##VIDEO ID:yUXHwJDo5TU## [Music] good evening everyone great to see so many familiar faces here the October 22nd 2024 meeting of the Marian County School Board is officially called to order mirroring and modeling the way our students begin each day I ask that we observe a moment at this of Silence at this time please join me thank you I'll Now read our board commitment statement we are the Marian County School District leadership team when we come to together to work we are efficient effective and productive to work our three most important characteristics are dedicated transparent and individually responsible to work well together we must demonstrate respect confront reality and be accountable we will always put students first and we will leave a legacy of success for the courtesy of those listening to the meeting I'm requesting everyone in the audience to please turn off your electronic devices or put them on vibrate later in the meeting up to 30 minutes will be provided for individuals to address the board on matters concerning the operation of the Maran County school system or the school board only presentations to the board are limited to 5 minutes and are televised if you wish to address the board regarding a regular agenda item or matters on which the board customarily takes action you must first complete a peach form located in the lobby if you wish to address the board regarding a public hearing or a student discipline matter please complete a lime green form these forms must be fully completed and received by the board clerk no later than 5:40 p.m. the procedures applicable for each are on a separate sheet board clerk please call the role Dr Allison Campbell district one here Mrs Lorie conr District Two here Mr Eric Cummings District three here Mrs Nancy thrower District Four here Dr Sarah James District 5 here Sean Martin Dell in high school here Sanjay Cari Vanguard High School here Dr Diane gullet superintendent here Mr Jeremy par School Board attorney here thank you good evening Dr gullet please introduce the person who will share more information regarding tonight's inspiration and Pledge of Allegiance thank you good evening Madam chair members of the board it's my pleasure to do that I'm GNA have Miss Kelly Brower come forward and as she does she's going to introduce one of our students who going to kick off our evening for pledge of allegiance who is a bean stack winner so more on bean stack aboard I know you've heard this before but miss brow is going to provide some more information thank you yes good evening board chair thrower Vice chair Conrad school board members and of course superintendent Dr gullet I am excited to be here tonight to celebrate all of our students who are reading throughout the district last year we purchased a program called beanock for all of our schools within the district this is a K12 program this program is the leading solution for motivating students to read be stack allows individual schools to grow their reading culture it encourages healthy reading habits and literacy skills the program motivates students to read books in their classroom library and it Fosters teacher to Media specialist collaboration for the 2425 school year we continue to utilize beans saac to encourage all students in grades K through 12 to read we kicked off our first quarter with our back to school district Challenge on August 12th and it ran through August 17th students were encouraged to log their reading minutes in beanock throughout the first first quarter of our school our students have logged over 400,000 minutes of reading we know that reading has many benefits for students from inspiring the imagination to improving academic abilities when students embrace the importance of reading they can reach their full potential it is truly so exciting to see our students actively reading and at this time I'd like to call my friend Lily up to the podium to lead the pledge great on LY got this girl good evening Lily stand into the mic please stand please stand there you go baby doll and now all you have to do is say I pledge allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for [Applause] all the students the top 150 who log the most minutes in beanock have won a token to redeem a book at the book vending machine which is here at MTI Al in the vegetable on November 12th the book vending machine was purchased by the Maran County Literacy Committee in 2023 and a big thank you to the public education found Foundation who continues to provide tokens and books for the vending machine and we're able to keep it really fresh and full of lots of great titles the schools with the highest percentage of active students logging their reading in beanock were Harborview Elementary Madison Street Elementary Maplewood Elementary lak wear middle school and Westport HIgh School lastly while we do not have all one 150 of our student winners here tonight I would like to invite some of our top readers to join me here at the podium so first we had Christian mcparlin a fifth grade student at Harborview Elementary and Harborview Elementary's media specialist Miss Nelson who will be saying a few words tonight we also have Olivia Arison a third grade student at first quarter Challenge and I'm going to let Miss Nelson say a few words about being stack good evening it is an honor to stand before you all of you to represent Harborview Elementary I am proud to say that as a school Community we have come together to crush our reading goals last year we had a total of 12,000 books checked out as of today the library has seen more circulation more visitors and more book logs turned in than years past because of beanstack as the book lady I take pleasure in knowing that our kids are meeting new friends taking new advent Ventures and learning new facts with every page they turn the funding and recognition helps Librarians continue spreading the love of reading and the love of learning so thank you unfortun unfortunately my student my fifth grader could not be here today but he worked on this speech and I'd like to still share it with you pleas good evening board Educators and guests my name is Christian mcparland and I'm a fifth grader at Harborview Elementary tonight I would like to share with you why I love books and why I like the library so much I like to read because it passes the time when I start to get bored I pick up a book and go on an adventure with the characters my favorite book right now is the diary of the wimpy kids and I hope to read the entire series I enjoy going to the library because honestly it is the quietest place at school but it's also the place where we can still have fun for our school reading competition I go on beanock to record my minutes twice a week from my reading log it is very simple and easy to use as your minutes add up you earn Badges and prizes I want to be an athlete when I up so I really hope Miss Nelson hears this and adds sport stuff to her prize collection for the next round of winners thank you for having me here tonight and represent my school go dolphins all right we are very excited about being stack of course we'll have a challenge each quarter so here we go last year we had over two million minutes so I think we'll definitely exceed that this year so thank you so much thank you we want to come down and take a picture with you and and before we do that I just wanted to um say thank you on on behalf of the board and it's really neat to have a program where we have all of the grade levels you know um elementary middle and high all representing together you know that that's pretty cool it shows the the progression and I especially related personally to the um young man as far as um being able to read and and pass the time once I discovered that there were horse books in the library um there were no more problems with Nancy so we'll come down and take a picture and and thank you so much for coming tonight here more more pictures yes congratulations congratulations all right always such a great way to start off a school board meeting and it just keeps getting better Dr gullet I think that you we have a few more recognitions this evening we do Madam chair thank you and we started with remarkable students and I want to move into our remarkable staff so we had a couple of storms recently but any I hadn't noticed right um two hurricanes and this I shared publicly last week I think not all of our community knows that and I think hopefully they will know now that we are the only shelters in town we are the only shelters in town our school district and Bor you can see in front of you a number of people that are here I want to start by saying that we had about 300 actually I think we're over 300 staff members that helped in a time of need in our community all of maring County's needs but also people who came to Maran County seeking a safe place to be to weather the storm and we've invited them here tonight all that could attend and for those who can't we appreciate you so deeply the amount of time commitment that you see in front of you and of our staff that left their families to be in shelters to spend the night the amount of time that goes into preparing the shelters serving the shelters the post storm work because there's a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure then our team that goes out after the shelters are closed to make sure that our schools are safe to return and that doesn't happen overnight when you have 50 schools in the fifth largest Geographic size in the state it takes a long time to go out make sure that all the grounds are safe the access for our transportation to get back on the road but also to make sure they're safe to go in the building that everything's operational so we could return it to the state when we left I am incredibly grateful Bor I know you are too for the sacrifice of our team and the sacrifice on behalf of the entire Community people coming from out of state to be here I never once heard a complaint from anyone no one said can't what I kept hearing was how do I help and so for the countless people the hundreds literally hundreds of Staff members that committed selflessly of their time and their resources to serve others is is just hard to say thank you enough so I'm incredibly grateful I'm going to ask everyone to stand if you helped prepare the shelter served at the shelter helped post storm to make sure that our students and staff could return safely to the buildings please stand so the board can acknowledge and thank [Applause] you and if I may the last the last count I just heard was 333 because we were still literally counting thank you Mr Christian still literally counting all of the people that served our community that's just absolutely incredible and the work of over 333 people I'm sure provided a safe harbor to people that had no idea what they were going to be coming home to uh we were fortunate enough here in in Marian County but that doesn't mean we weren't affected and folks down in Pasco County and pellis County and other places that were just decim ated um seeing the The Compassion that each and every one of you exhibit towards the folks that showed up um I know meant everything to them and a lot of our I think almost everyone up here visited the shelters stopped in reached out to principales personally to just see if there was anything else that that we could do you know to help support but in the end you guys were the ones in the trenches you know um making it or breaking it for so many citizens and for that on behalf of the board we could not be more grateful so thank you again and we definitely want to come down and take a picture and it's going to take a minute to say thank you to all of you so please give us that moment we we'll meet you down here please come down front your school gear going well he was doing some hard work really are a lot of people I was at Legacy today and didn't have anything to do with their colors I don't even know what their oh well you already had a s thank you so no more wheels for you I no look at this hanging around well couldn't be he has to must have been a bad thing cuz he's probably lost 50 lbs he at least a little bit all right Dr gullet as we continue to clear the room what's next yes all right just so grateful uh we will go back to our amazing students now and uh really appreciative of the opportunity to welcome our newest uh Schoolboard representatives from our student body here tonight I walked in and said it's never the same when our students aren't here so I really appreciate the board having Representatives I am very pleased for Quarter Two to introduce the following Sanjay kti is a senior at Vanguard high school and he is in the IB Program um in addition to being in the IB Program he shows leadership skills as a commanding officer of the njrc and he's participating in Marksmanship color guard and drill team competitions that's quite a lot um also serves as the vice president of the school's academic team and is in NHS and participates in the chemistry Club so we are really pleased to have Sanjay here who wants to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering as well welcome glad to have you here Sean Martin is to my immediate right who is a senior at dellan high school and he is a division one athlete that's a lot of work and is currently committed to Eastern Michigan University City to play football in the Mid-Atlantic Conference we know who we're going to be following got to get those colors out um additionally he is also the an addition um is the starting point guard on the basketball team and serves as a captain for both football and basketball I'm not sure how you have time for both of that but that's we're really proud of your leadership there and you participate on the track team is that accurate too okay member of FC CA and NHS as well and we are so appreciative of all the work he wants to do I also want to point out that you're the team Chapan on the football team says service in a whole different way as well so again so proud of both of you and your accomplishments thus far can't wait to watch you fly and so proud to have you here so Bard thank you thank you yes we are thrilled to have both of you on on board and we'll uh keep you as long as you're able to stay and and thank you for the time that you're taking because you're obviously both very busy as Dr gulet shared so we appreciate you sharing your time with us all right well we are going to move on to recognize a donation um we graciously acknowledge the following donation made to benefit our schools students and staff members including $5,100 to Vanguard High School from the Carolina Panthers Charities Donor advised fund to be used to support the V Ard High School football program on behalf of former Carolina Panther Legend and Vanguard High School alumni Drayton Florence so that's pretty cool and thank you very much um Mr Florence and on behalf of Vanguard High School for your very kind and generous um donation we sure appreciate it we'll put it to good use all right Dr gullet um please make a recommendation on this evening's Schoolboard meeting agenda happy to do so thank you madam chair I recommend approval of the agenda for the October 22nd 202 24 Schoolboard meeting with the materials in the board packet those materials distributed to board members at the meeting and the audio recording included as part of the official record of the meeting with the exception of the following items D 22.1 D 22.2 D 22.3 D 22.4 d22.5 and d226 that have been placed under discussion as well as item c8.1 that has has been pulled in placed under the discussion pulled agenda items thank you you Dr go may I have a motion on the superintendent's recommendation motion to approve motion by board member Campbell second second by Vice chair Conrad all those in favor say I I I motion passes unanimously five votes to zero may I have a motion to approve the minutes for the October 8th 2024 school board meeting motion to approve motion by board member Campbell second by board member Cummings are there any additions or corrections to the minutes hearing none all those in favor say I I I I motion passes unanimously five votes to zero Miss Martinez please provide the proof of publication for tonight's school board meeting the notice for the October 22nd 2024 school board meeting ran in the Okala Gazette on October 11th 2024 the proof of publication has been attached in board dos under proof of publication thank you Miss Martinez I'll now ask the school board's attorney to explain the rules governing persons who wish to address School Board this evening good evening attorney Powers thank you madam chair in compliance with Section 2860 1114 of Florida Statutes the school board has adopted uniform procedures for public speakers who wish to speak at this evening's meeting either regarding one of today's agenda items or a matter relating to the operations of the school district these procedures will ensure the public has a reasonable opportunity to be heard on Schoolboard and School District matters a written summary of these procedures are available from the table in the lobby public speaker forms are also located on the same table the completed forms were due to the school board's clerk no later than 5:40 p.m. the evening speakers will be called prior to the business portion of the school board meeting in the order of receipt by the Schoolboard clerk before you begin speaking please State your full name for the record and spell your last name each speaker will have five minutes of time if there are more than five persons who wish to speak the board May seek consensus to limit each speaker's time to 3 minutes when the speaker has one minute remaining the speaker will receive a notice to complete his or her comments speakers may not yield their time to other people speakers and meeting attendees are expected to conduct themselves in a respectful manner therefore verbal attacks and profanity are strictly prohibited pursuant to the procedures for public comments item six speakers are not to identify spec specific individuals other than themselves or child unless the statement is provided 24 hours in advance the board's here to listen to your comments only you may be directed to an administrative staff member following the conclusion of your comments for further assistance to address your concerns if there are matters dealing with student discipline including expulsions they will be scheduled uh at on the televised portion of this meeting uh parents May address the board regarding a discipline matter at that time to ensure student privacy um sorry that'll be scheduled at the conclusion of the televised portion of the meeting and parents May address the board regarding his discipline matter at that time to ensure student privacy only a parent or Guardian may use a student's first or last name identifying references to or identification of other students or their families is also strictly prohibited a speaker's speech does not reflect the endorsement sponsorship position or expression of the school district thank you for your attention to the board's requirements Madam chair that concludes my explanatory remarks thank you attorney Powers Miss Martinez do we have any speakers yes Madam chair Jamie nicewonger evening hello my name is Jamie nicewonger do you guys need address yes or no nope okay so as you guys may know I'm a prior bus driver from Maring County Public Schools I drove for four years I recently transferred out and now work within another department in the school district but my heart follows of Transportation so I see on the agenda today D 22.1 the request to utilize Poke County School District's bid for school bus transportation that contract is with school district services on September 28th 2021 the school board meeting there was a contract that contract was school bus driver temporary labor term contract also with school district Services I would request that the School Board review the performance of school district Services during the prior contract during the prior contract you still had major driver shortages it was never resolved they provided a few drivers the drivers they provided were not sufficient to fill the Gap they were were to fulfill I mean we still 20 30 routes not covered granted it was a rough time but it's still a rough time now not much has substantially changed um the second thing I have is you have bus drivers that drive these routes here at Maron County some of them longtime dress drivers they're very happy with the routes they bid on I would recommend that you review the iupat contract for Route bidding um you know these drivers that have been driving are just going to get ripped off if you want to approve this contract which is substantially greater than the last contract by dollar amount and it's actually shorter in the length of the contract so I don't know I don't see how this could be functional I would also request to review if transportation is mandatory for students that are being alternatively placed is it a requirement that Maring County Public Schools provides Transportation if not that might be a conversation too um ultimately I think we do need to consider the employees that currently work for Maring County Public Schools if they've bid on and have been driving a route from MTI since the start of the school year functionally how do you think these employees are going to feel when you come out and rip them off that route why if you want to approve this contract go right ahead put these bus drivers that are coming in on the routes that aren't filled why displace your current employees I don't know but I mean all these contracts that come in I don't see the care or consideration for the current employees that are working um I just think that it needs to be talked through this is the first I'm seeing of this contract and I follow what's posted for the school board I haven't seen this through a work session I've Just Seen hints that oh we have something coming and now all s it's up for a vote so did you guys really give the public and the employees ample notice that this was coming but what I did see was posted on this agenda item it does State word from word by approving this piggyback bid there will be sufficient drivers and buses to cover all the routes for students in Maring County Public Schools and I would expect that if this is approved tonight that that holds true we do not have students without bus drivers because the end of last year in multiple meetings I heard from the school board and from the Schoolboard employees that stood down here that said we have ample bus drivers we will not have buses without drivers and this year we have a lot of buses without drivers we have a lot of kids late it's a constant issue it has yet to be resolved in multiple years the employees are suffering the kids are suffering and what did Marian County Public Schools did at the beginning of this year right before the start of school they approved to move all these alternative students to Maring County Schools they weren't prepared they weren't prepared for the classrooms here they weren't prepared to teach these kids they weren't prepared to transport these kids yet They said they were and they set these kids up for failure these kids had a place to go they had people willing to provide transportation and Marian County Public Schools did not negotiate to get them where they would have been cared for where they have been and displaced them and now you're displacing other students who need services in our standard schools to accommodate other students I think the Maring County School Board should have a full ation and review this item thoroughly regardless of your decision if it's approved I do hope that the effect action results posted on the website with this board document is followed through thank you thank you m Martinez do we have any other speakers yes Madam chair Dr Sylvian door good evening sir good evening uh my name is silv Andor and um um first I want to thank you for the opportunity to allow me to present at this Maran County uh school board and um also for everyone here who are at heart the best of our students so I am s I'm a retired brain doctor and Professor I've retired from UF after 13 years being there and decided to stay in Florida because I love Florida and um not knowing any better I decided to do some politics and now I'm running for state senate but I'm not here to talk about that I'm here to talk about a formal teacher and I'm here to discuss about Recruitment and Retention of teachers so I was invited by a recruitment subgroup from um the board and we had a kind of aun table discussion about different options so and also I believe that um I am a great Public School product myself because I did all my education I grew up really poor on the countryside and um I was fortunate to have good public school good public teachers who still have an impact on me today so at UF I was also president of the faculty Senate and and a member of the Board of Trustees and we accomplish different uh Improvement and two I'm especially proud is affordable housing and expansion of baby gator uh baby gator is essentially daycare and it's a daycare facility that allow um all the kids to go and an environment that is very stimulating and one of my plan is to offer that to every Floridan here such that we found out that it's extremely good tool to recruit teachers because we know teachers at a time when they have young kids so0 to four would be a sponsorship potentially 12 to $18 a day and that would be available for everybody and then discussing about uh reviewing the numbers from the Department of Education in Florida there's more than 5,000 vacancies for teachers um there's also a significant vacancy for substitute and we just discussed uh the bus drivers and we know about the bus drivers we should make sure we promote uh potentially free training because the issue with bus is also that it affects minority because not everyone has the flexibility to take the kids at different time so that's something to keep in mind I've been to a different County and in alacha we just had 100 teachers who have just resign we had they just fired a superintendent which is number eight so that would be nine superintendent in 11 years this has to be fixed and I was in Ley County I was sitting by a a young teacher and she told me that the Miss s buron was overwhelming to her she wanted to do work life balance she was bringing a lot of work at home she was not paid for that she felt a bit bad about it she decided to spend a bit more time at home but then she felt she was worried that she would be penalized at her next evaluation and potentially be fired interestingly uh another student was presented for an award and he specifically highlighted how great she was so that was um quite remarkable so in terms of incentive uh we have to think also about incentive to retain the best teachers we have to make sure we do um bonus but we also do simple documents simple rewards simple gift baskets simple appreciation because they're going to tough time and for the new recruitment I think it would be nice to uh consider an environment that is really welcoming we should stop bullying the teachers because my mom was a teacher it used to be a noble profession and I want to make it stays a noble profession and that's very dangerous we we have to make sure that when we bring them on board we assign them mentors we review those mentors yearly such that because we know over time it can change we do brown bag session such as when someone has a problem they can discuss solution Etc and we see with other counties what works great and I think that these are all we have the capacity in Florida to make the education number one in the country and believe in that we have to um support and potentially cover continuous education because our teacher wants to keep up and the novel technology and all that it would be nice if it uh covered and a tool that I learn also is that when we recruit teachers it's good if we recruit them as a team because teams tend to stay and um stay together and be very productive so in conclusion I just want to say that it would be nice also when we consider about um development to reserve a certain proportion of the units being developed reserve for teachers for policemen for firemen Etc because often they cannot even afford these options so um let's not be partisan for school let's make sure that uh because we all want the best for our student and that's really what I believe and I thank you for your work thank you thank you sir um Dr gullet there's a few items that um Mr dor mentioned that it may um make him uh very happy to learn that there are quite a few um opportunities that are being provided uh both in transportation and also through um recruitment for our um staff and and hopefully incoming staff and I wasn't sure if our executive director of Employment Services is here tonight I know our supervisor of transport is here so they certainly are Miss Morant just waved um if you want to connect and I know she would um welcome the conversation thank you so much for coming thank you appreciate it Miss Martinez do we have any other speakers tonight miss christon Brinkley good evening good evening Marian County Schoolboard members employees and Maran County families before I begin I would like to take the opportunity before I begin I would like to thank you for the opportunity to address one of my concerns this evening while you may not agree with what I have to say My Hope Is that in listening it will encourage further discussions before any final disc decision is rendered one item on tonight's agenda is permission to utilize P County School bid for bus transportation if approved some positives include use of newer buses larger seating capacity and functional air conditioning systems it is also my understanding that the service would be used for students assigned to MTI for Alternative Learning education while I believe in education for all students the shared responsibility should not be placed solely on the shoulders of our schools and our communities some of the responsibility belongs to the parent or guardian of the child as a parent if my child lives within a radius of less than two miles attend a zero period or I request an area out of placement and it is approved I as the parent or guardian and responsible for transportation if best transportation is not available my options may include before and after care a change in work schedule car pooling or utilization of Carline in some cases other options may include students walking or riding a bike to school those students walking or riding the bike to school May do so with or without adult supervision regardless of the options I have mentioned all of them incur some type of expense what I would like to do is to suggest other sources for funding excuse me for funding or other options for transportation of Alternative Learning students one option is a Step Up For Students stepup for students offers a transportation stip for grades K through 8 to attend the public school other than the school the student is assigned that sipon is an award of $750 per household in 2023 4,651 students were enrolled in Marian County Schools if even 5% of those students were eligible for this for this sipen that would amount to more than the 1.7 million mentioned in the current bid other options although not popular would be for the parent or the guardian of the Alternative Learning student to be responsible for transportation perhaps another option of of a transportation fee could be possible I do understand that this may place a financial burden on parents or Guardians I also understand that some students are placed in Alternative Learning environments due to behaviors caused by medical conditions in those cases I would suggest medical assessment and treatment by a medical professional you would not let a child with an uncontrolled condition such as diabetes seizure or asthma continue without Med medical intervention how is the manifestation of behavior due to medical condition any different a school's primary responsibility is education while there are many other concerns I would like to address my alloted time before the board is limited and coming to an end surely there has to be a way to meet the transportation needs of our students should the board decide to proceed with the permission of the contract could there be Provisions in their Provisions I would like to think see things addressed such as the shortage excuse me such as shortage for bus drivers and coverage of those routes and the pay of our transportation employees a crisis by definition is a time of intense difficulty trouble or danger or can be a time when a difficult decision must be made a catastrophe is designed is defined as the tragic outcome of a situation that results in destruction or Irreplaceable loss it's no secret that Nationwide we are in an educational crisis we as a community cannot afford the Irreplaceable loss of Education over something as simple as transportation again I'd like to thank you again for your time this evening and allowing public comment on this concern absolutely thank you m Martinez do we have any other speakers no Madam chair all right thank you um we'll go ahead and shift back to our agenda for this evening with some information items the school district used a construction management delivery method including a guaranteed maximum price known as GMP to perform construction work on the following projects to allow the district to purchase materials through the owner direct purchase known as OPD process to save sales tax the construction manager needs to return the funds to the owner via a deductive change order the superintendent has signed and approved the change orders per per board policy 6345 the superintendent is authorized to approve and execute any Construction contract change order that will increase the Construction contract by $225,000 or less or that will decrease the Construction contract amount provided that approval will be in her judgment in the best interest of the board such change orders will be binding upon execution by the superintendent the superintendent shall report each change order that she approved to the board at the board meeting that follows her approval the superintendent's approval of the change orders will be entered into the official minutes of the board meeting amendment number one to the construction manager contract GMP for equipment early procurement related to construction of new Elementary School W change order number two amendment number one project 24-10 will allow the district to save approximately 27,600 change order number five amendment number three project 24-12 will allow the district to save approximately $ 29,8 40 in sales tax this will allow the district to save an approximate total of 57,8 n12 in sales tax on these two projects further the school district used a construction management delivery method including a guaranteed maximum price GMP to perform Construction work on the following projects there were unused funds on the project since these projects were delivered using a construction management delivery with a GMP format unused dollars regardless of the item are returned to the owner the unspent monies will be returned to the owner via change orders which will close the financial books on these projects the superintendent has signed and approved the change orders per board policy 6345 the superintendent is authorized to approve and execute any Construction contract change order that will increase the Construction contract by $25,000 or less or that will decrease the Construction contract amount provided that approval will be in her judgment in the best interest of the board such change orders will be binding upon execution by the superintendent the superintendent shall report each change order that she approved to the board at the board meeting that follows her approval the student the superintendent's approval of the change orders will be entered into the official minutes of the board meeting replacement of roofs at buildings 1 and two at North Marian Middle School change order number one work authorization number four project 23-14 is a deductive amount of 95,000 $44.75 replacement of roof at buildings 8 at North Marian High School change order number one work authorization number seven project 23- 130 is a deductive amount of $4,725 196 the total amount of unused funds for these two projects is $4,734 72 that concludes the information items for this evening may I have a motion to approve consent agenda items C 111.1 through c9.1 with the exception of items d 22.1 d 22.2 d 22.3 d22 2.4 d22.5 D 22.6 that have been placed under discussion and item c8.1 that has been pulled and placed under discussion pulled agenda items May I have a motion please move second move by board member Cummings seconded by board member Campbell all those in favor say I I I motion passes unanimously 5- Z moving on to student disciplinary matters before addressing expulsion matters I wish to acknowledge the board members have have receiv received the alternative placement list for students through September 23rd 2024 Miss Martinez are there any parents who have submitted a timely requests to speak on their child's disciplinary matter no Madam chair thank you if there were they would be uh addressed at our upcoming special board meeting on November 20 November 7th 2024 may I have a motion to approve the expulsion of student JD 25-50 JD 25- 051 e JD 25- 053 JD 25- 059 e JD 25-60 JD 25-61 JD 25- 062 j25 d64 with Educational Services for the remainder of the 2024 2025 school year and the first quarter of the 2025 2026 school year may I have a motion please motion to approve motion by board member Conrad second second by board member Campbell all those in favor say I I I motion passes unanimously 5- z may I have a motion to approve the expulsion of student JD 25-35 JD 25-36 e JD 25-41 JD 25-42 e JD 25- -45 JD 25-48 e JD 25-49 JD 25-54 JD 25-55 e JD 25- 056 JD 25-57 and JD 25- 058 without Educational Services for the remainder of the 2024 2025 school year and the first quarter of the 2025 2026 school year motion to approve motion by Vice chair Conrad second second by board member James all those in favor say I I I motion passes unanimously 0 moving on to our discussion items May I have a motion to request permission to utilize pulp County Schools bid number IB 049 d mj- 0624 for school bus transportation go move move by board member Cummings second second by Vice chair Conrad Dr goet do you have information you would like to share regarding this item uh yes thank you madam chair members of the board Dr henr and Mr asonic are going to come forward board this uh contract should you approve is a approximately $1.74 million and this is a piggyback agreement proposed to support our our Alternative Learning Program that's now here at Maran Technical Institute so Dr Henri will kick us off with a presentation on this item um thank you board thank you good evening Dr hre thank you good evening chair um just wanted to start off with giving everyone a synopsis or a reminder really about the students that we serve um at the Alternative Learning at MTI and so we have different students that are here and so it's important that we all understand what students are receiving their education here so we have um students in work study and these are students um that have um earned their High School certificate and they are um completing an additional three years of Educational Services because they are students in the exceptional student education program um and we're helping them with work uh work skills so that they can be successful after the age of 21 we also have some um K8 students here on um a Continuum of services these are also students that are in the exceptional student education program that this is their placement because they need some more um very specific strategies and then the other group of students that we have are students that have committed some type of behavior infraction based on the code of student conduct and those students are here either on an alternative placement which is a minimum of 45 days or they're also here um they could be here for an expulsion which is a full school year so when we're talking about that particular group of students and we're talking about Transportation the transportation needs at MTI for those group that group of students who are um committing behavior infractions that can change quite frequently it's very hard to determine exactly how often those those students will change because it really depends on behavior infractions that happen out at the school settings at their base school so um because these um changes happen so frequently this could impact or it can impact a bus driver's route to MTI and so when we look at adding additional students to a particular route that a uh a bus um driver has that impacts all the students on that particular route because their times uh might change but it also changes the route itself a little bit for the bus driver so the consistency for pickup times can change um and it's it's very fluid when we have to add students um so because of that um we what we looked at is oh I'm sorry I wanted to also say at the end of a quarter we also look at students that have earned their uh their way back to their base school and we we send out communication to schools um and transportation that indicate this these particular students have earned their way back to a base school and then Transportation changes again at the end of every quarter that at that time frame that tends to be more students so again it's another change and um transportation does an amazing job with working with Alternative Learning to try to Route those students but because of the number of students um that we're talking about and it's not just our students here but all of the other um things that they have going on um you know they they ask us to a lot for at least 10 days uh to route a particular student and so when we're talking about it might take 10 days to get students um here uh providing Transportation then we're missing educational days and services for kids and we definitely want them in school as quickly as possible so all of those challenges um have brought us to talk about what it is that we can do to help ensure that we're providing consistency for the bus drivers um we're helping Transportation with all of their other needs but also we're making sure that students can get here for their education the back contract was one of our options to Pro Outsource and provide a service so that we could get students routed more quickly and provide some of that consistency for our bus drivers so um I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Mr asonic and he can kind of talk to you about what that might look like for our bus drivers's next steps thank you good afternoon everybody or evening I guess now the days kind of running together I'm going to talk a little bit about the next steps for um our MTI drivers just so you guys are all aware we have 18 routes that service MTI and there's a difference between a route and a run a route encompasses all schools that are that the bus um a particular bus services um so when I say that we have 18 runs at MTI but that's 18 routes all of those buses that are those 18 all of those 18 buses service other schools so it may be one other school it may be two other schools along with MTI so when we have decid made this decision to uh um to Outsource or to talk about Outsourcing our our services for MTI um we didn't do so lightly um we're able to take the current um the current routes that we have that are servicing MTI add our open routes to those and create new routes to be able to um close the gap on our the 10 routes that we have that are open right now around the district um so make sure I get this out correctly uh to make sure that we have those those um are able to cover more more open routes or more open runs so each one of those are that we have available um if we take 18 runs and we disperse those throughout our open routes that we have and combine new routes that's going to give us the opportunity to cover obviously get more students to school and meet ontime arrival uh that being said it does create a a kind of a a conundrum with the bid process and one of the things I want to cover here is there's a lot of misconceptions out there and I want to be able to talk to our drivers and AIDS at this point if you currently have a route that you're on that does not serve alternative programs at MTI you're not affected by this okay those those drivers currently will keep their routes regardless of senority and all that they bid on those those are their routes now when we combine new routes and create new routes according to IUPAC contract we have to rebid those so are 18 drivers and 16 AIDS so there's 18 drivers 16 AIDs that are helping with MTI their routes will have to be recreated to Encompass the open routes we have those will go up for bid um with that being said when those go up for bid anyone that has a bid any driver or Aid that has a bid is able to bid on that route and that's selected through seniority through the zone that it Services first and then if no one in that zone selects the route someone from another Zone could select the route or bid on the route is that makes sense okay I just I just want to make sure we're clear on that because I I know there's a lot of stuff out there and I want to make sure that our drivers are aware yes we're affecting the our 18 drivers and 16 AIDS here at MTI but anyone else within the district within Transportation they would be making a choice to have their route changed if they CH chose to bid on a route that um we create when taking the our current open routes and our um the the other runs that are servicing on buses that that work for MTI when we combine those so um I guess at that point I can kind of open it for questions I will say that once we get through tonight the first thing I will do tomorrow if this is approved is I will set up a meeting with our drivers and AIDS that that this um that have this has an effect on and we will meet with them and go through answer any questions that may there may be and talk with them and try to explain everything as best as we can thank you Mr oston I appreciate it um if we'll now open it up to the board for discussion who wants to take the first swing board member Cummings M aonic um thank you I tried to run off sorry I seen you trying to run fast thank you um for the clarity because there is a lot of misconceptions and rumors that are that are inaccurate um thank you for clearing that up because we do we do value our our transportation department and those people this from my understanding this is going to help us get some other routs on time possibly through the system can I correct yes sir um we have already made a lot of progress and that's because the transportation team um all the folks from the our drivers AIDS routing our garage all our folks within the our our our management team has done a great job of kind of trying to create a um as many as high of a percentage of ontime arrivals as we can and currently that that's between 3 and 6% higher every week than we were last week and when you say 3 and 6% is that what does that mean when we're talking between 6 6 kids and 1100 kids a day that are get that are getting to school on time as opposed to last year so thank you thank you for the clarity for James go ahead um so I know we've talked privately and I just want to have a few other things I want to clarify so first so and I both of the ladies tonight that shared public comment I think have some very valid concerns and bring to light some some narratives in the community and and some have been not completely accurate and I'm glad that you've had opportunity to to correct that but there are others that have validity so one one of the ladies this evening mentioned that the narrative says all of the routes for students in Maring County Public Schools and that's what this narrative says so I know that prior to us taking on MTI Alternative Learning Transportation was ready and prepared as we were approaching August to essentially have all of the runs and routes filled to the best of your ability and then MTI Alternative Learning kind of put a wrench in that and then obviously the season has been what what it is and so do you still feel confident that all of the routes for students in Maring County public schools are going we're going to have sufficient drivers for that because I feel like that is a pretty strong narrative and I want to make sure that that is what we all think is going to happen and then if so how quickly is this being turned on and what when are we when is this transition going to happen okay first off I'm never going to promise you 100% that's our goal it's always our goal 100% ontime arrival we are going to constantly have people that call in we're going to constantly have FMLA workers comp um accidents trains that are stopped like we had the other day they're stopped and you can't get across and you're sitting for hours there's always going to be those things so our goal is 100% I can't stand here and pro ever promise you 100% now that being said we should be able to get to where we're reaching 95% ontime arrival on a regular basis that that's a that's a personal goal of mine um we have to be able to fill all our seats to do that um so so when do we think if assuming if the board votes yes tonight when is the transition occurring what is the timeline for the roll out of when are the new bus drivers coming what does that transition period look like thank you for the question so um November 1st is the date that we've been working with the company that they're ready to give us some drivers so they already have um I guess in their um employee employed staff Five drivers ready to take over at least five routes effective November the 1st if that's um if that's what we want to do and then it's going to have to be a phased approach because they do have to do some Recruitment and training and so we will be working closely with Transportation um and if this gets approved tonight that's one of our next steps is to uh schedule a meeting with Mr asonic Transportation um and my team as well as the new contract to plan out that phased approach so that circles back then to miss nicewonger comment tonight which I think is based in some validity we have 18 drivers with Bus 18 runs I I learned some lingo today so we have 18 runs that sit out here every afternoon when we arrive we all see them what I just heard you say is this company has five people to fill those 18 buses that are currently needed for MTI is that is did I hear that correctly so they they keep five to six on staff permanently so that when they have a a company that outsources their transportation that if they we want to implement that need right away they can go ahead and start that process so do they pay more than we pay I don't know what their their pay is I couldn't answer that you do we have a non-compete that says our employees can't leave and go work for them since that seems to be a topic of conversation as of late there's not a non-compete in the contract but so if we can't find I'm just and I'm just trying to have a transparent conversation because Miss nicewonger had some very valid points if we can't find bus drivers then how is this company going to find presumably um 13 bus drivers to fill those runs what is what is the strategy this company presents that would that would make us be advantageous to pay them so I I'd have to go back to the company and find find out how they recruit um when I spoke with the gentleman that we've been working with um they recruit from around this uh the the surrounding counties but they they agreed not to recruit our bus drivers not it thank you any other discussion from the board you're muted I do just for clarity uh all students these MTI students they are all Marian County Public School students correct that is correct and even when they were under the cont at surmy they were still Maran County Public School students correct the the ones that we transitioned back here were all Maring County Public Schools I know that that contract had serviced other students right I'm talking about the ones that came back the ones that came back we Maring County Public Schools and because they are Maran County Public School students they are still entitled to All rights privileges of any other Maran County Public School student correct such as transportation y'all can say I'm going to go ahead and um so we've had conversations about this I'm going to go ahead and turn that over to attorney Blackman um because he can talk to you a little bit about that um the general answer is yes that's correct thank you as we go through stop right there all right you stop right there you can start right there because there's a perception that because these kids are alternative place that they're not entitled to uh Transportation they're still our students they are still our students and they still deserve to be transported if there's uh um opportunity to transport them to school so thank you you have to say anything else all right any other comments from board members I guess I do yes go ahead um first I want to thank you this has been um at least since I've been been on the board transportation has been a challenge really since can you hear me okay um really since covid and so uh we've been lacking bus drivers and then when we transitioned students to MTI that was a hiccup right before school started and so we've been facing this challenge for quite some time and I just want to say even though it appears there's some things that need to be worked out I appreciate all of the time and effort that's been put into thinking outside of the box finding a way to get all not just our MTI students but to get all of our students to school on time um so just want to thank you for that and then so my question would be if we have five bus drivers that are ready would that come out in a roll roll out session do they I mean how was how do we move forward if we only have five that are ready to go from this outside company so we would do that as a phased approach so I would work with transportation and Mr asonic and we would we would identify probably the routes that um would help um other students um in the in the district uh so where would which routes would we identify to start with that would impact the largest number of on time arrival and more support for the students on getting to school on time okay and did they give you you any type of timeline of how long they feel it will take them to recruit the staff that they need so they said it takes a typically about two to three weeks to recruit and get them trained um and I think that's the standard amount of time so it just depends on how many that they can find out there and then they have to obviously get them trained okay and with you may not know the answer to this but with um this conversation has been rolling for a little while have they do you know if they've been working on upping their numbers are they close are they in the process of hiring other drivers or is that something you don't know I don't know I know that they've had other um advertisements out there but I don't know that if they've necessarily advertised for us I think they're probably waiting on whether or not this contract would be approved but I I'm I'm not certain on that okay thank you I appreciate it board member Campbell thank you I I've been sitting here thinking do I want to weigh in on this because Vice chair Conrad just said a lot of what I wanted to say the outof thebox thinking is what I appreciate here ever since you've taken over Mr asonic it's we have had increases in our ontime arrivals in part because your team is working diligently we have new start times across this entire District because of the thought processes and trying to make sure that students are getting to school on time so I appreciate that I also understand that changing making all the changes we did kind of in the Midnight Hour on the MTI thing through transportation for a loop so I I understand all of that uh the point I wanted to make was that when we did have alternative placements and expulsions outsourced those students all were entitled to transportation and so those students at that time when they were use when we were using an outside vendor they were receiving transportation and and so they were entitled to that at that time I think that's the point that Reverend Cummings was trying to make um just because they've had behavioral challenges doesn't mean they're not still entitled to the transportation that um they can be afforded now certainly if they have misbehavior on the bus that privilege can be taken away and we understand that we've written that very strictly in the code of student conduct right chair thrower that's that's a really important point to make that that privilege can be taken away uh but it is still this board's intention to make sure that students are afforded the opportunity for transportation should that be um the need that they have so I understand the concerns that we've seen and I appreciate you clearing up the misinformation there's been a lot on social media we heard public comments today as well I I will be voting in favor of this I I'll just say that I'll be voting in favor of it because of what it can do for all of our students and what it will be able to afford US the opportunity to treat a unique School in a unique way and so as Dr henr has already outlined this this school this placement of MTI Services many different students in many different unique needs it's not just the new site for alternative placement and expulsion so when we have a unique situation we need to treat treat it uniquely and so that's why I'll be voting in favor of this thank you board member Campbell Vice chair conr um just one more thing um I will also be in voting in favor of this and even though um I wish that we had 18 drivers ready to go from this outside company um everything that comes before us I ask what is best for our students and so for me what is best for our students is that we will have five more drivers available to get five more bus loads of students to school on time and so I just wanted to share my thinking on that and thank you again for your work in this area thank you Vice chair board member James Just One Last clarifying remark so if we're starting with five does that mean that five runs or routes are going back out for bid and then as new hires from this company come forward then more is there going to be like a continual rebidding deal as as our runs get offlined because we have someone to cover it from the third party I think that's something that's going to require a little discussion um In fairness um from my point of view I would like to see us um hold off on the bidding process because we can still have drivers drive a route and just don't have them use their bid yet until we have everything in place that way everybody has to gets a fair opportunity to um to bid at that point um as opposed to doing five and then three so we're going to have to look at the time frame and see if it's going to be if we can get it done in a in a month period I say we hold off if it's going to be a a longer period then we may look at bidding in a in a rollout fashion and that reminds me I just want you to reiterate that point you made to me Mr oranic regarding absences because essentially if they're not driving the MTI route they're going to be down a run so can you um articulate how bus drivers will still be able to get their full hours or more if needed well I'll give you an example on Monday we had 19 drivers that called out and that's that's not including our FMLA that's not not including workers comp that's that's not including any of that that's just 19 drivers that called out so we're going to have any driver that wants the opportunity to to uh get an extra run if it fits within their schedule we we welcome them to come in and and uh we try we try to uh make it work you know sometimes depending on what their runs are what the route is you can't make it work but it's 95% of them are are getting used I would say at least and then in within the iepac contract because maybe we'll have a month lapse in time from when we stop using when we're in this lull our drivers will continue everything will maintain the exact same then is what you're essentially saying until we have enough drivers queued up with the third party to do a swap is that kind of what I'm hearing what I would recommend there is keeping the primary hours that the drivers have currently so they're when a driver bids on a route it could be they're guaranteed six hours but it could be up to eight hours so whatever their current primary hours I would say keep that in place you know and and once we get all the new routes done and we rebid their primary hours could change upward down a little but keep their primary hours in place until we until we get um everything ready to do a a bid for those 18 routes thank you any other comment or discussion from the board um well I'd like to weigh in um and I I want to start with the big picture uh you know we sit up here every week after week and say we're here to help every student succeed and when we took took on this project at at the last minute because it was a lot of negotiation um it looked like it was going to be a lot less expensive for us to take it inhouse um the negotiations went down to the last hour which made this transition much more challenging um and I'll always appreciate surmy and and neie for the work that they did for so many years to diligently try to serve a very tough population to serve but the bottom line is we're looking at 36% graduation rate average for kids that are in these alternative programs and I believe the whole board voted unanimously and with confidence to take these kids on that it was the right thing to do it was what's best for kids to give them the opportunity because once a student becomes alternatively placed or expelled um they could have they could apply for any scholarship they wanted to but private school schools have every right not to accept them um we have had conversation just the other morning about a virtual school the kids not even on campus and not accepting them because they've been expelled that makes absolutely no shred of sense to this board member they're not even on the property I think that's why it's called virtual school so these kids are up against tremendous challenges I think I heard earlier um that you know the parents should be resp responsible for bringing them well I think that if we did a survey of the kids that were serving in the alternative programs people would be shocked at how many of these students are not even living with one blood parent a lot of them are couch surfing we are their last shot and the bus drivers that are bidding these routes um develop special relationships with the kids um they they want that to continue they they bid these routes for a reason um so I'm hopeful I know we have to follow IUPAC contract bottom line is our bus transportation issues are not going to be fully solved until we're back to where we were many years ago where we had a pool of drivers to pull from so it wasn't just enough to cover the routes so you know we had reserves so to speak that we could call in um to help and speaking of being called in to help um I've been driving a van to to pick up kids at Okala Springs Elementary School whenever I can to take them out to the forest because it's two kids but they because of their needs that's where they're assigned and it then that way an office staff and we've talked earlier about um employees having to do other duties as required or assigned I would uh point to the example of the transportation department where we have office managers routers all kinds of people that are still driving kids to to cover the Gap so anyone that is doing anything other than trying to help solve this problem is the problem as far as I'm concerned and we have got to continue to think outside the box like our some of my fellow board members have said we're 12 million in the whole every year um I listen to you Miss Boston LS our CFO we we're $12 million in the whole every year trying to serve our kids to make sure that every kid gets a ride to school so it goes a lot deeper and it also is a little bit frustrating I will say when we hear public comment and when I've had Direct conversations with the commenter who quit the first day of school and left Transportation really in the Lurch and and hanging so to me that doesn't quite follow the heart being for transportation but you know that's that's for them to um live with and all we can do up here and this is why I'm going to vote Yes is continue to do everything we can to pull out the stops to solve the problem to be of one Accord to make this better and the good news is is that we're headed in the right direction um compared to where we were the challenging news is is that what it it takes to serve our MTI alternative kids that challenge is is not going to change the kids are going to keep coming they're going to keep needing our help and we unanimously said that we were up to the task so I'm going to continue to get behind you and push and sit behind the wheel and do it too so I'm ready to vote board member Cummings anything else all right all those in favor say I I I I those oppose nay motion passes unanimously 5 zero thank you very much for everything you do every dayk yes thank you all right moving on May I have a motion to approve the Etna Behavioral Health LLC Second Amendment so move move by board member Cummings second ah I think there was a tie but we'll go with Vice chair Conrad seconding um Dr G you have information you would like to share regarding this item yes thank you Madam chair members of the board Miss Boston Ellis is going to come forward and introduce a special guest from our team who's going to provide some information board on this item um regarding the employee assistance program and the cost for this item should you approve is $60,000 thank you thank you Miss Boston NIS good evening good evening cheer Thor it feels good that you listen to what I say board members and superintendent gallet it is um exciting to bring to you tonight A recommended action to approve the Second Amendment for Etna Behavior Health LLC for our employee assistance program you probably know it as the EAP Miss Laurel lingal from Gallagher Benefit services will join us tonight to Pro provide a brief overview of the program and some additional information of how it's performing this is yet another great benefit that is provided for our employees and their families Miss lingo thank you good evening I um sat in the back so I could get some more steps for the Step Challenge good for you that's commitment um as Miss Boston Alis said my name is Laur lingal I'm with Gallagher Benefit Services um I'm excited to be here tonight to speak to the employee assistance program um as she said the employee assistance program is offered through Etna it's called resources for living and they provide services for mental health and well-being um helps our employees build resistance and and just deal with the daily life as it comes so this is a service that is provided to all of our employees um it's important to note that some of the benefits that we offer are just for full-time employees but this would be inclusive of part-time employees it is also an offering that's available to members of their household um again I think it's important to note that frequently the members of our employees household are our students um so this is not only impactful to our employees but also impactful to the students um and other members of their household it does also service um dependents that maybe are not in the household of until the age of 26 so um I had an employee approach me one time thank me for this program um they sent their child off to college it was in Tampa and he said I I truly believe that this program saved their life they were struggling pretty significantly as a parent um I think the parent felt pretty helpless they're a couple hours away and so they were able to connect them to this program utilize those free resources and really get them on the right step um while they were off at college so um the main services that the program offers is really um mental well-being um and emotional support there are a couple of ways that um employees and their members of their household can access those Services one of them is in the moment support so um you might think of a crisis situation so this is available 247 um the employees can call into the resources for Living Program and they can speak immediately with a counselor that can help them through that situation those Services usually last between 20 to 30 minutes um and then frequently they are referred into some of the other more ongoing support programs um so Counseling Services um employees again and members of their household are eligible for seven free in or counseling sessions per person per incident per year so if somebody was having marital problems they would get seven free s sessions if maybe they had a death in the family they would get seven free sessions if they have two teenagers at home and everybody needs a little counseling they would get seven more sessions so um I think there are a lot of resources available to the employees and they have several different avenues that they can access those resources so they can either do face-to-face counseling which would be with a local counselor here in the area or wherever the member or dependent was living um there's a wide range of you know they can select which gender they would like if there's a religious preference um if there's a specific area that they need counseling and there's a special um spe somebody that specializes in that area they can choose the counselor based on that they can also do like telea Health counseling which is through talkspace um many of you may recognize that name Michael Phelps was a huge proponent of talk space so that is the program that they use um if you know somebody can't get to a counselor that's an easy way that they can do it on their time and then the newest option is um chat counseling so this is I'm sure as you imagine very popular with the younger generation um again this would not be for that um crisis situation or on demand counseling this is um more of an opportunity for the utilizers to kind of be in constant communication with their counselor throughout the day so they are chatting back and forth um and one week of chatting would constitute one session so they would get seven weeks of chat counseling um per incident per year um so just a few other options that they have to utilize the employee assistance program they offer legal services so that's 30 free minutes um with an attorney again per incident per member per year um they can um be referred out for a discounted rate with an attorney if the 30 minutes um you know yielded that they would need some additional Services they also have financial services financial Financial counseling again it's 30 minutes at no cost for every topic so um maybe they need help planning to save for college maybe they need help budgeting um maybe they need help getting out of debt so every different topic that they had they would get 30 free minutes with a financial counselor um and then there's a wealth of resources um through the website resources for living um they have programs um series that they can watch or that they can participate in um so additional services are that are available outside of the counseling sessions um when we look at the employee assistance program and the number of people served currently um in our current year to dat we're at about 14% utilization that compares to about 16% um from the prior year so you may look at those numbers and think well that doesn't seem very um you know very high it is above the current average for resources for living and also above National averages for utilization for employee assistance programs always room to improve um but those are um the numbers where we're at right now so currently we have about 646 members being served um I'm sorry total Services we have about 287 unique members that have been served um and just over 700 employees or members have logged into the website at some point year to dat um through August when we look at the services that the employees are utilizing um face tof face continues to be the highest utilized benefit we're at just over 160 um Services being there the telephonic services comes um in second and then um again the chat is a newer option so it is growing over last year but still um in third place financial and legal um legal um does come in before financial services and then we do have some general consultations so employees may just be calling in for General resources um to the employee assistance program um as far as the sessions what they're being used for the number one um is relationship and that's either marital or significant others um and that's just under 120 um Services used there anxiety and depression come in second and third and then we have grease or grief loss and stress um as the other top sessions used by issues um one of the other services that is available is management referrals so this year during the superintendent conference we presented to the leadership for all of the schools and um the Departments um so the um managers at the schools can call in to ask how they might handle situations at their schools so maybe they have a situation and they are not sure how to approach the employe they can call in and receive services and support um through that management referral line um it is they can also refer into that and say I have an employee that I believe would benefit from the employee assistance program through that management program so that is a great tool for um you know those supervisors at the schools and the um distri District locations so again something that we advertise frequently um I find that when we have programs employees maybe aren't paying attention until they need it so it is very very important that we continue to advertise and make sure that all of the employees at least know where to go they can say oh I've heard that we have this resource available um and that they have some tools to be able to access it thank you thank you very much um miss lingle that was a great overview and and I agree with you it's not going to be top of mind until you really have something going on and then even in that moment you may not even remember because you're stressed so continuing to advertise is is wonderful um thank you for the presentation open it up to discussion from the board anything to share yes Vice chair um thank you for the presentation um it really came at a great time Dr gett and I had the privilege um to meet with a group of teachers last Friday and they shared were sharing their top priorities and and mental health was number one um so I'm really excited about this I do think that um advertising and and helping our staff be aware of the resources that will be available available to them is really important um but the timing on this just really is perfect so I'm I'm looking forward that um these opportunities are available for us our staff so thank you yes and and one other point I forgot to make is that the services are also available I mean we think of frequently crisis situations but goal setting or just somebody that they can be held accountable to when they're looking to you know maybe go back to school and and they need somebody to be held accountable the employee assistance program is available to them for those services so I think it can be used for a wide range of um situations not always just Mental Health any other comments or discussion from the board um and I'll just uh quickly say that we did have a couple of student board members recently that shared um their passion for the the Mental Health Service fields and that they wish that we had um Career and Technical education Pathways for Mental Health Counselors like we do for veterinary assisting and so many other things you know industry certifications and Pathways um to be able to become certified as a mental health counselor and it resonated with me that these are available as long as you have someone that's an employee um for young adults that are up to 26 years old did I hear that correctly that's correct yes yes that's just an amazing benefit and when I think about all of the walks of of life and everything that's going on these days um having this available there's been concern in the past about is it really confidential and um you know can I trust it but I think that that slowly is is being proven over time um that it is very private and very confidential and and just a wonderful comprehensive service for our employees and their families so good stuff thank you for sharing thank you all right ready to vote all those in favor say I I I those oppose nay motion passes unanimously 5 moving on May I have a motion to approve amendment number one to the construction manager contract guaranteed maximum price known as GMP for Mass grading early equipment procurement and building foundations shell and site work related to construction of new high school CCC project 24-105 may I have a motion please so move move by board member Cummings second second by Vice chair Conrad um Dr gullet you have information you'd like to share regarding this item yes thank you madam chair members of the board this is a very large item as you know approximately $ 65.6 million and um Ivon um bombach is going to come forward our interim director for facilities to provide some context information regarding this first phase for the uh new and upcoming high school thank you thank you good evening good evening board board chair thrower Vice chair Conrad board members superintendent Dr gallet yeah I think we all were waiting for this to come uh before you uh we are eager to get this project started and um it is on a fast track um for design it's on Fast Track for construction so um a while back when you approved The Architects contract um in there you could read that they're providing five separate bit packages um to roll out documents quickly to the contractor um those bit packages include Mass grading foundation and underground packages early procurement packages the super structure and building envelope and then the final package while we are still fine-tuning the inside of the of the new high school to meet our needs we are meeting with all different departments to make sure it does especially um the CTE Department the es Department um so they all have some good input in there um this was the first GMP that was rolled out it included the um Mass grading um of the site 115 Acres um and the early procurement of all the long lead mechanical and electrical equipment there's also an allowance in there for the building Foundation the building shell the utilities it includes the foundation the building pad um the concrete shell the structural steel things that that will not change we we're just fine-tuning the inside so um we can go in more detail of uh the uh what what it's all included but you have that um in your document um I think you are more eager to hear when it's starting um we are trying to um Target November 5th as um groundbreaking and still the substantial completion for July 17th 2026 for this school year and it's a very tight schedule but um we're doing everything we can to get there thank you so much that's so exciting um any discussion comments from the board chair I I'll be recusing myself from this item okay thank you board member James uh just a quick question so at the price point where we're at which is significant what is the um projected uh Owner Direct purchase savings that we should be able to capture so the contractor is putting a packet or a list together where they can see the ODP Owner Direct purchase um items and right now we are looking at the list of $3.8 million in savings no be 7% of that or 6% of that correctly got it okay um I think that was my only question thank you all right any other discussion comment from the board all right hearing none yes a $66 million item um definitely was worthy of a little bit of discussion so thank you for for sharing that update and uh we'll just look forward to the groundbreaking and and keep going from there thank you thank you all right um ready to vote all those in favor say I I I those opposed nay motion passes four votes to zero with board member Campbell recusing thank you all may I have a PO what may I have a motion to may I have a potion may I have a motion to approve the First Amendment to the agreement with JB Brown professional Group Incorporated JB Pro so move move by board member Cummings second second by Vice chair Conrad Dr go you have information you'd like to share regarding this item yes thank you madam chair members of the board uh Chris Carlile and yvon bomach are going to she's going to come back in a moment but uh before I turn it over to Mr Carlile um board a referen this item in conversation at our last meeting a work session we are currently um we are currently working with this company uh they have they're assisting with our in a local agreement that we have revised for our technical working group and the items that we've agreed to in the agreement that are needed by with that strong partnership we have with the county so we have experts that are helping us to facilitate again creating and sustaining a very strong relationship and ensuring that the commitment we have through that Ila is met uh with all entities in that party so what you have before you tonight board is consideration for $139,000 to extend what we're doing already um and to help us with um facilitating the uh facility development procurement process again um thinking differently about uh enlisting experts in the field to be more effective and efficient with our taxpayer dollars and also getting the work done um appropriately so I'll turn it over now to Mr Carlile thank you so much thank you good evening board chair thrower school board members superintendent Dr gullet this is the First Amendment to the agreement with J brown professional group otherwise known as JB Pro there are two parts to this amendment as Dr gullet mentioned the first part relates to their continued planning Services Under the interlocal agreement second part of the agreement ment relates to facility procur procurement Services uh We've engaged AB Pro to provide the planning Services relating to Maring County Public Schools responsibilities under the interlocal agreement uh this amendment will continue that planning side uh would extend that into the spring through June and we'll ensure that we continue on with our obligations under the intercal agreement additionally this amendment includes Services provided by JB Pro relating to facility procurement service Services the work that they do is incredibly technical so we have asked um Nick Hill and Kathy eal to be here this evening to share the work that they do so at this time I'll ask Mr Hill to come up thank you welcome sir thank you so much for having me I appreciate it good evening board my name is Nick Hill and I'm a senior planner at JB Pro and tonight I have the pleasure of introducing our wonderful School planning team to you this team is spearheaded by our planning director Kathy ebal who joins us tonight who will be serving as the principal in charge on this effort Kathy brings to the project over 20 years of school planning experience both working with Municipal planning teams as well as acting as school planning director herself assisting her on this effort is John Gil who is a certified GIS specialist and has over 10 years of experience working as the gis lead on various School planning projects across the state the most recent addition to our school planning team is Rachel Muller who has spent the last five years as a campus planner at the University of Florida and Rachel will be assisting both Kathy and John in the process of doing the data analysis as well as mapping and finally my name is Nick Hill and I come from seven years of planning for municipal governments with four of those years spent managing project at the local level as such I'll be the PM for this school planning effort helping manage the day-to-day operations of the project acting as your primary contact of course and I'm wonderfully supporting our amazingly talented specialists in the field for the procurement assistance project JB Pro School planning team will work with our talented construction management staff at JB Pro your PM will be Ian Daniels who was a certified GC with over 5 years of experience and will'll be joined by lead inspector John Watson who brings over seven years of experience to the field to the project we couldn't be more excited to serve you on these efforts and I am now going to invite the wonderful Kath eball to the podium to further discuss her experience in the procurement and school planning process and share how it will be applied to these efforts thank you thank you good evening good evening thank you Bor thank you Nick um and Chris I'm excited to be here um I've been a planner for almost 30 years I was recently inducted into the American Institute of Sur High planers College of fellows which is the highest distinction our profession provides but I'm especially proud to be here because school planning um is a special place in my heart listening tonight to the wonderful work you do with students is something that most planners uh don't really get to do on a day-to-day basis and I've had an opportunity to work on it for 20 years years 10 years as a planning director for both Sarasota County School District and then for Lee County School District so um I while I love every project that I work on school planning has a special place in my heart and um to talk a little bit about the work that we're going to do first on the procurement project um as I mentioned as the planning director at Lee and Sarasota County School Districts I was also the project lead on the facility planning team for those two districts where we work together with staff to update and refine their procurement processes to better align the goals of the capital Improvement project for the local school Community with the procurement process so that we were ensuring that we really met what the project deliverable outcomes um and strategies were this helped reduce the costs of the projects by in reducing the number of costly project overruns and change orders um and provideed increased transparency about what a school Community could expect the capitalone project would receive so we bring that experience to you um in this effort where we will be working with your facility and planning teams to do the facility uh procurement for future Capital Improvement projects um this will be done on a task order basis so it's a uh we have a not to exceed contract of $49,000 and that will be defined on a specific every task basis um and it will be done by at an hourly rate rather than a lump sum the lump sum project um will continue is what the second effort is where we will be working with your technical education facility plan this is continuing the effort that we're already working on the superintendent mentioned um where we are trying to understand how the growth and development of Maran County will impact the student growth of your schools and therefore far the the capacity needs of your schools long term both today and into the future um we will look to understand and assess these this information we've already been working with your community um we were given uh a very tight timeline um and we have put all of our resources as possible into this effort um delaying other projects so that we could provide this for you because we understand the timeliness of it and we understand the importance of getting to your community um in the technical advisory meeting in November so we have um really hit the ground running and I've spent all many of my hours uh looking over the data that your school Community has both on the development side as well as on the enrollment data that we just received from two weeks ago um this effort the immediate effort we're working on will be to provide a report for the pspo but then we will expand that effort by revising that report and drafting a full technical narrative and report for the technical working group which will happen later in the spring um and this will also expand by looking at school choice options those are not something that we're looking at in the current effort but we will be looking at how school choice in Maran county is impacting your long-term capacity needs and school facility demands we will also be looking to understand what your needs will be in the fiveyear and the 10-year and then at buildout so and as I mentioned this is a lumpsum project so it will um unlike the not to exceed that we're doing on the procurement this is a lump sum so no matter how long it t how many hours it takes us we'll put the effort in to make sure that you get an excellent project the other part of this um in addition as I mentioned we've had a we've had to really refine our work schedule in order to meet this current demand um we're going to be working with your staff as well as a technical working group from across the county and the municipalities to refine your interlocal process so that it really um aligns your schedule with the deliverable um the October 20 the October 40-day counts is the industry standard those are the numbers that we look to Across the state when we're doing school planning um and so having a report due in November when you're just getting the data in in October really doesn't give enough time for a thorough evaluation doesn't give enough time for staff to evaluate for discussions to happen um for us to be able to meet with your superintendent and other District leadership to really be able to do this in the way that we would prefer to do um so we're going to be working with your staff and as well as the rest of the in or local agreement uh group to understand what a improved schedule could be so that next year when we do this we do this in the best way possible meeting the best industry standards and providing the best assistance that we can to support your efforts so that you meet the needs of your community and we meet the needs of the educational demands for your students so that they can receive the best education possible if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them thank you ma'am any questions comments from the board go ahead board member thank you I don't have any questions but my comment is going to be thank you uh it took a long time for this board to get a new interlocal agreement with our local municipalities a very long time including that technical working group to just start meeting for the first time a few years ago and I'm very excited to know that we will have folks on our team who are experts in the field and I mean legitimate experts who have been work working in Sarasota and Lee counties you've been a part of a lot of building projects a lot with a lot more capital resources than we have in Maran County um I actually made a statement last evening to a group I was speaking to 1.5 Mills which is the capital millage that we're able to pull um from our community that goes to Capital goes a lot farther when your property values or Millions upon millions of dollars in a Sarasota or a Lee County we don't have that same tax base or um that same situation so I'm certain as you've delved into it you can understand the challenge es that we have in Maran County and again I'm just going to say thank you um and thank you to Dr gullet for bringing us experts who can really help us in this Arena and speak the language with the folks in the other municipalities that need that language spoken to them so thank you so much thank you any other comments discussion from the board all right hearing and seeing none I'll just say that I Echo board member Campbell um thank you for the I know know that we're going to continue to professionalize our practices um you know refine them I love what you said about effective and and efficient um and the return on investment will be way more than what we're um contributing so thank you so much and uh welcome aboard hopefully all right thank you very much we appreciate it I actually started my school planning career at Sarasota County Schools when I was a planner for the city of Venice and we uh drafted the first in our local agreement for Sarasota County school so um I've been working on these from both sides of the table for a very long time and as I said this is more than the planning job for me this is my heart thank you so much appreciate that all right ready to vote all those in favor say I I I those oppose nay motion passes unanimously 5- Z thanks again thank you thank you all right we have a motion to approve the guaranteed maximum price GMP for the dellan elementary school heating ventilation air conditioning h track upgrades project 24-16 motion to approve motion by board member Campbell second second by Vice chair Conrad Dr gullet you have information to share regarding this item yes thank you madam chair and and Ivon bubach is back to the podium for this item just briefly Board of $5.97 million roughly uh for the cost of the HVAC system replacement um at dellan elementary and so um she'll provideed some more context to this thank you good evening welcome back again this might not seem so exciting as a brand new high school or elementary school but um if you talk to the mechanical engineer they get so excited when they see a new Chiller so this this system it's about the HVAC system of uh dellan Elementary School um right now a little technical it's a water to a package heat pump system and it's very outlift its lifespan it's struggling and uh it needs to be replaced and we wanted to switch it over to a much more sufficient new chilled water system so we will install a new water cooled Chiller uh with cooling towers new pumps new Air Handlers in the messines um New VAV boxes in the classrooms um with electric heat and connected to new controls um the schedule for this um um project will start with the underground uh laying of the chilled water pipe and we will start that in December through February most of it is outside of the school area so we are not interrupting any student traffic um then we're going to go into the messines to start placing the new equipment the messines are very large so that gives us the opportunity to FASTT track that project as well because the summers are very short to get all this work done at on an entire campus and then the new equipment uh will come in as soon as the students are out in May we will take over the school and um disconnect everything and reconnect everything new and by the time the students arrive in August we should be ready to go great all right thank you thank you any uh questions or comments from the board all right hearing and seeing none as I sit I've just generally added up $71 million so far in just in discussion items and I was thinking about the student board members and whether or not that surprised you you know what it takes to run this district is pretty incredible so thank you very much for your for your commitment and for your presentation um ready to vote all those in favor say I I I those oppose nay motion passes unanimously 5-0 we're getting there may I have a motion to approve the school Improvement plans for the 2024 for 2025 fiscal year motion to approve motion by board member Campbell second second by board member James Dr G you have information you'd like to share regarding this item yes thank you our last presentation tonight uh Mr White House will come forward board and provide some information on our school Improvement plans as you know they are required for every school and are expected to be actually live plans that are actionable um and very strategic in terms of helping every students succeed so Mr White House will provide some more information for the submitt of these to the state thank you yes ma'am thank you good evening chair thrower board members superintendent Dr goet good news is my item won't cost you any money um so I will just talk you through the context around the school Improvement plans um and as mentioned these are an integral part of the work of our schools so in simplest terms our school Improvement plans are focused plans of actions that are designed by each school and centered on student outcomes the planning for these actually begins at the beginning of the end of the prior school year so we do a lot of work as the school year is wrapping up and getting ready for the next school year a lot of that starts with data analysis as you know we get a lot of academic data in at the end of the school year um that we spend a lot of time working with schools on digging into that data and really understanding um not only what the data looks like but also some of the root causes of that data and how we can go about solving some of those problems also includes attendance data Behavior data there's a lot of things that we we do look at for creating those School Improvement plans not just for my team also a lot of support from Grants and federal programs and also the area superintendents and working with each of their schools so as Dr gullet mentioned we shared a previous work session to the the goals for the school Improvement plans are aligned with our district strategic plan they do a lot of the work in um helping us to reach our targets and our goals for the district um you'll see goals in there that relate to instructional practice um focus on subgroups especially looking at where we see achievement gra gaps in our subgroups um graduation acceleration positive School culture School attendance and of course positive behavior support so we uh have schools that focus in a lot of different areas just depending on the needs of those individual schools um also like the district strategic plan these are designed to be living documents so we we continually revisit these plans and the steps of the actions that are put in place and and making sure that they're still meeting the needs of the school and that we're seeing the results as we progress through the year that we would expect to see uh the school Improvement plans also help to drive the creation of the title one budgets for each of the schools which most of our schools do receive Title One allocations um to make sure that we are aligning our resources each of our schools we don't want to be spending money halfhazard we want to make sure that as we are developing our goals for the schools that we're really asking ourselves what classroom resources are are needed at these School sites uh what professional learning is needed and how can we best use the resources that we have available to meet the needs of our schools our schools that are designated as comprehensive support and Improvement or CSI schools also receive unisig budgets you'll see those identified within six of our school plans in there um and those funds are also aligned with the school Improvement goals the plans are all reviewed and approved at the beginning of the year and we also review plans Midway through the school year um and looking at the data and looking at the outcomes so far that year for any adjustments our CSI schools are also reviewed by the Bureau of school Improvement at the Florida Department of Education and they receive feedback from the state level as well and once approved then these plans are launched at our school sites as a part of a continuous Improvement cycle so that's the short and suet of it and I will certainly answer any questions you may have thank you Mr White House any questions or comments from the board yes go ahead again I don't have a question but I do have um just a general comment so while I'm not at all saying I read all 2200 pages of this document I did take some time to look through several of the school plans there are lots of gains in lots of areas and where school grades sometimes are one point in time you can see a lot of gains and a lot of Administrators and school teams that are are doing a lot of hard work making sure that students are making those gains I appreciate progress monitoring I know it every time we roll out something new it's everybody has to get used to it but I for one appreciate progress monitoring because it does give us the opportunity to see snapshots one two and three and see that progress that students are making but the one primary comment that I want to make that I saw resonating through multiple School Improvement plans was high quality Educators we are lacking in so many areas because they were lacking a teacher certified teacher in front of those students I know we have more than a hundred vacancies right now in teaching if this District or any District across the state for that matter is is going to be able to truly move the needle on these kids that are needing it the most we're we're going to have to have more teachers so at the sound of my voice if you want to come teach please do so uh but that that really honestly the school Improvement plans should also be a pat on the back for those teachers that are in our classrooms to know how valuable they are just read your school's School Improvement plan and you can see where the gaps are and you know it's because there's a missing teacher next door or there's a missing teacher down the hall and so it just made me appreciate all of the teachers that we have that are providing high quality education all throughout this district and just really make me plea to say we need more so um thank you for this work Mr White House I know it's a lot of work 2200 pages is a lot of work but uh just just grateful for all the the teams that have identified the needs and they know how to improve what needs to be done in their schools but it's going to take the people so thank you thank you board member Campbell any other comment questions from the board okay hearing hearing and seeing none thank you very much for the presentation and we'll go ahead and vote all those in favor say I I I those opposed nay motion passes 5 Z all right we'll move on to our pulled agenda item may have a motion to approve amendment number three to the construction manager contract guaranteed maximum price for labor and materials of interior construction related to construction of new Elementary School X Change order six Amendment Three project 24-12 motion to approve motion by board member Campbell second second by Vice chair Conrad board member James you pulled this item and would like to have further discussion thank you so I pulled this item because I wanted to highlight to the board a concern that I have that my hope is we will be able to walk away and have maybe a plan for a work session um in the month of November about Owner Direct purchase I think that we have a bit of a conundrum on our hands and I would love to have a deeper dive as a board to not only understand Owner Direct purchase but how Maring county is processing Owner Direct P purchase versus other districts even just our neighboring districts are processing it so this particular item which is for one of our new Elementary Schools elementary X is essentially us having to give back the money that we would have saved for a sales tax um and I have just a brief timeline that I want to share with you all and I'll forward it to attorney powers to forward to you all if you would like but essentially on 717 so going back to the middle of July the vendor which in question is City Electric was submitted an application and the application was approved 88 and then on that same day facilities was notified um and notified the vendor that basically they needed to do an updated um application and that's primarily because state law changed July 1st about the requirements and I want to highlight that this is not about the state law it's about how we are navigating through meeting the expectations of the state law so the owner direct purchase request packet was approved by mcps on 813 and on 95 the co um was approved by mcps so now we're into September and notification essentially comes through that that says wait they got to it things are going to switch up this isn't going to work and it gets to the point where City Electric um and City Electric files a notice of non-payment to mcps and osley construction because essentially City Electric bought the materials in the summer and they were ready to do the work and because of our practices and and the delay money was not given to the subcontractor and so they put essentially a lean on not only the CM doing the work for us but also mcps on us and I find it all so interesting that today of all days as I pull this item for discussion City Electric is now an approved vendor after months and nothing has changed and so my request I I'm absolutely going to approve this item because it needs to move forward and the bill has to get paid and we have to proceed but I pulled it to discussion because as a board I think we need to have a work session about Owner Direct purchase especially I'm so pray that our community is going to support our half sent in two weeks and that is going to open a beautiful window of so much more construction that can happen in this community but we need to make sure that we're maximizing our taxpayer dollars and I want want to see this board have a conversation about our Owner Direct purchase how timely we are ensuring that we're not only meeting the legislative obligation but that we are also presenting a plan that is the most advantageous for the CMS that we're working with so that they can get their process done timely as well so I'm more than happy to forward this to the board members if you'd like I received it from a CFO um for the contractor but I I wanted to at least ask the board if you would be willing to have um Dr gullet potentially put a Owner Direct purchase presentation on a future work session for greater discussion I would 100% yeah like to have that okay pamel sure um while I certainly appreciate the conversation I believe just a few items ago we just approved an expert in this field and so I would certainly want them to be a part of weighing in on procurement as well as what this looks like because I think regardless of what this board could come up with as our solution it very well may not be the the right one because I dare say I am not an expert in any of this so um I don't know if attorney Powers has additional information to weigh in on anything as far as a timeline today uh of how something happened differently than than what's been happening for weeks but I I am open to having a conversation but I don't want it without the hired experts that we just hired three items ago yeah that's who I want to present so just to go on record I don't want us to decide how to do Owner Direct purchase I want I'm not sure any of us have ever been certainly not collectively since I've been on the board had the opportunity to learn about what Owner Direct purchases and as the people hired by the taxpayer to supervise the money this is how we save money in capital projects and I want to make sure that I understand it fully and that all of us understand it fully especially when we're asking the taxpayer to give us more of their taxpaying dollar so that we can continue to improve Mar County Public Schools thank you um any other coming from the board and I will say that I um wholeheartedly agree that we as a board are tasked with the what and and I believe what we're in consensus on what we want is this smooth timely meets the letter of the law process um how that occurs is operations and to be briefed on that is going to be very important because this whatever I don't even know what to call it it's it was it was a long day of trying to figure it out I'll say that and that just can't continue to to keep happening that's in no one's best interest so I would defer to Dr gullet as to the when um but it's clear from what I'm hearing from the board you know that that we do just want to be in the know about this Dr goet certainly thank you madam chair and board um I welcome a presentation and a work session I think we need to do that um the very reason that you had an item before you for your consideration tonight is because we really need to utilize the experts in the field I you know felt really strongly about that and so I think you heard the the expert voice and the experience coming to the table I think that is going to be nothing but a but a benefit to Maran County um in multiple ways and they don't know this yet but I already plan to have them uh with the board approval tonight invite them to my facility committee that's going to reconvene next week um so sorry for the folks that don't know that yet but um because we need to we need to bring those experts together and work on a plan and so I would just say when they've had an opportunity to come on board and and look at all this yes absolutely think that is a next step to come back with we're we're digging very deeply into this um and we're not leaving any stone unturned so I'm excited about that work I think it's necessary um I think it's been challenging but it's been necessary so I I'm looking forward to that coming I I don't know is like actually looking at the calendar um if it could be done in the next few weeks but it's certainly something that I'll ask the team to talk about next week I won't be there because I'll be here with all of you um but we'll certainly ask when they think they can be ready to bring this topic back and some others okay as soon as practicable how's that sound okay all right any other further discussion coming from the board hearing and seeing none we'll go ahead and vote all those in favor say I I I those oppos nay motion passes unanimously 5- Z all right that brings us to our board um committee reports and concerns we'll start with a few meeting reminders a special work session has been scheduled on October 30th 2024 at 9:00 a.m. to review our policies and procedures an additional special work session has been scheduled on October 31st 2024 at 9:00 am to review policies and procedures we'll do that if needed hopefully we can all be available and very productive on the 30th and and get it knocked out um but we have the 31st reserved you know in case we're not able to make that happen the next administrative briefing and work session has been scheduled for November 7th 2024 at 9:00 a.m. a special board meeting has been scheduled for November 7th 2024 at 7:30 a.m. the next school board meeting has been scheduled for November 12th at 5:30 p.m. all right so we will move on to our uh board comments and we'll start with superintendent goet thank you um Bard I just I'll be really brief I want to say welcome again to these wonderful gentlemen that are here with us tonight and appreciate um their leadership and and all that you do to represent why we're here uh and I'll just land on that students so uh today is my mentee first Tak stock in children's birthday it's a very special birthday for her I'm not going to use her name but she knows who she is and it's a reminder that we all are needed to serve so it I'm going to do a Shameless plug again I've asked my team this before and I'm going to throw this out there again we are still in need of of mentors we are neat yes I know we all remember nodding their head um but for all the reasons we've always talked about our students many of them are fa facing adult issues that we can't imagine and yet they come to school so helping to serve every student where they are and help them find their path today I saw a light shining in my Mente eyes that I've been waiting for years to see and it provides hope and inspiration um um in confirmation of the work that we're doing so I urge anyone who's not a mentor please Mentor one of our students because they really need us and so I'll I'll land with that thank you thank you Dr gullet and and since your comments were just so student focused I'm just going to go ahead down the line and um student representative Martin welcome again and any comments you'd like to share now's your time um honestly uh I really appreciate y'all for inviting me and allowing me to be in this position today um I agree pretty much with what everybody said and uh I have no comments or concerns about anything you guys discussed today all right thank you and you're getting your feet wet yes we'll move on to our next board member good evening everyone I just wanted to recognize some people for allowing me to be up here on stage today um Mr car is back there he's the person who recommended me uh for this position thank you sir um I'm just honored to be able to learn from the school board see the decision making process that goes into passing all these laws and as Cher thoris said uh over $70 million just in one meeting that's really crazy but those are just the ones we we discussed yeah we had a whole consent agenda and I don't even know what that added up to a lot but I think the students will appreciate that a lot of thought is going into where our money is going towards um because everyone's perspectives will be able to be considered so that's a very good thing um I also wanted to highlight once again the donation um that the Carolina Panthers Charities donor advisor fund gave to Vanguard High School and the football team um I know they will very much benefit um I know our football team is very competitive so next I wanted to highlight as the commanding officer for the jrtc unit at our school um jrtc is more more than just a club or a class it serves as a program that can be the supportive Force towards our community and because the main goal of JC is to serve others instead of oneself so I just wanted to highlight some of the community events that our organization has been a part of we have conducted over eight flag Ceremonies for various local organizations such as the Special Olympics Mission Barbecue and our high school home football games just in this quarter for those who who don't know these flag ceremonies allow us to show our patriotism and respect not just for our country's flag but also for the values that we stand as a nation another personally notable event was that we conducted a flat flag ceremony for Gentiva Dy Festival as an Indian it was very inspiring to see both the American and Indian flags being present in this ceremony I know that not just me but also the members that were at the Dali Festival appreciated that I also wanted to highlight some of our upcoming community events on October 26th and 27th our jrtc program will be contributing towards the Maran County veterans appreciation weekend we'll be supporting their flag ceremony showcasing our jeal routines for the public and also supporting other activities that promote what our veterans have done for our country lastly I also want to emphasize that on November 2nd we are hosting a Marksmanship or air rifle competition at Vanguard for schools across our our region the schools span from Gainesville all the way down to the Tampa area our Marksmanship team will be helping out with the logistics and also scoring The Targets this will allow them to learn how the sport Works outs of actually just shooting the targets also this competition I believe will bring extra exposure to our jrtc program and our community thank you thank you very much really appreciate it Miss Martinez Madam chair all right attorney Powers uh the only comments that I would have is uh regarding our approval of 18.1 tonight I will also send out additional information to the board regarding the status of that and uh and how things are working there and what we can do for the future I've also scheduled uh to uh meet with the superintendent and the board chair in order to further you know evaluate what options we have and I will look forward to bringing some suggestions and some factual information to the table thank you right thank you board member Campbell sure thank you just a couple of comments tonight um first of all always love to welcome new student board members so grateful to have student representatives to the school board thank you and yes Vanguard Marksmanship they take that really seriously you're really good at it too so I excited to hear how all that um plays out over the course of the next couple weeks uh chair this evening I believe that it was stated kind of in the script that families if they were questioning their students expulsion that they would be heard during our special board meeting on November 7th but I I don't think that was worded correctly originally nevertheless we do have that meeting as you said at the end the special school board meeting on November 7th because we do have some families that are coming before us I believe so Dr Hook yes okay yes that's what I thought I it I don't think it was worded correctly at the very beginning but we do have that special bre that was confusing and that was my fault oh no no it's it's fine it's the way the script read and it's fine I did want to acknowledge that uh we did have some perfect audits that we approved tonight during the consent agenda for DaNell and Elementary Emerald Shores Horizon Academy and Oola Middle School I beat you to it Vice chair Conrad and so always grateful no to those to those teams a couple of those have had multi-year of perfect audits Oola being one for sure and that's in district one so super grateful for the teams there and all that they're doing uh today was a busy day in Maran County Public Schools several of us were at the Bel High School uh magnet showcase Career and Technical education touring and seeing those uh classrooms and the hard work being done there I missed my own children by like one class period I think Miss Conrad was in the same class when one of my children you may not have known that uh but he I I when he got home he said I think I think Lori Conrad was in my class today I was like yes yes because I walked in and said do you have a Campbell she said no you dis missed him uh but also earlier this afternoon before coming to the board meeting I also went to the district bowling tournament because as Dr gullet was talking about her mentee my mentee was playing in the district bowling tournament today and when I was there um I'm grateful that she and another student from Forest High School at that time had qualified for State individually so one uh individual had gotten second my miny had gotten third and then but they were in the team competition and Forest had the opportunity potentially to win at the team competition to go and actually represent us as a team at State and I had to leave before I found out the outcome and Mr Tucker already left and I haven't been texted so I don't know if if Forest is going to go as a team but we do at least have two students going as individuals to State uh representing this District in Bowling and so super grateful they were uh competing against schools from Jacksonville whenever I was there so I mean there lots of teams throughout the district and Maran County was hosting that uh also I already mentioned briefly that last evening I did speak to a community group about the half cent sales C tax today I also placed a public social media post out uh in many ways dispelling a lot of misinformation that has been shared that I have seen and heard in the community those were my personal thoughts um but if anyone wants to see them they can go to Facebook and see my personal thoughts on U the half cent sales tax and I encourage board members also if you haven't been doing that please let's encourage our community and dispel the misinformation uh and I also wanted to to um mention that on the work session last Thursday I presented proposed changes to the school list that each School Board member represents uh that discussion does coincide nicely with the rezoning conversation but after a long day that we had been having on Thursday that was not the right time to present that information I also did not share at that time all the resources that were used to create that draft proposal so I know board members received all of that on Monday of this week the primary reason for my request is frankly not about us last year I presented the idea and I presented an idea like pelis County does where schools are not assigned to specific school board members and at that time the board did not want to go in that direction though I'm also interesting interested in potentially adding that to the conversation if the board is interested in that but ultimately I still do recommend that we have a future work session about this topic because again it's not about us we have schools assigned to us for parents and families to have an elected liaison with the school board and the school district the schools we have assigned to us is not about us it's why the proposal I created just as a first draft was created using student population data maps of both Schoolboard member live-in districts as well as zoning maps for elementary middle and high school the seven soon to be eight public high schools and one Charter High School were separate separated among board members 10 public middle schools and two Charter Middle Schools were separated among board members and the elementary schools were separated as evenly as possible as well overall student population in schools was also cons considered and I tried to distribute those evenly among board members again it was a first draft it was not the right time to present it but I still leave the the meeting today saying chair if other board members concur I would request we hold a work session on this topic all right ma'am and finally that's last and then I'll say early voting began yesterday on the November 5th general election we have a lot of important items on this ballot I encourage those lisening including our newest 18-year-old students please vote Yes and please educate yourself and then vote even better um uh board member Campbell um thank you for your tenacity um thank you for your recognition that uh maybe uh the board as a whole might be more receptive on a fresher morning I would I'm fine with um having it as a work session item on a future work session we can talk about a little bit more I don't think there's any board member sitting up here that doesn't agree with you that it's not about us it's it's about our feeling of connection you know and and having that reciprocity and that Comfort level you know it takes a lot to establish credibility with people in the trenches and and when you have that um you hate to let it go and they hate to let you go so there's uh pieces of this that I do think are worth discussing because we are going to we're growing we're going to continue to grow um the distribution may or may not need to change so I'm fine with having it at a at a work session instead of um you know just at the end so thank you for bringing it Forward um I know I'm like a mule about it but I'm willing to discuss all right Dr gullet so we can put that on a future work session certainly if that's what the board uh would like to do absolutely as a board item to discuss if if the rest of the board agrees fine okay well that's three the other two I'm indiffer I don't care okay Cummings because you weren't here for the beautiful conversation I've always been very Frank about you don't want to give up your school spoke up we spoke up for you we did we did we did about to have 25,000 students very soon bring them so so Madam chair if I may ask is there a preference from the board of dates so we can put a hold on the calendar for that first of the year is fine by her okay first of the thank you start the new year fresh yes fresh perspective we represent um schools you know we serve we're elected at large by everybody in the county and then um we serve certain schools like I shared with you that I represent Vanguard High School do I want to give Vanguard High School to anyone else while I'm still on this board heck no was one of my schools what's that I tell Don that was one of my schools and there you go do you want to give up your school no but it's not about us it's about the numbers of people and families that are served by each board member and if we don't make a change Reverend Cummings when we add three new schools will have $25,000 students that's fine I got elected by more than 25,000 people so anyway we will have a fun and enlightening and stimulating conversation and Lively I'm sure after the first of year all right um new moderator comings thank you what you got thank you um I do want to welcome these young men to the DI um I was sitting here I don't think we've ever had four four males on the on the B since I've been on the board I really don't think so um so it's good to have some testosterone up here on the board with us but um very very articulate young men um glad to have you guys and that's my comments for tonight all right thank you for member comings for member James good evening I have a couple things so um I'll start with some quick recognitions last um Thursday I was able to attend spars fall festival and it was just the best um the North End communities always really show out and there was so many parents and students there and it was really so awesome and we were able to raise some money for Dr Al day's special project and it was just a really great time so um I really enjoyed that and I want to remind uh the whole Community but specifically the North End that last year um papy's place which is a little restaurant right at the four-way stop in Anthony started sponsoring a very large community trunk retreat at jumble air um and it is this Saturday and they do candy drops from the helicopter and it is quite an experience so I wanted to remind our community um young or old if they would like to come uh it starts there's I think a candy drop at 5 and a candy drop at 7 but it's on Facebook so those who are interested can go find the event but it is a wonderful time and it's free and it's a great safe opportunity for students to be able to participate in the SP of the holiday um I did get to go to B high school today and be a part of their magnet showcase as a former employee it was so wonderful to be back there and I was very complimentary of the library particularly Mr Fender has really given it a facelift it looks so beautiful there's all new furniture it looks wonderful and um I'm always impressed and I'm sure these gentlemen are are just the same I am so impressed when you talk with the students we were in Dale Tony's room he is um Robotics and technology and the kids in that room are just beyond smart I mean so far beyond and having a conversation and you know just getting to know them and I said well where do you they're all most of them were seniors and I said well where do you plan to apply to college and the one gentleman I didn't catch his name casually says Caltech and I was like oh Cal Tech I said okay I said what is your SAT score and he's like well my Act better and I was like okay what's your ACT score and he said 35 and I said oh of course you're applying to Caltech that tracks and I just was so impressed the young man standing next to him was applying to UF has like a 1535 on the SAT just tremendous but as I was walking with Miss guest what I what I made sure she knew was that what's most impressive is not their SAT and ACT score but their EQ their ability to engage in conversation with adults their ability to have practical skills um often times you find kids who are incredibly bright lack the ability to engage in discourse and be a part of regular Society because they are so intelligent and these children exemplified to me what Career and Technical education is in Maring County which is a well-rounded student so I any day I get to hang out with kids is a good day for me so I just wanted to make sure I um showcase that uh I wanted to know um since we did have a Facebook post today about our calendar and our weather makeup days which I will not digress into I wanted to know I think we're about into a season where we're ready to reconvene a calendar committee to have a a talk about the calendar again um and am I right on that because we approved two years we approved two years okay so we I thought we approved last year's and this year's but we approved this years and next year's okay so thank you because I was I was confused about that and so I wanted to make sure that I knew what I was talking about so I appreciate you that clarifying that something that came up I was approached about there was a local news article written um about our expulsions recently and um it had the picture of MTI and the discussion in the community was why are those kids going to a technical institute and it hadn't really occurred to me before at face that a large amount of our community understands MTI for the student that it served um prior to our major transition and my understanding is that by the end of this year all of our technical programs will essentially be housed at Maring Technical College through a dual enrollment program and so is there going to be discussion board or Dr gullet about changing the name of MTI because I do think that there could be confusion I know there is confusion in the community about Mar and Technical Institute was a place for Career and Technical learning and we will not be servicing Career and Technical learning on mti's campus anymore after this year and so what is that going to look like and is there um Dr gullet a a plan to even engage in a conversation about that so thank you board member James the simple answer is yes I was just meeting with Mr smallridge the other day though I was out visiting and um that's a transition back to MTC and I can't say for certain they'll all be over there next year I mean he's working on it and as you know we have an expansion board underway so it all depends on the timing and the completion of those um spaces and he has a fantastic uh plan but I can't say that it's all going to be next year so as we evolve in transition and what you heard earlier with all the students that we serve here um what it could look like for the future is absolutely um a consideration and I think we'll we will have to revisit that okay thank you um I would just if there's a way in the future we could um make sure that we're highlighting the students that we are when we say MTI if we could because I think we have a name now for our alternative Ed program is that correct well we're trying to say it's Alternative Learning at MTI just because this is the official location okay yes that would be I think that would be helpful in the community if we started really kind of encompassing that entire phrase so that when people see it um or read it it may Encompass the type of student we're talking about when we talk about that versus the other programs we do offer here um I wanted to provide a bit of an update on the North Marian High School window situation um they are and I don't know board members I I go out there rather frequently for a variety of reasons and so I have a mentee there my daughter does mcfl practice out there so I'm there often um so more windows have come out and no windows have arrived now the windows which were supposed to arrive on 10:6 will not arrive until 10:31 and so there is now no windows in the admin Suite either um and I understand it's in preparation for the windows to arrive but it's my understanding that a change order is going to be forthcoming about um the the timeline and essentially an extension and I I just want to remind this board if you have not gone out there please go out there to visit and understand um truly when there are a away teams playing for football they think that the school is condemned because there is wood on the windows and so it is a really dismal State and they've tried to make light of it as best as they can but um the timeline that we were even presented with is not being met so it is just something to keep in the back of mind uh two more things um we got an email today I had requested some information about how much workload Mr Taylor is doing in the safe schools department and I it was shared with all of us I think this afternoon and I board I have concerns that he has too much on his plate and needs someone else to be able to share that workload with and I know that the state essentially says that it can only be one person's job but I would love an opportunity to creatively problem solve either in the operation side or otherwise how we can support him um um that is a tremendous amount of work for one person to do and that is not the only job that he is doing and if that means someone else needs to be hired to take on some of the other roles and responsibility he has so that his only sole job is to review those packets um that is maybe something that needs to be considered but I think that it is of immense importance that we ensure that we are I mean he's finding errors in every single packet and so it's not as if he's reviewing them and then they're all perfect and it's this like very light and easy thing and I just have concerns about that level of workload in addition to the other things that are on his plate which include making sure everyone is in compliance with their training which it was brought to my attention that we have administrators on our sites that have not completed the proper training that they're supposed to complete to be in compliance and so i' I've also requested that list because I want to understand what is the hangup and where is because ultimately the way I understand it it all rolls up and as the board we're going to be the ones that have to answer for why things are not happening the way that they are supposed to be happening so I would love for operations to consider either an additional position in the safe schools Department that's going to support the other work Mr Taylor's doing um or some way to help him and then I'm also still looking forward to the list of individuals who have yet to complete with they're supposed to complete um because I want to make sure that we are in compliance so I think that's all I got okay thank you board member James um Dr gullet as long as the rest of the board you know agrees there's always concern of putting too much that's really important and required and mandated you know on on one person's plate and it it gets me thinking back around you know to other departments that have these mandates and that are partially funded and yet it's a tremendous responsibility and a huge lift and and it frustrates me uh because it happens in other areas where people are required to have things done including recertifying within a certain time and the reasons I'm sure is are as varied as the individuals themselves but somehow it doesn't happen and there you go and and you do have a point that that does fil f up I mean it is Our intention to have be as safe as possible everybody in compliance you know with their training is there uh not enough opportunity you know what's what's the problem so um I would be open to whatever it takes because it's that important thank you I would just add that Mr mcfat and I are in constant conversation and review of what the needs are um even just several times today um and and the understanding that the mandates are not coming from the district they're coming from the state is really important I think at this point to reiterate for the public to understand and there if you remember board I referenced this item in our last presentation and I highlighted in the Strategic plan updates that line item with safe schools and the updates from the state are massive and they're coming fast and furiously um and we all are committed to the safest environment every single day in every space in our um campuses and in our district um and they require a lot not just on the safe schools team but on our entire team for um completing required training and and so forth so we're in constant conversation about what does this look like is it continues to change sometimes it feels like weekly so we had a new um item that came up I think board that you know know about that um is now requiring the media centers to be locked and so we're working through that and so every day the phone rings I'm I'm we're trying to process how do we do this and how do we work with our team so um understand the concerns and I I shared them too and so we're working through that thank you yeah this yes go ahead and um I appreciate what Dr James said um there's with this there's so many changes constantly we're getting in this area um I can understand how some things could have gotten behind but there's a lot on um Mr tor's plate as well as our administrators plates who may have not completed that training um I think we have to take all those things into consideration when we look at that we just came through two storms as well um all those things have to be looked at um judiciously looked at to make sure that we're we're not jumping and the going on too many things right and making sure that there's more than one person on each campus you know um because people move people retire you know we we need the the layers and and the safe schools department is doing a tremendous job Yen's lift um so but the state's requiring what they're requiring and and we have to respond and we have to be in compliance and we have to make sure we continue to convey the urgency to all the folks that have to complete these trainings and according to my understanding it's less than 2 hours uh I guess if you're a teacher you probably get MIP I don't know if you get a stipend but you know knock it out just get it done better for everybody all right um Vice shair con thank you um earlier this evening we recognized our 330 um staff members that worked our um shelters just really thankful um for the work that they do and the service that we provide for our community but I also just want to quickly highlight all our staff that is still here um we look out the room kind of clears after um all of our recognitions um and the people that are out in front of us are here regularly and so here to help answer questions explain things to us and I just am continually grateful uh for the work that you all do and the information that you provide us and so just thankful for you all I know it's a long night you've worked all stay and you stay here and and help us work through um all of these items that we have in front of us so just wanted to say thank you for that um it was a mentee day I got to see my mentee today also um but I did want to give you an update on Tak stock so earlier in the year we had 30 openings um needing mentors here in Maran County we are down to 15 so if you have a friend or a spouse or someone at church that is looking for something to do I just want to say um as rewarding and beneficial as it is it's not really too big of a commitment um I do 30 minutes a week I know that that's not even necessary you could get away with a little less than more so I just want to encourage you um to reach out to me or anyone else if you're at least a little bit interested would like to see um all of our students that um need mentors to have them so wanted to share that also along that line um I know last week we I was asking about a business partner for Maplewood and I hear that that's in the works so it's really excited that every school will have a business partner um so just wanted to share that positive uh information several other board members sh shared about Bill um visiting biew high school and I had the same reaction as Dr James I really couldn't help but reflect of my time in high school and I just continue to be amazed when I visit a high school campus and the students are so engaged and communicate so well and the things that they are working on and completing are amazing and so I just um want to lift up our our staff that are working on the high school letter level and the Middle School level that um congratulate you on the work that you're doing cuz there are some amazing things going on in Marian County public school so thank you for the work um and your dedication every day I did have I do have one question um that I would like to get an update on um Dr gullet I've had several schools reach out to me and there are some struggles with success maker um and I know that we just approved that uh not too long ago um but schools are struggling with some technical um issues getting that to run there's also some issues with the assessment piece as it appears to only have one assessment piece and it's hard to recalibrate students if um if that first assessment does not really on track with um how a teacher may feel the student um would be placed so I just like a little update on that I don't I don't really know what the appro what an appropriate timeline would be for that um if you you can provide Direction on that um but you know the last several years we've we've kind of had a turnover in the programs that we're using to support um our students and so we went from I ready and then we went from to I Exel and now we're using success maker um and so I just want to make sure the instrument and tools that we're using are are providing um solid uh instruction um for our students and so I just have some concerns about how that's rolled out um and if our students are being able able to use it so sometime in the near future would be great certainly thank you for bringing it to my attention we'll take a look at that absolutely very much um and that's all I have thank you chair all right thank you Vice chair and um I'll just end by saying that the deep and committed work continues and we will keep pressing on and keep doing everything we can to help every student succeed so if there's no further business may I have a motion to motion by board member Campbell second by who me second by Vice Shar Conrad all those in favor say I I I motion passes unanimously 0 we are adjourned at 8:16 p.m. thank [Music] you for