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Dr. Vazquez: I can't believe I'm saying this. The last Monday of the school year. Don't go anywhere. We have a quick look back and sneak peek forward at 2025, 26.
Announcer: Welcome to Mondays with Maria, presented by ADDITION Financial Credit Union. Here's OCPS Superintendent Dr. Maria Vazquez.
Dr. Vazquez: Hi everyone. Bri MacNaught is back with me. Here we are. The final episode of the 24- 25 school year.
Bri MacNaught: It feels like it went by so fast, but also really slow at some points, so yeah, it did. How are you feeling, though? Are you feeling pretty good?
Dr. Vazquez: Yes, I am. It's been a great year.
Bri MacNaught: I love it. What about some highlights of this past year?
Dr. Vazquez: So, a little downtime is needed because it has, like you said, it's been a busy year, but it's also been another phenomenal school year. So, I thought I'd bring back the countdown to highlight some things from this past year.
Announcer: Number three,
Dr. Vazquez: The podcast Mondays with Maria podcast was introduced this year, and I really did enjoy it. If you haven't tuned in, just go to wherever you get your podcast and search for Mondays with Maria. And a little tease for next year. We may be on the move. More to come on that. I think that's a surprise for me too.
Announcer: Number Two,
Dr. Vazquez: Student town halls. They were amazing. I enjoyed connecting with so many of our students across the district this past school year. I received great feedback from all of our students.
Bri MacNaught: And I know you take a lot of that feedback pretty personally, not personally, but heartfelt. Yes. So, what are some action plans that are coming from all of that?
Dr. Vazquez: Yeah, so we have been focused so much on making sure that students are connected. If they're connected to their school, then they're going to be successful. They're going to come to school, they're going to pay attention, they're going to interact, and that's what we want from them. But we have definitely seen that students are disconnected. So part of the feedback we got was that they felt that clubs was a great way for the students to interact, meet new people. But some students can't do that because those are after school. They don't have transportation. And then another barrier with the clubs was that the funds were not always available for them to be able to have activities. So, for this upcoming school year, we are going to have four times during the year when they will have clubs during the school day.
Bri MacNaught: That's great.
Dr. Vazquez: It is because then students will be able to experience the various clubs and hopefully find a new connection. And we're also going to be providing funds so that they don't have to worry about fundraising. So, I'm very excited that we're going to be able to do that next year. And there's some other surprises coming from the feedback that they gave us when we asked them how can we make the high school experience better. So.
Announcer: Number one
Dr. Vazquez: And this was hard because there were, you know, great things going on. But I have to say, last year, towards the end of the summer, when the state announced the district school grades and we were able to get our A rating back was amazing. I mean, I can still feel the joy when it was announced, and I had to ask, Are we sure? Are we sure there are no mistakes? And you know, just a testament to all of the individuals, our teachers, staff, parents, students, community members, that all have come together during these last couple of years to help us recover from the learning losses. And to see that we were an A-rated district again was wonderful. Just, I can't, I can't describe in words how overjoyed I was because people have been working so hard, and it finally happened. So that's, that's got to be my number one. And fingers, toes, everything crossed that we will maintain the A for this upcoming school year.
Bri MacNaught: And speaking of the 2025-26 school year, what are some things that maybe, you know, that we don't know?
Dr. Vazquez: Alright, so let's keep the countdown going.
Announcer: Number three,
Dr. Vazquez: Our recruitment efforts, student recruitment, teacher recruitment, all of it. I can be very competitive, and when I hear that enrollment is dropping in our schools, I get fired up. We have great schools actually. We have amazing schools, and we are a wonderful employer to work for. We're going to turn this around with more innovation
Bri MacNaught: And I can definitely echo. We have incredible schools, incredible things happening within the district. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And so I believe in you. I definitely believe in that. And I believe that we can do just that.
Dr. Vazquez: Yeah. I believe in our team, right? We do. We're going to do it together. We do
Announcer: Number two,
Dr. Vazquez: ParentSquare. If you have not heard the term ParentSquare yet, it's coming. It's our new unified communication platform. We are merging all of the communication tools, mass notification, which is, includes our phone calls, our emails, and our text messages, with Talking Points, which has been a classroom communication tool for teachers to use when they're communicating with parents.
Bri MacNaught: Yeah, everything is going to be all in one place. There is an app. There's a dashboard with a social feed where everything lives, more to come on that. So make sure you all stay tuned there.
Dr. Vazquez: Yeah. Oh, I see a Mondays with Maria episode on that one. I think so. Alright. And
Announcer: Number one,
Dr. Vazquez: The rollout of the vision and mission, our strategic plan 2030, which includes the portrait of a graduate. It's been a year in the making. It's exciting and inspiring all at the same time. If you saw last week's episodes, you got a sneak peek, and we are really looking forward to sharing more with everyone. So stay tuned.
Bri MacNaught: And that's going to be presented at the state of schools next month, correct?
Dr. Vazquez: Yes, you are correct. Our state of the schools is June 9th. Well, I think that's a wrap.
Bri MacNaught: I think so, but I'm going to have one more plug for our website. Remember, you can always go to OCPS.net for information and resources throughout the summer.
Dr. Vazquez: Well, we'll see you back in August for the 25-26 school year. Have a great summer.
Bri MacNaught: Season four <laugh>.
Dr. Vazquez: Enjoy the summer, everyone, and keep reading. We'll have more of our conversation on our podcast. Just go to wherever you get your podcast and search for Mondays with Maria.
Announcer: For an extended conversation on today's topic. Listen to the Mondays with Maria podcast available wherever you get your podcasts. Monday 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, Kaleb Priester, of graduating senior at Jones High School. Thanks for watching and have a great summer.