The School Board of Santa Rosa County met in regular session at 6:30 p.m. with the following members present:  Mr. Hugh Winkles, Chairman,  Mrs. Jennifer Granse, Vice-Chairman, Dr. Diane Scott, Mr. Scott Peden and Mrs. Carol Boston.  Also present was Timothy S. Wyrosdick, Superintendent of Schools and Secretary and Paul R. Green, Board Attorney.

The chairman called the meeting to order and asked Dr. Karen Barber to lead us in prayer and Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

Mr. Wyrosdick shared with the board that Mike Thorpe has been chosen the Innovative Principal of the Year for the State of Florida.  He will go on to compete nationally in Philadelphia later this year.

The Superintendent asked everyone to join us in congratulating him and we will ask him to attend a board meeting in the future so we can recognize his accomplishment. 

Also, we will be celebrating Literacy Week Jan. 26-30, 2015.  There are many activities planned at the schools so if you are available, plan to attend and enjoy.

Mr. Wyrosdick shared with everyone that Mr. Paul Green has been the School Board's attorney for 45 years today.  Mr. Green is the longest serving school board attorney in the State of Florida.

Mr. Winkles said that Mr. Green has  helped us through many difficult situations over the years and that he considered him a good friend.

 Mr. Wyrosdick asked Clark Youngblood, Social Studies Coordinator to come forward.  Mr. Youngblood has three talented students to recognize tonight.  He shared with the audience that we had 74 students who competed countywide in the History Fair Competition, from there they went on to compete in the State competition against 650 other students from 42 districts.  The winners from the State competition then competed in the National History Fair competition in College Park, Maryland.  Mr. Youngblood asked Ms. Grace Freeman, the student's teacher to come forward and help him make the presentation to our students who competed in the National History Fair.  They were Annalise Rotunda, from Gulf Breeze Middle, Jacob Ferris, from Gulf Breeze Middle and Mattie Bookout, from Gulf Breeze High School.    Mr. Youngblood presented Mattie's award to her mother and shared with everyone that Mattie could not be here tonight because she was chosen to be a World War II Museum Student Ambassador and will be interviewing WWII veterans.  Only five students were chosen nationally to work as an ambassador.

Mr. Youngblood stated they will begin preparing for next year's competition and said that without these great students, outstanding teachers and our good parents all this would not be possible. 

 Wesley Underwood, Math and Science Coordinator came forward to recognize the 2014-15 Santa Rosa County Academic Team.  On December 3rd and 4th our high schools sent their top students in Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies to compete in the Santa Rosa County Academic Challenge.  The top students from each high school competed. These students will practice during the next three months before traveling to Orlando on April 8th to compete in the 2015 Commissioners Academic Challenge.  Mr. Underwood asked the following students to come forward.  He presented each one with an award.

Ian McCullough, Navarre High School, Social Studies; Emili McClure, Pace High School, English; Jonathan Pool, Milton High School, Mathematics; Jomaine Delfin, Navarre High School, Science.

 Mr. Underwood began by explaining what the BEST Robotics Competition is all about.  BEST stands for Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology.  The University of West Florida hosts the Emerald Coast BEST Robotics hub.  This was the first BEST hub in the State of Florida.  This year was the Emerald Coast BEST 8th annual competition which was held at the Field House at the UWF Pensacola campus on Oct. 25th.  The mission of BEST is to inspire middle and high school students to pursue careers in engineering, science, and technology through participation in a sports-like, science and engineering-based robotics competition each fall.  Funding of hub operations depends entirely on corporate and individual sponsorships.  Material kits to build the robots are provided to the teams by the hub at no cost.

Although they could not be here tonight, Woodlawn Beach Middle School's team and their sponsor, Mrs. Shannon Farrell, won the following awards:  1st Place BEST Team Exhibits and Interview, 1st Place BEST Robotics Award, 1st Place BEST Team Exhibits and Interview, 3rd Place Best T-Shirt Design.

The following schools, sponsor and teams were asked to come forward and be recognized.

From Avalon Middle School, teacher Frank Beckwith and his team: Kevin Teague, Matthew Howard, Jasmine Gipson, Samantha Harrison, Sarina Petit.  From Sims Middle School, teacher Kenneth Atkinson and his team: Patrick Fitzgerald, Joneth Cleveland, Hailey Henderson, Jake Benton, Emma Watson.  Sims won the 3rd Place Overall (BEST) Award), 1st Place Marketing Presentation, 2nd Place T-shirt Design, 2nd Place Engineering Notebook and 3rd Place Spirit and Sportsmanship.  Pace High School, teacher Kelsey Womack won the 1st Place Most Robust Machine, 2nd Place Best Spirit and Sportsmanship, 3rd Place Best Project Engineering Notebook and the team members were: Lacey Littleton, Loarann Hinson, and Gavin Ollis.

 Mr. Jim Bagby, Durham Transportation Services came forward and shared with everyone that back in December, he received a call from his counterpart in the south end of the district alerting him to an article in the newspaper about one of their drivers that serve both Woodlawn Beach Middle and Holley Navarre Middle School.

He went on to explain that Mrs. Donna Patterson contacted Mr. Jeff Baugus, the dean at Woodlawn Beach, about an idea she had.  Together they coordinated the "Random Acts of Kindness Competition between the two schools.  Students were asked to perform random acts of kindness and had to have them verified by their parents.  Ms. Patterson even contacted Chick-Fil-A and was able to secure some sandwich and ice cream coupons to give the students.   The winner, Voquetta Gay, a 7th grader from Woodlawn Beach won the competition with 68 verified acts of kindness and was presented by Mr. Baugus with a key to a box.  No one knows the exact contents but it will be opened at the end of the school year.

Mr. Bagby, the Superintendent and the Board Chairman, Mr. Winkles presented her with an award and thanked her for being such a positive role model for our students.

 Mr. Hinote, Director of High Schools was proud to announce that Gulf Breeze High School's Football Team 5A and Boys Golf 2A has been named the State Academic Championships 2013-14 for the entire State.  Mr. Hinote shared with everyone that the football team and the boys golf team had average GPA scores of 3.295 and 3.826.  Mr. Hinote asked both coaches, Chris Nemith and

Adam Smith (along with some of their student team members) to come forward.  Mr. Hinote, Mr. Winkles and Mr. Wyrosdick congratulated our coaches and students on this outstanding accomplishment.

The Chairman opened the public hearing and asked if anyone wanted to address the board regarding the School Board Policy updates.  There was no response and the public hearing was closed.

The chairman opened the floor for the Public Forum and asked if anyone wanted to speak to the board regarding any item not on the agenda.  There was no response and the Public Forum was closed.

The Board approved all Administrative Agenda items H. 1.,2.,3 and 4 as submitted.

 Leslie Bell came forward to present the quarterly Food Service update.  Since the last presentation, Sodexo was pleased and honored to partner with the "Night of Blessings" program and provided turkey and gifts to families in need.   They also sponsored "Adopt a Family" and provided needed supplies and gifts.  Dr. Barber helped them identify a local family in need of assistance.

In the late fall, Food Services worked with the USDA and partnered with Cherokee Farms to provide delicious local Satsuma's to the children in the district.  In December, Mr. Mack Glass, owner and farmer visited T. R. Jackson and Pea Ridge Elementary where he shared this sweet fruit and discussed how he grows the fruit on his farm.

 Ms. Bell also asked the board to save March 26, 2015 for the 2015 Future Chef Culinary Competition.  This year's theme will be "healthy snacks."

She asked if the Board had any questions.  The Board thanked her for her presentation.

The board approved the request for Phase II of the Gulf Breeze Middle School Kitchen/Cafeteria Expansion as submitted.

The board reviewed the status of the current Pinder-Martin construction projects.

The board approved the following change orders decreasing the projects payable below to the appropriate contractor by the amounts shown.  These decreases are to reflect recent payments made to suppliers and the associated tax savings acquired through direct purchasing. 

Gulf Breeze High School - Chiller Plant Phase II

A. E. New, Jr.

$12,772.01

Hobbs Middle School - Kitchen/Cafeteria/Bus Ramp/Parking

A. E. New, Jr.

$84,553.88

King Middle School - Kitchen/Cafeteria

A. E. New Jr.

$39,997.38

The board approved the selection of Pinder Martin Associates, Inc. and DAG Architects, Inc. for

Continuing Contract-Architectural Services as requested.

The board approved the Administrative Appointment of Brenda Waters, transferring from Assistant Principal, East Milton Elementary, to Assistant Principal, Russell Elementary, effective December 22, 2014.

The board approved the Conflict of Interest Guidelines as submitted.

The board approved the alternative placements/expulsions as submitted with one exception as follows.   The alternative placement/expulsion of student #A15-0332-12 is being tabled and held pending a complete investigation. 

The board reviewed the Early Head Start/Head Start Monthly Report for December, 2014

Mrs. Boston congratulated the Navarre High School Girls Soccer Team for their outstanding season.

Dr. Scott asked if any of the other board members were planning on attending the 28th Annual Day in the Legislature scheduled for March 11-13, 2014 in Tallahassee.   Mr. Wyrosdick shared with her that three of the board members have indicated they would like to attend.  He is suggesting the board re-schedule their March 12, 2015 meeting to Tuesday, March 10th at 9:00 a.m. so the board members who plan to attend have travel time and we can go ahead and have our March meeting prior to Spring Break.  The board agreed to changing the meeting to Tuesday, March 10th at 9:00 a.m.

Mrs. Granse shared with the board that she enjoyed serving on the Architectural Review committee and learned a lot while doing so.  She also mentioned that she is keeping her grandchildren this week and has been helping them with their homework and feels we have some awesome teachers in our district.

Mr. Winkles recalled being in the interview process when Mr. Rogers was interviewing Lewis Lynn for the position of Assistant Superintendent/Human Resources.  He said that we really can't put into words what Mr. Lynn has meant to the Santa Rosa County School District.

Mr. Wyrosdick distributed copies of the latest BP Newsletter to keep the board members updated on the status of the situation.

The Superintendent mentioned several items he is working on.  During the past 24 hours he has  met with Statewide committees regarding the Innovative High School as a CAPE High School and the investment into Region One.   Individuals he has meet with have shown an interest and we will continue to work on it and see what it looks like for Northwest Florida.

 He continues to meet with the Assessment and Accountability Team looking into the assessment for Florida and how they will affect teachers, students and schools.  Mr. Wyrosdick said he was encouraged by the interest in how to effectively change the process positively.

The Superintendent attended a Senate Appropriations subcommittee meeting in Tallahassee regarding the impact that having a large amount of military property in your district has on capital funding and PECO monies.  The impact can be pretty severe.  The six districts that fall into this category are funded well below the state average on capital funding and PECO.  11% of the property in Santa Rosa County is owned by the military.  Federal Impact Aid has continued to decrease.   There was an interest in a possible FEFP component that would be a positive benefit for districts such as ours.  No promises were made.  Mr. Wyrosdick thanked Senator Montford, Senator Gaetz and Linda Champion, FDOE for meeting with the districts.

As mentioned previously, we are entering the Assessment season and will be working with FDOE on technology issues.  We will continue to do everything we can  to get ready.  It is a hugh concern to push that much information over a secure environment using the required prodical.   The Florida Department of Education says the issues we faced before has been fixed, however the Superintendent said he would like to see it work before we have to put tests in front of students. 

The Superintendent asked the board to stay for a short executive session.

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned.

    DONE AND ORDERED IN LEGAL SESSION by the School Board of Santa Rosa County this 22nd day of January, 2015 A. D.

                                                                                        SANTA ROSA COUNTY

                                                                                        SCHOOL BOARD

                                                                                        ______________________________

                                                                                        Chairman

ATTEST:

________________________________________

Superintendent of Schools