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   Presentation by Dr. John Legg, Pasco County Schools Superintendent RE: Education Update on City of NPR Schools

   discussed

   Dr. John Legg, Pasco County Schools Superintendent, presented an education update on New Port Richey schools, highlighting significant academic concerns particularly at Ritchie Elementary, Gulf Middle, and Gulf High School (the NPR feeder pattern), where state intervention is a risk. He outlined investments, curriculum changes, the relocation of the Achieve Center from Ritchie Elementary to Mittye P. Locke, and a new bridge program. Mike Goody then previewed the Gulf Middle School replacement construction project, with new building instruction starting January 2027 and total completion summer 2027.

   • direction:Pasco County Schools is relocating the Achieve Center from Ritchie Elementary to Mittye P. Locke and switching math curriculum at struggling schools. (none)
   • direction:Construction of the Gulf Middle School replacement will begin summer 2025, with new building occupancy in January 2027 and full completion summer 2027. (none)

   📍corner of Louisiana and Harrison🏢Achieve Center🏢Conmigo🏢Gulf High School🏢Gulf Middle School🏢Mittye P. Locke Elementary🏢Pasco County Schools🏢Ritchie Elementary School🏢University of Florida👤Dr. John Legg👤Dr. Mike Grego👤Dr. Shawna Rafalski👤Mike Goody#Academic turnaround plan#Bridge program for retained 4th/5th graders#Bureau of State Intervention (BSI) schools / Opportunity Schools#Gulf Middle School replacement project#VPK program changes

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   [00:00:29] Mayor, council members, and clerk, and distinguished City of New Port Richey officials, thank you [00:00:45] for allowing us to be here today. [00:00:48] The reason why we asked to actually come is we want to make sure as a school district [00:00:55] that we are good partners with you in the City of New Port Richey and that education, [00:01:00] I am confident, is one of your top agenda items. [00:01:05] Something that you're always aware of. [00:01:06] Something that impacts your city quite a bit. [00:01:09] And as you know, education is always changing and you have quite a few schools in your district, [00:01:15] in your city limits. [00:01:16] And we wanted to take this opportunity really just to really unlock the door and have open [00:01:21] communication regarding education in the schools that are in your community and kind [00:01:26] of give you kind of a state of the city of education here. [00:01:30] There's a lot of great things that are happening, but there's also some things that are concerned [00:01:35] that we want to just make you aware of and have opportunities to work with you on really [00:01:39] over the next year. [00:01:41] And I hope you would have us back next year. [00:01:43] And in any things that we outline here that we have an open line of communication between [00:01:48] your team and us, me personally, and each one of you as issues arise. [00:01:54] So with that, I don't know if you have slides up there for us to follow along, but I'll [00:01:59] go through. [00:02:00] We'll go to page, do I have the clicker here? [00:02:04] Oh wow, I have got the power. [00:02:07] So I hope you excuse my informalness of my communication here, but I really want this [00:02:15] to be a dialogue of what's going on with schools in your area. [00:02:19] And please ask questions as we go along. [00:02:21] So kind of what I want to cover is a little bit about some of the schools that are within [00:02:25] your city limits. [00:02:26] Ritchie, Cody, Golf Middle, Golf High School, Mitty Pielock, Achieve Center. [00:02:31] Also some of the topics is overview of the Achieve School, some investments into the [00:02:37] schools that the school district has recently done, some program changes that our school [00:02:41] board has approved and that are going to be coming to some of the schools that are [00:02:45] within your area. [00:02:47] Some exciting things dealing with Golf Middle School that is occurring there, and some of [00:02:52] our academic action plans that we are working on on the schools that are going to affect [00:02:57] the students and families in your area. [00:03:01] Just a high overview of some of the recent investments into the schools that are in your [00:03:07] area. [00:03:08] Just recently, you can see that there's been a significant amount of dollars in the last [00:03:13] five years into the schools that service the students. [00:03:17] Here in New Port Richey, without going into all the details, but going way back to 2013 [00:03:24] with the remodel of Ritchie, going to the remodel in 21 of Marlowe, that's actually [00:03:29] where I just came from, Mitty Pielock, the Golf High School, significant, as you know, [00:03:37] significant remodel there at Golf High School. [00:03:40] As you are beginning to see, and this will be a longer topic here that Mike Goody from [00:03:45] our facilities department will give you the first, even before our school board meeting [00:03:51] workshop, a preview of what Golf Middle School will be looking like as we start construction [00:03:56] with Golf Middle School and some of our relocation at the Achieve Center. [00:04:05] Some snapshots of what some of the remodel looks like, as you guys all know. [00:04:10] The one area that I want to kind of highlight, and this is the area that I want to just dive [00:04:16] deep in. [00:04:17] Before I switch the slide, I want to preface this, this is probably the area of my biggest [00:04:22] concern and focus. [00:04:25] The area of my biggest concern and focus is academics. [00:04:30] We really have kind of a three-pronged approach as we go into this next school year. [00:04:36] The first prong of that approach is we're focusing on academics, that's our laser focus. [00:04:43] The second is to remove distractions from our classroom teachers, from our principals, [00:04:48] from our schools, from our school board, to allow them to focus on academic achievement. [00:04:54] And three, as elected school board members, elected board members, I'm sure you've addressed [00:04:59] this all the time, we want to minimize drama. [00:05:04] Unnecessary drama. [00:05:05] Allow our teachers to focus on students. [00:05:08] Drama will find us. [00:05:09] That's just the way we live in a culture where drama will tend to find us. [00:05:12] But let's not bring unnecessary drama to our teachers, our students, and our families. [00:05:17] Let's focus on academics and let's allow our students to succeed. [00:05:22] However, with that being said, if we were to look at all the schools in Pasco County, [00:05:28] and I was to say, what is the one feeder pattern of schools that concerns me most academically? [00:05:35] I would say it's the feeder pattern of schools that are residing here in the city of New Port Richey. [00:05:40] And what I mean by the feeder pattern of schools is the schools that all funnel into each other. [00:05:47] Meaning Ritchie Elementary, Gulf Middle School, going into Gulf High School. [00:05:51] None of how they all kind of work collaboratively. [00:05:55] We are struggling. [00:05:56] And I will say that we are struggling in those areas and we are looking for you to be partners [00:06:03] with us. [00:06:06] Partners is not a code word for, hey, we want money. [00:06:10] I am not saying that at all. [00:06:11] We are talking partners of how to implement strategies, working to assist those students [00:06:17] and families that are struggling. [00:06:19] What do I mean by that? [00:06:22] If you look at our achievement scores, I am just going to give you blanket achievement [00:06:28] scores and take a second to orient yourself on what the bar graphs look like. [00:06:33] The percentage there, those are percentage, and that is the percentage of students that [00:06:37] are on grade level at the school. [00:06:40] And if you look at Ritchie Elementary, you see there for English Language Arts, we are [00:06:45] at 22%. [00:06:47] If you look at it for Science, we are at 16%. [00:06:50] We are doing a little bit better there in Math at 42%. [00:06:53] But when you say 22% of our students are on grade level at Ritchie Elementary School, [00:06:59] I equate it to this way. [00:07:01] That means put five kids in front of you and say four of them are not going to be on grade [00:07:07] level. [00:07:08] That is just not acceptable to us. [00:07:11] We have to intervene. [00:07:12] We have to find ways. [00:07:14] It is a five alarm fire for us at the school district, for me and myself personally. [00:07:20] I grew up in West Pasco. [00:07:22] I remember the days where people would camp out in front of Ritchie Fundamental School [00:07:28] to get their kids into Ritchie. [00:07:30] They would literally camp out the night before in order to get their kids because Ritchie [00:07:35] was the highest performing school in our county back when I was in elementary school. [00:07:42] I have a lot of friends and family. [00:07:44] They would do anything to get their kids into that school. [00:07:49] Times have changed. [00:07:50] You know that. [00:07:51] No one is to blame. [00:07:52] But we are now in an academic area where we are at risk in those areas. [00:07:58] Look at student learning gains. [00:07:59] You can see that only 36% of students at Ritchie, they are in English Language Arts, are on [00:08:06] the pathway. [00:08:08] We are a little bit better, but we are still struggling. [00:08:12] Something less than half are struggling with learning gains. [00:08:15] So there are some consequences to this. [00:08:20] While you are going to see us today talk about the investments that we are focused on and [00:08:24] want to make into these areas, there are consequences if we do not succeed. [00:08:31] Those consequences are more, and it is heartbreaking for me to say this, are more than just in [00:08:35] the lives of the students. [00:08:37] You are going to see the state has some significant consequences if we do not turn this around [00:08:42] and turn this around quickly. [00:08:45] We have very little margin for error, and we have very little time to do this in. [00:08:51] If you look at the demographic snapshot, this is the percentage of minorities at the school. [00:08:56] As you know, when you look at the economic disadvantage, according to our state numbers, [00:09:03] we are servicing students that do not come from affluent backgrounds. [00:09:09] This is where many of our challenges come from. [00:09:13] As you know, grades are not everything. [00:09:15] Letter grades are not everything in a school, but they do matter and they do have consequences. [00:09:22] Just to paint the picture of the consequences, if a school gets a D or an F for more than [00:09:34] three years in a row, the state can come in, and will come in, and give us only three options. [00:09:43] Option one, close the school down. [00:09:46] To me, that is not an option. [00:09:48] Two, turn it over to a charter school. [00:09:51] That is not an option. [00:09:52] These are our schools in the community here. [00:09:54] The third is to work with, to turn it over to a private provider. [00:09:59] We are getting near those deadlines on some of these schools, and we need to take action [00:10:04] now, and we are taking action now, this year. [00:10:08] It's of our highest priority. [00:10:10] We have called these schools, the state calls them BSI schools, Bureau of State Intervention [00:10:19] schools. [00:10:21] I don't like government acronyms, I just feel like it kind of puts it that way. [00:10:25] We call them opportunity schools, because we believe there is an opportunity here to [00:10:28] intervene for families and students, and provide a high quality education, and that is what [00:10:33] we are looking at doing. [00:10:34] How can we provide opportunities for these students in these schools? [00:10:39] If you look and you see, you can see the schools that we are talking about are struggling. [00:10:46] Gough Middle School right now is probably, and Ritchie, I would say, are in our target [00:10:56] to intervene the most and the quickest. [00:11:00] What we have done is we have brought in someone working who just focuses on opportunity schools. [00:11:09] One of the first things that I did in December is I have found that you are only as good [00:11:16] as the people that you surround yourself with, and surround yourself with people that [00:11:20] have been through the fire before. [00:11:22] Our friends just to the south of us in Pinellas County, and I can't believe I am saying this, [00:11:27] I am a Pasco guy my whole life, but I had to look to Pinellas for a little bit of advice. [00:11:33] If you recall, for those of us that remember, it wasn't that many years ago that we were [00:11:38] reading in the, at that time, St. Petersburg time, about how in St. Petersburg and Pinellas [00:11:44] County that they were schools that they labeled failure factories, where there was not a single [00:11:50] student who was on grade level. [00:11:54] Think about that, schools, five, six schools, that there was not a single school for multiple [00:11:59] years that were not on grade level. [00:12:01] Dr. Mike Grego became superintendent, he has been there 13 years, today in Pinellas County [00:12:07] there is not a single school that is a DNF in Pinellas County. [00:12:11] So immediately we reached out to Dr. Grego, he is retired, and began working with him [00:12:16] on some strategies and implementations, how can we help our schools. [00:12:21] Working with a team of folks to develop plans, our own team, Dr. Grego, ourselves, what can [00:12:26] we do to intervene, not next year, but immediately, immediately in December, what can we start [00:12:33] doing to intervene in these schools. [00:12:37] So the first thing we did is we brought in someone who just is focused just on these [00:12:41] turnaround schools, we are calling them Opportunity Schools, Dr. Shawna Rafalski from the University [00:12:47] of Florida, she also worked in Pinellas County on these turnaround models to help intervene [00:12:52] and provide strategies in there. [00:12:54] Working with other tutoring, specifically here is Conamigo, I'm sorry, with AI tutoring, [00:13:03] and one of the things that I'm passionate about is our math curriculum. [00:13:09] Our math curriculum, while it was good in its day, standards have changed, times have [00:13:16] changed, and we immediately saw that our current math curriculum is not aligned to our current [00:13:21] state standards, and so our team quickly engaged, and as we all know, sometimes in government [00:13:26] we don't move really quickly, especially when it comes to curriculum adoption, we immediately [00:13:31] said we need to do something, and we started working with our principals, we asked our [00:13:36] principals, should we switch curriculum in these areas, and 92% said yes, and we need [00:13:42] to do it now. [00:13:43] So we're switching some of our curriculum to intervene in some of these areas. [00:13:49] Academic coaches, structured intervention time, and as you know, facilities matter. [00:13:56] You can have gorgeous facilities, but it's what goes in the facilities, but facilities [00:13:59] do matter. [00:14:00] They allow you an opportunity to rebrand, to refresh, to rejuvenate your outlook. [00:14:08] So we saw that with Gulf High School. [00:14:11] The remodel of Gulf High School helped their academics, I mean, it helped the school culture. [00:14:16] We're optimistic that that may occur too as well with Gulf Middle School, but it doesn't [00:14:20] do it without hard work, it doesn't do it without planning and people being engaged. [00:14:25] One of the things that we saw is, as you know, Middie P. Lock Early Learning Academy [00:14:31] was a VPK program. [00:14:34] What we saw, and what research has told us, and this is market research, the way VPK programs [00:14:39] work, and it's just anecdotal what we all see, Middie P. Lock was a stand-alone facility [00:14:47] where families would drop off their VPK learner there, and then the next year they'd have [00:14:53] to take them to another school. [00:14:55] Families want their VPK student to where they're going to go to elementary. [00:15:00] school. Why? Because most of them have siblings. So if I'm going to drop off my VPK at Middie [00:15:04] P. Lock, but then I'm going to go somewhere else to drop off my elementary school, it [00:15:09] just creates a hardship on families. During our first enrollment window, we only had three [00:15:15] families signed up to go to Middie P. Lock VPK program. We were losing several million [00:15:20] dollars a year of direct. That's not financially viable. Those are resources that we could [00:15:26] put into intervention. So we wanted to recalibrate. We are fully committed, and early learning [00:15:33] is essential. We must have early learning, but we must have it in locations that are [00:15:39] convenient and accessible to families. And what we saw was just the model of a standalone [00:15:44] VPK unit. Parents were just not selecting it. They were selecting other options. So [00:15:49] our school board looked into it. We're looking at expanding the options in other schools, [00:15:55] but what we have seen is, as you've noticed with Ritchie Elementary, Ritchie Elementary [00:16:00] has the Achieve Center. The Achieve Center has students that are at risk, that need a [00:16:06] lot of attention, and in speaking with the principals and the staff there, it's very [00:16:12] challenging to run that program on top of a school that's already academically struggling, [00:16:20] because they're responsible for basically two schools in one, and one school is really [00:16:24] extremely vulnerable population on top of another academically struggling community. [00:16:30] So we worked, and we wanted to be good stewards of our dollars, and so what we're doing is [00:16:34] we're moving the Achieve Center at Ritchie Elementary, and moving it to Middie P. Lock. [00:16:43] That way, the school at Ritchie can be laser focused on the students that are there, the [00:16:50] K-5 students that are at that location, and not have to wrestle with the other social [00:16:56] issues from the Achieve Center of the intervention programs that are there. [00:17:01] Also at Middie P. Lock, we see the need for students to have a second chance for recovery. [00:17:09] One of the programs that have had a lot of success in Pinellas County is a kind of a [00:17:14] bridge program. Oftentimes when some of our students are not successful in elementary [00:17:20] school and they get retained in fourth and fifth grade, when those developmental years [00:17:29] are now present, and what I mean by that is fifth graders today are quite different than, [00:17:35] believe it or not, fifth graders 10, 15 years ago, meaning that you may have some kids that [00:17:41] have aged over the normal fifth graders because they've been retained a couple of times. [00:17:47] So what we're looking at is a bridge program at Middie P. Lock to help those students do [00:17:52] two years in one, in order for them to catch up and get back into the mainstream at a regular [00:17:58] middle school. That way, it allows them the intervention and the services that they need, [00:18:03] but also helping the schools where they were, where you have a significantly older fifth [00:18:11] grader who's been retained a couple times to a much younger fifth grader at those schools. [00:18:19] With that, what I wanted just to kind of put on your radar is we are concerned about academics. [00:18:27] We are focused on academics. The families and students in New Port Richey matter, and [00:18:32] they matter greatly to me personally. They matter to our board. They matter to our team, [00:18:37] and we are laser-focused on helping and intervening in these schools. We wanted you as a city [00:18:43] council to know that the priority it is for us and what we are doing in those areas and [00:18:49] the concern level that we have and the interventions that we are putting in place not only now, [00:18:55] but we're going to be doing next year in order to turn around. [00:18:58] What I am hopeful is that maybe this time next year, we can come to you with good results [00:19:05] and good news in saying we've turned that D into a C or that D to a B. Our goal is not [00:19:11] to have any schools that are lower than a B here in Pasco County. It's going to take [00:19:16] us some time. It's going to take us some time, but we're committed to getting there. Again, [00:19:21] it's not the school grade that matters, but I will say student achievement at 22 percent [00:19:28] on reading level, no matter what assessment that is, we've got to do better than that. [00:19:33] We've got to move that needle in that area. [00:19:36] With that, what I'd like to do, with your permission, is I'd like to ask Mike Goody, [00:19:41] who's in charge of our construction services, to talk to you a little bit about an exciting [00:19:47] thing, the remodel and rebuilding of Golf Middle School. As you've seen the amazing [00:19:54] things that happened at Golf High School and the remodel there and the just brand new building [00:19:59] there, we are basically doing the same thing at Golf Middle School and the construction [00:20:03] is starting. With that, if you'll allow, I'll turn it over to Mr. Goody. [00:20:18] Thank you. Good afternoon. As Dr. Legg said, exciting may be a word you want to use. It's [00:20:25] exciting when you start. It's exciting when you finish. It's a lot of challenges in between, [00:20:30] but we are in different, people use different terminology. Remodel of a school, new school. [00:20:37] My terminology is school replacement. For your information, it's being recorded and [00:20:42] the people behind you can't hear you. We can hear you real well, so kind of hang close [00:20:46] to the mic. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I will. I use the terminology school replacement. We [00:20:51] are building a new school on the same site as the current Golf Middle School, similar [00:20:56] to what we did at Golf High School. We made an effort with the district team, our design [00:21:04] partners to creatively design the site where we can build the new facility while the existing [00:21:11] building is currently occupied. We'll separate the construction from, so there will be no [00:21:15] safety issues, those type of things. That way we can do it all without having to move [00:21:19] the students and staff off campus. As the slide says, we'll begin construction on the [00:21:27] new, the summer of 25. That will be mostly some initial site work, some selective demolition [00:21:33] in a few of the buildings. And then we'll move directly into building the new building, [00:21:39] which I'll show you some slides in just a minute that show how we're going to do that. [00:21:44] And then that new, once we build the new facility, instruction will begin on that new facility [00:21:48] in January of 2027, at which time they'll move into the new building. Then our team [00:21:54] will go to the old buildings and we'll work on raising the old buildings, and that will [00:21:59] become a new parking lot, with the total project completion summer of 2027. So this is a preview. [00:22:07] Where you see that, this is the completed site. Where you see that parking lot is where [00:22:13] the current Gulf Middle School sits right now. That's the corner of Louisiana and [00:22:18] Harrison. Harrison, thank you. With Congress on the [00:22:22] other side. If you look at the, to the upper right, there are two buildings that have a [00:22:27] little bit of green trim to them. Those are existing buildings. The Florida Department [00:22:32] of Education would not let us raise those buildings, so they're going to be completely [00:22:36] remodeled and upgraded with all the latest technology. So in essence, it will be a new [00:22:40] school when we're finished. The other buildings are new. So you can see where the parking [00:22:45] lot is now, like I mentioned, are the existing buildings. So you can see how we can separate [00:22:51] ourselves with fencing during the construction period. They'll move in, we'll move back, [00:22:57] we'll move to where the old buildings are and demolish the old buildings, turn it into [00:23:00] a parking lot. So there are some challenges with temporary parking, but our team, the [00:23:05] district team, is used to doing these facilities, so we'll work through that. There will be [00:23:09] some inconveniences. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it, but that's part of it. But [00:23:14] the goal is this when we're finished, which is an exciting new school for the New Port Richey community, staff and students at this site. That's an overhead view of kind of what [00:23:27] we just saw. The top part in the center there is the, what I refer to as back of house. [00:23:33] It's the bus loop, custodial services, kitchen is kind of the back there. The front in there [00:23:40] is visitor parking, the new entry drop off for staff and students in the front. So all [00:23:44] the students will come in through that sidewalk covered area that you see kind of as an angle. [00:23:50] That goes into administration. So the administration will be kind of in the center of everything. [00:23:55] The larger white box to the bottom is the gymnasium. That'll be a new gymnasium to go [00:24:00] along with everything else. In the top right, which is currently the kitchen cafeteria, [00:24:05] will remain the kitchen cafeteria, but like I mentioned, it'll be all upgraded with all [00:24:09] new equipment, new services, new technology and that. So that's what we're looking at. [00:24:17] With the overall, like the slide said and Dr. Legg mentioned, an overall completion [00:24:21] in summer of 2027. So that's all for me. [00:24:29] Thank you. I don't want to sit here and just talk at you and give you an overview, but [00:24:36] we wanted to give you just a snapshot of what's coming ahead. It's exciting with Gulf Middle [00:24:41] School. And as Mr. Goody said, even though it's exciting and the end product is going [00:24:49] to be amazing, construction is construction. And as we go through that process, your team [00:24:56] in the city of New Perritchie has been great to work with, but sometimes there may be some [00:25:01] logistics that we need to work out as we go through this process, whether it's traffic [00:25:06] flow, whether it's construction issues. We're here, our team here, we are responsive. And [00:25:12] if you see issues in the community as this construction project goes on the way, please [00:25:16] let us know. The last thing we want to do is be causing a problem and not be aware of [00:25:21] those issues, but a $76 million total school remodel while the school is still going on [00:25:27] is a fairly big logistical project to undertake. With that, obviously I entertain any questions, [00:25:35] any feedback, any comment. I do want to recognize Betsy Kuhn is here. She's in the back as well. [00:25:42] We also have Mike Baumeister, who's our chief of security for all of our schools. And your [00:25:48] team works great with Chief Baumeister, who's in charge of our security. And Dr. Toni Zetsche, [00:25:55] who is in our communications department, who does community outreach, works in the community [00:26:01] with communications. And one of the many hats that she wears is working closely with Chief [00:26:08] Baumeister. Unfortunately, we live in a day and age where there's a lot of crises going [00:26:12] on and making sure that that communication is clear. So we want to make sure that you [00:26:15] saw who the players are in case you do need to reach out to someone, like put a name with [00:26:20] a face and how to reach out to everyone. So with that, if you have any questions, I just [00:26:24] want to provide that as an update. [00:26:26] I also have to say that this year is the 50th anniversary of my graduating class of 1975, [00:26:37] and I'm sure that the school has had plenty of communication with Bill Phillips, who's [00:26:41] the self-appointed leader of our class reunion to be held, and who apparently has already [00:26:48] set the date and rented or tried to utilize in October on the weekend the gymnasium for [00:26:56] us to hold a sock hop after 50 years again, and also to make some food and have a chance [00:27:04] for the alumni of not only our year, but the years around us to visit. [00:27:11] I've never been to as big a crowd as I was at the Gulf High at its last, on Madison at [00:27:22] its last event before it was torn down. And the amount of alumni support for Gulf High [00:27:30] coming so far back, and the number of us here that have attended that, as well as Ritchie [00:27:35] Elementary, and the ladies back there with the t-shirts on recognizing the early days [00:27:41] of the old Gulf High School there. [00:27:44] This building, which is our library, was the original Gulf High School, and back in the [00:27:49] day, part one of them, Pierce Elementary, was that in the city? [00:27:57] Oh, this was the elementary school. I'm sorry. Thanks. [00:28:03] Go ahead. I'll repeat. [00:28:06] Then they went to Ritchie. So Pierce Elementary being here, when we built this city hall, [00:28:14] it had been the city hall in the 80s, and we did the same thing you did. [00:28:19] We removed the library, moved the library off campus, built the new city hall, and then [00:28:26] moved from the old Pierce Elementary into this city hall, and then remodeled that, and [00:28:32] saved it for historical preservation, and turned it into the library. [00:28:38] So it's exciting to see how you're working these acreages that we have, and managing [00:28:46] to keep them open, and also build them, and move the children with the least amount of [00:28:51] interruption. So thank you for all of that that you're doing. [00:28:56] I would also like to know if we could get a copy of your presentation, because it really [00:29:03] is alarming to see the poor scores, and I would be remiss if I didn't point out that [00:29:10] the worst scores in the elementary were in science, and we've got a whole group of folks [00:29:16] in town now who are working to try to lure the Great Exploration Science Hands-On Museum [00:29:22] from St. Pete into another location for a discovery center that we hope to find its [00:29:30] way here, and the Pinellas County School System has already advised them that they would be [00:29:35] shipping their kids to support that program. [00:29:39] So to your comment about Pinellas, we also, I think, can take the benefit of what they [00:29:46] have learned and what they've developed, and we're trying to partner with them as well. [00:29:51] So thank you for your partnership comments, and to the degree we can as a city, I'm [00:30:00] I'm assuming my colleagues will jump in as well to say we recognize the value of having a place that the kids, when they grow up, [00:30:10] want to stay, like many of us have. And it would be a shame to see that heritage drop away. [00:30:18] So I'm grateful for you being here, and we're also grateful for your collaboration. [00:30:26] And, you know, we have a lot of ideas and plans from the community that we hope to bring [00:30:32] and communicate with our council and the community for your old Gulf High School on Grand Boulevard. [00:30:41] And so we're hopeful to see that project come through and make it an opportunity for your, [00:30:47] particularly your EMC, your Energy Management Center that's running over, and would love to collaborate with you. [00:30:55] So ownership aside, that's not the important part. The partnership is. [00:31:00] And the fact that you're here talking to us, I hope in a year from now, [00:31:04] we can be talking about ways in which we are supporting the kids when they get out of school [00:31:10] and the opportunities for the multigenerational benefit. [00:31:15] There's a lot of brilliant people that have retired here, whether they're musicians or artists or scientists, [00:31:23] Mr. Schwetman being, Alan Schwetman being among the most notable, who helped to develop the CAT scan, [00:31:32] which has saved millions of lives, and he's got an interest in this project as well. [00:31:36] So thank you again for being here, and we look forward to working together. I do. Thanks. [00:31:43] I want to add on to that real quick. I mean, one of the reasons why I'm here, kind of the unspoken reasons why, [00:31:49] is I just want to speak it into existence or call it out, is, you know, [00:31:54] I think we had the school district had a lot of great partnerships pre-COVID with community members, volunteers. [00:32:02] But when COVID occurred, it really had a chilling effect on community partnerships. [00:32:08] We're here five years removed and some of those partnerships kind of have, you know, it's like momentum. [00:32:13] It just kind of kind of atrophies and just sits. We want to jumpstart some of these partnerships again. [00:32:18] We, you know, we're five years past, removed COVID now, and we want to make sure we want to kind of get these partnerships moving again. [00:32:25] So I appreciate you saying that. [00:32:28] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First and foremost, thank you, Dr. Light, for being here and for bringing so much of your staff to participate in this conversation. [00:32:36] I also wanted to just thank our staff for some of the partnerships we've had with our local schools in the form of attendance during school advisory council meetings. [00:32:44] And at our community action team meetings, we see a lot of the library's presence with some of our public events at our schools. [00:32:51] We see our our police officers, even though the SRO program has swapped to the sheriff's department. [00:32:57] We still have a very active presence to our park system and to our local events. [00:33:02] I know Chief Baumeister worked very closely with our police department during some of those unexpected. [00:33:10] I guess you would call them drills, so to speak, unanticipated drills several times last year. [00:33:16] And we did. You guys just did a phenomenal job with that. [00:33:20] First, I'll talk about academics and then construction on the academic point. [00:33:25] I'm glad you included some stuff in there about AI and technology and commingo. [00:33:31] In my opinion, I know an executive order just went out at the federal level where our Department of Labor is going to be looking into some opportunities to create some grants for apprenticeship teacher programs, [00:33:43] things that not only our school board can capitalize on, but that our city can capitalize on through our grant writer in the form of some sort of thing at the library, [00:33:53] AI writing event or how we can use AI to code certain things and then turn that into a way to support our schools. [00:34:02] If our students are starting to use AI where they have after school opportunities where they can use that. [00:34:08] In addition to that, our Florida League of Cities puts on a phenomenal elementary school program based in literacy where they put out children's books about our streets, our roads. [00:34:18] And so opportunities there for us to be able to get into, for us, council and potentially staff at the rec center and the library to get in our local schools, our elementary school, and read books to children, as important as that is. [00:34:34] Especially perhaps our police officers and some of our fire and rec center personnel because our local middle schoolers and some of our older elementary school students, [00:34:45] they know our rec center staff on a first name basis. [00:34:48] And if someone from the rec center were to push into the school one Friday a month or one Friday a quarter and read a book to the students, that goes a long way towards building those personal relationships. [00:35:00] Just sort of ideas on how we can partner more on the academic end because the first thing that came to my mind when I was a student at Gulf Middle is what does local city doing sidewalks have to do with schools? [00:35:11] But it does and our city manager actually and Judy brought on a great program where we used to have student government day and our local middle schoolers would come out and tour some of our facilities. [00:35:22] So maybe looking to bring that back post COVID. [00:35:26] On the non-academic side, on some of the construction, I had brought to the attention of the city manager about Harrison Street and the potential for that to turn into a one-way road to support some of the car loop activity going on over there. [00:35:46] When I saw that map, I guess the map we originally got didn't have the second aerial image, but you could just see how great you guys, and I don't know if it was intentional, but you're creating a buffer. [00:35:57] Whereas right now the school sits where like right across the street is residential. [00:36:02] Now there's an excellent buffer on both ends where you're intentionally having some field space and parking spaces to get us away from that residential road.

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3. 3Adjournment