion of your pricing um I I just I I was in discussions with the the last risk management director on this very thing uh and I I think it's an important thing to continue to explore uh just as a due diligence measure we do Trend values um to the extent that we can um keeping it conservative so as not to unnecessarily drive cost but again I I say is a due diligence something important to consider going forward so that being said um we would recommend renewing the program as proposed um replenishing the loss fund as proposed and continuing to um both review all of the new new exposures um things that we may not have known even existed uh prior prior to now um assist the actuaries with the uh the the annual reports that they provide um keep on that statement of values uh further refine it uh again as I say that that replacement cost appraisal would be would would be a smart move um and from there uh it's prepare for the next renewal uh get ready for this presentation uh this time next year any questions questions from the board thank you don't none um I just want to say that it's so encouraging to have two presentations in a row that uh really illustrate the strengths that we have in in these two areas and I just wanted to uh tip my hat to our great staff I heard you loud and clear when you spoke about resolving claims quickly and efficiently saves money and is just better all around so thank you to each and every staff member that is in involved in making that happen it's truly appreciated the replacement cost appraisals put a star beside that I think that's something as a board that was emphasized and that we definitely should consider moving forward with um and there was one more thing I thought too oh uh thinking about the wind modeling uh software that you use that is directly in line with what our department of Emergency Management in Maran County uh showed us um recently and that we can have very strong hurricane Forest winds in Maran County because parts of Maran County are less than 20 miles from the coast and even right here in Okala proper uh we're only what 60 to 79 miles um from either Coast so I think that that's really important to keep in mind as we're thinking about protecting our our building bus and and updating um with the new building that that we are doing so that we stay as protected as we can afford to be so those are my thoughts on that I really appreciate the presentation and the continued partnership I think you said since 2011 right I believe that's it late 2011 yes yes thank you anything else Dr belet nothing additional thank you okay we're good thank you very much we speak louder next time have a great day thank you all right is there any public comment hearing none we'll move on to our next item Dr goet thank you last item that we have um Miss Boston Ellis uh bring her forward or Mr SS I know he's already making his way down he's going to present a renewal proposal for the board for okali Charter Middle School thank you great thank you he just doesn't want me to introduce him Mr SS is our director of student assignments and records and one of his Pleasant chores is um monitoring our charter schools and what he will present to you uh this morning is uh a request from oali Charter Middle um for their renewal um and so I'll turn it over to Mr SS thank you Miss Pon Alis you're a great MC this morning all right good morning Madam chair Madam co-chair board members with the good news we're on a roll Dr gullet attorney Powers Miss Martinez I'm here this morning to present the ocali charter renewal Charter contract ocal Charter Middle School which was granted its original charter in July 2014 and renewed in 2019 has consistently maintain a school grade of a c the student enrollment in grade 6 to8 has averaged 17 three students with a current enrollment of 198 the renewal application foral Charter Middle School was presented during the scheduled work session on March 7th 2024 along with the renewal application evaluation instrument Marian County Public School staff had reviewed the application and its requirements in Florida Statutes and found the local Charter Middle School met the criteria for renewal the renewal contract that is presented to you today is the standard renewal contract required to be used by the state statute any changes to the standard contract must be agreed upon by the sponsor and the Tarter School mcps reviewed the contract and requested no changes as did ocal Charter Middle School the Maring County School Board as the sponsor must approve the contract okali Charter Middle School is requesting a 15-year contract to facilitate financing to build and acquire a long-term site for the school this is allowed under Florida statute if a charter has a five or 15-year contract the charter can be closed annually if it meets any of the provisions for closure or non-renewal in Florida Statutes ocal Charter Middle School has performed effectively academically and financially but they do not meet the requirements for an automatic 15-year contract since they are reviewed annually both academically and financially and can be closed if they meet any of the provisions I am recommending approval of the 15-year contract to maintain stability and then give them the resources they need for a long-term site in the synopsis that's uploaded I also included all the relevant statutes for that so if there are any questions thank you Mr SS questions from the board feedback back go ahead feedback yes questions no uh thank you for the synopsis as well as the understanding as to why this is needed I personally seeing okali Charter Middle as a wonderful partner with us for several years they have a waiting list significantly and the space that they're in right now while they've made it work for quite a while I could see why they would want to be able to change locations to better meet the needs of the student students that they serve that are our public school students that just receive their education in a different setting than a traditional public school so I would be in full support of this 15-year uh renewal so that they can go out and seek additional options for a location for these students that deserve an opportunity to to have an educational setting that's different than what they currently have thank you thank you board member Campbell any other questions comments feedback for member James uh I I'm in support I think they do a wonderful job meeting a unique need in our community and having a a longer contract with us will allow them to leverage money um in a different fashion so it makes sense to me okay that's your comment I agree with my fellow board members I just wanted to ask Mr ears is there any other um negative aspect that that has not been brought forward that you just because you have more experiences there anything that else that you would share with us um I would share with you only that you know this does set precedent um to do that for them um but again ocal Charter Middle School has has a proven track record both academically and financially um that and they've been as um Miss con Dr Conor said is that is a they're they've been a good partner to Maran County so I don't see any negative especially since the the charter is renewed annual or reviewed annually and if they meet any of the statute required we can close them just because they have a 15-year contract doesn't mean they're guaranteed to be open for 15 years it just it looks better when they're applying for financing and to try to secure long-term information I wouldn't bring this before for you for 15 year if I didn't feel confident that they were academically and financially okay thank you very much thank you thank you Mr aers for sharing that even deeper analysis it makes sense all the way around I totally agree with the rest of the board members and it sounds like you have a resounding consensus to go ahead and move forward contract is on the consent agenda for the Tuesday board session which will we vote on to make it official yep perfect thank you very much have a great rest of your day right thank you there any public comment okay hearing none we'll go ahead and move on to discussion we have a discussion item 8.1 and it's our legislative priorities um you know our local legislative priorities um um board member Campbell would you like to open the discussion sure thank you board as you have just recently reappointed me to be our advocacy and subsequent legislative liaison for the Florida Schoolboard Association I'm grateful to continue in this work I did pull up our most recent legislative priorities from 2023 and 2024 just in case you wanted to have a recap something that we have had the last two years is specific to language on student attendance and I have a recommendation on what we actually might be able to say this year instead of what we've said the last couple of years uh but we also have had some language I'll just go over 2023 where we talked about funding to expand Marian Technical College that we were grateful to receive that allocation in that 2023 legislative session we also made a recommendation in 2023 about eliminating barriers for high quality Personnel to be re-employed and so some of that work has already started in the legislature uh where we have expanded the drop program and and how now you can come back after 6 months and so some of the things we started a couple of years ago have already been working their way into statute another one is extend this was 2023 extending temporary teaching certific certifications uh to five years for all employee classes I believe that's also something that's been worked on and uh then allocating funds recognizing experienced teachers so all of that was a couple of years ago and we saw a lot of movement on those things so we've been kind of at the Forefront on some of the conversations last year we were a little bit ahead and that's what we are right now ahead of even the Florida Schoolboard associ Association putting out legislative priorities so that's where we are also having this conversation today even in advance of the August 1 time when fsba will first start asking for it but we did last year again talk about the strengthening language on compulsory student attendance we talked about amending Florida statute to remove the electronic transaction piece to comply with the provisions of chapter 668 thanks to attorney powers that did make it into Statute in 2024 so we now have that revision where electronic transactions will not be as big of a challenge as what they had been uh we had Incorporated something that didn't get a lot of traction in the state this was just in our our last year ideas was um to make school ages 5 to 16 and that students by five years of September 1st of any school year we had a lot of conversation last year about that entry into school is six years old the right age is five years a better age and then also last year we talked about phase two of mar and Technical College that did not receive appropriation I think that it would warrant an opportunity for us to maybe take a step back and see if that is the appropriation request and I haven't talked to Dr gullet about that but is that the appropriation request that we would seek or is there something else that we might want to consider from a Career Technical standpoint and then finally the other priority we had last year was to restore the Capital millage rate back to 2.0 for public schools um I think that there might be a little bit of traction on that a bit but I don't know that it's enough for us to make it one of our five top priorities so that's just a recap of where we've been I know that I have a handful of things that I would like to bring up for the board's consideration but because I kind of lead this conversation I would love to hear from you all first if you have anything specifically that you were like Oh I thought this is Absol abolutely something we need to think about or I've been talking to this teacher or this administrator and this is something that we're missing so I would love to open up the floor chair if it's okay to see if anybody else has something before I rattle off mine that are pretty specific absolutely absolutely and Dr go appreciate you joining in this conversation as well I think it was uh both important and impressive you know when we appear as a team you know to share our our needs and priorities so with that said uh who'd like to take the next bite well my first vice chair comrad thank you chair sorry to jump in there um I just want to share that I think keeping attendance um as a priority is really important I I know that our school and our staff even here locally have made good gains and put in a lot lot of effort but um chair thrower a lot of times you use the term um educational neglect um and I just I'd like to continue pushing forward uh to make um families understand the importance of getting their children to school every day absolutely and you know it there's different ways of thinking about it right some will say well do we really need more more laws you know what are you doing at at the local level and I think we can safely say that we've been doing a lot at the local level proactively including creating a new position for attendant specialist uh try Court uh I'll be with that person in court on Friday morning war and an attorney Powers um Dr gullet has attended truancy Court you know there is a deep commitment to attendance in Maring County um and I do believe that educational neglect is a form of abuse of children it is robbing them of their opportunity to have success in the mo the most success that they could have in life there's many states that do have that on the books and I think that the data supports the need um from the bottom from the local level all the way to the top for this to be supported so I would strongly suggest um keeping that in there I understand that attendance Works uh project presented in committee uh last summer and they uh said it was their intention to be back um something that I pulled up and I was hoping it would get to you guys I don't know if it did but a couple of links um from attendance works and I just felt like I wanted to point it out so that it isn't misinterpreted there's one link um that speaks to the urgent need to avoid punitive responses to poor attendance and from my view we do more than enough to avoid punitive responses to poor attendants as evidenced by our attendance Specialists as evidenced by our attendance response committee meetings as evidenced by the motivators that are individualized to each School uh the CST meetings the phone calls the letters the letters um the the attempts not always successful to have face-to-face conferences you know with with parents at some point the stick becomes the carrot and I have witnessed this personally in truy court um it seems sadly for the first time that some segments of our population begin to take this seriously and I really commend um judge king for supporting us in this he truly seems to be committed to this work not only is he willing to drop the hammer when it is totally justified but he has a treasure box what judge has a treasure box at the front of their and and when a parent comes in with their child and and they're up there at the podium and they're doing better and they haven't missed any school they get to pick from the treasure box and and they are cool prizes like footballs and think things that kids want so it is that balance and so I just didn't want it to be misconstrued that you know we can't wait to drop the hammer you know on parents that that is not it at all but if school is required which it is and if success on test scores and all of that is an indicator of our worth as a school board and as School Employees then everyone needs to be doing their part and we need to have the teeth behind it to ensure that that happens and our community will only be better you know because of it so great so so I I completely agree I hope the rest of the board agrees no yes no so so here's my first recommendation and then if it's okay with you board the way I see us doing this today is possibly having legislative priorities is also an agenda item on July 11th so perhaps some of the things that we say Dr gullet can you see if your team has additional recommendations something like that and then we can have further conversation my first recommendation the statute specifically I mean if we're really getting technical is 13.26 and this is section one subset B specifically where it talks about if a student has had five unexcused absences within a calendar month or 10 unexcused absences for which reasons are unknown within a 90-day calendar period my first recommendation is that we request that the strike through of the 90-day period so we say if a student has at least five unexcused absences or absences for which reasons are unknown within a calendar month or 10 unexcused absences for which reasons are unknown the student's primary teacher shall report to the the principal or his or her design that the student may be exhibiting a pattern of non-attendance I think that that's the first easiest thing to do so essentially any 10 unexcused absences in the entire school year something starts happening so I believe that's the first thing that we that's an easy recommendation it's actually a deregulation in kind of a way if we strike something out of Statute but then my next question would fall to Dr gullet and her team because you did reference cst's child study teams and so the pattern of non attendance is where you mention all the things the letters the phone calls the and all of that's actually written into statute so I mean we're doing it absolutely but we're doing that because it's in statute so this is where I would ask the team are there things that we would see within this statute subsequently that if we had more opportunity to put some teeth behind this or if the child study team did this instead of this the the way that statute is written it takes a while to get to that pattern of non-attendance and so maybe Dr gullit's team has some recommendations on how we actually get to the pattern of non-attendance and certainly we don't want to be punitive you know we we don't want people to go to treny court we really don't but if we have people who are exhibiting this pattern of non-attendance and they're exhibiting it after a month or two we want to get there sooner so we nip it in the bud faster so I well Dr James has a question or something but well one of the things that I've picked up doing it from the site base and then talking with like mobs at e Maran and one of the hiccups that they I I actually while I agree the 90 days should go away I don't think the absence of the 90 days I think it should instead just be during the school year so what happens is summer is 90 days and so they get a reset for the school year which we can all I I think that that's best right we're going to start fresh in August um potentially but what happens then is you may have had a student who had a really bad fourth quarter and almost got to their 10 days and then we have to have a hard reset August when they return to school and the team at the school may actually think well we don't want a hard reset we want we want those it to be like a rolling 12 month and so I think changing the language from the 90-day window to a different language that I think Dr glut staff may be able to provide to us that would be more um efficient because you're right the timeline is so long but the timeline is long because the 90day if you were I think if you were to ask um staff in the trenches the reason the timeline takes so long is because that 90 day A kid will just get it'll be the 92nd day and then they have to start over so if it was if it was simply a rolling 12 months um instead of a 90-day window we would be able to capture those 10 days on a more efficient basis and be able to move forward in the progress so that is how I have understood the process to be um and I would ask staff if they would you know duplicate that sentiment so thank you I mean maybe if I can just leave this conversation sh I'm sorry so thank you for that feedback um Dr James I I think that perhaps that is the recommendation maybe it is a calendar uh 12 months maybe it is the school year and then does that restart at summer school like I don't I'm not really certain so if if it would be okay with the board for us to send this back to Dr gullet and her team to get recommendations on what actually would be the most beneficial and we we want to make movement on this I mean we we've had it as our priority the last two years we know that committee work has been done the last two years if you recall at least two years ago the legislative delegation ask us specifically what would you change and we're well strengthen it kind of like Georgia but we had haven't gotten very specific so I would like for us to say amend this statute subsection this to do this if if we can get that specific with it I think that will help guide them and then it will help guide committee work legisl you know whoever the um legislative delegation member is that Champions this for us which depending on what committee they're on that might guide some of that but I don't know Dr goet if you have feedback on it or not um thank you I I would first just say absolutely just um if we don't have them we can't teach them and and I'm rereading as I'm listening to the board's comments um with a very specific example of a visit I had extended visit with a high school principal yesterday at her school and members of her staff and just checking in how are things going and and she showed me a list of students that they can't get to school that may not graduate and she proceeded to share all the things that they've done that you've already talked about and all the staff and all the time and and I said how can I help and it's really frustrating because we talked about the impact to these to our children to our students and their lives if they don't cross the finish line and what an impact that can have I I will just say again generationally to get a high school diploma and how important that is and all the efforts that a number of Staff have made and continued to make um I agree about it you know not being punitive but but this is a lifechanging event for these students and the valuing of education and all the efforts made to try to get them there and again this is multiple staff members involved in in conversations and I'm I'm thinking very heavily right now about that specific example from yesterday because this is this is a regular example right but there was one it we're getting close to the finish line there's only so much time what else can be done um um and it's sort of a make or break moment right so I'm looking at the language as you're talking to see what we can do and I I do think I appreciate the opportunity to go back to to our team to look at what this would look like because I think when you think attendance is important regardless I this is a life skill got to show up to the job every day but also where where we are in the early stages and early learning and early grades versus and then high school and I'm so mindful of it's important regardless but then the time becomes shorter and shorter and more desperate at the end and and it shouldn't be that way but we've got to try to prevent that number one and number two I want to be really mindful of the language and how it can benefit both is that making sense yes so again that the heaviness I walked away with yesterday is how do I help like what can what can we do to to this list of names of faces of students what what do we do to help them um and instill that work and support the staff that worked hard in all the work they've done with the with the families and the community so um yes appreciate the opportunity to take that back thank you and and you know setting the standard from a very young age and not having it be squishy is also very important why and that's why I really support that as of September 1st age five you're coming to school and you're being held accountable for coming to school because we all know that when that's when habits are are best set and getting in into the swing of it as kids get older it gets exponentially harder and much more expensive you know to remediate and try to undo years of bad patterning um and I'm just going to give a plug for our CTE programs you know we are doing our best to lead the horses to the water and providing a ton of of opportunities and you know parents out there that may be listening if there is a program that we don't have yet that your student is particularly in love and obsessed with don't hesitate to let somebody know um because because we're open you know there are a million ways to be successful and it's not all about you know if you've got a super bright kid that goes through Cambridge or IB or you know Ace all the other options we have you know that's awesome and flies on through to a four-year University but we also have a lot of other programs that provide these Pathways and we've really focused on that I've never agreed with the uh 90 days and and the the restarting after summer there's only 180 days in the school year for God's sake I mean I'm not that good at math but that tells me that you know and and to board member James's point you know this is what you hear when you hang out in the trenches you know they will tell you that it's like being having your hands tied you know and I'm remembering the last time I I was at try court and I went out to speak to a dad who was holding the cutest baby you know and that was in there I think with his girlfriend who was being taken to task for her daughter not being in school and he offered it up to me you know I was admiring the baby and he said you know she really needs to go to school so that's absolutely right and it wasn't like I was getting a soab story about uh you know this is why she hasn't been coming it just hadn't been a priority apparently if I may add in I think it's important um feel compelled to also share because you know the elephant in the room can be well they're not interested there's something the school's not doing we again had extended conversation and I have with other school our School principles and their teams as well even yesterday about the students how do we engage them in learning what's and we talked about CTE courses what's the class that there what are they motivated by what clubs what Athletics and so Child by child what can we do to motivate them what interests them high interest is a draw and then how do we help support them in feeling confident successful and so I just want to I want to put that out there because because our our schools are doing a great job of doing that they are working to say what is what's it going to take what are those the conversations what are you interested in to engage them in the high interest um work to get them there and so and I know Mr Carlile is here in the audience too coming out of Vanguard I mean our teams are doing that I just want to put that out there so it's all part of you know we even talked I said what let's think outside the box what are some other programs you might offer what other classes what other things can you do early in the morning so there there's no no to really anything it's it's what do we do to meet our students where they are so I just feel like that's important too but then when all that is done what can we do to make sure that they cross the finish line and they get they get what they need to be successful in the future thank you and we are so obviously we are avoiding punitive responses to poor attendants you know that's that's not what this is about um and I just want to emphasize that as you guys review the links and and hear more and more about attendance Works they seem to have a seat at the table you know in in Tallahassee and um so hopefully we can be partners on that with them too thank you chair so um Dr goet if you and your team can take that statute back specifically 13.26 and see what other changes if whatever the time frame is that the team would recommend if it's not just removal of the 90 days if there is a time frame that they would recommend that 10 unexcused absences in a specific time frame additionally if there are some of the barriers that they might have to some of the things that the child study team has to do or all the different points of contact they have to make before we get to a non attendance welcome to all the suggestions as far as I'm concerned because I do believe the legislative delegation is interested in the real tangible changes that we're recommending so thank you for that um board before I get to my other ideas are there any other thoughts legislative priorities um teacher pay would continuing to move that forward I know we don't really know the specifics of what's happening right now with funding that's been set aside but um just continuing to lift up and support our Educators um you know as we have conversation okay so the interesting thing that has happened recently about what the studies have been State of Florida definitely ranks last in average teacher pay we just do I mean we're at the bottom of the of the um of the states well I think 60 out of or excuse me 50 out of 51 because District of Columbia counts but then on um starting teacher salary we're in the you know average range which okay let's be average at something that's that's it's not it's not terrible it's not fabulous but it's also not terrible and and comparing Florida to other states is also a challenge because we are single County school districts as opposed to all of these others around the nation that may have two schools in their school district so I mean it and they have a little pocket right they have a little pocket of their community that pays their school taxes for their two schools and it is what it is so so State of Florida is is interesting whenever you're comparing us to other states but that doesn't mean that we don't need to move up the totem pole on average teacher salary so I I agree I'm not sure what that number is or how we put tangible you know maybe it's just to you know increase the average teacher pay to be average in the United States like I I'm not sure how we get to what that is and what that magic number is um subsequently in the conversation that we had previously with the governor's announcement it really was just the budget that had been approved right and it wasn't like new money that was was coming out so I mean it is money that's been put into the budget specific for teacher salaries yes how we can allocate those dollars we still are waiting to be told that but it wasn't yes and I'm allocating 25 million specifically for XYZ in addition to what has already been done that while I vetoed $950 million in projects I actually am inserting 50 million for that that did not occur it was just a veto and then and not that he necessarily has the authority to do that but so just for clarification on what we said in the last board meeting so is there a recommendation that any one of you has about what we would like that average teacher pay to be I I mean I'm not sure sure how we get there but I think the convers kind of as you're sharing is a good place to start that our beginning teacher pay is in the average range we would like to see our you know veteran teacher pay in that same position and as we've had these conversations before I don't believe at least as I've been on the board we haven't really been specific right we've just said teacher pay is important um so I think um board member Campbell asking for something specific is important right and a good recommendation thank you and since it's out there a lot um average you know for our beginning teachers maybe that would be the language that would resonate that we at least what that is you know do our homework you know that number put it in there this is what we're shooting for right because I was almost thinking it is arguably a lot more expensive to live in certain counties compared to others so could it be tied to cost of living average in our County you know to make it reasonable I believe they just published numbers for the amount it costs to take care of an inmate annually is $43,000 a year so preventative medicine as moving moving forward getting our children to school and paying our teachers to educate our children there you go that reminds me of that legislative panel that was really so good the last day of um fsba and I believe the number I heard there was the average cost for just a if there is such thing as a typical student is 8,000 a year and compared to 32,000 was the number that I heard for housing an inmate it just went up to 40 it just went okay at least last night when I read now I realize they keep their inmates you know 247 um but we're open quite a lot too we're offering a lot ask any High School principal so there's yeah there but I I do agree that tying it to something specifically it could be as general for openers since they are using average salary um for beginning teachers maybe we want to at least move into the average range I also I think they're including non- instruct now is that I believe I saw a statement on that and um you know in our County anyway think about how many kids have to ride the bus to get to school and what our bus drivers are faced with on a daily basis you know our teachers need as much money as we can pay them but I also would say that all of our employees that are so good at what they do and make such a contribution and very was becoming more and more high-risk jobs let's face it they don't need to be left behind either agree okay so I've added um Elevate average teacher pay to be among the average in the nation but I'll figure out what that actually is by July 11th well and maybe if if Dr gullet and HR has any recommendations on that too I'm I'm open to those suggestions uh and also let's keep in mind that we'll have our five priorities that we put specific for our legislative delegation but we'll have two different opport opportunities to have a voice so we'll have obviously fsba where we'll be Collective and figure out as as I go and help plan that for fsba but also as the incoming chair for the central Florida Schoolboard Coalition I believe it's highly possible that we're going to make that Coalition a lot more legislative focused where we can say a million students strong in Central Florida let's talk about what our specific priorities are so that's going to be a goal you'll see coming in the fall September October November Roundtable conversations at least that's my plan right now U for us in that so okay what other thoughts you got remember James um one of the things that I experience in my day-to-day Life as a Early Childhood business owner but I know that our 40 something VPK sites across the county are also experiencing is a continued request for deregulation for proof of child attendance so in the in the breath of attendance uh when you get into the nitty-gritty of how you document and prove that a VPK child came to attend a program um the amount of paperwork that the Early Learning Coalition requires which they do not require it on their own accord they're only requiring it because state law and I can find the state laws and bring them forward but um there's a a couple different state laws that essentially for the purposes of fraud right so making sure that people aren't um making saying kids showed up when they didn't show up but if if taking attendance in Skyward is an acceptable way for us to receive FTE funding for K12 students then my question would be why taking attendance in Skyward is not acceptable for us to receive funding for VPK students that would be my the basis of my question um why do we have to have the long form or the short form and the parents signature and then we have to have it's just so excessive and from the purposes of the public school setting if we've already established that our attendance via Skyward which I believe to be solid proof to receive FTE funding is acceptable then why is that not also acceptable on its own basis for VPK um because our we're jumping through hoops to prove that these kiddos showed up to school sure so is that that something and I that would be to Dr gullet is that something that our VPK teachers are also struggling with or is that something that once it gets to the Early Learning Coalition side then they're the ones that are requiring that of private providers as opposed to public and I don't know the answer Miss Neville whose job it is I think to primarily manage that work um the staff that work in that department spend a lot of time collecting signatures from parents um they have to go out to the car line and capture a signature from the parent uh the ELC at one point wanted us to do sign in and sign outs daily um which is essentially impossible if you're in a car line so now we do the long form which basically means we check the boxes for the times the days the kids arrived but then have to capture a parent signature every month for the parent to essentially affidavit that their child came on the days that we're indicating why can't we just submit the Skyward um as proof and check the boxes in the ELC portal and that's all basically tied to state law so the ELC is not doesn't have I I went and met with the ELC a while back um to talk through this and it's not it's out of their hands they're just implementing the state law as they exist so interesting deregulating that would be a benefit to our staff's time for sure okay totally would it makes me wonder why because people lied right so at some point point along the way someone was claiming kids VPK kids showed up who didn't and weren't having the parents sign to prove that they showed up and they were receiving VPK funding um and so then a stronger restrictions were created to make sure that there was not working around the system but of course like most things once you create stronger restrictions that hurts the people are doing it the right way um to make sure that the people who did it the wrong way are not anymore so and as as we have evolved and Early Education has become such a focus it would seem like it would be a great time to evolve the law any idea when that law was put into place remember James because people were no when oh no I don't know when no but I can find it the ELC sent it to me so I'll look in my email and find the state law just out of curios I'd love to know how long ago that was that statute was put in place probably when everything was privatized Maybe right I I could see that being a significant like just obviously a challenge trying to determine if it's a public provider versus a private provider if there's a difference in how that is done again Public School provider as we are maintaining How We Do FTE counts and all the same records and all of that absolutely but I also could see from a state statute standpoint of the dollars that go to private providers for VPK they would want some kind kind of verification of something yeah with maybe put everybody on a Skyward is system something that that is is a little bit more monitored and modern and modern sure and modern yeah yeah and so right now I'm just saying from a public school perspective if proving if using Skyward far FTE is acceptable k12 and Beyond then why is that not acceptable for gpk yes at least starting with the public schools and but it should there should also be a workable iable upto-date technological way to document attendance for our private providers as well okay so we'll have to look into that statute um if if we can find out what that statute number is and and maybe Dr goet if you can find out from your team what that looks like Nev I'm actually reviewing it as we speak okay perfect because it does it does stipulate that the Early Learning Coalition manages the enrollment of of our VPK students and so that is in statute so we have to go back and and take a look at what the specific recommendation would be okay because it does Define coalition The Early Learning Coalition as the one who oversees VPK so some of the stipulations and statute may be Early Learning Coalition standards then that they are pushing to the providers that are saying you have to they oversee the providers yes right yep it's okay so yes if you can get with yes we'll be happy to thank you thank you great anything else go go ahead chair thrower I saw that look I was actually a little shocked when you said that there might be the possibility of some movement on the capital millage rate because that would have helped us with a lot of our funding issues um I understand why it was rolled back U we were really in a terrible way as a state and as a county during the Great Recession but that's long in the rearview mirror and um I know i' I'd love to know more of of what they're thinking because I think there's also renewed interest in getting rid of property taxes yes so I'm wondering how that weighs yes that great question so I we as a board are having a meeting with representative Chamberlain upcoming and he is the legislator that requested the Actuarial study on the property taxes from what I gather and I haven't heard this from him directly that some of it is if the state has brought in X number of dollars in sales tax in the past year and then X number of dollars in property taxes if you raise the sales tax to whatever does it offset some of that property tax and then you actually are able to lower the property tax and raise the sales tax that's part of the conversation I don't know where that's going to land but that's essentially what the sales tax has brought in so much more even at a state 6% sales tax than all the property taxes across the state State and how do you maybe raise the sales tax and lower property taxes to do the same things so that's a part of that conversation I think that um Capital millage so if there is a conversation to reduce property taxes having an increase in millage isn't going to help us that I mean it it would be interesting to have a part of the conversation uh but I if we wanted to include that back in our priorities I I would possibly recommend that we not say restore back to 2.0 that we would say increase Capital millage to 1.75 or like make it an increase but not all the way back to where it was so it doesn't feel like they're raising property taxes I don't know I think you have we have to be creative in how we do that attorney Powers is looking at me do you have anything to add to that conversation okay he's just looking at Meed by the conversation yeah enthralled by my in the conversations okay so um I I I'm not sure if that needs to necessarily hit the priorities right now we can certainly talk about it what we're doing right now is just starting this conversation and again fsba will put their stuff out August 1st wanted us to have some starting points where we have consensus so when we do go meet with legislators that we can say here are the things that we see as a need so we're on con we're having a public conversation now we have consensus on these items this is all we can talk about whenever we're in a meeting um so I mean if we agree Capital millage we need an increase in capital millage if it's 2.0 so be it and let's just say we can throw it out there and we don't know if it's actually going to stick but we can try it did you have other things on your oh I do have a couple of other things on my list share those with us and then we'll sure no I want I want to hear what everybody else has so far to recap so far we're s with attendance attendance and and Dr gullet is going to get back with us on some additional information on that uh we have the Elevate average teacher pay to be among average in the nation whatever that turns out to be um right now we have on this list VPK deregulation um we'll wait and see how that actually impacts Public Schools versus private providers uh and then we've put in restore Capital millage now it's possible that these are just all the things we're talking about right now and we all agree our issues but may not hit our top five so I'm I'm okay with that if you all are and if attorney Powers is comfortable as well we're having public conversation we agree on these things so as we're having conversation with legislators it's okay for us to talk about these five to 10 things based on the public conversation yeah good that's why we're doing it today and I would I would propose holding off on the capitol Miller at least until after we have our meeting with rep and get more information because it was declared uh Beyond dead you know previously and so that's kind of where I am with that and and it does sound a little weird to be aspiring to be average I know but it's sort of where we are you know we we we know we need to get teacher pay up and also the the global service to education pay right all right do you have anything else anybody else have anything else before I rattle off a couple that I have and then let's see how we feel about the ones that I have here go ahead okay perfect so I have to amend statute number one 3.42 and that is the statute that incorporates teaching of Holocaust Education as well as history of Communism uh history of Communism was just added in 2024 to that statute I would like to am recommend that we amend that statute to incorporate World Geography education we have now said we are teaching Holocaust Education that includes Eastern Europe and all the things that happened there we've also now said we're teaching history of Communism but we aren't telling students where Cuba and the USSR and East and West Germany actually are and they probably couldn't pick them out on a map they can't and that's a problem many can't right and so if we say to amend that statute now especially in light of Holocaust and communism education let's also incorporate World Geography I think it just makes a more well-rounded student do we agree with that idea I agree sure so World also encom encompassing the United States absolutely no absolutely I mean we can say us and world and World Geography sure I'm fine with that yes um that was REM moved out of the Middle School curriculum quite a while ago now and I know that there is there are some teachers that are still teaching because of what you just shared you know um and there are so many kids that love Maps I think you have a very recent story about Maps stff will you share it because I think it's very pertinent to this conversation uh certainly so visiting one of the classrooms this past week uh was in elementary and they were studying and reading about the gold rush so I was was asking them some questions about that and I'm going to shorten the story um because I was with students for quite some time but it led to some questions a student um had when I was asking about what their learning was what questions they had and it it it led to a geography question and about distance of time and travel that that this young man had um very bright young man and so I said well you know that's great question how do you know how long it takes to get from one location to the other how do they come to the US and he said said well you know I have here China and I have you know across the country and out of the country and so we walked over to the map and we went to the US map and then we were locating States we're locating obviously California and and how they traveled there and how long it took to travel but then he started mentioning back to other countries and and where are they on the map what this is a US map so what map do you need so the world map so we went to the back of the classroom to the world map so um here's a student who has a great opport opportunity for inquiry and making meaning of the text with the maps in place and it it was a very and I'm shortening the story but powerful moment of learning to go to the maps and have the conversation about how did they travel could they go by horse if they're going across the ocean no how did they travel so it was it's just interesting um and I think without the maps and without the context of understanding where they're located on the map because he didn't know but he certainly knew those are the important questions to ask that's that's the takeaway I mean he he knew that something didn't make sense and he needed to try to make sense of it so my and thank you um my own high schooler and I had one of my high schoolers I'm not going to call out which one uh and I had this conversation just this past weekend that his curriculum has taught him uh country flags so he knows 200 different flags but has no concept of where those countries actually are and talking about e even US World Cup soccer he knows all those flags and all those country names and all but where is Angola in comparison to Trinidad and Tobago no concept oh right some of it is a little more challenging I mean I didn't really have World Geography until I was in college either but if we are incorporating things like Holocaust and communism education without the context of geography we're missing it entirely if students have an idea of what Cuba did and who they are and how their government is being run but not how close Cuba is to the Florida coast I mean what what are we doing here no relevance there's no relevance so right okay so I think that's an easy one to to add in thank you for that uh I have two more that I well maybe three more um that I wanted to recommend uh based on our recent conversations that we've had about new uh construction I would like to recommend uh amending the srf chapter 61 um 6-1 regarding public school gymnasium capacities and as you may recall I brought this up U when we were talking about our new high school the total square footage of a court cannot exceed 6,500 Square F feet standard High School score court is this is directly from Miss dobins is 4200 squ feet and the recommended safety zone is 3 to 10 ft bringing the total to 5100 to 6,500 ft² for the court alone the seating is 32 squ feet per seat at a 10% cap based on school capacity therefore seating capacity for a school with 2500 students is C at 250 seats that's all based on srf standards 61 in chapter 61 so I would like to amend recommend amending srf chapter 61 regarding public school gymnasium capacities I don't know that I want to say exactly what I want it amended to but I think that we could say based on the number of sports that are now being being played indoors especially in high schools as new construction is occurring there is no limit to the number of fields you can have Outdoors but there is a limit you can have one gymnasium regardless of the size of that high school really I mean if you're building a high school for 5,000 students which who is doing that right now I don't know of anybody maybe there's Miami Dade possibly but that's the only way that you really could get to more than one gymnasium on a high school campus and honestly that's just not what's best for students additionally as they're continuing to have competition with Charter Schools and Charter Schools not having the same regulations that public schools do we need to have the ability to compete so however you feel about that I'm open to the conversation that would be the simple statement right there is deregulated to match Charter School requirements and they don't have them right so I I mean possibly it is you know amending that chapter regarding public school gymnasium capacities to mirror the lack of uh guidelines to Charter School capacities to to mirror the requirements of charter schools right I mean really I I just see that being a benefit in the long run is it costly certainly I mean I understand there's going to be a huge cost to it but is it what's best for students in the long run and I go back to the the gymnasium in um my hometown my homeschool gymnasium can seat their entire student body they can have 1,500 students in a gymnasium no problem assemblies pep rallies whatever the entire student body graduation yeah right um the entire student body can fit inside their gymnasium and that's the way they're built in Tennessee I mean it's just it's different but having this limitation was frankly shocking to me now that we're building a a new high school it was shocking to me that we couldn't even consider it regardless of the cost so I know for a fact and this is just a question I have Belle High School can fit their entire school um in the gym we we did it pep rally 1600 students four sections 400 kids in each section so what um what you said earlier what is what are you saying the state law says the limitation is so this was put in in 2014 okay which is after Belle was built this is the srf standard by 2014 that a seating capacity for a school of 2500 students has to be at 10% of the 25 200 students okay so it's 250 seats is how large our gymnasium can be in the new high school is that a minimum or a maximum right right and that that would be my question is it a minimum or maximum because I and granted this came in in 2014 but I also know that uh most of our high schools have far greater than 250 seating in in bleacher seating also I know that they are after too we haven't built a school since this was done though right even our fire code certifications are indicate there's a much much higher maximum capacity so I don't know so it's specifically on page 106 of the um srf standards from 2014 I'm looking at the gymnasium floor it at NSF occupant so I I'm not certain if that's the minimum or the ma I mean I believe it to be the maximum and based on what Barb Miss Dobbins said for us to be considering what we can do in our new high school so that's where this conversation started uh and talking about what we can have there and in terms of being able to get it paid for and yes so anything bigger than that would have to be funded another way maybe sure we need more information I guess clarification before we would add that I would think to our list immediately but you know if that's the case then yeah that seems like it would be a priority because it's pretty hot in Florida it's getting hotter arguably um our schools are getting bigger we have more people be great to have a gym that could hold them I mean I'm not against it but I think we need some clarification okay do you have anything else no I just think fully understanding what the restrictions are right now um because there is value and I mean being able to have a pep rally where all 1 1600 students can attend now I would have to ask Miss guest if the 1850 can still fit in there or not it's probably a little tighter than it was when I was there a few years ago at 1600 but um there's benefit to that uh and like at North Maran as an example because that's is so old they she does um they don't have the privilege of doing that there because their gymnasium is not large enough and so I certainly appreciate the sentiment of trying to make sure that we are building them to meet the operational needs of the school best so I just want to understand what the limitations are and then um what what we're looking for it to be I guess um certainly so I'm not against the idea I just want to understand it better okay sure have accordingly there you go so Dr goet maybe that's another one that the team can help us get a little more clarification on and what our recommendation would be again as we consider the differences in a public school versus Charter School having no and honestly competing at at that level for for students and we are going to have even more competition for students specifically our Mar and Oaks High School with a new Charter School just down the road so uh I I think that the more we can open up opportunities uh would just help us and if I if I may we'll be happy to to look into that I'm doing some research um as well I'll bring that to the team will bring it back I would say the the pin in this is the deregulation as a whole right and to mirror that with Charter Schools so whatever they get to do we should get to do so I think we've had that conversation before and I just think that's an important um summary to that if they get to have that and they have those allowances we should as well thank you and they have already just this past year deregulated or at least put a like a hold on the student station per student station but that's about all they've done on this srf like hold harmless and so let's let's take it further it's not just that let let's talk more about actually additional facilities within the school not just the per student station I completely concur with what you said but if the team can come back with specific recommendations I think that will be helpful okay I have one more really and then I do want to ask um well I'll ask two questions real quick and then I'll tell you what my other one is U one of them uh that we know is going to continue to be a Hot Topic is the CTE opportunities and if there are barriers to hiring or ways to incentivize so that's kind of a question for the team or if there's things that we know that might be coming um down the pike I think that's going to continue to be a hot button Topic in Tallahassee I also want to ask the team if there is an appropriation request or if we want to stick with what we already asked for last year with that additional classroom Wing at Mar and Technical College or if there's something else so I I that will be for you guys to determine and bring back to us in early July but the final thing that I have is also something that I guess I brought up recently that had not I had not realized and it's specifically tied to gifted students so let's talk about IEPs so individual educational plans IEPs for our exceptional students that have IEPs and those are the students that are ASD I all all the different acronyms IEPs are funded they they receive therapies there's different levels different all of that is built into an IEP around the Matrix around the Matrix absolutely for a student with identified needs that are classified as gifted they have what's called an educational plan it's not an IEP it's an EP and with an EP there is no funding tied to it so a student I know this is something I've just learned recently as we had a lot of conversation about gifted students so my request would be to start funding identified needs for students with educational plans I like that in addition to the IEP like obviously we're already doing IEPs there's a whole matrix it's like you're this number you're what whatever all the different numbers all the things I don't know what the number would be I'm not asking for that I'm just saying I had a gifted teach a gifted endorsed teacher recently tell me a student who is gifted is not going to grow out of that it it's very similar to a student with an an IEP that has whatever exceptionality that is they're not going to grow out of it they're going to have therapies they're going to have you know ways to adapt to whatever that might be and a gifted student also needs potentially some additional supports that currently come with no funding and so I'm open to your thoughts on that um a clarifying question a student who is gifted and has other exceptionalities that would require would require additional supports would have a IEP if they have an EP so if they needed language speech um if they needed otpt those kinds of things would come in as a um IEP so when you're speaking about the the exceptional services that A Gifted student would receive what is an example of the services you're talking about that would not be covered by an IEP sure so a a student that isn't on an IEP but is only on an EP traditionally and the way I've seen it done is the district tends to and it's not just our district it's lots of districts says put them in an accelerated program in an IB and Ace and whatever and here you go and you get an EP meeting once a year and they try to make sure that their exceptionality is is catered to based on whatever the acceleration is but sometimes students who are in that gifted mindset need to learn different organizational skills or how to adapt to their giftedness how to understand that they may be processing things differently and their teachers subsequently may need to know that gifted students are processing things differently or they're going to do this differently that's not like a behavior manifestation necessarily like an IEP would be there they might not be on the ASD spectrum they may just legitimately have a giftedness and currently there is nothing associated with that so if we need gifted endorsed teachers we've just launched a universal gifted screener so we may be identifying additional students that are gifted that may not have a need for an IEP but still have a need for an EP there is no funding associated with gifted endorsements there's no additional anything for the district to say we want to help these identified needs of these students because there's no funding tied to that so so um personally I think I could get behind if we requested some level of um additional funding source just for the the identification of giftedness I don't think think that it would behoove us to get into the intricacies of what what is done within the classroom or within those Services because I think they we would struggle to find them to be tangible a lot of them are application-based they're things that the teachers are doing within the classroom space they're not an OT service or a PT service or a speech and language service so if we were going to have an ask I would a I would offer that that ask should s Simply Be attaching a monetary value to the EP uh label or identification which could then be used directly for funding gifted Educators and gifted education endorsements th that would be my recommendation um so that we can help cover that uh payroll cost for placing uh gifted teachers at AT sites so that would be that would be my thought I I believe and Dr James I believe that's my exact ask it's just to say we have students with identified needs or they wouldn't have EPS in the first place so we definitely have identified students now what and any other educational plan of sorts comes with something if it's a if it we have to have reading endorsed teachers for those students that are struggling in Reading there's all kinds of you know assistance on that side of things you know if there's a remediation if there's I just don't want to talk ourselves into so like there is an additional and maybe Miss bosis could cheer but a reading a a student who is in a deficit for reading we're not getting extra money for unless they're captured in an IP we're not getting extra reading endorsement money I just don't want us to talk ourselves into like a scenario where we're trying to say this is unique but actually they're not funding anything you know do you know what I mean because I don't actually think they're giving us money for anything exceptional other than an IEP and then FTE um and so we're not getting reading endorsement money we're not getting money for now as a district we prioritize potentially reimbursing or offering courses within house and all of those kinds of ways but I just want to make sure that we stay super Focus hyper focused on what you're asking so that we don't deviate and then all of a sudden they're like well we don't fund this either and we don't fund this so no you don't need that funding because we don't fund any of it is kind of my thought so staying super focused on it's an exceptional student plan and so because they have a exceptionality we need to fund the exceptionality interesting conversation because I think about kids that are identified with a specific learning disability that could also be gifted um that have need for accommodations and those accommodations require extra time extra money um someone could certainly be dyslexic and be incredibly gifted but yet they're identified a lot of times misidentified as being intellectually disabled so it's it's an interesting conversation that we're having I my focus would continue to be on the this the individual student and as an example um it's really probably not in the best interest of a student that is in second or third grade to need to be transported to the college to take a math course that is going to meet their needs and that's exactly what happened to my cousin when he was little um so yeah there's there's a lot to this I also really support the fact that our the needs of our gifted students we've done our best to meet them um but there's definitely more that we can be doing so I really look forward to having more conversation around this I I think about how fast this world is accelerating in terms of you know just a whole AI realm and and how kids are thinking and what they're being exposed to at younger and younger ages and some of that can really be positive you know those are our future innovators so we do want to make sure that we have programming for them that will do a really good job of meeting their needs and hopefully not have to be shipped off campus even to another school necessarily although we do that with kids with iips all the time you know if they really are need of specialized instruction you know they take a bus somewhere else it's not their own school so yeah lots of food for thought there that didn't any actually result in any specific suggestion but right when I was saying it I know Miss Conrad I I could see you saying oh I didn't know that so did you have any I know that you've had students in the past that I'm certain were identified as gifted I it's been great conversation um I did learn something something new this morning for sure um and I'm just reflecting on my experience and that you know gifted students do have even in their daily um attendance to school have different and unique needs um and so I was just very surprised that there wasn't I guess I assumed the uh you know that there was funding for that um and in my experience there's just there's so much extension from the traditional curriculum and the standards and skills that are required to be taught I was just surprised that there was not you know funding attached to those requirements so but I I guess I really shouldn't have been I did know that because our teachers do a great job you know and you go in and and and you see all of these great things that are happening and assume that there was funding to go with the cameras or the Rockets or the you know whatever is going on um that day to go with the lesson and so um I do think it's very valuable conversation and I look forward to hearing what our next steps are and this may be a real opportunity too when we have our meeting with our legislators this is a a topic that they may or may not have deep familiarity with so I think to at least start that conversation and where it could take us is is is worthy I know we we're trying to stick to three to five things but that doesn't mean we can't discuss anything sure well and board member Campbell also to I I like your comment chair thrower that also just bringing awareness if if a part of the board was unaware um at least making you know raising the awareness um so that that's understood so thank you for that okay well that wraps up all the things that I had I did want to also make you aware I sent her a text message yesterday congratulating her but um representative yavan haes Hensen was reelected because she was unopposed so she is our one of our Representatives still the other four that we will have from a state representative standpoint still have opposition and we'll be heading into primaries and and the general election depending on um who they have and what that looks like uh and then State Senate also is also has opposition so but we do have guaranteed that representative y yvon Hy Hensen will be our representative for the north uh western part of the County so I think that's I there are several things that are here on this list I would also even say I know most of these are saying Dr goet come back and tell us things if if there are recommendations specific out of out of gifted that there's something beyond what I have written here this just fund identified needs for students with written educational plans I mean I don't know if you know just I would title that gifted education but I don't know if there would be a specific recommendation as to what we would ask I think again the more specific we can get the better but I don't know what that would actually be is it a dollar amount per student is it a percentage of something is it a identified curriculum needed or what what is it that we fund a one gifted um endorsed educator per X number of student I have no idea what the ask is so if there is a specific ask that would be helpful I think that would also help Miss Boston Ellis in knowing okay well we have 200 gifted students and the state law now says we can you know fund a gifted endorsed teacher per however many and then they provide that funding in so be it especially since we're asking them for a specific average teacher when we find out what that number is then that would be the exact number that they would fund per whatever if that's the direction we go so okay I think that's all I had CH thank you thank you and um are you considering forwarding that to Dr gullet sure I can I can I know she took a lot of notes but I can I can um forward you specifically what I have written here and I have just ases beside the things we discussed and we can go from there great and then we'll be talking about this again July 11th I believe so yes if that we have time on the July 11th agenda I think that would be helpful and I believe our meeting I know it's on our calendar with rep Chamberlain is it after that I think it is 17th 17th thank you okay great so we might be able to actually nail down some of our spef thank you um Miss Martinez I KN I told you to send it to us and it was on here somewhere um so yeah so maybe we really will be able to nail down our specific priorities by the 11th uh but we certainly can have like subsequent things here are things we want to talk about and then here are things we actually are having as our priorities right because he'll have some things that he wants to talk about and ask us about absolutely sure and I'm looking at Kevin thinking about eventually we're going to sooner than later it sounds like we're going to want those Palm cards that they all seem to appreciate the little handouts yes and delegation probably won't be happening until at least December so we do have quite a bit of time on that because session is later this year than it you know committee week doesn't happen until the spring right um so we we have a little bit more time just for yeah we're not as compressed we're getting ahead of the game for sure to start having the conversations now of things that we've identified so I appreciate the conversation yes definitely Dr go thank you if I may add and board you had a lot of broad conversations a lot of topics um my ad would be as we talk about going back to the deregulation list um safety specifically safety is a concern because of the um I think the path that we're on with additional requirements I know you've heard a lot about this too and we're we're looking we're looking to see what it looks like with monitoring Gates just Gates Alone um and monitoring gates equates with staff equates with money to have those things monitored so um I know there's a lot more to come but I just think that's important to to elevate that to the conversation because that's going to require more and just like with our contracts with our school resource officers and those things that all takes money and that's not fully funded mandates are not fully funded so as the mandates increase the ask would be that they are funded um and sole one you could say that across the board yeah and and we I we are all committed to ensuring a safe environment for all of our students our our staff and our our visitors our guests our community um but I think that's just one of those really critical conversations that we need to have that is so true Dr D and thank you for bringing us around to this because if the focus has to be on providing that safe and accessible learning environment so that all these great things that we're talking about doing can can take place you know with with joy and and a with a feeling of of safety and being in the the right place for the right reason so yep thank you for that all right any other suggestions from board members Vice chair a suggestion Dr gullet as we move forward on that conversation I think it would be helpful to have some numbers um attached to that so as we're in Tallahassee bringing forward conversations even if it doesn't make our list many times we are asked what are you struggling with what is a struggle it would be nice to say that in Marian County we have this many gates you know we have this many football fields we have this many basketball and somebody has to man it in what that number looks like like what does it cost us um so that it's in black and white certainly thank you our best to come up with a list I know it's I know the team's already working on what would it take yes um depending on what what the what the requirements would be but certainly we'll do our best to provide a generalist a general yes of course thank you there's also a hardware cost you know yes for locks Keys however they're going to be secured um chair thank you Vice chair for bringing that up I I think this is just an observation and I'm sure I'm I'm thinking not as broadly as as the rest of the team but just this mandate alone on monitoring gates for after hours events is going to be quite significant on our campuses where our gymnasiums auditoriums are beyond the gate the dellen high school gymnasium the Belleview high school gymnasium that the Oola Middle School when we do have a gym there Fort King Middle School at Fort McCoy you start naming all and of that right I I mean I'm just there's there's so many like I'm just I'm just beginning to say that we are beyond the gate in so many of our after school activities that it's it is a significant challenge that I can see that will impact us this year and we will only start to see that as the school year really gets started so thank you for that request if if we can get some real concrete numbers that will help us in say here's what this is going to be and to have this man for this amount of time every day in some of these locations yeah okay thank you So the plan is to bring this back around and finalize it at the July 11th board meeting or do we need another session I was yeah July 11th is the work session okay y perfect that makes more sense so I think if we come back with the fine-tuned the additional information most of these are going to fall on Dr gullet and the team as we say here's what we came up with here's some ideas what have you then we will be able to say okay well here's our top five but here's our other in fsba we consider them continuing conversations or items of continued concern we have here's our whole platform but here's additional items of continued concern and so we can have our five and then right have the other items yes because it's rare to get something done on the first push sure sometimes it happens but that's why I wanted to give us the history from in 2023 here are the things we start and here are the things that already changed and 2024 here's the so I it's it's fun to see what we've been able to impact already oh yeah we've had some good wins good successes as far as continuing um for the the CTE that we need that next appropriation to be able to finalize that Vision right yes so I can't imagine that we wouldn't want that to be well and if that is the the ask I mean obviously MTC certainly or if there's if there's an additional ask or if there with our new high if there's something we want add somewhere that we don't already have I know we've talked some about Aviation even at the high school level is that going to be added into the new so I think there might be if there's other opportunities that we want to say at XYZ school we would like to build a flight simulator and this is going to be this cost and this is and right you and space Florida can come help as we heard space Florida presentation of the C yesterday um but regardless what if if there is something else in addition to the MTC ask grateful that on our upcoming board meeting we are going to be approving hopefully it's on the agenda to approve the um construction of that new facility that we had the appropriation request that we received so that's coming if we actually have it on the agenda on Tuesday night so that's great um but again if there's something else that Maran Technical College was an e that was a good Pathway to get us in but there may be others that we could consider uh to enhance in other locations Perfect all right good so we'll wrap up our legislative priorities discussion now move on to board comments and concerns um Miss Martinez anything from your seat no Madam chair thank you attorney pow anything from legal no ma'am all right thank you Dr gullet nothing additional thank you you board member James nothing additional thank you Vice chair Conrad oh just I'm going to break the record here but just two quick things I wanted to say we had a great graduation for MTC um it was wonderful it was exciting to see um a variety of students come across the stage and there's just a lot of good work being done so I just I wanted to share that um also Tuesday at the County Commissioners meeting they um did a kickoff for school supply drive and it was exciting that's a very competitive group and so I believe they're inviting us to their August 1st meeting to see what kind of response they get so it was just really exciting um and heartfelt to see the community jump in um to help support the students of Maran County especially our most needy population so thank you thank you Vice chair board member Campbell I won't add anything else I talked a lot today thank you all right thank you and yes um great work session this morning um you know this this community really has such a strong history of of coming together and and making great things happen and we sure appreciate the Partnerships um I just had two quick things as I throw my pen on the floor um the salary study results um Dr gulet is that something that you would have any updates on um thank you madam chair I know that the team has it I haven't seen it yet and it'll be coming forward soon so um I know that there's a there's a draft I think that's been received but I haven't had a chance to meet with the team yet they've been out so okay will that be presented at a future work session that should be yes okay I think we already have it I think we already have a a draft date for that coming up soon but I will will let the board know okay great be great it will be coming forward yes okay good and it'll be good to have a hard date for that I've been getting some questions about that recently so I just wanted to ask and then also um you and I have had some pretty deep conversation the other day about hybrid work and and where we might be going with that in the future and it was great conversation because my understanding and and at least in some Realms that it was more about having the infrastructure from that that wasn't on campus or that is on campus but not at wherever someone was working to not have a delay in the workflow and so I'm looking forward to problem solving those INF structure and systems um needs so that the dedicated employees that really have been dependable and done a great job probably over working at home just like they do you know at their office site uh have the flexibility to be able to do that again um it is a wonderful recruiting and and retention tool um that I would like to see brought back in in some form um and being in the district for a long time I also know and I've heard this before people are like well you know I'm not making enough money in this position or I don't have the flexibility in this position and my answer to that would be just thinking about my own career trajectory I knew that when I started as a PA of for $5 an hour my first 30 days in 1997 that I probably wasn't going to support a family very easily on that salary um and that really is one of the many benefits of working for Marian County public Public Schools is that there is opportunity for advancement so I'm also very grateful that we are doing everything that we're doing to help support the educational needs for someone that's working to advance themselves uh because it is a reality that just because you are where you are now doesn't mean that's where you need to necessarily stay and it's also really important um to me personally to you know try to track as as best we can With Private Industry because they are our competitors and and my own husband has worked from home completely remotely for over 20 years and has done just fine and you know has had the ability to to do that and so I would just like to have staff think again and maybe identify positions that we could reestablish hybrid work even sooner because they have those systems in place I think of a data entry clerk you know if they're sitting at a computer doing data entry all day then to me that would be a tailor made opportunity for someone to be able to work uh hybrid and if someone EnV that then you know there's hopefully going to be opportunities to move into positions that lend themselves to hybrid work and you know bus drivers I'm sorry if we could come up with a way for you to I don't know like the jesses or something I don't know maybe some kid'll invent a way to make that happen but there are just some jobs that truly don't lend themselves to being able to do this model and some that truly do and and it's about time we just accepted that I think just just my thoughts based also from a lot of the feedback I've been getting um from different employees so once again I am I am grateful for the um for the willingness you know to innovate and to Pilot things and then to bring them back around and new and improved form that makes sense to everybody and and accommodates people as as best that we can in a very very competitive work environment I mean we saw how many people we lost during the Great Recession and and then and then covid and the great resignation you know the the the field is very very competitive so I think we just need to really focus on being Innovative and uh making sure that our employees feel very valued and that their needs are being met and I know we try to do that each and every day so thank you all for the great work that you do and if there's nothing else we will adjourn nothing else right for the good of the cause we're good all right we will adjourn at 11:23 p.m. thank you so [Music] much for