Andrea Messina and Danielle Thomas FSBA - Risky Benefits Podcast S5 E9

In this episode of Risky Benefits, we speak with Andrea Messina and Danielle Thomas from the Florida School Boards Association. Andrea and Danielle provide insights on the outcomes of the 2025 legislative session, emphasizing important changes in school start times and school safety measures. They discuss the implementation challenges and financial implications for school districts. Additionally, they address the increasing need for schools to adapt to emerging technologies and the importance of building relationships with legislators. The discussion also touches on strategies for efficiently managing school resources amid evolving educational landscapes, including the role of benefits and support for staff in school districts.

To listen in and subscribe to more episodes, visit our website: fbmc.com/podcast.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hey, thank you for listening into Risky Benefits, a podcast
that informs you on all thingsbenefits.
We've got a saying around here,benefits isn't your main
business.
It's ours.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_101 (00:16):
Well good morning everyone.
Thank you so much for listeningto Risky Benefits and welcome to
this week's episode.
Today's episode is one thatschool leaders won't wanna miss.
Our guests today are AndreaMessina and Danielle Thomas with
the Florida School BoardAssociation.
Andrea has been a relentlessadvocate for Florida's public
education system, and todayshe's here to walk us through

(00:37):
the outcomes for the 2025legislative session and what
that means for school districtsacross the state.
So welcome and thank you bothfor coming on.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So before we get started, canyou guys introduce yourself and
tell us a little bit about whatyou do?

andrea-messina_1_05-21-20 (00:50):
Thank you.
For sure.
I'll start.
I'm the Chief Executive Officerof the Florida School Boards
Association, and it's reallyimportant that Dr.
Danielle Thomas be with us heretoday since we're talking about
the legislative session, and sheis wholly charged with all of
that responsibility in theassociation and on our behalf.
So, as I was mentioning earlier,if something changed last night,

(01:12):
I might not know, but Daniellecertainly would.
So just as a little backgroundfor some of your listeners, I'm
a former high school Englishteacher, and then I served as a
school board member inCharlotte.
Then I association first as.
Now as the Chief ExecutiveOfficer, and one of my great
strengths is hiring is reallysmart people.

(01:34):
Yeah.
I, I wanna introduce Dr.
Danielle Thomas and she can tellyou a little bit about her
background, which also goes intothe schools.
It does, it does.
So thank you both so much forhaving us today.
As Andrea mentioned, I'm Dr.
Danielle Thomas director ofAdvocacy and Legislative
services for the Florida SchoolBoards Association.
I spent almost 14 years withVolusia County Schools, mostly

(01:56):
as an ESE teacher, fourth andfifth grade self-contained for
the most part.
Wow.
So spent a lot of time there andthen in the ESE department
providing teachers.
A child advocate through somevolunteer work with Florida PTA.
And that's what eventually ledme into the legislative process

(02:18):
and to this position with theFlorida School Boards
Association.
So, it's been a little bit of adifferent journey, but
absolutely ended up where I'msupposed to be.
Very good.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_1 (02:29):
That's really good.
Well, thank you both so much.
And actually let's introduce Rayalso.
Ray has, I thought everybodyknew Ray.
So Ray, why don't you telleveryone who you're okay.
I work with Fbmc.
I'm a program manager, meaningthat I work in a certain area.
My focus is in the educationalfield, whether it's been in the
colleges for about seven yearsand now in the k12, uh, arena,

(02:52):
probably five or six years Ithink I've been attending all
the F SBA conferences, executiveboard meetings, everything for a
number of years Now.
My background is actuallybanking for 25 years, but it was
small town banking, which meansI was involved in a lot of
things including the schoolsystem.
My wife is a career teacher withalmost 40 years.

(03:15):
Go all the way back to my dad.
He was a school bus driver inJefferson County.
As the educational field hasbeen something that's been very
important to myself and.
And before I came to Fbmc, Ispent four years as the CFO of
the Madison County SchoolDistrict.
So I really got immersed therewith all the relationships.
I actually met Andrea back yearsago in that capacity.

(03:39):
But since I've been at FBMC andthey're given me the opportunity
to expand this work a lot withthe school districts and try and
figure out better models oftheir benefits, you know, both
for medical and voluntary, howto mesh all that stuff together
and really just kind of focus onthem because the, I know from

(03:59):
experience, the CFOs, HRdirectors, they do not have time
in their daily schedule wearingmany hats to really understand
and focus on benefits and how itcan so the consultants like us,
myself, we need to come in to beable to bring them up to speed,
keep up to date.
I keep up with the legislativesessions, I keep up with

(04:20):
everything going on there asmuch as I can in education.
And as a CFO nerd, I guess you'dsay?
I'd say I actually keep up,yeah.
I actually keep up with the FPSfor the districts that I'm
involved with and look at that,the not easiest part-time.
So that does, when I, when Ihave a chance to meet with the

(04:40):
school districts, that brings ina different perspective.
The school board members are,have never encountered that
before.
Somebody that understands wheretheir money's going or not going
and how it has to be spent andwhat little bit of resources
they have to actually put intothe benefits and how it's a
puzzle.
You have to be creative andfigure out how you can move this

(05:02):
piece around, this piece to givethe employees what they really
need and deserve.
Because that's one of theattractions of the school
districts in my opinion, are thebenefits and what that in
addition to the pay, because thepay we know is at the whims of
the legislative session and whatthey.
And that is like arollercoaster.

(05:23):
And so they never know from yearto year what they're gonna have
to spend.
And this is one area that theycan hopefully glean some revenue
from and rearrange as they needit.

andrea-messina_1_05-21-20 (05:33):
Well, and as you know, the percent of
the budget that goes toemployees is the greatest single
line item.
So it's the one that we have toreally bird, dog, and watch
closely.
We do, yeah.
Very important.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_1014 (05:46):
And it takes not only the school
board members and staff, ittakes the people in community
and.
So thank you.
Thank you for allowing me to behere.
Thanks.
So let's start at the topSession has been packed with
bills affecting everything fromeducation funding to parental

(06:08):
rights and school staffing.
So what were some of the biggestheadlines for the school
districts this year?

andrea-messina_1_05-21-2025_ (06:14):
so a, a few big ones, especially
for us and for that were reallythe, the key ones that our
school districts were reallyfocused on.
The number one was middleschool, high school start times.
Yeah.
Two years ago it was thepriority of then house, speaker,
renter.

(06:35):
He understood and had gotten upto date on how important teen
sleep is.
And how our school districtstart times for our schools
don't necessarily help teens inthat sleep pattern.
And so with his leadership, thelegislature passed a school

(06:57):
start times bill that what isdue to be implemented July,
2026.
So they gave us a three yearglide path that says middle
schools can start no later than8:00 AM by July, 2026.
And high schools can start noearlier than 8:30 AM So no
earlier than eight for middleschools, no earlier than eight

(07:19):
30 for high schools.
And so as our districts havebeen preparing for this
implementation and taking a deepdive into this, they very
quickly realized for a largevariety of reasons that this was
not gonna work for many of ourdistricts.
For our large urban districts,it is the expense of additional

(07:41):
school buses, school busdrivers, which we already have a
tremendous problem finding and ahuge shortage of the impli, um,
implications of traffic and thelack of infrastructure that's
available for that increasedtraffic.
When it comes to our small andrural districts, it's things
like pushing the school starttime back means school sports

(08:05):
start later.
Now we need to have lighting onthe fields that we haven't
needed to have lights for.
So in a variety of differentways, no matter the size, shape,
location of the district, wewere seeing that there was gonna
be a tremendous fiscal impact tothe district for this
implementation.
Nevermind, we have a lot offamilies that were starting to

(08:27):
really push back on this ideaalso.
It was gonna be very difficultfor some of them.
Some of them it becomes then achildcare issue, other
situations to where it justwasn't working.
So it was one of our platformpriorities for FSBA this year to
ask for flexibility in theimplementation of school start

(08:49):
times.
So the legislature has passedand we are currently as of today
awaiting the governor'ssignature.
He does have the bill currentlyneeds to sign it by this coming
Friday on this day that werecord this.
But it is to provide thatflexibility to the district.
So what the bill says is, wewant you to implement this by

(09:11):
July, 2026.
If not, districts need to havepublic meetings in which
information is shared withfamily and community members
about the importance of late ofsleep for teens and late start
times.
The impacts that that can havepositively for our students.
And really talk through andshare that information as well

(09:35):
as share proposals of what itwould look like and the
potential fiscal impact, as wellas other impacts to the
district.
They can then submit all of thaton a written report to the
Department of Education.
And as long as the Department ofEducation receives that report
by July 1st, 2026, they're incompliance.
Okay.
Which is a huge win for ourdistricts.

(09:56):
In, in many ways.
The other big piece oflegislation that we followed
very closely was also on ourplatform was around school
safety.
We've obviously done atremendous amount around school
safety here in the state ofFlorida over the last seven
years or so.
Understandably so, after thetragedy of Ary Stoneman Douglas

(10:17):
and it sometimes some of the.
New pieces that we put intolegislation, then when we
actually go to implement them,doesn't quite implement in the
same way that it was intended.
Right?
Yeah.
And so sometimes we have to comeback and ask the legislature,
Hey can we make some adjustmentshere?
And so that was really our focusthis year.

(10:39):
We had a big school safetypackage from last session from
the 2024 session.
And part of that was everysingle door had to be locked,
every single gate had to belocked or manned.
It, there wasn't really aclarification on the time of
that.
It just kind of said whilestudents were present which can

(11:00):
mean a lot of different things.
And all of our schools alreadyhave single point of entry.
They already, like, it's alreadyyou know, only one way to be
able to get onto campus.
You have to be approved to geton campus and.
This was now causing great angstfor many of our districts.
And for a lot of our schoolsjust in the daily running of

(11:23):
things because now everythingwas locked, everything had to be
managed.
There's obviously an expensewith that, but there's also just
flow of the school day was justreally not working in a lot of
ways.
And so many of our members cameto us and said, we, we need
some, some changes Toand.

(11:45):
Our schools to be as safe aspossible, but this is really
difficult to implement the waythat it's, so we asked for some
changes, asked for someclarification, some flexibility
with that.
And we have seen that in, in theschool safety package that
passed the legislature this yearas well, again, awaiting the

(12:05):
governor's signature.
But hearing that that's gonnahappen any day now.
So we're just, we're thrilled tohave seen that.
We've continued to ask forcontinued flexibility when it
comes to some things.
Deregulation was a big topic ofconversation last year in 2024.
Uh, it was part of the agreementthat the legislature came to the

(12:28):
previous year on when weexpanded school choice.
Part of it was, we'll then we'realso gonna take a deep dive at
looking at deregulating ourtraditional public schools.
The way President Pomo, who wasa huge champion for this, put it
was, if we're gonna increasecompetition, then we also need
to untie the hands of ourtraditional public schools to

(12:52):
allow them to be able to competewith the other options.
And Senator Simon in the Senatewanted to continue that momentum
this year and we were asking forcontinued momentum in that area
and continue to work on some ofthose deregulation items.
So, we supported administrativeefficiency for public schools

(13:14):
this year.
Unfortunately didn't get itacross the finish line.
Sent Senate, it got it all theway across the finish line, but
it did not get any traction inthe house this year,
unfortunately.
But I know that it is somethingthat we're gonna continue to see
work on.
We're gonna continue to see, Ithink Senator Simon is still
looking to spearhead thatcontinued movement in that

(13:37):
direction of providing schooldistricts with as much
opportunity as possible to beable to compete amongst all of
the other choices that we nowhave.
Wow.
Sounds like you guys have beenvery busy.
Yeah, very busy.
This is a very busy query, verybusy and still very busy since
we are waiting on a budget it'sbeen a very unusual session in

(14:00):
that way.
Session should have ended May2nd.
Today's, you know, we're towardthe end of May right now and we
still have no budget.
We are an extended session,which also changes some dynamics
of some things, any bills thatthe governor gets.
Right now, he only has one weekto sign instead of the typical
two weeks.
But we're just, we're continuingto wait.

(14:22):
They're continuing negotiations,so.
We'll see, and every, every daywe find out new little pieces.
There's been a new salvo fromone side or the other, so we're
monitoring, but, but that piece,that budget piece is really the
crux of what the districts arewaiting on because they can't
they're having to build somecontingency budgets right now,

(14:45):
not knowing what the finalnumbers are going to be.
And the chambers are, notnecessarily closely aligned as
much as we would hope so.
So not knowing what it's goingto look like and trying to
prepare for some of thecontingencies is, is, is part of
what these districtprofessionals have to be
thinking through right now?

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10 (15:05):
Yeah.
You all of that stuff flow.
I mean, there's always beenlike.

(15:32):
Writing to the union too.

andrea-messina_1_05-21-20 (15:34):
Well, and you mentioned communication
with your communities.
Mm-hmm.
Earlier.
And that's one of the keyelements, especially in this
budget.
We've seen a lot of activityfrom communities advocating for
certain levels of funding incertain sort of academic areas.
There there's been conversationsthat you've probably seen or
heard on social media or evenwithin the chambers related to

(15:56):
funding with advanced courses,some additional bonus monies and
things like that where thecommunities themselves have been
advocating as much as the schooldistricts.
And so how that turns out isgonna have to also then be
communicated back to thecommunities.
'cause it could certainly affectsome of the offerings that
districts have.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.

(16:16):
And we do still have twoproposed budgets out there that
did pass each chamber back inApril as part of the regular
budgeting process.
And because they chose to extendsession.
Those two proposed budgets fromeach chamber are the budgets
that are still in play for aneasy way to put it.

(16:36):
So those are the two budgetsthat we are kind of working off
of, and that's what they areusing currently.
As leadership, really the senatepresident and the house speaker
continue to negotiate what thatfinal structure of a package
looks like.
Meaning what is the big budgetnumber and what is the tax

(16:58):
package that's gonna go alongwith that.
And that really seems to be thehold up at this point is really
the agreement on the taxpackage.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10 (17:06):
What, uh, what things have you seen
that has changed the.
The scholarship money that'sgoing out there, because I know
every time that a district'sonly giving given certain amount
of money, either from the stateor from where they generate
locally.
And every time there's someoneelse that pulls outta that pie,

(17:29):
it affects what the schooldistricts.
What else have you seen outthere that is being impacted
this year that's getting moremoney away from the district?

andrea-messina_1_05-21-20 (17:39):
Sure.
Well, the scholarship piece doescontinue to be a big piece.
Mostly because as a state, as awhole, we have still not really
gotten to a point where we'resuper, super accurate with the
with the numbers of students andwhere they're going.
We're very accurate with ourtraditional public school

(18:02):
numbers.
Mm-hmm.
And with obviously, charterschool students, those are also
public school students.
We know those, but.
The scholarship dollars can bethere.
There's still it's verydifficult for them to be able to
accurately project the number ofstudents that are going to take

(18:22):
scholarships.
And part of that is because inthe most recent expansion from a
couple of years ago, we nowobviously include homeschool
students.
So now they never have to cometo us first before qualifying
for a scholarship.
That was a thing for a while.
Yeah.
And it allowed us to at leastget an accurate count of a
student.
And then when they move frombasically one pot to another,

(18:45):
it's much easier for thosedollars to follow the child.
Right.
Which we hear about all the timeand is the goal of the state.
But what has happened is.
Children who are homeschoolednow can get scholarship dollars.
So they may have never steppedfoot in our traditional public
schools or in our system to beable to have been counted to

(19:09):
start with.
We also have students that havealways been in private schools,
but now can qualify for ascholarship if their school is
accepting a scholarship.
So again, they may have neverbeen counted before either.
And so part of the differencethat we see in the two proposed

(19:29):
budgets that are out there iswhat each chamber is proposing
as far as how to get to a moreaccurate count, how to get to a
more accurate number.
So our financial projections onall fronts can be as accurate as
possible, right.

(19:50):
And it's everyone's goal to getthere.
It's just a matter of what thatlooks like and how we're gonna
get there.
The last couple of years to helpus be, it was, uh, originally
part of a senate proposal and,and it has been in the budget
the last couple of years andcontinues to be in the Senate
proposed budget, is to have whatthey refer to as a stabilization

(20:13):
fund.
So it's like a pot of money thatis in our FEFP that literally
does pretty much what it kind ofsounds like.
It does.
It provides stabilization to ourschool districts.
So if the projections end upbeing wheeled off for whatever
reason, that then there's a potof money to help to support the

(20:38):
districts because.
As many of us know, those countscome out mid-year.
Yep.
Right.
Like we do a count in October,but we don't find out until
January, sometimes February orMarch, what that actually looks
like.
And then we do another count inFebruary and like we're still
waiting to find out what thatone looks like.
So our schools are continuing toteach.

(21:01):
We continue to have, teachersand all of those things that we
have.
We need to feed kids, we need tobus kids.
We need to do all these things.
And so that stabilization fundhas really helped to kind of
backfill some of the unexpectedloss that some districts may
have had along the way becausethe projections were not as

(21:23):
accurate as maybe we had allhoped.
But, but we don't expect thatstabilization fund to last
forever.
We don't, yeah, we don't.
But until some of the proposalsthat are in the house and the
Senate proposal are actually,actually have a chance to be
implemented and have a chance tosee how much they help the

(21:44):
accuracy of the count and theprojections the Senate strongly
believes that we should continueto have a stabilization fund.
And we appreciate that thoughtprocess because we agree.
It has been very helpful.
It has been very much needed.
And until we can see, you know,it's kind of like school safety.
We thought these things soundedgreat on paper.

(22:06):
We implement, we needed to makea few tweaks.
Well, it could be the same thinghere.
We think this is going to workon paper.
Let's go ahead and implementsome of it.
Make sure it works.
Let's also have a stabilizationfund to kind of help fill those
gaps in case there are any.
Yeah.
And then if we find it superaccurate, okay, sure.
Maybe we don't need astabilization fund in a few
years going forward, but let'scontinue to have that as we go

(22:29):
forward.
The house is like, no, we, thisis gonna work, so we're not
gonna need that stabilizationfund anymore.
Right.
So again, it's just, you know,different thoughts on what
that's gonna look like, but it'sall very much up in the air,
which is giving everyone agrowing angst as we get later
and later.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But Ray, you mentioned staffingformula.

(22:50):
Yes.
That's, I was, and so when wetalk about the student counts
and the projections and thestaffing formulas, what's really
important for districts to do isto monitor their student counts
very, very closely.
And when they see those countschange up or down.
Have some ability to pivot withtheir staffing formulas.

(23:12):
Right?
'cause that's what'll get adistrict in trouble financially
quicker than anything else is ifthey have a loss of student, you
know, student, uh students.
And then they don't adjust theirstaffing because then they would
be considered by, for example,the house would certainly
consider them overstaffed.
Right?
And then that would actuallyargue against the stabilization

(23:33):
fund.
Mm-hmm.
So making sure that they aremonitoring those student counts
and making those adjustmentswhen necessary as a district is
really important as they birddog this budget,'cause this
budget coming up.
I mean, I think you would agree,Danielle, or tell me if you
don't, but.
Districts are gonna have a, a, afewer resources and have to

(23:55):
stretch'em farther.
Yeah.
And in order to do that, theygotta be accurate on their
numbers and they have torespond.
If they're not accurate, theyhave to make an adjustment.
They cannot just let it slide.
And we're already starting tosee that.
I mean, earlier, just this week,just a couple of days ago,
orange County Public Schoolsmade the determination at their
school board meeting to pullback on some proposed

(24:16):
construction Yeah.
Of a new school because theydon't have the numbers to
justify continuing to moveforward.
Yeah.
You know, we, our, our districtshave to do long-term planning
when it comes to those things,but in that long-term planning,
they didn't necessarily knowthat just two years ago we were
gonna have such a largeexpansion of scholarships and

(24:40):
what that was going to mean tothose projections that they had
made.
So.
Kudos to our districts that arereally taking long and hard and
difficult looks at some of theplans that they had made and
saying, you know what?
A lot of things have changedsince we originally put some of
this into motion.
It's not too late for us to pullback, and it's probably the best

(25:03):
thing for us to pull back rightnow and go back to your
conversation about community.
Because if you've got acommunity that thinks they're
getting ready to have a schoolbuilt somewhere or a wing or
something like that, and likeshe said, districts have to do a
five year construction plan, andanytime during that five year,
the legislature can change therules, change the plan.
Anything can happen.

(25:24):
It's very difficult.
And if your community in theirmind has been waiting to get
into the five year plan, theyfinally get in the five year
plan and now they have to getamended out.
That's a conversation thatdistricts need to be having with
their communities.
People have to understand.
Like she said, the changes that,that are happening that are
creating the need to have toadjust and edit along the way.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10 (25:46):
Yeah.
I mean, it's very difficult tonail it right on the head of how
many kids you're gonna have tostart the school year.
I know back when charter schoolsfirst started coming out, it was
a wild, wild west of how yournumbers were gonna be because
the charter school didn't evenknow exactly how many kids they
were gonna have.
Sure.
And I watched several come intoformation and they thought they

(26:07):
were gonna have 200 kids andthey ended up with 3 75 to four.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then all of a sudden theschool district counted on those
extra kids to be in the districtand now they're gone.
So they were overstaffed.
Yeah.
And the teachers.
Yep.
And I know one time when we weredoing our count, we went all the
way down and we contacted everysingle pre-K program in the

(26:30):
county that had privately heldpre-Ks.
Got a headcount of how many oftheir kids would be gonna
kindergarten.
And we also got a headcount ofhow many they expected may go to
a charter school or to a privateschool so that our headcounts
into our kindergarten programswere more realistic.
Right.
And so we kind of did that part.

(26:52):
And we also did some community.
You know, where do you thinkyour child's gonna go?
Yeah.
And something to give us abetter way to estimate.
Sure.

andrea-messina_1_05-21-20 (27:01):
Well, and, and working with
kindergartners upcoming is awhole lot easier than, as
Danielle mentioned, we've got abunch of students who've been in
private schools their wholecareers Exactly.
Upcoming seventh grade or eighthgrader that we didn't even have
on the public school radarbecause they never went to
public school.
Yeah.
That's why finding a way toaccurately account for Yeah.
Every student coming, goingwhere they are, what they're

(27:23):
doing, if they're gettingscholarship money.
Mm-hmm.
You know, knowing where they areand having'em as part of the
count because it's huge.
The counts in the last two yearshave been much larger than the
counts prior to that, becausenow we have students who here
two four would never been in thecounts.
Exactly.
So we have the same pot plussome extra kids that, that we

(27:45):
didn't have in that pot beforeand we didn't have a way of
counting them.
Right, exactly.
There wasn't, to be perfectlyhonest, there wasn't a need to
count them.
They were being, they werehomeschooled, they were in
private school.
No problem.
Everyone's doing their thing.
But now that we publicresources, now it's it's public

(28:06):
dollars.
And so we need to account forthat.
And so now we need to know whoevery single one of those
students are.
So it's just a matter of findinga system that's gonna work where
we can get the most accurateaccounts possible.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10 (28:21):
Yeah.
It's almost like once a child'sbored, you gotta load them into
a system.
I know.
It's almost like give them anumber then it really, I know.
It's kind of amazing.
Yeah.
You mentioned something earlieron the.

(28:42):
Are there, are you seeing any ofthe private schools that are not
gonna take the moneyrestrictions?

andrea-messina_1_05-21-20 (28:46):
Yeah, we do.
We actually have a couple herein Tallahassee that, that don't
take, never took thescholarship, still don't take
the scholarship.
And that can be obviously for avariety of reasons and there are
private schools they can chooseto, to handle that however they
would like to.
So we do have, have some thatare out there.
Like I said, I, I know of acouple right here in Tallahassee

(29:08):
that, that have not taken thescholarship and continue to not
take the scholarship.
Obviously we have schools thathave private schools that have
always taken the scholarship.
We have new private schoolspopping up.
Yes.
Because of the scholarshipopportunity.
So it's, you know, there's, it'skind of all over the place.
It's a management decision thatit's, and they mail every year

(29:29):
as they sit down.
These schools, they're gonnalook at their budgets and they
may change their currentdecision.
Some.
Say they want take it forcertain reasons, and some say
they don't for other reasons,so.
Mm-hmm.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_1014 (29:40):
one other thing that I was, I've
always been curious about whenyou're looking at all of these,
the funds traveling, you know,to the private sector with the
private schools and the homeschools, but then a lot of the
kids are eligible to participatein the extracurricular
activities at the school system,especially in the high school.
Yep.
But the public school's notgetting the money for that kid,

(30:03):
but they're having to providethat service.
Yeah.
Have you seen any legislation tohelp balance that help pay for
the coaches?
Yeah, because right now, fromwhat I've seen from my own
experiences, the public schoolhas buried the burden of the
entire expense for all of thoseextra group.

andrea-messina_1_05-21-20 (30:19):
They, they are, but in some cases,
that's also either been a choicethat they've made because they
do have the ability and more andmore of our districts are.
Moving in this direction andfiguring out how to move in this
direction.

(30:39):
'cause it's a completelydifferent thought process.
Yes.
For our traditional publicschools.
Our schools have always been kidshows up, we give them whatever
they need, right?
Yeah.
We teach them, we feed them, weeducate them, we give them the
opportunity to participate inextracurricular activities.
We give them additional servicesthat they need, like whatever
they need, they walk in thedoor.
We give it to'em for as long aswe have them.

(31:00):
Mm-hmm.
And so now it's almost like ourdistricts are starting to look
into, and some of them arealready implementing this and
some of them are, are on thepath to, is almost looking at
more of a business model in thesense of.
We have students who are eitherin the private school, in

(31:22):
homeschool, to your point, wantto participate in an
extracurricular activity, maybea sport, or maybe it's even that
they wanna take a particularcourse that is not available to
them at a private school.
Maybe it's an AP course, maybeit's a cape course, you know,
for our career in technical ed.
But there's something specificthat they wanna take that the

(31:45):
only option for them to be ableto do that is at a traditional
public school.
So then it's a matter of settingup a process by which the
student ha absolutely is allowedto come to the school for that
particular course, thatparticular activity, whatever it
is.
And our districts are learninghow to then.

(32:10):
Charge.
Okay.
The parent, it's a businessrelationship.
Yeah.
From the scholarship to be ableto charge the parent in order
for the parent to use some ofthose scholarship dollars to be
able to pay for that particularservice, whether it be the
course, whether it be theextracurricular, you know,
whatever it is.
So it's very much a mind shiftand a, a huge shift in our

(32:35):
approach as traditional publicschools of how we look at our
students and our families.
But it's also a necessarychange, and I think that's what
a lot of our districts arecoming to realize is that it's
really a necessary change thatneeds to happen because
otherwise, to your point,they're gonna continue to get

(32:58):
drained of services and ofresources.
Because we are the only optionfor these extracurricular
activities or some of these veryspecialized courses for these
students, and we have never beenone to turn away a kid for any
reason.
Sure.
We are still not going to.

(33:18):
Yeah.
And, but now how do we make itwork financially for our
districts?
And so we have districts outthere that are already doing it,
they're doing it quite well,they're doing it successfully.
The scholarship programs thatare out there are encouraging of
working with districts to helpthem get this set up for this to
be a process.

(33:39):
We've actually had theopportunity to talk to both of
the scholarship entities andboth step up for students and
aaa.
And they are both willing, ableand helpful to our districts in
assisting them in.
Know this new landscape of whatthat looks like.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10 (33:57):
Yeah.
I think a lot it's gonna beeducating the parents too,
because percent, why do I haveto pay percent?
I pay taxes.
That's what I've heard before,that should cover it.
Sure.
And they don't understand thefinances of a school district
percent and how it's stretched.
And you know that again, we goback to the money follows the
kit.
Yeah, yeah.

(34:18):
And you've gotta be able to makearrangements to divvy it out,
how Yeah.
It needs to be spent for theservices that child has
received.

andrea-messina_1_05-21-202 (34:25):
But, but the parent then is really in
charge.
I want my child to go here forthis amount of time and I'll
spend X amount of thescholarship here.
I want my child here for yamount of time and I want that
money there.
And I could pick, you know what,whichever it, it's really, you
talk about parent choice.
Yeah.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10 (34:44):
Yeah.
It's out there and, and it'sjust being able to again,
educate the parent of how.
You.
They're not gonna be able takethat money, they're
homeschooling and keep it andpay themselves to educate the
child.
It's to provide the services,whatever those look like.
And if you want this one, thisone, this one.
There's a cost to each one of.
So there's a lot of, it soundslike a lot of uncertainty and

(35:06):
risks for dis districts rightnow.
How, what advice would you giveto superintendents and and
leaders to help prep for this?

andrea-messina_1_05-21-20 (35:13):
Well, as what Danielle was just
mentioning, I would say don't beopposed to some non-traditional
considerations.
For, for the way you currentlyoperate.
I just spoke with asuperintendent on the phone
yesterday who was asking me somequestions about educating board
members on AI use business usein the district to save some

(35:35):
money over here, which I know itscares a lot of people, but it
can save some money and put theresources where you need to put
them.
Yeah, I think it's just, yougotta have smart people in your
business offices.
You gotta support those smartpeople in your business offices
and get them the professionaldevelopment and the support that
they need.
And you have to be able to trustthe people that, that are

(35:56):
bringing you the data data andknow that they too are trying to
solve the same problem.
So I, listen, even before COVIDeducation Uncertainty is now a
certainty, if I can say it likethat.
And and so it's just a constantreassessment, reevaluation,
whatever you wanna call it.

(36:17):
You, you have to have systemsand processes in place that will
continue to identify operationalefficiencies.
Yeah.
As well as pivot opportunitiesas needed.
Because the other piece isdistricts are more and more
being asked to deliver forparents personalized programs

(36:38):
for students.
And if you've got a, a, I'llcall it archaic structure that
doesn't have certainflexibilities in it, your
district will continue to losestudents to more flexible
structures.
Yeah.
So you've got to haveconversations, you've got to
have strategic planning thatcan, that can have and have
built in flexibilities in yourdistrict because customer

(37:02):
service and personalizededucation for students, that is
what families.
Are demanding, and if districtscan't provide it, they will get
traditional districts.
They will find that somewhereelse and districts will continue
to lose students.
I think it's just like the, it'svery similar to the shift we've

(37:22):
seen in just the business modeloverall.
Right?
I mean, when I think about.
Just in, in my time of what mydifferent jobs have looked like.
You know, I started off in aclassroom, very much in a
traditional school setting, andthen I had an actual office and

(37:44):
then traveled to differentschools.
And then when I left the schooldistrict for about the next
eight years or so of the workthat I was doing, I didn't have
an office.
Like I worked from home and thentraveled to where I needed to go
and where I needed to be.
And when I first started that itwas.

(38:07):
A little unheard of.
I mean, people were doing it, itwas 2014, people were doing it,
but it was not commonplace.
Sure.
Right.
And now when we think about allof the people who work from home
all the time on a regular Right.
That, that is their office, thatis what they do.
Whether they then travel to, youknow, for part of the job or

(38:28):
some people don't travel at all,that is just where they work.
As our companies and businesseshave shifted and shown some of
those models, I mean, we've seenhuge corporations give up all of
their, peak downtown, realestate, middle of Manhattan,
Boston, Chicago real estate.

(38:49):
Because people don't work in theoffice.
Yeah.
And so I think in a similar way,our districts need to look at.
How can we still best provideservices to our children and
still be the choice that parentsmake, but meet them where they
are.
And I, I think we see more andmore of our districts realizing,

(39:14):
especially our large and ourmedium districts that tend to
have, tend more fluid movementof their families anyway.
'cause that's another thing too,how many of our families, I
mean, I know I can speak formyself, I was raised in the same
one house.
We had that house all the way upuntil, well, I, I was well into

(39:35):
adulthood and had lived inFlorida for many years.
And it was a major thing for mymom when we had to sell that
house and move her outta itbecause she had been there for
decades.
Yep.
It was where she had raised.
Her child and giving that up.
But how many of our families,now that's not the case.

(39:57):
They move for a variety ofdifferent reasons.
They move multiple times in thetime that a child is growing up
just in their, k to 12 years.
And so I think we're seeing moreand more of our districts
realizing that kind of thecombination of those two pieces,
that the typical expectation ofa child's just going to come to

(40:19):
school every day, five days aweek, 180 days out of the year,
is just not really what thatlooks like anymore.
And I would say this so manytimes our districts and I
understand why hear aboutlegislation and it's immediately
like the hesitancy the wall goesup.

(40:40):
Like, what are they making usdo?
It's gonna be bad.
There are times in whichlegislation is filed, and it
might not even go anywhere.
It may get heard, it might notwhere the purpose of the
legislation was filed to start aconversation.
Right.
And I think that more of ourdistricts need to sometimes pay

(41:04):
attention to, and I'veencouraged our districts to pay
attention to some of thelegislation that gets filed that
maybe only gets one committeehearing, but it was, they will
say it was filed as anopportunity to be able to start
a conversation.
I'll give you a perfect example,and it, and it brings up your
point of using, finding ways touse AI in a positive way to

(41:26):
possibly save money.
We had a bill that was filedthis year both in the House and
the Senate that had to do withschool transportation.
And initially the bills wereabout changing the two mile walk
zone to one and a half.
And, changing bus routes andchanging the definition of
hazardous walking conditions.
All things that we probably doneed to talk about.

(41:47):
They are important.
I, I will give Rep Valdez a, atremendous amount of accredit
former school board member ofours.
And now in her senior years ofthe, of serving in the Florida
House.
When this particular bill cameup and she was in that committee
said, as a former school boardmember, the safest way for us to

(42:09):
get our kids to school is bybus.
And we know that.
But we as districts are notgiven the, all of the financial
resources to be able to busevery single child to get them
to school safely.
Right.
Right.
So, but part of what came out ofthat conversation is in the
house that bill was then changedto where it was going to be a

(42:31):
pilot program for fivedistricts.
And the purpose of it was thereare apparently companies out
there that can help districts toutilize AI to analyze their
current bus routes.
Are they the most efficient?
Are they the most efficient?
Is there a more efficient wayto, for those bus routes to, to

(42:56):
go and to utilize the buses?
This is a great opportunity forsome of our districts to start
to look into that themselves.
Yes.
Right.
Without it being.
Coming down from the legislaturebecause they would have more
flexibility to be able to decidewhat that could potentially look
like.
So I think sometimes there areideas that are put out there

(43:18):
that sometimes because they comefrom the legislature, there's a
little bit of like, oh no, notrust.
But if we really look at what isthe core of what the
conversation is and what they'retrying to get to, there could
be, it could open our eyes forsome of our districts as to some
potential resources that are outthere that maybe we need to look
at and utilize.
But if we do it before thelegislature does it, then we can

(43:41):
have a little bit more controlas districts as to how we wanna
utilize that.
And what one school boardmembers with is looking at their
schools and asking.
Do your schools look anydifferent today than they did
when you were in school?
Because there's a lot of thingsthat look exactly the same.

(44:03):
And so as Danielle describes thewhole work environment, I mean,
look at us here today, sittinghere with the cameras and
microphones in one room, in onefloor.
This never would've happened, 40years ago or anything like that.
But it's here today because ofthe ease with which all this
stuff is available.
Have we changed our schools insimilar progressive fashions?

(44:23):
And if not, what do we need todo to kind of get some of that
change moving?

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2 (44:27):
Absolutely.
So for our listeners who are inHR and benefits Yes.
Um, are there any specifictakeaways that they can do to
support their staff?

andrea-messina_1_05-21-202 (44:39):
I'll say this about staff and that
is, uh, you said support theirstaff.
Key words.
Yeah, because what we find inthe research continues to show
year after year after year, isthat employees leave not just
because of money, and in factmoney is not the number one
reason.
It has to support.

(45:00):
And it has to do with findingout what benefits are important
to them and offering thosebenefits and providing that
support.
We recognize that there's thenegotiation piece that comes
into play.
Yes.
And you, you know, there's a lotgoing on there, but what's
really important is to listen tothe employees.
And you boards cannot doeverything they want to do for

(45:21):
employees.
We talk to board members allday, every day and they really
more than it, they would love tobe able to give every employee
the raise they wanna give themand that they know they, they
could use as well as provide thebenefits that they would love to
have, but they have this limitedpot of money as we described,
and so how can they maximizethat and supporting the

(45:42):
employees, not just withbenefits, although that is key
and very important, but alsowith the leadership in the
schools, the leadership in thedistrict that are supportive of
the work that the employees do.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10 (45:55):
Yeah, absolutely.
Things haven't changed a lot insome of the school districts.
You know, it's the samebuilding, the same everything.
Like it was,

andrea-messina_1_05-21-2025_1 (46:04):
I didn't say it hasn't changed.
I challenged them to askthemselves.
You said that, right?

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10 (46:11):
Well, things haven't changed and I
have noticed some districts I'vegone into where the.
Don't.

(46:36):
But their workload could beredistributed to better serve
the district.
For sure.
Absolutely.
For sure.
And I was asked, do you seehesitations like that?

andrea-messina_1_05-21- (46:45):
Listen, I was a teacher in the classroom
who had probably Danielle's muchyounger than me, so she probably
was not a teacher in theclassroom by the time, but I had
the old school grade book.
Oh yes.
Right?
Where you did the scores and youhad to transpose them and make
the whole line alphabetical,whatever.
And I remember when we went fromthe paper grade book to the
online grade book, and when youtalk about some career educators

(47:08):
who were not open to that shift,just that single shift of
putting their grade book intothis little computer program, I
mean, to tell you it was like afive year implementation plan
because some people just werenot gonna do it.
So to answer your question,absolutely we're seeing some
challenges, but I gotta tellyou, we're also seeing some

(47:29):
teachers.
Not necessarily just the youngones, but some older, more
experienced teachers Totallyembracing new technologies.
Yeah.
And we're actually trying tochange some phraseology, not
just talking about ai, because Iwill say AI does scare some
people.
It does.
But emerging technologies iswhat we're trying to emphasize
instead, because today it's ai,but it could be called something

(47:52):
else in five years or whateverthat might be.
Sure.
Absolutely.
And so part of being a aneducation system that prepares
students for the future and thefuture workforce is ensuring
that the people teaching themunderstand emerging
technologies, which is whatthese young people are gonna
have when they get out in theworld.
So there, there is a lot of it,but we have to get over some of
the fear because a lot of thosemore senior employees listen,

(48:16):
and again, Danielle's youngerthan I am, but when I was a
student teacher.
Way back in the day I rememberthe teacher that was my
supervising teacher.
I was doing my studentinternship from college.
She got the first computer inthe school.
Wow.
Okay.
Now I happen to have used acomputer.

(48:36):
Well, I started with a wordprocess in her.
Yeah.
And then I got like the Tandy1000, as you remember, back in
the day.
And she got the very firstcomputer.
Exactly.
She got the very first computeron campus and did not know what
to do with it.
Okay.
So I knew about the floppy disc.
You stick in, you turn thelittle knob.
She didn't know how to plug inthe printer to the computer.

(48:57):
Remember you had the, the paperwith all the little dots on the
edge.
Oh yeah.
Uh, the dot matrix printer.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I remember the first computercoming into a school that,
that's how far back I go.
And I don't think I'm as old assome people.
No, definitely not.
But it was a transition for alot of people.
And so you got teachers who wereteaching then?

(49:19):
Now, and just the change, theaccelerated pace of change.
It's, it's hard for us to keepup much less.
We're not in the classroom allday with however many students.
And so it, it's a new world.
It really is a new world andmany of them are embracing it
because they wanna make surethat they're preparing their
students for this new world.

(49:40):
Others of them, you know, thereare people even back in the day
when I was in school that wantedthe old slide rule, didn't like
the calculator.
So we remember those days.
Not different now than it.
Yeah.
But most people do have thislittle device in their pocket
and so they do, they have come along way.
Yeah.

(50:00):
And they do know how to accessan app or this or that.
So there, there's a lot of, ofwarm embrace, but there's
caution and I believe rightlyso.
Yeah.
Which is why we have to talkabout policy from time to time.
Yes.
Yeah.
Let's make sure we have theguardrails.
Well, and that's the thing too,is, you know, we're really,
we're getting to that, thatsweet spot time.

(50:22):
Legislators are home right now,right?
Mm-hmm.
I mean, they hopefully need tocome back at some point.
So we do need a budget.
And this is one of those shortturnaround years, right?

(50:43):
Because the legislative calendarchanges based on whether we're
in an odd year or an even year.
Correct.
So, session was, well supposedto end the beginning of May.
Right.
We're now extended, but they arehome right now.
But committee weeks for the nextlegislative session are going to
start probably as early as lateSeptember.

(51:03):
Mm-hmm.
Definitely October, November.
And then the new session willstart the early portion of
January.
So during the summer months whenlegislators are home school
board members and other schooldistrict employees have a little
bit more time.
Right.
School's gonna be winding down.

(51:24):
Even if you are a school boardmember or a 12 month employee,
you have a little bit more time.
Many times our districts go onfour day work weeks during the
summer.
Yeah.
So it at least leaves you onFriday, right?
This is the time to reach outyes.
To your legislator.
Okay?
This is the time to reach out tothat legislative office.

(51:46):
If you already have arelationship, great.
Use it.
Reach out.
Uh, you know, ask if they havesome time where you can either
come by the office or maybe youmeet them for a cup of coffee so
it's a little bit more relaxed.
Uh, invite them to end of yearschool things.
Now, they might not be able tocome right now because it's very

(52:08):
difficult to be able to, youknow, for them to set their
schedules.
But there would be beginningyear a kid, you know, school
year kickoff things too.
Invite them to things.
They want to see things.
They want to see what'shappening in their schools.
They want to know what's goingon.
They want to meet students.
So this is absolutely the timeto do that.

(52:30):
If you don't have a relationshipwith them yet, great.
This is the time to build one,right?
Reach out, send that extensionemail to introduce yourself, to
tell them a little bit aboutwhat you do.
Who you are and what you wouldlike to talk to them about, and
ask if you can have maybe 15minutes to come by and have that

(52:52):
conversation and just start tobuild that bridge.
Start to build thatrelationship.
If you get that first initialmeeting, don't come at them with
20 things that you wanna fix.
Okay?
Especially if they have allmoney.
Let know, especially if theyinvolve money.
Let's talk about one thingthat's going really well at your
schools.
That one.

(53:15):
That you see as being somethingthat they could help you in
adjusting, changing, but alsotry to come with not just the
problem, but maybe a potentialsolution that you can talk
through with them as well.
They always appreciate when youcome to them, not just with,
this is wrong, you need to fixthis.
But also a, I think we couldprobably get there by trying

(53:37):
this or by, you know, this is anoption as to a way that it would
work better.
So this is absolutely the timeto build those relationships
there, especially with such aquick turnaround.
They're gonna be looking atlegislation again very quickly.
Um, so this is the time to startto have those conversations.
Because then once they finishsession next in.

(54:02):
Then they're gonna becampaigning.
So then you kind of follow upwith them again, right?
And now they're really gonnawanna listen, right?
Because now they're, they'recampaigning either for
reelection or potentially to runfor a different, a different
office.
So start building thoserelationships.
Now if you don't have them, andif you do have them, this is a
great opportunity to reconnectto reach out.

(54:24):
Sometimes something as simple asyou notice it or you see a post
that says that it's theirbirthday.
Like most of them, not all ofthem, most of them.
Really appreciate hearing alittle something on that.
I still do that kind of stuffand even not just with our state
legislators, but I even do itwith our congressional ones too.

(54:45):
If I worked with them before andI know them.
I just did it again the otherday and it started this great
conversation of just kind ofchecking in.
How you doing?
Yeah.
Anything I can help you with.
I hear things are, are, are alittle up in the air in
Tallahassee, like what's goingon?
You know, so, but it's just agreat way to reconnect or
continue that connection andthat conversation.

(55:06):
So this is actually, I knowpeople are like, oh, but it's
summer break, like last.
You what?
Take 15, 20 minutes.
If you have the relationship,maybe you get more like an hour.
Yeah.
You know, over coffee orsomething.
Take the time.
It will be more than worth it inthe long run.
I'm gonna tell you one thing.
That's the lowest hanging fruitwe have out there that is
underutilized and that is.

(55:28):
Every legislator that hasgraduated from a Florida public
high school should be invited tothat high school graduation.
Graduation Every year.
Yes.
Yeah.
Front row, they stand.
You recognize, here's an alumnafrom our school.
Yeah.
They should be there every year.
Absolutely.
And they don't get theinvitation.
But we should.
We should remind people, here'ssomebody that graduated from

(55:48):
this school.
Low hanging fruit.
Absolutely.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10 (55:50):
There you go, guys.
Graduations are happening.
Invite our invite.
Yes, absolutely.
Well, I do wanna say that I havehad the ability to be the
proverbial fly on the wall.
It's a lot of your meetings,executive boards, your new board
members.
Very interesting to, and I thinkyou, you guys do a great job

(56:14):
with FBA and educating andtraining the new board members.
Thank you.
Especially on the shortturnaround you've got now.
Yeah.
But if any of our listeners outthere are thinking about wanting
to possibly become a boardmember in their county, what
would you recommend that theydo?

andrea-messina_1_05-21-202 (56:32):
Wow.
If any of your listeners areinterested in becoming a school
board member, I, I wouldcertainly recommend that they
attend school board meetings andknow what they're in for.
One of our greatest challengesis we get people who want to be
on the school board and theyhave a single issue that they
want to solve.
And being a school board memberis not a single issue.
Job.

(56:52):
It might be why you ran, butodds are you may not even be
able to get that issue inconversation for two or three
years.
That's a long time that you'relooking at other things.
So understand the big picture.
Understand sort of the role of aschool board member, which is
very different from the role ofa superintendent and senior
staff.
Board members focus on policybudget, you know, which is a

(57:13):
policy document, but boardmembers are not there for the
daily operation of a schooldistrict.
That's what the professionalsare for.
Board members are there toprovide the policy guidance and
parameters and strategic,foundation documents to help the
district go in a certaindirection that reflects the
community priorities and sounderstand the role and

(57:37):
recognize that it's not a singleissue thing.
I, I would also say it is notfor the faint and heart no.
When you are a school boardmember, and I speak from
personal experience, I servedthree terms, there are some
really difficult decisions thathave to be made that.
Districts have currently beenmaking and are gonna continue to
make.

(57:57):
And when you have to make adifficult decision, it is hard.
It is hard to know that you'reaffecting someone's livelihood.
It's hard to know that you'reaffecting someone's school
boundary.
It is hard to affect families,it's hard to lay off teachers if
you need to.
But those decisions still haveto be made because at the end of
the day, it's a businessoperation providing a service

(58:18):
that they're directed to providethrough statutory or.
You know, federal law and that'stax dollars.
Exactly.
So there are accountabilitiesthat have to be there.
It is not an easy task.
There is not a lot of glory.
You may get a parking spaceclose, could be the best you're
gonna get.

(58:38):
I know in some cases there are,because sometimes I borrow those
when I go into particulardistrict, but it's not easy.
And you'll sadly you and yourfamily and your spouse and
families work locations couldget some criticism fairly or
unfairly.
I, most of it's unfair in myopinion.

(58:59):
But you just have to be preparedfor all that goes with it,
because if you're not prepared,it can really be overwhelming.
Yeah.
But listen, we need really goodpeople to do the job we do.
So I strongly encourage Good,smart.
Hardworking committee communityfocused people to run for school
board.
Mm-hmm.

(59:19):
As you know, we have term limitsnow that will turn things over
quicker than we've had before,but we need good people because,
it, our school, our publicschools in our country or the
foundation of this country.
That's right.
And it's our job to help protectand defend them and ensure that
they're focused on meeting theneeds of the community.
And we need good people to dothat work.

(59:41):
Absolutely.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10 (59:42):
Well, I liked Tim Bryant's comment,
president and somebody askedthat the training, you know,
when somebody stands up and.
Yeah.
He said, you cannot respond backbecause it's not gonna turn out
well.

(01:00:03):
Yeah.
So, well, that was, I, that wasa great question and be a way to
wrap this, because I know wehave, you know, timing.
But is there anything else thatyou want our listeners to know?

andrea-messina_1_05-21-202 (01:00:14):
I'll let you go first, Danielle.
Oh, well, we'll get a budgeteventually.
Um, but no, really just I, Ithink my biggest thing for
people is always to just keep inmind that in a lot of ways, what
Andrea just said about ourschool board members and what we
look for and hope to have ourschool board members, a lot of

(01:00:38):
that is for our legislature aswell.
Right?
We may not agree on theirpolicies and how they go about
forming these pieces oflegislation, but they're still
people too.
And they're taking the hardvotes too.
There's a lot of politicalfactors that are factoring into
all of these things, many ofwhich the vast majority of

(01:00:58):
people have no idea good, bad,or indifferent.
And so to just always rememberthat as frustrating as the
budgeting process can be, asfrustrating as some of the, you
know, the legislation that weget can be I get frustrated by
it too, but they really are.

(01:01:20):
They're people, they're tryingto do the best that they can.
They're trying to fix thingsthat people have come to them
and said is a problem.
It, it may not be the bestsolution, but just to, you know,
understand that they're people,to treat them with kindness,
treat them with respect, and ifwe need to go back and fix
something, there's a way to dothat.
Right?
Yeah.

(01:01:40):
And we can, there's always waysto make legislation better.
And I would just say, especiallyfor your district staff, who,
who I think are probably morelikely to listen to this than
school board members and someothers, is, um, there are
resources out there to help themduring these difficult budget
times.
Absolutely.
You guys, for example, FBMC, youare a great resource.

(01:02:00):
If districts are struggling withcertain things, they can contact
you and you can kind of helpthem find solutions just as they
can.
They have their own professionalassociations.
We have the fsbo, which isschool, the Florida Association
School Business Officers.
We have just whichever groupthey belong to, there are
professional associations thatcan help them.

(01:02:21):
We happen to cater to the schoolboard members because that's
what we do, but their ownassociations and their
professional support, like, likeyou all, uh, really can help
them find solutions to toaddress whatever problems
they're facing.
They're, they're not alone.
Yeah.
They're.

kyla-heap_1_05-21-2025_10143 (01:02:36):
We appreciate this very much.
Thank you.
Been thank, thank you so muchand thank you for our listeners
and if you have any questions,please contact us or reach out
on our homepage at www.
Thank you so much.
Day.