Education Committee - Regular Meeting

Everyone, we are so glad you're here. It is time to call our meeting to order, the education meeting for the village of Wellington. And it is 06:30, so we're going call that meeting to order. We do have to make a motion that Christina O'Brien can join us via Zoom. So we need to vote on that motion. So I'm going to make a motion that she's allowed to participate and join us through the meeting on Zoom.

And Marcia seconds that motion.

Okay. So we'll just go all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Perfect. You are so in, Christina. You're good. All right. And we would like to say the pledge of allegiance. I

pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And now I would like to do a roll call.

Mhmm.

Shelley Albright, present. Christina O'Brien. Christina, can you hear us on Zoom?

I can. Sorry, I muted. Present.

Okay. Marcia Hayden. Present. John Weber.

Here.

Krista Baysor.

Here.

Marcella Montesinos? Here. And Melissa Ranier?

Present. Perfect.

And do we have any opening comments? You want to start that one?

You want start can

she know?

Because I'd

like to talk. Don't have

All right. Then we'll just keep going. And we need to make a motion to approve the agenda.

I'll move to approve the agenda.

I'll second it.

All those in favor, aye.

Any opposed?

Terrific. And now we need a motion to approve the minutes from the August 5 meeting.

I motion to approve the minutes. Second?

Second.

All those in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? And sorry, I think I just did both, right? Minutes and the agenda? No? And we need a motion to approve the agenda.

So Marcia makes a motion to approve the 08/05/2025 meeting agenda. Is there a second?

I'll second it.

All those in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Terrific. Now we're on to old business.

Perfect. So I do know that we spoke and so for our May meeting we will be getting the Wellington Academy to go ahead and provide a presentation on the curriculum at that school as well as the new school that will be coming as well, okay?

Thank you, Ian.

In addition to that, I will also be having a presentation from our youth council to talk about the wonderful things that they are doing and what's to come moving forward. Awesome.

Thank you. And now we're on to new business.

Yes. Wow, we're going

so fast.

All right,

we're on to new business and the presentation of the Wellington Schools by Palm Beach County School District Central Region Representatives.

Good evening. Evening. Village of Wellington, it's always such a pleasure to be here. We only get to see you a few times during the year. So love to be able to share some of the great things that are happening in the schools here in the village of Wellington. I do want to thank our administrators that are here with us this evening, there they are, as well as some of our parents and PTA representatives. My understanding School Advisory Council representatives could also be here with us this evening. So thank you. It does take a village to be able to educate our children. And so I would like to bring greetings to you by Mr.

Burke and Jamie Wyatt, which is our deputy superintendent. We're going to go ahead and get started by reminding all of you what really grounds our work. And it's our strategic plan. We're actually almost at the ending of the fourth year. And next year, we'll be completing this strategic plan and development of our next one.

So we look forward to that as well as we continue moving forward. One of the things that we had talked about and that was requested of me last time was a while ago now, months ago, right? Yeah. There was a question around the attendance. Because I had mentioned that one of our greatest challenges for students is attendance and truancy in our classrooms.

And if they're not in school, we can't teach them, right? And so it was requested that I provide some of the data just to see how our schools were actually doing. I know that one of the strategies through the village of Wellington was to be able to speak out to our community through PSAs, etcetera, to talk about the importance of student attendance. But I was able to pull some information. And when you compare between the school year of 2024 and the school year of 2025, you see the chronic and average absences, which is still I mean, it's so high.

I mean, if you really think about children, right, and not being at school on a daily basis. But if you look at between FY24 and FY25, percentage of students that have eleven or more days absent, you can see that from FY24 to FY25 you see improvements in many of our schools. But some of our schools, not so much. Our middle schools are still, you know, polo. There are some schools that will still need to continue on that in our high schools as well.

It is a little bit more challenging for the kids that are older that believe to know better, that maybe don't need to go to every single day to school. But they do. Needless to say, we're still working through our older kids here. But our elementary schools, you can still see that movement. And then if you look on the right hand side, when you're looking at days average absenteeism, again there is a difference and a little bit of a decline between FY24 and '25, So you can compare the numbers depending on the school. But it's still a lot of absences. Think about two weeks.

If I could interrupt you. Sure. Have you guys have done I'm sure you have but what the source of the absenteeism is? What the root cause of it all is?

What we have learned is that there has always been and it's nationwide crisis, really there has always been attendance challenges. But the pandemic really took it to a complete different level. That's where we actually have now families that have, you know, learned behaviors, right? That, well, maybe if I don't go to class today, I'll be able to catch up the next day. And, you know, as a school center, especially in high school and in middle school, we allow students to make up the work, because they still need to learn.

So if you just flat out say you're not going to be able to make up the work that you missed because you're not in school and you're going to get a zero, Okay, maybe this zero might stand for a moment, but they have to still make up the work to learn to continue on. Now we do have under policy specific regulations around, especially at the high school level, the number of days, That if you reach a certain level, it's ten days, then the student has to pass the exams to be able to pass the course. There are rules behind it, but still it starts as young as kindergarten, that we just need to have those habits and really just enforce that students do go to school. So the main reason is typically just that. Either kids do get sick.

We understand that. Some more affluent families in homes, they like to take trips. And that's the truth, too. In the village of Wellington, that does happen. You know, let's be truth tellers here, right? And so it does happen. And those days just start adding up. And so that is basically where we are. We continue our schools work really hard to have incentives, attendance incentives. The last couple of days of the cold, we've seen some incredible spike in absences just because it's cold, you know. And we like to say that there are some families that do not have the wear, the coats and whatnot. That does happen. But in

the more

affluent communities, you know, it could just be one of those bad habits that we're still trying to work through.

Thank you for compiling that information. I think I had asked that question. Thank you.

I do have one more question related to that. One thing, thank you very oh.

Well, it's the same data, but now you can see it as a bar graph. It's easier to read, I think. Perfect.

What I was interested in seeing and thank you very much for compiling this data I was interested in seeing how absenteeism tracks to the scores on the standardized tests, right? So in schools where you have or the students who are there for the kind of requisite number of days, are they tracking to higher test scores overall? Are the students who are missing making up the work in a meaningful way that allows them to pass. Do you have any

No. Insights We for us? Haven't actually tracked I mean, we could, right? It would be a different type of tracking system. And I could certainly ask our performance accountability department to do that kind of deep dive.

But historically, though, it has been known that when you miss x amount of days, you're not able to pass the third grade test. And it starts in kindergarten. That's why it counts every single day that the student comes to school. It counts. But I can certainly, if that is your request, even if we were just to select, you know, maybe an elementary, a middle, and a high school to be able to do that type of track record to do a sampling, I can certainly look and see if I can get

that JULIET would just be interesting to see for the students who are missing significant numbers of days versus the students who are not, what their overall test scores are looking like. And there are so many factors that impact that, and I'm aware of it. I'm just trying to get some more levers to pull.

But I do wonder, like, if parents fully understand that concept. You know, like, oh, my kid's smart enough, they'll make it up kind of thing, you know. And if you see it, like, literally on paper, what happens and how then it can affect your future, that might make a bigger difference or impact with parents, too.

Right.

Agreed. MR. Thank you, Shelly.

MS. And so anyway, back to it. These are the bar graphs. So you can see between FY 'twenty four and 'twenty five. Visually, you can see a little bit better the improvements in those schools that we to continue working at it.

I will say, though, before I move forward, when you're talking about specific students and absenteeism, one of the last strategies and it's one that is not a popular one is when you're looking at students that are in the primary grades between kindergarten and second grade and whether students need to be retained, I will tell you that those students that are our lowest performing students, it is a pattern. The majority of the time, these students have 10 or more absences. Some are really egregious, right? So upwards of thirty, forty, fifty days out. And incredible to think that we have students that actually miss class that much.

But it does happen. So that, just on a surface of looking at student data, because we really do a good job at tracking student data, you can see those patterns. And a lot of it has to do with absences. But yeah, we'll be able to select a couple of schools and see if we can pattern out a few.

And does the fact that we have a significant international population here in Wellington we have kids starting school late, things like that, those you're counting absences from the day that they officially are enrolled, correct? So it's not like from the beginning of the year on. So if my kids don't start school until September because I'm traveling with whatever purpose, those days in August, would they count toward the number of days

in August? If your child is enrolled in school, they count. Okay. Thank you. So it all pertains to enrollment. Okay. Right? So if your child is not enrolled, especially we have the first ten days of school, when a student doesn't show up, the student is unenrolled. So then those days really won't count. But once the student enrolls, then the clock starts.

Okay. That was a really good question. Before we move on to highlights with our elementary schools, middle and high schools here in the village, I wanted to just do a huge shout out to two high schools here in the village of Wellington and their graduation rates for last school year. This is always data that comes out. It's lag data that comes out the year following. So we are thrilled to share with you that Wellington High School earned a 99.9 graduation rate. I know

It's great. Yeah, there we are. Racing the roof.

And Palm Beach Central High School with 97.4%. Congratulations. Amazing. All right. And now what I'm going to do is I'm going to bring forward Doctor. Green. She will be sharing with you some of the highlights from our elementary schools, followed by Mrs. Wetzel. But before I give up the mic, I want to also be reminded that, of course, Ms. Andrews is here with us this evening. You don't want to forget that she's here always supporting. And after we finish our presentation, we will certainly invite Ms. Andrews for her comments. So, and now Doctor. Grain will I

do have one more, one more, because I'm a numbers geek a bit. Could you, would you be able to provide for us the matriculation rates from middle schools into high schools? So I'm curious whether we had the same kind of what our graduation rates are from middle school, where the students from middle school matriculate into high schools versus the students who are graduating from high schools. And the reason behind that is maybe ten, twelve years ago, was serving on a committee. And there was a bit of a discrepancy between the students who were graduating because you don't count the number of students who don't go from eighth into ninth grade.

So if you're really trying to understand how well we're doing at getting kids through the system and getting into actionable levels of education, That's something I'd be interested in a future meeting and just getting numbers in our community from. I would imagine we're pretty good. I don't know if it's trackable because we have so many choice programs and kids can go everywhere. But I'm just curious to see what our numbers are, because in certain schools, at one point in time, there was a challenge in moving from middle school to high school. We did a great job when we got them to high school. But the middle school, matriculating into high school, was a big challenge spot. And we just want to continue to support our middle schools.

Right. I think you brought up a good point. We have so many choice programs available. You know, some of our students actually go to Suncoast and Dreyfus. And so that pulls away from some of our high schools. This data starts with a cohort of ninth graders. So as soon as the students Enrolled. Right, enroll at Palm Beach Central High School or at Wellington High School, that's when their clock starts. So ninth grade, and it tracks them all the way through graduation. So that includes, you know, students that if the student move and they withdraw appropriately, doesn't count, right?

A student like, if you're going to move out of state, you can't help that. That doesn't affect it. But if a student drops out, that affects it. If a student's not able to pass all the courses or the state requirements, that counts as also against graduation. So all of those pieces do calculate into that formula.

Perfect. Well, we sure did a great job in high school. Yes,

Agreed. The tracking system is amazing. They track every single student from the minute that they enroll as a cohort, ninth graders, all the way through graduation. And it's a massive job. But they are unbelievable in how they get it done. It's all about moving the children across that stage, making sure that they get their high school graduation. And now Doctor. Green.

Doctor. Good

evening, everyone. First of all, I would just like to acknowledge all of the principals that are here this evening, our elementary school principals, our high school principals. So if you guys could just wave your hands. They're a little shy today. I don't know why.

But we are very fortunate in the village with the caliber of principals that we have that serve our students every day. So acknowledging the highlights here in the village at Binks Forest Elementary School, where Michella Levy is the principal, They've been very busy in the month of December and January, as they participated or earned Best in Show at the Wellington Holiday Parade. They celebrated STEAM Night. And they've also had their annual spelling bee with fourth and fifth grade participants. They were participants also at the South Florida Fair, and they would like for you to know that their next SAC meeting will be held on February 25.

Moving right along to Elbridge Gale Elementary School, where Mrs. Gale Pasterzic is the principal. And they have also been really busy over at Elbridge Gale celebrating their e sports team that advanced to the semifinals. They also, their robotics team, qualified for the regional championship on February 7. And like other schools here in the village, they are celebrating their Dwyer Award nominees. Ms. Faye Lundtalk, Ms. Michelle Gagano, Ms. Amy Fisher, Ms. Samantha Stack, and Mr.

Christian Jimenez. So we want to really support all of our teachers as we go forward towards winning the final thing for the Dwyer Awards. Also, at Elbridge Gale Elementary School, they would like for you to know that their next SAC meeting will be held on February 26, and they're having their PTO Candyland Dance on February 20. At Equestrian Trails Elementary School, where Ms. Allison Manning is the principal, their students are celebrating because they recently qualified for state in academic games.

Their chorus has also been very busy singing at various events, as well as students have been busy collecting and donating food for families. They are really excited at Equestrian Trails Elementary School because their Watch Dog Dads were highlighted on the school district's social media page. And they would like for you to know that their upcoming SAC meeting is on February 4.

We need some dancing. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's Let's go.

I've got a program with 75 guys that volunteer at the school. My name is Andy Boswell. I'm one of the watchdogs here at Equestrian Trails. We're here today for the Proud Pony Awards, which is like our weekly superlative. And the Proud Pony goes to Sophia.

Oh, there she goes.

The thing I most look forward to, proud pony, every week. When they come to my class, they do these, like, dance parties. So it makes it, like, even more fun and enjoyable in the moment.

You'll see our dads in the cafeteria, the car line, and just volunteering whenever it's needed.

It's like one special thing that you get to see dads on campus and they get to help around with everything. It's usually the moms most of the time, so it's nice to see some dads.

My name is Seth Denson. I started the Watchdogs program here at Equestrian Trails approximately six years ago. And my daughter was going here, and I wanted not just for myself to be more involved, but to get men more involved.

The the kids like having male role models in school. That's first and foremost why we're here. When you see the smiles on their faces, you know, it it's giving back to the school, but they're also giving some to us as well. While

we are still with Equestrian Trail Uh-oh. While we're still with Equestrian Trails, I do want to share with you that we're somewhat now hot off the press. Our school related employee of the year is Ms. Connie Sterling from Equestrian Trail. She won the entire district.

And I didn't update the slide before we sent it, so I do apologize for that. But I didn't want to take I couldn't leave this meeting without letting you know how proud we are of Ms. Sterling. She is just an amazing person. And she was actually in every single part of that video, you just didn't see her. So we are so proud of her and represented the Central Region really well. So I wanted to share that with you. So congratulations to Ms. Sterling.

MS. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Hayes. All right. Now off to New Horizons Elementary School, where Ms. Gloria Salazar is the principal. And New Horizons is also excited to announce their Dwyer Award nominees. Mariana Cepeda, Ms. Udermis Manarhe, Ms. Jennifer Schuller, and Ms.

Crystal D'Agostino. So we're really excited for these teachers, as they will represent New Horizons. They're also excited to have celebrated their Winter Wonderland performances for their families. Two weeks ago, or last week, they celebrated Celebrate Literacy Week, and their Lego Club won multiple awards. New Horizons is also a grant recipient of the Joseph P.

Quarry Foundation and Seedlings for Schools grant from Florida Wild Wild Florida Association. They would also like you to know that their next SAC meeting will be held on February 4. Panther Run Elementary School, where Ms. Risa Suarez is the principal, is also excited to have been chosen. Their artwork has been chosen by the Wellington Garden Club.

Also, their VPK teacher received the Florida Farm Bureau Classroom Mini Grant for VPK Garden. And we all know about their band, the Panther Run Roar Band performed at the village of Wellington Cultural Holiday and WEF. Their student artwork is displayed at the District Art Dazzle. Teachers at Panther Run, like our other schools in the village, were also nominated for the Dwyer Award. Math and Science Family Night is coming up February 19, and they would also like you to know that their next SAC meeting will be held on February 4.

Last, and definitely not least for our elementary schools, is Wellington Elementary School, where Doctor. Maria Vaughn is the principal. And they are really excited Elementary School because their choir performed at the Wellington Rotary Club. Congratulations to their Dwyer Award nominees, Ms. Deborah Alfonso, Ms. Kate Lane, Ms. Laura Ann Bell, and Doctor. Charissa Holloman. Wellington is also excited about their new reading program at school, Pause to Read. And this is happening school wide.

The top they were also acknowledged and recognized as top five for participation at the South Florida Fairgrounds Kids Mile. The PTO on February 4 is having their Empowering Parents. And Wellington Elementary would like for you to know that their next SAC meeting will be held on February 4. And those are some of the highlights at happening now and that have happened in our elementary schools here in the village. Thank you.

That's a great job.

Well, it's my pleasure to come up here and talk about those great secondary schools in the village. From Emerald Cove, we want to congratulate our Dwyer nominees for middle school education. We have Lisa Wells for STEM, Salaam Schulhaber ESE, Neri Salanu. Student Support and Advancement, Teresa Gray. Also, congratulations to the choral director and the students for earning All State Chorus. That was pretty exciting. The pre IT students toured the University of Miami and were able to attend a Miami Heat game. I wish I could have gone on that. Not to University of Miami, but I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

FBLA students advanced to the state leadership conference. And if you haven't been to Emerald Cove to see their FBLA students, they really have one of the best programs in Palm Beach County. The pre IT students are partnering with the village, and we want to be able to say congratulations to the band director. Look at that great music program, because now they have earned All County Honor Band. Their next SAC meeting will be held on February 19.

Polo Park, we got the robotics team over there heading out to regionals. National Junior Honor Society hosted a mini dance marathon because we know that's really big in the high schools. Congratulations to their Dwyer nominees, Ms. Ehlers, Ms. Stalker, Ms. Carmichael, and Ms. Quail. They're very exciting. And actually, Ms. Stalker was Palm Beach County Teacher of the Year and Florida Teacher of the Year as well.

Polo Park supports their best buddies with a shoe and clothing drive. The sixth and seventh grade social studies academic games team holds first place in the county, which is We pretty have a published author in the house, student Justin, and then Caroline developed the Butterflies of Hope project for the school. SGA hosted a mystery theater with a dinner, and then their next SAC meeting will be held on February 12. At Wellington Landings Middle School, congratulations to their Dwyer nominees, Diane Mahar, Meredith Bayam, Brett Bailey, and Sean Streeb. The students participated in the Franklin Covey Leadership Conference.

They placed at the Speech and Debate Tournament at FAU High. They performed also in the All State Chorus. The Jazz Band performed at the South Florida Fair. PBS held What You Do Matters, attended by our very own Ms. Andrews. They are the top rookie school in Florida for the fall IXL Vocabulary Bowl, and their next SAC meeting is on March 2. And I think what's exciting when you look at all three of those middle schools that we have here in the village, you can see those similarities. There's a lot of strength in music. There's a lot of strength in leadership classes. So really preparing those kids for the next step in high school.

So let's start with Palm Beach Central, ninety seven point four percent graduation rate for FY '25. They have actually signed four players to play division one football. A round of applause for that because besides, this is a pretty big honor to do that. Do we have any Gators in the house there, mister Myers? Anybody on their way to UF?

Thank you. Palm Beach Central has actually had their own Prism concert to celebrate the holidays. They had a very successful Salute to Service Parade. I think this was our second one in a row. Experimental Science hosted a mock science fair.

We have a student recognized as the Sun Sentinel Fab Five competition. Cheerleading placed first in the Florida High School Athletic Association Regional Competition. They have received a gold rating from PBIS, a silver rating for College Board's Advanced Placement Program, and their next SAC meeting is on February 17. And on to Wellington High School with a ninety nine point nine percent graduation rate for FY '25. Very big deal.

And congratulations to their Dwyer nominees, Susie Reddick, Caitlin Holloway, Allison Joseph, and Josh McElwain. District champions for the sixth consecutive year for girls weightlifting go girls! District and regional champion for girls and boys wrestling, district champions for girls and boys soccer teams. Boy, a lot of athletics happening in both those schools. Students placed first, second, and third in the Insight Through Education social media contest. So it was a full sweep, right? Took it all. Good job. Their next SAC meeting will be held on February 17. And questions?

Everything is amazing.

I was going say, I

don't have questions You on this know what, though, is not don't know if we'll have an opportunity to do this, but if any of the principals want to share something with us that's, like, not covered in that, that maybe is a more personal story, we love hearing that. But that's up to you, no pressure.

Okay. All

right, so no pressure.

They can always come up with this. Absolutely.

All right, I'll take this time to introduce our board member, Mrs. Andrews.

And good evening, Chair Albright and all of the Wellington Education Committee members. It's my pleasure to be here to bring greetings from our superintendent, Superintendent Michael Burke, and all of the fabulous principals from Wellington. Assistant principals, students in the audience. Wow, you're terrific. You're terrific.

And as I listen to all of the activities, all of the programs that we have in Wellington, I want to tell you, it's so much more that didn't was not shown tonight. I had an opportunity to be at Polo Park to see the student author. That was a big deal. And we had the thank a teacher at Emerald Cove Middle School, Ms. Norris.

I want you to go on the website. She is awesome and dynamic. Her class advanced math, but just so full of print rich material. Children understood that you can do it in math and make a difference. She was nominated by a parent as well as a student because of her inclusiveness in helping students feel empowered.

And so we say to Ms. Norris, last week, out of the whole Palm Beach School District, Emerald Cove, Cynthia Norris was a thank a teacher receiving $500 from HCA Palms West Hospital. All of us were there with flowers. I don't know if the principal's out there.

Are you out here?

She's not out here. But it was just a beautiful, beautiful event. And just want to just highlight her. But I'd just like to highlight all of our principals and our schools doing great things. When you see those outstanding graduation rates, it's happening right here.

I was sitting here last week talking to the commission about the private school that's coming. But we know that our schools, all of our schools in Wellington, are absolutely fabulous. And we work together to make sure that all children get an opportunity to be in the village schools. It is truly important. Now sometimes our children want to go to Dreyfus or they might want to go to Suncoast and we want them to spread their wings, but lots of our students says, oh no, I want to stay right home in the village of Wellington.

So let's give the principals a big hand before I go any further, all of the assistant principals, the parents, everybody here, because knowledge is power and empowering our children to be in school every day, to learn and be their best, is truly happening right here in the village of Wellington. And you are our model. We've been on the road a little bit over the last month in Tallahassee. I did see all of the elected officials from the village of Wellington, plus others lobbying and talking to the governor, as well as the legislators about how we can best serve our children. And one of the things that we do at the education committees in some of the other areas and I haven't done it here, so tell me if you'd like it we do present our priorities from the school board.

And at the very end of the session, we give a recap to tell you exactly what we got, what we didn't get, what we're going to keep fighting for, and just update on how we continue to work with our legislators. Our Palm Beach County Delegation is absolutely fabulous. They know what we want. We see them every day. They present to the school board locally.

And we're in their offices all the time. But when we go to Tallahassee, it gives us a chance to talk to all of the others. And, you know, we have just a whole amazing group in the state of Florida doing great work for our children. So if that's something you'd like, I'd love to make sure you get our Palm Beach County School District priorities, if you haven't seen them yet. And I know that I have Ms. Valerie Haines. She has it right at her fingertips. She'll make sure you get it. And then we'll make a note whenever you want us to do it. We usually do it near the end of the year.

Sometimes the session goes a little longer, depending on what's happening in Tallahassee. But whenever it stops and we know exactly what we're getting, how well we did, things that we have to keep working on, we will continue doing that. But we'd love to keep you updated if that's something you'd like.

I think we all would like that.

Absolutely. Yeah, I haven't done it here, but we do it in the other committees, and I thought about it. I said, I need to make sure that happens. Well, thanks for remembering us. Absolutely, yes. And we're in Tallahassee all the time working on behalf of our children and our parents. And we're getting close, everybody. And I haven't seen it up on the screen, but the graduation dates have come out. If you have not received those, I really want you to receive them. Wellington, Palm Beach Central, but we have so many schools where our children attend.

And they live in the village, but they may attend another school based on a career academy or choice that they would like. So we'll get you the graduation dates if you haven't received them yet. They're already out hot off the press.

Yes. Is there space for committee members We're to going

to that up in it. I'll bring that up.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. It's all about all of us. You are a major part of what we do with the School District of Palm Beach County. And as long as I've been on the board, you've been present at graduations, not just the ones in the village. If you want to go to another one because of some of the students here, all you have to do is ask.

This is why you have superstar talent like Valerie, Carolyn Wetzel, and Vivienne Green. They will make sure that you're always included. And we always want to make sure that we show up for our students, especially when we have graduation. It's the crown jewel of everything we do with our children. When they get to the point of walking across the stage and saying goodbye to the next level of their lives, we want all of us there to be a cheerleader for them. So that's coming, and we're out there. The superintendent is continually working hard to make sure that our kids get the best education possible. Our teachers are fabulous. We want to take care of our teachers. I know you heard us talk a little bit about the teachers and, you know, trying to give them the monies that they need.

But I know you know that we lost 6,000 students in Palm Beach County this year. But we've had losses all over the state of Florida and the nation for reasons. Sometimes we don't know all of them, but sometimes the cost of living right here in Palm Beach County is something that keeps people from actually coming and doing the best. They have to move where they can afford to live. You've got situations where, you know, attendance is a problem. So there are a whole lot of reasons why we're losing students, combinations of things. But we want to keep them here in Palm Beach County. We want to keep them in the village of Wellington. And we want to keep them in school every day. And you heard Ms.

Wetzel, as well as Ms. Haynes and Doctor. Green tell you that attendance is a big problem everywhere. After the pandemic, a lot of our children had a lot of mental issues. And we're still continually working with that. And with a lot of things that's happening around the country, sometimes kids are afraid to come to school, and we're trying to let parents know that the schools are a safe haven. Come to school. And if we have to work closely with the parent through counseling, through our regional office, we'll go to the homes and help them to know. We want to get our kids in school. We don't want them to stay home.

And we don't want them to leave Palm Beach County for reasons that's out of our control that we know nothing about. But we try to keep a great relationship with the homes where the children come from, going into those neighborhoods, walking them, and telling them that we are supporting you and your children, and the school is a safe place. So we're working hard every single day, getting ready for the testing period that's happening with the three phases of testing that's going on. And just working closely and thanking our teachers, thanking you for being a partner. You've always been a partner.

You've been out of the box making a difference, putting your money where your mouth is to make sure our children get extra attention right here in the village of Wellington. You have so much to be proud of. I know I'm in my swan song now, but it's going be hard to leave you all. I'll find myself coming to the meeting and giving you some input on anything that I see as I move around. But I'm just so thankful that I've been able to have fifty one years with the School District of Palm Beach County, sixteen of those years servicing children and families and the community. I moved to Wellington back in 1985, before the mall, before a whole lot of things have happened.

Well, maybe we can entice you to sit on our education committee. Well,

can tell you, you can just have me work with you. I'll volunteer to do anything you tell me to do, because I feel like I'm already a member of the But I couldn't be what I am today when I look out and I see the people that make it happen every day. Thank you for everything that you do. Thank you. You.

Alright. Perfect. So, while we're all here, I want to say thank you to our principals, our SAC members, our PTA members, as well as the school district for attending this evening. That being said, our principals do an absolutely amazing job and it's highlighted through everything that we saw on those screens. And that being said, I also wanna say our PTAs and our SAC members, they're an extension of our principals as they do everything in their power to make an impact on our students in the school as well as in the community.

So, for that reason we're here in a spirit of collaboration, right? And we wanna hear from our PTAs as well as our SAC members because it was important to our education committee to say, hey, we don't need to just have a PTA at Equestrian and a PTA at Binks. We need to all work together to see how we can all make the same impact at each one of our schools. So, that being said, I don't know if any of our education committee members would like to add to that, but we'd love to hear from our SAC members and our PTA members to see how we can all make a difference in each one of our schools equally.

Do we have people here that are are ready to speak?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And our SAC members, PTA members, can you please just come up to the front, let us know what's going on in your schools, and maybe we can bounce ideas off of one another to see how alright. We can If we're making an impact in Wellington High School, how we can do the same thing at Palm Beach Central, so forth and so on.

Hi, good evening.

Good evening.

Jennifer Herbrew, I am the president at the Wellington High School PTSA. I am here to say kudos to us. I have a couple of things to share. So I am this is my second year as PTSA president at the high school. Last year, I came in and we my goal was to change a little things up, especially my theory and as the PTSA is the older the students get, the more they need us as parents. Right? People think, oh, no, they're old. They can they can bend for themselves or no, they're going to be Okay. That's not true. This, from ninth to twelfth grade, is the most important years because once they turn 18, they're gone, right?

Either they're going to go to college, or they're going to do trade school, or maybe they just want to open a barbershop, or I don't know, a nail tech, so forth, right? So when I came in, I said, Okay, we have to focus first on our teachers. We have to thank our teachers on a daily basis, because they spend the most time with our students than we do at home. So, I came in giving back. So, every month, we tried to give back to our teachers with a soup and salad month.

Then we celebrated with cookies. For Christmas, I went around with my other board members, knocking on the doors, giving them hot chocolate and a holiday cookie for them, thanking them for the happy holidays. Then, so that's I focused last year specifically on the students getting funding because, you know, if you don't we don't get the district doesn't give us money, right? It's all sponsorship. So, I was calling, calling to get that. Then so that's why I focused on the on the teachers last year and then so much the students. This year, I came in and said, okay. We need to make PTSA a club. Why do we need to

make it a club? Because we need to

get the students involved. That's what PTSA stands for. It's Parent Teachers Students Association. That's something nationwide. So we made a PTSA club.

In that club, we have some students, freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors that represent us. For example, for the holidays, we did holiday cards for four nursing homes in the village of Wellington. So the students weren't able to unfortunately go to the nursing homes, but during lunchtime, they took out, they made happy holidays, they made, like, a little card, and we were able to deliver it to those facilities because we know some of those members don't have any family, right? Again, every month, we try to do something for our teachers. We focus on project graduation for our seniors, so that's a big event that we did last year as well.

We did a, like, a carnival theme. We did it at the school. The rate, the year prior, they only had 75 students. Last year, I had six fifty students.

That's great.

Yes.

And it was amazing. I was so excited for them. We had over 175 gifts donated for our seniors. A sponsor was able to donate us money, so we were able to grant them that. And then, for this year, we're working on that as well. We're debating, like, what we're going do. But again, every month this year, we've given something back to the students for free. Like, we did hot chocolate. We've done cookies, donuts. Now that comes Valentine's Day or Friendship Day, we're giving them donuts that have been sponsored to give to the students.

As PTSA, we did last year as well as in this year, Rosenwell, which is the the elementary school out in South Bay. Last year, we were able to donate $200. This year, PTSA decided to staff the entire lunch, breakfast and lunch for the entire staff of, like, 50 staff members. So we were able to donate additional than $200 because our funds were there, along with helping them with the bicycles for the students that they need and the scooters. Let's see what else.

This year is our biggest thing. So PTSA has a scholarship. We are gonna offer our seniors that are members, you know, because you have to be members for the PTSA, a scholarship. It's anywhere between 500 to $1,500, again, depending where our funding is, for a student. And it doesn't necessarily that student doesn't have to go to college. So maybe a student like I said, maybe a student is going to go to UF, he needs $500 or she needs to move. Okay, perfect. Maybe a student wants to open a mobile detailing a car wash. So they're going to write a letter, and we've worked it's in a point system, and we're working with Kaiser University so we can score. And it's all anonymous.

It's all by numbers and so forth. And hopefully, we're going to be able to, at least my goal I wish you higher than I am supposed to, but my goal is for three students at $500 each student. But if I can do one, that's more than enough for me. And that's one of our biggest things that we're doing. Also, when our student for the reflection, PTSA has a reflection scholarship, our student from Wellington High School got nominated and she's going to state. And we are so excited. We just got the email. We send it out And she's gonna get recognized. We're gonna take the pictures and so forth. And we're gonna wish her tons of luck to go to state.

And like I said, our next biggest thing is that we're working on is project graduation for our seniors. Again, we hope to do an overnight thing, but it's kinda hard. Our biggest thing too is we have a Wellington High School this year has over 100 students that are not gonna be 18 by the time they graduate, which is May 19. So that's a big, you know, liability and so forth. But either way, that's what Wellington High School is working on now.

My goal is to shoot for the stars. By the time am out of Wellington High School, the next person that comes in can do much more and better than I have been doing. Again, you know, like I said, my goal has always been just because your child is getting older doesn't mean they need you. They need you more because they need guidance. They need your help. They need you to be present. And if it wasn't for that, and of course, you know our teachers, we couldn't make this possible.

Tell me your name again.

I'm Jennifer Arbrough.

Jennifer, you are amazing. Thank And thank you for speaking. You gave us It's all so heels that we were looking for,

right?

Yes. That's amazing. I have to say, it's hard coming in, you know, as a parent, because there are high schoolers. I have a eleventh grader and a ninth grader at Wellington. And at first, was like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? But you know what? The kids love me. And now they know that I'm That's surprise. That's great. That's all it matters. They know that, oh, they're here. What are they going to give us for free? Like, you know, what are

they going to do?

So and they and believe it or not, they come they take out of lunch their lunchtime for the club, they come to the hall and they'll decorate. And, you know, yes, I do brag them. I'll give them a piece of candy or I'll be like, here's $2 for it. But, yes, but they do come and, you know what, and they love it. And they get their volunteer hours because I sign off for the volunteer hours. And it's great, and it makes my heart so happy just to see them.

Ms. Andrews, we have to put her on the absenteeism problem.

Ms.

Yeah. And again, I thank Kara Gorham for letting us come in, because all I have to say is, I'm coming in today. She's like, okay, you know, what are you doing today? I'm like, I'm what, like a crate, I was dressed like an elf from head to toe with a cart pushing hot chocolate and cookies, baked cookies, all over the school. Mhmm.

But the you know

what it is? The teachers loved it because they need to feel appreciated. Mhmm. And that was my goal is for them to feel appreciated. And also the students know that, yes, we're parents, but we're here to support them no matter what. And I always say, listen, I'm a mom, but if you need anything and you can't talk to your parents or you can't talk to a teacher fast enough, let me know and I will try to help you.

That's great.

Yeah. That's great.

Thank you so much for all you are doing. Thank Thank you so

you.

I'm just gonna say, if I had walked into my kid's school in high school dressed as an elf, I wouldn't be sitting up here today.

Hi, good evening. My name is Sonya Garate, and I'm on the SAC committee of New Horizons Elementary. And the reason I'm here today is because I have an idea to help with the absenteeism. Oh, good. And it's a very simple one. It's called shade structure. It's called a shade structure. Now, at New Horizons, we have lovely playground structures and our principal has said that it's beautiful for our students to have recess outside. Of course, we have state mandated recess and it's ideal to have it outside. But we don't have the sufficient stage structure to make sure that our students can do that safely.

So right now they have recess outside with a very small shade structure over just the very top of the playground. And if they do have recess outside in a grassy area, it's completely mostly uncovered with a bit of shade from the trees but mostly uncovered. So what we're asking possible at SAC, I'd like to ask if the education committee could support us in funding for this. Now we can get some funding from the American Academy of Dermatology. There is a grant out there and we would qualify New Horizons.

I think we are not specifically because we are a Title I school, but for the criteria. So we have $8,000 sitting in the back, but of course the shade structure costs much more than that. And so my idea is if we can get that out there, kids will enjoy recess outside. They'll be looking forward to coming to school. And I think that may put a dent in thinking, You know what? I'm kind of sick, but you know what, I do want to play hide and seek with my friend. So I'm going to go today anyway. And just go ahead and get them that push, extra push to get to school. So if the education committee could support, give guidance on making that a reality, I know the students at New Horizons would so much appreciate that.

Well, we certainly can be champions for that. Unfortunately, we don't have funding.

Pretty hard

to think. You could totally go

to the Thanks. Okay? Yes.

Okay. And if you could champion that, I'll

give We you can a chance. Certainly, definitely champion it

for sure

and promote. I think that's wonderful. If you give us some information, you can email Ian and he can email it out to us. We can start spreading the word and maybe there will be some businesses out there. Could go to maybe the chamber, the rotary, right, rotary, and the Wellington Foundation.

Exactly.

We could give you a list of

people JACKIE Oh, I'd

love it.

For

Yes. Sure. JACKIE I'd love

JACKIE Thank you so much.

JACKIE You're welcome.

JACKIE Thank you.

Would anybody else like to talk on behalf of their schools?

I my name's Stephen Levin. I live at 11909 Osprey Point Circle. I'm Madam Chair, Vice Chair, Committee. Where focus goes, energy flows. And what I've noticed, really, by being a member on SAC at Wellington High is I can tell you that the absenteeism is an area of incredible focus. They reach out every kid that's absent. They try very hard to find where they are. I can't speak to Mr. Myers, although I know his wife, former principal. And I know that when the rates for absenteeism were on the board, the two high schools were nearly identical.

Mr. Myers, I'm sure, does a fabulous job, but a ninety nine point nine percent graduation rate is phenomenal. And another round of applause, please, for Principal Gorham. I don't know Jennifer, but Missy Schubert on PTA, great job. And it just makes every child matter. February 17 is the next SAC meeting. Thank you for putting that up there. And that's all Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Perfect.

And what we can also share is not only the upcoming events or initiatives that we're doing, but also struggles that our schools are having as well. Does anybody want to speak on behalf of their school as it relates to that?

I do have one question, if I could. For the folks who are here and were talking about this absenteeism challenge, I'm just interested in knowing how many parents are getting involved in that outreach, or if it's mostly administrative. I don't know if there are district rules that would prevent parents from getting engaged in it. But mean, I'm seeing those dancing dads in the classroom. And if one of those came to my house dancing in a dog costume and my kids were sitting there not wanting to go to school, that might motivate them.

I mean, we're nothing if not incredibly creative here in the village of Wellington. So I'm just wondering if anybody could speak to whether you have the most creative things that you're doing. Or is it just administration saying, listen, we're just making our calls, we're doing our whatever. Just wanted to open it up for that.

I just want to make a comment. Work in a church. I'm the director of children and youth ministries at a church. And we have the same problem for Sunday school, which is probably silly to the educators out there. But it all builds, right? Everything that we're doing is building. And it's because they are so busy, right? There's sports. Every day of the week there's sports, there's activities, there's arts, there's music. There's something every day of the week.

And I think sometimes our kids do get burnt out, especially as they get into high school. And, you know, I occasionally would give my kids a mental health day. And I found out as my kids grew up that they took a few more than I thought they did. But it is important, and I mean, all the way across the board for our parents to understand, you know, really what's happening is that it is such a detriment to the students' growth and where they want to go and what they want to do. My youngest is 22.

He graduated from Palm Beach Central, and he was there during the time of the pandemic, junior and senior year. So he ended up going to college for a semester and is like, school's not for me. Because frankly, he didn't know how to study anymore, right? He just stopped studying and got through however he got through. I am proud to say, though, and I do believe it's because of the Village Of Wellington Schools, he is now enrolled at Palm Beach State in his fourth semester straight A's and applying to UF at 22, right? And so sometimes it takes a little bit longer. You know, God willing, he'll get in. Go Gators. But if he doesn't, that's okay, too, right? But sometimes it takes them a little bit longer.

So we definitely have to be patient with them. But we will see the fruits of our labor. And I think that's what parents have to understand. Now, I also know, I mean, we do have a group of students in this area who are underserved, right? And maybe they don't have the means. Maybe they don't have a coat to go to school when it's cold. Or, you know, maybe they're home babysitting a sibling when a parent is working. We don't know all of those things. But for the parents who don't have those situations in play, right? And those are the ones that we really should be reaching out to more, I believe, right? It's our responsibility because it brings up the whole school when we work together as parents.

Yeah, 100%. And just to go off that, I will say from a parent standpoint, I can't say what the schools do. But, from a village of Wellington standpoint, I know our schools do reach out to us. I know I have a great relationship with our high school principals, mister Myers as well as principal Gorham. I know our CP team, community policing team, like, hey, they let us know, hey, we're having we're having a problem with this student getting to school whether it's our CPs bringing them to school or a us just trying to, you know, establish a relationship with that kid to try to get them back on the right track, like, that's what they do.

Right? Our principals will try to find the resources to connect the students to try to get them back on the right track. And so, those relationships with the principals at those schools, I can speak for definitely and say they're doing everything in their power to get those kids.

Certainly are. And when you have great PTAs and PTSD 100%. And you're including the students there's Yeah. A reason to go to school.

Right, one Right, 100 there's

something for them to do.

Exactly. And those numbers, those graduation rates, like, eight, Amazing. They speak volumes.

So part of why we wanted everyone to be here tonight was to be able to share some resources because for me, I mean, Ms. Salazar, you're doing a wonderful job at New Horizons, but the idea that there's a group of community police, you know, that can support and help with engaging, that's something that sort of hadn't crossed my mind. One of the things we're trying to do is just whatever great ideas you have at one school that we can share with another school so that we might be able to figure out, oh gosh, I hadn't looked at it from that perspective. Maybe there's a new angle that we can have. Is it possible to compile a list of resources that are put in play when we are trying to tackle that truancy issue?

Because, I mean, some things that I know of may have just slipped my mind. It's like, oh, gosh, that's a resource that's available. Why didn't I think of that before now? Is it possible to gather those resources so we continue to have that top of mind and refreshed as things, levers we can pull?

Right. So I did wanted to add that our district does have an entire department that actually helps and assists with truancy. They have counselors. They have mental health that actually assist the families, in some cases even assist with some home visits. So we do have, certainly, the district, a department that tackles that type of, especially the more egregious ones.

And I think it was like last year or maybe the year before. I mean, the years just kind of like roll over each other. But like I would say in the past year or two, we have taken some families to court over students not attending school. But those are more of the egregious cases. What we're trying to tackle, really, on a day to day basis is those students that are out 10 times, 11 times.

It's not egregious enough that causes that much attention, But it's enough to really make a difference and a negative impact on a student's education, right? So it's those in the middle kind of families. The data that I share with you is those that have 11 or more absences. Those are the ones that we really need to get ahold of, because that does make a huge difference. It really does.

It really does. But we do have a lot of supports. Our schools have gotten really creative, too, with some ways of having students be rewarded for being in school. Some of our schools have homeroom competitions. All of your students are there, you get a little dot or whatnot, and whoever gets the most dots by the end of the month.

I mean, there are different ways. We have some of our schools with house systems that really also leverage the house systems for attendance. So different ways. But it's going to take more than just the school setting, our teachers, our admin. It really is going to take a partnership between the village, between our communities, and businesses even, to be able to assist us. Really it's about educating our parents. At the end of the day, it's about educating our parents, that the kids come first in their education.

One of the things I wanted to mention is that the village does a very good job of reaching out to the schools and being involved in the community. The community services department that Ian is in and the other young men and young women are in, they're in the schools every day. They're in the schools. They're shuffling kids back and forth for tutoring, for food, for games, activities. And if you look at Tom, I must be the only person in the village that reads Jim Barnes' weekly report.

I really But

if you look at those reports, you will see just how involved the schools are and the village is in the schools and the relationship that they have and the individual students and teachers and folks in the community that they help. So all of that that's one of the wonderful things about living in Wellington is that all of those things are already in place. Yes, there's probably more that we could do, but the funding just isn't there. So we do as much as we can with the funding.

And the village of Wellington works so closely with the schools and organizations like the Boys and Girls Club in Wellington, where transportation is provided for students from kindergarten all the way to high school. Where if they have transportation issues, they can get picked up after school and be picked up as late as 08:00 at night. So it's through the village of Wellington's support that that's able to continue.

And less anybody think that this attendance problem is a nationwide problem. This is certainly not limited here to Palm Beach County or Wellington. I think Wellington has some of its own unique challenges, just given the demographic that we have of some seasonal people. And also some people who may or may not feel as comfortable sending their kids to school anymore due to to to some of the immigration issues. But, you know, that's a concern as well.

But I I mean, I I do you know, the village has always done a really good job of of reaching those. And I'd also like to just, you know, congratulate and and thank the, principals because they've always, in my experience, been really good at communicating to

each other. Absolutely.

The ideas percolate throughout the systems and the good ideas, you'll see them pop up at the schools. The Watchdogs is a perfect example of believe that started I think it started at landings, now it's throughout Wellington. And it's just it's an idea that worked at one place, and so it's populated.

You know, I

I do have to take my hat off to the the administrations of the school have done a great job of working that working together. The school board has the the school administration has done a great job of supporting them. But the individual schools work together as a team with the support of the village. And it really it doesn't eliminate all our problems by any means, but it helps in a

lot I'm of them. So thankful. And thank you, Ms. Sanders, opening the invitation for all of us to be able to attend both the high schools, if we can, because we get to hear from every I mean, we get to see the K through we have our own kids that will be graduating going through. So I know that Ms.

Hayden has her granddaughter graduation So this I'm sure she'll be excited. And for me, I also want to always I know we're coming in an anniversary of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas next Saturday. And I obviously want to thank PBSO, our security, but our teachers and our principals and our staff and the parents that come and help come in and out and make sure our kids are safe. That, you know, I really feel our kids in Wellington feel safe. And so I know that.

I want to continue to stress how thankful I am and I know the committee is that you're here and that you put in your effort. And you're still going to get up at five in the morning tomorrow and keep going. So thank you so much.

Perfect. So

are we going to do a staff Yep. Staff report.

So we

still okay. Sorry. Okay.

Alright. So we've been quite busy over the last year. I know we've I think we missed a meeting. So we got some things that we can talk to you about. So as it was said in the presentation, we did do our salute to service parade in partnership with Palm Beach Central. They're absolutely amazing. The assistant principal Willow Lewis who oversaw that entire parade, he did his thing and it was an awesome experience. With Saint Peter's Methodist Church, we did do our annual toy drive which was absolutely amazing. It was a great success serving over, I wanna say, 550 students.

Well, and thank goodness for the Grinch who showed

up. Yeah. We also had our MLK Day of Remembrance Breakfast in partnership with the Crown Pearls of Wellington. That was absolutely amazing as well. We had the director and CEO of National League of Cities, Clarence Anthony, in attendance and he spoke some awesome words to our youth. And I wanna say thank you very much to the Crown Pearls of Wellington and Marcia specifically for making that connection. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Upcoming, we do have our black leaders forum which will be taking place on February 25.

I'm going off the dome. So, I will follow-up with you. I will follow-up with you to ensure that's the correct date. And then our swag program, it's our annual in in school sessions as well as our Saturday sessions in partnership with the Crown Pros of Well ington is going off without a hitch. Our students are attending, they're present, they're enthusiastic about being there. Gus does an awesome job week after week to ensure that our students are are in attendance and they're in the know. So that's great. We are also assisting with the Vince Ramos Therapeutic Riding Center. We did get Palm Beach Central on board to participate in that program as of the last two years. So that's amazing.

But Wellington High School, they've been an active participant and Gus is transporting them day in and day out when they need transportation. So, Gus is in the bus quite often, right? But it's amazing that he does have a CDL. So, we can provide those students the opportunity to go to that facility. Because, you know, Wellington High School, they do a great job but that staff is quite busy at the school. So Gus being able to, you know, be that transportation need that they need is is amazing. And then we have our youth council. Those students are very special. They have an idea for Valentine's Day, which I will have to go ahead and just tell you what it is. Right? So, they're creating 500 letters that they're going to hand deliver to each one of our seniors. We're gonna be doing that next Friday

Love it.

Before Valentine's Day. Now, I said we should do it on Valentine's Day, but they said, Have plans. We have our own

plans, right?

This that's in the air. That's good for them, right? We're about to have our second session of our Tom Atkins civics one zero one session next Tuesday as well, where they get to ask questions to the village council. Essentially what that program is, if you don't know, is just an opportunity for our, for us that as a village to teach our students what civic engagement is all about. Right? Our first session what we were able to do is, you know, have our different departments at almost like a job fair if you will, so they can see all that it takes to make a village and run a village. Right? The finance department, all these careers that they think are outside at these financial institutions. Well, that's in the municipality as well. It's just on a smaller level.

Right? And then, Gus, I I wanted to bring you up here, but I won't, you know, call you out. But Gus is just partnered with our PBSO team, our community policing team, in fact, to create a PAL basketball team. Right? And so now he's gonna be able to make an impact on the middle school level. And I I told him, hey, it's first or nothing. Right? So, I know he's doing everything in his power to make sure he brings a championship home, but it's more than that. Right? It's about making an impact. It's about making a difference in the lives of our students. And that's exactly what Gus is gonna do. He's got a great heart of servitude. So, I have no no doubt that he's gonna make a difference in their lives. So, that's pretty much it as it relates to programs and initiatives that we're working on.

However, I did want to go ahead and invite you all this Thursday to a secret event. We're going to be highlighting the top 20 students at Palm Beach Central High School. It's gonna be in our Wellington Community Center Grand Ballroom. And at that breakfast, we're going to be announcing the valedictorian as well as the salutatorian. Oh.

So if you all can't attend, I will go ahead and follow-up with an email this evening, the details for that event because I feel like, hey, that would be special for us to be in attendance and just, you know, show the kids some love. And then lastly, I wanted to invite you to our council meeting on February 24. As miss Valerie stated, Connie Sterling was highlighted and we're going to be highlighting her as a council. And I think it would be special for our education committee to be in attendance as well. Maybe we can get her some flowers and then I'll let you all provide the flowers to her. How does that sound?

Great. That's good. Awesome.

Thank you.

Other than that though, I think that that wraps it up as far as public I mean, staff report. Hardly anything going on? No. Nothing at all. Nothing else.

Okay. Did

you all have any questions as it relates to the initiatives that the village is doing, though? No. Okay. Perfect.

The Vince Ramos Yes. Are you having opportunities for students to volunteer as well as be served by the the writing center?

So the students can volunteer and they would have to go because Gus Gus is doing this during the school Thank day.

You.

You're very welcome.

Any questions? No?

I don't have any.

Amazing, as always. I mean, you guys do an amazing job and we are so proud of you all and everything that you do. All right. And then I just did want to comment on Ms. Andrews mentioning of the graduations because we were going to wanted to bring that up tonight anyway to see if all of our education committee could be invited to go to our local high school graduations. Yes. I know Okay.

And forgive me for interrupting. So as it relates to the stage, only the chair is gonna be able to go up because we are getting seats for the village council as well. However, I did speak to both principals prior and they stated, of course, our education committee can attend, but on the stage I can only have the chair at this time.

Okay.

All right? Mhmm. So, I just want to make that apparent. I do apologize.

Will there be a special place for us to sit or do we have to, like, Yes. Kind of There will be. Okay. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. I'm sorry. Any closing comments?

Was just I just want to

thank everyone for coming tonight. Jen, you were at Landings, and we still try to replicate what you did there. So with the monthly teacher appreciation events, and getting students involved, and parental involvement is so important, which we are still working on ourselves. But from mom to mom, thank you. And also from the lady that was from New Horizons I can't remember her name. But thank you for being here. I know that you guys are busy, and we appreciate you.

Thank you

very much. So we'll start down the line, if you want to start with a closing comment.

I wanted to thank everyone for showing up tonight. And if anyone in the audience has any thoughts after you leave here or whenever about ways that we as a group can help to promote connections among the different schools in Wellington, we're really just trying to build up the level of communications that seems to be really fantastic among the staff. We're trying to do that same thing among the SAC members and among the PTAs so we can continue to take I within I can only speak for New Horizons right now. But we're just doing what we can to support the administration that's already doing so much, whatever we as parents can do to lift that burden off of the administration. And part of that is just learning what everybody else is doing and stealing best practice ideas.

So if you guys have any thoughts for us on what we can do to further support you as a group, we're open to hearing it. Thank you.

Yeah, I want to echo. We're here to help and support and to move things forward. And again, thank you so much to the parents, to the staff, everybody. I can't express how important it is to know that my child goes to a school where she feels safe. And I really appreciate that. That is a hard job. And for those seniors, a little plug. I work at Palm Beach State College. There is scholarships available that just opened recently. And so please let your seniors know.

But again, it really comes down to we are a village. And tonight, I really felt even more strongly from hearing from parents and you know, the amazing principals that we have here and everybody that came, Ms. Andrews, everybody over there, like, you know, kudos to you guys for always doing the best. And I really appreciate that.

:Christina, do you have any closing comments?

CHRISTINA Not at this time. Thank you, though.

CHRISTINA DYBECK: Okay.

CHRISTINA DYBECK:

So just thanks again to everyone. My husband and I, we moved to Wellington just because of the schools. And our youngest son, Robert, graduated from Wellington High School. And I always tell everyone, he's a physician today in Jacksonville, Florida at Tom Baptist Health and doing very good because of the foundation that he got here at the Wellington School. So I'm very partial. I'm waiting to see what the granddaughter does now.

Thank you, everybody, for being here. Ian and Gus, thank you for everything that you guys do for our kids, for our schools, for our community. Ms. Andrews, thank you. We've been a fixture here throughout the years. We've always been able to come to you with projects or with issues. And you have been a great supporter of ours. And so we really appreciate everything that you've done. And I guess that's about all I'm going to say.

So I won't say thank you.

No, I will. Thank you,

thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for everybody coming. And we would love to see you at all of our meetings. Invite your parents from your schools to come. They don't have to be, you don't have an issue, but just to come and hear what we're doing. I think that'd be really great for them to know what the community is doing for their children. We would love to have you all there. And if you need a way to reach out to us, the best way is through Ian. You can email him, and he will disseminate the information to all of us according to the Sunshine State Standards and all that kind of thing. But that's important because sometimes we feel like we sit here and we don't really do anything.

And we all are committed to our children, that's why we're here. So we want to be used, I mean, the schools, by the parents, by the community. So please let us know how we can be useful to you. And at that, do you have anything else? We're Yeah. All right. I am going to adjourn the meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.