>> good evening. Welcome nassau county
board of
county commissioners joint meeting
with the nassau county
school board. 6:00 p.m. ,
february 11, 2025. I call the meeting
to order. I ask you
to rise for in vocation and pledge
of allegiance.
bow our heads. Heavenly father, we
gather today to serve the people of
nassau county. We ask for
your wisdom and discernment in the
decisions
we make. Guide our discussions with
compassion and fairness, and
grant us the strength to work together
as a team for
the common good. Allow our communications
to
reflect your will and bring only positive
change to
our community. We also ask that you
provide extra protection over
our military and first responder personnel
who confront evil and danger to keep your peace
and light
in this world. In jesus name
I humbly pray.
a men. Please join us in the pledge
aleemgance to our country.
>> I pledge
allegiance
to the flag of inunited states of
america and to the republic for which
it stands
one nation,
under god, indivisible
with liberty and justice for all.
>> madam clerk, if you'd please
call the roll.
>> commissioner gray. >> here. >>
commissioner farmer.
>>
here.
>> commissioner --dr.
burns, school board member cook.
school board member
simpkens, school board member
zimmerman, school board
member braddock,
and school board member
hogue.
>> discussion items, "a," state
of
the school district
presentation by dr. Kathy burns. Dr.
burns, as
you make your way over, I would like to
welcome you and
the school board and thank you for
coming over tonight and being part of
this joint annual meeting, which I
think is really important
for our citizens.
>> thank
you.
>> yes, ma'am. >> how are you
all this evening?
>> super , thank you. >> so every day
is a
great day when you can be at a school.
I started to keep on the mustache I
had on
at the event, but I knew someone would
take my
picture and it would end up in the
paper somewhere. I tell everybody
it's nicer in nassau, in case you
didn't know it,
and certainly good in our school district,
so I'm going to share a
few updates with you this evening.
as you know, from all the times
we've been here, this is still our
mission statement. To develop each
student as
an inspired lifelong learner and problem
solver with the
strength of character to become productive
members of society.
our demographics currently almost
13,000, 12,596, 17
schools, 1,800
employees, 2. 3 million square
feet of buildings. Bus drivers, cafeteria
workers,
custodians, maintenance workersch
we invest in people. Our
people make the difference in the
nassau county school district. So we
are number 3 out
of 67 districts. And I'm just going
to pause for a minute there. I think
that's worth celebrating. I do. And
all of those people
that I just mentioned as well as our
community members, our parents,
our families, men of our
nonprofits, all of those people play
a role in this. We
are once again an a-rated
school district. We are
graded by the state of florida. These
are our school grades. You'll see
"a,"
"a," "a," one "b," and the rest a's.
I
can tell you
just about 3 points to get back on
that honor roll.
great things happening at our schools,
so we're proud of those "a" grades.
where do
we rank out of 67 districts in the state of
florida? We
are number 2 in language urts learning
games,
2 in math, number 2 in
geometry, first in 8th grade science,
second in
civics, and eighth in
biology. I always say we're getting
better. We don't
settle. We want to continue to move
to the top.
our students with disabilities are
performing very well. We are also
number 3 in
the state for our students with disabilities.
when we
go back to our mission statement that
says
we want our students
to be lifelong problem solvers and we want them to be
productive citizens, that is for everyone of
our students including
our students with disabilities. So this
is a lot to brag about,
because many of these students
have more challenges whether they
be physical challenges or learning
challenges, but
our ese
students are number 2 in the state, number 3 in
math, number 2 in science. We
are an academically high performing district.
that's based on the school
grades that our schools receive, our
class size
compliance. We are 100% compliance
with
class size in the nassau county school
district and our
financial audit reports. Thank
you,
ms. Allen harper right here. Our strategic
goals. We
have five focus areas, academic and
student
performance. We want to continue to
improve our graduation rate
to 95% by 2025. We just recently
received our graduation rates, which
is always a year lagging
behind. Our high school graduation rates
are continued
to improve. 98%,
94%, 96%. Our community school,
which is a school at the meeting center
which serve students who do not necessarily
fit in a traditional high school and
make another
choice, our graduation there is not
very good right now,
so it's brought down our overall graduation
rate
to 91. 3, but we are going to continue
to work with those staunts to improve
their graduation rate,
but our overall goal is 95% by
next year. Human resources. Increase
recruitment and retention of
our highly qualified teachers. That
is something we've continued to
work on. The last two years have been
much better.
we've raised our beginning teacher
salaries to
over $52,000. That's higher than our
florida neighbors in our surrounding
counties as well as our georgia
neighbors, which is a big task because
it's difficult to compete with georgia.
their teacher salaries are set by
the state legislators,
and then the local counties add to
that. But we are
higher than all of them, and it's
paid off for us in the last year
and a half. Growth management. You
all know what's happening. You hear
about it all the time. So our gel
is to identify funding
options for our capital projects for
new schools. You
hear a little bit more about that
in a few min, and to manage
this growth better, find opportunities
for land and
new schools for the future, technology
services
is a huge area for us.
we continue to enhance and increase
our technology
for our students. One of our
biggest challenges is security risk
in
technology. They're smarter than all
of us, and
no matter how many firewalls and whatever
else you do, they
have ways to go around it, and it's
difficult for us to
keep those folks in security engineering
for technology because I say they
use us as their
training ground. They get great experience
in the school
district, and they go onto wonderful
jobs doubling
their money and working from home.
but we continue to work on
these things. Community relations.
we want to create and implement
a comprehensive
public relations engagement plan.
if you look at
our data for community
engagement, it's over 100% increased
over the last year. We
continue to work on that and have
some plans to continue that in the future.
just a few more highlights. We have
several of
our schools --nine of our schools
that are schools of
excellence, and that means they are
performing in the top 20% for
the students in the state of florida.
we're expanding
our career and
technical
education programs. About two years
ago the sheriff came to
us and said, hey,
can you help us with 911. We can't
get 911 operators
and we can't keep them. Last year
we launched
a 911 program training our students
in
911 operations. And this is done at
beam college and
un with of the reasons we wanted to
do it there is
that is where our community school
is. Those students were able to participate
in
some of these programs during the
day while they were in
their classes. We have art classes
for our
elementary students. I'll talk a little
bit more about that in a moment. Then
there's
a picture of our community schoolteachers at
the bottom. They're all heroes and
champions, and some of
our community partners you'll recognize.
I want to touch on the one
on the top right in just a moment.
we have
a fantastic rotc program at west nassau
high school. They win many awards
in that
program, and many times it's a place
for students who are not necessarily
in sports or in other things but a
place for them to grow and gain skills
and move onto greater things.
some of them are becoming pilots and
doing
all kinds of great things. So we wanted
to add that program to
other schools, but we were turned
down in many instances because
they're getting real picky about where they have
these programs.
so we had the next best thing which
we
just launched in january at yulee high
school, and that
a naval cadet program. It started in
january, and
we came back from christmas break.
we have 60 students
enrolled in that program. Very much
aligned to what the rotc
program is. And this is kind of like a
first step
and evolve into that. I challenge
you to go by there and take
a look. We have a former military
person who's in charge of that
program, and she's doing a fantastic
job, so we're really excited about
that
at yulee high school. So I want to
talk a moment
about the millage and what the millage
is doing in the
nassau county school district. I mentioned
the previous slide
we had art class. For the first time
in as long as
I can remember, we have art teachers
in all of
our elementary schools doing great
things. You'll see a lot
of their art here, so that's one of
the areas that the millage
is enhancing as well as our performing
arts programs.
we have personal trainers in all of
our high schools for all 06 our
sports that we've never been able
to have before.
we purchase band instruments through
our arts millage.
about a year and a half ago a band
teacher came to me
and said, hey, I need to order a new
tuba. I'm
like, yeah, sure, just send in a purchase order
and we'll get
you a tuba. Well, I had
no idea how much instruments cost,
so I kind of had to eat that one.
but,
anyway, these instruments are $20,000-plus.
they're getting
new instruments in our high school
performing and middle school performing
bands, so they're able to do that.
let's talk about sports for
a minute. We've revamped all of the
weight rooms in
our high schools. We're currently
working on our fields. If you have
a chance to go by yulee high school, this
have
a rubberized track for track and field.
so for
the first time ever we will be able
to st track meet at yulee high school.
and
the other schools we're working on
what next steps are for
them in their fields as well. A lot
of good things as a result of
the millage,
so we appreciate your support for
the millage. So this
is how the millage dollars are broken down.
70% of that money goes to compensation for
our employees. It has made a difference
not only for our teachers but
for bus drivers and other folks in
our
school district.
9% for our athletics, 9% for the arts, and
12% for safety arts
and intervention and prevention. And you
all know that is a
huge area. So let's talk about safety for
a minute. We have monthly safety meetings.
we meet with the
sheriff's office and the city police
department. We
just recently launched the strategic
badge program that's an additional badge
that goes on
with your I.d. S. In winder,
georgia, where they had a school shooter
come in. They
all had badges.
any person who has that badge can press
that badge, the school
will go into a lock down, law enforcement
is identified, and we have a quicker
response. We've launched that now.
we are adding updating cameras to
all of our schools and security systems.
and we have know the law and theidary program.
two
years ago the sheriff's office could
no longer support theidary program.
we did not want to see it go away,
so all
of our officers teaching that to our
fifth graders and elementary
schools, and the other officers teaching
know the law to
our middle and high schools. Not only
knowing the law
but knowing the consequences. And then we
have officers in all of
our schools. So I
want to talk now about the florida
department of education recommendations.
there was a headline last week after
the presentation about
consolidation. Every five years the state of
florida comes into the district and
evaluate every student's
station. That means every seat that
a student can sit in
your school. They evaluate the libraries,
the cafeterias, every space for students in
your school
district. And then they provide you
with recommendations
of what they believe should be coming in
the
future. Now, they don't give you money
to go with that. They
just give you recommendations. I want to
share this
with you all because I think it's
important that you see this.
our board has received this information,
and we're working on now
for the board, our next steps to this.
but I want you
to see, and once again these
are just their recommend asians. We
as a school district can take this information
and do what we believe is best for
our school district, and you
all --many of you and our community
members will be a part
of that. So these are their
recommendations.
>> so for the west
side,
hilliard and callahan, they want to
close
hilliard and make callahan one big
bus facility.
that's a much needed upgrade. We don't
argue with this
one. In bryceville not a lot of
improvement there but student
drop offs, renovations for the students there.
we have about
200 students in bryceville currently,
but
these are their recommendations. Callahan
elementary, and I'm going to talk
about this and you can read it on
your own. So the
recommendation is that we close callahan
elementary
and we combine callahan elementary
with callahan intermediate school
and make it a k-5
school. And then part of their recommendation you'll
see at
the bottom is turn the callahan elementary
school into
some workforce housing. I don't think
this is a bad recommendation
if you know where callahan
elementary school is, right on that highway.
parking is terrible, stacking
is terrible, even though we just improved
it this year.
but this is not a tomorrow plan. This
is a longer-term plan, but this
is their recommendation. And I --
I really
like the idea of them making a
recommendation for workforce housing.
if you
look at our current interlocal
agreement, it says we're going to collaborate
with the county and
other entities to determine the best
use so
this will be conversations we can have
down the road. Then again, this
is not happening tomorrow or next week.
these are just their
recommendations. So callahan intermediate, so
a lot of these are improvements that
would make this a
k-5 school expanding the cafeteria
and other spaces.
we have little barricades on things that
we're
already working on there like a water
plant and
an ese playground and things like that.
but you'll see in this
list are the recommendations that
would make
this a k-5 school. Callahan middle
school, the recommendation
is combine callahan middle with west
nassau and build
a new school. West nassau
middle senior
high school. And then you'll see their
next bullet is look
for an agreement with the city of
callahan. So their idea
was if we build middle high school,
then we use the
callahan middle school space for some
kind of community center. Not a
bad idea. Not a bad idea for the
future. And west nassau kind
of goes along with the middle school
plan. Relocate
west nassau, build the 6-12 school
and that would combine the middle
school and the high school. Now,
the last line, the last couple of
sentences are true. Almost all
the buildings are old outdated for
future
educational use. Continuous
repair. Continuous repair there. If
you know anything about
the west side some of you do, it's
just wet.
it's just wet. And then the new
west nassau school, the 6-12, it tells
you what we would need to do to get
to that place. And you notice
at the end they say this side of the
new combination
would be at the fairground property
north of callahan. We do
have a lot of property there. We have
a lot of property that we lease
to the fair association for 100
years, but there's still
additional properties
there. Hilliard elementary, the sunshine,
the barricades are things
we're going to be working on now.
just some improvements to
current buildings as well as for hilliard
middle senior
high school. No new construction there in
this recommendation.
wildlight, this is basically already done.
we've added
nine primary classrooms and fournered mediate
and
middle classrooms. And we've done
some
remodeling.
we're not doing those new
portables. First of all the buildings
are already small and
using the portables still and they
keep coming there. That's where we are.
this is done
right now. Ycec, this is our old building
on 17. So they recommend some repairs
there, creating a technology
center, maybe an agcenter
or cte complex there, not bad
yis. We believe there are many opportunities
even
opportunities for us to collaborate
with the county and other
folks there on the property. Nassauville
they recommended we had the property
you
all know about at the end of the concourse
recommend a new
elementary pre-k-5 to support
the increase in population in
the nassauville yulee area. And yulee
elementary, this
is another big one. They recommend
closing
yulee primary school
andnered mediate. Their response we
have to close
yulee primary school because of its
proximity to the
gun range. They said combine
yulee primary and yulee
elementary school and make that a
k-5 school and
move the district office to the yulee
elementary school. Not bad ideas,
again, these are recommendations we don't
have
a plan yet in our school district.
and then
a new yulee elementary school, which
would be a
k-
5 school. Yulee high school,
you'll
see on this slide on the next one, they
did not recommend anything for a new middle
school or high high
school yulee. Yulee high school
and yulee
middle school are
1,400 schools. So they recommended
some
remodeling, some up grades, some expanding of
the dining, but
no recommendations for a new school.
same with
yulee
middle.
fernadina beach middle they recommended
we demo that school and move
the middle and high school together.
these are, again,
their recommendations. We do not have
a
plan yet. And then
fernandina beach
middle-high school, make that all
one campus. Emma love, just some up
grades and
improvements there on the current
campus as well as
southside elementary school. And then
these
are just some current projects that
have been
completed and that are in the works.
I just kind of wanted you to
get an overall view. You'll see
the weight room, some
painting, some softball improvements,
playground
improvements, marquee sign nl, kitchen
up grades. These are
just things that
are have happening or are happening
now through our
maintenance facilities. There again
those are
state recommendations. What our board
has asked us to do is to come
together, work on a plan for our most
immediate needs, and then we will
work together for
a longer-term plan, a master plan
for future
schools in the nos ou county school
district. You
all know that we're growing like crazy
and especially in
the yulee area, so we know there are
some immediate needs that we have
to address. Now, as I said earlier,
they don't give you
money to go with these recommendations.
so in the past we have saved
our money for years until we had enough
money
to build a school, and then we build
a school. We don't have
that luxury today or in the future,
so we are looking for opportunities
on what we can do to secure the funds
that we need to
build schools for our needs that
we have now. This is
just a good visual for you of our budget.
if
you'll see up here, this is where
our
funds come from. You'll see these
are local funds and these
are save funds. As our local tax base
increases, state funding goes down.
it's not
always equal. They
don't maintain the same level of funding,
so you'll see majority of our
funds come from local. On the right
you'll
see this is our blue area is
spent, big area is salary benefit.
over 70%
of our budget is in salary benefits.
our people
make the difference. I like to know
and so do our families they know who's
driving the bus, who's working the
kitchen, who's working
the cafeteria, who's in the office.
our people make the difference. So
how do we continue to improve? Make
sure that we
have a rigorous curriculum, recruit
and retain
the best teachers, expand
our partnerships within our community,
our career and technical
opportunities, continuously review
the data to see how we
can improve, and
you'll see our little brick over here.
we've got
a plan for the future. And actually
it's here now. That's where we are.
so thank you all.
do we have any questions?
>>
I do.
>> what's the rationale --I
understand
combining schools is supposed to
save money, you'd have fewer buildings, you can
do something else with the other buildings.
but what is your opinion
we have a 6-12 in milliard and middle
senior right now. Is that a good model,
or do you like
the middle school being separate from
the high school? I think
6th graders --how do you separate
a 6th grader from a senior in high
school?
>> so I
think hilliard is unique because of
that community and their size.
I don't know yet. When we look at what
other counties are
doing, and of course we follow st.
john's very closely, and we know that that's
what they're doing.
they're doing it for two reasons.
number one, to save
money, and number two, they don't
have a lot of land. So I'm really
not sure. I think we will continue
to explore that. You
know, right now I --I don't
know if that's the best thing because
I do know what a 6th grader is
like and then a high schooler. So, yeah.
somebody else have a
question?
>> we've mentioned it
before, has it been talked about to
build up versus out
on some of your sites?
>> yes,
absolutely. And, you know, the piece of
property we have at the end of the concourse here, and it
was mentioned in one of
the slides, we would have to do it
if we build there because we
don't have the land capacity to do
what we would do in a
spread out space so absolutely. When you look at
other counties st. John's in particular
they're building
up instead of out. The other issue we
would
face is they have the additional capital
millage for
their construction projects that passed
in their county last
year, but they're finding all their
bids are coming in double
for all their projects, so they're
having to reassess where they
are and what they're going to
do.
>> dr. Burns, I'd just like to
commend
you and your board and
all your staff
structural and nonstructural on the
job you've done for
many years regardless of who's been
on the board. The
board's always done a great job, and
your people,
they do make the difference whether
they're in
the classroom or out of the classroom.
I've got my nassau county school district
lapel pin on today.
>> I see it. >>
in honor of that.
and I'm due for a new one, I think.
you
stopped putting the years on there.
>> we have a new
one
coming. We can't look the same.
>> I have several of them at
home. They used to do by
year, and I had an
old one that was like
'22 and '23. She found me a
general one that covers all the years
because you've been doing it for so
long.
I know you talked about it all in
your presentation,
but some people
just --I don't think they --when you're doing
so well for
so long, that becomes the expectation,
and then people think,
well, it's not a big deal anymore.
it is
a big deal the amount of work and
effort and success you
and the school district have had,
so I just want to thank
you and commend you for it.
>> I appreciate
that, and we
do have great people. We have a wonderful
board. And, you
know, listen, this is not easy. And
it's not
easy to stay --keep climbing
to the top because obviously they
raise the bar on us, too, but I
want to brag on everybody and of course
alyson's a teacher and she knows what
it's
all about. I tell everybody this and
I'm not going to leave here without
saying this today. Wave at the bus
drivers when you pass them
on the road. Don't just go past
that bus. Raise your hand if you would be
a bus driver. Wave at the bus drivers.
god bless the bus
drivers, the teachers, the cafeteria
workers, the
pick up line at wildlight. If you haven't
had
the opportunity to drive down cure
yusty in the early
morning or in the afternoon and stay in
that line to pick
up your kid or somebody's kid, you
need to
see the phenomenal job they do. Someone
just told me at event I was speaking
at noon
saying they must have gotten their
training
from chick-fil-a, those people know
how to do it, and that's on
top of all the other things they're doing.
and let's add to
that hurricanes and snow days, and
all those, and just the
resilience of the people and our students.
I have a group of students that
I meet with,
student supervisory
counsel students that are phenomenal.
they are our future. I have
your people come and speak to them
because we want
to hear from them as well. We have
our challenges, and we are
challenged to be better every day, but
it's still nicer
in nassau.
>>
commissioner gray.
>> dr. Burns, thank
you for coming.
the yulee high school the naval cadet
program, do
you eventually see the possibility
of that evolving into an
rotc?
>> it will. And so the program
we're
modeling after, of course they had to reach out to us
and offer us the
opportunity because you can't just
say you want to sign up. We have
been trying to get this since the
school opened. In
the models we see if we do this well
for the next four
to five years, it would evolve into
an
rotc program. Yes.
>> thank you. I
know there's a lot of work that's
been
done, a lot of building and construction
at yulee high school and middle school.
it looks like
it may be built out, but I know y'all
have
a lot of students there, and it's
a wonderful facility. I go
to
events there that are at the school on
the
school property. It's maintained and
being in the school
district here, I think rotc will be beneficial
for our students.
>> we're excited.
we
had 60 students sign up that
were in the program, soso excited
about that.
>> dr. Burns, most of
y'all know in the room
I announce all the football games
for west nassau high school. And
I got pulled in that position a couple
years ago.
it's fun to be a part of that. I'd
never announced
a ball game before prior to my tenure
being the voice for
the warriors, but it's really been
fun,
really rewarding. To your point, the
kids they're very, very helpful. You
can see that
parenting obviously goes a long way,
but whenever they get dropped
off at the school via bus or via parents,
that's when the
other set of parents take hold. And
so you can really tell a difference
over on the west side of the county.
there's
really, really some
good, wholesome, let's say young people coming through the
system, and that's definitely a product
of what you just showed us there on
the screen. I wanted to just go one
step further in saying that
the personal trainers out there on
the football field have been a huge,
huge
step forward for our sports programs
and athletic programs. We don't need
to fail to mention them in anything and
everything that we
do because those --those guys and
gals are out
there engaged in all these sports,
and it's
a real heavy them, too. I've made
friends with
tony mara which is our trainer out
there, and
tony
stretches himself really thin and all
over the
board and really cares about the kids and
cares
about athletics. You know, it's been a
rare,
rewarding friendship to make friends
with him because then I'm able to
kind
of look behind the scenes and do what I
can to try and
volunteer or gather up other volunteers
to make the situation a lot better
out there. But I just wanted to say I
know that there's
some conversation coming about fields.
you mentioned the rubberized
track, and I was involved
in that. Mr. Pierce asked me
to out as a stakeholder the other day
and set part
of that meeting. I told him obviously
on my side of
town, football is a big thing. I mean
for
nassau county football is a huge thing.
but we're
starting to see other sports starting
to come into
the limelight like lacrosse. And lacrosse
is starting to come
up on the east side of the county.
it's going to move and probably
make its way on the west side. I
have buddies of mine from south florida
that live in the
jupiter area, and their boys
are heavily engaged in lacrosse.
I would advise you to see it because it's
very athletic.
it's very interesting. It's almost a
cross between football
and hockey in a way. And, you know,
it's very,
very entertaining, very physical.
and I look
forward to seeing us continue to do
big things
for these kids because the more that
we can offer them as
far as athletics is
concerned, the brighter their future
can be in more than
one way. And just like to say I know
that there's
challenges, you know, versus turf
versus sod versus rubberized track.
at least over on my side for the team
I represent, I know that
football is going to obviously be
a
lot bigger priority than the track
is even though we care about
our track stars as well. And just
like
to say that as we move forward and
we research these contracts and
stuff, the one thing that kind of
stood out
in questioning in that group the other day was
the group that puts in these turf
fields
don't offer us a maintenance package
for these
turf fields.
>> that's right. >> so I
wanted to just go on the record of
saying to the board that as we move
forward, we
might want to see what it's going
to take for us to take care of this
because that's new to me, and
I know it's probably new to all of you, but
we
probably need to find out, you know,
let's drill down and make sure
if we've got to have machines to take
care of that
stuff, do you
groom it after every game, have fluids
that go out there and have to somehow
disinfect the field? There's just
a lot of questions I had.
and so as we move forward, let's
make sure that we put those out there
for our people to
make sure we keep safety at our forefront.
but
other than that, thank you so much.
I appreciate you guys and appreciate
you joining us tonight. Means a lot.
>> so I appreciate you
saying that. And I wasn't at that
meeting, but I got a full update
on it. And I talked about callahan, the
west side
is wet. One of the things
within that project or whatever the project
is going to be at west nassau and
on
the west side will be drainage, that
we address that as well.
and I want to mention one more thing about
personal trainers.
we attempted to hire them in the past
and kind of we would have one
here and have one there, but never were
we able to have trainers for all of
our high schools. Particularly hilliard
we struggle with that. Now we're able
to
pay them adequately and have the support
of u.s. Health, and I want to give
a shout out to dr.
jeremy coleman who's been a great
partner with us as well. Having
them on the field, and I was at the night a
student
broke his leg or whatever severe.
having the trainer there and
having the right people at the right
time and knowing what to do
has mademade huge difference. But
it's just keeping our students safer
and I appreciate that. Anybody else?
>> dr. Burns, one thing.
on the growth management part, we
can sympathize with you
on the needed planning for the cost --
the increase cost as you look at the
out years
are exponentially more painful than
they have ever been.
and so we sympathize with you, and we
look forward to
the dynamic, creative work you're
going have to do like we do
to figure out how to reach
those out-year capital plans.
so keep pushing
and creating --
>> we will because
we want
everybody to be updated on these things.
thank you all.
>> thank you, dr.
burns. Item b, interlocal
agreement update.
>> yes.
so I am happy to report after three
years, we were going to tell you we
were updating this, we were updating
this, but last
week, and there has been some work
overover
time. It's just been hard for everybody
to get
together, but I want to say that last
week, do we have four attorneys involved?
>> we
had at least one too many. There was
one too
many.
>> very important to us. We had
the town of hilliard attorney, the
town of
callahan attorney. Am I missing
any? You had your four attorneys,
staff
involved. We went through the entire
and
local agreement. We have another date
set for march. We're going to come back
and look at all the changes that were made.
so hopefully in
just a very short time, we will have
an updated
interlocal agreement for everybody
and every board to review
and approve, and this is critical
to all of us because
some of the issues we're having to
address not addressed in
the current interlocal agreement that
are causing everybody some problems
and
some pause. So very soon we're going
to
have that.
>> and item
c I have is the impact fee report.
>> yes. So we are required to provide
you with an update every
year on
our impact -- on our impact fee
collections and then
our current expenditures. So this
is the report for
you
all. And thank you, ms. Ellen harper
is
here, our finance director to put all
this together.
and actually she gave you more information
than I have. She goes above and beyond.
if you look
at starting from 2005 through
2014, '15, you'll see the totals we
received, interest. She's making money
on our money,
the grand total. So if you go down
to really the
bottom of the page you'll see our
ballots year over year. But
if you look at fund balances
and the usages for
of the 24,
25, we have the yulee
model, portable leases, portable setups,
new schools
to be determined. Every year in our
capital budget we set
aside dollars for that new school, like I
talked about earlier. We just don't
have enough time to set
aside money
out of our total capital budget.
you'll see our total fund balance.
if you go to the next
page, you'll see a graphic that identifies
our impact
fee revenues earned and available
for the fiscal years. You'll see the
funds collected and available the
first
several years. We're
almost none, that's because we were
using those for the wildlife school.
if you go to the next page, you'll
see another graphic
that shows you where our dollars are.
you'll see we have
a majority of those dollars set aside
for the next new school. So we
are required to present this to you
every year, so this
is meeting that requirement for us.
>> mr.
chairman, I have a question.
>> commissioner
mark.
>> so if I read this correctly, right
now you have
a little over $27 million set aside
for a new school?
>> right. >> what do you estimate
the cost
of a new school?
>> we don't
have an actual number right now.
we thought we had some numbers, but we
are working with
the associates who works with several
on this type of thing.
we know whatever we think our number
is going to be
double that. When we built
wildlight it was about
$23 million.
>> thank you. >> I'm
sorry, doctor. You're saying now
you think it may have doubled.
>> at
least. At least.
and we built the road to wildlight at
the time
as well because there was nothing
there when we built that school, and
of course
we got paid back for that road
over time. But,
yes, I would say
double
plus.
>> any
other
questions? Okay. Item d, I just have
other business as needed.
I don't have any additional business,
so what I would like to
do is if I may go around, I'd like
to give each board member to ask if you
want
to say something. Board
member hogue.
>> we just thank you
you guys
for allowing us to meet again. We
always
like seeing people. Thank you for
everything
you do. We know that being a
public servant is just
a service to others, so I appreciate
everything that
you guys did.
>> right
back to you. Ms.
braddock?
>> also thank you very much,
and
we appreciate your support. You know, it's
difficult being in
the public eye a
lot. In fact, I don't think I've seen
you
since the last time you were here.
that's how busy you
are, and we live in the
same neighborhood.
>> I'm beat when
I go by. Anyway, we look forward to
meeting with you annually, and we
talked last time about maybe
making it two times a year.
>> yes,
and I think as we
progress through whatever our planning will be
for future, we will want to come back
to you and talk about it some more.
>> mr.
zimmerman?
>> thank you. This is my
first time attending
this meeting
and previously sat down at that
part of the dias.
I'm grateful for the commissioners
for continued support and
we stand
ready for
any issue in any way possible.
>>
I like the
partnership that we
have, you know, that
the different communities are all
part of
our growth
management so that everybody is having input.
and it is going to
be challenging once we start deciding
what
direction we want to go and having
that
partnership and keeping everybody
informed
will hopefully make it a little
bit easy and anticipate --
I mean, y'all don't have to deal with
rezoning --well, you have to do a
rezoning --
attendance zonings, and that's probably
going to be one of the
first things we have to
do, and that's not anybody's
favorite discussion item. So there's
challenges to be
met.
>> commissioner martin? >>
well, I said an awful lot earlier,
so I'll be brief. We'll be brief this time.
unless
I missed it, dr. Burns, you usually say
in every
one of these meetings, if
it wasn't for teachers.
>> we
vnt have
other professions. That's right. Everybody
has a teacher first.
>>
make sure we got that.
>> yes. >> thank you, mr. Chairman.
you know,
I've heard it said before in different
ways, and I think it --it's really
true for
we are here in nassau county, but
places
that don't live, thrive, and grow,
they die. And at
the end of the day I think all of
us that have
a vested interest here, and
I look around the dais, around the
room, and there's people that lived
here a long, long time. My
family moved here in '74 and lived
here
my entire life, essentially. Went
to callahan schools and
was blessed with really, really good
educators along the way.
and they didn't just teach. Like I
said before when you
were
up there, where your parents didn't
have
their eyeballs on you. It means a
lot to see the
parent engagement, whenever you drop
your kid off school
that they're in good hands. And just
wanted to
say thank you in the bottom of my heart.
I've got a niece
now that's 10 coming up through the
school systems in
callahan, and she's what we call
the miter bird because she talks,
but she
comes by that honestly. But she's --
I
know you'll find that very humorous.
I think that, you know, watching her,
though, develop
we'll say I'm not so sure maybe --
she may
be the physician of the family. She's
very, very
detailed and intricate, and some of
the stuff she
comes up with kind of blows me away
as
uncle bub a, she would call it. I
just want to say thank you
because there's so much going on out there.
nobody mentioned
it, but we mentioned it several times,
and you
guys see it too because we see people
throw
the stones. Social media is very,
very ugy
to all of us as electeds
and public officials. I appreciate
you
guys standing strong and
communicating with people, putting yourself out
there in harms way saying you haven't reached
out
to us. Instead of the banter and
playing around and giving it another
light, you pick up the phone. I squim
saying
this not because I sit on the board, I can
pick up the phone and call
and these people answer their e-mails
and answer their phones.
let's continue to stay above the fray.
I say don't wallow in
the mud with hogs, and let's continue
to do what's best
for nassau county and be proud that
we're
all here and a great place to live, that
people aspire to bring their
family here, to raise a family, and
educate their young ones. So thank
you all
very much.
>> thank you, commissioner.
>>
commissioner gray.
>> thank you, mr.
chairman. Yes, I
want to thank each and every one of
y'all for all your hard
work
and efforts in maintaining nassau county's
a-rated school. As we flourish
here in nassau county and grow, people
come here
to raise their families and have their
children go to a
safe environment and school environment,
and that's a big thing nowadays. I
mean on the eastern sea board, you want
to
come to a place raise your children,
grow
up, have them go to school, be safe.
and, you know, the
schools, the facilities that y'all
are providing for our students and our growth
in the county
is wonderful. And like the commissioner
said earlier, if we're not
growing, we're dying. And we don't
want that.
we want economic opportunity and expansion.
we thank y'all as
a partner very much.
and again, congratulations on another
year of
a-rated schools in nassau county.
>> commissioner m ccullough. >> I
should
have asked you earlier at the dais.
one
of the barriers I receive on both
ends parents are like,
oh, the commission's just building
all these neighborhoods, and there's
nowhere for these children to go to
schools, but I'm so glad
you highlighted number one, we are
not above glasroom capacity. Any of
our schools because a
lot of the banter does come from people
who do not know the fact, but we're
not over
those fte counts. You just quoted
$27
million for the last school we built
and we're looking at doubling that.
people don't understand the financial risk
of prebuilding out schools, that the state
requires
we have to have bodies before we can
even
consider school growth. So I think
one of the things that I
highlight every year for the public
when we have this meeting
is without the homes and neighborhoods, there are
no new schools. And
I just think that's important for
both of us to remember and
recognize as we move
forward and for the public to be consciously made aware
of, that
without the neighborhoods there will
be no new schools. And the cost to
build
and looking at you brought up the
pie chart. When
those local taxes come in and the
state revenues go
down, people think that we get this
huge check from the state,
and that is now how it works. More
homes come in, so everything
just takes time. And I think that
the more you know, the
more empowered you are to make those
positive decisions
that affect your communities so
much. You know, I'm a 15-year teacher.
ms.
simpkens was my first principal.
she hired me. 15 years later I'm still
here at
hilliard after she hired me. But one
of
the closing of our mission statement
is to make productive
members of society, and I've worked
with teachers who have been there
for six months, who have been there for
a year. Some of us
have been there in the trenches. I
call it in the trenches for a
long time. But I can tell you this,
if you survive a
decade in public education, you can
survive anything. You can --
if you have been there more than a
decade, your investment
in your community and growth and the true heart you
believe
to make nassau county a better place.
I think a lot of times, dr. Burns,
you
and I had a conversation about this earlier.
we
do have a false tenacity to look at
the negatives and
highlight the negatives. We're doing
such
amazing things as the nos awe board
of
commissioners, school board working
together,
our sheriffs and police to make
nassau county
one of the greatest communities to
live
in the state. Our students, our parents,
our residents
so much more positive. And I hope in 2025
we're
really looking and focusing on what
are the positive things and things
we're doing right and growing on those right things,
so thank you, mr.
chairman.
>> dr. Burns? >> I just
want to say
I do appreciate I know I can pick
up the phone and call any one
of you. I want to give out
a shot out because I can always call him.
I we share ideas. You know,
looking ahead to the future, and I
appreciate the working relationship
we
all have. Even if it's something bad,
something good.
and I want to re-emphasize again
if you look at
our interlocal agreement if we do
close schools
or make decisions moving forward, I
believe there
are opportunities to benefit all of
nassau county whether we turn
it into youth
facilities, affordable housing or
something like that,
I believe there's many opportunities
for the
future and appreciate the cooperation and
support I get from all of you.
>> a
comment following on what she said.
>> when we
were allowed to
build yulee high school, there were
over --
there were 27
portables. There was
27 portables at the high school before they
gave us a recommendation.
and a lot of people --
and the attendance
zone, redesigning that, was something that had to
be done
first, too. With neighborhoods we
don't just
get to just jump in.
>> thank you
very much. I'd like to close
with this. We're the sixth fastest
growing
county
in the state of florida. That's a reality.
we're I believe the
31st in the nation. Am
I close? 46, I'm sorry. I'm exaggerating.
the 46th out
of 3,100 counties in the nation.
and I know that when folks relocate
for work or for life
change, the first thing they do is look
at the schools before they figure out
where they're going to buy their house
or relocate to. So the
challenges are there for both of you.
recently we
had a joint meeting with the city.
here we are now with the
joint meeting with the school board.
we are one nassau.
everybody is working together on these
tremendous challenges, and I
think that as public servants we are
completely
transparent in the efforts that we
put forth for the
citizens of nassau county. If you
don't know
the numbers and you don't see the
data, you're just not looking.
so, folks, we're out here serving
for you and I
think we're doing good work, and we're
going to keep plugging forward
to improve nassau county for everybody.
and on that, I am going to adjourn.
thank you very much, dr. Burns and school board.