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THE CABINET STATE OF FLORIDA _____________________________________________________ Representing:
DIVISION OF BOND FINANCE, STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION
KRISTEN
L. BENTLEY ACCURATE
STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC.
Representing the Florida Cabinet: JEB BUSH JIM SMITH ROBERT F.
MILLIGAN
BOB BUTTERWORTH CHARLIE
CRIST TOM GALLAGHER * * * ACCURATE
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ITEM ACTION
PAGE ITEM ACTION
PAGE DEPARTMENT
OF VETERANS AFFAIRS ITEM ACTION
PAGE SITING BOARD ITEM ACTION
PAGE STATE BOARD
OF EDUCATION ITEM ACTION
PAGE DEPARTMENT
OF AGRICULTURE ITEM ACTION
PAGE
BOARD OF
TRUSTEES ITEM ACTION
PAGE STATE BOARD
OF ADMINISTRATION ITEM ACTION
PAGE
2 (The agenda items commenced at approximately 9:30 a.m.) 3 GOVERNOR BUSH: The next cabinet meeting will be 4 held Tuesday, Auguest 27th in Tallahassee. We'll now 5 begin the agenda. Colleen tells me we've got a change 6 in the lineup here so I want to go through it for the 7 cabinet. First is the Division of Bond Finance, then 8 the Department of Veteran Affairs, then the Siting 9 Board. The Financial Management Information Board has 10 been deferred, the entire agenda has been deferred. 11 Then the State Board of Administration, Department of 12 Agriculture, Board of Trustees, State Board of 13 Administration. Ben. 14 MR. WATKINS: Good morning, Governor. Item 1 is 15 the minutes of the June 25th meeting. 16 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Move. 17 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 18 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 19 objection, the item is passed. 20 MR. WATKINS: Item No. 2 is the resolution 21 authorizing the issuance of up to $613,400,000 of PECO 22 bonds. That is the entire authorization for the 23 current fiscal year. The resolution also authorizes a 24 competitive sale of up to $250 million of that 25 authorization. ACCURATE
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2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 3 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 4 objection, the item passes. $600 million. That's a 5 lot. 6 MR. WATKINS: Yes, sir. We keep moving forward 7 with the program. 8 Item No. 3 is a resolution authorizing the 9 issuance and competitive sale of up to $295 million of 10 PECO refunding bonds. 11 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move. 12 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second. 13 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 14 objection, the item passes. 15 MR. WATKINS: Item 4 is a resolution authorizing 16 the competitive sale of up to $150 million in Florida 17 Forever bonds to continue the implementation of that 18 program. 19 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Move. 20 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second. 21 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 22 objection, the item passes. 23 Since Secretary Smith has been on this cabinet 24 we've just approved the authorization of about a 25 billion dollars worth of debt. Congratulations, Jim. ACCURATE
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2 MR. WATKINS: Item No. 5 is a resolution 3 authorizing the competitive sale of up to $200 million 4 in right-of-way acquisition and bridge construction 5 bonds for the Department of Transportation. 6 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Move. 7 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 8 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 9 objection, the item passes. Let me make an amendment. 10 It's a billion two now. 11 MR. WATKINS: Item No. 6 is a resolution 12 authorizing the issuance and competitive sale of up to 13 $60 million of right-of-way refunding bonds. 14 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move. 15 GOVERNOR BUSH: Is there a second? 16 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second. 17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 18 objection, the item passes. 19 MR. WATKINS: Item No. 7 is a report of award on 20 the competitive sale of $150 million in Lottery bonds. 21 The bonds were awarded to the low bidder at a true 22 interest cost of 4.44 percent. 23 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move. 24 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second. 25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without ACCURATE
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2 MR. WATKINS: And lastly, Item No. 8 is a report 3 of award on the competitive sale of $94.7 million in 4 capital outlay refunding bonds. The bonds were awarded 5 to the low bidder at a true interest cost of 6 3.74 percent, generating gross debt service savings to 7 the state of approximately $9.3 million. 8 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Motion. 9 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second. 10 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded without 11 objection. The motion passes. Thank you, Ben. 12 MR. WATKINS: Thank you. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ACCURATE
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2 Affairs. 3 MR. McPHERSON: Good morning, Governor Bush and 4 cabinet members. I'm Rocky McPherson, currently the 5 administrative director for the Department of Veterans 6 Affairs. Our agenda item this morning is the 7 succession of the executive director position since 8 Jennifer Carroll has moved on to run for Congress. 9 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I'll move your 10 recommendation as Rocky McPherson as the interim and I 11 would recommend that we, in the interest of recognizing 12 the additional responsibility, a 10 percent increase in 13 his salary during the interim period of serving. 14 GOVERNOR BUSH: Any discussion? 15 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second. 16 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion and a second to 17 make Rocky McPherson the interim director of the 18 Department of Veterans Affairs. Without objection, the 19 item passes. 20 MR. McPHERSON: Thank you very much, sir. May I 21 take just a second? 22 GOVERNOR BUSH: Absolutely. You can take more 23 than a second. 24 MR. McPHERSON: Okay. Thank you. During the past 25 three years this Department, with your leadership and ACCURATE
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2 succeeded in doing several things and I'd like to just 3 mention a few of them. We have really worked hard at 4 improving communications with veteran service 5 organizations and we've done well there. 6 We've continued to expand the state veterans' home 7 program and their bringing to fruition two new homes in 8 Bay and Charlotte County. And we are continuing to 9 work with our veterans in enhancing the services we 10 provide them in getting their claims processed through 11 the Federal Department of Veterans' Affairs to gain all 12 the benefits that they rate due to their military 13 service with the nation. 14 During these three years I really have had a great 15 opportunity to be a part of all the endeavors that have 16 gone on with both Robin and Jennifer. There are many 17 good things we've done, but we have several challenges 18 on the table as I think many know. Bringing their fair 19 share of resources from the federal government to 20 Florida is a big part of our challenge. With the help 21 of our federal legislators and Veterans' Affairs 22 department finding new and innovative ways to meet the 23 problem of existing long waiting lists for access to 24 federal health care is a big problem that we're working 25 hard at. ACCURATE
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2 have almost 70 claims folks in our Department that 3 assist Florida's veterans with getting their claims 4 through the federal government for benefits they 5 deserve. Our mission in this Department remains to 6 assist Florida's veterans in every way. We have a 7 small but excellent dedicated work force. We are 8 serving our veterans well, but we still need to strive 9 for more efficient and effective performance and better 10 service to our customers. 11 My efforts will lead to continued progress, I 12 hope, in every area. And I thank you for the 13 opportunity to serve Florida's veterans and to serve 14 the state. I'll give my very best to continue to lead 15 this agency to success and to representing Florida's 16 veterans. 17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you, Rocky. Rocky, I think 18 it would be appropriate to get a picture with you and 19 your beautiful daughter who's with you. Perhaps we can 20 do that while E.T. is still here. Can we do that? 21 MR. McPHERSON: Yes, sir. 22 GOVERNOR BUSH: Welcome aboard. 23 (Applause.) 24 25 ACCURATE
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2 MR. STRUHS: Item 1 is the approval of the minutes 3 from the last meeting in March. 4 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Move. 5 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 6 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded without 7 objection. 8 MR. STRUHS: Item 2 is really an example of where 9 our siting laws in Florida sometimes focus more on 10 process than protection. This legal requirement is for 11 the Siting Board to simply confirm that this proposed 12 plant is consistent and in compliance with local 13 existing land use plans and zoning ordinances, in this 14 case, in Martin County. In fact, that is the case. 15 There's no disagreement on that so we're recommending 16 approval. 17 I will note, however, that the Siting Board will 18 come back and revisit this after the PSC makes a needs 19 determination in November, after the ALJ does a 20 certification hearing in February of next year. So 21 you'll probably see this item back some time in the 22 time frame of April or May of 2003. This is simply an 23 acknowledgment that is consistent with local zoning 24 ordinances. 25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Is there a motion? ACCURATE
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2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 3 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Any 4 discussion? Without objection, the item passes. 5 MR. STRUHS: Thank you. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ACCURATE
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2 MS. SAFLEY: Item 1 is the minutes from the 3 June 12th and June 25th cabinet meeting. 4 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Motion. 5 GOVERNOR BUSH: Is there a second? 6 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second. 7 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 8 objection, the item passes. 9 MS. SAFLEY: Item 2 is a resolution authorizing 10 the competitive sale of up to 613,400,000 State of 11 Florida, Full Faith and Credit, State Board of 12 Education, PECO bonds. And a resolution authorizing 13 competitive sale of up to 250 million of such bonds. 14 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion. 15 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second. 16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 17 objection, the item is approved. Robin. 18 MS. SAFLEY: Thank you. 19 Item 3 is a resolution authorizing competitive 20 sale of up to 295 million state of Florida full faith 21 and credit state board of education, PECO refunding 22 boards. 23 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Motion. 24 GOVERNOR BUSH: Second? 25 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second. ACCURATE
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2 objection, the item passes. 3 MS. SAFLEY: Item 4 is the Assistance Plus 4 Program, School Improvement Plans and district 5 intervention and assistance plans. 6 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Governor, I had some remarks 7 I'd like to share. Cabinet members, public school 8 accountability, under the Bush/Brogan A+ plan, rewards 9 successful schools and assists those schools that are 10 still struggling to meet state standards. Present with 11 us today are ten schools representing four school 12 districts. Each school has earned an A school grade, 13 each -- I wish. 14 Each school has earned a school grade of F for the 15 second time in a four-year period. The school 16 improvement plans and the district intervention and 17 assistance plans before the state board are the result 18 of schools, the districts, and the Department working 19 closely and cooperatively to ensure that every child 20 learns and that no child is left behind. 21 With accountability also comes assistance. 22 Secretary Jim Horne, my partner, will provide 23 additional information on the extraordinary efforts 24 that have been undertaken in the last two months alone 25 to implement strategies for the success of these ACCURATE
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2 MR. HORNE: Thank you, Commissioner Crist, 3 Honorable Governor, and cabinet members, Secretary of 4 State Jim Smith, it's great to see you. And, again, 5 two months ago we were here almost to the day 6 announcing school grades and moving quickly to provide 7 some assistance, some special help to some of our 8 schools in our state that are struggling. 9 As you know, Florida leads the way by setting very 10 high standards. Quite honestly, maybe it's the highest 11 standards in the country. And we have known for a 12 while now that the recipe for success is high 13 standards, regular testing, and accountability. And 14 while Florida may not have been the pioneer to invent 15 this recipe, we certainly are now following that tried 16 and true success and we are having success. 17 Reading scores are up. Writing scores are up. 18 Math scores are up. Dropout rates are down. We're on 19 the right track and we know that, yet we still know 20 some of our schools struggle and we know that Florida 21 has a very strict accountability system, one that 22 provides choices for parents when their children are in 23 schools that are not performing at the levels that we 24 would like. 25 Two months ago, at the urging of the Governor, he ACCURATE
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2 and help to some of these districts. In particular, some of 3 these schools that over the last four years have had a 4 failing grade twice. And so we decided to change the way 5 that we've previously operated. We've always been there to 6 provide help. 7 On this occasion, we decided to look beyond the 8 Department of Education and look to where we have talent all 9 across the state and to provide a new and better way to 10 provide help to these schools. And I'm here to tell you 11 that in two months' period of time, we have searched high 12 and low across our state and we have found that talent and 13 we are directing that talent where we need it most. And to 14 date, we have over 50,000 volunteer hours committed over the 15 next two years to help these schools. 16 Two months ago we began that journey. And, of 17 course, normally a month ago we would have had a cabinet 18 meeting, we did not have one and we would have been there 19 then presenting these plans. 20 We have also enhanced the communication level. I 21 talked with all of the school superintendents, 19, that have 22 at least one failing school in their district. But 23 particularly, we have focused on those who have faced that 24 failing grade twice. And while we call that "double F," we 25 like to believe they are first and fast in getting the help. ACCURATE
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2 And I can tell you I talked every two weeks with 3 the superintendents and it's mostly an opportunity for me to 4 listen. One of the things that we have found is that 5 oftentimes it's not necessarily preaching from Tallahassee, 6 it's listening, and so we're spending the time listening to 7 those school districts. We're getting to work on plans to 8 help provide resources. Everything in our K-20 arsenal from 9 our highest levels of university to private independent 10 schools in the K-12 world were all participants in providing 11 help. 12 The state has provided money for reading coaches. 13 The Governor generously released money that was going to be 14 earmarked for our reading initiative to accelerate that 15 effort to get that money in there and provide reading 16 coaches in all of these schools that have graded out as an 17 F. We have redirected school improvement dollars to have 18 the kind of impact that we want them to have. 19 We've provided money for diagnostic tools. As 20 I've traveled around the state and met with principals. One 21 of the things they say is that we need to assess our 22 children at the earliest possible point. And so we provided 23 not only money but we provided the expertise and the tools 24 necessary. 25 We have provided climate surveys at no cost to the ACCURATE
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2 look and compare apples to apples. We provided on-site 3 assistance. And, as I mentioned, every two weeks we get on 4 the telephone and we talk and we talk about a lot of 5 different kinds of things. But, you know, the praise can go 6 all across the Department. It can go all across the 7 education community. 8 But I also want to tell you that the school 9 superintendents have been hard at work. They've been 10 developing their plans and they've put together some 11 outstanding plans and you have those in front of you. And 12 as we do, we put it under the microscope as well and we seek 13 some modifications, some recommendations, some improvements, 14 some might call it a little tweaking here or there. In some 15 cases, it's a little bit more than a tweak. But we are 16 putting together our best effort. 17 Everything I have in our K-20 arsenal we have 18 invested in this effort. You know, there is nothing more 19 fundamental. The business of education is providing an 20 environment so our students can learn. And when some 21 schools don't perform to the level that we set, we've got to 22 go the extra mile. And I will tell you, Governor, we have 23 gone the extra mile. The day that I was here two months 24 ago, we began. I didn't wait a week. I didn't wait another 25 day. We started that process. And today I think is the ACCURATE
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2 here to provide a little bit of an insight into the 3 development of their school improvement plan. 4 So instead of hearing from me, I thought it would 5 be best that we hear from them. So with your indulgence, 6 I'd like to give them an opportunity to come before the 7 cabinet and speak. First up from Escambia is Jim Paul. 8 Jim. 9 MR. PAUL: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. 10 GOVERNOR BUSH: Welcome, Jim. 11 MR. PAUL: Good morning, Governor Bush, honorable 12 cabinet. Again, my name is Jim Paul. I'm the 13 superintendent of schools for Escambia County. I feel 14 not unlike the young fellow that refused to get out of 15 bed one morning to go to school. His mother pried him, 16 You've got to go. He says, I'm not. The students 17 don't like me. And she says, You've just to get up 18 now, get going. And he says, The teachers don't like 19 me. And finally she said to him, But you've got to go, 20 you're the principal. I've got to go. I've got to go, 21 I'm the superintendent. 22 Really, I'm very proud to speak before you today. 23 I come today representing thousands of teachers, 24 administrators, educational support personnel who want 25 you to know that they are very excited and enthusiastic ACCURATE
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2 no-excuses school district, Governor Bush. We know our 3 children can learn, they do, and they will continue to. 4 I wish I had the time to brag on them a little bit. I 5 understand I only have five to ten minutes, so I better 6 hurry. 7 I'd like to mention just a couple of things. Last 8 year our district posted the highest academic grades on 9 record. Our expulsions dropped 25 percent. We do many 10 of the things that we do better than other counties in 11 the state of Florida and a number of things better than 12 anywhere in the nation. That is not an idle boast but 13 one that I can substantiate with data. Now this is 14 germane, what I just said, to this meeting for a very 15 good reason. It's important for us to have your 16 confidence and in keeping with what I call the rule of 17 accountability, something my administration, the 18 Escambia County School Board, believes in very 19 strongly. We need to bolster your confidence with hard 20 data, that we can and we shall do. 21 As I said, we are a no-excuses school district, 22 believe there is nothing that we cannot do. Our 23 children, all of our children, can and will learn. 24 Escambia County did well last year and we will do even 25 better next year and you can have confidence in that. ACCURATE
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2 only one reason, because you've asked us to come back 3 so you could show what a school district can do and 4 that it does it right. We've done it in the past, as 5 you know, and we'll do it in the future. 6 Now on to our specific plan, Carver Century K 7 through 8 school. I have with me today a number of 8 individuals who are important to this plan. If you 9 don't mind, it will just take a second to introduce you 10 to them. Russell Queen is our new principal of Carver 11 K through 8, Carver Century K through 8. He 12 interviewed for the position a year ago with full 13 knowledge that he would be the first principal of a K 14 through 8 school in recent history. 15 We gave him the monumental task of taking a middle 16 school and an elementary school, both with histories 17 and traditions of their own, and making them and 18 turning it into one. He had to get an anxious and 19 sometimes hesitant community to like the idea as well 20 as building the trust and confidence of both faculties. 21 He's done the job well. One citizen came up to me last 22 week and said, Century, which is about an hour from the 23 heart of Pensacola, is a better place because he's the 24 principal of that school. So I'm very proud of him. 25 He's up to the challenge. ACCURATE
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2 stand up, please. She's a third-grade teacher at 3 Carver Century. She's also the school advisory council 4 chairman, chairperson. She didn't necessarily want to 5 be here today, not because she didn't have the great 6 opportunity of speaking before the cabinet but because 7 her students are back there and she's not. That's her 8 second week of school and she preferred to be with 9 them. No offense meant of course. 10 (Laughter.) 11 I would also like to introduce Dr. John Dewitt. 12 Dr. Dewitt, would you please stand, sir. He's the 13 chairman of our school board. He takes the 14 responsibility of monitoring the progress of Carver 15 Century very seriously. He attended the school 16 advisory council meetings when a school improvement 17 plan was developed. The visit did a great deal to 18 encourage the community on the north end students that 19 they were very, very important. They don't often feel 20 that way. 21 But last but not least, I'd like to introduce 22 Sherie Caegel. Sherie, please. Sherie is the director 23 of comprehensive planning and grants management. If 24 I'm the team manager, she's the coach of the team that 25 will not rest until Carver Century comes to be known as ACCURATE
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2 I would now like to tell you a little bit about 3 what we have done, what we are doing now, and what we 4 will be doing in the future to achieve our goals for 5 Carver Century K through 8. Our plan for progress for 6 Century did not start this year. It started last year. 7 I placed a new principal there to facilitate bringing 8 together the two schools. One of his first goals was 9 to increase community and parental involvement. He 10 knows the significance of parental involvement in the 11 life of a child and that child's academic progress. 12 Attendance, I'm happy to tell you, has increased 13 at school advisory council meetings. And I dare say, 14 however, that he will not be so satisfied until all the 15 parents are involved in their child's school. We also 16 put together a parent workshop, he did. And he's happy 17 to say that the parents came. 18 Needless to say, he also had academic concerns. 19 One area of particular concern he had, that's 20 Mr. Queen, were math scores. As superintendent I'm 21 proud to tell you that 77 percent of his students 22 showed gains last year in math. While we continue to 23 work on strategies and initiatives that will further 24 increase our student math scores and parental 25 involvement, we've targeted a host of other specific ACCURATE
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2 To achieve all that we desire to achieve, it was 3 evident that we needed to provide additional staff 4 development, staff support. The School Board 5 authorized me to place an individual administrator -- 6 an extra, pardon me -- an intern principal to assist 7 Mr. Queen as well as faculty in implementing the myriad 8 of initiatives that we have for Carver Century 9 Elementary School. 10 We also brought on a reading coach for fourth and 11 fifth grade students paid by the district. We brought 12 on a new reading coach for K through 3 funded by the 13 Reading First Grant. Thank you. We also added two 14 additional days of in-service for the faculty and 15 staff. Mr. Queen also made a number of additional 16 personnel changes that he felt were necessary to 17 increase the quality of instruction at his school. 18 Programmatic supports include the following: A 19 new reading series which we have great confidence in 20 with the great money -- excuse me, great money would be 21 nice too. (Laughter.) Great many hours of in-service 22 training. We purchased the academy of reading auto 23 skills program which provides strategies specific to 24 individual students. We implemented a new writing 25 program modeled after the one created and used ACCURATE
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2 Park Elementary School. Lincoln Park is a school with 3 similar demographics as Carver. I should also mention 4 that despite the fact that they have a high -- not 5 despite the fact, I take that back -- a very high free 6 and reduced population of students -- 7 GOVERNOR BUSH: 95 percent. 8 MR. PAUL: Yes, sir, very high -- there are no 9 excuses. And by the way -- 10 GOVERNOR BUSH: It is a B school. 11 MR. PAUL: That's right, it is a B school. 12 GOVERNOR BUSH: I follow these things. 13 MR. PAUL: And I think that's commendable. Our 14 children can learn and Lincoln Park shows that and 15 we're really proud of it. Thank you, sir, for 16 remembering. 17 We also put into place the Stanford Diagnostic 18 Reading Test which monitors the progress of our first 19 and second grade students. But there is more, there's 20 a lot more. And I know I need to be short so we'll 21 make this real quick. When I point out the unique 22 obstacles that children of Century face, I point it out 23 to you not as an excuse for why they can't learn, 24 because that's absolutely ridiculous of course, but to 25 let you know that we know that just as an individual is ACCURATE
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2 The town of Century is about an hour's drive from 3 the heart of Pensacola. Many of Mr. Queen's students 4 have never been to the beach. Many of them have never 5 been to Pensacola, which has a host of additional 6 cultural and academic opportunities. If we can't bring 7 the students to Pensacola, we will bring Pensacola to 8 Century. 9 This year our students will participate in a 10 program called Saturday Scholars. The program brings 11 together 50 students, each with a Navy mentor every 12 Saturday for six weeks. It's a great program that 13 Pensacola students have enjoyed for years and now 14 Century will as well. We appreciate all that the Navy 15 does for us. And they do a great deal, folks, they 16 really do. We owe them an awful lot. 17 In addition to the Navy, we're greatly expanding 18 our mentoring program with the business community as 19 well. In addition to what I've already mentioned, 20 Verizon Wireless has donated $3,500 to support literacy 21 programs at Carver Century K through 8. WEAR TV will 22 provide K through 5, fifth grade students with a new 23 book to take home six times during the course of the 24 year. That's over 1500 books. That's very important, 25 folks, that we have books in their homes because many ACCURATE
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2 (phonetic) bestowed $2,000 to be used for field trips. 3 We're also very pleased and grateful for Trinity 4 Presbyterian Church which has been working with Carver 5 Century for many years. They provide many things 6 including an awful lot of encouragement, mentoring, and 7 tutoring. These efforts on the part of the military, 8 our business community, will work to link Century with 9 Pensacola, something that many feel has not happened 10 very much in the past. 11 In addition to all the community support, we'll be 12 providing technology mentors to teachers, staff 13 development such as digging in the data, Secretary 14 Horne was just mentioning, curriculum mapping will also 15 be provided. Teachers with three years' experience or 16 less will be provided mentoring and collegial support. 17 The University of West Florida will collaborate with 18 Carver Century in assisting with grant writing. We'll 19 also be working even more closely with EWF in terms of 20 placing the best of student teachers to work at Carver 21 Century. The school will be exempt also from any 22 district hiring freeze. 23 Each teacher will be provided a parent conference 24 day each semester in order to make sure we make contact 25 with parents who, for whatever reason, are unable to ACCURATE
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2 words, no excuses, right. It's all about no excuses. 3 We very much appreciate everything that you've 4 done in terms of your recommendations. We've looked 5 them over. I'm sure you'll understand, we now need to 6 take that back to our parent advisory council because 7 they're very much an integral part of what we do. So 8 we'll go back with them and then go over the 9 recommendations and report back to you. They're good. 10 I'm sure they'll all be in agreement but we need to 11 talk to them, do need to talk to them. 12 We believe that these and all other strategies for 13 implementation found in our school and district 14 intervention plan constitute a great recipe for success 15 from the programs we purchase and the teachers we 16 employ to the expectations placed on our students. 17 Nothing less than the most rigorous and challenging 18 goals will be accepted. We will create and sustain an 19 atmosphere of success in this school and the community 20 it serves. 21 I've taken too much time, I know I have. So I'll 22 be quiet now. I'd like to say thank you very much for 23 the opportunity you've given me. Governor Bush, my 24 staff and I stand ready to entertain any questions that 25 you or the cabinet have for us. ACCURATE
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2 Commissioner Gallagher. 3 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I'm impressed by all the 4 things you say and everything you've sent in but you 5 had two schools, Bibbs and Dixon. 6 MR. PAUL: Yes, sir. 7 TREASURER GALLAGHER: And you took over as 8 superintendent and where are those schools now? 9 MR. PAUL: Bibbs is up to a B -- excuse me, a C. 10 Their grade has moved up to a C. Their grade has moved 11 up to a C. Spencer Bibbs, last year, as soon as I came 12 in, we had some financial difficulty. We had to do 13 some bringing together of some schools. We also had to 14 close a number of schools. That's an interesting 15 process. 16 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Right. So you closed one 17 school and you merged the other one. And you didn't go 18 fix it like you're saying you're going to do with 19 Century. My question is: You plan on doing the same 20 with Century? Or are you going to fix Century as it 21 exists? 22 MR. PAUL: We're going to fix it as it exists, 23 yes, sir. 24 GOVERNOR BUSH: There you have it. Any other 25 questions? ACCURATE
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2 just to -- I assume that you're doing the beginning 3 assessment where we know where each child is so that 4 the strategies you're talking about can be 5 child-specific, student-specific. 6 MR. PAUL: Yes, sir, absolutely. And that will be 7 taking place every couple of weeks. We'll know exactly 8 where every student is at any given moment. 9 GOVERNOR BUSH: For all the principals in the room 10 that are here as part of this, my E-mail address is 11 jeb@jeb.org and I would love to hear how you-all are 12 doing going forward. I'm just as one -- the only 13 editorial comment I'll make here. I'm very encouraged 14 and excited about the chances of these children showing 15 that every child can learn. And the focused effort of 16 everybody, whether you liked it or not, and I'm sure 17 that you prefer to have everything just be hunky-dory, 18 the fact is that these kids are going to get attention 19 in a way they have never gotten before and they are 20 going to learn and I'm pleased to see your confidence 21 in that. And I'm pleased to see that there are no 22 excuses and we wish you well. 23 MR. PAUL: Thank you, sir. Thank you, gentlemen, 24 appreciate it. 25 MR. HORNE: Governor and cabinet, next I'm going ACCURATE
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2 GOVERNOR BUSH: Good morning, Art. 3 MR. JOHNSON: Good morning, Governor. It's a 4 pleasure to be here. Fresh in off the plane. I'd like 5 to start this morning by introducing some of the 6 individuals that are joining me from Palm Beach County. 7 To my immediate right is Paulette Burdeck, who is the 8 former board chair from Palm Beach County, and also was 9 president of the South Florida Coalition. 10 In the audience we have Dr. Joseph Orr, chief 11 academic officer. Ask him to stand. Cheryl Alligood 12 who is the assistant superintendent for special 13 programs. Willie Jo Young, who is the new principal at 14 Lincoln Elementary School. Thank you. Valerie 15 Reddick, who is the new principal at West Riviera 16 Elementary School, joined by Sue Millis, who is the 17 school advisory counsel chair, and Mary Evans, who is 18 the new principal at Glades Central High School. 19 Joined by Tammy Moore, who is the school advisory 20 council vice chair and parent. 21 Also like to thank Mr. Horne and his staff as well 22 as Andrea Willett in Commissioner Crist's office for 23 their assistance in helping us work through this plan. 24 We had the distinction of joining the summit in Tampa 25 several weeks ago. I spent the entire time there. We ACCURATE
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2 to contribute. 3 We started out with a plan in place that was 4 largely centered on providing our schools with more 5 stuff and spending more money. And quite honestly, the 6 board wasn't too thrilled with that. So after I 7 returned from Tampa and prior to going I said to the 8 board, If you really want to change a school, you 9 change the leadership, which ultimately when you 10 reconstitute a school is what you have to do. So we 11 changed the leadership. 12 In addition to that, from all the research we've 13 done in our meta analysis internally on our own schools 14 and nationally, to look at what are the benchmarks, 15 what are the independent variables that raise student 16 achievement, the single most important thing is the 17 quality of a teacher and academic rigor. Now you can 18 have a lot of programs, you can have a lot of 19 educational instructional pedagogy, you can have a lot 20 of different curriculums, and almost any of them can 21 work if you have the right leadership and you have that 22 quality teacher with a lot of rigor. 23 Now, when we did our statistics in Palm Beach 24 County they were no different than the rest of the 25 state. And that is in our low-performing schools, ACCURATE
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2 have the teachers with the least amount of experience 3 and the least degrees. So we knew we had to do 4 something about that. And one of the things that we 5 envisioned being put in this necessity as the mother of 6 intervention and coming to Tampa is not only did we 7 need to change the leadership in the school, but we 8 need to get best teachers into these schools. 9 Now we were very successful last year in one of 10 our other low-performing schools in taking the magna 11 monies (phonetic) and completely converting them and 12 completely reconstituting that school by two-thirds 13 with new teachers that were high performers. 14 GOVERNOR BUSH: What school was that, Art? 15 MR. JOHNSON: Pine Grove. That is in the southern 16 part of the county. Previously it was a D, now it is a 17 C. 18 What we've done now is we've statistically 19 analyzed the learning gains of all the students in our 20 system, 3 through 10, in the Q1 and Q2, Quartile 1 and 21 2, for a specific number of students to make it 22 statistically sound. And then we've matched the 23 teacher of record to that group of students. And using 24 NCE norm per equivalents to determine the learning 25 gains which teachers in one year produced two to three ACCURATE
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2 vacate their permanent or their current position and 3 come to an F school. 4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Is that a bonus or is that an 5 increase -- 6 MR. JOHNSON: It's on top. It's on top of their 7 current salary. 8 GOVERNOR BUSH: And when you say "quartiles," this 9 is your own test, not the FCAT. 10 MR. JOHNSON: It's your test, the FCAT. 11 GOVERNOR BUSH: So it's quintile then? 12 MR. JOHNSON: A quartile 1 and 2 is the way we are 13 measuring it. 14 GOVERNOR BUSH: Don't we go one through five? 15 MR. JOHNSON: Well, yes, you do, but we're looking 16 at -- 17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Level 1, Level 2. 18 MR. JOHNSON: Yes, correct. 19 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. 20 MR. JOHNSON: The Q1 and 2 is what we're referring 21 to it as. If you want to call it L1 and L2, we'll do 22 that for purposes of discussion. What we wanted to do 23 was find those teachers who had made gains with that 24 type of student in a substantial enough number over a 25 two-year period that we would have some assurance that ACCURATE
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2 determined that if we rank-ordered all of our teachers 3 in the system from top to bottom and we took the top 4 group, and that was statistically significant at the 5 .001 level, and we offered them -- that was a group of 6 about 80 teachers -- the opportunity to receive $10,000 7 because last year they had made these kind of learning 8 gains, to go to the F2 schools. F2 and 1 quite 9 honestly. 10 We are in the process of doing that right now. 11 Initially, we did not have the kind of turnout we 12 wanted so we have gone to the second level or second 13 tier of those same type of teachers, another 80. And 14 we are in the process of having them notify us of their 15 interest and now we've got to go through the difficult 16 task, because school is starting as we speak, of not 17 only placing them in schools but pulling teachers out 18 of the schools in the event that we have vacancies, and 19 that is somewhat of a problem, obviously, because of 20 union contracts, et cetera. 21 GOVERNOR BUSH: How many teachers have signed up 22 for the $10,000 bonus? 23 MR. JOHNSON: Six to date. But we have them 24 coming in and we are communicating with them on an 25 ongoing basis. If we do -- are able to get only a ACCURATE
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2 in a single school to make sure that we have the best 3 chance to determine whether on a pilot basis that 4 works. If we get, let's say, 25 or 30, we may go ahead 5 and do it for all of our F2 schools. 6 Beyond that, we initially had hopes that everybody 7 that was offered this would accept it and we would have 8 had a stable of approximately 100. And we could have 9 not only looked at the F2, but also the F schools. 10 Now, I'm fully confident that this is a plan for all 11 seasons going forward. The problem is, we are in the 12 last, you know, moments of the game before school 13 starts and a lot of teachers are very hesitant to leave 14 at this particular point in time and basically have 15 told us that. 16 But it is that type of reconstitution of both the 17 faculty and the principal's office that I think is 18 going to be necessary to change these schools around. 19 Now, in terms of your expectations at the state level 20 and of our plan in the areas of professional 21 development, discipline, family and community 22 involvement, culture diversity, and we're going to do 23 all those things, we've submitted our plan to you, 24 you've helped us customize the plan to make sure that 25 all the various points are met and we agree with the ACCURATE
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2 ultimately, it's going to be about the leadership in 3 that principal's office. And also about the quality of 4 those teachers. 5 Now you need to know that out of the seven schools 6 that we have in Palm Beach County that received Fs, and 7 three of them were double Fs, we have reconstituted all 8 of those principals and/or we have placed supervising 9 principals in the school so that where the principal 10 chose to remain, they have someone who is there that 11 oversees that school. It is our intent to take best 12 and brightest and get them into the schools. We will 13 continue to do that going forward. 14 In addition to that, we have also created a 15 position, it's a demographical level position that's 16 going to deal exclusively with recruiting and staff 17 development for these schools. We want to send this 18 individual up to the cold weather states during the 19 winter and see if we can't recruit some of their best 20 and brightest to come down to Palm Beach County. 21 Questions? 22 GOVERNOR BUSH: Any questions? 23 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Yes, Your Honor, I got a 24 quick question. You rank the quality of all of your 25 teachers. What are you doing with those that are on ACCURATE
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2 MR. JOHNSON: Well, since the Palm Beach Post is 3 here, we're not publishing them in the paper but -- 4 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Well, I wasn't suggesting 5 that you should. 6 MR. JOHNSON: -- that's not going to be a big 7 problem. One of the things that we're very cognizant 8 of is where we have this tremendous list we have people 9 at the top, we have people at the bottom. And what I'm 10 suspicioning we're going to find is when we get into 11 our low-performing schools, we probably have a 12 concentration of those teachers. And it will be my 13 intention to probably involuntarily transfer if we find 14 we have a critical mass at the other end. Because 15 obviously if these teachers have demonstrated that, 16 despite their training, despite their degrees, they 17 can't move student achievement, then it's unlikely that 18 retooling is necessarily going to have the same impact 19 on them as someone who has that artistry of teaching. 20 Because when you teach, there is both a science side to 21 it and an art side to it and the art is tough to teach. 22 GOVERNOR BUSH: Do you have a public records 23 issue? Is that what the Palm Beach Post reference was? 24 MR. JOHNSON: No, I was kind of putting that out 25 there to serve notice that we don't intend to put that ACCURATE
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2 very deleterious. What we're looking at right now is 3 the top performers. But we do understand the need to 4 go into the schools and deal with that. Now, 5 interestingly, Governor, as we get into this whole 6 incentive business -- not to get off the subject, but 7 it is an important piece -- this will help us to deal 8 very specifically with who our best teachers are in the 9 system and really reward them for product, not for 10 process. 11 GOVERNOR BUSH: That's interesting. I'm not aware 12 of any other school district that has taken the data 13 and tied it to teacher performance that way. It's 14 encouraging. 15 MR. JOHNSON: We're driven again by necessity. 16 I'm very happy to tell you that 50 percent of our 17 schools have As and Bs. But we do have some schools in 18 destitute poverty that have enormous challenges and we 19 will meet those challenges successfully. 20 GOVERNOR BUSH: I know we have a time constraint 21 and we've got more to do, but is it possible that the 22 principal of the Glades Central High School could come 23 up to talk? I have a particular interest in that 24 school. I know the challenges in the Glades are 25 extraordinary. ACCURATE
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2 students at Glades Central to practice as hard on the 3 books as they do on the football field. 4 (Laughter.) 5 GOVERNOR BUSH: They've got a great football team. 6 And I'd just love to hear what your vision is for the 7 school year and how we can help you particularly. I do 8 think -- particularly one of the things that's a 9 challenge with our system, and I recognize it is, if 10 you socially promote kids for a generation at a time, 11 which tragically we've done, we've not paused in 12 elementary school and said, Wait a second, you know, 13 irrespective of the circumstances, here's some 14 problems. 15 Then, you know, in high school, you get the 16 wake-up call. I recognize it's a greater challenge and 17 a greater opportunity for you and I personally want to 18 see how I can help. I'm also inspired by your teachers 19 and the community leadership that has stepped up 20 publicly and said, This is a wake-up call. We know we 21 can do it. 22 So if there is an earnest effort, and I know there 23 is, you're deserving of extra help. And so I'd just -- 24 everybody is deserving of help but I really do 25 appreciate what your challenge is. ACCURATE
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2 I'll say what she might not have said. She comes from 3 the Glades area, was born and reared there, went to 4 school there. Took one of our most low-performing 5 schools, Gove -- 6 GOVERNOR BUSH: Which one? 7 MR. JOHNSON: Gove. Which she has taken to a B 8 rating. And by creating the kind of program that she's 9 done there, she's not only taken a school that exists 10 in a high minority community, but she has managed to 11 pull many of the students that are in private school in 12 the Glades back to the public schools. 13 GOVERNOR BUSH: Now Gove Elementary is in the 14 Glades? 15 MR. JOHNSON: Correct. 16 MS. EVANS: Yes, it is. 17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Good for you. 18 MR. JOHNSON: And Mary is bilingual -- 19 GOVERNOR BUSH: Creole or Spanish? 20 MS. EVANS: Espanol. 21 MR. JOHNSON: I give you Mary Evans. 22 MS. EVANS: First of all, I'd like to say it is my 23 pleasure to serve as principal at Glades Central 24 Community High School where our motto next year is, 25 Destination success. Everyone in the Glades knows we ACCURATE
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2 However, our focus is academics. Learning is our 3 number one priority and we have already begun our 4 thrust as going from good to great in the area of 5 academics. 6 What I plan to do, with the same focus I had at my 7 elementary school, to see that all children can learn, 8 we will rise to the occasion. We've started with our 9 ninth graders who will be coming to us this year. The 10 first ceremony we had was on July 25th. For our ninth 11 graders, we had a ninth grade roundup. Where at that 12 particular time, we presented our school improvement 13 plan and draft to our parents to let them know fully 14 what the expectations are for next year. 15 Our students are ready. They will rise to the 16 occasion. In the area of reading, what we have done, 17 we have looked at all of our incoming students and we 18 know what their levels are and I have moved teachers 19 around in order to address the academics and also to 20 ensure that our students rise between the levels from 21 Level 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. We are definitely focused 22 because we know that our children can learn and our 23 expectations are very, very high. 24 GOVERNOR BUSH: I'm for you. You got one 25 advantage on this system that hasn't been commented on ACCURATE
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2 start at a very low base as relates to kids reading at 3 grade level in ninth and tenth grade, which means that 4 when you achieve your objective, the learning gains 5 will be astronomical. 6 MS. EVANS: Exactly. 7 GOVERNOR BUSH: And that's the point. I mean that 8 was the addition to this that was good advice to 9 include because, you know, you're going to be rewarded 10 for your effort and I'm fired up for you. How can we 11 help you? 12 MS. EVANS: Well, what we are doing is -- 13 GOVERNOR BUSH: How can I help you personally? 14 You think about it and E-mail me. 15 MS. EVANS: I will. 16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Because I want you to succeed. I 17 think it's important -- 18 MS. EVANS: Oh, we are going to succeed, there is 19 no doubt about it. 20 GOVERNOR BUSH: Okay. Good. Enough said. Fine 21 with me. 22 (Applause.) 23 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Governor, I'd like, if I 24 could. 25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Commissioner. ACCURATE
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2 to go to the celebration when she does succeed. 3 GOVERNOR BUSH: I want to go before that. 4 TREASURER GALLAGHER: And maybe before that. One 5 of the things -- could you come back? Doing such a 6 good job in the, you know, in the elementary school is 7 sort of a key to everybody's success. I mean, 8 obviously if you can't read in fourth grade and you 9 keep getting promoted, by the time you get them in 10 ninth grade there's not a lot -- I mean, you're way 11 behind. And it's going to be a few years before your 12 elementary students that you did so well with are going 13 to get to high school. And I'm wondering if you can 14 just -- what are you doing with a ninth grader that's 15 reading at a less than fourth grade level? I mean, how 16 do we inspire them to want to learn to read? 17 MS. EVANS: One thing I plan to do with my ninth 18 graders, we will have the Principal's Challenge and 19 Reading Counts, which worked very well. We know with 20 their brothers and sisters just across the avenue. 21 What we're doing with that, students -- we are looking 22 at their lexile levels. And what we do is we set a 23 challenge, and depending upon the amount of points that 24 the students get between like a three-month period, 25 they are rewarded with incentives. We make the first ACCURATE
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2 like to get with the school advisory council, the 3 faculty, the administration, just to set the great 4 incentive for the student. 5 We found that by doing that we have to instill the 6 interest in reading in the first place. To get back a 7 little farther, during the summer we had our first FCAT 8 camp and we had over 200 ninth graders to come and 9 participate. This was on a rotation daily. We had 10 like a rotation for a silent reading. And then we had 11 one for -- we used the Read 180 because that is an 12 accelerated program that helps students. And we also 13 had rotations in writing and in math. 14 And we found by this the interest is there because 15 the incentives work great and the students 16 participated. Why? Because we expected them to 17 participate and to be there. So we've already started 18 with the ninth graders with the interest and they are 19 ready because, first of all, they know what their 20 programs are going to be about. The parents are 21 embracing us and we will survive and we will exceed all 22 obstacles. 23 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Congratulations. 24 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you, Ms. Evans. We'll see 25 you at school. If you want to use me as one of the ACCURATE
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2 (Laughter.) 3 MS. EVANS: I will. We will definitely get you 4 into our program. 5 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Lunch with the Governor. 6 There you are. 7 GOVERNOR BUSH: I'm serious. 8 MS. EVANS: I am serious too. 9 GOVERNOR BUSH: This is important to say. This is 10 not about separating and castigating and being the 11 tough old -- this is about making sure the kids that 12 have been left behind aren't left behind anymore. And 13 it should be all of our responsibilities. This should 14 not just be the burden of principals and teachers. 15 Parents and governors and everybody has a role to play, 16 church people. This should be -- we need to tear down 17 the barriers and make this the first, second, third, 18 fourth priority in our state. I'm not kidding. If you 19 have some crazy thing you want me to do, paint my hair 20 purple. 21 (Laughter.) 22 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Wait a minute. If it's 23 painted purple, I'm liable to come down there and help 24 you teach some reading too. I want to see that one. 25 (Laughter.) ACCURATE
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2 a difference and play a role. 3 MS. EVANS: Yes, there is. 4 GOVERNOR BUSH: You can count on me. Jeb@jeb.org. 5 The purple hair thing or the shaved hair probably will 6 have to wait until after November whatever it is, 7th. 7 (Laughter.) 8 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Actually, Governor, we did 9 attend a high school where we saw not only the purple 10 hair by a principal but we also saw one get his entire 11 head shaved. So the Governor does not do that good at 12 barbering I want you to know. 13 MS. EVANS: Whatever it takes. 14 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. 15 MS. EVANS: Exactly. Whatever it takes. 16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Art, you got anything else to add? 17 MR. JOHNSON: Just in closing, I want to tell you 18 we appreciate this opportunity. We've been getting a 19 lot of very, very positive support from our community 20 to deal with this issue. I want to give Ms. Burdeck an 21 opportunity as representative of the board to come 22 forward because, I can tell you, a superintendent 23 cannot accomplish anything unless they have the board 24 behind them. As a former board member, I can speak to 25 that. We've also had tremendous cooperation from our ACCURATE
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2 easily resist these kinds of things because of 3 differentiated pay. And we've had a lot of support 4 from our local press. We've been getting front page, 5 top headline on the kinds of things we're doing -- 6 GOVERNOR BUSH: If you have any tips on how to get 7 good press from the Palm Beach Post, let me know. 8 (Laughter.) 9 MR. JOHNSON: Ms. Burdeck. 10 MS. BURDECK: Thank you, Governor, members of the 11 cabinet, Secretary Horne and guests. I'm delighted to 12 be here tonight to represent 159,000 fabulous children 13 who will all be learning in the Palm Beach County 14 school system. Not only is it the superintendent and 15 board working together and our administration and our 16 teachers, but we are determined and dedicated to 17 working with our parents, our community organizations, 18 our churches, because it's going to take all of us 19 working together to meet the educational needs of our 20 children. Have a wonderful day. If you have any 21 questions, I'd be delighted -- 22 GOVERNOR BUSH: Can you give us some examples of 23 community involvement that have recently come to the 24 forefront that you're going to take advantage of? 25 MS. BURDECK: The superintendent has been working ACCURATE
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2 people. Now they're trying to raise 7,000 people to 3 work with on the children and the families. We have a 4 children's services council. There is a parent 5 mentoring program. Our health care district is 6 providing us licensed medical social workers to work in 7 our kindergarten through second grade program to look 8 at the behavioral, emotional, and discipline needs. 9 Not only is it the child that is acting out in the 10 classroom, it's the shy and reserved child that we are 11 working with. We have our hospitals together, our 12 Rotaries, our Kiwanis. We are all in this together to 13 make sure that no child in Palm Beach County is left 14 behind. 15 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. 16 MR. HORNE: Next from Miami-Dade we have Merrett 17 Steirheim. 18 GOVERNOR BUSH: Good morning, Mr. Superintendent. 19 MR. STEIRHEIM: How are you, Governor? 20 GOVERNOR BUSH: Doing well. 21 MR. STEIRHEIM: Thank you, Honorable Governor and 22 distinguished members of the cabinet. Secretary Jim 23 Smith, congratulations again. 24 I'm pleased to introduce our distinguished chair 25 of our board, who I'm happy to say has been or will be ACCURATE
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2 having been unanimously selected as chair since 1999. 3 And, of course, I'm talking about our chair, Ms. Perla 4 Tabares Hantman. 5 GOVERNOR BUSH: Congratulations, Perla. 6 MR. STEIRHEIM: Having the ignominity, if you 7 will, of having half of the double F schools in the 8 state doesn't exactly make us happy. And, of course, a 9 lot of the focus in the media and so forth has been on 10 the F and the double F schools. But I want you to know 11 that I'm really very proud of our education system in 12 the Miami-Dade County school district. It's been 13 confirmed by the OPPAGA study, which was done for the 14 Legislature, they gave the education unit high marks. 15 And just let me give you some concrete evidence of what 16 I'm talking about. 17 While we did have the F -- we had 12 F including 18 five double Fs. We went from 51 to 101 A schools. 19 Over 100 percent increase in A schools. We went from 20 24 to 57 B schools, well over 60 percent. In other 21 words, we went from 75 A and B schools to 158. And to 22 me that's demonstrable progress. We also -- 23 GOVERNOR BUSH: Merrett, can I put in a plug, just 24 a little plug for you? I think if you have half the F 25 schools in the state you have more than half of the ACCURATE
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2 and B -- 3 MR. STEIRHEIM: Thank you, sir. 4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Which is really the -- I mean -- 5 MR. STEIRHEIM: I'm going to get there at the end. 6 But thank you for -- 7 GOVERNOR BUSH: Cut right to the chase. 8 (Laughter.) 9 MR. STEIRHEIM: But anyway we dropped in D schools 10 from 99 to 39. So we had a major shift from the C and 11 D schools into A and B. Unfortunately, we also had 12 some slip off into the F and we had the double Fs. 13 Like my colleague in Palm Beach, great minds seem to 14 work together because we have a very similar program. 15 I think I like ours a little better, being prejudiced. 16 And the seeds for that came in Tampa where we had 17 all of our staff there and we had some breakout 18 sessions where we just sat down with our chair and our 19 principals, our regional superintendents and Mercedes 20 Toural, our associate superintendent for education, 21 who's been our leader really in our efforts here, has 22 done a marvelous job in developing a special program 23 for our F schools. And it goes beyond the double F. 24 Essentially, we're offering $9,000, not 10-, as an 25 incentive bonus. We are in the process of recruiting. ACCURATE
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2 incentive in our -- not only our F schools, we had five 3 high schools go into the F. And that really inner city 4 schools, these are big inner city high schools, that 5 went into the F and we had two that were on the cusp 6 that were Ds but just over the edge. And we have 7 included them in this incentive program because I 8 really am very concerned. I don't want to see those 9 big high schools go into double F next year. 10 So we're focusing this program not only on our 11 double Fs but also on our F high schools and 2 D high 12 schools. We're really at the $10,000 level like Palm 13 Beach because we kept back a thousand as an incentive, 14 an additional bonus, based on the teacher's performance 15 in their classroom. So we're going to reward those 16 teachers who come in and really do a positive job. 17 We'll have a minimum of 32 reading specialists going 18 into these schools. In each of the high schools we're 19 creating a reading department with a director and a 20 reading coach in the high school which will be 21 available to work with students, work with our teachers 22 and so forth. And clearly we're putting a heavy 23 priority on the reading. 24 All Level 1 students entering grades nine and ten 25 at Miami Edison Senior, and our truly outstanding ACCURATE
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2 That is a school that is 93 percent Haitian, 3 African-American, coming from homes who do not speak 4 English, a real challenging assignment. I consider it 5 an A school even if it is a double F because the 6 teachers and Santiago, I think, have done an absolutely 7 fantastic job there. 8 We're going to have a mandatory reading course 9 seventh period in those high schools, including Miami 10 Edison. We have been getting cooperation, I'm happy to 11 say, from the unions. We have a strong teachers' union 12 there in Dade County. 13 GOVERNOR BUSH: You do? 14 (Laughter.) 15 MR. STEIRHEIM: Yes, I would say we do. And we 16 are developing a memorandum of understanding and I 17 would say that they have been supportive. I would also 18 compliment the staff of the Department of Education; 19 they've been very helpful, working closely with my 20 staff and myself. 21 GOVERNOR BUSH: Merrett, real quickly on Edison. 22 Again, a school with unique challenges, similar to the 23 Glades Central, it looks like 71 percent of the ninth 24 graders, took the FCAT and 84 percent of the tenth 25 graders which is something that the way our system ACCURATE
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2 grade, you have to have a higher percentage of your 3 kids taking the test. Is there an effort as it relates 4 to attendance and an effort to make sure that kids take 5 the test, because I know kids that age are a little bit 6 more mobile. 7 MR. STEIRHEIM: Mercedes or Santiago? Let me ask 8 Mercedes to come up because the answer is, Yes. We're 9 very well aware of the requirement. Mercedes Toural, 10 associate superintendent for education. 11 MS. TERRELL: Good morning, Governor, and the 12 cabinet. We're working very hard on two fronts. One, 13 to deal with the issue of attendance. And the second 14 one is to make sure that every child that is eligible 15 to be tested is tested. And we do test most, if not 16 all, of the limited English proficient students, which 17 that school has about 40 percent of their population is 18 currently classified as limited English proficient. 19 But the other 60 just got out of ESOL. 20 GOVERNOR BUSH: But still, I mean, they are 21 required to take the test irrespective of the grading 22 system? 23 MS. TERRELL: They are. And we do that and the 24 fact that they did receive a grade meant that we did 25 meet the accountability requirement of testing ACCURATE
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2 GOVERNOR BUSH: 90 percent of eligible -- 3 MS. TERRELL: That were eligible. 4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. 5 MR. STEIRHEIM: I'm also very pleased to tell you 6 that our performance school improvement plans exceed 7 the state requirements. We have modeled our plans 8 after the Governor's Sterling Award process and this 9 allows our schools and our stakeholders to conduct a 10 truly comprehensive needs assessment driven by data 11 analysis, going back to an earlier question, and 12 measured by performance results. 13 We have redirected funds obviously. We're using 14 some Title II money, but some very scarce general fund 15 money to provide that incentive program here. We have 16 changed leadership at two schools. We are in the 17 process of doing that, where we felt that change was 18 called for. The extended day tutorial programs and 19 Saturday academies will be refocused to teaching 20 Sunshine State standards. I know Treasurer Tom 21 Gallagher had concerns there. In fact, we have 22 directed all our schools to refocus their instructional 23 programs to address Sunshine State standards and the 24 grade level expectations expected by DOE. 25 I could go on. I know your staff, your aides have ACCURATE
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2 I want to take a moment to kind of defer to the comment 3 that the Governor made. Miami-Dade County, with 4 380,000 students in 340 schools, the fourth largest 5 school district in the country, we will assimilate 6 18,000 new foreign-born students this year, 18,000. 7 That's the same as it was last year and the year before 8 and so forth. 65 percent of our students are 9 foreign-born. 10 The city of Miami is the poorest urban city in the 11 United States. 44 percent of the children under 18 12 years of age live in poverty in the city of Miami. And 13 interestingly enough, or sadly enough, Miami is not the 14 poorest city. You go to Florida City, Opa-Locka, 15 Meadley, they are poorer than the city of Miami. So 16 poverty is not limited just to the city of Miami. 17 60 percent of our 380,000 students participate in 18 the Free Lunch Program. 62 percent of our children 19 come from homes that speak other than English. We have 20 trilingual schools. We have challenges that I think 21 you could draw an analogy, and I'm not suggesting my 22 colleagues in other counties don't have challenges, 23 they certainly do. But when you think about Miami-Dade 24 County, it's like climbing the Himalayas as opposed to 25 maybe the Adirondacks or the Appalachians, and I think ACCURATE
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2 In the last six months, we have cut $121 million 3 out of our operating budgets. I will be sending you a 4 report where we've cut 26 million out of the 5 bureaucracy because there has been a lot of bashing of 6 Dade County school system and I want that to change. 7 We are changing. That's why the chair brought me in as 8 a change agent and I think we're making tremendous 9 strides. We still have a ways to go. 10 What I'd like to suggest, I know that it will be 11 politically impossible in the Legislature to try to get 12 a weighted FTE system that would acknowledge the unique 13 challenges that are faced by some of the school 14 districts in the state and particularly being 15 provincial or parochial, Miami-Dade. But I'm well 16 aware, having served in other areas, that every 17 district to a certain extent has a problem, some more 18 serious than others. 19 Governor, I'd like to suggest that maybe one way 20 to deal with this problem, and I discussed this in 21 Tampa with the Secretary, is to try to have the 22 Legislature, or include in budget recommendations a 23 discretionary fund that could be in the Governor's 24 office or it could be in the Department of Education, 25 where they could, based on criteria which are certainly ACCURATE
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2 deal with. I am just concerned that with shrinking 3 money our ability to continue to cope with the kind of 4 challenges that I've talked about is serious. And I 5 just lay that before you. I know you're committed to 6 this program. And I think it would give you the 7 flexibility, or certainly the Department of Education, 8 flexibility to reach out and help some of those 9 counties that have some special problems. Just a 10 thought. 11 GOVERNOR BUSH: I'll take all the money that the 12 Legislature will give me. 13 MR. STEIRHEIM: You asked somebody else how you 14 could help so I'm just throwing something out there. 15 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. That's a good answer. 16 Any questions? Thank you, Merrett. And, Pearl, thank 17 you for being here. Thank you. 18 MR. HORNE: Next and last on our list is from 19 Orange County, Ron Blocker. 20 GOVERNOR BUSH: Good morning, Ron. We know you 21 got challenges too, Ron. 22 MR. BLOCKER: You read the E-mail, didn't you? 23 (Laughter.) Good morning, Governor, and it's a 24 pleasure being here, believe it or not, and 25 distinguished cabinet members. Today with me, to share ACCURATE
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2 Orange County public schools, are my School Board 3 chairman, Susan Arkin she's standing there. 4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Welcome back. 5 MR. BLOCKER: Joy Taylor, the principal of Molly 6 Ray Elementary School. By the way, when Molly Ray was 7 last an F, the principal was replaced with Joy Taylor 8 and she's the one that pulled it from that category and 9 we're very confident that she can do it with this new 10 challenge. Katherine Hunter, the SAC chair for Molly 11 Ray Elementary who, based on this morning's paper, will 12 probably take a back seat to her child, very highly 13 motivated supporter of the Molly Ray community. 14 We, in Orange County, are divided into five 15 learning communities. Each learning community is led 16 by an area superintendent. That area superintendent 17 for the North Bernie community where Molly Ray resides 18 is Dr. Jill Joyner. And then, last of all, our senior 19 director for program services that handles all of our 20 testing information, Lee Baldwin, whom many of you 21 know, working with the school accountability committee. 22 We appreciate the support and assistance provided 23 by the Department of Education also in going through 24 this process. But my intent this morning is to share 25 with you specific highlights of the District's ACCURATE
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2 Molly Ray from the district, and then highlights from 3 Molly Ray's school improvement plan. Now Molly Ray has 4 a history of demonstrating gains over the years. As I 5 mentioned before, when it was last an F, Ms. Taylor was 6 able to, through her hard work and leadership in 7 working with the staff and community, move it out of 8 that category. 9 Like many of the schools mentioned, it had some 10 special challenges. Molly Ray has a very high Haitian 11 Creole population. As a matter of fact, just over the 12 last academic year, that population doubled in size and 13 we anticipate it to continue that way and it's become 14 somewhat of a sheltered language center serving the 15 Haitian Creole population. 16 I also had the opportunity to meet with the Molly 17 Ray community twice since the news of the school's 18 grades being released for the purpose of letting them 19 know that as their superintendent I was here to provide 20 whatever support was needed to make sure that not only 21 that the grade of F would be removed, but that it would 22 not return. And that kind of commitment came from the 23 heart. And we, as you will see from our plan, we put 24 the resources behind it to back that up. 25 The district, as well as the school, has mapped ACCURATE
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2 academic achievement and it has, if you look over the 3 test data over the last three years, Molly Ray has 4 consistently improved its test performance in the areas 5 of reading and math. As a matter of fact, it has 6 doubled the number of students improving at Level 3 7 reading over the last couple of years. So that tells 8 you that Molly Ray is headed in the right direction. 9 GOVERNOR BUSH: Ron, can I add -- because I've had 10 a chance to visit with some of your principals in a 11 different learning community; is that what you call it? 12 MR. BLOCKER: Yes, the south. 13 GOVERNOR BUSH: And this school is very similar in 14 the sense of the fact that grade three, 32 percent of 15 the students were learning at -- or reading at grade 16 level. Grade 4, 25 percent. Grade 5, 16 percent. And 17 that's encouraging in the sense that if you get it 18 right early, and we're talking about prior to testing 19 third grade, if kids are prepared to learn, go to 20 kindergarten, first and second grade and the strategies 21 that have been developed on a longer term basis, 22 they'll yield a great trend, which is why I think there 23 is great hope for most of the schools that have that 24 same kind of deal. I worry about the fifth graders 25 going on to middle school with that kind of low grade ACCURATE
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2 the third graders, by and large, are doing better. 3 MR. BLOCKER: I appreciate you noticing that 4 because we've put a lot of emphasis in the early ages. 5 We believe that you have to strike early and strike 6 effectively. 7 GOVERNOR BUSH: Another little editorial comment 8 for all the people that are riveted in their seats and 9 the press right now about this exhilarating 10 conversation, it also proves that you don't have to 11 teach to the test. If you develop long-term 12 strategies, kids will learn and it will be -- it will 13 show up in the FCAT test. 14 And if I hear one more time about teaching to the 15 test, I think I'm going to throw up on somebody. So be 16 aware. Lucas, if you ask the question, be careful. 17 (Laughter.) 18 I'm sorry, go ahead. 19 MR. BLOCKER: Also to give you some confidence, 20 Governor, we have -- some middle schools in Orange 21 County are anxiously waiting for those fifth graders to 22 arrive. The following activities are examples of what 23 will be implemented at Molly Ray Elementary and the 24 other schools that offer really a similar profile in 25 Orange County to Molly Ray. We have provided ten ACCURATE
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2 to provide for intensive training in the areas of 3 literacy, data analysis and instructional strategies. 4 We literally are disaggregating data better now in 5 Orange County than we've ever done in the history of 6 the district and we're arming teachers with the skills 7 to be able to identify the types of learners they have 8 in their classrooms and give them the type of 9 strategies they will need. 10 This -- these additional days really equal -- is 11 equivalent to a 5 percent increase in salary as 12 intended to attract highly qualified teachers in the 13 school. So essentially what the Molly Ray teachers and 14 teachers at the other schools have received, the 15 failing grades, basically they're going to be able to 16 tell their more affluent colleagues across -- 17 schools -- colleagues in the more affluent schools 18 across the district that they literally make 5 percent 19 more than they are just by being at that school. But 20 that 5 percent is attached to the intensive training 21 we're going to provide those teachers. And we're 22 providing that training because when I met with the 23 Molly Ray community, as with the other communities, 24 they said that they wanted teachers to be successful 25 there. They wanted teachers who wanted to be there. ACCURATE
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2 strategies that would help them be effective with the 3 populations they serve. 4 In addition to that, tonight it is my hope that 5 the Orange County School Board will approve the 6 performance incentive plan for all school principals in 7 Orange County which will then provide incentive pay for 8 annually -- percentage increases on an annual basis. 9 So each year you do better than the year before in 10 critical areas that will help us achieve a specific 11 goal over a period of time. We also plan to maintain a 12 smaller class size. Our target goal is a 16 to 1 13 ratio. We're waiting to see how many kids show up when 14 and where. 15 GOVERNOR BUSH: What was last year's class size? 16 MR. BLOCKER: It was about 20. It surfaced around 17 20. And we believe that was critical in helping us 18 achieve the gains we had up to that point. We're also 19 retrofitting the entire school to allow for access to 20 the latest in technology for instruction because the 21 principal has a plan along that line and we had to kind 22 of remove the barrier that would prevent that plan. We 23 also are providing additional dollars to the textbook 24 budget to provide for the purchase of the reading 25 textbooks so that the school can fully implement its ACCURATE
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2 that meets the research requirements as given to us by 3 the federal educational hierarchy. 4 You need to understand, as many of you may not 5 know, that when you adopt a new textbook in whatever 6 area, school budgets are such where they're not able to 7 go out and buy all the textbooks they need that year. 8 So we're removing that obstacle by providing additional 9 district resources so Molly Ray can get all the books 10 they need now and continue, as with the other schools 11 that show a similar profile. 12 Addressing the need that the parents -- addressing 13 the need that the parents and the teachers had 14 expressed about having faculty members that wanted to 15 be there because everybody knows about the statistics 16 at schools similar to Molly Ray across the state that 17 tell us about the high student turnover. The hidden 18 data is, the hidden statistic is the high teacher 19 turnover. 20 So we spoke with the principal. She identified 21 some needs. She identified five teachers who were 22 successful teachers for all intents and purposes but 23 were not a good match for that particular school 24 community. We have since moved them to other settings 25 where they'll be more successful in giving her the ACCURATE
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2 that goal. And guess what? She was able to fill those 3 vacancies in time for school opening yesterday. 4 We are also coordinating the use of volunteers 5 from a district perspective because what we are finding 6 is that the community now is willing to wrap their arms 7 around Molly Rays of the world and the principals 8 didn't want the distraction of having community people 9 in and out and having to manage that. So they've asked 10 us to provide a volunteer coordinator at the district 11 level to pretty much broker when the needs are. 12 What we have found is when you analyze a school 13 like Molly Ray and a school in a more affluent part of 14 town, many of the parents are part of corporations 15 where there is an informal relationship where they can 16 easily provide additional assistance. At Molly Ray, 17 their parent base doesn't have that advantage. 18 So what we've done is we've actually asked a 19 district level coordinator -- employee to coordinate 20 volunteer recruitment from corporations and other 21 community groups to match whatever Molly Ray's needs 22 are, whether it's through mentoring, whether it's 23 through tutoring, whether it's through incentive 24 awards, whatever. Whether it's a governor to color his 25 hair purple, regardless, we're going to match whatever ACCURATE
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2 The principal does not have to worry about that. All 3 the principal has to do is give us the requirements and 4 then that person's job is to go down and hunt down the 5 talent. 6 We are removing operational issues. Since there's 7 going to be a lot of construction issues at Molly Ray 8 this year, we have to provide the principal more time 9 to be in the classroom, to be an instructional leader 10 to those teachers and not be distracted by overseeing a 11 construction project. So we're actually providing a 12 district resource to be the principal in charge of 13 construction to broker her requirements for that group. 14 Finally, we are doing -- going through an 15 intensive staff development process to help those 16 teachers who need the help the most. Now, we are 17 hiring reading coaches and we're hiring what we call 18 instructional coaches. So we have literacy coaches 19 dealing with primarily the reading issues. And 20 instructional coaches to work with effective teaching 21 strategies on the job there at the school. 22 And the staff -- but we're going to train those 23 coaches so that it's just not an arbitrary type of 24 training process. We're training them to, one, focus 25 on the five core elements of effective reading and on ACCURATE
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2 diagnosing, monitoring, and assessing student behavior 3 in a way that you can develop effective teaching 4 strategies. So essentially, we're taking control of 5 the whole process of what a teacher will need in order 6 to be successful in that type of school. 7 Now, quite honestly, there is a bottom line for 8 all of this. And the bottom line for me is this. 9 Earlier I was here to present to you my proposal for 10 the district's charter district and you-all unanimously 11 approved it and I believe you did it because it was a 12 solid proposal. It was geared specifically at closing 13 the achievement gap. Molly Ray is a perfect example of 14 that. 15 If you remember in that proposal I pretty much put 16 some ambitious goals there that a lot of people in 17 Orange County still feel that we may not be able to 18 meet, but I'm confident that we're going to do a good 19 job of meeting those goals. Part of those ambitious 20 goals were that, one, we'd be at the national and state 21 averages or exceed the national and state averages in 22 the core subject areas. And we would also not have a 23 single school in Orange County earning a grade under a 24 C. 25 So knowing that, we started this process even ACCURATE
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2 started working with a group of schools that primarily 3 earned the grade of D, shared a similar demographic 4 profile of Molly Ray and we said, What do you need to 5 do to be successful. We called that group the urban 6 cohort. At least they called themselves that. They 7 actually created a whole fraternity. And I don't know 8 how healthy that is for me as the superintendent, but 9 we're working together as a team to overcome those 10 challenges. 11 If I'm going to get every Orange County public 12 school above the grade of C and if I'm going to close 13 that achievement gap, we have to be successful with the 14 Molly Rays of the world. So this is something that's 15 going to happen. So that charter district was the 16 first shot out of the gun to achieve this. 17 We were not expecting to receive the bad news of 18 Molly Ray being a voucher school. But fortunately when 19 that news arrived, we had already begun putting a plan 20 in place. So we were able to do that. Now, we also 21 received additional guidance from the Department of 22 Education and through the school improvement office 23 that said there were some other things about our plan 24 that had to be tweaked. That's not a problem. Each of 25 those areas will be addressed and be dealt with within ACCURATE
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2 We also know that the school needs more parent 3 volunteers and we're working on that. Because when I 4 met with the Molly Ray community, they said, We really 5 do need more community and, specifically, parent 6 involvement. We have a line/dot curriculum to the 7 Sunshine State standards. So teaching to the test is 8 really not an issue. We're teaching to a curriculum 9 that's totally aligned and then we're teaching to the 10 child. 11 And we've also implemented an extensive diagnostic 12 plan that will inform instruction -- improve 13 instruction and include ongoing assessment and we will 14 monitor those results. We know we have language 15 barriers at the school but we're increasing our 16 instructional materials to be successful with the 17 Haitian Creole population and we want to provide 18 meaningful instruction as indicated in our district LEP 19 plan and that will be achieved. 20 And we know that the focus must be on 21 interventions and we have quite a few interventions in 22 place as reflected in our plan. Therefore, all the 23 interventions will be monitored, not only at the school 24 level but at the district level. Now that monitoring 25 begins with the teachers' ability to effectively ACCURATE
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2 trained or have been trained on that. All the 3 principals have been trained on that. 4 This summer they had a three-day retreat. All the 5 principals in urban cohort had a three-day retreat 6 where they worked through their entire plans. They 7 knew what was going to happen as soon as the first day 8 of school arrived. And they knew how to provide the 9 additional assistance to their teachers in 10 disaggregating that data. 11 We then will include the DRP, which will be 12 administered twice a year prior to the FCAT and the 13 DIBLES three times a year before the FCAT. Both of 14 these nomenclature meaning diagnostic testing. There's 15 a reporting scheme called the crystal reports that 16 actually ties the classroom to the area 17 superintendent's office and even to my office where we 18 know what's going on in every classroom testwise as we 19 begin this diagnostic profile so we can actually 20 monitor it throughout the year. And we're going to 21 also use a locally developed benchmark to be included 22 on that crystal report. 23 And, finally, those with reading programs such as 24 Voyager and other very intensive reading programs have 25 their own built-in monitoring systems. The bottom line ACCURATE
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2 I met with every school community that received a 3 failing grade. And I gave them my assurance as the 4 superintendent that that would not happen again because 5 regardless of the standards set, regardless of who set 6 the standard, an F grade is unacceptable in Orange 7 County, Florida because basically that F grade says -- 8 it compares that school unfavorably to other schools 9 and whatever standards we have in place. We're not 10 going to accept that. 11 So essentially my assurance to those communities 12 are that we are going to help the Molly Rays of the 13 world and all the other schools in a similar situation 14 and we're going to do it through close monitoring of 15 what's going on, effective interventions, and a 16 stronger teaching cadre. And we're going to pay our 17 teachers to reflect that attitude. 18 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you, Ron. Any questions? I 19 think we're good to go. Count on our help. And since 20 I bought my condominium in the central Florida area, I 21 basically live there now. So look forward to seeing 22 some of these schools. 23 MR. HORNE: Governor, in the end, it's about high 24 standards, regular testing, and accountability. But 25 with accountability, and any accountability system is ACCURATE
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2 system. I think you've seen demonstrated this morning, 3 on behalf of the superintendents, leadership, courage 4 and innovation. But also part of that equation is the 5 resources and the help. And I hope that you not lose 6 sight not only of all these great and wonderful things, 7 this incredible planning effort that's going on in the 8 individual school districts, but the help that the 9 State of Florida is providing in these schools to help. 10 We like to call it kind of the Super Wal-Mart of 11 education. We provided an opportunity to have these 12 schools access the best practices, the best 13 information, diagnostic tools, we have made all that 14 is, I think, humanly possible available to these 15 schools. And I think the combination of those 16 resources and that help with the leadership as 17 demonstrated by these superintendents will help elevate 18 the student achievement because really in the end it's 19 about the students. It's not about the grownups, it's 20 about the students. And I do believe that we have the 21 right pieces to help elevate student achievement 22 because that's what it's all about. And I think this 23 is a good plan. 24 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Governor, if I may. 25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Yes. ACCURATE
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2 superintendents, all of them, and their staff for 3 putting together some good plans. I especially want to 4 commend the Department personnel that reviewed those 5 plans and critiqued those plans and are working with 6 the district on those plans. I think this is a very 7 important process. It has a very high scrutiny to it 8 and I think that's extremely important. And those -- 9 we're going through that process now before these plans 10 are implemented. And that's all well and good 11 especially for what we referred to as the, I guess, F2 12 or F squared schools. 13 But I would propose that the 58 first-year F 14 schools submit their plans also to the Department for 15 its scrutiny and critique process to help them get off 16 before they're an F2. And with that, I'd like to make 17 a motion that we require the remaining 58 F1 schools to 18 turn their plans into the Department of Education no 19 later than October 1st, 2002. This could serve as 20 their first quarterly report to the state board so that 21 we can see exactly what they're trying to do as well so 22 we can help them get -- not wait until they're an F2 23 and have the expertise that the Department has to help, 24 that you're helping with these F2 schools. Let the F1 25 ones have advantage of that too. And I think what ACCURATE
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2 great job in improvement, we should help these other 3 schools take advantage of that also. So I'd like to 4 make that motion. 5 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second. 6 GOVERNOR BUSH: There's a motion and second. 7 Secretary, would you like to comment on it? 8 MR. HORNE: That process is already in place. 9 We're moving towards that goal actually -- 10 GOVERNOR BUSH: Each of the F schools has received 11 assistance plus help. And so to come back in October 12 would be -- 13 TREASURER GALLAGHER: But to report to us as a 14 cabinet so they recognize the importance of this is 15 what I'm saying. 16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Jim? 17 SECRETARY SMITH: Governor, I just want to say as 18 a newcomer, it's impressive that our worst-performing 19 schools are receiving this kind of attention. And I 20 think you and Commissioner Crist and Secretary Horne 21 and the Board, and all these superintendents and 22 teachers and parents and communities really need a pat 23 on the back. This is long overdue. And frankly it 24 takes guts to measure this in the way that it's being 25 measured. And I'm just happy to see the enthusiasm ACCURATE
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2 come together and solve this problem. You-all are 3 doing a super job. 4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Jim, you should have been here 5 three years ago when we did this. The attitude was a 6 little different. Remember those meetings? This is -- 7 this is a, I think, very encouraging, exciting, and 8 we've changed the dynamic from hopefully giving -- 9 there may have been a perception of scolding before and 10 now I don't think there is any doubt that at both the 11 district level and at the state level these schools are 12 going to get more attention, more support than they 13 ever have before. And that's the way it should be. 14 There is a motion and a second on Commissioner 15 Gallagher's resolution or amendment. What is it? 16 Amendment to this agenda item. Without objection, it 17 passes. 18 Commissioner Crist. 19 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Thank you, Governor. We've 20 seen and discussed the revised districts and school 21 plans presented as well as the Department of 22 Education's recommendations for strengthening these 23 plans to ensure that all students are academically 24 well-served. I want to commend the superintendents, 25 their district staffs, the school board chairs, the ACCURATE
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2 Department's staff for their hard work and thoughtful 3 development of these plans. I think they hold great 4 promise for success for our children. 5 I also want to thank Cathy Murzurec and Andrea 6 Willett and their staff for all their hard work and 7 dedication working with these schools and the 8 districts. Therefore, Governor, I'd move that the 9 State Board of Education recommend the following 10 actions be taken by each of the four school district 11 boards represented here today. 12 One, convene the school advisory councils and 13 incorporate the State Board and Department 14 recommendations presented into the current district and 15 school plans within 15 working days and begin 16 implementation. Two, approve the revised plans at the 17 next regularly scheduled school board meeting. Three, 18 forward a copy of the revised plans and proof of 19 adoption to our office for distribution to all State 20 Board members. And, four, provide the district and 21 school progress reports in a format to be prescribed to 22 the State Board by the last calendar day of each month. 23 I'm requesting that the DOE staff be immediately 24 available to these ten schools to clarify the specifics 25 of any recommendation and to assist the districts as ACCURATE
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2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 3 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion and a second. 4 Any discussion? Without objection, the item passes. 5 Thank you. 6 Jim, is there other items on the agenda? There 7 are? Oh, yeah, we do. Cyber High. 8 MS. SAFLEY: Item 5 is the charter school appeal, 9 Cyber High Charter School versus Orange County School 10 Board. The State Board of Education must, by majority 11 vote, either accept or reject the decision of the 12 district school board and at this time I'd like to 13 introduce John Benford who will be representing Cyber 14 High charter school. 15 GOVERNOR BUSH: Can we -- did we talk about a time 16 limit -- please, come on. Did we talk about a time 17 limit with the participants? 18 MS. SAFLEY: Yes, and I forget what it is. Five 19 or ten minutes on either side. Do you want to go with 20 five since we're running late? 21 GOVERNOR BUSH: How about seven minutes. Seven 22 minutes. 23 MS. SAFLEY: Seven minutes. There we go. 24 GOVERNOR BUSH: Good morning. 25 MR. BENFORD: John Benford on behalf of the ACCURATE
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2 GOVERNOR BUSH: You might want to wait just a 3 second for people who are going to leave, that we let 4 them go. 5 (Pause.) 6 MR. BENFORD: I have with me Leona Rockman and Mr. 7 Alan Friedland, both representatives from Cyber High. 8 And we'd like to thank you for having us here this 9 morning. The school board's decision to terminate 10 Cyber High's charter is not based on any substantial 11 and competent evidence. Rather, the school board's 12 decision to terminate the charter is based on tenuous 13 and irrelevant arguments, inaccurate statements of fact 14 and smoke screens to hide the school board's violation 15 of the charter school statute. What makes the school 16 board's grounds so weak is the school board's long 17 pattern of resistance towards Cyber High since Cyber 18 High was created when the school district's staff tried 19 to deny Cyber High's charter application. 20 The school board's pattern of failing to cooperate 21 with Cyber High and the school board's oppressive 22 conduct towards this charter school. Now the best 23 example of the school board's improper conduct towards 24 this charter school is the school board charging Cyber 25 High $265,000 for the school year for its bus service. ACCURATE
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2 $633,000 for the entire school year. So the school 3 board was charging Cyber High 42 percent of Cyber 4 High's yearly revenues for this bus service. 5 This charge is excessive because it greatly 6 exceeded Cyber High's approved budget. It greatly 7 exceeded the actual cost of the bus transportation 8 service for the school board and it was four times 9 greater than the amount that other schools in the 10 district were paying for this bus service. The school 11 board then unilaterally enforced this charge by taking 12 Cyber High's state educational funds. These are funds 13 that Cyber High needed to educate its students. These 14 are funds that Cyber High needed to pay for things like 15 teacher salaries, books, and rent. 16 The school board knew or should have known that 17 this charge of $265,000 was very likely to put Cyber 18 High out of business. The school board's conduct 19 constitutes a number of violations under 228.056 and 20 this conduct is presently the subject of an 21 administrative proceeding before the Division of 22 Administrative Hearings and a civil action in state 23 court, both filed by Cyber High before the school board 24 terminated the charter. 25 Now in addition to violating these provisions of ACCURATE
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2 mistreatment of Cyber High is contrary to the policies 3 of the charter school statute. It is -- to take 4 substantial educational funds from a small charter 5 school to enforce an excessive transportation charge of 6 $265,000, 42 percent of this school's annual revenues, 7 and then to refuse to follow the dispute resolution 8 procedures that are provided in 228.056 is simply 9 contrary to the policies that underline 228.056. It's 10 contrary to the policy of improving student learning. 11 It's contrary to the policy of promoting learning 12 opportunities -- 13 GOVERNOR BUSH: I'm sorry, just a few before I 14 forget. Why wouldn't you have worked this out 15 beforehand? 16 MR. BENFORD: Governor -- 17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Why would you start a school 18 without knowing how much money you were going to get 19 for transportation? 20 MR. BENFORD: That's a very good question. Cyber 21 High and the school board agreed to a bus service that 22 would not exceed $81,000 for the year. This -- 23 GOVERNOR BUSH: Not in the contract though? 24 MR. BENFORD: It's not in the contract; however, 25 it is in the budget. It states 81,000 for the year. ACCURATE
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2 by the school board. Cyber High informed the school 3 board on several occasions that it was unable to exceed 4 this budget under any circumstances. So the school 5 board is well aware that Cyber High can only spend 6 around $81,000 for transportation. So during the first 7 couple of months of the school year, the school board 8 never invoiced Cyber High for bus service. And then in 9 early October of 2001 the school board contacted Cyber 10 High and announced for the first time it was going to 11 bill $265,000 for the entire school year. 12 GOVERNOR BUSH: How many students, sir? 13 MR. BENFORD: When Cyber High opened, it had 173 14 students. At the time in October, mid October of 2001, 15 that had dropped to 151 students. So, again, Cyber 16 High rejected this transportation charge for a number 17 of reasons, in particular because it exceeded the 18 actual cost to the school board and it greatly exceeded 19 Cyber High's approved budget. 20 Now, in addition, the school board's operating 21 grossly inefficient bus routes. It was transporting 22 two or three students on buses that were designed to 23 hold 20 or 30 students. Some of the students were 24 being bussed from 10 to 15 miles away on one bus 25 instead of using depot stops which is apparently the ACCURATE
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2 this, when the dispute arose, under 228.056, the school 3 board and Cyber High were required to mediate this 4 dispute with the Department of Education. In November, 5 Cyber High had requested on several occasions that the 6 parties submit the matter to the Department for 7 mediation but the school board refused. Instead, the 8 school board begins unilaterally enforcing this 9 excessive transportation charge by taking substantial 10 amounts of Cyber High's FEFP operation funds and its 11 transportation funds. In November and December of 2001 12 the school board is withholding $60,000 of the FEFP 13 funds for this small charter school. This is 14 50 percent of the total FEFP revenue that Cyber High 15 would receive during these two months. 16 Importantly, these operation funds are designed to 17 pay for Cyber High's educational costs, including 18 things like teacher and staff salaries, books, learning 19 materials, equipment, and rent and utilities. And as a 20 result, these education funds were not available to 21 operate the school and to educate Cyber High's 22 students. 23 On December 17th, the school board demanded that 24 Cyber High agree to pay $265,000 or it was going to 25 terminate its bus service. Cyber High again offered to ACCURATE
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2 transportation charge of $265,000 for the school year. 3 A couple days later on December 20th, one day before 4 the Christmas break, the Orange County Public Schools 5 announces that it will terminate Cyber High's bus 6 service on the next day. 7 So instead of mediating this matter with the 8 Department of Education, the school board is 9 unilaterally taking Cyber High's state funds and it's 10 terminating its bus service one day before the 11 Christmas break. So Cyber High is now compelled to 12 file an action for injunctive and declaratory relief in 13 state court seeking, one, to prevent the school board 14 from terminating the bus service. And, two, to stop 15 the school board from withholding its funds. 16 The Court entered a temporary injunction which 17 prevented the School District from terminating the bus 18 service and the Court stated at the hearing that the 19 school board could not take any of Cyber High's state 20 funds. Now in retaliation for bringing this civil 21 action, the school board continued to take substantial 22 amounts of Cyber High's state funds. From January to 23 March, the school board took 18,000 in funds every 24 month to enforce its transportation charge. And in 25 April of 2002, the last month Cyber High received any ACCURATE
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2 Cyber High $2,351 to operate on for the entire month. 3 In May of 2002 the school board withheld all of 4 Cyber High's state funds. So by May 28th when the 5 school board terminated Cyber High's charter, the 6 school board had improperly withheld $151,000 in FEFP 7 operation and transportation -- 8 GOVERNOR BUSH: So -- can you close it up? We may 9 have a few questions. But how did -- are teachers then 10 left with unpaid -- I mean, how did you pay your 11 teachers? 12 MR. BENFORD: I'll lent Mr. Friedland -- 13 MR. FRIEDLAND: I leant money to the school to 14 make every payroll until the last check arrived. And 15 when they withheld all the schools' funds, this is 16 after we sold assets of the school, this is after we 17 took every precaution to try to -- only at that point 18 when we were totally out of funds, they withheld all 19 the May funds we were expecting. We could not pay 20 their last check. The school board then agreed to pay 21 the teachers and then they reneged on that. They said 22 we were at least $15,000 of the school's funds -- 23 GOVERNOR BUSH: So you funded it? 24 MR. FRIEDLAND: And they reneged it. Yes, sir. 25 TREASURER GALLAGHER: You actually did have a ACCURATE
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2 MR. BENFORD: That's correct. The mediation was 3 roughly two weeks after Cyber High was forced to file 4 an action in state court for injunctive relief, that is 5 correct. The school board finally agreed to mediate at 6 that point. And it's our position it should have 7 mediated months prior to that. 8 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Right. But -- and there was 9 basically an agreed-upon settlement in that mediation. 10 And it's my understanding that the language got changed 11 before it got sent over to the school board and 12 therefore the school board rejected it. 13 MR. BENFORD: I'm not sure exactly what happened 14 because I was not representing Cyber High at the time. 15 MR. FRIEDLAND: The agreement failed because they 16 insisted that we stay -- that the School District had 17 been cooperative in every aspect of starting up this 18 charter school and it was blatantly not true, it wasn't 19 accurate. And that's why, without this insistence and 20 going publicly before the school board with this 21 statement, they refused to settle on the school bus 22 issue. There was a financial settlement. 23 Later on, you know, I believe Ms. Rockman even 24 relented and we tried to work out that language. And 25 that was the reason it fell through. And it was really ACCURATE
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2 to make these public accusations when the fact is this 3 district has not cooperated with this school and it's 4 statutorily guaranteed that they are supposed to. I 5 think that's a key point. 6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Well, but the language that 7 I see that was changed was, The defendant will not 8 unreasonably withhold approval of -- instead of "a 9 plan," you-all changed it to "any plan" proposed by 10 Cyber High to provide the bus service by private 11 alternative. 12 MS. ROCKMAN: Okay. I think I can answer that, 13 sir? May I? 14 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Sure. 15 MS. ROCKMAN: First of all, I signed at the 16 mediation -- 17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Could you state who you are? 18 MS. ROCKMAN: I'm sorry. I'm Leona Rockman and I 19 worked as a teacher in Orange County for 17 years. Ten 20 years I was in the office of training and development 21 where I trained teachers and administrators as well as 22 going into classrooms to help on school improvement. A 23 few years ago when you had F schools in Orange County, 24 I was one of the ones that went into those F schools. 25 And the next year they were not F schools anymore. ACCURATE
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2 the mediation, I had -- we didn't sign the mediation 3 agreement that day but we had to take it back to our 4 board and to our attorney because our attorney wasn't 5 present because we were trying to keep the cost of our 6 attorneys down at that time. And then I signed the 7 mediation agreement that Friday. I delivered it to 8 Henry Bogoff's office and to my knowledge that was the 9 agreement, you know, literally I think one word had 10 been changed. It wasn't changed by me. 11 I don't know, you know, what happened but I know I 12 signed the agreement and I even E-mailed their school 13 board member, Rick Roach, to indicate that I was very 14 excited we reached an agreement. So it was my 15 understanding everything had been worked out and then 16 it comes back they were not going to work it out. 17 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Well, I can tell the other 18 side feels that it was changed after the fact. 19 MS. ROCKMAN: The record doesn't show that though. 20 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Well, I'm reading a letter 21 that basically was sent by Carl Hartley, Junior, to 22 Douglas Cliegman. That is -- 23 MS. ROCKMAN: They have made many accusations but 24 that was the agreement that was in our mediation. I 25 signed the agreement that was given to me by my ACCURATE
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2 going to be the agreement and we were agreed to -- we 3 agreed to whatever they wanted to agree to. That was 4 basically it. 5 TREASURER GALLAGHER: It would be hard for me to 6 believe that anybody would agree that they would not 7 unreasonably withhold approval of any plan proposed. 8 GOVERNOR BUSH: Why don't we get the Orange County 9 School District to come up. 10 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I'm sorry. Anyway, I've 11 given my -- what I think anyway. 12 GOVERNOR BUSH: Then we'll have questions. 13 MS. SAFLEY: Now representing the Orange County 14 Public School District is Carl Hartley. 15 MR. HARTLEY: Governor Bush, honored members of 16 the cabinet, my name is Carl Hartley. I represent 17 Orange County Public Schools. With me is the general 18 counsel, Frank Cruppenbacher. I think it's important 19 to stress right out of the shoot here that this is not 20 a happy day for our board either. We've had a failure 21 of a charter school partnership. We had ten success 22 stories last year. We had eleven charter schools, had 23 a great working relationship with ten of them. This 24 one, no, and we have to acknowledge it's a failure. 25 Unfortunately, we can't talk about the ten success ACCURATE
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2 schools. We have to focus necessarily on this failure. 3 This charter was terminated for three basic reasons. 4 First, they -- the charter school failed to fiscally 5 manage the operations of the school. In short, this 6 school is a financial basket case. Second, they failed 7 to manage the school itself. And, third, student 8 performance. 9 Touch on each one in turn. And I know you-all 10 have been fully briefed because your aides asked a lot 11 of very perceptive questions six days ago this morning. 12 I don't think I should dwell on the transportation 13 issue. Governor's aide in particular asked me to move 14 on after that. But I think there is about four or five 15 things in particular that need to be noted about this. 16 Number one, this is the same cost that Orange 17 County School Board charges to every charter school in 18 the county. The City of Orlando, when they borrow 19 these buses, pay the same -- 20 GOVERNOR BUSH: Do you charge per student the same 21 that you charge -- or a cost per student for regular 22 public schools? 23 MR. HARTLEY: No, it's charged per bus, per hour. 24 We don't charge the regular schools per student. We 25 divide all the money spent on transportation by the ACCURATE
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2 charge. We charge the schools 30 bucks an hour for a 3 field trip, you know, a football game. 4 GOVERNOR BUSH: And this was established before 5 the school started? 6 MR. HARTLEY: Yes, sir. And they were told what 7 the cost was going to be. It's in writing, it's in the 8 record, they were told it's going to cost $30 an hour. 9 They requested the service, they accepted the service, 10 then they refused to pay for the service. And it was 11 basically the actual cost of the bus service. 12 We then got the money back from them. Nothing 13 like $265,000. The numbers are in the briefs, it's far 14 less. We estimated that the total cost would be 15 $215,000 if they used the same system throughout the 16 year, two weeks into the year, and that didn't happen. 17 We did mediate with these people twice. Certainly 18 tried to resolve this situation. We did it once with 19 Mike Olneck and we did it once with another mediator, 20 Jim Page, in Orlando. 21 A second problem with the fiscal management of the 22 school is that they kept wanting to be paid for 23 students that were not there. And I'm sure you-all 24 know how this works. They do surveys, the Department 25 looks at it, and Orange County doesn't decide we're ACCURATE
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2 Department of Education makes that decision. You heard 3 that we had 175 students. The Department of Education 4 never thought they had over 132. We paid them too much 5 money. When we finally got the survey, we had to get 6 it back from them in the some manner the Department 7 gets the -- when they overfund to districts. 8 The third basic fiscal problem with this charter 9 school were the, I'll call them insider contracts and 10 payments. We had consulting fees that were certainly 11 not disclosed to be paid to a brother-in-law, the 12 principal of the school, $34 per student per month. We 13 knew nothing about that. Equipment purchased from the 14 brother-in-law. And as we stand here today, we still 15 don't know what the brother-in-law paid for those 16 computers, what the brother-in-law paid for those 17 audiovisual equipment that public money went to buy. 18 And I ask myself, Why don't we know? It's been 19 such a fuss for so long. Is it because there was a 20 large markup on the purchase of this stuff from Gateway 21 or Dell or perhaps is it because maybe all of it wasn't 22 even purchased and it wasn't there when they had these 23 burglaries? We don't know yet today. 24 And because of these insider transactions, it 25 wasn't just the school board that the school didn't ACCURATE
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2 their employees and they didn't pay their lawyers. We 3 were ordered at one point by the Orange County Circuit 4 Court to pay their prior lawyer money. He was asserted 5 a charging lien on this, we were ordered to do that. 6 So they're an economic basket case. And it's not 7 because of transportation money, it's because of 8 improper things going on with public money. No bid 9 contracts, undisclosed purchase agreements. 10 The second basic reason that the charter was 11 terminated is they failed to manage the school. They 12 were repeatedly advised, You're not supervising the 13 students. No student supervision. We complained about 14 teachers that were not certified as teachers with 15 criminal backgrounds. And their response was to say, 16 Well, they're not teachers, they're clerical people 17 when, in fact, they were teachers. And one of the 18 responses was to change the person's name and list him 19 under another name still as a teacher, clearly 20 disingenuous. 21 A big thing that really not much has been made out 22 of in this that's always bothered me is they were 23 authorized for 9th and 10th grade students. They had 24 half a dozen 11th graders out there. And the 25 Department says, No credit on your FTE because you're ACCURATE
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2 junior or a parent of a junior and you sent your kid to 3 this school for a year and you find out he didn't have 4 a junior year? Those people really have a complaint. 5 The third problem, third broad problem, was 6 student performance. Repeated observations that the 7 students were not engaged in academic activity. 8 Repeated warnings, need to do something about this. 9 And the reason this was important was because Orange 10 County Public Schools was very concerned that if there 11 was no academic activity going on, when it came time to 12 measure student performance, there was going to be a 13 serious problem. And, in fact, there was. 14 When they took the FCATs, abysmal, the worst in 15 the county, the worst of any school, worst in the 16 district. Way below the state average. This charter 17 school was a failure. However, don't lose sight of the 18 fact that there were ten success stories last year. 19 And just in closing, given the kind of abuses that 20 were going on here, you know, our board has a fiduciary 21 duty, the same as this board has duties to guard public 22 money. Really had no choice in this matter, could not 23 let this continue. 24 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. Any questions to the 25 applicant or to the district? ACCURATE
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2 we deny the appeal. 3 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second. 4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Any other discussion? There is a 5 motion and second to deny the appeal. All in favor say 6 aye. All opposed. Thank you all very much. 7 MS. SAFLEY: Governor and cabinet, Item 6 is dual 8 enrollment courses identified to meet high school 9 graduation requirements. We have Matt Bach from K16 10 articulation to answer any questions if you have any. 11 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on six. 12 GOVERNOR BUSH: Is there a second? Moved and 13 seconded. Without objection, the item is approved. 14 MS. SAFLEY: And then Item 7 through 27 will 15 hopefully move -- 16 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on 7 through 27. 17 GOVERNOR BUSH: There's a motion on Item 7 through 18 27. 19 MS. SAFLEY: Which are appointments. 20 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second. 21 GOVERNOR BUSH: The item is approved. Thank you, 22 Robin. 23 24 25 ACCURATE
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2 MR. WILHELM: Yes, sir. Item No. 1 is approval of 3 the minutes from May 21st, June 12th, and June 25th 4 cabinet meetings. 5 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion on minutes. 6 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second. 7 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 8 objection, the item is approved. 9 MR. WILHELM: Item No. 2, the Attorney General has 10 requested that we defer this item until the first 11 meeting in September. 12 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Governor, if I could, and 13 in deference to my colleague, I think that's a good 14 idea. We'll let this work itself through. I believe 15 that after working on this for two years and having 16 been the Senate sponsor of this bill, that we need to 17 get all these issues cleared before this Board has a 18 chance to vote on it. I will say that probably in the 19 end the two issues that may be the biggest sticking 20 point will need to be decided by this Board. 21 But I know the Department and the Aquaculture 22 Division is willing to work over the next months to 23 make sure that all of these issues hopefully are taken 24 care of before it comes back. And as the Senate 25 sponsor of the original bill, if there is any questions ACCURATE
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2 that information to the staffs of the Board members. 3 GOVERNOR BUSH: Very good. There is a motion to 4 defer until the first meeting in September, is that -- 5 by General Butterworth. Is there a second? 6 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second. 7 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded without 8 objection. The item is deferred until September. 9 MR. WILHELM: Thank you very much. 10 As I stated before, the Financial Management 11 Information Board agenda has been deferred in its 12 entirety, the Board of Trustees. 13 Before we start, I want to recognize Jim Boxhold 14 who is leaving as the deputy cabinet aide for me. He's 15 going to go back and take care of his children which I 16 think is a pretty good wholesome wonderful thing to do. 17 So, Jim, this is your last cabinet meeting. He has 18 handled all the Board of Trustees' activities for my 19 office and we wish you well and I'm proud of you. 20 (Applause.) 21 22 23 24 25 ACCURATE
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2 minutes. 3 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Move. 4 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 5 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 6 objection, the item is approved. 7 MR. STRUHS: Item 2 is an interesting one. We 8 bring it to you a little bit reluctantly, to tell you 9 the truth. This is a piece of property that was 10 adjacent to the Wekiva-Ocala Greenway; it's a Florida 11 Forever Project. It was something that the Division of 12 Forestry initially expressed a pretty strong interest 13 in acquiring because of its resource value and actually 14 pursued a boundary amendment to the project to get it 15 included as part of this greenway project. And I'm 16 actually quite pleased that our Division of State Lands 17 was able to negotiate an option price for your 18 consideration that is 8 percent below the appraised 19 value. 20 However, it's sort of hard to ignore the fact that 21 the sellers are poised, if you approve the item in its 22 current form, to make 247 percent profit in just four 23 years, that's $219,000, the source of some great 24 frustration for me and for many of us. Having said 25 that, this was an unusual sale that they were able to ACCURATE
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2 not there because, again, at that time, this particular 3 parcel was not part of this greenway project. So those 4 are the facts and our recommendation for your 5 consideration is to approve the item. 6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Governor? 7 GOVERNOR BUSH: Yes. 8 TREASURER GALLAGHER: My numbers show it's almost 9 300 and some percent. But be that as it may, I see the 10 value of this acquisition and I think that I, as 11 probably some others on the Board, are uncomfortable 12 with the practice of buying high and selling low or in 13 this case significantly higher than the seller within a 14 very short period of time. 15 And I know the seller's return on investment does 16 not and should not dictate our acquisition. But I 17 believe it's our fiduciary responsibility to ensure 18 that the state receives a value in terms of resource 19 and price for what we purchase. And I'd like to see 20 these parcels as part of the Wekiva-Ocala Greenway. 21 And I also realize that if you took a 20 percent 22 compounded purchase price for the Clement parcel, it 23 would be 96,000 and we're paying 175. If you took the 24 Ellis parcel, since 1999 would be 73,000, we're paying 25 133. And maybe there is somebody else who would like ACCURATE
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2 uncomfortable with paying that much and I think we 3 ought to direct the -- I'm not ready to purchase it at 4 this time at those prices. And so I don't know if 5 we're the only buyer or if they can sell it to somebody 6 else. If they can sell it to somebody else, maybe they 7 should. So I'd like to move we send it back to staff 8 to -- 9 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion to deny. Is 10 there a second? 11 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second. 12 GOVERNOR BUSH: Any other discussion? 13 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I would just like to raise 14 the question, Governor, on how this property came to 15 our attention in terms of moving the boundary. 16 MR. STRUHS: Well, the -- I can speak to the 17 formal process and then maybe the staff can provide the 18 internal process. 19 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Let me just cut right to 20 the chase. I understand the seller of the property 21 sent a letter to DEP requesting that the boundary be 22 changed so that the property could be included in the 23 purchase area. 24 MR. STRUHS: That's correct. And then from there, 25 General, it was taken to the Acquisition and ACCURATE
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2 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I also understand that this 3 is just the -- another one of the pieces of property 4 that the same person has been dealing with the state 5 and additional pieces of property were also addressed 6 to be included in the expansion of the boundary and we 7 haven't seen those yet. 8 MR. STRUHS: That is, I believe, true and I 9 believe we've also, as a state, purchased other 10 property from these sellers as a part of this trail -- 11 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I know we did, sadly. I 12 would like to go beyond just these two pieces of 13 property and make sure that we are carefully 14 scrutinizing any additional purchases that may be 15 involved as a result of this particular approach of 16 expanding the boundary. 17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Very good. There is a motion and 18 a second. Any other discussion? It is a motion to 19 deny. 20 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Is that an amendment? 21 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I guess you could consider 22 it an amendment but really I'm just asking the DEP to 23 do their due diligence really. I don't think we need 24 to include it as an amendment. 25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Okay. ACCURATE
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2 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion to deny and a 3 second. All in favor of Commissioner Gallagher's 4 motion signify by saying aye. All opposed. 5 MR. STRUHS: Item 3 is an option agreement to 6 acquire 16.62 acres in the Sebastian Creek CARL 7 Project. A very good project; I recommend approval of 8 it. This will provide over 2,000 feet of frontage on 9 Sebastian Creek. 10 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move. 11 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second. 12 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 13 objection, the item is approved. 14 MR. STRUHS: Item 4, we recommend approval of a 15 value-for-value land swap. This is between Florida 16 State University and the bishop of the Diocese of 17 Pensacola, the Catholic church here in Tallahassee. 18 This is simply an opportunity for both the church and 19 the University to be better off by consolidating their 20 landholdings respectively on the north and south sides 21 of Tennessee. 22 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Motion. 23 ATTORNEY GENERAL BUTTERWORTH: Second. 24 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 25 objection, the item is approved. ACCURATE
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2 to surplus a 13,000 square foot lot in Miami-Dade 3 County. And secondly, to accept an offer, a bona fide 4 offer from a Mr. Mario Quadros who is here. 5 This item does require five votes because part of 6 it is finding that the property is no longer needed for 7 the state's conservation agenda. And it also advances 8 our objectives which is to work with the City of Miami 9 Beach to establish a new waterfront park in that area. 10 This is a bona fide offer as a result of some very 11 aggressive marketing, of some individual, in this case, 12 noncontiguous house lots in this area. The bona fide 13 offer is for $1.2 million. It was made in May and 14 we're recommending approval for this. If you're 15 interested in learning more about the larger plan for 16 the other parcels, we can speak to that, but this is a 17 single item and we recommend approval. 18 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I'd like to ask a question. 19 MR. STRUHS: Yes. 20 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Why do we buy these lots? 21 We got the park a little bit south of it and all of a 22 sudden we have, you know, all these 11 lots and a 23 couple of lots we didn't buy in between. And now we're 24 going to sell them back. This just -- I mean, why did 25 we buy them in the first place? ACCURATE
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2 Florida had a program that I understand was called Save 3 Our Coast and they used bond money then to acquire 4 coastal properties. Whoever was in charge then 5 approved the acquisition of 22 lots in the City of 6 Miami Beach, most of them, but not all of them, on the 7 waterfront. It's now a new day and new management and 8 we're looking at those 22 lots, 11 of which are 9 contiguous, 11 of which are not, and recognize that in 10 our estimation they don't advance the State's 11 conservation agenda in any material way. 12 So we've worked out an arrangement where the City 13 of Miami Beach, which is interested in acquiring the 11 14 contiguous lots for the development of a more local 15 regional waterfront park, would transfer those lots to 16 Miami Beach and then be able to sell, as a result of a 17 very aggressive marketing campaign, the 11 18 noncontiguous lots. 19 The result of this aggressive marketing is pretty 20 good news in that the state will -- not that we're in 21 the business of making money, but in this case we will. 22 We will make a substantial return on that investment. 23 Covering, in fact, beating our initial investment in 24 the overall 22 lots and then allowing us to make the 25 transfer, with your approval, of course, of the 11 ACCURATE
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2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Have we paid off these bonds 3 and bought this? 4 MR. STRUHS: I don't know. 5 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I mean, I would think that 6 you might have some kind of -- has anybody checked to 7 see if we have any bond indenture problems of selling 8 land that we bought with bond money? 9 MR. STRUHS: The rules in place are being followed 10 here, which is specifically -- and it's in the agenda 11 item -- a determination that these properties 12 specifically are not -- are no longer necessary to meet 13 this conservation agenda. We've done this -- it's 14 rare, but we have done this before. 15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Well, let me ask you another 16 question. And these are being sold -- they were bought 17 as individual single family lots. They are being sold 18 as individual single family lots. We got a deed 19 restriction on keeping them individual family lots or 20 are we going to let somebody buy these, put them all 21 together, and build a motel or something or hotel? 22 MR. STRUHS: Well, the lots they were selling are 23 noncontiguous. That would be problematic. And of 24 course -- 25 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Well, you buy three lots or ACCURATE
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2 GOVERNOR BUSH: No, they're not contiguous though. 3 TREASURER GALLAGHER: There's one, two, three, 4 four lots. Well, one on the end so you don't have to 5 count it. But one, two, three, four lots in the middle 6 that somebody has to go buy and then they have the 7 whole two blocks. 8 GOVERNOR BUSH: Oh, you're saying buy from other 9 owners? 10 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Yeah. 11 MR. STRUHS: This would, of course, not be 12 governed by state law or state rules. This would be 13 governed by local zoning restrictions. It says -- 14 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Well, it could be ours. I 15 mean if they're buying them as single family are we 16 going to keep them as single family or are we going to 17 just let them do whatever they want? 18 MR. STRUHS: That would be up to the City of Miami 19 Beach. 20 TREASURER GALLAGHER: No, it could be up to us 21 too. We could put a deed restriction on there if we 22 chose. 23 MR. STRUHS: We would propose a deed restriction 24 on the 11 contiguous lots that would eventually be 25 transferred to the City of Miami Beach for purposes of ACCURATE
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2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Well, do you think these 3 lots would be purchased if we had a deed restriction 4 that they remain single family? 5 MR. STRUHS: Pardon me? 6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: My question is, if we put a 7 deed restriction on these lots, which we have the 8 authority to do as a seller -- 9 GOVERNOR BUSH: Let's talk to Mr. Quadros. 10 TREASURER GALLAGHER: -- would they still be 11 purchased? 12 MR. STRUHS: I'm sure they will be purchased. 13 GOVERNOR BUSH: Would they be purchased by the 14 person that has a contract on them? He's nodding. 15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Is that a yes or a no? 16 MR. QUADROS: Yes, sir. 17 GOVERNOR BUSH: You don't have a problem with the 18 deed restriction? Please come up. 19 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: I had a question too, 20 Governor, on the potential deed restrictions. I was 21 under the impression that anything built on there had 22 to meet a general application because they were going 23 to keep this area as a -- I can't remember which, the 24 '50s, '60s, building period, for historical value. 25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Nothing greater -- you mean art ACCURATE
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2 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Well, whatever. 3 GOVERNOR BUSH: Please, Mr. Quadros. How are you, 4 sir? 5 MR. QUADROS: Fine. 6 GOVERNOR BUSH: Welcome to the state zoning board. 7 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Something I never wanted to 8 serve on. 9 (Laughter.) 10 MR. QUADROS: Governor, members of the cabinet, 11 ladies and gentlemen -- 12 GOVERNOR BUSH: Do you speak Portuguese? 13 MR. QUADROS: Yes, I speak Portuguese. 14 GOVERNOR BUSH: Are you willing to include a deed 15 restriction on this property so that you would build a 16 single family home? I think that's the concern, that 17 this is not being done to assemble property. I'm not 18 sure assembling property at a million two clip per lot 19 is a speculative venture but is -- your intent is to 20 build? 21 MR. QUADROS: Yes. 22 GOVERNOR BUSH: Build a house? 23 MR. QUADROS: My house to live with my family. 24 GOVERNOR BUSH: Right on the Atlantic Ocean? 25 MR. QUADROS: No. ACCURATE
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2 MR. QUADROS: You're going to see me living there 3 for a long, long time. 4 GOVERNOR BUSH: No, I'm saying it's right on the 5 ocean, isn't it? 6 MR. QUADROS: Yes. 7 GOVERNOR BUSH: Is this a great country or what? 8 MR. QUADROS: Yes. 9 GOVERNOR BUSH: So you'd be willing to -- I just 10 want to make sure that we don't do something that -- 11 you'd be willing to accept a deed restriction? Is this 12 your lawyer next to you? Your friend? 13 MR. QUADROS: Advisor. 14 GOVERNOR BUSH: Advisor. 15 MR. QUADROS: He followed this situation. 16 GOVERNOR BUSH: You're comfortable with the deed 17 restriction? 18 MR. QUADROS: Yes. 19 GOVERNOR BUSH: Okay. 20 MR. QUADROS: Very comfortable. 21 GOVERNOR BUSH: I said it three times, I've heard 22 it three times. 23 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I move the sale with a deed 24 restriction. 25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Very good. There is a motion to ACCURATE
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2 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Second. 3 GOVERNOR BUSH: -- subject to a deed restriction 4 that remains single family. There is a second. Any 5 other discussion? The item passes. Well, we need to 6 get a vote to make sure we need five votes. All in 7 favor say aye. All opposed. It passes. 8 Thank you, Mr. Quadros. Welcome to Florida. 9 We're happy you're here. 10 MR. STRUHS: I would just like to point out that 11 Mr. Quadros' wife is a former Olympic swimmer and one 12 of the programs that she'll be working on when she 13 becomes a new resident of Miami is a competitive 14 swimming and training program for some of the 15 disadvantaged youth in the Miami area. So we're 16 looking forward to having them as neighbors. 17 GOVERNOR BUSH: Mr. Quadros, are you related to 18 the former president? 19 MR. QUADROS: Yes. 20 GOVERNOR BUSH: Interesting. How is -- sorry 21 for -- I'll ask you afterwards if you can stick around. 22 Item 6. 23 MR. STRUHS: Item 6, I'm going to ask that this 24 item be withdrawn. But I would like to just give you 25 an update as to where we stand with this interesting ACCURATE
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2 management project for this spit of sand off of Anclote 3 Key State Park. And one of the things we've done is 4 we've worked lately with the user groups in this area 5 to develop some measurable and objective management 6 goals for this emerging sandbar. One of the things 7 we've agreed to and I think is a good thing is more 8 frequent annual consultations with these user groups 9 and to commit the Florida Park Service and their 10 employees to work more closely with the visitors to 11 fine-tune some of the outstanding management issues on 12 the sandbar. Special thanks should go to 13 Representatives Heather Furantino and Mike Fasano for 14 helping to facilitate this happy resolution. So with 15 that update, we would move to withdraw Item 6. 16 GOVERNOR BUSH: There is a motion to withdraw and 17 a second. Without objection, the item is withdrawn. 18 Thank you, David. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ACCURATE
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2 Did I miss something? No, we withdrew that. We 3 deferred that, the whole agenda. 4 COMMISSIONER BRONSON: Move the minutes. 5 COMMISSIONER CRIST: Second. 6 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 7 objection, Item 1 is approved. 8 MS. MINOT: Mr. Governor, Mr. Milligan and 9 Mr. Gallagher, I would like to ask for the opportunity 10 to speak when the agenda presents itself on the need 11 for us to actively recruit, to fill the position of the 12 executive director. 13 GOVERNOR BUSH: You'd like to speak on an agenda 14 item? 15 MS. MINOT: Yes. 16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Please sit down. Item 2. 17 MR. STIPANOVICH: Good morning, Governor, members. 18 Request approval of amended minutes from the June 25th, 19 '02 meeting. 20 GOVERNOR BUSH: We did the minutes already. 21 MR. STIPANOVICH: Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. No. 2, 22 approval of fiscal sufficiency of an amount not 23 exceeding $295 million, State of Florida, State Board 24 of Education, public education, capital outlay 25 refunding bonds. It's recommended that you approve ACCURATE
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2 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Move Item 2. 3 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 4 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 5 objection, the item is approved. 6 MR. STIPANOVICH: Item 3, approval of fiscal 7 sufficiency of an amount not exceeding $250 million, 8 State of Florida, State Board of Education, public 9 education outlay bonds. It's recommended this item be 10 approved. 11 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion. 12 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second. 13 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 14 objection, the item is approved. 15 MR. STIPANOVICH: Item No. 4, approval of fiscal 16 sufficiency of an amount not exceeding $200 million, 17 State of Florida, Department of Transportation, 18 right-of-way acquisition and bridge construction bonds. 19 It is recommended that this item be approved. 20 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Move Item 4. 21 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 22 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 23 objection, the item is approved. 24 MR. STIPANOVICH: Item No. 5, approval of fiscal 25 sufficiency of an amount not exceeding 150-, State of ACCURATE
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2 Florida Forever revenue bonds. It's recommended this 3 item be approved. 4 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion. 5 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Second. 6 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 7 objection, the item is approved. 8 MR. STIPANOVICH: Item 6, approval of physical 9 sufficiency of an amount not exceeding 60 million, 10 State of Florida, Department of Transportation, 11 right-of-way acquisition and bridge construction 12 refunding bonds. It's recommended this item be 13 approved. 14 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Move Item 6. 15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 16 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 17 objection, the item is approved. 18 MR. STIPANOVICH: Item No. 7, approval of fiscal 19 determination of amounts not exceeding 7,975,000 tax 20 exempt and 1 million taxable Florida Housing Finance 21 Corporation housing revenue bonds, the Villas at Lake 22 Smart Apartments. It's recommended that this item be 23 approved. 24 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Moved. 25 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: And I'll second it and note ACCURATE
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2 over there, appreciate it. 3 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 4 objection, the item is approved. 5 MR. STIPANOVICH: Item No. 8, Governor and 6 members, is a status report which we typically provide 7 on the defined contribution program. I know that you 8 are strapped for time. This is fairly self-explanatory 9 so I'll just summarize by saying that Group 1, all the 10 education materials have been mailed. Group 2, all the 11 education materials have been mailed. 12 Group 1, August 31st deadline will come and go for 13 choice and we will have some idea then, much more so 14 then how the program will look now. We have 15 $35 million that have moved over so far. I think we're 16 up to about 40 something million. We don't know what 17 the outcome is going to be until August 31st. Once we 18 have this first phase completely behind us, we're going 19 to come back to you and give you a more detailed 20 presentation as to how it's proceeding. But things are 21 certainly proceeding on schedule but maybe not as 22 expected. 23 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Have you seen any increase 24 in the movement here since the open enrollment period 25 really started? ACCURATE
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2 that may be the case towards the end, as most people 3 have a tendency to do is to wait until the last minute. 4 But I think part of that is due to our efforts where 5 we've got some good advice from the peer pack 6 (phonetic) committee, the investment advisory council, 7 to try to do other things in reaching out. So we've 8 made ongoing efforts and enhanced efforts to reach out. 9 So I think it's a function of both of those things 10 coming together. But we are seeing a little increased 11 enrollment. 12 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: I also noted that the 13 investment advisory program is still not yet operative 14 on the -- through the Internet. And it looks like it's 15 going to be fall sometime. 16 MR. STIPANOVICH: That's my understanding. 17 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: The financial engines. 18 MR. STIPANOVICH: Yes. I think they are coming in 19 tomorrow night. I know that we're working on some of 20 those issues. I know that worked through some of them 21 already. I know there was that one issue of age where 22 it was difficult to be used. So we are working on that 23 but my understanding is come fall we should pretty much 24 have all the kinks worked out. 25 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: But it's still not ACCURATE
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2 MR. STIPANOVICH: General, I'm not clear on that. 3 I'm not sure that's the case -- 4 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: How about checking that out 5 for me and find out, will you? I've tried to get on 6 there just to see if it's functional and have not had 7 any success and just kind of run into a stone wall on 8 it and maybe it's my ineptitude. 9 MR. STIPANOVICH: I know that it's been up and 10 tests and you can go in there and do some 11 hypotheticals, I believe. But I'm not too sure that 12 until the 31st date comes and goes I'm not exactly sure 13 why there is a delay but I will look into it. 14 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Okay. Thanks. 15 GOVERNOR BUSH: Coleman, given the lower 16 participation rate it's natural -- the volatility of 17 the stock market, mostly volatile downward, during the 18 time that we implemented or are in the process of 19 implementing the defined contribution plan, we're going 20 to have to look at cost structures once we get through 21 this first phase. If the cost structures were based on 22 a significantly higher participation rate and it hasn't 23 been achieved, we're going to have to adjust. And so 24 you need to start thinking about that. 25 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: That was built into the ACCURATE
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2 accommodate that? 3 MR. STIPANOVICH: Yes, for the most part that's 4 the case. But the problem is on some of these 5 contracts, General, the lower estimates, we never 6 imagined the numbers would be that low. So the costs 7 are higher than what we thought based on kind of some 8 average projected numbers. 9 GOVERNOR BUSH: And the run rate is lower than the 10 start-up. I mean we had a ramp-up cost because of the 11 start-up of this. And my hope is that we can review 12 the going-forward operating cost to administer this 13 program and do it in a way that is reflective of the 14 volume. I mean, you can't -- we're going to have to 15 make some adjustments. 16 MR. STIPANOVICH: Well, we're not only thinking 17 about it, we're talking about it and you can rest 18 assured -- 19 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Say again, Tom, I'm sorry, 20 I didn't hear you. 21 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I believe Nebraska had a 22 defined contribution plan because of the cost 23 associated -- 24 (Inaudible. Microphone not turned on.) 25 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Well, you know, that's an ACCURATE
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2 now to people both in terms of providing a program and, 3 secondly, to really try to do it in an economical way 4 to the parties that do participate. 5 TREASURER GALLAGHER: I didn't advocate that. 6 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: No, I think we have to be 7 careful with that. And even giving any thought to it, 8 I think there is a certain obligation. And, in fact, 9 we need to be promoting it. You know, just because we 10 see some reservations now because of the volatility in 11 the market doesn't mean that it is not a good program 12 and an extraordinarily good program for young people 13 that are coming into service with the State and the 14 ability to transport it and so forth. So I think we 15 have to be careful that we don't send the wrong signal 16 here. 17 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Young people have taken 18 advantage of it. If you look at the participation on 19 Schedule 8, you'll see this particular chart, the red 20 dots are participation and the blue lines are the age 21 spread. And so there is a -- the two spectrums of 22 those are new with the state, probably think they're 23 going to be there a long time, taking advantage of it. 24 And those at the other end -- 25 (Inaudible. Microphone not turned on.) ACCURATE
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2 superior program that needs to be continued and needs 3 to be enthusiastically promoted and we just need to 4 keep it out there. And I, like the Governor, am 5 concerned about the cost that we are incurring and we 6 certainly need to review that as a result of the 7 participation level. But it should not be viewed as a 8 negative thing but rather -- 9 TREASURER GALLAGHER: We have a timing problem. 10 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: A little bit of timing. 11 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Had this been two years 12 ago -- 13 GOVERNOR BUSH: Two years ago or two years in the 14 future. 15 TREASURER GALLAGHER: This could be one of the 16 best times in the world to switch because you're at the 17 bottom and you got tremendous gains that could happen 18 as opposed to what you're going to get in the end with 19 the -- 20 (Inaudible. Microphone not turned on.) 21 GOVERNOR BUSH: Item 9. Any other discussion? 22 I'm sorry. 23 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move on. 24 MR. STIPANOVICH: The staff of the Florida State 25 Board of Administration would request the approval of ACCURATE
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2 of rules implements requirements of the federal 3 Internal Revenue Service regarding implementation of 4 the defined contribution program. A rule development 5 workshop was scheduled for July 16th but was not held 6 because it was not requested. If the trustees get 7 permission to file for notice, the hearing will be held 8 on September 17th. 9 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Move. 10 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: And seconded. 11 GOVERNOR BUSH: Move and seconded. Without 12 objection, the item is approved. That's for all three 13 rules? 14 MR. STIPANOVICH: Yes, sir. And that's Rule 15 19-12.001, Rule 19-12.006, Rule 19-12.007. 16 GOVERNOR BUSH: All right. 17 MR. STIPANOVICH: First of all, it should be noted 18 there was a correction because of a printing error in 19 this rule. And the second rule is 19-11.001 and this 20 rule addresses definitions of penalty assessment and 21 the market loss calculation. A rule development 22 workshop was scheduled for July 16th, '02 but was not 23 held because it was not requested. And if the trustees 24 give permission to file for notice, the rule hearing 25 will be scheduled for September 17th, '02. ACCURATE
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2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Was the item that passed for 3 B and C? 4 MR. STIPANOVICH: Yes, sir, it will be Item 9, A, 5 B, and C. Item C, the third set of rules -- 6 GOVERNOR BUSH: We've already approved it, 7 Coleman. 8 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Well, he's reading it into 9 the record. Let him do it. 10 GOVERNOR BUSH: Okay. Go ahead and read it. 11 MR. STIPANOVICH: The third set of rules are being 12 amended and relates to asset transfer procedures from 13 DB to DC specifically. It's Rule 19-10.002, Rule 14 19-10.003. A rule development workshop, again, on this 15 one, will be scheduled for July 16th. It was not held 16 because it was not requested. If trustees approve it, 17 it will be held on September 17th, '02. 18 GOVERNOR BUSH: All three -- the agenda item has 19 passed. All three rules have passed unanimously. 20 MR. STIPANOVICH: Item 10. The Florida Hurricane 21 Catastrophe Fund requests approval of filing two sets 22 of rules for notice of proposed rulemaking. The first 23 set of rules relates to the '02, '03 reimbursement 24 contracts and the second set of rules relate to the 25 '02, '03 insurer reporting contracts. These rules were ACCURATE
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2 June 13th, '02. The emergency rules were filed in 3 response to legislation that expanded coverage under 4 the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund to include 5 certain additional living expenses and certain 6 collateral protection policies that the treasurer had 7 addressed. 8 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Move Item 10A and B. 9 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 10 GOVERNOR BUSH: Moved and seconded. Without 11 objection, the item is approved. 12 MR. STIPANOVICH: Item No. 11, executive director 13 of succession and we have someone who has requested to 14 speak that you've allowed. 15 GOVERNOR BUSH: Sure. If you could be as brief as 16 possible we'd be grateful. Please. 17 MS. MINOT: Thank you so much for giving me the 18 opportunity to speak about this most important 19 decision. 20 GOVERNOR BUSH: Can you state for the record who 21 you are? 22 MS. MINOT: Yes. My name is Debbie Minot. I am 23 here as a concerned citizen. I had heard earlier today 24 at this meeting that the opportunity is here for 25 everyone. And it is certainly a conviction that I have ACCURATE
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2 you today. I believe in doing what is known as "the 3 right thing to do." And it hasn't gotten me too far in 4 life at this point but I still have that conviction and 5 I'm here today to ask of you to do what is right. 6 The executive director of the Florida State Board 7 of Administration is a very important position because 8 it affects our state employees' livelihoods. The 9 position oversees over $100 billion in assets or 10 investments and is the fourth largest public pension 11 fund in the U.S. In our past, our state leadership saw 12 the need to competitively recruit for this position. 13 However, I was told that this position would not be 14 competitively recruited for, that it was a done deal, 15 that Mr. Stipanovich would be the next executive 16 director of the State Board of Administration. Thus, 17 that Mr. Stipanovich's experience, his skill set, and 18 his two-and-a-half years of State Board of 19 Administration service have made him to be the most 20 qualified person for this position. 21 If this is your belief, you should have nothing, 22 nothing to fear upon making this position open for 23 competition so that others, including women and 24 minorities, have the same right as Mr. Stipanovich to 25 competitively compete in filling this vacancy. ACCURATE
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2 competitive recruitment and provide equal opportunity 3 in filling positions such as this. According to the 4 Department of Management Services, our state has a dire 5 need to actively recruit women and minorities, given 6 that 70 percent of the positions that are earning 7 $65,000 and above are occupied by men and only 8 30 percent of these positions are occupied by women. 9 Could this disparity be the result of noncompetitive 10 hires such as this? That's what I ask you. 11 Please don't take me wrong here. I am advocating 12 and I support the hire of the most qualified candidate 13 to be the next executive director of the State Board of 14 Administration. But I believe like many others in this 15 great state that equal opportunity is inherent in this 16 great nation and thus should be afforded to all walks 17 of life and that our state government should be 18 transparent in its advocacy and delivery of equal 19 opportunity. And it should be setting the example for 20 other states and for other organizations to follow. 21 I ask that you please reconsider your decision in 22 support of a competitive hire to ensure equal 23 opportunity in our state government. Thank you very 24 much for giving me this time to speak. I appreciate 25 it. ACCURATE
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2 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Governor, I want to say that 3 I think this is the time to have an executive director 4 that's not acting and so I would move that Coleman be 5 hired as the executive director of the State Board of 6 Administration and that said, I also believe that all 7 of the executive directors that work for the cabinet, 8 as we shrink as a cabinet, will all be looked at in 9 January so there will be an opportunity then for 10 everyone to look at all the executive directors with 11 the new governor and cabinet and the new State Board of 12 Administration. I know two of us have a pretty good 13 shot of being there and one is retiring. 14 GOVERNOR BUSH: One has a very good shot at being 15 there. One is 20 points down and the other is 16 retiring. 17 (Laughter.) 18 GOVERNOR BUSH: That's a motion? 19 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Motion is to make him 20 director and not acting and again we look at everybody. 21 COMPTROLLER MILLIGAN: Well, as you probably know 22 I've really ruminated over this for some time. But I 23 think that Coleman has demonstrated the capacity to do 24 this job and I will second the motion. 25 GOVERNOR BUSH: Very good. I think, given the ACCURATE
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2 have permanency. And I concur with the additional 3 comment that you made, Treasurer, about, you know, at 4 the end of a term or beginning of a new one it should 5 be -- everything should be reviewed again. 6 TREASURER GALLAGHER: All the executive 7 directors -- (Inaudible. Microphone not turned on.) 8 Highway Safety, FDLE, Revenue, the whole thing, I 9 believe every single director should be up for review. 10 GOVERNOR BUSH: Any other discussion? All in 11 favor of -- I guess the motion is that Coleman be named 12 the executive director. 13 TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second. 14 GOVERNOR BUSH: There's been a second. All in 15 favor say aye. All opposed. 16 MR. STIPANOVICH: Governor, if I may comment. 17 I'll be the first to tell you in talking to my 18 predecessor and having been at the board for 19 two-and-a-half years, it has always been clear to the 20 executive directors that we serve at the pleasure of 21 the trustees. My job is at risk every day. You could 22 terminate me tomorrow. I want to thank you and I'm 23 looking forward to moving forward. 24 A lot of good things have been said about my 25 predecessor and his predecessor and Cliff Hinkle and ACCURATE
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2 excellent executive directors. I look forward to 3 continuing in that spirit and -- but I want to say that 4 not enough is said about the staff out at State Board 5 of Administration. The senior staff out at the State 6 Board of Administration, the management out at the 7 State Board of Administration, the employees, are 8 absolutely fabulous and they've made a lot of executive 9 directors look mighty good. And they don't get enough 10 credit. So I want to stand here today and recognize 11 that organization in terms of an outstanding 12 organization, a lot of great employees, and I'm honored 13 and privileged to be working with those people and 14 returning to the office to move forward. 15 GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. 16 (Whereupon, the proceedings adjourned at 12:00 17 p.m.) 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ACCURATE
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2 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER 3 4 STATE OF FLORIDA ) 5 COUNTY OF LEON ) 6 7 I, KRISTEN L. BENTLEY, Court Reporter, certify 8 that the foregoing proceedings were taken before me at the 9 time and place therein designated; that my shorthand notes 10 were thereafter translated under my supervision; and the 11 foregoing pages numbered 1 through are a true and 12 correct record of the aforesaid proceedings. 13 14 I further certify that I am not a relative, 15 employee, attorney or counsel of any of the parties, nor am 16 I a relative or employee of any of the parties' attorney or 17 counsel connected with the action, nor am I financially 18 interested in the action. 19 DATED this L DATE day of 20 L MONTH , 2002. 21 ______________________________ 22 KRISTEN
L. BENTLEY, Court Reporter 24 25 ACCURATE STENOTYPE REPORTERS, INC. |
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