##VIDEO ID:Y4-vNuj8ptg## you guys look fantastic and so patriotic we're excited to have you guys here tonight the ridge viw ele cougar sound directed by Mrs Williams includes students from the 3D through sixth grades these students meet one day a week after school and also work on musical pieces in the classroom this evening's selections are to honor and recognize the brave men and women who have served our country with a performance of familiar patriotic music your voices are welcome to join the Cougars voices in this performance but before they begin we're going to have our invocation and Pledge of Allegiance and we are uh grateful to have with us tonight Pastor Faith Perry from Fleming Island United Methodist Church to lead us in the invocation and the pledge so please stand with me would you pray with me almighty God we ask this evening that you bless the work of our school board and we also ask that you bless these children and their teachers and the things that go on in each and every classroom that all children will know that they are loved and encouraged to be their best selves we also this week Lord ask for the blessing over the men and women of our military that are actively serving and who are retired we thank you that they have kept us safe so now Lord Pro um give your voice through these conversations and um as things are agreed and challenged may they be good work to serve our County your name we pray amen would you join me in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all bless [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] toess America myet God bless America my sweet [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] e for [Music] [Music] [Music] spe [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Applause] Freedom fre freedom I am free freedom freedom I am free freedom freedom I am free I'm americ Army Navy [Music] wekk you we're americ [Applause] [Applause] let's give them one more round of applause great job rdge viw we also want to thanks uh give thanks to rid viw Elementary art and Miss Urbano for the beautiful artwork on display this evening you'll see it back here in the um my left your right corner of the room their work um showcases students from kindergarten through sixth grade it highlights techniques including collage optical illusions two-dimensional art and three-dimensional art students have worked hard to create these pieces exploring the elements of value space line and color these projects are a tribute to those who have served and are currently serving in our Armed Forces we thank you for your bravery and sacrifices and are profoundly grateful for all you've done to protect our freedom so thank you Rie for honoring our veterans tonight all right I'll Now call to order the November 7th meeting of the Clay County School Board we want to take this time to welcome our citizens and and um thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to attend tonight's board meeting this meeting is our opportunity as your elected representatives to collaborate openly and make decisions that will decide the future direction of our public schools and the education of our children here in Klay County if you wish to address the board on an agenda item there will be an opportunity to speak for 3 minutes please fill out a card located at the side entry door indicating the specific item number or topic you wish to speak about and turn it in promptly to one of our officers if you have items that you'd like to present to the school board or superintendent please hand them to an officer who will distribute them accordingly speakers who wish to address specific agenda items will be heard following the recognitions and awards portion of the meeting speakers wishing to address non-agenda items will be heard following the business portion of the meeting after the adoption of the consent agenda no additional cards will be accepted once the board moves to the public comment section under presentations from the audience your participation is always welcomed and appreciated so the first item on our agenda we're in the recognitions and awards portion and we have a recognition of the 2024 2025 Clay County principal of the Year Mr brosi David Broski my address is on file so it's my pleasure here to announce who our uh principal of the year is but before I do that just a couple quick things you know there's a lot of research as to what what it takes to have a successful school and when you look at the all of the journals information related to it the number one effect size uh indicator of a successful school is the classroom teacher that's number one scientifically proven number two anybody want to guess what it is it's the principle is the leadership of the school is number two right behind the classroom teacher when it comes to the success of a school with student achievement so being a being a principal is a big deal I you know I've done it three times it's one of the most challenging jobs there is you're sort of like a mayor of a small City and you're everything to everybody everything that happens there the good stuff that happens of course it's you that did it and everything that bad that happens there it's your fault right so that's the principal ship in in a nutshell so we have a a very Tal group of principles in Clay County and so you have to recognize one and that's what we're doing here this evening our our um principal of the Year came to as a teacher in 1993 French and Spanish teacher in Baltimore Maryland moved down here to Clay County in 2006 where she was an ESC teacher she also was a Sprint teacher which was helping College uh teachers acclimate into the teaching world she was an AP at Patterson Elementary School principal of time since 2020 imagine being principal and we throw you out there as soon as the pandemic starts I thank you for the fun right well guess guess what I became superintendent then too so so I joined you in the in that regard uh the school TI Elementary School is an a school under her leadership we've had a 12-point gain in ela for our lower quarter uh lower quartile students a math gain of 8% 14% uh in 14 point increase in science I'd say more than that there's a lot of Grace and professionalism when when you just meet Sarah Brennan and I'll just tell you as a as a as a superintendent I don't even know if I should say this Sarah Brennan handles her stuff at her school okay and so without further Ado your principal of of the year Sarah Brennan TI elementary [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] school that's my principal [Applause] next we have our uh AP of the Year let me just say being an AP when I was an AP I always said to the principal I want to be a principal and he would say to me why do you want to be a principal and I say because I want to say yes every once in a while being the AP means that you're in charge with a lot of stuff that uh that nobody else really want wants to do but is really necessary for the school to run effectively so it's one of those thankless jobs that occur and let me just say something about this young lady she came to us uh as a teacher at Oakleaf High School I was I was principal uh there at the time she's uh moved up to an AP at Oakleaf High School where she's been there since uh 2018 aside from that she just excels at everything she does when she's a coach she's a state championship coach when she's a player she's a state state championship player right everything she touches seems to turn to Gold because one she's got a tremendous work ethic there's no secret to being successful the secret to being successful is hard work and nobody puts in more work more time and does it uh more effectively than Christina Thompson our AP of the year come on up Christina [Applause] y next we're going to uh this the Board of Education released its Schools of Excellence you may say well what is a school of excellence well I thought it' be great if I explain what the School of Excellence is a school of excellence is a school that has that scores in the 80th percentile for two out of the previous three years so what does that mean you know I couldn't resist some good data to share with you so Florida we have 4,230 schools of those 774 are considered to be Schools of Excellence 52 districts out of 67 have at least one School of Excellence Clay County is is uh privileged to have 11 so the Statewide average would be 15% if you did the math that's roughly 25% of our schools are Schools of Excellence in Clay County which is fantastic so I'm going to read a little bit about each each one a couple quick things we're going to ask the principls many of the principles are out there if it's not the principal if you're an AP representative come up when I call your school first on our list is Discovery Oaks Discovery Oaks I saw Mr herholtz up there the whole looks like the whole team's coming up here from Discovery Oaks how about this overall math proficiency up 13 points above the state average at Discovery Oaks we'll move through this but this really is very noteworthy next we have Fleming Island Elementary School I saw I saw mallerie here how about this purple star school math proficiency was 90% 90% it's one of the top in the [Applause] next we have Keystone Heights Elementary I see principal turbyville coming up here how about this overall math proficiency 8 8% above the state average ke [Applause] next we have Lake Asbury Elementary I see uh principal Rocha and her team heading this way while they're coming here 17 points above the state average in math proficiency at Lake Asbury they're doing quite well next we have Orange Park Elementary which I guess they have bragging rights being the number one Elementary School in the State of Florida Tyler wood principal [Laughter] you know right behind them not shabby e either Patterson Elementary the number 10 Elementary School in the whole state of Florida [Applause] next we have Shadow laon Elementary Shadow laon Elementary okay just say a couple things 88% of their of their um third grade ELA students above the great by the way the state proficiency average 55 they're at 88 so they do a fantastic job let me just also say a great culture there been out there many times very inviting to families [Applause] next Thunderbolt Elementary thank you I saw Amy and the team here their overall math Proficiency in 2024 84 the state average 58 not that we're competitive they're followed by Green Cove junr cougar Pride come on green code 88% in Civics it's 23% higher than the state average next we have Lakeside Junior High their Civics was 90 23 points above the state average last but not least this very School Fleming Island High School I saw Mr Pitman okay how about this biology 91% proficient in biology at Fleming Island high school that's 25 points above the state average [Applause] come [Applause] now Madam chair I'm going to go off script a little bit cuz I do have one more thing I want to do while I have the microphone you know it's tradition that that um each year when a board member leaves we give a trophy a plaque something of that nature and so many of you know that this is Miss bowa's last last meeting as as a school board uh member just wanted to say a couple things and we did get a we did get a little gift you know we usually give a plaque and Miss Bowa made it adamant that there will be no plaques that she wanted an apple uh and so you know let me just say this Miss Miss Bola uh we Cherry fifth grade teacher from 1999 through 2005 Argy elementary teacher 2005 to 2016 school board member 2016 to 2024 no doubt touched the hearts of many people in in Clay County has been a wonderful board member for our students in our community it says Mary Bola Clay County School Board 2016 to 2024 and in quotations here comes the son Mary Bola come on down [Applause] before we take a little picture uh let me just say this you know I I you you can see from the reaction of people in the crowd that Mary Bola is beloved by so many within the Clay County school system and so I started to ask people like why that is and I of course I got convoluted answers because we're Educators so I when I ask people the common answer that I got is you know Miss Bola gets it so I talked to of the principles I said well what is it about Miss Bola and they go she gets it and I'm like okay when I heard that same thing said three times I became curious like what does it mean to get it like what does that mean and so when I asked people that they said one she shows up at events and supports the people within the school system and I thought okay people within the school system appreciate that she also recognizes there's always room for improvement but knows that folks within the school system will continue to work hard and work with a servant's heart to to improve she recognizes that I think we all recognize you can always improve right no matter how how hard you try there's always something to improve but she recognizes the excellent work that's done and supports people when you go to an event with Mary Bola it's not often I get outworked in the room but Mary Bola Mary Bola outworks me in the room and going out and talking to people shaking their hand and just saying hey how you doing is there something I could do for you tell me a little bit about what you do like and showing an interest for that and I think that over the years that's generated all of the Goodwill that you see so I I hope whether it's in the cabin in in uh Wisconsin up there by my by up there by my son or on the boat or wherever you go in retirement I hope you leave Clay County Schools one with an understanding of the impact that you've had in Clay County schools on so many people uh within our school system so without any more I know some tissues will probably come out tonight one big round of applause from Mary Bolo man that was a lot of Celebration so many good things so many good people here in Klay County the next item on our agenda is uh Safety and Security quarterly report and we have Mr Matt boak our director of Safety and Security to provide that update and I get to follow that superintendent honorable school board and members of the Clay County Community per section 101. 21213 c of the Florida Statutes the office of safe schools is required to provide quarterly reports to each school district superintendent in school safety specialist in identifying the number and percentage of schools including Charter Schools inspected or reinspected during that quarter and the number and percentage of inspected schools that no that had no school safety requirement deficiencies the school safety specialist shall present each quarterly report to the district school board in a public meeting our results are as follows as of October 1st 2024 the end of quarter 1 ccds had four schools inspected or reinspected by the DOE office of safe schools this represents 99.09% of our schools all 100% of the four inspected schools were found to not have any school safety requirement deficiencies thank you to the board the superintendent our employees and students who continue to make clay a safe place to go to school thank you thank you Mr boak all right uh we have a School showcase tonight with Ridge View Elementary School you guys have already enjoyed their art and music and now we'll hear from their principal Miss Courtney Schumacher to tell us about all the great things that are happening inside the [Applause] school okay all right good evening school board members and superintendent brosi my name is Courtney shimer and I'm thrilled to be here tonight um to share the wonderful things that are happening at Bridgeview Elementary this is the beginning of my second year as principal and joining me tonight is Miss Clark our assistant principal yes along with sever several of our dedicated riew teachers um staff we had lots of students and families here tonight too so thank you guys I'd like to take a moment to thank Miss Williams our Music Teacher her students in the cougar sound and Mr Bano for the beautiful performances and artwork displayed tonight it is truly the people B who make Ridge viw Elementary such a special place so thank you for welcoming us here tonight I'd like to begin by sharing a few quick facts about ridg view our school has a proud 41-year history serving just under 600 students and supported by over 100 staff members we are a title one school and serve as a satellite location for students with intellectual disabilities and varying exceptionalities we're proud to have a diverse student body with six languages represented across our [Music] campus in my first year at ridy elementary we celebrated many accomplishments we saw growth in our end of the year Ela scores for the 23 24 school year with third grade ELA proficiency ranking number four among other Title One schools additionally we completed our inaugural year as an ntss Pilot School where a team of teachers District staff and administration met regularly to explore various various aspects of the multi-tier system of supports known as mtss together we analyze data from kindergarten through 6th grade making data driven decisions to improve instructional practices this work fostered a strong belief that all means all at Ridge Elementary we are committed to helping all students achieve proficiency and Beyond starting with a solid foundation of tier one core instruction some highlights from last year include our fifth grade math scores which placed us second among tile one schools and eth overall in Clay County we also made strong progress in math um among our lowest 25 um% student group we recognize the importance of foundational skills particularly grades K to2 and we're thrilled that 94% of our first graders into the year scoring proficient in math math excuse me all right um our science scores also showed notable gains with a 10-point increase for our fifth graders ranking US number six countywide and number two among Title One schools other achievements during my time at RVE include having um a student recognized as superintendent star student of the month and being awarded School of the month by Community First um for the theme of motivation we also reestablished our PFA our parent faculty Association many business Partnerships and our PBIS positive behavior intervention supports team um also to note we had an increase in our overall school grade and in overall perfect um our attendance perfect attendance at over [Music] 93% this school year we're focusing on continuing to strengthen our tier one core instruction and Ela we're emphasizing reading across genres and vocabulary and in math we're focusing on number sense and mathematical reasoning our beginning of the year data shows we're approaching 80% Proficiency in these areas as a strong indicator for our tier one Foundation we also aim to reduce discipline incidents by 25% from last year so to achieve our goals we're fostering Collective teacher efficacy and maintaining an intentional focus on building strong relationships and improving student achievement our weekly professional learning is focused on those two points so for our quarter 1 results they're promising our pm1 Ela scores are the highest we've seen in two years and we've already hosted a successful family engagement math event at our school our PBIS um efforts have also yielded positive results um with a 48% reduction in referrals so one of my favorite sayings at ridg viw is it's a great day to be a cougar um October has been especially memorable with many celebrations and events as you'll see on the next slide or I'm sorry on this slide um we recognize disability awareness we celebrate um celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with an annual parade participated in National School Lunch week and observed red redond week rid viw high school has also been a supportive partner visiting monthly to welcome our students with high fives and even a quick dance off um to start their day and it creates a joyful atmosphere that everyone enjoys during October we joined Ridgeview High School as well and celebrating homecoming week which just um adds and strengthens our sense of community and here's a few pictures from our October [Music] events so at RVE students have a wide range of opportunities to get involved and we're thrilled to expand our extracurricular offerings this year with the addition of a new drama club that just started this week so we're excited about that family and Community engagement are at the heart of what we do and there are many ways for families to participate um I'll show some photos from our Community Partnerships and family events highlighting the meaningful relationships we've built together in closing thank you again for the opportunity to speak tonight and share riew Elementary's progress with Veterans Day approaching we'd like to thank all veterans and their families for their service um and last but not least we have um a small gift for each board member and superintendent it is an umbrella with RVE logo on it that we'll leave um to the side of the room at on a table um and thank you all so much and have a Wonder wonderful evening thank you Miss Shumacher all right this is going to be our last call for comment cards so if you still have one out there dangling if you'll wave it in the air so we know to waited just a second for you I see one over here any others okay um it looks like all of our um present from the audience are General General comment so they will come after the business portion of the meeting so uh moving on to our discussion items we have D1 Human Resources special action a I'll entertain a motion I move approval do I have a second a second have a motion for approval from Miss Bola and a second from Miss Clark is there any discussion all in favor say I I I any opposed motion carries 5 next is human resources special action B do I have a motion I'll move to approve I have a motion for approval from Miss Clark do I have a second seconded second from Miss Bola any discussion all in favor please say I I I I any opposed motion carries 5 Z and D3 Human Resources speal special action C do I have a motion I'll move approval motion for approval from Miss Bola do I have a second second second from Miss Skipper any discussion all in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 5 Z all right so in our consent agenda tonight we have Proclamation number 25 -07 recognizing November 18th through the 22nd 2024 as National Education week and November 20th 20124 as educational support Professionals Day we also have Proclamation number 25-8 to establish school psychologist week as November 11th through the 15th of 2024 do I have a motion for the adoption of the consent agenda I Mo approval a motion from Miss Skipper do I have a second second uh second from Miss Clark you guys can rock paper scissors it if we need to any discussion on the uh consent agenda all in favor say I I any opposed motion carries 5- Z all right so presentations from the audience our first Speaker tonight will be Jeffrey Marshall and just as a reminder when you come to the podium please state your name and address for the record is Jeffrey here okay uh good evening this my first school board meeting ever so hopefully I do this right um thank you Mr Marshall if you'll just state your name and your address for the record and then you can whatever com Jeffrey Marshall address is 2053 creekmont Drive in middleberg 32068 um I recently became aware of this and I'm here to address the board regarding school policy uh section 4.64 service animals and schools the current policy requires written requests for an individual with a disability to be accompanied by a service animal to the superintendent of schools the request must be delivered to the superintendent's office at least 10 business days prior to bringing the service animal to school or a school function it also requires annual proof of specific vaccinations public schools are considered public entities and are subject to the provisions of title two of The Americans with Disabilities Act furthermore there are specific State statutes of Florida law prohibiting discrimination by public schools based on disability uh the Ada states that subject to the provisions of this title No qualified individual with a disability shall by reason of such disability be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services programs or activities of a public entity or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity uh these implementing regulations further State a public entity shall not ask or require an individual with a disability to comply with other requirements generally not applicable to people without pets this means vaccination records and written requests cannot be required as a condition of access I've attended School functions and and have volunteered for a couple of years I've never made these requests I've never provided vaccination records I just became a aware of this policy recently and I will not make a written request or provide vaccination records as it is not in compliance with the Ada and I ask the board to please review the section and update it accordingly thank [Applause] you Mr bler would you like to respond I can so just to advise the board that we are going through our policies through the neolo process and we we do believe that we'll uh address this through that that process so I would recommend at this time that we just continue going through the neolo process thank you our next speaker is Echo NOA Echo NOA address on file uh first I want to congratulate Miss Bola on her many years of service to education um very well deserved retirement and um service to everything has been going on so thank you very much for having this going on um I was debating tonight on whether or not to come and talk um mostly just because I've been tired from planning for um organizing and protecting the community from the recent election that I find very disappointing in my opinion um but being one of the very few to continuously come to speak up on behalf of of my communities I felt it necessary to voice some concerns uh first November is trans awareness month and I know yall are very much aware of the existence of trans people uh because of me um also November 20th is the transgender day of remembrance where we honor the uh many transgender people who have been murdered or died from transphobia um and this year will be particularly tough because of the result of the election um and all the transphobia that has come from it from the elections that I saw the board will take a further step bre um and we have added vocal anti-trans um discourse um and that's already on top of existing dismissal of disabilities um and anti- accessibility and other things like that um I know the school the school board will follow the law as it has always done um but I want to say that again with a particular emphasis I know that the school board will follow the law and that includes all the things that will happen that hurts the disabled community and the trans community and all the other ones as well um we now live in a country where the national government will be attacking um every aspect of people's lives including education particularly um things like attacks on diversity on equity and inclusion on making sure things are accessible properly um even things on topics of study like sociology um at various levels of school um and all these things have been tried at the state level um we've seen this over the years in Florida um and it's been well fought by organizations like equality fora and others um but now that it's on a national level this is a completely different beast and will be a much harder thing to fight the district could use its leverage as one of the top in the state to make a stand but I know that it probably won't um because it is a reflection of the community and the community here um sadly under the influence of organizations like monit Liberty and others would rather see the various uh underserved communities basically disappear and not be remembered ever so that's all I have to say thank you next is Bruce fredman Bruce Freedman address on file um last month 22 titles were removed District vde despite the restrictions placed on book challenges by your new policy and procedure they were all porn the other 12 were moved to more age appropriate locations all this happened because I read the books other community members read the books it didn't happen because any of your staff read the books any of you read the books that's problem this has been going on for two and a half years you knew there was porn in the libraries for two and a half years and you haven't assigned a team to conquer it every month I bring you more this month you're getting a reprieve I was concentrating on other things getting us a proper president I've been reading from the summer of the two and a half year experience of going through your libraries the kinds of things we trip over just going through every book on the shelves now I've skipped most of the really offensive sexual stuff because it's not appropriate for this forum but I'm going to read a little bit more of it since I have some time let you know what else is on the shelves waiting for our children there are less blatant violations of full AR statute 847 discussions of wet dreams there's descriptions of sexual arousal during the commission of violence there's sexual assaults pinching a girl's behind in a junior high school book bra snapping these are things that are part of life part of discussions and maybe don't need to be part of the library that's your call your rubric and your guideline are weak fix them there's hundreds of books I have found where virginity is trivialized it's dismissed girls lose their virginity boys lose their virginity and it's just another day at the beach oh no big deal buy better books for our children I started going through what you propos to buy 43 schools are placing orders now that the purchase freeze is lifted it's all the same rubbish Big Nate books they're comic books kid wants a comic book send them to the comic book store buy real books there's no Red Badge of Courage there's no Robinson Caruso there's no Up From Slavery big Nate pizza face this this is trash our kids have a literacy problem this is not how you solve it buy better books our kids deserve better thank you next is Sheila Torres hello my name is Shea Torres address on file um I'm going to address something I said last um last meeting about the issue in the classroom and the kids not be able to study now one of the comments that was said to me was that if a kid find himself in a situation where they cannot learn they need to speak to their teacher and remove thems granted my son had a situation that played out but maybe my son is being attacked because I'm out here speaking and advocating on his behalf not only for him but for every other student inside of this school district I'm at PA that us as parents we do our due dilcy and try to speak to our kid and tell them about accountability but when the adults in these schools are not being accountable and stuff are sweeped under the rug to me that's an issue when children are coming out to the teacher and telling them well I you know I'm having issues I want to remove myself because there's something going on in the classroom I cannot learn they move themselves something happens oh that's the one that did not listen that's the one that removed themselves from it assigned see that is a problem when we have admins lying to parents when they are told I am I am requesting to see certain videos at a certain time certain date and you get a response from admin saying yes I have that video prepared for you and when you go to the school and you got Miss treasure pick it that's in charge of the secondary thing and says well okay let's look at the video that's not the video that I requested it's not the time no the date and what was told to me oh miss Taurus don't worry about it because unfortunately the teacher ex I mean the admin explain why said video isn't given to you that to me is nonsense there has to be accountability now if we look at the principal as being in charge of the whole school itself and we sweeping things under the rug fights and all this other stuff then what is the accountability for set principle what is the accountability for the person in charge of the secondary education what is the accountability of the school board member or the superintendent especially when they are aware about what's going on in these schools to me it's an issue that people go to for example Orange Park Junior High there is constant issues going on with these kids they are being disciplined they are being sent out of school they are expelled from the school and being sent to attorney to school or Teen Court or whatever but what is the root cause in that school let's bridge the gap let's invest in our kids not just beautify the schools or the library or get state-ofthe-art let's invest in our future cuz like I said before if you do not take care of your tree what type of food is it going to produce our kids is worth it and it's not just to look good but to give them the weapon that they need to compete in life and in a global scale our last speaker of the night Mr Wayne Bola the floor is yours all right well thank you um John Thrasher once said to me he says you know being on the school board is the toughest job in politics he says not only do you have the responsibility of spending people's money but you got their kids too so when I think about measuring performance and how my elected school board and superintendent are doing I look at two things first I look at the fund balance a measure of how effectively your are spending our tax dollars and the Count's ranking in the state which independently Compares us to everybody else in the whole state of Florida I once had occasion to talk to a county commissioner in St John's County and a conversation went something like this he said you know the same house in St John's County sells for 25% more than it does in Clay County there business startups here through the roof some people attribute this to our ocean front and high tax base well maybe a little bit but I maintain that having the number one school district in the state is the real reason engaged parents think their kids are getting a leg up in St John's County and are happy to pay more uh employers feel they're getting a skilled Workforce and they get a chance to easily hire more attractive employees who also think their kids are getting a great deal with the school system when I left the school board in 2008 to go sailing we were neck and neck with St John's County in the school rankings we were about Sixth and they were in the top five our fund balance was around 5% when I returned four years later though our ranking had dropped to 18th in the state and our and our fund balance was was to the point where people were talking about the state coming in here to take over after a little arm twisting Mary consented to trade in her classroom and step up for a new challenge eight years later with a lot of help from all of you guys and the superintendent staff We Now find ourselves at number six and again with a fund balance comfortably in the 5% range okay very good Clay County School District the County's single largest big employer is a big ship and it's it's tough to steer it but you guys did a great job well done Mary and I are likely to go sailing shortly and for the sake of the kids and the economic future of the county I beg you to keep your eye on the ball what you do here really matters it'll be interesting to see how you've done when we get back hopefully we'll be able to ease into a peaceful and prosperous retirement in a place we help build and we still call home thank [Applause] you well thank you Mr Bola appreciate your comments tonight um next is our ccea update Vicky Kidwell good evening um I want to thank you for this opportunity to share educator voices with the board um tonight I want to join the education community in thanking Mary Bola I know I'm not supposed to direct you talk directly to you but for your many years service to public education Mary I first met you when we taught at algal Elementary together and although you taught fifth grade and I taught first grade the little ones um everybody in the school knew of your dedication to your students you were kind compassionate and always approachable you were always ready to listen and encourage your colleagues as well as your students you were generous with your time and expertise when it was sought and your ability to respect all perspectives was a quality that helped build a strong School Community around you then you made the decision to run for school board in 2016 and I and all of AR guy was like no Mary but then we knew it would be a loss for Argy but we also believed your huge teacher's heart would be a benefit for the larger community and I believe that too and I was right your teacher's heart has championed the successes of our students teachers and our district thank you for always listening not to respond but to understand thank you for searching for common ground compromise and solutions we teach teachers know the old saying they don't care what you know until they know that you care thank you for understanding the importance of respect in building relationships you make it clear in your words and actions every day that you really do care you have the high expectations of an educator but you understand that the perfect cannot be the enemy of the good thank you for having the patience of an educator and knowing that growth and change takes time you have been a consistent supporter a supportive presence in our educational Community always attending and cheering on Educators and students at so many school functions thank you for believing that all students need to feel represented in the books they read your enthusiasm for the dolly pardon imagination librarian clay shows your teachers's heart understands that building lifelong readers builds lifelong Learners you have been exemplary in your service to our students teachers and The Wider Community your words and actions have reflected your teacher's heart you have modeled the characteristics and attitude of a highly effective educator and a dedicated School Board member highly effective very important I never would have guessed eight years ago that we would work together again but with me as a union president and you as a school board member although some may believe that our positions should put us at odds you understood that there was much more that we had in common Mary thank you for always returning my calls for always listening when Educators had concerns you heard when we talked I'm grateful that your teacher's heart could find so much common ground and you could do so much for Clay County thank you for all that you are I wish you peace joy and satisfaction in your retirement you will be missed [Applause] I don't think anybody could have said it better Miss Kidwell thank you um do we have update from sespa tonight no okay so superintendent update and presentations Mr Broski proud to announce that I slimness down to 37 um slides So today we're going to talk a little bit about the schools of the month students of the month academically High performing District the hurricane as well as upcoming events so whole smorgus Board of stuff first our schools of the month middleberg High School Plantation Oaks Elementary want to thank Community First for being a good Community partner they give them not only an award if you ever got into a school and you saw this big giant pencil in their Lobby that's what you get if you're the school of the month as well as a uh lunch for the staff there so great Community partner at Community First this month the theme is nurturing November you can go on there I know Mr Chapelle is going to get on there and vote for for Green Cove Jr no doubt right after this meeting so so everybody's out there so one of the things that I that I get to do you know being superintendent means you get to do fun stuff about 4% of the time so one of my 4% is going out to students giving student of the month uh this young lady Brooklyn at Orange Park Elementary fantastic student everybody knows that she comes with a kind heart for all of the students and represents them there Elementary School we actually go out to the class classroom and we give this to the student when you get to be in high school it's not cool but at elementary school everybody applauded everybody was so welcoming to have strangers in the room awarding this no doubt uh Brooklyn is not only in safety patrol she performs with the singing Engle chorus and represents Opa at Klay County track made so congratulations to Brooklyn the junior high we have M Miguel Miguel is at Orange Park High he's an ace prea student there he's a web crew leader he embodies everything it is to have Wildcat Pride great student at Orange Park Junior High next you have Jolie Jolie is kind of interesting she's a soccer star at Fleming Island High School this is the can I say that I think I can the only student I've ever gone out was abson when we did that she was actually at a soccer tournament when I went out there I had to go out twice to go out there and and retrieve her but I but we actually went out to the classroom and uh all the students in the class for high school fantastic reception you can tell that joliee is respected by everybody within the class and is a leader on that campus so that's fantastic academically High performing District I I think I should probably provide some context to I think sometimes things happen everybody just thinks well okay you know whatever it's high performing District most people if I was to give you a quiz right now what that means you wouldn't be able to pass it because it's it's different than all the other recognition that we receive we're one of only 10 districts in the entire state that received this designation so what's involved you have to do three things if you do two of these three things you're not a high- performing District you got to do all three that's the reason why only 10 districts out of 67 are able to achieve that I'm always interested when people uh comment not even knowing what the what the award is for first one number one is class size you might not recognize this but we have excellent class size in Clay County okay I see Miss Kidwell doing the wave for the teachers out there K3 the state requirements 18 ours is 16.2 for 4 to8 the state requirement is is 22 we are at 18.7 s and you can see for high school it's 25 we're at 19.7 so we keep classes low you know I commend the board um for doing that because that requires more teachers in the classroom there's additional expense that goes with it we've decided as a group that's important to do and and puts us as a high performing District not everybody else does that across the state by the way the second thing you have to do actually does with finances we have no material weaknesses or instances of material non-compliance in any of the off aits that we've had zero that's zero that's that's like less than one okay when it comes to finances so there's there's two of the three finances let's talk a little bit about audits because you know occasionally I'll be out and somebody will say to me hey you know we should do an audit or whatever it's like okay these are all audits that we currently have done and right now the FTE audits going on right now as we're talking and there's other ones that are being done that's a 11 if you wanted to do a count you could see who they're done by Opa the uh auditor general the Florida Department of Education and the State of Florida itself audits us so number two I'm being high performing no material weaknesses when it comes to finances that's zero okay with all of those audits by all of those people then number three is academics we've talked about that cuz that's my jam and that's what I love to talk about but I never talk about the other two things that it takes right so being second in social studies first in Civics across the state fourth in US history overall as a composite fifth in science sixth in biology and sixth in the overall category of science math I'm proud of the achievement in math I'm most proud of literacy what's referred to as Ela there eth in the state that from 12th to 8th fifth for n9th and 10th grade for high school in the state of Florida so when that happens uh it's it's it's a celebration for all teachers out there doing the hard work each and every day because we're competitive we started to look at this a little differently the graph that you see there is only ESC students students with disabilities so if you were to if you were to disaggregate the data and just take Clay County ESC students compare them to every other County's ESC students only you can see we're fourth in state you can see the districts that are above and below we don't like the ones above us we like the ones below us it's not that it's competitive but it kind of is right we want the very best for our children in our County and I make no no bones about that math we're sixth in the State of Florida for students with disability science were fourth social studies were second in the state of Florida I say that and at the same time I kind of point out that um that raising a child in today's world is challenging raising a child with a disability is even more challenging right and so there's always things that happen in the educational process in which there's disagreements or there's misunderstandings and those kinds of we're in the human business that's what happens the reality is when you look at the facts students with disabilities are receiving a great education in Clay County that's not going to eliminate all conflict that occurs related to the the services provided to ESC students it's a tough gig no matter how you slice that I just merely wanted to point out what the facts are you know related to it and those are some pretty powerful facts so I I congratulate DR Sanders and and her team so good question would be how does that happen well you really got to do three things you have to have a good vision for for what instruction looks like you have to have a way to monitor them and then you have to have teachers with a growth mindset that want to learn how to improve their craft and all three of those things happen you've seen me talk about this before we focus on those four things student engagement demonstration of understanding academic ownership and rigorous task we look at for all we look at this all of the time you might if you look at professional learning you can see how many professional learning sessions we have when you're talking about a growth mindset you you can see 501 training so far 3,630 faculty and staff it could be realized somebody could have gone to more than one right so that number is kind of depending on how you look at that professional learning the second thing would be you have to monitor what you do right so so Vision Without implementation is hallucination write that one down right Vision if you if you talk about it and then you do nothing about it nothing happens it's an hallucination so there's always people that have great vision they say we should do this we should do that if you can't actually do it it's pointless it's just you hallucinating about it so you have to have a system by which you ensure that the vision becomes reality and the way that we do that in Clay County we do that through the instructional walkth through you can see uh uh looks like Jenny Shepard there in the class room uh going through there you might say well the the walkthrough provides a snapshot of what's happening in the classroom and that snapshot is then used for feedback to the teacher so how many of these have we done how many classrooms have we been in we've been in up to date almost 4500 times that we've been out in the classroom I can tell you exactly who's been in what room and at what time and what they saw when they went there there is no like Hocus Pocus it's hard work work that wins the day and ensures success when it comes to students education it's not just simply talking about a pie in a sky idea you have to do the grunt work a lot of the grunt work happens behind the scenes and is not known by anybody except the people who's doing the grunt work obviously those people know the grunt work that's going on all of that like when we do give out Awards and all that stuff that's all that's all nice and we should do that but there's a lot of people doing a lot of work to get to that point it just doesn't happen on its own right so there's an example I think that's an impressive number of of being out in the classroom uh with our students we also do uh School Improvement walks at our schools we've done 30 so far you can see around the table there I think I see Miss Collins and uh I see Katie RIS who's the science uh specialist I see Dr Sanders I'm down the end I see Heather Tito the back of her head anyway and then you you see Trish Stewart who's the principal at ride out so we were at ride out doing this so at every school I've been to all 43 plus adult in Community Ed we've been to 30 of these walks in which all of those people you see there go into classrooms and they look at the same classrooms and then they do what I call calibrating their lens making sure we all see the same thing and the things that we see that are that are posit positive as well as the things we see that we need to improve from what we see at each individual School each oh there's Miss T Miss Tito looks like a good student like she probably was an a student when she was in school the way she's sitting there and she's holding the pen ready to go right but uh it's amazing what you see when you see students and one of the things I always do is I always walk up to this to the student like this young man you see the and I say hey what are you what are you supposed to learn today it's interesting what if they can't tell you that's an indication students should know what the learning is that they should be doing in the classroom then we de develop an action plan for each one of those schools you can kind of see this one is the uh I believe it's the one that we did at ride out and some of the things that we're working on there to improve the point I was trying to make is all of those things are happening behind the scenes out of the eye of of most people that are going on but that's really the secret sauce that leads to the success is the work behind it and the third part of that is professional learning communities so a professional Learning Community is a group of teachers that get together with a group a growth mindset on how to improve what it is they do has anybody ever worked on a team and uh when whenever you work on a team there's always challenges right because there's always people that that click to get together others that don't click as much it's normal human interaction in a group so imagine getting group groups of teachers together do they always get along no that would be unreasonable to think that that's the case right so what do you do to focus them the document that you can't see on the left are what we call collaborative team actions we actually teach them when you get together with your group here are the actions that successful teams do now this has been a three fouryear process of doing this this it doesn't happen naturally I really believe that this is one of the things that have excelled us into our current spot and where we are it's because our teachers work hard and they want to improve and so you can kind of see that it's focused around four critical questions what do we want students to be able to know and do how do we know if they've done it what do we do if they don't learn it like what's the next step right and as teachers and as groups of teachers you should be talking about what's the next step what's the next plan for students who haven't learned it but then what do you do if they have learned it that's that's another important part so you could see all three of those is what makes you a a high performing District so it's not just School grading although it is a fact uh that we're in a school district and it is a fact that we're at that point in the top 10 in all the categories that you saw remember it's three things that make a well-rounded District the class size the finance and the academics hurricane Milton look at those smiling faces I'd go there and sleep on their cafeteria floor if I had to right the shelter principles are give up their time they sleep at the school uh all of that again we're good Community Partners uh with with all of our communities so what does it take when a when a hurricane happens because I always get like phone calls like hey we have school right so all these people are involved safety in security is involved they're they're like the first person and I hate to say this I think Matt boak left but he's kind of he's he's like the leader when When A hurricane's coming up and we're getting ready to close school it's really Matt and his team along with Bryce that are down in Emergency Management they're they're in meetings they're doing all of those things it all starts with Safety and Security then the shelter principls they love when they get the call from me saying hey we're opening up the shelter they're all excited and they say let's let's do it again tomorrow no no this is a a coruption but important for our community Communications involved and no doubt Terry Dennis does a great job we have a we have a whole routine that we go to every time that this happens because when you think about it we have to inform a large group of people not only the parents our employees also and sometimes you know you can put out a um a Facebook message an email a robo call a smoke signal and people will still say what we didn't know we didn't know right so you can't really uh over overestimate the importance how many people know that we transport disabled people to Lake Asbury Junior High that are medically comp complex that means that that Randall Crawford and his team school buses go out and they pick those Folks up and bring them there okay that just doesn't happen naturally Athletics becomes a thing right because believe it or not a hurricane can be coming and people will call to say is the game happening Friday like like that's a thing and so how do you organize all of the field trips and all the stuff that's there that's going on too behind the scenes Food Services provides food there so Susie Glover and her group are are are teaming up getting that ready to go Information Technology we wrapped everybody in we if you're gonna have Safety and Security during a major event you have to have a way to keep security at those and then maintenance let me just say this about maintenance our maintenance team and my opinion I hate to say it out loud is underst staffed and they do a great job and I I just want to uh to give a special shout out and the special shout out goes to let me find Bill Smeltzer Bill Smeltzer is the lead electrician let me tell you the last time it came down to the wire at Clay Hill cuz the power went out there and they they had reassured me earlier in the day that it was going to happen so I said we're having school on Friday right you have to make you have to make a decision and do it right we're open in school well it's like 7:00 and I'm calling Bryce you know for the 12th time in the last 13 minutes to say what what's going on what's going on you know and really it's Bill Smeltzer lead elect ition out there was out there past 8:00 at night and that's when the power came back on for school the next morning so during that one we had I think four schools without power uh so there's all kinds of stuff that happens behind the scenes and our maintenance crew Clayton Anderson those guys really did a did an outstanding job so upcoming events you can see them up there I won't read them to you um support Professionals Day uh so so important the work that they do uh each and each and every day for us and you can kind of see all the events are coming up sorry thank thank you for for listening at the length of that thank you Mr brosi uh Schoolboard attorney remarks Mr blocker was there anything from your office all right uh School Board member marks remarks who would like to begin no takers I'm going okay miss Hansen I first wanted to say one thing about Miss Bola she genuinely I watch her every time we show up something together the genuine love and enthusiasm that rolls from Miss Bola took me by surprise because sometimes people are fake but not miss Bola she claps the loudest she ah the loudest she genuin loves the students and I want to tell you I know sometimes it's tough up here miss Bola but I appreciate you for that and the last thing I wanted to talk about is I know that the district has started this humongous job of rolling through Neola policies and I wanted to uh let the board know what I was thinking along the lines of um our stakeholders I think one of the biggest mistakes that we could make when we roll through so many policies so quickly is not involving our stakeholders so I want us to be thinking about how we can do that and so for people that don't know we'll develop a student section it's student 5000 section it'll be similar to what Duval County has in other Neola counties if there's 83 policies in there and we currently don't have a student 5000 section I think it should lend us to believe that we need to be working with our stakeholders to see where they're at I don't know how we're going to do it I plan on holding forums and school board members can join if they would like uh parent forums I've been letting teachers know that this is what we'll do I think the most important people When developing a student 5000 section are our administrators our staff our teachers and our parents they are the ones that we need to hear from when we develop this new student section and so maybe we can start about how we would like to do that I don't know if Mr Broski has a plan for surveying our stakeholders when it comes to a lot of policy development to see what um their feedback is so I just bring it up basically because we need to be thinking about it um a lot of our state legislators and legislation includes the word stakeholder and I think when we're developing our new policies or revamping our policies we need to be talking to our stakeholders I did make a quick visit to Clay Hill shout out to them uh fabulous campus fabulous people and um thanks for having me Miss Clark I'll try to keep it short and sweet okay Miss baa Miss CLK as they say it's been fun and it's been real but number one I want to thank you for welcoming me four years ago you made an effort for us to get to know each other and talk and eat and eat and and talk um but that was special so uh I'll miss our rides to UNF to the Ridge View graduation and our competition at math day in April but uh just wanted to say thank you I have a feeling she'll still show up at things like that from time to time Miss Skipper I'll be real brief brief as well um the last month has been very very busy especially if you have little uh little kids not just little girls but uh especially my little girls they're a mess they are all over the place we've been to many trunk Retreats at um many schools we've been to um parties and parades and and all the I think they're still on a sugar high so here we are but um I want to thank you all of the schools for uh I I wasn't planning on saying any of this but um now that Mr brosi has put this up on the screen and and we can actually see numbers data things that are going on I think it's important to know that um collectively especially with Miss Miss bolo's departure this board has wanted to involve our Community more we've wanted more parental involvement we want more um communication um we wanted to implement policies um revamp all of our policies because we have lack thereof or or need to change or need to update law um this board has done so much in the last two years um a lot some of you love us for that and some of you do not care too much for that um and with the the work that we've done it does um cause several people like Mr brosy touched on extra work and more work but I will tell you this um no matter how frustrated you get um my my door well my phone I guess I don't really have an office door but if you want to we can meet it doesn't matter my phone um door always open always um ready to receive communication to listen to you um but to to say all of that I really do um we've done a lot and it's paid off and it shows and um the the work of the district the work of these teachers and the principls they do an amazing job um we don't get to tell them enough uh sadly especially when we're out there for visits it's busy it's you don't want to intrude on um teaching but I say all of that to say um I have AE appreciated our rigorous discussions and I have appreciated um not always agreen um because that is what well one that's what makes the world go around um that's what makes us Americans that's what makes who we are who we are so um I appreciate that because it has paid off for our students it has paid off um for our teachers and um I want to thank you for that and I wish you well I'm super jealous of all the traveling that you're doing um Miss Bola really is I think um out of all five of us and sorry if this offends any of you she is the biggest cheerleader we should have actually put a a cheerleader with pom poms on this oh Lord those things and then she does are we talking about that again tonight so the fair from the fair when I won we'll hit that again so anyways uh thank you thank you for your service a lot of people don't I said I was going to be brief but here we are um a lot of people don't know what it takes to become a public servant and um actually like Mr B touched on I too have had that same conversation with uh Mr Thrasher and when kids are involved it's so hard to take emotions out of everything because that is exactly who we are fighting for is our kids um so thank you for being the biggest cheerleader the loudest cheerleader um and again I can uh appreciate the professional relationship and the rigorous discussion because I again looking at what Mr brosi has said it it's paid off even though it gets sticky and crazy sometimes um I appreciate all of you thank you I'm going to go before you marry since we're saving the best for last tonight so um I am the board member who has had the pleasure of serving with you the longest up here from your first day to your last and um I remember when you first came on the board and we went to fsba training and it was just me and you and we had dinner one night and um I have never met another person in a professional setting who is so willing to just be themselves and to share genuinely who they are from their heart and um I've been encouraged by your faith I've been encouraged by your example and and um I am a better Schoolboard member for knowing you and I appreciate um just the mentor that you've been as a baby teacher I have leaned on you for advice um and I just I think the world of you and um I wish you and Wayne both all the best in your bright bright future thank so I'm G to pass the gavel Mary and have you adjourn your last school meeting oh thank you so much your Miss Gil hous sorry you guys this was supposed to be fun at the end I mean this is a retirement we're going to have some well I'm going to have some fun but you know first of all thank you thank you very very much for all of your kind comments um I remember that dinner fondly Ashley Miss kous sorry um Ashley yeah um it was I entered a contentious board at that time and we really knocked a bunch of rocks out of the way and said let's get to know each other you know I loved it um it says final comments dot dot dot question mark question mark for a reason because like Ekko comes frequently to our meetings thank you for your kind words Ekko um and thank you Wayne and thank you Vicki truly um Terry I'm up to three by the way if you're keeping count got it sorry um but as final comments with that question mark shoot there are yellow cards in the back that can be filled out and now that I'm going to be a citizen it'll be fun to be able to come back and see how everything's going I have this written down so that I don't go too far off task here but I have found in my 49e career it's been 49 years in education that in most circumstances in working with adults and children they want to share their story and they simply want you to listen so I decided to take my turn to share my story in 2016 we were ranked I think Wayne mentioned 18th it went down to 19th at one point and we were continuing to be challenged here in Clay County as a teacher I'll be honest I was angry I was coming home and talking to him about everything that I didn't like about the administ not the administration of the school but the administration of the county I was so disappointed with with what was being dealt us at that time and he kept hearing about it and he encouraged me and now I'm going to change that word from encouraged to coerced me into running for school board and all I though I didn't see myself as a politician I entered the race let's see if I can do this right now there we go the election yes it's always fun to run for something like this um it was tough at first because I didn't know what I was doing he had run for Schoolboard he had he was running for I think he had done commission two years before that so he had all of the experience but it was an interesting situation also because as a teacher I didn't know if I was going to win or not I couldn't guarantee a victory and so I continued to teach in August before the primary I started with a classroom and I won the Primary I was so excited um but I technically wasn't going to start until November that second Tuesday after the election when we all got sworn in I stayed in the classroom until November 18th and I promised my students that I would be for I would be there for them throughout I was going to be working with 35,000 students after that not just the 25 of them but I would watch out for them leaving my family at Argy Elementary was one of the most difficult things I did I owe a debt of gratitude to a very special teacher who believed in me as an intern and was me and had literally mentored me throughout my career this year she is in her 43rd year of teaching third grade and here's to you Susie Daniels she was my mentor she was my intern I am older than she I am taller than she but boy did she rule the roost and on November 22nd in 2016 I was sworn in and soon realized that there were only five other folks with whom I communicated the superintendent and four other board members who I couldn't discuss much with due to the sunshine laws I think they say family food and fun that's pretty much at Travel you can throw that in there with the fun and I had a steep learning curve so I made a PCT with myself I would learn all that I could and become a certified School Board member with with the Florida Schoolboard Association after all I was in the in education I am a teacher I knew that I had to better myself in my job and I can I'm proud to say that I've been a a certified School Board member now for the past seven years and I would visit all of the schools in the district during my first year now that's November to November that I'm talking about and at the time there were 41 district schools in two charters and if invited I went if not invited I asked for a tour concerts plays fall festivals everything was up grabs I pretty much did it while at the same time enjoying some of my favorite events math field day if you recognize any of those t-shirts come to the math side we have pie and sorry I'm late I took the Romus uh the last one weapons of mass destru destruction I love that and what if Dr Seuss taught does everybody get that one 1 25th th red fifth blue fifth uhhuh math there you go in addition to that the elementary track meet the spelling bees the concerts the plays everything was a hoot and then add stem nights that first picture is from Lake Asbury Junior High stem night Oak Leaf's drive by graduation celebration during 2020 and construction career days that's s me in a bucket truck gradu uation events FFA judging FBA judging Hospitality Tools for Schools with the cay Education Foundation and athletic events the whole purpose has always been the joy of interacting with students um you'll notice the culinary arts on the left and the students in the middle are former students that were at the athletic events were at a variety of different things and of course the Fleming Island wedding and the lower right hand side to be present in their activities to listen and to hear their stories a special shout out to miss neighbors oops sorry a special shout out to miss Neighbors at shadon for always welcoming me to her class Mr Pope at Wilkinson Junior High I was just there this past Tuesday working with his history class Argy and we Cherry for including me in so many activities r view Orange Park middleberg clay Keystone Heights Oakleaf and Fleming Island high schools for opening their doors to not only us but the community to learn about the outstanding programs we offer and obviously to Kelly Mosley for csing us into getting involved with the swine show what an awesome experience with Lloyd the pig who is likely no longer with us and a special a special shout out to all of the teachers staff bus drivers painters electricians U guys over there behind that window thank you thank you for all that you have done who are part of the district truly the best of the best throughout and obviously I've encount um while planning for the growth and building of our schools and you'll see I think I don't know Mr brasy if you're trying to get me out of that bulldozzer or if Miss Clark is coming up there to join me I can't remember but yes yeah there you go we built two schools Spring Park Elementary and Discovery Oaks and it's always a hoot to be able to go to the school and see your name on the plaque in the front but while planning for the growth and building of the schools I've encountered a number of unique characters you might recognize a few of those jackon DeVille is on the left by the way and uh the Stormtroopers you see and those other two guys in the middle I think the top ones from Ridge viw High by the way but the ultimate goal and all that I've done is to help our students become the best versions version of themselves we are in the business of educating our children and preparing them for their Futures some school board members have future political aspirations which truly make them politicians I am a teacher and soon to be a retired teacher who took the chance of becoming a school board member to improve our district we started doing that in 2016 with returning art and music to every Elementary School yeah yeah we worked with Dr legutko Dr no sorry I got to say it one more time we worked with Dr legutko to make it possible to bring our fund balance back to where it's intended to be 5% and we're going to make it even higher we survived legislation in a variety of areas that continue to challenge public education and we will continue to survive that but the campaign promise I made in 2016 was to be there for my students and I was saying students you may turn your tassels after getting hugs as they walk the stage to receive their diplomas was the most rewarding part of my job these are the children from my fifth grade class now young adults who were in my fifth grade class in 2016 when I became a school board member you'll notice two different schools Oakleaf on the right and Orange Park on the left because we had to do some redistricting which we didn't enjoy my next chapters will definitely be fun with family we know how to have a good time and that is our cabin up in northern Wisconsin and a new adventure with my best friend way on the queen Irene perhaps starting in April we'll see there's a goal but to all of you who are truly passionate about our children and their Futures thank you I appreciate you all thank you so [Applause] much for