[1:42] >> good evening. Welcome nassau county
[1:44] board of
[1:45] county commissioners joint meeting
[1:47] with the nassau county
[1:50] school board. 6:00 p.m. ,
[1:51] february 11, 2025. I call the meeting
[1:53] to order. I ask you
[1:55] to rise for in vocation and pledge
[1:56] of allegiance.
[1:59] bow our heads. Heavenly father, we
[2:00] gather today to serve the people of
[2:02] nassau county. We ask for
[2:05] your wisdom and discernment in the
[2:06] decisions
[2:07] we make. Guide our discussions with
[2:08] compassion and fairness, and
[2:09] grant us the strength to work together
[2:11] as a team for
[2:13] the common good. Allow our communications
[2:14] to
[2:16] reflect your will and bring only positive
[2:17] change to
[2:19] our community. We also ask that you
[2:20] provide extra protection over
[2:23] our military and first responder personnel
[2:25] who confront evil and danger to keep your peace
[2:26] and light
[2:29] in this world. In jesus name
[2:32] I humbly pray.
[2:35] a men. Please join us in the pledge
[2:38] aleemgance to our country.
[2:39] >> I pledge
[2:40] allegiance
[2:41] to the flag of inunited states of
[2:42] america and to the republic for which
[2:43] it stands
[2:44] one nation,
[2:47] under god, indivisible
[2:48] with liberty and justice for all.
[2:50] >> madam clerk, if you'd please
[2:53] call the roll.
[2:55] >> commissioner gray. >> here. >>
[2:56] commissioner farmer.
[2:57] >>
[2:59] here.
[3:02] >> commissioner --dr.
[3:05] burns, school board member cook.
[3:08] school board member
[3:11] simpkens, school board member
[3:14] zimmerman, school board
[3:17] member braddock,
[3:20] and school board member
[3:29] hogue.
[3:30] >> discussion items, "a," state
[3:31] of
[3:32] the school district
[3:34] presentation by dr. Kathy burns. Dr.
[3:35] burns, as
[3:38] you make your way over, I would like to
[3:39] welcome you and
[3:40] the school board and thank you for
[3:41] coming over tonight and being part of
[3:44] this joint annual meeting, which I
[3:45] think is really important
[3:47] for our citizens.
[3:48] >> thank
[3:50] you.
[3:51] >> yes, ma'am. >> how are you
[3:53] all this evening?
[3:55] >> super , thank you. >> so every day
[3:56] is a
[3:58] great day when you can be at a school.
[4:02] I started to keep on the mustache I
[4:03] had on
[4:05] at the event, but I knew someone would
[4:06] take my
[4:07] picture and it would end up in the
[4:08] paper somewhere. I tell everybody
[4:11] it's nicer in nassau, in case you
[4:12] didn't know it,
[4:13] and certainly good in our school district,
[4:14] so I'm going to share a
[4:15] few updates with you this evening.
[4:17] as you know, from all the times
[4:20] we've been here, this is still our
[4:23] mission statement. To develop each
[4:24] student as
[4:26] an inspired lifelong learner and problem
[4:27] solver with the
[4:28] strength of character to become productive
[4:29] members of society.
[4:32] our demographics currently almost
[4:35] 13,000, 12,596, 17
[4:38] schools, 1,800
[4:41] employees, 2. 3 million square
[4:44] feet of buildings. Bus drivers, cafeteria
[4:45] workers,
[4:46] custodians, maintenance workersch
[4:47] we invest in people. Our
[4:49] people make the difference in the
[4:51] nassau county school district. So we
[4:53] are number 3 out
[4:54] of 67 districts. And I'm just going
[4:56] to pause for a minute there. I think
[4:59] that's worth celebrating. I do. And
[5:00] all of those people
[5:01] that I just mentioned as well as our
[5:02] community members, our parents,
[5:05] our families, men of our
[5:07] nonprofits, all of those people play
[5:08] a role in this. We
[5:11] are once again an a-rated
[5:14] school district. We are
[5:16] graded by the state of florida. These
[5:19] are our school grades. You'll see
[5:20] "a,"
[5:23] "a," "a," one "b," and the rest a's.
[5:24] I
[5:27] can tell you
[5:28] just about 3 points to get back on
[5:30] that honor roll.
[5:32] great things happening at our schools,
[5:34] so we're proud of those "a" grades.
[5:36] where do
[5:37] we rank out of 67 districts in the state of
[5:39] florida? We
[5:41] are number 2 in language urts learning
[5:42] games,
[5:45] 2 in math, number 2 in
[5:47] geometry, first in 8th grade science,
[5:51] second in
[5:54] civics, and eighth in
[5:56] biology. I always say we're getting
[5:57] better. We don't
[5:58] settle. We want to continue to move
[6:00] to the top.
[6:01] our students with disabilities are
[6:02] performing very well. We are also
[6:03] number 3 in
[6:05] the state for our students with disabilities.
[6:06] when we
[6:08] go back to our mission statement that
[6:09] says
[6:12] we want our students
[6:14] to be lifelong problem solvers and we want them to be
[6:16] productive citizens, that is for everyone of
[6:18] our students including
[6:19] our students with disabilities. So this
[6:21] is a lot to brag about,
[6:24] because many of these students
[6:25] have more challenges whether they
[6:26] be physical challenges or learning
[6:27] challenges, but
[6:30] our ese
[6:32] students are number 2 in the state, number 3 in
[6:36] math, number 2 in science. We
[6:37] are an academically high performing district.
[6:39] that's based on the school
[6:41] grades that our schools receive, our
[6:42] class size
[6:44] compliance. We are 100% compliance
[6:45] with
[6:47] class size in the nassau county school
[6:48] district and our
[6:51] financial audit reports. Thank
[6:54] you,
[6:56] ms. Allen harper right here. Our strategic
[6:57] goals. We
[6:59] have five focus areas, academic and
[7:00] student
[7:01] performance. We want to continue to
[7:03] improve our graduation rate
[7:06] to 95% by 2025. We just recently
[7:07] received our graduation rates, which
[7:09] is always a year lagging
[7:11] behind. Our high school graduation rates
[7:12] are continued
[7:15] to improve. 98%,
[7:18] 94%, 96%. Our community school,
[7:21] which is a school at the meeting center
[7:24] which serve students who do not necessarily
[7:26] fit in a traditional high school and
[7:27] make another
[7:29] choice, our graduation there is not
[7:30] very good right now,
[7:32] so it's brought down our overall graduation
[7:33] rate
[7:36] to 91. 3, but we are going to continue
[7:38] to work with those staunts to improve
[7:39] their graduation rate,
[7:42] but our overall goal is 95% by
[7:44] next year. Human resources. Increase
[7:45] recruitment and retention of
[7:47] our highly qualified teachers. That
[7:48] is something we've continued to
[7:50] work on. The last two years have been
[7:51] much better.
[7:53] we've raised our beginning teacher
[7:54] salaries to
[7:56] over $52,000. That's higher than our
[7:58] florida neighbors in our surrounding
[8:00] counties as well as our georgia
[8:02] neighbors, which is a big task because
[8:03] it's difficult to compete with georgia.
[8:05] their teacher salaries are set by
[8:06] the state legislators,
[8:08] and then the local counties add to
[8:09] that. But we are
[8:10] higher than all of them, and it's
[8:12] paid off for us in the last year
[8:14] and a half. Growth management. You
[8:15] all know what's happening. You hear
[8:17] about it all the time. So our gel
[8:18] is to identify funding
[8:20] options for our capital projects for
[8:21] new schools. You
[8:22] hear a little bit more about that
[8:24] in a few min, and to manage
[8:26] this growth better, find opportunities
[8:27] for land and
[8:29] new schools for the future, technology
[8:30] services
[8:33] is a huge area for us.
[8:35] we continue to enhance and increase
[8:36] our technology
[8:39] for our students. One of our
[8:42] biggest challenges is security risk
[8:45] in
[8:47] technology. They're smarter than all
[8:48] of us, and
[8:50] no matter how many firewalls and whatever
[8:51] else you do, they
[8:53] have ways to go around it, and it's
[8:54] difficult for us to
[8:57] keep those folks in security engineering
[8:58] for technology because I say they
[9:00] use us as their
[9:01] training ground. They get great experience
[9:03] in the school
[9:05] district, and they go onto wonderful
[9:06] jobs doubling
[9:08] their money and working from home.
[9:09] but we continue to work on
[9:10] these things. Community relations.
[9:15] we want to create and implement
[9:18] a comprehensive
[9:19] public relations engagement plan.
[9:21] if you look at
[9:24] our data for community
[9:26] engagement, it's over 100% increased
[9:27] over the last year. We
[9:28] continue to work on that and have
[9:30] some plans to continue that in the future.
[9:33] just a few more highlights. We have
[9:34] several of
[9:35] our schools --nine of our schools
[9:36] that are schools of
[9:37] excellence, and that means they are
[9:39] performing in the top 20% for
[9:41] the students in the state of florida.
[9:42] we're expanding
[9:45] our career and
[9:48] technical
[9:50] education programs. About two years
[9:51] ago the sheriff came to
[9:54] us and said, hey,
[9:56] can you help us with 911. We can't
[9:57] get 911 operators
[9:59] and we can't keep them. Last year
[10:00] we launched
[10:02] a 911 program training our students
[10:03] in
[10:06] 911 operations. And this is done at
[10:07] beam college and
[10:08] un with of the reasons we wanted to
[10:09] do it there is
[10:11] that is where our community school
[10:12] is. Those students were able to participate
[10:13] in
[10:14] some of these programs during the
[10:15] day while they were in
[10:17] their classes. We have art classes
[10:18] for our
[10:19] elementary students. I'll talk a little
[10:21] bit more about that in a moment. Then
[10:22] there's
[10:24] a picture of our community schoolteachers at
[10:26] the bottom. They're all heroes and
[10:27] champions, and some of
[10:30] our community partners you'll recognize.
[10:31] I want to touch on the one
[10:32] on the top right in just a moment.
[10:33] we have
[10:36] a fantastic rotc program at west nassau
[10:39] high school. They win many awards
[10:40] in that
[10:41] program, and many times it's a place
[10:42] for students who are not necessarily
[10:45] in sports or in other things but a
[10:47] place for them to grow and gain skills
[10:48] and move onto greater things.
[10:51] some of them are becoming pilots and
[10:52] doing
[10:53] all kinds of great things. So we wanted
[10:55] to add that program to
[10:56] other schools, but we were turned
[10:58] down in many instances because
[10:59] they're getting real picky about where they have
[11:01] these programs.
[11:03] so we had the next best thing which
[11:04] we
[11:05] just launched in january at yulee high
[11:07] school, and that
[11:08] a naval cadet program. It started in
[11:10] january, and
[11:12] we came back from christmas break.
[11:13] we have 60 students
[11:14] enrolled in that program. Very much
[11:16] aligned to what the rotc
[11:18] program is. And this is kind of like a
[11:19] first step
[11:20] and evolve into that. I challenge
[11:22] you to go by there and take
[11:23] a look. We have a former military
[11:25] person who's in charge of that
[11:27] program, and she's doing a fantastic
[11:30] job, so we're really excited about
[11:31] that
[11:32] at yulee high school. So I want to
[11:34] talk a moment
[11:35] about the millage and what the millage
[11:37] is doing in the
[11:38] nassau county school district. I mentioned
[11:40] the previous slide
[11:42] we had art class. For the first time
[11:43] in as long as
[11:45] I can remember, we have art teachers
[11:46] in all of
[11:47] our elementary schools doing great
[11:49] things. You'll see a lot
[11:50] of their art here, so that's one of
[11:52] the areas that the millage
[11:54] is enhancing as well as our performing
[11:55] arts programs.
[11:56] we have personal trainers in all of
[11:58] our high schools for all 06 our
[11:59] sports that we've never been able
[12:01] to have before.
[12:03] we purchase band instruments through
[12:04] our arts millage.
[12:06] about a year and a half ago a band
[12:07] teacher came to me
[12:09] and said, hey, I need to order a new
[12:10] tuba. I'm
[12:12] like, yeah, sure, just send in a purchase order
[12:13] and we'll get
[12:16] you a tuba. Well, I had
[12:17] no idea how much instruments cost,
[12:19] so I kind of had to eat that one.
[12:22] but,
[12:24] anyway, these instruments are $20,000-plus.
[12:25] they're getting
[12:26] new instruments in our high school
[12:28] performing and middle school performing
[12:29] bands, so they're able to do that.
[12:31] let's talk about sports for
[12:33] a minute. We've revamped all of the
[12:34] weight rooms in
[12:35] our high schools. We're currently
[12:37] working on our fields. If you have
[12:39] a chance to go by yulee high school, this
[12:40] have
[12:42] a rubberized track for track and field.
[12:43] so for
[12:46] the first time ever we will be able
[12:48] to st track meet at yulee high school.
[12:49] and
[12:50] the other schools we're working on
[12:52] what next steps are for
[12:53] them in their fields as well. A lot
[12:55] of good things as a result of
[12:58] the millage,
[12:59] so we appreciate your support for
[13:01] the millage. So this
[13:03] is how the millage dollars are broken down.
[13:07] 70% of that money goes to compensation for
[13:08] our employees. It has made a difference
[13:10] not only for our teachers but
[13:12] for bus drivers and other folks in
[13:13] our
[13:16] school district.
[13:18] 9% for our athletics, 9% for the arts, and
[13:22] 12% for safety arts
[13:23] and intervention and prevention. And you
[13:25] all know that is a
[13:28] huge area. So let's talk about safety for
[13:30] a minute. We have monthly safety meetings.
[13:31] we meet with the
[13:33] sheriff's office and the city police
[13:34] department. We
[13:37] just recently launched the strategic
[13:39] badge program that's an additional badge
[13:40] that goes on
[13:43] with your I.d. S. In winder,
[13:46] georgia, where they had a school shooter
[13:49] come in. They
[13:52] all had badges.
[13:54] any person who has that badge can press
[13:55] that badge, the school
[13:57] will go into a lock down, law enforcement
[14:00] is identified, and we have a quicker
[14:02] response. We've launched that now.
[14:04] we are adding updating cameras to
[14:06] all of our schools and security systems.
[14:09] and we have know the law and theidary program.
[14:10] two
[14:12] years ago the sheriff's office could
[14:13] no longer support theidary program.
[14:15] we did not want to see it go away,
[14:16] so all
[14:18] of our officers teaching that to our
[14:19] fifth graders and elementary
[14:21] schools, and the other officers teaching
[14:22] know the law to
[14:24] our middle and high schools. Not only
[14:25] knowing the law
[14:27] but knowing the consequences. And then we
[14:28] have officers in all of
[14:31] our schools. So I
[14:33] want to talk now about the florida
[14:34] department of education recommendations.
[14:37] there was a headline last week after
[14:40] the presentation about
[14:43] consolidation. Every five years the state of
[14:45] florida comes into the district and
[14:46] evaluate every student's
[14:48] station. That means every seat that
[14:49] a student can sit in
[14:52] your school. They evaluate the libraries,
[14:54] the cafeterias, every space for students in
[14:55] your school
[14:57] district. And then they provide you
[14:58] with recommendations
[15:00] of what they believe should be coming in
[15:01] the
[15:03] future. Now, they don't give you money
[15:04] to go with that. They
[15:06] just give you recommendations. I want to
[15:07] share this
[15:09] with you all because I think it's
[15:10] important that you see this.
[15:12] our board has received this information,
[15:13] and we're working on now
[15:15] for the board, our next steps to this.
[15:16] but I want you
[15:19] to see, and once again these
[15:21] are just their recommend asians. We
[15:22] as a school district can take this information
[15:24] and do what we believe is best for
[15:25] our school district, and you
[15:27] all --many of you and our community
[15:28] members will be a part
[15:31] of that. So these are their
[15:39] recommendations.
[15:40] >> so for the west
[15:43] side,
[15:46] hilliard and callahan, they want to
[15:47] close
[15:48] hilliard and make callahan one big
[15:49] bus facility.
[15:52] that's a much needed upgrade. We don't
[15:55] argue with this
[15:58] one. In bryceville not a lot of
[16:01] improvement there but student
[16:03] drop offs, renovations for the students there.
[16:04] we have about
[16:07] 200 students in bryceville currently,
[16:08] but
[16:09] these are their recommendations. Callahan
[16:10] elementary, and I'm going to talk
[16:12] about this and you can read it on
[16:13] your own. So the
[16:15] recommendation is that we close callahan
[16:16] elementary
[16:19] and we combine callahan elementary
[16:21] with callahan intermediate school
[16:22] and make it a k-5
[16:25] school. And then part of their recommendation you'll
[16:26] see at
[16:28] the bottom is turn the callahan elementary
[16:29] school into
[16:30] some workforce housing. I don't think
[16:31] this is a bad recommendation
[16:34] if you know where callahan
[16:36] elementary school is, right on that highway.
[16:37] parking is terrible, stacking
[16:40] is terrible, even though we just improved
[16:41] it this year.
[16:42] but this is not a tomorrow plan. This
[16:43] is a longer-term plan, but this
[16:48] is their recommendation. And I --
[16:49] I really
[16:53] like the idea of them making a
[16:54] recommendation for workforce housing.
[16:56] if you
[16:59] look at our current interlocal
[17:00] agreement, it says we're going to collaborate
[17:02] with the county and
[17:03] other entities to determine the best
[17:05] use so
[17:06] this will be conversations we can have
[17:08] down the road. Then again, this
[17:09] is not happening tomorrow or next week.
[17:11] these are just their
[17:12] recommendations. So callahan intermediate, so
[17:15] a lot of these are improvements that
[17:17] would make this a
[17:18] k-5 school expanding the cafeteria
[17:20] and other spaces.
[17:22] we have little barricades on things that
[17:23] we're
[17:24] already working on there like a water
[17:26] plant and
[17:28] an ese playground and things like that.
[17:32] but you'll see in this
[17:34] list are the recommendations that
[17:35] would make
[17:37] this a k-5 school. Callahan middle
[17:38] school, the recommendation
[17:40] is combine callahan middle with west
[17:41] nassau and build
[17:44] a new school. West nassau
[17:47] middle senior
[17:49] high school. And then you'll see their
[17:50] next bullet is look
[17:51] for an agreement with the city of
[17:53] callahan. So their idea
[17:54] was if we build middle high school,
[17:56] then we use the
[17:57] callahan middle school space for some
[17:59] kind of community center. Not a
[18:02] bad idea. Not a bad idea for the
[18:05] future. And west nassau kind
[18:07] of goes along with the middle school
[18:08] plan. Relocate
[18:11] west nassau, build the 6-12 school
[18:12] and that would combine the middle
[18:14] school and the high school. Now,
[18:16] the last line, the last couple of
[18:17] sentences are true. Almost all
[18:19] the buildings are old outdated for
[18:20] future
[18:23] educational use. Continuous
[18:24] repair. Continuous repair there. If
[18:26] you know anything about
[18:27] the west side some of you do, it's
[18:29] just wet.
[18:32] it's just wet. And then the new
[18:35] west nassau school, the 6-12, it tells
[18:37] you what we would need to do to get
[18:38] to that place. And you notice
[18:40] at the end they say this side of the
[18:41] new combination
[18:43] would be at the fairground property
[18:44] north of callahan. We do
[18:45] have a lot of property there. We have
[18:47] a lot of property that we lease
[18:50] to the fair association for 100
[18:53] years, but there's still
[18:56] additional properties
[18:58] there. Hilliard elementary, the sunshine,
[18:59] the barricades are things
[19:00] we're going to be working on now.
[19:02] just some improvements to
[19:04] current buildings as well as for hilliard
[19:05] middle senior
[19:06] high school. No new construction there in
[19:11] this recommendation.
[19:12] wildlight, this is basically already done.
[19:14] we've added
[19:16] nine primary classrooms and fournered mediate
[19:17] and
[19:19] middle classrooms. And we've done
[19:20] some
[19:23] remodeling.
[19:26] we're not doing those new
[19:28] portables. First of all the buildings
[19:29] are already small and
[19:31] using the portables still and they
[19:33] keep coming there. That's where we are.
[19:35] this is done
[19:38] right now. Ycec, this is our old building
[19:40] on 17. So they recommend some repairs
[19:41] there, creating a technology
[19:44] center, maybe an agcenter
[19:47] or cte complex there, not bad
[19:49] yis. We believe there are many opportunities
[19:50] even
[19:52] opportunities for us to collaborate
[19:53] with the county and other
[19:56] folks there on the property. Nassauville
[19:59] they recommended we had the property
[20:00] you
[20:02] all know about at the end of the concourse
[20:05] recommend a new
[20:08] elementary pre-k-5 to support
[20:11] the increase in population in
[20:13] the nassauville yulee area. And yulee
[20:14] elementary, this
[20:16] is another big one. They recommend
[20:20] closing
[20:23] yulee primary school
[20:24] andnered mediate. Their response we
[20:26] have to close
[20:28] yulee primary school because of its
[20:29] proximity to the
[20:32] gun range. They said combine
[20:35] yulee primary and yulee
[20:37] elementary school and make that a
[20:38] k-5 school and
[20:41] move the district office to the yulee
[20:42] elementary school. Not bad ideas,
[20:44] again, these are recommendations we don't
[20:45] have
[20:46] a plan yet in our school district.
[20:47] and then
[20:49] a new yulee elementary school, which
[20:50] would be a
[20:53] k-
[20:56] 5 school. Yulee high school,
[20:59] you'll
[21:01] see on this slide on the next one, they
[21:02] did not recommend anything for a new middle
[21:03] school or high high
[21:05] school yulee. Yulee high school
[21:08] and yulee
[21:11] middle school are
[21:13] 1,400 schools. So they recommended
[21:14] some
[21:16] remodeling, some up grades, some expanding of
[21:17] the dining, but
[21:19] no recommendations for a new school.
[21:20] same with
[21:23] yulee
[21:29] middle.
[21:31] fernadina beach middle they recommended
[21:35] we demo that school and move
[21:37] the middle and high school together.
[21:38] these are, again,
[21:40] their recommendations. We do not have
[21:41] a
[21:44] plan yet. And then
[21:47] fernandina beach
[21:49] middle-high school, make that all
[21:53] one campus. Emma love, just some up
[21:54] grades and
[21:56] improvements there on the current
[21:59] campus as well as
[22:01] southside elementary school. And then
[22:02] these
[22:04] are just some current projects that
[22:05] have been
[22:07] completed and that are in the works.
[22:08] I just kind of wanted you to
[22:11] get an overall view. You'll see
[22:14] the weight room, some
[22:16] painting, some softball improvements,
[22:17] playground
[22:19] improvements, marquee sign nl, kitchen
[22:20] up grades. These are
[22:23] just things that
[22:25] are have happening or are happening
[22:26] now through our
[22:28] maintenance facilities. There again
[22:29] those are
[22:30] state recommendations. What our board
[22:32] has asked us to do is to come
[22:35] together, work on a plan for our most
[22:37] immediate needs, and then we will
[22:38] work together for
[22:40] a longer-term plan, a master plan
[22:41] for future
[22:43] schools in the nos ou county school
[22:44] district. You
[22:46] all know that we're growing like crazy
[22:47] and especially in
[22:49] the yulee area, so we know there are
[22:50] some immediate needs that we have
[22:52] to address. Now, as I said earlier,
[22:53] they don't give you
[22:55] money to go with these recommendations.
[22:56] so in the past we have saved
[22:59] our money for years until we had enough
[23:00] money
[23:01] to build a school, and then we build
[23:03] a school. We don't have
[23:04] that luxury today or in the future,
[23:05] so we are looking for opportunities
[23:07] on what we can do to secure the funds
[23:09] that we need to
[23:12] build schools for our needs that
[23:15] we have now. This is
[23:17] just a good visual for you of our budget.
[23:18] if
[23:20] you'll see up here, this is where
[23:21] our
[23:22] funds come from. You'll see these
[23:24] are local funds and these
[23:26] are save funds. As our local tax base
[23:28] increases, state funding goes down.
[23:30] it's not
[23:33] always equal. They
[23:34] don't maintain the same level of funding,
[23:36] so you'll see majority of our
[23:37] funds come from local. On the right
[23:39] you'll
[23:42] see this is our blue area is
[23:43] spent, big area is salary benefit.
[23:45] over 70%
[23:46] of our budget is in salary benefits.
[23:48] our people
[23:49] make the difference. I like to know
[23:51] and so do our families they know who's
[23:52] driving the bus, who's working the
[23:54] kitchen, who's working
[23:55] the cafeteria, who's in the office.
[23:56] our people make the difference. So
[23:59] how do we continue to improve? Make
[24:00] sure that we
[24:02] have a rigorous curriculum, recruit
[24:03] and retain
[24:06] the best teachers, expand
[24:07] our partnerships within our community,
[24:09] our career and technical
[24:10] opportunities, continuously review
[24:12] the data to see how we
[24:15] can improve, and
[24:17] you'll see our little brick over here.
[24:18] we've got
[24:20] a plan for the future. And actually
[24:23] it's here now. That's where we are.
[24:24] so thank you all.
[24:27] do we have any questions?
[24:33] >>
[24:35] I do.
[24:36] >> what's the rationale --I
[24:37] understand
[24:39] combining schools is supposed to
[24:42] save money, you'd have fewer buildings, you can
[24:44] do something else with the other buildings.
[24:45] but what is your opinion
[24:48] we have a 6-12 in milliard and middle
[24:50] senior right now. Is that a good model,
[24:51] or do you like
[24:52] the middle school being separate from
[24:54] the high school? I think
[24:57] 6th graders --how do you separate
[24:59] a 6th grader from a senior in high
[25:00] school?
[25:01] >> so I
[25:02] think hilliard is unique because of
[25:03] that community and their size.
[25:05] I don't know yet. When we look at what
[25:06] other counties are
[25:08] doing, and of course we follow st.
[25:11] john's very closely, and we know that that's
[25:12] what they're doing.
[25:13] they're doing it for two reasons.
[25:15] number one, to save
[25:16] money, and number two, they don't
[25:18] have a lot of land. So I'm really
[25:19] not sure. I think we will continue
[25:21] to explore that. You
[25:24] know, right now I --I don't
[25:25] know if that's the best thing because
[25:27] I do know what a 6th grader is
[25:29] like and then a high schooler. So, yeah.
[25:33] somebody else have a
[25:36] question?
[25:37] >> we've mentioned it
[25:38] before, has it been talked about to
[25:39] build up versus out
[25:42] on some of your sites?
[25:43] >> yes,
[25:46] absolutely. And, you know, the piece of
[25:47] property we have at the end of the concourse here, and it
[25:48] was mentioned in one of
[25:49] the slides, we would have to do it
[25:51] if we build there because we
[25:52] don't have the land capacity to do
[25:54] what we would do in a
[25:56] spread out space so absolutely. When you look at
[25:59] other counties st. John's in particular
[26:00] they're building
[26:03] up instead of out. The other issue we
[26:04] would
[26:05] face is they have the additional capital
[26:06] millage for
[26:08] their construction projects that passed
[26:09] in their county last
[26:10] year, but they're finding all their
[26:12] bids are coming in double
[26:13] for all their projects, so they're
[26:15] having to reassess where they
[26:18] are and what they're going to
[26:20] do.
[26:21] >> dr. Burns, I'd just like to
[26:22] commend
[26:24] you and your board and
[26:27] all your staff
[26:28] structural and nonstructural on the
[26:30] job you've done for
[26:32] many years regardless of who's been
[26:33] on the board. The
[26:35] board's always done a great job, and
[26:36] your people,
[26:38] they do make the difference whether
[26:39] they're in
[26:42] the classroom or out of the classroom.
[26:45] I've got my nassau county school district
[26:47] lapel pin on today.
[26:48] >> I see it. >>
[26:49] in honor of that.
[26:51] and I'm due for a new one, I think.
[26:52] you
[26:53] stopped putting the years on there.
[26:54] >> we have a new
[26:57] one
[26:59] coming. We can't look the same.
[27:00] >> I have several of them at
[27:01] home. They used to do by
[27:03] year, and I had an
[27:06] old one that was like
[27:09] '22 and '23. She found me a
[27:10] general one that covers all the years
[27:12] because you've been doing it for so
[27:13] long.
[27:14] I know you talked about it all in
[27:15] your presentation,
[27:18] but some people
[27:20] just --I don't think they --when you're doing
[27:21] so well for
[27:23] so long, that becomes the expectation,
[27:24] and then people think,
[27:26] well, it's not a big deal anymore.
[27:27] it is
[27:29] a big deal the amount of work and
[27:30] effort and success you
[27:32] and the school district have had,
[27:33] so I just want to thank
[27:35] you and commend you for it.
[27:36] >> I appreciate
[27:37] that, and we
[27:38] do have great people. We have a wonderful
[27:39] board. And, you
[27:41] know, listen, this is not easy. And
[27:42] it's not
[27:45] easy to stay --keep climbing
[27:46] to the top because obviously they
[27:48] raise the bar on us, too, but I
[27:51] want to brag on everybody and of course
[27:54] alyson's a teacher and she knows what
[27:55] it's
[27:56] all about. I tell everybody this and
[27:57] I'm not going to leave here without
[27:59] saying this today. Wave at the bus
[28:00] drivers when you pass them
[28:03] on the road. Don't just go past
[28:06] that bus. Raise your hand if you would be
[28:08] a bus driver. Wave at the bus drivers.
[28:09] god bless the bus
[28:11] drivers, the teachers, the cafeteria
[28:12] workers, the
[28:15] pick up line at wildlight. If you haven't
[28:16] had
[28:17] the opportunity to drive down cure
[28:18] yusty in the early
[28:20] morning or in the afternoon and stay in
[28:21] that line to pick
[28:23] up your kid or somebody's kid, you
[28:24] need to
[28:27] see the phenomenal job they do. Someone
[28:30] just told me at event I was speaking
[28:31] at noon
[28:32] saying they must have gotten their
[28:33] training
[28:35] from chick-fil-a, those people know
[28:36] how to do it, and that's on
[28:38] top of all the other things they're doing.
[28:39] and let's add to
[28:41] that hurricanes and snow days, and
[28:42] all those, and just the
[28:44] resilience of the people and our students.
[28:45] I have a group of students that
[28:48] I meet with,
[28:51] student supervisory
[28:53] counsel students that are phenomenal.
[28:54] they are our future. I have
[28:57] your people come and speak to them
[28:58] because we want
[28:59] to hear from them as well. We have
[29:00] our challenges, and we are
[29:02] challenged to be better every day, but
[29:03] it's still nicer
[29:06] in nassau.
[29:07] >>
[29:08] commissioner gray.
[29:09] >> dr. Burns, thank
[29:10] you for coming.
[29:11] the yulee high school the naval cadet
[29:12] program, do
[29:14] you eventually see the possibility
[29:16] of that evolving into an
[29:18] rotc?
[29:19] >> it will. And so the program
[29:20] we're
[29:21] modeling after, of course they had to reach out to us
[29:22] and offer us the
[29:23] opportunity because you can't just
[29:25] say you want to sign up. We have
[29:26] been trying to get this since the
[29:28] school opened. In
[29:30] the models we see if we do this well
[29:31] for the next four
[29:32] to five years, it would evolve into
[29:34] an
[29:35] rotc program. Yes.
[29:36] >> thank you. I
[29:37] know there's a lot of work that's
[29:38] been
[29:39] done, a lot of building and construction
[29:41] at yulee high school and middle school.
[29:43] it looks like
[29:45] it may be built out, but I know y'all
[29:46] have
[29:48] a lot of students there, and it's
[29:49] a wonderful facility. I go
[29:52] to
[29:54] events there that are at the school on
[29:55] the
[29:57] school property. It's maintained and
[29:58] being in the school
[30:00] district here, I think rotc will be beneficial
[30:02] for our students.
[30:03] >> we're excited.
[30:04] we
[30:07] had 60 students sign up that
[30:08] were in the program, soso excited
[30:12] about that.
[30:13] >> dr. Burns, most of
[30:14] y'all know in the room
[30:15] I announce all the football games
[30:16] for west nassau high school. And
[30:18] I got pulled in that position a couple
[30:19] years ago.
[30:20] it's fun to be a part of that. I'd
[30:22] never announced
[30:24] a ball game before prior to my tenure
[30:25] being the voice for
[30:27] the warriors, but it's really been
[30:28] fun,
[30:31] really rewarding. To your point, the
[30:33] kids they're very, very helpful. You
[30:34] can see that
[30:35] parenting obviously goes a long way,
[30:37] but whenever they get dropped
[30:39] off at the school via bus or via parents,
[30:40] that's when the
[30:41] other set of parents take hold. And
[30:43] so you can really tell a difference
[30:45] over on the west side of the county.
[30:46] there's
[30:49] really, really some
[30:50] good, wholesome, let's say young people coming through the
[30:52] system, and that's definitely a product
[30:55] of what you just showed us there on
[30:56] the screen. I wanted to just go one
[30:58] step further in saying that
[30:59] the personal trainers out there on
[31:01] the football field have been a huge,
[31:02] huge
[31:03] step forward for our sports programs
[31:07] and athletic programs. We don't need
[31:09] to fail to mention them in anything and
[31:10] everything that we
[31:11] do because those --those guys and
[31:13] gals are out
[31:15] there engaged in all these sports,
[31:16] and it's
[31:19] a real heavy them, too. I've made
[31:22] friends with
[31:24] tony mara which is our trainer out
[31:25] there, and
[31:28] tony
[31:30] stretches himself really thin and all
[31:31] over the
[31:33] board and really cares about the kids and
[31:34] cares
[31:35] about athletics. You know, it's been a
[31:37] rare,
[31:38] rewarding friendship to make friends
[31:39] with him because then I'm able to
[31:40] kind
[31:41] of look behind the scenes and do what I
[31:43] can to try and
[31:44] volunteer or gather up other volunteers
[31:46] to make the situation a lot better
[31:48] out there. But I just wanted to say I
[31:49] know that there's
[31:50] some conversation coming about fields.
[31:52] you mentioned the rubberized
[31:55] track, and I was involved
[31:58] in that. Mr. Pierce asked me
[32:00] to out as a stakeholder the other day
[32:01] and set part
[32:03] of that meeting. I told him obviously
[32:04] on my side of
[32:06] town, football is a big thing. I mean
[32:07] for
[32:09] nassau county football is a huge thing.
[32:10] but we're
[32:11] starting to see other sports starting
[32:13] to come into
[32:15] the limelight like lacrosse. And lacrosse
[32:16] is starting to come
[32:18] up on the east side of the county.
[32:19] it's going to move and probably
[32:22] make its way on the west side. I
[32:24] have buddies of mine from south florida
[32:25] that live in the
[32:28] jupiter area, and their boys
[32:31] are heavily engaged in lacrosse.
[32:33] I would advise you to see it because it's
[32:34] very athletic.
[32:36] it's very interesting. It's almost a
[32:37] cross between football
[32:39] and hockey in a way. And, you know,
[32:40] it's very,
[32:42] very entertaining, very physical.
[32:43] and I look
[32:45] forward to seeing us continue to do
[32:46] big things
[32:49] for these kids because the more that
[32:50] we can offer them as
[32:52] far as athletics is
[32:53] concerned, the brighter their future
[32:55] can be in more than
[32:57] one way. And just like to say I know
[32:58] that there's
[33:01] challenges, you know, versus turf
[33:04] versus sod versus rubberized track.
[33:06] at least over on my side for the team
[33:07] I represent, I know that
[33:09] football is going to obviously be
[33:10] a
[33:12] lot bigger priority than the track
[33:13] is even though we care about
[33:16] our track stars as well. And just
[33:17] like
[33:18] to say that as we move forward and
[33:19] we research these contracts and
[33:21] stuff, the one thing that kind of
[33:22] stood out
[33:25] in questioning in that group the other day was
[33:28] the group that puts in these turf
[33:29] fields
[33:31] don't offer us a maintenance package
[33:32] for these
[33:33] turf fields.
[33:34] >> that's right. >> so I
[33:35] wanted to just go on the record of
[33:36] saying to the board that as we move
[33:37] forward, we
[33:38] might want to see what it's going
[33:40] to take for us to take care of this
[33:43] because that's new to me, and
[33:46] I know it's probably new to all of you, but
[33:47] we
[33:48] probably need to find out, you know,
[33:49] let's drill down and make sure
[33:51] if we've got to have machines to take
[33:52] care of that
[33:55] stuff, do you
[33:58] groom it after every game, have fluids
[34:01] that go out there and have to somehow
[34:02] disinfect the field? There's just
[34:04] a lot of questions I had.
[34:07] and so as we move forward, let's
[34:10] make sure that we put those out there
[34:11] for our people to
[34:13] make sure we keep safety at our forefront.
[34:14] but
[34:16] other than that, thank you so much.
[34:17] I appreciate you guys and appreciate
[34:18] you joining us tonight. Means a lot.
[34:19] >> so I appreciate you
[34:21] saying that. And I wasn't at that
[34:22] meeting, but I got a full update
[34:25] on it. And I talked about callahan, the
[34:26] west side
[34:28] is wet. One of the things
[34:30] within that project or whatever the project
[34:31] is going to be at west nassau and
[34:32] on
[34:33] the west side will be drainage, that
[34:34] we address that as well.
[34:37] and I want to mention one more thing about
[34:38] personal trainers.
[34:39] we attempted to hire them in the past
[34:40] and kind of we would have one
[34:43] here and have one there, but never were
[34:45] we able to have trainers for all of
[34:47] our high schools. Particularly hilliard
[34:49] we struggle with that. Now we're able
[34:50] to
[34:52] pay them adequately and have the support
[34:54] of u.s. Health, and I want to give
[34:56] a shout out to dr.
[34:57] jeremy coleman who's been a great
[34:59] partner with us as well. Having
[35:01] them on the field, and I was at the night a
[35:02] student
[35:03] broke his leg or whatever severe.
[35:05] having the trainer there and
[35:06] having the right people at the right
[35:08] time and knowing what to do
[35:09] has mademade huge difference. But
[35:11] it's just keeping our students safer
[35:12] and I appreciate that. Anybody else?
[35:14] >> dr. Burns, one thing.
[35:15] on the growth management part, we
[35:17] can sympathize with you
[35:19] on the needed planning for the cost --
[35:22] the increase cost as you look at the
[35:23] out years
[35:25] are exponentially more painful than
[35:26] they have ever been.
[35:28] and so we sympathize with you, and we
[35:29] look forward to
[35:30] the dynamic, creative work you're
[35:32] going have to do like we do
[35:35] to figure out how to reach
[35:38] those out-year capital plans.
[35:41] so keep pushing
[35:43] and creating --
[35:44] >> we will because
[35:45] we want
[35:46] everybody to be updated on these things.
[35:47] thank you all.
[35:48] >> thank you, dr.
[35:53] burns. Item b, interlocal
[35:56] agreement update.
[35:57] >> yes.
[35:58] so I am happy to report after three
[35:59] years, we were going to tell you we
[36:00] were updating this, we were updating
[36:02] this, but last
[36:04] week, and there has been some work
[36:05] overover
[36:07] time. It's just been hard for everybody
[36:08] to get
[36:10] together, but I want to say that last
[36:13] week, do we have four attorneys involved?
[36:14] >> we
[36:16] had at least one too many. There was
[36:20] one too
[36:21] many.
[36:22] >> very important to us. We had
[36:23] the town of hilliard attorney, the
[36:26] town of
[36:29] callahan attorney. Am I missing
[36:32] any? You had your four attorneys,
[36:35] staff
[36:37] involved. We went through the entire
[36:38] and
[36:39] local agreement. We have another date
[36:41] set for march. We're going to come back
[36:43] and look at all the changes that were made.
[36:44] so hopefully in
[36:45] just a very short time, we will have
[36:47] an updated
[36:48] interlocal agreement for everybody
[36:50] and every board to review
[36:52] and approve, and this is critical
[36:53] to all of us because
[36:55] some of the issues we're having to
[36:56] address not addressed in
[36:57] the current interlocal agreement that
[36:58] are causing everybody some problems
[36:59] and
[37:00] some pause. So very soon we're going
[37:05] to
[37:08] have that.
[37:09] >> and item
[37:11] c I have is the impact fee report.
[37:14] >> yes. So we are required to provide
[37:17] you with an update every
[37:20] year on
[37:26] our impact -- on our impact fee
[37:29] collections and then
[37:31] our current expenditures. So this
[37:32] is the report for
[37:35] you
[37:38] all. And thank you, ms. Ellen harper
[37:39] is
[37:40] here, our finance director to put all
[37:41] this together.
[37:44] and actually she gave you more information
[37:46] than I have. She goes above and beyond.
[37:47] if you look
[37:50] at starting from 2005 through
[37:52] 2014, '15, you'll see the totals we
[37:54] received, interest. She's making money
[37:56] on our money,
[37:58] the grand total. So if you go down
[37:59] to really the
[38:01] bottom of the page you'll see our
[38:02] ballots year over year. But
[38:05] if you look at fund balances
[38:08] and the usages for
[38:11] of the 24,
[38:14] 25, we have the yulee
[38:17] model, portable leases, portable setups,
[38:18] new schools
[38:19] to be determined. Every year in our
[38:20] capital budget we set
[38:23] aside dollars for that new school, like I
[38:25] talked about earlier. We just don't
[38:26] have enough time to set
[38:29] aside money
[38:32] out of our total capital budget.
[38:34] you'll see our total fund balance.
[38:35] if you go to the next
[38:37] page, you'll see a graphic that identifies
[38:38] our impact
[38:39] fee revenues earned and available
[38:41] for the fiscal years. You'll see the
[38:44] funds collected and available the
[38:45] first
[38:47] several years. We're
[38:49] almost none, that's because we were
[38:50] using those for the wildlife school.
[38:52] if you go to the next page, you'll
[38:53] see another graphic
[38:55] that shows you where our dollars are.
[38:56] you'll see we have
[38:58] a majority of those dollars set aside
[38:59] for the next new school. So we
[39:01] are required to present this to you
[39:02] every year, so this
[39:05] is meeting that requirement for us.
[39:06] >> mr.
[39:08] chairman, I have a question.
[39:09] >> commissioner
[39:10] mark.
[39:11] >> so if I read this correctly, right
[39:12] now you have
[39:13] a little over $27 million set aside
[39:14] for a new school?
[39:17] >> right. >> what do you estimate
[39:18] the cost
[39:20] of a new school?
[39:21] >> we don't
[39:23] have an actual number right now.
[39:25] we thought we had some numbers, but we
[39:26] are working with
[39:28] the associates who works with several
[39:29] on this type of thing.
[39:31] we know whatever we think our number
[39:32] is going to be
[39:35] double that. When we built
[39:38] wildlight it was about
[39:41] $23 million.
[39:42] >> thank you. >> I'm
[39:44] sorry, doctor. You're saying now
[39:46] you think it may have doubled.
[39:47] >> at
[39:48] least. At least.
[39:49] and we built the road to wildlight at
[39:50] the time
[39:51] as well because there was nothing
[39:53] there when we built that school, and
[39:54] of course
[39:56] we got paid back for that road
[39:59] over time. But,
[40:02] yes, I would say
[40:05] double
[40:08] plus.
[40:09] >> any
[40:11] other
[40:13] questions? Okay. Item d, I just have
[40:14] other business as needed.
[40:17] I don't have any additional business,
[40:18] so what I would like to
[40:20] do is if I may go around, I'd like
[40:23] to give each board member to ask if you
[40:24] want
[40:26] to say something. Board
[40:28] member hogue.
[40:29] >> we just thank you
[40:30] you guys
[40:31] for allowing us to meet again. We
[40:32] always
[40:35] like seeing people. Thank you for
[40:36] everything
[40:38] you do. We know that being a
[40:41] public servant is just
[40:43] a service to others, so I appreciate
[40:44] everything that
[40:47] you guys did.
[40:48] >> right
[40:50] back to you. Ms.
[40:52] braddock?
[40:53] >> also thank you very much,
[40:54] and
[40:56] we appreciate your support. You know, it's
[40:57] difficult being in
[41:00] the public eye a
[41:02] lot. In fact, I don't think I've seen
[41:03] you
[41:05] since the last time you were here.
[41:06] that's how busy you
[41:09] are, and we live in the
[41:11] same neighborhood.
[41:12] >> I'm beat when
[41:14] I go by. Anyway, we look forward to
[41:16] meeting with you annually, and we
[41:18] talked last time about maybe
[41:20] making it two times a year.
[41:21] >> yes,
[41:22] and I think as we
[41:23] progress through whatever our planning will be
[41:27] for future, we will want to come back
[41:28] to you and talk about it some more.
[41:30] >> mr.
[41:31] zimmerman?
[41:32] >> thank you. This is my
[41:33] first time attending
[41:36] this meeting
[41:39] and previously sat down at that
[41:42] part of the dias.
[41:43] I'm grateful for the commissioners
[41:45] for continued support and
[41:48] we stand
[41:51] ready for
[41:52] any issue in any way possible.
[41:53] >>
[41:54] I like the
[41:57] partnership that we
[42:00] have, you know, that
[42:01] the different communities are all
[42:03] part of
[42:06] our growth
[42:08] management so that everybody is having input.
[42:09] and it is going to
[42:11] be challenging once we start deciding
[42:12] what
[42:14] direction we want to go and having
[42:15] that
[42:17] partnership and keeping everybody
[42:18] informed
[42:21] will hopefully make it a little
[42:24] bit easy and anticipate --
[42:26] I mean, y'all don't have to deal with
[42:29] rezoning --well, you have to do a
[42:30] rezoning --
[42:32] attendance zonings, and that's probably
[42:33] going to be one of the
[42:36] first things we have to
[42:39] do, and that's not anybody's
[42:41] favorite discussion item. So there's
[42:42] challenges to be
[42:45] met.
[42:46] >> commissioner martin? >>
[42:47] well, I said an awful lot earlier,
[42:50] so I'll be brief. We'll be brief this time.
[42:51] unless
[42:53] I missed it, dr. Burns, you usually say
[42:54] in every
[42:57] one of these meetings, if
[43:00] it wasn't for teachers.
[43:01] >> we
[43:03] vnt have
[43:04] other professions. That's right. Everybody
[43:06] has a teacher first.
[43:07] >>
[43:09] make sure we got that.
[43:11] >> yes. >> thank you, mr. Chairman.
[43:12] you know,
[43:13] I've heard it said before in different
[43:17] ways, and I think it --it's really
[43:18] true for
[43:21] we are here in nassau county, but
[43:22] places
[43:23] that don't live, thrive, and grow,
[43:24] they die. And at
[43:25] the end of the day I think all of
[43:27] us that have
[43:30] a vested interest here, and
[43:33] I look around the dais, around the
[43:34] room, and there's people that lived
[43:36] here a long, long time. My
[43:38] family moved here in '74 and lived
[43:39] here
[43:40] my entire life, essentially. Went
[43:42] to callahan schools and
[43:44] was blessed with really, really good
[43:45] educators along the way.
[43:48] and they didn't just teach. Like I
[43:49] said before when you
[43:51] were
[43:54] up there, where your parents didn't
[43:55] have
[43:56] their eyeballs on you. It means a
[43:57] lot to see the
[43:59] parent engagement, whenever you drop
[44:00] your kid off school
[44:02] that they're in good hands. And just
[44:03] wanted to
[44:04] say thank you in the bottom of my heart.
[44:06] I've got a niece
[44:08] now that's 10 coming up through the
[44:09] school systems in
[44:12] callahan, and she's what we call
[44:14] the miter bird because she talks,
[44:15] but she
[44:17] comes by that honestly. But she's --
[44:18] I
[44:20] know you'll find that very humorous.
[44:23] I think that, you know, watching her,
[44:24] though, develop
[44:27] we'll say I'm not so sure maybe --
[44:28] she may
[44:29] be the physician of the family. She's
[44:30] very, very
[44:32] detailed and intricate, and some of
[44:33] the stuff she
[44:36] comes up with kind of blows me away
[44:37] as
[44:38] uncle bub a, she would call it. I
[44:39] just want to say thank you
[44:42] because there's so much going on out there.
[44:43] nobody mentioned
[44:44] it, but we mentioned it several times,
[44:45] and you
[44:48] guys see it too because we see people
[44:49] throw
[44:50] the stones. Social media is very,
[44:54] very ugy
[44:57] to all of us as electeds
[44:59] and public officials. I appreciate
[45:00] you
[45:03] guys standing strong and
[45:06] communicating with people, putting yourself out
[45:09] there in harms way saying you haven't reached
[45:10] out
[45:12] to us. Instead of the banter and
[45:15] playing around and giving it another
[45:18] light, you pick up the phone. I squim
[45:19] saying
[45:20] this not because I sit on the board, I can
[45:21] pick up the phone and call
[45:22] and these people answer their e-mails
[45:24] and answer their phones.
[45:27] let's continue to stay above the fray.
[45:28] I say don't wallow in
[45:29] the mud with hogs, and let's continue
[45:30] to do what's best
[45:33] for nassau county and be proud that
[45:34] we're
[45:35] all here and a great place to live, that
[45:36] people aspire to bring their
[45:39] family here, to raise a family, and
[45:41] educate their young ones. So thank
[45:42] you all
[45:45] very much.
[45:46] >> thank you, commissioner.
[45:47] >>
[45:48] commissioner gray.
[45:49] >> thank you, mr.
[45:50] chairman. Yes, I
[45:51] want to thank each and every one of
[45:52] y'all for all your hard
[45:54] work
[45:56] and efforts in maintaining nassau county's
[45:57] a-rated school. As we flourish
[46:00] here in nassau county and grow, people
[46:01] come here
[46:02] to raise their families and have their
[46:04] children go to a
[46:05] safe environment and school environment,
[46:06] and that's a big thing nowadays. I
[46:09] mean on the eastern sea board, you want
[46:10] to
[46:12] come to a place raise your children,
[46:13] grow
[46:14] up, have them go to school, be safe.
[46:16] and, you know, the
[46:18] schools, the facilities that y'all
[46:19] are providing for our students and our growth
[46:22] in the county
[46:23] is wonderful. And like the commissioner
[46:25] said earlier, if we're not
[46:26] growing, we're dying. And we don't
[46:28] want that.
[46:29] we want economic opportunity and expansion.
[46:31] we thank y'all as
[46:34] a partner very much.
[46:36] and again, congratulations on another
[46:37] year of
[46:39] a-rated schools in nassau county.
[46:42] >> commissioner m ccullough. >> I
[46:43] should
[46:45] have asked you earlier at the dais.
[46:46] one
[46:48] of the barriers I receive on both
[46:49] ends parents are like,
[46:50] oh, the commission's just building
[46:52] all these neighborhoods, and there's
[46:53] nowhere for these children to go to
[46:55] schools, but I'm so glad
[46:57] you highlighted number one, we are
[47:00] not above glasroom capacity. Any of
[47:01] our schools because a
[47:03] lot of the banter does come from people
[47:06] who do not know the fact, but we're
[47:07] not over
[47:09] those fte counts. You just quoted
[47:10] $27
[47:11] million for the last school we built
[47:13] and we're looking at doubling that.
[47:16] people don't understand the financial risk
[47:18] of prebuilding out schools, that the state
[47:19] requires
[47:21] we have to have bodies before we can
[47:22] even
[47:23] consider school growth. So I think
[47:25] one of the things that I
[47:26] highlight every year for the public
[47:28] when we have this meeting
[47:29] is without the homes and neighborhoods, there are
[47:31] no new schools. And
[47:32] I just think that's important for
[47:34] both of us to remember and
[47:37] recognize as we move
[47:39] forward and for the public to be consciously made aware
[47:40] of, that
[47:41] without the neighborhoods there will
[47:42] be no new schools. And the cost to
[47:43] build
[47:44] and looking at you brought up the
[47:46] pie chart. When
[47:47] those local taxes come in and the
[47:49] state revenues go
[47:51] down, people think that we get this
[47:52] huge check from the state,
[47:53] and that is now how it works. More
[47:55] homes come in, so everything
[47:56] just takes time. And I think that
[47:58] the more you know, the
[48:00] more empowered you are to make those
[48:01] positive decisions
[48:04] that affect your communities so
[48:06] much. You know, I'm a 15-year teacher.
[48:07] ms.
[48:10] simpkens was my first principal.
[48:12] she hired me. 15 years later I'm still
[48:13] here at
[48:15] hilliard after she hired me. But one
[48:16] of
[48:17] the closing of our mission statement
[48:19] is to make productive
[48:20] members of society, and I've worked
[48:22] with teachers who have been there
[48:24] for six months, who have been there for
[48:25] a year. Some of us
[48:26] have been there in the trenches. I
[48:28] call it in the trenches for a
[48:30] long time. But I can tell you this,
[48:31] if you survive a
[48:32] decade in public education, you can
[48:34] survive anything. You can --
[48:36] if you have been there more than a
[48:37] decade, your investment
[48:40] in your community and growth and the true heart you
[48:41] believe
[48:43] to make nassau county a better place.
[48:46] I think a lot of times, dr. Burns,
[48:47] you
[48:48] and I had a conversation about this earlier.
[48:49] we
[48:51] do have a false tenacity to look at
[48:52] the negatives and
[48:53] highlight the negatives. We're doing
[48:55] such
[48:58] amazing things as the nos awe board
[48:59] of
[49:00] commissioners, school board working
[49:01] together,
[49:04] our sheriffs and police to make
[49:07] nassau county
[49:09] one of the greatest communities to
[49:10] live
[49:12] in the state. Our students, our parents,
[49:13] our residents
[49:16] so much more positive. And I hope in 2025
[49:17] we're
[49:18] really looking and focusing on what
[49:19] are the positive things and things
[49:21] we're doing right and growing on those right things,
[49:22] so thank you, mr.
[49:24] chairman.
[49:25] >> dr. Burns? >> I just
[49:26] want to say
[49:27] I do appreciate I know I can pick
[49:28] up the phone and call any one
[49:31] of you. I want to give out
[49:34] a shot out because I can always call him.
[49:37] I we share ideas. You know,
[49:38] looking ahead to the future, and I
[49:40] appreciate the working relationship
[49:41] we
[49:42] all have. Even if it's something bad,
[49:43] something good.
[49:46] and I want to re-emphasize again
[49:49] if you look at
[49:51] our interlocal agreement if we do
[49:52] close schools
[49:55] or make decisions moving forward, I
[49:56] believe there
[49:57] are opportunities to benefit all of
[49:58] nassau county whether we turn
[50:01] it into youth
[50:02] facilities, affordable housing or
[50:04] something like that,
[50:05] I believe there's many opportunities
[50:07] for the
[50:08] future and appreciate the cooperation and
[50:10] support I get from all of you.
[50:11] >> a
[50:12] comment following on what she said.
[50:13] >> when we
[50:16] were allowed to
[50:19] build yulee high school, there were
[50:20] over --
[50:22] there were 27
[50:25] portables. There was
[50:27] 27 portables at the high school before they
[50:28] gave us a recommendation.
[50:31] and a lot of people --
[50:34] and the attendance
[50:37] zone, redesigning that, was something that had to
[50:38] be done
[50:42] first, too. With neighborhoods we
[50:43] don't just
[50:45] get to just jump in.
[50:46] >> thank you
[50:47] very much. I'd like to close
[50:48] with this. We're the sixth fastest
[50:49] growing
[50:52] county
[50:54] in the state of florida. That's a reality.
[50:55] we're I believe the
[50:58] 31st in the nation. Am
[51:00] I close? 46, I'm sorry. I'm exaggerating.
[51:01] the 46th out
[51:04] of 3,100 counties in the nation.
[51:07] and I know that when folks relocate
[51:10] for work or for life
[51:12] change, the first thing they do is look
[51:13] at the schools before they figure out
[51:15] where they're going to buy their house
[51:16] or relocate to. So the
[51:19] challenges are there for both of you.
[51:20] recently we
[51:21] had a joint meeting with the city.
[51:22] here we are now with the
[51:24] joint meeting with the school board.
[51:25] we are one nassau.
[51:27] everybody is working together on these
[51:28] tremendous challenges, and I
[51:31] think that as public servants we are
[51:32] completely
[51:33] transparent in the efforts that we
[51:34] put forth for the
[51:36] citizens of nassau county. If you
[51:37] don't know
[51:39] the numbers and you don't see the
[51:40] data, you're just not looking.
[51:43] so, folks, we're out here serving
[51:44] for you and I
[51:45] think we're doing good work, and we're
[51:47] going to keep plugging forward
[51:48] to improve nassau county for everybody.
[51:51] and on that, I am going to adjourn.
[51:53] thank you very much, dr. Burns and school board.