Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 - Good evening, I’m happy to welcome all of my fellow board
0:14 members and call the September
0:15 24th, 2019 school board meeting to order.
0:19 Whether you are in attendance here or watching from another
0:21 location, my colleagues and I
0:22 are pleased you took time to join us.
0:24 We appreciate and applaud your commitment to partnering with us
0:27 in support of our schools,
0:28 our students, our staff, and our community.
0:30 While the board and the Brevard Public School staff members are
0:33 fully committed to doing
0:33 our best to ensure excellence in Brevard Public Schools, we know
0:37 that our success depends
0:38 heavily on an engaged and committed community to work alongside
0:42 us and help us to continually
0:43 improve.
0:44 Thank you for being active participants in the process.
0:47 Pam, roll call, please.
0:50 - Mrs. Belford.
0:52 - Present.
0:53 - Ms. McDougal.
0:54 - Present.
0:55 - Mrs. Deskevich.
0:56 - Present.
0:57 - Mr. Susan.
0:58 - Present.
0:59 - And Mrs. Campbell.
1:00 - Present.
1:01 - The board will now hold a moment of silent reflection and
1:12 invite you to join us.
1:16 Thank you.
1:17 Matt Reed, Assistant Superintendent of Government and Community
1:20 Relations will lead us in the
1:21 Pledge of Allegiance.
1:30 - I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
1:34 America and to the republic for
1:36 which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with
1:46 liberty and justice for all.
1:50 - At this time, I would like to offer my fellow board members
1:52 and Dr. Mullins the opportunity
1:54 to recognize students, staff, or members of the community.
1:59 Ms. McDougal, would you like to start us off?
2:01 - Sure.
2:02 - Thank you.
2:03 - I have a couple things.
2:04 I just wanted to say that Brevard Schools Foundation needs some
2:09 mentors at Oogali and
2:11 at Heritage, so they’ve got mentors at a lot of our schools, so
2:15 if anyone is interested
2:16 or knows anyone who would like to be a mentor to any of the
2:18 students at that school, that
2:19 would be a great thing.
2:21 I also want to give a shout out to Lieutenant Neil.
2:25 Is he in here?
2:26 I don’t know if he’s here tonight.
2:27 Oh, there you are, way back there.
2:28 Thank you very much for presenting to the social worker group
2:34 about how to be safe on
2:36 home visits, so I appreciate that, which I’m very thankful that
2:41 we did that.
2:42 Let me see.
2:45 Also I wanted to say, in that meeting, several of the social
2:48 workers are doing really phenomenal
2:49 things.
2:51 One has Restorative Justice, I think, at Cocoa High School,
2:54 which I think is a great program.
2:56 Yay, Cocoa.
2:58 And also we have, I think I want to make sure I get the right
3:03 school, shoot, it was Stone.
3:07 The social worker at Stone has a great, she developed a whole
3:12 program where she is now,
3:14 it’s a class, where the kids kind of run a store, and they go
3:18 out into the community,
3:19 they talk to Chamber of Commerce, and kids can come in during
3:22 their lunch to buy things.
3:24 We’re talking not just pencils and paper, but we’re talking
3:28 about food, products that
3:29 they might need and that can’t get to the store to have.
3:32 So it sounds like a great program, and kudos to her.
3:37 Also the districts, I have to say this, just so we get credit,
3:40 the District School Health
3:42 Advisory Council met, and they are going to go for gold this
3:47 year.
3:47 Looking at the sheet, it’s unbelievable.
3:50 Kudos to them.
3:52 And it’s a lot of work, so I know that you all are part of that.
3:56 And our teachers and our community supports are just wonderful.
4:01 So let me think.
4:03 And I think everyone, well maybe not everybody knows, but Brevard
4:09 Cultural Alliance, I don’t
4:11 know if you’ve been following that, but Mr. Levine who has been
4:14 there for seven years
4:16 has resigned, and he’s moving on, and he said he’d give us five,
4:19 and they gave us seven.
4:22 And so there were some funding issues that we were concerned
4:25 about and how it would affect
4:27 some of the programs here at the schools and some of the art
4:29 programs that are funded.
4:31 And I just want to say that the contract with Arts and Education
4:36 will not be affected.
4:38 That’s still going to be going on.
4:39 And also, the at-risk art programs will still be able to be
4:44 funded.
4:45 So that’s all I have at this point.
4:48 - Thank you, Ms. McDougall.
4:49 Ms. Belford.
4:51 - Thank you, Ms. Duskovich.
4:53 One, Dr. Moulton and I had the opportunity last week to visit Mims
4:58 Elementary as part
5:00 of our regularly scheduled school visits.
5:03 And it was just ironic timing because the scheduling of it all
5:06 was completely unrelated.
5:08 Tammy, of course, scheduled our school visit.
5:11 But on the day that we were out there, Tara Harris, I still
5:15 struggle to call her Harris,
5:18 but Tara Harris was there meeting with the principal and
5:22 reviewing some data and working
5:24 on goal setting and that sort of thing, and Skinner, one of our
5:27 resource teachers, was
5:28 out there working on instructional development with teachers and
5:32 had been there throughout
5:34 the day.
5:37 And Mims is one of those schools that has been working really
5:40 hard, saw great gains
5:42 two years ago coming out of DA status and certainly turning
5:46 things around there.
5:48 But it was really great not only to be there and feel the energy
5:51 at Mims, and I commend
5:52 them for all of the hard work that they have done, but it was
5:55 also really great to see
5:56 the district supports and hear the feedback from the teachers.
6:01 We had the opportunity to speak with the social worker, with
6:04 their counselor from Lifetime
6:06 Counseling Center, stopped in to see us as well as one of their
6:11 Title I IAs.
6:12 We got to have some really great dialogue around the supports
6:15 that are being provided
6:17 from the district to help our schools be successful.
6:20 And so absolutely kudos to Mims and their team for working so
6:23 hard and so in such a
6:25 focused way to bring that success, but also thanks to our
6:27 leading and learning team and
6:29 our student services team who are really reaching in and seeing
6:32 what the needs of those schools
6:34 are and making sure that we’re doing our best to meet those
6:36 needs.
6:37 We appreciate them immensely and all the work that they’re doing.
6:40 And then I just wanted to throw one more thing out there.
6:42 I believe it was Ms. McDougall, maybe at the last meeting, that
6:46 recognized Virginia Hamilton
6:48 with the K-9 commandos program for being recognized as volunteer.
6:51 That was me.
6:52 Was it you, Ms. Duskovich?
6:55 I apologize for not giving you credit for that, but I did want
6:57 to throw out there, there
6:59 was an article in today’s paper, the K-9 commando program is a
7:01 program that has been around
7:02 for, I want to say, nine or ten years now in Brevard County,
7:04 actually started by one
7:05 of our gifted teachers.
7:07 She was recognized, if you didn’t catch it at the last meeting,
7:10 for her community service
7:11 impact and her teaching role.
7:13 And there was an article in today’s paper that it looks like
7:16 there is a chance that
7:17 K-9 commandos may have to cease operating, potentially because
7:21 of fundraising issues.
7:23 Apparently, typically they get several grants from different
7:26 organizations and at least
7:27 a few of those grants that they applied for this year have been
7:31 denied.
7:31 And so they are, at this point, eligible to function to
7:35 Christmas.
7:36 And then beyond that, they’re going to have to consider what
7:40 they can do.
7:41 As you know, especially up in the north area, a lot of our
7:43 schools are Title I schools,
7:45 and so coming up with the funds to pay for the busing to get the
7:48 kids to the shelters
7:49 is a challenge.
7:50 So about $16,000 is what they’re looking for.
7:54 If anyone knows any businesses that might be willing to sponsor
7:58 organizations that are
7:59 pet-friendly or people that are big pet advocates, I think it
8:02 really is a win-win program.
8:04 So that is all I have for today.
8:06 - Thank you, Ms. Belfer and Mr. Susan.
8:09 - Oh.
8:10 First, I want to say thank you for everybody that’s here today,
8:14 our current teachers.
8:16 I also wanted to say thank you for our possible future teachers
8:19 over in the back.
8:20 Many of you guys see that whole group back there, but there are
8:23 Eastern Florida State
8:25 teachers.
8:26 Can you raise your hand if you’re from, yep, yep.
8:29 Hold on, hold on, hold on.
8:32 Okay, raise your hand if you’re from the Cocoa campus.
8:36 Raise your hand if you’re from the Melbourne campus.
8:39 Raise your hand if you’re from the Palm Bay campus.
8:42 Raise your hand if you’re from the Titusville campus.
8:44 There’s one.
8:45 Good.
8:46 All right.
8:47 - Way to represent.
8:48 - But thank you so much for taking an opportunity to look at
8:51 this profession.
8:53 I found it to be the most awarding profession I ever had, and I
8:56 still say that today, and
8:58 I probably will say that on the day of my deathbed, it was the
9:01 most amazing opportunity
9:02 I had to give back, and thank you for taking that.
9:04 Thank you for all of you who are here today as our current
9:07 teachers, and I wanted to say
9:08 thank you to who we play for, who has a policy that is literally
9:11 national groundbreaking
9:13 that’s happening tonight.
9:14 So I wanted to say thank you first to all of those.
9:17 Also, Gabriella from Cocoa, who, raise your hand, Gabriella.
9:20 Raise your hand.
9:21 Okay.
9:22 She asked me earlier, she said, “Mr. Susan, why is it that the
9:24 school district does not
9:25 do as much as the college for trades and current programs for
9:29 manufacturing and stuff like
9:31 that?”
9:32 And I had to correct her that we actually have done more over
9:34 the last decade for trades
9:35 and manufacturing programs than the college did, and that we
9:38 right now have a possibility
9:40 of arguably the best program to ever come to Brevard, and we are
9:43 for the first time
9:44 shifting that back into the college level so that kids can dual
9:48 enroll to that where
9:49 it should be.
9:50 Many of the arguments are is that we take over a lot of the
9:53 respect, the responsibility
9:54 of the trades programs, but the problem is is that we can only
9:57 do pre-apprenticeship
9:58 programs at our high schools.
10:01 The true apprenticeship programs where they work 40 hours and
10:03 then they go to school at
10:05 night once a week can only truly be performed at a college and
10:08 university or a night school
10:10 GED program.
10:11 So we have created our infrastructure at a stronger rate, also
10:16 building out our adult
10:17 ed to compensate for that, but I did want to say thank you to
10:19 Gabriella for bringing
10:20 that up, and I wanted to clarify it.
10:22 The next thing is is that we had an opportunity to go to drone
10:25 racing this Saturday for the
10:27 first time.
10:28 We had drone racing in Brevard County, and it was an official
10:30 one where we had three
10:31 schools competing, and since then three other schools have
10:34 contacted in, and we are going
10:35 to officially have a drone race league in this county where at
10:38 the end is going to go
10:40 out to NASA to the NASA memorial foundation for the astronaut
10:43 foundation, and they’re
10:45 actually going to race through the memorial foundation in order
10:48 to have the final race,
10:49 and Thad Altman, get this, is trying to allow them, since they’re
10:52 the little drones, you
10:54 guys, they’re not the big bricks that go 200 miles an hour, they’re
10:56 the little ones, then
10:57 he’s going to try to get them to race out at the rocket garden,
10:59 and I will tell you
11:00 that if those kids race those drones at the rocket garden, that
11:04 it will go viral with
11:05 them racing there.
11:06 So we’re looking forward to that race league, and I wanted to
11:08 say thank you to Bill McGinnish
11:09 for starting that whole process over there at Gally High School.
11:12 Okay, I wanted to say thank you, I already did, but here’s one
11:16 that I wanted to hear
11:18 from the audience today.
11:20 Next week is cancer awareness and real men wear pink, and Dr.
11:24 Mullins is going to show
11:26 up some ties here in just a second, and he’s going to say this
11:28 is what he’s going to
11:29 do for next month, and I’m always the type that says go big or
11:33 go home, right?
11:34 So I want to build on what we’ve done in the past, which is ties,
11:38 and I think I shot
11:39 it over to Dr. Mullins that possibly him and I could come in
11:41 pink suits at the next school
11:43 board meeting.
11:44 So I didn’t know, can I get a raise of hands who might
11:47 appreciate that?
11:48 All right, okay, that’s a majority, I counted it, it’s a
11:50 majority, Dr. Mullins, so I think
11:52 if you can take that into your consideration, I will find
11:55 something like maybe a lighter
11:56 shade so it’s not so pronounced.
11:58 So anyways, again, thank you everybody for being here, I really
12:01 appreciate it, thank
12:02 you.
12:03 - Thank you, Mr. Susan, Ms. Campbell.
12:06 All right, well, a few Saturdays ago was the Take Stock and
12:12 Children Reach for the Stars
12:14 Gala that the Brevard School’s Foundation puts on to raise money
12:18 for the Take Stock
12:19 and Children program.
12:20 It goes along with the mentors that Cheryl, Ms. McDougall was
12:23 talking about, but this
12:24 is the scholarship side, so all the students who go through the
12:26 mentoring through their
12:27 high school years, then they’re guaranteed a scholarship to
12:30 college, which is matched
12:32 by the state, and I don’t know what the total was, we’ll have to
12:34 ask Ms. Kershaw to give
12:35 us an update if they have the final number, but I know that just
12:37 from the reservations
12:39 and the table sponsorships, they raised more than $90,000, and
12:43 again, that was before the
12:45 auction and all the fun later in the evening, but thank you to
12:47 the Brevard School’s Foundation
12:49 for putting on a wonderful evening and for bringing people from
12:53 the community in to invest
12:56 in our schools who may not be connected any other way.
12:59 I wanna thank Sarah Almond from Government and Community
13:02 Relations, she works with our
13:04 PIE team under Deborah Foley for her work at the CityServe
13:10 training that we had a week
13:13 ago Monday.
13:14 There were lots of church leaders and community and non-profit
13:18 leaders who gathered, and I
13:19 highly anticipate in the coming months an increased number of PIES,
13:24 Partners in Education,
13:26 and an increased number of volunteers, because there was a room
13:30 full of people, especially
13:31 pastors and ministry leaders who were gonna go back to the
13:33 churches and say, hey, the
13:35 schools need people in their classrooms, they need people to
13:37 donate things, they need people
13:38 to look for those volunteers and partners coming soon.
13:42 Ms. McDougal and I got to go to one of Cocoa High School’s choir
13:46 rehearsals, and it was
13:48 really fun to be back in the choir room.
13:50 They’re going to represent us so well next month in New York
13:53 City, so we’re cheering
13:55 them on.
13:56 I wanna thank Malak Hamad, who has been my representative, or
14:02 actually the representative
14:04 from District 5 on the Audit Committee for several years, I don’t
14:07 know exactly how long,
14:09 but several years, she is stepping down because she has a new
14:12 job, but I am so thankful for
14:13 her experience, and for you guys who don’t know what the Audit
14:15 Committee is, they’re
14:16 the ones who oversee pretty much, how do you describe it, pretty
14:21 much everything we do,
14:23 we have extra eyes on to make sure that everything’s going
14:25 smoothly, and they identify the problems
14:27 that we have, and what we need to work on, what we’re doing well,
14:30 what needs to be fixed,
14:31 and I’m thankful for her time, and now I have big shoes to fill,
14:35 just like someone else.
14:37 All right, the week of our next school board meeting is National
14:41 School Lunch Week, and
14:42 since we’ve been challenging each other as a board, I’m going to
14:45 challenge my fellow
14:46 board members to find some time to work in the cafeteria, in
14:51 your schools.
14:52 I know Ms. Deskovich has already done it before, but find some
14:55 time to work in the school cafeteria,
14:58 because I found out that on National Smile Day, which will be
15:00 during that week, they’re
15:01 giving us Happy Face French Fries, so maybe you could go on the
15:05 Smile Day and get some
15:07 Happy Face French Fries, but go volunteer in the cafeteria, I’m
15:10 going to be signing
15:11 it.
15:12 October 12th through 15th, that’s National School Lunch Week.
15:14 » Who signed us up for the marathon that we’re supposed to run?
15:17 Okay.
15:18 You’ve got this working inside here.
15:19 We only have one request.
15:20 Books?
15:21 » Oh, and I have that going, too.
15:22 I’m doing that with my art.
15:23 » How many have you read so far?
15:24 » The budget.
15:25 I read the budget one time.
15:26 » Just joking.
15:27 » So that counts as my first book.
15:28 » Oh, my goodness.
15:29 » I forgot one thing, though.
15:30 » I have six.
15:31 » I got to say something.
15:32 » We’ll come back to you after Dr. Mullins.
15:33 Are you finished, Ms. Campbell?
15:35 » Yes.
15:36 » Thank you.
15:37 Dr. Mullins.
15:38 » Thank you, Ms. Deskovich.
15:39 I want to start with a shout out to Mr. James Kirk, the
15:43 principal at Melbourne High School.
15:45 He just announced yesterday is the 2020 Florida Music Education
15:53 Association’s Administrator
15:56 of the Year.
15:57 So he was nominated by the music staff at Melbourne High School.
16:01 He actually is a Melbourne High graduate and a member of the
16:06 Marching Bulldogs, went on
16:08 to Florida State, go Knowles, was part of the Marching Chiefs,
16:12 just has been a champion
16:14 for the music programs at Melbourne High School and was awarded
16:17 by the FMEA by his staff.
16:19 And just a phenomenal program, and the reality is, is our music
16:23 programs across our district
16:25 championed by our music teachers is, bar none, the best in the
16:30 state.
16:31 And I would do additional shout out to Cindy Johnson, our
16:35 resource teacher for music, K-12.
16:38 She supports our music programs and congratulations to Brevard
16:43 being the recipient of the FMEA
16:46 Administrator of the Year Award.
16:48 We also just received yesterday confirmation from the state,
16:53 from the DOE, that we have
16:55 several schools that qualify for the new best and brightest
17:00 teacher award program.
17:02 We have 37 Brevard schools and five charter schools who qualify
17:08 for the best and brightest
17:10 retention award program where teachers, if they qualify, there’s
17:13 additional criteria
17:15 in terms of length of service at the schools that are recognized,
17:18 highly effective teachers
17:20 would receive $2,500 and effective teachers would receive $1,000.
17:25 So that’s the first component of the state’s new best and
17:29 brightest program built on retention,
17:32 recruitment and recognition.
17:34 So that kicks that off.
17:37 And finally, I do want to give recognition to the fashion design
17:42 students at Vieira High
17:43 School.
17:44 I got over there this morning.
17:47 And in fact, I am participating in this year’s Real Men Wear
17:51 Pink campaign.
17:52 And if you’re not familiar, it is the American Cancer Society’s
17:56 breast cancer awareness engaging
17:58 men in this cause.
18:01 And if you’ve read my Facebook post from the past, it’s very
18:06 near and dear to my heart
18:08 as my mother was a breast cancer survivor as a teen.
18:15 And I did lose my mother to the recurrence of metastatic breast
18:19 cancer this last year.
18:20 So championing this cause is very near and dear to my heart.
18:23 And I’m proud to do that and just pleased that I have three ties
18:27 to start the month
18:28 of October, and I’ll be sporting a pink tie and maybe a pink
18:34 suit.
18:35 So special thanks to Ms. Carrie Humphreys, the fashion teacher
18:39 at Vieira High School
18:41 and her students Josephine, Kylie and Alicia for getting me
18:45 started.
18:46 Other schools, yeah.
18:52 So Rockledge, Palm Bay, Satellite, and I know I’m missing one
18:54 and I can’t think of it, but
18:56 they’re also gonna be contributing to new ties for the month of
18:58 October.
18:59 Thank you.
19:00 - Thank you, sir.
19:01 Mr. Susan, did you have another question?
19:03 - I just wanted to say thank you to Michelle Gaynor and the
19:06 other Dan Bennett.
19:07 We’re getting together tomorrow to start what will become the
19:10 lobbying efforts for the pre-K
19:12 teachers up in Tallahassee.
19:14 And I just wanted to say thank you to them.
19:16 It’s not the Dan Bennett that we know, it’s another Dan Bennett
19:18 that’s exactly the same
19:19 name, but they’re fired up and they’re wanting to help our
19:22 legislators become educated as
19:24 to the problems that pre-K teachers have currently.
19:26 So I’m gonna say thank you to them and I wanted to say thank you
19:29 to Manatee and O’Gally’s faculties
19:31 for having me come to the schools and speak and that’s it.
19:35 - Thank you, Mr. Susan.
19:36 Dr. Mullins, is there a place where I’m imagining the teachers
19:41 that heard you speak of the best
19:43 and brightest, is there a place where they can find this list
19:46 pretty easily if their
19:47 school is on the list?
19:49 - I’ll work with leading and learning and we’ll find out and get
19:52 that out, I’m not sure.
19:54 It just literally came out yesterday, so.
19:55 - Okay.
19:56 Yeah, if we can put that somewhere and get it out so it’s all in
19:59 place.
19:59 - We’ll forward it to Mr. Colucci as well.
20:01 - Thank you.
20:03 I just want to give a shout out to our leading and learning
20:05 teams.
20:06 I know it’s nobody specific, but Ms. Jane Klein and Dr. Sullivan
20:09 today presented the
20:10 culmination of their work over the last couple years.
20:13 They’ve really, the word I keep thinking of is disruptive, they’ve
20:17 done some things to
20:18 really dig down and change the way we’ve done things and I know
20:21 it’s been difficult for
20:22 some throughout the district, the new way they want to do some
20:26 things with digging down
20:27 into our subgroups and help serving our African American
20:30 students and some of our Hispanic
20:31 students that maybe haven’t been getting the services and the
20:35 level of education they should
20:37 in the past from our district and we’re starting to see great
20:39 results from those students,
20:41 so I’m proud of them, I’m proud of what they’re doing, it’s not
20:43 easy, they’re constantly pushing
20:45 against the grain and so I just want to say we appreciate them.
20:49 I just wanted to give a shout out to ET, we learned today that
20:52 it’s IT in the rest of
20:53 the world, but our technology department for going out into the
20:57 community and holding these
20:59 groups where they’re training parents in some of our communities
21:01 that may not be familiar
21:02 with the focus app and teaching them how to check in on their
21:06 kids like maybe obsessively
21:08 like some of us do with their children’s grades, so thank you Mr.
21:11 Cheatham and your team for
21:12 doing that.
21:14 And last, just a shout out to a community partner, Northrop Grumman,
21:17 they did a food
21:18 packing this weekend and they packed 40,000 packages which was
21:23 240,000 meals.
21:25 It’s not like the Children’s Hunger Project, it wasn’t for our
21:27 students necessarily, but
21:28 those will be shipped out around the world including the Bahamas
21:31 and just a great strong
21:32 community partner doing good in the community.
21:36 And that is it for me.
21:37 So the school cafeteria worker, I just wanted to comment on that
21:41 because out of all the
21:42 jobs I’ve done around the district from my desk of its duty days,
21:46 the cafeteria worker
21:47 was one of my favorite jobs.
21:48 The kids are happy to see you, our kitchen, at least the one at
21:52 Hoover that I worked in
21:53 was spotless and the food is good, some better than others, but
22:00 the food is good, yes, but
22:03 the kitchen is, you know, it was a fun place to be.
22:05 The ladies back there were fabulous, the kids were happy to be
22:08 there, even the mopping of
22:09 the floors was, I mean it wasn’t any worse than mopping my
22:12 floors at home, so I am going
22:14 to back her challenge on that and, you know, and the shifts are
22:17 only, some of them are
22:19 only three or four hours, so it’s not like you have to block out,
22:21 you know, ten hours
22:22 to go do this, so.
22:23 » Hairnet.
22:24 » Oh, you do have to wear the hairnet, that’s probably the
22:26 downside, but get pictures and
22:28 we’ll get them up.
22:29 » I did it last year.
22:30 » Whenever I have the chance, they offer me the hairnet and
22:32 that’s actually very affirming
22:33 to suggest that I still need one, so.
22:38 » I like that a lot.
22:39 Okay, let’s get on with the more serious business of the evening.
22:42 This brings us to the adoption of the agenda, Dr. Mullins.
22:51 » Ms. Deskevich and members of the board, on tonight’s agenda,
22:53 we have administrative
22:54 staff recommendations, one recognition, 16 consent items, one
22:58 action item, one information
22:59 item and one staff report.
23:02 You also have the yellow supplemental agenda, which are changes
23:04 made to the agenda since
23:05 being released to the public.
23:07 Item A7 on administrative staff recommendations and F13 on
23:10 instructional staff recommendations,
23:13 receive revisions.
23:14 Item F11 on student expulsions and I35 under staff reports are
23:18 additions.
23:19 » What are the wishes of the board?
23:21 » Move to approve.
23:22 » Second.
23:23 » Motion by Mr. Susan, second by Ms. McPheagle.
23:25 Any discussion?
23:26 Please vote.
23:27 Motion passes, 5-0.
23:39 Dr. Mullins, will you please let us know about the
23:41 administrative staff recommendations?
23:42 » Yes, Madam Chair, there are four persons on this agenda item
23:45 for the board to consider.
23:46 » What are the wishes of the board?
23:48 » Move to approve.
23:49 » Second.
23:50 » Motion by Mr. Susan, second by Ms. Campbell.
23:52 Any discussion?
23:53 Please vote.
24:03 Motion passes, 5-0.
24:06 Dr. Mullins.
24:09 » I would like to welcome and recognize the administrative
24:13 staff persons here with us
24:14 this evening.
24:16 We will start with a congratulations to Sarah Keller on her reclassification
24:21 and transfer
24:22 from the position of teacher at Meadow Lane Elementary School to
24:24 the position of assistant
24:26 principal at Turner Elementary School.
24:29 Congratulations, Ms. Keller.
24:31 » Thank you very much.
24:34 I want to thank Mrs. Schwab for all the support that she’s given
24:37 to me as an educator and
24:38 also the encouragement she’s given to me as a leader, and I want
24:41 to thank Dr. Toll for
24:42 the opportunity to serve the students of Turner Elementary.
24:46 Thank you so much.
24:54 » And now I’d like to ask you to please join me in recognizing
24:59 Ms. Cindy Whalen on her
25:00 pending retirement from the position of principal at Port Malabar
25:04 Elementary.
25:05 » Thank you very much, and I want to thank you, Dr. Mullins,
25:09 personally for the long
25:10 mentoring that you’ve done for me here at Brevard Public Schools.
25:14 Thank you to the board, Ms. Deskevich, especially.
25:17 Thank you to Mrs. Klein in the last few years and my wonderful
25:20 husband of 44 years.
25:22 We’re retiring together, and we’re traveling.
25:25 We’re going to be having a good time, so fight the good fight.
25:31 Education is the way to go, and you make a difference every
25:34 single day.
25:35 Thank you to my beautiful school, Port Malabar Rules.
25:38 I’m sorry for everybody else, best staff, best support, best
25:43 students, best parents.
25:46 Thank you again for a wonderful, fun trip.
26:04 » That concludes our administrative staff recommendations.
26:06 I just want to – Ms. Whalen, thank you for your service.
26:11 It’s been a pleasure working with you, you know, the last three
26:14 years for me.
26:15 I know you’ve been around a lot longer.
26:17 Your school’s amazing.
26:18 You bring such a sense of calm.
26:19 I’ve enjoyed your graduations with you, your sixth grade graduations
26:22 for the last three
26:23 years.
26:27 Thank you, ma’am.
26:29 » Dr. Mollins, would you please provide us information about
26:35 our recognition item?
26:37 » Item B8 is to acknowledge the programs and teachers
26:40 recognized by the Florida Department
26:43 of Education and the Florida Alliance for Arts Education at the
26:48 FAAE Leadership Summit
26:50 held in – held on June 20th through the 22nd, 2019, in Fort
26:56 Lauderdale, Florida.
26:57 Joining our presenters is Ms. Molly Vega, Director of Secondary
27:01 Leading and Learning.
27:02 Ms. Vega?
27:04 » Good evening.
27:07 Tonight we are honoring exemplary dance, music, theater, and
27:10 visual art programs in our district
27:12 who have received the Florida Art Model School’s designation for
27:16 2018 through 2021.
27:19 We are very proud to announce, since the inception of this award
27:23 five years ago, 18 of the 47
27:25 integrated schools statewide are Brevard County Schools.
27:29 Assisting with the presentation of awards is Christina LaTraverse,
27:33 our K-12 visual arts
27:35 and theater content specialist.
27:43 » Thank you, Ms. Vega.
27:44 Dr. Mollins, Ms. Dekovich, members of the school board, award
27:48 recipients, and audience
27:50 members, it is a great honor to stand before you tonight to
27:53 recognize our Florida Arts
27:55 Model Schools.
27:56 The Florida Department of Education supports a complete and
28:00 comprehensive education which
28:01 includes dance, music, theater, and visual arts for all Florida
28:06 students.
28:07 To help achieve this goal, the Florida Department of Education
28:11 in partnership with the Florida
28:12 Alliance for Arts Education seeks to identify strong arts
28:16 education programs throughout
28:18 the state of Florida.
28:19 The Florida Arts Model Schools program recognizes schools that
28:23 offer exemplary programs in the
28:25 four disciplines and partners them with underserved or emerging
28:29 schools designed to enhance their
28:31 existing arts program or implement a new arts program.
28:35 This is the fifth year for the FAMS program.
28:38 It has replaced the Music Demonstration School Award and the
28:42 Visual Arts Demonstration School
28:44 Award.
28:45 Dr. Mollins and Ms. Dekovich, would you please come forward to
28:48 shake hands with our honoree.
28:50 Please remain standing in front for a group photo.
28:53 Receiving the FAMS designation for visual arts is Edgewood
28:57 Junior/Senior High School
28:59 Principal Jackie Ingrata here on behalf of visual arts teachers
29:03 Marisa Flint and Crystal
29:05 Ingleton.
29:23 Please come forward to shake hands with our honoree.
29:46 Congratulations, Ms. Ingrata and Edgewood.
30:14 We are now to the public comment portion of our meeting.
30:20 The school board policy 0169.1 limits to 30 minutes the portion
30:24 of the meeting during
30:26 which the public is invited to participate and provide public
30:29 comment.
30:30 The policy further provides that this time limit may be extended
30:34 by a vote of the board.
30:35 We have 14 speakers this evening.
30:41 I think we should just go ahead and do all 14 if you guys are
30:49 all okay with that?
30:52 As we have more than 10 speakers, each speaker is limited to
30:56 three minutes.
30:57 We have a clock in front of me to help you keep track of your
30:59 time.
31:00 When your time is over, you’ll be asked to stop and allow the
31:02 next speaker his or her
31:03 turn.
31:04 We’ll hear from the first three speakers in the order in which
31:08 they signed up, the remaining
31:09 public speaker, oh, no, sorry, excuse me.
31:14 Always keep in mind that reasonable decorum is expected at all
31:16 times and your statement
31:17 should be directed to the board chairman.
31:19 The chairman may interrupt, warn, or terminate a participant’s
31:22 statement.
31:23 When time is up, personally directed, abusive, obscene, or
31:26 irrelevant.
31:27 Should an individual not observe proper etiquette, the chairman
31:29 may request the individual leave
31:31 the meeting.
31:32 Let’s all encourage an environment appropriate for our children
31:34 who may be present or watching
31:35 from home.
31:37 Let’s begin with our first three speakers.
31:39 Before speaking, please state your name, the organization you
31:42 represent, and identify the
31:43 topic you will be discussing.
31:45 Our first three speakers are Jason Jones, Anthony Colucci, and
31:48 Vanessa Skipper.
31:49 Mr. Jones.
32:01 Does it start before or like when I start talking, right, not
32:03 when I say my name and
32:05 all that?
32:06 I’m Jason Jones.
32:07 I’m representing myself as a taxpayer, and I’m here to talk
32:10 about support for the teachers.
32:14 I stand before you today in support of what I consider the
32:16 backbone of our community,
32:17 our teachers.
32:19 For many years, I’ve watched teachers try to receive fair
32:21 compensation with little to
32:22 no success.
32:24 I’ve seen the up and down roller coaster of contract
32:26 negotiations, and honestly, the teachers
32:28 have never won.
32:30 Our county as a whole has seen tremendous economic impact over
32:34 the last several years.
32:36 Everywhere you look, you see new companies coming, roads being
32:39 built to sustain our infrastructure
32:40 for projected growth, but one thing I continue to see is lack of
32:44 support for educators who
32:45 play a vital role in this growth.
32:48 When people look to purchase homes, schools are always a factor
32:51 in a final decision making
32:52 process.
32:53 When companies are looking to locate their headquarters in our
32:55 county, they’re looking
32:56 at schools to sustain their family needs for their employees.
33:00 It is hard for me to overlook the way this board, with the
33:03 exception of Mr. Susan, spoke
33:05 when delivering the votes at the end of the last negotiations.
33:08 It is frustrating to see elected officials deliver a message in
33:12 such an egocentric manner
33:13 without facts, without documentation, without enough information
33:16 to make an informed decision
33:18 and then assume the trust of the community to support yet
33:20 another, he said, she said,
33:21 round of negotiations for this year.
33:23 I still have visions of teachers defeating walking out in drills
33:27 as you spoke and delivered
33:29 your votes, only to find that due diligence was not performed
33:32 and the district actually
33:33 had funding that it claimed it did not have, yet not one public
33:39 apology from this board.
33:41 The only factual thing that happened was a few weeks later when
33:44 the teachers once again
33:45 crushed the expectation and delivered top scores for testing in
33:48 a large list of A schools.
33:50 The people behind me delivered regardless of the amount of money
33:52 you pay them.
33:52 For them, it really isn’t about the money.
33:55 As trust is lost, I find myself questioning more decisions, why
33:58 my son rode a bus for
33:59 two years and one week before school started, we were told he
34:02 couldn’t ride the bus this
34:04 year because we live 1.9 miles from the school, yet the bus stop
34:07 he walks to still exists
34:09 and still picks up kids.
34:10 I was then told I could pay an additional $80 a semester out of
34:13 pocket in addition to
34:15 the $1,300 a year I pay in property taxes to get him on a bus
34:19 that already stops.
34:21 While I pay for other kids to ride the bus by choice to whatever
34:24 school they want to
34:25 go to.
34:26 Why it took me three weeks to get a parking pass for my son to
34:28 drive to school after being
34:30 denied service for a service, I pay tax dollars for him to
34:33 provide.
34:34 Concerns with the qualified teachers that are leaving in the
34:38 current vacancies, having
34:39 students in intensive reading classes without a teacher going
34:42 into the seventh week of school.
34:44 How Melbourne High School was given $280,000 loan for turf on a
34:48 football field, yet the
34:49 air conditioning in my wife and daughter’s schools have had
34:54 major issues for two years.
34:57 Having a wife that is a teacher has provided me an opportunity
34:59 to have many teachers in
35:00 my life.
35:01 I often refer to them as my village.
35:03 I love them as they were my family.
35:06 As I stated, they are the backbone of our community in so many
35:09 ways.
35:09 These are the most passionate, dedicated individuals you find on
35:12 this earth and they’re dedicated
35:13 to you.
35:16 They work well past their contracted hours, including many hours
35:18 on the weekends, create
35:19 countless meal plans for families with sicker children or family
35:23 illness, volunteer numerous
35:25 hours for fundraising, attend sporting events involving students,
35:29 drive to Arnold Palmer
35:30 to visit children having surgeries, take shifts for a child in
35:34 hospice while they battle cancer,
35:36 and lastly, stand by the family when that battle is lost.
35:40 As these negotiations continue, I hope regardless of the outcome
35:42 that they can be treated with
35:44 respect.
35:45 I’m sorry.
35:46 » Thank you.
35:47 [ Applause ]
35:48 » Mr. Colucci.
35:49 Followed by Ms. Skipper.
35:50 [ Applause ]
35:51 » Thank you.
35:52 [ Applause ]
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50:37 » You know, this year everything looked great.
50:39 Everything seemed to point to that we would have quicker and
50:43 more collegial negotiations.
50:46 It seemed that you were really ready, able, and willing to make
50:50 progress on our low wages,
50:52 those low wages that contribute to your recruitment and
50:55 retention problems.
50:57 I was present last Monday and Tuesday for the bargaining
51:00 sessions because I also serve
51:01 on the BFT bargaining team.
51:03 And I really believe that no one in this room today, including
51:06 yourselves and all of these
51:08 teachers in our red shirts, no one in this room today is happy
51:11 about the current situation
51:13 with our negotiations.
51:15 We all entered the bargaining year with very high expectations.
51:20 But I believe the district presented a lowball offer.
51:24 And I think that contributed to the breakdown.
51:28 And really, if your offer was designed to gauge whether BFT was
51:33 inclined to accept a
51:34 considerably lower offer than our original proposal, you got
51:39 your answer.
51:40 And that’s why all these red shirts are here tonight.
51:43 You found out that there’s danger in a lowball offer.
51:46 Too many of us, too many of us felt disrespected.
51:52 So let me just say I really believe that this board, your board,
51:57 our board has never fully
51:59 embraced its responsibility as board members as it relates to
52:03 teacher compensation.
52:05 Let me explain.
52:06 Florida Statute 1001.42 speaks to the powers and duties of the
52:12 district school boards.
52:14 And it says, “You must,” and I quote, “cause to be prepared the
52:18 annual school budget, such
52:20 budget to be prepared and executed as to promote the improvement
52:24 of the district school system.”
52:26 So let me explain why I think you’ve never fully embraced that
52:30 responsibility.
52:32 I pay attention to your work.
52:34 I don’t ever recall, not once, anyone on this board making a
52:39 motion to direct staff to bring
52:41 you a budget with very specific goals of compensation.
52:46 And that’s your job.
52:48 You’ve not asked for that.
52:49 You simply wait and you let staff bring you the amount of money
52:54 that they have left over
52:56 for teacher salaries.
52:58 Why haven’t I heard anyone make a motion to direct staff to
53:02 bring the budget that you
53:04 want?
53:05 How about one that allows for the district to increase highly
53:09 effective teacher pay by
53:10 $2,300, which by the way is the amount that the independent
53:15 special magistrate said we
53:17 deserve and that you can afford.
53:20 And how about a recurring $2,000 longevity supplement, FRS
53:24 eligible for all teachers
53:25 in year 12 or higher with BPS service, because that’s really
53:29 what BPS has requested.
53:31 So that, ladies and gentlemen, that is what we want.
53:35 That is what we deserve.
53:37 That is what we came here today to rally for.
53:43 Anyone willing to make a motion tonight, anyone on the board
53:45 willing to make a motion tonight
53:47 in front of all of us, request staff bring you the budget that
53:51 fairly compensates your
53:53 teachers.
53:54 Tell your staff what you want.
53:56 Without that request, without telling staff what you want, you’re
53:59 simply waiting for staff
54:00 to tell you what scraps are left over for your teachers.
54:04 And we are tired of scraps.
54:08 We deserve to be prioritized.
54:12 Thank you for your time.
54:20 Our next three speakers are Ms. Poyer, Mr. Savage, and Nancy
54:35 Yates.
54:37 Dr. Mullins and Mrs. Deskevich both already know me, but to
54:46 those of you that don’t, my
54:49 name is Arzu Poyer and I teach first grade at Indy Atlantic
54:53 Elementary School.
54:54 I have been a teacher for 15 years.
54:57 In the past, I have represented Columbia Elementary School twice
55:00 as their reading teacher of the
55:02 year.
55:03 I am reading teacher of the year at Indy Atlantic Teacher of the
55:07 Year, and this year I hold
55:09 the title of Brevard County’s Literacy Teacher of the Year.
55:13 In a nutshell, I am an incredible teacher along with every other
55:18 person in this room
55:19 and across the county of Brevard.
55:24 I have a master’s degree and I make $48,000 a year.
55:28 The crack in my voice and in my smile is because I am ashamed of
55:33 that number.
55:35 I’m going to say something about myself that teachers don’t say
55:38 enough.
55:39 I am a very intelligent woman.
55:45 On paper, I am far too intelligent to put up with a career that
55:49 offers so little pay
55:51 and even smaller amount of respect.
55:53 The fact of the matter is that you all should be ashamed of that
55:57 number also, except for
55:59 you, of course, Matt.
56:01 Two of you should be especially ashamed of your actions,
56:04 particularly in front of a teacher
56:06 that works at the school that taught your children to read and
56:09 write and who gave them
56:11 a lasting lifelong love of learning that has lasted them through
56:16 elementary school and
56:18 adulthood.
56:19 Indy Atlantic has a very special connection to you, too, and as
56:23 the BFT rep at my school,
56:25 I’ve gotten a lot of feedback and it’s not good.
56:28 We feel let down.
56:30 We feel disregarded, disrespected.
56:33 I’d like to take a moment to put a number with the word “disrespect,”
56:38 $550, for teachers
56:40 with 11 years of experience or more.
56:44 $550 is a slap in the face.
56:47 I never knew a number could hold so much disrespect.
56:51 You sit up there with your board members getting paid a teacher’s
56:53 salary for a part-time job
56:55 and your fellow co-workers making six figures and all you have
57:00 to offer those of us that
57:03 stuck in the worst of times is $550.
57:09 People in the Atlantic, teachers and parents, we don’t like what’s
57:14 going on and we don’t
57:15 like being used in your smile and handshake tours and publicity
57:21 stunts anymore.
57:23 Indy Atlantic used to be the prized possession.
57:29 Teachers all over the district wanted to work there.
57:32 When I interviewed for my spot, there were over 40 applicants
57:36 and now there are none.
57:38 There’s an open third grade position at Indy Atlantic and we
57:42 have had zero applicants.
57:45 And you know, I will admit that from one of you I’m not very
57:48 surprised, but Dr. Mullins,
57:50 you surprised a lot of people at my school.
57:52 I had an amazing, extremely talented queen of a teacher come to
57:57 me last week with tears
57:59 in her eyes saying that she had your children.
58:02 How could you do this to us?
58:05 Thank you for listening to me and next time I will come more
58:12 with more Indy Atlantic parents
58:14 and teachers.
58:15 Thank you.
58:16 » Mr. Savage.
58:17 Go ahead, Mr. Savage.
58:19 » Thank you, Ms. Desvige, Dr. Mullins, member of the board.
58:39 My name is Kyle Savage.
58:41 I’m a teacher at KP Elementary.
58:43 Why are we here again?
58:44 I sat in the front row of the impasse here in the summer and
58:47 heard every one of you state
58:49 we didn’t want to do this again.
58:51 This isn’t comfortable for anybody.
58:53 No one is winning.
58:55 I’m already starting to hear that Anthony, our BFT, doesn’t
58:58 represent all teachers.
59:00 Teachers voted down the contract by 96%.
59:03 I think it’s very clear that BFT represents teachers.
59:08 There’s no doubt about that.
59:10 Brevard – BFT needs a partner.
59:13 The community needs a partner.
59:15 Brevard Public Schools should be that partner.
59:17 However, over and over BPS has not acted in the best interest of
59:21 the public.
59:22 The neutral arbitrator clearly stated that in May.
59:25 We got it that voted against us.
59:28 Brevard Public Schools has stated they want to pay out teacher
59:32 raises by Thanksgiving.
59:33 Guess what?
59:34 Teachers want their raises by Thanksgiving, too.
59:37 At the final budget hearing for the 2019-2020 year, I spoke
59:41 about the increase in instructional
59:43 salary was a little bit more than $800,000.
59:48 This information came from documents that are filed with the
59:51 state of Florida.
59:52 Furthermore, this afternoon, BPS released their salary for
59:56 physical year 2019 to BFT.
59:59 Using that data, when we compared it to physical year 2018,
1:00:03 payroll salaries increased for
1:00:05 instructional staff represented by our bargaining unit, the
1:00:08 whole unit.
1:00:09 Not leaving out media counselors, not leaving out guidance
1:00:12 counselors, the whole bargaining
1:00:14 unit increased by $300,000.
1:00:17 Where is the $6.2 million that you guys approved?
1:00:20 Well, I appreciate the efforts of Dr. Green and Dr. Teddy to
1:00:24 provide answers and information
1:00:26 to me consistently over the last two weeks.
1:00:29 Every time I email them, I get a response and I am very grateful
1:00:31 for that.
1:00:32 However, I have still not received any information regarding the
1:00:37 questions I posed last – what
1:00:39 I posed two weeks ago at the salary hearing.
1:00:41 We have talked about it, they have listened to me, and they are
1:00:44 very – I appreciate their
1:00:45 help.
1:00:46 However, every time we ask for data, it hasn’t been brought yet.
1:00:50 I was in the work group.
1:00:52 I was there for the discussion.
1:00:54 I was in a meeting before we went to bargaining where we
1:00:58 represented the cost of a 1% raise.
1:01:00 Maybe within 10 minutes, I looked at it and said something is
1:01:03 not right.
1:01:04 Six hours later, I got an email that afternoon.
1:01:06 Well, that was 1% of all funds.
1:01:09 The 1% from the general fund is less.
1:01:12 We need a partner.
1:01:13 We need to be able to agree on the facts and move forward.
1:01:15 Nobody is winning.
1:01:16 Thank you.
1:01:17 (Applause)
1:01:18 » Good evening.
1:01:35 My name is Nancy Yates.
1:01:36 I am a 23-year teacher at Brevard public schools.
1:01:39 I am currently the testing coordinator at Jefferson middle
1:01:43 school.
1:01:44 As you know, Jefferson is a wonderful school.
1:01:46 I believe it is very representative of schools in Brevard County.
1:01:50 I am here today to talk about how the teacher shortage within BPS
1:01:53 is affecting our students.
1:01:55 Not just for the short term, but in ways that will impact them
1:01:58 throughout their lives.
1:01:59 Sorry, I have pneumonia.
1:02:03 I would like to use a few examples close to my world, but I know
1:02:06 the same things are happening
1:02:07 throughout our district.
1:02:09 I am currently spending four periods a day acting as a temporary
1:02:12 math teacher for eighth
1:02:14 grade pre-algebra classes that haven’t had a teacher since the
1:02:18 start of the school year.
1:02:21 They had rotating substitute teachers until I stepped in to try
1:02:24 to give them a bit of
1:02:25 consistency.
1:02:26 But let me be clear.
1:02:27 I am in no way qualified to teach math.
1:02:31 So these students who already struggle with math, these are some
1:02:34 of our lower performing
1:02:35 students, many of them are ESE students.
1:02:38 So they haven’t had a math teacher for two months.
1:02:41 And there’s no applicants for the job.
1:02:44 Even though the position has been advertised since July, we
1:02:47 haven’t had one single qualified
1:02:49 applicant, which means that there’s not a teacher even in the
1:02:52 foreseeable future.
1:02:53 Okay, now for the bad news.
1:02:56 This same cohort of students spent much of last year in the same
1:02:59 situation without a
1:03:00 qualified math teacher.
1:03:02 They had a teacher who quit and couldn’t be replaced for many
1:03:06 months because no applicants.
1:03:08 And those students, so they’ve come to me, a non-qualified math
1:03:14 teacher, with lacking
1:03:16 a lot of the seventh grade math skills that they needed for the
1:03:21 eighth grade math class.
1:03:23 Now they’re stumbling along with me, and next year they’ll be
1:03:26 asked to go into an algebra
1:03:28 class without the eighth grade skills that they need.
1:03:32 It’s really important to keep this in mind too, to think about
1:03:35 this from these students’
1:03:36 perspective.
1:03:38 Because many of you know, many of you don’t know, algebra is
1:03:40 probably the most difficult
1:03:42 class they’ll take in their high school careers.
1:03:44 Not only do they have to pass the algebra class itself, they
1:03:47 have to get a level three
1:03:48 on that algebra and of course exam to pass the class and to get
1:03:53 a high school diploma.
1:03:55 So they’re lacking seventh grade math skills, they’re lacking
1:03:58 eighth grade math skills,
1:03:59 and then they’ll be lacking those algebra skills.
1:04:06 So how can we expect these kids to overcome that deficit?
1:04:10 Those kids are not going to be able to overcome that deficit is
1:04:13 the answer.
1:04:14 Now I know that this issue at the school isn’t an isolated
1:04:17 experience.
1:04:18 We’re not the only school suffering from this.
1:04:19 My own personal daughter, who’s in 10th grade at another Brevard
1:04:23 school, last year she had
1:04:24 substitutes in biology for 25% of the school year.
1:04:28 Substitutes, not short-term teachers, substitutes.
1:04:31 She currently is ongoing on her second month of substitutes in
1:04:35 chemistry.
1:04:37 These are honors level classes.
1:04:38 These are kids who want to go be doctors and engineers and
1:04:43 nurses.
1:04:43 They’re missing their education.
1:04:47 Thank you, Ms. Yates.
1:04:48 Your time is up.
1:04:49 I know my time’s up.
1:04:50 I have one more thing to say.
1:04:51 My daughter came with me tonight and as we were sitting here
1:04:55 waiting, and like I said,
1:04:56 this is the daughter I was just talking about, she looked at
1:04:58 that plaque on the wall back
1:04:59 there and she said, “But they’re not serving every student with
1:05:02 excellence as the standard.”
1:05:04 If you’re not going to do better for the teachers, you need to
1:05:10 do better for the students.
1:05:13 Our next three speakers are Fred Kilgane, Ron Bradley, and Aaron
1:05:29 Parr.
1:05:31 Dr. Mullins, Ms. Deskevich, members of the board, my name is
1:05:38 Fred Kilgane.
1:05:39 I’m a teacher at Melbourne High School and I’m here to ask a few
1:05:44 questions about negotiations.
1:05:46 I really shouldn’t be here.
1:05:48 I have a grandson on his last day visiting and I’ve been at work
1:05:52 all day, so I really
1:05:54 shouldn’t be here, but here I am.
1:05:57 Like the chair said back in August, I was hoping we would not
1:06:00 have a year like last
1:06:02 year.
1:06:03 Like you all, I’d really rather work cooperatively, not adversarially.
1:06:06 Like you, I’d like amiable relationships instead of hostile ones.
1:06:10 Like you, I’d like to see a productive use of our time instead
1:06:15 of useless wrangling.
1:06:18 I thought for a brief hopeful moment that that was where we were
1:06:21 headed.
1:06:22 So I know how this works.
1:06:23 You can’t comment now on our remarks, although I could probably
1:06:27 goad you into it.
1:06:28 I’m not going to try tonight, I’m not, really.
1:06:32 I’m simply going to ask some questions that I hope Ms. Deskevich
1:06:34 can address publicly
1:06:35 at a later time.
1:06:37 Interestingly, the number one question I’ve gotten this year
1:06:40 from people who are not teachers
1:06:42 is why is Ms. Serker still working for BPS?
1:06:50 If we had performed like she had, we’d have been fired.
1:06:55 Question number two, is the attitude, language, and strategy at
1:06:59 the bargaining table the result
1:07:02 of board instructions, or has the board given their team free
1:07:06 reign to conduct negotiations
1:07:08 however they will?
1:07:13 Number three, you can’t be unaware of the terrible morale extant
1:07:17 among the teachers.
1:07:18 Why?
1:07:19 Knowing that, would you allow negotiations to be conducted in
1:07:23 such a negative tone?
1:07:25 In case you weren’t sure, it’s not raising morale, and no good
1:07:30 thing can come from it.
1:07:33 Shortage will only get worse, I think.
1:07:34 So that’s it, those are my questions.
1:07:37 I left my grandson to come here because I am committed to doing
1:07:41 whatever is necessary,
1:07:43 making sacrifices of a deeply personal nature to compel you by
1:07:47 all civilized and legal means
1:07:50 available to me to treat the teachers of Brevard County like the
1:07:55 dedicated, effective, and
1:07:57 second-to-none professionals that they are.
1:08:02 Good evening.
1:08:18 Mr. Bradley?
1:08:19 Let’s have a little fun.
1:08:20 Y’all need to write this down now.
1:08:33 Mr. Bradley, I need you to talk into the microphone please.
1:08:37 My name is Ron Bradley, I come here quite often, and I want to
1:08:41 thank my daughter for
1:08:42 staying my wife so I could come to the board meeting.
1:08:46 I’m 81 years old, and I enjoy every day of it.
1:08:51 Thank you, board members.
1:08:52 Will you please listen to me?
1:08:56 I know you think understanding what you thought I said, but I’m
1:09:04 not sure – I’m going to start
1:09:08 all over again.
1:09:10 Get your pencil.
1:09:12 I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I’m
1:09:20 not sure you realize that
1:09:23 what you heard is not what I meant.
1:09:27 Alan Greenstrand, he used to be the head of the federal
1:09:39 committee.
1:09:42 Now, another thing.
1:09:46 Good teachers never teach anything.
1:09:49 What they do is create conditions under which you learn –
1:09:53 learning takes place.
1:09:55 By implementing the high-performance practices, including within
1:10:00 these guidelines, you will
1:10:02 take a significant step forward in creating the physical
1:10:07 conditions in which the learning
1:10:10 process can drive.
1:10:12 Now, I’ve never got an answer – I’ve got a little sheet here –
1:10:19 I’ve done a lot of
1:10:21 work on this – why we got a school in West Melbourne that the
1:10:30 other two schools, their
1:10:34 utilities was $143,299.
1:10:42 The other school was $66,769.
1:10:50 But there’s one school, their utilities is $437,685.
1:10:59 That’s a big difference.
1:11:05 Now, we also have two schools that are identical schools.
1:11:12 One school has got 100 more students than the other, but for
1:11:16 some reason or other, the
1:11:18 identical air conditioning systems, everything, is $50,000 more.
1:11:24 Now, I would think I’d be looking at these things.
1:11:30 You got people that’s supposed to be watching out over these
1:11:35 schools in the summertime,
1:11:37 and there’s – when they start up in the fall, they have a
1:11:42 terrible time getting them running.
1:11:45 Another thing, at this school, the chiller went down really
1:11:52 early in the year.
1:11:54 It seems though it went down with the problem, but it wasn’t
1:11:58 looked after.
1:12:00 The last five days at the school, they finally had to put
1:12:03 temporary chiller in.
1:12:04 Probably – I don’t know whether they leased the chiller or what,
1:12:09 but if they had to lease
1:12:11 it, it’s costing about $12,000 to $15,000 a month.
1:12:15 Why wasn’t it addressed this summer when they could have worked
1:12:19 on it?
1:12:19 Now, there’s a lot more in here that I’ve got.
1:12:26 So I’ll be back at the next school board meeting.
1:12:41 » Mr. Bradley, if you want to look to the back, Ms. Hahn, our
1:12:44 assistant superintendent
1:12:46 of facilities is back there.
1:12:48 She can discuss some of the utility bills with you.
1:12:51 Ms. Hahn, can you raise your hand again, please?
1:12:54 He didn’t see you.
1:12:55 That’s who it looks like.
1:12:56 » He’s looking for her.
1:12:58 Do you see her back there?
1:13:00 You can go back and talk to her now.
1:13:01 I bet she’d be willing to chat with you.
1:13:06 Oh, okay.
1:13:08 Absolutely.
1:13:09 All right.
1:13:10 Mr. Susan, did you want to add to that?
1:13:11 » Ron, I wanted everybody to give you credit for what you did
1:13:13 the last time you were here
1:13:14 at a board meeting.
1:13:15 What we’re doing is we’re retrofitting LED lights into the new
1:13:19 schools, and this is going
1:13:21 to show not only energy savings, but it’s also going to show
1:13:24 longevity of the light
1:13:25 bulb.
1:13:26 What Ron did with his extensive background in air conditioning
1:13:29 is he pointed out the
1:13:30 fact that a lot of these are called plenum return, which means
1:13:32 that the return air goes
1:13:34 across the top of your ceiling, and some are not.
1:13:38 So he brought the point to why aren’t we replacing the ones that
1:13:40 have plenum air with the LED
1:13:42 to show the reduction in energy off the bat?
1:13:45 So I wanted you guys to understand we already started that
1:13:47 process.
1:13:47 Sue Han already put somebody in place, and I wanted to give you,
1:13:50 Ron, a round of congratulations
1:13:52 for what you brought forward for us, and if everybody can give
1:13:55 him a round of applause.
1:13:56 Hold on, Ron.
1:13:57 Hold on.
1:13:58 No.
1:13:59 Hold on, Ron.
1:14:00 No.
1:14:03 Just hang on.
1:14:04 And then if you can go – okay.
1:14:05 [ Inaudible ]
1:14:06 Ron – and I understand, stay after, and then if I can work with
1:14:18 you on those schools.
1:14:19 I told you that after we did the LED lights, I’d drive to those
1:14:21 schools with you, too.
1:14:22 So thank you.
1:14:23 I just wanted to give you credit, Ron.
1:14:24 Just let it go there, ma’am.
1:14:25 [ Laughter ]
1:14:26 Thank you, Ron.
1:14:27 [ Inaudible ]
1:14:28 Oh, come on, Ron.
1:14:29 We’re going to – [ Laughter ]
1:14:37 Mr. Parr, you’re –
1:14:38 You’re paying for breakfast next month, that’s for sure.
1:14:43 I don’t know how to follow that.
1:14:45 [ Laughter ]
1:14:46 But I’ll start first by saying I’m Aaron Parr.
1:14:49 I’m the athletic trainer, assistant athletic director at Bayside
1:14:52 High School.
1:14:53 I wanted to change the topic for a brief moment.
1:14:57 Founded as the athletic trainer at Bayside High School, we have
1:14:59 had a student athlete
1:15:00 pass through our school, participating in athletics, in which we
1:15:03 are very fortunate
1:15:05 this student athlete is still with us today.
1:15:07 We are operating under – we were operating under the status quo
1:15:11 at that time.
1:15:12 This student athlete went on to participate with the intention
1:15:15 in athletics at the higher
1:15:16 level, and a simple heart – and a heart condition was caught by
1:15:21 a simple heart screening.
1:15:24 This student athlete has since undergone multiple surgeries, and
1:15:27 we are fortunate still to have
1:15:28 Xavier Hendricks, whose mother is here in attendance with us –
1:15:31 here with us today.
1:15:34 [ Applause ]
1:15:36 I want to stress, he’s not able to be here because he’s
1:15:40 currently in a lab, actually
1:15:42 working on his own education.
1:15:45 Today we are in a different position.
1:15:47 We know of this test that can save lives.
1:15:49 To myself and the athletic director at Bayside High School,
1:15:52 Brandon Sherrill, we believe
1:15:54 an EKG is a very important piece of serving every student
1:15:58 athlete with excellence as a
1:16:00 standard, if I can borrow that mission statement.
1:16:04 So much so, we have gone into our community, secured other
1:16:07 locations that will provide
1:16:08 this EKG test alone for a student athlete for the same $20 that
1:16:12 the organization vendor
1:16:14 who we play for is doing it for us as well at.
1:16:17 Furthermore, we have gone into our community, secured a funding
1:16:21 source to help offset the
1:16:22 continued cost of EKGs for our student athletes at Bayside High
1:16:26 School into our future.
1:16:28 This is how much this is important to us, and this is how much
1:16:31 today is very exciting
1:16:32 times for Brevard County Schools.
1:16:35 At Bayside High School, we will continue to do everything we can
1:16:39 to ensure the safe participation
1:16:41 by ensuring the accessibility of EKGs to our student athlete
1:16:46 population.
1:16:47 Lastly, I want to bring a great mentor of mine in my past once
1:16:52 told me you don’t do
1:16:53 anything TWATI.
1:16:55 That’s an acronym he taught us that stands for that’s the way we’ve
1:16:59 always done it.
1:17:00 In medicine, in school safety, if you’re staying the same or
1:17:04 staying stagnant, you are behind.
1:17:08 I am excited about this night to moving forward in Brevard
1:17:11 Public Schools with EKGs and athletics,
1:17:14 and let’s keep moving forward.
1:17:16 Thank you.
1:17:17 Thank you, Mr. Parr.
1:17:19 Our last two speakers of the evening are Stephen Vilgaz and
1:17:38 Kelly Wei.
1:17:42 Good evening, Steve Vilgaz, 17 year special education teacher
1:17:50 and B.A.F.T.
1:17:52 T building rep from O’Gally High.
1:17:55 Please imagine me along with following
1:17:57 that I’m about to state.
1:17:59 Picture of best employee standing outside alone at his feet
1:18:03 is a white line running perpendicular
1:18:04 to the direction he’s facing.
1:18:07 His toes are touching the line, the side of the line
1:18:10 where he stands is current reality.
1:18:12 The other side is everything his current reality is not.
1:18:15 The other side is a relief from whatever is causing him
1:18:18 to stress on this side, his side of the line.
1:18:22 It could be his boss, his job,
1:18:24 it could be a pile of unread emails in his inbox.
1:18:27 Something’s wrong and it’s gotten so bad
1:18:30 that he’s standing with his toes on the line.
1:18:32 At this moment, he’s vulnerable.
1:18:34 The next problem, request or needless meeting
1:18:38 is going to push him over the line.
1:18:40 He doesn’t know if life on the other side of the line
1:18:43 will be better or worse.
1:18:45 He doesn’t care, it doesn’t matter.
1:18:48 All that matters is the other side of the line
1:18:50 is different from his current reality.
1:18:52 The moment is to start the journey of a new destination.
1:18:56 He doesn’t get to the line
1:18:57 because someone dangled more money in front of him.
1:19:00 He hasn’t even talked to a recruiter or applied to a job.
1:19:03 He has no idea what he wants to do.
1:19:06 He doesn’t hate where he is.
1:19:08 He has gotten to the point where he said, “Enough.”
1:19:12 Some days when he steps to the line,
1:19:14 he can find a reason to step away.
1:19:17 Some days, he isn’t even at the line.
1:19:20 He’s far from it and wouldn’t entertain the idea
1:19:23 of doing something different.
1:19:25 But on the days when he’s on the line and at the line,
1:19:28 something new might catch his eye.
1:19:30 He might return that recruiter’s message.
1:19:32 He might respond to that email
1:19:34 just to learn more about the role.
1:19:36 He might do a search for his current job title on LinkedIn
1:19:40 based on his experience just to see what’s out there.
1:19:44 At that moment, he’s ready to step across the line.
1:19:47 At that first step, he might take another, then another.
1:19:50 And at the end, he’s telling his coworkers
1:19:52 he’s leaving for something new.
1:19:54 He’s too far over the line to come back.
1:19:57 His managers and leaders say they will offer more money.
1:20:01 They say they aren’t competitive with our benefits.
1:20:04 They’ll fret about what they can do
1:20:07 to keep others from leaving.
1:20:08 Meetings will be scheduled.
1:20:10 The analysis will be done.
1:20:11 If they’re lucky, his coworkers will reap the benefits
1:20:15 of his departure in the form of retention agreements.
1:20:19 There aren’t planning to leave anyway,
1:20:21 but they’ll take extra money.
1:20:23 They’ll do what they can, what they have done anyway.
1:20:26 Eventually, they get pushed to the line too.
1:20:29 They’ll all be asked to take on too much.
1:20:31 They’ll be asked to respond to the fire drill.
1:20:33 They’ll be voluntold to do one more project
1:20:36 because it’s a business need.
1:20:37 No other work will be put on hold
1:20:40 or taken off the project list.
1:20:41 It all needs to be done.
1:20:43 And the one-off requests for one more analysis
1:20:47 or a list of information will keep rolling in their boxes.
1:20:51 Maybe she’s next.
1:20:52 She knows how she got to the line.
1:20:54 She had never been there herself,
1:20:57 but once he left, she took his work.
1:20:59 She stepped up to the line more lately.
1:21:01 She stepped back, gone to the office happy hour,
1:21:04 laughed with her coworkers,
1:21:06 gone home feeling better about things.
1:21:08 The next morning when she opened her inbox,
1:21:11 there were more things than she could do by the end of the day.
1:21:13 She tries to prioritize and delegate,
1:21:15 but everyone is approaching the line.
1:21:17 She looks around and can see on all their faces.
1:21:21 They all have enough.
1:21:22 They’re all vulnerable.
1:21:24 If they get that call or email that moment,
1:21:26 they might step over the line and start the journey.
1:21:29 It happens every day.
1:21:30 It happens to everyone.
1:21:31 Do you notice when you are on the line or at the line?
1:21:34 Do you notice when your employees are at the line?
1:21:37 Can you step back?
1:21:38 Can you help them step back?
1:21:40 If you can’t, you’re done and so are they.
1:21:43 This was read tonight with permission
1:21:44 from Mr. Gregory Roach, the author,
1:21:47 What Happens Right Before the Best Employee Quits,
1:21:49 originally published August 22nd, 2019.
1:21:53 I leave with one question.
1:21:54 This question is for Dr. Mullins
1:21:56 and all the school board members.
1:21:57 Your bargaining team actions in the coming weeks
1:22:00 will dictate how many teachers step over the line
1:22:03 without looking back.
1:22:04 Thank you. - Thank you, Mr. Rogatz.
1:22:05 (audience applauding)
1:22:10 - Thank you.
1:22:17 All right, I’m gonna change the subject as well.
1:22:20 My name’s Kelly Way.
1:22:21 I’m the director of the athletic training program
1:22:23 at Parrish Medical Group.
1:22:25 I’m speaking on behalf of Eric Nason,
1:22:29 who is the president of the
1:22:31 Athletic Trainer’s Association of Florida,
1:22:33 as well as who we play for.
1:22:35 So this entire statement is from Eric Nason.
1:22:38 So he has lived in Brevard County
1:22:40 for over 21 years.
1:22:42 He’s been a certified and licensed athletic trainer
1:22:44 for over 23, and currently serve
1:22:46 over 3,000 athletic trainers as the president
1:22:49 of the Athletic Trainer’s Association of Florida.
1:22:51 He’s a father of three Brevard County School kids
1:22:56 with his oldest daughter playing sports in high school.
1:22:59 He’s very sorry that he can’t be here today.
1:23:02 He has a lot of other duties as assigned.
1:23:07 But he wants to share professional and personal thoughts
1:23:11 on cardiac screenings.
1:23:13 So the best way to prevent something from happening
1:23:14 is to have a complete understanding
1:23:16 through evidence-based knowledge,
1:23:18 allowing individuals to take an educational
1:23:21 and informed decision on best practices.
1:23:23 Cardiac arrests and overall cardiac complications
1:23:27 are the silent killer with heart disease in general
1:23:29 being the number one cause of death in the US as of 2017.
1:23:34 Pre-participation in sports physicals
1:23:35 only touch the surface of evaluating the heart.
1:23:37 Sports physicals screen for common abnormalities
1:23:40 and create a referral pathway
1:23:42 for more thorough evaluations and care.
1:23:44 But we need to take it one step further.
1:23:47 Not all cardiac conditions can be evaluated
1:23:49 during sports physicals and would require
1:23:50 an ECG to be detected.
1:23:52 With many more sports physicals,
1:23:54 there are not as much attention to cardiac screenings
1:23:57 other than the brief attempt of listening
1:23:58 to a heartbeat by a physician who in some cases
1:24:02 has not touched a stethoscope since med school,
1:24:04 since their career is in orthopedics
1:24:07 or by a chiropractor who has never been trained
1:24:10 and does not listen to the child’s heart.
1:24:12 The heart is the one muscle that is demanded in every sport,
1:24:16 every day and in every life.
1:24:18 Why is it so neglected?
1:24:20 Why does it take children to suffer cardiac arrests
1:24:23 or even die from cardiac complications
1:24:24 before someone will do something?
1:24:26 In the medical field, we screen dozens of complications
1:24:29 to prevent, to treat early and effectively manage
1:24:33 a potentially serious complication
1:24:35 before it becomes deadly,
1:24:36 like mammograms, prostate screenings,
1:24:38 when cardiac conditions actually kill more people.
1:24:41 Why would we ignore an opportunity to screen
1:24:43 a potentially deadly complication in our children?
1:24:46 It is our responsibility as healthcare professionals
1:24:49 and providers as a school district
1:24:52 responsible for sports programs
1:24:53 to protect the children in our community in all aspects.
1:25:01 So his daughter received an ECG screen
1:25:03 through Who We Play For.
1:25:05 They came to her middle school and tested her.
1:25:07 That’s meant a lot to him.
1:25:08 As a parent, they helped fill a void
1:25:10 in her medical screening that would have been overlooked
1:25:12 in the typical physical.
1:25:13 They went the extra step for his daughter
1:25:16 at no cost to the family.
1:25:18 With only about 3% of those being tested
1:25:21 even being flagged for having a cardiac concern
1:25:24 and only half of those needing any further treatment,
1:25:26 false positives are few and far between
1:25:28 and definitely not a reason to abandon testing all athletes.
1:25:32 These cardiac screens are low-cost, non-invasive,
1:25:36 quick, and professionally monitored.
1:25:38 And for those that simply cannot afford it,
1:25:39 our community has contributed to allow those children
1:25:42 to also have an ECG.
1:25:44 Why would we prevent this from being a mandated part
1:25:47 of our sports physical?
1:25:49 Programs such as Who We Play For come to the school
1:25:51 cutting out transportation issues,
1:25:53 providing low-cost or free screenings,
1:25:55 and making a pathway with no restrictions
1:25:57 to create a safer and healthier environment.
1:25:59 Why would any school district
1:26:01 not have the highest opportunity?
1:26:03 Thank you.
1:26:04 - Thank you for your time.
1:26:04 (audience applauding)
1:26:14 That concludes our public comment section.
1:26:16 We’d like to thank all the speakers this evening.
1:26:19 Moves us on to the consent agenda.
1:26:20 Dr. Mullins.
1:26:26 I’m sorry.
1:26:28 Dr. Mullins, if you could please hold.
1:26:30 Is there any board member that would like
1:26:31 to respond to any of the public comments?
1:26:35 Ms. Belford?
1:26:36 - I think Ms. Campbell has her hand up as well.
1:26:37 - Ms. Campbell. - That’s okay.
1:26:38 You can go first.
1:26:39 - That’s all right, you can go ahead.
1:26:40 - Ms. Campbell, why don’t you start,
1:26:41 and we’ll go down the line.
1:26:42 - Yeah, I just actually, if I could kind of combine a few.
1:26:47 Mr. Hilliard, Mr. Savage, and I’m sorry,
1:26:51 next to last, Mr. Vilgaz, did I say it right?
1:26:54 Okay.
1:26:57 Just wanna let you know, I hear you.
1:27:00 And first to Mr. Savage, you are correct.
1:27:03 Mr. Calucci does represent the teachers.
1:27:07 And it’s a privilege, but a difficult position to be in.
1:27:14 I don’t know if I can see you.
1:27:16 Nod your head back there, Mr. Calucci.
1:27:18 I know it’s a difficult position to be in,
1:27:20 because you represent a very diverse population.
1:27:23 Diverse in background, diverse in job assignments,
1:27:26 diverse in experience.
1:27:28 And that’s difficult in this role of negotiations, as well.
1:27:35 But Mr. Hilliard, I hear you when you say
1:27:38 things are not a game.
1:27:39 One of the things that you mentioned,
1:27:40 I don’t know where you went.
1:27:42 Back there, thank you.
1:27:44 Talked about straight percentage being a game.
1:27:48 I wanna challenge that a little bit,
1:27:50 ‘cause I think, you know, there’s two ways to do this.
1:27:53 There’s the flat way that we’ve always done it,
1:27:56 or at least since 2013, that’s kind of the way I pictured
1:27:59 everybody moving up together.
1:28:01 Or there’s the percentage, which is kind of
1:28:02 a proportional spread things out.
1:28:04 And then there’s the longevity thing
1:28:08 that has been talked about.
1:28:10 And Mr. Calucci, in his difficult but privileged role,
1:28:14 has the opportunity to have that voice to say,
1:28:16 let’s do it this way, let’s do it that way,
1:28:19 because he represents that diverse population.
1:28:22 I don’t think that’s a game, I think that’s a decision.
1:28:25 And that’s input that our BFT leadership has.
1:28:29 That’s one of the main voices at the table.
1:28:31 But you can only have those conversations at the table.
1:28:35 And so I, you know, so come to the table,
1:28:40 I just encourage you, come to the table
1:28:41 and stay at the table, because at beginning,
1:28:45 you know, just seriously.
1:28:46 When we left, did it, hang on.
1:28:50 I’ll be done in a minute, I’ll be done in a minute.
1:28:55 When we start things off, when we left things off last year,
1:28:59 I think the last word from Dr. Mullins was
1:29:02 that we were looking forward to this school year,
1:29:05 starting with a two plus percent raise.
1:29:07 And then we came to the first offer and it was 3.5.
1:29:10 And Mr. Vilgaz, what I was gonna say to you,
1:29:12 to those teachers who are sitting on the line,
1:29:14 I just wanna say, hold on, just hang in there.
1:29:17 Just stick with it, stick with the process,
1:29:20 the process, because Mr. Colucci will continue
1:29:25 to have this influence of how does he represent
1:29:29 you guys at the table, but you got to be at the table.
1:29:33 And so I’d encourage you to get there and stay there.
1:29:39 - Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
1:29:41 Ms. Belford.
1:29:43 - Thank you, Ms. Duskovich.
1:29:45 First, thank you to all the teachers
1:29:46 that came out tonight and spoke.
1:29:47 Your input is important in this process.
1:29:51 And I’m gonna echo a little bit
1:29:53 of what Ms. Campbell referenced.
1:29:56 And that is, when we wrapped up last year,
1:30:00 it’s tough here for everybody.
1:30:01 I don’t think any of us really enjoyed it.
1:30:03 Looking forward to be able to do more
1:30:05 for our teachers this year.
1:30:06 There’s been some discussion through the work groups.
1:30:11 We came out to the first meeting with a first offer
1:30:15 and we have said that all along,
1:30:17 that it is a first offer.
1:30:20 The conversation, because last year,
1:30:25 last year, if I may, we came out with a final offer
1:30:29 at the first meeting and we were chastised for doing so.
1:30:33 And so we came out this year with a structure to discuss.
1:30:36 And I think that’s important to understand
1:30:39 the importance of collaboration in this process as a whole.
1:30:43 In looking at the ways that we can address
1:30:45 the disparity in pay, one of the ways to look at
1:30:48 is the percentage raised.
1:30:50 We’re not saying it has to be that way by any means.
1:30:53 We’re saying let’s discuss it
1:30:55 and see where we wanna go with it.
1:30:56 And the same thing holds true for the language offers.
1:31:00 There were several pieces of language
1:31:01 that were passed across.
1:31:03 And yes, on day two, our team brought responses
1:31:07 to that language.
1:31:09 There were a couple of rejections.
1:31:10 Most of them were counters, which basically said,
1:31:15 we get where you’re trying to go with this.
1:31:16 We have some concerns with the language.
1:31:18 So here’s the language that we propose.
1:31:21 But what should happen at that point
1:31:23 is we should come together and discuss
1:31:26 how we can achieve the outcome that we’re looking to achieve.
1:31:30 Because that truly is the goal.
1:31:32 It’s not a matter of us winning on language
1:31:35 or BFT winning on language.
1:31:37 It’s a matter of us coming together
1:31:38 and crafting language that allows us to achieve the outcome
1:31:42 that we are looking to achieve.
1:31:43 And by we, I mean, collaboratively.
1:31:45 Because as Mr. Gallucci has referenced,
1:31:47 they brought forward some pretty reasonable requests
1:31:51 with regard to outcome.
1:31:53 And the direction from the board was,
1:31:55 we want to say yes to as many as we can.
1:31:59 So let’s figure out a way if there’s an issue
1:32:01 with the language that has been presented,
1:32:04 let’s figure out a way that we can get to yes.
1:32:06 And let’s present that and then let’s work collaboratively
1:32:10 with the BFT negotiating team to come up with language
1:32:13 that works for all of us.
1:32:15 And so that was the goal going into it.
1:32:17 Ms. Skipper, I can’t hear you guys when I’m talking.
1:32:22 What’d you say?
1:32:25 - Ms. Spelford, let’s not do shouting from the room.
1:32:28 The people on the television watching from home
1:32:30 can’t hear unless people have microphones.
1:32:31 - That’s a good point, thank you.
1:32:33 So my point in sharing this
1:32:36 is that we are eager to get back to the table.
1:32:38 And I thank you, Mr. Gallucci.
1:32:40 I understand, I believe we are scheduled
1:32:42 to go back to the table on Monday, is that correct?
1:32:46 So we are looking forward to getting to that point
1:32:50 and to continuing to work together.
1:32:52 As the superintendent has said,
1:32:54 we want to make the language work
1:32:56 in as many ways that we can.
1:32:57 We are eager to bring forward
1:32:59 a very competitive salary offer,
1:33:01 but we have to be at the table to do it.
1:33:03 We can’t do it in this room.
1:33:05 We have to be at the table to make,
1:33:08 have those conversations and work it out
1:33:10 in the way that’s gonna be in the best interest
1:33:12 of our teachers.
1:33:12 So we thank you for your time tonight.
1:33:14 We thank you for the energy
1:33:15 that you’re putting into the issues.
1:33:17 We commit to continue to have those conversations
1:33:21 and hopefully we can wrap this up in a fashion
1:33:24 that will allow us to get dollars into your hands
1:33:26 and good dollars into your hands by Thanksgiving.
1:33:29 And that’s our goal.
1:33:30 So have a great evening.
1:33:33 - Thank you, Ms. Belford.
1:33:34 Anyone else have anything they would like to add?
1:33:40 - This is Deskevich, may I?
1:33:42 - Dr. Mullen.
1:33:43 - So I’d like to provide just some clarification.
1:33:50 I asked staff what the status of reports
1:33:52 or public records requests that have been received
1:33:56 to date and what the status was
1:33:58 because it’s been suggested
1:34:00 that information has not been provided.
1:34:02 And by the report given to me earlier this afternoon,
1:34:07 approximately 15 to 18 reports have been provided.
1:34:11 There is one outstanding
1:34:13 and then there were some additional requests made
1:34:15 I believe today.
1:34:16 We are absolutely committed
1:34:19 to providing whatever information is requested
1:34:22 and we’ll respond with whatever questions come out of it.
1:34:27 And I’ll come back to that in a few minutes.
1:34:30 I just wanna clarify it was suggested by a speaker
1:34:33 that it was continually heard $550, $550.
1:34:39 I wanna clarify ‘cause it has come out from others
1:34:42 that there was some misunderstanding
1:34:45 that the RAISE proposal presented
1:34:49 was 3.5% or $550 for teachers 12 years away.
1:34:56 It was 3.5% for all teachers
1:34:59 and the additional $550.
1:35:03 I just wanted to provide the clarification.
1:35:06 I do wanna mention, I do wanna clarify,
1:35:11 Ms. Belford commented that the only time
1:35:14 and the only place that discussions can be had
1:35:17 relative to bargaining have to be at the bargaining table,
1:35:19 not by choice.
1:35:21 That’s not, those are collective bargaining rules
1:35:26 and guidelines.
1:35:27 Those are the rules that both BFT and BPS have to abide by.
1:35:31 So I just wanted to clarify that.
1:35:33 And then finally, I appreciate Mr. Savage’s information
1:35:39 and suggestion of what the reviewing information
1:35:42 is suggesting as well as Mr. Colucci.
1:35:46 I would invite you to sit down with me tomorrow afternoon.
1:35:49 I’d be happy to go through the reports you have
1:35:52 and understand where that information is
1:35:54 if at all you’re available and I’d be happy to meet you
1:35:58 in wherever we can find a place to meet, okay?
1:36:02 Thank you. (audience applauding)
1:36:06 - Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
1:36:07 There was only one other piece of information
1:36:10 I think we should clarify.
1:36:12 And one of the speakers mentioned that
1:36:16 we didn’t have the money to give this amount of a raise
1:36:20 last year and somehow we found it over the summer
1:36:23 and now we’re able to give, we’ve offered a 3.5% raise.
1:36:27 The reason for that is the state funding per year.
1:36:30 Last year, the state funding was 47 cents per student
1:36:33 and then their state budget came out
1:36:35 and it’s $75 per student.
1:36:40 And I knew you’d know the number off the top of your head,
1:36:43 which obviously opens up the pot of money
1:36:45 for a higher teacher raise this year.
1:36:51 Okay, we are now ready to move on to the consent agenda.
1:36:54 Dr. Mullins.
1:36:58 - There are 16 agenda items under this category.
1:37:03 - Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
1:37:04 Does any board member wish to pull one of these items?
1:37:07 - Yes, Ms. Deskevich, I would like to pull F-22.
1:37:15 - Pam, would you please pull item F-22 for discussion?
1:37:22 I’ll entertain a motion to accept the consent items
1:37:24 with the exception of F-22.
1:37:26 - So moved. - Second.
1:37:29 - Motion by Ms. Belford, second by Ms. Campbell.
1:37:31 Any discussion?
1:37:33 Please vote.
1:37:40 Motion passes five, zero.
1:37:43 Need a motion on F-22.
1:37:45 - Move to approve. - Second.
1:37:47 - Motion by Ms. Campbell, second by Mr. Susan
1:37:49 for discussion, Ms. Campbell.
1:37:52 - I just didn’t want this historic moment
1:37:55 to go by quickly unnoticed.
1:37:58 Back in 2014, we as a county voted to approve
1:38:03 the half-cent sales surtax that was to go towards
1:38:08 facility renewal, security and technology infrastructure,
1:38:13 and there was an amount tied to that,
1:38:16 a projected amount of $198 million.
1:38:22 We’ve all been here for the last six years
1:38:25 and seen that the economy’s been pretty good,
1:38:27 and so over the last year that we’ve heard the projection
1:38:31 that somewhere around September or October of this year,
1:38:34 we would meet that and then we would have a year plus
1:38:38 of surplus income, and I just wanted to make note
1:38:41 that that goal was reached, if I read my notes correctly,
1:38:45 in August, and so we have reached the $198 million mark,
1:38:48 and I’d like to just give a little woo-hoo we got there,
1:38:51 but I wanna clarify something ‘cause I think
1:38:54 there might be the perception moving forward
1:38:57 that wow, the district had all that money
1:38:59 and now they’re rolling in dough
1:39:00 because we’re gonna get another 70 million
1:39:03 or however much is projected to go
1:39:04 for the next year and four months.
1:39:08 So I just was taking a look at some of the things.
1:39:12 Of course, all that, I just wanted to take
1:39:14 a little education moment, if I could,
1:39:17 just to explain how that works.
1:39:19 When we passed that as a county back in 2014,
1:39:23 there was something called Attachment F,
1:39:24 which I have gotten to learn so much about in the last year,
1:39:27 which was basically the Bible for that money.
1:39:31 The money had to be spent in a certain way.
1:39:33 It couldn’t be spent, outside of that,
1:39:35 had to be spent at those schools for those projects,
1:39:38 and so when we’ve had other things come up
1:39:41 in the last six years, other things that have broken
1:39:44 that weren’t on that list, money to deal with those things,
1:39:48 like air conditioning systems that have gone down
1:39:49 and things like that, has to come from somewhere else,
1:39:51 and so a lot of times I hear,
1:39:53 “Oh, they have sent sales tax money.
1:39:54 “Why don’t they just use this?
1:39:55 “Why don’t they just use it for that?”
1:39:58 But we’re restricted by the rules
1:40:01 of by that Attachment F Bible,
1:40:03 and so, and I just wanted to, I asked,
1:40:05 I checked with Dr. Mullins and Ms. Han this morning,
1:40:08 or this afternoon, about the number,
1:40:11 and when they did the evaluation back in 2013,
1:40:13 in order to fix everything that needed to be fixed
1:40:16 in all of our facilities, the number was
1:40:18 a staggering 757 million dollars.
1:40:23 So I’m so excited that we reached 198 million,
1:40:27 but that’s a lot of money, a lot of things
1:40:29 that we’re not able to get done,
1:40:31 and that’s just for facilities.
1:40:33 That’s not for security and for the education technology.
1:40:38 They funded about 22% of that.
1:40:41 If you look on, if you get into the agenda tonight,
1:40:44 one of the things that they’re asking to use,
1:40:48 I think, $500,000 of the next $500,000 extra
1:40:52 that comes in is towards computer renewal, correct,
1:40:55 Mr. Cheatham?
1:40:57 Just another staggering number is that across our district,
1:40:59 we have 80,000 computers, and 65% of them
1:41:04 are beyond their seven year life cycle.
1:41:08 Sad computers, right, Mr. Susan?
1:41:10 As your daughter says.
1:41:12 And that the money that we’re asking to,
1:41:15 or we’re voting on with this motion
1:41:17 is only a third of the money that’s needed
1:41:18 to transition to a 10 year cycle.
1:41:21 So while I’m excited that we met that,
1:41:23 I just want everybody to understand
1:41:25 that the rest of what comes in is really needed
1:41:30 and will continue to have to be supplemented
1:41:32 by our facilities funding.
1:41:35 And so as we move forward,
1:41:37 we still have a lot of projects to fix,
1:41:39 and I’m sad that Mr. Broadly already left,
1:41:42 because maybe some of the things that we’ve been talking
1:41:44 about, air conditioning, not working,
1:41:45 we’ll be able to make the list as we move forward.
1:41:49 But again, just another point of educating ourselves
1:41:53 and the public, those things will have to continue to go
1:41:56 before our oversight committee,
1:41:59 because they are the ones who have to approve
1:42:02 all those things before they even come to us.
1:42:04 And so that is continuing to be held accountable
1:42:07 every dollar by our commission, and I’m thankful for that.
1:42:12 Ms. Hann, did you wanna, you were jumping forward,
1:42:14 did you want to add anything to that?
1:42:17 All right, you wanna tell us what’s next on the list or no?
1:42:20 No, I’m just kidding.
1:42:21 But I just, I’d wanna take that moment.
1:42:23 I’m happy to vote positively on this motion,
1:42:26 but I wanna take that moment not to let it slip by unnoticed.
1:42:30 - Can I just add to that, I think,
1:42:32 of course, Ms. McDougall, go ahead.
1:42:33 - I think, and thank you, Ms. Campbell, for bringing it up.
1:42:36 And I don’t know if everyone remembers,
1:42:38 but most of our schools are over 50 years old.
1:42:42 So they are going to need, in your home,
1:42:44 if you have an air conditioner,
1:42:46 you know it’s not going to last 50 years.
1:42:49 The piping may not last.
1:42:51 There’s so many things, and upkeep in your own home,
1:42:54 and so I want us to be cognizant of that,
1:42:56 that yes, this is money well spent,
1:42:58 and we need to keep going renewal-wise.
1:43:01 So I really appreciate you bringing it up,
1:43:03 because we do have aging schools,
1:43:05 and they’re not gonna get any younger at this point.
1:43:07 So it’s very needed, and thanks to Ms. Hann,
1:43:11 whose department is pretty fabulous
1:43:14 for all the work that she does in our schools.
1:43:18 - Thank you, Ms. McDougall.
1:43:19 Are we ready to vote on F22?
1:43:24 Pam, do we need a voice vote, or can we?
1:43:26 Nope, okay, please vote.
1:43:32 Motion passes five-zero.
1:43:38 Move on to the action agenda, Dr. Mullins.
1:43:42 - Ms. Teskevich, there are a total of eight action items
1:43:48 for us to go through.
1:43:49 Six of them are on policies,
1:43:50 which will provide the public second opportunity
1:43:53 for comment on the revisions, followed by board action.
1:43:56 Item G26 is on board policy 6510.
1:44:01 - Is there anyone present this evening
1:44:02 who wishes to address the revisions
1:44:04 and board policy 6510 payroll authorization?
1:44:10 Is there anyone present this evening
1:44:11 who wishes to address the revisions
1:44:12 and board policy 6510 payroll authorization?
1:44:18 Any board members have any comments?
1:44:21 What are the wishes of the board?
1:44:22 - Move to approve. - Second.
1:44:24 - Motion by Mr. Susan, second by Ms. McDougall.
1:44:27 Any discussion?
1:44:29 Please vote.
1:44:36 Motion passes five-zero, Dr. Mullins.
1:44:38 - Next is item G27 on department school initiated agreements.
1:44:42 - What are the wishes of the board?
1:44:44 - Move to approve. - Second.
1:44:46 - Motion by Mr. Susan, second by Ms. Belford.
1:44:48 Any discussion?
1:44:50 Please vote.
1:44:57 Motion passes five-zero, Dr. Mullins.
1:45:00 - Next is item G28 on purchasing solicitations.
1:45:05 - What are the wishes of the board?
1:45:06 - Move to approve. - Second.
1:45:07 - Motion by Mr. Susan, second by Ms. Belford.
1:45:10 Any discussion?
1:45:11 Please vote.
1:45:20 Motion passes five-zero, Dr. Mullins.
1:45:24 - Ms. Deskevich and members of the board,
1:45:26 the next five action items are on the policy revisions
1:45:29 for 3120, 2260.01, 2431, 5310, and 5517.
1:45:38 Is there anyone here who’s come to address
1:45:39 board policy 3120, employment and staff?
1:45:44 Is there anyone here who’s come to address
1:45:46 board policy 3120, employment and staff?
1:45:51 Wishes of the board?
1:45:53 - Move to approve. - Second.
1:45:54 - Motion by Mr. Susan, second by Ms. Campbell.
1:45:57 Any discussion?
1:45:58 Please vote.
1:46:06 Motion passes five-zero.
1:46:17 Is there anyone here who’s come to address
1:46:18 board policy 2260.01, Nondiscrimination Grievance Procedure?
1:46:26 Is there anyone here who’s come to address
1:46:27 board policy 2260.01, Nondiscrimination Grievance Procedure?
1:46:34 What are the wishes of the board?
1:46:35 - Move to approve. - Second.
1:46:37 - Motion by Mr. Susan, second by Ms. McDougall.
1:46:40 Any discussion?
1:46:41 Please vote.
1:46:49 Motion passes five-zero.
1:46:51 Is there anyone here who’s come to address
1:46:53 board policy 2431, Interscholastic Athletics?
1:47:01 I’m sorry?
1:47:04 Is there anyone here who’s come to address
1:47:05 board policy 2431, Interscholastic Athletics?
1:47:12 What are the wishes of the board?
1:47:13 - Move to approve. - Second.
1:47:15 - Motion by Mr. Susan, second by Ms. Belford.
1:47:19 Any discussion? - Yes.
1:47:20 - Mr. Susan.
1:47:21 - Well, I was gonna give everybody else a chance
1:47:22 to speak before my energy gets a little out of control.
1:47:26 - Why don’t you take this one?
1:47:26 - We defer our energy to your energy, Mr. Susan.
1:47:30 - I agree.
1:47:32 - You guys, I’m proud of you.
1:47:34 Evan, when you started this process years ago,
1:47:36 like what was it, a year and a half, two years ago,
1:47:38 when we drove all the way to FSBA
1:47:40 and tried to pitch it to a couple other school board members
1:47:43 and all your involvement, man,
1:47:45 I mean, your dedication to this cause
1:47:47 and for your friend has been tremendous.
1:47:49 And I’m absolutely, yeah.
1:47:51 (attendees applauding)
1:47:56 Kurt, thanks for coming on.
1:47:57 Everybody else pushing it the way that you guys came out
1:48:00 and really supported this.
1:48:02 There’s not many, I would say this is probably,
1:48:04 arguably, the best, my most favorite policy
1:48:08 that I have passed and might be the one that I ever do.
1:48:11 You know, it means a lot to me
1:48:13 to be able to change somebody’s lives and to defend them.
1:48:16 So, I put together a little speech.
1:48:18 You guys wanna hear it?
1:48:20 I’m excited.
1:48:21 - Do we have a choice?
1:48:22 - Yes, you do.
1:48:22 - Do you want us to know the person who gave you your speech?
1:48:24 - No, no.
1:48:25 We sit here tonight before an organization
1:48:27 founded by former students that has committed itself
1:48:30 to the insurmountable cause.
1:48:31 A school board that dared to be bold
1:48:33 while others have given up in the face of adversity
1:48:35 and a school district who stood committed
1:48:36 to its community and leadership
1:48:38 to enact this policy with fidelity.
1:48:40 We sit here tonight to correct state
1:48:41 and national organizations’ failed attempts
1:48:43 to lead in the way which their founding principles
1:48:45 were once established, whose fidelity of policy
1:48:48 has subsided and rather become rubber stamp protections
1:48:50 from liability for school boards,
1:48:52 whose organizations also find themselves spending less time
1:48:56 driving policy and more time supporting Tinkertop fundraisers
1:49:01 in efforts to stay afloat because the relevance
1:49:03 has faded with their major donors.
1:49:05 Tonight, I’m proud to stand together
1:49:06 with so many amazing people who have committed
1:49:08 to saving the lives of our students
1:49:09 and give the Rafe family one more instance
1:49:12 as to why their child did not pass in vain.
1:49:14 Rafe, this one’s for you.
1:49:15 Here we go, Brevard.
1:49:17 One more time, we are serving students with excellence.
1:49:19 Thank you.
1:49:20 (attendees applauding)
1:49:25 I see some tears you’re giving.
1:49:27 No.
1:49:29 - It’s the best speech you’ve ever given, Mr. Susan.
1:49:31 (attendees laughing)
1:49:32 - Hey, I’m telling you, the shortest and the best.
1:49:37 You guys, I’m proud of you.
1:49:38 Dr. Mullins, thank you for giving direction like you did
1:49:41 to tell staff, and thank you to staff
1:49:44 for giving everything that they had to make that happen.
1:49:47 This was phenomenal.
1:49:48 And I know we still got a little work to do,
1:49:50 and we’re gonna be there, but I’m proud.
1:49:53 And proud of everybody here
1:49:54 for everything that you guys have done.
1:49:56 And I just don’t want the moment to end,
1:49:57 so I’m gonna continue to talk,
1:49:58 and I can’t stop.
1:49:59 No, I’m just kidding.
1:50:00 All right, that’s it.
1:50:01 - Mr. Susan, just so we’re clear,
1:50:03 the true thanks, certainly to who we play for
1:50:07 and folks that have provided that support,
1:50:10 but there’s an army of folks who have worked like champions
1:50:16 in a very short period of time
1:50:19 to work through so many logistics.
1:50:21 Ms. Moore, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services.
1:50:25 Mr. Bill Maharis, Assistant Director of,
1:50:27 I never get it right, athletics and student activities.
1:50:31 Our athletic directors across our campuses.
1:50:33 This was one more thing that we put on your plate,
1:50:36 but you accepted it because you knew the value
1:50:40 and the cause and so on.
1:50:41 So Mr. Parr, thank you for your voice.
1:50:43 Thank you for your leadership and across all of our schools,
1:50:47 the support staff in our schools to help manage the process.
1:50:51 And we’re just beginning,
1:50:52 but it has taken a tremendous effort.
1:50:55 So the true thanks, you directed it this way,
1:50:59 but I send it all back to the folks
1:51:02 who have done the real work, so thank you.
1:51:03 - We, we, we, we directed.
1:51:05 Yes, I can’t do it by myself.
1:51:08 - I do wanna add this.
1:51:10 The speed in which it was done was remarkable.
1:51:12 Three years on working in a bureaucracy of the size
1:51:16 is sometimes frustrating,
1:51:18 but this moved, may not seem quick to you all,
1:51:21 but for the average pace of things around here,
1:51:24 it was speedy, so.
1:51:26 I think we’re all pretty excited
1:51:28 to vote for this this evening.
1:51:31 Everybody ready to vote?
1:51:33 Please vote.
1:51:38 Motion passes five, zero.
1:51:40 (audience applauding)
1:51:53 - You guys wanna get a picture with him?
1:51:54 What the hell?
1:51:55 You wanna take five minutes?
1:51:56 Let’s all take a picture with him.
1:51:57 You guys, can we take a picture with you?
1:51:58 - I think we’re gonna recess for five minutes
1:52:00 for a photo op.
1:52:01 - Yeah, ‘cause we get a picture
1:52:02 for every little certificate that comes across here.
1:52:04 We should do this one.
1:52:05 And you guys are crying, so we’re gonna do it.
1:52:08 Let’s go about a few more minutes, okay?
1:52:18 (upbeat music)
1:52:23 (upbeat music continues)
1:57:23 (silence)
1:57:44 - The meeting is now back in session.
1:57:46 Ms. Belford has some comments.
1:57:49 - I do, just a quick comment.
1:57:50 Mr. Francisco, could you step back out?
1:57:54 - Mr. Francisco.
1:57:58 - What do you got going on?
1:57:59 - Is it dark in here on the front?
1:58:01 - Is this part of the process?
1:58:03 - I just wanted to wish you a very happy birthday, sir.
1:58:05 (audience applauds)
1:58:08 - Let’s do it, ready?
1:58:09 ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
1:58:14 This is where everybody else starts.
1:58:16 (audience laughs)
1:58:18 Why is my mic off?
1:58:22 Okay, we are back into our board meeting.
1:58:27 We are gonna move on to board policy 5310.
1:58:31 Is there anyone here who’s come to address
1:58:33 board policy 5310 health services?
1:58:38 Is there anyone here who’s come to address
1:58:40 board policy 5310 health services?
1:58:45 What are the wishes of the board?
1:58:46 - Move to approve. - Second.
1:58:47 - Motion by Mr. Susan, second by Ms. McDougall.
1:58:50 Any discussion?
1:58:51 Please vote.
1:59:01 Motion passes five, zero.
1:59:03 Is there anyone here who’s come to address
1:59:04 board policy 5517 harassment?
1:59:09 Is there anyone here who’s come to address
1:59:10 board policy 5517 harassment?
1:59:14 What are the wishes of the board?
1:59:15 - Move to approve. - Second.
1:59:19 - Motion by Mr. Susan, second by Ms. Campbell.
1:59:21 Any discussion?
1:59:23 Please vote.
1:59:27 Motion passes five, zero.
1:59:30 We will now move on to the information agenda
1:59:33 which includes items for board review
1:59:34 and will be brought back for action at a later meeting.
1:59:37 No action will be taken on these items tonight.
1:59:39 Dr. Mullins.
1:59:41 - There is one item under the information category.
1:59:43 - Does any member wish to discuss this item?
1:59:46 - Nope, good job, Sue.
1:59:49 - Ms. McDougall.
1:59:51 - So I have a quick question.
1:59:54 Where are you?
1:59:55 There you are.
1:59:56 And I know I read this and I probably forgot.
1:59:59 But is this going to a county?
2:00:02 Is it gonna be conservation?
2:00:05 I’m hoping it’s conservation.
2:00:14 - Yes ma’am, the state of Florida’s purchasing it
2:00:15 for conservation property.
2:00:16 - Oh good, I wasn’t sure if it’s the county
2:00:17 or the state of Florida.
2:00:18 - It’s the state. - Excellent, thank you.
2:00:21 - Any other discussion?
2:00:23 - I like that she got more than market value.
2:00:25 We’re going towards conservation.
2:00:27 It’s a beautiful thing, Sue, thank you.
2:00:29 - Thank you, Ms. Han.
2:00:34 We are now on to staff reports.
2:00:37 Dr. Mullins, please tell us about the staff report
2:00:39 on tonight’s agenda.
2:00:42 - Mike Alba, director of professional learning
2:00:44 and development will update the board and viewing audience
2:00:48 on our retention and recruitment efforts.
2:00:50 Mr. Alba, this is in response to our last board meeting.
2:00:55 Ms. Belford had asked for an update
2:00:57 and I didn’t have all of the things
2:00:59 and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity
2:01:01 to brag on the work of our PL&D department.
2:01:04 - Thank you, Dr. Mullins, members of the board
2:01:06 for this opportunity to update you all
2:01:08 and members of the audience and the public watching
2:01:12 on some of our recent efforts
2:01:14 in regards to recruitment and retention.
2:01:18 - So I’ve been introduced, so the first,
2:01:21 obviously recruitment and retention
2:01:23 are two separate categories.
2:01:25 So I’m gonna begin with some of our recruitment efforts
2:01:28 for the district and the big question
2:01:30 that everyone’s asking in our district
2:01:32 and probably many other districts in the state of Florida
2:01:35 and certainly really it seems to be around the country
2:01:38 is how do we attract talent to our county?
2:01:40 How do we attract talent to Brevard County schools?
2:01:43 It’s such a complicated issue as we’ve heard.
2:01:47 Brought up several of the public comments
2:01:49 was on that issue of recruiting our teachers here
2:01:54 and talent here and many times
2:01:58 when you have those challenging topics,
2:02:00 it’s great you get a lot of input from people
2:02:04 but that sometimes creates another unique challenge
2:02:07 is what do you do with all those suggestions?
2:02:09 And many times the suggestions are relevant
2:02:12 and they’re great ideas but if you look at all of them,
2:02:15 you take them all into account,
2:02:17 it’s sometimes very difficult with limited resources
2:02:20 and time to try to put them all into action.
2:02:23 So thankfully about in the spring,
2:02:25 several people actually provided me a recent research study.
2:02:29 It was found in the school CEO magazine.
2:02:33 They had surveyed 30,000 teachers
2:02:35 and basically was asking these questions
2:02:38 ‘cause a lot of people were asking wanted answers,
2:02:40 so they did, they reached out to teachers and asked them
2:02:44 and in this particular question that you see here,
2:02:47 the first slide here is what are any teachers looking for?
2:02:50 And this was just to make sure I’m clear
2:02:52 on these three things.
2:02:55 The question was stated, besides salary,
2:02:57 what are the top categories that are important to you?
2:03:03 Obviously salary was important on the research as well.
2:03:07 But the three things were opportunity to make an impact.
2:03:10 That has never changed.
2:03:11 People get into teaching ‘cause they wanna make an impact
2:03:13 on students’ lives and the communities that they work in.
2:03:16 They wanna know about the lifestyles outside of work.
2:03:18 What opportunities they have when they’re done with the work
2:03:21 to enjoy the community around them.
2:03:23 And certainly the teachers want to give back
2:03:27 to the community in other ways outside of teaching.
2:03:30 What are those opportunities in Brevard County?
2:03:33 So with that research in mind,
2:03:35 it kinda helped me kind of frame our response,
2:03:39 our initiatives and what we were gonna prioritize
2:03:42 within our department and partnering
2:03:44 with other departments within Brevard County.
2:03:47 So starting off with the impact,
2:03:49 we wanted to highlight, whether it’s social media,
2:03:52 any print that we take to recruiting fairs,
2:03:55 is that we highlight these three areas.
2:03:57 So the impact, we wanna make sure
2:03:59 that we’re highlighting the strong culture
2:04:01 that’s found in our district, within our schools,
2:04:05 in our community as we really value the work
2:04:09 that people are doing in the schools.
2:04:10 So we wanna make sure that we share our story.
2:04:14 So this is a snapshot of one of the publications
2:04:18 that Government of Communications
2:04:20 helped me create last year.
2:04:22 So a big shout out to them in creating this product.
2:04:26 And it does a great job of sharing our story.
2:04:28 In the past, really, all we had to share
2:04:30 was just kinda information, openings that we generally have.
2:04:34 But this product really does tell more of our story
2:04:38 of what makes Brevard a special place to live and work.
2:04:42 With the lifestyle, again, Government of Communications
2:04:45 was a huge help.
2:04:47 The birthday boy, Michael Francisco,
2:04:50 he was instrumental in giving up his time and his talents
2:04:54 to helping develop some videos to highlight
2:04:58 not only our schools, but our community.
2:05:00 And what are the outstanding opportunities
2:05:04 that people living in Brevard have to enjoy
2:05:08 on the weekends or outside of work surrounding that.
2:05:12 We also found some great videos
2:05:16 that was put out through the EDC.
2:05:18 They have a Live Big campaign,
2:05:20 and they did wonderful work
2:05:22 providing just high-quality videos.
2:05:25 And they do snapshots of the various communities,
2:05:28 whether it’s Cocoa Beach, Palm Bay, areas in the north.
2:05:32 It’s wonderful videos for people
2:05:34 that just are not familiar with Brevard County.
2:05:37 It’s easy for them to search and click
2:05:39 and then get a good idea of what is here
2:05:42 for people working in Brevard County.
2:05:46 And then lastly, we wanted to make sure
2:05:47 that we highlighted just the opportunities
2:05:50 and the wonderful nonprofits that we have
2:05:53 that individuals can get involved in
2:05:54 to make a difference in our community outside of school.
2:05:58 So we launched a new careers page a few months ago,
2:06:03 and the previous careers page,
2:06:06 it was basically, it didn’t say anything about our district.
2:06:10 It just had a picture of the lighthouse
2:06:12 that’s been there for years and years and years about Beacon,
2:06:14 and there really was nothing.
2:06:16 There was nothing to tell people about Brevard County
2:06:19 and why they should come and work and live here
2:06:22 and then raise their family here
2:06:24 and everything else that goes along with it.
2:06:26 And so we really worked hard to kind of capture
2:06:28 those three things that were found in that research
2:06:31 in our new careers page,
2:06:32 and hopefully you’ve had a chance to look at it.
2:06:34 It’s much, much better,
2:06:36 and now that we have a starting point,
2:06:38 we’re gonna continue to make sure
2:06:39 that it continues to improve based on feedback
2:06:42 that we’ve received from the community and so forth.
2:06:47 Outside of just kind of the social media and the print,
2:06:51 and we wanted to expand our outreach efforts.
2:06:55 Typically in the past, we do the usual thing
2:06:57 that most every other district does
2:06:58 is we go to career fairs.
2:06:59 Just when there’s a career fair, we’ll go and attend,
2:07:02 but we wanted to really again broaden our reach,
2:07:06 and we wanted to kind of plant the seeds
2:07:09 in people’s minds of Brevard County
2:07:12 prior to attending a career fair.
2:07:14 So a great example of that is the night ed talks.
2:07:18 UCF has put this in place for a couple years now,
2:07:21 and they have opportunities for students,
2:07:25 freshmen through seniors who want to learn more
2:07:27 about certain topics.
2:07:28 It’s in the evening from four to seven,
2:07:31 and they can come and visit,
2:07:33 and we presented the first one here on September 10th.
2:07:36 That was actually our presentation.
2:07:38 Myself and Pam Ollick went out,
2:07:40 and she did a great job doing a session
2:07:43 on integrating technology, and we had a great turnout.
2:07:46 These are students we probably would have never reached
2:07:48 if we hadn’t attended that event,
2:07:50 and what’s great is they have to sign in,
2:07:52 and we have their email address
2:07:53 so we can follow up with those students
2:07:55 after they attend this event and encourage them
2:07:58 and help them out if they ask any questions
2:08:00 or tell them about the other opportunities
2:08:02 that were gonna be there later this semester.
2:08:04 So hopefully through these efforts,
2:08:07 and when we do attend a career fair,
2:08:08 they’ll be more willing to kind of ask questions,
2:08:11 come to our table, and again,
2:08:13 attract more people to Brevard County
2:08:16 that maybe in the past wouldn’t have just come
2:08:18 to our table in a career fair.
2:08:20 And we’re reaching out outside of UCF
2:08:23 to see if other colleges, universities
2:08:24 have opportunities like this
2:08:26 so that we can attend those as well.
2:08:30 And just get our name out there.
2:08:32 We’re trying to leverage the opportunities
2:08:34 that we have now virtually.
2:08:36 Several districts in the state are using different vendors
2:08:39 that provide opportunities to either create webinars
2:08:41 or opportunities for people just to, you know,
2:08:45 during a set time to kind of dial in or call in
2:08:49 and just to talk to someone.
2:08:51 You know, from one to two,
2:08:52 if you wanna hear more about our district,
2:08:53 it’ll be either a principal or someone in my staff.
2:08:58 Anybody can sign up for it and provide them information.
2:09:03 Again, just trying to get those people
2:09:05 that might be on the edge.
2:09:06 We’re not sure if they wanna apply,
2:09:08 but if we just spend some time beforehand
2:09:11 answering some of their questions,
2:09:12 it might improve the likelihood that they’ll actually apply
2:09:16 and complete an application for our district
2:09:18 and apply for some positions
2:09:20 if they just knew more about our district.
2:09:22 So those are more informal ways
2:09:23 other than just filling out an application
2:09:26 hoping that you get an interview.
2:09:27 These are opportunities to take and expand our outreach.
2:09:31 Troops to Teachers have been around for a while.
2:09:32 We just met with their representative a few weeks ago,
2:09:36 and they’re trying to do really a more proactive approach
2:09:39 to gain more candidates,
2:09:41 and typically we would just reach out to them
2:09:43 after they would end their years of service,
2:09:46 and now they’re trying to identify individuals,
2:09:48 maybe they’re maybe two years out,
2:09:50 year and a half out before they retire
2:09:52 and their service agreement with the military,
2:09:55 and interview them at that time before they leave,
2:09:58 and if they seem to be someone
2:10:00 that would be a good fit in our county,
2:10:02 we would give them a pre-service contract
2:10:05 to work for our school,
2:10:06 and then with that assurance,
2:10:09 they would start taking the education classes necessary
2:10:13 to earn their teaching certificate.
2:10:15 So again, through that,
2:10:16 hopefully it would commit more people
2:10:20 to work in our county after their service is over.
2:10:23 They actually told us about several other
2:10:25 large recruiting events through the military.
2:10:28 They have a big tri-base fair in Tampa
2:10:31 that we have not attended to.
2:10:33 Through those connections,
2:10:34 we’ll continue to go out to more fairs like that
2:10:36 that we haven’t attended in the past.
2:10:40 Here’s again some great examples
2:10:41 of the new teacher videos that we developed.
2:10:44 Again, Michael was instrumental in this,
2:10:47 just highlighting the fact that we asked these new teachers,
2:10:49 “What is it that you love working in Brevard County,
2:10:53 “not only your school, but in this community?”
2:10:56 Again, we wanted to highlight the three things
2:10:58 that was shown in research,
2:10:59 what was important to those teachers.
2:11:01 We wanted to make sure that that was captured in the videos.
2:11:04 New videos that I wanna try to create this year
2:11:07 would be capturing those teachers
2:11:09 that are coming into the field as a second career,
2:11:12 that it might inspire others
2:11:15 who might not have thought of education,
2:11:17 or not sure of the path of how to make that happen.
2:11:20 Again, just trying to plant that seed
2:11:22 with more people that haven’t thought about education
2:11:25 through some videos of just giving live examples
2:11:28 of people that have done that,
2:11:29 have been very successful within our district.
2:11:34 As far as diversity, it’s also very important,
2:11:36 we don’t wanna forget that in our school,
2:11:38 so we’re advertising in two new publications,
2:11:43 the National Minority Update,
2:11:45 as well as Diversity Education.
2:11:47 And one thing I’m very excited about
2:11:50 is some conversations that we’ve had
2:11:51 with Eastern Florida State College,
2:11:53 and UCF is trying to create just a clear pipeline
2:11:56 for our instructional assistants
2:11:58 that are currently working in Brevard County schools,
2:12:00 is if they’re wanting or even thinking
2:12:03 about possibly becoming a teacher,
2:12:06 that they have a clear path on how to get there,
2:12:08 whether it’s starting classes at Eastern Florida
2:12:10 or finishing up their degree
2:12:12 to earn their bachelor’s at UCF.
2:12:14 So we’ve had some great conversations
2:12:15 with both those universities and colleges,
2:12:18 and they’re on board 100%,
2:12:20 and there’s actually funding through the state
2:12:23 and the federal DOE as well for funding
2:12:27 for them to take these courses.
2:12:29 So we’re hoping that we’ll come into fruition this year
2:12:32 and have some meetings with the IAs.
2:12:34 We’ve already had a survey sent out to the IAs,
2:12:38 kind of seeing their interests,
2:12:39 and there seems to be a strong interest
2:12:40 within our current IAs for more information on this topic.
2:12:45 This is an example of our new kind of headhunting site,
2:12:49 for lack of a better term.
2:12:50 It’s Frontline Ed, K-12 JobSpot.
2:12:53 In our current past practice,
2:12:56 as far as how we advertise jobs, it was just through Beacon.
2:12:59 The only way you would see our jobs
2:13:00 is if you were actively searching for jobs
2:13:02 within our county, and that’s pretty limiting.
2:13:06 There’s a lot of people even not very far
2:13:08 from Brevard County that don’t even know
2:13:10 where Brevard County is for some reason,
2:13:11 even though we’re one of the largest districts in Florida,
2:13:14 they might not be sure where we are or even think about it.
2:13:18 So what this site provides us to do
2:13:20 is to not only post ads, but the more powerful feature
2:13:24 with this is it allows us to run campaigns.
2:13:26 So we can, through all the members in their site,
2:13:30 and they say they have over 150,000 people just in Florida
2:13:34 that have a link or at a campaign,
2:13:41 a count through this site, and that’s just in Florida.
2:13:45 And we’re able to push out our ads through campaigns,
2:13:48 saying hey, we’ve got seven science openings,
2:13:51 come check out our career page.
2:13:52 If you wanna hear more about our district,
2:13:54 come check us out.
2:13:55 And this is just a snapshot of the front page.
2:13:58 It’s actually over 100,000 right now,
2:14:01 given the latest job postings that we’ve had
2:14:04 with our current openings.
2:14:06 So we’re reaching out more people through this site.
2:14:08 Again, we need to create more metrics on really
2:14:12 how many people actually are brought to Brevard County
2:14:16 through this work, so we wanna make sure
2:14:18 that we are maximizing the resources and time.
2:14:22 So that’s certainly something we need to do a better job on
2:14:24 is capturing those metrics.
2:14:26 How did you come to Brevard, how did you hear about us?
2:14:28 And then once we get a better metric on that,
2:14:31 then we can spend more time and more resources and time
2:14:34 on the things that actually are bringing more people
2:14:36 to Brevard County.
2:14:38 Ongoing efforts, I think you know about these things,
2:14:40 but maybe some members in the audience are not aware.
2:14:44 The Future Education of America programs,
2:14:47 we have some strong programs within our district,
2:14:49 but we don’t have an FEA in every school,
2:14:51 so it’d be great to have an FEA in every secondary school,
2:14:53 middle school, and high school.
2:14:55 We’re certainly gonna continue to go to career fairs.
2:14:59 Our teaching academies, we’ve had ones for several years
2:15:03 in Space Coast Junior Senior High School,
2:15:05 but we have a new teaching academy at Bayside High School,
2:15:08 so we’re very excited about that.
2:15:09 It’s their first year in existence,
2:15:10 so we’re gonna make sure that we support them
2:15:12 to make sure they’re successful in getting kids excited
2:15:15 about the field of education in the future.
2:15:20 Our principals do an outstanding job
2:15:22 once they have interns in their schools
2:15:24 to offer them pre-contract binders before they leave,
2:15:27 and there’s no secret, there’s very few interns
2:15:31 that leave our county or our district
2:15:34 without getting a pre-contract binder.
2:15:38 Our principals do an amazing job.
2:15:39 Most of the time, these interns don’t even have to attend
2:15:42 our college fair, our career fair that we do in March,
2:15:45 because they already have a pre-contract binder
2:15:47 before the fair even takes place.
2:15:50 So partnerships with secondary leading and learning
2:15:52 and elementary leading and learning,
2:15:54 they’ve been wonderful about their Title II funds
2:15:56 and opening up those opportunities
2:15:58 for recruitment and retention.
2:16:00 We’re able to pay college interns.
2:16:01 This year, we have some funds for individuals
2:16:04 that commit to teaching in Brevard County and obtain jobs.
2:16:08 We were able to give them a stipend
2:16:10 after they make that commitment,
2:16:11 and we’re also able to offer
2:16:13 the Professional Development Certification Program
2:16:15 for free to our candidates.
2:16:17 Previously, it would cost them $1,200
2:16:20 over about a course of about a year and a half,
2:16:22 and now that opportunity is gonna be free
2:16:24 for our teachers that are coming in
2:16:26 with a temporary certification.
2:16:28 So we’re excited about that,
2:16:29 and hopefully that will bring more teachers in
2:16:31 through that incentive,
2:16:32 ‘cause not all districts provide that offer.
2:16:35 And obviously, it’s part of our new strategic plan
2:16:38 to make sure that that work is not forgotten,
2:16:39 not just by our department,
2:16:40 by departments around the district.
2:16:44 All right, so moving on to retention.
2:16:46 And again, I feel like this is the one piece
2:16:48 I think that we do have more control over in recruitment,
2:16:52 just because it seems recruitment is an issue
2:16:55 just around the country.
2:16:56 So retention, these people are already here.
2:16:59 We have them, we are working in our schools,
2:17:01 so there are certainly things that we can do
2:17:02 and focus on to make sure that we keep the talent
2:17:05 that we have in Brevard County.
2:17:08 Again, I wanted to look at research.
2:17:10 What did research show that keeps teachers in schools?
2:17:14 These are the three things.
2:17:15 They want to feel connected.
2:17:17 They wanna feel, even the new teachers
2:17:19 that are coming into a brand new school,
2:17:21 they wanna feel connected to that school,
2:17:23 that they are valued and contributing partner
2:17:28 with everyone else in that school.
2:17:30 They wanna feel supported, not only by their peers,
2:17:32 but administration, and they obviously want it to grow.
2:17:35 They know they’re coming in.
2:17:37 They’ve gotten great education courses,
2:17:40 but they know that’s not enough.
2:17:42 Teaching is hard, and they need to grow in their career.
2:17:45 So with all three things being strong,
2:17:47 then the retention rate certainly increases
2:17:49 according to research.
2:17:51 So as far as the connection piece,
2:17:54 what we’ve done this year, just some opportunities
2:17:57 for new teachers to connect that maybe are coming here,
2:17:59 they’re moving into the area, don’t know a lot of people.
2:18:02 We had a great partnership with Brevard Schools Foundation,
2:18:05 and we had a teacher night out at the beginning of school,
2:18:08 kind of end of August, and we welcomed all the teachers
2:18:12 that are here new to Brevard.
2:18:13 We had a strong turnout for the first time
2:18:16 of having this event.
2:18:17 We had resource teachers from the district come,
2:18:19 district staff as well, and they had a great time.
2:18:22 And they met at the grills kind of outside of work,
2:18:25 and they had some good social time,
2:18:29 and they got to network with other people
2:18:30 and connect with people that were new as well,
2:18:33 and they’re kind of in the same position.
2:18:34 So they had a great time.
2:18:35 That’s something definitely we want to replicate.
2:18:38 And then throughout the year, we have networking events
2:18:40 for teachers.
2:18:41 They meet here several times throughout the year.
2:18:43 That gives them the opportunity, again,
2:18:44 to just make those connections with people
2:18:46 outside of their school.
2:18:48 And through those events, they also get nice takeaways.
2:18:52 They get something that’s practical that they
2:18:54 can use in their classroom, even the next day or the next week.
2:18:59 So it benefits them in their career as well,
2:19:01 not only just a social event.
2:19:04 Support, strengthening induction.
2:19:09 Induction, if you look at the research,
2:19:12 that is the number one key to teacher retention.
2:19:15 We can do many wonderful things here at the district,
2:19:18 but all the things that we could do
2:19:20 won’t even compare to the amount of support
2:19:22 that they receive within their individual schools.
2:19:26 So making sure that our lead mentor teachers
2:19:30 within each school understands their role
2:19:32 and how they can best support their teachers is key,
2:19:34 is critical.
2:19:36 So we send out monthly communications
2:19:38 to these mentor teachers.
2:19:39 You have a snapshot of the top of the binder.
2:19:42 One of our peer mentor teachers creates this.
2:19:45 Bridget Reach does a wonderful job.
2:19:47 It’s very professional looking, and it gives them
2:19:49 great monthly feedback on here are some topics
2:19:52 that you can talk to your mentors about or your mentees
2:19:55 to make sure they’re getting the adequate support that they
2:19:58 need.
2:19:59 Our peer mentor teachers kind of change gears
2:20:02 in how they are supporting our new teachers.
2:20:04 We have three peer mentor teachers
2:20:06 in the district that have been supporting teachers
2:20:08 for many years.
2:20:10 What we wanted to do is we thought
2:20:11 that the teachers that needed the most support
2:20:13 are probably our teachers that are coming in
2:20:15 with a temporary certification.
2:20:16 They’re coming in without any education courses at all.
2:20:19 They just have a bachelor’s, and they thought,
2:20:22 I’m going to teach.
2:20:23 So we have one teacher just strictly dedicated
2:20:26 to those first year temporary certification teachers,
2:20:29 because we felt like those were the teachers that
2:20:31 needed the most support.
2:20:33 So with that in line, the secondary leading learning
2:20:35 has just added a new content specialist.
2:20:38 So they’re going to be working with those new teachers
2:20:40 at priority schools to give them the support they need.
2:20:43 And then the teacher leadership council
2:20:44 is made up of teachers that were former teachers of the year,
2:20:48 teachers of the year finalists.
2:20:49 And they’re also working on initiatives
2:20:51 to help support our teachers.
2:20:53 And they’re thinking of introducing
2:20:54 a new conference for teachers to support them as well.
2:21:00 Here’s some great quotes.
2:21:02 We had an event last year, and we
2:21:03 invited all the new teachers too.
2:21:05 We had a guest speaker to clearly motivate them
2:21:07 at the end of the year and encourage them for the work
2:21:09 that they did.
2:21:10 And it just highlights the need for that strong mentorship
2:21:13 within their schools between their peer mentor teacher
2:21:16 and certainly between their administrators as well.
2:21:21 And then growth, I think we do a great job here
2:21:24 of professional development throughout all our departments.
2:21:26 And I think one of the greatest feedback that we’ve received
2:21:31 is the CHAMPS and the DIS trainings
2:21:33 that we do with our new teachers.
2:21:36 So these are trainings that help teachers kind of understand
2:21:39 what truly classroom management is.
2:21:41 It’s not just about discipline.
2:21:42 It’s really about creating that classroom environment that
2:21:44 supports learning and supports that relationship
2:21:47 between the teacher and the students.
2:21:48 And we’ve received great feedback for the schools
2:21:51 and the teachers that have received that type of training.
2:21:54 And certainly, I want to give a shout out
2:21:56 to our resource teachers in both secondary leading and learning
2:22:00 and elementary leading and learning.
2:22:02 Those resource teachers are amazing.
2:22:03 Every time– when I was at Vero High School,
2:22:06 if I had an opportunity to get a resource teacher to my school
2:22:08 to talk to my faculty, I would take that opportunity
2:22:10 because they had so much to give.
2:22:12 And they added value to my teachers.
2:22:14 And they are phenomenal.
2:22:15 So big shout out to them and the support
2:22:18 that they provide our teachers is instrumental.
2:22:21 And bottom line to wrap it up, because I
2:22:23 know I think Dr. Mullins wanted it brief, so I tried my best,
2:22:26 is really when it comes to recruitment and retention,
2:22:29 it really is–
2:22:30 it’s our story.
2:22:31 It’s everyone’s responsibility to kind of highlight
2:22:34 the wonderful things that we’re doing in Brevard
2:22:36 and encourage people to come and work for us.
2:22:39 You know, the research says that really only about 9%
2:22:43 kind of find jobs through career fairs, smaller–
2:22:47 a little bit bigger amount through online resources,
2:22:52 social media.
2:22:53 The biggest factor of people coming to work in a district
2:22:56 is word of mouth, is relationships
2:22:58 that they already have with people in the district.
2:23:00 So if we’re not all doing it collectively,
2:23:05 we’re probably going to continue to struggle
2:23:08 to find those teachers to fill the openings that we have
2:23:12 if we’re not all buying in and encouraging people
2:23:15 to come work for BPS.
2:23:18 And some shout outs as well as far as–
2:23:20 I could not have done this alone.
2:23:22 Certainly government communications was huge.
2:23:25 You know, secondary and elementary, leading, learning,
2:23:27 thank you for their support.
2:23:28 And printing services has been amazing as far
2:23:30 as providing some top quality, professional-looking material
2:23:35 so we can send out and really put a good foot forward
2:23:38 for people that don’t know us.
2:23:39 So a big thank you for them and their support.
2:23:44 And that’s it.
2:23:44 - Thank you, Mr. Alba.
2:23:45 Does anyone have any questions or comments for Mr. Alba?
2:23:48 Mr. Susan?
2:23:49 - No, you wanna go first?
2:23:50 - No, I was just gonna say well done.
2:23:51 - Thank you.
2:23:52 - Oh, thank you.
2:23:53 - I just wanted to say one of the things
2:23:54 that we’ve talked about a lot in the last year
2:23:55 is communication and improving communication
2:23:58 across all areas.
2:24:00 And I think this is great to see the way
2:24:02 that you guys have just improved the communication
2:24:05 and outward and inward for our teachers.
2:24:10 So thank you.
2:24:10 - Thank you.
2:24:11 - Mr. Susan.
2:24:13 - This is amazing.
2:24:14 Thank you for putting all this together.
2:24:15 I know, Mr. Alba, you kind of took it down as your baby
2:24:18 to kind of pull together all of the resources
2:24:20 and give it direction and it’s all moving
2:24:23 in the right direction.
2:24:24 I was gonna ask you, I spent a little bit of time
2:24:26 up in Escambia County.
2:24:27 I spent four days with their superintendent and staff
2:24:30 showing about their competition with Santa Rosa County.
2:24:33 They have arguably one of the leading competitions
2:24:37 for schools or teachers, right?
2:24:39 What he does, who’s now I think maybe the superintendent
2:24:42 but he was the HR director at the time,
2:24:44 is he knew all of the colleges in the area
2:24:46 and he used to go over and talk to the instructors
2:24:49 from those colleges so they would kind of tell him
2:24:51 which teachers and everything else to go.
2:24:55 Is that on the scope of where you’re going?
2:24:57 - Yes, it’s– - Going the road?
2:24:58 - It’s finding those connections, right?
2:25:00 Finding out who to contact in those universities
2:25:02 and that’s definitely on our recruitment plan
2:25:05 is updating our list of who to contact,
2:25:07 who is in charge of placing interns at UCF, UF,
2:25:12 colleges all around the state.
2:25:13 - That’s in all the way through.
2:25:14 - Yes, so that is definitely on the plan
2:25:18 to find those connections.
2:25:19 Again, it kind of goes back to those at night talks.
2:25:21 We need to find those connections first.
2:25:23 Once we know who they are, we can start reaching out
2:25:25 to them consistently and say, how can we help?
2:25:27 How can we support?
2:25:28 When can, you know, is there an opportunity to come in
2:25:31 and talk to your students?
2:25:32 Well, talk to them.
2:25:32 I tell them, I’ll talk to them about anything
2:25:34 you want me to talk about.
2:25:35 Classroom management, lesson planning, whatever it is,
2:25:37 I’ll find a great speaker for your students to hear.
2:25:41 You just gotta let me know when that is
2:25:43 and we’ll show up.
2:25:44 - Okay, and then our own Eastern Florida State College
2:25:47 has a host of all the kids that we saw today.
2:25:49 We have like an internship program
2:25:51 that they’re allowed to intern inside of our schools.
2:25:54 Are you, do you connect with Ms. Coach on that?
2:25:57 How does, how do I, ‘cause some of them said
2:25:59 we would love to entertain inside the schools,
2:26:02 but there’s just kind of a disconnect sometimes.
2:26:03 Do they go through you?
2:26:04 Is that who I should– - Yes, yes.
2:26:06 We have agreements through all the colleges.
2:26:09 If we host interns, we have to make sure
2:26:11 that there’s an agreement on MOU type of thing
2:26:16 with the colleges to make sure we’re clear
2:26:17 on the expectations between the schools
2:26:20 and then the colleges.
2:26:21 - And then my final thing, which was my dream,
2:26:24 is some of the other counties do it, teacher housing.
2:26:26 Is that kind of down the plan, down the road?
2:26:31 - Down the road.
2:26:33 - Matt wants like a teacher community where we–
2:26:35 - There is talks inside of the HUD housing as we speak
2:26:40 to collaborate with us on that project in the event.
2:26:44 Ms. Betsy Farmer is trying to lead it,
2:26:46 if you guys remember her.
2:26:47 So just to give you guys a heads up, you might get a call.
2:26:49 Thank you, that’s it.
2:26:50 Thank you so much, Mr. Alba.
2:26:51 - Thank you. - Thank you, Mr. Alba.
2:26:53 Ms. Belford has one for you, please stay.
2:26:55 - I promise it’ll be quick, Mr. Alba.
2:26:56 So I just have to tell you,
2:26:58 being the more seasoned board member,
2:27:01 sitting up here this evening,
2:27:03 some of the things that you have done
2:27:05 in the very short period of time
2:27:07 that you have been serving in your current role
2:27:08 are things that I have been begging for
2:27:11 since I came on the board.
2:27:12 And so I am incredibly excited about the progress
2:27:15 that we are making.
2:27:16 As Ms. Skipper referenced, I think, you know,
2:27:18 there’s certainly room to continue to grow
2:27:21 and to look at the retention of our existing employees
2:27:24 or who have been here long-term and that sort of thing.
2:27:26 But the work that you have done
2:27:28 in a very short period of time
2:27:29 is so incredibly appreciated and exciting.
2:27:33 And I just want you to know
2:27:34 how very much you are appreciated.
2:27:36 - Thank you.
2:27:37 Currently, it was a team effort.
2:27:38 Again, I could not have done anywhere near this much effort
2:27:42 without the help of many departments, many individuals.
2:27:45 You know, it’s on the strategic plan for a reason.
2:27:48 And it’s on everybody’s mind.
2:27:50 And that’s what’s great.
2:27:52 It makes, you know, I don’t feel the weight of it
2:27:54 ‘cause I know there’s lots of people
2:27:56 working on the same initiative, so thank you.
2:27:59 - Thank you, Mr. Alba.
2:28:01 (audience applauding)
2:28:08 We are now on to board member reports and discussion points.
2:28:12 Are there any board member reports
2:28:14 before we get on to discussion points?
2:28:16 - I have a very quick one.
2:28:18 I met with Mr. Reed from my champion area
2:28:21 of government and community relations.
2:28:23 And they are working with the EDC, help me,
2:28:29 Economic Development Commission
2:28:32 to build stronger relationships, stronger partnerships
2:28:36 with our aerospace, aviation, and defense groups.
2:28:40 So we have so many that we’re blessed with in our county.
2:28:44 And just asking them to really invest in our schools.
2:28:47 And that’ll be coordinated, if I remember correctly,
2:28:49 through our Partners in Education program.
2:28:51 Right, Mr. Reed?
2:28:52 So really excited to see that stronger relationship
2:28:55 coming in the future.
2:29:00 - Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
2:29:01 Any more board reports?
2:29:05 - I’ll give you all an update on my latest,
2:29:07 the ultimate, we’ll call it,
2:29:08 the ultimate desk of its duty day.
2:29:14 As most of you know,
2:29:15 but I started the guardian training yesterday.
2:29:18 That would be the 176 hour training
2:29:21 that our school safety and security specialists
2:29:25 go through to become security specialists in our district.
2:29:30 Way out of my comfort zone.
2:29:32 Yesterday was the first day.
2:29:33 It was 11 hours.
2:29:35 Six hours of shooting and things
2:29:39 that I am not wholly familiar with.
2:29:42 So it’s been quite a challenge.
2:29:43 And it’ll be interesting to see
2:29:45 if I’m even physically able to make it through the 176 hours
2:29:50 but I’m going to give it my best.
2:29:53 Okay, the last item is the discussion point
2:29:59 of restructuring the legal department.
2:30:01 I asked to put this on the agenda.
2:30:03 As you guys know, we approved the job description
2:30:07 for adding an attorney to staff
2:30:09 which is going to affect Ms. Envall’s department.
2:30:13 But with that, we thought it might be a good time
2:30:16 to look at how we handle certain things
2:30:18 within our district.
2:30:19 And over time, I know several of us have brought up
2:30:22 over the last couple years public records requests
2:30:25 and how that’s a legal issue, a legal entity.
2:30:29 And I think it needs to be housed under legal
2:30:33 and with the new legal coming on,
2:30:37 it doesn’t mean, so we have one employee
2:30:40 that handles public records requests.
2:30:41 And when she’s gone, it’s very hard
2:30:44 to process public records requests.
2:30:46 So it would be nice if, anyways,
2:30:49 we would keep her, move her into legal.
2:30:52 She would continue to do the job.
2:30:53 It’s not like we would take the job
2:30:54 and dump it on Amy and the new attorney.
2:30:56 But that would fall under the legal department,
2:30:59 be housed in the legal department,
2:31:00 which is where I feel like those are legal documents.
2:31:04 And my own personal experiences,
2:31:06 even before I was on the board,
2:31:07 when I asked for public records,
2:31:10 this is before you, Mr. Reed,
2:31:12 so this is, I’m not criticizing your current department,
2:31:15 but there were things that should have been redacted
2:31:18 that were not, and that could have put,
2:31:25 somebody could have sued the district easily over
2:31:27 because it was a child’s information
2:31:29 that was given to me that should have been redacted.
2:31:31 So I just think if it’s housed under legal,
2:31:33 legal’s eyes are on it, legal’s responsible,
2:31:35 legal’s accountable, just seems like a more natural fit.
2:31:38 So are there any thoughts or discussions,
2:31:41 Dr. Mullins or board members?
2:31:42 - Well, I would just, Mr. Reed and I
2:31:43 have had conversations about that,
2:31:45 and public records requests,
2:31:47 it’s a little bit of a add-on to the department.
2:31:50 So we’ve talked about it being a natural fit to legal,
2:31:53 but so we’ve already had conversations about that.
2:31:58 - Do you think it’s a good timing?
2:31:59 I mean, we’ve just approved the job description,
2:32:01 so now we’ve got to go through the process.
2:32:03 It’ll take a while to get somebody on,
2:32:04 but do you think this is a good time
2:32:05 to kind of look at the restructuring?
2:32:07 Are you comfortable with that?
2:32:08 - Yeah, it would seem natural to do that.
2:32:09 Mr. Novelli and Ms. Han are evaluating office space
2:32:13 to try to identify what is the most appropriate way–
2:32:16 - Can we get Amy somewhere without a–
2:32:20 - You’re not gonna take our board room that we have currently.
2:32:22 - We’re gonna give her your desk
2:32:23 and the superintendent’s room.
2:32:25 - Juanita’s in a closet?
2:32:27 - Casey’s in a closet.
2:32:28 So Casey’s situation’s not gonna get much worse
2:32:30 going over to Amy’s situation.
2:32:33 - She’s already in a closet.
2:32:34 - But Amy’s situation is for, anyways.
2:32:39 - I will gladly offer up our conference room for Casey.
2:32:42 - No, no.
2:32:43 - Do you use that conference room?
2:32:45 - You really do?
2:32:46 - I do.
2:32:49 What are we gonna do?
2:32:50 - I don’t know.
2:32:51 - I mean, I’ve already, Ms. Sue–
2:32:53 - Is that conference room’s not near Amy, though?
2:32:56 - Yeah, this is way, this is down in the weeds.
2:32:59 - We’ll work on it.
2:33:00 - It’s late, we’re down in the weeds.
2:33:01 Work on where you’re gonna house people.
2:33:04 - Ms. Deskevich, I would like to mention
2:33:05 with the approval of the additional attorney position,
2:33:09 I think it’s important to acknowledge
2:33:11 that by and large, the budget to cover the cost
2:33:16 of that position will be offset by the outsourcing
2:33:19 that we have been currently spending for that position.
2:33:21 So we are hopeful and anticipate that it will be
2:33:26 relatively budget-neutral to the budget.
2:33:29 - Yeah, important to mention publicly.
2:33:31 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
2:33:33 Yeah, absolutely, this is,
2:33:36 are you gonna change the subject or on this?
2:33:38 Oh yeah, no, I have one more thing on this.
2:33:40 It also, Ms. Envall’s contract is up.
2:33:45 - June 30th.
2:33:46 - June 30th, so it seems that we’re going into a time
2:33:49 where we need to at least get on the calendar,
2:33:51 maybe contract discussions,
2:33:53 especially with her department growing
2:33:55 and some other issues that are before us.
2:33:58 So is everybody okay with us getting on the calendar
2:34:02 a meeting to open up her contract?
2:34:04 - Yeah, I’m good, I’m good.
2:34:05 As long as you don’t take my conference room away,
2:34:07 or I’m declaring freakin’ war on you guys.
2:34:09 - Maybe it’ll be something better,
2:34:12 closer to civilization. (laughs)
2:34:16 - No, if you want a different location, I’m all ears.
2:34:18 But at least I need somewhere to put my stuff down.
2:34:20 - We need, you know, we don’t need our own offices,
2:34:22 but we do need a space somewhere to work from when needed.
2:34:27 Okay, any concerns, issues about those two legal issues,
2:34:32 legal department issues?
2:34:33 Everybody’s good?
2:34:34 Ms. McDougall, you have something?
2:34:36 - Yes, I met with Ms. Skipper the other day,
2:34:40 and in the climate right now,
2:34:43 what’s going on across the country
2:34:44 and what we’re finding out about vaping,
2:34:47 she and I talked a little bit, and she had a presentation,
2:34:50 and I was like, Dr. Mullins,
2:34:52 would you meet with Ms. Skipper to review that
2:34:55 and see if somehow we could use it here in our schools?
2:35:02 I thought it was very well done,
2:35:03 and I really appreciate you taking the time.
2:35:06 And I finally got in, and I started working on it.
2:35:10 So are you going to grade it?
2:35:12 That’s what I wanna know. (laughs)
2:35:14 So anyhow, thank you, Dr. Mullins.
2:35:18 - Thank you, Ms. McDougall.
2:35:19 Anybody have anything else?
2:35:21 This meeting is adjourned.
2:35:23 - Dr. Mullins.