##VIDEO ID:kKjEW3yuDl4## in 2 minutes the Schoolboard meeting will begin in 1 minute please take your seats again the school board meeting will begin in 1 minute e [Music] good morning everyone the October 8th 2024 meeting of the Maran County School Board is called to order mirroring and modeling the way our students begin each day I ask that we observe a moment of silence at this time please join me thank you I'll Now read our board commitment statement we are the Marian 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 for the courtesy of those listening to this meeting I'm requesting everyone in the audience to please turn off their electronic devices or put them on by vibrate later in the meeting up to 30 minutes will be provided for individuals to address the board on matters concerning the operation of the Maring County school system or the school board only presentations to the board are limited to 5 minutes and are televised if you wish to address the board regarding a regular agenda item or matters on which the board customarily takes action you must first complete a peach form located in the lobby if you wish to address the board regarding a public hearing or a student discipline matter please complete a lime green form these forms must be fully completed and received by the board clerk no later than 910 amm the procedures applicable for each are on a separate sheet board clerk please call the role Dr Allison Campbell district one here Mrs Lorie Conrad District Two here Mr Eric Cummings District three here Mrs Nancy throwa District Four here Dr Sarah James District 5 here Dr Diane gullet superintendent Mr Jeremy Power School Board attorney here thank you and we're happy to welcome our Chief Financial Officer Miss Teresa Boston Ellis to the day is today to sit in for Dr gullet who's at the Emergency Operations Center all right Miss Boston Ellis please share who will provide our inspiration and pledge of allegience this morning good morning I'd like to ask Mrs Williams Jones to come to the podium to introduce a special student who will provide the inspiration and lead the pledge good morning chair thrower board members and Miss Boston Ellis I am very pleased to introduce Dylan McAdams to lead the pledge this morning Dylan is a work study student here at MTI he is a 2021 graduate from Forest High School and he has spent his entire educational career in the mar County in the Marian County Public School System attending Maplewood Elementary Fort King Middle and then Forest High School he has recently accepted a part-time job working at Ross's Discount Store utilizing the skills that he has learned in our work study program Miss bird will escort Dylan to the podium Miss bird has worked with Dylan since he was a prek student at Maplewood so I present to you this morning Dylan McAdams [Applause] okay please stand for the pledge [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America into the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you thank [Applause] you you're welcome Miss William Jones what a great finally we have someone that spoke very well into the microphone and please don't run away because we want to come down and take a picture with you and your whole class Miss bird and and staff if that would be okay all right we'll only keep you a minute for all right we looking all right [Music] three three two one [Applause] one of the most special of of recognitions it's amazing the kidss do grow up I remember Dylan when he was little too all right um we are going to move on and recognize some donations and graciously acknowledge the following donations made to benefit our schools students and staff members including $1,000 to Hillcrest School from Jeffrey L sailor CPA PA to be used for miscellaneous student expenses also a 2014 Ford Interceptor valued at 6,45 $8 from the city of Okala Fleet and Facilities Management Department to Vanguard High School to be used for Hands-On instruction in the Vanguard High School Automotive program and finally a Steinway upright piano valued at $20,000 from Libby Jerry to Vanguard High School to be used for the music program at Vanguard High School we have a couple more cooling fans valued at $6,000 from mcbia Member bacon homes LLC to lakew wear high school to be used in the construction Academy classroom and Shop area school supplies and books valued at $4,365 from Enchanted backpack to Sunrise Elementary School to be used to support students and teachers in the classroom and as always we appreciate and benefit so much from these generous donations Miss Boston Ellis please make a recommendation on this morning Schoolboard meeting agenda thank you I recommend approval of the agenda for the October 8th 2024 school board meeting with the materials in the board packet those materials distributed to board members at the meeting and the audio recording included as part of the official record of the meeting with the exception of items d221 d22 2 d223 d224 d225 d226 and d227 that have been placed under discussion and item c83 that has been pulled and placed under discussion pulled agenda items thank you Miss Boston now let may have a motion on the cfo's recommendation motion approve motion by board member Campbell second by Vice chair Conrad all those in favor say I I I motion passes unanimously five votes to zero may I have a motion to approve the minutes for the September 19th 2024 administrative briefing and work session motion to approve motion by Vice chair Conrad second second by board member Campbell are there any additions or corrections to the minutes hearing none all the those in favor say I I I I motion passes unanimously 5- z may I have a motion to approve the minutes for the September 24th 2024 school board meeting so move move by board member Cummings second second by Vice chair Conrad are there any additions or corrections to the minutes hearing none all those in favor say I I I motion passes five votes to zero Miss Martinez please provide the proof of publication for today's Schoolboard meeting the notice for the October 8th 2024 Schoolboard meeting ran in the Okala Gazette on September 27th 2024 the proof of publication has been attached in board docks on to proof of publication thank you and additionally the notification of the time to change today's school board meeting was posted on our district website on October 7th okay we'll move on now to um our school board attorney to explain the rules governing persons who wish to address the school board this morning good morning attorney Powers thank you madam chair in compliance with Section 2860 one14 Florida Statutes the school board has adopted uniform procedures for public speakers who wish to speak at this morning's meeting either regarding one of today's agenda items or a matter relating to the operation of the school district these procedures will ensure the public has a reasonable opportunity to be heard on Schoolboard and School District matters a written summary of these procedures is available from the table in Lobby public speaker forms are also located on the same table the completed forms were due to the school board's clerk no later than 9:10 a.m. this morning speakers will be called prior to the business portion of the school board's meeting in the order of receipt by the school board clerk before you begin speaking please State your full name for the record and spell your last name each speaker will have five minutes of time if there are more than five persons who wish to speak the board May seek consensus to limit each speaker's time to 3 minutes when the speaker has one minute remaining speaker will receive a notice to complete his or comments speakers may not yield their time to other people speakers and meeting attendees are expected to conduct themselves in a respectful manner therefore verbal attacks and profanity are strictly prohibited pursuant to the procedures for public comments item six speakers are not to identify specific individuals other than themselves or their child unless the statement is provided 24 hours in advance the board is here to listen to your comments only you may be directed to an administrative staff member following the conclusion of your comments for further assistance to address your concerns if there are matters dealing with student discipline including expulsions they'll be scheduled at the conclusion of the televised portion of this meeting parents May address the board regarding a discipline matter at that time to ensure student privacy only a parent or Guardian may use a student's first or last name identifying references to or identification of of other students or their families is also strictly prohibited a speaker's speech does not reflect the endorsement sponsorship position or expression of the school district thank you for your attention to the board's requirements Madam chair that concludes my explanatory remarks thank you attorney powers and and just for the everyone's knowledge if there are any um Discipline matters including expulsions uh they will be scheduled at a different meeting not at the end of the one today it's just a little bit different meeting this morning all right thank you very much U Miss Martinez do we have any speakers this morning yes Madam chair Mr Todd gray thank you good morning sir we can't hear you the microphone may not be there may not be on is it green we'll give you a time till we get it yes fixed we need a new microphone young Dylan must have blown it out he did apologize for the technical difficulty Mr Gray but that's right your time is not running that sounds better is that better perfect okay we ready yes okay again thank thank you uh Madam chair and uh board members for allowing me to speak today um I'll I'll try to make this brief and if I don't you'll you'll tell me to leave so um here we go I wanted to back up a little bit we know uh and there may be some uh people that are not happy about the mention of the project but I'm here specifically to talk about the North Marian High School window replacement and there was other projects associated with that that we took on this summer before we get into some of the details of that I wanted to back up a little bit and explain uh how our company my company um began work for Marian County Public Schools we've only been working here for about a year and a half and prior to that and it was a very rigorous Pro process to be selected to do that work and we're proud to do it for Maran County Public Schools and want to continue to do that we've been doing work in Maran County for over 20 years my office is in this small town of Trenton if you don't know where that is it's uh where the last hurricane blew through and we're keeping our eye on this one today um you can see there are a number of projects listed you're thinking what's this have to do with anything I just want to give you some background to let you know that we are a legitimate company I'm a real person and I'm actively involved in all of our projects again some pictures uh we were stopped yesterday we're working on the new I75 rest area south loala down near bellw um that's currently under construction number of the credit unions Southern Pig and Cattle Company if anybody likes to eat there so these are projects that we've worked on over the years and currently outside of the school school work again backing up to a year and a half ago we went through a process to be selected to work for the school district is very rigorous we do work in four other counties on a continuing contract basis doing schoolwork um with Maran County we have started at somewhat what I call the lower level we're doing a lot of the miscellaneous projects um we have done larger projects but we are very happy again to be allowed to do this work for the county um I'm going to go through some of these quickly just this past summer we finished an elemental School finish upgrades I'm sorry that was last summer this summer we did the gym air conditioning and the renovations and the uh Chiller replacement and a re roof project all done to my knowledge without issue we follow the process we work fa with facilities and we get these done I don't believe that project came up here for uh any discussion in negative light so again just want to highlight the successes we've had we did return money uh a good amount of money on those projects North Maran high school it's not just the windows I think that's where the focus is but we did replace the roof on a number of buildings we also replaced all the doors and hardware again to my knowledge without complaint or issue the uh Windows of course is another matter we'll get to that in a second if I don't run out of time another one that's kind of off the radar we replaced a ceiling at Belleview Santos Elementary School very small project but we returned a nice amount of money to Maring County Schools another small project but very important I believe this was over the holidays we came in we replaced the emergency generator for your data center that serves the entire School District lots of close coordination to make sure there were no hiccups we knew how important this was we wanted to get in there get it done and again to my knowledge no complaints I believe the facilities group was very satisfied with the results of that project total value of projects to date I forgot the count I think it's about 7 or eight projects we've done $7.5 million with the work in the last year and a half and we've given back $560,000 in savings to the school district when we and you all know this with the CM process when there's money saved it goes back to the district specifically have one minute okay so we're down to the the the I got a really talk fast um we've had some unforeseen conditions at the North Maran high school again we've to follow the process we have never come to the board typically you all wouldn't hear these types of things you deal with your facilities apartment there are some things we encountered very early in that project that kind of set us back so while everybody sees plywood on the windows and thinks nothing is happening we have been we have been working on this every day of the summer again maybe not installing Windows but all of the details that go behind the scenes to get this done big issue was when we pulled the original windows out they had to be the bestes had to be abated we wanted to do that to keep the staff and students safe this was determined to do it all over the early in the summer when we pulled the frames out they were damaged it damaged the Sills you can't see it well in these pictures but if you look on the right and left bottom photos there's about an inch when the old frames came out it totally destroyed the window sill the the concrete so we had to come back in patch all of those it took longer in the summer than we anticipated your time is is expired okay um I'll quit talking and if you all have any questions I know that again I know y'all aren't taking action today and I'm not looking for Action I really just want to educate a little bit about our experience with the school district and asking that you uh will have further consideration as we move forward and we are committed to finishing the project for you thank you sir appreciate that thank you Mr Gray the contents of that PowerPoint presentation are the same ones that were sent to me ear I'll make sure that each board member is also forwarded a cop and I have hard copies if you want those too thank you thank you that's what I was just going to ask to make sure that each board member got a copy of the PowerPoint all right thank you uh Miss Martinez do we have any other speakers yes Mr Mark ay thank you morning sir good morning board um thank you for letting me speak this morning and hopefully everybody's getting uh ready and safe for the storm that's coming um I come here this morning on a couple items the first one is today we have our contract on the docket hopefully to be approved and I'm proud to say that we reached an agreement before the other units which is not something that normally happens um I'm disappointed to hear the district using our settlement against the other two units um and I I don't know why that suddenly has started and and that seems to be disheartening um especially when you compare salaries um their salaries are not nearly um as Equitable as ours um and so if if that's going to be the new Direction then maybe all three of units need to bargain at the same time like they do um in Sumpter and that's just my um two cents about that um but the other issue I've come to talk to today is about the job descriptions so this is not a surprise to um the people that work on those because I told them Point Blank that I was going to come and talk today and specifically um I guess the word would be complain about um both the content area specialist and the instructional coach so their job descriptions are on the docket today to be um for you to approve so those job descriptions would change in midye which seems unfair to someone that you've hired for a job and then you're going to change the job that they're going to do for the remainder of the year that's not what they applied for that's not what they expected um my opposition specifically is not the change but the purpose of the change and I believe that the purpose of the change is specifically to build to put those folks who are not assigned in a classroom to be able to put them in a classroom um I I can speak specifically that one content area specialist was told before school started that they were going to be assigned to reading classes they were going to have rosters and they were going to have two reading classes that they were going to be expected to teach besides do their continer specialist job which is not what they um applied to do or what they expected to do and we challenged it we took action against it and said you know that that wasn't um allowable based on their job description so now we're going to change a job description to be able to allow that those things to happen um they're in a different classification yes I'm they are very experienced and knowledgeable teachers um we have decided to create these categories to utilize their experience to train other teachers um yet because there's such a shortage we're now going to use them in double duty and that's not really fair that that position has been abused since it's been created we have schools that try to make them I guess for lack of better term a quasi administrator which has caused this issue with the staff because they're technically in the same contract and they're they're equals and their peers and they're supposed to be assisting not evaluating and that's where the biggest complaint about those positions tends to come um and yet those people complain the least because they also see it as a stepping stone to Administration and further opportunities so they don't want to be the person that will necessarily rock the boat and they will do more and not complain and that's not fair to them so I just wanted to bring that to your attention um and again this idea that we're going to change your job in the middle of the game or the middle of the the the year after that's not the position that you actually applied for um it doesn't seem fair and so with that um thank you and have a wonderful day thank you Mr Avery be safe out there is there any other no Madam chair chair yes um I know that we don't generally ask questions but I'd like to at least ask Miss Morant a question about what he said just prior before we get to the consent agenda I'd like to be able to get a clarifying question if that's okay yep I'm just reviewing those two job descriptions again that were brought up um and I'm trying to find the the the component of the job descriptions that indicate that the um in the language I think you just used Mr Avery was the um the job duties are changing and I see a lot of strikethroughs but not a lot of additions to these work um job descriptions and so I'm looking to see if can you um confirm what he just shared or can you point me in the right direction on these job descriptions where that information would be sure oh goodness so with the job descriptions this C and the instructional coach in all transparency a lot of what Mr Avery shared is correct so some of the changes in the duties um would allow um the folks that are in those positions to clearly be able to be utilized in a classroom and I don't have it in front of me so I'm not sure if it's the instructional coach or the cas you'll see in the position summary that there was a removal of full-time um professional development for other staff members so this again will allow us to um clearly Place those folks in classrooms well right now as we know we've discussed it numerous times is the greatest need thank you for that clarification um I don't disagree that that's the greatest need but I also think that Mr Avery made a valid point and changing it midy year while they've already established work in a particular position so my request would be to the board chair that we can move these two items to discussion so that would be item c7.2 and C1 17.6 so that the board can have discussion about them is that the pleasure of the board so you're saying c17.2 and C1 17.6 um in general you know we're we're going to go ahead and do this I agree that it's important I've had some calls on it too um that I felt that I had good conversation about which is why I didn't pull them um typically you know they it's our practice to pull these ahead of time so people can prepare um but due to the nature um I think it is warranted to go ahead and do that if the rest of the board agrees okay thank you we'll go ahead and move those to our discussion items a little later in the meeting all right anything else all right moving on to informational items the construction of new elemente schools W requires a Perpetual non-exclusive easement between the school board of Maran County and Duke Energy Florida LLC and the construction of new Elementary School X also requires a Perpetual non-exclusive easement between the school board of Maran County Florida and the City of Okawa these easements are necessary to allow the power company to provide electrical service to the school they guarantee the required access for the respected power company to the easeman area for installation repair and maintenance purposes Perpetual non-exclusive easement associated with construction of new Elementary School W project 24-11 Perpetual non-exclusive easement associated with construction of new Elementary School X Project 24-12 the school district uses a construction management delivery method including a guaranteed maximum price GMP to perform construction work on the following projects there were unused funds on these projects since the projects were delivered using a construction management delivery with a GMP format unused dollars regardless of the item are returned to the owner the unspent monies will be returned to the owner via change order which will close the financial books on these projects the superintendent has signed and approved the change orders per board policy 6345 the superintendent is authorized to approve and execute any Construction contract change order that will increase the Construction contract by $25,000 or less or that will decrease the Construction contract amount provided that approval will be in her judgment in the best interest of the board such change orders will be binding upon execution by the superintendent the superintendent shall report each change order that she approved to the board at the board meeting that follows her approval the superintendent's approval of the change order will be entered into the official minutes of the board meeting moving on replacement of heating ventilation air conditioning HVAC chiller plant system as part of minor Renovations at dellan Middle School change order number two work authorization number three project 23-12 is a deductive change order in the amount of 48,1 12932 that concludes our information items we'll go ahead onto our consent agenda may I have a motion to approve consent agenda items c1.12 c9.1 with the exception of items c17.2 C1 17.6 D 22.1 D 22.2 D 22.3 D 22.4 d22.5 D 22.6 and D 22.7 that have been placed under discussion and item 18.3 that has been pulled and placed under pulled discussion items so move move by board member Cummings second by Vice chair Conrad all those in favor say I I I I motion passes unanimously five votes to zero moving on to student disciplinary matters before addressing expulsion matters I wish to acknowledge that board members have received the alternative placement list for student through August 26th 2024 Miss Martinez are there any parents who have submitted a timely request to speak on their child's disciplinary matter no Madam chair thank you these requests will be heard at an upcoming special school board meeting I believe that is on Thursday October 17th at 7:30 a.m. okay moving on to item 21.1 may I have a motion to approve the expulsion of student JD 25- 015 JD 25- 016e JD 25-19 and JD 25-28 with Educational Services for the remainder of the24 2025 school year and the first quarter of the 2025 2026 school year motion to approve motion by board member Campbell second by board member James all those in fav say I I I I motion unanimous passes unanimously five votes to zero may I have a motion to approve the expulsion of student JD 25-20 JD 25-25 JD 25-26 e JD 25-27 JD 25-29 e JD 25- 32 without Educational Services for the remainder of the 2024 2025 school year in the first quarter of the 2025 2026 school year motion to approve motion by board member James second second by Vice chair Conrad all those in favor say I I I motion passes unanimously 5 Z we'll go ahead on to our regular discussion items and we will start with D 22.1 may I have a motion to approve the collective bargaining agreement between the Marian Education Association and the school board of Maran County Florida 2024 2025 move second moved by board member Cummings second by board member Campbell Miss Boston Ellis do you have information you would like to share regarding this item certainly the human resources department is requesting approval of the 20 24 2025 changes to the collective bargaining agreement between the Maran Education Association and the school board of Maran County um thank you very much we'll open it up to the board to for discussion any discussion from the board glad we got this done faster yes what's that now we got this done faster than before so no let's vote yes yes it's really been this board's attention or intention to get this uh done so that our employees know what to expect all right all those in favor say I I I I motion passes unanimously five votes to zero may I have a motion to approve the special data share agreement with nearpod LLC motion to approve motion by Vice chair Conrad second second by Board member cble Miss Boston Ellis do you have information you'd like to share regarding this item thank you chair the special data share agreement with nearpod llc at a cost of $377,400 uh will be presented by Dr Brewer um and she will provide some data from the usage of this uh from the 2023 2024 school year the presentation will include a demonstration of the near pod program thank you good morning board chair thrower board members and Miss Boston Ellis um I did email the demo last night to the board members in case we were not able to have that time this morning to do so um because of the severity of the storm but I do have some information to share and of course I'll be available for any questions that you might have we are requesting permission to purchase near pod the this is a districtwide purchase and it will enable teachers of all grades K through 12 to provide interactive lessons interactive videos and activities while conducting formative assessments that guide their teaching and improve student outcomes for all students during the 2324 school year 1,538 teachers actively utilize nearpod in their classrooms 36,6 44 learning sessions were launched over a million activities were submitted and 473,000 students joined at different times throughout the school year students interacted with nearpod in all core subject areas with the highest activity submissions in science and social studies classrooms in addition 1,514 teachers actively integrated flow cabulary into their classrooms over a million activities were completed by 23,000 active students the highest use of flow cabulary was in our English language arts classrooms um science and sociales and math were also using FL vocabulary to work a vocabulary and to watch engaging videos about topics found in their curriculum so miss Boston Ellis I'm available for any questions from the board all right thank you um this is a high dollar item it has high utilization and it really has been very well received by so any and so we were looking forward to seeing the quick demonstration because it is a good chunk of money and it really shows how much technology has been Ben benefiting Us in this aspect so you know sorry that we can't see that but everybody did get it emailed to you so if there's no further questions um from the board in the interest of time we'll go ahead and and move forward with the vote if everyone's ready okay thank you Dr Brewer thank you all right all those in favor say I I I I motion passes unanimously five votes to zero if it's okay with the board we'll go ahead and discuss um items c17.2 and C 17.6 so that um so that we can get that off our plates and all right and since Mr Avery is here you know waiting we'll go ahead and get that done okay we'll go ahead and do c17.2 which is the revised job description for Content area specialist may I have a motion motion to approve motion by board member Campbell second second by Vice chair Conrad board member James you had thank you interest in further discussion yes um and so this is my request board I um appreciate what Mr Avery shared um and as a board member I am in support of the job description as it's presented I want to be able to Max maximize the utilization of our people on our campuses however I understand that changing a job description midyear when a person has agreed to do a job for a year is not not necessarily ideal or reflective of of personally the culture that I would like to create my recommendation board is that under revised we simply put um I think this is how it works once it's board approved we put it on the the date if if it's possible for us to make it June 30th 2025 so that we will not have to revisit it and it will be effective for next school year um because I do want to go in this direction but I can understand Mr Avery's hesitation in representing the employees of our district that are hesitant to have their job potentially shifted mid school year so those are my thoughts and recommendations to the board thank you board member James any other discussion from the board board member Campbell sure I I certainly appreciate the comments certainly by Mr Avery as well as by Dr James in this regard and I can understand how having your job description shift in midy year would be challenging perhaps their salary isn't changing but the job duties might be and I think that kind of falls under the category that we all have in every job description that says other duties as assigned and so while I understand that um the current parameters of the job description that we have before us before all of the changes do limit our principal leaders from being able to utilize those High highly effective teachers and Educators in positions where we could really be utilizing them um I'm struggling with going against the recommendation that we have before us I I completely agree with all of the changes made to the job description but again if we currently have I'll use an example if we currently have I know this is going to lump um lump both of them in but if we currently have all of our content area Specialists and all of our instructional coaches positions filled on every campus yet we have five to 10 instructional vacancies or more on the same said campus we do have highly effective Educators that could fill in those classrooms without relying on substitutes that may not have the same academic credentials and I believe that's probably not what's in the best interest of our students on those campuses when we do have access to those folks that are highly effective that certainly deserve the job that they've been given until we're able to fill all those vacancies I am struggling with the opportunity for us to not make this effective perhaps in January maybe we say they can't make these changes during the semester but to say that for the entire school year that we couldn't make this I I don't know that I'm comfortable with that thank you member Campbell any other discussion from the board Vice chair com um yes uh I concur with chair Campbell um although it is difficult um to make changes in the middle of the year um chose to get involved in be in this seat uh to support our students and so I think that we can best support our students um by updating this job description and and allowing our coaches um to be working in classrooms with students on a more regular basis so I think that um amending it at the semester is a good compromise um and so I appreciate the suggestion thank you Vice Conrad any other discussion okay um I'll share a little bit I am familiar with the situation that Mr Avery referenced and I agree that that was not the way that this position was intended um we hire these people to do a to do their own jobs so speak I will and that got rectified which is good I will also say that we have many many staff including a lot of administrative staff um that go out and support directly in classrooms at the beginning of the school year cover classes you know so that we can get the school year started off on the right foot so I while I'm not necess it's not optimal I'll say that it is not optimal to change aob a job description in the middle of the year but you know we like to sit up here and talk about you know mirroring the private sector you know if if there's something that needs to change then there's something that needs to change and and you don't take a year to do it but you also don't take advantage of the employees whose job description description has then Changed by not showing the good faith effort where I would uh provide another alternative is that I think that schools should be making every effort to utilize um substitutes that were spending money to Outsource you know and and get them going in the classrooms and then use our content area Specialists and our instructional coaches as much as possible in line with what they were hired to do but then yet and still if there's help needed then that's where they would come in and with my conversations with folks you know the response was well that makes it a little money muddy you know they want it tight that they don't have to teach so to speak um and there were tears last year you know when we moved um people into classrooms well you know we're here for the kids and I feel like if anyone from downtown gets pulled to go into a classroom and help that that is setting a great example of camaraderie um with the schools which is the trenches which is who we're here to support so I can't say that I'm really in support of of changing anything on this um for the reasons I just stated anything else from the board so chair just for clarification so the motion currently on the table is approving the job description as it stands right without any changes without any changes unless there is a board member James offered I think your your ask was to amend it to start next year my that was my request I would be able to move forward with this if we were going to make the change ahead of next school year and I I get it I was former administrator I understand the limitations but I also think that people signed up for a job based on the parameters that were set and um I we are there are unique uniqueness there is uniqueness to the way of work that we have and our employees that are in a contary specialist job cannot just go find a different job mid year they they literally cannot go to another school so in Maring County so they they there we can't do transfers they would have to be released and that's not going to happen so while in the private sector you could just go jump from place to place to place that can't happen in Maring County public schools because they would have to be released and that's probably not going to happen so this is unique and I didn't pull it ahead of time because to be honest I didn't I didn't understand the implications and no one had called me I didn't hear from Mr Avery prior to meeting coming to today but I think the concerns he there are valid so that's where I stand with it so Madam chair seeing that that this is causing some some why don't we just do what Miss Campbell said um in a compromised situation go ahead and start it in January amended contract to start in January I think that gives the um the staff time to adjust and we're still doing what's best for kids so if you intend to if you intend to amend it would be amending the contract it'd be amending the job description and you'd need to make that motion it would need to be seconded and then we vote on on the amended motion I move that we amend the job description if there's and then there there cannot be discussion on that item there's not an effective datea on the job description so I think I'm not maybe Miss Brant could expand but there I don't see a current um effective date on the job description so we're not ching to change the job description I think we all agree on the job description just saying the date so we're just saying the date that it would be effective yeah so there's not an effective date because it's not board approved yet so what we do is once it is board approved and let's direct it otherwise then it would be effective the following date of board approval so what I what I'm hearing is a motion by board member Cummings to um well to have the effective date be January January 1st sure January 1 right this okay do we have I'm I'm sorry go ahead just for further Clarity so miss Morant I believe what it would be on the very last page almost the very last line where it says revised 61218 currently it would be revised 10824 effective January 1 2025 that is correct okay okay do we have have a second second second by board member Campbell all those in favor say I I I motion passes oh I'm sorry motion passes four votes to one with board member James dissenting okay before I move on I would like clarification um just listening to the conversation that youall are having and as you know there are usually 1 to 10 job descriptions on each board meeting and they are effective the next day is the new direction of the board to make those effective at the end of the semester or the end of the year board sorry um that is not my intention um this particular one is unique because it is directly related to school-based work that's happening right now where currently we're utilizing substitutes even more so than we may need to starting at the semester but because this particular job again is we have several folks in these positions all throughout the districts in schools I I see this one being unique and I know we approve job descriptions all the time this I just want to and I I'll move whatever is the Pledge of the board but I just would really like to be clear on on what it is are you saying school-based only that there's a change um because on the last one we had quite a few pair of professionals and those are folks who are actively working in schools so I just want to be very clear on what the intent is or the Direction moving forward um my expectation is just these two items um if a concerns come forward then we'll discuss them each individually yes that's my also I think this is a unique situation specifically to their way of work um and so this is a one-off that is not going to be representative of the way of work traditionally thank you for member Kings same thing this is unique one okay I think um we have it clarified uh you know to me that just begins to open up another can of worms which was why I was pretty emphatic with my comments but we'll go ahead the the board has spoken and we will move forward um accordingly does that answer your question umia okay you're good okay thank you hopefully these will be uh one-offs and and not common all right um moving on to item C1 17.6 which is the revised job description for instructional coach sounds like the same conversation does the board feel the need to to recap um what is the board's feeling about this particular item um do we want it to stand or is anyone coming forward with another idea do you want to change the effective date well did we have a motion on the table already I'm sorry I missed that thank you may I have a motion motion to approve second okay motion by Vice shair Conrad seconded um by board member Campbell will now open it up to discussion we'd like to start my expectation would be the same okay anyone else just said we just did this my sentiment stay the same as well okay so no changes so are we amending the motion then again so I make an amended motion or was it R I don't remember if I was anyway an amended motion that has this job description as revised8 10824 effective date January 1 2025 okay second motion by board member Campbell second by board member Cummings all those in favor say I is there any discussion on the oh any discussion I we kind of done that but on the amended any further discussion on the amended motion all right here none all those in favor say I I I I those oppos nay nay all right motion passes four votes to one with board member James dissenting all right we will move on now to item D 22.3 may I have a motion to approve the guaranteed maximum price for the districtwide auditorium lighting upgrades project 24-18 so move move by board member Cummings second second by Vice chair Conrad Miss bonellis do you have information you would like to share regarding this item thank you chair 22.3 is the districtwide auditorium lighting upgrades project 24-18 the cost is 3,296 569 today we have Mrs bmach she will present this item provide additional information about the impact to schools and District buildings specifically the movement of board meetings thank you good morning Miss bombach good morning board chair thrower Vice chair Conrad board members and Miss Teresa Boston Alice I'm pleased to provide a brief summary of of the auditorium lighting upgrades project and seek your approval of the guaranteed maximum price presented by well Pro building Corporation this project encompasses five auditoriums the nelan Middle School Forest High School MTI North Maran high school and Westport HIgh School each location has a unique has unique needs and challenges to address these we began with a thorough analysis conducted by Mitchell Gage engineering this is a firm under continuing contract they assessed the existing conditions at each site and prepared a detailed Report with their findings and recommendations this report was then reviewed by facilities tech services and also Kevin Christian to finalize the project scope to make sure we have everything that the district needs based on these recommendations and the review comments the engineer prepared the construction documents which wellbro building Corporation then sent out for pricing the GMP presented today includes upgrades to The Lighting systems at all five locations incorporating lighting controls and necessary electrical upgrades for the auditorium spaces and stages we are currently finalizing the schedule with the contractor and the principles work is said to begin at Forest High School in November with MTI scheduled for construction over the Christmas break and until the end of January we appreciate the board's arrangements for alternative meeting location during January to give us enough time to address this building the GMP also includes an allowance for unforeseen conditions during Renovations um issues often arise if you would like I can go in more detail at each location any more detail from the board um you're going to be talking about the auditorium we we have a timeline that we are pretty sure we know in January that we'll be having our board meetings over at the County Commission at the mcferson complex is that still the plan yes okay all right and we appreciate the cooperation and the communication between the principles and our department to make this all happen and fited in everybody's schedule was was great um partnership with the schools and I think they're all excited about uh the upgrades I know Forest is oh that's well thank you for your time thank you all right is there anything further from the board any more discussion all right hearing none all those in favor say I I motion passes unanimously 5 all right moving on to D 22.4 I may have a motion to approve the standard agreement with cut different Incorporated so move move by board member Cummings second second by Vice shair Conrad all right Miss Boston Ellis do you have information you'd like to share regarding this item uh yes 22-4 is a standard agreement with cut different Inc it is the cost of $220,000 the academic Services requests permission to purchase cut different ink uh to provide uh service for Horizon Academy at Marion Oaks Howard Middle School Lake Ru Middle School Liberty Middle School and Oak Crest Elementary and these are mentoring Services thank you Miss Boston Ellis we'll go ahead and open it up to discussion from the board go ahead for member Campbell thank you uh first of all I want to thank all of those principles for being here today because I know several of you have taken time out of your days to be here so thank you for being here the day before hurricane uh grateful for that also grateful for all the information that the board has received over the course of the last week both from attorney Powers as well as Miss Boston Ellis and Mr Frasier on some additional context and background on this um board today I will be voting against this as presented but if you will hear me out I can hopefully explain as to why as presented a couple of the schools are October through December but then a couple of the others are October through the end of May based on all of the information I've had speaking with Miss Boston Ellis Mr Fraser and others it does appear that the team is working very diligently on creating a base rate or like a flat rate to pay for mentorship services around the district similar to what we have with speech language Pathologists or other specialty um servic that we have where those are basically if you come in and do the service for our school district this is what we pay for those services and so I certainly appreciate the work that cut different provides in our schools and the mentorship that they provide as well as other programs that provide mentorship in our schools I completely respect that these principles want these services and I value that and understand that it will be meaningful for those dozen plus students per School uh that will receive services I would be comfortable with a contract that said we would approve this from October through December for all schools and then understanding that by January 1 we should have a new rate that we would essentially pay for any mentorship services in any school for any student and so that's where I stand if the contract Remains the way it is right now uh I will be voting against it thank you board member Campbell um are you sharing that you would like to make an amended motion well I'm not certain that we can make an amended motion on this one because it would take the vendor also saying they are willing to do a contract from October to December so in my understanding and speaking with attorney Powers if the board agrees with the position that I'm taking and they may not you may not but if there is agreement of the board to approve from October through December then we could essentially reject this today understanding that we will get it approved as soon as possible uh with the that Amendment as I'm making recommendation but maybe attorney Powers has additional feedback on that okay um let's go ahead and hear from attorney powers and then board member Cummings yes if the intention of the board was to reject it today then U that would the contractual language would need to be altered um to make whatever changes that were desired and we would be in touch with cut different in order to make those changes and bring them back to the board at the next board meeting okay thank you just wanted some clarification board member Cummings mam chair um cut different has been doing this work with this district for several years now um I don't recall us getting involved with any other vendor and asking the vendor to um modify their base rate of what they charge for services I don't remember that maybe I have but I don't remember that so I'm trying to figure out why we were doing this with could different when apparently when I've did my little breakdown and I'm not a great mathematician but really and truly um it's a act actual Equitable deal for what the services that they are offering um I don't think we ought to ad me ask them to Adit anything that's what they present to us we need move forward and and quit doing this every year thank you board member Cummings um board member James did you have something yes thank you um so I I am going to be completely not in favor of amending this contract I think that the um schools that are receiving um coverage until December the hope is that the team will find um more grant funding to cover the the difference what I know is that cut different is meaning the need of students uh in a gap that was not represented prior to cut different coming into our organization and as someone who has spent years intimately working with a African American female student but someone who would be just the same representative of a student that cut de would represent I'm going to tell you that the services that they are serving when you when you roll it back instead of October 8th all the way to the first day of school um because that is basically what is going to happen the per hour cost is $41 an hour they deserve significantly more than $41 an hour for the work they do I think the fact that we have to discuss this every year and we don't discuss skip or any other organiz ation is beyond uh and I'm ready to vote thank you uh to clarify when you mean roll back um if the contract is approved no Services should have been provided until the contract's appr correct they were just volunteering for the last nine weeks they were just volunteering chair thank you board member James Vice chair Conrad um I would agree with what board member um James has shared and I also just want to remind the board that there are levels of service um and the level that cut different provides to our students surpasses any kind of mentorship that I have either been a part of or witnessed and so um I just want to put that out there that all services are not the same um and we get um is more the the value is is there uh they provide um not just mentorship on academics but academics and being young men and women um being active parts of the community being good citizens um is just a different level of commitment to these students and so I am just thankful that they um have stepped up to partner with Maran County Public Schools and I think that having our principles show up today really is a testament to the work that they are doing especially when we have to move the meeting the day before to 9:00 in the morning so I just want to take this time to say thank you for the work um that you're doing and um I anticipate that this will move forward thank you Vice Sher Conrad board member Campbell thank you um so it does appear as I will be in the minority on this vote um but because a couple of things were mentioned I just want to clarify for the public who wasn't able to see the information that the board has received so um Dr James did mention that an hour hourly rate uh perhaps would be about $41 for clarification uh the hourly rate that the skip mentorship program those mentors are paid $23 an hour by the skip program and this cut different contract that we will be approving ranges from $13 an hour to $139 an hour per student um so just for clarification sake I I understand the team is working on a a fee schedule specifically for this but I also understand the challenges that they've been experiencing on that because currently there are no districts that they have reached out to that are paying for mentorship services at all and so if even those High performing districts that we all try to emulate um are not actually paying for mentorship services I think that's just an interesting situation for our team to try and find some comps on um but we can go ahead and vote thank you mam chair yes one more thing finally um we said we want to be Innovative in this District we want to do things um that were groundbreaking I think cut different has brought something to our district that has been Innovative and and groundbreaking but I also want to thank the principles that showed up this morning as well because they're the ones that's in the trenches they know what their schools need and this is something that they have requested and we need to support the principal's requests with this and I'm through with it but every year I don't think we need to be keep bringing this back um every time cut different comes before us so thank you board member Cummings Vice ch R um I also just wanted to state that in our um our board statements um our board commitment statement um we state every meaning that we're we're going to confront reality and the reality is is we have gaps um in our in our Educational Services in providing for our students and again this group of young men has stepped forward to help uh fill a gap that is challenging and so I just want to remind the board that that every meeting we say we are going to confront reality and um and cut different is helping us do that thank you Vice chair um I would like to give and it's it's not a requirement at all but the principes have been sitting here patiently waiting and listening I wanted to give you the opportunity if you choose to um to briefly come up and and share anything you want to share um I'm sure you just as soon see it just passed but without that but um you know you're you're here and it's appreciated and so I wanted to give you the opportunity and we have the indomitable Miss Chris Sandy princip good morning Crest Elementary School yeah principal oest in support of cut different I'd like to share with you school board members two of our young men one young man was with us last last year at out Crest and he graduated and is now at aola middle school he uh kamir when he was in fourth grade was a challenged young person during that year his family became homeless he moved into a hotel and he became responsible for his younger brothers and sisters while they were growing up kimere walked into fifth grade at oakrest and he was a challenged tall handsome young man and cut different took him under their wing he ended up up last year I gave him the responsibility of putting our flag up and taking it down every single day he did it well he did such a fine job last year he ended up earning the VFW um award for citizenship so job well done for a camir however the challenge is he's now at aola middle school because he's homeless and he Now does not have their services I checked this morning and he's already gotten some referrals this morning so he already misses the support services of cut difference we kept him out of trouble last year and I hope he can somehow figure it out how to make it happen for this year we also have Tevin Tevin was one of our challenges in fourth grade last year he walked into our fifth grade two days before school started his father died and so cut different stepped up immediately to Tevin took him under their wing and and has helped heavin with the grieving process I checked this morning he has had zero referrals since the start of school and I credited a lot of that to the support of cut different because last year that would not have been the young man that we had I cannot do that service I don't speak 10-year-old boy and cut different does cut different speaks to them that he's they're there every morning during specials at lunch during their recess time and they mentor and support them in ways that we as their administrators cannot do so I'm very pleased that you are supporting cut different program this year because I have 12 young men that o Crest count on them each and every day thank you thank you missy we now have Miss Parker from the Bulls Howard Middle School good morning good morning uh thank you for me allowing me to be here this morning I'm excited to speak see a lot of the same exact things that Miss Sandy is speaking about on the elementary level happening at Howard Middle School with the student sered by cut different but some of the more intangible things that um that can't be measured by data although we see the decrease in office discipline referrals we see the increase in attendance uh we see changes in their um behavior in the classroom but what you can't see and put on a piece of paper is the change in the students and the way they feel about themselves and the level of confidence they feel um coming to school every day and their excitement about and a job opportunity they may have been exposed to or something they're seeing in our in our um in our community that they're excited about giving back to the Community Stepping Up and being a leader on campus um it's amazing the difference in these young men with the mentorship that cut different has provided and so I just want to thank thank them for their service to what they do for our students so thank you Miss Parker any other principles that are here and this is your opportunity to to share if you would like to um please feel free to come forward and if if not i' Al yes can we hear from Mr Gilmore and the reason I'm you're jumping [Music] ahead I guess I'm a little frustrated because we don't do this with with any other mentoring program in the district and every year they have to come back before us I'm kind of puzzled on why and so that's why I asked I understand board member Cummings and um just wanted to finish with the principls that had taken their time to come this morning and then uh please um Mr Gilmore or anyone else from Cut different you're welcome to come forward at this time thank you uh board chair uh chair throw board members I I don't know if you guys um have uh any questions uh for for me but um um to Reverend Comm uh or board comments uh Point um I think I have the same kind of comment it's like like what is it um we come uh you all have the the luxury of speaking with the the schools you see uh the impact and again we here again we're talking about the same thing we were talking about last year and um I just want to know why um there seems to be a deeper um a deeper reason to why we keep having to come here and um I'm from okal born raised um I was blessed to leave and go do some good things and I thought it not robbery to come back to my community and uh help out the youth and um but it seems as if there's some underlining things or there just things that we don't like to speak about um as to why I have to keep coming up here so again I oppos that question to you all um why do I have to keep coming or why do we have to keep coming up here to talk about the same things over and over again thank you um Mr Gilmore um yes uh any other discussion from Cut different sure that's a and then I'll go ahead and sure that's a that's a continue our discussion that's a great insinuation there Mr Gilmore so I I hope that what you said isn't necessarily what the what I heard let's just say that um so I know that you're coming from a frame of reference and I'm coming from a frame of reference and I understand in that communication sometimes your frame of reference you may not have meant what I heard so I hope that we you can you and I can can have a conversation with that offline um but the reason that I continue to have this question every year I think I've expressed that um you and I have spoken at length about the same questions I had last year that I continue to have this year and at the end of the day this board is responsible for two things policy and budget and this is a dollar and cense thing for me and I understand that you are providing a wonderful service to many students but there are several things that I continue to have questions about based on an hourly rate and so as I expressed to you and your board chair last year last year one year ago I had these exact same conversations with both of you if you are providing way more services than what is included in this agreement include it include it in the scope of work tell us what all you are doing to make the dollars make sense and and I believe you are certainly providing more than one hour a week with these students I believe that wholeheartedly but this board approves contracts and scopes of work that are in black and white writing and including the dollar amounts included and so I know that the principles will say that you have spent time at lunch and recess and all of the that's not in this agreement that we're approving and so I implore you so we don't have to continue to have these questions and conversations every year because until the scope of work gets to where it actually shows what you're doing and how many hours you really are providing of service to these students I'm going to continue to ask the questions because right now the dollars add up to $103 to $139 an hour and we don't pay any of our Specialists anywhere near that kind of money for the services that they're providing exactly the same way so that's why I have those questions and unfortunately I will continue to have those questions if we can't get this scope of work down to say actually what you guys are doing so thank you so much mam chair go ahead I don't think he insinuated anything I was going to I was going to say than you're very direct there and and there's no need to have private conversations anything that we can talk we can talk about here we don't have to talk about in private my comments were made in public so we can if need to be dressed but it wasn't directed to you either I directed it to the board um so that's my point and and again uh we love the partnership with with you all that's why we um when we made our first business plan we we knew we had to make a partnership with the Marion County Public Schools um because we had to meet kids where they at um a kid may not never have the luxury to play on a football team go to church or go to our rec centers but most of them end up at our schools if you're aware of the situation just this week at Norman High School football game we got fights going on we got layers just putting and I so happen to be at mcy fa the other day where shots were going on uh those young men at some point walk across some campus here in our in our community and if we can get a hold of those young men we can we can we can minimize the times that these things are happening in our community and and this is not nothing that um I'm just fantasizing about this is something that I know that can happen Mr Gilmore um I again I don't think you in send with anything I think as long as you're doing the contract according to the way legally is supposed to be done um I don't think we have the purview of the right to tell you how to put in your contract or whatever it is we either going to approve the contract or not approve it so submit the contract and we'll approve or disapprove I don't think we need to be telling you how to handle your business thank you Bo M Cummings um did you have anything else uh Mr gar cause uh well I do want to recognize my guys over here my team KJ Kinsler graduated North Maran Rory Carter he's a he's a oneoff he's from Pennsylvania but that's my guy and then we got miles mcconico he's actually a graduate of North Mar and obviously my brother Ed rocker he's not here today because he has a newborn my beautiful niece um but he's a graduate of nor Maran as well and I'm a graduate of nor Maran and we love Maring County Public Schools that's my only art it's okay it's okay thank you and and thanks to to all of you um for coming um as we professionalize our practices as and as I've watched um these contracts come forward and and your program unfold which I have the utmost respect for you know to me it's worth millions you know um and that's not an exaggeration uh Through The Years you know when a kid is disengaged they can become pretty dangerous pretty fast and then that becomes a lost child so I have a ton of respect for what you're doing um I also am sensitive to the fact that you know um we need to keep our mind on our money and our money on our mind you know that's what we sit up here for and we want to make sure that whatever comes before us is is accurate and passes legal muster and there was a lot of back and forth on this and there has been in the past so what I look forward to is getting to a place where this doesn't have to be questioned every single time because what is needed in the contract that reflects everything that you do the great work that you do and the progress that you're making with kids and there's going to be some um some data rolling forward here pretty soon the good news is is you start with the kids when they're young and so you do have things like you know grade attendance test scores stuff like that um but then also as they move from elementary to middle and and middle to high you know are they internalizing you know what you're giving them and are they able you know to take that forward and and even on through graduation so I almost see this as a longitudinal study you know over time um how the kids respond and and it it can be a very tough population to to serve you know we know that we talk about the challenges that that we have with our alternative education low graduation rates you know what what you take on most people aren't willing to do especially with the commitment Spirit passion and role modeling that you guys represent so that's where my respect comes from um at the same time I'm also really glad that the the Scopes of work did go back and forth um I think that that is something that we require from from all of our vendors you know we we need to keep the business aspect accurate and there are plenty of people that will say that doing business with Maran County Schools can be a real pain so please know that you're not the only ones we we we hear it from other aspects so I just wanted to share those those few points you know you what you're offering is different is unique maybe that contributes to to some of the questions I don't know um I think board member Campbell made it made it clear that in her mind is more from the fiscal side not from the side of the great work that you that you do being questioned um I feel like we're unanimous you know on on that up here so we'll we'll wrap up the conversation unless every board member are all hearts and Minds clear on this for the moment all the vote okay all right well then we'll go ahead and vote all those in favor say I I I those oppose nay nay all right motion passes un unanimously four votes to one with board member Campbell dissenting all right thank you all for everything you do thank you principes for coming today appreciate it be safe out there all right moving on to d22.5 may I have a motion to approve the expenditure increase request bid number 4041 ah art supplies for central warehouse 9 months term contract may I have a motion move by board member Cummings second second by Vice chair Conrad Miss Boston Ellis do you have information you'd like to share regarding this item yes we would like to do something just a little different on these on this item there are three items uh 22.5 22.6 and 22 .7 that are asking the board to increase the expenditures um they total of about $95,000 so we'll have U Mr Collins and he will present on all three of these items uh even though you will vote on them one at a time here he'll share why these expenditure increases are necessary as well as um addressing the inventory drop uh for purchases from schools and departments the central warehouse has reached the estimated expenditure amount that was previously approved by the board uh but they still have three months uh left on these particular bids so Mr Collins thank you for being here today you're welcome good morning everyone morning can you hear me okay all right yes um so as you know Co uh affected not only our health but it also affected many areas of Our Lives including the way we conduct business um during covid we started seeing supply chain issues um across the board for all different types of items um when that started occurring we kind of dropped back and said okay what can we do different so we started bidding out our bids in a six-month term for our warehouses uh products um that being the case the reason we did that was vendors were uh coming to us and saying we can't hold our pricing for a year like we normally do um they were getting constant price increases from their suppliers so we adjusted our bids accordingly and that seemed to help uh with the fact of getting our supplies in uh and getting more people to bid on those bids um thankfully since that time Supply chains have kind of gotten back to a more normal pattern um so now we've adjusted our warehouse bids to a nine-month term um trying to stretch that back out um we we found that um a lot of V vendors uh try to do price increases uh throughout the term of our bid um the majority of our biders uh seem to get their uh pricing for the year in January or soon thereafter um so we are adjusting our uh bid terms so that they run um April through December so that way we kind of can lock in those pricings and hopefully not have to deal with a lot of price increase requests um because of that uh and for these particular three bids in general um we're asking for an increase because we're we're at those thresholds that you previously um approved um and we'll have a term there from about January through March that we will not have a bid in place if we do need to buy supplies so we're um planning accordingly and kind of stocking extra of those supplies to buffer US during that time period and now that we have a new nice larger Warehouse we have the space to stock those supplies and uh have room for those um another aspect of that typically every time we bid you know the pricing goes up so the more we can buy on this current bid uh the better chances that we're going to be saving money in the long run by doing so um lastly I would just say you know our our student population is increasing our staff population is increasing and as that occurs uh obviously we're going to be using more of these products that are on these three bids um to meet the students needs so that's all I had to present hopefully that made sense thank you appreciate it any discussion from the board I'll just um I'll just say when we did our warehouse tour when the warehouse was opened and we got to take a tour as a Early Education lover myself I obsessed over the amount of Crayola products that were on the shelf and so by all means if we need to purchase more crayons and markers um it is it it was Miss boson Ellis was chuckling because I was just in so an awe at all of these wonderful supplies we had because if you have not taught Early Elementary School you do not understand just how valuable all of those art supplies are um so that's all I have to say I just brought back a memory of our warehouse finger paints tissue paper all kind of stuff yes um yeah we're we're very appreciative of our new space and it's made a a big difference in what we can do for the district for sure awesome thank you any other discussion from the board if I may I I just wanted at the risk of embarrassing him let him know know that um let the board know um I have a firsthand opportunity to witness everything that Mr Collins and his department does and his staff do in a regular basis we work very closely not a day goes by that either he and I aren't on the phone or our staff are on the phone with each other um and sending back and forth emails um and trying to make things work and figure out what about this particular item that has this particular issue and how do we solve it and um this has truly been um for years now that I've worked him he's an extremely good he's extremely good at what he does and this district is much better off for it I just wanted to say that um when these items come up uh the number of issues the board doesn't see that have been headed off before they ever get to the board because of Forward Thinking leadership has been impressive and incredible and he's truly a valuable District employee and uh Miss Boston Ellis I know works very closely with him is proud of him too so uh and and I I'll say because he'll probably be the first to say it's not just him his staff does incredible work and they're very supportive team for him and it's been a pleasure to work with him through the legal department as well so thank you as always Mr Collins because when these things come I always have a great degree of confidence that that things have been handled um well and openly uh and that we've all gotten to a good resolution of whatever problems we have before we have to address it with the board so thank you thank you those were nice words and uh yeah I have to give credit to my team they um they're amazing we're small but um they do a lot of work and a lot of good work so I really appreciate them thank you thank you attorney pow and I certainly Concur and I see the rest of the board's heads nodding and just appreciative of the the great work that our staff does on a daily basis any other discussion from the board okay all right hearing none all those in favor say on d22.5 i i i motion passes unanimously 5 moving on to 22.6 may have a motion to approve the expenditure increase request bid number 4042 ah classroom supplies for central warehouse 9month term contract motion to approve motion by Vice chair Conrad second by board member Cummings Miss Boston Ellis do you have information or additional information You' like to share regarding these related items no addition information he summed it up he sure did all right thank you any discussion from the board hearing none all those in favor say I I I I motion passes unanimously five votes to zero may I have a motion to approve the expenditure increased request bid number 4043 ah janitorial and sanitary paper supplies for central warehouse 9 months term contract move move by board member Cummings second by Vice chair Conrad Miss Boston Ellis anything else from your seat nothing else okay thank you any discussion from the board hearing seeing none all those in favor say I I I motion passes unanimously five votes to zero we're getting there moving on to the PED agenda item you have a motion to approve the guaranteed maximum price for primary conduits at elementary school X Project 24 d102 motion to approve motion by Vice chair Conrad second second by board member Campbell board member James you pulled this item wish to have further discussion yes just brief discussion I'm in support of passing the item um my request and I've made this request before but I maintain this request if an item is going to be added to the board agenda after publication my request is that item gets added under discussion only um and not under consent agenda this item was added after publication and was placed under consent agenda um and if an individual from our community were to um potentially come get the packet on Tuesday on publication this item would not have been included and it totals $150,000 so my request maintains that if we are going to add items after publication um I understand that the chair and the superintendent have that oblig um obligation and privilege to do that it gets placed under consent um under discussion pulled agenda items thank you thank you board member James and um I don't disagree and um it was something that I would not like to to see happen in the future either I probably don't have too many weeks left as board chair but I agree there there's no good reason not to do that so we might as well just do it and then that way it saves a board member from needing to to pull it it can be put on discussion if everybody doesn't have anything to say which happens with you know some of our discussion items anyway so yes board member Campbell sure thank you for bringing that up Dr James I think perhaps even during our organizational meeting or during our policy rul making that we might want to even change a bylaw or something like that that actually says that so that it's not just riant on the board chair to make that decision every time but the board chair has to give the approval but the automatic placement becomes a discussion item and that would anyway I I think that actually might be something that we could do as far as our own policies for how the board that can that can be procedural as well I was going to say either procedural or policy but just making sure that there's consistency and it happening every time because sometimes it has and sometimes it hasn't and truthfully on this one it floated through my mind you know put just go ahead and put it under discussion um it's been a busy week you it it it went away and and that's where it landed and then when I saw it could pull I was like darn it so anyway um everyone else feel the same okay yep why not all right um anything else you'd like to share board member James nope that was it okay anything else from the board ready to vote all those in favor say I I I motion passes unanimously five votes to zero all right moving on to board committee reports and concerns the next administrative briefing and work session has been scheduled for October 17th 2024 at 9:00 a.m. a special board meeting has been scheduled I would just like to clarify this date for October 17th at 7:30 A.M and that's to address explosions is that correct Miss Martinez okay thank you uh the next regular school board meeting has been scheduled for October 22nd 2024 at 5:30. PM we'll go ahead and move on to um committee reports concerns and comments anything uh from your seat Miss Martinez no Madam chair thank you Miss Boston Ellis it was a pleasure to have you with us this morning breathe now you did great thank you nothing further nothing further okay thank you um anything from legal uh yes a couple of items uh first I would like for the board members to have an opportunity to clear their calendar for um October 30th and 31st I intend to set work sessions for our policy updates um as usual with our uh updates as we've done these in the past we will prepare to have both days beginning at 9:00 a.m. for as long as we need to go however it is possible we only end up needing one of those days or or one and a half days depending on how quickly we get through the updates that we have and it's very difficult as you know to ENT anticipate how much discussion we'll have on each of those staff has been working diligently at responding to each of the um proposed updates and we have subdivided those within the legal department as to which ones are um you know strictly legal updates that are just required because of a statutory change which ones may also be ones that staff has uh noticed something that needed to be um updated uh as well as a couple of that have been recommended by staff or board members as new policies as well so October 30th uh 9:00 a.m. and October 31st and if we finish early we finish early and if we take the entire time then that's what we need to do as well um we have I have advertisements ready to go because since it is Rule making and development they need to have two weeks of advertising time and those will go in appropriately so that we are properly advertised for those as well uh then the policy updates after after the board has reviewed them in a work session will be brought for public hearing and then brought for uh a vote um in subsequent meetings so that's item number one um second item is as to the technical working group I've been working with uh the board chair and um also with facilities Department regarding uh the a specific interlocal agreement for um construction and what we're going to be reporting uh and and providing to the County uh I understand facilities has been in a number of meetings with uh Mr cahon there and Miss St in order to make sure that all those items are provided I've provided you on the upper right hand corner of your desk each of you a copy of the proposed uh inter local agreement this basically this is not this is a specific interlocal agreement for provision of of records and provision of um of our uh plans to the the county this is as is required within the special use permit so other than the mandatory language there you'll see that the special use permit language is what uh prevails there that we had agreed to in the past there's really not much that we can change that's that's the conditions the special use permit um I would like to request the board's um uh consensus to be able to allow me to make minor modifications I have to go back and forth between um myself and Mr Minter as to um minor legal modifications and to have the board chair have the discretion of the board to sign once those are made of course if there were major modifications or anything that required further discussion I'd bring it back to the board at our October 22nd meeting but to expedite we're I'd like to be able to complete this item and make minor edits as need be thank you attorney pow I would say as long as they're you know minor then I'm I'm fine with it um I do want to make sure that the board continues to be informed as we move along this is a really big and important project and you know again we can't change the past but you know everything stopped in in 2011 you know the interlocal agreement wasn't really even being implemented and um from 2008 uh we weren't meeting you know as bodies and then Here Comes 2013 and a special use permit that everyone admits kind of lacking so we got to go with what we have so those are my thoughts on that but I just want to make sure the board continues to be informed as we move along because of the importance of of all of this so I have consensus to make the edits as necessary um and if and then to have the board chair sign unless uh in my determination any of those are going to be significant um substantive edits in which case I'll bring it back to the board okay I see I see a bunch nods okay good thank you uh that would conclude what I have to present to the board so all right thank you all right board member James thank you um I'm gonna keep it brief because I know we want to try to probably make it over to the EOC so I don't have a lot of comments um my I'm simply going to say Mr Gray came today to present before the board um in the public comment and I my understanding is that in two weeks we're going to see a change order come before the board again um there are a lot of questions that I still remain this morning um in his Testament he said we pulled out the windows um in my conversation with him on the phone uh last week he he said that the school district was responsible for hiring a third party to pull out the windows and that none of it was he didn't even know what he was getting into so I think that um prior to me voting on a change order I'm going to expect in the next two weeks that I have ample information to be able to make an informed decision um because it seems like that we're not all on the same page about what the details are about the windows um I will add there were security concerns attached to the locks which I'm not going to address publicly but the locks that they they installed there was also significant security concerns that if you have a conversation with Mr Johnson about he would be able to highlight with you board um and my final on this topic my final concern is that when I visited the school probably four weeks ago I could push the plywood off of the from the inside out with my hand um I imagine 100 M hour winds are going to rip those right off and so my plea is that Gray Construction spends the better part of today and tomorrow ensuring that that plywood is effectively installed so that the interior of North Maran High School is not destroyed when the plywood rips off due to Hurricane Milton that concludes my comments thank you um we'll just move on Down the Line board member Cummings thank you thank you chair um thank you Mr Avery for coming this morning morning and bringing that concern to us I think um intent is always good of of what uh those jobs descriptions were for I think sometimes we just might to not thought it all the way out I won't say we it just to went some things went over our head that we missed um but thank you for bringing that last week I went to um Fort Walton Beach for I'm sorry D Destin for our um for the School Board Association board of directors Dr Campbell came as well um one of the things that we talked about is that exactly what attorney uh P just talked about making sure that we updated our policies and that we in agreement and getting those things so we're compliant legally um we don't want to do anything outside of that um and I'm going to keep my comments brief um my travel to uh Destin um I was able to I don't know which route Dr Campbell went but the route that I went was 7510 and you can see the devastation of of what uh hurricane Helen did in North Florida and here we are we week or so later and we're facing another hurricane um I pray that everyone is doing what they need to do to make the necessary preparations uh that you got your water your ice and all that other stuff and um um our shelters are open are opening today are opening today not open yet kids are still in school they are um opening today so we're praying that everyone that needs to get to a shelter would go to the shelter please don't wait till the last minute to go out because you put other people lives in danger when you wait till the last minute so please go out I do want to go ahead and give a shout out and a thumbs up to our staff because some of them are working today and they're going to be in those shelters tonight and tomorrow and and maybe even beyond that so I want to thank them for that so I pray that you guys everybody's going to get there safe get through this safely um it's coming directly kind of at us so we we know we're going to get the effects so expect to be out of some power and expect the things that come along with the hurricane that we live in Florida so we we just asking God to get us through this one so includes my comments may I add on to your comments just to briefly read from our uh alerts that we have posted on our website which are up which which change marionschools.net as as um Mr Cummings just pointed out um has information there that gives all the updates that we have as we know them for school and shelter openings enclosures um and just reading those few lines right now for anyone that may not have internet access at the moment mcps will close Wednesday Thursday and Friday for Hurricane Milton all after school extracurricular activities for Tuesday are cancelled except for Maran after school programs 10 mcps schools will open Tuesday at 6 p.m. at shelters more information is available by calling citizens Information Hotline at 352 36975 and then stay tuned for updates that are posted on our website at marionschools.net and Sky alerton messaging which is sent out to um parents and and uh community members and social media channels also in local media so I think that's very much along the lines what Reverend Cummings was alluding to and uh and please stay safe thank you attorney Powers thank you board member Cummings for member Campbell thank you um and you were piggybacking on exactly what I was going to start by saying is because while we've been sitting here in this meeting things have been happening including that school is now canceled on Friday um so please be aware of that if you did not get that alert uh for the community might be listening I do just have just a couple of things that I'm going to try to be as quick as possible because I do know we want to all head out um grateful for mentorship programs in general and the Tak stock mentorship that we many of the board members do I I know I and my husband continue to Mentor former College athletes who are now adults who still need advice and so mentorship doesn't end just because people grow up so I'm grateful for the work work of our mentors I wanted to make you aware also while I've been sitting here uh it has become official that I have accepted the appointment to the Florida school music association board of directors uh that was a an appointment from the Florida school boards Association and president Tim Bryant and so I'll be serving in that capacity from October 2024 to October 2027 so I just wanted to make the board aware of that that happened thank you that happened while we've been sitting here so thank you sit and things keep happening I know like the world keeps turning absolutely um uh let's see just a couple of other things I I also have been speaking with uh Mr Carlile as you know we had conversations specific to Planning and Zoning commissions and uh the non- voting seat that um I maintain on the city of Ocala's Planning and Zoning he has um gotten information I believe and may be sharing with all of us at some point but the county U Planning and Zoning does have an a seat open voting seat for a school board member so chair if you possibly want to work with Mr Carlile and what that might look like uh as or maybe we wait until November to the new organizational meeting and however we want to do that um and according to Mr Carlile Belleview and dellen also would welcome that however those meetings are on Tuesday evenings at 5:30 so they are exactly the same time as our Schoolboard meetings so um but having a having a board member assigned to each one of them who receives the packet every month then that might give us the opportunity to at least be aware of what they're approving on a regular basis so um just wanted to make you aware of that I will talk very briefly about the time in the Panhandle because I think you all might want to know about how Maran County's legislative priorities landed with fsba there's still some things that are being worked out from a language standpoint but I'll give you a really quick rundown attendance uh it appears that what we have submitted is going to make the platform almost exactly with the exception of with the exception of they are going to make it 180 days instead of 365 calendar days they believe that legislators will be have it more palatable if we are saying during the school year that that's the time frame that 10 unexcused absences in 180 days school year as opposed to 365 calendar days we went around and around and just so it's going to be even more stringent than what we were saying so I but regardless attendance is going to make the platform uh Capital funding is going to make the platform it does appear at least based on what we talked about what that Capital funding uh right now is going to be negotiated and how they language it uh to be that there will be an FTE calculated rate based on districts who are having increasing enrollment over 3 to five years and so that's not going to impact every school district because not everybody is increasing but we are so they're actually going to try to put something out specific to that um school safety funding there will be some platform initiative on school safety funding even if If It Isn't Our direct verbiage um gifted education as it stands that initiative isn't going to be on the fsba platform that doesn't mean that we don't need to continue to move forward and do what we're going to do uh we talked a lot uh about it and everybody in the room agreed we just talked about how potentially over the next couple of weeks that we might be able to Nuance how the language is I spoke directly with a Schoolboard member from Monroe County who's very interested in working with me us on that uh and how we might be able to nuance the story behind that but um that is everybody agreed but it wasn't really there uh for a platform initiative the Career Tech where we were asking to have um the cape funding list expanded I learned how that actually works and it's a lot uh more complicated than just making it as a platform initiative it there is uh the reach act so I encourage you to look up the reach act and learn how that impacts career source and there's a long process on how that list is even created so I believe it gives us an opportunity to work with our friends at career source and see how we might be able to do a joint platform initiative moving forward uh and finally the mental health idea there certainly will be some kind of agenda item regarding mental health uh but our lobbyists directly recommended that we reach out to the chancellor of Career and Technical education from the doe to talk directly about how we could create a mental health pathway for students and so rather than even making that part of it a legislative initiative they recommended we go with a chancellor of career in Tech education so I say all that to say all six of the initiatives that Maran county has put forth are I want to say I felt very proud to be essentially leading the state in some of these conversations everybody agreed with everything we said and so kudos to us board uh thank you for your hard work on that and as the fsba continues to craft the language uh we will be getting that in the next couple of weeks and so we can finalize what our language is there will be one initiative that um that a lot of school boards are dealing with with the school start times that I think will be on fba's platform that we have already made those adjustments so we might not want to use that initiative um but we'll see that whenever the platform comes out so wanted to brief you guys on all of that as quickly as I could grateful for the work we're doing at the EOC with our fellow leaders around the county it's been great to see the collabor ation there thankful for our team Mr mcfaden Miss Connor Dr gullet um Mr oranic everybody from our team who is there even right now and has been for the last basically 36 to 48 hours already um and just continued prayers for our community in the entire State of Florida uh we have potential for a lot of impact and I'm just grateful that Lord hear our prayers that's it absolutely thank you um VI com yes I'll try to be quick also um I just wanted to say Dr Brewer I was really excited that we approved with FL cabulary it's the most exciting vocabulary lesson you'll ever see so um it is a lot of fun vocabulary makes doing vocabulary at least when I was in fourth grade really exciting so that was just a fun um thing I wanted to highlight I know we quickly moved through that but really excited that our teachers all have access to this because the kids are always excited to do it so looking forward to that um Mr Avery I'm glad and thankful that you're here too um I know that there was some challenging conversations about the position of the specialist and the coaches and um I just wanted to share that I'm I'm always thinking about our students and and I know it's a challenge that we all have to be flexible um things get changed around it's just difficult when we have so many instructional positions available um looking to have certified people people you know in those spots and so my hope and my prayer is that we get to a place again where we don't have all of these openings um you know especially in education so just looking forward and and hoping um that that Trend goes away we don't have so many vacancies and um people can get back to doing um what they're passionate about if that's Co coaching or working in content so I just want to thank you for bringing those concerns forward um I also just want to say uh you know I know it was a challenging conversation with cut different today um I just if you have any doubt about the work that that group does or you're concerned about it um I just encourage you to go to one event one activity um that that group puts on it it is phenomenal um and recently this last summer I'm going to take just a second to share a personal story um over the summer uh he had a celebration um which we attended and I drug my son and his girlfriend to the event um he's 30 so he wasn't as excited to go as I was but he went and so at the conclusion of the event um will walks out with me and he's like he said to me Mom that was amazing the work that they are doing is lifechanging and I thought it it was impactful to me but it was even more impactful um to a 30-year-old boy I'll say you know um working right here in Maran County who went through Marian County Public Schools and then um a few weeks later I had I ran into Jamie uh in town and he said Lori was so excited to see will show up to volunteer this week and I said what he said yeah he's coming in the afternoon uh you know to work with the boys that at that at cut different and so um the reach of cut different uh and the work that they do the first thing I think of really is you get what you pay for um and I don't know anybody that's doing the kind of work that jimie and his team are doing and the impact is far-reaching it's it's beyond um the students and the staff that are just in Maran Maran County it has reached my family right here uh in Maran county is making a difference in my adult children and so just want to encourage you again if if you're uh unfamiliar with his work the work that his team is doing to to step out a little bit um spend a little time in that space um because it really is amazing work and lastly I just want to say and and several board members have shared I I'm just really G grateful for our District staff and administrators there is so much work so many hours that go into um getting our community prepared uh for Hurricane Milton and so yesterday at yesterday's evening meeting you could really see um the wear and the worry on our staff everybody is tired um and the storm is not here yet and so I just my I hope and pray that everybody is safe um and just with everyone as they work through these 12-hour shifts of making sure our families and our children are in the best and safest place um that they can be dur throughout the storm and so thank you for for everybody that steps forward to um have those opportunities available um for our families not just locally but we heard this morning you know people had arrived from Tampa they were waiting to get in our shelter so um just really grateful for the work um of the team so thank you thank you Vice chair and um yeah it's definitely been a challenging week already and as you said the storm isn't even here yet I'm trying to balance you know everything that goes along with planning for a potential catastrophe is so detail oriented and there's so many priorities and just trying to find that balance of making sure that we close soon enough don't close you know too soon it's definitely one of those initiatives where we will never get 100% approval but if if we continue to put the safety first we continue to encourage people you know we've been looking at this for a week you know um we've been talking about this storm as the other one was ending it was like uh oh you know and I even put something on Facebook saying hate to say it guys but start repearing now you know if you're talking about getting off work today and preparing you're cutting it close to the Bone that's all I can say um so yes my my always gratitude to to our our staff and all of our Community Partners you know it's really something to witness when you go into the emergency Operation Center and see the coordination that's taking place and what you thought was the plan two hours ago when you come back two hours later is not the plan because the storm is evolving and so it's it's never time to say well that's not what we said well that's why it didn't get messaged out because it's once the message goes out then it becomes enshrined and it's basically impossible to to walk it back and people get very confused so uh thanks you know to all that are involved in that work and and the work continues many prayers that everyone stays safe um you know on the whole gray project thing I really hope that we can get this um sufficiently worked out because this is a company that is local they've done very well for us on the projects that they've done so far um you know I was invited out there and walk the building and you know I'll say this I don't think we have any windows that don't have to be inspected so I too share the sentiment that hopefully they're doing whatever they can to make sure those things hold um with this storm coming in um I'll also say that the day that I visited you know learning was occurring um the lights were on uh but maybe I just have a little bit of different perspective after working there for so long you know I was in an internal classroom and we had to walk through Miss stalker's class which was also an internal classroom to get to my classroom and in that whole area of the main building it was all internal classrooms with no windows so you know kids are resilient staff is resilient um you get it done um but it certainly isn't optimal at the at the moment and I can't imagine there's anyone sitting on this board that doesn't want to see it you know resolved as soon as possible without throwing the baby out with the bath water because they've done good work for us and we've certainly um Extended Grace in other situations um so with that I don't have anything else for the good of the cause and again prayers to all of you um stay safe do your final preps because at this point um without something really different changing then we're going to get the brunt of it I don't think what I've ever seen since living here seriously all right um we'll go ahead and adjourn all those in favor say I we have a motion motion to adjourn motion to adjourn board member Campbell second ice sh comrade uh Cummings has already voted the rest of us all in favor say hi hi hi motion passes un answer 5- z we're adjourned at 11:00 a.m. that's not too bad for everything we [Music] had e e