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 1 minute e [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning everyone H Now call the April 11th 2024 administrative briefing and work session of the Marian 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 thank you thank you I will now ask the Schoolboard attorney to explain the rules for this public work session good morning attorney Powers good morning and thank you madam chair this work session is a public meeting has defined in Florida 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 the 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 rules mam chair thank you attorney Powers good morning Miss Martinez would you please provide the proof of publication for today's meeting good morning Madam chair the notice for the April 11th 20124 work session was published in the Ocala Gazette on March 29th 2024 proof of publication has been attached to board dos under proof of publication thank you and we will now begin the work session with the deputy of superintendent of curriculum on instruction Dr Talbert Irving thank you for joining us today thank you good morning Madame chair and board members it's great to see everyone and I have one item on behalf of the superintendent April is school library month and we celebrate our school media specialists in their programs that transform learning some of the fruits of their labor will be seen during Friday night's Maran County student media Festival right here in this Auditorium Madame chair if I may move on to the first agenda item yes ma'am I'm pleased to have Miss Cook who is here to introduce the update on funding programs and the guest with her today thank you good morning Miss Cook good morning cheer thrower board members and Deputy superintendent Dr tobert Irving I'm here this morning to introduce Miss Laura lingal client executive and Mr Thomas bus market leader of nor Florida of Gallagher benefit and Associates who will be presenting the 2024 update and 2025 funding projections thank you you good morning good morning good morning chair thrower board members Deputy superintendent um as Miss Cook said my name is Laura lingal I'm with Gallagher Benefit Services um I also have Thomas bus and um pton Drake with me from our office today we will be providing um an update on the self-funded health insurance program in addition to some early projections for 2025 and um again some recommendations for funding um just a brief overview and then we'll kind of get into the um nitty-gritty of the funding of the self-funded health plan so you can see in 2023 we did have uh per capita claims at about 12% higher than 2022 um much of these claims were anticipated hated based on medical Trend and what we were seeing with the health plan um if you remember we funded 2023 at an 8% increase over 2022 so that funding in addition to some increased enrollment um actually allowed us to see some large gains you'll see at 5.8 million so the um 12% increase that we experienced in claims fund was essentially offset by that increased enrollment in addition to to the 8% funding that the board approved for 2023 for 2024 the board approved a 4% increase in funding um again we are projecting another large gain at around 4 million we did see increase enrollment and we'll talk about that um but we are experiencing some higher than um 2023 claims for January and February again those were anticipated we did um have some benefit enhancements that we'll review here in just a minute it but that we also saw that increase enrollment again due to the um enhancements the decrease in cost for the um Family coverage for those employees that do not have a spouse also employed by the district so just a reminder of those benefit enhancements we um added a $75 specialist co-pay to plans 1 three and four plan two is an HSA compatible plan the IRS has some regulations on those types of um programs and so we're not allowed to have co-pays as first dollar benefits on that plan plan one which is the board funded plan um also has the highest enrollment we did decrease deductibles for single to 2,000 from 2500 into 4,000 from 5,000 from family coverage plan one this is probably the um biggest enhancement and where we will see the largest impact in claims but we cover brand medication now on plan one so previously it was a generic choices formulary there were a limited number of um government required brain medications that were covered now we do have that closed formulary that covers a significant number of brand medications at the tier 2 copay um we did exclude those self administered specialty medications on this plan and then again we um decreased the family coverage payroll per pay period deduction for any employees that do not have a spouse also employed as they're already receiving the discount um so we did see significant enrollment increases particularly because of that decrease in funding or increase in funding decrease in payroll deductions as we look at the reserves so um with a self-funded health plan you are required by the state to show uh 60-day Safe Harbor essentially if the self-funded plan were to go away and you went back to fully insured you would have to have 60 days worth of claims fund um to facilitate any runout in claims so you can see that um at the end of 2023 we have 19.2 million um those are Gallagher's numbers the board is showing about 19.7 it's probably just due to a difference in timing when the claims hit when the claims are paid um Etc your 60-day Safe Harbor requirement is 9 million so you can see that we um are meeting and exceeding that Safe Harbor number with the projections for 2024 that 4 million that we're projecting um will be at 23.3 million again our 60-day Safe Harbor will be at 9.7 many of the um self-funded plans for government entities public entities do try to Target a 90 to 120 day Reserve again we are U meeting and exceeding that 120-day Mark it just goes to show you've you've approached the self-funded plan conservatively you funded when the funding was recommended um so that we do have the funds if we are to have a poor claim year um it would be more of a bump in a road versus that it would ruin the self- lended health plan so um again conservative approach has yielded great results pull out those bifocals for um this next slide um this is the um 2021 to 2025 experience um again forecasting a little bit into next year um for the 2025 plan year just as a reminder under our self-funded health plan we have essentially two categories where the funding is we have the claims fund so that top section is our medical claims and Pharmacy claims what do we believe we would need to um fund to pay the medical claims um right now your Pharmacy is embedded in the medical plan there is the option to um separate the pharmacy from that um we'll be going to RFP we'll talk about that in a minute for the um Pharmacy claims manager uh next year under the fixed cost the fixed costs include the stop-loss pre premiums under a self-funded Health Plan um we pay the claims up until a certain point on any given member if that member exceeds that claim thresholds the stoploss carrier then takes over payment for that we project 15% every year for what the stoploss increase will be however stop-loss is a little tricky we don't actually get to negotiate stoploss carriers and premiums until October November for the following year so we were projecting 15% last year we were able to negotiate those numbers and we got that number to about 5% just over 5% um increase on the stop-loss premium then we also pay administrative fees these are paid to Florida Blue on a per um employee or per member per month basis this is to utilize their Network this is also to utilize them as our third-party claims payer so essentially they are paying the claims and we reimburse them for those claims out of our um claims fund we also have um some small internal expenses this is just what we anticipate if you are having somebody other than the risk management team facilitate um the heal or the health plan what would that cost if you were using an outside source so you can see our total expenses there um and then when we look at what the employee contributions and the board contributions are you'll see that's where we're getting our projected um claims gains so 5.8 million from 2023 into 2024 and the projected 4 million into um 2025 when we look down at the bottom under key assumptions you'll see that um there's some medical Trend and Pharmacy Trend again this is what Gallagher anticipates the cost of doing business in the world of medicine will increase year-over-year so you can see that um medical trend is set at 7% Pharmacy Trend 99.5% Pharmacy really is where we're seeing the largest impact in claims um we have some medications that um are5 to $20,000 per month so you can see that trend is um increasing at a higher rate than even the medical trend of itself you'll also see the increase in total contributions is listed there 8% in 2023 that we discussed 4% for 2024 you will notice that the 2025 numbers are based on a 0% rate increase so the board has gotten to the point where Gallagher feels um confident that you could keep the funding the same you'll see in our next slide we have a we do have a recommendation um but the 2024 contributions from the board and from the employees We Believe would would facilitate the claims for 2025 you will notice in 2025 under project Ed gains or loss if you did keep the funding stable there would be a slightly over $100,000 loss again when we looked at those Safe Harbor numbers that would still keep you well in the 120 plus days of um claims funding available but that is based on a 0% increase for 2025 any questions on these numbers any questions from the board board member Cummings good well thank you I just don't want to I always want to remember to acknowledge you in the phone okay thank you um so again based on the preliminary experience um we will be coming back with um updated numbers next month as we're only able to project base off of January and February so we'll have um another month and a half or so of claims for next month if you were to keep funding stable um we would still meet that Safe Harbor but we would experience a projected loss of around $100,000 with that being said um we ALS recommend pading the war chest when the years are good so our recommendation would be to consider a 3 to 4% um rate increase or contribution increase effective January 1st 2025 um with self-funded health plans we usually do see a bad claims year one year out of every five um so we would want to be ready for that um should that come so again we'll we'll be back next month with some additional information maybe updated recommendations based on what we're seeing for March and um early April claims um risk management is extremely busy this year with claims Audits and rfps so Stacy Roth and her team are facilitating a medical claims audit this is recommended every 3 years when you are a self-funded Health Plan essentially the audit is looking at how the um policy is written compared to how the claims were paid so did the claims pay appropriately um and we're also doing a dependent audit so this is something that we did even before we were self-funded but even more important now are the dependents that are on the school board's plan eligible for the plan um we they do this during initial enrollment but then we also facilitate this for any member that has a dependent on their plan so a spouse or a child dependent so they are requested to provide documentation that they are a legal spouse and that the children on the plan are their um legitimate children it just protects the plan from paying for claims for people who are not eligible for the plan um in addition to that we are currently in RFP for Delta Dental we had our first meeting on Tuesday and we will be doing interviews next week for um a a contract for the dental insurance we are also um facilitating the RFP for the short-term and longterm disability that is currently through the standard as well as the basic and Voluntary Life Al also through the standard and then every year we do the stoploss again that will happen in the fall once we have those numbers from the current stop-loss carrier you'll see next year um we'll be going to RFP for uh Health Plan administrative Services which is currently held by Florida Blue um Consulting Services which is our team and then that Pharmacy um benefit manager program that I reference before so currently with Florida Blue embedded right now but we do have the ability to carve out that piece um if it makes Financial sense and then we get a little break uh 26 for 27 and just have the vision RFP which is currently with humanum um in preparation for the dental RFP we did a survey we found that when we did the survey for the health insurance we received a lot of positive feedback we also seeed received a lot of constructive criticism that we used to then develop the benefits for um the health plan so these were the responses from the survey just over 600 83% of those that are resp responded are currently enrolled in the dental insurance we asked some questions about their Network what kind of coverage they would like to see maximums Etc um we also get a lot of feedback about adult orthodontia so we did ask some questions about that and increasing maximums as well um and then we had 245 open uh responses those are always exciting to read um here are the results you can see that the dental network came in um as most important important it is what we frequently hear the most about um as far as dissatisfaction with the the dental um Insurance then um comprehensive coverage on all plans increased maximums came in close second and third um improv for out of network and then adult orthodontia so when we created the RFP we used the responses from this survey to Target questions at those areas um for respondents to to reply to looking ahead so um as I indicated we will be back next month with some additional claims data Final recommendations for rating and um increased contributions um from the board and then we will also um be looking in June and July for the RFP approvals so if we um what we decide on for the carriers for those three rfps that I mentioned previously we'll be looking for your approval on those all right thank you great presentation thank you I have no comments at this time okay we'll open it up to the board for discussion who'd like to lead us off go ahead sure thank you Miss lingo for your presentation it's been a pleasure to serve on this insurance committee for the past couple of years um my question with the dental insurance survey and just collaborating and and having communication with many of our local dentists um there seems to be a a challenge I guess with our local dentists and insurance um providers at this point and many of them are choosing to go out of network and so seeing the results of this survey indicating that having in network dentists is a significant um idea that our employees really would like to see should we move forward with whatever we're going to do and I know that you're doing interviews and and so whatever happens I just um I think there is an opportunity certainly for ample communication to our employees as to how local dentists who are out of network will still work because I see that you know how you ask the questions here certainly everybody wants everybody to be in network they want that but the challenge is our local dentists are choosing not to be and so with that being said that's not necessarily our challenge but it is something that can be overcome through some communication so that that's just a comment it's not really a question but if you have something else yes most certainly and it is a trend that we're seeing um not just with the the school board's dental insurance in their carrier is that dentists are leaving Dental networks they're going to a a fee based program or they will file for you as an out of network dentist um I think most certainly um a communication effort is warranted um we are looking at what what could be done to enhance an out of network benefit so that if they choose to go out of network what would that look like in reducing their overall costs um it it does challenge the experience of the dental program if if we improve the out of network so significantly then it doesn't encourage them to stay in network that will negatively impact the the plan um so it's a fine balance we want people to see the value in the dental program if they do choose it but it is something that we're seeing again not just with the school board's insurance but just across dental insurance in general as the number of dentists that are leaving networks thank you thank you board member Campbell board member James thank you for coming and sharing your expertise I just have a quick question about dental insurance um coming from a family that has traditionally um not always had a job that provided a standard insurance we have always had to seek other ways to get health insurance and dental insurance and my family doesn't have dental insurance um we use a plan called Dent WR and I don't know if you all are familiar with the plan but there are providers in our community that accept Dent right and it's $150 for the year for me to have the plan to cover my whole family and then um it's like $25 for a cleaning so I don't know if that is something that we could look into as a potential opportunity for our employees um maybe we covered that cost I don't know how much we pay right now for this dental insurance plan but potentially this could even be a cost-saving measure for our for our employees um if this was something that would fit so having that's what I've my personal lived experience has been with dental insurance um and it has helped it does help cover the cost for other more significant things than cleanings like a root canal or wisdom teeth or whatever um so that's just a recommendation I would ask if we could look into and if it's a non-starter that's totally okay too but I know that anyone in the community who doesn't have dental insurance uh Dent WR is a like a discount plan and that's what we use in my house so yeah we could most certainly look at what it would what it would look like to offer as you said a discount program um the the board doesn't contribute to the health insurance in any way for the employees it's a completely voluntary program so it really is impacting the employees you know not the the district's bottom line when you mean the dental insurance correct the board does not it's 100% voluntary so the the board doesn't fund any portion of that of the dental insurance of the dental insurance currently but if we have a program that people can't afford or can't use then potentially looking at an alternative option oh absolutely yes and I guess then my next question would be what is the limiting factor for us to provide to our people there's none other than maybe Dent right would provide a discount to us if we offered it in a large package right that would be the only otherwise people could just go out on their own right now and get Dent right correct we would have to see what Dent right allows if they do have a package deal for something like a school district or if it's simply just an offering that they say well you could you can offer this but there's nothing different than if an employee went out on their own yeah we would have to look into that okay thank you awesome thank you and yes maybe there is a little power and numbers so it'll be fun to hear what you find out on that um Vice chair Conrad I just have a quick comment I want to thank you for your presentation and also want to thank you for um the deeper dive into um dental insurance because it came up as something our staff was struggling with and so thank you for um the survey and collecting information to share with us absolutely thank you Vice chair Conrad board member Cummings anything from your yes ma'am uh thank you guys um for um dealing with this this morning with me being away um as always I I appreciate the um presentation this morning that we get concerning our medical benefits and our dental benefits however and I've asked this before I'm going to ask again I continue to ask that when we look at these um medical plans and dist plans that we have more options our employees deserve more options than just one just Flor blue I'm asking that we continue to look for other companies that I believe that competition bring down prices and I think that we need to look at some other um companies that could possibly offer some plans to us and yet I have have yet to see that yet um so I'm asking that we look at some of the plans Dr James just mentioned something about dental I thing when we have those options for our employees it makes our employees more it gives them gives them a better opportunity to use the benefits that they get by being employed District so are there are there any CL or have they at other insurance compies so for the health insurance um that will be next year so the RFP we're coming to the end of the current contract with Florida Blue um when when we look at offering multiple carrier plans um for example if you offered a plan through Florida blue and a plan through United at the same time carriers are very leery of quoting on a setup like that because they don't know how many employees would choose the Florida Blue plan versus the United healthc care plan it's very rarely seen um that an employer would offer plans through two different carriers um but Florida Blue the um the ASO plan will be going out to bid um RFP next year so um hopefully we can drum up some competition so that we can get the best plans available for the employees and then with the dental RFP we did have five carriers bid on that RFP so we are currently um again we reviewed those on Tuesday we will be interviewing the five carriers um next Tuesday to then come up with some finalist for the final um again most of the carriers indic indicate that they're rates and their benefits that are offered are based on them being the only carrier for the insurance program thank you thank you thank you thank you board member Cummings and um I just wanted to share my gratitude um to to all of you and also board member Campbell for the good work you know every year that you come before us um invariably you've brought forward uh very good news and I know that it's been a partnership with the board and our willingness to step out there with with the self-funded um but it's really nice to know again that we're very financially healthy um that also um great negotiation on the stop loss on on our behalf um I'll look forward to the recommendation you know next month uh um what we should be doing there um and then also just hearing proactive recommendations you know for for future uh program participations we've had um Blue Cross for years and there's a reason for that you know there just hasn't been another really good option um you know in my mind's eye I'm thinking well gosh you know we have several other government entities orbiting around in this community maybe if all of us banded together we could do something um but I know it's almost never that simple but this board's always interested in in options and choices and Innovative opportunities so never hesitate to to bring them to us and and we'll at least consider it um so that's really all I have is there anything else for the good of the cause on this one okay uh hearing none is there any public comment all right hearing none thank you again for your great work on our behalf thank you all right we're pleased to bring up m Mr a is our director as he will do the annual reports by Charter Schools thank you good morning Mr SS always good to see you good morning um good morning Madame chair Madam co-chair board members Dr tobert Irving Miss Lena Martinez Martinez and attorney Powers I'm here today to do the annual report for Charter Schools the the annual report for Charter Schools is required by State Statute there's no action required by the board on this but it is required that each Charter School do a presentation to the sponsor our four our five charter schools are here today to do the presentation this is the order that they'll come in come up and so I'm pleased to introduce Michelle axon she's the principal of Marian Charter School at the end of each Charter presentation you'll be able to ask questions and then at the end of the presentation I can ask answer any general questions you may have absolutely thank you very much heard and heated well we'll [Laughter] see is yours good morning Madame chair Madame Vice chair board members uh Dr gallet Deputy superintendent um Mr Powers Miss Martinez good morning um I am maryan charter school and this is our 23rd year in operation we are kindergarten through first uh fifth grade excuse me our school mission has not changed we want to recognize and respect the uniqueness of each and every single child at our school and we want to foster a love of learning in um in all students we also celebrate diversity and strive to instill Integrity compassion and confidence in each and every child we give each child support and encouragement to become his or her own unique self our student population this year we have two of every grade levels except for this year we have three second grade classrooms so we have a total of 229 students at our school um you can see that we do have a diverse population um at Maran charter school we have um we have students with disabilities we have Esau students um so the numbers are there for you our Personnel data we have 14 teachers who hold professional certification we have one teacher who um has a temporary certification um and our salary ranges is from 27,000 to 96 uh 96,000 we do provide all employees with health insurance and Florida retirement we own our own buildings right now we have two Portable Buildings um and we are starting the process this summer into um looking into into building a permanent structure on our land which we own so our financial information last year our audit showed that our total expenses is being 2, 91,000 and our revenues were 1,928 th000 which resulted in a slight decrease of $162,900 um that was due to increased costs of personnel supplies but we are financially uh stable again we do own our own property and it is currently valued at 1,633 n53 so at Maran Charter School our instructional delivery method is that every day first thing in the morning from 8:15 to 9:00 we have our tier 2 and tier three time um our tier three student students go to a reading Endor teacher for remediation and the other teachers provide tier 2 instruction as well as an enrichment for uh the students in their classroom uh we have an aid at every grade level that works between uh the teachers and they provide again support for our students our AIDS have a small window of time where they do what we call clerical work the majority of their day is spent supporting the teachers with our student instruction um we have six teachers who um do tutoring before and after school for our students to begin to provide them with any academic needs that they may uh have we do have um a consective hour every single day for our teachers of planning time so when this teacher has PE her grade level partner has computer lab with the aid um so they have an hour of planning time every single day and that's where we I go in and I talk to them um about their scores um we brainstorm ideas of how to increase student academics um we use that time for PMP meetings so again they do have that one hour of planning time every single day our student achievement data um last year we were a c we missed being a b by Four Points um but we're striving for a b or an A this year and again our teachers and our staff are working so hard with our students to fill in any gaps that they may have in their education so this is just some um District progress monitoring um assessment data if you look for third fourth and fifth grade We compare Maran Charter to Marian County um we are above Maran County or right at Maran County in regards to our district progress monitoring um data and this is our schoolwide fast data for pm1 and pm2 we have um grown exponentially from from PM 1 to pm2 and we're going to hopefully continue to show growth for pm3 so our goals for this year is to continue to work on closing the learning gaps by Pro by providing daily remediation to all of our students in reading math and science um and again our teachers and ouris work with our students to review and retach key standards and lessons that were taught previous viously so again our progress towards our goal we're going to continue to provide intense reading and math remediation and enrichment activities and opportunities for our students on a daily basis so what makes Maran Charter School successful we like to look at it as a thre legged table we have our parents our staff and our students first oops it didn't do our no it just skipped right to okay well we had this whole slide that was included of pictures of our parents but again regardless of whether we're having open house or our character dress up day um our Dr Seuss literacy night or fi day all of our parents try to come out and support our school and their children and again it is so important maybe if you keep scrolling you'll be able to slides broadcast what we are able to see okay you go one more Yep there there you go okay well this is the end of our our staff slide um the slide that we sent we had um pictures of our um parents and then um this is the end of our uh staff slide but again our staff they go above and beyond what is asked and expected of them so that they can provide the best education possible to our students they put their heart and soul into creating robust and engaging lessons for our students and then we have our students so these are just some pictures of our students engaging in some lessons one of the things that our third grade class does is they hold a book tasting um activity so this is part of a reading activity that they do every year and these are just some slides of um our students working and out one of our uh third grade classes they were scheduled to go to the napin at Silver River but unfortunately it was canceled due to weather so last minut we threw together our own um napin session so we had um the kids made Pottery they um did gym mining we had archery where we bought the Nerf um bows with the velcro arrows so they got to participate in that um they did they cracked open their own geod so at the last minute you know our staff and I we pulled together and we provided this um opportunity for our students and one of the things that I love is we have our older students come down to our lower grades and be uh reading buddies with them and every year we also have some high schoolers that come and they read to our students and this is one of our former students uh Jacob who came back and wanted to read um with one of his favorite teachers so it's wonderful for the for the kids to see hey you know high schoolers are coming to read to us and they really enjoy that so again I just wanted to share with you what makes Mari and Charter so special and um you guys are welcome at any time to come out and visit us so thank you for your time today thank you you're welcome no comments at this time okay and we will open it up to the board I just have M James just a brief question um thank you for your presentation and what you're doing for the community when you look at your enrollment what how has your enrollment looked from um we'll just talk post 2020 so from like last year to this year and then when you're looking at your projections for next year um it's steadily increasing um last year or actually for this year we've had a waiting list um and so we've already started preparing for next year and kindergarten is one of our largest um enrollment opportunities so but right now we're looking at a full house for next year okay and would you say that most of your students feed into ocali charter middle or do they go to a variety of middle schools when they leave you um most of our students do go to oali Middle um but then we do have some that go to their um base middle schools okay um and when you look at your you obviously you you talked about how you didn't quite have the revenue to cover the cost for this year and so as you go into planning for next year and and as the board and this is something I'm going to bring up probably with every person who comes forward today um the board has requested a sales tax for the November ballot which would um legally we'll have to share with Charter Schools and so uh obviously that would support some of your needs um but is there anything that you all are doing differently to try and address that position that you were in for this fiscal year well last year um we um haven't re we didn't receive funding for the grants so this year we have turned in you know all of our paperwork so we did get a lot of our grant money okay so yes ma'am so it just pretty much tied to the grant money yes ma'am and obviously we are feeling the pain of no more covid money as all of you guys will feel as well and so the implications for that as we head into the 2425 school year will be will be you know a question right because we're used to an influx of money and while it's less because you all are smaller than we are we are all feeling the pain of having to close the gaps and what supports we put into place so I'm just making sure that we're all very aware of what may need to happen yes ma'am thank you thank you thank you I just want to say thank you m Z and time and time again when you come to deliver information about um your beautiful little school there uh it's it just wonderful progress that these students are are making and uh just always continued success that you have there and wonderful stories come out of your little school so um just grateful for the work that you're putting in and the student successes that you have thank you thank you board member camel Vice chair c just adding thank you for your presentation thank you for the work that you're doing in the opportunities that you're giving to our students oh thank you I appreciate it you board member Cummings thank you great presentation um looking forward to seeing what's going to happen out there thank you I appreciate it thank you and and yes principal ax and you have been a great part Charter partner and a few things that stood out to me was having all of your teachers in field that is such a blessing and a testament to what you're doing and and I'm also seeing from the photos that you have a much older student coming back to read at his favorite teachers class so obviously you have some teacher longevity we do we have it's so nice because you know the students in middle school and high school um you know early release days they like to come back and and see you know the teachers and to say hi and to let us know how they're doing so we actually had one yesterday um after school to stop by and wanted to see uh Mr Edgard so that that really that's part of big part of why we do what we do right exactly that's wonderful thank you for being a steady and consistent Charter partner thank you I appreciate it best of luck thank you Maran Charter up next is um Mr David freedlander with Macintosh area school thank you good morning sir good morning good morning good morning Dr gullet and school board members um it's a pleasure to be here this morning but I'd like to introduce um members of our team so to speak this is Mrs Colleen Beals who's our curriculum specialist and this is Mr Jonathan Ward who is our board member um representative today and also our our board Treasurer as a Florida school choice program I am proud to present the charter school annual update for the McIntosh area school we continue to focus on academic rigor Financial stability and growth and I must add also that we are celebrating our 20th year in operation as well as a result of our credible incredible staff and student academic performance last year turning our grade around two letter grades we won the State of Florida school recognition award and funding we are very proud of this and continued support performance of The Learning model we have implemented last year you have our reports so what I wanted to do today would just give specific progress by grade and subject um and to highlight a few key key areas the collaboration and departmentalized approach for student instruction is continuing to provide staff and teachers multiple opportunities to track students data provide interventions provide tailored instruction increase academic rigor and expand student engagement the students respond well to this approach student Benchmark data and goals are monitored daily and discussed weekly to allow teachers to make any necessary changes to their instructional strategies and content content based on the students needs along with family engagement and feedback this approach has increased student confidence combining academic challenges with fun incentives to encourage student learning and completion of Benchmark Mastery the students are actively engaged and work collaboratively in developing their learning goals they are motivated to meet their goals individually and as a team students in kindergarten through 2 grade based on the latest Star reading assessment depicts 47% of our students scoring in the 50th percentile or higher students are progressing in a positive trend with a high likelihood of meeting the projected goal of 50% of students in grades K through2 scoring in the 50th percentile ranking or higher currently students in kindergarten through second grade based on the latest Star math assessment have depicted 37% of students scoring in the 50th percentile or higher students in grades 3 through five are working towards their goals of achieving proficient scores in both reading and math according to the winter fast progress monitoring assessment students are demonstrating scale score growth and an increased likelihood that 33% or more will achieve a level three or higher 33% of students in grades four and five are projected to achieve learning gains in math and 67% are projected to achieve gains in Reading however these gains will not be contributing to the overall school grade C calculation for mass for Macintosh as a result of low class enrollment for these grades we anticipate maintaining a c for this Academic Year based on assessments thus far and school grade calculation guidelines that will omit learning gains in the overall scoring calculations due to the category minimum student count requirements therefore we anticipate being scored solely on student proficiency at a level three or higher for the 26 27 school year however our goal is to achieve an a grade our Macintosh VPK program which is in its inaugural year is doing quite well the academic program starts with learning the ABC letters both uppercase and lowercase along with their sounds students have mastered these skills and in January tested above the Marian County Benchmark using the star early literacy assessment they are now blending sounds to read three-letter words and using site words to help with fluency in January to may we are working on reading sentences using site words and words they can out they can sound out as well as beginning to learn long vowel sounds and word Endings by the end of the school year based on their current performance levels we project our VPK students who have mastered the necessary pre kindergarten skills and ready to enter kindergarten in August 2024 our Aftercare program continues to provide our Working Families with a safe and nurturing Afterschool option with USDA approved snacks and guided homework for time if needed this year in addition we partnered with Macintosh seedling and Garden Club who established a very successful gardening program for our students Club volunteers meet weekly with our students and staff to teach them how to properly maintain and cultivate our school garden while learning science through hands-on experience this program has been promoted throughout the entire Macintosh community and is thoroughly enjoyed by our students and their families we continue to operate our Runners Club program which meets weekly and our Afterschool Art Club which are both very popular activities for children in all grade levels academic performance student growth and parental engagement has directly contributed to our enrollment goals enrollment recommitment are above the two previous years with 90% of our k 4 population returning for the 2425 school year additionally our VPK program has been a feeder as hoped and 100% of the VPK kind kindergart eligible students have committed to our school for next year planning for the summer enrichment program offering enrichment activities geared towards topics not traditionally offered during the school year is underway last year's study of flight from animals through to Aviation was a great ESS that included classroom learning guest speakers field trips and even a US Air Force pilot leading the students in fundamental of flight and this year's program we expect will be equally exciting while rebuilding academics and enrollment progress continues on the financial front it has been a lean year and as discussed last fall we Consolidated classes and reduced staff expenses while still maintaining competitive salaries benefits expertise and learning standards we aggressively pursue Grant applications and reimbursement lowering cost and fundraising by the end of the fiscal year we will receive outstanding reimbursements for our Title One program uh approximately 17,000 Esser three will be ending this year totaling of approximately 101,000 unisc funds totaling approximately 21,000 and approximately 170,000 as well as the tax ERC reimbursement of approximately 40,000 we overhauled our website and social media while working with a marketing service to Pro proactively extend our reach throughout the broader community and increase access to detailed information about our school as a school of choice for area families in summary we remain 100% committed and invested into the future growth and success of Macintosh Area School Mas will continue to be a contributing asset and active participant within the Marian County School community and continue to provide a choice to families in the northern portion of Maran and the southern portion of Alachua counties we want to thank you for your time thank you Mr Freelander all right no comments at this time thank you and we'll go ahead and open it up to uh board discussion and comments who'd like to lead us off y board member James hi thank you for coming and sharing um pleasure sharing everything that's going on um I have a few questions similar to what I've asked others so um and it occurred to me as you were talking that I could just go back and look at the attendance report so that's what I did so that you guys won't have to pull numbers I'll just do that for you guys but you guys ended the school year last year with 44 students and started this school year with 44 students and currently have 34 students enrolled so you've lost 10 students this school year um and while the uh how many VPK students do you have enrolled currently four four so on 229 it was five and and now it's four and so those four students if they take the five spaces of the fifth graders you'll beat in a negative one position so you'll have 33 enrolled students if every single student at your school stays and those four VPK students so my concern continues to be the enrollment and while there is enough Revenue coming in right now from special Revenue sources those are those are done and we all are going to experience the implications of that and it looks looks a after and I I asked to meet with our finance department because it's not my area of expertise to understand balance sheets and all of that but my concern is that when in a year from now when the covid money and the ERC money is gone you will not be generating enough Revenue to cover the expenses attached to it um for the students that you have enrolled and so my greatest question is about the enrollment and what is the plan to increase the enrollment so that you all are in a position where you can sustain because obviously I understand you can get a private donation you can have those other things come in to continue to sustain the school financially but if that doesn't happen when when the covid money Runs Out in a year from now what is the plan we've we've started actually we started last year we've been working um in addition to fundraising first of all that's something we've increased and we have a very successful fundraiser with within the town um and that we built off of but um we also have begun working with our real local Realtors uh the demographics of the community have changed um over the last several years um and not for any reason of the school just that the the the job market and the housing market have all taken impact on on local on people moving in and out um which happens to be the trend up in that area um we do intend to we've reached out to our our Realtors we've worked with them trying to develop more Outreach um in sources from them as well as like I said before we've changed our marketing strategies we've actually worked with a increased our social media so that the Outreach for that is a greater distance um you know we are promoting within the churches the local areas we're working with the church communities our events are actually in their facilities in their programs so so we space it out so we try to get more awareness out there um collaborating with the town and with other communities to try to um become more aware or have communities more aware of who we are are we do believe that our preschool feeder program or VPK program this was the first year and it didn't get really started officially until later on so we are now on the E early learning coalition's website as a choice as a provider up in that area and there aren't that many so we are constantly we already have reg people intending to register for VPK for next year um we do intend to increase that number for VPK um and as I said 100% of the our our kinderg our VPK kids this year have registered for kindergarten for next year which is a start we actually have um people reg registering or looking to register for VPK but also as I said the the whole point of having a single school for VPK through grade five is is our intent to grow um we recognize the the challenges um we do have our projected enrollment even though we have 3 um two students committed now for next year so our goal is to we recognize 62 is a number that we have to shoot for for financial stability however we're looking at 50 right now and we should we are very optimistic that we will get those numbers so to thank you for sharing that and so um first my question is and as I met with Finance we had this discussion the projection has always the last year or two at least has been higher than what the actual enrollment was and so we as a school board wound up paying more um for more students than what showed up at the beginning of the year and we always settle that up by the end of the year however I would ask that your projection be more realistic when's when is the last time there were 50 students at MacIntosh area school two years ago two years ago yes at the start of the school year I believe so yes okay so what my request is a board member who because we are we are sending that FTE money as a as a frontload and the the last two years is my understanding is we have front-loaded money for students that haven't arrived for school and so then we're having to reconcile that and from a business perspective then you guys are getting way less money from us in the second half of the year um so that's my first request my second request is the I'm I love the prek program I'm a huge early educator um and I believe wholeheartedly in it in October when you guys came before us with regards to your audit I asked the question what is your break even for your prek program and I've never received that answer but I know that four students does not there is no way that four students covers um the costs and so do we know what that answer is I will get that for you okay because if it is not covering the cost and it is not a part of your Charter then where is the money coming from to cover the prek program it is coming from our after school program which is not part of the FTE dollars okay is the after school program included though on the financial report that is uploaded here um I have to get that I'm not certain about that I'll find that information for you because it's serving your K5 population in addition to potentially your VPK population so my my concern as a board member would be that there is money coming from your K5 Charter being used to support the prek program and as a board because I but I know that four students is not supporting there's not there's not enough Revenue coming in for that to cover the cost of your educator so I would like to understand as we go into next year because this year's annual report did not include prek um because this was for last year so as you prepare the annual report and look at your financials for this year and come before the board my request is going to be that it is very clear where the funding is coming from for prek and how that program is sustaining itself and then secondarily the K5 Charter because it is a tremendous feeder program and if you have a program with 20 prek students you would just be stockpiling your school full of kids and that would be tremendous for the community but that's not the State of Affairs right now and as a board member it's my job to make sure that the finances because that is what we do are up to Snuff and so that is my request that's fine thank you I do want to mention one other thing though um at the start with the enrollment we have had when we start our enrollment our year we are not we have our our initial enrollment and then when people start we've had people leave as I said the demographics have changed so families have left the area after school has started so the enrollment then changes and then when you do your FTE counts you're then dealing with those changes at that time so I mean it it is true um when we start our numbers we have our actual enrollment and for whatever reasons families do leave and the numbers the enrollment does change at that point you also have incoming kids um in between the FTE counts so you have children coming in children leaving and so that is a fluctuation that we are dealing with constantly up there yeah I mean I think that's something that we all experience um in parts of our community as Maring County as a whole they just keep coming um the Sunrise Elementary the number just keeps going up every single day it just is doesn't go in the other direction right and so we're experiencing the Pains of that from our seat here so I completely recognize all of that but if you ended in May 30th at 44 and you started August 15th which is like whatever four days after school started at 44 that was not 50 or whatever the number was that the projection was and so just my request is that it is is a more realistic number work on that thank you board member James um GL your con okay good morning good morning um my request is on the um the academic side and I just for ease of understanding and making some comparisons I would love in your next presentation if you would include also the district or District averages with your average in the previous presentation we had um they did have a slide that compared um where their students are with the regular district and that just makes us easiest for us to compare so I'd appreciate that addition we can certainly add that in thank you thank you Vice chair board member Cummings thank you uh no comment my board members have pretty much covered the concerns that I was seeing because I was concerned about the financials as well but Dr James did excellent job of looking at those thank you thank you board member Cummings board member Campbell sure thank you I think much of it has has already been covered the interesting position that a public school board is in when we're talking a public charter school while we have some control we really don't have any and and so what we can do is we can express our concerns and we certainly can come in and and offer additional resources whenever you're in academic trouble which you were and so I'm grateful and congratulations I guess that you are no longer an f and have moved those um 30 some odd students potentially not that number the third through fifth grade maybe 15 18 students that were tested last year that count towards your grade um up to that c so so that's that's positive for sure we do have the benefit of the historical attendance data so I I have gone back and seen 2021 it was 55 5 but basically 55 students 2022 is 53 students 2023 we're down to 47 and then today as Dr James has expressed we are at 34 students and one thing that has also changed in that time frame is we now have two administrators and only three instructional units so part of the and I understand we're also spending money on marketing and um Financial solvency is is a challenge and but again this school board doesn't have that much authority over that that that is ryant on your board and as a former nonprofit administrator I understand the importance of that board and actually they are the owners of this entity and you're not um so perhaps at some point it might even be beneficial for this board to actually meet with your board because they're the ones that actually are responsible and they're the ones that are signing all the information I know you have a board member here if he wants to stand up and share that'd be great um I I have significant concerns as has been shared from other board members about the financial sustainability of this school yeah we all are the same concern um but we are a professional board we have people from U many different styles of business and we are looking very closely at the financials and we're being very objective we're not being subjective about this so you can rest assured that we will not be going into a school year without knowing that we can come out of it at the other end things like that I would say though that we came here each year and we talk about um you know what we're doing what we're trying to do at the school and we always invite you guys to come up and see us and last year you said yeah we'll come up and see you we could maybe even use you as a seed organization so that we can do flexible things that bigger schools can't um we also raised issues about collecting meals we're the only school I believe that is forced to collect meals and because of our size is way more onerous on us than any other school so we asked all these issues last year and we were told oh yes we'll look into it this will happen as far as I know none of that happened so when Maran Charter School get up and talk about a three-legged stool of parents staff and students I was hoping there'd be a fourth leg which is the school board you know that what can you do for us how can you help us get the enrollment up how can you help us you know improve the financial stability how can you help us with transport how can you help us with meals these types of things I'm hoping that the school board is more supportive um than just asking questions of us because we're you know deep in the trenches managing these things and I believe that we're going to be as stable going forward and if not then you know we won't be going forward and and I thank you for that perspective sir thank you for sharing I'm sorry I didn't catch your name but Jonathan Jonathan Ward thank you so much um grateful for that perspective offered there for sure um the interesting again relationship between a public school board elected school board and a board of a charter school is that we work collaboratively but it is not the role of the school board to recruit for your school it is not the role of the school board to try to help you be financially solvent and I I understand that that the challenges with Transportation I know that's something we've talked about before the challenges with food service and and those kinds of things when we're talking 34 students it it becomes really challenging and difficult to continue to have these conversations on our side because as we'll hear from other Charter School partners that are here today and and I'm actually grateful that you're able to be in the room and and hear from some of this of the success stories that we have within the public school says and 20 years is is great that you all have been there for 20 years but looking over the past 3 to four years the solvency is really in question at this point and um I I just think we'll will continue to ask those questions until we see a change yeah and I understand your position and I'm not asking you to actually physically recruit or give us students but advice and guidance will be very gratefully accepted um you know so it's not just a one-way Street us telling you things that we could get some help and support from you guys as well wherever it's possible to do that would be wonderful thank you sir okay thank you and um I will just share that you know this board is is committed to seeing and and and wants to see any of our Charter School Partners succeed um and a 20-year Legacy is something to be proud of and is is commendable um right now when it comes to advertising and so on you're kind of in that niche market of of micr school at at this point so I don't know if using that term will will help you um there's certainly movement in that direction you know Across the Nation there are parents that are craving you know that very small uh very supportive environment so it is certainly uh my uh hope and that as a as a school board I'm confident through Mr aers and and the academic team you know that we're going to continue to provide uh the encouragement and support that um we are legally required to do and then also just in the spiritual sense you you know 20 years is a long partnership why would we want to see you fail we we don't we want to see you continue to claw your way up and and get there so thank you very much for coming before us today um we're looking forward to the the news of next time and um I appreciate your presentation always is there any other questions from the board we're good okay I would like to just clarify one point and I don't want to Bel her um a statement was made just a second ago about our instructional units our administrative units I want to say that both Mrs Beals is actually as one of our teachers in the classroom um teaching one of this core subject two of the core subject areas so she teaches that to the k25 population so her job as partial administrative is not is not over usurped by her instructional role due to the fact that we know our cost limitations we know are Financial so it's tied in we have connected the pieces to make sure that we're trying to do all that we can reduce our expenses reduce our costs in light of the fact of the low enrollment lower enrollment but also make sure we're maximizing all our staff um I'm in the classrooms as well so as far as instructional staff um that is something that that counts in those numbers that we gave you um as far as instruction and administration so we serve multiple hats and and the other thing I just want to mention too is that being up in Maran County and Mac TSH we're right on that border that cusp um if as we invited everybody up to see I know Dr James has been up I know Miss Campbell's been up so I mean I remember coming up and we've you've seen the school you've seen the facility it's it's an awesome facility it's an awesome school um we're trying to do you know more and more each year with that and it doesn't matter and whether we have 35 students or 55 or 65 we want to provide the best quality academics and social experiences up there and it doesn't preclude working with our we know we need to work within the communities with the communities and make sure the people up there know that they have a educational representative an educational school up there um as a choice for for families that want that choice so I want to thank you for your time and your Indulgence and your support as well thank Youk you have a great rest of your day is there any public comment on our first two uh Charter School uh presentations that was Marian Charter and now Macintosh I was going to do them all at the end but I'm thinking that's a lot of schools thank you Maran Charter um just a point of clarification um with um Macintosh area school the VPK program is not part of their Charter right so when you see the enrollments the VPK students aren't included in that and they do not get FD on that so I just wanted to clarify that and I understand that all right next up is Miss Vanessa Baxley with Ina aen Academy thank you good morning Miss Baxley good morning good morning everyone thank you so much um I have the great honor of representing Ina Aon Academy as their principal and uh thank you so much for having us as you know we are still a new charter school so we started year two and I'm excited to share a little bit about where we are at this point our vision is to educate the hearts and minds of students and families in an environment where everyone belongs works together and thrives and I need to say a big thank you to all of you and to everyone with Maring County Public Schools who has helped us every step along the way Mr SS um I I'm a frequent phone call to his office and he has been so gracious and kind with my numerous questions I want to thank our school board who has just um stood alongside of us and helped so much throughout this year um through the beginning and being so supportive as well as our fellow principles so I I am so grateful that um I have been met with a great amount of support I have to also give a shout out to your assessment team they have been phenomenal and so so helpful and I have just appreciated all that they have done to help our school in our year one and year two our mission is to cultivate passionate Learners in an exclusive School community in which individual individuality and diversity are valued and students develop understanding and empathy for others through collaboration and active learning as you can see year one we started with 214 students K through six our sixth graders we had two classes 44 total students they really kind of felt like fifth grade 2.0 um they were on the lower level we have um you know a two-story school and this year we doubled in size with 436 students through seventh grade and the middle schoolers truly feel like middle schoolers as we grew in that area from 44 students to 132 middle schoolers so the look of our population and the dynamic of our campus is definitely different than our 214 that we had last year um we're pleased to say we have we run a seven period schedule and a full middle school program and as you can see our projections for next year are to add 110 students for 546 students starting year three our MTO is sharp Minds kind hearts and we really want that represented in everything we do in the classroom and out of the classroom um our core values are inclusiveness family involvement constructivist approach and social social responsibility last year um we had you know the Great um pleasure of being in a school and so now that bar has been set High to maintain that and the way that we are doing that and addressing student needs at every level is through our mtss process um one to1 device started in first grade our ESC support facilitation small group facilitation curriculum support and interventions and our after school tutoring with our teachers as well as our volunteers so we have a two-day a week um tutoring program which is managed by our teachers within their classroom uh during their hours and they select the students whether it be interventions or enrichment that they meet with um on a regular basis so two times a week some teachers decide to to focus specifically on interventions some teachers do um an enrichment group one day and interventions on another day and we have seen great success um the teachers I think are really invested in helping those students growth and meeting them where they are and this is giving them some extra support we also have a wonderful group of volunteers uh we've had a lot of consistency with our volunteers which just really adds to our school population our students get to know them they have great buyin in our school and they're very invested so we are very very fortunate um for that um again at earning an a last year we we are so grateful our teachers and our students worked very very hard and maintaining that this is a look at where we are this year with pm1 and pm2 and we're very pleased with our scores and our results and the growth that we've seen from pm1 to pm2 adding that middle school we were able to add that advanced math class with pre-algebra and our students have been performing um very very well so we're very pleased at those test scores our Middle School growth as I mentioned 44 to 132 students which has definitely created a new environment so being a new school in year two we are still creating our culture um focused on our mission focused on our vision um following our um Charter School seal and Project based learning we are creating our culture amongst our staff our teachers our students and our families um as I mentioned we created that seven period schedule and we're continuing the conversation as we grow to 8th grade on what some of the electives and enrichment areas will look like as they grow getting parent and student input we are creating developmental opportunities for students in and outside of the classroom we've grown with our extracurricular programs because we truly believe in developing the whole child and out of classroom learning um opportunities we developed this year a career research course and an event where a number of community members came in and spent numerous hours over week meeting with lots of our middle school students but as well as our elementary students to talk about careers and skills and developing those skills and finding something that you love we also have a student ambassador program with our um our highest level of students right now our seventh graders who will move to e8th grade and being on a campus that's k through eight I think that that's one of the most beautiful opportunities is the old older students are really serving as role models and so we encourage them to be role models and our younger students definitely look up to them for guidance we do maintain our after school program with about a hundred students in attendance and this year we started serving lunch on campus um last year it was um through a a provider bringing in lunch but this year we have our own lunch program on campus so that has definitely been an area of growth I think I missed one slide um that mentions uh our programs that we added to campus there we go um this year year one we had parent involvement but we did not have a formal parent organization this year it's parents in Parliament and Parliament is a group of owls so um I just always like to explain that because some some people kind of say what does that mean part why why is it called that uh our Student Life areas that we have increased this year again the student ambassadors and our safety patrol and we added a lot of different after school activities and opportunities and those were all teacher-led so teachers stepped up and said they wanted to coordinate after school programs that include for robotics we have a show choir and a COR A Chorus which perform at various locations in town and we increased Athletics last year we had basketball and this year we had flag football and cheerleading and we looked to add a few more Sports hopefully as we move forward again as a new school um a newer School We are continuing to assess the needs of our student population and meet them where they are and um shift and pivot as we need to I have to say we have an incredible team of Staff members and teachers with a can do attitude so as we grew this year and our we look our school environment looked a little bit different they have all been willing to assess what we need to do to make sure our students are getting everything that they need we are proud to say that all but one student um in our re-enrollment process is returning for next year and we have selected through our Lottery process and for next year after I are 546 students we have a waiting list of 645 students are there any questions Ard remember camel sure I and I am going to send you an email shortly after this to get a tour out there scheduled again because I came to I haven't been there since we've grown to this point so I'm looking forward to coming out please visit at any time I will say giving a campus tour is probably one of my Favorite Things um I love for you to see our students in action and our open concept learning they've really embraced that this year kind of being outside of the classroom so please all of you come visit wonderful um so I absolutely will be doing that in the next couple of months but uh I guess I just wanted to make a comment thank you for having a show choir that's huge passion for me that I really wish more of our schools in the county would actually adopt uh but my other actually kind of a question is since you do have these athletic programs that you're offering with your students I don't know and this probably is a question for our team more than even you but if there's even an opportunity our public middle schools are doing intramural flag football and intramural basketball as well I don't personally see a challenge with you being incorporated into that schedule perhaps you are playing against the private school basketball programs but if I mean you are a public school so if you wanted to be incorporated into those schedules I think that would be something Dr liven good might be able to talk to you about if that was something that you had an interest in well thank you absolutely and that is something that we have discussed last year with fifth and sixth graders it really was not an opportunity and we did have um we were we were welcomed into the parochial and private schools we really felt like having sixth graders having an out ofthe classroom experience and opportunity was very very important so everybody pitched in and we built the program for our fifth and sixth graders as we move to eighth grade we are hoping that we can um become a part of the work working with the public schools and competing in those athletic Arenas as well thank you thank you go ahead Dr James um thank you for sharing and I appreciate you being here I know I want to acknowledge that this year has been a lot for you to take on as a leader and there's been a lot of shifts and you've had to step into this role and so um I called Mr SS when I had heard of a transition in leadership and just wanted to make sure that like you were going to be set up for Success um because it's taking on a lot and um I just wanted to say thank you for stepping into that role and and really taking it all on because you've really had to um as especially with doubling in size and essentially adding so much so many more students next year it's just a significant load for you um as a leader to step into so I wanted to recognize that you had to make that shift um and that is valuable so I wanted to make that acknowledgement you touched a lot on your numbers but you you guys clearly have a desire for families to come join you which is wonderful and I think that the the important thing to note is that while there was a perception that potentially your school would be um only this these type of students who are like a private school student or a um a super a fluent student that is not the case it's a lottery and so you represent All Families as um who can get their child to your school and so the type of student who is attending your school is not the perfect cookie cutter child it's a child that comes from a varying backgrounds with varying needs you have students with ESC needs you have students with um gifted needs on every end of the spectrum and so as you continue to grow the hardest thing will be to continue to meet the needs of the ESC students and I know that's something that's a growing pain for sure um that I have heard is that just continuing to make sure that you have the resources on your site to meet the uh needs of the students and as kindergarteners come in if they haven't been identified previously as Educators we all know it could take a couple of years to really determine what the needs of that student are and so as that shift continues to happen um just making sure that we're finding the right Educators to support those students unique learning needs but I think what you guys are doing out there is great um and I'm grateful that you're providing a resource to be honest I don't know where we would put 430 students so I'm super grateful that you guys um are in a place that is needing a need that we have in we we talked I don't know the days run together I think two days ago we talked about the fact that we're going to open two schools and they're probably already going to be full and they're going to serve a a community is close to you and so I just am grateful that you are there to close the gap and meet the need for families thank you okay sure good morning good morning how are you I'm great thank you good um I just wanted to share a couple things I was really excited to see in your presentation um that 4 is offered to all your students and I have had the pleasure of seeing your show choir I encouraged that team to reach out to our team cuz I would love for them to come and do a song or something for us because their patriotic program was phenomenal so thank you for the work um and the opportunities that you give to our students and I also loved on slide nine um that the conversation and the things that you're doing really align with what we're doing in in Marian County Schools all the opportunities um that are available outside of academics for them for your students so that's really really exciting I always enjoy being on your campus um I will say that your staff is just lovely um it's always welcome they're always very welcoming um there's always things going on and kids are out and about doing activities so it's always a pleasure to visit um I did have one question um I don't know if you can answer at this time but are there talks still of moving forward with a high school or where do you stand in preparation for that our Charter is for a k through eight so at this point we will max out at our grade level next year with 8th grade and um I am I'm not aware of any conversations at this point for a high school Charter okay thank you for that clarification that must be just Rumblings within the community so thank you for claring clarifying that for me that's all I have thank you thank you Vice chair Conrad uh board member Cummings I'm good thank you thank you board member Cummings and and yes principal Baxley I just wanted to extend my gratitude and appreciation for the vibrant school that is is growing and uh we really appreciate the the partnership um it's very clear in our community that we have plenty of students to go around and so to have high performing Charters uh partnered with us um in our Public Schools is is just wonderful so thank you for everything you do I look forward to getting out there soon too okay please come visit and again thank you all for all of your support and our staff and teachers and parents it truly is um a team working to make this successful and I'm grateful for all of the support thank you wonderful thank you and is there any public comment on AA colen okay hearing none we shall move on thank you Ina colon Academy um just a point of clarification too on Ina colon Academy's enrollment they have a unique Charter situation where the developer of the CLA Community built the School so therefore by State Statute they're able to reserve 50% of the seats at their school for community members and so they they run a lottery for that and then it's opened up Statewide virtually for everybody else and so I just wanted to to answer that question like that all right just a point of clarification for me so the the lottery is for Community for the neighborhood kids the clesa kids and but also for incoming kids correct and so they'd run an initial Lottery which is just basically for those that are living in the community and then the remainder 50% of the seats is opened up no virtually Statewide for the want to confirm oh okay we have another question for you too and I'm not I don't know if if this is something you can answer but um as listening to the presentations this morning and the success of many of our Charter Schools um and a previous conversation talking about struggling with enrollment do our charter schools get to together do they collaborate um and what they're doing to recruit I just I think it's I I encourage that and I have and especially with Miss Baxley when she first started you know getting them with the other Charter principles they do that but that's independent on their own okay so I you know encourage it and I always let it know but it's thank you I just I was sadden that McIntosh arean School wasn't able to stay um to hear the successes and maybe learn from and share in what's going on at other charter schools so that's for I was thinking so thank you yes yes that crossed my mind too actually and um so hopefully they're listening on the drive back up to Macintosh because I know they're wearing several hats as well but I love the idea of a charter school cohort and you know being able to share best practices and all that so there you go thank you all right last but not least I'd like to introduce Miss TC Matthews she's the executive um director and she will introduce local charter middle and ocal Charter High good morning good morning morning good to see you good to see you too chairman th rower uh Vice chair Campbell board members Mr Powers Miss Martinez and Dr Talbert Irving nice to see you thank you so much for having us here today very quickly um Miss Conrad as you know the principles of all of our charter schools wear so many hats that the actual Act of getting together is challenging however we have plenty of phone calls okay that's good to know that's good so we do have an open line of communication with each other so just to answer that question thank you for sharing that when you're the last to present very often people have said a lot of what you were planning to say but I'd like to reiterate over the nine years that I've been doing this I know for sure it takes three really key critical pieces in order to be a successful Charter School specifically we're looking at our students behavior first and foremost we have to ensure that our students are safe that there is a consistent Behavior plan and that behavior is what it needs to be number two is getting great teachers and Miss baxy at uh AA has done an exceptional job of that we feel we've done an exceptional job of that and you also heard the longevity that axen Miss axen has at her school we want the best of the best which I know you guys want too but we do know that uh getting those great teachers in there really makes a huge difference specifically when you're looking at a small school environment and then last but not least we know that building that culture of our schools is is so key critical and that includes our parental engagement um our relationships with our parents and families and how they feel when they come into our schools so today I'm going to do it a little different in the past I've always presented this information to all of you but I think it's time to bring our principles up here and let them talk about what they're doing and how they're doing it um specifically when we look at the middle school um Mr post came to us I think it's been seven years ago is that right it's been seven years since he joined us and one of the greatest things that he brought to the table although he brought many the one that sticks out in my mind is that very first thing that I shared with you that needed to be there in order to be a successful charter school he brought a consistent thorough and deliberate behavioral program that really turned our school around and if you guys remember back in the day it really made a serious flip and that is to the credit of Elias's post so today I'm going to ask him to just share with you some of the data and trends that we're seeing here at oali Charter Middle School we are not going to read our report to you because you have it if you have any questions afterwards I'll be happy to answer them thank you Miss Matthews Mr post good morning oh let me morning yeah MERS taller yeah a little bit uh me good morning members of the uh Maring County Board uh chair thrower and Deputy superintendent Talbert iring uh and of course all guests here today I'm going to go over generally what uh our three main goals were this year uh what we've done to achieve those goals and then some data to uh see what our progress has been so our first goal for the year was to increase our all grade levels and all subject areas to increase proficiency by 10% during each fast uh progress monitoring in language arts and math so we wanted to do that from pm1 to pm2 and then of course pm2 to pm3 which of course we don't have that pm3 data yet but hopefully it'll go in the right direction um so our steps to closing the achievement gaps um we are continue developing things that we changed last year uh to provide varied methods of instruction uh initially when I arrived at aali Chara our fundamental math known as intensive math was purely a lab where students worked on a math program for 45 minutes to 50 minutes and what we noticed was that eventually you know after 10 minutes there was a dis students were not engaged and we needed to make a change so we started this year actually last year we started with a fundamental math program that works on rotations that does work on I where they're learning the basic math skills but also gives them handson experiences Hands-On projects things where they can yes they learn about the standard and how it looks on paper but how does it look like in real life for example uh I think it was about six weeks ago students were working on a food truck doing pricing doing averaging measuring applicable skills real life skills uh another part of fundamental math is a rotation that is almost like a basic tutoring session for those tier 2 and tier three students uh five years ago our intensive math program only included level one and level two students but we noticed that postco that even with our Advanced students students that are taking algebra and geometry they are math gaps they are struggling uh with basic math concepts so we actually enroll all of us students in fundamental math and we basically tear the instruction by Group by what they need uh and the way that works is our algebra and Ma our regular math teacher and algebra geometry teachers they collaborate with the fundamental math teacher to see what skills need reinforcing because we all know that the uh the standards for math it's an ongoing list and it's very difficult sometimes for the teachers to go back while he's able to go back and through collaboration to say okay we need to focus on these basic standards to try to reinforce that whether it's for the student that's a level one or a level four five algebra one honors and geometry student so hitting it from both ends okay uh okay we track our bubble kids uh if for those that uh don't know what a bubble kit is a bubble kit is a child that can almost demonstrate proficiency it's right on the border of being a high two or let's say a low three uh of course we don't want any of our students that are at a level three to you know drop down to two so we track them we look at their pm1 and pm2 data we look at what strands uh they're struggling in and then try to tailor what instruction they need so that they don't fall into the two and perhaps Excel further up to a higher three or even a four or five five and and the same goes for of course for our level two students students that have level two because we want them to be proficient that's one of our main goals is to raise proficiency so uh in order for that to happen we need those twos to be bumped up and the last thing and I know that you know we can we could spend a lot of money on different programs and different curriculum but one of the things that we noticed was motivation is probably I I can't put a percentage on it but it's huge if we can't motivate our students to want to take the assessments or to want to do the work then it doesn't matter what program we have and so we have tried to incentivize everything uh from actual grades in you know in the classroom AB Honor Roll a honor roll to uh showing growth from pm1 to pm2 and I'll discuss what those in incentives look like a little bit later so what's the progress uh well if you look at Ela 6 7th and e8th from pm1 to pm2 uh we actually met our goal in all areas I accept a one I'm one percentage short of in sixth grade ELA but I'm confident that we can make that up during pm3 because we're seeing that growth and uh it's great to see that yes we've gained more in proficiency but what this data does not not show which I probably should have included a slide is that our level ones a majority of level ones have moved up to level two so there's growth and we are at this year since growth the state will be looking at growth uh I'm I'm hoping that happens for pm3 as well that would be nice uh and yeah so that's uh you know those are the things that uh we we focus on our second goal was to decrease the population that have a 10% or more uh absentee rate when we looked at the data those students are not proficient those students are that are excessively absent are not there for instruction if you're not there for instruction it's just common sense you're not going to produce well and I would also say that those students are our least motivated students so a couple of things that we're doing uh during parent engagement events we're really emphasizing the attendance the importance of instructional time uh aside from that the beauty of having around 200 students 190 to 200 students is that we're small enough that I can have impromptu conferences with those students on the fly if I see them coming to front off office I ask come on you know you have a minute and we could have those discussions because a lot of parents are not looking in Skyward to see to see that their attendance their child's attendance has affected their academic grades and uh it also allows me to build those relationships and we're seeing a more positive trend in attendance uh with regards to those that are accessibly absent uh we also have Wednesday makeup sessions because every Wednesday is an early release day for us uh we have used Wednesdays on on two two folds one is you know yes we're going to have students that are absent once or twice they come in they they want the makeup sessions right they they they they don't want their grades to drop they they want to learn the material but then we also have students that for one reason or another are not in school enough and once we uh have conferences with the parents uh they agree that their children stay after school to attend these makeup sessions well that now has become a deterrent for some of those folks because they want to go home and they will not go home they will stay after school for another two and a half hours to try and uh learn the standards and complete the work that they are missing from excessive absenteeism okay and of course we have our child study team meetings uh where uh representative from the county comes and we meet with a parent to discuss you know what is what is holding uh the parent up from getting their child to school so what's the progress on that uh currently 15% of our students have exceeded 10 10% of or more absenteeism uh that's down 12% from the previous school year and hopefully that number does not go up but that is still an improvement from what it was our third goal which almost relates to to attendance as well because if you if if we have a behavior issue and students are getting suspended again they're going to miss instruction they're not going to be motivated they're going to have learning gaps so one of the things that we do is we consistently reinforce the schoolwide expectations which is sore to be safe organized attentive and respectful in all areas uh we do this especially after we come back from break because middle schoolers have amnesia and they forget what the basic uh rules and expectation are and we have frequent celebrations for students that demonstrate appropriate behavior again trying to incentivize uh as many uh positive things that are going on on on our campus as possible okay uh and what is our progress 16% of our students have been suspended for one or more days and that's down from 11% from last year we're trying to get more creative with consequences that don't necessarily remove move the students uh out of the school because that's that hurts that hurts us that hurts them it's a it's a lose lose okay uh we want to motivate students to want to earn we are we there's nothing that we give away for free our middle schoolers have to earn everything at our school um and you know we have something that we call platinum gold silver cards for demonstrating uh proficiency on the fast or demonstrating growth on The Fast and you know sometimes you don't realize that you have a carrot in your hand until you try it and it has been a huge hit uh because we're uniform School uh which works out very well for for many reasons one of the incentives is that they can wear their regular clothes when they earn a certain card for example straight A honor rooll students can use that card on Fridays and wear regular still appropriate clothing but they don't have to wear the uniform well that has been a great magnet uh that has motivated students to try a little bit harder on their fast assessment and not just dismiss it as another test so that is a win uh We've grown our honors program uh last year we only had three students that qualified for geometry because the previous year they were seventh graders they took algebra one well this year we have 11 students that are in seventh grade algebra honors and they will be going on to Geometry again trying to make it prestigious for those students and worthwhile to put in the work uh you know we we do all sorts of things one of the things we did in uh during semester one was uh I cooked the students that were consistently on a AB Honor Roll a pancake breakfast and it's it's the little things that you're able to pull off in a small school to create that culture you know is post making breakfast December whatever I know 17th and uh it's something that they look forward to so and one thing I want to mention is next year to even motivate students further we are going to have multiple clubs offered uh that will be meeting once a month on Wednesdays uh again trying to curb attendance trying to curb discipline and trying to encourage a stronger academic uh effort willingness to work motivation that is all thank you Sarah no comments at this time okay all right we'll open it up to the board yeah go ahead by your comments just I uh I just have a couple things um I want to celebrate with you um you made the statement that your students move from level one up to level two and that's really easy to say in one statement but that's a lot lot of work um by your team and I just want to know that want you to know that I'm celebrating with you because that's a challenging task um and it really is quite an accomplishment so just kudos to you and your team um that is exciting news um the other thing I just wanted to acknowledge is you talked about math gaps and to much of the community covid is over but for Education it's not and it's a real challenge that we all face and it does rear its head particularly in math and so I'm just excited that you all have identified that and you have specific strategies you're working on you know so you can identify students and what they're missing because it is a real challenge real challenge so thank you for your work in that area and then I did have a question um with your suspensions down 11% and I know you said you're really focusing on the positive are there any other changes that you've made that you think have positively impacted that number uh yes uh we started because initially and we try to not you know have teachers write a SLO referrals we have a step in between uh they're actually on orange sheets that uh especially if it's minor minor items that don't necessarily you know warrant a full referral uh Wars maybe counseling and a conversation with myself or my student services manager so we incorporated that uh and really trying to push uh good decision- making you know uh I had a student that you know hurt her ankle uh and I had another student volunteer and and that student actually has the potential to be a you know a discipline issue and volunteer to move that Student's Book Bag around all day I took I that's when you have to take that opportunity to reward the student for the positive choice for the you know you're you're being a good human being by helping this other student and it you have to look for opportunities to reward all children whether you know they're struggling behaviorally or academically uh because they have you know I I I I would say that winning breeds winning and if students were to get more wins they're going to motivate they're going to be motivated to try harder but if everything is always a knock then you're going to stay you know where we don't want you to stay so again we want our students to sort in all those areas so uh incentives I incentives and motivation that's our approach okay thank you my last comment is just that it is interesting that students will do so many things to get out of their uniform isn't it it's a great reward to have that to use because it really is a treat when they get to to be out of uniform so what a great um thank you for the work that you're doing and um all that you're providing for our students and thank you for the presentation thank you Vice chair Conrad board member Campbell she took the words right out of my mouth on the no uniform thing it it what a great incentive I I just love I'm gonna say your little school I know that I I continue to I'm just I just love your little school um I I love I love that you've put all of your students in fundamental math that is such a smart way to ensure those students who are going into those advanced classes I mean within the district we've also seen just because you're pushing them onto algebra doesn't mean that they've gotten all those seventh grade math skills and there are meth there are gaps that are students through the years have have had in math and so you have identified that and are fixing it and so that is I'm just grateful for that work that you're doing um continued success that you all have I are we looking at a significant weit list for oal Charter Middle right now and I know you had it in your application about you've outgrown your space you're potentially wanting to do something else but do you have real concrete plans on what that might look like well you speak to the weight list I can speak to the weight list so this year's weight list was over 170 uh currently I do not what know what the weight list is for 7th and eth but I know for incoming six our weight list is 30 so far so we're looking good at I'm I'm going to be at capacity with regards to expanding I am not at Liberty to share that information with you at this time however things are in progress okay that's that's actually really great news and exciting news so and for your knowledge just um because I think it's important to note we went many years where we didn't have a weight list um we would literally take every application that we got right and it wasn't until about what 3 years ago when our weight list started going you know we used to joke that oali Charter Middle was the best kept secret in Maran County and I think that secret is now out and I think that's shown and illustrated by the weit list that we have so absolutely well thank you for that and I think that we as a board also identified especially after 2020 that our Middle School families were looking for smaller options uh we could have had a small Middle School option ourselves and could have had a virtual Middle School um that unfortunately we were unable to do uh according to the doe but I I understand why there is a weight list there now and obviously with Ana aen also you'll be our two charter middle schools of sorts uh options for families and with these exceeding weight lists for both of you uh it just continues to leave in my mind that families are looking for smaller options for middle school and I think the district can be looking for opportunities in that area as well so thank you Mr Posh and and um post I called you Posh sorry Mr post and um did I pronounce it wrong still post like post off it's post right I'm like post it note okay but yes yes Mr post I I knew it I said it wrong I saw it um Mr post and U Miss Matthews I just I love your little school thank you thank you thank you B Campbell board member James thank you I um I love the way that you lead I think that it is similar to how I like to lead which is just kids are literally capable of anything you just have to set the expectation and you have made a place where people want to come work and where students want to come learn and so I grateful for that because I think that middle school is the most treacherous place for any any human really um it is really hard and it's hard for our students it's hard for our Educators because the needs of middle schoolers is just so varying and so when you find someone who loves Middle School they are someone you have to cherish because there is something unique about that individual and so what you are doing there and Catering to those students and their unique needs is very valuable I was in a meeting on Tuesday talking about this topic not you specifically and it was said that Charters are supposed to be unique or provide something different than what we provide that is the premise of the charter and the question was asked well do they provide something unique and I said well I've been a variety of times and what I can tell you when I walk the campus is yes they are providing a unique approach to delivering instruction it looks different it feels different it does not feel like a traditional Middle School that you would see at Fort King or uh Liberty it feels different and the different is not bad um it's just different and it's meeting the need for all of the families that you're serving so I think that very valuable um I know that you're at 187 as of yesterday and you started the year at 200 but 200's also really tight for you guys on your campus and so I know that like closer to 190 is a more appropriate number but similar to what Dr Campbell has said I would support you all finding a space that not only serves your students better because we've talked about the challenges that come with being uh in your current location and you know the students having to transition outside of the front of the school to kind of do their circular pattern and um being in the plaza and and when exceptional mornings breakfast was there that was a whole another ball of wax right and so um I would fully support you guys continuing to find a space that would not only allow you to serve more students because I do believe that you are meeting a need in our community but also be a place that is going to be most appropriate for the student students to potentially then engage in extracurricular activities on site um and be able to have a flag football program or a inter mural basketball program or whatever that could look like so um your students deserve those opportunities the same and I know that you guys are working on trying to make that happen as you grow um my final point is what I believe your enrollment numbers demonstrate is that you can be falling short and the wheels can be falling off the bus and then in a change of leadership and in a change of focus enrollment can change and that is a model of success that could be emulated by other charters in Maring County public schools that changing your focus and changing the way you're delivering your instruction or meeting the needs of your families and students can improve your enrollment to a place where you now have more students than you don't you don't even know what to do with and you wish you could serve them all um Miss Matthews and I had conversation last summer about a family like people are dying to get into the school and so I want to get to a place where the cup is runneth over with for you all and you have more than enough seats and we have more than enough seats and we are all serving all of the families because there are more than enough kids to go around we are growing so fast and so you're doing a great job meeting that need and demonstrating positive leadership so I appreciate that board member James board member Cummings uh very good presentation um I I I thank them I love the things that are going on there um I'm encouraging it's encouraging to see that um they uh they have some Innovative and ways of trying to get people there and to motivate these kids so great presentation and look forward to seeing what that's going to happen after that thank you thank you board member Cummings and yes I just want to again express my gratitude um it's been wonderful to watch this school grow and and prosper and and now flourish um it's commendable and a tribute to leadership and and the teachers and the pars and the staff that work so well together that I have personally witnessed it's and you know just the individualized incentives you know kids are different you know every kid is different every adult is different and giving yourselves the freedom to find those motivators um that click with each and every kid is the name of the game in in my opinion and it it's what works clearly and I think I just had to point out you know with pm1 with math and the growth um to pm2 is just absolutely amazing and it just goes to show you you know that what you're doing is is working um extremely well so thank you for everything I did have a quick question about um cell phones and how you're managing that in your space so uh cell phones we have a an expectational rule that cell phones have to be off and in book bags uh we do have a policy where we have you know strike one strike two and strike three depending on how many times you've gotten your phone confiscated but generally we don't have a problem uh with that we have once in a while maybe once a week a student that had their phone out so we do confiscate it uh first time they get it back second time parent has to pick it up third time comes with a consequence that being said because we know that cell phones are popular and it is basically a computer in your pocket we've also incentivized uh cell phone use as a privilege as part of the card holders so that way if they're working for it uh during lunch for instance they can be on their phones but no social media and we do oversee that because we do have monitors walking around the cafeteria so they don't need to be secretive and have their phone you know under the desk they can during lunch you know play video games or whatever it is that they they do so again uh we want to keep things tight but within reason and offer opportunities uh for students to earn that privilege absolutely and and use the privilege wisely and appropriately um that is another magical thing about the smaller numbers um when it comes to supervision thank you for sharing that um I've heard from different schools across the district what they're doing to try to Wrangle you know this issue because there's no data that I've seen that unrestricted use to a smartphone for any kid is a good idea um you know when parents can't even control it or other adults so I appreciate you sharing that and that certainly could be a best practice for others in your cohort thank you thank you great presentation all right you're done is there any public comment on oali Charter Middle School hearing none we'll move on to oal Charter High School thank you um isn't he great and very quickly before I move to oali Charter High I think what you heard today is a very deliberate approach to educating middle schoolers and that's what I love um and then thank you for noticing that we try to create a place where people love to come to work because happy people are going to successfully educate our students so thank you so in my career I've done some really hard things and I have to tell you that opening a high school is among the hardest so today we get to talk a little bit about and we're going to share with you um what we've done with our high school but before I do that I'd like to illustrate some people that are on your staff that have made this possible for us and I would like to give kudos to Melinda ham at transportation she's amazing we're your only charter schools that run buses and she really works hard for us to help us and to ensure that we're doing it well and properly uh julianis and Ben White House you've already heard once the Kudos about the assessment team over there we feel the exact same way they are wonderful they include us they ensure that we look at our data from a perspective of being a very small school cuz you have to look at it very differently with 200 Kids versus 1500 kids um of course jaia Snowden who is uh works with Steph SS she is fabulous and just keeps our um our grant submissions going our reimbursements um she works at making sure we have toilet paper when we order our toilet paper and things of that nature it's very important thing to have uh Linda Stark with finance and the entire Finance team um we're very blessed to have the opportunity to work with that team and their leadership over there is wonderful um and Linda Stark specifically steps up in a way that allows us to be the most effective we can possibly be as we plan our future financially uh Stuart Barber over at the warehouse he's just phenomenal and really um is is uh part of our team as much as he is part of your team Gerald Glenn at food services I don't know what we would do without food services um our Middle School gets food delivered our high school has to go and pick it up um and then lastly and I don't usually give him Kudos but today I feel like I need to U Mr stevenh SS he is genuinely a um illustration of someone who represents your organization at the highest possible level and I feel truly and this is my word blessed to know that I have his support as we journey through making Charter Schools work so I'm very grateful to Mr SS I think all of these people really illustrate a culture that you as a board are trying to develop and maintain for your district and that is part of what I do as well as our Administration do for the ocali team um and so today Miss um Brown who is our principal of the C Charter High School is really going to focus in on that because that is one of our three main things that we look at when we're developing a really successful Charter School creating a positive School culture and including and ensuring that parents no matter the grade level are part of that process Mrs Brown Thank you Good morning Deputy superintendent Dr Talbert Irving board chair Mrs thrower board Vice chair Mrs Conrad Dr Campbell Mrs James and Mr Cummings thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to share with you our exciting new and only Charter High School in Maran County this time last year I was privileged to be on the middle school campus um and working directly with these team members that you have already heard from today planning oali Charter High School and as we began that planning and knew that we would be opening this year there were many many facets of high school that we were focusing on and working on diligently that brought us to our August 10th opening date for our students our current okali Charter High School students each day as you step onto the okali Charter High School campus um on West Anthony Road we're right next door to forom um we focus on the ability to soar and for the high school both schools um focus on that particular acronym but for the high school um it stands for Success opportunities achievement and Readiness and that is what we maintain in all of our focus with our students as well as all of our decision making on what we bring to the table as far as our school experience for our Eagles and so as we began to look at our journey these were the ideas that we had that were culminating in August last year that have now been brought to the table um for our opening of our school this year first of all as you're opening a school you don't have a mission statement or a vision statement so I'm happy to share that with you in just a few moments we obviously were laser focused on our academic path to success we have four years with these students to get them ready to move to their post-secondary steps and we take that very seriously also so for our staff we wanted to make sure that we were focused on teacher growth and development our staff this year are 11 members of our five instructional staff we are from one continu end of the Continuum to the other beginning teachers all the way up to teachers with 35 years experience so we wanted to make sure that that growth and development process truly addressed the needs of all levels of Educators and where they are in their career we were also focused on our one career in technical education program our online business incubator utilizing the Nifty software program as our curriculum and working directly with them to ensure that we had that program ready to launch day one school cultur is Mrs Matthews has already mentioned was a laser focus also because as you open the doors to a brand new school and a brand new building with brand new students every student is new every teacher is new to that experience and we have the unique opportunity to build that culture from the ground up so we really focused on what we wanted that foundational culture to be that would still allow growth within those confins year after year after year obviously developing tomorrow's leaders we look at every single different po postsecondary uh path that our students can take and we try to provide opportunities to them so that they will know what they want to do when they graduate from high school and they are prepared and ready to take that next step and then of course Community involvement is extremely important at the high school level um we are very very lucky to have two very active business partners already this year I'll share more about that in just a few moments our demographics at the time of the slide were 75 students you see that we have ninth and 10th grade in the building this year we are excited over the next two years to roll in two more ninth grade classes which will bring us to our full 9th through 12th grade capacity you see that there is almost an automatic split between the two grade levels um our 10th grade is very diverse as to where they came from some did come from public schools a lot came from The Homeschool atmosphere seeking that social interaction um of Bri brick and mortar school we had several from virtual school and we actually had quite a few that came from out of state so our 10th grade um really reflects our diversity as far as where they were before us and you see that we have a very natural uh diverse student population with our ESC population being right at about 211% our elll population being at about 2% and our gifted population being of the uprint of two to 3% so our mission and vision that we teamed together with our first school advisory Council that met the first time before we even were in the building we met at the middle school campus in April of last year and we begin to build our mission and vision statement um the mission statement was mainly our stakeholders um ideas and the the vision statement is our three-word theme that the leadership team uh designs each year so our mission statement is building relationships and breaking down barriers to ensure all students are successful and then our three-word theme then this will change every single year for this year is every moment matters and every morning on the morning announcements the students hear me say that sometimes they mock me saying it because I say it every single morning morning but we do start their day off reminding them that every single minute of that day matters in their lives and that they matter to us as well so our academic pass for our inaugural year um we do subscribe to Project based learning as far is our teaching method and our an instructional path you will see that in all of our classes including our CTE class and all of our elective classes um project-based learning is a datadriven research based method of teaching that the teacher is facilitating learning there is an immense amount of collaboration within the the classroom normally culminating in some type of stepbystep project and the biggest piece of project-based learning um lends itself to that Community involvement when that particular presentation or analysis or whatever they've done for that culminating project to show that they have mastered that standard um is presented or are exhibited because it doesn't always have to be a presentation we bring in community stakeholders or leadership um from ocali Charter to actually give feedback about these are the things that are productive with how you are working through this concept these are the things I would still like to know more about and what else do you want to learn about this and that is how we achieve Mastery through project-based learning lots of communication lots of collaboration and lots of in-depth inquiry into things that students don't know about the teacher is not spoon feeding them they are leading that exploration they are the leader of that journey and so every single time that we open up a new concept we open up a new standard we begin a new adventure and Diving deep into that particular standard or concept and learning everything there is to learn about it you will notice this year we did offer honors levels classes for our n9th and 10th graders and all four of our academics it is Our intention for next year to offer AP I believe we are targeted for five to six AP courses including the AP Human Geography course which is the one that is mostly focused towards your 9th grade level so we're going to go ahead and start that riger as soon as they get to us from the Middle School level we it is Our intention to pursue dual enrollment we do have three or four students right now that are on level for dual enrollment and would definitely benefit from that experience right now we have a variety of almost 20 choices it depends on what grade level you're at with ninth grade um hope PE obviously is something that we encourage them to go ahead and take so their choices are a little more limited um still they have right at 20 choices as they move through other years our high schoolers have right at 32 choices of electives that are available in the in the building obviously it depends on how many students choose that elective as to what which ones actually make classes and so in our academic um path I want to also speak to several different ideas and also to our data you will notice in our packet that I've included our reading data our progress monitoring one to progress monitoring two um data is there and you will also um notice that I've broken it down according to level this is our most substantial data that we have being in our building literally about the week before we started school there was still technology technology pieces that needed to be put into effect and some assistance that was needed for us to have substantial d PMA scores coming in on a regular basis in our other tested areas so we had to go very Grassroots with our type of data with with those particular tested areas um and our hope is that we can utilize the dpmas more effectively next year um whenever we are not just opening a brand new building and still waiting to get our internet services and all of that moving forward so you will notice with reading that our lowest 25% learning gains are at 44% that's where we stand currently we are hoping to raise that by 5% by pm3 our learning gains of all students sit at 39% we are hoping to raise that by 5% by pm3 and our proficiency level is 30% as the principal I would like to see us raise that by 10% by pm3 so how are we doing that as part of our school culture we have our journey to success plan it is an all-encompassing plan that includes every one of our uh State tested areas with you're familiar with at the high school includes 9th and 10th grade reading Algebra 1 geometry biology and US history and so when you open up our immense spreadsheet that shows our journey to success plan the biggest part that you will be interested in is in a as a school board is our small group instruction which is actually going on today while I am here and so we are able because we are a smaller school to utilize our Personnel including some of our leadership team um to pull our students out at least once a week if not twice a week in the areas in which they are struggling and we provide small group instruction in groups of five to seven and so already our classrooms average about 18 to 19 students in each classroom so we're able and we're very blessed to do this to be able to pull out to even a smaller level those 40 minute sessions are highly inter interactive Hands-On and Laser focused on the exact resour search-driven skills that students need to be able to perform successfully on their test and show Mastery of Concepts so we are not in there stating to them you know you need to be able to use context clues to define words that you don't understand in Reading we're actually showing them how to use context clues allowing them to give practical application for them and supporting that lesson that has already been taught within the English language arts and the reading program in the area of reading and addition we also have our intensive reading classes that are utilizing the software program of Reading Plus as well as small group instruction that goes hand inand with that particular curriculum if you're familiar with that that Journey To Success plan that's our example through Reading and math it is the rigorous instruction in our Algebra 1 a 1B and geometry classes we do have a small number that is testing that we be testing this year for math a predominant amount of our um freshmen coming in are in algebra 1A we're excited about that because they get the two years to learn all of algebra and be prepared to pass that um end of course exam which will help them towards their graduation requirements so we focus on all levels of Journey To Success this plan will culminate the last week of April um when we do two class meetings the first one with ninth grade the second one with 10th grade myself and our school counselor will be re reminding them of those Ro bust lessons that they have learned within the small group instruction because almost every single kid has been in there and then we are finishing up that time with our success on the test prep rally which has a motivational speaker and um some other fun activities for the students right before they begin that State Testing at the high school level we do state test almost the entire month of May um and if we are not State Testing then we are semester exam testing and so we really want them to have that moment to know how much we believe in them and how absolutely prepared they are and we believe that we believe that our students will start that test knowing what they need to know to pass the test but more than that knowing what they need to know to take their next steps the next year in their curriculum based um path through high school that will eventually prepare them to gain their wings and fly the nest and go ahead to their next level of what they choose to do we focus highly on teacher growth like I said we kind of have the perfect scenario we either have beginning teachers or very veteran teachers so the mentoring program is strong between our teachers um because we are such a small staff the relationship building came very naturally and students very much collaborate um to share ideas and also share students whenever we begin talking about our atrisk students and what needs to be done it is an all handson deck approach to that we do utilize our early relas Wednesdays um two of those Wednesdays a month are used for Teacher professional development and data digs and so if you pulled our professional development plan that we um have implemented implemented all year we go into the year with a very descriptive plan of what each Wednesday will be used for whether it's student centered or teacher centered and if you look at the teacher centered you will see that in our pre-planning we did the training for um Project based learning as well as class management as well as what our school culture would be Etc and so on at that point in time honestly we didn't have a lot of data to pull for our students except if they were in the public schools or oal Charter Middle School so we pulled what we could and we initiated our first data dig and that data dig was really teaching our new teachers how to find that data and how to utilize that data for lesson planning we have continued through the year with that type of professional development um every Wednesday that we just have professional development I survey the teachers I ask them what do you need from us what's going to help you feel like you're prepared to continue for the next couple of weeks through the classroom what are issues that we need to address and what can we do to have you grow and that's how we plan our particular PD sessions our data digs dive deep into we LED and guided our teachers through deciding the lowest 25% for the tested areas and their lowest 25% in their classroom as well we identified what Mr post has already U related to as our bubble students so that they would know those students that are right on the cusp of proficiency and where they needed particular um help because we have such a small school we are very blessed to be able to pull that data and actually pair it all the way down to where a teacher can look at a singular student and literally see on this standard on this concept on this question they did not perform well and neither did this student and neither did this student and that is how we built our small group instruction as well so those data digs take place each month during those data digs we also talk about our at risk students um I can tell you right now our freshman class and please understand this is without testing because we have freshmen and sophomores um we sit at about a 97% grad rate with freshmen our job is to keep that and increase that and then for our sophomores that came in we sit at about an 84% and so we already have a very large um document that we share out with the teachers that they add to and take away that show this is where this particular student is this is everything they have achieved towards graduation this is their strengths this is their weaknesses and the teachers have the opportunity to add their input on that as well and it's a living breathing document that we can access at any point in time so that's also used for our parent conferences as well which I'll talk about a little closer to time the biggest thing that we want to make sure of with our teacher growth is that it is relevant to actually grow growing as a teacher and so as we designed our beginning teacher program and as we designed what I like to call our growth process which um is how we evaluate our teachers basically we have growth conversations and we're very lucky to be able to do that um at the beginning of the year the teachers set up their growth goal um I set up a growth goal for them as well and we so we have two goals that we are working on and we are supporting them to grow in that area we meet again at the end of each nine weeks to see where we are and where we're going and how we can help and support as we move to our school culture which to me is my favorite place to land um because it is all about the students even last year as I was on the middle school campus um I began meeting with our students that have been accepted to okali Charter High School and so every single year parents have at least two face-to-face individualized meetings with me as the principal and obviously that's due to our smaller number we're able to do that and so the very first one is they come in they get to sit with their child while they choose their courses and we get to talk about exactly what they want from their year and the student and the parent and myself we goal set for that year the second one which is taking place right now and they do overlap is our graduation track meetings so every parent has the opportunity to come in sit and visit with me we go through exactly what their student has accomplished exactly what their student still needs how we are supporting their student at school how can we support you as a parent at home and how are you supporting your student at home so that on May 24th 25th 26th whatever day of 2026 we have our first graduating class and 100% of those students will walk and that is our goal and we will not see any other goal but that we want 100% graduation rate coming out of oal Charter High School there is nothing below that even we don't even talk about it so that is where we are um with part of our school culture that actually came from those first parent meetings a parent saying I really want to be able to meet face to face with you I don't want to meet with an assistant principal or a school counselor I want your ear and so I heard that many many times from the parents and that has become a huge part of my daily schedule is just meeting and listening and talking with parents that bleeds down to the students and our expectations so it is an expectation across o'l charter schools that parent involvement is at a very high level and we'll talk more about that in a few moments but our expectation is also that our students are involved and so as we look at the situation of student voice um those that know me as a principal know that this is my passion student voice and building and creating a high school atmosphere is 100% my passion whether it be in the realm of school safety and what students need to feel safe whether it be in the realm of academics and what they are needing more of out of our instruction in our classrooms or whether it be in our social realm which obviously is a huge part of high school currently we are offering girls basketball is our one and only sport next year we are hoping to bring girls and boys basketball girls and boys volleyball track and field and cross country the unique uh situation and thank you to uh Mr Donnie Tucker for helping me through this from Maring County Public Schools um the unique situation that we are in is if we don't offer the particular Athletic program the students are allowed by the state to go back to their Zone school and play athletics for them so currently we have five football players that will be playing for Maran County public schools that are sitting in our classrooms making sure that they have the GPA and the wherewithal to take the field in August so we're very very excited about that it is however our goal for our existing athletic programs to be able to go ahead and join the FHSAA at the end of year three and be able to be a part of of that particular organization and compete we are allowed to compete against public schools at this point in time our girls basketball team against student voice felt like that they were not at the level that they were ready to go on the basketball court with some of our larger school teams and programs and so we did PR play predominantly private schools this year the students had a blast I think their favorite part of it was actually the gear that they got because they got to design the jerseys and all of that kind of stuff we offer clubs one Wednesday month our other two Wednesdays each month are student centered one is totally towards tutoring students can stay after school and there is tutoring available we also have tutoring available at any point time the student requested but that is an organized time to which we actually will rotate them through subjects if they need to the other Wednesday is our club day we currently have Esports Athletic Club cooking chess digital art art and American Sign Language so those are our clubs each year our clubs are designed by our students and they do a student survey telling what clubs they want they are the ones that have to hit up our teachers to make sure that our teachers will sponsor that club and make sure that they have the level of involvement that we need we actually have a student from the College of Central Florida that is volunteering her time to come in and teach our um Art Club and then we have our director of director of marketing from Clear Choice academies teaching our digital art Club so we're able to tap into those resources as well this is also our first year for our Student Government Association we were very pleased to be invited to the district meeting of student government um that was held at Forest High School earlier this year and our students got their first taste of student government we currently have five sophomores and one Lan freshman that auditioned or I'm sorry applied for Student Government Mrs Matthew sat on the board that decided who would be our particular representatives and we also have our student body President and Vice President in addition to that we have a leadership class that works directly with our Student Government Association and they produce all of our activities we had two homecomings this year because we don't have football we did a test homecoming to see how the students would do with their dress up days and we held a very small dance in our cafeteria and then we did our more formal homecoming attached to our basketball season in January with a dance at the Silver Springs Community um Center and so sgaa plans all that we've done Spring Fling um in reference to Maring County Food Services um Your Food Services Program stepped up and help us host a family Thanksgiving dinner we had 141 parents grandparents or family members attend that on the last day before the Thanksgiving break they came and ate lunch with their students which I know sounds like a very Elementary situation but our students wanted it and our parents really showed up and what was so impressive is even though they were able to buy their meal from the Food Service many of our parents actually brought homemade dishes to share as well so that is definitely a tradition that we will keep in mind the students also plan our community service events um we reached out as clubs to different organizations in December to do one community service project we are hoping hoping to go to um the Maring County Humane Society Saturday April 27th to volunteer our time there so we do um some school sponsored community service one of the pieces of culture that the students wanted obviously we're field trips so in addition to our academic field trips we do have end of the year field trips that are fun field trips for the students and then um we are one of the only high schools in the district um that will support a schoolwide for seniors European senior trip and we are encouraging the students to take our senior trip instead of going on their own senior trip somewhere where possibly they will not have a great experience um and we will be leaving with our first class class on June 8th of 2026 and we will be traveling to uh Rome Paris and London to visit um Europe with some families um members as well with our seniors so as far as Community involvement our online business incubator program if you're not familiar with what that is that is literally allowing our students to learn how to build a business that is webbased and so they do fun things that's the class I've really enjoy going and sitting in um one of their first projects that they did was to do a market analysis of our students they had to learn how to do a market analysis they conducted a market analysis of our students of what would be the perfect backpack and you would be surprised about how passionate high school students get about their backpacks very passionate and so once they did that market analysis they then had to do a cost analysis as to what they could build it for and how much it would cost at the end they went back and resurveyed the students to find out how much they would pay for their dream backpack and then they actually built a prototype of that backpack out of paper sacks straws pipe cleaners tape and glue and so those prototypes then we brought in business partners from the community they watched um the market analysis presentation they presented the Prototype and gave feedback this is all preparing our students in the intentions that through the Nifty program we will start competing in the Shark Tank um competition that the C does here at not only the local but the state and National level because we really believe that our students can go that far with it we currently have two business partners I explained that I would come back to that Rob Harrison reality has just come alongside us in a way that is almost unimaginable as far as Community Partners they are at everything that we do um they sponsored a family for Christmas they helped um brand our front office space some of you were at our opening um it now looks completely different um because Rob Harrison reality has come in and donated um that cost of branding to really give that Collegiate postsecondary feel whenever you walk into our main office and walk the hallways of our building um they've even gone as far as to donate neck ties and bow ties for our students Uniforms on Tuesdays they wear professional dress the young men are in suit and ties the young women are in dress pants and in our Blazers or a dress skirt in our Blazers and some of our young men needed ties and so Rob Harrison himself went out and bought ties and brought those to the school and donated them to the students he speaks regularly at our parent events and offers uh free services to them and he is also donating all of our awards for our awards ceremony coming up on May 16th our other um business partner donates in kind and that is the event Warehouse if you're familiar with it's down on Silver Springs Boulevard it's under um new directorship and fortunately had a relationship with the new director there and they donated all of our homecoming dance decorations because honestly being in our first year um what we charge for tickets would pay for the venue but other than a couple of balloon bokes that was going to be just about it and they came in and they really embraced our theme and donated that in kind and we'll continue to do so our parent involvement um we have many many opportunities for parents my school counselor um our school counselor delivers a character education parent night every single month it is good oldfashioned parenting tips on how to get through the high school years because we all know how fun that can be and so she delivers that with our our parents um our parents are very welcoming of that advice we have hosted our test prep night obviously we have a school advisory Council that meets five times a year um parent involvement in any of our activities is highly encouraged and then of course they are invited to go on the European trip with their seniors and then I've already kind of mentioned are giving back to the community Through community service so our three most important factors and this is in conclusion of the pragmatic piece of high school and I'm going to share with you um the culture piece that you cannot measure obviously we're focused on academic student life and community and we every decision that we make we go back to soar and does it fit in one of these three categories is it what is best for students if the answer is even I'm not sure we go back to the drawing board and we redraw the design until it is what is best for students if the answer is no it's really not what's best for students it it leaves it's thrown out we come back to the drawing board We Begin Again so these are the three areas that we focus on in every single level of decision- making at of Kelly Charter High School in conclusion because opening a brand new high school it's it's difficult to be able to put your thumb on exact ly what our immediate niches other than the small classroom I just want to share with you an experience that I got to have and I've already shared this with Miss Matthews um in that Readiness piece the r of sore um we've had military recruiters come on campus we've had uh business owners come on and talk about internships and apprenticeships um we have um in our future taking our students to some of the trade and technical schools to make sure that they know what's available through that and last week we were able to um at the graciousness of the College of Central Florida we were able to go to CF and I took a group of students to CF and and there's one particular student um his backstory is touching to say the least um and I already knew because his parents shared with me during the registration meeting that for him to graduate from high school he would be the first one in his family and so this young man is very very quiet he's one of those leaders that you just you can feel the leadership but he's not outward with it um he is naturally followed by other students he was very quiet during that tour and they did an outstanding tour for our students on the campus we got to eat lunch kids were all excited about that um they got to see all sorts of the Departments and as we were leaving I asked him what did you think about the tour and he just bubbled over and said you know Mrs Brown I knew that Elly Charter High School was what I needed because I needed a smaller school which is what we are we are a smaller school that allows another opportunity for Maring County students that's how we view oursel we're another resource we're another opportunity that allows that small Niche for our students and he said I knew that through the work with your teachers and with you I'm going to graduate from high school and I never knew that before and he said now today I know I'm going to get my degree and he looked straight at me and he said okay Al Charter High School helped me realize that my dreams can come true that's what oali Charter High School is about when you step on our campus that's what we aim for every single day through data through instruction through student life through Community involvement and parent involvement we really just want to make our kids dreams come true thank you thank you right no comments okay we'll start with comments and from the board I'll go briefly yep I just have a few quick questions um understanding that one of your feeders is a Cali charter middle and you guys are currently kind of in different parts of maring County um I know that there's probably work in the back end to try and work on that but from a transportation perspective is that a barrier for some of your families who are trying to income from from eighth grade from oali Charter Middle to to oali Charter High is that a barrier that you see we don't Dr James actually the majority of our students do come from uh at the Middle School Silver Spring Shores and so we're very aware that we want them to be able to articulate into the high school so um we are committed to run a bus route through the Shores area to bring them over to the high school so that Transportation would not be a barrier and that they could continue with the small school environment okay wonderful um with looking at your enrollment what does what does it look like for next year how many I don't think I heard a number we currently have 71 active applications and that is in addition to the 75 to 76 students that we already have on campus okay our Target is on the low end 110 on the highend 150 for next year our final capacity for year four will be between 200 and 220 for the building that we are currently in okay wonderful um and do you anticipate that all of those applications as long as they're meeting your criteria are going to be accepted or do you guys think that you will operate with like a weit list and only take some of those students I feel like at this point in time with the caliber of student that I'm seeing come through the applications that we are able to accommodate each of those students I do believe that by the beginning of year three we will probably have to move to a wait list okay okay that makes sense um when you mentioned gradu uation rate obviously acknowledging that you only have freshmen and sophomores right now can you talk a little bit about how you got to that 84% number so whenever you do a graduation uh rate track sheet uh tracking sheet and thank you Mr Ben White House for teaching me this um you will have every ounce of their information that goes into their grad requirements so whenever I look at that spreadsheet I look at who is on track for right now our freshman at the end of this year should have earned six credits possibly more if they did High school credit at the middle school they should be running in a 2.0 or above GPA it's our goal to have them all industry certified that's not a grad rate but that is something that we we really aim for because we want our students to have that experience um and be prepped for the business World whenever they go out um and they should not be credit deficient so whenever I look at ninth grade that's what I'm looking at and where we kind of see that influx is with that credit deficient piece at the 10th grade level so 10th grade is a little different I keep hitting this 10th grade is a little different because then at the end of the year you're going to add did they pass the 10th grade reading um by then most of them in fact all of them should have passed the algebra and so every single year on that grad track sheet you're adding more components to it until you finally get to their senior year which is your GPA your amount of credits if they're credit deficient have they passed the state test um did they take personal financial literacy for our freshman this year have they taken PE have they done their online course there's a whole list of credits so we track everything on that sheet and I learn you know from the best of the best you start the minute they walk through your door so that's how as I'm looking at my ninth graders that's where we are it's my goal as a school leader to keep us at that or above that the minute we fall below that we're looking at students didn't pass the test um we had a student or two because we're a smaller number we had a student or two that went credit deficient so that we're right on top of that situation so if I may real quick I just want to make sure that you're clear our commitment to every student that enters our school is they will graduate yes so when you look at the fact that right now we have about 133% in ninth grade who aren't on track it is our job and the job of their families to get them on track so so the 80 I wrote down the number 84% which is I think the number you said for your sophomore class so so that 16% represents do you have students who have dropped out we do not have students that have dropped out we have mostly students that are credit deficient and most of those are not coming from your public school system or um ocms they are coming out of a homeschool or a virtual school situation where they stepped away from their coursework and so so they came in and some of them are algebra at the 10th grade level some of them they took algebra at the middle school level and they did not pass the see so even though they got the credit for the class we are going back and retaking that and I always go worst case scenario even though they're a retake they're today not on track to graduate until they pass that test correct correct yeah so uh that's thank you for pointing out because I wanted to acknowledge that none of the students have dropped out or left it's just a matter of graduation requirements and meeting it um when you said students are coming in and they're missing credits so do you have students entering into to your school outside of August we do have students entering into our school outside of August we don't just start with everybody in the house and then not accept other students coming in um I will be honest we've had an influx within the first semester of this year of out of state students coming in okay and so whenever we start comparing credits to credits we begin to put that in and some of those students were at risk arriving to us I explained to Miss Matthews um the other day whenever I had finished fin up CU I run that data all the time I used to not but I run it all the time now because it's a small group um our freshmen are who we start fresh with literally we start fresh with they come to us with only fabulous things they've taken um excuse me high school credits already they they can't be credit deficient for us yet at all um our sophomores having just brought them into the building this year and accepting students we did accept students that are at risk either with testing our credit deficiency because we know that we can get them there yes and that we have you know the resources to be able to do that so that's why you see that being able to start with each Freshman Class Hereafter fresh except for those that come in you know after the beginning of the year will be very very productive for that 100% grad rate okay and and honestly as you enter into your third year so at that third year mark you may wind up getting to the place where you're not accepting um midyear place ments which should stabilize your graduation rate a little bit and and the the type of student and their level of preparation that you're taking in um graduation rate is is something that we are focusing on a lot in Maring County on on our side of the house and I um just wanted to kind of better understand the picture you painted there because without having 11th graders it's it's really a projection more than anything and so I just wanted to make sure that that was clear and that that 84% when we look at graduation rate in a public high school especially for 11th and 12th graders the number the number sometimes when we get our projection is like the best case scenario right and so I just I I think what you're saying today is that your number is the worst case scenario as of right now and so I think it's important to at least acknowledge that that 84% which is still a strong number um is your current worst case scenario um and so there's value in just clarifying that so that 84% just to kind of put in perspective your 10th graders we have no reading test data yet so we don't have that as one of their components yet for some of them we don't have algebra one EOC data for some we do but they are in the retakes um and then of course we are working with those um through summer school it is our goal that by the end of summer school as far as credits we will have every student on track as far as credits it is my goal as the school leader just from having done this for so long that as we enter into the senior year GPA and credit should really be a nonissue we're really focused on getting the tests passed that need to be passed yes okay thank you for thank you for um expanding on that appreciate it thank you board member James any other comments from the board I will ask board member Cummings no comment thank you sir any other comments from sure just Kudos guys I mean this is we were there for the first day and all the beautiful Blazers and all the things and um yeah just continued success because this is the way you it's hard work isn't it and but you're you're on the other side of it like this is you're almost through this first full year and we can see the success and the hard work that you guys are are putting in and can't wait to see how those scores look because I'm sure that they're going to you're you're doing a great job so Kudos thank you Vice chair con yes good morning you're muted you're muted sorry okay um good morning and I just want to say thank you that was a very thorough presentation and I feel like as a board member I'm walking away with a very good picture of what's going on um at your facility and so thank you for taking the time time to outline all those different components of the things that are going on on campus thank you so much for the opportunity abely yes and thank you for that because you are a new Charter High School our only Charter High School in your very first year so we needed that comprehensive overview to really have a good grasp of of uh where you're headed and it looks like it's all in the right direction I kept hearing a repetitive statement laser focus and I just love that um I I think that's how you get to where you need to go and and targeted instruction and and student voice we are learning up here as a as a Schoolboard how effective and important and fun it is uh to actually include students you know um and and getting their feedback on on things and also the teacher collaboration and mentoring piece is so important I I wish we could figure out a way to add time to our day for teachers to have the opportunity to spend more time with with other teachers I learned so much about teaching from a gened geometry teacher which is pretty far from what my specialy ended up being but it just goes to show you you know right that there's all kinds of great ways to deliver instruction so um thank you for already hitting it out of the park and your passion your perseverance your preparation and your mission thank you so much thank you and I know we've gone long would you uh allow me just a few more words absolutely Miss Matthews the one thing I do want to share with you is this and I think this is important to note the principles who work for okali have very different jobs than principles who work at a traditional school and I'm passionate about that um their job charge and my laes are focus on them is for them to focus on student experience um I work diligently to protect them from anything else that becomes a time Vampire and takes away their time for being focused on the success academically of our students the mental health and emotion of our students the behavior and interaction of our students because ultimately that's what we're here to do so do know these guys are fabulous and um and I think there there's a lot to be said for allowing the leader of the school to be focused on just that so my last thing is I hope the theme you heard was that we're all about building relationships and so do know it is our goal as I'm sure the goal of all of the other Charters to always be an asset to the work that you all are doing we're here to be team players and to be partners in this journey to ensure the success of all children of Maran County thank you for your time thank you Miss Matthews and you EX simplified that with opening with u not just acknowledging but providing such a warm tribute to the district team that that supports you guys every day and that is very meaningful and heartwarming and and important because there's a lot of great and very hard work and long hours of dedication that are coming out of this district and ma'am blossoming everywhere yes ma'am thank you all right thank you for your time um to allow our charter schools to come I mean this is a statuto requirement that they do a report but there's so much more to that and I think that you saw that today um just two a couple points of clarification as Dr Campbell pointed out each charter school is a public school that's independent from Maring County Public Schools and they have an independent board that basically is in charge of them so in things like transportation and food service we have several that contract which is independent contract outside of their Charter contract with Mar County public schools to provide food service or transportation and so that's an independent from their contract thank you Mr SS and and thank you always for everything that you do and for bringing it home today all right ask a quick question yes go ahead I just had one quick question Mr SS I think every I think I've asked this question every time that we've had one of these Charter School updates annually do we have any new Charter School application that have come across your desk not that have come across my desk no okay and and that actually answers my question in a in a hole because I know that there are other districts that have different opportunities and experiences than what we have here in Maran County and so when that continues to be a question of our peers around the state they're not in that same scenario and so that's why since we're in our annual review I was just curious to know if you've seen any new applications come your way and just you know several years ago the state statute did require there used to be a time frame window when charger schools could do that now it's an open-ended anybody can do that and I occasionally do get phone calls of inquiry and of course the conversation I have always starts financially you know what are we doing financially and all that kind of stuff but no we have not had any appliation so much thank you Mr SS all right thank you very much there any public comment on the new okali Charter High School hearing none oh public comment no no I was getting excited okay um how about we take a little break yes I think we do need to do that and so we will adjourn now for about 20 minutes it is just before noon so we'll try to be back by um 12:20 thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e we are back to our work session at 12:21 p.m. and we are going to be moving on to the 2024 summer school Staffing good good afternoon I'd like to introduce our executive director of Human Resources Miss Morant with our 2024 summer school Staffing plan thank you sorry thank you and good morning Deputy superintendent Dr tet Irving chair Thor and school board members on behalf of acceleration Innovation and Elementary curriculum high schools and secondary curriculum and Human Resources I'm excited to present the 2024 summer School Staffing plan this year's summer school theme is get in the game summer Learning Adventure the two informational Flyers provide the dates locations offerings and other pertinent information for elementary and secondary respectively moving to the third and fourth page of the uploaded document you will see the proposed summer school Staffing plan the first page of the Staffing plan shows instructional units and then non-instructional units are on the following page the plan includes 671 instructional units on the elementary level 131 at Middle School 117 at high school and 83 instructional staff members will be assigned to other programs and sites for a total of 1,2 instructional staff members for instructional staff there is a requested allocation of 909 staff members this includes four additional RNs that will be added to the plan this will give us a total of 1,911 Summer School staff members for summer school 2024 it is important to note that units may be added or removed based on the student needs program changes and or enrollment changes and this is notated at the bottom of both pages of the Staffing plan the following grants are the funding are funding the positions and purchases for summer school summer school they are ARP Sr supplemental programming S 3 summer learning acmy ssig and title four parts A and B um that's all that I have to share so I will turn it back over to you Dr Talbert Irving for any additional questions or comments just one comment on behalf of Dr gullet and to the board because I know your question is always we have Esser funding that will go away and that um is something important because we still want to maintain a robust summer school program in the future years to come so please know that uh Mrs rle Dr living good and Dr Varner have been working behind the scenes for the past year to address what we'll do to make sure our programs are still robust for the upcoming year and the years to follow and we're looking at different funding sources to make sure we'll still able to maintain a robust summer school program thank you Dr tobert Irving um and thank you for the presentation um Miss Morant we'll open it up to the board go ahead board member James I have a few questions but they're not for you miss Mor they're about the program specific questions so they're probably more directed towards like Miss r or Dr Talbert um do you want to wait and address questions for Miss Mar right now or mine are probably for okay so I can hold off until you guys addresser no Min are from Miss R also oh okay I will have no I'll I'll no I'll ask I'll ask Miss morand a question that's that's fine that's fine here okay um sure so so once the board approves the summer school Staffing plan so that will be on our later agenda in April 23rd thank you so once we approve them then that's whenever we open up the opportunities for these employees to sign up correct to apply for the position to apply for the positions okay um in years past uh have we had a challenge with having enough employees cover the summer schools that we have had is there usually a gap like the last two years that we've had robust summer programs not last year Miss rle is confirming that last year okay all right that's good so the hope is that we will be able to maintain uh the instructional units that are here and that students will be engaged and interested and that employees will be as well okay that was my question and as a reminder we um theou that was approved Tuesday will help address the issue if we vacant gencies for the non-instructional staff because we will now be able to utilize our mcps interns as well as our graduates of the FEA Academy at vingar High School great thank you awesome and I just wanted to say um thank you for the robust summer school program and also um the commitment to continuing it and having those conversations with um instructional staff about what best meets their needs as well in terms of timing and dates um that makes a difference you know and and for for esy uh there's been deeper collaboration I think than than I've ever seen and I'm seeing that you know get better and better through the years so I think that that's one of the reasons why we're not having as much trouble you know covering a more robust summer program so that's a tribute to the ongoing communication you know Quest that we're under to just keep pulling everything together and everyone together so before you ran away thank you all right Miss R you're up all right I wanted to comment on that um Staffing also um because two years ago we did struggle a little bit to hire last year was the first year that we changed the days and the hours um because we had feedback from employees and because we did that um principales really had a much easier time to hire because it was less days in a shorter time frame so we we are keeping that um this year as well good thank you um okay so I have a few questions yes um my first question is when I look at the list of host schools and then underneath each host school it indicates the blend because typically at least two schools blend into one for summer school um I I didn't go through and make sure every school was represented but what I started out looking for was forom early learning and then began as I looked and don't see forom Early Learning listed at all so my question started from why is forom not hosting summer VPK it is our early learning institution and they are not a site for summer VPK at all yet they have more VPK programs than any other site in Maring County Public Schools but then secondarily is then no forom student extend the opportunity to participate in summer school because I don't see their name listed anywhere on this document they are listed under oala Springs oest oala Springs and part so so forom K2 K1 students the rising yes the rising first graders and Rising second graders and then forom will host their own kindergarten Kickstart and their VP kers will go to a host site so we typically put VPK at one of the host sites last year oakrest was the host site or I'm sorry Okala Springs was the host site it was supposed to be oakrest this year but we kicked it back to Okala Springs because oakrest is having construction on their campus so next year there's a good chance that forom will be in the loop because we try to rotate it with the schools that are grouped together so because forom isn't a host site the VPK students would go to a VPK site that is a host site if that makes sense I mean I guess I just I don't agree but sure it makes sense I just think if they're the early learnings school they should be hosting summer school so I what you're saying makes sense and next year when they presumably host summer school my then my expectation as a board member would be that one of the summer VPK offerings are at the center where our prek coordinator is housed I I just think that that would be very appropriate um so my other question is um individuals have shared concern previously about access to summer school so who gets to go and this is always um something that comes up so my request is that can you clarify who gets invited to summer school or if it's not an invitation how does a parent seek out the opportunity sure so um it is open to everybody um in elementary school incoming we do Rising 1 through Rising fifth at the elementary level so the outgoing fifth graders would have to take an opportunity at one of the middle schools um it's open to everybody but we start By Invitation Only so that means we look at data and we send out the waves of invitations and I'm not referring to third grade summer camp because that's completely different um but use data to send out those first waves we send the data to the school so that they know who to send them to um and they continue to invite students looking at the data um however at any time a student can request a permission slip and they are able to attend um we have it posted on the homepage right now there's a summer learning opportunity um it's right on the ribbon so if you clck it click it the Flyers are there um and within that family flyer it does say to reach out to your child's school to obtain a permission slip so it is open to anybody um and if the parent doesn't receive an invite through those waves that are going out um they need to contact the school but it is open to everybody okay so thank you for that clarification because I think sometimes the invitation puts off the perception that it's a limited enrollment and so anyone can request the opportunity to participate yes um but we'll prioritize the students who have academic needs correct um which makes sense to me um why is denell and middle hosting Elementary summer school so dellan Elementary and Romeo Elementary both have construction on their campuses so when we typically plan out our um locations we request from facilities from Barb um a list of schools that are not able to host so she sends us a comprehensive list and sometimes um the construction impacts the entire campus and we can't host sometimes the construction um will impact maybe just the cafeteria or just one Wing so we have to look at all of those things as we're planning our locations um and we just wanted to we didn't want them to have to travel too far to get someplace um and so DaNell and middle was sort of the proximity wise the most reasonable location to host the elementary schools as far as proximity okay cuz we were worried that students wouldn't come if uh it was too far away understood um and for Middle School does this mean that we're offering summer school on every middle school and high school campus is that oh I guess sorry that's Dr living good but okay yes yes yes yes so I just the reason I ask is for instance um Tuesday night we talked about North Marine middle in their roof so when you said facilities it reminded me that we had had that conversation on Tuesday oh so I'm just making sure that there there's no limitations on that campus so there is um a limitation they will their project and we and we know things will change but based on the construction project that Miss R referred to um they will not be acted during the summertime for summer school however and North Mar middle is actually hosting North Maran high school because North Maran High School will have construction taking place during their summer so we are anticipating that that campus will be available for two sites I'm gonna go back to Tuesday night's agenda real quick because I feel like um North Mary middle also has construction no it does it's getting a new roof and if I remember correctly the expected completion date was September six so there's no way they're getting a new roof but it's only on certain buildings so they must be housing the summer school in the buildings not affected okay I would just be interested in understanding what that looks like because I'll follow up with Miss Dobbins to make sure that based on the pacing of the construction project that we are still able to have two sites um on that campus for this summertime because the roof the roofing project is for buildings one and two which I'm not I can tell you which building those those are off the top of my head but the expected completion date is honor before September 6th at for North Marine middle so um again this wasn't even like on the top of my mind until Miss rle mentioned facilities so that was just something I had come up with I like the fact that we have middle schoolers who could be getting some credits taking care of this summer um and potentially getting themselves in a better position especially going to a seven period day as well so they really could get set up to not um have any credits dragging at the end of their eighth grade year so is transportation provided for Middle School yes for all grades yes okay um 6th through 12th grade okay why does it say in most cases is it what what is the limiting factor not kindergarten or prek okay so so Rising kindergartens for kindergarten Kickstart and then prekese or just prek I think yeah pre would get Transportation yeah prek also VPK so it's VP so the VPK and um the kindergarten Kickstart okay so prek ESC will get Transportation just not summer VPK and then kindergarten Kickstart I believe so but I would have to verify that okay oh it says it bus transportation not available for students attending VPK or prekese so it's saying prekese I just have if those preese kids are using esy money I'm just wondering why we're not able to provide transportation and that doesn't have to be a question you answer right now but that would be a concern I have Dr tobert is if if they're prekese kids we should be I would imagine we're using their esy we'll go back Dr James to I was going to give her a new title Mrs Williams Jones to verify about why it says prekese and if they would Pro provide transportation based on funding or not so we'll be able to bring the answer back to the group okay once we confer with her okay thank you that would be that would be helpful um all right I think that concludes my questions I obviously love how large this summer school offering is I um I I think that it is great that there is opport Unity for advancement in high school summer school historically high school summer school has felt like a credit remediation opportunity and not an acceleration opportunity I remember the summer before my freshman year of high school I went to summer school to do hope and to do um like a health class that I had to do and so I didn't have to do in the regular school year and everybody did it and we were all getting credit ahead of our freshman year opposed to dragging it and having to do it at a later time and so it's only going to put our students in a better position to be on track to graduate so whatever way we whatever if you need help right in Grant so that we can continue to maintain this expansive of a program after the covid money is gone I would love to be a part of it because we I want to see this continue to be the the depth of a program that we're able to offer so thank you thank you board member James uh v c um I just I also want to start out by saying thank you I'm really excited um when I look over what all you are you all are working to accomplish and the opportunities you're providing for our students on every level um it really is amazing so thank you for the work you're doing and Miss rle before I'm going to be go way in the weeds here but if I don't say it right now I'll forget and so I just want I said it to you privately but Tuesday night I was talking a lot about about parent behaviors and um what a a team effort it is you know in educating our children and when I was at w Highlands the other day they were putting up our code of Civility banners and I just loved them I'm sorry that we need them but I love them and so thank you for your work and getting those on our campuses I really appreciate it so thank you all right and then I do yes I just I just had happened to see them being put up and then I do have a couple of questions and this print is really tiny so I hope I'm going to be able to say the right number to you all right so we have 671 teachers for elementary school summer school that's that's close anyway it's 67 something on theep I think you said and then we have 108 that are going to be in the three third grade reading camp and so when I look at the spreadsheet it'll it shows mostly 3 four five some schools have six teachers in that program so in identifying students to go um to come to the third grade reading Camp what are we looking at number-wise and um do do they show up like the kids that we need to do reading Camp do they come and how do we get them there um I'll start I'll stop there so you can answer that part so any student who scores a level one in third grade on the state test is invited um did they all come no they don't all come um we have probably half of them that come maybe a little bit more um but schools make every effort to get them to come they get calls from the um school counselor the principal the AP the family engagement liaison so we really do everything we can to get them to come because we need those third graders because we provide additional opportunities if they're going to be retained for them to be promoted for cause through intensive intervention uh additional remediation and more opportunities different testing um and uh so that they can make the cut score to be promoted for cause so we need them there for those reasons um so we make every effort to try to get those students to come because we need them to come okay what does a summer school reading class size look like like what what are we for third grade yes uh around 12 to 15 okay that's fantastic yeah and the the teachers uh the number of teaching units we based it on last year's summer school enrollment okay so um that's it's a I'm just I'm just being honest here and you look at these numbers and it it just makes me sad we have so because level one if that's what you've got on here that's a lot of third graders that are level one readers and that that's a really big challenge because we know what data says about not being on grade level for third great okay um I think I think that answers most of my questions I just wanted to get thank you for clarifying I just wanted to get a better picture of what we're looking at um for third grade and I know last year we had similar circumstances what do we have going on do we have other things going on to help remedy the situation that we're we're having to deal with with so many third graders not ready so we do um I know we talked about this at a recent work session we have our third grade tutors that we hired um to work with the third grade retained students um you know we have 35 of those spread around the district right now working specifically with third graders um and schools had to make a very strategic plan so we look at data with our schools multiple times throughout the year so um if you were to sit down with a principal and ask specifically about a group of students third grade specifically they can show you their action plan they can show you their data sheets they can show you how those students are progressing and they can show you who on the campus what people and resources they're using to Target these students and it looks different on every campus um some people take their do we see Trends in deficiency across the district or are we really deficient are are students deficient in different areas because of different reasons and so I guess what I'm getting at is one what they know when they come into school so we know that's a a huge Factor but also looking at our curriculum if there's a Common Thread you know is fluency a common issue is phonics the issue like I didn't know if we have an indicator um well we do and I can I can give you a specific example of some something we did just a couple of weeks ago as um as we're going around having data meetings with schools and looking at the last this was about a month ago so we have 33 say days left to testing how can we really drill down and look at the items that they missed and look at curriculum pieces and what can we do specifically so for example um looking at the last District progress monitoring assessment there were two benchmarks specifically in third grade um across the district that were low um and when we looked at those specifically one was um fairly simple it was um identifying a poem um which we know that that is kind of loow hanging fruit right if we could just get third graders to know their poems and identify what type of poem and hit that a couple more times that might be another question they get right so we look to identify some items like that on the last assessment um and we gave those items to the curriculum team so that they could pull resources for um it was two benchmarks specifically that we really want third grade teachers to hit again um and we pushed those out to principles and to teachers um so we're doing things like that all the time if we see a trend across the district or even a trend at a school or with one particular teacher um we have plans to to Target that specifically so that's something that we do constantly okay thank you very I appreciate that thank you V your comrade and I did want to piggy back on that a little bit um as far as the the summer reading camp and just overall you know this we're talking on the specific topic of of summer school but just overall we know we have an attendance problem right yes and I'm reflecting back on Mr post present this morning and how they have been so successful at at finding different incentives not bribes there's a difference um motivators you know what is it that's going to motivate the parents what is it that's could motivate the kids so that we are in the fortunate position of having to say wow we have almost more kids that than we expected to have and then we can almost accommodate you know um we because we have staff now that's willing to come because we made that connection now how can we make that connection with the families so the ones we know that need it the most which usually can be the most difficult to teach and they're going to be back in the summer um but that's really truly what we need so that's what's spinning through my mind here you know we're we're offering free breakfast and lunch we're offering transportation in most cases which does include the summer reading camp for sure right yeah to the host schools um and then there's some parents like okay well it's not my usual school but so now there's that anxiety of sending them to a school they don't know you know or a principal they don't know you know what can we do to try to help um Prep Prep them motivate them incentivize them like this is really important and we're putting a lot of our energy and focus into this and money so you don't have to answer that question it's really just what's going through my mind let's let's just make it valuable well attended yes sure thank you chair so I have two questions so um one and and both are a little bit more philosophical because I think the answer to both of them is going to be no but I'm going to ask them anyway uh kind of piggybacking again we're we're doing this chain of piggybacking but what families right now are looking for are their summer options because they're used to having their child in school and then we've got three months off essentially 2 and a half months whatever and so families are looking for day camps they're looking for something and this is essentially is like a free option for 4 hours a day for the entire month of June is Mary an after school program also offering a foray program for four hours a day I think the answer is probably no but I think that also would be an opportunity that we could have could maybe in the future offer for pay because parents are paying for day camps all around this community and Maran after school program is a foray program but that also would give those employees an opportunity to have extra hours over the summer and that would just solve a lot of issues for a lot of families and I think if if a family knew that they could send their child to a summer camp in Maran County Public Schools from 8 to 5: and they just have to handle that you know whatever that looks like they'd have to do the transportation in the afternoon for sure to pick the child up but even if transportation is provided in the morning like it already is going to be and then have to be picked up by 5:00 or whatever that looks like I don't think we're currently doing that but I think if we start focusing a bit more on actually how this fits a need for families more so than what it does for us because obviously we know it helps the students get ready and geared up and they're not losing the the summer learning and all the things that happen but how this is actually a benefit to the families then it switches the conversation switches The Narrative and so instead of going to you know XYZ camp or this vacation bible school here or whatever whatever whatever at least for the month of June we can help those families from 8 to 5 and they're good um so that's kind of a question but an idea my second thought is kind of a question but also in that idea vein um we're focusing really heavy on third grade reading Camp because we're identifying those third graders who score to level one the benefit to progress monitoring right now is we also have star that's progress monitoring all of our youngers so with those younger grades potentially in the future as we're looking to summer school My Hope Is that we have an identified like Kickstart to third grade because we have the kindergarten Kickstart obviously but the kids who really need it are the ones that are heading into third grade so we know what they're already deficient in and we're going to know that because we're progress so undering them in kindergarten first and second grade so if we start thinking of the kick start to first grade the kickart to second grade and we really don't just have it focused on kindergarten only but start earlier I think that that will then potentially lessen our numbers in this third grade reading camp that are the after the fact we already know those kids are deficient what can we do on the advanced side on the Strategic side to say we don't want them to be there so that's kind of a question I don't know if you guys are already doing that but well we have our Rising third grade so for our third graders it's not just the third grade reading camp we have so we also have teachers who host Rising third graders so we do that as well we don't brand it that way per you know third grade Kickstart um but we call it Rising third grade but it does um offer an opportunity for those kids going into third grade to get some of those skills before they get there so we do have that it's just not called that okay yeah and maybe that is the way potentially in the for not now y'all this is good but in the future that we start considering those families they're they're going to know their child's behind I mean they're going to see it grade cards are going to prove it I mean they're going to know it so can we call it Rising second graders Rising third graders rising and then that might even get them even we we just got to think of The Branding how we're getting families to really flip that switch to try to get their kids there so sure can I share yeah all I got I wanted to share something I wanted to share something um to respond to that Dr Campbell for secondary are schools have been real creative this summer because Dr tabbert Irving challenged everyone to be real Innovative this summer and not and offer more than our credit recovery options like we've all stated and so as you can see we have a lot more options in secondary this summer um but what we're able to do is be real creative with our flexible scheduling so even if a student needs to be on campus to recover credits we can also because we have a longer day the student can schedule be scheduled in the morning for the uity lab and then in the afternoon they might take part in one of the other options that we're coding under the enrichment umbrella so we're really hoping to see um a greater turnout because the students will have that enrichment and Remediation opportunity this summer so I wanted to share that and highlight for our families to hear as well that reminded me of our there we go that reminded me of something so um we also task asked every principal um we know that they're doing the rising first and the rising second all the way through Rising fifth but we tasked every principal to come up with one additional Innovative program on their campus we gave them flexibility to decide what that program would look like based on their school's data and need and based on some teacher who maybe had a specific passion or skill set so for example um it could be uh writing boot camp for incoming fourth graders it could be a stem camp or science uh robotics or something for incoming fifth graders um we have Silver River doing three stem camps on three different campuses um with other kids feeding in so it actually is going to impact eight campuses what Silver River is doing they're pushing out to the host some of these host sites to do a specific Camp so each school is going to have something a little bit unique and we're excited uh to report back to you all at the end of the summer as to what those programs were and what the impact of those programs were as well um but they're coming up with some really creative things right now yes that's that's really cool and and well all of these opportunities be um sent out from the schools like you know via text to parents and you know all of those Avenues of modes of communication so that the schools will Target a specific grade level and a specific group of kids based on need and they will send the invites to to the kids for that one specific program right right and that's a lot um for the schools to be doing but it's Target marketing is really what we're talking about here I think and um do you think that there is potential for uh the possibility of you know talking about prioritizing who needs it the most for example the third grade summer reading Camp kids again probably not for this year to be able to say hey parent you know if you send your child with Transportation provided in the mornings then they'll have their camp and then in the afternoons there's going to be map available then that way they've got their workday covered because I think we may be on to something here that some parents don't send their kids because they need an all day option so I I just think it's really great to have these conversations um that's what I love about work sessions you know they sometimes they turned into some really great brainstorming and and you guys have so many excellent and Innovative things already and we'll just build on it so that's pretty cool I guess I'm still waiting to know if you think there's Merit to that oh absolutely I think there's Merit to that yes so incentivizing really I mean is what I'm hearing from you all if we're not getting the participation in third grade summer camp what else can we do to entice parents to sign their so absolutely necessary for them to come so thank you Mr post for stimulating even more creative yes conversation all right any other questions from the board all right good deal any public comment all right we're running out of public all right hearing none we'll go on to what I believe is our final agenda item for today Dr tubert irvy yes it is and we'll have Miss rle introduce Miss Brower in regards to the 2023 2024 recommended instructional material for adoption for 16 specified courses all right so today we're bringing forth the recommended titles for the K12 science material in or instructional materials adoption I have Miss Kelly Brower with me and she's going to share some information on the process and also the superintendent's recommendations um I just want to give her a shout out and thank her because it is a very rigorous process but Kelly makes it look seamless um throughout every step of the way so I'm going to turn it over to Kelly thank you good afternoon Miss brow you get the privilege of bringing us home yeah I'm the finale that's right that's how I'm thinking of it all right so good afternoon chair thrower Vice chair Conrad school board members and Deputy superintendent Dr Talbert Irving I'm uh it's unusual to see me twice in one year for adoptions but that is exciting because it means we have wrapped up our K12 social studies we're going to wrap up our accelerated math and we're wrapping up our K12 science so we'll be uh in the 25 24 25 school year we will have lots of brand new curriculum to meet the needs of all of our students and teachers all right so it always begins with a call for publisher submission so this adoption was open January 8th for the Publishers we do use Ed credible as our evaluation platform that notifies all publishers of Mary and County's intent to adopt and exactly what courses we are adopting for we had an excellent response to our call so that's always exciting then we open up our district evaluation committees that was open January 24th through February 21st that's where curriculum ese esol technology they look at all the things making sure that the textbooks are going to meet the needs of all of our students and all of our teachers um this year of course we had Elementary and secondary involved because this is a K12 adoption we also make sure that compliance of all of the proposals from the Publishers are adequate and meeting um all state and federal statute and then we move Publishers forward for our adoption [Applause] committees so for science K5 the Publishers that were move forward were Discovery Education that is Science Tech book I did not make a typo that is the C the name of their book and then McGraw Hill Florida Science grades K through five for Middle School grades grades 6 through eight Discovery Education science textbook techbook mcra Hill and savis learning company um of course we are in ELP District so I just do like to point that out um sixth grade is Earth space seventh grade is life and eighth grade is physical so we do not look at an integrated curriculum in 6 through 8 the Publishers in 912 there's a lot of them because we're doing quite a few courses in high school so for biology we move forward mcra National Geographic and savis for both regular and honors then for chemistry mcra National Geographic and savath so all of our uh reviewers reviewed all three Publishers for physical science we move forward mcra Hill for environmental science we have mcra Hill National Geographic and savis for anatomy and physiology we move forward savis learning for anatomy and then in physics we move forward mcra Hill and savis you see the offering is quite large Marine Science where you move forward mcra Hill and National Geographic so our Review Committee is always up to 15 members it is made up of community members which are appointed by you all by the school board members our parent members I always post a district application on the homepage of Marans schools.net to entice any parents to become involved in this process and then of course our teacher members we had an enormous amount of applications which allows us to have the greatest diversity in our committee for not only east south Northwest but also with all of the certifications right we look for those gifted certifications ESC reading um esol and then um very specialized certifications when we get into high school so the timeline um a lot of this has passed but we did have um viewing opportunities for the instructional materials for the reviewers we do um bring in all the print they do review mostly digital through at credible but it is always nice for them to come in and see the textbooks and really um get to know them so that was open from February 21st through March 31st March 28th was um Community review in school administrator we collect recommendations and comments that are left with us and we bring that to the committee at Westport when they're discussing and getting ready to vote on April 1st we were at Westport HIgh School where the Committees meet in person there was robust discussion especially in 9912 um and we bring back all that Community feedback and any other feedback because I'm very open to anybody calling me at any time and providing any insight that they would like um whether it's a teacher who's not on the committee or anybody in the community because any feedback is good feedback in my mind so the committee recommendation process um of course starts with the review of the materials and feedback by committee members they work um individually they work as a group um we try to make sure we involve all stakeholders then once they um get together and vote those recommendations are then provided to our superintendent Dr gullet and then um what I bring to the board today in workshop and in future votes will be the recommendation of instructional materials for adoption so policy 2521 is is the policy that allows the superintendent to make these recommendations so now I'm very happy to bring you superintendent recommendations you will see that we have both what was selected and an alternate that is because we do not have state list yet um in 26 27 of course we'll have new legislation which will give us State list in July so we'll have a list prior to starting the adoption um as of right now we're in the older system so on one monitor in my office I keep up the doe instructional material waiting for list it's like it's like my Super Bowl day I mean it's like the day of all days is when State list comes out so we do bring both um the first choice and the alternate so that we don't have to reopen the adoption so for K5 um we are recommending mcra Hill Florida Science K through five our ultimate will be Discovery Education in again ELP right we don't use that integrated curriculum in 6 through 8 we are recommending mcra Hill with the alternate Discovery Education in grades 9 through 12 for biology we are recommending savis Learning Company with the alternate being uh mcra Hill in chemistry we are recommending mcra Hill and by we I really mean the Review Committee is recommending mcra Hill and for chemistry National Geographic for Physical Science mcra Hill for environmental science uh mcra Hill with the alternate being savis Learning Company anatomy and physiology savis Learning Company for physics mcra Hill and the alternate being savis for Marine Science MRA Hill and the alternate being National Geographic learning sagee so we all know this is a very long process so the next steps um after today April 11th will be May 14th there'll be a public hearing for the 23 24 recommended instructional materials for adoption this is public comment only no vote on May 28th we will have a public hearing for the actual vote vote and I'm sorry May 14th will actually open up no I'm sorry today actually opens up our 20-day window for public viewing so those links will go on our website today May 28th will be the vote um and you will have 16 votes because each subject has to be a single line action item I do apologize but that is in statute so I'm just giving you a heads up now um and then we will open up our formal 30-day objection window uh July 9th we would come back with a hearing officer if need be um otherwise hearing none after 30 days I will go ahead and order um of course we always order from fsbd our Florida depository um and of course our goal will be to get these materials into our schools as soon as possible we would we do have um you know the luck of K5 being done and so as soon as I can start my orders for this year we will get K5 barcoded and that out to school um and that will leave us the opportunity to really only be focused on pushing out science when it starts to arrive so today or early tomorrow on Maran schools.net on our homepage under instructional materials I will uh post the recommended instructional materials for adoption this is just a draft um there will be specific login instructions provided for each so that anyone in our community that would like to look at the materials being recommended may start to do that and I will turn it over to Dr Talbert iring thank you I just wanted to give Miss Brower a thank you for all the hard work that she's done with the instructional adoption process it is a mammoth job to do and she's done it with Grace and integrity and so we're very appreciative of that you thank you thank you very much um any comments from the board of I just wanted to Echo Dr Talbert Irving's comments because um board one of the community members that I had chosen for textbook review contacted me over spring break that there was a challenge occurring and so I sent an email saying my hope is you're checking email over spring break like I am and Miss Brower contacted the Community member I mean I sent it like 5:30 at night on a Monday of spring break and she contacted the Community member and let me know you know by the next morning that they had gotten everything worked out so um thank you for that working diligently through the process and ensuring that uh our community members are engaged our families are engaged our teachers are engaged in the process and there really shouldn't be many questions about the process because it's really diligently done and so kudos to you thanks thank you board member Campbell any other comments I have a quick question um so as these supplies are ordered and I know you're waiting waiting on several pieces of that and a lot of times that has our books coming in at the beginning of the school year we have because we have so many will there be training on these available for teachers during this prior school starting we do we actually already have um trainers arranged for actually uh why Amina will have their own inservice day and I've had my Publishers holding Trainers for them and now I know the date is July 18th so my Publishers will be happy to release some trainers um additionally for our inservice day um on August 6 and 7th we will bring the trainers in to teach the teachers the new curriculum so of course we don't want them to start the school year without knowing their product and that's typically when that would happen so even though science will come in late as soon as I start to put in purchase orders at fsbd I will get digital rights um and so we will right away be able to have digital access um and then with yamina being a yearound school the priority will be I will drop ship all of their materials to yamina we will go barcode at yamina so that they can literally be like this sets barcoded push it out this sets done push it out um we have all that in mind and um it's always my goal that teachers and students have everything they need by the first day of school with the fact with the legislation moving the dates for the 20 26 27 adoption cycle that will make it a little easier for us of course um are there any summer opportunities um to learn and get familiar with the new science textbooks so we cannot provide training for anything until we come out of board so technically we don't end our 30-day objection and I don't have a board meeting scheduled until July 9th so technically I can't even talk to the public Publishers about bringing in those science trainers I mean they can hope that it all works out and be kind and hold but I always have to be careful that none of the actions that we're doing look like we're in any Jeopardy of violating statute so we're always going to stay very on board um but I know that um from speaking with Miss brazington and um Dr Drummond in secondary I know that in addition to in in addition to the inservice training they will will plan um additional training opportunities through teams throughout you know the first couple months of school until they get real comfortable with it thank you and I appreciate that I just from a teacher perspective it's really difficult and I know it can't be helped I'm not placing blame on anyone but because of the timeline but it is really difficult to learn and get familiar with a new program as school is starting so I just wanted to see if there were any other opportunities where teachers can get their hands on it even if it is digitally to look through their units and do their long range planning for the year um and it it looks like this first year is just going to be well like I said before as soon as we put in a purchase order to fsbd I get digital rights so we can push out the digital and they can start exploring the the really great thing is we are not pushing forward any new Publishers and so all of our teachers have been in their digital world before because once you start to recognize a Publishers platform you become very familiar with it and you know how they organize you know where to find um so that should be a little easier for the teachers but of course we're going to do everything we can but never break statute thank thank you thank you Vice chair did you have anything board member J um not really thank you for this I know that it's a heavy load to lift and it's um it you're never going to make everyone happy and there's going to be people people who share sentiments that are um not appreciative of the book we chose and so that's why I love how comprehensive the process is now because we can lean on the fact that we have included as many stakeholders as as would like to participate essentially and so um and I would just continue to always encourage people who want to have a strong voice in the process to participate when we're going through this adoption so that they can have their voice heard and represented um because the goal is to put the best product in front of the students so thank you thank you board member James and yes Miss Brower you know clearly the area of textbooks is is your Niche your area of expertise and your your passion and I just wanted to reiterate my appreciation and also Echo board Vice chair Conrad's you know that sense of urgency I'm glad that the state is finally acknowledging it too you know that we don't need to be waiting you know two three four weeks into the school year to to get the books and so I'm just really glad to to see that finally happening and I also wanted to acknowledge too just as far as the timeline and the comprehensive work that it takes to get this in front of the school board to even be adopted as a collaboration between you and Miss Martinez and others that I'm sure I don't know about so thank you you know to the team uh for this it's so foundational for the success of our district thank you right anything else for us all right we're good all right is there any public comment hearing [Laughter] none I think we're at wrapup Time Dr Talbert Irving anything from your chair you'd like to share sure on behalf of the superintendent we want to thank all the presenters today also board it was a pleasure being with you today and I thank you for what you do for our staff students and Community is very appreciated likewise Miss Martinez all right Dr Campbell sure so um Bard I actually do have just one quick thing that I wanted to bring up and I'm hoping this is going to be quick so uh yesterday I had the opportunity to ride on one of our buses so I know that uh other board members have taken that opportunity in the past but I um chose to ride on a bus yesterday that actually is already in a three- tiered model and the bus services Oola Middle School Forest High School and Fort King Middle School so I wanted to see what a three- tiered busing model looked like so in addition to Mr oranic and I are going to debrief on on some questions and thoughts that I had along the way um because that it was the afternoon route so let me first say that it was afternoon I didn't get up at 6:00 a.m. and go with them even though we were up here at 7:00 a.m. today um but I did not do that yesterday today um I just wanted to make an observation because I know that this board had a lot of conversation over a week um um a few weeks ago regarding school start times and how we're going to the three- tiered model and the reason we're going to the three- tiered model is because of Transportation in addition to statute changes that are now requiring high schools to start at 8:30 middle schools to start at 8:00 Etc and I just want to say that after writing yesterday in that three- tiered model I personally believe that there is a possibility that Oola Middle School would not need to move start time and just allow me to elaborate just a bit so we already are using the three- tiered model their start time currently is at 7:50 a.m. and if we just move it to 8:00 amm it would still afford those drivers that are already in place to still get to Forest on time we we got there with 20 minutes to spare and then they would still be able to maintain the Fort King because Forest is staying at 8:30 and Fort King is staying at 9 whatever time they're staying at um I I do have if if this is you know a moot point and the board has no interest in even asking for this consideration um then I can leave it there but but I I do want to say that it's already a model that is working at this at the times that those three schools are already operating so if we were to pursue an opportunity that Oola middle school as the only Middle School would stay at essentially an 8:00 a.m. start time then that would take a load off of Transportation because they wouldn't have to change those routes already every other single route that is going to have to be done in Maran County Public Schools transportation is going to have to go to a three- tiered model and this one is already working and so those drivers are already doing that and it won't be as simple as those drivers just picking up 8th Street Elementary because 8th Street Elementary only has one bus and Oola has 12 so I know we've already voted on it I understand that there was a lot going on that week that from the time that we were introduced to the school start times and then the vote in that one week and unfortunately there were a lot of things impacting district one schools from wyomina going to a year- round school the possibility of 8 Street and Oola becoming a joint K8 school lakee high school going to a seven period days lots of things that were floating around and parents certainly reaching out to me about all of the different things so I did not have the opportunity at that time to do what I did yesterday um but I did just want to offer as a board member representing two of the three schools I saw yesterday that I could see an opportunity for Oola to actually start at 8: a.m. next year and it not impact Transportation which was as the team presented the primary reason that we moved to the three- tiered school starttime scenario so that's I those are my comments today I I don't know if there's any interest whatsoever in the board to even open up that potential but I know again as the district one representative I have a file full of Oola parents that were super concerned about what that was going to look like and then everybody's attention switched to the e8th street Oola conversation and so then it became okay well instead of that all right I guess I can live with this whereas again it was presented to us saying the reason we needed to go to the three tier and every school starting at the exact same every Elementary every middle and every high at the exact same time was because of a three- tiered busing model and we already have it working effectively so those are my comments thank you for M ciman and I can weigh in on this because I had the exact same conversation it was generated not from a parent but from the Transportation team that has been driving this three- tiered route for many years they're very uh very familiar with the kids um they're very comfortable with each other it's it's a section that is appears to be you know a well-oiled machine so to speak and when those areas are identified um it is important to take it forward to transportation to you know to make sure that the right ears are hearing it in case there's opportunity there because isn't it our mission to to make help make things better and and that's what this is all about now some people may say well then there might be other uh situations across the district similar to this that are already doing a a three- tier type model that they would like to see pre preserve for for all these same good reasons and I don't want to be afraid of that I would rather have things that are working well brought to our attention to at least be given their due diligence and then see where that takes us as a as a board member I don't feel comfortable at this point saying I'm ready to put it on an agenda I would like to see it come as a recommendation from Dr gullet and and the via the transportation staff so they have a chance to look at it uh for all the reasons you said and for all the same reasons I believe it seems almost like a no-brainer um but that's from where I'm sitting from where you're sitting and and actually I've heard of from someone that's actually sitting in the seat so I think there's Merit to let's let's explore it a little more so maybe if you could bring that back to Dr Gull and she can take it from there and then come back with a with a recommendation can do okay thank you all right great uh Dr James um thank you everybody for their work today um and the four different presentations we had it shows how comprehensive and varied our work is every single week uh I wanted to bring something to everyone's attention I know uh Dr Campbell and I have both touched on it um that I can recall the warehouse has now been vacant for a couple months and I have been communicating with David Hurley about what the process is looking like to list that property for sale and um I touched B with him yesterday as to where we are and what is to come and so I wanted to share that with you all and then make a request so he shared that at this point we have three appraisals in various stages one is completed and the report is received a second is ordered and the inspection walkr has been completed the report is nearing completion and the third has a purchase order pending per statute appraisals must be obtained prior to or simultaneously with the receipt of bids so um essentially we're waiting on this third appraisal to come through and in three or four weeks is the anticipated completion that he provided to me in an email so we have to have a a meeting of our lease incorporation to move forward in the process of selling the property so I would request to the board that we have a we make a very conservative date and put it on our calendar for the leasing Corporation to meet doesn't have to be next week it could be in six weeks but I think that acknowledging a date where we expect things to be done so that we can continue to move forward in this process is suitable and um while I can understand the complexities of bureaucracy I think that also setting some deadlines and trying to stick to them and acknowledging to our private contract contractors that we're working with for appraisals and such that we have this deadline this is the deadline we need this by the board has a meeting to discuss it if we have to reschedule the meeting we have to reschedule the meeting but I would like to set a deadline and an expectation so that we can have because the leasing Court meeting is only just going to acknowledge whether or not we want to sell the piece of property and start the process it's not even going to be the culmination so um my request would be that attached to a board meeting sometime maybe near the end of may we also have a lease incorporation meeting so that is my request to the board thank you um board member James Attorney powers do you want to weigh in on this we needed to get your comments today yes everything she's just said is pretty well accurate to what we need to be doing and how we need to go about it what I would say is did I'm sorry I heard an echo I thought um what I would say is that we uh uh need to also have a title search done I have um retained already our uh real estate outside Council Who does these sorts of transactions who also has a title company and as an escrow agent and can do everything that we need to which will save us considerably when it comes time for the process um of doing all those events as well and also works within our um within our board arranged and approved schedule for pay for professionals so um the title search should not take very long that's a process I just have to get uh we've sent over a um sent over a contract for services for them as of today for them to redline and then I'll have that ready since it will be under threshold for the superintendent and the board chair's signature this week or early next so um I would say that I don't know how long the appraisals are going to take I know this requested some time ago and one's done one is coming soon one apparently is still in purchase order phases I couldn't comment on how long those are going to take the things that I need um shouldn't take very long during that uh meeting of the lease incorporation we will need to uh explore also uh or actually during the Schoolboard meeting we'll need to explore some of the options for how we would want to um uh how we would want to make notice and purchase of the property for sale so um I will also get feedback from our outside Council on that factor as well so obviously transparently transparency is Paramount is what everybody wants so um I'll keep you posted I would say setting a date that is within uh a four to six week time frame is fine I need to be able to advertise it um 10 uh well it'll be 10 days out because of uh as long as we can get it on with a regular board member we don't regular board meeting we don't need to have the uh the rule development time frame that we have the question would be whether the board wants to have separate and discret meetings or whether it wants to do as we've done before where we open with a special meeting of the school board for the business of saying what per what we're going to be asking in leas corporation then close that meeting go into a leasing Corporation meeting then close that meeting and go back into the original meeting we can do it all in one meeting like we did recently then I'm fine with that because that's really fun to put together those scripts and I've really gotten you know good at yes we're getting refined on there I have a question about the real estate attorney paying a real estate attorney is that in lie of having a a real estate agent that specializes in commercial properties Market this prop you know what is that called it can be at minimum what we need to do is have someone who is going to review and draft our contract for sale because real estate is a field that is a specialty field it has quite a bit of things that even changed in the last year or two um in addition if there are other services that can add value to that that we have um an attorney who can provide that's what we would be looking for as well title search escrow those sorts of things as well and uh McGraw Robert mutarelli are the firm that we are looking at that uh they've got a good reputation locally and uh that firm would be able to do everything that we would need for them to do including uh yes as you mentioned um doing advertising of it doing uh the ability to have um uh the ability to have our um the fees for commissions there we go look searching for the word there have commissions either greatly reduced or eliminated um they may be able to do all of that for us at a cost cost that saves us you know much more than what we are actually paying them so um you know of course whenever I have an outside canel agreement they always know that I'm I'm the one who's who's uh the skin Flint who is looking at every single every single dollar that comes in and making sure that it's being spent very wisely so um well and just personally I like that idea because then we have one person that we're going to to you know crack the whip so to speak like you know oh this one's waiting on that one that one's waiting on this one and then the time just keeps continuing down the road and no one's going to be surprised that I'm all about expediency trying to you know get this done but I also you know once we begin to put things out there then people are going to be like okay okay okay so it would be my preference to not schedule too far up because I don't want to change it I I want to be ready I wanted to schedule it I want to put the work in to get it advertised and not have to do all that all over again so that would be my request chair I have a question for attorney powers um but also I'm looking at May 28th board meeting so perhaps May 28th could be the day that that's a Tuesday at the end of May I don't know if that'll work but regardless my question for attorney Powers though is how does the statute regarding Charter School kind of first WR of refusal on property how does that impact us on this particular Arrangement uh well that that property has already been designated Surplus okay um I believe so if not that's one of the things we'll do between now and that time um and it would need to be property that's that is uh uh has no function as for for school use and that's what we have already so we've already looked at the policy as it pertains to that policy and statute um and even within different interpretations of Statute we're we're fine on that front so that was one of the first things I wanted to look into to make sure that we had our ducks in a row but I know that Miss Dobbins has been looking into similar things along the way as well we proactively in advance made sure that we also have our uh board policy was updated with Florida statute and made sure that we have the you know interpretations are clear within board policy regarding that as well perfect thank you okay so you mentioned May 28th yeah let me take a look at that just to make sure that we don't have anything else that is pending with legal for that time frame that I need to I don't believe so I I'm not going to be present for that board meeting but that just means there'll be four board members here assuming everyone else is here which is fine because then the next one would be June 11th and we are today at uh April 11th so May 11th June 11th that's eight weeks not the four to six weeks but again you know these kinds of things grow a lot of legs and create a lot of tentacles and I am all about getting a a date on but for what I just shared previously to there's so much that has to be done behind the scenes and I would prefer staff not having to do it twice yeah I'm not hardpressed on it being in any matter of time I mean experience you want to get a date that we can but I want to have a date to strive forward I think in the absence of the date we're just coasting and we we have we got we're I mean a couple million dollars would be nice and so I don't want to just continue to Coast if we can set a date and and um that is achievable for us to reach towards because again it is just the start of the process it is not the end of the process by any means right well and I think that May 28th is very reasonable because it is fairly close but also that gives us basically six weeks to have those things done and that if if if the third appraisal is something that becomes a little bit of hold up we can sort of light a fire there to try to get that done as soon as possible um and I have no doubts that um the the firm will be able to work with this that time frame as well to get done what they need because at this point what we mainly need is the title search and they may tell us another thing we need as well but they can get that done quickly because the question an operative question what we going into that meeting for uh of the leasing Corporation is specifically to ask for the leasing corporation's permission to proceed forward with sale and closing and those sort of things we may not have biders yet buyers yet we not have anything set up yet the start of that process begins on that day um and then the rest of the process generally progresses quite quickly once you've got people who are um who are you know actual valid buyers who are U moving forward sounds good and I know that you've already made some significant Headway so far so uh yeah let's I'm all for it okay census sure that that's great that was that was just something I was looking forward to accomplishing and um I've worked with Mr mcra um closely for years um and he's a he's a great attorney he's very knowledgeable very down to earth so he would he'd be my top pick for a real estate attorney in Maring County so um I was happy to see you share that that was who we were using um I don't really have anything else um personally I to Dr Campbell's point about oel Middle School my question would be um there are 13 buses at a Ola how many of those are triple tiered at least eight at least eight of them and I i' only know of the eight for sure but I I think that I I honestly think almost all of them are so my question to staff would be because I'm I'm not gonna personally I'm not going to completely get rid of an of an opportunity if it is valid and it represents what's best for the collective however if 50% of the routes or 60% of the routes are one way and it's already working but the other 40% are not those 40% represent A disruption that could be more impactful than the impact of not maintaining the existing routes in the triple tier that exists with the current start times and so it's about for me like the cost Aggregate and not about cost money as much as it is like human capital and so I I do believe that if that was an option it would have been brought forward so we can revisit it absolutely I'm fine with revisiting it and having staff revisit it but I do believe that if it was an option it would have been brought forward that's just how I feel in my heart right yes I I agree with you I I'm not comfortable making a decision from up here but I am comfortable saying hey was this something that you know and maybe it has and May it hasn't stranger things well and I I did I did reach out to miss Dobbins and she said four of the buses are not tiered at OMS so eight or nine are tiered and four are not but the purpose of the tier is to eliminate routes and to eliminate the necessity for drivers so four buses not being tiered would equate to four essentially four drivers because they wouldn't be available they would have to be unique they're now going to represent a completely unique route well all the routes I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt but all all the routes are going to be unique and and so those four will just be tiered with a middle school that starts at 9:20 is what would happen because if we had you know I'm presuming that there I'm sorry yeah that's fine that's fine say let's let's let the the heads that are closest to yeah yeah no 100% I was just sharing that they're not all triple tiered so it's not a cleancut solution sure right but it is the majority so thank you right sorry I just I feel like we're just kind of going down a rabbit hole here we we don't have all of the intricacies of the information but it's all important they're all important considerations you know I don't think any of us sitting up here are interested in derailing a process but sometimes things do come up and I don't want to miss on that all right anything else I'm sorry I didn't mean to no no I mean I just reiterate I think the the the solution that was brought forward the first time was comprehensive and addressed the global needs for our district that's what I believe to be accurate so unless overwhelming data shows otherwise I'm I'm not going to be incredibly supportive of of reopening the wound got it Al righty um what your com yes very briefly I do want to thank our teams today um all all of the work that was presented as it's been a busy long long productive day um but from insurance to all of the Charter Schools summer school Staffing and instructional materials for science uh we really have covered a lot of ground and just thank you to everyone um that worked on any piece of that um it's very much appreciated and then I had two questions I'd like um just some data on um when we did the third grade reading Camp last year how many participated and how many students were able to move on because they went to Camp so how successful was it I'd like to know that and then I'd also like to know um many of our schools are doing the second grade gifted screener um I know some are doing it today and tomorrow and I would like we did Pilot We piloted that last summer is that correct so out of the students that were screened last summer what percentage did we have that turn out to be gifted out of that I'm just I'm just curious all right and that's all I have thank you all right thank you V sh comings Vice chair comings Vice chair Conrad it's getting into the longer part of the day but he was vice chair once before so at least all right I really don't have um anything else just to again extend appreciation and gratitude for everyone that has uh ridden this journey with us throughout this long day including everyone up up here um I'm just looking forward to getting over trying to get over to uh label some black stallion books because there's 3,500 of them and also the acceleration Academy graduation is tonight at 5 o'clock over at their site at the Cascades so that's all I have and if no one else has anything for the good of the cause we will look at a journey at 1:40 p.m. it's before 2 o00 which was kind of my goal so we'll call it a win all right thank you everybody [Music] e e