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Student Announcer: Welcome to Mondays with Maria!

Announcer: Presented by Addition Financial Credit Union. Here's OCPS Superintendent Dr. Maria Vazquez.

Dr. Vazquez: Hi everyone. Thank you for that wonderful introduction. Well, guess who's back? I have Deputy Superintendent, Dr. Michael Armbruster, with us today. Welcome back. 

Dr. Armbruster: Thank you. It's good to be here. Yeah.

Dr. Vazquez: Did, did they tell you what the topic of conversation was for today?

Dr. Armbruster: Not really. They thought it'd be funnier if I didn't know. 

Dr. Vazquez: Get those. That's always good when it's impromptu. Well, this is something that I think you are very familiar with, and we're talking about my community town halls, which are back again this year. And if I'm not mistaken, you have attended everyone or almost every single one since the inception.

Dr. Armbruster: Yep. I had to miss one for personal reasons, but other than that, I've been to them all. I love them, actually. They're something I get excited about.

Dr. Vazquez: Yeah. So tell us a little bit about, for those of our viewers who haven't been there or have not attended one, what's a town hall like?

Dr. Armbruster: I just think it's great. I think it's a great opportunity. We have community members, we have students, and we have teachers come out, and they get to speak to you directly. And then you have a team there, which includes me, who can answer questions right on the spot. And I think that that just adds a real element of being there where the people are and hearing what they have to say and not having them have to go through layers to get to you or to me or to other members of the team. We can deal with it right then and there. And it's been a real positive experience as far as my experience has been with it.

Dr. Vazquez: Yes, it really has been because you get to hear about the things that we're doing well, and then we get to hear about opportunities for us to make our system a little bit better. So we're hosting them again this year. It's several of our high schools. Our first one was out in the west area, Lake Buena Vista High School, home of the Vipers. And the next one that's coming up is at the Jones High School. Right? 

Dr. Armbruster: Yeah. The Jones High School. Got to get that right every time.

Dr. Vazquez: Yes, we do. One of the things that I have found very interesting when we are at the town halls is the variety of individuals who are there. We have parents, as you mentioned, students, and sometimes we do have business partners or community members wanting to hear a little bit more about our district. Because we do share some factual information at the very start of our town halls. And then we get into the question and answer session, right? We are also doing student town halls as a result of our community town halls. And last year, you were at some of them with me as well.

Dr. Armbruster: Correct. And I really love those. I love hearing the students, hearing their perspective, hearing their viewpoint of what schools should be and their minds. And then, actually, when you start to explain some of the reasons why things are the way they are, they understand, and they're like, they become your advocates and say, well, that makes sense. That's why we do this thing that I don't necessarily like, but now it makes sense to me. So it's a real positive. Anytime you can get out there and be with those, we serve it; it always seems to have a positive result in the end.

Dr. Vazquez: Yes. And we've had some great outcomes from both the community town halls and the student town halls. Last year, we focused on high school students during our student town halls. Do you want to share one of those that I thought was one of the most insightful actions that came from student feedback?

Dr. Armbruster: Well, there are a couple of things. One was the cell phones. That we really led the state unintentionally. We happened to listen to our stakeholders, and I initiated the cell phone policy, which was actually student-driven and went over extremely well. At first, we thought we were going to have all kinds of barriers, and honestly, we didn't. We saw the positive results of that. And then the second thing that I was really excited about, and it came to fruition recently, was the high school connectivity days, where we were able to take a little bit of time out of the day and give kids an opportunity to connect with interests that they may have. And it happened in all 23 high schools, and really was a phenomenal time. I got to visit three high schools and saw everything from kids making puzzles together to out, to playing pickleball, to doing a variety of different activities. And we're looking forward. We'll have three more connectivity days at the high school, which is a break during their school day. They don't have to stay after school, and they don't have to come out on the weekends. Everybody gets a chance to connect to their school.

Dr. Vazquez: And this year, the principals are going to continue the student town halls at their schools. And we are going to middle schools. And I'm excited. We've had a few of those this year. And we're going to visit about half of our middle schools and ask the same question: how can we make your experience in middle school better? And so, I am very intrigued about what our middle schools are going to tell us and the future impact that feedback is going to have. And we are having our community meetings already this year we've had one and the next community town hall will be Thursday, November 13th, as I said, at the Jones High School from 6:00 to 7:00 PM We have several more on the schedule after winter break, so be sure to look for a text message and an email with all the details through parents wear. I look forward to seeing you at one of our town halls. Thanks so much again for being here. And thank you for watching. Don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe. We'll have more on our podcast. Just go to wherever you get your podcast and search for Mondays with Maria. Have a great week. Thanks so much for being here.

Dr. Armbruster: That's some good coffee.

Dr. Vazquez: Oh my God.

Dr. Vazquez: Okay. The best, only the best.

Announcer: For an extended conversation on today's topic. Listen to the Mondays with Maria podcast. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Mondays with Maria is presented by Addition Financial Credit Union. Count us in for every step of your financial journey. Learn more at AdditionFi.com. For more OCPS news and information, visit TheSlice.OCPS.net. I'm your announcer, Emily Hannon, a student at Audubon Park School. Thanks for watching, and have a great week.