Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 (upbeat music)
4:44 - Welcome all of my fellow board members
4:45 and call the July 25th, 2019 school board meeting
4:48 and tentative budget hearing to order.
4:51 Whether you are in attendance here
4:53 or watching from another location,
4:54 my colleagues and I are pleased
4:56 you took the time to join us.
4:57 We appreciate and applaud your commitment
4:59 to partnering with us in support of our schools,
5:01 our students, our staff, and our community.
5:04 While the board and Brevard public school staff members
5:06 are fully committed to doing their best
5:08 to ensure excellence in Brevard public schools,
5:11 we know that our success depends heavily
5:13 on an engaged and committed community
5:15 to work alongside us and help us to continually improve.
5:19 Thank you for being active participants in the process.
5:22 Pam, roll call please.
5:25 - Ms. Belford.
5:26 - Present.
5:27 - Ms. Campbell.
5:28 - Present.
5:29 - Ms. McMillan.
5:30 - Present.
5:31 - Ms. McMillan.
5:32 - Present.
5:33 - And Mr. Susan.
5:34 - Present.
5:35 - Matt Reed, Assistant Superintendent
5:37 of Government and Community Relations
5:38 will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
5:44 - I pledge allegiance to the flag
5:47 of the United States of America
5:49 and to the republic for which it stands,
5:52 one nation under God, indivisible,
5:55 with liberty and justice for all.
6:00 (coughing)
6:02 At this time, I’d like to offer my fellow board members
6:04 and Dr. Mullins the opportunity to recognize students,
6:07 staff, or members of the community.
6:11 Ms. McDougall, would you like to start us off?
6:15 - Thank you, Ms. Grisham.
6:17 I wanted to just reach out and say
6:19 welcome to all my new principals at the schools.
6:21 I have five new principals,
6:23 so I had the chance to meet them all,
6:24 and I’m very excited.
6:25 I think it’s gonna be a great school year.
6:27 I also wanna congratulate the staff and the community
6:32 at Gulfview and Endeavor for increasing their grade.
6:36 It was a wonderful, it was wonderful to get the grades,
6:41 and congratulations to the teachers, to the community,
6:44 to the principal, and to the students
6:46 who improved their grade.
6:48 So that was really nice to be able to celebrate that.
6:51 I also was lucky enough to go to the astronaut parade
6:55 in Cocoa Beach and celebrate our lunar landing
7:00 and our astronauts, and some of our past astronauts
7:03 were riding in the parade, which was kind of fun.
7:06 I attended last weekend Stuff the Backpacks,
7:10 which we will be giving out backpacks this Saturday,
7:13 and I think we’re gonna have a great turnout.
7:17 So that was kind of fun to stuff the backpacks
7:18 even though there was no air conditioning in the gym,
7:21 and many of us looked like we were gonna pass out
7:22 from heat stroke.
7:25 I also attended the superintendent summit,
7:28 which I thought was very well put together.
7:29 I’m looking for our theme, and I appreciate it,
7:32 the impact that we all make in one way or another
7:35 with our students.
7:37 And I was also lucky enough to attend food services
7:43 and their kickoff, and make a smile.
7:48 Help me out with that one, Dr. Mullins.
7:49 What was the?
7:50 - Serving up happiness.
7:52 - Thank you, serving up happiness.
7:53 And what an amazing group of people.
7:57 The energy there was fantastic.
7:59 These are people who get up at the crack of dawn
8:01 to provide nutritious meals for our children
8:04 so they can be able to reach their academic potential.
8:09 So I wanna thank the food service,
8:10 and of course, I will not forget my Cocoa High School.
8:14 There’s a really great flyer now, the Cocoa High,
8:18 their trip to help fund the trip to Carnegie Hall.
8:21 So I’m really hoping the event is at the Cocoa Playhouse
8:26 on August 10th, the tickets are $25.
8:28 You can buy them online.
8:29 This will allow our chorus to go to Carnegie Hall.
8:35 They’re the one of the few,
8:36 I think they’re the only high school
8:37 that got selected to perform there in October.
8:41 So if you can’t hear them sing,
8:45 please feel free to donate to the Cocoa High,
8:49 and specifically sign your check for the choir
8:54 to go to Carnegie Hall.
8:55 And that’s all I have at the moment.
8:58 - Thank you, Ms. McDougall, Ms. Belford.
9:00 - Thank you, Ms. Duskinich.
9:03 Just a few things.
9:04 I was gone for part of the time since our last board meeting
9:08 but wanted to share, especially with the board,
9:12 and say a thank you to Palm Point Behavioral in Titusville.
9:17 They invited me out this week to tour the facility,
9:20 meet with their new CEO, which was wonderful.
9:23 More importantly, thank them for all of the outreach work
9:27 that they’re doing in our schools,
9:28 providing wonderful support to many of our principals
9:30 and faculty and staff and students
9:33 on the north end of the community.
9:34 I look forward to our continued partnership there,
9:36 and they are very eager to make sure
9:38 that they’re doing all that they can
9:39 to support Brevard Public Schools
9:41 from the mental health standpoint.
9:43 So very appreciative of them.
9:45 Also, I have to give a shout out to our head custodian
9:47 at Titusville High School, Teri Haworth.
9:51 She decided that the grounds at Titusville High School,
9:54 ironic that we just had our capital workshop today
9:56 and talked about all the things that we can’t fund, right?
10:01 And one of those many things that we don’t fund
10:03 as a district is beautification on our campuses,
10:05 planting and mulch and that sort of thing.
10:08 And so she decided that she wanted Titusville High School
10:10 to be a much nicer environment for her and her students
10:13 and the parents and the community.
10:15 She put out an all call on Facebook
10:17 for people to donate shrubs and mulch
10:19 that could be used to beautify the campus.
10:23 Had a wonderful response from the community,
10:25 wonderful response of donations,
10:26 as well as volunteers to come out.
10:28 And they worked last Saturday beautifying parts
10:31 of the campus, they’ll keep working on it.
10:33 But a huge thank you to her for her initiative
10:35 to put that all together and obviously to the community
10:37 that supported those efforts
10:39 to really make a difference at that school.
10:41 Also would like to say thank you to L3 Communications.
10:44 I’m not sure how many of the board members are familiar,
10:46 but they reached out to Dr. Sullivan
10:49 pretty late in the school year
10:51 and said that they would like to,
10:53 actually I think it’s L3 Harris now, right?
10:55 Did I say that correctly?
10:57 Used to be L3 Communications.
10:59 But they reached out to Dr. Sullivan
11:01 and said that they would like to sponsor via scholarship
11:04 some of our students here in Brevard County
11:06 to participate in the National Flight Academy
11:10 STEM summer camp program in Pensacola,
11:13 this summer.
11:14 And so our students will be leaving 1230
11:18 this Saturday night.
11:19 They are boarding a bus to head to Pensacola.
11:22 We’ve got about 50 students
11:23 that have been funded fully via scholarship
11:26 to go up to Pensacola and participate
11:28 in this phenomenal summer STEM program.
11:31 So many thanks to L3 for their support
11:33 of so many things in our schools,
11:34 but especially for providing the opportunity for our students.
11:38 Also wanted to give a shout out to our EIC team.
11:41 Couple of our EIC members went out to Madison Middle School
11:45 and there are, we have launched the STEAM Academy,
11:49 the Innovate STEAM Academy at Madison.
11:51 And for any of you who joined us
11:52 in the capital workshop earlier today,
11:55 you heard that there’s just so much that we cannot fund.
11:59 And one of those things is computers and tables and desks
12:04 and those sorts of things
12:05 for special programs in classrooms.
12:07 So they are working on our two of our equity,
12:11 innovation and choice members went out
12:13 and through a partnership with one of our business partners
12:18 have gotten materials to refinish about 12 tables
12:25 that are probably older than many of us in this room today.
12:30 And the initial table that they refinished
12:33 came out absolutely beautiful.
12:35 So they are in the process of aligning volunteers
12:37 to go out and continue to work on that.
12:39 This Saturday, they will be meeting at Madison
12:41 from I think nine to 12 or nine to one
12:44 to continue refinishing tables
12:45 so that the Innovate STEAM Academy
12:47 can have some nice tables for their students to work on.
12:50 So thank you to our EIC team who brought that about
12:53 to our business partner that also made it happen.
12:55 And then of course, all of the volunteers
12:57 that will be working this weekend.
12:58 And the final thing that I will say is,
13:01 I don’t know if you all have noticed it.
13:03 I know our Brevard Schools Foundation has their
13:06 school supply giveaway this weekend.
13:08 I know we had the big Centerpoint Community Church giveaway
13:12 last weekend, but there just really seems to be
13:15 an enormous amount of school supply giveaways
13:19 going on this year.
13:20 And not only school supply giveaways to benefit our students
13:23 but also lots of programs to benefit our teachers
13:26 to welcome them back to school.
13:27 I’ve seen free meals that are being offered
13:30 in I think Cocoa Beach this week.
13:32 I’ve seen drawings for massages for our teachers.
13:35 And so to all of those in the community
13:37 that are realizing what an important time of year this is
13:40 and how we really want everyone to start off
13:42 on a positive note, we appreciate that.
13:44 And that’s all I have.
13:46 - Thank you, Ms. Belford.
13:47 Mr. Susan.
13:48 - First off, I wanted to say thank you to Mark Langdorf
13:51 for his works on our SCIAC Committee.
13:53 We had a meeting earlier today and due to the savings
13:56 both from our identified MRI and outpatient surgery
14:02 and some of our rebates, we’re looking at possibly
14:05 going forward $1.86 million additional
14:09 each year over the next three years
14:11 in savings towards our fund balance over there,
14:14 along with also receiving $2.3 million last year
14:19 and a considerable fee free couple of months
14:25 where they didn’t charge us for some of our stuff.
14:27 And basically instead of a $77 million trust fund
14:32 or cost, we’re looking at between 70 and 72 million.
14:35 So that’s significant amount.
14:37 And I would tell you that Mark will agree
14:39 that our SCIAC Committee is probably the most aggressive,
14:43 knowledgeable board in the state of Florida.
14:45 And he said that there’s many other school districts
14:47 that don’t even have SCIACs.
14:48 So to say a least that he works with our leaders
14:52 in the industry to get those savings,
14:54 that’s money that goes back into our teachers and our staff
14:58 and we don’t have to raise rates and that’s amazing.
15:00 So I’d wanted to give him a shout out for all his hard work
15:02 that he normally does and the SCIAC Committee
15:04 that we normally have.
15:06 I did wanna say it was great.
15:07 Superintendent Summit, amazing.
15:09 You had some great speakers.
15:11 I played football at Palm Beach Lakes
15:14 and I remember those days.
15:15 There was a tough school and to have a principal come in
15:17 and take the reins like he did
15:19 and show us what he’s doing down there.
15:21 And I’ll tell you a funny thing.
15:22 A lot of the stuff that he’s doing,
15:23 we’re doing in our schools too.
15:25 So I was really happy about that.
15:27 I did wanna say thank you to Sue Hahn
15:29 for the facilities tour that we did, or Sue Hahn.
15:32 I keep doing it, I’m sorry Sue.
15:35 We went to O’Gally and amazing things, new cafeteria.
15:39 And if you look at some of the old panels
15:41 back in the corner, there’s literally wires hanging out.
15:44 They’re replacing the panels and doing stuff.
15:45 But then I got to go over to Johnson
15:47 and Ms. Middleton is on a desk in this little classroom
15:50 in the back and she has a couple of blowers in her room
15:53 and she’s working through the summer.
15:55 And I did wanna just say our facility teams
15:59 along with our constructions teams are absolutely amazing.
16:03 The amount of work that they do in a short amount of time.
16:06 And I don’t know if sometimes the inconveniences
16:09 that we see both during and when we get back from the summer
16:13 that’s appreciated how much it takes
16:15 just to get to that point.
16:17 I almost wanted to have some how our teachers
16:22 actually meet some of the guys
16:23 that put together the construction project
16:25 because these guys are committed
16:26 and they’re doing an amazing job over the summer.
16:28 And I wanna say thank you Sue
16:29 for everything that you did over there.
16:31 I did wanna say thank you
16:32 to the Home Builders and Contractors Association.
16:34 They had a lot of their kids doing their safety tests
16:37 and stuff like that and I went by
16:39 and we went ahead and had a meeting
16:43 with a lot of the kids that were doing the testing
16:44 and then Space Coast Daily covered it
16:46 and they were doing some great things.
16:47 But I will tell you that the Palm Bay Air and Heat
16:51 has hired like six of our kids.
16:53 And then the funniest stories I was listening
16:55 to the pest control kids talk
16:57 and they were telling us about some of the things
16:59 that they’ve had to remove out of some of the schools
17:01 for their internships which is pretty funny
17:04 or not in their schools in their houses
17:05 that they have to go on their internships.
17:06 And then one of the things that spun out of this
17:08 which I wanted to give a big shout out
17:10 to a guy named Adam Broadway.
17:11 Adam Broadway owns certified construction
17:15 down there in Melbourne.
17:16 And if anything knows he came out,
17:18 doesn’t have a college degree
17:19 and he’s been a big advocate for our construction programs.
17:22 He’s going to sponsor Melbourne High School
17:24 and he’s gonna come in with his trade
17:26 with the trades that work under him as a GC
17:29 and they’re gonna work hand in hand
17:30 and he’s already offered to donate $4,000
17:33 to kick the year off for supplies
17:34 for the construction program
17:36 and he’s doing some amazing things.
17:37 So that just like you were talking about
17:39 the mulch and everything,
17:41 dedication to our trades programs is Adam
17:43 and I just wanna say that’s it.
17:46 - Thank you Mr. Susan, Ms. Campbell.
17:49 - Well I made a big mistake last board meeting
17:52 and forgot something super important
17:54 that I had gotten to do and wanna recognize our students
17:57 and that is the summer music theater workshop.
17:59 The culmination of the summer music theater workshop
18:01 with Fiddler on the Roof and Mary Poppins.
18:04 They were fantastic.
18:07 Our students are so incredibly talented
18:10 and the musicals were wonderful.
18:11 We had Bert from Mary Poppins dancing on the ceiling
18:14 and Mary Poppins flying in and Fiddler on the Roof.
18:17 I mean even in each show that I went to,
18:19 something happened that wasn’t like supposed to happen
18:22 and the students just stayed in character
18:23 and played it off and the audience loved it.
18:25 So both shows were amazing.
18:26 I know Shiro got to see Fiddler
18:27 and so our students are so talented
18:30 but I especially wanna thank Cindy Johnson
18:33 and her team of teachers who directed the show
18:37 and engaged our students and those performances,
18:40 they were wonderful.
18:41 I got to go to my first Palm Bay Youth Advisory Board meeting
18:44 a few weeks ago and just the students
18:48 that are on that advisory board are very committed.
18:53 They’re insightful.
18:56 They’ve got a lot to contribute to the city of Palm Bay
18:59 but there are students from Palm Bay High School,
19:01 from Bayside, from Heritage and from Odyssey Charter
19:03 and so it’s exciting for them to have that opportunity
19:07 to impact their community and I’m gonna be talking
19:09 to Dr. Sullivan because they have a couple ideas
19:11 they really want to engage with the district as well.
19:15 West Melbourne School for Science last Saturday had,
19:19 excuse me, two Saturdays ago had beautification day
19:22 and our new principal, Ms. Benson, asked the students
19:26 and the parents to come in and do a similar project
19:29 to what’s going on at Titusville
19:30 and she provided the plants and the mulch
19:32 and we provided the sweat and there was plenty of dirt
19:36 to go around so but just wanna thank those students
19:38 and parents who came around, who came out
19:40 and then Ms. Benson and our clerk
19:42 and the custodian served us lunch
19:43 and did a great job coordinating us all.
19:46 Central Middle School’s also,
19:47 because it’s this time of year, we’re getting ready.
19:49 They’re also getting ready for, I won’t say beautification
19:54 because it depends on which college team you like.
19:56 They’re gonna be decorating the halls next week
19:58 with their National Junior Honor Society,
20:00 asking students to come in and decorate the halls
20:03 with different college themes
20:06 and so I’m sure there are some that all of you will like
20:09 who have, yes, there you go.
20:12 But they’re, you know, Lindsey Kerstater,
20:14 Kerstater, excuse me, the sponsor for NJHS
20:17 is gonna be leading the students
20:18 so it’s just great to see our students
20:19 and our community stepping in
20:21 and I wanna thank Jim Hudson and Dave Martin
20:24 from Facilities for taking me on some construction project
20:27 tours at Bayside University Park
20:29 and West Melbourne School for Science.
20:30 They’re really doing, I will reiterate what you said.
20:35 They’re doing a great job in a short amount of time
20:37 and those facilities have got to be ready
20:40 when the students get there and they’re going to be
20:41 so that’s gonna be great.
20:43 I won’t steal all the thunder
20:45 but I am super proud of my District 5 schools
20:47 when we got our district and school grades
20:49 in a couple weeks ago.
20:50 School grades aren’t everything
20:52 but it just shows the great work that our students
20:55 and our teachers and the rest of our staff are doing
20:57 and I’m super proud of District 5.
20:58 Everybody either maintained their grade or moved up one
21:01 or in case of Columbia Elementary, two grades
21:03 so I’m excited to see those results.
21:09 - Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
21:10 Dr. Mullins.
21:12 - Thank you, Ms. Teskevich.
21:14 Wanna start by sharing, I had the real privilege
21:18 of joining Shannon Kraling and her husband, Mark.
21:22 Shannon was our 2019 Teacher of the Year
21:25 and the Commissioner of Education
21:27 hosted the Teacher of the Year annual gala in Orlando
21:31 and I was able to join Shannon and her husband
21:33 for just a wonderful celebration of an evening
21:36 just celebrating amazing educators
21:40 and Ms. Kraling certainly top of the list
21:43 so represented Brevard so well.
21:45 So congratulations to Ms. Kraling again.
21:49 I was able to participate in the back to school event
21:52 at Center Point Church this past weekend,
21:54 passed out nearly 2,500 backpacks.
21:57 I believe an amazing collection of volunteers,
22:02 over 600 volunteers to make that happen
22:05 and wanna do a big thank you to Lori Willie.
22:09 Behind the scenes, I believe it’s Wiley,
22:12 behind the scenes coordinating everything
22:14 and it was just really exciting to see our students
22:19 across the community get excited
22:21 about coming back to school.
22:22 Shout out to Senior Pastor Tom Walker as well.
22:28 August 3rd, Love Brevard, another community agency
22:32 has adopted Turner Elementary School
22:35 and will be, volunteers will be collecting
22:37 and be doing beautification on Turner’s campus
22:40 in preparation for the school
22:41 and doing some wonderful things
22:43 for our teachers there as well
22:45 so I’m looking forward to being a part of that,
22:47 that community event as well.
22:49 And I have to join the shout outs
22:51 and echo the amazing accomplishments
22:56 of our school teams across our district.
22:59 Student achievement and performance was just amazing.
23:04 The focused work, the attention of our teachers
23:07 and staff across our schools, absolutely amazing.
23:11 For the first time since 2010,
23:13 Brevard has no D or F schools.
23:17 Yeah. (audience applauding)
23:22 I have to do a shout out for Cocoa High School.
23:25 Had, I believe, the highest secondary school point increase
23:29 and they are knocking on the door of a B school.
23:31 So great work by our team there.
23:34 And just a true demonstration of focused work
23:39 and really keeping the sights set on our students
23:43 and helping them achieve.
23:44 We, for the third year in a row, achieved an A district.
23:48 Was just another amazing accomplishment.
23:50 I would be remiss and alongside our teachers
23:55 and our assistants and our school staff
23:59 is the tremendous support that our teams
24:02 across the district commit to to support our schools
24:05 from our cafeteria workers and our maintenance techs
24:10 and our HVAC techs and health and safety
24:14 and our social workers and school psychologists
24:17 and I get in trouble when I start to list
24:20 because I will leave someone off
24:22 but the reality is is it takes a team across the district
24:26 to serve the students in the way that we did
24:28 and just couldn’t be more proud
24:30 to serve the Brevard Public School as a superintendent.
24:34 So thank you.
24:38 - Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
24:39 I’m gonna reiterate and add to
24:41 what some of my fellow board members shared.
24:43 I wanna start with the facility services team.
24:46 In my district alone, the half cent sales tax
24:50 is being used this summer.
24:52 Just the schools that I’m aware of
24:54 at Stone Magnet Middle School,
24:56 they’re getting sewer lines put in.
24:58 None of this stuff is very attractive
25:02 and none of it, I don’t even wanna,
25:04 like none of it sells on the surface
25:06 but it’s important to know
25:07 where your sales tax money is going
25:08 and it’s important for those in the community
25:11 of these schools to know that these things
25:13 and recognize they’ve been done to your school
25:14 while you’ve been off for the summer.
25:17 So sewer lines and covered walkways at Stone.
25:20 Cooling tower and new chiller at Holland.
25:24 Let’s see, duct work and electrical work
25:27 in the cafeteria at Surfside.
25:30 Air handling units at Port Malabar.
25:33 Other work has been done at West Shore
25:34 and Indy Atlantic is all tore up right now
25:36 with all kinds of stuff going on there.
25:38 So your half cent sales tax works really hard
25:42 for us in the summer when the students are away
25:44 so that we can get the work done.
25:46 And so thank you to Sue’s team who,
25:48 I wish I could call them out by name.
25:49 There’s just so many of them that are just plugging away
25:52 and working diligently trying to get the schools ready
25:54 for the new year.
25:55 So please tell them we are extremely grateful.
25:59 Dr. Mullins mentioned Centerpoint Church
26:01 and all that they did to put that backpack giveaway together.
26:05 He mentioned backpacks and school supplies
26:07 but the other volunteers there,
26:09 50 hairstylists were there giving these children haircuts
26:13 and at one moment we were standing together
26:14 and we looked over and there was a,
26:16 I mean a wee little one.
26:18 Was he kindergarten, first grade?
26:20 Who just got his hair cut.
26:21 And they said these are the only haircuts
26:23 some of those kids will get all year.
26:25 And he saw a mirror in the corner
26:27 and he was admiring his new cut.
26:29 And it was, both of us were like oh.
26:32 I mean he was looking back and looking forward
26:35 and that was because hairstylists
26:37 who don’t probably make too much money
26:39 in their own living were giving up their whole day
26:42 to go in and cut hair for free for these children.
26:44 And so I just wanna say how much we appreciate them.
26:47 There were dental hygienists there checking teeth.
26:50 There were chiropractors there checking for scoliosis
26:53 and all these people were giving of their time.
26:54 So we’re so grateful to the community.
26:57 And last but not least I have to mention
26:59 my district three schools as far as school grades go
27:02 because like Ms. Campbell’s district
27:04 every single one of the schools in district three
27:07 either maintained their grade or went up a grade level.
27:10 And out of my 14 schools we had nine As, two Bs
27:13 and three Cs so you better believe we’re gonna be,
27:17 for those three Cs right we’re gonna get,
27:19 we’re gonna have an all A and B district in D3.
27:23 But I wanna give a huge shout out
27:24 to Stone Magnet Middle School that went up 32 points
27:27 to their administrators, to their teachers
27:30 that have worked so hard and like Dr. Mullins
27:32 it takes everyone in that school to bring,
27:36 to bring the school together to set the environment
27:40 so that the students can learn.
27:41 And so I’m just grateful to all of them.
27:44 I think that concludes our recognition portion
27:49 of the meeting and we’re now gonna move on
27:51 to the adoption of the agenda, Dr. Mullins.
27:56 - Ms. Deskevich and members of the board
27:58 on this evening’s agenda we have administrative
28:00 staff recommendations, eight consent items,
28:03 eight action items which include the tentative
28:05 budget hearing and one information item.
28:07 You also have the yellow supplemental agenda
28:09 which are changes made to the agenda
28:11 since being released to the public
28:12 on Thursday, July 18th, 2019.
28:16 Items A7 on administrative staff recommendations.
28:19 F9 on meeting minutes.
28:21 F12 on 2019-20 school resource officers.
28:25 And H25 on the Brevard Public Schools
28:28 mental health plan received revisions.
28:31 An attachment was added to G21 on adopted
28:35 the 2019-20 tentative budget.
28:39 Thank you. - What are the wishes of the board?
28:42 - Move to approve. - Second.
28:43 - Motion by Ms. Belford, second by Ms. McDougall.
28:46 Please vote.
28:48 Any discussion?
28:49 Sorry.
28:50 Please vote.
28:56 Motion passes five zero.
28:58 Dr. Mullins, will you please let us know
28:59 about the administrative staff recommendations?
29:02 - There are seven persons on this item agenda
29:04 for the board to consider.
29:05 - What are the wishes of the board?
29:07 - Move to approve. - Second.
29:09 - Motion by Ms. Belford, second by Ms. Campbell.
29:11 Any discussion?
29:13 Please vote.
29:24 Motion passes five zero.
29:26 Dr. Mullins.
29:28 - At this time, we want to welcome and congratulate
29:31 Ms. Jana Jenkins on her reclassification
29:34 and transfer from the position of assistant director
29:37 of student services and fiddlers
29:39 to the position of director of student services.
29:42 Congratulations, Ms. Jenkins.
29:45 - Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
29:46 (attendees applauding)
29:50 Dr. Mullins, members of the board,
29:51 thank you for this appointment and this opportunity.
29:54 I’m honored.
29:55 Thank you.
29:56 To Chris Moore, thank you for having faith in me.
29:59 I can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and work with you.
30:03 Roll ‘em up.
30:04 They’re already rolled.
30:06 Dr. Theddy, Jane Klein, and Dr. Sullivan,
30:09 your support means a great deal to me.
30:10 Thank you so much.
30:12 And to my new team, Dr. Fontan,
30:15 you don’t know what you’re in for,
30:16 so I thank you in advance for all your help
30:18 and encouragement and mentoring.
30:20 And my fiddlers team, the deep friendships
30:22 and collegial relationship will continue to move forward.
30:25 And my new student services team,
30:27 I look forward to working with you all.
30:29 And finally, to my family who are watching online
30:31 from Tampa and Colorado, your love and support
30:35 and constant encouragement mean a great deal to me.
30:38 So thank you, everybody.
30:39 I look forward to it.
30:40 (attendees applauding)
30:55 - Okay, being there’s no resolutions
30:57 or proclamations tonight, we will move on
30:59 to the public comment portion of our meeting.
31:02 The school board policy 0169.1 limits to 30 minutes
31:07 the portion of the meeting which the public is invited
31:09 to participate and provide public comment.
31:11 The policy further provides that this time limit
31:14 may be extended by vote of the board.
31:16 We have nine speakers tonight.
31:19 Each speaker is limited to three minutes.
31:22 We have a clock in front of me
31:23 to help you keep track of your time.
31:25 When your time is over, you’ll be asked to stop
31:27 and allow the next speaker his or her turn.
31:30 Always keep in mind that reasonable decorum
31:32 is expected at all times and your statement
31:34 should be directed to the board chairman.
31:36 The chairman may interrupt, warn or terminate
31:39 a participant’s statement when time is up,
31:41 personally directed, abusive, obscene or irrelevant.
31:44 Should an individual not observe proper etiquette,
31:46 the chairman may request the individual leave the meeting.
31:49 Let’s all encourage an environment appropriate
31:51 for our children who may be present or watching from home.
31:55 Let’s begin with our first three speakers.
31:57 Before speaking, please state your name,
31:59 the organization you represent and identify
32:02 the topic you will be discussing.
32:04 Our first speaker is Anthony Colucci,
32:07 followed by Bill Jurgens and then followed
32:10 by Justin Henry, Mr. Colucci.
32:15 (audience applauding)
32:29 My name is Anthony Colucci.
32:30 I’m the president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers.
32:33 First off, I wanna start by saying that last year
32:36 I requested a workshop with the board chair about millage
32:39 and that request was never granted,
32:42 even though it is guaranteed in the contract.
32:44 Tonight, so there is no question about it,
32:47 I’m publicly requesting a union board workshop.
32:50 The topic of the workshop I’m requesting
32:53 is secondary schools switching to a six period day
32:56 instead of a seven period day.
32:58 This was a popular idea a couple years ago
33:01 when the former superintendent asked teachers
33:04 to brainstorm ideas on how to increase planning time,
33:07 but rather than vet the idea,
33:09 a few individuals were allowed to crush the idea.
33:12 Some of the benefits of returning to a six day period
33:15 seem obvious, it would lead to more planning time,
33:18 it could decrease the number of instructional vacancies,
33:22 by the way, stands at over 80 with one week left
33:26 until school starts and it could potentially save
33:29 the district tens of millions of dollars.
33:31 The pros and cons of a six period day
33:34 need to be thoroughly researched
33:36 and then presented to the stakeholders
33:38 to decide if they wanna go in that direction.
33:41 If the board chair denies my request for the workshop,
33:44 I will take formal action.
33:46 As we are heading towards our contract vote,
33:50 I wanna remind you that our teachers and community
33:53 saw you vote against a third party ruling
33:57 that said you had the money to pay for the union’s proposal,
34:00 our teachers deserve the pay,
34:02 and it was in the best interest of students to do so.
34:05 But four of you decided, and many teachers believe,
34:09 conspired to vote against the recommendation
34:12 even when no significant evidence
34:14 existed to refute our facts.
34:16 This was clearly a result of a psychological phenomenon
34:20 called group think.
34:22 To quote from Psychology Today,
34:24 group think occurs when a group of well-intentioned people
34:27 make irrational or non-optimal decisions
34:30 that are spurred by the urge to conform
34:33 or the discouragement of dissent.
34:35 This problematic or premature consensus
34:38 may be fueled by a particular agenda
34:41 or simply because group members value harmony
34:44 and coherence above rational thinking.
34:46 In a group think situation, group members refrain
34:49 from expressing doubts and judgments or disagreeing
34:52 with the consensus.
34:53 There are eight different symptoms that indicate group think.
34:57 Illusions of invulnerability
35:00 leads members of the group to be overly optimistic.
35:06 Unquestioned beliefs lead members
35:08 to ignore possible moral problems
35:10 and ignore the consequences of individual and group actions.
35:14 Rationalizing prevents members
35:17 from reconsidering their beliefs
35:19 and causes them to ignore warning signs.
35:23 Stereotyping leads members of the in-group
35:26 to ignore or even demonize out-group members
35:29 who may oppose or challenge the group’s ideas.
35:33 Goes on, self-censorship, mind guards,
35:38 illusions of unanimity, and direct pressure to conform.
35:44 This board’s group think is doing tremendous damage
35:47 to this school district and it must stop.
35:51 Listen to the words of Einstein who said,
35:53 “When we all think alike, no one thinks very much.”
35:57 Thank you.
35:58 (audience applauding)
36:01 - Thank you, Mr. Colucci.
36:07 Mr. Juergens.
36:14 - Good evening, my name’s Bill Juergens.
36:16 I’m the director of athletics at Florida Tech.
36:20 And before I go talk about a proposal,
36:24 I would like to say that I’m a product
36:27 of Brevard County Schools.
36:29 I started Brevard County Schools in the third grade,
36:34 graduated from Melbourne High School.
36:36 I taught at O’Gally Junior High 50 years ago
36:41 and my son has been teaching in your school system
36:44 for the last 25 years.
36:45 So I’m real proud of the work
36:48 that Brevard County Schools do.
36:50 I’m here to speak on a proposal from Florida Tech
36:54 to move our tailgating activities
36:56 to the Palm Lake Magnet High School.
36:59 We believe that this will really help our game environment.
37:04 Tailgating includes alcohol and it includes cooking.
37:10 And we know that the school system is concerned about this
37:15 and I’m gonna address this in a short time.
37:19 Game environment is so critical to participation.
37:23 You’ll see that throughout the country now.
37:25 You see a lot of schools addressing game environment
37:27 to try to improve it.
37:29 And of course, that school spirit and community spirit.
37:33 We believe that as the only football college
37:37 in Brevard County, we really wanna serve
37:39 the community well.
37:41 So we’re addressing a number of these issues
37:44 to improve the game environment.
37:47 We have a great team.
37:48 Our team won eight and three the past year,
37:51 made the NCAA playoffs.
37:55 We’ve been, I think, great partners
37:57 with Palm Bay Magnet High School.
38:01 We’ve worked with them for six years.
38:03 It’s been a very close relationship.
38:05 I don’t think it could be better.
38:07 We’ve constructed a lot of items from scoreboards
38:10 to press boxes, improved the facilities.
38:15 It’s been such a good relationship
38:16 that it’s actually carried over into the academic side
38:20 where we have been able to provide dual enrollment
38:23 at our college at no cost to the student.
38:26 I think that just shows how this partnership can grow
38:30 and benefit all parties.
38:34 Before I addressed this, I went to the Palm Bay Magnet
38:38 High School and talked to the administrators there,
38:42 and I saw no opposition to moving it forward.
38:48 They know that we know how to manage activities.
38:50 We’ve done it for six years.
38:52 We’ve had absolutely no problems with our six years
38:55 of having football games there.
38:58 We utilize the Melbourne Police Department
39:01 as well as our campus security in providing
39:04 the security necessary.
39:06 And as far as leaving it like we found it,
39:09 we have a professional service that cleans the stands.
39:16 And of course, if there’s tailgating,
39:18 they would be doing the same,
39:19 working closely with the school system.
39:26 It’s important that we have liability insurance,
39:29 and the university has four additional insured
39:34 for Brevard County, naming Brevard County Schools.
39:37 - Mr. Jerkins, I’m sorry, but your three minutes are up.
39:40 - Okay, I’ve just finished.
39:42 - Okay.
39:43 - All right, thank you so much.
39:44 - We are going to discuss that
39:45 at the end of our meeting tonight.
39:48 I don’t know if you wanna hang out all the way till the end.
39:50 If not, you can watch us online from your phone or something.
39:53 Thank you, sir, I appreciate it.
39:59 Our next speaker is Justin Henry.
40:11 Go ahead, sir.
40:12 - Good evening, my name is Justin Henry,
40:13 and I am a member of Space Coast Cultural Arts
40:16 and Business Organization Social Entrepreneurship
40:18 and Civic Engagement Program Developing Leaders,
40:21 located at 2295 Washington Street,
40:23 Palm Bay, Florida 32905.
40:26 I serve as president of the Developing Leaders
40:27 Class of 2019, and this comment is on behalf of our group.
40:32 As students of Brevard Public Schools
40:34 and Developing Leaders in our local communities,
40:36 we would like to amend the lunches
40:37 that our school cafeteria serves us.
40:40 Numerous high school students eat lunch
40:41 from their school’s cafeteria.
40:43 According to a variety of Brevard Times,
40:44 as of June 12th, 2018, 39,000 students in Brevard County
40:50 qualify for food assistance programs
40:53 within Brevard Public Schools.
40:54 That is almost 53% of the students
40:56 that are enrolled in Brevard Public Schools.
40:59 School lunch may be the only time
41:00 they have access to a healthy meal,
41:02 but according to an article in the Brevard Times,
41:04 22% of Brevard Public Schools, charter schools,
41:08 and private schools received an unsatisfactory rating
41:11 during a food health inspection
41:12 by the Florida Department of Health in 2018,
41:15 and some failed up to four follow-up inspections as well.
41:19 The most recent field inspection was in January 2019.
41:23 We will not name the schools,
41:24 but we have provided all the members
41:26 of the school board with a written copy of our proposal,
41:28 and the schools will be listed.
41:33 - My name is– - Excuse me one second.
41:36 I need to restart the time,
41:38 and I don’t think we caught which group you all are from.
41:41 If one of you could state that a little slower for us.
41:45 - Space Coast Cultural Arts and Business Organization.
41:48 - Cultural Arts– - And Business Organization.
41:51 - And Business Organization.
41:56 - And where are you, where are you guys?
42:00 This is the first I’ve heard of you all.
42:01 Where are you from?
42:02 Where are you located?
42:04 You can answer, sir.
42:05 Are you their leader?
42:06 - Washington.
42:09 - Your instructor, can you come forward for a second?
42:11 Sorry for breaking our usual code here.
42:14 - My name is Alberta Clankscales.
42:16 I’m the executive director of Space Coast Cultural Arts
42:19 and Business Organization Charities, Inc.,
42:22 and we have a program that is a social entrepreneurship
42:27 and civic engagement program.
42:29 So our students learn to be social entrepreneurs,
42:32 and they run a business so that they can buy
42:35 their school clothes and other supplies they need for school
42:38 as well as fund their checking and savings accounts.
42:43 We also, as a part of that, they are social.
42:46 They have to find a social issue in their community
42:49 that they want to address.
42:50 And the issue, they decide on the topic,
42:53 and the issue that they talked about was school lunches.
42:56 And so they talked about their personal experiences,
42:59 and I said, well, that’s just you all.
43:01 Can you prove it with some other research?
43:03 They did impeccable research, found not only the problem,
43:07 but also the solution.
43:09 And so they’re here today to make that presentation,
43:12 and I gave the deputy the five copies for the school board.
43:15 I didn’t give one to the superintendent,
43:17 but I do have another copy.
43:19 I might as well give you my copy,
43:21 and they’ll continue on with the presentation if that’s okay.
43:29 - That’s wonderful.
43:30 Thank you so much.
43:31 We’re looking forward to hearing from each of them.
43:33 If you each could state what school you attend,
43:36 just so we can get an idea,
43:37 if you’re talking about lunches that you’ve had,
43:39 that would be helpful for me.
43:44 - I attend Bayside High School.
43:45 - Okay, and you, are you…
43:49 Sorry, you’re Justin Henry?
43:52 - Yes.
43:52 - Okay, and then, did you finish, or did I interrupt you?
43:55 - No, I finished.
43:56 - Okay, thank you, sir.
43:57 Next up is Xavion Pelham.
44:00 Did I get that right?
44:01 - Xavion.
44:03 - All right, and I attend Heritage High.
44:07 The Brevard Times article also quoted
44:09 a Florida Department of Health employee
44:12 who has worked at six different Brevard public schools
44:15 this year, quote, “They’re all garbage.
44:18 “I can’t tell you how many kids I’ve sent home
44:21 “after lunch for stomach aches, vomiting, or diarrhea.
44:24 “I dread 11 a.m. every day because I know the kids
44:28 “will be coming down after eating school lunch.
44:30 “I’m not gonna lie, I thought they were faking it,”
44:32 she added, “but I noticed the trend in all the schools.
44:35 “I realized it was the food I started asking them
44:39 “if they had school lunch or packed lunch,
44:41 “and 99% were school lunch.”
44:49 - I attend Bayside High School, and okay.
44:52 We are proposing a healthy choice for school lunch
44:54 and here today to request permission
44:56 to pilot the salad bars at school program
44:59 at Palm Bay migrant high school,
45:01 and technical assistance to write
45:02 the salad bars to school grant.
45:04 The salad bars to school program,
45:07 school program awards school grant for free salad bars.
45:10 Research in school across the country
45:12 demonstrate that the children significantly increase
45:15 their produce consumption when given a variety of choices
45:19 in the school salad bar.
45:21 When offered multiple fruits and vegetable choices,
45:24 children respond by incorporating greater minority
45:29 on their plate increasing their overall produce consumption.
45:32 If we get the grant, Palm Bay High School
45:35 and eventually all schools in Brevard
45:37 that want it will receive free salad bars.
45:39 We met and discussed the pilot program
45:42 with Palm Bay Magnet High School principal
45:45 Jug Kaminski on July 3rd, 2019.
45:48 We requested a tour of the cafeteria and the kitchen,
45:51 and principal Convency took us to the tour
45:53 and expressed his support of the idea.
45:56 He also stated that the school currently
45:57 does not have a fresh food salad bar as an offering.
46:00 We also presented our proposal for a healthy choice
46:03 for school lunch to Palm Bay City Council
46:05 and received a letter of support from the full council.
46:08 We have concluded a copy of the letter
46:10 in the written report we submitted
46:11 to each of you on the board.
46:15 - Thank you, Madison, is that your name, Madison?
46:19 Okay, sir, if you’d state your name before you start.
46:22 - Good evening, my name’s Damaris and I attend Heritage.
46:27 According to the salad bars to school program,
46:29 if a grant is approved, the school would receive
46:32 one portable 72 inch five well insulated salad bar,
46:37 two tray slides, five pan chillers,
46:39 divider bars, two four inch deep full pans with covers,
46:43 four four inch deep half pans with covers,
46:46 12 four inch deep quarter pans with covers,
46:49 five buffet chilling pads, and 16 serving tongs.
46:53 There are requirements that must be met
46:56 before a school district can apply for a grant, thank you.
47:01 - Thank you, sir.
47:03 - Good evening, my name is Terrell Brooks
47:05 and I attend Palm Bay Magnet High School.
47:09 To meet eligibility requirements to apply
47:11 for the salad bar school grant,
47:17 the applying school district must be a participant
47:26 in the national school lunch program.
47:30 On Monday, July 15th, 2019, we call the food
47:35 and nutrient office here at the
47:39 Brevard public school district office
47:42 and confirm that Brevard public schools,
47:45 Brevard public school district is a participant
47:48 of the national school lunch program.
47:51 The second requirement for a salad bar,
47:55 for a salad bars to school grant,
47:58 you must offer the salad bar as part of the
48:03 reimbursable meal served in your district.
48:08 The six foot five well salad bar package
48:11 is appropriate for the location that serves
48:14 at least 100 reimbursable meals daily.
48:20 According to principal Judd Kaminsky
48:23 at Palm Bay Magnet High School,
48:25 the school serves over 100 readmissible meals daily.
48:33 Based on our research, Brevard public school district
48:39 met all the requirements applying for,
48:45 to apply for the salad bars to school grant.
48:48 We are excited to learn, we are excited to also learn
48:53 that the grant provides training for food services,
48:57 food service teams so that we can learn systems
49:01 and tools to manage daily productions production
49:05 as well as to show the students that the salad bar,
49:12 that the salad bar is a great addition to their meal.
49:16 Thank you.
49:18 - Thank you, sir.
49:20 - Hello, my name is Kevin
49:21 and I attend Covenant Christian School.
49:24 As stated earlier, we are committed to finding ways
49:27 to increase access to healthy fruits and vegetables
49:29 and our school lunch program.
49:31 Salad bars are a great way to do it.
49:33 While at the same time instill healthy eating habits
49:36 and prevent childhood obesity in our community.
49:41 We hope that you will seriously consider our proposal
49:44 and take advantage of this opportunity
49:46 and apply for free salad bars to schools grant.
49:50 We realize that you may not be able
49:52 to make this decision tonight,
49:54 but ask that you please contact us
49:55 once your decision is made.
49:57 Our contact information has been provided to you.
50:00 We are grateful for the opportunity to speak here tonight
50:03 and thankful to Space Coast Cultural Arts
50:06 and Business Organization for helping us to understand
50:09 that we do have a voice to implement positive change
50:11 in the communities where we live and grow.
50:14 Thank you.
50:16 - Thank you, sir.
50:18 (audience applauding)
50:22 - I’m not sure if you have any, thank you.
50:25 I’m not sure if you have any questions for me.
50:29 - I have one question for the youth behind you.
50:32 If there are salad bars in your school, would you eat them?
50:36 And how many days a week do you think you would eat
50:38 from these salad bars?
50:39 Because we have been pushing for some salad bars
50:42 and we’ve tried them in some schools
50:44 and often they sit there untouched,
50:47 which is super frustrating.
50:48 So if you have salad bars in your school,
50:50 are you gonna eat from the salad bar?
50:52 - Me personally, yes.
50:53 I used to attend Odyssey Charter School
50:55 and they had salad bars there.
50:56 So I would always get servings of fruit
50:58 and vegetables from there.
50:59 So I always ate from the salad bars each day.
51:04 - Okay, I want just hands up.
51:05 Would you eat from your salad bars?
51:07 Tell the truth, tell the truth.
51:10 - What grade did you implement in?
51:12 Was it high school?
51:13 - Well, I’m gonna ask you all to meet.
51:15 We have our head of food services back there,
51:17 our director of food services, Mr. Kevin Thornton.
51:19 Can you raise your hand?
51:20 He’s in charge of all of our food purchasing
51:23 and all of our cafeterias.
51:25 And he decides what we serve and what we don’t.
51:27 And I heard some comments about food not being good,
51:31 but I just wanna give Mr. Thornton a little credit
51:35 because he works very hard on our menus.
51:37 And I worked very closely with him last year
51:39 on getting our chicken upgraded.
51:41 I mean, anybody getting the drumsticks
51:43 and chicken wings in your schools?
51:45 Okay, I mean, what, no?
51:47 No chicken wings?
51:48 Is it not every secondary school, Mr. Thornton?
51:50 It is?
51:51 You should be.
51:52 And we also put in three healthy salad options
51:56 and a Mediterranean pita.
51:57 So we are working to get school lunches healthier,
52:00 but I would love a salad bar.
52:01 So if all of you wanna meet with Mr. Thornton,
52:03 he’ll meet with you in the back
52:04 and you can start telling him about your grant
52:08 and we can see if it’s something we can apply for.
52:10 Do any more school members want to address this group
52:12 before I ship them off to Mr. Thornton?
52:15 - So I was fascinated by your group
52:18 and I jumped on your website real quick.
52:20 And one of the things you guys said was entrepreneurship.
52:23 And I thought I heard somebody say
52:24 that you guys make stuff and sell it.
52:27 How do we find out how to buy it?
52:31 Do you guys have websites?
52:32 Do you guys have links?
52:33 Do you have products somewhere?
52:34 Is there anything going on?
52:35 ‘Cause this is a great marketing moment right here, guys.
52:38 - Well, the entrepreneurship program,
52:41 we decided to sell jewelry and have them in our t-shirts.
52:46 And we have a flyer and we also have an Instagram page
52:49 where you guys can follow us.
52:50 I’m pretty sure we have an online website
52:53 or store up right now running–
52:55 - What is your Instagram page?
52:56 What’s your–
52:57 - D-O-B-O-U-G-I-E.
53:03 So that is the DL Bouget, that’s the name of our store.
53:06 We’re located at the flea market.
53:10 - And then I noticed on the website
53:12 that you guys had a mixed use facility
53:14 that looks like you guys,
53:15 is that what the dream is, is to create that?
53:16 Or what is that?
53:18 - Yes.
53:19 Yes, we wanna open up a cultural arts and business center.
53:22 And we are looking for a school to partner with.
53:25 We already have our conceptual designs
53:27 and things drawn out.
53:30 So what we’re looking for is a partner to get it done.
53:33 So it would be a 364-seater.
53:38 So yeah, we’re looking for a school to partner with.
53:41 - So is there a way that you can get that information?
53:44 ‘Cause I’m not on Instagram.
53:45 My daughter teases me all the time about that.
53:47 But is there a way we can get that?
53:50 So I can push that out?
53:51 And then I think you have some school board members.
53:54 I’d love you to come up into my district
53:55 and I’d try to work with you.
53:57 But they’re gonna try to steal you down south.
53:58 And you guys are located off Washington right now?
54:00 I didn’t see the address.
54:01 - Yes, the students actually have a business at Reningers.
54:05 It’s our entrepreneurship simulation center.
54:08 So if you go to the Reningers Flea Market near I-95,
54:12 and their booth is in there.
54:14 And they’ll work there on Saturdays and Sundays
54:17 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
54:20 So all of their jewelry is all natural jewelry.
54:22 So they do crystals and semi-precious stones,
54:28 highwaymen t-shirts.
54:29 So we have some hot Florida highwaymen
54:32 infused apparel there as well.
54:34 And the e-commerce site, we’re learning how to put it up.
54:38 We don’t have a lot of money,
54:39 but we’re learning how to develop it ourselves right now.
54:43 So it’s not operational, but it will be.
54:46 But we’ll keep in touch and get you the information.
54:48 And I just wanted to make sure the superintendent
54:51 got a copy of the proposal as well.
54:54 - I wanna tell you, thank you.
54:56 - Thank you.
54:57 - And what was your name again?
54:58 - My name is Alberta.
54:59 - You’re the one that founded it in 2014.
55:01 You’re amazing.
55:03 And good luck, you guys.
55:04 I mean, I know we’re gonna get you guys here.
55:07 She’s the salad, I mean, she waged war
55:12 on the man in the back to try to get everything
55:14 that you just heard.
55:15 So you definitely have a positive group up here.
55:18 But I am just fascinated by the fact
55:20 that you guys came here today, took your time out,
55:22 put together speeches.
55:24 You guys are trying to make an impact in your community.
55:27 And that’s how it all starts.
55:29 And thank you for taking your time
55:31 to come out here and do this.
55:32 I get goosebumps.
55:34 You guys are awesome, man.
55:34 Thank you.
55:36 - Thank you.
55:36 Does anyone else have any more comments for them
55:38 before they?
55:40 We’re looking forward to it.
55:41 Thank you so much.
55:42 - I think the superintendent.
55:44 Go ahead, Jeff.
55:44 - So I want to commend you for using your student voice
55:47 in such a positive way as well.
55:49 And the courage to come up here and talk to a bunch
55:52 of people sitting up here in suits and so on.
55:55 When you talk to Mr. Thornton,
55:56 I know he’s going to extend an invitation.
56:02 - To come and sample his food.
56:04 I’ve been there.
56:06 - A full blown behind the scenes tour of all things food
56:09 to kind of round your food service experience,
56:13 our food service program.
56:15 And you can help be a student advisory council,
56:17 how we can be better to include being a part of our schools,
56:21 getting back into your schools and so on.
56:23 So Mr. Thornton can talk to you about that.
56:25 And we look forward to getting your feedback.
56:30 - Thank you.
56:33 (audience applauding)
56:39 (indistinct)
56:42 - Would any board member like to address any of the concerns
56:45 of the other speakers with the exception of Mr. Jenkins,
56:49 only because we’re going to discuss that at the end.
56:51 So if there’s any other,
56:53 anybody else you want to address before we move on?
56:55 - I don’t know if there was nine.
57:01 - Yes, every speaker did speak.
57:02 Maybe you didn’t number all the students or something.
57:07 I just do want to say to Mr. Colucci,
57:09 I don’t recall ever declining a workshop with you.
57:12 So if you have record of that, I would love for you to,
57:16 maybe I don’t remember sending an email
57:18 or telling you that I wouldn’t go to a workshop,
57:20 but if you have some record of that, I’d like to see it.
57:22 Thank you.
57:26 Okay, we’re going to move on to the consent agenda.
57:29 Dr. Mullins.
57:34 - There are eight items under this category.
57:39 - Okay, thank you, Dr. Mullins.
57:42 Does any board member wish to pull any of these items?
57:51 What are the wishes of the board?
57:53 - Move to approve.
57:54 - Second.
57:56 - Motion by Ms. Belford, second by Ms. Campbell.
57:59 Any discussion?
58:02 Please vote.
58:10 Motion passes, five, zero.
58:17 Does any board member need a break?
58:21 Are we, Pam, are we time, is it time certain?
58:26 Do we have to wait to start at any specific time?
58:29 Okay.
58:32 Recess the normal meeting and move forward.
58:35 Okay, we’re going to recess our meeting
58:38 to go into our public hearing meeting
58:40 and then we will recess the public hearing meeting
58:43 and go back into our normal meeting.
58:45 We’re officially recessed.
58:47 Do I have to bang again to be?
58:50 Okay, and now we’re officially in our public hearing.
58:55 We will now, oh, I had actually a part to read there.
58:58 Excuse me.
59:00 We are opening our tentative public hearing
59:02 for the 2019-2020 proposed millage rates
59:05 and tentative budget, Dr. Mullins.
59:09 - Mrs. Chairman and members of the board,
59:11 Ms. Penny Zuercher, chief financial officer,
59:13 will make a presentation on the proposed
59:16 2019-20 budget and millage levy.
59:21 - Good evening, welcome to our hearing
59:24 to all the members and the public.
59:26 This is our first opportunity to look at a proposed budget.
59:30 It’s important to start off to realize
59:32 this is not our final budget.
59:34 There is still about six weeks worth of work
59:37 that can be put into this budget to improve it.
59:40 Tonight, we will be looking at the millage,
59:43 the tentative millage that will be voted on tonight
59:47 and then finalized in September as well as the budget.
59:53 Looking at our timeline, we started this process
59:55 back in March with the opening of the legislative session
59:59 and today is our tentative hearing.
1:00:02 Our final step will be on September 10th
1:00:05 at our final budget hearing.
1:00:08 In this presentation, I’m gonna go over
1:00:11 enrollment projections, our taxable property values,
1:00:14 proposed millage, proposed budget,
1:00:17 and next steps in the process.
1:00:22 Starting out with a membership,
1:00:24 our student membership in the district
1:00:26 has been slightly declining while our charter schools
1:00:30 have been slightly increasing.
1:00:33 Looking at 19-20, our district membership is 68,413
1:00:39 projected with charter schools 7,010
1:00:43 for a total of 75,423.
1:00:48 Charter schools are rising by 426 students.
1:00:53 The district is going down by 141
1:00:58 and the total district is expected to grow by 285.
1:01:03 In comparison to the next highest
1:01:05 or the first highest year of our highest year
1:01:09 of membership, 08-09 where the district was 70,951
1:01:17 and our charter schools were 3,049.
1:01:22 FTE is different than our membership.
1:01:25 Membership is just the children who walk through the door.
1:01:29 FTE considers seat time.
1:01:31 Are they in their seats for one class or the full day?
1:01:35 And however many times they sit in the class
1:01:39 defines the FTE unweighted and then it is weighted
1:01:43 by the type of student that we’re working with.
1:01:46 In this case, our FTE has followed our membership,
1:01:51 declining slightly at the district level
1:01:54 and increasing at the charter.
1:01:56 However, we are anticipating in the total district
1:02:00 168 increase of FTE as compared to 133 in 18-19.
1:02:10 Our taxable property values have rebounded significantly
1:02:14 over the last 10 years.
1:02:17 For 19-20, we’re at 45,455,674,986.
1:02:27 That’s up $3.2 billion from 18-19 or a 7.61% increase.
1:02:35 This is slightly down from where we’ve been
1:02:37 the last couple of years which was about an 8%,
1:02:40 8.1% increase but still looking very positive.
1:02:45 When we compare to 2009-10 which was our historical high
1:02:50 before 17-18, that year we are $12.3 billion.
1:02:57 Excuse me, $4.1 billion over what that property value
1:03:03 was in ‘09-10 but the better news is in the last five years
1:03:08 we have increased 12.3 billion from our low point.
1:03:12 That’s a 37% increase in property values.
1:03:19 Our proposed millage is made up of three different millages.
1:03:22 There’s the required local effort.
1:03:24 This is the millage that the board is required to levy
1:03:28 in order to receive state funding for the operating fund
1:03:32 through the Florida Education Finance Program.
1:03:36 This year the millage has been lowered to 3.838
1:03:42 and it makes up approximately 63.1% of our total millage
1:03:47 and it is used for the operating expenses
1:03:50 in the general fund.
1:03:52 Our second millage is the discretionary local effort.
1:03:55 This is 0.748.
1:03:58 It provides approximately $448 per FTE
1:04:02 for a total of $32,600.
1:04:07 It is subject to compression which is the good news.
1:04:10 They guaranteed for 19-20 to receive at least $555 per
1:04:15 student since we did not receive that.
1:04:18 Our FEFP funding includes compression of $107 per student
1:04:24 or an additional $7.8 million.
1:04:26 And again, this is discretionary funding
1:04:29 for the general fund.
1:04:32 Our last millage is the local capital improvement,
1:04:35 more commonly referred to as the capital outlay tax.
1:04:39 It is 1.5 mills.
1:04:42 That brings into the district about $65.5 million.
1:04:47 Debt service is the first paid out of that millage
1:04:50 and that is $36,613,000.
1:04:55 We cover some maintenance expenses out of the general fund
1:04:58 for $8,300,000 and our property insurance for $4,945,000.
1:05:04 That’s left us about $15.6 million in capital needs
1:05:10 and these funds are for the capital outlay fund.
1:05:13 While some of them may eventually get spent
1:05:15 due to the function we’re using them for
1:05:17 in the general fund, they start and are tied
1:05:21 to the capital outlay restrictions.
1:05:27 Talking more on our proposed millage rates,
1:05:30 this is a visual graph of where we’ve been
1:05:32 over the last 10 years and we can see that we’ve had
1:05:36 a significant decrease since 2011-12.
1:05:41 That decrease is 2.026 mills or almost 25% from the high.
1:05:49 Going most recently in ‘15-‘16 to today,
1:05:53 we’ve seen a 1.291 millage reduction or 17.5%.
1:06:02 Our millage for ‘19-‘20 is .213 mills less
1:06:09 than they were in ‘18-‘19.
1:06:15 The truth in millage law, commonly known as TRMM,
1:06:20 requires us to compare the millage,
1:06:23 which we know is .213 mills less than last year,
1:06:28 to what the law describes as the rolled back rate.
1:06:33 And what this rate is is the millage that we would levy
1:06:37 to receive the same dollars we received in ‘18-‘19
1:06:43 on ‘19-‘20 property values.
1:06:47 It’s not a real millage, it’s a millage to compare
1:06:50 what it would be on this year’s property values
1:06:53 to receive the same.
1:06:54 It’s to look and see what the tax increase is
1:06:57 as a result of property values.
1:07:01 In this case, our rolled back millage,
1:07:03 being the center column here, it’s 3.8452
1:07:07 for required local effort, .71 for local discretionary,
1:07:12 and 1.4238 for local and capital improvement,
1:07:17 for a total of 5.979.
1:07:21 So 5.979 mills on the 45 billion this year
1:07:26 would give us essentially the revenue we received in ‘18-‘19.
1:07:31 Because that is less than the millage we are required
1:07:35 to levy, which is the 6.086, we are required
1:07:40 to announce a tax increase of 1.79%.
1:07:49 Looking at the impact of this tax change,
1:07:53 two columns here, boxes here.
1:07:55 The first box represents your primary homeowner.
1:07:58 The second one represents a vacation home
1:08:02 or something that is not the primary homeowner.
1:08:05 While in this graphic we’ve shown $100,000 value,
1:08:09 these would be two different types of homes.
1:08:12 Under the primary home, if the home value
1:08:15 was in ‘18-‘19 was $100,000, under the save our homes cap,
1:08:21 the value would have only been allowed
1:08:23 to go up for tax purposes by $1600.
1:08:27 The homeowner would be able to take
1:08:29 their homestead exemption of $25,000
1:08:33 and their taxable value of property would be $76,600.
1:08:39 Under the ‘18-‘19 rates, the actual millage rates,
1:08:44 not the rolled back, the homeowner paid $472.43.
1:08:51 In this scenario, due to the save our homes cap,
1:08:54 the homeowner under the new rates, which have lowered,
1:08:58 but also received a cap on the increase,
1:09:01 would be $466.19 or a reduction in taxes of $6.24.
1:09:10 And the second block representing something
1:09:12 like a vacation home in our area.
1:09:16 In this case, they would not be affected
1:09:18 by the save our homes cap and their home value of $100,000,
1:09:22 they would have received the full 7.61% increase in value,
1:09:28 taking their property value to $107,610.
1:09:33 Under the ‘18-‘19 rates, they would have paid $629.90.
1:09:41 Under the proposed ‘19-‘20, although it is a lesser
1:09:44 millage rate due to the increase in their property values,
1:09:49 they will pay $25.00 in a penny more
1:09:52 than they would have in ‘18-‘19.
1:09:57 Looking at our proposed tentative budget,
1:10:01 it’s important to note that the budget is a plan,
1:10:06 it’s not our actuals, but for the truth and millage laws
1:10:09 and trim advertising, we’re required to mimic
1:10:12 as if it would be an actual, hence the fund balance numbers
1:10:16 at the bottom.
1:10:18 In this case, we’re looking at operating revenues
1:10:21 of 559 million, expenditures of 568 million,
1:10:27 with transfers in from other funds of almost 17 million.
1:10:31 This would leave in a mimicked actual budget,
1:10:36 $66 million in planned and fund balance,
1:10:40 and that is made up of non-spendable property
1:10:43 in the prepaids of 4,144,000.
1:10:47 Restricted, our state categoricals were into 7.5.
1:10:52 The last committed, and this is still here
1:10:55 because we will not appropriate that out until September
1:10:59 when we do the first budget amendment,
1:11:01 and ‘cause at this point the board has not voted
1:11:05 to approve that yet, so that will eventually go away
1:11:09 of 1 million, 952,952, and then the assigned,
1:11:14 which is our school operations of 5 million, 466,835,
1:11:20 unassigned, 47 million, 188,346.
1:11:25 It’s important to note the actual details
1:11:27 within those categories can be found in our budget book,
1:11:32 which is available on the board agenda
1:11:34 or can be requested from my office,
1:11:36 and the details are found on both page 12 and page 17
1:11:41 into the full breakout that we’ve presented
1:11:44 in the past to the board.
1:11:46 Special revenue, we’re looking at $86 million
1:11:49 coming in and 86 million going out.
1:11:53 Debt service is a little higher this year at 41
1:11:58 to pay off a QZAB, Qualified Zone,
1:12:03 I forget what the A stands for, help me, Joanne,
1:12:06 Academy bond.
1:12:09 This was taken back in 2004 for about $3.5 million.
1:12:15 Over the five years following that up through 2019,
1:12:18 funds were placed into a savings account or a sinking fund,
1:12:22 and that account has just been building funds
1:12:25 till we had enough money to pay off that bond,
1:12:28 and it is due for payment.
1:12:30 The bond comes due this year.
1:12:32 We’ll take those monies out of that savings account
1:12:34 and pay off that bond.
1:12:36 Otherwise, we’re looking at about 36 million, 700,000
1:12:40 for our regular debt service payment.
1:12:43 Capital projects, we’re anticipating revenues coming in
1:12:47 in total of just under 127 million.
1:12:50 Expenditures are 135 million.
1:12:54 This is carry forward of appropriated dollars
1:12:57 from the previous year from either projects
1:12:59 crossing the year or being started in the new year
1:13:03 after all the planning was done in the prior year.
1:13:07 Our total government would be 772 million in revenue,
1:13:12 830 million in expenditures, and between the funds,
1:13:16 54 million will transfer.
1:13:19 Our enterprise fund is our afterschool program.
1:13:22 We do continue to carry what appears
1:13:25 to be a negative fund balance.
1:13:26 I remind the board this is that crazy
1:13:29 governmental accounting standards board journal entry
1:13:33 that we were required to place for the pension liability
1:13:36 of the FRS a few years ago.
1:13:39 It is not real dollars.
1:13:41 It is all on paper, and it’s all based
1:13:44 on what’s going on at the FRS.
1:13:47 Our internal service fund,
1:13:49 this is just a real first blush look.
1:13:52 We just, as of today, received our claims liabilities
1:13:56 and can begin to really look at this fund
1:13:58 and do a complete workout on it
1:14:02 for the budget for the final.
1:14:04 Again, the same at the bottom.
1:14:06 You can see how those fund balances get categorized.
1:14:10 The majority of them will be restricted
1:14:12 because everything but operating
1:14:14 has external restrictions on it.
1:14:20 Our 10-year capital plan, which was originally presented
1:14:24 to the board at the June 25th workshop
1:14:27 and discussed again this afternoon
1:14:29 at your capital budget workshop,
1:14:32 is currently set up for 19, 20, 79.3,
1:14:36 excuse me, $126.8 million,
1:14:40 with total planned expenditures of 173.
1:14:44 As you know, coming out of the workshop today,
1:14:46 we do have quite a bit of work to come back
1:14:48 and bring back to you
1:14:49 based on the feedback provided to the board,
1:14:52 so this will change by the time we get to final.
1:14:57 Next steps is taking board feedback and adjustments
1:15:01 from discussions that we have had,
1:15:04 going back and doing a final review
1:15:06 and updating the budget,
1:15:08 completing that by August 23rd
1:15:11 so that we can be prepared for the September 10th
1:15:15 board meeting.
1:15:16 We will hold again like this meeting,
1:15:19 the final hearing as part of the regular board meeting,
1:15:22 and that board meeting will start at 5.30 p.m.
1:15:25 here in the boardroom.
1:15:27 After that, we will be prepared to make notification
1:15:30 to the Florida Department of Education,
1:15:32 the Florida Department of Revenue,
1:15:34 and the Brevard Tax Collector.
1:15:38 Anyone in the community who would like more information
1:15:41 concerning our budget may contact my office
1:15:44 at the information on the screen.
1:15:46 We’ll be happy to provide that information out to them
1:15:49 or answer any of their questions.
1:15:53 At this time, we’d open it for questions or discussion
1:15:56 from our feedback from the board on the presentation.
1:16:00 - Thank you, Ms. Zuercher.
1:16:01 Does any board member have a comment
1:16:03 or question for Ms. Zuercher?
1:16:09 - Can we go back now?
1:16:12 Mr. Susan.
1:16:13 - Yeah, so just, I wanted it to be note,
1:16:16 if you look at the numbers that we have received
1:16:20 because of the rollback rate,
1:16:22 that if you go back to the 2012 numbers,
1:16:25 meaning how much if they wouldn’t have rolled us back,
1:16:27 we would be in our pockets today just this year alone
1:16:33 would be an increase of $90 million.
1:16:35 So had they not rolled us back since 2012,
1:16:39 had they allowed us to grow
1:16:40 with the actual surrounding community,
1:16:44 we would be receiving $90 million extra this year
1:16:48 than we would have last year.
1:16:50 If you just go back to 2015,
1:16:52 and you say how much we would be receiving this year
1:16:55 if they had not rolled us back since then,
1:16:57 it’s $58.5 million.
1:17:00 So to say the least, the rollback is killing us.
1:17:03 Thank you for providing that.
1:17:05 - When is the actual date of the budget due to the state?
1:17:10 - September 11th, the day after the next hearing.
1:17:13 - Gotcha, and that’s for our budget.
1:17:16 When is the actual budget of this year,
1:17:19 the spend that we have run outs, everything else,
1:17:22 that’s due the same day?
1:17:23 - It is, the actual expenditures
1:17:25 is due the same day as well.
1:17:27 - Will we receive prior to the September 10th budget for us
1:17:33 the numbers from the previous year’s expenditures solidified?
1:17:38 - At this point, we’re on track to provide that
1:17:40 to the board on August 23rd.
1:17:42 - Thank you.
1:17:43 Also, we talked before about $1.4 million in lapse salary
1:17:48 only going towards the actual retirees portion of that.
1:17:52 Have we started looking at the other portions of transfers?
1:17:57 - Yes, we have a slightly large project going on on that
1:18:00 to see, to validate and see if there is anything else
1:18:04 in addition.
1:18:05 - Is there inside of that, does that also include
1:18:08 the vacant positions that we have not filled
1:18:11 throughout last year?
1:18:12 - Vacant positions is something we’re also looking at.
1:18:14 We actually have a list of items I presented to Dr. Mullins
1:18:18 and other things we’re continuing to look at
1:18:20 moving forward with the budget.
1:18:22 - Perfect, and then because the millage actually came in
1:18:26 higher than the last time we were here,
1:18:28 What is the–
1:18:29 in the budget since the last time we came.
1:18:34 I think the millage came in a little bit higher
1:18:36 than what we were, can you reflect
1:18:38 what the operating budgets increase to that was?
1:18:41 Sorry.
1:18:48 - I don’t have specifically what the total budget
1:18:52 has increased, but the millage itself
1:18:55 went up about $1.3 million into the fund,
1:18:59 and then we’ve been doing some other work
1:19:01 towards budgetary savings and other things to it.
1:19:04 And I believe you all have at your podium
1:19:08 a copy of the most recent calculation
1:19:11 of new in-laps recurring for your information,
1:19:14 which is reflective of what’s in the budget book.
1:19:16 - Okay, thank you.
1:19:18 - You’re welcome.
1:19:21 - Thank you, Ms. Zuercher.
1:19:22 Any other board member have a question at this point?
1:19:26 Okay, it’s now time for public comments.
1:19:29 The hearing is now open for public comments.
1:19:31 We will, in accordance with Florida law,
1:19:33 accept the speakers in the following order.
1:19:36 The 2019-2020 proposed millage levy,
1:19:39 followed by the 2019-2020 tentative budget.
1:19:43 Is there any individual that would like to address
1:19:45 the board on the 2019-2020 proposed millage levy?
1:19:49 - I would. - Mr. Colucci.
1:19:52 - Ms. Envold, is there the three-minute time limit?
1:19:56 And do all the rules of conduct–
1:19:59 - Yes. - What’s the word?
1:20:01 - Just the ones you did before, apply.
1:20:02 - Apply. - Yes.
1:20:04 - Apply. - It’s not a millage.
1:20:06 - Mr. Colucci, just to remind you,
1:20:08 this portion of public comments is on the millage only.
1:20:11 The budget comments will be next,
1:20:13 of which you can speak again if you choose.
1:20:15 I’m gonna set the timer for three minutes,
1:20:17 and do you need me to read the rules of public comments?
1:20:22 - If the last one I skated by with, this should be fine.
1:20:28 - Okay, go ahead, sir.
1:20:31 - Okay, so talking about millage,
1:20:34 I do need to talk a little bit about context.
1:20:38 Teacher salary is 46 in the nation in the state of Florida.
1:20:44 Per capita student funding, Florida is 43 in the nation.
1:20:48 We do have a funding crisis.
1:20:52 Our teachers here in Brevard are 30th in the state
1:20:55 in average teacher pay,
1:20:57 and we are $2,170 behind the state average.
1:21:02 I do agree with what Mr. Susan was saying
1:21:06 about how these rollback rates are impacting our budget,
1:21:12 but there are things that you could have chose to do.
1:21:18 So the woe is me attitude needs to stop.
1:21:22 There is something that could be done,
1:21:25 and that would be to go out for additional millage,
1:21:28 and it is something that this board,
1:21:30 against the recommendation of the previous superintendent,
1:21:33 decided not to do.
1:21:36 That is in your power.
1:21:37 It is not in your power to change the rollback rates.
1:21:41 We can’t do it, but you can go out for additional millage,
1:21:46 which would increase our funding drastically
1:21:49 and could be used for teacher salary
1:21:52 as well as other things.
1:21:54 Thank you.
1:21:55 - Thank you, Mr. Colucci.
1:21:56 (audience applauding)
1:22:02 I believe so.
1:22:03 Mr. Colucci, Ms. Belfort has a question for you.
1:22:08 - So you can respond to me.
1:22:09 Otherwise, it would be pointless to ask the question, right?
1:22:12 So I just wanna clarify,
1:22:14 and for the sake of all of us being on the same page,
1:22:18 in previous conversations
1:22:20 that you and I have had about millage,
1:22:22 there has been some wavering as to support from the union
1:22:25 on a millage effort.
1:22:27 So am I to take your comment that we should go for a millage
1:22:31 that you are now willing to support a millage again?
1:22:35 Because quite frankly, we won’t be,
1:22:36 even if this board decides to go for a millage,
1:22:39 we wouldn’t be successful
1:22:40 unless we had the backing of the union and the teachers.
1:22:43 So I think that’s an important clarification, if you will.
1:22:47 - Well, and just to clarify,
1:22:51 our union has for years been making the push
1:22:54 to go out for millage,
1:22:56 and Mr. Bennett can confirm that,
1:22:59 that we’ve been leading the charge for that.
1:23:01 And it came to the vote or the discussion last May,
1:23:05 and Ms. Belfort was the only board member to vote
1:23:08 in favor of the millage.
1:23:11 And for various reasons, other board members decided
1:23:14 not to do so.
1:23:16 As of late, with everything that’s been going on
1:23:19 with the salary debacle, I’ll call it,
1:23:25 this is gonna be a difficult, heavy lift,
1:23:28 and it’s gonna be a heavy lift with our teachers
1:23:30 because of the trust factor.
1:23:32 I am willing to have further discussion,
1:23:36 to look at timelines, to look at, you know,
1:23:39 how the board would like to spend that money
1:23:41 and bring it to the membership
1:23:42 and get a feel from the membership
1:23:44 if they would be willing to support it.
1:23:47 - Thank you.
1:23:48 - Thank you, Mr. Colucci,
1:23:49 and thank you for your cooperativeness.
1:23:53 Are there more speakers that would like to speak
1:23:56 on the proposed 2019-2020 proposed millage rates?
1:24:01 Ms. Skipper, state your name for the record
1:24:03 and please go forward.
1:24:05 - Vanessa Skipper, Vice President, BFT.
1:24:07 I’m just echoing what Anthony was discussing earlier
1:24:10 about the millage.
1:24:12 This is, again, a positive solution
1:24:16 that we brought forward many times to this board.
1:24:20 Obviously, in the past year, we’ve gone back and forth,
1:24:23 back and forth, but I believe I handed every single one
1:24:26 of you at one point information on millage,
1:24:30 which county had extra millage and extra half cent
1:24:33 or extra full cent.
1:24:35 I believe almost actually every county
1:24:39 on the eastern seaboard of Florida,
1:24:43 all the way up to Volusia County, except for us.
1:24:49 Past extra millage and those teachers
1:24:52 in all of those counties from Miami-Dade,
1:24:56 Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie,
1:25:00 all of those counties coming up,
1:25:01 they’re getting a significant, significant pay increase.
1:25:05 And if there’s one thing that I always try
1:25:08 to teach my students, and I think we saw an example
1:25:11 of that earlier, is don’t come talk about a problem
1:25:14 if you don’t have a solution.
1:25:16 So in further discussions, whether it’s going out
1:25:20 for millage or whatever we decide to do,
1:25:22 I would hope that you all understand,
1:25:24 especially since we just had that presentation
1:25:26 about what’s happening with the RLE and the rollback,
1:25:31 that we were bringing a solution to the board
1:25:35 to make a problem better.
1:25:37 And we will continue to do so,
1:25:39 and we hope that you take us seriously with those solutions.
1:25:42 And I think just to kind of piggyback
1:25:45 on the question and answer just then,
1:25:47 if we’re taken seriously, I think that will change the game
1:25:51 in a lot of things that we do.
1:25:52 Thank you.
1:25:55 - Thank you, Ms. Skipper.
1:25:56 (audience applauding)
1:25:59 Is there anyone else that would like to speak
1:26:01 on the proposed millage rates?
1:26:07 (gentle tapping)
1:26:12 Is there any individual that would like to address the board
1:26:17 on the 2019-2020 tentative budget?
1:26:23 Please state your name.
1:26:24 - Yes, ma’am.
1:26:25 Hello, my name is Kyle Savage.
1:26:27 Oh, I need to get this up on my phone.
1:26:29 And I’m a very proud teacher in Brevard Public Schools.
1:26:32 Since the impasse hearing, I started looking at the budget
1:26:36 because there was a lot of talk about what was in the budget
1:26:38 and what wasn’t in the budget.
1:26:40 There was a lot of numbers presented.
1:26:42 And I will be honest with you,
1:26:43 when I first started looking at it,
1:26:44 I kind of understood why some of you guys were hesitant.
1:26:47 However, I feel like you’ve been looking at it all year
1:26:50 and you were able to have the information.
1:26:52 So looking at the tentative budget for 2019 and ‘20,
1:26:57 there was quite a few things that stood out to me,
1:26:58 but one thing was on, how’s the page marked?
1:27:03 I wanna say it’s page 11.
1:27:05 When you look at instructional total spending,
1:27:07 now I understand that’s a line item.
1:27:09 I understand there’s a lot that goes into that line item.
1:27:13 The majority of that line item is salaries.
1:27:15 If we looked at the adopted budget,
1:27:17 which kind of is a problem because in this budget,
1:27:20 there is no actuals.
1:27:22 Everything we’re looking at is adopted, amended,
1:27:24 and adopted again, are the tentative budget for this year.
1:27:28 But in the adopted budget,
1:27:31 there was, you guys adopted $372 million.
1:27:36 For 2019 and ‘20, you’re adopting $370 million.
1:27:41 That’s a decrease in instructional spending.
1:27:44 Now, when we were at the impasse hearing,
1:27:46 it was told that this was reoccurring money.
1:27:48 It wasn’t in the budget, but on your own budget documents,
1:27:52 we’re gonna spend less money this year,
1:27:54 or going into ‘19, ‘20 than we did in ‘18, ‘19.
1:27:58 That doesn’t make sense if everything is reoccurring dollars.
1:28:02 Along that trend, I would like to point out,
1:28:04 if you would allow me,
1:28:05 we went through and looked at the actual budgets
1:28:08 that was from 2015 to ‘16, ‘16 to ‘17, ‘17 to ‘18.
1:28:13 We looked at actual,
1:28:15 what was budgeted and what was amended.
1:28:17 In 2015, ‘16, the district budgeted $355 million for salaries
1:28:24 instructional that line item.
1:28:26 They amended it to 360 million.
1:28:29 The actual spent was 347 million.
1:28:32 That was money that dropped to the fund balance.
1:28:35 I know we look at the fund balance,
1:28:36 and in the beginning of the year, it’s 66 million.
1:28:39 It drops to 32, and then it goes back up.
1:28:42 All we’re doing is moving money
1:28:43 to say we don’t have a fund balance.
1:28:45 If you look at ‘16, ‘17, same trend.
1:28:48 The district budget, $363 and a half million.
1:28:54 You guys amended it to 367 million.
1:28:58 You actually spent 350 million
1:29:00 on that instructional line item.
1:29:02 ‘17, ‘18, same thing.
1:29:05 You guys budgeted, I’m sorry,
1:29:07 I’m not trying to be rude by saying you guys.
1:29:09 The board budgeted 373 million, almost 374 million.
1:29:13 You amended it to 384 million.
1:29:17 The actual file from the state was 370 million.
1:29:21 Every single year, that has been millions of dollars
1:29:24 that were budgeted and never spent.
1:29:27 I’m sorry, my time’s up.
1:29:28 All this information we used from DOE records,
1:29:30 and it’s all there.
1:29:31 I would love to talk to anybody
1:29:32 that had any questions about it.
1:29:33 So thank you.
1:29:36 - Thank you, sir.
1:29:37 (attendees applauding)
1:29:44 I appreciate the information you just shared.
1:29:46 Is there anyone else that would like to speak
1:29:47 about the 2019-2020 tentative budget?
1:29:51 Mr. Coochy.
1:29:54 - Thank you.
1:29:59 On page three of the proposed tentative budget,
1:30:02 I see that your fund balance as of July 1st, 2019
1:30:08 is $58,322,324.
1:30:13 Your fund balance on July 1st, 2018
1:30:18 was $58,322,324.
1:30:25 Sorry.
1:30:26 - Mr. Coochy, we would like to follow along.
1:30:28 Can you?
1:30:29 We just got the books back out.
1:30:30 Can you start over?
1:30:31 - Yeah.
1:30:32 - I’ll start your time over too, sir.
1:30:33 - And hopefully I’ll say the number right this time.
1:30:35 - It’s actually the page, Mr. Coochy.
1:30:37 - On page three of the proposed tentative budget.
1:30:41 - Proposed.
1:30:42 Oh, on the, do you have the book
1:30:45 or do you have just the presentation?
1:30:46 We’ve got–
1:30:47 - The book.
1:30:47 - Okay.
1:30:48 Okay, we’ll start there with you.
1:30:50 - Okay.
1:30:51 - Page three, proposed tentative budget,
1:30:54 fund balance as of July 1st, 2019
1:30:59 is $58,322,324.
1:31:07 Fund balance–
1:31:08 - One second.
1:31:08 We aren’t seeing the same numbers as you.
1:31:10 - Oh, wait, here it is.
1:31:11 Fund balance here.
1:31:12 - It’s right here.
1:31:13 - Fund balance, we were looking at the bottom.
1:31:14 I just wanna make sure we’re following
1:31:15 so we understand what you’re saying.
1:31:16 - All right, that’s fine.
1:31:17 - Okay.
1:31:19 Fund balance on July 1st, 2018 was the exact same number,
1:31:25 $58,322,324.
1:31:31 So I’m trying to find out
1:31:33 why the actual fund balance number is not given here
1:31:38 or are we saying that the fund balance one year later
1:31:43 was exactly the same amount to the dollar?
1:31:48 Now, on page five of your May amendments,
1:31:53 I don’t know if you have those in front of you,
1:31:55 your May amended budget,
1:31:59 the fund balance was amended to $32,410,089,
1:32:07 but the actual amount listed in those May amendments–
1:32:12 - What page, what page, what page?
1:32:14 - I do not have the page, page five.
1:32:17 - It’s on our agenda?
1:32:19 - May amendments.
1:32:20 - No, that’s a financial statement.
1:32:22 - He’s talking about the budget amendment.
1:32:24 - That’s in our June 25th board agenda,
1:32:27 if you wanna go back there.
1:32:30 If we go back to the June 25th board agenda,
1:32:32 that’s when we approved that.
1:32:37 - Is that where you pulled it from?
1:32:37 - Yes. - Yep.
1:32:40 - Give us just a second.
1:32:42 It is item, it’s item 15.
1:32:47 - What’d you say it was May?
1:32:48 - May, I’m sorry, the June 25th board meeting agenda.
1:32:55 Item 15.
1:33:01 - What page were you on, five?
1:33:03 - Yes, on page five of the May amendments.
1:33:16 - I gotta do a formative assessment here,
1:33:19 can I get like a thumbs up sideways?
1:33:22 Okay, all right.
1:33:27 So the fund balance was amended down to $32,410,000,
1:33:38 but if you look somewhere over there,
1:33:41 you will see the actual amount in that fund balance
1:33:45 was $110,454,904.
1:33:55 Okay, so what I’m trying to figure out is–
1:33:57 - Hang on.
1:34:00 Are you, you are in the budget amendment, not in the–
1:34:05 - You’re in the May financial statement.
1:34:08 - Okay, then that’s, okay.
1:34:09 - That’s something different.
1:34:11 - On tonight’s agenda.
1:34:12 - Yeah, on tonight’s agenda, okay.
1:34:14 He said a budget amendment, so.
1:34:16 - We changed agenda.
1:34:17 - Yeah, go back to today’s agenda.
1:34:21 - Looks like your time’s up, just kidding.
1:34:27 - So what I’m trying to get at is why,
1:34:30 after this being such a contentious amount of money
1:34:34 at the legislative hearing,
1:34:35 why don’t we know what the actual amount
1:34:38 in the fund balance is right now, all right?
1:34:41 So we’re seeing it was 58 million and then 58 million,
1:34:46 then it was amended to 32 million,
1:34:49 but there was really 110 million in there.
1:34:52 So what is that fund balance really at?
1:34:55 That is something that is crucial going forward,
1:34:59 especially after the whole legislative hearing
1:35:03 and magistrate hearing centering on this fund balance.
1:35:09 - Did you, do you want me to hand you a copy of this
1:35:13 or do we figure?
1:35:14 - I think Ms. Belford finally, we pulled it up.
1:35:16 We have to log out.
1:35:17 We have to log back in to get to a different agenda.
1:35:19 So it just took her a minute.
1:35:23 - Are we, so this is–
1:35:25 - This is my record time being up here.
1:35:27 - Yeah, I don’t even have the clock running on you,
1:35:29 Mr. Colucci.
1:35:31 Ms. Campbell has a question for you, I think.
1:35:34 - Well, not a question, but an answer,
1:35:36 ‘cause you asked us a question, are we to that part yet?
1:35:39 - Oh, is there more you wanna say
1:35:40 or can we ask you some questions?
1:35:42 - ‘Cause I asked a similar question earlier today
1:35:44 and I think Ms. Belford actually asked the same question too.
1:35:47 So if you would mind, Ms. Zarker,
1:35:51 giving him the same answer you gave me, please.
1:35:53 - Sure, the budget amendment reflects
1:35:56 what’s called budgeted fund balance.
1:35:59 There are two different basic accounting systems.
1:36:01 One balances the budget
1:36:03 and one is the actual accounting system.
1:36:06 So we have budgeted fund balance,
1:36:09 which as we appropriate the carry-fords in September
1:36:13 and other funds out of the fund balance.
1:36:16 In the budget amendment,
1:36:17 the budget amendment fund balance will reduce.
1:36:21 When it comes to the actual
1:36:22 and your monthly financial statements through the year,
1:36:26 fund balance varies by receipt of dollars.
1:36:30 So our ad valorem dollars all come in in December.
1:36:34 It’s a huge chunk of money
1:36:36 that gets spent throughout the year.
1:36:38 And the way our cash flows are,
1:36:40 while all that money is for the ‘18-‘19 year,
1:36:44 from a cash flow basis,
1:36:47 that’s paying salary, supplies,
1:36:50 and everything going through.
1:36:52 So it makes the monthly financial statements
1:36:55 look larger fund balance at this time of year
1:36:59 compared to when we get to the end.
1:37:01 We have provided since publishing this book to Dr. Mullins
1:37:05 an estimate of what we think the final fund balance will be.
1:37:09 We are not closed.
1:37:10 There are a number of items that don’t come until next week
1:37:14 or after August 1st from DOE.
1:37:17 So closing date is scheduled for August 9th,
1:37:20 but we have prepared an analysis
1:37:23 looking at what we think the accruals will be.
1:37:25 It will probably be around 56 to $57 million
1:37:29 with the same breakouts.
1:37:31 And as soon as we get a final update on that,
1:37:34 we will share that with the board.
1:37:37 - So just to clarify,
1:37:38 the reason why you’re showing that our,
1:37:42 excuse me, let me go back to what we were looking at before,
1:37:44 that our fund balance on July 1st is the same amount
1:37:48 as it showed at the beginning of last fiscal year
1:37:50 is because we have to put–
1:37:51 - Right, we use it as an estimate
1:37:53 because we don’t have the books closed
1:37:56 and we’d rather use something
1:37:57 that we know is more realistic and explainable.
1:38:00 And so practice in this district
1:38:02 has been to use the previous year’s ending fund balance
1:38:05 as the beginning for the new budget.
1:38:07 When we get to the final hearing,
1:38:08 you get the book in August 23rd,
1:38:10 it will have the actual fund balance in it
1:38:13 following the close of the books on August 9th.
1:38:17 - Thank you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Susan.
1:38:20 - So when I look at this amendment
1:38:22 and I look up at the available, the actuals, right,
1:38:26 it’s 537 million for the total revenues.
1:38:30 Total expenses are 484 million
1:38:33 and the ending fund balance is 110 million, 480, roughly.
1:38:37 So what I’m hearing you say is that the reason
1:38:39 that that ending fund balance is that is the balance
1:38:42 of what our actual fund balance is
1:38:44 along with the revenue that we have to spend
1:38:47 by the end of the year and we’ve actually only spent 484.
1:38:51 Is that correct? - Right, we still have
1:38:52 for that budget amendment, that financial statement,
1:38:56 two months of salaries, which is the biggest portion,
1:38:59 almost it’s 78% of our budget
1:39:03 and so that money sitting in the fund balance
1:39:07 equates the cash in the balance sheet
1:39:09 that will be used to pay those expenditures.
1:39:15 - Okay, thank you. - You’re welcome.
1:39:19 - Any more questions for Mr. Clerk?
1:39:21 Is there anyone else that would like to speak
1:39:23 on the 2019-2020 tentative budget?
1:39:28 - Vanessa Skipper. - Vanessa Skipper.
1:39:31 I just had some questions
1:39:32 because I too was looking at that number.
1:39:35 So I’m looking at your proposed tentative budget on page nine
1:39:49 and again, the fund balance
1:39:54 right there for 2018-2019,
1:39:58 all the way across from adopted to amended to projected
1:40:01 is the same number and I was just curious
1:40:05 as to why we can’t have actual numbers
1:40:09 for this particular hearing on page nine
1:40:13 but we are able to have actual numbers
1:40:16 if you flip to page 25.
1:40:27 - So on page 25, we have actual expenditures,
1:40:33 estimated expenditures and then there is another page
1:40:37 which I have lost my place, so.
1:40:44 Special revenue, yeah, 25.
1:40:48 So I’m just wondering why we can have actual funds
1:40:51 in parts of this proposed budget but in not other places.
1:40:57 While I realize that there’s a lot of money to spend,
1:40:59 it is the end of July, so I feel like we could have
1:41:04 some more actual numbers to actually look at,
1:41:06 so I’m just curious as to why we don’t.
1:41:09 - Thank you, Ms. Skipper.
1:41:10 Ms. Zuker, do you want to address that?
1:41:19 - My explanation would be again,
1:41:20 we’re not closed with the books.
1:41:22 We would have to pick a month, May 31st
1:41:25 and say here’s what we’re using.
1:41:27 We wouldn’t want to use, you know, even June 30th.
1:41:31 - I think Ms. Skipper’s question that was on page 25,
1:41:34 there’s a column that says actual expenditures.
1:41:36 - There’s an estimated expenditure there.
1:41:38 It’s a much smaller fund, much easier to do the estimates.
1:41:40 - Those are still estimates even though
1:41:42 it says actual at the top?
1:41:45 - It doesn’t say actual for 2019.
1:41:47 - Let me pull the page back up.
1:41:48 - 2018, okay, and for 2019, it says estimated expenditures.
1:41:51 So those are just estimates again.
1:41:53 - Yes, there is an estimated expenditures.
1:41:56 It’s a much smaller fund, much less line items
1:42:00 on the tentative budget for operating.
1:42:02 We haven’t included it if it’s the board’s desire
1:42:05 in the future, we’ll be happy to include it.
1:42:07 The final budget and the CAFR will provide
1:42:11 actual expenditures in comparisons to budgets as well.
1:42:15 - Thank you, Ms. Zuker.
1:42:16 I appreciate you answering questions on the fly.
1:42:18 We, I think it’s important, you know, it’s just numbers
1:42:23 but it’s large numbers and there’s a lot of data there
1:42:26 and it’s important that we all are on the same page
1:42:29 so that we can have good information.
1:42:31 Any more questions for Ms. Zuker?
1:42:37 - We didn’t, we answered Anthony’s question
1:42:40 and Vanessa’s question but Mr. Savage,
1:42:46 we’ll go back in all the years,
1:42:47 we can talk about that later but you did mention
1:42:49 there’s a decrease in instructional spending
1:42:53 from the year we just ended into this coming year
1:42:57 and I think I, or I think Ms. Belfort actually asked
1:43:00 that question so I wanna make sure we address that
1:43:03 because that was some of the changes that we made
1:43:05 in order to bring the salary increase
1:43:09 that from the 1% to the 1.6% and some of that
1:43:13 is included in that so I wanna make sure we get you
1:43:15 an answer I think tonight would be good.
1:43:17 - Do you want me to share that response?
1:43:19 - Yes. - Go ahead Ms. Belfort.
1:43:20 - So looking at, there are a couple of things
1:43:24 taking place there.
1:43:24 One is keep in mind that this is our first look
1:43:28 at the budget and so there are vacancies
1:43:31 that are not included in that number at this point
1:43:33 because we have not hired those positions yet.
1:43:36 We also, in order to come up with additional dollars
1:43:39 last year, we had some changes in the number of allocations,
1:43:41 the number of units that we have in the district
1:43:44 and so you’ll see too if you look in the electronic version
1:43:48 of the budget book, you’ll see that there are some changes
1:43:50 in the number of people in various positions
1:43:52 in the district and I think that’s what Ms. Campbell
1:43:54 was referencing.
1:43:55 We had some reserve units that we eliminated
1:43:58 so that we can actually provide additional dollars
1:44:00 last year.
1:44:01 The only way that those dollars can be reoccurring dollars
1:44:04 is if those reserve units go away in the following year
1:44:08 otherwise it would just be a one-time thing, non-recurring.
1:44:11 So that’s some of that.
1:44:14 I would love, Anthony and Vanessa
1:44:16 have my contact information.
1:44:17 I would love to sit down and talk to you
1:44:19 about the previous years ‘cause I actually
1:44:21 have done that study myself and looked at previous years
1:44:24 actual versus spend versus amended for the past
1:44:27 six or eight years I think.
1:44:29 So if you would like to reach out to me after tonight,
1:44:32 I’d be happy to talk to you.
1:44:33 - Thank you and I did just wanna point out,
1:44:35 I do understand that this is a tentative
1:44:37 and there’s a lot of, we started reading line items
1:44:40 and it’s insane to me how much goes into the budget
1:44:43 so thank you.
1:44:44 - Sure, absolutely, thank you.
1:44:46 - Thank you, sir and thanks for bringing that back up,
1:44:49 Ms. Campbell, I overlooked that.
1:44:51 Anyone else have any comments or questions?
1:44:54 - Anyone else to speak?
1:44:56 - Yep, gotta go back and ask one more time.
1:44:59 Is there anyone else that would like to speak,
1:45:01 address the board on the,
1:45:03 is there anyone else that would like to address the board
1:45:05 on the 2019-2020 tentative budget?
1:45:09 Yes, ma’am, please state your name.
1:45:11 - My name is Angela Dawson.
1:45:12 I was here at the impasse hearing.
1:45:15 I work for the Florida Education Association
1:45:17 in consultation with the Brevard Federation of Teachers.
1:45:20 We’ve been doing a lot of discussion about the budget
1:45:23 and we had a couple of additional questions on page 12.
1:45:34 So as part of the impasse hearing,
1:45:36 we had a lot of discussion about the unassigned fund balance
1:45:39 and you can see that the adopted budget
1:45:41 started out with some specific encumbrances, carry forwards
1:45:44 and a medical insurance fund of 3.1
1:45:47 that was discussed at the hearing.
1:45:49 Then you can see in the amended budget, those were removed
1:45:51 and now you can see that they’re back in the adopted,
1:45:54 in the proposed budget to be adopted into the future.
1:45:59 We have a question for you about health insurance.
1:46:02 Health insurance in our country is in a crisis.
1:46:05 We have exploding costs in pharmacy
1:46:09 that are driving a lot of expenses into our districts.
1:46:12 And if you look at your May report,
1:46:15 the very last page gives you a history,
1:46:18 compares your current May expend for your health insurance
1:46:21 to last year’s May expend.
1:46:23 And you can see you do have a bit of a trend going.
1:46:26 I’m guessing that that’s probably pharmacy
1:46:28 and some increase possibly in things like emergency rooms
1:46:33 or other types of things that your insurance committee,
1:46:36 I’m sure, is looking into.
1:46:37 But pharmacies and trouble across our entire country.
1:46:41 You need to address that and you need to get ahead
1:46:43 of that trend before it starts to tank your plan.
1:46:47 Right now, you’re still healthy.
1:46:48 You still have money in reserve.
1:46:50 However, holding $3.1 million out of your general fund
1:46:54 for a rainy day is a bad plan and here’s why.
1:46:58 Not all your employees are paid out of the general fund.
1:47:01 If you have employees that are paid out of grants,
1:47:03 paid out of categoricals, if you decide to wait
1:47:07 until you need money, an infusion,
1:47:09 you’re not charging those categoricals
1:47:11 for the appropriate amount for the health insurance
1:47:14 of those employees.
1:47:15 You would be better off saying,
1:47:17 we’re gonna add $10 per person per head per month
1:47:21 and start charging all your categoricals
1:47:23 because probably about 80% is coming out of general fund
1:47:27 for your staff and maybe 20% out of categoricals
1:47:29 if you’re kind of typical.
1:47:31 So you’re really spending more money out
1:47:33 of your general fund doing it this way.
1:47:35 And when you’re building a budget,
1:47:37 if you know that you need to increase an expense,
1:47:40 you would increase that expense in the line item.
1:47:43 You wouldn’t hold money in reserve and put a label on it.
1:47:46 So if there’s things here that need to be amended
1:47:49 in your budget, I would suggest that you actually budget
1:47:52 for the amount you think you need and not hold money
1:47:55 into the reserve like that because you will end up
1:47:57 shortchanging your general fund when you could have been
1:48:00 charging your categoricals for health insurance.
1:48:04 - Thank you, ma’am.
1:48:05 Anyone have any comments or questions?
1:48:07 Ms. Belford.
1:48:09 - I would just like to clarify on the $3.1 million
1:48:11 only because I think I was the only one that was here
1:48:14 when that $3.1 million fund was created initially.
1:48:19 The $3.1 million that is in general fund
1:48:22 for health insurance is not a rainy day fund
1:48:24 for health insurance.
1:48:24 It actually is part of the dollars that we pay,
1:48:28 the district, the board, whoever you wanna reference,
1:48:31 pays for employee premiums for healthcare.
1:48:34 And so when this fund was brought about, it was 2015,
1:48:40 at that point, Dr. Binggeli was our superintendent
1:48:42 and his solution, because our premium year
1:48:45 and our budget year were not aligned,
1:48:48 his solution and the former CFO came up with a solution
1:48:54 to allow that portion of premiums to drop to the bottom line
1:48:59 and utilize $3.1 million of the funds
1:49:02 that fall to the bottom line
1:49:03 to pay that portion of health insurance premiums.
1:49:05 And that is something that has just continued.
1:49:08 It is not in fact a rainy day fund.
1:49:11 That’s why it goes away in September, October,
1:49:15 whenever it changes, and then the next year
1:49:17 when we have funds drop to the bottom line,
1:49:19 we set aside $3.1 million of those funds
1:49:22 for those health insurance premiums as well.
1:49:24 So I absolutely appreciate what you’re saying
1:49:26 about making sure that funds are coming from categoricals.
1:49:30 This is just a very small portion
1:49:32 of what we’re paying for employee premiums.
1:49:36 - Ms. Zuercher, can we change the way we do that?
1:49:39 I hate that we’ve always done it this way,
1:49:41 let’s just continue to do it.
1:49:43 Would it be helpful if we move that into
1:49:47 and pay it like the rest of our budget?
1:49:49 - It’s a recurring budgeting item.
1:49:52 So if we move it as part of the adopted budget up,
1:49:56 then it’s committing recurring dollars
1:49:58 that could go to something such as salary increases.
1:50:02 And that’s why it’s never been done since then.
1:50:04 I would love to do that.
1:50:06 I don’t agree with what we’re doing.
1:50:09 It was, as Ms. Belford said, established before I was CFO.
1:50:14 There were a number of things like that
1:50:15 that were much smaller we were able to get rid of.
1:50:18 But at some point, the board would have to allocate
1:50:21 $3.1 million recurring to be able
1:50:24 to just move it back up to the premiums where it belongs.
1:50:27 - It seems as if it’s been falling
1:50:28 to the bottom line since 2015.
1:50:31 - We’re taking it out of laps dollars to pay it.
1:50:36 - So we’d still have to find $3.1 million worth of cuts.
1:50:39 - Yep.
1:50:40 - Thank you.
1:50:45 - Is there anyone else that would like to speak
1:50:47 on the 2019-2020 tentative budget?
1:50:53 - Hello, Mr. Bennett.
1:50:55 You should give them to the officer.
1:50:56 We have a new process now.
1:50:58 We trust you, Mr. Bennett,
1:51:01 but we haven’t seen you in a while, so.
1:51:05 - I have an extra copy, so I’ll leave it here with Penny.
1:51:07 There should be one for everybody.
1:51:08 Good evening, Dr. Mullins, and member of the board,
1:51:11 and Amy and Pam.
1:51:14 My name is Dan Bennett.
1:51:15 I used to be Anthony before Anthony was Anthony.
1:51:17 Now I’m back to being Dan.
1:51:18 I’m a teacher at Space Coast and loving it.
1:51:20 I stumbled into this building a few weeks ago
1:51:23 for lunch.
1:51:24 It was Meatloaf Monday, and the room was packed,
1:51:26 and y’all were having some kind of discussion up here.
1:51:28 People were angry.
1:51:29 Everyone’s wearing red, and I heard y’all talking
1:51:31 about something, budget money, and I heard my name come up,
1:51:35 and so that perked my interest.
1:51:37 They came up, “What are they talking about?”
1:51:38 And I said, “Oh, no.
1:51:39 “My students have fallen from grace,
1:51:41 “and I had to come back and go over some things,”
1:51:42 ‘cause you were talking about a Dan Bennett line
1:51:44 of the budget, and it’s something that I talked to you about
1:51:46 for, oh, about 10 years.
1:51:47 I didn’t name it after myself.
1:51:49 That was Dr. Blackburn named it that,
1:51:51 but the problems we’re having in this county
1:51:54 are because there’s a lesson that I failed
1:51:56 to get all the way delivered.
1:51:58 I got some of it delivered, but not all the way delivered.
1:52:00 Across the state, as the magistrate pointed out,
1:52:03 other districts are doing better than us,
1:52:04 and it’s only because they have completely mastered
1:52:07 the lesson.
1:52:08 You all are capable of this.
1:52:08 You will get it, I’m confident,
1:52:10 and I mean that sincerely.
1:52:12 I’m optimistic that you will get there.
1:52:14 We will get there like all our other districts,
1:52:16 and when we’re talking about a one or 2% raise,
1:52:18 everyone else won’t be talking about a two or 3% raise.
1:52:21 For the past four, five, six years,
1:52:22 every other district is talking about one to 2% more
1:52:25 than us, and it’s just because we didn’t get
1:52:27 the whole lesson, so let me give you the history.
1:52:30 If you look at my circle on the sheet,
1:52:32 and I’m not suggesting an unencumbered fund balance,
1:52:34 an encumbered fund, I’m not suggesting they’re equal,
1:52:36 but just in the circle, it worked out to be the same.
1:52:39 Your encumbered fund balance is the money.
1:52:40 Don’t spend.
1:52:41 That’s your school balances.
1:52:42 Your payroll can’t spend it, but within there,
1:52:44 you’ve got board contingencies, 19,
1:52:46 but we talked a lot about that meeting.
1:52:47 We talked a lot about board contingencies.
1:52:49 Don’t spend that.
1:52:50 That’s a lock.
1:52:51 The unencumbered fund balance is the part
1:52:53 of your fund balance that is money sitting there
1:52:55 doing nothing, and yet it magically grows every year.
1:52:58 You don’t budget for it to grow,
1:52:59 and yet the trend line over time is that it grows.
1:53:02 Why does it grow?
1:53:03 Because there’s portions within the budget
1:53:05 that are padded that are bigger than they need to be.
1:53:07 If we just know what that is and get a better grip on it,
1:53:10 we can capture it in real time.
1:53:12 The magistrate told you that other districts
1:53:14 are doing this better than us, and that money is there
1:53:17 as evidenced on the backside.
1:53:18 I’m gonna jump to the back right quick
1:53:19 ‘cause I wanna show you the evidence.
1:53:21 Misty, you were hitting all around this at the meeting.
1:53:23 I was proud of you, but we didn’t quite bring it home.
1:53:25 Look at the box where I put question marks
1:53:27 underneath those numbers, all right?
1:53:30 Notice every year, the average raise is much bigger
1:53:33 than the change in average salary.
1:53:35 What that means is you budget to give that much in raise,
1:53:38 and yet the salary doesn’t go up,
1:53:39 so there’s a gap in there somewhere.
1:53:41 Let’s explain some of that gap.
1:53:43 Oh, man, I’m running out of time.
1:53:44 The first is the lapse factor.
1:53:46 This was a past CFO admitted.
1:53:47 She said the average contract is 98.8% of fulfillment.
1:53:52 This is ‘cause not everybody works the full contract.
1:53:54 $5 million was captured.
1:53:56 The attrition money is what’s called the Dan Bennett money.
1:54:00 It means year over year, the average teacher comes in
1:54:02 as about $3,500 less.
1:54:04 That’s the number Penny gave, I agree.
1:54:06 That saves you about $285 in average salary,
1:54:10 but there’s more to it.
1:54:11 Just look at those two numbers.
1:54:13 Look at the gap.
1:54:13 Oh, I’d love 30 more seconds.
1:54:15 Could I get 30 more seconds?
1:54:16 I just wanna give you a few ideas.
1:54:17 - I’ll move to it. - Please, 30, 30, 30.
1:54:20 - Or will we give Mr. Bennett 30 more seconds?
1:54:21 - 30 more seconds.
1:54:23 - 29.
1:54:24 - Ms. Belford gives you 20 minutes.
1:54:25 - These are what other districts have looked at,
1:54:27 and other districts have agreed and admitted and said,
1:54:29 oh, yes, we can do this.
1:54:31 Vacant positions, don’t make the union fight for this.
1:54:33 Every four days you have a teacher vacancy, or excuse me,
1:54:36 every four days that you have 50 vacancies,
1:54:39 that’s one teacher salary.
1:54:40 It’s real.
1:54:41 Other boards have learned this, agree it,
1:54:42 capture that money, put it in.
1:54:44 This district still fights about it.
1:54:46 You have positions in your budget that are not advertised.
1:54:48 Dr. Mullins, you wisely said that if we had a catastrophe,
1:54:51 had to cut money, we’d cut positions.
1:54:53 There are positions not advertised that are in the budget.
1:54:56 Those people don’t collect raises.
1:54:57 I’ll leave you with a question.
1:54:59 Suppose you just advocated, or just approved $9 million
1:55:03 in recurring raises for next year.
1:55:06 I mean, suppose that’s just the package that you did.
1:55:08 How much do you have to have in your budget for next year
1:55:09 to cover those $9 million raises for next year?
1:55:12 Did you say 9 million?
1:55:13 It’s not.
1:55:14 It’s less than 8 1/2 million.
1:55:16 Because 10% of your people, 8 to 10% of your people,
1:55:18 quit on you every year.
1:55:19 So those people that leave,
1:55:20 they don’t get the raise next year.
1:55:22 There’s ways that you can capture that money ahead of time,
1:55:24 and then your average raise, or your average salary,
1:55:28 will actually go up as much as your average raise.
1:55:30 When you get those two numbers to balance,
1:55:32 we will be right on level with other districts in our area
1:55:35 that have already learned this lesson.
1:55:37 You can do it, I’m confident,
1:55:38 because other districts have done it too.
1:55:40 Thank you.
1:55:41 - Thank you, Mr. Bennett.
1:55:42 (attendees applauding)
1:55:50 - Is there anyone else that would like to speak
1:55:51 on the 2019-2020 tentative budget?
1:55:55 Board members, any more questions or comments
1:55:57 on the tentative budget?
1:56:04 The public comment portion of this hearing is now closed.
1:56:10 This brings us to the recommendations
1:56:12 for the adoption of the proposed millage rates
1:56:14 and tentative budget, Dr. Mullen.
1:56:16 - There are a total of three separate motions
1:56:18 for the board to consider.
1:56:20 I will read each of these recommendations
1:56:22 into the record and request board action.
1:56:25 Item A, adopt proposed 2019-2020 millage rates
1:56:30 of operating fund.
1:56:33 Required local effort, 3.838.
1:56:38 Local discretionary, 0.748.
1:56:43 Capital outlay, 1.500.
1:56:47 For total, 6.086.
1:56:52 - What are the wishes of the board?
1:56:55 - Move to approve.
1:56:57 - Second.
1:56:58 - Motion by Ms. Belford, second by Ms. Campbell.
1:57:00 Any discussion?
1:57:03 Please vote.
1:57:08 (people chattering)
1:57:27 Motion passes, five, zero.
1:57:36 Dr. Mullens.
1:57:37 Item B, adopt the 2019-2020 tentative budget
1:57:41 of operating, 633,907,522.
1:57:49 Special revenue, 97,291,035.
1:57:56 Debt service, 41,402,583.
1:58:03 Capital outlay, 254,423,721.
1:58:11 Enterprise.
1:58:18 I’m gonna go back.
1:58:19 Which one?
1:58:23 Let me repeat debt service.
1:58:26 41,402,585.
1:58:32 Capital outlay, 254,423,721.
1:58:40 Enterprise, 4,700,823.
1:58:47 For a subtotal, 1,031,700–
1:58:51 - Excuse me, Dr. Mullens.
1:58:56 - Enterprise was read at 4,700,823,
1:59:00 and it should be 826, according to the agenda.
1:59:04 - I apologize.
1:59:06 - I just wanna make sure we got it right
1:59:07 so we don’t have anything messed up.
1:59:09 - I said three?
1:59:11 No idea where that came from.
1:59:12 Let me try again.
1:59:15 Enterprise, $4,700,826.
1:59:23 Subtotal, $1,031,725,000.
1:59:31 $6,889,000.
1:59:35 Less transfers, $54,774,758.
1:59:45 For a total, $976,950,931.
1:59:55 Internal service, $81,798,800.
2:00:00 $976,519.
2:00:03 - What are the wishes of the board?
2:00:05 - Move to approve. - Second.
2:00:07 - Motion by Ms. Belford, second by Ms. McDougall.
2:00:10 Any discussion?
2:00:13 Please vote.
2:00:24 Motion passes, five-zero.
2:00:31 - Dr. Mullins.
2:00:35 - Item C, authorize the superintendent
2:00:37 to take the following actions.
2:00:39 One, notify both the property appraiser
2:00:42 and the tax collector of the proposed 2019-2020 millage
2:00:47 and the following rolled back rates.
2:00:50 Operating fund rolled back rates.
2:00:53 Required local effort, 3.8452.
2:00:58 Local discretionary, 0.7100.
2:01:04 Capital outlay rolled back rate, 1.4238.
2:01:10 Total rolled back rate, 5.9790.
2:01:16 Number two, notify both the property appraiser
2:01:19 and the tax collector of the final public hearing
2:01:22 on September 10, 2019 at 5.30 p.m.
2:01:25 at the educational services facility, Viera.
2:01:29 And three, adjust the revenues and expenditures
2:01:32 if necessary prior to the final public hearing.
2:01:36 - What are the wishes of the board?
2:01:38 - Move to approve. - Second.
2:01:41 - Motion by Ms. Belford, second by Ms. Campbell.
2:01:43 Any discussion?
2:01:45 Please vote.
2:01:54 - Motion passes, five, zero.
2:01:58 The proposed 2019-2020 millage rate
2:02:01 necessary to fund the tentative budget
2:02:03 exceeds the rolled back rate by 1.79%.
2:02:10 Budget hearing is now adjourned
2:02:13 and we will reopen the school board meeting.
2:02:18 We will move on to item, oh, Dr. Mullins.
2:02:23 We’re moving on to the action agenda.
2:02:25 We will move on to item G23 and purchasing solicitations.
2:02:30 - What are the wishes of the board?
2:02:32 - Move to approve. - Second.
2:02:34 - Motion by Ms. Belford, second by Ms. Campbell.
2:02:37 Any discussion?
2:02:40 Please vote.
2:02:48 Motion passes, five, zero.
2:02:50 Dr. Mullins.
2:02:51 - Item G24 is on purchasing solicitations.
2:02:54 - What are the wishes of the board?
2:02:57 - Move to approve. - Second.
2:02:59 - Motion by Ms. McDougall, second by Ms. Belford.
2:03:04 Any discussion?
2:03:06 Please vote.
2:03:13 Motion passes, five, zero.
2:03:14 Dr. Mullins.
2:03:19 - There is one item under the information category.
2:03:22 Am I in the right spot?
2:03:24 - You are, but we will move on to now
2:03:26 to the information agenda,
2:03:28 which includes items for board review
2:03:29 and will be brought back for action at a later meeting.
2:03:33 No action will be taken on these items tonight.
2:03:35 Dr. Mullins.
2:03:37 - There is one item under the information category.
2:03:39 - Does any member wish to discuss this item?
2:03:46 Ms. McDougall.
2:03:50 - I first wanna thank Ms. Moore’s team
2:03:53 for putting this plan together.
2:03:56 I spent a lot of time on the phone with her yesterday
2:03:58 and I appreciate her taking the time.
2:04:00 I think it’s a great start
2:04:02 and I look forward to our plan
2:04:05 and I probably will be asking her more questions,
2:04:09 but I’m excited that you have put this together,
2:04:11 so thank you.
2:04:12 I know it was a lot of work, so thank you again.
2:04:17 - Anyone else have any comments
2:04:20 on our information item this evening,
2:04:22 the BPS mental health plan?
2:04:25 I just wanna thank Ms. Moore and her team
2:04:27 and probably Dr. Thede,
2:04:29 who was probably in the formative stages of that.
2:04:32 It’s all Ms. Moore.
2:04:37 There’s so much in that plan.
2:04:39 There’s so much good for our students.
2:04:42 I think I emailed you the minute I saw it posted
2:04:44 and clicked and opened it and I’m pretty excited
2:04:47 about what our district is doing
2:04:49 for the mental health of our students.
2:04:50 I know we’ve got room to grow,
2:04:52 but we’ve come a long way in the last few years,
2:04:55 so thank you and your team for all your hard work.
2:05:01 We are now on to board member discussion points and reports.
2:05:06 Turns out they’re both mine,
2:05:08 so that’s not how I’m supposed to say it.
2:05:10 According to Pam, I have to say,
2:05:12 I placed two items for discussion for this evening.
2:05:14 The first one is regarding Florida Tech’s request
2:05:16 for special use of alcohol at Palm Bay Magnet High School.
2:05:20 And the second one is options
2:05:21 for a long-term compensation plan.
2:05:24 We will start the discussion for Florida Tech’s request
2:05:29 of special use of alcohol at Palm Bay Magnet High School.
2:05:33 Mr. Langdorf, I think we’re probably gonna,
2:05:36 no, I’m at least gonna have some questions for you
2:05:38 if you can come up.
2:05:40 So, I asked for us to discuss this
2:05:46 because Mr.
2:05:49 - Jergens.
2:05:50 - Jergens, sorry, your name escaped me.
2:05:53 Reached out to me earlier this week
2:05:55 because the district had denied FIT
2:05:59 the ability to not sell, but serve or bring alcohol
2:06:04 on our Palm Bay campus.
2:06:07 And for those that are watching, FIT leases
2:06:12 our stadium at Palm Bay Magnet High School.
2:06:15 It is actually called the Florida Panther Stadium.
2:06:18 Is that, do I have that correct?
2:06:21 And they would like to do some tailgating.
2:06:23 And so they wanted us to alter our school board policy,
2:06:28 which says we cannot have alcohol on any campus
2:06:31 for the time and the duration that they are on the campus.
2:06:34 I am told that your department denied
2:06:37 according to our school board policy.
2:06:41 And I would like to hear,
2:06:42 ‘cause I haven’t called you or even discussed
2:06:46 your reasons for denying,
2:06:47 and then I’m hoping we can discuss it as a board
2:06:49 if it’s something we want to consider
2:06:50 to make an amendment to,
2:06:52 like we have for the Space Coast property,
2:06:55 or the, what’s it called, Matt?
2:06:56 The Space Coast Daily?
2:06:59 Space Coast Daily Park.
2:07:01 Mr. Langdorf, I’m sorry, I probably should have prepared you.
2:07:04 I didn’t, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this was coming.
2:07:06 - It was perfectly fine, I didn’t.
2:07:08 - Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
2:07:12 - Obviously I’ve been doing,
2:07:13 I looked at the calendar today,
2:07:14 this is my 20th year and 25th day
2:07:17 working for the school board of Broward County
2:07:18 as your risk manager.
2:07:20 - Thank you for your service.
2:07:21 - Thank you.
2:07:21 Not looking for accolades on that,
2:07:23 but the reality is I’ve been over the facility use
2:07:26 during that entire time.
2:07:28 Part of the things, part of my duty is to make sure
2:07:30 that anybody who’s using your facilities
2:07:33 is doing so according to policy.
2:07:35 If you look at board policy 5530 under drug prevention,
2:07:40 it says a couple of things that I think are pretty clear.
2:07:43 It says for the purpose of this policy,
2:07:45 and I just highlighted these to shorten this up,
2:07:48 for the purpose of this policy,
2:07:49 drugs shall mean all alcoholic beverages
2:07:52 as part of our drug prevention.
2:07:54 And then it’s a two-part process when it comes to drugs.
2:07:58 It says the board prohibits the use, possession,
2:08:02 concealment or distribution of any drug
2:08:05 or any drug-related paraphernalia as termed by,
2:08:10 term is defined by law,
2:08:12 or the misuse of a product containing a substance
2:08:15 can be providing an intoxicating or mood-altering effect
2:08:19 on school grounds, on school vehicles,
2:08:23 and at any school-sponsored event.
2:08:26 In addition, it says it further establishes
2:08:30 that there is a drug-free zone within 1,000 feet
2:08:35 of any facility used by the district
2:08:38 for educational purposes.
2:08:40 Based on that, whenever we get a request
2:08:43 for somebody to serve alcohol or have alcohol on campuses,
2:08:48 we deny all of those requests.
2:08:51 So FIT’s request was no different
2:08:54 than what we might have had from anybody else.
2:08:58 - Mr. Susan, do you have a question?
2:09:00 - Just real quick, when did that request come in?
2:09:03 - It came in last week, that’s when I was aware of it.
2:09:09 - Do we have any other type of arrangements
2:09:11 that are similar to what we have with FIT
2:09:13 as far as the contract, the stadium use?
2:09:17 I know we rent out our cafeterias for meetings
2:09:21 and things of that nature,
2:09:22 but do we have anything else on that level?
2:09:24 - We don’t have the, on the same level as FIT, no.
2:09:27 But we do rent out our facilities frequently
2:09:30 to a lot of members of the public.
2:09:33 We process over 7,000 facility use agreements a year,
2:09:38 district-wide.
2:09:40 - Are they under a facility use agreement
2:09:42 or are they under some other type of contract also?
2:09:46 - They’re mostly facility use agreements.
2:09:48 There may be some that, an individual group
2:09:51 that might be working for the Parks and Recreation
2:09:53 Department or working under– - No, FIT specifically.
2:09:56 Are they just under our traditional
2:09:57 one-page facility use agreement?
2:09:59 - They’re under our facility use agreement.
2:10:00 - Even with them naming the stadium and all,
2:10:03 there’s nothing overarching that’s bigger
2:10:04 than our facility use agreement with them?
2:10:06 - Those are separate agreements.
2:10:07 When it comes to facility use,
2:10:09 it’s always done through our facility use agreement form
2:10:12 and we charge them according to what we’ve charged initially
2:10:17 when I can’t, I don’t have those charges in front of me
2:10:19 or else I’d give those to you.
2:10:21 - I don’t need to know the amount.
2:10:22 I’m more curious about how we’ve done this before.
2:10:25 Do you remember when we, what we did to allow,
2:10:29 I know it’s different, the property,
2:10:31 it doesn’t have a school on it, et cetera, et cetera,
2:10:33 but what did we do different to go against our own policy
2:10:36 to allow Space Coast Park to serve and sell alcohol?
2:10:43 - That is school board property, it is,
2:10:45 but there is no school located.
2:10:47 In addition to that, we had Brevard Productions
2:10:51 install a six-foot fence
2:10:53 between the Viera High School property
2:10:56 and where they will be.
2:10:57 So it’s not within, it doesn’t meet that qualification
2:11:01 of 1,000 feet within an educational facility
2:11:03 and there’s a six-foot fence separating those two properties.
2:11:07 I think the board was looking to help Brevard Production
2:11:10 do that because it was something that they looked at
2:11:12 as a public good for that particular area
2:11:15 and because it wasn’t a school campus,
2:11:18 I think that’s, I can’t speak for the board,
2:11:20 but I think that’s what the decision was
2:11:23 as to allowing alcohol just on that particular property.
2:11:27 - Okay.
2:11:29 Does anyone else have questions for Ms. Langdorf?
2:11:31 Mr. Langdorf.
2:11:33 - I did want to just touch base between the differences
2:11:36 ‘cause as soon as this came in, I started deep diving
2:11:38 and one of the main drives was to put the Daly Park,
2:11:41 which we were even talking about revenue just the other day.
2:11:46 I contacted Giles Malone and asked him
2:11:50 how much has he improved that property?
2:11:52 He spent $625,000 to raise the base, put in an entrance,
2:11:57 put up the fence around there,
2:11:59 follow the policies and stuff like that.
2:12:00 That’s roughly what he put into the property.
2:12:03 And then I asked Mark, I said,
2:12:05 “How is it that we can do alcohol out there
2:12:07 “but then how does that not fit into the stadium
2:12:09 “and everything else?”
2:12:10 And he said that the 1,000-foot barrier
2:12:13 is what allowed it to happen.
2:12:15 So I said, “Okay, so that’s our policy.”
2:12:17 So I said, “Well, is there a state policy
2:12:19 “that if we can just amend this one,
2:12:22 “is there a state policy?”
2:12:23 And I looked up and I did.
2:12:26 I found 56.2, 562.45 penalties
2:12:31 for violating beverage law timeline.
2:12:34 And I pulled it up and it says,
2:12:39 a location on, however, except for premises
2:12:43 licensed on or after and except for locations
2:12:45 that are licensed at restaurants which drive 51%,
2:12:48 it says a location on premises consumption
2:12:50 of alcoholic beverages may not be located
2:12:52 within 500 feet of the real property
2:12:54 that comprises a public or private elementary school,
2:12:57 middle school, or secondary school
2:12:58 unless the county or municipality approves the location
2:13:01 as promoting the public health, safety,
2:13:04 and general welfare of the community
2:13:05 under the proceedings provided in subsection 125.664.
2:13:10 I went those and the guidelines
2:13:12 that we are trying to make this happen under
2:13:14 don’t meet that.
2:13:16 So what I was gonna recommend
2:13:19 is I was trying to figure out a way to get this to happen,
2:13:23 but at the same time everywhere I went,
2:13:25 I hit another wall, hit another wall, hit another wall.
2:13:28 So I think if there was a way that we could ask staff
2:13:32 to see if there’s a way to make this happen
2:13:35 and make a recommendation to bring it back to us
2:13:37 because there’s some other concerns that I had
2:13:39 which were if we have alcoholic consumption
2:13:43 going on on campus on a Saturday,
2:13:46 but we also have SATs
2:13:47 or we actually have all of our clubs,
2:13:49 or what are we doing there?
2:13:50 You know what I mean?
2:13:51 I think I really wish this would have came in earlier
2:13:54 so we could have vetted all of those things.
2:13:56 - Mr. Susan, I do wanna address that one
2:13:58 because I’ve spoken to the school and to the principal,
2:14:02 and he said that they purposely even now
2:14:05 do not schedule anything at the school on game days for FIT.
2:14:09 And not only that, they don’t even usually schedule anything
2:14:12 the night before.
2:14:13 Like they try to put all their home games
2:14:15 completely opposite weekends
2:14:16 because they set up on Friday nights
2:14:18 before the Saturday games.
2:14:20 So I just wanna make sure we’re all…
2:14:23 Is that, so that’s state statute that you just read?
2:14:25 - Yeah, yeah.
2:14:26 And I, and there’s, I tried,
2:14:32 I tried that and then there was just a couple other concerns
2:14:34 that I had that were with the difference between the two.
2:14:37 Is there a fence that we can say
2:14:38 just to try to say similarity between the two were there?
2:14:41 And I just, I kept hitting roadblocks.
2:14:43 So instead of coming up with a last minute,
2:14:46 yeah, let’s make this happen,
2:14:48 I think it would be our due diligence
2:14:49 to let staff take a look at it, workshop it,
2:14:51 and come back to us with something if that was possible.
2:14:54 ‘Cause I didn’t, I do wanna promote
2:14:56 working with our people,
2:14:58 but I don’t wanna put us into a liability where we get hit.
2:15:01 And then there was another thing,
2:15:03 a federal funding thing that I hit
2:15:05 that was dealing with the national laws
2:15:08 as far as alcohol on school property.
2:15:11 So I just think it would just behoove us
2:15:13 rather than jumping into something,
2:15:15 we would do that anyway, is to just tell staff,
2:15:17 hey, can we make this work?
2:15:18 And what is it that’s gonna be our barriers
2:15:21 rather than jumping into it?
2:15:22 And they don’t have a game until September 28th.
2:15:25 So I don’t know if that plays into it.
2:15:27 - Gives us a little time.
2:15:28 So I agree with Mr. Susan
2:15:31 that I would like to see this work if we can.
2:15:33 We can’t violate state law, obviously.
2:15:36 We can work within our own policies if we choose to,
2:15:40 but we need feedback from the other three
2:15:41 because it would take three of us to even move forward
2:15:44 to have staff try to figure something out, if possible.
2:15:46 I mean, maybe it’s not, but is there anyone else
2:15:48 that has any interest in looking more into this for FIT?
2:15:54 - I understand the desire of the school,
2:16:01 of our city council from Melbourne who has contacted us,
2:16:05 and the Chamber of Commerce who has contacted us.
2:16:07 But I, for one, am not interested at all
2:16:10 in allowing alcohol consumption on any of our campuses ever.
2:16:16 - Can I, I’d like to say something too.
2:16:17 - Ms. McDougall.
2:16:21 - At the moment I understand that FIT,
2:16:23 you have your tailgating on your campus,
2:16:25 and then you, everybody kind of goes over to our stadium.
2:16:30 Is there a reason why that can’t continue?
2:16:33 I mean, I read some articles,
2:16:35 thank you very much, Ms. Campbell, that it talked about,
2:16:39 that one of the main reasons that people want to do this,
2:16:43 schools want to do this, is because it’s a fundraiser.
2:16:45 It brings in more money, it helps the programs, I get that.
2:16:52 But also, I am very leery of having alcohol
2:16:56 on any of our campuses also, for many reasons.
2:17:00 There’s some statistics that was written by a university,
2:17:04 somebody, a doctor, let me see what his name was,
2:17:07 President, oh boy, Nitez, N-I-E-T-Z-E-L.
2:17:13 He wrote an article in 2018,
2:17:15 and talking about how more and more colleges
2:17:18 are wanting to serve alcohol, but at the same time,
2:17:22 they talk about more than 1/3 college students
2:17:25 report binge drinking.
2:17:28 That 20% of the college students could be diagnosed
2:17:31 with alcohol disorder, and if people know who I am,
2:17:35 I’m a social worker, so this is why I’m quoting
2:17:37 all these facts here.
2:17:39 A fourth of college students report
2:17:41 that they have adverse effects with drinking.
2:17:45 And the statistic alcohol tends to be a factor
2:17:49 in the cases for sexual assaults.
2:17:53 More than 1,800 college students die annually
2:17:55 from alcohol-related deaths.
2:17:57 I really do not want to have any alcohol
2:17:59 on our campuses either.
2:18:03 - Ms. Belford, sounds like you’re gonna
2:18:05 make the deciding decision if we move forward
2:18:10 with exploring this.
2:18:12 - So I am, you know, I think we should always
2:18:15 look into things just to make sure that we understand
2:18:21 all aspects of it.
2:18:22 I am admittedly not a huge fan of having alcohol
2:18:25 on our campuses.
2:18:26 I think that the only way, barring state national laws
2:18:35 that may stop us, and that may be a deal breaker,
2:18:38 that may be exactly where the work stops
2:18:40 and looking into it.
2:18:43 Barring that, if there were a situation
2:18:45 where our campus was effectively shut down
2:18:47 to everything except for FIT, being there,
2:18:52 doing their tailgating, it’s something
2:18:54 that I could potentially consider.
2:18:56 However, I will not vote to go against our own policies,
2:19:03 so it would require for me, in order for me
2:19:05 to support it, it would require that we go
2:19:08 through the process of altering our policy
2:19:11 to provide some very slim, very restricted exception
2:19:16 in order to make this happen.
2:19:17 So I’m not, you know, I get where they’re coming from.
2:19:20 I can understand, but at the same time,
2:19:25 I won’t vote to go against our policy.
2:19:28 I suspect, based on having done the same research
2:19:31 that Mr. Susan did, that we are going to run
2:19:34 into obstacles that will keep us from doing that,
2:19:36 unless there is some way for, well,
2:19:41 and because of the proximity to the school,
2:19:43 I don’t see that there is.
2:19:44 I was gonna say, unless there’s some way
2:19:45 that we can actually transfer partial ownership
2:19:49 of the parcel or something, but that even if you look
2:19:53 at the state statute with the 500-foot restriction,
2:19:56 I don’t think that would even achieve it
2:19:58 because we’re still gonna be within 500 feet on that campus.
2:20:01 There’s no way to get 500 feet away, so.
2:20:04 - I even had Sue Han look in to see
2:20:06 if we had any vacant property around
2:20:08 that we could have joined Palm Bay,
2:20:10 that we could try to allow the, you know,
2:20:13 that piece so they could just walk to the stadium.
2:20:15 - Right.
2:20:16 - And she said there wasn’t.
2:20:17 So I was trying as hard as I could.
2:20:19 I just kept hitting walls all the way.
2:20:21 - Yeah, so I mean, I’m fine if you all would like
2:20:24 to give direction to Ms. Envall to look
2:20:26 into the statutory, you know, the statutory restrictions
2:20:30 that I would think that would be the best place to start
2:20:33 and just to verify that that is, you know,
2:20:35 our biggest roadblock.
2:20:37 If that’s the case, I don’t know that there’s anything
2:20:39 that we can do about it and it shouldn’t take
2:20:41 an enormous amount of your time just to verify that, I hope.
2:20:44 - I can take a look at that.
2:20:45 I haven’t had a chance to look at it
2:20:46 because it was so quick.
2:20:47 - Right.
2:20:48 - I did get a chance, however, to look at our policy,
2:20:50 the 5530, and it has not been amended in a very long time
2:20:55 and it has a number of wonky provisions
2:20:57 that need to be changed.
2:20:58 But NEOLA’s template is the exact same
2:21:01 as our current policy is, say, for an extra line at the end
2:21:05 that is not applicable in this particular situation.
2:21:08 You have another policy you also need to consider.
2:21:10 You have a human resources policy,
2:21:15 hang on a second, 3124, which is drug-free workplace policy
2:21:19 and the administrative procedures that specifically provides
2:21:23 in the third section A, like I said,
2:21:25 we still have to amend some of those.
2:21:26 But in the third section A, it says employees will be free
2:21:28 of alcoholic or drug intoxication when on duty
2:21:31 or on board property.
2:21:32 Employees are prohibited from the manufacture
2:21:34 or use of alcoholic beverages while on board property
2:21:37 or while on duty with the board.
2:21:38 So the way that that language specifically states,
2:21:41 it means that any employees would be in violation
2:21:43 of our board policy if they did choose,
2:21:46 first of all, if you have alcohol on our property
2:21:48 and then if they choose to partake in the use of it.
2:21:52 - So it seems it would have to really be some kind of way
2:21:54 it wouldn’t be our property for so many hours.
2:21:57 It’d have to be some obscure way of making it work.
2:22:03 If you’re okay with them just looking at it,
2:22:05 I mean seeing if there’s anything mis-involved.
2:22:09 - And I think with us moving forward with just in general,
2:22:12 it’s a good exercise to look at, I’m sorry.
2:22:15 I think moving forward, regardless of if it comes back
2:22:18 state statute or whatever, we need to look forward to this
2:22:21 because we are opening up for advertising dollars
2:22:23 and everything else.
2:22:24 What could we capture if there was an event?
2:22:26 And we do have Space Coast Daily Park that’s over there
2:22:28 that’s operating, so what’s the difference?
2:22:30 What do we do?
2:22:31 I see, but I was gonna ask if we didn’t get this thing
2:22:34 through to just do an exercise just to see it.
2:22:37 But I agree with you, I wanna do due diligence.
2:22:39 I don’t wanna throw something on staff.
2:22:40 So let’s give them the opportunity to bring it back to us.
2:22:43 - Dr. Mullins, do you want me to restate
2:22:46 what we’re asking for?
2:22:50 - Ms. Envall, are you–
2:22:51 - I know, but he has to kind of know.
2:22:53 It’s our attorney, but she may be working
2:22:55 with Mr. Langdorf and some others.
2:22:58 I think we understand this is not likely,
2:23:03 but if there’s any avenues, we’ve asked Ms. Envall
2:23:05 obviously to look and probably use some of your staff
2:23:08 to get some resources together.
2:23:10 The thing is, is we wanna be a good partner.
2:23:12 I think all five of us wanna be good partners to FIT.
2:23:17 I think two of our board members have legitimate concerns.
2:23:20 We are, you know, we are under 18 schools.
2:23:24 So if we can just take a look,
2:23:26 see if there’s something we can do.
2:23:27 If not, at least we need to look at that policy anyway
2:23:30 for other future things.
2:23:32 I think what Ms. Belford said is important.
2:23:36 If we needed to alter our policy,
2:23:39 it had to be done in a very specific way
2:23:40 because we don’t want every single,
2:23:43 that’s why I was asking if they were under
2:23:44 some different type of contract.
2:23:46 We don’t want everyone that comes up with a,
2:23:49 what’s that form, facility use form to check a box
2:23:53 to say, yeah, we’ll be serving alcohol at our local
2:23:54 elementary school. - ‘Cause the precedents.
2:23:56 - There are some concerns with precedent as well.
2:24:00 I didn’t even go there because of the–
2:24:02 - There’s enough on the policy to, okay.
2:24:05 We appreciate your time.
2:24:06 Thank you, Mr. Langdorf.
2:24:08 Mr. Jergens, if I’m not sure if you followed everything
2:24:11 that was going on there, it’s not shut down and closed,
2:24:15 but there’s gonna be a lot of obstacles
2:24:17 is what it seems to look like, okay?
2:24:19 Thank you for your time and for coming out.
2:24:22 All right, the next topic board that I wanted to discuss,
2:24:25 and I know I just threw it on here last night,
2:24:27 but yesterday we met, the school board,
2:24:32 one of our jobs is to do the superintendent’s
2:24:35 annual evaluation, and yesterday we met to do that,
2:24:38 and one of the things we do at the end of the evaluation
2:24:40 is set five goals, and Dr. Mullins barely even knows
2:24:44 what we’ve set for his five goals
2:24:45 ‘cause we haven’t met him to give him his evaluation yet,
2:24:49 but I think it’s timely.
2:24:53 It’s timely with the budget hearing
2:24:55 and with everything that’s going on with teacher salary,
2:24:58 and us coming off of this meeting yesterday
2:25:00 that we had these discussions as a board,
2:25:02 and as we set Dr. Mullins’ goals for the next year,
2:25:07 we have as the number one goal, the exact wording is
2:25:12 to adopt a plan to fix equity gaps and increase compensation
2:25:16 and that is equity gaps within compensation.
2:25:19 So, his number one goal that the school board
2:25:21 has directed for the year is to increase compensation.
2:25:28 (audience applauds)
2:25:30 Thank you.
2:25:33 - Say it again, I wanna hear him clap again.
2:25:35 - I know, we don’t get that from the table very often.
2:25:38 We’ll take that.
2:25:42 And as I went home and thought about that some more
2:25:45 and what that’s really gonna take,
2:25:49 it’s gonna take, in my mind, a big, bold plan
2:25:53 and it’s gonna hurt somewhere in our community.
2:25:56 We’ve been throwing around a millage rate.
2:25:59 Half of our, roughly half of our community
2:26:02 is not gonna like that.
2:26:03 It’s gonna harm some of maybe our elderly
2:26:05 that are on a fixed income and have their home paid for.
2:26:10 We’ve been throwing around the five of six,
2:26:13 and there’s, I really want us,
2:26:18 and it’s interesting that you brought that up today
2:26:19 because it’s actually in my notes from last night
2:26:21 that I’m very interested in the district
2:26:24 really digging in there again.
2:26:27 Several of my schools, including Satellite High,
2:26:29 those teachers are constantly asking
2:26:31 to go back to five of six.
2:26:33 Again, there’s a downside, there’s consequences to that
2:26:36 and our CTE programs would suffer.
2:26:38 I believe our electives would suffer.
2:26:40 For Satellite alone, some of their fine arts opportunities
2:26:43 may suffer, but I think it’s something we have to,
2:26:46 it’s time, time is here.
2:26:48 Something big has to happen.
2:26:50 We’re looking at tax increases,
2:26:52 switching our whole system back to six period days,
2:26:56 and I’ve tried to talk about this a couple times
2:26:59 and no one seems to want to hear me.
2:27:01 We have 30 more schools, but 19 more elementary schools
2:27:06 in Seminole County with the same amount of students.
2:27:10 Ms. Zuercher tells me it’s approximately $1 million a year
2:27:14 to operate that school outside of teacher salaries.
2:27:18 It’s just $1 million a year, that’s $19 million.
2:27:21 So when we look at other counties and we say,
2:27:23 “Why can’t we pay ours, Mr. Bennett,” he’s gone,
2:27:26 “Why can’t we pay ours what other counties are paying theirs?”
2:27:31 Well, there’s one reason, there’s $19 million
2:27:34 that we’re using to operate 19 more schools.
2:27:37 That needs to be a community discussion.
2:27:39 Do we want to look at that as an option in our community?
2:27:43 Can we really look at that?
2:27:45 Well, it’s time, it’s time to look at that.
2:27:47 Is it time to put a five-year plan in place,
2:27:50 a 10-year plan in place to consolidate some of our schools
2:27:53 so those operating expenses are,
2:27:54 we love our small community schools here.
2:27:57 I love them, I love being in them, I get it,
2:28:00 but we’ve got big problems and it’s time for some bold,
2:28:05 and I say brave because it’s very hard to sit up here
2:28:07 because there’s going to be a room of people
2:28:09 screaming at us if we raise taxes, if we don’t give teachers
2:28:13 a proper raise, if we close schools,
2:28:16 if we go to six-period days, there will be a roomful
2:28:19 of somebody screaming at us.
2:28:21 It’s gonna be hard decisions.
2:28:22 And maybe there’s some decisions out there
2:28:24 or some options out there I’m not even thinking of,
2:28:27 but I think the time’s here.
2:28:28 And so I feel like along with our making this
2:28:32 Dr. Mullen’s number one priority for the year,
2:28:34 I want tonight to get support from you all
2:28:37 to ask him to bring us a plan, it’s time.
2:28:40 It’s time for three or four major hard options
2:28:44 that we can bring out to the community
2:28:46 and we can debate and fight about and figure out
2:28:48 what we wanna do to get this district whole again
2:28:53 where we need to be.
2:28:55 So if I can get my fellow board members on board,
2:28:58 we’ll give Dr. Mullen’s marching orders,
2:29:00 give him a few months probably to start pulling
2:29:03 that together whatever time he thinks he needs,
2:29:05 and we can go forward.
2:29:09 - There’s, and thank you, like the main reason,
2:29:14 one of the main reasons when I left,
2:29:15 when I was teaching after nine years,
2:29:18 was that I had people that worked right next door to me
2:29:21 that were making $3,000 more than me.
2:29:23 And that was before they took away step,
2:29:24 the pay increases based upon steps and everything else.
2:29:28 People were literally coming in
2:29:30 because we were on a frozen pay scale for so long,
2:29:33 making more money than I was, and I was teaching seven of seven.
2:29:37 I think not only do you look at five of six,
2:29:41 not only do you look at the extra four credits that we have
2:29:44 that we have to graduate the high school students with,
2:29:47 that takes up.
2:29:49 I think you also look at a slew of other options
2:29:51 that we have, but yes, you’re right.
2:29:52 And what the bottom line is is that we have to make
2:29:55 a decision on what’s best for the kid.
2:29:58 And literally every single piece of statistics that says
2:30:02 who it is that has the biggest impact on achievement
2:30:06 inside the schools is teachers.
2:30:08 And if we’re not giving that the first look
2:30:12 and the first priority, and we have all of these
2:30:14 other options that are great for the kids,
2:30:16 but the actual person that’s inside the classroom
2:30:18 isn’t taken care of, then we’re not gonna get
2:30:20 the achievement we need, no matter how many options
2:30:22 we have, no matter.
2:30:22 And I’m so happy that this board made the decision
2:30:26 to move forward and make this such a priority.
2:30:29 And I think it, and that was your answer, Anthony,
2:30:33 as far as getting back to the five of six.
2:30:35 Let’s go there, let’s go everywhere.
2:30:36 And that the board went for it yesterday.
2:30:38 So you guys are amazing and I applaud the effort and go.
2:30:44 - Just one second, Ms. Belford.
2:30:45 The board has not gone with five of six yet.
2:30:48 - No, I’m saying look into it.
2:30:49 - We’ve asked Dr. Mullins to look into it.
2:30:51 - Did I say that?
2:30:52 Did I say that?
2:30:53 - You said the board agreed to that yesterday
2:30:55 is what you said.
2:30:55 Let’s go there.
2:30:56 - Sorry, Dr. Mullins didn’t give me a heart attack, sorry.
2:30:59 - We went for it.
2:31:00 - Didn’t mean to give everybody a heart attack.
2:31:02 We haven’t moved forward with it yet,
2:31:03 but we definitely need to look at it.
2:31:04 And not only that, but we need the real numbers.
2:31:06 Because the last time we did it, it was kind of a shade
2:31:09 the way that it went, and we need to get the true core
2:31:12 of what it is, so.
2:31:13 - And the pros and the cons of what it means.
2:31:17 Really laid out, and again, presented to all corners
2:31:20 of this community so that I really think we’ve done
2:31:23 a poor job on educating what we’re dealing with up here,
2:31:28 and what our choices are, and let the community have input.
2:31:31 This is their schools, this is their teachers,
2:31:33 this is their kids, and let’s hear what they want.
2:31:36 Ms. Belford.
2:31:38 - Thank you, Ms. Deskevich.
2:31:39 I just wanted to clarify, and thank you for bringing that
2:31:41 to the forefront and sharing our conversation
2:31:44 from yesterday.
2:31:46 I just want to clarify for Dr. Mullins
2:31:47 that what we are asking of you is to bring forward options.
2:31:54 Not to bring forward a solution,
2:31:56 but to bring forward options.
2:31:58 Because our discussion yesterday really centered
2:32:01 around the fact that this is a community issue
2:32:04 that the community has to own, and the community
2:32:07 has to support going forward whatever decisions we make.
2:32:11 And so, the importance of having those options
2:32:14 and educating our community about the impact
2:32:16 of those options, pros and cons, so that they can join
2:32:19 with us in giving feedback on the direction
2:32:21 that they would like to see us go.
2:32:23 And it really kind of dovetails with my conversation today
2:32:25 with Ms. Han regarding our capital needs,
2:32:28 and making sure that we can explain to our community
2:32:32 that we have, out of our, I don’t know, 60,
2:32:37 Jane’s not here, is she?
2:32:39 Out of our 56 elementary schools, we have 38
2:32:42 that don’t have a functional playground,
2:32:44 and that’s not a real number, that’s a random number
2:32:46 I’m throwing out there.
2:32:48 We have to study that and pull that information together
2:32:52 and know exactly how many schools that we have
2:32:54 that need playgrounds, how many parking lots we have
2:32:56 that are not safe that we don’t have funding to fix,
2:32:58 how many black tops or green tops do we have rusting
2:33:03 basketball hoops on at our elementary schools
2:33:05 that we don’t have the funds to address,
2:33:07 because we simply don’t allocate funding in those areas
2:33:10 from our capital dollars, in addition
2:33:12 to our operating dollar challenges.
2:33:14 But I feel like putting all of that together
2:33:17 and really educating our community and saying,
2:33:19 here’s our challenge, and we want world-class education
2:33:22 in Brevard County, how do we get there as a community
2:33:24 is really, really important.
2:33:25 So those options would be fabulous.
2:33:30 - And with those options, once we do the community tour
2:33:33 and get input, that’s, I feel like that,
2:33:35 that I titled this tonight, long-term, what do I call it?
2:33:39 Options for long-term, click on it,
2:33:42 so long, compensation plan.
2:33:44 - I thought you were talking about long-term care.
2:33:46 Cheryl did ask me when she got here,
2:33:48 are you talking about long-term care?
2:33:50 Oh my gosh, that’s so expensive.
2:33:52 No, long-term compensation plan.
2:33:53 So we’ll take what we, all that feedback,
2:33:59 we’ll do one of your big old spreadsheets,
2:34:01 and we’ll figure out what to do,
2:34:03 and we’ll put, this year-to-year stuff is killing me.
2:34:06 I can’t do this again with you all.
2:34:09 It’s painful for me too.
2:34:11 Like, I wanna know what they’re getting next year.
2:34:14 We can’t depend on the state, apparently,
2:34:16 and so, and I just wanna say something about that too.
2:34:19 I don’t wanna slam the state and throw it under.
2:34:21 Dr. Mullins and I have had this conversation,
2:34:23 and I went back to the state constitution.
2:34:26 It is therefore a paramount duty of the state
2:34:29 to make adequate provision for the education
2:34:31 of all children residing within its borders.
2:34:35 Is adequate education mean they have to pay
2:34:38 for football stadiums and top fine art programs?
2:34:42 I think probably not.
2:34:43 I think the state gives us enough funds
2:34:45 for reading, writing, arithmetic.
2:34:47 And if we want more here in Brevard,
2:34:49 we are gonna have to do something different
2:34:51 to bring it here.
2:34:52 And I think that’s the message the state has been sending.
2:34:56 They keep saying, “No, we’re funding it.
2:34:57 “We’re funding it.”
2:34:58 And, you know, they are.
2:35:00 They’re funding the basics,
2:35:01 but we want more here in Brevard.
2:35:02 I’m pretty sure of that.
2:35:04 I’m pretty sure that’s the message throughout,
2:35:05 and I think that’s what we’re gonna hear from our community.
2:35:11 Anybody else?
2:35:13 Okay.
2:35:15 - The only thing I wanted to add,
2:35:16 and this may be getting too specific,
2:35:17 but one of the things that I’d like to see
2:35:19 as we move forward,
2:35:19 and hopefully I can sit down with Anthony and Vanessa soon,
2:35:23 ‘cause I want to need their help and some research,
2:35:26 is changing our new hire salaries schedule.
2:35:30 And we have to work on how do we do that
2:35:32 without leapfrogging over the people who’ve been here,
2:35:35 but I think it’s time to make that move as well.
2:35:37 So, and that’s, I’m working on it myself.
2:35:40 I’ve got a little Excel spreadsheet project going on,
2:35:42 but I’d like to see that included as part of our move.
2:35:46 - Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
2:35:47 Dr. Mullins, do you want to say anything to any of that, or?
2:35:50 (laughing)
2:35:51 - Well, I just want to say thank you to the board
2:35:53 for wanting to tackle the challenge together,
2:35:56 and I’m up for the challenge,
2:35:59 and we will begin dialogue.
2:36:01 I look forward to one-on-one conversations with you
2:36:03 as we develop that,
2:36:05 and I’ll certainly be working with staff
2:36:08 to put together a task force and tackle that,
2:36:12 and we’ll discuss some timelines and deliverables and so on.
2:36:15 So, absolutely appreciate the support,
2:36:17 and ready to get to work.
2:36:20 - Thank you, sir.
2:36:21 With all that, our meeting is adjourned.
2:36:23 (gavel banging)
2:36:31 (upbeat music)