the Schoolboard work session begins in 2 minutes please take your seats again the Schoolboard work session begins in 2 minutes the Schoolboard work session begins in one minute please take your seats again the school board work session begins in 1 minute e [Music] good morning everyone I now call the February 6 2024 administrative briefing and work session of the Maran County School Board to order at 9:00 a.m. please silence your electronic devices to avoid disturbing others mirroring and modeling how our students begin each day I ask that you please pause with us for a moment of silence thank you I'll Now read our board commitment statement We Are The Marin 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 I will now ask the Schoolboard attorney to explain the roles for this public work session good morning attorney Powers good morning chair Thor this work session is a public meeting as defined in Florida's Sunshine Law the board is dedicated to full transparency in its meetings and its work in compliance with the Sunshine Law the board has adopted uniform meeting procedures including the right for citizens to participate the board will now allow public comment regarding any work session item list on today's agenda at the appropriate time speakers must fill out a request form located in lobby and hand it to the board clerk after the board and superintendent have completed their discussion on a particular agenda item the board clerk will call the speaker's name in the order received each speaker will have three minutes as required by the Sunshine Law the board must maintain orderly conduct and proper decorum throughout this meeting speakers May criticize subject matter and decisions in a respectful manner but not people finally speakers must be very careful not to violate the Privacy rights of others especially students and their family members by mentioning their names or other identifying information thank you for your attention to these important rules J thank you attorney Powers good morning Miss Martinez would you please provide the proof of publication for today's meeting the notice for the February 6 2024 work session was published in the Okala Gazette on January 26 2024 proof of publication has been attached to bardocks under proof of publication thank you Miss Mar inz good morning Dr gullet we will now begin the work session uh with your briefing good morning Madam chair members of the board great to see you all this morning I actually have several and I'll be um as as quick as I can because I know we have a full agenda so first one I want to start with as a briefing and reminder and a thank you to um our public Education Foundation we had a beautiful celebration of our golden apple teachers uh this past Saturday night and congratulations to Jennifer Brown from Forest High School um and so we are really proud of of all of our teachers and all the great work that they're doing um I also want to do a shout out to the amazing students um who performed our middle school and high school students did a fantastic job um Unstoppable um really appreciate that it is also a National School counseling week and so I want to thank all of our counselors out there at all levels elementary middle and high school and our central place staff for supporting um students and spending the time meeting with them making sure they get properly scheduled and and have access to the courses that they need to be successful and so want to thank them for all of their um wraparound services and support they provide every day in our schools um and also it February is Career and Technical Education Month and it's very um appropriate that we just had um recently received information that we have uh received $145,000 as part of the workforce capitalization development Grant which helps to expand uh Career and Technical education programs for our students it provides them more Hands-On experiences and that money will be used to expand some programs at Westport HIgh school for engineering uh particularly we'll expand the offering to have three additional certification programs so those students can go onto college or directly into the workforce in in high demand High wage uh uh programs so we're really excited and grateful to um our commissioner and our governor for supporting our uh expansion and alignment of of the Career and Technical education programs and last but not least I have uh Mr Frasier who's going to come forward because um Bard I know you're aware that we just recently received the notification of acceptance of a application for a yearr round pilot program for Maran County and uh we received that for wyam Park and so Mr Frasier is going to provide an update of the conversations we're having with the stakeholders in that community and next steps and what that looks like so Mr Frasier thank you good morning chair thrower Vice chair Conrad Dr gullet and board members I'm here this morning as Dr gullet referen to provide an update on the application submitted to the Florida Department of Education to Pilot a yearound calendar at wyam Ina Park Elementary the Florida Department of Education notified District leadership that the application was approved in late January for a yearr round calendar for the 2425 school year it's important to note that students attend 80 instructional days just like our traditional calendar however they have identified breaks more frequently and teachers still work a 196 day contract we applied for this opportunity because research shows that a year-round calendar has the following positive effects it decreases staff and student absences because more frequently scheduled breaks to make a doctor or dentist appointments or any other appointments that would typically have been made during a school day it reduces summer learning loss for students it provides continuous student learning in the form of three 60-day trimesters it helps prevent student and staff burnout it supports staff mental health it is evenly distributed breaks for vacation that mostly align with our traditional calendar it provides families and staff with more options for vacation scheduling and Studies have shown that academically struggling students stand to benefit the most from year- round school in the shorter breaks and instructional chunking help children retain the information better in addition year- round schools provide more supervision during the typically extended summer periods the steps that have already occurred has since notification from the Florida Department of Education a faculty meeting was held on January the 31st to discuss this opportunity and to gather questions comments and concerns a meeting was held on February the 1st to discuss the opportunity with non-instructional staff a school advisory council meeting was held on February the 1st as well Sky alert and Class Dojo messages were sent out on February the 2nd informing the parents of a community meeting that will be held on February the 8th at 5:00 p.m. to discuss this opportunity a draft year round instructional calendar has been developed and is being vetted through multiple District departments currently District administration will meet on February the 8th with multiple departments to work through identified challenges and a community survey will be sent out on the week of February the 12th to gather additional feedback from the community on the draft calendar and any other challenges they may experience we do anticipate that child care will be challenging for some families with non-traditional breaks we are currently troubleshooting this issue with Marian County after school programs to look at how we can explore offering academic Camp options and working with Federal grants and programs to identify potential grant opportunities to help with this Challenge and I welcome any questions thank you Mr Frasier is there any questions or comments from the board I'll just make a brief comment sure I think it's great I think it's a great opportunity for the families for the community um yearound school is uh unique but it really does work um I grew up in Orange County and I was a part of a year- round school for a couple years and um I think it takes some getting used to and as the community has conversations I'm sure we'll be able to meet whatever needs come forth but we went to there was a breakout session I think a lot of us went to at fsba about this in Charlotte County where um former deputy superintendent Mr vello is superintendent now and they are doing it there it's kind of a modified yearound school it looks a little bit different than the traditional calendar but I do think that what it will do is provide that Community more stability in Educational Services and we're going to be able to meet the students where they are and support the family and the community so I'm very excited about it so I was actually able to connect up with that principal and the assistant principal that gave that presentation at fsba and they are going to be zooming in to our community meeting to share their perspectives um as what their challenges have been and what all the positive effects have been as well really good idea yes if I may Mr Fraser I think they've been doing it for 20 is it 20 years it's been a very long time long time was not there when it was first established and she's been there for many years and they did speak to some of the challenges that have come with a reduction in funding and how they've continue to meet the needs of the students in those off periods that are unique and different from the rest of the um District but I believe in the creativity and abilities of our staff and I'm sure that we're going to be able to come up with a plan that's going to support the student stents uh and the families um but what I took away from that session was that they overwhelmingly loved year round school in their community and I remember multiple of us came back and and said this is something that would be amazing for some of our communities uh in Maring County so again I'm excited great thank you board member James did you have something quick um I too am very excited about the potential of starting your R school but I did want to highlight the fact just because we attempted year round school many years ago that this is a single track yes um program because I was sharing with Dr gullet back in the day teachers packed up at the end of their nine weeks all of their things for another teacher to come into their room so I just want to make sure that our staff understands that we're talking about a single track um year round school because it'll make it a lot easier in my opinion and if I may Vice chair Conrad I'm glad you brought that up because the application and the acceptance allows for the districts to decide if it's multi-rack or single and we have no desire to look at the multi- track so in case anyone's out there and they pick up that maybe uh perhaps another District might choose that we're choosing single and I agree thank you great example of the importance of knowing your history Madam chair yes go ahead just two things um and I don't think I don't know if I heard Mr Fraser say it or not this is a pilot this year correct correct I think I think that how what is it for five it's for five years correct okay I just want to make sure that the community hears that so and other other other people hear it the other piece of this is and and I I I I like this idea to be honest with you um the other piece what I want to make sure is that we're going to have this community meeting that we do everything that we can to make sure that everyone knows about this so that it's not just a select group of people saying that they got the message I want to make sure that we are doing whatever we can that that every family and that's at that school has been notified of this community meeting so their input will go can come forward as well as getting the uh surveys I think I shared that with you guys already yeah thank you board member Cummings will this community meeting be broadcast on our YouTube channel or anything like that so community members that can't participate in person they can watch from home or at least have it recorded and then the school can send it out something like that yes ma'am we can certainly do that we can hold it through zoom and record that meeting that way it's available for any community members and post it to the school's website as well as send it out through Class Dojo as well thank you perfect that would be great yes Campell morning absolutely so I too heard the presentation at Florida Schoolboard Association as Dr James said we kind of I think each one of us came back in in our individual briefings with t Callet potentially mentioned something about it honestly unaware that we were already in the process of application and acceptance into this and so why minina park is in District One um I know the struggles that the school has had and participating in their attendance meetings and uh I'm I'm excited to see a new vision and New Direction for what potentially that school needs uh part of what you said just a moment ago Mr Frasier is that especially students that have the strongest academic needs this works very very well for and so that's what I'm most excited about um I know that I mentioned to a a teacher in another school that we have a possibility that we and this before the official announcement I was like you know there might be a possibility that there could be a yearr round school one yearr round school in Maran County so again as as Reverend Cummings said uh we want the community to understand while this is a pilot it is in one school so this isn't a districtwide this isn't an elementary wide this isn't this is one school wyam Park Elementary has been approved for this pilot program um but I did speak with another teacher in another school who was very excited about it because they had come from a yearound school in another district and so um I I am of the belief that even if there is some attrition away from yina for whatever reason because a teacher doesn't like the idea that there will be enough teachers that do and so I think we'll be able to fill that school um with with a lot of great instructors either those that are currently there or those that are coming in and just looking forward to the to the growth of the students at yina in this new model absolutely and I think when we get to the point to where we start Gathering feedback Community feedback on that calendar once they see what it looks like um it will it will address a lot of misconceptions in regards to what that means um because it really is it really is a great calendar thank you Mr Fraser did I hear someone say they had something else okay um I just wanted to to close with just a little message you know to the to the community and thank you for your vision and and bringing this forward um this isn't a new model you know in any sense of the word but it is another opportunity to try to reach kids and help them be successful and I think that that's uh an idea that this community and our school Community has kind of grown used to with this particular board and this particular team you know we are willing to look at any and all opportunities that have great potential to help kids and and I love the way this is targeted I love the fact that it is a fiveyear right this goes on for five years so it's not just oh well we tried it for one year and it didn't work you know it sometimes it takes time I would be interested to know at some point what that magic time is if there is one and maybe it's specific to each school and its culture and so on um I would like to know when do schools that are using this model typically see positive results typically see that Trend accelerating that would be something I'd love to know just to know when I can start looking forward to it so thank you very much for your presentation if there's no more questions or comments from the board Dr gullet oh nothing additional thank you thank you thank you okay anything else for your briefing nothing for my briefing we're ready to move forward thank you okay great well I think it's time to go ahead and introduce the first topic on today's agenda perfect thank you so I'm pleased to bring forward Miss Morant who is going to provide to you recommendation from us for the school Staffing ratios and again as a reminder these are the the ratios set aside for schools for uh the positions that we provide thank you thank you Dr gullet good morning good morning thank you and good morning Dr gullet and good morning Cher Thor and members of the board I'm excited to share the draft of our um School School level staff and ratios for the 2425 school year you will see on page two of the packet the members that served on the committee it included representation from Human Resources the union a principal from elementary middle and high school and other leaders across the district Pages three and four shares information about the budget Authority the Florida education Finance program or ffp student enrollment projections and adjustment periods and also guide lines for additional or changes in allocation all of which dictates and guides how the individual School Staffing plans are created and then updated on page five you will see the staff and guidelines for ESC as recommended by the ESC Department the greatest change is changing the ratio allocation from per nine students to a band of 8 to 12 students and also an increase to one teacher and two pair professionals versus one teacher and one pair professional and important note is the highlighted sentence at the bottom which includes the consideration of the needs of the students based on their IEP and I I'll pause here to see if there are any questions or comments before we go into the individual School ratios thank you board um just briefly in my briefing I had two questions that obviously haven't been changed because this was uploaded after the briefings my first question was is there a lower Edge threshold for the two one teacher two Paras so if a unit only has five students enrolled do they still get one teacher two Paras so Miss Anna Williams Jones she is here and prepared to answer the questions that you had during the briefing wonderful thank you morning Miss Jones good morning Dr gullet good morning board so when we are looking to design our units the minimum that would have a self-sustaining unit would be six students and we would build that unit of six students with one teacher and two parents the reality is is that the growth in the district is so significant that we go from most of our units start the year already full so when we look at being eight eight students or nine students the increase on the ratio to the upper end gives us the opportunity to still provide the necessary supports for students and then look at if we need to expand across the district so there would not typically be a unit with five students or less we would then we would put those students in other units to then look at if we had across the district the need to create another unit with six students really being the minimum for that and then also as you know once we have the units if we staff them under one teacher and two Paras sometimes it's difficult to add in the middle so we start with the maximum number of supports okay thank you for that clarification my other question is when a unit exceeds 12 students what will be the threshold for opening a new unit how many students can we expect to see with one teacher and two paas in a unit before an additional unit is added to a school so when we look at guidance from doe although they don't give us specific numbers the typical range is when you are at 50% more than what a unit is designed to hold then you would look at opening another unit so having the range gives us really the opportunity for when a a unit gets to be at 10 students to start to look to see based on the growth based on the students that are currently in evaluation based on the number of students that are in our other units to determine if we need to open another unit and then perhaps do some leveling and move students around at that point but the recommended guideline is when a unit is at reaches the 50% more than the design for it to be built 50% more than 8 9 10 11 or 12 because those are so that's really up to the district to determine so as we look at nine kind of being a standard with the 1 to three and 12 giving us some room so if we have units that are approaching 13 uh and 14 students then it would be time to look to see first if there is another unit in The District in close proximity in which we could allow leveling uh although we would think that there would be an opportunity to open another unit the reality is that the challenges of finding teachers and qualified staff might make that difficult so when we see that the units are reaching 12 or more then that would be an opportunity to look at the other units that serve those same exceptionalities look at the capacity of those units and then start to determine if there another student were to be ready to attend that unit what would be the closest unit um in working with transportation that would allow us to serve this student appropriately without overwhelming the current school okay um I appreciate everything you said board I would like for this document to reflect some stringent some stringent language because what I see as I visit schools is units and while I appreciate you're newer to us and we're going to see great Improvement as it currently exists we have units over 12 and they keep coming and 12 EBD kids is too many EBD kids in one classroom in my opinion but if that's I'm can be on board with a range of 8 to 12 but what I can't be on board with is pushing to 14 in a portable and then all of a sudden we're having escalation that could have been avoided and I appreciate this Staffing sentiment as well so it's a double-edged sword because creating a new unit and putting unqualified or uncertified individuals into that room is not necessarily the solution either but I would like to see a line added to the bottom of this page that dictates at 50% of nine or 50% of 10 or whatever that number is so that schools feel like they have an black and white Safeguard to be able to Advocate on their own behalf for the needs that they have on their campus Because I do know that there are schools that feel like they are struggling to articulate and advocate for the needs that they see on their campus so my recommendation as I hear you say nine would be that threshold of 50% my recommendation would be a line at the bottom that says um when a when a unit exceeds 50% of nine students so that would be four and a half Miss Boston Ellis isn't here to make fun of my math um thir 13 13 and a half or whatever it is I would like to see that in Black oh there she is I would like to see that in black and white like when a unit exceeds 13 students there will be an additional unit no further students will be added or some kind of Safeguard like that um and I still think 13 is too many but if we're going with 50% of nine then I would like to go with adding four and make it 13 so Bor do you have a feeling about that go ahead um I agree Dr James and it's a concern I brought forward uh at my briefing and it's it's not that I don't appreciate um the added perah but speaking with um staff members they also feel that it's it's too many students 12 is too many students and and my concern is the retention of the staff that we have I don't know how many openings we have in this particular department but I certainly don't want us to lose teachers because now the burden is unbearable and so I too have um I have a very serious concern about going up to 12 uh in in these units and at the least I like Dr James's recommendation that we have a threshold for where we begin adding a unit because we know we have openings now and so adding you know how are we going to add another unit with a certified teacher well and I just I genuinely wanted to say not to exceed 13 students or whatever that is that's because I understand like a kid shows up and where are we going to put them and but that's not for the schools to figure out when I mean I was at a school yesterday and or Friday and they have five ESC individuals on FMLA so or in some variation of FMLA and so it's they are handicapped and so it cannot be their their responsibility to figure out how to find coverage when they're already in a deficit um the district office has to take on that level of responsibility and I guess I just feel like having a very black and white units not to exceed 13 students would put a um shift that responsibility back to the district office to figure out how to solve that problem instead of it being a School site and a school staff responsibility because I feel like the schools are just working so hard and there some of those schools are it's just some days are hard most dayss are hard and so putting that responsibility on them to solve that is just too much for me so that's what I would like to see units not to exceed 13 students I came to it all on my own thank you board member James um board member Campbell and and I can completely get on board with what um my fellow board members are saying the the thing that concerns me Miss Jones about what you stated was if we reach this certain level whatever this level might be and maybe it's 13 or whatever then we will begin I heard the word begin in a couple of times in your statement and that's where I get pause because at that point in in my viewpoint this individual board member it's not the time to begin start looking at a solution it's the time to have a solution and so whatever that solution might be if we are at 11 students or 12 students then we need to start forecasting what that will look like when we hit 1314 and so that that's where I'm concerned I can fully agree that we need to have some line of delineation that schools do not have the responsibility of understanding now granted we understand that we also have space constraints and just because we add a unit we may not have a portable or a classroom or a location to put that and so I I understand that as well so it is a tricky situation depending on our school in our locations however I completely agree with my fellow uh board members here that we as a i as an individual board member and it sounds like there are at least a couple of us that agree need to have a line of deline ation in this school Staffing plan um because this is an area as you also stated of growth we continue to see more and more students not just that have a diagnosis of whatever that might be but also that are moving in with those diagnoses and those that have not yet been screened and will have them and we know that we know from our VPK programs we know from our kindergarten first grade there are lots of students that have yet to be actually placed and so we know that's coming and so just to be on the safe side and moving forward I completely agree with the line of delineation thank you board member Campbell uh board member Cummings anything in agreement as well okay thank you um and I don't disagree with anything that the the concerns that the board my fellow board members have raised um I'm very concerned about the continued existence of the kindergarten through third grade units all in the you know K through three all in the same room um if we're serious about helping every students succeed we know we say it over and over again that that early intervention is what is so incredibly key and I've been doing this for a while and I've seen the tremendous challenges and the increase in the tremendous challenges that these teachers have to authentically really reach and teach each child and third grade is so important but yet I think we've all figured out that it's really almost kind of too late yeah so I really want to raise some concern and awareness I thought we and I'm pretty sure we have been working hard to try to eliminate that K3 model um in in the past it was K5 you know and that was even worse so you know K1 Maybe I but k123 you know something like that um the other thing I'm keeping in my mind is that it's not numbers that drive placement it's needs you know needs drives placement and there are certain students that because of the Matrix that gets filled out you know that shares that student's individual needs they bring a lot more money into this District because their needs are so individualized and they need a much smaller you know teacher student ratio I also it's sad how difficult it is to to recruit and retain um teachers and staff and behavior techs and behavior Specialists to serve these kids so while we can say that we want to cap these numbers we don't have any say and what students show up on our campuses on any given day and they they have to be served I think there's we might have 10 days you know to settle the placement but but we have to enroll them that day and and put them somewhere so if our special needs um area was easy to solve we would have solved it a long time ago I I think that there has to be more voice from our schools more authentic voice there is still consternation about asking for help and acknowledging the reality of their day-to-day situation uh a classroom full of students with severe emotional and behavioral disabilities I would challenge anyone to go in there with 11 kids even and authentically help each of those students succeed on on a daily basis so so globally I wanted to acknowledge your challenge and specifically I wanted to concur with the rest of my board members that as tight as we can make this as supportive as we can make this while still acknowledging the law you know that we don't get to turn away anybody um that's where I am with this so do I does everyone have consensus that maybe uh units not to exceed um or self-contained we'd have to delineate it because it's essentially up to EBD it's the first quarter first third of the page but units not to exceed put an asct on each of the units and then an asri to say units not to exceed 13 students is that too much I would agree oh that is too much so yes but I'm trying to negotiate and the other thing I didn't see on here uh was our therapeutic units for behavior and I I think traditionally they've been quote unquote capped at six uh with a teacher and and two Paris and I don't I didn't really see that delineated out um on this page U you've heard a lot of feedback so wanted to give you the opportunity to to respond and you know from your expert seat so for the units that exist right now as we serve our students with emotional and behavioral disabilities for the district the ratio has been 1 to three so those have pretty much been capped at nine uh for those particular students with one student one teacher and two Paris so with the at the board's suggestion we can make the adjustments that you all would like to see in having the ranges the goal is to have our school staff our IEP teams who are making decisions understand that when we get to the bottom of that ratio so if a stuent a class starts with six when we get to eight that is the time to start having the conversation it's really as you have stated too late when we get to 12 but eight happens really quickly with the growth that our schools are experiencing we can go from 6 to 9 literally in a week between the students who move in and the ones who are staffed and in thinking about our specialized units they don't exist at every school so we are talking about small pockets of support throughout the district so when we add students to them or students come to us with need those numbers grow really quickly so having the ranges really helps us to understand that when we hit the bottom end of the range is the time to start having discussion about what the needs are whether it's a particular disability category or whether it's the needs of a specific school to see what we need to do to then ensure that we're not not burdening the school with too many students that we can't support and looking across the district whether it's if we're looking for our ASD students or for our EBD students to see what is the need across the district and where would it then be possible if we needed to open another unit to do that or if we're if that's not a possibility where is there actual availability of resources so that we can start to direct students to another part of the district so it really is the opportunity to have conversation as the um ratios existed before it was just nine and so when the school got to 9 there was really no direction in the previous Staffing plan as to what they needed to do at 9 which is why we see some of our units that are sitting with students with ratios well above nine and so that's part of what we're hoping to correct is to yes give us a starting point for conversation but also the opportunity to serve those students who walk in the door while looking for alternate Solutions understanding that these are our most challenging students as you mentioned chair thrower as we look for our students with the really really significant needs who are a very high Matrix students those students aren't going to be in a class of 11 or 12 or 13 the need there is just too significant um for us to be able to provide all of the supports that they need so even though the range exist some of the placement opportunities and conversations are going to be driven by the individual needs of the student and so although the range exists if we have a setting in which the students are significantly High need they need Behavior Support infused throughout the day they need counseling support infused throughout the day and then other therapies that we need to provide for them as well having 11 students in that classroom is not going to be what's best for those particular students and so if it is the request of the board that you want to delineate by disability disability category but that gets tough the more you narrow that down the more it makes it difficult for us as a district to be able to make crucial decisions but adding the asterisks for you know not to exceed 13 those are things that that we can definitely do while still maintaining the structure of the supports that we provide so I welcome your additional feedback in terms of how we can develop a staffing plan that is going to support the needs of the students but also continue to be sensitive to the needs of the school thank you after your further explanation I actually think it would be most appropriate to just say that the units will not exceed the top end of the range for all of these categories um as you just explained I mean this is you we're creating the range and I appreciate why we're creating the range to create awareness for growing into the the top end but we I mean I know of a kindergarten inclusion unit that had 20 students in it with a and with a slash support facilitator who wasn't even in the room that frequently so we are going Beyond these ranges and it's not just in these self-contained units and it is crippling the Educators so what I would like to see is it say not to exceed the top end of the range period because that is going to that is going to reflect the needs that the teachers and the leaders have on their campuses because putting 2021 kindergarteners in an inclusion kindergarten class where 12 of the students are ESC which I would argue doesn't even that's not even inclusion anymore um that's happening and again I totally acknowledge that you've kind of walked into this and we're going to make it better I just really want to see some black white safeguards for our school staff and I believe that this Staffing plan would would do that so I think as you've articulated what the range represents indicating that class sizes are not going to exceed the ratio as presented on this is I think more than appropriate so I guess my fellow board members thank you board member James Ard member Campbell the only thing that I was going to say and it it is somewhat relevant but it's just an individual statement I would like to make make as an individual board member and I may be the only one that feels this way um I am uncomfortable with the Hub model I'm uncomfortable with the segregation that that has caused in our district and I as all of you know and many people listening know have a sister who would have grown up this way and she is non-verbal developmentally and intellectually disabled and so um I understand the value not just for her to be in a school setting with other students that are not like her but I also understand the value for the quote unquote normal kids to be able to associate and assimilate and uh have compassion and an upbringing that is different than what a hub model creates and so I I know that that's what we have in this District right now this individual board member disagrees with it so I think the more opportunities that we have to actually push kids into their zoned schools regardless of their ability or disability the more chances we have to do that the more opportunities that then opens up for us as a district to service these students where they are so that's my only statement thank you board member Campbell and go ahead you know what I thank thank Dr k for bringing that up I I too am one that did not like the Hub model from the beginning however we tried it we've tried it and I see where it's created like a segregated population of school schools of of kids so that's one thing that I definitely have never liked um I think it's not from what I'm saying I haven't seen the benefits I haven't seen the the um the return on the investment for for that so maybe I'm missing it somebody has to explain to me but I haven't seen it the return on it thank you board member coming okay um when it comes to the highly specialized units it's definitely a larger conversation um and having worked in those units and supported those units for more than a decade um it's all about the culture of the school you know there are very high functioning kids at the other end of the spectrum that seem to be segregated in some ways too you know they run with their own crowd and um there's even specific games you know so it's not just our kids with uh special needs at the lower end of the functioning scale it's also kids at the much higher functioning end um and again I would point to the the culture of each school and how they look for opportunities to be inclusive and that truly is inclusion in my opinion um since we're giving our opinions uh not that everyone is the same but that everyone is different and we celebrate that by looking always for ways to connect uh well we've shared a lot with you um it appears to be the vast consensus of of the board that there be uh some very strong supportive language so that our schools understand that they're not out there twisting in the wind um that we are here to support them that the district is here to support them I think Dr goet that has been your statement from the beginning that it's it's schools first and if we need to push in more help uh then we do that because we don't know how fast we're going to solve our Recruitment and Retention challenge that we've had for so long not just for Jed I mean that's its own challenge but for kids that really present even more challenges so to me that is the greater conversation is how we can continue I think I heard there's 12 Paras that are in in the pipeline to become teachers you know that's pretty amazing because they'll probably stay because they've lived it so on top of just you know the numbers and the ratios I would ask that we continue to really look at that that Innovation and and making sure that our district is continuing to be known out there for for all of the great things that we're doing including how we re recruit and support uh people that are willing you know to jump in and put their hearts with the most challenging kids in in our society so anything else from you no I appreciate your feedback and we will work to uh make those adjustments did we land on what that was going to look like I'm sorry if I missed that yes I believe we had consensus from the board to um go with this range as being the top and getting the supports in place and the conversation started much earlier I believe that's what I heard okay so then we're in agreement that the range the top end of the range units are not to exceed the top end of the range okay I didn't see that we had all agreed to that particular line so okay sorry thank you yes right thank you thank you thank you so as we move on to elementary middle and high as you all know as it's been shared numerous times that our s dollars will be sunsetting September of 2024 and the majority of the positions that are currently funded through Essa they're being absorbed primarily through the district funding but then also with other grants as such there are no recommended changes for adding positions to the school Staffing plans for the 2024 25 school year on the top of pages 6 and 7 which is Elementary you will see simply clerical updates to the Staffing ratios um because we realize no elementary schools are projected to have enrollment over 1,400 next year the only noticeable change that you will see on elementary middle and high school on those plans is the removal of the permanent classroom substitute position which is also srf funded um and we have an opportunity as you also know with the approval of ESS to continue supporting our schools through the ESS um substitute program and we will continue to do that and I'm happy to announce for January our fill rate is 83% up from 77% um classroom substitutes will remain on the respective School Staffing plans however will no longer hire nor transfer employees into new classroom substitute substitute positions that are vacated and with this I will turn it back over to Dr gullet for any comments thank you thank you Miss Morant um I want to thank you and the whole team who you all have worked very hard Miss Jones thank you I know that there's a lot that you're working on with ESC in particular um more to come on that but um we look forward to any additional questions board thank you thank you Dr gullet I just have I a I just have a comment um and we shared this I shared this with you as a concern I had um when we had our briefing and I I just want to say it publicly uh when we looking at the staff ratios and we're talking about secretaries and we're looking I know there are um guidelines already for the number of students I would just like it to be a consideration that we also consider the amount of money that the secretary is managing because we do have some elementary schools that are managing almost as much money as high schools and so even though that's not written here in black and white I would like it to be a consideration when we look at providing support for those secretaries in our elementary schools so thank you thank you thank you Vice chair any other comments from the board just one brief comment go ahead um I shared this concern and I just want to say it publicly I believe that there are going to be pockets of our district that we will that will not be able to handle not having a classroom substitute there are schools schols that struggle to get pickups because of how far out they are and I do believe that it will not make Financial sense down the road because this is a long game cut I mean realistically we're not going to see the fruits of this cut for a while because people are going to probably stay in their job so but when it when the rubber hits the road I do think that we're going to wind up spending more money paying peras supplements to be teachers to cover classrooms than we would have just spent to have this the unit at the school so I could be wrong but I do think that there are schools that will struggle um and continue to struggle they got 10 vacancies they're out in Fort McCoy people don't want to drive out there to sub when they can sub at Madison streets right in town or NH Jones or Ward Highlands and so again this is a this is a down the road scenario but I do just wanted to say publicly ask I'll be looking forward to the math behind if this actually is going to make sense in some of our schools I think for most of our schools it won't be an issue most of our schools should be able to get subs picked up through the new system um but for the outliers I think it will be an issue so that's my only remark thank you board member James Vice chair com question um have we ever considered um approaching that really what Dr James said by the need by keeping um a permanent sub at our um most rural schools because of the challenges of getting Subs have we ever had that conversation so and as Dr James mentioned she brought it up during her briefing so ESS has been in place one month and in one month they have been able to increase the fill rate by 6% so we're very optimistic that they will continue that growth especially as um I've shared and Dr James shared it's going to happen through attrition so those outlier schools they still have their one permanent sub um and so although the overall fill rate is 83% across the district there are some schools that are higher and lower um Fort McCoy actually is one they have 81% fill rate um so but then of course being transparent um their uh East Maran does have a lower fill rate they have 37% they requested 27 in January and they had 10 filled so what ESS is doing because we've as them to break this down per school so they are engaging with the schools and attending actual events so this month I know they've attended at least six events at the schools where they are working on specific schools that have those needs so we are addressing that and as as it's been mentioned it is a long game so we do feel confident that contining with ESS and as they continue to recruit they just started on December 4th um as far as working with us and starting the Recruitment and the transition process and that we've had data for one month the sub started June January 3rd so the short answer to your question right now I don't think that'll be a problem I think as we continue to work and ESS continues to recruit that it should help mitigate that thank you you're welcome thank you I just statistics are tricky because Fort McCoy I think has 10 vacancies on any day plus absences so 81% of them is different than 81% when you have one vacancy and a few teachers absent and so I appreciate that yes they're at 81% but if you're hemorrhaging because you have your short 10 plus adults on the best day then 81% just looks a little bit different there so understand so Fort McCoy they had a request of 183 and of days with people units and 149 were filled leaving 34 and specifically for excuse me they're all different ones that filled one two 3 four five six 7 8 9 10 so 10 of those were open positions so what the schools are doing when it is in open position I'm looking at the report it does look like they are placing the subs in those vacancies before just teachers absences so it'll show us if this is someone who is out half a day we have some teachers who are on leave of absence so they are utilizing the subs to fill those vacancies um first um but to your point that is some of the work that ESS will continue to do to Target specific schools um I mean I think I really hope that ESS is the solution and I really hope that it all works I just want to continue to have a heightened focus on some of those schools that are more Rural and are and have more vacancies because I just don't want them to be forgotten about and you know it's easy it's easy to think the picture is really pretty in town and then you have some of the schools with lots of vacancies already and just experiencing unique challenges so that's my only point with it thank you and I don't disagree and that's another reason why we wanted to review um per school and we'll continue to do that and be able to share updates as we continue thank you anything else yesman coming I I just have a question um M Moran on page six when I'm looking at the art and music why why um we know that that art and music are both funded through referendum why is it there such a disparity with the 675 to 775 for art versus and music is 775 plus why wouldn't those be the same so we've mer so they are the same so we've mer and this came up in the brief and I thought I I was honestly trying to make it clear so I will make it even clear if you still have that question so if the 675 to 775 is a shared PA between art and music and then 775 and above there are two pairs again that's for art and music so art would get one and music would get one so before there were two lines and we tried to merge it but I will because you asked that I that means it needs to be clear so we will make that clear thank you you're welcome thank you it looks like it's two different things thank you no thank you thank you uh Reverend C because I brought that up in my briefing as well if we could potentially add a comma and put 775 Plus have both the information in both lines that would be terrific even if the font has to get smaller in that one little just get better glasses I know even if the font has to get smaller let's make that uh consistent on both of those I the only comment that I wanted to make beyond that uh was that I can completely support um first of all what Dr James was talking about with potential need for some kind of permanent extra person whether that's called a classroom sub or whatever we're calling that person uh whenever we have this attrition espe especially for our outlying schools but I also can completely support the direction that Miss Conrad was speak Vice chair Conrad was speaking about the receipts in some of our elementary schools almost exceed that of other schools that have additional support so whenever we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars that a secretary at an elementary school level is responsible for that looks very different than a couple thousand dollars at another Elementary School and so we we do need to take that into consideration and what that looks like on each campus may be a little bit different and so I know we're about to have a conversation on school start times we're going to be making some changes based on a couple of schools that are unique that they don't impact Transportation well they also tend to have very large receipts and so when we have unique circumstances like that we need to treat them uniquely thank you board member Campbell anything else from the board okay all right thank you thank you thank you really appreciate the continued uh good work on on all of this and and the depth of detail that that we're going into to try to get it right you know across the district and for each and every school it's commendable so is that it for this one m i I have a question okay I'm sorry Now's the Time sorry sorry we just did we did talked about ESC we talked about elementary well there was no changes to elementary middle or high right but I have a question I don't see one for the alternative school that we have what's the Staffing plan for that because I would think that would need to be included somewhere since we have one so we they have individual School Staffing plans is there a specific one you need me to pull up I mean I'm thinking about the one here MTI that program where where do they fall at where do they Staffing plan fall at in can I I think what he's saying is they serve 6 through 12 but they don't necessarily are they are not necessarily awarded units based on a middle high school combination Staffing plan and so um and so and I've had that question similarly about another a unique Elementary School that serves only K2 students because their Staffing plan is not also repres representative on here or rather their unit allocations are not representative of this template so to answer to answer your question so they are not a part of the ratios but working with their senior executive director or area soup that's how we establish or determine their actual School Staffing plan so so speaking of for I'm speaking of MTI they have an an um a prescribed or specific School Staffing plan that has their units assigned based on the needs of the school so doesn't line up with it it does not line up with the ratios so will we get something on those or I can I can send it out we are working on the school Staffing plans now and our goal we receive the uh final projections after the principes had a time to vet those out we received those yesterday and so our goal is to go through and have all of the Staffing plans to the schools no later than March 1st um and we can certainly share that information with the board as well for those specific schools that are are part of their raos thank you oh my pleasure Dr G than thank you I was going to say um yes we'll certainly provide those to all the board members I know they're working on both of those they're unique models and so we will be happy to share that with the board because those are two unique schools yes that we need to definitely consider and I to his point I would say that I in the future not necessarily for this year but as we go forward and continue to engage in conversation regarding unique models I would want to see representative and ratios that are board approved the templates for Unique models I just feel like I think as a it makes me feel as this you individual board member more comfortable knowing um what the base is um and the base being board approved and pretty solid so as we continue to have conversation around that um I am would fully support either the schools using the ratios as it exists or you those unique schools having their own ratio that's board approved we can certainly take that back to the committee for next year yes I'm afraid to walk away okay all right thank you you we appreciate all the information com is there any public comment on this particular agenda item School Staffing ratios yes Mr alello morning sir morning uh Madam chair uh superintendent board members Chris alello I'm representing uh mea and Mees but also as a parent of two uh school children um a couple of things the classroom substitute years ago when it was developed was not developed to fill the first vacancy that we had because a teacher didn't didn't uh couldn't come to work the classroom substitute was designed to be there throughout the day to provide relief to teachers if they had a staffing if they had a doctor's appointment at 1:00 and we needed to fill an hour or whatever it wasn't meant to be the the long-term teacher we've gotten away from that obviously because of uh how hard it is to staff schools and find and recruit and retain uh the association would love to have to be in any discussions that you have about recruiting and retaining we've got a lot of ideas um also about the ratios obviously the ratios mean very little when staff members are being pulled to cover uh areas that that aren't covered and we see that uh paas are often pulled to to substitute and do other things cover so uh I'm sure we're all mindful of that the main reason why I'm up here is to um advocate for a change in the Staffing plan uh and I'm on page six right now and this involves elementary and middle school with the our school counselors and ironically I'm up here during counselor week shout out to my favorite coun counselor she knows who she is um but right now um it says here that and I'm looking at the school counselor we may exchange school counselors for instructional support for allocations greater than one so I reached out to the district and it's my understanding correct me if I'm wrong but if we felt that there was so much testing going on in a school where we needed to fill another testing facilitator and you had a school that had multiple counselors that principal could um trade a counselor position for a testing facilitator position and that happens in in in this plan with elementary and middle it doesn't happen at the high school and looking at the elementary and middle school thing I mean I think we need to parse out the the student service manager from from this group um of of other ones and this isn't a dig on on any of the content area Specialists or testing facilitators magnet facilitators if we feel the need that we need another magnet facilitator or a testing facilitator we shouldn't rob Peter to pay Paul because school counselors you guys did a wonderful job in reducing the Absurd ratios that we had here for many years last year getting that ratio down still not where we we think it should be obviously but it was a great leap and now this has the potential to take a back step so I'd just be mindful of that maybe I'm I'm interpreting this wrong maybe it's never happened before but on paper you've talked about having stuff on paper on paper this gives the ability for somebody to say h you know we can get by with one counselor and in today's era of mental health and wellness the premium that the state and districts yours included um are putting on Mental Health and Wellness these are the groups uh of people that are on the front lines dealing with our children uh during that school day so I I would ask that we take a look at that and strike that and come up with the policy of if we need an additional instructional support person and it's validated and it's warranted then let's get let's get that other person but let's keep the school counselors there because their job is is is way more difficult than it's ever been just like all of our jobs are so I I just wanted to to share that with you that jumped out obviously at me when I when I read it so thank you thank you Mr alello I would U ask that Mr alello um I can can oh go ahead yeah um I I just want to comment uh this this particular board member um takes the mental health of our students very seriously and understands the challenges that our teachers and staff are facing with our students recovering after being out of school for covid um if I remember correctly there was quite a bit of conversation that came forward as we made that decision on the Staffing plan and that decision came forward from staff members because they were having a very difficult time filling the position of guidance counselors at elementary schools um they require more certific ation than a regular teacher does but they receive almost the same pay they get a supplement so it's difficult to fill that position and as a board we decided to um to allow some flexibility there so if our principles were unable to fill the seat of a guidance counselor they could choose a position that would also benefit and assist the staff so I just wanted to take a minute to provide a point of clarification of how I remember or recall coming to that decision um because we we all agree that mental health is first and formost on our minds uh as we're we're trying to move forward as a district thank you thank you Dr James that's thank you for articulating that so well the other piece I'll add and Miss Morant can correct me if I'm wrong but you can it cannot be swapped if a person is sitting in the seat the the the exchange can only occur if there is a vacancy so last year we we front loaded um units to the schools and most I think hired counselors there were some that exchanged for something else but if a school were to have two counselors right now they couldn't decide to trade one out for something else um until there was a vacancy that was created is that correct that is correct they can trade out the vacancy and and this was um to to a point of um Miss Conrad and and Dr James a request from the board to decrease those bans so we can have more positions on the um school campus and then I from the board there's conversations wanting to give principles the autonomy one to fill vacancies but also some of the comments that was shared that you all wanted them to be able to choose what was right for their school and what their school needed and I think some of the same comments that we mentioned today that there are certain schools that they don't necessarily have the same needs as far as extra cing services that other schools do but they may need a testing facil facilitator or magnet facilitator which is um the comment that we got back with the direction to add in the um place where they would be able to exchange for those instructional instructional positions but to your point um it is only if the position is vacant okay thank you that's all I have thank you Miss Mor thank you anything else from the board okay thank you is there any other public comment all right hearing none uh board are you guys okay do you want to take a quick break or keep rolling into the school belt times minute breaks okay uh we are going to take we'll give it five let's we like to confront reality so we're going to take a a brief recess at 10:09 a.m. e e e e e e e e e e e e e never mind that's what it is we are back on at 10:19 we are going to make a shift in the agenda we are going to uh move up item 6.1 sales tax ballot language we're going to go ahead and address that now ahead of school bell times which will be our final agenda item so with that um I'll turn it over to Dr go and you may be then turning it over to attorney Powers not sure yes thank you madam chair we don't have anything additional um just looking for attorney Powers at this point Thank you thank you dret attorney Powers yes ma'am just as a background um so the sales tax uh language that we need to uh um get onto the ballot here and submit to the county for their review um you've been provided with a timeline of important dates these are somewhat flexible but there are a few that are hard deadlines the first hard deadline if you notice on um that page indicates there's a deadline regarding Opa and that's the uh um office of program policy analysis and government accountability section 22.05 five governs uh sales tax and ballot language and by at least April 9th we have to have submitted to aaga a copy of our resolution um so that they can review that gives us 180 days prior to um the prior to the general election now when we have the uh it has to go to the County commission for them to adopt the resolution prior to that so there's no time to waste because obviously if there's any issue uh with the County's acceptance of it then it results in a back and forth and as you know government timelines with publishing and with Sunshine Law require that we do things pretty quickly just in order to get them two weeks in advance so this is a sort of a sample timeline the one that I wanted to point you out to is the one that's listed on number four which is the most sort of immediately critical um what you also have in front of you are two copies of resolutions for the school board now looked into our prior uh sales tax resolution uh that's not going to work because of the fact that that language that was used and adopted there um was quite some time ago and laws have changed under 22.05 5 in the inim there are a number of things that need to be altered and so you have two copies in front of you the first copy uh indicates on page three that's the official ballot language this is really what you're looking at today on the second copy has also on the third page one is with a citizen review oversight panel and the other is without that language being in there that's not required however it is something that would be it may be best because it may uh ensure to the voting public that there is some citizen oversight in the way that the funds are distributed as well so that's an option for you to consider now as to my role pages one two the first half of three and the remainder of four are things that I need to work with my counterpart um Mr Mentor in the County Commission on making sure that all RTS are crossed and eyes are dotted along with um exhibit a so the language that was has been proposed um is the official ballot language under that second half of Page Three where it says official ballot and there's some language that's inserted right there that is required by law to be 75 words or less has to be a clear and concise statement um and if you note that's actually 72 words uh on the first one so there's a lot of stuff that has to happen within those 75 words you don't get a chance to uh expound very much you have to keep keep it relatively limited relatively straightforward and simple so these are initial proposals that have been sent to us for acceptance see nothing wrong with either of them um and this is for the board to discuss what what the board and the superintendent operations want to see in this particular language now I note that there could be some potential concern given the fact that in the first sentence um and I'll just go ahead and read it for the record the sample ballot language that is listed there as to the general election of November 5th 2024 the title is school Capital outlay sales ctax to improve safety and the learning environment to retain highquality teachers reduce classroom overcrowding and improve Safety and Security by expanding constructing and improving school facilities with collected revenues shared according to Florida law with eligible public charter schools based on their proportion of total School District enrollment shall the school district of Marian County Levy a one half cent sales with the oversight okay sorry he's reading the first one okay they're not numbered so I'm sorry right levia one half cent sales sir tax for 10 years to fund activities of the Maring County Schools then you will also see that as to the second the language is very similar with with the exception that it adds in the citizen um review so what's important here is again the 75 words it's also important that we the language a portion of that has to be taken up by that section it's required in Florida statute that Florida law according to Florida law we have to share revenues with eligible public charter schools based on their proportion of total School District enrollment so those two samples are what the board is here to review discuss today and then I will bring to the board for a actual resolution to submit to the county for it to be placed on the County's um ballot um or to be looked at by the county reviewed by Mr mentor and then placed on a discussion item for them so if there are questions that the board has or any discussion this would be the appropriate time to do so we also do have um some folks in the audience here as well who have um Been instrumental and working on the proposed ballot language thus far so any questions uh if you want to direct those if the board has questions regarding that can be directed toward me or toward audience members as well at the board's discretion Madam chair um thank you attorney Powers uh would it be appropriate to go ahead and take public comment first yes ma'am okay um attorne uh board member that's fine go ahead okay thank you okay um we will open it up for public comment um Miss Martinez um we have one speaker Mr Reggie bout Hiller aier buer excuse me my apologies thank you I've got relatives last name of BR roow and nobody gets that right either so you know it's the more Southern version of my name name um it's boutier Reggie boutier it's the French side that complicates that um good morning everyone um Reggie buer strw Weaver Miller 101 East College Avenue um again I want to thank you for uh setting this uh meeting and prioritizing the half penny for schools um we've been working obviously collaboratively with C uh for many months uh to to uh really uh get this priority uh set up and situated to move it forward to meet the deadlines to get it put on the November 5th ballot um we have worked as you know um there's legal nuancing and then there's technical nuancing um in in running referendums my firm um does have a component that specializes in election law and referendums uh we do a lot of that work across the state and we have Consultants that help us uh along the way as well in terms of um selecting language that uh is important um to your objectives but also um important to the voters and what they're interested in and what really uh gets them focused in on um passing a half penny sales tax for schools so um we are available to support you and um attorney powers in whatever way uh you would see fit but um we we have worked with attorney powers on um providing that support in terms of the ballot language and the resolution and would be very open to continuing to work with attorney powers and Guy Mentor the County Attorney along the way um I I know guy Mentor is ready and willing and able to work with us um to receive um the language and I would also recommend um getting with Monir um the County Administrator ahead of even um ahead of even um hearing this formally in a um a meeting of your board it would be nice to get the County Administrator and the county attorney on board get any questions answered by them ahead so when you meet as a board you already know that they're ready to move that to their board um the Florida Statutes put you in unusual unusual situation because even though you are the school board to get it on the ballot once you approve as attorney PO said the resolution you have to then move it to the county we would argue that it's a fairly ministerial process but different people across the state uh State have read the statute in different ways and it's been litigated um I believe I believe personally that we should um have the support of the County Commission and hopefully it's a ministerial process we'll work with you and the County Commission to hopefully accomplish that um but as attorney power said we are in a relatively tight time frame under state law we concur with his analysis that you really need to be transmitting this to the state in April to give yourself the the time you need under that statutory process to get it solidified on the November 5th ballot so to the extent we can get this by your board accomplished in the month of February and moved to the county so we could have that put on a county agenda item County Commission agenda item no later than March that would be most optimal and ideal so um I'm here to answer any questions you may have regarding the process the ballot language the resolution any anything of that if if you'd like me to thank you attorney boier all right I'll open it to the rest of the board and and Dr gullet for discussion was there any other public comment any other public comment any other public comment oh sorry thank you don't they're gonna have you back here Kevin Shey 310 Southeast Third Street Okala Metro C again as as Mr B said we're here to support um we want to help put our school system and our community in the best position to succeed uh we mean that in all areas but in particular in this case to ensure that the funds are available to build the facilities remodel the facilities that are needed um you have a language that we believe best gets uh the school system to that point uh I know one of the options you're going to choose between is whether or not to have the independent advisory committee um there's not a personal preference we obviously have experience with that with the uh one mill um I will also tell you that that is something we view as an elevator it helps bring up approval um and so we're looking at all the things we can to help ensure that this receives the necessary approvals from our community if I if you have any questions for me I'm happy to answer that again we look forward to continuing to partner with the school system especially as we move to this next phase to promote and to help our community understand why this is an important issue and why they need to vote Yes in November thank you Mr Sheely and my intention was to open it up to the board for questions from Mr boier and then Mr Sheil but we can do it all together are there any other uh public comment cards that have been completed Miss Martinez not on this topic okay all right go ahead um remember com I I want to thank everybody for working on this and getting us to this point um where we are having some type of um conversation and the language the ballot language is here we're talking about seven words and and I like others love the transparency of to the public of what we're asking for and having uh the public involved in the process so for me I I I don't have an issue with having the uh oversight Committee involved in that because I think that's that helps the community to understand what we're doing how we're doing it and why we're doing it because they they have a vested interest in it so for me it would be the one with the oversight committee and you'll note that the remainder of the language in this uh in the two printouts you have one of them has seven sections one has six sections the one that has the uh oversight by an independent volunteer committee is the one has seven sections and that's because there is a section four added project oversight by an independent committee uh the the school board shall establish an independent oversight Committee of volunteers the committee for purposes of monitoring and providing advice regarding the implementation of the plan commencing upon approval of the sales s tax and extending through the date of completion of the projects to be funded under the plan the membership of the committee shall be established by Schoolboard policy thank you attorney Powers any other comment I just have a quick comment Mr Sheil I just want to say thank you for your work on this uh I'm excited we've been talking about the needs of our schools Dr gullet is offered to give tours so the community can see the desperate need that we have in our schools um I'm I'm really excited about this conversation um I'm all for uh the oversight committee I I really think it's the best thing to do our community is involved in what's happening and they share the message you know as they go out in into this schools and Workforce and so on um I did want to just point out again it is for 10 years um and so anyway I'm just looking forward and hopefully moving this forward thank you thank you Vice chair Conrad board member James uh just briefly I want to thank the community members for their their volunteer work I think it's important to highlight that the board has not paid anyone to support us in getting to this place and so I want to thank the time that has been given to support this cause and and acknowledge where we are and help us grow I'm completely in line with an advisory um Council to support the spend uh spending of the money and as we grow and working as a team to do that so um whatever needs to happen for this to move forward timely I'm on board with thank you board member James board member Campbell sure I'm so grateful to be at this place it's taken us a long time this board's worked really hard to ensure that we would have potential for Capital funding for the needs of our schools and so even ahead of hearing from our public comment I was I had my finger ready to go I was ready to talk and shair thrower uh about the oversight and independent volunteer committee that has worked very efficiently and effectively for us with the uh one mill referendum that we have I think it just adds an extra layer of transparency that this community wants and desires and that this board member also desires so that was the language I am in favor of thank you thank you board member Campbell um Dr gullet did you have anything to add thank you madam chair members of the board I concur with the oversight committee um from the operations side I mean obviously that committee is uh their representative is appointed by the board and we present the information but I think it has provided uh a necessary transparency to what we're doing and why we're doing it and I think that likewise that would be the the same with the sales tax I think that's the right thing to do thank you Dr gallet and and from um my chair I concur wholeheartedly with the rest of my board members input and I wanted to thank Mr buer and and Mr Shey for their deep and continuing interest in helping our school district succeed there are areas that we can't get into you know legally when it comes to campaigns and and anything like that um so having input from experts in the community is extremely valuable and so I am ready to move forward we're a school district so we know how to meet deadlines so let's roll okay thank you very much absolutely is there anything else for the good of the cause uh we had suggested that this be on the board meeting for the 13th is that timeline still appropriate I was just going to ask if attorney Powers is ready we have a placeholder for the 13th yes I think that's fine I can reach out to Mr Mentor today or tomorrow as soon as I get back from with uh to the office and we see what we can terrific make happen between now and then as far as uh any edits that we might need for you to sort of formalize so I just want to make sure that we have consensus that the language that I'm going to be submitting is the language that the board feels is appropriate and operations feels is appropriate uh as to page three specifically yes I believe you heard rest of the legal ease I'll take care of but as to the as to the important part the what what's actually going before the public and being voted on right and it sounds to me like now the priority becomes having the um conversations that need to be had with uh the county and and making sure that uh that moves forward expediently because we are ready to put it on our February 13th um board agenda so we'll stay tuned and stay in good cont contact yes so with that being said as Miss Martinez publishes the notice because she'll publish it today for next Tuesday's meeting the one uh piece will go in as draft and if there are any additional updates I'm certain that you can get with chair thrower to add that additional abolutely I'm all about removing roadblocks perfect thank you board yes thank you for your and Mr Sheely um for assistance very much very much appreciated yes appreciate you have a great rest of the day all right we are moving on astonishingly to our final item of the day thank you madam chair again I I just want to say again another representation of our deely committed community so I'm grateful for that and with the next topic as well so we have a lot of very impactful topics today so as I introduce school bell times Miss Dobbins comes forward board I wanted to bring awareness to a few um components of this presentation Miss Dobbins will kick off um as you know we've talked very publicly and for quite some time about ensuring that all of our students um not only get to school on time but are seated for instruction to start on time and that that has a direct impact on our ability to help every student succeed and so Transportation has been tasked with how do we make that happen when the majority of our students are riding um buses in the fifth largest Geographic size District in the State of Florida so not an easy task I I will say up front that acknowledge that anytime you talk about any change to a start and end time um it provides a lot of um emotional thought um impact to families and to work schedules and we fully recognize and are aware that that these are not easy conversations but we are committed to doing what we think is best for our students we look forward to that conversation but miss Dobbins will kick this off and then we will also um board be you'll be hearing from a couple of other team members including uh those from our academic side one is exploring an academic model that is underway and you'll hear a timeline of that and a change to the extra hour that impacts several of our schools so uh let Miss Dobbins kick off thank you thank you good morning Miss Dobbins good morning chair through our board members superintendent Dr gullet as you know the purpose of this presentation is to establish the school start and end times for the 24 25 school year the bell schedule committee was established consisting of Elementary Middle High School principles along with Transportation staff academic staff and both academic and operational executive leadership members all of whom are previous principles the committee took thoughtful consideration in the development of this task to ensure that this is the best schedule to accommodate the over 45,000 students in our district some of these key considerations were number one meeting the statutorily required mandates per Florida statute 1.42 which was implemented by the state to allow middle and high school students in Florida to achieve optimal levels of sleep to improve their physical and mental health safety academic performance and quality of life two establish more uniform instructional minutes across school grade levels three implementing a seventh period schedule for select secondary schools four impact of later dismissal times at secondary sites for after school activities five consideration of the bus pickup and drop off times needing to be in daylight hours as much as possible and lastly allotment of adequate time between school grade levels elementary middle and high in order to maintain a three tiered Transportation approach to improve ontime arrival and be fiscally responsible ontime arrival to school is a major factor we have not been able to provide consistently to our students this school year are in the year's past our average ontime arrival for this school year is approximately 84% although higher than last year's it is still unex acceptable when you take that we have not delivered 16% of our students that equates to approximately 3500 students on a daily average that is late to school in some cases students that are consistently late to school every day we started this current year with 256 routes covering 32,000 miles a day to transport over 22,000 students to and from school this current current bell schedule recommendation will reduce our routes to approximately emphasis on approximately 235 routes and thus if that was the number of routes today it would have eliminated all vacancies that we currently have as of today so the first goal of the committee was to establish a bell schedule that would ensure the best schedule for getting all students to school on time and ensure that no instructional time is lost due to Transportation given all of the considerations in hand the committee started with establishing the first tier start time because we cannot pick up students prior to 6:00 a.m. the earliest start time we could set for the first year is 7:35 a.m. and due to the new mandatory requirements this means that Elementary was the only level that could start at the first tier therefore Elementary is recommended to start at 7:35 and dismiss at 2:10 the only exception to this spell time for elementary is the three elementary schools that do not receive any transportation for their site and will have the same Bell time as this current year next was the establishment of the second and third tier start time knowing that we needed adequate time after Dro dropping off elementary students to be be able to get back on the road and pick up the next tier the earliest we could start the second tier is 8:30 a.m. and applying the same turnaround need tier three could not start any earlier than 920 so many discussions were had about whether to start high school at 8:30 or middle school at 8:30 this has been a difficult decision with no favorable outcome for any student starting at 920 however the committee felt like the best choice was to Place High School at the second tier for a start time at 8:30 and middle school at the third tier with a start time of 920 although many factors were considered in making this decision some of the key factors were that the addition of the seventh period to middle school if we were to place the middle school at the second tier with the seventh period it would result in a high school start time of 9:41 and a dismissal time of 4:11 secondly most middle schools have before school programs and we are exploring opportunities for all middle schools to have morning opportunities third high school students have coursework and extracurricular activities that tie into scholarship opportunities and it also supports students in the the workforce with afterhour jobs lastly by placing Middle School in the third tier it only significantly changes three schools since five middle schools have currently start times ranging from 910 to 925 already the only middle school that has an earlier start time is Fort McCoy school which is a K8 school and it will follow at this time the Elementary schedule however we are still waiting on doe to provide the guidance on whether or not K8 must meet the new mandates if they do then we will have to return to the board and look to move Fort McCoy K8 to the 920 start time because of the new mandate for middle school students this task of the committee was not easy and we knew that the resulting recommendations would be most difficult at the middle school level however with that being said a decision decision had to be made and after in-depth thoughtful consideration that decision for the committee is what we have presented today to go over some other considerations I'd like to have our area superintendent Miss ker come to the podium thank you Miss Dobbins board if it's okay with you I'd like to hear all of the background information and then ask our questions which is not typical for me okay we're good okay thank you good morning chair thrower superintendent Dr golet and board members as you know um we have had 10 schools elementary schools um in our district that um were a part of the extended hour um many for over a decade uh it originated with the school Improvement rule that stay Ed that if you were a part of the lowest 300 School list per school grades uh that you would have the extended hour um that mandate was removed a few years ago from school Improvement rule in the State of Florida uh and they did not we do not have a current L300 list anymore they do not do that anymore however we kept that model for the last few years and continued to fund that at of our district general fund budget um it is the team's recommendation um that based on the return on investment for that additional hour which the last few years has been an additional 50 minutes um at those particular schools that we will be removing that additional 50 minutes um as we continue into the school year of 2425 and that's reflected in those proposed Bell time start and stop time changes as well in addition the team and I are working with 8 Street and Oola Middle School staff and school Community as we explore the opportunity of the possibility of 8th Street and Oola middle school to become a unified K8 school for the 2024 25 school year a closer niit Community is formed within a K8 school because there are stronger teacher student relationships that would develop over an extended period of time as fifth grade students transition to sixth grade A K8 school would offer a smoother transition for the Learners as they would have had multiple interactions and experiences with the Middle School class schedule we have created a timeline that allows us to gather and gain stakeholder input as we continue to explore this K8 opportunity yesterday afternoon Miss rle and I met with the staff at Oola middle school as as well as 8th Street Elementary to share with them the information on the opportunity to combine 8th Street and Oola middle into one K8 school and to share the timeline we have worked together with our public relations team to create a survey that will be sent to the staff at both schools this week in order to gain their valuable feedback the principles at each School send out a scripted Sky alert message to parents of E Street and Oola families last night inviting them to an upcoming School advisory council meeting which will be held on Thursday February 15th at 6 p.m. in the Oola Auditorium where we will provide information on the opportunity to combine the schools into one K8 school this would be a combined School ADV School advisory council meeting where we will hear their valued input and feedback on this proposed opportunity on February 16 a survey link will be sent out to a street and Oola families to collect their valuable input the surveys will then close on February 26th and at that time the team will review the data and feedback to determine if the majority of our stakeholders would want to move forward with the combining of the two schools into a unified K8 school as we continue to work through the timeline and explore this opportunity of a K8 school we will let the proposed Bell schedule stand as it is for both 8th Street and Oola middle the team looks forward to working with all school and Community stakeholders as we examine this unique opportunity for both a street and Oola middle school thank you Mr ker thank youse Miss doin you have anything else thank you Miss ginard no ma'am at this time we'll turn it back to you Dr gullet thank you again support we look forward to your feedback I just want to reiterate what's been said several times this is a um a challenging task to try to meet the needs of 45,000 students and I appreciate the team's efforts and the committee of all the stakeholders that have been part of this process um to reach every child so thank you board thank you Dr goet I will now open it up to the board for questions and discussion who wants to lead us off all right Vice chair Mr ARB I would thank you for you and your team's work um this conversation with Transportation has been um upfront and foremost at almost every meeting and work session that we've had and and the challenge is large and so I just want to acknowledge that there's no perfect solution at this point because speaking as a parent um I know that that 9:20 start time for our Middle School schoolers is hard but looking at the information that you shared with us just a minute ago we have 16% of our students that aren't getting to school on time so I just want to acknowledge that there are some challenges um and we're we're putting our best foot forward to meet every student's need um with that being said I I did receive many phone calls and emails about the Oola start time being later and spoke with several of you about that and and I'm I'm guessing that spurred the conversation for the K8 model for 8 Street and aiola and so there's a lot of work going in on our staff's side to gather information to see if that's something we want to move forward with but if I'm correct in remembering that you said we don't exactly know that that will fix this problem because the state hasn't said said that then we can start a K through 8 school at 7:35 so we have the potential to put all of this effort into making a K through 8 model and then the state is going to say that they start at 9:20 anyway so I just wonder if you could speak to that yes ma'am very well understood and said so um as you know we have a K8 model with Fort McCoy we are currently electing to keep them on the Elementary schedule at this time however with the Mandate from the from the state statute if the State of Florida comes back with guidance that if you have a combo School a K8 school and you have middle school students in that combo if you must follow that mandate then we would have to move that school if it's a K8 to the Middle School side the middle time would not work for those schools because it's it's a high school designated time at this time okay thank you Dr James um so thank you for this work I know that it's a lot um I understand the need to go to a triple tiered route um I made a few phone calls to principes um that are currently leading middle schools that start in the 9:00 hour I called uh Dr Deion Gary and I called Matt Johnson at North Marian and at biew and what I said was to them was tell me how you address these barriers as they exist um potentially on your campus now because I don't believe that the concerns being brought forward by the parents of Liberty Horizon and Oola are unique to those to those individual schools I do believe that they are representative of barriers that we see for all families and so as I had conversation with both of those principles Dr Gary I believe has been at Belleview for SI between five and eight years he's been there quite some time and they've had that start time for quite some time so did he acknowledge that yeah it comes with its own unique struggles yes however it is not a barrier for the functionality of the campus um they do inter mural Sports in the morning they offer fast passes for the first 50 parents who are in Carline who need to get their child to an after school Sport and want to arrive early to Carline they have 21st century which I have mentioned to Dr gullet that I would like to see expanded to all of our schools all of our middle schools going to this 920 start time I would want to see the availability of a map or 21st century program at those schools regardless of how many students it takes to participate so I know I did hear from Mr Johnson that previously he had mentioned he is requested having map at his site and there has not been enough students to participate well if I was that parent who needed that service I wouldn't really care however many other students needed that service I would want it to be provided so that I could meet the needs of my family so as a board member I would want to see a commitment that we're going to offer map or 21st century on those middle school campuses um I can pause if if you want me to do you mind I'm sorry Dr James I didn't want to cut you off Madam chair if it's uh allowable by the board um Miss rle has information around the mared and after school program and those programs we've talked about to meet the needs of the students and their families yes thank you good morning Miss R good morning everybody um those are some very good points um Dr James and I think that um schools are going to have to get very creative but I do want to address um map as well um so as we do continue to plan for the changes in the start stop times we have to consider the challenges that we're going to that we may encounter um as well as poss POS Solutions because we know that when we are faced with challenges um this is a team who um does a very good job at looking for Solutions um and that's inclusive of our school-based administrators and teams as well um so we know that we have to have a proactive approach here where all of our departments excuse me are working together um to allow for a seamless transition into this new school year as we adjust to these new times um some of the other cons itations that we are already aware of and planning for do include the possible need for additional spots in Maran after school programs um on several campuses so we have reached out to um Miss Beck and had these conversations already um specifically addressing North Maran Liberty um I think it was Oola there were three schools where we spoke specifically about the morning time and the fact that they could open it up to 75 um additional students so we are working with them very closely because we know that the needs for map um we're going to have a greater need in the mornings and in the afternoons at some schools in some cases as well um we're also looking at um I think you mentioned 21st century um additional robust tutoring or enrichment intervention remediation programs um that we could potentially offer in the morning and in the afternoon um a lot of our Tut ing programs do happen in the afternoon some students can't get Transportation so moving some of those to the morning um this way when students get off the bus at 7:15 we may be able to offer some opportunities uh for them as well opening up um computer labs maybe media centers um for additional reading or math practice um and then clubs which I think you mentioned as well um additional clubs before or after school so um we know that the need is there and we are already working behind the scenes um and the key here I think is going to be communication um really from us at the district level to the schools and the administrators but also from the administrators to the staff because I think that school um administrators and their teams are really going to have to work to get creative with how we're going to combat some of these challenges in the morning with um students arriving early or late or um siblings may be getting home before other siblings in the afternoon so we're really thinking about all of those potential challenges um and trying to work through those in a proactive way at the district level thank you for sharing that um so that was a few of the things that Dr Gary had mentioned as ways he combats the um reality of his bell schedule every day at Belleview Matt Johnson shared similar approaches um um of what they're doing on their campus and those are I would argue two very different communities North Maran and bellw are two different communities um and Dr Gary has almost 400 students who choose to come to that bell schedule uh with school choice so I think it's important to note that while it feels change is always really really uncomfortable and hard but while it feels really hard in this moment there are families who are not going to an earlier bell schedule that they're zoned for and choosing and electing to go to a school 400 students every year because they want what that school is able to offer them um as a point of just providing my unique perspective I was a um a teacher in Orange County before I moved to Maring County and I my second year taught at a popka middle school and I just looked to see if it's the same as it was however many years ago that was they start school at 9:30 um I grew up as a student who started school at 9:30 in middle school and then as a teacher that was the the work schedule I had and while it does have unique challenges I did have first period planning on a seven period bell schedule so while for those of us with first period planning it was unique I scheduled any appointment I had first thing in the morning because I didn't actually see students um until almost pushing to 11:00 so I acknowledge that it is uncomfortable and challenging but I do believe that this district is going to support our families and meeting them where they are um absolutely my last concern and I voiced this to Dr gullet last night the uniqueness of Horizon and sunrise needs to be addressed currently Horizon students dismiss and walk to Sunrise to to then walk their younger siblings home we will need to figure out the legality of middle school students being able to check out their elementary students from map because I would presume that those Elementary Sunrise students will be inrolled into map seeing as they're not going to just wander the community for two hours and we will need to figure out how to allow those middle school students the authority to check out Elementary age siblings so that they can still walk them home which is what is happening currently so that would be a request I have and then my final recommendation would be and this is um not going to be easy so I'm just going to say that if our schools were contracted with the Early Learning Coalition to receive School Readiness funds a variety of our families could receive support and paying for map as a provider who participates in the School Readiness program I can tell you that it is not enjoyable from a paperwork perspective I only participate as a business because I know that there are families who need it and it helps me reach them we have a significant amount of families in our community who would qualify for School Readiness funds and if they could use them for our map program it would help support them in this transition where they may not right now be able to afford map um but then are going to be pressed to really need it and we would be able to help meet them where they are I would be more than happy to connect um I know that Miss Beck and Miss Neville already have a relationship with the Early Learning Coalition through VPK but I would be more than happy to connect any parties necessary to create a conversation around that as a potential solution um maybe even just at some of our sites that would have a sign significant amount of participation and how we could support those families there so ultimately I'm on board as the plan is presented and I believe that the school district is going to continue to support families thank you board member James board member Campbell thank you chair so I sit here from the unique position of the parent that this impacts so I do have an Oola 7th grader and so changing Bell time for Oola which I believe I'm the only parent that this will impact because Madison Street won't be changing um so this directly impacts me as a family and while my middle schooler is excited about the potential of not having to get up as early as he does now when I told him today that the time may even start earlier he kind of freaked out but that's okay because we're we're going to do what's best for kids in our household um but I I want to express this from a couple of different positions whereas Dr James was saying that she has reached out to the principles that have already started at the 9:00 time and are familiar with that I did the opposite so I've spoken with Horizon and uh Liberty and Hammet Bowen and I I did the opposite so I I've talked from that perspective and I'm going to Echo the sentiments that were just uttered about the uniqueness I'm going to say uniqueness specifically to our Mar and Oak schools whereas Liberty and Hammet have a uniqueness all of their own the libert the excuse me the uniqueness of our schools in Maran o FKS means that we have hundreds of students not just a handful not even dozens hundreds of students who are walking and hundreds of students who are walking with siblings while I understand that the potential might be that we would need to consider having the opportunity for a middle school student to check out a student out of map I dare say that a lot of folks don't utilize map because of the cost and I know it's a minuscule cost for some families but it is not a minuscule cost for others and as a parent who also pays that cost I'm grateful for an employee discount which many of our families do not have the uh opportunity to have I'm grateful to hear that we're considering expanding map in uh North Maran and other places where this will directly impact but I would doubt that that oper opportunity is going to be the catchall solution what this appears to me and Miss Dobbins knows this is my statement I said to her directly what this appears to me is a catchall solution for a pocket problem we have pockets in our community where buses are not on time I completely understand 15% of our student body not making it to school on time is a huge challenge that we need to overcome and we've worked in lots of different ways to overcome it but that 15% is isolated it is not in all of Zone one or all of zone two it is an isolated issue and so this feels to me again like a huge change to everyone for a pocket challenge that we're experiencing I also believe well first of all I also want to make one other statement about the K8 opportunity I am excited as an a a parent to participate in that sack and a and a sack member to participate in that sack committee meeting and hear from fellow Oola parents and hear what I've already heard from many I heard from many already on start times now I'm hearing from many already about the possibility and the call just went out at six o'clock last night so um I I believe one of the main questions is I'm not zoned for eth street but I'm zoned for Oola how would that impact me well it wouldn't the only thing it would impact is the fact that your start time would be different potentially uh because if you're zone for Oola you're zone for that K8 for Middle School it is what it is um but a statement that was made a moment ago about moving that school to a K8 the statement was made that it would have that one and Fort McCoy would have to go to the 920 start time and I just want to say that's not accurate by law so I understand that would be the recommendation if we had k8s to move to that 920 start time but the law says middle school has to start at 8:00 so it that wouldn't be the law that would be the recommendation and not the have to per se just as we are making modifications for a couple of schools that are not impacted by transportation we would have a K8 meaning that would be a combination and potentially there would be additional Solutions there my last recommendation board and I think it's a long-term one but I would be interested in seeing how quickly we could short-term it is to create a bus compound in Maran Oaks and whereas we have great success uh with liberty and and Hammet Bowen having ontime Bus arrival because they have a compound right there on their campus dellan has pretty good results because they have a compound on their campus if we had a compounded Mar Oaks I would be interested in seeing what that looked like those are my comments thank you board member Campbell uh Miss Dobbins oh thank you very much so first to the um the 9:20 start time yes that would be what we'd have to do as a district based on what our recommendations are so the state mandate is 8:00 for middle school and 8:30 for high school but I want to add it we we don't have a hub issue we have the inability to cover our routes issue so we must reduce the number of routes that we run and in order to do that we have to create a three tiered approach to do that this isn't new uh system of working for transportation this is done State and Nationwide I understand that it seems to be a cookie cutter it it's not it's really about leveraging the number of drivers we have matching that with the number of routes maximum routes we can run to provide ontime arrival for students if we had a surplus of bus drivers then we could look individually at zones but we do not have that and we have not had that for some time and we have been having the conversation about late buses and the impact to student instructional time for a very long time and even with all that we've tried our average the highest percentage we reached so far is 88% that's still 12% of our kids 12% of 22,000 is still thousands of kids late so again I I just want to emphasize it is the number of routes that match the number of bus drivers not necessarily the location of where we Hub our buses thank you thank you Miss Dobbins um yes sure thank you Miss Dobbins for that while we're being completely transparent about this wouldn't we say that one of our most significant challenges is the fact that bus drivers are able to choose their routes and we don't know that going to a three- tiered system will actually Remedy it entirely because we haven't heard from those bus drivers sure we could say that because it's driven by the iupat contract which requires bidding of routes so if you have a route that is takes you an hour to drive you may want to bid on something by seniority that's a lot shorter so often times our longer routes do tend to go unfilled but even beside all of that we still average you know 12 15 bus drivers out out of our 200 plus bus drivers we average 9 to 10 bus drivers out for FMLA or workman comp so not only do not only are we reflective of vacancies we cannot fill but we will always have the inability to cover due to attendance of bus drivers and circumstances such as FMLA and all of that so by reducing it's still not a guarantee just like it's no guarantee that that a teacher is going to be in the classroom and when they're not then we we tend to have a late bus arrive um but to best get the the most the most opportune tunity out of getting kids to school on time it is the number of routes matching the number of bus drivers thank you mrin um I to that point I just wanted to get a point of clarification the intention here then is that one bus driver is going to run is going to drive three routes an elementary route and then a high school route and then a middle school route is that correct that is correct but there will be some exceptions but those exceptions are will be very few right now we have 35 three tiered routes out of the 2 45 that that we talked about earlier exactly we are not maxing correct so the intention here is that one bus driver for the most as we put our routes out to bid most routes that go out to bid are going to include three pickups or three three the three tiers so while yes there is seniority with with picking routes most of the routes available will still have all all three School drop offs okay thank you board member James Madam chair if I may go back to something um that Vice chair Conrad brought up we were talking about the K8 model this isn't specific to Transportation but relatedly I want to be sure that it's clear that we were already having conversations about the academic piece which is why I introduced it as an academic model I want to be clear that I don't want any Community member to think that that was the reason for having this conversation the reason we're bringing it forward now is it would seem irresponsible to have this conversation a month from now and to say why didn't you talk about it then so we we accelerated the conversation to happen simultaneously so that I would be left wondering why didn't you talk about that before so just being very transparent looking at this very unique Campus of two schools is this something we want to explore that would be a unique model for for that campus for those two schools so I would just caution anyone thinking that's a way out of this to change the time um as was said earlier we don't know where the state is going to land on the K8 that is yet to be determined so I certainly would just want to be clear about that we're talking about that from an academic piece that's happening simultaneously with times is that we okay I want to make sure that's clear yes thank you and and I do want to say something uh because it's directly related to this K8 uh there is opportunity for advocacy on the school board's part as soon as tomorrow to share that it is really important have local control over this issue uh we are the geographic size of Rhode Island and every district is different in both their size and their needs and as we grapple with this which reminds me of the instructional calendar uh you know there's never we're never going to have 100% approval the folks that it works for we're not hearing from the folks that are concerned about it of course we're hearing from them and we are looking to broker the best solution that helps every student succeed and provide the the the supports underneath all of them so that it doesn't feel too drastic to anybody that's the intention I believe I'm hearing here and and what I'm encouraged by is that when you bring forth new potential ways of doing things that can result in elevating our whole District you know overall because it stimulates new thinking and that's important and Dr James alluded to the fact that that you know changes can be scary change can be very uncomfortable especially when it feel it's going to directly affect you then it's a bad idea so so this is what we are grappling with here and I and I did want to make that point about the local control because it is our local task to make this an a district so we need flexibility I'll just leave that right there all right moving right along I just had a clarifying question for our K8 school which we only have one right right now that is a shared bus route so kindergarteners do ride the bus with eighth graders is that correct okay I do understand there's not a lot of buses to 8th Street as it exists right now but that would be something to convey to the community is when if there were to be um a shared K8 system there those elementary students would ride the bus with the mid middle schoolers correct there is one bus for 8th Street and 12 for Oola currently did you have something no I was going to say exactly what Miss doin said because that was one of my first questions I did not as an Oola parent I was not aware of how many students rode the bus and it's more than 50% of students and that's what I've been able to tell all of the Oola parents who ask questions because more than 50% of our Oola student body does ride the bus but there is one bus uh 8th Street um many of the parent concerns that's I'll be interested in seeing what the parent feedback is on a K8 model because many of their concerns are the sibling between E Street in Oola and what that looks like and how they could pick one up versus the other and etc etc and I continue to say the uniqueness of that City Block that we have and essentially a shared campus operating as two schools warrants a lot of opportunity and a lot of conversation that I even started four years ago uh but understanding we weren't quite there yet or even having that that dialogue I I do still continue to voice my concern about the uniqueness again of Horizon and and and marry and Oaks in general and the volume of Walkers that we have that are sibling Pairs and what that looks like for that Community um that is one of our more economically strug struggling communities it it just is I I also in being at Liberty and Hammet Bowen yesterday and seeing the volume of homes being built that will be in their walk Zone and while I understand that they're only 75 to 100 or so that are walking right now to Hammet and I didn't get the actual number from Liberty while I was there but we're going to have a huge walk zone for these schools huge walk Zone and I understand the value of separating the times so that it eliminates some of the traffic congestion that they currently have similarly to the Belleview High Belleview Middle traffic that we had and we separated those start times hasn't completely solved that still um separating them by an hour is going to be a huge difference uh but that Liberty Hammet traffic congestion even though we have internalized a lot of that traffic um I I do see the value in separating those two times somewhat um but this gap of basically two hours I I just continue to struggle with it of both of those all three so the three schools that this impacts the most a Iola so we we potentially have a strategy solution that might fix that depending on the community's input Horizon and Liberty those are the three schools with the most significant impact that this is going to make and then subsequently on the elementary schools that are partnered basically right beside them and I'm I'm struggling guys I I understand Transportation I really do and I I I get our challenges there but I just don't know how we can move Horizon and Liberty to that 8 excuse me to the 920 time slot and I would recommend we try to put them at 8:30 and that's that's where I am thank you board member Campbell any other discussion comments from the board no I support the plan as presented okay I just I have a comment that's um really not on Transportation it's back to the K8 model um and I don't need an answer on this now I just ask that it be part of the presentation as we move forward if that was an academic decision I just want to know how that was brought forward because we have an a school and a b school and I I want to know what the thought process was in making that an academic decision versus a transportation decision because both of those are high performing schools and just off the top of my head I wouldn't see why that would why we would be looking to change something that is working so well Vice chair Conrad if Miss Madam chair Miss coner do you want to talk about that well and it doesn't doesn't have to be I know this is that's no no that's okay because this is part of the conversation I just don't want to delay it since there're they're happening at the same time let's talk about it okay thank you um great question um Vice chair Conrad um what I will tell you what I will tell the board is that um there is a separate school grade grade um formula for a K8 that's different than a K5 Elementary School grade as well as different than a 68 straight Middle School school grade um and so they there's certainly acceleration points that are added in on the Middle School side to that K8 formula um that is the K8 school grade formula that we use or the state uses for Fort McCoy since they are currently a K8 um and so that if the stakeholders decided that we are going to pursue this academic model at ool and 8th Street they would be um looked at with a K8 school grade formula there's also we can get into a lot of conversation about it uh Miss rle and I have done a lot of research on other schools in the state of Florida that are currently using the K8 academic model um there's lots of variations that are other models 48 model um we even found U well and of course ours really is a VPK 8 right because 8th Street has a VPK classroom there however um some of the other benefits that I didn't mention earlier um certainly um talk through acceleration and accelerating of our elementary students um into that Middle School level um we have lots of students that have various needs at all of our schools um but certainly at 8 Street where um as you mentioned they have currently been rated in a school district for um decades um and so we have lots of needs um that we hear from parents um and teachers as well well um for students to have that accelerated model and then that's certainly something that a K8 opportunity on that academic model would be able to help provide thank you m ker yeah thank you Mrs ker I I appreciate that that gives me some um good Insight um for the thought process and moving that forward thank you yes ma'am while I'm up here if if you may I would love to um address the since it's part of my region um the sunrise Horizon an academy um mix in there um I think the comment was made um possibly that um Horizon students go over to Sunrise and check out siblings um I have been assured um and I just want to assure you and the public um by principal Connor of horizon Academy as well as principal bis that that's not currently happening um they do not go over to Sunrise um and check the students out because if you think about it um sunrise dismisses at 2:05 um and Horizon Academy does not dismiss their day until 2:30 currently um however when you talk about the Walkers there are definitely if you go over there you can see it for yourself and many of you have hundreds of Walkers that do leave Horizon Academy um however the majority of our students at Sunrise as well as Mary and Oaks Elementary was which is on the opposite side of 484 um are current currently car riders um now I will tell you what is um accurate in this information information is and this is verified from both both principes that live over there in their in their schools all the time um 30 or less siblings from s Sunrise do leave their school at the dismissal time and they walk over towards the horizon Academy campus there's a crossing guard that is outside there um and by the time they get over there the dismissal is at 2:30 for Horizon so there's approximately 30 or less Sunrise siblings that do wait outside in that area um for for their Horizon siblings so that is certainly an opportunity that um both principes look forward to um again we've explored the opportunity we know there will be additional seats in the map program the marry and after school program for both of those schools so that's certainly an opportunity for that 30 or less sibling population um as well as we will explore the opportunity for the expanded tutoring in the afternoons at Sunrise and so that I'm not going to stand here and tell you that it would last till 4: it might not be an exact opportunity but um it's something that we could certainly look at having in the afternoons we currently have tutoring there um and so maybe that's something that those siblings could have um until they a little bit closer to that Horizon dismissal chair thank you Miss Kinder yes since that was the remark it's I did not I did not say that we are currently using that model what I was suggesting was that if we are going to move forward with these times we afford that flexibility to families for their older sibling at the middle midd school to check out the younger sibling I know it does not currently exist right now what exists is what you just said which is sunrise students walk a little bit of ways and then their Horizon siblings by that time pick them up and they walk home together that would no longer be available seeing as Sunrise would get out essentially to to Dr Hell's Point two hours ahead so they would need to be enrolled in map and then if they were to still walk together which is clearly what those 30 families need those Middle School siblings would would need to be afforded that flexibility to get their students um their younger siblings from from maap so I just wanted to clarify that for the record I did not say we were doing that right no she didn't we're all about being clear yes okay thank you and um Miss kard sorry I already sat down or I just have a quick question about data uh supporting the extra hour is there any uh data that uh is available that can be directly attributable to the extra hour uh I remember when we didn't have it I remember when we got it I remember that it wasn't that popular in the beginning and then you know after a while everybody's kind of come to depend on that extra hour you know uh financially you know that's the thing with all of this in two years or a year it'll be the way we've always done it and so I I've always wondered that I'm I'm grateful for the state that they gave us that opport opportunity years ago to see if that would help do we is there any one particular school where we've been like yeah that really helped so um I will tell you that um that is part of the reason that the team decided that the return on investment was not strong enough to show that that additional 50 minutes was the um point of where it needed to be to to continue it um that's that's not the only um reason that some of the schools were performing because we also have data that showed some of the schools were status quo or even maybe dropping in potential areas um I have collected data over the years for it um I'd be happy to share it with you and the board um so that you can see it but when you do see it you will not see you know we've had certain um schools that we've had oakrest and Evergreen we've had some great successes with um and and principes and teachers and staff worked super hard and the students um but then we've had some schools that have had that additional 50 minutes on their schedule for over a decade and you know the the struggle has continued um and so again that's part of the reason that the team decided to again change as hard but to to eliminate the extended hour thank you um because I personally tend to think it's all about the the quality of instruction you know and being deeply involved with both Evergreen and oakrest we had you know arguably some of the best teachers in the country there so they were delivering quality instruction in the amount of time they had to teach that day with a ton of support um from the administrators and everything so to me that is what made the difference not so much the extra hour but I've just been kind of reflecting on that okay um I represent Fort King and they have attended you know their time has been late for a very very long time in fact our oldest it will be 29 and I believe when he was there it was late and also Howard same thing um two of ours went there and the oldest is 26 and it was happening during his tenure there so when we make changes like this if that's the way we go there's opportunity for um principls at other middle schools where this will be a change to collaborate you know with those principles that have been doing it for a long time um as far as Club participation goes and so on I was just at Howard a week ago Monday for their uh first meeting of their pickle ball club and that was at 8 o'l in the morning and there were 24 kids there so somehow they're managing to get there uh if it interests them they'll figure out a way to come and and I think the biggest point of this conversation for me globally is that it is you know all about everyone doing what they can where they can to prioritize education for students and making sure that that education is being delivered dependably reliably and at a very high quality 180 days a year so I want to extend my appreciation for all the hard work that has gone on and that will continue I think you've heard loud and clear some of the comments and concerns um shared by the board uh from from my seat I'm I'm ready to move forward with your recommendations however if you which I know you will be talking after this and if you come up with a couple of changes um for us to consider that for the good of the cause and to help refine things and I believe this board would be all ears does that sum things up yes okay anything else nope okay Dr gullet oh thank you madam chair Miss dobins is there anything else any um questions or next steps that you need no ma'am um just to add a little bit you'll see that MTI is not on the schedule because we really want it to solidify the traditional schools find out how that those routes will run an impact and then we'll come back after even though this will get hopefully board approved we'll come back and bring a revised the beauty of revisions but bring a revised schedule to you once we know mti's impact thank you thank you Miss dobins is there any public comment yes we have Mr Avery coming down when you sit in the back of the bus it takes a while to get to the front that's a good one good morning Mark Avery a r y uh 2801 Southwest College Road OFA um the president of the Marian Education Association representing the 3002 instructional members in the district um and good morning board superintendent although this may be the way that we need to go um what I find Discerning is that I heard the word transparency I've heard this morning that we need more voice from our schools yet the people in the schools were not given an opportunity to have a voice the teachers look to me to represent them when there's meetings and they're working and we're talking about transparency we want to involve people then why did we have a special meeting at 9:00 a.m. when none of the staff could be here the majority of the community is at work and they can't come and give their two cents if we're going to have a discussion because this isn't set in stone this is uh what do we think we want to do how do we want to view this um you have that flexibility we've had a meeting at 5:30 at night when we had to have an emergency meeting so um that that's kind of discerning we had a I just learned that there was a start and stop time committee there were a lot of people on it I wasn't I wasn't invited to that I don't believe any of the other you I can't speak for all the other unions so I can't say they were were not there but to present a voice that maybe is not thought of um from a different perspective to get feedback from staff so that we could present some concerns that we believe set the with these times um just as well as everybody else we've heard lots of complaints and concerns and questions and I couldn't answer them I could not answer them at first and then to add to that we're going to do a yearr round model for wyomina and I was not part of that discussion either and so I got blindsided by that and ironically being a parent of both 8 Street and a um I found out this morning here of that discussion so I'm not sure which part of the transparency that I'm being left out of but it's kind of hard to represent the people and give you their take on these changes and as you said changes are hard and these are difficult conversations and some of these things may be fantastic and some of them may not be we got a high school that's going to be expected to have 55 more minutes of a student day so are we trying to attract students there or trying to get them to go to the high school down the road the staff now is going to I'm not sure how the staff day is going to work because um there's not enough time and I've looked at it and the recommendation right now is that 30 seconds remaining yes sir that the staff will leave when the students leave identical times and those of you that have worked in a school know that that is not possible and that is not a good model for anybody involved um I appreciate the time to speak I look forward to working to solve some of these concerns and issues with the district and the people expected me to be here to talk and I could probably talk as you said 30 seconds I could probably talk a lot longer so um hopefully this is not the last discussion we have about this and I'm sure that board meeting will be pretty full thank you thank you Mr Avery is there any other public comment we have Mr alello coming down hello again uh yes hello good morning again um wouldn't it be great to not be held hostage by our transportation crisis it appears that this entire District functions revolves around Transportation how about when you go up to Tallahassee How about if one of our legislators or their AIDS are watching this how about fully funding Transportation so we can attract bus drivers because I tell you what 19 bucks an hour is not doing it right now so we need to advocate for that because while it may not affect um My Two children we've got 40,000 plus kids here half of them are being transported and we're making all of these instructional decisions it sure sounds like based on bus routes and how we can do all that and if it was fully funded and if we had attracted enough bus drivers then maybe we wouldn't be having the list of of start time changes so we need to point out that yes some of this may be warranted but let's call it for what it is it's because for decades now they've been getting away on the cheat Tallahassee give us the funding that we need to transport your students our students and we won't have the shakeup that we do I could imagine there's heartburn for for kids starting at 9:20 in the morning basically if you're talking about a bus a bus ride you're looking at a 9h hour day maybe for some of those kids by the time they get to the bus stop by the time they get dropped off that's a that's a lot of of of um you know time and then just on one other note um you know we all say that there's the the kids need more instruction time I believe the opposite I don't think kids need more instruction time I think their teachers need more time because the time that they get right now is the same amount of time they had 25 years ago when the plate wasn't as full and now it's overflowing they have no time to collaborate do all this stuff so our kids my kids don't need any more instruction time my kids want their instruction teachers to have more time I want their teachers to have more time to collaborate to better prepare um so thank you thank you Mr alello is there any additional public comment okay Dr James I I just wanted to ask Dr gullet if maybe Dr living good or another area superintendent could speak to the value attached to a seven period day I think that that was kind of um we tasked Miss Dobbins with addressing it but that's not really her um area that she oversees and I think that there is value in addressing that the seven period day is coming forward to provide more flexibility and opportunity for students and scheduling and also giving teachers common planning time um and so that was not articulated and I just would like if we could do that thank you board member James I was thinking the same ahead yeah absolutely and I think you just hit the nail on the head can you hear me okay here okay um the seven period day absolutely it's going to increase uh planning time collaborative planning time for those secondary teachers who don't always have the opportunity to get together with other teachers who teach the same subject so it is going to allow for one period during those seven periods um to collaborate with others um as well um more opportunities for acceleration um and intervention and reading in math and then also students who do take intensive reading or math they will have an opportunity to now take an elective in that 7eventh period so it really does open up the doors um and the opportunities for our students for enrichment remediation acceleration all of those things as well as provide teachers additional time to work together for common planning thank you and so just as a point of clarification bie middle and Oola middle are maintaining a six period day but the other middle schools are going to a seven period day Based on data and we're adding essentially 15 minutes give or take to the end to the to the schedule which will afford the opportunity to get in that seventh period um and it's and yeah 411 is not ideal even when I talked to Dr Deon Gary yesterday he's like are my parents super excited about 411 no um when we addressed their start stop time last year Dr Gary was really hard that he didn't want it to go into the 4:00 hour but um that's why he's still at 3:55 but then you see the other schools and so he understands the uncomfortability attached to going past 4:00 however what a seven period day day academically is going to afford our students and their opportunities not only for acceleration but for remediation but for opportunities to engage in CTE programs there are students in Middle School who right now have no elective they're they just have core subjects and Remediation or credit recovery so now that student who in a traditional setting right now does not have the opportunity for culinary next year can do culinary at denell middle school and this is going to give opportunities to students that would have never had them and correct me if I'm wrong but lakeer High School currently has our worst graduation rate which is the data supporting this transition to a seven period data kind of help support ensuring our students are getting their credits there as well because seven period days gives students more opportunity to earn credit which essentially just makes it easier to get to the Finish Line because they have more opportunity so I didn't feel like that got articulated well and your points were very well heard and so I just wanted to make sure that we clarified that um and made sure that that was um transparent to the community Madam chair may I um Dr James well said for our students coming to school to be able to afford them the opportunity beyond the classes that they need to take especially for students in intervention programs they need to have the opportunity to connect and and for their College and Career Pathways into highin high demand jobs into the workforce and right now with some of the models they are not offered the opportunity to do that and if you think about um students wanting to come to school and getting engaged offering them those opportunities where they there's High interest will help to ensure that we're meeting them where they are I think that's absolutely critical and thank you for sharing especially the CTE piece is critical to allow our students access to that 100% And based on our people progression plan when kids in middle school don't get their units and then they're those 8.5s and it affects them going into high school and it really creates a very difficult path for them to ever recover and a communication that I receive from a middle school principal uh I'll just say it verbatim we we will be able to have a seven period day all students get at least one elective teachers have more planning time built into the day and adjusting the teachers start and end time will also open us up to more opportunities for parent teacher conferences and further bridge the gap between school and home so you know there's there's lots of different um levels of of support you know for for what we're trying to do um but these are the kinds of sharings that are going to help every student succeed and if we're able to implement it with that underpinning of of support that addresses the the issues and concerns that have that have been raised and you know I seem to remember this was a long time ago now but Mr alello made me think of it uh I believe that at one point we had another hour of the school day that the state paid for and then I believe that that got removed a while ago I remember there was a transition when I worked at North Marian High School all of a sudden we went from starting at 7:35 or whatever it was to starting later because that hour you know was gone and and we've never gotten that back and I would 100% agree you know that teaching now is a different animal you know than what it was back then uh we always hear you know more is being put on our plate with no time uh so you know points very well taken during the the public comment Dr James you had something I just wanted to offer a silver lining one and I touched on this earlier but in a seven period day essentially 50 over 50% of the staff are going to have a planning period either attached to the beginning the end or lunch um depending on how the school does lunch and so that that makes for a very long planning period which going from having no planning period and you start and you end and there's no time in between except for your 25 minute lunch which doesn't even exist right to a seven period day where you're going to have a full common you're GNA have a full block of one whole period to plan which may or may not for 50% of the staff be attached to lunch or before end of the day there's just a lot of flexibility that's going to be afforded to our schools so I'll I'll rest there but I know that it's uncomfortable but I do believe that in time it's going to it's really going to serve our students and our families and our staff well thank you Dr James um is there any uh other input okay all right well I believe we are at the time for uh board comments and concerns um anything from your seat Miss Martinez thank you anything from legal nothing additional from legal thank you thank you and thank you for your uh up continuing due diligence on moving our different um initiatives forward with impact fees and sales tax thank you Dr gullet nothing additional thank you thank you board member Campbell sure um I first wanted to say my my assumption but I'm asking chair that this item whenever we do the school start time that it be a discussion item and not a consent agenda whenever we do put it forward thank you so much um my only other thing is uh moving to going they following a ton of things that are happening in Tallahassee right now I did wanted to give the board an update that I received yesterday that there will not be chronic absenteeism bill this session uh I can talk more about that if you'd like uh but I can let you know that there will not be one this session but there is potential for future sessions as we continue to Advocate um but also wanting to um say heading to Tallahassee this week for marrying County day um I was curious I know there have been some last minute changes to schedules and folks may not be attending so um just for my information I know Jessica's gonna be sending Jessica Janice Seitz our our lobbyist is gonna be sending out a schedule but how I do my schedule is going to somewhat dictate if there are others with me or if I am literally going by myself and so I just didn't know I know Miss Martinez was asking but um are am I going by myself or are there going to be some of you that are going too thank you board member Campell for continuing to uh do great work as our legislative liais on and I think I'll just share that uh my husband has dental surgery that was unexpected so that's why I've had to tap out on this one uh we also have had multiple opportunities to connect with our legislators as as a full group and so I think that um as the board you know shares what what they're intending to do it is always Our intention to stay connected to our legislators and and meet with them you know in Tallahassee and also at home and hopefully we'll begin to see them here a little bit uh that's an intention of mine as as chair to make sure that they get invited after sessions so that we can celebrate the wins for our district and continue to share our needs so that's what I have to share on that if there's uh other board members that want to weigh in please do but I I appreciate you continuing to to represent us um and really taking your role very seriously and and helping us develop those relationships it's very important my pleasure okay um I had have that on my calendar but as of yesterday it was shared that we had no meetings and so I was trying to be a responsible board member um I don't want to use funding if we didn't have meetings assigned so I withdrew my name from going same right and anything can happen in Tallahassee somebody can suddenly come available absolutely so I really think again that it's wonderful that we even have a board liaison for this absolutely and I believe there is a meeting with Senator Perry so I'll be happy to I'll be happy to represent the board and um attend committee meetings with Dr Daniel Tas from fsba as well as uh being a part of some of the House and Senate budget conversations so I'll be happy to represent the board just wanted to see if I was going to be doing that alone because that obviously will change where I go and what I do so always with you how fast you do it and how fast I do it absolutely that's right that's right and um board member Cummings did have to leave so um I'm not 100% sure of of his intentions so there's still the possibility of what he intends to do okay that's all I had thank you okay thank you all right uh board member James um nothing I appreciate the work the team brought forth today um some con contentious topics and lots of productive conversation and I'm just grateful that um staff is continuing to work really hard to meet the needs of our students uh I've I always have lived by you know we need to do what's best for students even if it makes the adults uncomfortable and so um I believe that that's what we're doing uh and I believe in the work that we're doing so that's all I got thank you board member James Vice your Conrad yes good after no it's still good morning it almost afternoon um I just wanted to say uh and Dr gullet shared at the beginning how much I enjoyed uh the golden apple Gala it is always inspiring when you get to hear from the teachers and what inspires them which is of course their students uh but it was just it was a great evening uh the foundation did a beautiful job it really was I don't know Kevin the from the audience there weren't any hiccups everything just went so smoothly and everybody did a phenomenal job and so in celebrating our our teachers it's also such a wonderful time for our staff to gather and celebrate each other each teacher and staff member um that's on a campus right now and so I just really appreciate um that opportunity and I think it's extremely valuable so thank you for that work um the conversations today were hard I do um even when we disagree or we have different opinions I do value the work that our teams do um Miss Grant in her work with our ratios I'm thankful for the work that she does and she's always uh such a great commun communicator Miss Dobbins thank you for you and your team with transportation again I'll say we've been working on this consistently we you all have been working on this consistently um in addressing the needs of the entire District 32,000 miles a day and so it is a challenge and it's not an easy one and so I appreciate all the time and effort um that you all have put into helping us solve this problem and meet the needs the best that we can I'm als I also want to say thank you uh to our community members who are helping us move forward in getting funding much needed funding for our schools that's really exciting exciting to think about as we look at moving forward um I I just wanted to share I think I've shared this before but going to school here in Maran County when I went to high school we did have a seven period day and it was really great by the time you know if if you're if you're staying on track you get to your senior year and you have some extra time um if you had some struggles along the way it also gives you some time so I'm excited about the opportunity for our students to not be up against such a stringent timeline um to get ready for graduation and so I'm I'm looking forward really to next year's data on on how that helps move us forward um I also wanted to share that although some felt uh uninformed about things that were brought forward today I think a lot of our community is informed I received so many emails and phone calls um sharing their opinion and insight and struggles about things we were discussing today and educating children takes the community doesn't just take a board doesn't just take administrators or teachers it really is a community effort as we really we saw today and so I just encourage everyone to get on the website check out board dos see what we're going to be talking about and and reach out to your board members cuz we're here we're here to take in your input and and share and um help find answers and so uh I just closed with we're trying to meet the needs of of 45,000 students and and we love to hear from you so thank you thank you Vice chair Conrad and um I will say that the evolution of communication over the years has has changed um we have less people coming face to face to board meetings most of the time and and what they tell me is that they watch it on YouTube in their jammies and then if there's something that bugs them they email text or message or send a carrier pigeon but they're they're not coming face to face uh to the meetings so much and I'm really glad that anyone can go right to YouTube because it's easy to access you know you don't have to go through 10 layers of anything to to find us to get information and it it it does distress me a little bit what was shared about being included in um some conversations because I know from my service on the instructional calendar which is another thing we'll never get 100% approval on um that that there's always been representation uh at least as long as I've been um from the unions the the Staffing ratios had Union representation so it would be my ask to continue to refine our communication to continue our Quest hey great ideas come from everywhere and I think that it's time for any type of old school confrontational approach while we get frustrated in the moment I think that our new spirit of of really collaborating authentically and asking for input you know I've I don't even represent you know district one but but I I got the emails regarding Oola and I responded you know to each and every one of them timely and and personalized you know if we're going to set the bar high for students we need to be setting the bar High simultaneous ly you know for each other and and and with each other so I am grateful for the conversation today I am grateful for the confidence and the courage that this board has and and Dr gullet and her team you know to tackle these issues and not just hope that they're going to get better but to put action plans in place that have a solid chance of making them get better so uh with that unless there's anything else for the good of the group we'll bring it to a a close close today and I wish everyone a wonderful Thursday and we definitely or Tuesday oh my goodness it's usually and slip yes we usually have them on on Thursdays uh anyway enjoy the rest of your week um the evidently the weekend is further away than what I just stated but it's coming all right we will adjourn at 1201 p.m. and if I had talked a minute less then we would have still made it by morning or 11:59 thank [Music] you