Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 (upbeat music)
12:34 (gavel bangs)
12:35 - So I’m working on 2020 school board meetings
12:37 now called the quarter.
12:38 In consideration of the current health and safety concerns
12:41 during the COVID-19 pandemic,
12:43 the school board continues to modify its meeting processes.
12:46 The educational services facility is closed to the public
12:49 but the board meeting audio and video
12:50 are being live streamed,
12:52 allowing public viewing through our usual channels.
12:55 Community members who wanted to make comments
12:57 were asked to register in advance on the district website.
13:00 Those who registered were called Monday evening
13:02 and their comments were recorded,
13:04 limited to three minutes each.
13:07 These comments will be replayed
13:09 under the public comment section of the agenda.
13:11 For added transparency,
13:13 Ms. Escobar will be calling for the board’s aye or nay votes
13:16 for each item requiring a vote.
13:19 As a point of clarification,
13:21 we are scheduled to have a workshop today at 11 a.m.
13:25 However, due to the number of commenters,
13:27 we anticipate our school board meeting to run long.
13:30 Therefore, we can either hold the workshop
13:32 after the meeting is adjourned
13:34 or reschedule to another date
13:35 and we’ll make that decision depending on where we are
13:38 in wrapping up the meeting.
13:40 Ms. Escobar, roll call please.
13:44 - Mrs. Belford. - Present.
13:46 - Ms. McDougall. - Present.
13:47 - Mrs. Deskevich. - Present.
13:49 - Mr. Susan. - Present.
13:51 - And Mrs. Campbell. - Present.
13:53 - The board will hold a moment of silent reflection
13:55 and invite the viewing audience to join us.
14:10 - Thank you.
14:11 We will now say the Pledge of Allegiance.
14:16 - I pledge allegiance to the flag
14:19 of the United States of America,
14:21 to the Republic for which it stands,
14:24 one nation under God, indivisible,
14:27 with liberty and justice for all.
14:33 - At this time, I wanna offer, thank you,
14:36 I wanna offer my fellow board members and Dr. Mullins
14:38 the opportunity to recognize students, staff,
14:40 programs and community members
14:42 for the contributions afforded to Brevard Public Schools.
14:48 Who would like to start us off this morning?
14:54 Ms. Campbell’s giving me the nod.
14:55 I will say board members, just keep in mind
14:57 that we have about over three hours
15:00 worth of public comment today.
15:02 So we certainly don’t wanna skip giving anyone recognition
15:04 but if we can make sure that we get through them
15:06 in a timely manner for our public.
15:08 - I’ll keep it short and talk fast.
15:10 We’re probably all gonna say this
15:11 but I wanna thank our cabinet
15:13 and the members of the task force
15:15 and all of our teams who have been working diligently
15:17 over the weekend including Sunday afternoon
15:20 to continue to work on a reopening plan.
15:22 You guys are very much appreciated.
15:23 Also wanna thank all the parents and community members
15:27 and students who have been emailing us
15:28 and I’ve read every one that I can before the meeting today
15:32 and just thank you for advocating and we appreciate you.
15:36 Just wanna make a quick little plug
15:38 for the Brevard Schools Foundation
15:40 who is going to be doing their backpack
15:42 school supply giveaway.
15:43 It’ll be different this year
15:45 but I believe that’s August 8th,
15:47 Saturday, August 8th from nine to 12
15:48 and you can go on their website or their Facebook page
15:51 and get more information about that.
15:54 - Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
15:55 Ms. Deskovich.
15:57 - Sure, pretty much just what Ms. Campbell said.
15:59 I don’t think we have the words
16:01 to even express our gratitude for Dr. Mullins
16:06 and I hate to call out names
16:07 but should I miss Klein, Dr. Sullivan,
16:11 Dr. Thetty, Ms. Moore, all the way down, Mr. Cheatham,
16:14 I’m just looking around the room,
16:15 the dedication, the hours put in.
16:17 I think Ms. Campbell said I called
16:19 and asked a question on Sunday
16:20 and guess what, they were all here
16:22 working for hours and hours again.
16:25 So immense gratitude for all those
16:28 that are putting in so many hours
16:30 to help us get a plan to get the kids educated.
16:36 - Ms. McDougall.
16:39 - I too wanna thank the team, the opening team,
16:42 our cabinet, it’s amazing the hours that you put in.
16:45 I know on Thursday, we may have put in 11
16:47 but I bet you you put in maybe close to 15
16:50 or maybe 18 even more.
16:51 So thank you for all the hard work you do.
16:54 I also wanna give a shout out to our principals.
16:56 Our principals are one of the most flexible people
16:59 that we have right now.
17:00 They’re gonna go with the flow.
17:02 They’re gonna make it work.
17:03 I’ve reached out to my secondary principals.
17:04 I haven’t quite talked to all my elementary yet
17:06 but they’re amazing and they’re on board
17:08 for whatever we decide to hear.
17:10 And also last, but I also like Ms. Campbell said,
17:12 thank you to the community members
17:14 who have reached out to us with their thoughts,
17:16 their concerns, their solutions.
17:18 I really appreciate them all taking the time.
17:20 So thank you.
17:22 - Thank you Ms. McDougall, Mr. Susan.
17:24 - I’m good to go.
17:25 - Dr. Mullins.
17:28 - I would echo all of the comments
17:29 but I do wanna accentuate our principals,
17:31 our school-based leaders who are really living
17:34 the culmination of all of the efforts
17:36 that are going on around us
17:38 and just have remained as resilient as could be expected
17:45 with all of the changes and adaptations and so on.
17:47 And I just wanna express my own personal appreciation
17:50 and thanks to our principals and leadership teams
17:53 across the district and our departments
17:56 for their standing at the ready,
17:58 knowing that things change and they will adjust accordingly
18:03 and they stay fully committed to the cause.
18:05 So thank you.
18:08 - I just have two quick things this morning.
18:10 One, speaking of our principals
18:12 and the great work that they do,
18:14 one of our principals,
18:16 and because we’re in kind of strange times,
18:17 we didn’t get the opportunity to really recognize
18:19 or thank her for her service,
18:21 is leading us here in Brevard.
18:23 Moving over to Hillsborough County, Ms. Katrina Hudson
18:26 and I’m sorry, Ms. McDougall.
18:32 But just wanted to wish her well on her new endeavor
18:35 as she moves into an administrative position
18:37 over in Hillsborough.
18:38 She grew up in Brevard County
18:39 and served Brevard County schools for a lot of years.
18:42 And so we thank her for her service and wish her the best.
18:45 And then I just wanna share with you all,
18:47 I was recently at my local hardware store.
18:49 Some of you know that my COVID coping
18:50 has been building things.
18:52 And recently my local hardware store
18:55 and one of our juniors works there.
18:58 And throughout this entire process,
19:00 she’s been asking me questions every time I go in
19:01 about where we’re going with school opening.
19:03 And the last time that I went in, she said,
19:05 “Would you please convey a message for me?”
19:08 So I assured her that I would do that
19:10 the next opportunity I had.
19:11 And she wanted me to express her sincere thanks
19:14 for every one of the district that’s been working so hard
19:17 to bring students back
19:19 to as much sense of normalcy as possible.
19:22 She’s going into her senior year
19:23 and obviously is excited and looking forward
19:25 to being able to have some of those milestones hopefully.
19:29 But she was very, very appreciative of all of the work
19:31 and the sweat and the tears and the stress
19:34 that everyone has gone through
19:35 to try to work this out for our students.
19:37 So from one of our students, thank you.
19:42 All right, that will bring us
19:44 to the adoption of the agenda, Dr. Mullins.
19:51 - Ms. Belfort and members of the board
19:52 on this morning’s agenda,
19:54 we have one administrative staff recommendation,
19:56 one recognition, 18 consent items and seven action items.
20:00 Changes made to the agenda since being released
20:02 to the public on June 23rd are as follows.
20:05 A7 on administrative staff recommendations
20:08 received revisions.
20:09 A presentation on school reopening was deleted
20:12 and action item G28 on district reopening plan
20:15 was added in its place.
20:17 Prior to the vote on the district reopening plan,
20:19 I’ll provide the board and viewing audience
20:21 the proposed plan since the workshop last week.
20:25 Thank you.
20:26 - What are the wishes of the board?
20:28 - Move to approve.
20:30 - Moved by Ms. McDougall, seconded by,
20:33 was that Ms. Campbell?
20:34 - Aye. - Ms. Deskovich.
20:36 Is there any discussion?
20:39 Ms. Escobar, are you still calling votes?
20:41 Yes? Okay.
20:43 - Ms. Belfort? - Aye.
20:46 - Ms. McDougall? - Aye.
20:48 - Ms. Deskovich? - Aye.
20:49 - Ms. Campbell? - Aye.
20:51 - Mr. Susan? - Aye.
20:52 - The motion passes, 5-0.
20:56 Dr. Mullins, will you please tell us
20:57 about our administrative staff recommendations?
21:00 - There are nine persons under this category
21:02 for the board’s consideration.
21:04 - What are the wishes of the board?
21:06 - Move to approve.
21:08 - Moved by Ms. Campbell, seconded by Ms. Deskovich.
21:10 Is there any discussion?
21:12 Ms. Escobar, if you would please call the vote.
21:16 - Ms. Belfort? - Aye.
21:18 - Ms. McDougall? - Aye.
21:19 - Ms. Deskovich? - Aye.
21:20 - Ms. Campbell? - Aye.
21:22 - Mr. Susan? - Aye.
21:23 - The motion passes, 5-0.
21:25 Dr. Mullins, will you please let us know
21:26 about our recognition item?
21:28 - Yes, I am honored to inform the board
21:30 and our viewing audience that for the eighth year in a row,
21:35 our Procurement and Distribution Services team department
21:39 has earned the Florida Association
21:42 of Public Procurement Officials 2020
21:45 Award of Excellence in Public Procurement.
21:48 This prestigious award and program places emphasis
21:51 on continuous process improvement
21:54 and outstanding procurement practices.
21:57 This prestigious award is earned only by those organizations
22:00 that demonstrate excellence by obtaining a high score
22:03 based on standardized criteria,
22:05 which measures innovation, organization, professionalism,
22:09 source selection, productivity, e-procurement,
22:12 process improvements, and leadership attributes
22:15 of the procurement organization.
22:17 Brevard is one of only 18 agencies across Florida
22:22 to receive this honor and one of only four school districts
22:27 in Florida, so I want to give my congratulations
22:30 to the entire Procurement and Distribution Services
22:34 division or department and thank them for their great work.
22:37 And I think the most recent evidence
22:39 that you have heard of their great work
22:41 has been echoed by our cabinet members
22:44 as they have worked to procure and stay ahead
22:47 of the supply chain and all of the materials
22:49 and supplies we need for the coming school year.
22:51 They not only have met, figured out how to negotiate
22:56 best pricing, but also ensure we receive things
22:58 in a timely manner, and their support and great work
23:01 has just been invaluable to the team, thank you.
23:05 - Thank you, Dr. Mullins, and many thanks
23:07 to our procurement department, they have been phenomenal
23:09 throughout this process.
23:12 Okay, we are now at public comment.
23:15 As indicated in my opening statement,
23:16 persons wishing to comment were registered in advance
23:19 on the district website and were then called
23:21 and the comments recorded.
23:22 We’ll listen to the recorded messages at this time.
23:25 Later on, we will be holding a public hearing for policies.
23:28 If anyone called to address those policies,
23:30 his or her comments would have been heard
23:31 during this time as well.
23:33 For information purposes, there were no public comments
23:35 related to the policies for which we will be
23:37 taking a vote later on.
23:41 - Okay, good evening, everyone.
23:43 My name is Sue Han, and I’m the Assistant Superintendent
23:45 for Facilities Services for Brevard Public Schools.
23:48 And as you know, in consideration of the current health
23:51 and safety concerns during the COVID-19 emergency,
23:54 guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
23:57 as well as Executive Order 20-91 issued
24:00 by Governor DeSantis, it has been necessary
24:02 to modify our procedures for public comment.
24:05 So tonight, your comments will be recorded
24:07 and we will play them back
24:08 at the school board meeting tomorrow.
24:10 Each speaker is limited to three minutes.
24:12 Our moderator will keep track of your time
24:14 and ask you to conclude your comments
24:16 if you’ve reached three minutes.
24:18 Keep in mind we had over 130 speakers registered tonight,
24:22 so it may be a while before the moderator
24:24 opens your microphone.
24:26 Always keep in mind that reasonable decorum
24:28 is expected at all times.
24:30 Please keep your comments appropriate for our children
24:32 who may be watching or listening from home.
24:34 Before speaking, please state your name,
24:36 the organization you represent, if any,
24:39 and identify the topic you will be discussing.
24:42 We won’t be answering questions on tonight’s call,
24:44 but our staff will follow up with you
24:45 if you have a question or need a response.
24:48 So with that, let’s start our public comments.
24:53 - Thank you so much, Susan.
24:54 And with that, we will get to our public comments.
24:57 And our first comment will be made by Anthony.
25:02 I’m bringing him here.
25:03 Anthony, just go ahead, state your name, please,
25:06 and then go ahead with your comment.
25:09 - My name is Anthony Colucci.
25:10 I’m the president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers.
25:14 Before I speak on specifics,
25:16 let’s make sure we do not lose sight of the main thing.
25:19 We are in the midst of a pandemic.
25:21 More and more, it’s looking like Central Florida
25:24 is the epicenter of that pandemic.
25:26 I remind you that the decisions you are making
25:29 should not be ones of convenience, comfort, or politics.
25:32 The decisions should be based on science.
25:35 They are life and death decisions.
25:37 Science says social distancing, proper hygiene,
25:40 testing and tracing, and wearing masks
25:42 prevent the spread of COVID-19.
25:45 The district reopening plan offers no guarantees
25:47 of social distancing, nor testing and tracing.
25:50 With no guarantee of social distance,
25:53 everyone in the building needs to wear a mask.
25:56 We support Ms. Belford’s motion
25:58 that masks are expected to be worn.
26:00 Is it going to be comfortable or convenient?
26:03 Is it going to make everyone happy?
26:04 No, but it is what needs to be done.
26:07 And frankly, if you don’t have the courage to do this,
26:09 blame it on me.
26:11 I will take the heat for you
26:12 because it is the right decision for our district.
26:15 Other areas where the district plan lacked
26:17 are arrival dismissal and lunch times.
26:19 I was shocked to see there were no plans to stagger students.
26:22 We support Mr. Susan on temperature checks.
26:25 While they are logistically difficult and imperfect,
26:28 the idea that BPS isn’t going to do them
26:30 because only 50% of children get fever is outrageous.
26:34 If we even caught a few of the cases,
26:36 it would be worth the time and money.
26:38 The district plan offers nothing for our high-risk employees.
26:41 Absolutely nothing.
26:42 It is essential that our high-risk teachers
26:44 have priority for virtual positions or e-learning.
26:48 The plan does not clearly address
26:50 quarantine requirements for teachers,
26:52 but it seems that teachers might be required
26:54 to quarantine for 30 or 40 days next year.
26:57 The plan offers no clear-cut guidance
26:59 on how long schools will be closed
27:01 if there’s a confirmed case.
27:02 The plan did not go into enough detail
27:04 about how our overworked and understaffed custodians
27:07 will be able to meet the new cleaning demands.
27:10 I also want to point out there’s a lot of stake
27:12 being put into a report done
27:13 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
27:16 I hope you all saw a joint letter they released on July 10th
27:19 along with the American Federation of Teachers,
27:21 National Education Association,
27:23 and the Superintendents Association.
27:25 It reads, “Returning to school is important
27:28 for the healthy development and well-being of school,
27:30 but we must pursue reopening in a way
27:32 that is safe for all students, teachers, and staff.
27:35 Science should drive decision-making
27:37 on safely reopening schools.”
27:39 They go on to say, “Schools in areas with high levels
27:42 of COVID-19 community spread
27:44 should not be compelled to reopen
27:46 against the judgment of local experts.”
27:48 BFT is urging you to carefully consider
27:51 if brick-and-mortar buildings are ready to reopen
27:53 and bolster up your plan before you’re putting staff
27:56 and students in harm’s way.
27:58 Thank you.
28:07 - Oh, sorry, I had myself on mute.
28:09 Thank you so much, Anthony.
28:10 Next up, we have Leah Mallis.
28:16 Leah, welcome to the call.
28:17 Please state your name and go ahead.
28:21 - Thank you, my name is Leah Mallis.
28:23 I want to start by saying that I fully understand
28:26 and do not envy the gravity of decisions
28:29 that’s been placed before you.
28:31 The news has reported that each of you thought
28:33 that the presented plan was safe.
28:35 That said, I only have one question.
28:37 I would like each school member to respond.
28:40 Will you be sending your own children or grandchildren
28:44 to a brick-and-mortar school this August?
28:46 Thank you.
28:52 - Thank you, Leah.
28:53 Next up, we have Sherry Lynn Diskin.
28:56 And before I let Sherry come live,
28:58 I just want to remind our callers right now
29:01 that are on the line, just press zero
29:03 if you want to get in line with your public comment.
29:06 And with that, we’ll go right to Sherry Lynn.
29:08 Sherry, please state your name and go ahead.
29:12 - Sherry Lynn Diskin.
29:14 Good morning.
29:15 I am a parent, active volunteer,
29:17 former educator, and current substitute teacher.
29:21 I would like to thank the Reopening Task Force
29:23 for the options they have presented
29:24 our primary and secondary families.
29:27 You have afforded us the opportunity
29:29 to select the educational setting
29:31 that best meets the needs of us
29:35 as we consider the health and well-being of our children,
29:37 their learning styles, and our individual work schedules.
29:41 However, as I listened intently
29:43 to the more than 11-hour workshop on Thursday,
29:46 I failed to hear the same level of consideration
29:49 given to the needs of our teachers,
29:50 administration, and staff,
29:52 those who also work tirelessly
29:54 to meet the needs of our students each day
29:56 to ensure the health, safety, and education of our children.
30:01 As our state officials and district move forward
30:03 with the plan to reopen our schools
30:05 at the beginning of August,
30:06 I am confident that our educators will be there
30:08 to greet our children at the door
30:10 or across computer screens
30:12 with minimal concern for their own well-being
30:15 because that is what you have asked them to do.
30:17 You have selected policy and guidelines
30:19 that have met minimum standards
30:21 that are not in full accordance with CDC guidelines.
30:24 Three feet social distancing instead of six,
30:27 masks that are expected to be worn, not mandated,
30:30 class size will remain at capacity, not reduced,
30:34 minimal symptom and temperature checks.
30:36 And given this, I anticipate a number of families
30:39 who are able to do so will elect virtual programs
30:42 to educate their children because we are given a choice.
30:45 But I wonder how this choice
30:47 will impact our schools and our staff.
30:49 If we do not have enough families
30:51 that choose to return in person to our classrooms,
30:54 will teacher allocations be lost?
30:56 Will teachers be offered positions
30:58 with Brevard Virtual School?
31:00 Will the neighborhood school,
31:01 rich and experienced community and history,
31:04 be forever changed because teachers have been forced
31:06 into early retirement in order to protect their health,
31:10 reassigned because of low student enrollment,
31:12 or sadly, because an educator becomes seriously ill
31:15 or dies due to COVID-19?
31:19 I believe our schools are no longer going to look the same
31:21 in the future because of the decisions the board makes today.
31:25 Our families deserve to know the impact of our choices,
31:28 the impact that your policies have on the livelihood
31:30 of the teachers and staff that we are so fond of.
31:33 More importantly, I feel that if the task force
31:35 and the school board were to adopt
31:37 the more stringent guidelines set forth by the CDC,
31:40 reduce class size to allow the appropriate social distancing,
31:43 mandating masks, and symptom temperature checks,
31:46 we could ensure the health and safety of our educators,
31:49 resulting in fewer disruptions to our neighborhood schools.
31:52 I’m confident our classroom teachers
31:54 will protect our children at all costs.
31:56 Please equip them with the appropriate tools to do so.
31:59 As a community, we want nothing more than to return
32:02 to these school campuses and staff that we know and love.
32:05 Please show us that you value them, too.
32:13 - Thank you, Sherri Lynn.
32:15 Next on our list, we have Jennifer Nagy,
32:18 and just another reminder, please hit zero
32:20 to get in line with that public comment.
32:23 Jennifer, you’re live.
32:24 Hit your name and go ahead with your comment, please.
32:27 - Hello, my name’s Jennifer Nagy.
32:30 I would like to first thank Anthony Colucci and Sherri Lynn
32:33 for their wonderful comments ahead of me.
32:36 I’m a parent here of BPS students as well,
32:38 and I’m imploring you to add time to prepare
32:42 and safety precautions for the teachers and students.
32:46 Teachers and staff need more paid planning days.
32:49 Disney gave two months notice to implement changes,
32:52 but Brevard teachers and staff are only receiving 27 calendar
32:55 days.
32:56 The number of workdays available for pre-planning
32:58 are insufficient to implement all the necessary training and
33:02 changes.
33:03 District planners appear to have missed several opportunities of
33:06 e-learning.
33:07 If a child in a regular classroom needs to stay home,
33:10 they should be taught how to log in to the virtual class
33:13 to receive the content as part of a seamless transition.
33:17 This would eliminate the need for scores of separate make-up
33:20 lesson plans.
33:21 Also, the virtual teacher could cover the curriculum for the day
33:24 and then allow the kids to log off.
33:27 Excessive screen time has never been recommended by any
33:30 pediatrician.
33:31 E-learning should also be recorded so that if a child misses the
33:35 allotted time
33:36 when the lesson is live streamed with active Q&A, it can be
33:40 viewed later.
33:42 Additionally, virtual teachers should be allowed the option to
33:45 teach from home
33:46 if their own environment is more conducive for their personal
33:49 health and safety.
33:51 All teachers need to be trained in the new e-learning platform
33:54 because it is expected and anticipated
33:57 that anyone may need to transition to e-learning this year.
34:00 Teachers did not sign up for life-hazarding employment when
34:04 choosing their profession,
34:05 but the current COVID-19 situation does exactly that,
34:09 particularly for those dealing with long-term illness or
34:12 significant medical conditions.
34:14 Implementing Department of Health and CDC guidelines for
34:17 compulsory temperature checks,
34:19 mandatory masks, reduced class and group sizes,
34:23 and six-foot social distancing should be a minimum.
34:26 In the reopening workshop last week, it was repeated again and
34:30 again by your own professionals
34:31 that the virus is anticipated and expected to infiltrate the
34:35 schools.
34:36 Are the district and board officials prepared to be substitute
34:39 teachers in schools
34:40 when and where none can be found?
34:43 How is the district preparing for the inevitable first death of
34:46 a teacher at a school?
34:48 What about the first child?
34:50 Let’s take the time to be proactive so we don’t have to be
34:53 reactive.
34:54 Thank you.
34:58 - Thank you, Jennifer.
35:00 Next, we have Thelma Bryan.
35:09 And Thelma, you’re live.
35:11 Please say your name and go ahead with your comment, please.
35:18 - And my concern, my comment concerns the safety of our students,
35:22 our teachers,
35:23 and all of our staff.
35:25 I believe that wearing a mask should be mandatory for everybody
35:30 at the school.
35:31 Your reopening draft states, “Students are expected to wear a
35:36 mask.”
35:37 That leads me to believe that it’s an option.
35:40 They may or may not, and I believe this will be a mistake for
35:44 our schools.
35:45 Also, I’d like to suggest that teachers’ desks and students’
35:51 desks
35:52 be mounted with Plexiglas on them.
35:55 This will add another layer of protection for all of those
35:59 involved in our learning process.
36:02 Thank you for the work you do.
36:07 - Thank you, Thelma.
36:10 Next, we have Shane Winston.
36:13 Shane, you’re live.
36:14 Please state your name and go ahead with your public comment,
36:19 please.
36:20 - Hi, my name is Shane Winston,
36:22 and I’m a rising 10th grader at West Shore Junior/Senior High
36:25 School.
36:25 I’m a part of the WCCZ News Program, Future Problem Solvers,
36:29 and Troop 6034 of the West Shore Thespians.
36:33 I was listening to the discussion during the school board
36:37 workshop
36:37 with my father on what school next year would look like.
36:40 What I heard concerned me.
36:43 Specifically, going on a block schedule.
36:46 I don’t think going on a block schedule is the right solution
36:49 for our school district.
36:51 On a block schedule, times are doubled.
36:54 If students had a hard time paying attention in a 45-minute
36:58 class,
36:58 they’re definitely going to struggle paying attention for double
37:02 the amount of time.
37:03 Another huge problem with the block schedule is AP classes.
37:07 At West Shore, some students take seven AP classes.
37:11 If you take an AP class in the fall,
37:13 you’re expected to remember all that information and take a test
37:17 in the spring.
37:19 That is an unrealistic expectation.
37:22 Classes like chorus, journalism, and other electives
37:27 are year-long classes.
37:29 They need to be around all year.
37:31 TV production goes on through the whole year.
37:34 We take videos, we do stories.
37:39 We need to be in class all year,
37:41 and the block schedule only has us half the year.
37:43 How are we expected to produce content if we’re not in school–in
37:47 class?
37:49 How is the band supposed to perform at MPAs if they’re not in
37:52 class?
37:53 COVID-19 is the reason that we’re doing this.
37:56 And I have a plan that’ll prevent COVID-19 from spreading better
38:01 than the block schedule.
38:02 It’s called the three-two modified schedule.
38:05 In a three-two model, half the students at the school
38:08 go to school on Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
38:11 and the other half come Tuesday, Wednesday,
38:14 and they will flip each week.
38:16 This solution will make it easier to socially distance students
38:20 and have teachers see the same amount as if they were seeing in
38:24 a block schedule.
38:26 In a class with 24 students, they would see 72 students in a day.
38:31 And in the three-two model, they would also see 72 students,
38:35 but they would only see 12 in a class instead of 24.
38:42 The good thing about the three-two model is it’s easy to
38:45 transition
38:46 if a school has to shut down due to COVID-19.
38:50 Since students are already working remotely,
38:54 they can just continue that from home.
38:57 And teachers can also provide pen and paper alternatives
39:00 for students who don’t have computers when they’re not home.
39:04 A block schedule creates more problems than it’s own.
39:07 The three-two model is a better fit for our district.
39:11 Thank you for listening to my comments.
39:18 - Thank you, Shane.
39:19 Next public comment, we have Vanessa.
39:23 Vanessa, you’re live. Please state your name and go ahead.
39:27 - This is Vanessa Skipper, Vice President of the Brevard
39:30 Federation of Teachers.
39:31 The task put before district leadership to come up with a safe
39:35 reopening plan
39:36 for our brick-and-mortar schools is at best an extremely
39:39 daunting one
39:39 and at worst an exercise in futility.
39:42 I want to thank everyone on the district reopening team
39:45 for the hard work they’ve put into an impossible task.
39:48 I know that every member on the district reopening team
39:51 has probably spent many sleepless nights trying to get this
39:54 right.
39:54 However, I don’t believe this team was set up for success by our
39:58 state government.
39:59 First of all, the issue of a largely unfunded, tone-deaf
40:02 executive order
40:03 demanding that districts must open all brick-and-mortar schools
40:07 is unconscionable.
40:08 The order speaks of school boards, superintendents, and local
40:11 departments of health
40:12 having the capability to make the decision that’s right for
40:15 their county.
40:16 However, it still seems as though you are all scared of making a
40:19 decision
40:20 to put off opening brick-and-mortar schools.
40:22 We cannot let the fear of a bully stop us from doing what’s
40:25 right for our community.
40:27 Secondly, while we know that face-to-face learning is optimal,
40:31 we cannot support any plan that will expose students and
40:33 teachers
40:34 and the families and communities they love to illness or death.
40:37 Academic challenges can be addressed.
40:40 A lost life cannot.
40:42 Every educator wants to get back to in-person instruction
40:45 as soon as it is safe to do so.
40:47 Reopening schools prematurely and without the proper plan,
40:50 resources,
40:51 and safety precautions will only exacerbate the spread of the
40:54 virus,
40:55 jeopardize public health, and ultimately cause longer closures.
40:59 Furthermore, teachers, parents, and students
41:01 deserve access to safety plans for their school sites.
41:04 Saying administrators are developing plans isn’t good enough.
41:07 All stakeholders should know what life inside the schoolhouse
41:10 will look like
41:11 from the minute campus opens until it closes for the day
41:14 with specific procedures in place prior to a parent making a
41:17 decision
41:18 to enroll their child virtually or in person.
41:21 In addition, there is currently no flow chart
41:23 that indicates who would need to be tested and who wouldn’t.
41:26 There is no information regarding students and staff being retested
41:29 to ensure they are no longer at risk of infecting others.
41:33 Consequently, it is vital that staff members know if they were
41:36 exposed
41:36 so they can get tested in quarantine if necessary.
41:39 It is also important that faculty and staff are considered
41:42 essential personnel
41:43 and have access to rapid testing results.
41:47 There are still so many unanswered questions about school campus
41:50 issues,
41:50 such as making sure every campus has a full-time nurse,
41:53 how schools are going to address crowds at arrival and dismissal
41:57 times,
41:57 and during secondary class changes.
41:59 Our custodians are already understaffed and underpaid,
42:02 so how is the district going to address proper sanitation of all
42:06 schools
42:06 if they’re not even fully hired in that area?
42:09 As we return to the bargaining table this week,
42:11 I am hopeful that we do so empowered by a decision by this Board
42:15 to delay our return to brick-and-mortar schools
42:18 until all schools are able to open safely with no questions
42:21 unanswered.
42:22 Thank you.
42:27 - Thank you, Vanessa.
42:30 Next, we will hear from Tracy.
42:33 Tracy, your lives, please state your name and go ahead.
42:36 - Hi, I am Tracy Thompson, a parent in Rockledge.
42:39 I am speaking regarding the lack of distance learning options
42:42 for EST students.
42:44 First, for the safety of our children, teachers, administrators,
42:47 and staff, I believe that the majority of students in the
42:49 district
42:50 should be taught through distance learning.
42:51 There are some students who have parents as essential workers,
42:54 limited Wi-Fi, or limited support at home,
42:57 and it is understandable that these students need to be
42:59 physically in school.
43:00 The least number of children we can have in person is safer will
43:05 be for everyone.
43:06 As our area continues to surge its positivity rate,
43:09 there are deep concerns that in-person learning will exasperate
43:11 the problem.
43:12 We also should be postponing the opening of schools until after
43:15 Labor Day
43:16 to give the community the ability to stop the spread in schools
43:19 more time to implement the district’s plans and policies
43:22 to keep the opening of schools from becoming a super-spreader
43:26 event.
43:26 Now, I have two sons with autism and cognitive disabilities.
43:29 My oldest will be a junior this year, and my youngest will be a
43:32 freshman.
43:33 The oldest is in general education courses,
43:35 and his younger brother will be in the supported classroom.
43:38 They both are under access points.
43:40 My youngest does have a health plan due to his epilepsy.
43:43 The last couple of years have been rough,
43:44 and he just started getting his seizures under control in April.
43:48 I have an autoimmune disease.
43:49 I have parents in their 80s who help daily with a voice.
43:52 I did not see an option for my sons
43:54 that was strictly a distance learning model.
43:57 For secondary students, the options as currently presented
44:00 would mean they would have no other choice but to attend classes
44:04 in person.
44:05 Neither Brevard Virtual School or dual enrollment is an option
44:08 for my sons,
44:09 and frankly, most ESC students would likely not qualify for
44:13 either.
44:14 I was disheartened that during the 11-hour meeting on Thursday,
44:17 only a few minutes was dedicated to this population.
44:21 My sons cannot attend school in person in the fall.
44:24 As a family, we have had to take measures to make sure we are
44:27 safe and stay healthy.
44:28 My health issues put me at extreme risk for complications.
44:32 My parents are in great health, but age is a major risk factor.
44:35 I have concerns with my son’s seizures.
44:37 He will not wear a mask, and social distancing would be
44:39 exceedingly difficult for him
44:41 and difficult to implement due to the amount of help he needs.
44:44 I understand that the district may say we will work with
44:47 families on a case-by-case basis,
44:49 but there needs to be something firmer in the plan about what
44:52 that means.
44:53 RHS may be willing to work with us, but if students like my sons
44:57 at another school
44:58 are told that there is nothing can be done, what happens to them?
45:02 A distance learning option needs to be placed in the plan for
45:05 ESC students
45:06 who do not qualify for Brevard Virtual School or dual enrollment.
45:10 Other students have this option, and ours should, too.
45:14 And it is important that it be stated in the unofficial plan.
45:17 I am grateful for all the incredible work everyone is doing
45:20 during this stressful time
45:21 and would like to know what option will be created for these
45:24 students.
45:25 Thank you.
45:29 - Thank you, Tracey. And just a reminder for everybody on the
45:32 call,
45:32 if you have not yet, just go ahead and press zero on the keypad
45:36 on your phone
45:37 to get in line with that public question.
45:39 Thank you so much. Next, we have Anne Gordon.
45:43 Anne, you’re live. Please state your name and go ahead with your
45:46 comment, please.
45:48 - Good morning. Good afternoon. Anne Gordon.
45:51 I am an immunocompromised high school teacher.
45:53 I’m 53 years old and a single mom to a soon-to-be high school
45:57 senior
45:58 and a recent breast cancer survivor.
46:00 It’s my 20th year teaching in Florida.
46:02 It’s important for the public and the school board to remember
46:06 that the Florida state constitution empowers school boards,
46:09 not the state, to operate, control, and supervise public schools.
46:13 I am addressing the requirement of the Brevard School Board
46:17 for teachers to return in person to the classroom in under a
46:19 month.
46:20 The fact that the board is having this meeting virtually
46:23 speaks volumes on many levels.
46:25 I have heard and read enough about all the ways
46:27 the parents of students are being accommodated,
46:29 so I am speaking about the educators today
46:31 and the disregard of the board to protect its valuable assets.
46:35 We teachers who are at high risk for contracting COVID,
46:38 people who are immunocompromised from heart, kidney, lung
46:40 disease,
46:41 cancer, diabetes, those who take immunosuppressant drugs,
46:44 we have not been given one single option in secondary
46:48 to teach virtually or from home.
46:50 Are we less important than the students
46:52 who have been given options to learn virtually?
46:54 This is outrageous.
46:55 Requiring a mandatory return to the physical classroom
46:58 by teachers under any circumstances during this time
47:01 is putting them in a dangerous and life-threatening situation.
47:03 There were 15,300 cases in Florida on Sunday.
47:07 Might I remind you the board, teachers, employees, and parents
47:10 that section 5A1 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act,
47:14 the general duty clause, requires each employer
47:16 to furnish to its employees, quote, “a place of employment
47:19 “which are free from recognized hazards that are causing
47:21 “or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm
47:24 to his employees.”
47:26 Also remember that the people who are making the decision
47:28 are you, the school board members.
47:30 You are not in the classroom facing life-threatening dangers,
47:32 such as students who are not wearing masks
47:34 nor teaching carriers who are asymptomatic,
47:37 nor teaching in rooms with too many students
47:39 and no windows or the ability to social distance.
47:42 In closing, I am bringing to the board’s attention
47:45 my employer, that I believe my working conditions
47:48 as set forth by your latest meeting
47:50 are unsafe, unhealthful, and that a return
47:53 to a physical classroom under what you have stated so far
47:56 puts me in imminent danger of serious injury or death.
47:59 I would encourage other teachers in similar situations
48:01 to do the same.
48:03 We should not have to choose between our life
48:04 and our love of teaching.
48:06 I should not have to beat cancer,
48:07 only to be put in another life-threatening situation.
48:10 Would you do this to your loved one?
48:12 Thank you.
48:18 - Thank you, Anne.
48:19 Next, we’ll hear from Taylor.
48:23 Taylor, you’re live with us.
48:24 Please state your full name and go ahead, please.
48:27 - Hi, my name is Taylor Grofte.
48:30 This will be my second year teaching,
48:32 and I teach middle school art here in Brevard.
48:35 I really love my job.
48:36 I love my school, my students,
48:39 and helping them build skills and learn things
48:42 about becoming creative problem solvers
48:44 and independent thinkers.
48:46 But as much as I want to be excited about those things
48:48 for this year, I’m not.
48:50 Truthfully, I’m terrified.
48:52 I’m worried about what the day-to-day will really be like.
48:55 I’m worried about the inevitable losses we’ll suffer.
48:58 As classes, schools, communities, and as a county.
49:02 I’m worried about how we’re not addressing
49:04 how scary this is for everybody involved.
49:07 But one thing I haven’t heard much about
49:08 that particularly concerns me is how BPS plans
49:11 on taking care of faculty and staff in the long term.
49:15 What does the COVID-19 leave look like?
49:17 Will it provide for the unknown after effects of the virus?
49:21 Will we be expected to take unpaid leave
49:23 if we’ve developed long-lasting health issues
49:25 from contracting the virus in our place of work?
49:28 And furthermore, what happens
49:29 if a faculty or staff member dies?
49:32 Where will BPS find replacements for us
49:34 when we had over 70 openings across the county
49:37 during a normal year?
49:39 How will our absences affect our students and colleagues?
49:42 I know everyone is craving normalcy,
49:44 especially our students.
49:46 But unfortunately, normal isn’t really an option,
49:48 considering the skyrocketing number
49:50 of COVID cases in our state.
49:52 Are we really willing to risk or sacrifice people’s health
49:55 and lives to try to return to normal only to find
49:58 that it causes deep trauma, loss, emotional turmoil,
50:02 and further delays to that normalcy
50:04 that we’re all longing for?
50:06 I have many more worries and not enough time to address them all,
50:09 but I’ll end with one final question.
50:11 What are faculty, staff, student,
50:13 and family’s lives worth to you?
50:15 Thank you.
50:19 » Thank you, Taylor.
50:21 Next we’ll hear from Kimberly.
50:25 Kimberly, you’re live with us.
50:26 Please state your name and go ahead, please.
50:29 » Thank you. My name is Kimberly Whiting.
50:31 I’m a parent of two students at Edgewood Junior/Senior High,
50:34 and I’ve worked for over the past five years
50:37 as a substitute teacher
50:38 and recently pursued my certification
50:42 to teach social studies to the secondary grade levels.
50:45 As Mr. Colucci pointed out,
50:47 the AAP has recently changed their stance
50:51 to clarify that schools should not open in areas
50:54 with high disease prevalence and outbreaks
50:56 such as we are in right now.
50:58 California today announced
51:00 that they will be pursuing distance learning in the fall
51:02 in Los Angeles and San Diego, and our rates
51:05 of infection are currently higher than theirs.
51:08 One thing I’d specifically like to address is the lack
51:11 of e-learning or distance learning for secondary students,
51:15 especially if you could do something like live streaming,
51:18 at least for some courses, such as AP, IB, and Cambridge.
51:23 This would not double the workload for teachers,
51:25 as all students would be taught the same way at the same time,
51:29 and all assignments would be submitted online
51:31 for all students.
51:32 You had mentioned at the last meeting
51:35 that you would be integrating the online work throughout the
51:38 year, even in person, to aid in those seamless transitions
51:41 between in-person and online.
51:43 I believe that a live stream
51:45 of the live class would allow the easiest transition
51:48 between in-person and online.
51:50 It’s the safest option for everybody involved,
51:53 and it would maintain students’ seats at choice schools,
51:56 and it keeps funding at those individual schools.
51:59 If schools close again,
52:00 that would be the default response anyway.
52:02 We would go back to distance learning with the students
52:05 in their classes at their schools.
52:07 It’s safer to allow the option to begin that way.
52:11 If that would be too difficult to begin with,
52:15 I would say please at least prioritize the AP,
52:18 IB, and Cambridge classes that aren’t offered through
52:22 Brevard Virtual School or FLVS, and then after that,
52:26 you could proceed to offering live streaming
52:28 for electives, et cetera.
52:29 I know that you had mentioned that you cared deeply
52:32 about giving the students choices in all of their courses,
52:36 and I think that live streaming would be able
52:38 to preserve those options.
52:40 That’s a thing that is normally done as a regular course
52:43 of events at many colleges, so there is precedent for it.
52:47 Also, if you don’t pursue live streaming,
52:51 it would be nice if you would at least allow an exception
52:54 for school choice spots to be held for students
52:56 who choose online learning.
52:58 I’m personally immunocompromised,
53:00 and I don’t think it’s fair for my children to choose
53:03 between an education at an excellent school that they love
53:07 and possibly threatening the life of their own mother.
53:10 Furthermore, I’d appreciate if you would require masks
53:13 because studies have shown that at least 80% of the people
53:16 need to be required to wear masks
53:18 for them to be efficient for efficacy.
53:21 Will my students be allowed to eat lunch outside, for example?
53:24 Will they be allowed to wear face shields,
53:26 or would that be considered a hat?
53:28 There are some basic safety issues
53:30 that I’m not sure have been adequately addressed.
53:33 Everybody needs to be wearing a mask,
53:35 or we’re not ready to reopen schools.
53:38 I would really like it if we could exclude all students
53:41 from possible symptoms of COVID.
53:44 You talked at length about students with a sore throat
53:46 or runny nose due to allergies.
53:49 Could we require at least those students to wear masks
53:51 if they’re potentially symptomatic?
53:54 If 50% of cases could be avoided
53:56 by treating all potential COVID cases as COVID,
54:00 I don’t see a sufficient rationale to not do that.
54:04 - Kimberly, I’m so sorry to cut you off here,
54:07 but you are going just a little over that three-minute mark,
54:10 so if you could just finish up your comment,
54:12 we would really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
54:14 - Sure. My last comment was I was concerned
54:17 that teachers were not being given adequate time
54:19 to quarantine as needed.
54:20 I saw that they were only getting 10 days
54:22 of CARES Act funding provided,
54:24 and I’d like to make sure that teachers are able to do
54:26 what’s in the best interest of everybody for safety.
54:29 Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to comment,
54:31 and I hope that you–
54:33 I wish you well in making this difficult decision.
54:37 - Thank you so much, Kimberly. We appreciate it.
54:40 And I’m just going to remind any callers
54:42 that may have possibly dropped off the call
54:44 and are just rejoining us just to go ahead and hit zero again
54:48 just to get back in line with your public comment, please.
54:52 Next, we’re going to go to Kimberly Shamper.
54:55 Sorry about pronunciation.
54:57 Not my greatest strong suit here, so bear with me.
55:01 - That’s okay. - Kimberly, go ahead.
55:03 Please state your name, and then go ahead.
55:06 - My name is Kimberly Shamper.
55:07 I would actually pronounce it very correct.
55:10 I have students in Roy Allen.
55:12 I have my two sons and my two nieces.
55:16 All four of them are special needs.
55:18 They’re either SDS students or they have 504s.
55:23 Our major concern is that it is going to be very difficult
55:26 for them to wear a mask all day.
55:29 It is also going to be very difficult.
55:32 Two of our students are very touchy.
55:34 They need almost like–
55:38 like they get hugs and stuff from their teachers
55:40 when they’re doing well, and these are things
55:43 that are going to be very difficult for them.
55:44 Being six feet away from other people
55:46 is going to be difficult for them.
55:48 We have an elderly person in our home
55:50 that has, you know, immunity deficiencies.
55:54 We have a toddler who is two that has to sleep
55:57 with a CPAP machine,
56:00 and we have a lot of health concerns at home,
56:02 so, you know, it’s just very concerning
56:05 about reopening so soon, and we’ve heard a lot
56:07 about, you know, taking special education funding away.
56:10 We’re not sure if that’s actually happening or not,
56:13 but, you know, it’s just–
56:14 we really wish that things would be at least delayed
56:16 if we can’t go back to the way that they were doing them
56:20 at the end of last school year.
56:23 And I think that’s about wraps up my comment.
56:25 You know, like I said, mine is that I just really wish
56:28 that we could see more for the special education,
56:30 special needs students.
56:36 - All right, thank you so much, Kimberly.
56:38 Next, we will hear from McKaylee.
56:42 McKaylee, you are live.
56:43 Please state your name and go ahead.
56:45 - Hi, my name is McKaylee Clark,
56:47 and I have been a part of Brevard County Schools
56:49 for nearly 20 years, and that’s not an exaggeration.
56:52 I went to elementary school at Lantus.
56:53 I graduated from Edgewood.
56:55 I did all of my student teaching in Brevard County,
56:57 and my entire family has been in Brevard County for 20 years.
57:00 And now I am one of your teachers.
57:03 I started in August of 2019 and ended in May
57:06 in the middle of a pandemic when our numbers were low.
57:10 So why, pray tell, would you have us reopen
57:13 when our numbers have suddenly skyrocketed,
57:15 making us the global epicenter?
57:18 Is this a joke to you guys?
57:19 I’m really curious.
57:21 Reopening schools as of August is dangerous, reckless,
57:24 and an irresponsible move on your part.
57:27 Your plan does not mandate anything.
57:29 Your plan does not allow for actual safety measures.
57:32 You have done the bare minimum to protect students with F,
57:35 and it will not be enough.
57:37 If you cannot ensure that I have school supplies
57:39 in my classroom, how can I trust you to provide me
57:42 with the proper sanitation tools needed to protect myself
57:44 and my children?
57:46 Betsy DeVos, our Secretary of Education,
57:49 says that only .02% of students will die
57:52 if they go back to school.
57:53 And I’m sorry, that’s .02% too many.
57:57 By opening schools early, not only do we run the risk
58:00 of students passing this illness onto others
58:02 within their community, but you also run the risk
58:04 of them contracting it themselves.
58:06 And risking student lives is inhumane and reprehensible.
58:10 E-learning is less than ideal, I understand,
58:14 but it is what we need to do.
58:16 Our teachers have proved that we can overcome and adapt
58:18 if given the opportunity, but you are not giving us
58:21 the chance to overcome and adapt.
58:24 Instead, you’re asking us to risk our lives
58:26 as well as the lives of our loved ones and our students.
58:29 You won’t meet in person or allow public comments in person,
58:33 so why would you put everyone in a place
58:35 if you’re afraid to have people come talk to you
58:37 in person yourself?
58:39 All of this boils down to a phrase
58:41 that I have been seeing a lot everywhere.
58:44 I don’t know how to make you care about other people,
58:47 but you need to do so because human lives are not political.
58:51 And the federal government cannot force you to stay open.
58:54 They cannot bully you into making people go back
58:57 and risk their lives.
58:58 My mother just started an office clerk job in Brevard County,
59:01 who she’s been volunteering with for 20 years.
59:05 And you want to risk her life.
59:06 You want to risk our custodians, our bus drivers,
59:09 our cafeteria workers, our administrators,
59:11 our students, and our staff.
59:14 But you won’t let us try e-learning.
59:17 You’re not giving us the safety procedures we need.
59:21 You need to do better, because I love living in Brevard County,
59:25 and I love working for Brevard County.
59:28 You’re not putting us first, and you are not proving
59:31 that you care about your teachers and your students.
59:35 Thank you.
59:40 - Thank you, Mikaylee.
59:41 Next, we’ll hear from Steven.
59:44 Steven, you’re live, go ahead and state your name,
59:46 and go ahead with your public comment, please.
59:50 - Thank you. My name is Steven Ulrich.
59:52 I’m calling on the use of masks when the schools reopen.
59:55 If we are going to have the schools open,
59:58 we have a daughter who is homeschooled.
1:00:00 She has respiratory issues.
1:00:02 We have four high school-aged children
1:00:04 who will be returning to school,
1:00:06 and we don’t want them to be exposed
1:00:07 to any unnecessary risks at the school.
1:00:11 So we would like for the mask wearing to be mandatory
1:00:14 for all students and staff at all times,
1:00:17 not only for the health of our children,
1:00:19 but for all the students and staff at the schools as well.
1:00:23 FOVS was tried in the spring of last year,
1:00:27 and it did not work for our children.
1:00:29 They were unmotivated.
1:00:31 They just did not get the same sort of education
1:00:35 as they do in class.
1:00:37 So we’d like that the CDC guidelines be adhered to
1:00:42 and that the mandatory use of masks
1:00:45 be implemented at all times.
1:00:47 Thank you.
1:00:51 - Thank you, Stephen.
1:00:53 Next, we have Margaret.
1:00:57 Margaret, you are live. Please say your name.
1:00:59 Go ahead. - Hi, there.
1:01:00 It’s Margaret Fleming.
1:01:03 I am a Brevard County public school teacher.
1:01:06 I’m a third-generation teacher,
1:01:08 and this is my 10th year of teaching.
1:01:10 I listened at length as much as I could
1:01:13 with toddlers in the household to the meeting the other day,
1:01:15 and I was disappointed to see that there were not
1:01:19 certain security measures being put in place–
1:01:22 I should say safety measures being put in place
1:01:24 to try and keep us safe.
1:01:27 I believe at this time, schools should be delayed
1:01:29 to allow time for teachers to adequately plan for reopening.
1:01:35 All kids and teachers should be required to wear a mask
1:01:37 instead of it being strongly suggested.
1:01:41 It was referenced as a three-foot rule
1:01:43 according to the American Pediatrics.
1:01:45 That is according to whether they are wearing a mask,
1:01:49 and if 60 cannot be acquired in the classroom.
1:01:52 So they need to be wearing a mask
1:01:54 if that cannot be done so.
1:01:56 There needs to be class-size caps.
1:01:58 I’m an elected teacher,
1:01:59 and I often have over 30 children in my classroom.
1:02:03 I need to make sure that there are caps in place
1:02:05 so that I am not teaching large classes.
1:02:09 There needs to be proof of negative COVID testing
1:02:11 before children come back to school in the fall,
1:02:13 the same as if we have to provide proof of vaccination.
1:02:17 If there is a positive test,
1:02:19 then there needs to be a negative one
1:02:21 showing that they are allowed back into the classroom.
1:02:25 There needs to be options for teachers
1:02:27 who are considered high-risk
1:02:28 or living with high-risk family members to teach remotely.
1:02:33 It is not fair that teachers should be asked
1:02:35 to either give up their jobs or keep their families safe.
1:02:41 Any time a teacher is required to be out of the classroom
1:02:44 due to coronavirus-related illnesses
1:02:47 or quarantining or isolation
1:02:51 because they are exposed by a student,
1:02:53 there needs to be pay that is going to be guaranteed.
1:02:56 Currently, there’s only the 10-day pay,
1:02:58 and that’s not sufficient in order to make sure
1:03:01 that families can still survive
1:03:02 when teachers are putting themselves at risk
1:03:05 by being in the classroom in the first place.
1:03:09 There also needs to be more information
1:03:11 that is provided to parents and teachers
1:03:14 and everybody, really, about how schools will be determined
1:03:18 whether or not they need to be closed
1:03:19 when there are positive cases
1:03:21 or when it will be determined whether or not
1:03:23 teachers need to self-isolate
1:03:25 or other classmates need to self-isolate
1:03:27 if there has been a positive test at this school.
1:03:30 Right now, there’s a lot of assurances
1:03:32 of what we can do to keep our kids safe,
1:03:36 but it’s not enough.
1:03:38 I am not sending my own children back to school
1:03:40 because they have health issues that it’s not safe for.
1:03:43 My parents, who, one of us was also a teacher,
1:03:46 I cannot risk it with.
1:03:48 So there needs to be more things put in place keeping us safe.
1:03:52 I’m asking that if you all, the public and the board,
1:03:56 can trust us to teach and educate your children
1:04:00 on a day-to-day basis,
1:04:02 that you take into consideration much more strongly
1:04:05 that we know what we are talking about
1:04:06 when it comes to the safety concerns
1:04:09 that will be in place while we are in the classroom
1:04:11 teaching these children.
1:04:12 And if you are not prepared to send your own children
1:04:15 back into the public classroom,
1:04:17 then maybe that needs to be something
1:04:18 that you need to consider.
1:04:20 Thank you.
1:04:24 - Thank you, Margaret.
1:04:25 Next, we have Gretchen.
1:04:30 Gretchen, go ahead, state your name,
1:04:31 and then follow with your comment.
1:04:40 Gretchen, can you hear us?
1:04:44 - Yes, I’m sorry. I had you on mute.
1:04:46 - Go ahead.
1:04:47 - Okay, thank you.
1:04:50 My name is Gretchen Campbell,
1:04:51 and I’m the parent of a rising junior at Mel High.
1:04:54 My son is in the IV program, and I’m very concerned
1:04:57 because the current proposal does not allow
1:05:00 or enable juniors and seniors in the IV program
1:05:02 to stay in the program and be safe.
1:05:04 At this point, his only choice is to go to school in person
1:05:08 five days a week or drop out of his program.
1:05:10 If he drops out, he not only loses all the hard work
1:05:13 he has put into the program,
1:05:15 but he will also have to pick up three to five additional
1:05:17 courses
1:05:17 outside the realm of what is required
1:05:19 in order to graduate with a non-IB diploma.
1:05:22 If he stays in the program and goes to school every day,
1:05:25 he risks putting his family in jeopardy.
1:05:27 As a member of our household,
1:05:28 it’s immunocompromised and is at high risk
1:05:30 of developing complications from COVID-19.
1:05:34 I ask you to please offer IV and similar students
1:05:37 the option of distance learning
1:05:39 via live streaming through Mel High.
1:05:41 IV through the virtual school
1:05:43 is not an option for Mel High students.
1:05:46 E-learning and live streaming would resolve so much–
1:05:49 resolve so much from allowing students to remain safe
1:05:52 while continuing their special programs
1:05:54 to an easier transition to online learning
1:05:56 should the schools need to be shut down or quarantined
1:05:58 in the event of an even greater outbreak.
1:06:02 I also ask you to please, please require
1:06:04 every person on school campus to wear a mask.
1:06:07 It’s abhorrent that this is not a requirement.
1:06:10 For the safety of every student and staff member
1:06:12 and their families, as well as the community at large,
1:06:15 this should be mandated. Thank you.
1:06:21 - Thank you, Gretchen.
1:06:22 Next, we have Sophia.
1:06:25 Sophia, please state your name and go ahead.
1:06:28 - Hello. My name is Sophia Bailey,
1:06:30 and I’m a rising junior at West Shore Junior/Senior High School.
1:06:34 After talking to my fellow peers,
1:06:35 I took note of common concerns that arose
1:06:37 regarding the proposed block schedule
1:06:39 from the last school board meeting.
1:06:41 At my school, advanced placement courses
1:06:43 are the primary source of academic acceleration.
1:06:46 College board organizes a designated exam date
1:06:49 for all AP courses in May.
1:06:51 In the case of having four classes per semester,
1:06:54 we would need a way for students to complete their exams
1:06:57 at a timely manner following the end of their course.
1:06:59 I propose that for the block schedule,
1:07:01 there should be AP testing dates available in December
1:07:04 for students to complete.
1:07:05 This would mean contacting college board
1:07:07 to find alternatives to May testing.
1:07:09 Seeing as college board works internationally,
1:07:11 I would hope that it would provide
1:07:13 alternative testing dates and platforms
1:07:14 for this school year, given the circumstances,
1:07:17 but our school board needs to be sure.
1:07:19 Also, course selection sheets were submitted electronically
1:07:22 by our student body in May.
1:07:24 Our guidance counselors work tirelessly all summer long
1:07:26 to the best of their ability to create schedules
1:07:28 that appease our students.
1:07:30 However, with an added eighth class
1:07:31 and the sudden proposal of a four-class semester,
1:07:34 some courses that require year-round instructional time,
1:07:37 such as yearbook, music classes, news magazine,
1:07:39 TV production, and so forth,
1:07:41 may need to be incorporated into both semesters for students.
1:07:45 I propose that with the addition of an eighth class
1:07:47 in this block schedule,
1:07:48 students should be able to submit to their schools
1:07:51 the course that they would like to have all year round
1:07:53 with special consideration given to electives.
1:07:56 Finally, the social implications of a block schedule
1:07:58 are concerning, seeing as students struggle
1:08:01 to maintain attention for 49 minutes,
1:08:02 let alone 90 minutes, and teachers will be tasked
1:08:05 with covering material at a faster rate.
1:08:07 How do we plan on supporting our teachers
1:08:09 as they rapidly adjust the condensed time frame
1:08:11 they have to cover material
1:08:13 while also battling the lengthier class period?
1:08:16 Aside from the instructional aspect of reopening schools,
1:08:19 how will student conduct be enforced
1:08:21 in regard to upholding social distancing measures
1:08:23 and following CDC guidelines?
1:08:25 I’m a proponent for mandatory masks.
1:08:28 However, will there be consequences for students
1:08:30 who don’t take the guidelines seriously
1:08:32 and invade the space or wishes of others?
1:08:35 I wish to see a thorough virtual plan developed
1:08:37 for students and teachers
1:08:39 who do not feel safe returning to campuses
1:08:41 without having to resort to Florida virtual
1:08:43 and therefore lose their role as a student or educator
1:08:45 at their respective school.
1:08:47 Thank you.
1:08:51 - Thank you, Sophia.
1:08:54 Next, we’ll hear from Tracy.
1:08:56 Tracy, you’re live.
1:08:57 Go ahead with your name and your public comment, please.
1:09:01 - Hi, I’m Tracy Hardy.
1:09:03 I am a parent and a teacher for Brevard schools,
1:09:07 and I wanted to start by first acknowledging
1:09:09 the magnitude of the job that you were strong-armed
1:09:12 into doing by the Florida governor and the education chair.
1:09:15 I know that given the choice,
1:09:17 I believe you’d have a different plan today.
1:09:20 I also want to say that I believe
1:09:23 had current classroom teachers been
1:09:25 on the reopening committee,
1:09:27 not only principals or district personnel
1:09:29 that haven’t been in a classroom for 20 years,
1:09:32 we could have provided valuable insight
1:09:34 into how your plan would actually work in our classrooms.
1:09:38 With that being said,
1:09:39 I want to suggest we follow the governor’s analogy
1:09:42 and treat schools like a trip to Home Depot or Walmart.
1:09:46 The state has said that we only need to be open
1:09:48 five days a week, but it didn’t say how long.
1:09:51 Can we not consider a plan, at least for first semester,
1:09:55 that cuts the hours that we are actually at school?
1:09:59 Why does it need to be the full seven?
1:10:01 A mixture of online and in-person
1:10:03 for all students could also work.
1:10:05 Involving teachers in the conversation
1:10:07 could help you figure this out.
1:10:09 You need to be considering the immunocompromised teachers
1:10:12 deciding right now to make the jump to online teaching
1:10:15 and then how you plan to address the teacher shortage
1:10:18 that I am telling you, with personal knowledge,
1:10:21 you will be facing.
1:10:23 However, if you are dead set on going full throttle,
1:10:26 then I suggest for at least first semester,
1:10:29 we get in and get out.
1:10:31 There should be no afterschool anything,
1:10:33 no clubs, no sports, no games.
1:10:36 All meetings should be held virtually.
1:10:38 If elementary school students cannot play on the playground,
1:10:41 secondary school students should not be staying late
1:10:44 for Jedi Club.
1:10:45 Teachers are often guilted into taking on these extra roles,
1:10:49 but apparently, we should treat school
1:10:51 like a trip to the store.
1:10:52 Get what you need, get home, sanitize, no lingering.
1:10:56 I know it will not be popular to cut sports,
1:10:58 but I also know that poor students
1:11:01 will not be able to hold class indoors this year.
1:11:04 How is it fair that a class full of 28 poor students
1:11:07 must have class outside in the Florida heat every day
1:11:10 that basketball practice will continue in the gym?
1:11:13 How is it OK that football players exchanging bodily fluids
1:11:17 as they tackle one another safer than singing indoors
1:11:20 or playing on a playground?
1:11:22 I know parents want it all.
1:11:24 And being that it is an election year,
1:11:26 you want to give it to them.
1:11:28 But unfortunately, we are in the middle of a pandemic.
1:11:30 It is just not equitable to do everything this year.
1:11:34 And listen, I don’t always go to Walmart.
1:11:36 But when I do, it isn’t to conduct a meeting with 50 kids
1:11:39 about the next spring break trip or chest bump my sweaty body
1:11:43 after a great play.
1:11:44 I get essentials, and I go home.
1:11:46 The governor, in his own words, suggests we all do the same.
1:11:50 Thanks.
1:11:53 Thank you, Tracy.
1:11:55 And just another quick reminder here that if you haven’t
1:11:57 already, please press 0 on the keypad of your phone
1:12:01 to get in line with your public comment,
1:12:03 only if you haven’t done that already.
1:12:05 Thank you so much.
1:12:06 Next, we’ll hear from Devon.
1:12:12 My name is Devon Vann.
1:12:13 I am a parent, volunteer, and PTO board member.
1:12:17 I am grateful for the diligence with which the reopening task
1:12:19 force has approached the impossible task of trying
1:12:22 to safely open schools during a pandemic.
1:12:24 This virus has laid bare the cracks that have plagued
1:12:27 our schools for far too long.
1:12:29 Our schools are expected to perform a myriad of tasks–
1:12:31 educating, supervising, feeding, health screening, counseling,
1:12:34 and safety checking, to name just a few,
1:12:37 all the while facing a shrinking budget.
1:12:39 So it’s not altogether surprising
1:12:41 that federal and state leaders are saddling you
1:12:43 and our schools with the crazy notion
1:12:44 that staff and students can return safely in 27 days,
1:12:48 even while Brevard County’s numbers surge,
1:12:49 and our positivity rate is at over 5%.
1:12:52 I appreciate that our schools are the most stable aspect
1:12:55 of some kids’ lives, and I can accept
1:12:57 that school may still be the safest place for some kids,
1:12:59 even in the midst of the pandemic.
1:13:02 That safety is an illusion at best,
1:13:04 though, unless proper safeguards are in place.
1:13:08 One, at the very least, students and staff
1:13:10 should be wearing facial coverings
1:13:11 in an effort to avoid becoming transmission vectors.
1:13:15 Two, staggered start times should enable
1:13:17 school-wide temperature checks,
1:13:19 and because the loss of smell is associated with COVID,
1:13:21 perhaps a sniff test could be incorporated
1:13:23 where a student can be given a cotton ball
1:13:25 with a drop of peppermint oil or vanilla.
1:13:28 Finally, I encourage the board to give serious thought
1:13:30 to postponing the first day of school to late August
1:13:33 in the hope that our numbers calm
1:13:35 before we embark on reopening.
1:13:37 Give us a chance at a new normal.
1:13:39 And because I haven’t exhausted my three minutes,
1:13:41 please, please, please cancel the Junior Olympic events
1:13:44 taking place at Satellite High School, August 4th through the 8th.
1:13:47 Look at the performance test list on the website.
1:13:51 There’s athletes coming from all over the country,
1:13:53 including hot spots of COVID-19.
1:13:57 They’ve already paid. They’ve already registered.
1:13:58 There are over 1,000 current registrants
1:14:01 coming from all over the country
1:14:03 to run in a race at Satellite High School,
1:14:05 and they’re encouraging Satellite High School students
1:14:07 and other students and parents
1:14:09 to volunteer in the concession stand
1:14:11 three days before school starts.
1:14:12 It’s ludicrous.
1:14:14 We need to accept that we are actually in a pandemic
1:14:16 and behave as such.
1:14:18 Let’s take some precautions.
1:14:19 Let’s try to safeguard our students
1:14:21 and try to have school be as safe as it can be
1:14:25 in the middle of a global pandemic with surging numbers.
1:14:33 - All right, thank you so much, Devin.
1:14:36 Next, we will hear from Anoushka.
1:14:40 Anoushka, please just state your full name before you start.
1:14:44 - Hello, my name is Anoushka,
1:14:45 and I am speaking on behalf of Melbourne High School’s
1:14:48 IB students.
1:14:49 The virtual options you have provided for students
1:14:52 who are uncomfortable going back to a brick-and-mortar school
1:14:55 or BVS or EFSC dual enrollment,
1:14:58 both of which do not offer the IB curriculum.
1:15:01 The IB online courses for Pomona education
1:15:04 are not a possibility for us.
1:15:06 They do not include IB science or history classes,
1:15:09 which is a graduation requirement for the diploma.
1:15:13 Therefore, students in IB and other specialized programs,
1:15:17 such as ACE and Cambridge, who for health reasons
1:15:20 cannot attend a brick-and-mortar school,
1:15:22 are left without an option.
1:15:24 With Florida being the new epicenter of the coronavirus,
1:15:28 leaving families with no virtual option is unethical.
1:15:31 If IB seniors choose to leave the program
1:15:34 for Brevard Virtual School,
1:15:35 they will have to meet all other state graduation requirements
1:15:39 that are exempt for IB.
1:15:41 This can mean taking up to five additional academic classes
1:15:44 in such short notice.
1:15:46 If IB juniors want to leave IB for BVS,
1:15:49 they would have to give up their spots.
1:15:51 However, if there was an e-learning option
1:15:53 through one’s own school,
1:15:55 similar to the plan offered to Brevard’s elementary schools
1:15:58 and in other counties across Florida,
1:16:01 students in these programs would be able
1:16:02 to continue their education
1:16:04 without having to withdraw from their program and/or school.
1:16:09 The school system already has the capability
1:16:11 to use programs such as Google Hangouts or Microsoft Teams
1:16:15 in order to conduct class virtually every day.
1:16:19 An option like this will also cover schools
1:16:22 that face outbreaks throughout the year.
1:16:24 Likewise, when the threat of the pandemic is over,
1:16:27 these students would want to return to their school
1:16:30 if they can do so easily and still be in their selected classes.
1:16:34 There is no guarantee that there will be availability
1:16:36 in the student-selected classes
1:16:38 when transferring from Brevard Virtual.
1:16:40 We have created a petition for this virtual option,
1:16:43 and in three days, we have been able to get over 380 signatures.
1:16:48 That is 380 parents, teachers, and students
1:16:51 wanting their voices to be heard.
1:16:54 I would like to remind you that IB students
1:16:56 need a viable virtual option,
1:16:58 as one student has commented on the petition saying,
1:17:01 “I am an IB student at Melbourne High School
1:17:04 who is at high risk for COVID due to my asthma,
1:17:06 but with the current options,
1:17:08 I would be unable to complete my IB diploma
1:17:11 without putting myself at risk.”
1:17:14 Another comment from a concerned parent states,
1:17:17 “My son is an IB at Mel High,
1:17:19 so we currently have to choose between
1:17:21 maintaining his advanced academic track
1:17:23 and our family’s health.
1:17:25 It’s an unfair and unnecessary choice
1:17:28 when virtual learning is a viable option.”
1:17:31 Thank you so much.
1:17:35 - Thank you so much.
1:17:37 Next, we will hear from Lisa.
1:17:40 Lisa, please just state your name before you start.
1:17:43 - Thank you. My name is Lisa Emmerich-Parker,
1:17:46 and I’m a Brevard County teacher.
1:17:49 Schools in areas with high levels of COVID-19
1:17:52 community spread should not be compelled to reopen
1:17:56 against the judgment of experts.
1:17:59 Just yesterday on the “Today” show,
1:18:01 they explored how countries were successfully
1:18:05 reopening their schools.
1:18:07 And European countries like Germany and Denmark
1:18:10 reopened only after viral transmission rates
1:18:14 were under control.
1:18:16 States like Texas, Ohio, Utah, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,
1:18:22 and now New York City have already mandated masking schools
1:18:26 for everyone over the age of two years of age
1:18:29 as part of the dress code.
1:18:31 The six-foot rule, being outdoors, washing hands,
1:18:34 smaller classes, these are being implemented worldwide.
1:18:38 But I don’t feel as though we’re even ready yet
1:18:41 until the rate of viral transmission declines
1:18:44 and is under control.
1:18:46 And just–it was just announced, NBC News,
1:18:50 that in California, the two largest school districts,
1:18:53 LA and San Diego, announced that all classes
1:18:57 will begin online only in the fall.
1:19:01 So they will only have online classes in the fall
1:19:04 in order to protect students and staff.
1:19:07 Schools are held accountable,
1:19:09 and their success is measured by data.
1:19:12 The data on COVID says that it’s not time to reopen yet.
1:19:17 Thank you.
1:19:20 - Thank you so much, Lisa.
1:19:22 Next, we have Declan.
1:19:26 Declan, just please state your full name before you start.
1:19:30 - Hi there, I’m Declan Gardner.
1:19:32 I’m a rising 10th grade student
1:19:34 at West Virginia Senior High School.
1:19:36 And I appreciate what’s been done so far
1:19:40 by the school board, but I do have problems
1:19:41 with the block schedule.
1:19:44 When I sign up for a class, this is gonna be the only time
1:19:46 that I get an opportunity to take it,
1:19:48 such as AP Digital Art.
1:19:50 And an opportunity like this, I want all year
1:19:53 to be able to do it instead of just one semester.
1:19:56 And I think that this whole block schedule
1:19:59 will take that away from us.
1:20:02 Additionally, I don’t think that it’s safe
1:20:04 to send kids back to school at all,
1:20:05 because masks are no masks.
1:20:07 We will be–there will be thousands of kids
1:20:10 put in the same rooms, switching throughout the day,
1:20:13 so we will all come in contact with each other.
1:20:17 And I think that there are gonna be thousands of kids
1:20:20 that end up getting the virus, and then the school board
1:20:24 is going to be held accountable for it.
1:20:27 And I think that pretty much sums up what I have to say.
1:20:31 I just personally don’t feel safe.
1:20:34 Thank you.
1:20:36 - Thank you, Declan.
1:20:38 Next, we’ll hear from Kathy.
1:20:40 Same thing, Kathy, just please state your name
1:20:42 before you start recording.
1:20:44 - Yes, my name is Kathy West.
1:20:47 I would like to speak on behalf of subs.
1:20:54 We were told back in January when we all went to Tallahassee
1:20:58 that all employees would receive a 10% raise.
1:21:03 That hasn’t happened.
1:21:05 We have not received any bonuses, no raises.
1:21:08 And needless to say, we all subs now feel like
1:21:12 the redheaded stepchild.
1:21:14 We deserve raises and not just praise.
1:21:20 I would suggest that if we were to go back to school in August,
1:21:27 that all employees should be receiving hazard pay
1:21:32 as a result of the COVID-19.
1:21:37 And that concludes my announcement.
1:21:43 - Thank you so much, Kathy.
1:21:45 Next, we have Tamara.
1:21:48 Tamara, same thing.
1:21:49 Your full name, please, before you start.
1:21:52 - Yeah, hi, this is Tamara Doring.
1:21:54 I am a high school teacher at Heritage High School.
1:21:57 And you’re probably gonna have to cut me off.
1:21:59 I don’t have a timer on, and I don’t have my notes,
1:22:01 so I’m gonna be winging it.
1:22:03 Because I am COVID-positive.
1:22:05 Tested a week ago, have had it for almost two weeks now.
1:22:10 And my husband has it as well.
1:22:11 And today, we had to take him to emergency urgent care.
1:22:14 So I am currently pulled over in a parking lot
1:22:18 after getting his medicine.
1:22:20 So my concerns are that we’re opening it all.
1:22:24 I feel that we’re not taking into account
1:22:29 the major risks that are involved here
1:22:30 for our teachers and then the families of our students.
1:22:35 The idea that we don’t have masks as mandatory
1:22:39 is absolutely absurd.
1:22:40 And I feel like it’s completely political.
1:22:43 To clarify what that looks like for me,
1:22:46 my husband got COVID from work,
1:22:49 working in a classroom-sized environment
1:22:52 with four people over three days and eight hours.
1:22:56 They had masks the entire time and used hand sanitizer
1:23:00 except for about the half hour
1:23:01 that they took the mask off to eat lunch.
1:23:03 So this is giving me a pretty good idea
1:23:05 of what the scenario might be in our classrooms.
1:23:08 I can’t fathom how we are deciding to open schools
1:23:14 when we are in the middle of–
1:23:16 like, we’re the epicenter of the world
1:23:18 for this pandemic right now.
1:23:20 It makes no sense to me.
1:23:22 All of these–all of the complaints that we’re hearing
1:23:25 or the suggestions about why we need to go back to school,
1:23:28 I totally believe that.
1:23:30 I’m so supportive of all the parents for those reasons.
1:23:33 I’m disappointed that we took so much time and energy
1:23:38 and manpower and money and didn’t realize June
1:23:43 that we would need to shut these schools down.
1:23:45 I realize that the governor has given us an order,
1:23:49 but we could have come up with some really creative,
1:23:52 innovative solutions to help all those families
1:23:55 and maybe solve some, like, some problems
1:23:58 that have been going on for a long time,
1:24:00 all of these things that have been on the burden
1:24:02 and the shoulders of the schools.
1:24:04 We could have developed more community outreach.
1:24:06 So I’m sadly, you know, discouraged by that.
1:24:10 And also, I don’t know how much time I have left,
1:24:12 but we’re–I really want the board
1:24:16 to be able to give us metrics.
1:24:19 So we are required as teachers to constantly give data
1:24:23 on a daily basis, practically, with our students.
1:24:25 So I want to see the data.
1:24:26 I want to see what point do you think
1:24:29 is the tipping point of when we need to close.
1:24:32 Is it one death? Is it five deaths?
1:24:34 Is it hospitalization rates?
1:24:36 Because you know as well as I do,
1:24:38 we already passed those numbers of what’s safe.
1:24:41 And I feel like, you know,
1:24:45 let’s at least put that number down.
1:24:47 Let’s put that number down on paper.
1:24:50 And one more thing to the public who might be listening.
1:24:53 We are not–if you’re thinking we’re doing this
1:24:56 because your kid needs to be back in school
1:24:58 and the working families need to work,
1:24:59 it needs to be clear and evident to every family member out
1:25:02 there
1:25:03 that they need to prepare for these schools
1:25:06 to open and close and open and close.
1:25:08 There’s absolutely no way we’re going to get through this year
1:25:11 without having cases in our classrooms
1:25:14 and having to shut down.
1:25:15 I’m currently–if this would have happened to me in August,
1:25:17 I would have been out of school for 14 days,
1:25:20 looking at another week now
1:25:22 because my husband is getting worse.
1:25:24 So we’re talking three weeks my students would have had a sub.
1:25:27 One more note. I’m an ACE teacher.
1:25:29 I’m a Cambridge teacher.
1:25:30 There are no learning opportunities online
1:25:33 for my Cambridge students.
1:25:34 Let’s postpone starting.
1:25:37 Let’s give teachers like ACE and the ID students,
1:25:40 their teachers, some time to develop
1:25:42 an online curriculum for them.
1:25:44 That needs to be an option for those students.
1:25:47 I think I’m probably running out of time, am I?
1:25:53 - Yes, you are just above three minutes.
1:25:57 - You did an amazing job at trying to reopen the schools
1:26:00 and I thank you for the immense amount of work.
1:26:03 But again, I just wish that would have been directed
1:26:05 on intelligently staying closed.
1:26:07 Thank you.
1:26:10 - Thank you, Tamara.
1:26:12 Next up, we will go to Tom.
1:26:15 Tom, I’ll just remind you again.
1:26:16 Please state your name before you start.
1:26:18 - Hi, my name is Tom Ostermeyer.
1:26:22 I had the privilege of serving as a principal
1:26:25 in Brevard County,
1:26:26 so I certainly appreciate the challenge
1:26:28 you have ahead of you.
1:26:31 You indeed have many that you will impact
1:26:33 with your decisions, but let me–
1:26:36 just my daughter is just one example.
1:26:39 She probably serves as the drama teacher
1:26:41 at Johnson Middle School,
1:26:43 where she was selected as a Teacher of the Year in 2018.
1:26:48 Two years ago, she suffered a heart attack
1:26:50 and had emergency surgery.
1:26:52 She is considered to be in the high-risk category
1:26:55 for COVID exposure,
1:26:57 and her cardiologist told her to take
1:26:59 the most stringent cautions and restrictions
1:27:02 during the pandemic since contracting the virus
1:27:05 could have dire consequences.
1:27:07 Add to this that she visits with us often,
1:27:10 and we follow restrictions since my wife and son
1:27:13 have also had multiple heart attacks and surgeries,
1:27:16 plus my 94-year-old mother-in-law lives with us
1:27:20 who has multiple health issues.
1:27:22 I’m certain if you sought out medical specialists,
1:27:25 you would discover that they would recommend
1:27:27 the most stringent restrictions possible
1:27:30 to protect the health and safety of their high-risk patients.
1:27:34 Experts on both sides of the virus
1:27:37 emphasize how predictable this virus is,
1:27:40 and details change often.
1:27:42 Your challenge is daunting to protect the health and safety
1:27:45 of 5,000 teachers and 9,000 other staff.
1:27:49 Of course, our most important resource, our children,
1:27:52 should be the primary concern.
1:27:55 Like the general population,
1:27:57 we have learned that children as a group
1:27:59 at the start of the pandemic
1:28:00 had a low probability of infection,
1:28:03 but now that number has increased
1:28:05 to even include death and issues like Kawasaki disease.
1:28:10 We can’t predict the future,
1:28:12 and we pray that in 10 years from now,
1:28:14 we will not say if we only knew in 2020
1:28:18 that kids would be so much a part of the impact of the virus,
1:28:22 we would have done things differently.
1:28:24 I do have grave concerns about opening schools too quickly,
1:28:28 especially when we look at the current patterns
1:28:31 and numbers of infection.
1:28:33 I honestly see the goal to open as a political edict
1:28:37 that requires more time to formulate a quality plan.
1:28:42 Do we need to reopen schools?
1:28:43 Absolutely, but not at the expense of satisfying
1:28:47 an abrupt mandate from sources outside our community.
1:28:51 Personally, I think at a minimum,
1:28:53 we need to include guidelines like social distancing,
1:28:57 masks, which you know is a challenging issue.
1:29:01 My preference would be required, which is allowed,
1:29:05 masks, which is now becoming common
1:29:08 in Florida communities and throughout the country.
1:29:11 I’m not a proponent of terms like recommended,
1:29:14 encouraged, expected, because they are permissive
1:29:17 and will create inconsistency.
1:29:20 Moving the reopening until, like, September, for example,
1:29:25 will give you the time to not feel the restraint of time
1:29:30 and perhaps also to give an opportunity
1:29:33 for the numbers to cool down.
1:29:35 Reopening schools systematically, carefully,
1:29:38 and safely is more crucial than quickly.
1:29:42 I encourage you to also utilize the skills and compassion
1:29:46 of our dedicated teachers in the planning process
1:29:50 and ask you to be careful of those outside the community
1:29:54 and the profession who consider opening schools
1:29:58 equivalent to reopening Home Depot and Walmart.
1:30:02 Let’s just make sure our planning process
1:30:05 does not turn into an action that results
1:30:08 in a ready-fire-aim approach.
1:30:12 Thank you for your time.
1:30:15 » Thank you, Tom.
1:30:17 I’m just going to do a quick reminder here.
1:30:18 Again, if you had dropped on the call,
1:30:20 just go ahead and press zero on your phone
1:30:22 to get back in line with your public comment.
1:30:25 And if you haven’t already, please also do that.
1:30:28 Thank you so much.
1:30:29 Next, we will go to Erin.
1:30:32 Erin, please just state your name and go ahead.
1:30:36 » Hello, my name is Erin Dunn,
1:30:37 and I am a Brevard County teacher
1:30:39 and parent of a rising fourth grader.
1:30:41 I’m Dr. Mullen’s Brevard Public Schools Leadership Team
1:30:44 and members of the school board.
1:30:46 Let me begin by thanking you all for the immense amount of work
1:30:48 you have put into the field
1:30:50 at the beginning of a new school year.
1:30:52 The work was apparent in the discussions
1:30:53 during the last day of the school board workshop,
1:30:56 which I watched in its entirety
1:30:58 as I wanted to have all the facts
1:30:59 about the return to school in August.
1:31:01 With that being said, let me address my overarching concern.
1:31:05 You all have made a pledge to open Brevard Public Schools
1:31:08 safely for students and staff this fall.
1:31:10 Since the school board workshop on Thursday,
1:31:13 Betsy DeVos herself said in an interview
1:31:15 on CNN this past Sunday, and I quote,
1:31:18 “Going into the fall, education leaders need to ensure
1:31:21 “that kids are going to be able to be learning full-time
1:31:24 “no matter how that looks.
1:31:25 “If they’re in an area with high incidence of virus,
1:31:28 “then they need to be learning remotely full-time.”
1:31:31 That’s us, folks.
1:31:32 We are in an area with high incidence of virus.
1:31:36 You need to know that I am facing a process
1:31:37 of returning to work as a Brevard Public Schools
1:31:40 elementary activity teacher
1:31:42 and teaching every child in the school weekly.
1:31:45 You need to know that even with half of our students
1:31:47 attending school virtually,
1:31:49 I will still be teaching over 500 children
1:31:51 in one classroom weekly.
1:31:53 You need to know that is the highest risk category
1:31:56 set forth by our government,
1:31:57 not only for me, but for the children as well.
1:32:00 You need to know that is not safe for our students.
1:32:02 That is not safe for me.
1:32:05 You need to know that I am seriously considering
1:32:07 taking a job outside of Brevard Public Schools
1:32:10 with a $15,000 pay cut on an already meager salary
1:32:14 so that my family can stay safe.
1:32:16 I don’t want to leave my students,
1:32:17 but if you reopen school buildings in person next month,
1:32:20 you may be leaving me no choice.
1:32:22 I have contacted my state elected officials,
1:32:25 asking them to work at the state level
1:32:26 to rescind the irresponsible five-day
1:32:29 brick-and-mortar emergency order
1:32:31 set forth by the Florida Department of Education.
1:32:34 After you are told at the school board workshop on Thursday
1:32:37 that directives to keep Brevard County schools closed
1:32:40 must come from the state,
1:32:42 I read the entire emergency order,
1:32:44 which specifies that the option to keep schools closed
1:32:47 may be made by local health officials.
1:32:50 I contacted our local health department asking,
1:32:53 who has the local authority to keep our schools closed
1:32:56 until it is safe to reopen?
1:32:58 I have not yet received a response.
1:33:01 I have read the CDC guidelines for reopening schools.
1:33:04 We do not need them.
1:33:06 We are not even close.
1:33:08 I understand that with the order to reopen
1:33:10 brick-and-mortar schools,
1:33:11 you may feel that your hands are tied,
1:33:13 but when lives are on the line, you risk the road
1:33:16 and do what you need to do to keep us safe.
1:33:18 We have over twice the amount of COVID cases per capita
1:33:21 than Palm Beach County had
1:33:23 when they remained in phase one on June 5th.
1:33:26 You need to take these numbers to the state
1:33:28 and tell them that you refuse to put Brevard County teachers,
1:33:31 students, and staff in danger for their political gain.
1:33:35 Anything less is unacceptable.
1:33:37 Thank you for your time.
1:33:41 - Thank you, Erin. Perfect timing.
1:33:43 Next, we will go to Susan– or Suzanne, so sorry.
1:33:46 Suzanne, go ahead. Just state your name first, please.
1:33:50 - Hi, there. My name is Suzanne Dixon,
1:33:52 and I am a concerned teacher and parent.
1:33:55 Due to the rising COVID cases in our county,
1:33:58 there is no safe way to open schools in August.
1:34:02 This will be my 17th year teaching in Brevard Public Schools,
1:34:05 and I speak for several teachers
1:34:07 that not only feel distance learning should be continued
1:34:10 but are absolutely fearful to hold in-person classes
1:34:14 under the current conditions.
1:34:16 The current CDC guidelines state
1:34:18 that the more closely you interact with others,
1:34:21 the longer that interaction,
1:34:23 the higher risk of the COVID-19 spread.
1:34:26 In spring of 2020,
1:34:28 I had 160 students on my elective roster.
1:34:32 That’s 160 students that entered my door
1:34:35 on a daily basis for 48 minutes at a time.
1:34:39 Without COVID-19, my classroom was a walking Petri dish.
1:34:43 While I appreciate the time and the effort
1:34:45 that the task force put into recommending block scheduling,
1:34:48 it still does not meet
1:34:50 the CDC-recommended guidelines for protection.
1:34:53 So now secondary teachers will have three classes
1:34:56 of maybe 20 students for 90 minutes at a time.
1:34:59 That’s 60 students a day for a prolonged time.
1:35:03 How is that going to be better,
1:35:04 especially without a mandatory face mask?
1:35:08 The CDC also recommends social distancing
1:35:12 and a facial covering, not “or.”
1:35:15 Our school board needs to mandate
1:35:17 that all employees and students wear facial coverings
1:35:20 if they are going to attend brick-and-mortar schools.
1:35:23 But then I ask you to be honest.
1:35:26 If social distancing and wearing a facial covering works,
1:35:29 then why are we not meeting in person?
1:35:31 Is it possible that you two are also afraid?
1:35:34 What’s the plan when a student or teacher
1:35:36 tests positive for COVID?
1:35:39 The Families First Coronavirus Response Act
1:35:41 is going to cover two weeks.
1:35:43 Well, what happens during those 14 days?
1:35:46 Do we now distance learn for our other classes,
1:35:49 or will there be four substitutes available
1:35:51 to call in for 14 days?
1:35:53 Again, what happens to those students?
1:35:55 Do they just not have an education for 14 days?
1:35:59 Then what happens if we return, only to be quarantined again?
1:36:02 Another 14 days, and now we have to use
1:36:04 our own personal sick leave?
1:36:07 I’m going into my 17th year, and I only have 153 hours.
1:36:11 That’s 19 days of sick leave, and I haven’t even gotten sick.
1:36:15 So what happens next?
1:36:16 What are you going to do to protect our teachers?
1:36:20 This is an endless rotation of chaos
1:36:22 that only you can prevent.
1:36:24 And lastly, I would like to address the ventilation system.
1:36:27 The CDC recommends outdoor air as much as possible,
1:36:30 opening the windows and the doors.
1:36:32 This is against all safety protocol
1:36:35 that has been drilled into our teachers and students
1:36:37 for the past several years.
1:36:39 The mandated fire drills, the lockdown drills,
1:36:42 the locked door policy, the active shooter drill.
1:36:45 Are we now going to sign off on those and say,
1:36:47 “Oh, well, no, we don’t have to do them”?
1:36:49 They’re no longer needed to keep children safe
1:36:51 in our schools?
1:36:53 LeVar Public Schools, you have total control
1:36:55 and the power to do what’s right to protect our community,
1:36:58 and that is to continue social distancing
1:37:01 and distance learning.
1:37:03 Thank you.
1:37:06 - Thank you, Suzanne.
1:37:07 Next, we will hear from Heather.
1:37:10 Heather, you’re live.
1:37:11 Just please state your name before you start.
1:37:14 - Okay, my name is Heather Henneman,
1:37:16 and I am a BPS parent and teacher.
1:37:19 As I listened to the entire 11 1/2 hour
1:37:22 reopening draft workshop last week,
1:37:24 I was impressed by the amount of research and thought
1:37:27 that went into the plan.
1:37:28 As a teacher and parent, I thank you all sincerely.
1:37:32 However, the plan has flaws, as do many first drafts
1:37:35 or even second or third drafts do.
1:37:37 These flaws, unfortunately,
1:37:39 can lead to irreparable consequences.
1:37:42 One flaw surfaced in literally the 11th hour
1:37:45 when the board could not agree to make masks mandatory.
1:37:49 Schools are not designed for social distancing.
1:37:52 Another major flaw is the plan is built on assumptions,
1:37:56 the assumption that kids won’t get as sick,
1:37:59 the assumption that we can return to normal,
1:38:01 the assumption that parents will be responsible
1:38:04 and keep their sick children at home,
1:38:07 the assumption that material will be taught
1:38:09 at the same pace simultaneously across different platforms
1:38:13 so the testing schedule doesn’t have to change.
1:38:16 Is it possible that testing is going to have to be delayed
1:38:19 anyway due to the anticipated frequent re-closures
1:38:22 and re-openings?
1:38:24 That is not an environment conducive to staying
1:38:26 on a schedule that will effectively prepare students
1:38:29 for testing, not to mention the state of their mental health
1:38:33 if we return under such conditions.
1:38:36 We are educators and innovators.
1:38:38 If we can’t use science-based evidence delivered to us
1:38:42 by educated professionals to help us make decisions
1:38:45 about the health and safety of our community
1:38:47 and develop a better plan, then what are we doing?
1:38:51 Concrete data drives many of our decisions in education,
1:38:55 from progress monitoring to IEP goals
1:38:58 to personnel allocations,
1:39:00 and those decisions aren’t even life-threatening.
1:39:02 The hard data right now is throwing a surge
1:39:05 in cases in our state.
1:39:07 Reopening safely is an oxymoron when the virus is surging
1:39:11 and the plan is driven by assumptions.
1:39:13 We all know what happens when we assume.
1:39:16 Reopening when it is safe to do so is an educated
1:39:19 and responsible decision rooted in data.
1:39:22 The data will indicate when the virus is under control,
1:39:25 which it currently is not.
1:39:27 When it is under control, then a plan to reopen
1:39:30 that includes proven safety measures can be executed.
1:39:34 My children and I do not want to be guinea pigs
1:39:36 for a plan driven by assumptions,
1:39:38 and I couldn’t ask that of my students either.
1:39:41 I am a special education teacher.
1:39:43 E-learning will be challenging,
1:39:45 and I miss my students tremendously.
1:39:47 Nothing about this is easy.
1:39:49 There is no perfect plan.
1:39:51 But reopening now for face-to-face instruction
1:39:54 is placing our students and staff directly in harm’s way
1:39:58 in the very place that strives to keep children safe.
1:40:01 I’d rather grieve the loss of school as we once knew it
1:40:04 than grieve the loss of students and colleagues.
1:40:07 Thank you.
1:40:10 - Thank you, Heather.
1:40:12 Amanda, you are up next.
1:40:15 Please just state your name and go ahead.
1:40:18 - Good evening. My name is Amanda Whitaker,
1:40:21 and I am the parent of an incoming kindergartener.
1:40:24 My concern is that schools are opening too early.
1:40:28 Florida is now the global epicenter of the virus,
1:40:31 and Brevard’s numbers are consistently rising.
1:40:34 The first day of school should be pushed back
1:40:36 until the number of cases come down.
1:40:38 Children, teachers, and staff should not be used
1:40:41 as guinea pigs to see how badly the virus spreads.
1:40:44 What are our children, teachers, and staff members’ life
1:40:48 worth to you?
1:40:50 According to the plan explained yesterday,
1:40:52 safety protocols are minimal at best.
1:40:55 We cannot work, we cannot provide for our families,
1:40:58 and teachers cannot teach if we are all sick or dead.
1:41:02 It seems inevitable that schools will shut down at some point.
1:41:07 I would like to see more information provided
1:41:09 on eLearning and what it will entail for the expected day,
1:41:12 especially for kindergartners.
1:41:14 They cannot be expected to sit in front of a computer
1:41:17 for six hours a day,
1:41:19 but should not be expected to risk their health
1:41:21 along with the health of those they come in contact with
1:41:24 at a brick-and-mortar school.
1:41:26 Parents need to be confident
1:41:28 that they are making the right decision for their child,
1:41:31 and if virus does subside,
1:41:33 will they be able to integrate into a brick-and-mortar school?
1:41:37 If children do go to a brick-and-mortar building,
1:41:41 how will the school notify the parents
1:41:43 if their child has been in possible contact
1:41:45 with someone with COVID-19,
1:41:47 and how quickly will they provide that notification?
1:41:51 Much more information needs to be provided
1:41:53 in order for parents to make an adequate decision
1:41:56 for the best learning practice for their child.
1:41:59 Schools should open, but only when it’s safe,
1:42:02 and that time is not now.
1:42:04 Thank you for your time.
1:42:08 - Thank you, Amanda.
1:42:10 Next up, we have Kelly.
1:42:14 Kelly, please go ahead and state your name first.
1:42:17 - Sure. My name is Dr. Kelly Angle.
1:42:20 As a parent and a scientist,
1:42:22 I’m calling today to implore you
1:42:27 to include an e-op– an e-learning option
1:42:31 for both elementary and secondary schools
1:42:33 as part of an essential service to Brevard family.
1:42:36 Last week, individuals between the ages of 15 and 24
1:42:40 represented 22% of new positive cases in Brevard County.
1:42:45 Over the last three weeks, we have seen the number of cases,
1:42:48 the number of hospitalizations,
1:42:50 and percent positivity increase in Brevard,
1:42:53 averaging more than 100 new cases a day.
1:42:56 Barring an executive order from our governor,
1:42:59 there’s no reason to think that this trend will change
1:43:01 in the next three to four weeks.
1:43:03 Under the proposed reopening plan,
1:43:05 junior high and high school students must choose
1:43:08 between putting themselves and their families
1:43:10 at unnecessary risk by attending classes on campus
1:43:14 at full student capacity
1:43:16 or committing to Brevard’s virtual school,
1:43:19 which would mean giving up their seat
1:43:21 if attending a school of choice.
1:43:23 While the fatality and hospitalization rate thus far
1:43:28 are low for students in this age bracket,
1:43:30 this illness is not without extensive
1:43:32 and sometimes permanent complications.
1:43:35 Further, Brevard County is an area
1:43:38 with active community spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus,
1:43:42 and opening schools at full capacity
1:43:45 without full compliance with CDC guidelines,
1:43:48 mandatory use of face coverings, backup staffing,
1:43:51 social distancing, and physical barriers
1:43:54 would be catastrophic.
1:43:55 There are numerous staff, students,
1:43:58 as well as their family members that are at high risk
1:44:00 for severe illness from the virus.
1:44:03 Using the current fatality rate,
1:44:05 107 of Brevard students and 56 staff
1:44:08 are projected to die from COVID-19.
1:44:11 While I appreciate the intense work
1:44:13 that went into the school board’s plan
1:44:15 to safeguard all individuals,
1:44:17 there are critical factors
1:44:18 that are beyond the school board’s control.
1:44:20 Implementing closures of school buildings and campuses
1:44:23 for cleaning and contact tracing
1:44:25 is only feasible if COVID-19 testing
1:44:28 is a quick turnaround.
1:44:31 The Department of Health speaker at last week’s workshop
1:44:35 stated that there is a 7 to 10 day delay
1:44:38 on COVID-19 test results.
1:44:40 Can you imagine trying to trace the contacts
1:44:43 of the student or staff member over a 10-day period?
1:44:48 The CDC also estimates that up to 35% of COVID-19 cases
1:44:53 are without symptoms.
1:44:55 As the number of positive cases continue to rise
1:44:59 and demand increases,
1:45:00 the county and the state will also be facing shortages
1:45:03 of testing supplies, cleaning reagents,
1:45:06 hand sanitizer, and masks
1:45:08 that would cripple the school board’s proposed plans.
1:45:11 Why set ourselves up for failure?
1:45:13 The emphasis should be on student and teacher safety
1:45:16 and educational continuity.
1:45:18 I implore you to give students, parents, and teachers
1:45:21 additional options for e-learning
1:45:23 that include secondary schooling.
1:45:25 Thank you.
1:45:29 - Thank you, Kelly, so much.
1:45:30 Next up, we have Kimberly.
1:45:34 Kimberly, please state your name and go ahead.
1:45:37 - Hi, my name is Kimberly Swinehart,
1:45:39 and I have been a Brevard teacher for 30 years.
1:45:41 I want to return to school, but not until I,
1:45:44 as well as my students, can do so safely.
1:45:46 If my own son were still in school,
1:45:48 he would not be returning in person.
1:45:50 I noticed everyone at the board meeting on Thursday
1:45:52 is seated more than six feet apart.
1:45:54 In my classroom, the most I can get my desks apart,
1:45:57 25 of them, mind you, is about one foot, if that.
1:46:01 Parents say their kids are so excited
1:46:03 to return to school and their friends.
1:46:05 In-person schooling will not look the same.
1:46:07 It will not be fun. It will be miserable.
1:46:10 In my classroom, we often learn
1:46:12 by conducting hands-on activities,
1:46:14 learning stations, partner work, collaboration,
1:46:16 Socratic seminars, escape classrooms.
1:46:18 None of those things can take place anymore.
1:46:21 Students will be sitting in their seats
1:46:22 most of the day working independently
1:46:24 without much interaction with their peers.
1:46:26 It will be sad for the students
1:46:27 and disheartening for the teachers
1:46:28 because that is not how we are wired.
1:46:31 We have no sinks in our classrooms.
1:46:33 We have no windows that open.
1:46:34 There are mounting studies that COVID-19
1:46:36 can be spread via airborne transmission,
1:46:38 and having 26 people in a small enclosed space
1:46:41 breathing recirculated air is not safe for any of us.
1:46:44 I ask you to imagine your living room.
1:46:46 Now invite 25 kids over.
1:46:48 Keep them one foot apart for 45 minutes.
1:46:50 No masks, no partitions.
1:46:52 You will see five more groups of students
1:46:54 like this throughout the day.
1:46:55 All those germs from talking, laughing,
1:46:57 sneezing, coughing, and breathing
1:46:59 are now contained in that area.
1:47:01 Oh, and when they leave for the day,
1:47:02 the floor won’t be cleaned.
1:47:04 This is what in-person school will look like this year.
1:47:07 There are some teachers who aren’t concerned about the virus.
1:47:09 They’re going to parties.
1:47:10 They’re getting together with friends.
1:47:12 They were going to bars.
1:47:13 All it takes is one infected teacher
1:47:15 to spread it to the other teachers,
1:47:16 most of whom are older, and many of us, like myself,
1:47:19 fall into high-risk categories.
1:47:21 How do I protect myself,
1:47:22 and how do we protect our students from that?
1:47:24 While I agree that kids are less vulnerable to the virus,
1:47:27 there are still kids who get it,
1:47:29 who are hospitalized, and who die from it.
1:47:31 Also, most kids haven’t been socializing
1:47:33 with 24 kids at a time in a small enclosed space.
1:47:36 There will be kids and teachers and staff members
1:47:38 who get COVID-19.
1:47:40 Our governor was quite excited to report
1:47:42 that the highest number of new COVID-19 cases
1:47:44 are happening in young people in their 20s.
1:47:47 That happened when they reopened bars
1:47:48 and gave those young people a false sense of security.
1:47:51 Now our governor demands that we open schools to full capacity,
1:47:54 even though federal offices, including his own,
1:47:56 are not open due to what?
1:47:59 Oh, yeah, because of COVID-19.
1:48:01 What age group do you think the new highest numbers
1:48:03 for COVID-19 will come from
1:48:04 when you reopen schools to full capacity in August?
1:48:07 It will be the under-18 group, mark my words,
1:48:10 and if you don’t do anything to prevent that from happening,
1:48:12 that will be blood on your hands.
1:48:14 We need schools open, but district officials
1:48:16 and principals need time to figure out everything,
1:48:18 and it’s uncharted territory.
1:48:20 We need to have time to do it with integrity
1:48:22 for the safety and health of all stakeholders.
1:48:25 We must continue distance learning.
1:48:27 At the very least, we should push back
1:48:28 the reopening of schools until there’s time
1:48:30 to get answers to all of these questions that we have.
1:48:33 I implore you to do what’s best for our students,
1:48:35 teachers, staff, and families.
1:48:37 Thank you.
1:48:41 Thank you, Kimberly.
1:48:42 Next, we have Laura.
1:48:45 Laura, please state your name
1:48:46 and go ahead with your public comment.
1:48:54 Laura, if you can hear us, you might just have us muted.
1:48:58 I’m sorry. Yes, I do. Okay.
1:49:01 Okay, my name is– okay, thank you.
1:49:03 My name is Laura McWilliams.
1:49:05 I’m a concerned single parent of a high schooler.
1:49:08 I would feel much safer if distance learning
1:49:11 could continue or the start of school at all
1:49:13 can at least be temporarily changed or halted
1:49:17 to protect the children and the teachers
1:49:20 and everybody’s families.
1:49:21 Kids simply don’t adequately social distance,
1:49:24 and adults making decisions for them
1:49:26 have a responsibility to protect them as well as ourselves
1:49:29 and those we all encounter from COVID-19.
1:49:33 My son wants to go in person
1:49:35 because he learns better that way.
1:49:37 Teenagers are brave, and they feel invincible
1:49:40 against that virus until they encounter someone who has it
1:49:43 or has experienced loss from it.
1:49:45 Many are only now beginning to believe it’s really here.
1:49:48 I don’t want my child or anyone else to get sick
1:49:51 or to see people get sick and die any more than necessary.
1:49:54 They tend to get attached to their teachers
1:49:56 who should also be protected and safe.
1:49:59 If you insist on opening, masks should be mandatory
1:50:02 in society in general, but especially in the schools.
1:50:05 Again, kids don’t social distance well,
1:50:07 and many have immunocompromised family members.
1:50:10 If we do distance learning,
1:50:12 I agree with what the woman said earlier
1:50:13 about the child needing to be able to rewatch
1:50:16 any virtual classes if needed for whatever period of time
1:50:19 is necessary to pass that class completely.
1:50:22 We should also be able to reschedule the child’s classes
1:50:24 to avoid any problem caused by discomfort
1:50:27 on the child’s part.
1:50:28 My son actually did do better with distance learning
1:50:31 when he had already gotten to know his teachers,
1:50:33 but now he thinks he’ll fail
1:50:35 if he takes his classes this year
1:50:37 not knowing the teachers.
1:50:39 So teenagers will hear they can return,
1:50:41 and concerned parents will have to be the bad guy
1:50:43 to protect their children from a worldwide pandemic.
1:50:46 Extending out the school year’s start date
1:50:48 and playing it by ear seems so much safer.
1:50:51 I don’t feel it’s safe to reopen.
1:50:52 Too many people are getting sick.
1:50:54 If you do, you’ll inevitably have someone’s blood
1:50:56 on your hands.
1:50:58 At the very least, everyone should be forced to wear a mask.
1:51:01 Masks should be provided to those who can’t buy one
1:51:04 and enforce.
1:51:05 You should have a local mask maker
1:51:07 with a school board credit card on file.
1:51:08 I can name a couple if you need that.
1:51:10 I’m in shock that this is even a decision
1:51:12 I have to make as an adult for my children as a parent.
1:51:15 When I first started out as a single mom,
1:51:16 I handled some pretty difficult situations.
1:51:19 This is not good for anyone.
1:51:21 Anxiety will be through the roof,
1:51:22 and nobody will be able to focus or perform if you open now.
1:51:27 Thank you.
1:51:29 - Thank you so much, Laura.
1:51:31 Next, we have Susan.
1:51:33 Susan, please just state your name and go ahead.
1:51:38 - Get out of the way, get out of the way, get out of the way.
1:51:41 - I’m sorry, hold on one second.
1:51:44 - Sure. - Okay, am I good?
1:51:47 Okay, you are ready to state your name?
1:51:50 - I am Sue Stocks,
1:51:51 and I’m a primary ESD teacher at Surfside,
1:51:54 and I’m also the parent of two Surfside children,
1:51:57 one of which is going to be a rising fifth grader,
1:51:59 and my rising first grader is medically fragile
1:52:02 and a type 1 diabetic.
1:52:04 I understand that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution
1:52:08 to whether or not and when we return to the building,
1:52:12 but there’s a critical piece
1:52:14 that has not been adequately addressed,
1:52:16 the safety of BPS teachers and their families.
1:52:20 As a parent, I applaud the board for the obvious hard work
1:52:24 and tireless effort that’s gone into the plan to reopen.
1:52:28 There’s a great variety of options for families to choose
1:52:31 what’s best for them.
1:52:32 If I was speaking directly from a role of a parent,
1:52:35 e-learning at our home school of Surfside would be it for us,
1:52:39 but what about teachers?
1:52:41 What are the options are there for teachers?
1:52:43 And a more important question,
1:52:45 what medical professionals have been consulted
1:52:48 in the development of the district’s plan?
1:52:50 If I’m understanding correctly,
1:52:52 as a BPS teacher, I have three options.
1:52:55 Number one is return to work in the building
1:52:58 either with students or as an e-learning teacher,
1:53:01 but either way, I’m in the building,
1:53:02 and I’m putting my life at risk
1:53:04 and the life of my family members.
1:53:06 Option two, attempt to secure a position
1:53:09 with Brevard Virtual School so that I can work from home
1:53:11 and provide for our safety,
1:53:15 but that means resigning from my position
1:53:18 that I dearly love at our neighborhood school
1:53:20 that my children attend, or three, resign.
1:53:23 Only one of these options allows me
1:53:26 to keep my position at Surfside,
1:53:28 a position that I would not be able to get back
1:53:30 if I left and I’m extremely grateful for.
1:53:33 All of the options the board has presented for students
1:53:35 are at the expense of the safety and health
1:53:37 of teachers and staff.
1:53:39 We have been and continue to be an afterthought.
1:53:41 We are being treated as sacrificial lambs.
1:53:44 There’s a good plan in place for students to continue
1:53:46 at their home from the safety of their home,
1:53:49 but there is no such option for teachers.
1:53:51 If I am required to go back to work in the building,
1:53:54 I have no choice but to have my children’s return as well,
1:53:58 and that is rolling the dice
1:53:59 on the health of our family every single day.
1:54:02 This board meeting is an absolute perfect example
1:54:06 of why teachers should not be forced
1:54:08 to return to the classroom.
1:54:10 You all are socially distant.
1:54:12 This meeting is taking place virtually.
1:54:14 Public comments are virtual.
1:54:16 There’s only a few people in that room,
1:54:18 and anything that can be done virtually has been.
1:54:21 It’s not okay for you all
1:54:22 to have a traditional board meeting with attendees,
1:54:25 but you expect us to go back to the classroom
1:54:28 with 20 children for seven hours a day?
1:54:31 You shouldn’t expect from teachers
1:54:33 something that you wouldn’t do yourself.
1:54:35 It is shocking to me that back in March,
1:54:38 when cases of COVID-19 and its spread
1:54:40 were a very small fraction of what they are today,
1:54:43 Brevard County closed schools without question,
1:54:46 and we immediately transitioned to distance learning.
1:54:48 Now that this virus is spreading like wildfire,
1:54:51 now it’s okay for schools to open back up?
1:54:54 I think it’s time that you put yourselves in teachers’ shoes
1:54:57 and be forced to roll the dice on your health
1:54:59 and your family’s health every single day.
1:55:02 Be forced to choose between the health and safety
1:55:04 of your family and a job that you dearly love
1:55:07 and students that you dearly love and care about.
1:55:10 It’s time to put the same consideration
1:55:13 into the health and safety of employees
1:55:15 as you would for your own children.
1:55:17 Most teachers are also parents.
1:55:20 If we don’t feel comfortable
1:55:21 sending our children back to school,
1:55:23 we should not be forced into making the choice
1:55:25 between keeping our jobs and the safety of our family.
1:55:28 - Thank you.
1:55:32 Thank you so much, Susan.
1:55:33 Next, we will hear from Tanisha.
1:55:36 Tanisha, go ahead, just state your name,
1:55:37 and go after your public comment, please.
1:55:41 - Good evening. My name is Tanisha Henderson,
1:55:43 and I’m just speaking as how this arriving child
1:55:47 is going to be entering fourth grade
1:55:49 as well as a healthcare worker in our county.
1:55:54 My concern is– it’s a big concern.
1:55:56 I–first and foremost, I just want it to be heard.
1:56:00 I do not think that we are ready to open August 11th right now.
1:56:05 I believe that right now we need to push it back to September,
1:56:08 if not maybe even longer till the cases go down.
1:56:12 Number two, the option for a lot of–
1:56:16 I will speak from our healthcare workers.
1:56:17 I hear all of the teachers and everything as well,
1:56:20 but a lot of us do not have the capability
1:56:23 to e-learn with our kid.
1:56:24 We were all forced into it in March,
1:56:27 but by then, the school was pretty much over.
1:56:29 My son had got three semesters’ worth of schooling
1:56:33 to where he was somewhat capable of doing it
1:56:36 on his own as a third grader,
1:56:38 but for him to enter fourth grade on his own blindly,
1:56:41 starting off with e-learning,
1:56:43 and with most of your healthcare workers
1:56:45 working 12-hour shifts a day,
1:56:48 heating off at 9 or 10 p.m., that child is gonna be lost.
1:56:52 I heard some options of doing maybe Monday, Wednesday,
1:56:55 and then Tuesday, Thursday.
1:56:56 It sounds great for the K through five,
1:56:59 but at the same time, guess what?
1:57:01 That Tuesday, Thursday kid that cannot go to school,
1:57:04 guess where they’re gonna be?
1:57:05 They’re gonna be in daycare.
1:57:07 So I feel like you guys aren’t doing other options as well
1:57:11 either starting by August.
1:57:12 You’re putting teachers who do not want to come in,
1:57:15 but guess what’s gonna be overfilled now?
1:57:16 At capacity with all kids mixed together.
1:57:19 You’re gonna have babies mixed in with 12-year-olds
1:57:21 because your healthcare workers
1:57:22 that are taking care of everybody
1:57:25 has nothing to–has nowhere to go for their kids.
1:57:28 I don’t know why we don’t have a little bit more options.
1:57:30 Grades six through 12 are able to e-learn at home alone
1:57:35 because they’re at the age to do it,
1:57:37 and why can’t we not maybe possibly this post-school
1:57:41 space out the K through five kids in the meantime?
1:57:45 And–or–and also the high schoolers can start on time
1:57:49 because they can e-learn.
1:57:51 But why can we not at least push the elementary-age schools back?
1:57:56 You’re gonna have a lot of parents scrambling
1:57:58 to try to figure out what they’re gonna do
1:57:59 with their child,
1:58:01 and a lot of parents don’t have that answer.
1:58:03 But to come home at 10, 11 o’clock at night
1:58:05 and try to teach your kids e-learning is not an option.
1:58:10 So I–I implore you as of right now listening to us.
1:58:13 We are not ready–our healthcare field
1:58:15 is not ready for schools to open right now,
1:58:19 and to throw a lot of these elementary-age school kids
1:58:22 into e-learning on August 11th where they haven’t had
1:58:25 any training in their new class is not accessible.
1:58:29 And if you do go back, I do agree with a lot of parents.
1:58:32 Unfortunately, we’re gonna have to make some of our kids
1:58:36 man up, wear masks, and if we have to,
1:58:39 a half a day at the most is good.
1:58:42 P.E., art, some of those things can be cut out for now
1:58:46 for the safety of our kids.
1:58:47 I do not believe an eight-hour day
1:58:49 is strongly needed right now for our kids.
1:58:52 But again, my end– as is my end disclosure,
1:58:55 we are not ready to start August 11th.
1:58:57 School needs to be pushed back to the elite in September.
1:59:01 Thank you.
1:59:04 - Thank you, Tanisha.
1:59:05 Next, we will hear from Cindy.
1:59:08 Cindy, you’re live. Please state your name and go ahead.
1:59:11 - Hi, my name is Cindy Schwartz.
1:59:13 I’m a retired school teacher and department chair
1:59:16 with 35 years of experience working with high school
1:59:18 and elementary school students.
1:59:19 I’m currently a resident of Brevard County
1:59:21 and a volunteer with Brevard Public Schools.
1:59:25 The safety of teachers and students
1:59:26 should be the priority and the concern and focus
1:59:29 behind all policy decisions.
1:59:31 As all teachers know, the classroom is the petri dish
1:59:34 of disease in the best circumstances.
1:59:36 The goal here should not just be to reopen schools,
1:59:40 but to keep them open.
1:59:41 With this in mind, the following facts
1:59:43 must be weighed and considered.
1:59:45 The scientific evidence is overwhelming
1:59:47 that the simple act of wearing a mask
1:59:49 can significantly prevent the spread of COVID-19.
1:59:52 The most recent scientific data shows that the virus
1:59:55 is airborne and spreads more easily indoors,
1:59:57 especially with air-conditioned buildings, i.e., schools.
2:00:01 Wearing a mask will go a long way to keep needed teachers
2:00:04 on the job and off the sick leave rolls,
2:00:06 keep the children safe, and protect the families
2:00:08 of students from virus transmission.
2:00:10 It has been postulated that young students
2:00:12 have reduced risk in getting or transmitting the virus,
2:00:15 but these preliminary results are based on smaller sample
2:00:18 sizes and from data almost exclusively from other countries.
2:00:22 Further, evidence is emerging
2:00:24 regarding younger asymptomatic people that feel fine,
2:00:27 showing an incidence of lung scarring revealed in x-rays
2:00:30 that may have consequences later in their lives.
2:00:33 We should have learned by now
2:00:34 that we don’t know everything we should
2:00:37 about the unpredictable behavior of COVID-19,
2:00:40 and for that, we must err on the side of abundant caution.
2:00:44 Masks should be mandatory
2:00:46 for all school personnel and students.
2:00:48 Additionally, teaching modes and methodologies
2:00:50 must be reimagined to support smaller classes
2:00:52 and social distancing with a combination
2:00:55 of rotating groups for distance and e-learning.
2:00:58 These options should be available for all grades.
2:01:01 Other items to be considered during school opening policy
2:01:04 is how to handle teacher leave and sick time
2:01:06 to force the quarantine for more than those days,
2:01:08 or if outward and extended time with the virus.
2:01:11 What about the anticipated difficulty
2:01:12 to find and retain subs?
2:01:14 And what about the liability issues
2:01:16 from staff or family members
2:01:17 contracting the virus under school environment?
2:01:20 Obviously, we have quite a complicated set
2:01:21 of circumstances to work through,
2:01:23 but again, I reiterate, to stay open and not just reopen,
2:01:28 we must err on the side of caution.
2:01:30 We must also consider the local community spread
2:01:32 and contagion levels, which, as you know,
2:01:34 are at unprecedented levels currently
2:01:36 with no signs of abating.
2:01:38 Is this, then, the appropriate time for opening?
2:01:41 Please delay school openings
2:01:43 until the community virus curve can be leveled out
2:01:46 and the myriad personnel and safety issues
2:01:48 requiring thoughtful methodologies
2:01:50 can be better considered.
2:01:52 However, when you do start school,
2:01:54 it is important to keep in mind that the countries
2:01:56 who have had the success have opened schools
2:01:58 only when the numbers of infections in their communities
2:02:01 were significantly reduced.
2:02:03 When we do set down the rules for opening,
2:02:05 let’s make sure safety is the primary consideration.
2:02:08 Every policy decision we make should be guided
2:02:10 by the desired outcome to safely relax policies
2:02:13 as conditions stabilize
2:02:15 rather than be forced to close it all down again
2:02:17 in the face of failure to control COVID-19
2:02:20 within our schools.
2:02:22 Thank you very much for your time.
2:02:26 - Thank you, Cindy.
2:02:27 Next, we’ll hear from Elizabeth.
2:02:31 Elizabeth, please state your full name and go ahead.
2:02:35 - Hi, my name is Elizabeth Lacy.
2:02:38 I’m a licensed mental health counselor
2:02:40 and a parent to a rising eighth grader.
2:02:44 First, I would like to thank you all for the time and effort
2:02:47 that you’re putting into what I know
2:02:49 is an extremely difficult decision.
2:02:52 I’d like to read some figures that have been in the news
2:02:55 in the last several days.
2:02:56 I think everyone knows, but it’s important to be heard
2:03:00 and to be reminded.
2:03:02 Today’s dashboard on Florida’s community coronavirus
2:03:06 says that we have 295,312 cases in Florida,
2:03:12 over 12,000 new since yesterday, and 4,381 deaths.
2:03:18 Florida has more cases than most countries
2:03:21 and has now surpassed both Italy and China
2:03:24 for positive COVID cases.
2:03:27 Florida had more new cases in one day
2:03:29 than the entire US did in the first two
2:03:32 months of this pandemic.
2:03:34 Florida has 12 times the cases of Australia and South Korea
2:03:38 combined.
2:03:40 This is all to be said that we are not
2:03:43 at all in a place that is safe to reopen schools at this time.
2:03:48 I understand how difficult it was for families
2:03:51 to scramble to fulfill the needs of virtual learning
2:03:56 and for parents to manage working from home,
2:04:00 working outside of the home, and teaching their kids.
2:04:04 Teachers had an incredibly difficult job
2:04:07 to do in March when they, too, had
2:04:09 to learn how to do this new distance learning.
2:04:13 And yet, we did it.
2:04:15 We figured it out.
2:04:16 It may not have been great for all families and all learning
2:04:19 styles, but that is more important than the lives
2:04:24 of our children, our teachers, our staff,
2:04:27 and our administration being lost.
2:04:30 I implore you, for the safety of our children,
2:04:35 please extend virtual learning for at least the first six
2:04:38 to eight weeks of this school year
2:04:40 until we have somewhat more control of the numbers
2:04:43 and have more time to consider what reopening safely means.
2:04:49 Thank you so much.
2:04:50 The world is watching Florida right now,
2:04:53 and we need to make the best decisions we can.
2:05:02 All right, thank you so much, Elizabeth.
2:05:04 Next up, we will hear from Ashley.
2:05:07 Ashley, go ahead.
2:05:08 Please just state your full name.
2:05:11 Hi, I’m Ashley Archambault, and I am a parent
2:05:15 and educator in Rockledge.
2:05:17 My son is six years old, and he has asthma.
2:05:20 He is at high risk for developing complications
2:05:23 if he becomes infected with the coronavirus,
2:05:26 including permanent damage to his lungs and deaths.
2:05:29 I will not send him back to school
2:05:31 while 10,000 people are becoming infected in our state every day.
2:05:35 To further complicate my personal situation,
2:05:38 I am not only his mother, but I am also
2:05:40 an educator in our community.
2:05:42 I will not be comfortable being asked to return to a classroom
2:05:45 because at the current rate of infection,
2:05:47 I will bring the virus home to my son.
2:05:50 I miss my classroom.
2:05:51 I miss making a positive impact in the lives of our children
2:05:54 in this community.
2:05:56 And my son misses his friends, as he puts it.
2:05:59 But this is not a conversation about what we all miss.
2:06:02 This is about life and death.
2:06:04 And not just my son’s life, but all of our life.
2:06:07 Teachers do so much more than educate our children.
2:06:10 Teachers are our children’s caretakers
2:06:12 when they are away from home.
2:06:14 And instead of taking care of our children
2:06:16 in the midst of a global pandemic,
2:06:18 we are being asked to endanger ourselves, our students,
2:06:21 and their families at home.
2:06:23 We can undo loss of learning gains,
2:06:25 and we all miss life as we knew it.
2:06:28 But we cannot undo loss of life, and we are delaying any sort
2:06:31 of return to normalcy by ignoring the simple guidelines
2:06:34 to keep us safe, just wearing a mask
2:06:37 and practicing social distancing.
2:06:39 I fear that if Brevard County decides to open schools,
2:06:42 my son will feel even more left out than he already does.
2:06:46 I will have to choose between my career and his health.
2:06:49 As much as I am passionate about the work I do
2:06:51 for our community, I will choose my son.
2:06:55 I’m hoping that if Brevard Public Schools does decide
2:06:57 to open their doors, that he will be given the opportunity
2:07:00 through his school to do virtual learning,
2:07:03 and that I will be given the choice
2:07:04 to teach from home for now as well.
2:07:07 Besides being a mother and an educator,
2:07:09 I am also part of this community that we all call home.
2:07:12 And I do not think opening schools in a few weeks
2:07:15 is the right decision for us to make.
2:07:17 We still have time to do the right thing
2:07:19 and protect each other from something
2:07:20 that is simple to prevent.
2:07:23 When you make your final decision tomorrow, ask yourself,
2:07:26 will your decision contribute to the spread of COVID-19
2:07:29 and loss of life, or will it help to stop the spread
2:07:32 of COVID-19 and save lives?
2:07:40 » Thank you, Ashley.
2:07:42 Next, we will hear from Maria.
2:07:45 And Maria, please just state your full name and go ahead.
2:07:50 » Hi, yes.
2:07:51 My name is Dr. Maria Silva.
2:07:53 I’m a psychology resident in the town of Indialantic, Florida,
2:07:56 and a resident of Melbourne Beach for the last 13 years.
2:07:59 I’m also a mother, but beautiful and funky.
2:08:01 I’m a two-and-a-half-year-old.
2:08:03 First, I’d like to thank the board members
2:08:04 for taking the time to be with several of us here today.
2:08:07 Having worked and currently working
2:08:09 with the diverse populations in children, teens, adults,
2:08:12 and the elderly for over eight years in regards
2:08:14 to mental health, I’m strongly just recommending
2:08:16 the delay in opening of schools in the next couple of weeks.
2:08:20 As cases continue to spike in our state of Florida,
2:08:23 it seems logical that the opening of schools
2:08:25 with social distancing practices will be significantly harder
2:08:28 to implement, coupled with the limited amount of time
2:08:31 that the staff has been given to plan
2:08:32 and be appropriately trained in safety protocols
2:08:35 that will do anything but further contribute to that spike.
2:08:39 I’m well-versed in the literature regarding
2:08:41 the importance of socialization for children,
2:08:43 teens, and adults alike.
2:08:45 However, we have to look at the reality.
2:08:47 Students are no longer entering a system of socialization
2:08:50 that we are familiar with.
2:08:51 The level of socialization they will be receiving
2:08:53 will be at a distance, and with the risk
2:08:55 of being infected or infecting others.
2:08:57 How can we care for the mental well-being of our students
2:08:59 and school staff if they are physically unable
2:09:02 to attend a telehealth session or hold a conversation
2:09:04 because they are out of breath and unable to get out of bed?
2:09:07 How can we ask teachers who are already overwhelmed,
2:09:09 and many of them who are at high risk,
2:09:11 to focus on our children’s education in a live setting
2:09:14 when they themselves are battling with the anxiety
2:09:17 of being infected, infecting others,
2:09:18 or the possibility of the loss of life
2:09:20 of a student, a colleague, or even their own?
2:09:26 Have protocols been set in place for that first fight
2:09:29 that happened because a child was picking on another?
2:09:34 Have staff been trained and given appropriate time
2:09:36 to learn how to handle those situations?
2:09:38 There’s just so much.
2:09:40 I want nothing more than to return to a state of normalcy
2:09:44 where our children get the benefits of socialization
2:09:46 in a safe setting without compromising their health
2:09:49 and those that are most at risk.
2:09:51 Honestly, I don’t know what that would look like.
2:09:53 I wish I had the perfect solution, but I don’t.
2:09:56 However, I hope the concerns and suggestions made
2:09:58 by the many insightful students and educators
2:10:00 and parents do not go unheard.
2:10:02 Perhaps more times we can come up with a safer
2:10:04 and just better measured plan together
2:10:06 and not when the current cases in our state are at its highest.
2:10:10 I appreciate having the opportunity
2:10:11 to be heard here today, even if it’s at a distance.
2:10:14 I appreciate the concern and precautions
2:10:16 that are being taken to minimize the exposure
2:10:18 of our community and board members alike.
2:10:20 I see social distancing practices in place
2:10:23 at these meetings, and that’s great.
2:10:25 Please keep this in mind, the fact that we are unable
2:10:27 to share these concerns in person,
2:10:29 and yet we are approximately three weeks away
2:10:31 from the notion of sending our children and educators
2:10:33 into small rooms, small rooms in the sport room,
2:10:36 and with double the bodies.
2:10:38 It just doesn’t make sense.
2:10:40 Please consider delaying the opening of schools
2:10:41 in order to properly set and place safety plans
2:10:43 to the physical and emotional well-being
2:10:45 of our educators, staff, and students.
2:10:48 Thank you.
2:10:52 - Thank you, Maria. Next up, we have Matthew.
2:10:57 Matthew, please state your name and go ahead.
2:11:00 - Hi, my name is Matthew Bybee.
2:11:03 Just to echo a lot of the comments
2:11:05 that we’ve heard previously today,
2:11:07 according to the Florida Department of Health data
2:11:09 for Brevard County, the age group of 15 to 24 years old
2:11:14 has the highest number of COVID cases
2:11:17 per age group in our county.
2:11:18 Let me repeat that.
2:11:20 The highest number of COVID cases
2:11:22 per age group in our county.
2:11:26 This affirms national data and trends
2:11:28 that our teenagers are just as successful
2:11:32 as adults in contracting and transmitting COVID-19.
2:11:36 For this reason, I am compelled to ask BPS
2:11:39 to consider the additional option of e-distance learning
2:11:43 for our secondary students.
2:11:45 This option would provide the following benefits.
2:11:48 One, it would provide secondary students
2:11:50 the ability to stay in classes
2:11:52 with their fellow students and teachers,
2:11:55 providing continuity of educational instruction
2:11:59 regardless of classroom location
2:12:01 for those who, for various reasons,
2:12:03 may be uncomfortable returning to school physically,
2:12:06 while also providing a smooth transition
2:12:09 to distance learning in the event that students, teachers,
2:12:13 classes, or schools need to take action
2:12:16 to contain positive cases within the school.
2:12:19 It will enable students and teachers
2:12:22 the capability to transition to and from distance learning
2:12:25 and back to onsite classes when needed.
2:12:28 Two, it would enable students the opportunity
2:12:31 to keep classes and educational plans chosen
2:12:34 without the risk of giving up their programs,
2:12:37 classes, or school seats.
2:12:39 This provides a stress-free, resilient path
2:12:42 for students and teachers, no matter the situation,
2:12:45 without fear of class changes
2:12:48 or program or school or seats lost.
2:12:51 Three, and most importantly,
2:12:54 this protects the health of students and teachers
2:12:56 and their families who may have at-risk family members
2:12:59 living with them, such as grandparents
2:13:01 or extended families, some of which could be
2:13:04 or would be the primary care provider for the students.
2:13:07 An e-distance learning or distance learning option
2:13:11 for 7th through 12th grade students, teachers, and schools
2:13:15 will help connect those folks in a similar fashion
2:13:19 as the district implemented at the end of the 2020 calendar year.
2:13:22 It’s a sensible solution that maintains educational continuity
2:13:26 and makes BPS more resilient.
2:13:29 Now, as stated in a previous comment,
2:13:31 my daughter and her friends created a petition
2:13:33 to compel BPS to provide an e-learning option
2:13:37 for all 7th through 12th graders.
2:13:40 This petition has over 300 signatures
2:13:43 and counting in the last two days.
2:13:46 Let me repeat that.
2:13:47 This petition has 300-plus signatures
2:13:50 and counting in the last two days.
2:13:52 Again, I will compel and implore you
2:13:56 to consider implementing e-distance learning
2:13:59 for secondary school students.
2:14:01 Thank you.
2:14:06 - Hello.
2:14:08 Haley, just please state your name
2:14:09 and go ahead with your public comment.
2:14:13 - My name is Haley Evilhair,
2:14:14 and I am a certified medical assistant
2:14:17 in infectious disease.
2:14:18 I have a six-year-old son who will be attending
2:14:21 some of our public schools for the first time.
2:14:23 We have relocated from my dog to Florida.
2:14:28 I have to say that he will not be attending in-person schools.
2:14:32 I’ve made the decision seeing the patients come in and out
2:14:35 and seeing the numbers constantly rise
2:14:37 within my department alone in my location.
2:14:40 It is astounding and just crazy in general.
2:14:44 The six-foot rule that they are implying,
2:14:48 I don’t see it being an option within the classroom
2:14:51 and allowing all the students to be able to learn
2:14:53 effectively and efficiently.
2:14:55 This is why we have, and many other reasons,
2:14:57 chose to do virtual learning.
2:15:00 I’m wondering what implications are gonna be happening
2:15:03 for kids that don’t wear a mask.
2:15:05 How are you going to be able to enforce them
2:15:08 even wearing them correctly?
2:15:10 The masks are not chin masks, they’re face masks.
2:15:13 They go over the nose and the mouth.
2:15:15 I go out in public now and I see families without mask at all
2:15:18 or wearing them below the nose, it defeats the whole purpose.
2:15:21 So I’m just wondering what are you gonna be able to do
2:15:24 to even enforce children to do that?
2:15:26 Kids that have ADHD and other things like autism,
2:15:30 how are you gonna be able to enforce
2:15:32 if they keep them on constantly,
2:15:33 keep them away from other children,
2:15:35 keep them hence themselves,
2:15:37 and other things like that nature?
2:15:40 I also have questions about
2:15:43 what is after school gonna look like?
2:15:45 I’m a single mother, it’s only me here.
2:15:48 I’m wondering how are you gonna be able to support that?
2:15:56 I’m wondering what kind of safeguards
2:15:59 can be put into place if you do return the kids to school?
2:16:03 Are there gonna be like plastic in between the kids’ desks?
2:16:06 How are you gonna accomplish that?
2:16:08 What kind of funding is gonna come for that
2:16:10 that you can?
2:16:11 Multiple temperature checks, is that gonna be an option?
2:16:15 I’m just not seeing this really being, you know,
2:16:17 a reliable option.
2:16:21 When are you gonna determine when a test is required
2:16:23 for a student or a teacher?
2:16:24 How long are they gonna be able to have off?
2:16:27 How long do they require to have off
2:16:28 and how are you gonna support that
2:16:30 if you’re requiring them to go in person at school?
2:16:34 I’m worried about the students coming from other homes.
2:16:37 We have no guarantee what other people do in our life.
2:16:40 I don’t have control over the teachers going out and partying.
2:16:43 I don’t have control of my coworkers going out and partying,
2:16:45 but coming back to me.
2:16:47 I’m currently by myself in my job.
2:16:49 I stay to myself.
2:16:50 I do not interact with the doctors.
2:16:52 I do not interact with the other nurses.
2:16:54 This is my choice.
2:16:55 I feel like this is what everyone should be doing
2:16:59 for the simple fact that whenever I send my kid to school,
2:17:01 I don’t know what he’s been exposed to.
2:17:04 I don’t know what I’ve been exposed to at work
2:17:05 and then I bring it home to my child
2:17:07 and then he exposes other children
2:17:08 and vice versa for the other families
2:17:10 and children and children. - Haley, that’s three minutes.
2:17:13 - Okay. - Haley, that’s three minutes,
2:17:15 so please wrap up your comments.
2:17:16 - Okay.
2:17:17 Okay.
2:17:19 Just overall, I just don’t feel like going back to school
2:17:21 at this time is gonna be pertinent,
2:17:23 it’s gonna be effective, and you’re doing more harm than good.
2:17:26 In the end, more children’s lives will be lost
2:17:28 and more children will be effective along with their family.
2:17:30 Thank you.
2:17:32 - Okay, thank you.
2:17:36 All right, thank you for your comments, Haley.
2:17:38 Next up is Carrie.
2:17:40 Carrie, go ahead and state your name, please.
2:17:45 - My name is Carrie Williams-Skeldheim.
2:17:47 I have been an educator for over 40 years.
2:17:51 Currently, I am a teacher educator
2:17:53 for elementary and reading education.
2:17:57 First, I want to say thank you to the BPS administration
2:18:01 and staff for their detailed plans for reopening.
2:18:04 And secondly, I want to say thank you
2:18:06 to all of the teachers who have made comments today.
2:18:10 I’m so moved by their impassioned pleas.
2:18:14 I’ve worked with many who will be teaching
2:18:17 in Brevard County in August.
2:18:19 I’m deeply concerned about the increased risk
2:18:22 for all children, teachers, staff, and administrators
2:18:26 if school opens with full-sized in-person classes
2:18:30 before our COVID-19 numbers dramatically decrease.
2:18:35 I have read and listened to arguments
2:18:37 about the need for students to be in a classroom environment
2:18:40 for social and emotional development,
2:18:43 the need for parents to get back to work,
2:18:46 and the need to get back to some sense of normal.
2:18:49 While those are all important,
2:18:51 they do not come close to balancing the risk
2:18:54 of loss of life.
2:18:56 If we lose one life because of placing our students
2:18:59 and teachers at risk, that is one too many.
2:19:03 In addition, there will be lasting emotional effects
2:19:05 on children if a teacher or friend becomes ill or dies.
2:19:10 Those are very real possibilities
2:19:12 when numbers of people are together indoors
2:19:15 for prolonged periods of time.
2:19:18 This is too high a price for going back to school.
2:19:22 How does a teacher even teach effectively
2:19:25 in this unprecedented stress-filled situation?
2:19:29 I know they are dedicated and will do their best,
2:19:32 but at what cost?
2:19:34 The Center for Disease Control’s guiding principles indicate
2:19:37 that the risk of COVID-19 spread increases at highest risk
2:19:43 with full-sized in-person classes.
2:19:46 The American Pediatrics Association,
2:19:48 while emphasizing the importance of social and emotional skills
2:19:51 learned at school, also said that each community
2:19:54 must consider its ability to implement safety protocols
2:19:58 to protect students, teachers, and staff.
2:20:02 Until our COVID numbers decrease and truly flatten,
2:20:06 we will not be at a point that is safe
2:20:08 for full-sized, face-to-face classes,
2:20:11 especially if all students, teachers, and staff
2:20:14 are not required to wear face coverings.
2:20:17 Please consider remote or e-learning
2:20:19 until our COVID numbers decrease.
2:20:22 This would fit with the lowest-risk situation
2:20:25 described in the CDC guidelines.
2:20:28 Please consider postponing school start date
2:20:32 or beginning with remote learning opportunities
2:20:35 until we show no new cases of COVID for a period of weeks.
2:20:40 You have a tremendous responsibility,
2:20:43 one I know you do not take lightly.
2:20:46 Every single life is important. - Thank you, Carrie.
2:20:47 That’s about three minutes, so please wrap up your comments.
2:20:51 - Thank you. This is a life-or-death decision.
2:20:55 - Thank you.
2:20:57 - All right, thank you so much, Carrie, for your comments.
2:20:59 Next, we have Deidra, but before we have her join,
2:21:03 I just want to remind you, if you’ve joined recently
2:21:06 and you also are not yet in the queue,
2:21:09 to speak, so please press zero, talk to our screener,
2:21:12 and provide your full name,
2:21:13 and you will be able to get your comments in.
2:21:16 All right, but for now, go ahead, Deidra.
2:21:19 Please state your full name
2:21:20 and then move along with your statements.
2:21:24 - Hello, my name is Deidra Clark,
2:21:26 and I am wondering, how will all of the services
2:21:29 on IEPs be provided if I choose eLearning?
2:21:32 My son will be in eighth grade.
2:21:34 I understand the complexity in all of this,
2:21:36 but I am hoping there will be more contact with his teachers
2:21:39 without physically being near them.
2:21:42 My son did poorly on his first few assignments for ELA.
2:21:46 We were all adapting back in March.
2:21:48 When I realized he was struggling,
2:21:50 I did my best in explaining his ELA assignments to him.
2:21:54 If I wasn’t there to support him,
2:21:56 his A average would have plummeted.
2:21:58 His teachers were fantastic before pre-COVID,
2:22:02 and his ELA teacher at VoiceOver Google Slides
2:22:05 were very helpful.
2:22:07 My son used his teachers to explain some of his assignments
2:22:11 faced with him, and unfortunately,
2:22:13 that is not given with eLearning.
2:22:16 How can we make teacher-student relations possible
2:22:19 with eLearning?
2:22:20 Thank you.
2:22:22 - Thank you, Deidre. We appreciate your comments.
2:22:25 Next up, we have Kimberly.
2:22:27 Kimberly, go ahead with your comments.
2:22:29 I’m sorry, state your name first, please.
2:22:32 - Hi, my name is Kimberly Mehta.
2:22:37 - Go ahead with your comments.
2:22:38 - I want to thank the entire school board
2:22:40 and reopening task force for working so hard
2:22:43 and diligently for all of Brevard County teachers,
2:22:46 students, and faculty members.
2:22:49 I am the parent of two grown-up children,
2:22:51 an up-and-coming middle schooler,
2:22:52 and a fourth grader.
2:22:54 I also spend many hours volunteering at the school,
2:22:58 and I am grateful beyond words to have my child enrolled
2:23:02 in a school of choice here in Brevard County.
2:23:04 It is an incredible opportunity for both him
2:23:07 and eventually his little brother.
2:23:10 It is an opportunity that we do not take lightly
2:23:12 or for granted at all.
2:23:14 What it means to their future is invaluable.
2:23:17 With all of that in mind, we have come to a point
2:23:20 where we have to make a very difficult decision.
2:23:23 Middle and high schoolers are being given the option
2:23:25 to either switch to virtual school
2:23:27 or to return to campus next month.
2:23:31 Virtual school is a wonderful option
2:23:33 for those who are able to enroll,
2:23:35 given the circumstances.
2:23:37 It will be much safer for many families
2:23:40 and lower the in-school burden.
2:23:42 However, from what I understand,
2:23:44 choosing this option would mean forfeiture
2:23:46 of the student’s school of choice enrollment,
2:23:49 ELO acceptance, or EPO,
2:23:51 for when it is safe to return to class.
2:23:55 Having both a student at a choice school
2:23:57 and an ELO option school this year,
2:23:59 there isn’t any easy decision.
2:24:02 Considering the increasing numbers of positive cases
2:24:04 in our community and high-risk family members,
2:24:08 the reopening of our schools next month
2:24:10 poses some very difficult questions for everyone.
2:24:13 The risk that children being back in classrooms poses
2:24:16 makes me feel like we’re all being forced
2:24:18 to make a no-win decision.
2:24:20 Our family, as well as many others,
2:24:23 have and will continue to make changes and sacrifices
2:24:26 in order to protect one another.
2:24:28 It is difficult to accept that one of those sacrifices
2:24:31 would be your children’s education and future,
2:24:33 but it is equally difficult to accept putting loved ones
2:24:37 as well as teachers and staff at risk due to this decision.
2:24:41 I do realize that a lot has to be taken into consideration
2:24:45 and that middle and high schools are undoubtedly
2:24:47 more difficult to offer school-based distance learning
2:24:50 due to the varied curriculums.
2:24:53 I know it won’t be an easy task,
2:24:55 but please consider allowing the option
2:24:57 for school-based distance learning to continue
2:25:00 for all schools in Brevard during these circumstances.
2:25:03 If it is absolutely impossible,
2:25:06 then would you please consider the option
2:25:07 of allowing children the chance to maintain their seats
2:25:10 at their schools for this year while enrolled in virtual?
2:25:14 I’m not asking for an easy way out.
2:25:17 In fact, I understand this will be considerably more involved,
2:25:21 but I know I speak for many parents when I say
2:25:23 that I’m willing to put forth any amount of time and effort
2:25:26 to make this work for the health and safety
2:25:29 of my family as well as others.
2:25:31 Thank you.
2:25:33 - Thank you, Kimberly, for your comments.
2:25:36 Next up, we have Mihaela.
2:25:38 I apologize if I got your name incorrect.
2:25:40 Go ahead and state your–
2:25:42 - Hi. Yes. Yes, ma’am.
2:25:44 I’m Mihaela Marys.
2:25:46 I apologize for my accent.
2:25:48 I’m from Romania originally, and I have a child.
2:25:52 He’s 8th grade at West Shore
2:25:54 and a senior in IB program at Mel High.
2:25:58 So it’s a very difficult situation for us
2:26:01 in a way that many of those points
2:26:06 that I wanted to make are already covered
2:26:08 by the wonderful teachers and parents
2:26:11 that, you know, raise those concerns.
2:26:13 And number one, the more and more I listen
2:26:18 to different points of view, I am–you know,
2:26:20 we are more convinced that the school starting now
2:26:24 in about what, a few weeks, it’s way too early.
2:26:27 I don’t think nobody’s prepared for this.
2:26:30 And with those cases, you know, raising every day is just–
2:26:37 I don’t think it’s a great solution,
2:26:39 and I don’t think it’s wise to open right now.
2:26:42 So my opinion is, let’s do like Europe does.
2:26:47 September 15th or June 15th, kids go to school,
2:26:51 and they are succeeding in school that way.
2:26:55 So I think postponing is a very important key
2:27:01 as the situation is by now in Florida.
2:27:05 Another thing I want to bring up is I’m concerned about my
2:27:09 daughter.
2:27:09 She’s a senior, like I said.
2:27:11 She’s in a special program, the International Baccalaureate,
2:27:16 which is a very intense program.
2:27:18 So for the last three years, she worked hardly in this program
2:27:24 toward her I.D. diploma.
2:27:26 So those kids are seriously not having a life.
2:27:31 It’s cool. They come home and study more and more school.
2:27:35 So it’s breaking my heart.
2:27:37 She–first of all, she wants to go to school.
2:27:40 She really wants to see her teacher.
2:27:42 She really wants to see and hug her friends.
2:27:46 So it’s breaking my heart that that might not be
2:27:49 a possible thing for her to do.
2:27:52 But also, I think, so number one,
2:27:57 delaying for their school, I think that will be wise,
2:28:00 and I’m praying for the right decision for the board.
2:28:03 And number two, also they do not have–
2:28:08 like, please offer a distance learning through the school,
2:28:10 not Brevard Virtual or Florida Virtual School
2:28:15 because those programs, like I.D.,
2:28:19 the special programs, I don’t think they can–
2:28:24 how do you say–I don’t think they have that
2:28:30 specific classes for them as–
2:28:34 like they have with the teachers
2:28:36 in the last few weeks of school.
2:28:38 So I think it will be–if you go virtually,
2:28:42 the best thing for them is to offer a distance learning
2:28:45 through the school.
2:28:47 - All right, that is about three minutes.
2:28:49 Please wrap up your comments.
2:28:50 - Yes, thank you so much for giving the opportunity
2:28:55 to speak up, and I’m just praying for wisdom,
2:28:59 and hopefully everything will be, you know,
2:29:03 the best for the kids, for students,
2:29:05 for, you know, for teachers, for parents, for all of us.
2:29:09 - All right, thank you so much.
2:29:13 - Hi, everyone, this is Sue.
2:29:14 I just wanted to thank everyone for your patience
2:29:17 and let you know we have about 25 more speakers to go,
2:29:20 so we’ve got everyone in the queue,
2:29:22 and we’ll be calling on you,
2:29:24 but I just wanted to kind of give you a heads-up
2:29:26 about where we are, and thank you again for your patience.
2:29:29 Go ahead, Christina.
2:29:31 - Great, and if you have just hopped on,
2:29:32 please press zero if you need to be put in line
2:29:35 to have your comments.
2:29:37 All right, otherwise, next up, we have Kaylee.
2:29:40 Kaylee, go ahead with your name and your comments, please.
2:29:44 - Yes, my name is Kaylee Georgilis.
2:29:46 I teach at Maryland High School,
2:29:48 and there’s quite a few things
2:29:50 that I feel like the board did not address.
2:29:52 First and foremost would be class sizes.
2:29:55 My classes are typically full at 30.
2:29:58 With six classes a day, there’s 180 students
2:30:00 that I am exposed to.
2:30:02 The second one would be HIPAA issues,
2:30:04 which abound when it comes to testing and notification.
2:30:09 The board also did not address how they’re going to notify
2:30:12 teachers, students, and parents upon a positive test,
2:30:15 nor did they talk about the specific criteria
2:30:18 for closures and length of closure.
2:30:21 Next thing is how are they going to handle
2:30:24 the inevitable deaths?
2:30:25 Because at this point, that’s what we’re looking at.
2:30:28 If they send us back to school, people will die.
2:30:31 How are they going to handle that?
2:30:33 So just in perspective, if one student tests positive,
2:30:38 let’s lowball it at 20 students per class.
2:30:40 If we are doing block, that would be 80 students
2:30:42 who are exposed to that student and four teachers.
2:30:46 Those people would then be out for two weeks.
2:30:49 That is a make-up work nightmare.
2:30:52 Not only that, but we’re also exposing, you know,
2:30:54 84 people to the coronavirus.
2:30:58 And that’s leaving off classes and everything else.
2:31:01 Schools, everyone wants to get back to normal,
2:31:03 but normal is not going to happen.
2:31:06 I teach biology.
2:31:07 There’s no way I can do labs safely.
2:31:09 There’s no way we can do all these fun activities
2:31:12 and interactions safely.
2:31:14 So even if we go back, schools aren’t going to be normal.
2:31:17 There’s going to be no stability or consistency
2:31:20 in education because we’re going to be in a constant cycle
2:31:22 of closing and reopening.
2:31:24 Next thing is teacher availability.
2:31:26 I know a lot of teachers who are close to retirement
2:31:28 age who are retiring.
2:31:30 Also, there will be a lack of subs
2:31:32 because they know plenty of subs who are high risk,
2:31:34 who will not be coming back.
2:31:36 And then we also have to look at the quality of education
2:31:38 from subs when these teachers are forced
2:31:40 to take 14-day quarantine.
2:31:43 Now, when these teachers take these 14-day quarantines,
2:31:46 you did mention that there is the COVID relief money
2:31:50 that would cover 10 days of absence.
2:31:52 After that, it would come out of our sick and leave time,
2:31:54 and then anything above and beyond that would be unpaid.
2:31:57 Quite frankly, if you are forcing us to take leave,
2:32:01 we should not be forced to use our sick or leave time.
2:32:05 That is on you guys.
2:32:06 We need to be paid for that.
2:32:08 For high school, you offered no alternate options for teachers.
2:32:12 Food doesn’t offer you so many options for students,
2:32:14 but there are many teachers who are high risk
2:32:17 or who have high-risk family members
2:32:19 who are going to be put in the position
2:32:20 of holding to choose between their career
2:32:23 and their family’s safety or their own safety.
2:32:25 And that is quite frankly just not fair.
2:32:29 Next thing is the coronavirus data.
2:32:34 So if we look at the data, right,
2:32:36 like the previous caller said,
2:32:39 we’re looking at potentially 107 students
2:32:41 and 56 staff passing away.
2:32:43 The highest rate of infection–
2:32:45 - All right, Kaylee, that’s three minutes.
2:32:47 Go ahead and wrap up your comments, please.
2:32:49 - All right, highest rate of infection in our county
2:32:51 is 15 to 24-year-olds, which is high school-aged students.
2:32:54 I yield my time.
2:32:57 - Thank you.
2:32:59 All right, next up we have Alex.
2:33:02 Please go ahead and state your name
2:33:04 and go ahead with your comments.
2:33:07 - Hello, my name is Alex Meris,
2:33:09 and I specifically want to speak to the IB program
2:33:13 and to advocate for the distance learning
2:33:17 in the virtual classroom.
2:33:19 The IB program is an academically grueling program.
2:33:23 They start freshman and sophomore year
2:33:26 taking honors classes.
2:33:29 The main IB program starts junior year,
2:33:32 and they have to take some two-year classes,
2:33:35 and there’s writing assignments that span
2:33:37 both junior and senior year.
2:33:39 And that’s why those courses aren’t offered
2:33:41 on Florida Virtual.
2:33:45 Some kids right now, they’re forced into either
2:33:48 going to the live school or dropping out of the program
2:33:52 and enrolling in Florida Virtual.
2:33:55 My daughter, who’s a rising senior,
2:33:56 and everybody in her class, it’s unfair to them
2:34:00 if they have to drop out because of a family member
2:34:04 or a pre-existing condition that they have.
2:34:06 Offering the virtual learning,
2:34:09 the live streaming of the classroom
2:34:11 alleviates that problem.
2:34:13 It’s also beneficial in the case that a kid or a teacher
2:34:17 gets sick and has to quarantine.
2:34:21 If a child has to quarantine, like in our case,
2:34:24 where she has a brother and parents,
2:34:26 it’s likely that one of us would get it too.
2:34:28 Therefore, the quarantine period would be double.
2:34:31 Having this virtual option would alleviate that issue also.
2:34:38 I believe this is a relatively easy decision
2:34:40 as opposed to the very hard decisions
2:34:43 that you’re faced with on this day.
2:34:46 The surrounding counties, there’s three of them,
2:34:48 that they’re also offering this virtual option,
2:34:52 which is very feasible,
2:34:53 and the students would get to keep their seat,
2:34:56 and they would get to keep their teachers.
2:34:59 It would also be beneficial in case the school has to shut down.
2:35:02 It’s a very easy transition to go from virtual
2:35:04 back to brick and mortar and back and forth.
2:35:08 I really hope you consider this option,
2:35:11 especially for the IB students and teachers
2:35:15 who have worked extremely hard for this program.
2:35:17 Thank you.
2:35:19 - Thank you, Alex. We appreciate your comments.
2:35:22 All right, next up, we have Mickey.
2:35:24 Mickey, go ahead and state your name,
2:35:26 and then please start in with your comments.
2:35:29 - Hello. My name is Mickey Garcia,
2:35:31 and I’m the grandparents of three school-aged children
2:35:34 in Brevard County and an educator for over 30 years.
2:35:38 When schools closed in March, I gladly became responsible
2:35:41 for the education of my grandchildren
2:35:44 to help my son and my daughter-in-law.
2:35:47 We have the ideal situation in our home
2:35:49 because all the kids have to do is come next door,
2:35:52 and I structured their day like a typical school day,
2:35:54 and we followed the continuity plan provided by the district.
2:35:58 And consequently, my grandkids thrived.
2:36:00 They thrived because I’m an educator
2:36:02 and was able to supplement their learning
2:36:04 and provide additional resources.
2:36:06 However, I was deeply disturbed
2:36:09 by the lack of direct instruction provided
2:36:11 by the district at that time,
2:36:13 and I still don’t to this day understand
2:36:16 why the school could put together
2:36:17 a daily 30-minute morning announcement video,
2:36:20 but no one could put together videos
2:36:22 that parents could access on math,
2:36:24 reading, social studies, or science content.
2:36:27 With all the teachers in the district,
2:36:29 how was it possible that this was not coordinated
2:36:32 as a way to help parents who were struggling
2:36:34 with providing content to their children?
2:36:37 However, it should be noted that they did manage
2:36:39 to provide ukulele lessons.
2:36:42 Most disturbing, though, is that one of my grandchildren
2:36:45 is a child with a disability.
2:36:46 And by the way, I am a special educator.
2:36:49 We never were called to offer services,
2:36:51 never provided with help until we complained.
2:36:54 When I spoke to a district coordinator,
2:36:56 she basically indicated that no services were provided
2:36:59 unless the family indicated that the child was struggling.
2:37:02 How is that possible?
2:37:04 It was then that my grandson began to receive services
2:37:07 from a special ed teacher.
2:37:09 The first time she video conferenced with my son,
2:37:11 she said she was happy to do this
2:37:13 because it helped pass the time,
2:37:15 and that it was the first time she was using the video platform
2:37:18 implying that she had not been providing
2:37:21 any of her students with services.
2:37:23 How many students’ IEPs have been violated
2:37:26 in Brevard County?
2:37:28 As a person who investigates special education complaints
2:37:32 for a living, I know that there have been many violations.
2:37:35 Notwithstanding, I’m most concerned
2:37:37 with the information related to options
2:37:39 being considered for the new year.
2:37:41 The district must consider options
2:37:43 such as varied sessions, online instruction,
2:37:46 or a hybrid approach to reduce the number of students
2:37:49 at the school at any given time.
2:37:52 I know your jobs are very difficult,
2:37:53 and I know that many tough decisions have to be made,
2:37:57 but asking students and teachers to go back to school
2:38:00 with no substantive changes
2:38:02 to the way services will be delivered
2:38:04 is a recipe for disaster.
2:38:06 I know that I am articulating the concerns of many.
2:38:10 This is life and death.
2:38:11 We have to think of the health of people
2:38:13 like my 90-year-old mother and my husband,
2:38:18 who has many underlying health issues.
2:38:21 I’m sorry.
2:38:22 - For your comments, Mickey, I appreciate that.
2:38:24 Next up, we have Caitlin.
2:38:26 Go ahead, Caitlin.
2:38:32 All right, Caitlin, you can state–
2:38:34 Go ahead.
2:38:35 - My name is Caitlin Simon.
2:38:37 Good morning to the school board.
2:38:39 I’m a parent of two elementary school students.
2:38:41 One’s a rising second grader,
2:38:42 and one is a rising kindergartener.
2:38:44 And even, yes, with those ages,
2:38:46 I would still fully support the mandatory masks
2:38:49 for many reasons.
2:38:52 My questions are these.
2:38:53 What situations, aside from a state mandate,
2:38:57 will render a classroom or school to close
2:39:00 even temporarily or self-quarantine, if you will?
2:39:04 Is there a decision tree that’s been created
2:39:06 to address these issues that you can share with parents
2:39:10 so that we can better make decisions for our students?
2:39:14 Will parents, teachers, and staff be notified immediately
2:39:17 of all self-reported positive or presumed positive cases?
2:39:23 Will we require negative tests in order to return to school?
2:39:28 If and when classes are sent home,
2:39:31 will they switch immediately to e-learning,
2:39:34 or what is the other backup method
2:39:36 if they’re self-quarantining by mandate of the school?
2:39:41 The e-learning option sounds great.
2:39:42 However, honestly, for young ages,
2:39:46 such as my children, I struggle to believe
2:39:49 that seven hours of online instruction
2:39:51 will be conducive to their learning
2:39:56 and overall health and enjoyment of school.
2:40:00 If students have to attend in person
2:40:02 for a myriad of reasons,
2:40:03 they need to be able to do so in a safe environment
2:40:06 that meets the CDC’s minimum requirements,
2:40:08 as so many people have clearly and eloquently stated,
2:40:11 and that includes masks, better social distancing,
2:40:14 not just three feet, temperature checks, et cetera.
2:40:18 This should be mandatory to protect our students
2:40:20 and all of the staff.
2:40:22 I appreciate the effort of this task force
2:40:23 and the school board themselves,
2:40:25 but with cases on the rise,
2:40:26 the safety of students, staff, teachers
2:40:28 is of the utmost importance.
2:40:30 Parents need more details
2:40:32 to properly consider their options for their kids
2:40:35 and make the safest choice for their families.
2:40:37 Thank you.
2:40:39 - All right, thank you very much, Kaitlyn.
2:40:41 Next up, we have Howard.
2:40:43 Howard, go ahead and state your name,
2:40:45 and then go ahead with your comments, please.
2:40:50 - Yes, good evening. My name is Drexel–
2:40:52 Howard Drexel Dobson.
2:40:54 I am a practicing general surgeon
2:40:56 who takes care of COVID patients in this community.
2:40:59 I’m speaking both as a parent
2:41:02 and as a physician and a surgeon,
2:41:04 and my opinion reflects my own personal opinion.
2:41:07 I want to thank the school board members
2:41:09 and Mr. Mark Mullins for the opportunity
2:41:10 to voice an opinion.
2:41:13 I think it’s important to note that the mission
2:41:15 of Brevard Public Schools is to serve every student
2:41:18 with excellence as a standard.
2:41:20 I think this mission statement really goes
2:41:22 far beyond just a student.
2:41:25 This event is an unprecedented event
2:41:27 that has not occurred since the Spanish Flu
2:41:29 of the early 1900s,
2:41:30 and granted, it is a very difficult situation
2:41:33 for everybody and has changed the way
2:41:34 we live life in America.
2:41:37 I just want to make several observations
2:41:39 and point things out that have not been pointed out
2:41:41 that need to be considered.
2:41:43 The CDC has strict guidelines that should be followed.
2:41:46 These include six feet of separation
2:41:48 in the classroom with a mask.
2:41:51 The mask is a cloth face covering.
2:41:53 It is not to protect the person from getting infected.
2:41:57 It is to protect the person wearing it from infecting others.
2:42:01 Also, we need to realize that as of right now,
2:42:03 45% of patients or 45% of people
2:42:06 who are infected are asymptomatic.
2:42:09 That means they do not show any signs of the disease.
2:42:12 They are now responsible for 75% of the transmission.
2:42:15 This includes children.
2:42:17 Children before were thought not to be vectors of disease,
2:42:20 but we have seen just in the news in the past two weeks
2:42:23 that this is wrong based on the effects that we’ve seen
2:42:26 with students/camp attendees infecting not only each other,
2:42:30 but counselors, directors, et cetera,
2:42:33 at major camps across the United States.
2:42:35 25% of your teachers are identified at risk
2:42:38 at the very minimum.
2:42:40 This doesn’t even include the students who are at risk.
2:42:43 Your duty is not only to ensure the education of our children,
2:42:46 but to support our society’s task
2:42:47 of educating our nation’s future
2:42:50 and ensuring its success as a leader in the world
2:42:52 by protecting those most vulnerable and their families.
2:42:57 No one here has even thought about once
2:42:59 what impact this has to the family,
2:43:01 to the single parent,
2:43:02 to the family with multiple children or parents.
2:43:05 Remember, one student approaches the school,
2:43:09 maybe temperature checked.
2:43:10 However, we know that since 45% are completely asymptomatic,
2:43:14 the temperature check will not show that.
2:43:17 If the patient is infected and pre-symptomatic,
2:43:20 but infectious, they will also not show any temperature.
2:43:26 Therefore, the screening modality
2:43:27 is really not very good.
2:43:30 That is why in the hospital,
2:43:31 all of us are required to wear a mask
2:43:33 whether or not we screen with temperature
2:43:35 because we know that temperature
2:43:37 misses a significant amount of people.
2:43:40 Imagine one student coming in
2:43:42 and infecting 75% of each class,
2:43:44 including the teacher or sibling.
2:43:47 - Thank you, Howard.
2:43:49 That’s your three minutes, so please wrap up.
2:43:51 - All right, really quick.
2:43:53 Basically, we are on the cusp of precipitating
2:43:57 a super spreader event.
2:43:59 We just wanted to make sure that we understand
2:44:02 that we are not ready to open.
2:44:04 We should postpone this,
2:44:06 and there are solutions that will work,
2:44:08 and we need to take more time to formulate them.
2:44:10 Thank you.
2:44:11 - Thank you. Next up, we have Kelly.
2:44:13 Just as a reminder, if you have hopped on
2:44:15 and you still need to get into the line for comments,
2:44:17 you can press zero now.
2:44:19 That’ll be our last reminder.
2:44:21 All right, Kelly, go ahead and state your first
2:44:23 and last name, and then move along with your comments.
2:44:27 - Hi, my name is Kelly Flutie.
2:44:31 I have both questions and statements
2:44:33 regarding the opening of schools in August.
2:44:36 I understand parents, kids, and educators
2:44:39 would like to get back in-person teaching.
2:44:43 This is an unprecedented time we are all facing.
2:44:47 I just don’t understand how going back to school is feasible.
2:44:52 I know several people who work in the system.
2:44:55 They’re quite concerned for their health, as I am.
2:44:59 The new median age is now 35 for testing positive.
2:45:03 I hear what they say about kids not getting sick,
2:45:07 which unfortunately, there have been many youth deaths
2:45:11 from the virus, so that is a false claim.
2:45:14 You need to listen to the science and not cave
2:45:18 under pressure from the government and parents.
2:45:22 Our governor has failed us miserably in this respect.
2:45:28 Where is the concern for the workers and bus drivers?
2:45:32 If the school’s open, it should be mandatory
2:45:36 for everyone to wear masks.
2:45:38 This includes all the students.
2:45:40 If not, you will be spinning wheels
2:45:43 trying to protect everyone.
2:45:45 I don’t think any student should be exempt.
2:45:48 If the parents don’t believe in the face mask
2:45:50 and social distancing,
2:45:53 then they may have to be sent home.
2:45:55 Please don’t listen to Bessie DeVos
2:45:58 when she says guidelines from the CDC
2:46:01 are meant to be flexible.
2:46:04 Listen to Nancy Pelosi, who says,
2:46:07 “Devos’ comments on schools being safe for students,
2:46:11 a malfeasance and dereliction of duty.”
2:46:15 This is not a political issue.
2:46:18 It is about public health.
2:46:20 Most importantly to me, if a child exhibits signs of COVID,
2:46:27 where are our testing facilities?
2:46:31 How quickly can they get to be tested?
2:46:36 And most importantly, how quickly can we get
2:46:41 the results to act?
2:46:44 Thank you.
2:46:49 - Thank you very much for your comments, Kelly.
2:46:51 Next up, we have Chardae– I’m sorry, wrong order.
2:46:55 Next up, we have Rebecca.
2:46:57 Go ahead, Rebecca, with your comments,
2:46:58 first from last name, and then your comments.
2:47:02 - Hi, my name is Rebecca Rayburn,
2:47:03 and I am a veteran teacher.
2:47:06 I teach at Viera High School.
2:47:08 First, I want to say, members of the board,
2:47:10 I’m sure you, and members of the reopening team,
2:47:13 have suffered through many sleepless nights.
2:47:17 Additionally, it must be reiterated
2:47:18 that no one wants to get back into the classroom
2:47:21 more than Brevard’s teachers do,
2:47:23 but there are concerns and fears that must be acknowledged
2:47:26 and addressed by board members and district admins.
2:47:30 Ergo, I have a few questions for you.
2:47:32 Number one, will the district consider delaying
2:47:36 the school start date in order to allow school sites
2:47:38 additional time to ensure the safest environment possible
2:47:42 in the face of rising COVID-19 diagnoses in Brevard County?
2:47:48 Number two, these are extraordinary times,
2:47:51 and teachers are worried about being forced into quarantine,
2:47:55 especially those teachers who may not have
2:47:57 10 or more days of sick time banked.
2:48:00 Is it true the district is refusing to pay full wages
2:48:03 to teachers who may need to quarantine
2:48:05 due to an outbreak of COVID-19,
2:48:08 which would not have occurred if not required
2:48:10 to return to the classroom at the height of the pandemic?
2:48:14 Number three, will quarantine teachers
2:48:17 who do not show symptoms be allowed to remotely teach
2:48:20 their classes in lieu of in-person
2:48:22 during the period of quarantine?
2:48:25 Number four, will sick bank members who need it
2:48:28 be able to use it if the district
2:48:30 will not pay their full salaries in case of a quarantine?
2:48:34 Number five, there will be a lack of substitutes.
2:48:39 Will district admin and school board members
2:48:41 pitch in and sub in the event of quarantine,
2:48:43 or do you expect the remaining well teachers
2:48:45 to cover the classes?
2:48:48 Number six, excellent leaders lead by example.
2:48:53 Since the politicians and BPS are mandating in-person classes,
2:48:57 why does district leadership exempt themselves
2:48:59 from in-person meetings, especially given the fact
2:49:03 that educators will be in enclosed classrooms
2:49:06 eight hours a day, Monday through Friday,
2:49:09 with 20 or more students?
2:49:11 Thank you very much for your time and all your hard work.
2:49:16 - Thank you, Rebecca. We appreciate your comments.
2:49:18 Next up is Chardae.
2:49:20 Go ahead with your first and last name
2:49:22 as well as your comments.
2:49:25 - Hi, my name is Chardae James,
2:49:28 and we understand that these are unprecedented times
2:49:31 and that there’s many things that are out of our control.
2:49:33 We also understand that the school board is faced
2:49:36 with a tremendously difficult decision to make,
2:49:39 and there are so many unknowns.
2:49:40 But there are some things that we do know
2:49:43 and things that we can’t control.
2:49:45 So let’s consider this.
2:49:46 First, let’s consider our community,
2:49:48 our students and parents, their families,
2:49:50 teachers and staff and their families.
2:49:53 We have a responsibility to protect ourselves
2:49:55 and to protect each other.
2:49:57 We can’t accurately measure the impact
2:49:59 that reopening prematurely will have
2:50:01 on the health of all people involved,
2:50:04 on the quality of education for our students,
2:50:06 or on the negative impacts of mental health,
2:50:09 their social and emotional well-being and development.
2:50:12 Second, we should consider what our role is,
2:50:14 not just in our county and in our districts,
2:50:17 but in our state.
2:50:18 I mean, this is a global pandemic.
2:50:20 We should really use caution and patience
2:50:23 as we go forward with a more detailed plan
2:50:26 and not give in to pressure, political or otherwise.
2:50:29 We should also keep in mind that many private
2:50:32 and charter schools will follow
2:50:34 the lead of Brevard County Public Schools,
2:50:36 and this is a time to lead by example.
2:50:39 So in closing, I think we should focus
2:50:42 on what we can control.
2:50:43 We should push back the reopening.
2:50:44 We should develop virtual options for everyone.
2:50:47 And when and if we do open, we should require masks,
2:50:51 adjust the schedules and classroom sizes
2:50:53 to ensure social distancing.
2:50:55 Thank you.
2:50:56 - Thank you so much for your comments, Sade.
2:50:58 Next up, we have Maria.
2:51:01 Go ahead and state your first and last name,
2:51:03 and then we will head with your comments.
2:51:08 - Hi, my name is Maria Torsny.
2:51:10 I’m an attorney and a former educator…
2:51:15 …in one high school in Brevard County.
2:51:17 I’ll point out, as others have,
2:51:19 that you’re hearing comments via phone
2:51:21 because it’s not safe for the school board
2:51:23 to meet in person.
2:51:24 It is clear that the school board recognizes
2:51:26 the dangers of gathering while, at the same time,
2:51:28 forcing teachers, staff, and students
2:51:31 into a known, unsafe position.
2:51:33 Article 9, Section 4B of the Constitution
2:51:36 of the State of Florida provides that school boards
2:51:38 shall operate, control, and supervise
2:51:41 all three public schools within the school district.
2:51:43 The governor, through the executive order
2:51:45 forcing schools to open their buildings,
2:51:47 may be able to waive statutes,
2:51:49 but they cannot waive the state constitution.
2:51:52 Continuing to open and defending that decision
2:51:54 by saying, “You’re just following orders,”
2:51:56 will lead to death, and the blood will be on your hands.
2:52:00 Every educator knows Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
2:52:03 begins with fulfilling the most basic needs,
2:52:06 physiological, like food and shelter.
2:52:08 Next up is safety, including feeling secure,
2:52:12 being healthy, and having employment.
2:52:13 That’s before we even get to love, belonging,
2:52:16 esteem, self-actualization.
2:52:18 Children cannot learn, and educators cannot teach
2:52:21 and they’re fearing for their basic needs.
2:52:24 According to the Georgia Tech COVID-19
2:52:26 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool,
2:52:29 for Brevard County, there is a 52% risk level
2:52:32 for activities that involve 25 people.
2:52:35 The risk level is the estimated chance from 0 to 100%
2:52:39 that at least one COVID-19 positive individual
2:52:41 will be present at an event in a county
2:52:44 given the size of the event.
2:52:45 This means that more often than not,
2:52:47 each classroom would have at least one
2:52:49 COVID-19 positive person in it.
2:52:52 I can’t fathom why schools will be opening now
2:52:55 when Florida’s cases are growing exponentially.
2:52:57 Schools were closed in the spring
2:52:58 when we had hundreds of cases statewide,
2:53:01 but why should they open
2:53:02 when there are hundreds of thousands of cases statewide?
2:53:05 Teachers will die from this.
2:53:07 Students will die from this.
2:53:08 Putting teachers’ and students’ lives at risk
2:53:10 in the middle of the pandemic is unconscionable.
2:53:13 Right now, there is no reason at all
2:53:15 to have anyone in a school building.
2:53:17 Education is important, of course,
2:53:19 but if a child becomes sick and dies
2:53:21 or watches his or her parents, siblings, friends,
2:53:24 or teachers become sick,
2:53:25 experience long-term health effects, or die,
2:53:28 that grief will follow them for the rest of their lives.
2:53:31 Nothing is worth knowingly putting people
2:53:33 in the line of fire when they do not have to be.
2:53:36 Forcing teachers to use sick time
2:53:38 after the initial 10 days of COVID time off is unfair.
2:53:42 There’s no plan for testing.
2:53:44 There’s no plan for additional support for teachers.
2:53:46 Substitutes would have to be assigned
2:53:48 to only one location in order to not shut down
2:53:51 multiple schools should they be exposed at school.
2:53:55 The American Academy of Pediatrics has said
2:53:56 that schools should open only when it’s safe,
2:53:58 when science has said that it is safe.
2:54:01 Spring’s e-learning was not perfect, but it was fine.
2:54:04 My family was safe.
2:54:06 Meeting benchmarks was the last thing on my mind.
2:54:10 - So go ahead and wrap up your comments, please.
2:54:13 - All right, I knew my children and their teachers were safe.
2:54:17 Families with more than one children
2:54:19 for the e-learning option that follows right now,
2:54:22 it’s basically impossible.
2:54:25 I’m privileged to be home with my children,
2:54:26 but I can’t do everything for multiple learning styles,
2:54:29 ESC students, et cetera.
2:54:32 But I at least know that if they’re home,
2:54:34 they’re not put at risk.
2:54:35 Please do not put our county, the teachers,
2:54:37 and students and their families at risk.
2:54:38 Please do not force school buildings to open
2:54:40 until science says it’s safe.
2:54:42 Children can catch up on what they may miss,
2:54:44 but if they’re dead or mourning a family member,
2:54:46 education doesn’t matter.
2:54:47 Thank you for your time.
2:54:48 - All right, thank you, Maria.
2:54:50 All right, next up we have Tara.
2:54:52 Go ahead with your first and last name
2:54:55 and then your comments, Tara.
2:54:56 - Your turn.
2:54:58 - Hi, thank you.
2:54:59 My name is Tara Westfield.
2:55:01 I’m a parent and an employee of Brevard Public Schools.
2:55:05 I wanted to mention that it will be important
2:55:08 for Brevard Public Schools to hire additional tech support,
2:55:11 custodians, and cafeteria staff
2:55:13 to accommodate the additional resources we need
2:55:16 to open and stay open safely.
2:55:19 A lot of custodian and cafeteria staff
2:55:22 are part-time employees.
2:55:23 For an example, an elementary school
2:55:26 will have two eight-hour and one six-hour custodian
2:55:29 working during the day,
2:55:30 and only two four-hour custodians
2:55:32 who work in the evening to clean classrooms.
2:55:36 Cafeteria staff in an elementary school
2:55:38 are generally three- and four-hour employees,
2:55:40 with the baker and cook being six hours,
2:55:43 and the supervisor being eight hours.
2:55:45 Lunchtime may need to be extended
2:55:47 for student spacing reasons.
2:55:49 Lunch will take longer to complete,
2:55:51 and employees will require additional hours.
2:55:54 Some employees are unable or unwilling
2:55:56 to work additional hours.
2:55:58 It’s already a challenge to clean rooms effectively
2:56:01 during a regular school year with custodial shortages,
2:56:05 such as when a custodian is out sick or injured,
2:56:07 and it will be even more difficult this year.
2:56:09 It does not seem feasible that custodians will have time
2:56:12 to clean classrooms during the school day
2:56:15 when students leave the room for various reasons
2:56:17 in between all their regular duties.
2:56:20 And finally, school-based technology support personnel
2:56:23 will be equally important to not only support schools
2:56:27 with the additional technology they are using,
2:56:29 but also for any continuity of instruction plans
2:56:32 put into place.
2:56:33 If the time becomes necessary,
2:56:36 it is already extremely difficult
2:56:38 for multiple schools to share one technology support person
2:56:42 during normal circumstances.
2:56:44 How is the additional load of e-learning going to be handled
2:56:47 without additional burden on teachers, parents, and students
2:56:50 while ensuring minimal downtime?
2:56:53 Additionally, please consider how a single tech
2:56:56 would be able to handle device distribution
2:56:58 for multiple schools.
2:57:00 I feel the hiring of additional support personnel
2:57:03 is very important.
2:57:04 Thank you for all the time you spent discussing
2:57:06 and making the decisions necessary for reopening.
2:57:09 Thank you.
2:57:11 - Thank you, Tara. Appreciate your comments.
2:57:14 Next up, we have Hazel.
2:57:16 Go ahead, Hazel. State your name.
2:57:18 And then move with your comments.
2:57:21 - Thank you. Good morning.
2:57:23 My name is Hazel Buggs
2:57:25 and also a candidate for mayor of Melbourne.
2:57:28 I, too, am a substitute teacher in the Brevard County School
2:57:31 where I teach at multiple schools.
2:57:33 I am convinced by the daily reports
2:57:36 of the number of coronavirus cases in Brevard County
2:57:40 and new deaths that it is unwise
2:57:42 for our public schools to reopen on August 11th.
2:57:46 My concern is for the health and welfare
2:57:49 of each employee, teacher, student,
2:57:52 and substitute teacher who would be called to substitute
2:57:55 in the absence of a teacher.
2:57:58 I realize precautions would be in place.
2:58:00 However, if students are required to wear masks
2:58:03 or sanitize their hands often,
2:58:06 how many would abide by the rule to do so?
2:58:09 If it’s difficult to convince adults to comply,
2:58:12 why would students do so?
2:58:14 Let alone distilling from each other.
2:58:17 I believe a continuation of virtual teaching
2:58:20 would be the better choice until the end of 2020
2:58:23 and then re-evaluate after the Christmas break.
2:58:28 The facts of our situation is that coronavirus
2:58:31 continues to impact the state of Florida,
2:58:34 Brevard County, and our local city.
2:58:37 As of yesterday, there were an additional 141 new cases,
2:58:41 bringing the total to 3,510 people
2:58:45 who have tested positive,
2:58:46 and 29 people lost their lives to the virus in Brevard County.
2:58:51 The number of cases increases every day.
2:58:54 That should be enough reason you as a school board
2:58:57 should consider delaying the opening of the schools
2:58:59 because our kids, teachers, and employees matter.
2:59:04 Now for the last couple of soon terms,
2:59:06 there has been a shortage of substitute teachers,
2:59:10 and due to the virus we are facing now,
2:59:13 it probably will get worse
2:59:14 because no one worked to jeopardize their life
2:59:17 for the small salary that paid substitute teachers
2:59:20 whose pay scale hasn’t changed in the last 20 years.
2:59:24 So please, take in consideration when you make your decision
2:59:28 the lives of those who will be physically in the classroom.
2:59:33 Thank you.
2:59:34 - Thank you very much for your comments, Hazel.
2:59:36 Next up we have Louise.
2:59:38 Louise, go ahead and state your name,
2:59:40 and then your comments.
2:59:43 - My name is Louise Roosevelt.
2:59:45 I am a parent in Palm Bay.
2:59:49 One of the zip codes which has the highest COVID rates
2:59:53 close by is the other one.
2:59:55 And I also want to talk about something that happened
3:00:02 in the beginning when they closed schools
3:00:04 because I just don’t think this is going to be addressed
3:00:06 even now, and that’s cleaning.
3:00:10 Originally, I called and tried to find out about
3:00:14 what the plan was before they were closing schools
3:00:17 on what they were doing to mitigate contagion,
3:00:21 and basically I got a letter from the school board
3:00:25 which instructed the janitors not to over-sanitize anything
3:00:30 and to conserve their supplies because they may run low.
3:00:36 So my concern is aren’t you going to be running
3:00:39 into that same thing, and isn’t this a time
3:00:42 when you should be over-sanitizing?
3:00:44 I mean, I really don’t understand that logic at all,
3:00:47 but then I don’t understand the logic of having
3:00:50 15,000 COVID cases yesterday
3:00:53 and even contemplating opening the schools.
3:00:57 I want to share something that was posted
3:01:00 in the Space Coast Rocket.
3:01:02 The school board will be voting– this is a poll.
3:01:04 The school board will be voting on reopening schools
3:01:07 in this Tuesday’s meeting.
3:01:09 Do you feel the county is ready for our students
3:01:11 to go back to school safely and have a proper plan?
3:01:15 74% polled said no.
3:01:18 So I don’t think there’s a whole lot of confidence
3:01:20 in our system to even try to mitigate
3:01:25 what’s going on right now.
3:01:27 It seems like Florida’s pretty much thrown up its hands
3:01:29 and said, “Oh, well.”
3:01:32 Also, my son is a rising eighth-grader,
3:01:35 and he is in the gifted program.
3:01:37 And we will have to give that up
3:01:40 because we are given no virtual option,
3:01:42 and he’s not going back to school.
3:01:44 There’s just no way.
3:01:46 I don’t know which one of your family members
3:01:48 are expendable, but none of mine are.
3:01:50 And I have plenty of family members
3:01:53 that would be affected, as well as clients
3:01:55 that are elderly that could be exposed to via my son.
3:02:01 It’s just not going to happen.
3:02:02 And I really just don’t even understand
3:02:06 what anybody is doing,
3:02:09 even contemplating opening a school
3:02:11 with the amount of cases that are so high.
3:02:14 What amount of COVID is acceptable
3:02:19 to close a school or shut down?
3:02:22 Because a state here with record cases
3:02:25 seems like there is none.
3:02:28 We will risk all of your family members.
3:02:30 We will do no mitigation whatsoever in this state.
3:02:37 It’s going to happen.
3:02:39 So you have no choice in the matter.
3:02:42 Virtual schools should not be…
3:02:43 - All right, that is the end of the three minutes
3:02:45 that you have, Louise.
3:02:46 So please wrap up your comments.
3:02:48 - Okay, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak.
3:02:52 And I definitely think that you close the schools.
3:02:56 - All right, thank you.
3:02:58 - All right, next up we have Alexis.
3:03:00 Alexis, go ahead and state your name
3:03:02 and then move with your comments.
3:03:05 - Hi, my name is Alexis Williams.
3:03:07 I am an IB student at Melbourne High School.
3:03:10 I am a rising senior.
3:03:11 I wanted to bring to the attention
3:03:12 of everyone watching or listening,
3:03:14 as many people have already before me,
3:03:16 that there is not the option for every secondary student
3:03:21 to transfer over to the SLVS Rebar virtual school program.
3:03:25 Students in IB, especially rising upperclassmen,
3:03:28 are in a position that makes it close to impossible
3:03:30 to earn the diploma that we have been working towards
3:03:33 since entering high school.
3:03:35 And this is the only option that I am able to see
3:03:38 that will allow students in these programs
3:03:39 to succeed in their educational efforts
3:03:41 without putting their own safety
3:03:43 or the safety of others at risk.
3:03:45 Additionally, this option will allow
3:03:47 for a better transition if numbers spike
3:03:49 at some point throughout the school year,
3:03:51 as teachers will already have virtual options
3:03:53 already set up for them and their students.
3:03:57 When students that do choose to attend
3:04:00 the brick-and-mortar schools are required to stay home
3:04:03 for a period of time due to possible exposure
3:04:05 or any other COVID-related reason,
3:04:07 they will have a virtual option set up
3:04:09 so that they don’t fall behind in the classes
3:04:10 that they have worked hard to succeed in.
3:04:13 Additionally, if a vaccine becomes widely available
3:04:15 or the numbers nationwide or locally
3:04:17 are drastically lowered,
3:04:19 this program where teachers have a virtual program
3:04:26 already set up will allow students
3:04:28 to easily shift back into working–
3:04:31 into learning at a physical school
3:04:33 because teachers will already have the foundation
3:04:36 built between themselves and their students.
3:04:38 My mom is a first responder for the county.
3:04:41 She is an essential employee,
3:04:42 and if I am put into a position
3:04:45 where I increase exposure, so is she,
3:04:48 and in turn, so are all of her coworkers.
3:04:50 How is it fair for me to put her and her coworkers at risk
3:04:53 by deciding that my education is worth more than their lives?
3:04:56 What about the lives of the people that they save
3:04:58 on a daily basis?
3:05:00 My personal preference would be to go back to school,
3:05:02 to see my friends on a daily basis,
3:05:03 and to get the chance to learn in person and hands-on.
3:05:06 But in these trying times,
3:05:07 preference isn’t the priority, safety is.
3:05:10 Thank you.
3:05:12 - Thank you very much for your comments, Alexa.
3:05:14 Next up, we have Danielle.
3:05:16 Danielle, go ahead and state your first name
3:05:18 and then your comments, please.
3:05:21 - Hi, my name is Dr. Danielle McDonough.
3:05:24 I’m a nurse practitioner here in Brevard County
3:05:26 and a parent of three children.
3:05:29 I have a student in high school, a student in middle school,
3:05:32 and a student in elementary school.
3:05:34 I want to speak to the lack of safety
3:05:38 that I felt came out of the workshop last week.
3:05:42 The district kept saying over and over again,
3:05:45 “Safety is a concern, safety is a priority.”
3:05:48 But I didn’t actually hear how safety was going to be addressed.
3:05:52 If the secondary schools switch to block scheduling,
3:05:57 my two older children will attend four classes on campus
3:06:01 with probably 25 students each.
3:06:03 That’s 100 individuals that each student
3:06:05 will come in contact with,
3:06:06 each of my kids will come in contact with,
3:06:09 plus their four teachers.
3:06:10 Add to that my elementary-aged student
3:06:13 in a classroom of 18 to 20 students,
3:06:15 along with her teacher and other students
3:06:17 she may interact with during the day.
3:06:19 My three children will interact with over 225 people
3:06:24 five days a week.
3:06:26 That will greatly increase the risk in my household
3:06:32 of one of my children contracting COVID.
3:06:35 If one of my children contracts COVID,
3:06:38 then the entire family will be at risk.
3:06:41 And my patient population will bestly be put at risk
3:06:45 because I have been exposed.
3:06:48 I think as a working parent,
3:06:50 you know, people want their kids back in school.
3:06:53 But if my child goes to school, gets exposed to COVID,
3:06:56 gets sent home to quarantine for 14 days,
3:06:59 who’s going to quarantine with them?
3:07:00 That would have to be me,
3:07:02 and I would have to then take time off from work
3:07:04 for 14 days.
3:07:05 In addition to that, if one of my children gets sick
3:07:09 during that 14-day period,
3:07:11 then I’ll be forced to quarantine
3:07:13 for an additional 14 days.
3:07:15 So as a working individual,
3:07:17 my children going back to school
3:07:19 actually is more of a negative than it is a positive.
3:07:23 If they stay home and they’re healthy
3:07:26 and decrease risk of exposure,
3:07:29 then I won’t have to take unnecessary time off from work.
3:07:33 I think the district has failed on multiple levels.
3:07:36 Number one, masks decrease the spread of COVID.
3:07:40 We know this.
3:07:41 If two people are sitting side by side
3:07:43 and one of them is infected,
3:07:44 but they are both wearing masks,
3:07:46 the risk of spread is reduced by 95%.
3:07:51 It’s documented. It’s in the CDC.
3:07:53 So in order to safely reopen schools,
3:07:57 there’s no way to safely reopen schools
3:08:00 without mandatory masks, period.
3:08:03 Betsy DeVos actually spoke to the fact
3:08:05 that 0.02% of children will die from COVID infection.
3:08:13 Well, my three children go to the largest schools
3:08:16 in all of Brevard County.
3:08:17 That’s the Meadow Lanes Central Middle and Mel High School.
3:08:21 - Okay, that’s Danielle.
3:08:23 That’s your three minutes, so please wrap up.
3:08:26 - So if you consider the loss of 0.02%
3:08:30 on an individual school basis,
3:08:32 you’re looking at 16 children.
3:08:34 Lastly, I feel that the school did not address
3:08:37 how you’re going to disinfect.
3:08:39 We need more custodians. We need daily cleaning.
3:08:41 We need high surface areas touched.
3:08:44 And there needs to be PPE for the teachers,
3:08:47 including hand sanitizer.
3:08:49 As a healthcare provider, my office can’t even purchase PPE
3:08:52 or hand sanitizer.
3:08:53 Where is the district going to get it from?
3:08:56 I appreciate your time.
3:08:57 I appreciate all of your hard work.
3:09:00 I didn’t even get a chance to acknowledge the fact
3:09:03 that the secondary block scheduling is very limited
3:09:06 and doesn’t meet the needs of my school or my middle school.
3:09:09 - All right. Thank you, Danielle.
3:09:12 All right, next up, we have Heather Roberts.
3:09:15 Before that, if you have just joined the call
3:09:18 and need to be screened, go ahead and press 0.
3:09:21 We will get you in line to take your comments.
3:09:24 But next up, we have Heather.
3:09:25 Heather, go ahead and state your name and…
3:09:27 - Hello, my name is…
3:09:30 Hi, my name is Heather Roberts,
3:09:32 and I’m the parent of an elementary school child.
3:09:36 Our area is not ready to open schools.
3:09:39 It is my understanding that parents will be responsible
3:09:42 for checking their own child’s temperature.
3:09:44 Face masks are not required for teachers or students,
3:09:48 and classes will be packed with 18 plus…
3:09:52 So essentially, it is the same as a normal school year
3:09:55 with no real precautions to keep our students and staff safe.
3:09:59 With the cases in Florida rising dramatically
3:10:02 and the president of the AAP saying schools in Florida
3:10:07 go against their recommendations,
3:10:09 many parents feel that… is the only option.
3:10:13 If I understand the… plan correctly,
3:10:17 parents would have to be at home with their child
3:10:19 during school hours to keep their child
3:10:21 on the strict schedule.
3:10:23 Most parents have to work, and this is just not feasible.
3:10:26 Many parents I talked to during distance learning last year
3:10:30 had babysitters during the day
3:10:31 and worked with their children after work
3:10:34 to complete school assignments in the evenings.
3:10:36 So what… the working parents?
3:10:39 Do we have to register our children as homeschooled?
3:10:42 I know this is a difficult situation for everyone,
3:10:45 and it is impossible to please everyone,
3:10:48 but I feel that just taking away playground equipment
3:10:51 and adding extra AC filters
3:10:53 is not an answer to keeping our children safe and educated.
3:10:57 We should delay opening, and when we do open,
3:11:00 reducing class sizes is the most important way
3:11:03 to allow children to properly social distance.
3:11:06 This could be done by having half of the children
3:11:08 attend in-person class in the morning
3:11:11 with virtual learning in the afternoon.
3:11:13 The other half of the children will attend in-person classes
3:11:17 in the afternoon with virtual learning in the morning,
3:11:21 and masks should be made mandatory
3:11:23 for students and staff.
3:11:25 Thank you.
3:11:27 - Thank you very much for your comments, Heather.
3:11:29 Next up, we have Jonathan.
3:11:31 Go ahead with your comments, Jonathan,
3:11:33 after stating your name.
3:11:37 - Hello.
3:11:40 Mr. Mueller, school board leaders,
3:11:42 and fellow community members, my name is Jonathan Schuman,
3:11:45 speaking as an educator serving at Palm Bay High
3:11:48 and a lifetime bioscientist
3:11:50 representing all stakeholders and students in this community.
3:11:54 As we seek to reopen our schools safely
3:11:57 for the 2020-21 school year,
3:12:01 we must not stretch or modify the CDC guidelines
3:12:05 regarding social distancing
3:12:07 and wearing a mask in enclosed spaces.
3:12:09 If we do, some of us, or those we love,
3:12:14 will die or be scarred with disabilities for life.
3:12:17 This virus is both a respiratory and a vascular virus
3:12:21 affecting all organ systems of the body.
3:12:24 I know how deadly the virus is,
3:12:26 because I recently buried my mother,
3:12:28 who died in New York from COVID-19.
3:12:30 She fought the virus for four weeks
3:12:32 in a state-of-the-art hospital and still lost the fight.
3:12:36 The disease damaged her neurologically
3:12:38 and then destroyed her kidney function.
3:12:40 It was painful watching her die by FaceTime.
3:12:44 My wife is a four-time cancer survivor
3:12:46 currently dealing with leukemia.
3:12:48 If I bring the virus home, it will surely kill her slowly.
3:12:53 Where will we–where will I stay if I must quarantine?
3:12:57 No hotel will take me.
3:12:58 And who is gonna pay that bill?
3:13:01 Opening strategies for schools must be data-driven.
3:13:05 Currently, the positivity rate of Florida is increasing,
3:13:08 being 18% over the past 14 days,
3:13:11 and the positivity rate for Brevard County is increasing,
3:13:14 currently 5.2% over the last seven days.
3:13:17 Any positivity rate over 1%
3:13:20 poses a real danger to all of us.
3:13:22 Currently, 1 in 20 students statistically
3:13:25 may be carriers of the virus in Brevard County.
3:13:28 The CDC guidelines are minimums, not maximums.
3:13:32 CDC guidelines are not meant to be replaced
3:13:35 with happy talk numbers to support
3:13:37 a narrow non-health political agenda.
3:13:39 6 feet is not 3 feet or 24 inches.
3:13:42 And buses cannot transport students without masks
3:13:45 while children sit shoulder to shoulder.
3:13:48 Our safe opening options are driven
3:13:50 by our COVID-19 positivity rate and is therefore limited.
3:13:55 Virtual school is recommended at this time.
3:13:57 Later, with reduced positivity,
3:13:59 student numbers can be reduced
3:14:01 by splitting the student population into A and B days,
3:14:04 including up to 13 students per classroom
3:14:07 with block scheduling to minimize
3:14:09 the student-to-student contact.
3:14:11 We at Brevard County Schools District
3:14:13 will all be held accountable if we allow ourselves
3:14:16 to become major vectors of super-spreading the virus
3:14:21 by opening schools in brick-and-mortar classrooms
3:14:24 with a current high positivity rate.
3:14:26 The negative outcome would be shameful for Brevard County,
3:14:30 a community of highly educated scientists,
3:14:33 engineers, and trained professionals.
3:14:35 And with that, I give back the balance of my time.
3:14:39 - Thank you very much, Jonathan.
3:14:41 Next up, we have Anne Janine.
3:14:44 Go ahead and state your name and then move forward
3:14:47 with your comments, please.
3:14:49 - Hello, I’m Anne Janine, or AJ Bangoa,
3:14:52 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
3:14:53 I’m the mother of a rising sixth grader
3:14:56 and a rising eighth grader in Brevard County.
3:14:59 And I’d like to thank the board
3:15:03 and all of the school board employees
3:15:04 for the seriousness and compassion
3:15:06 in which they’ve handled this case that is evident.
3:15:09 And it is–from watching the 11 1/2 hours,
3:15:16 it was definitely evident that it seemed like nobody
3:15:19 in that room felt like this was a safe and good idea.
3:15:23 And there are so many things that are scary
3:15:25 about what’s being asked of you.
3:15:28 I do, however, would like to show my support
3:15:30 and applaud the elementary school-based e-learning option
3:15:33 that was presented.
3:15:35 I do think it will allow for many options
3:15:39 that were not previously available.
3:15:43 I am, however, disappointed that no e-learning options
3:15:45 at the school level were available for secondary schools.
3:15:48 I understand the difficulty in offering 500 different options
3:15:52 throughout the district at each school level,
3:15:54 and I recommend, however, that each school
3:15:56 offer one grade-level e-learning class
3:15:58 of each of the four mandatory subjects
3:16:01 so that subjects may take those appropriate classes
3:16:03 connected to their school.
3:16:05 And then the additional options can be filled in by BVS,
3:16:09 and this keeps each student associated
3:16:11 with their school of choice and the ability to return next year
3:16:15 or even in the spring if we are being optimistic.
3:16:18 This is especially important for middle schoolers and others
3:16:21 that do not qualify for the options presented,
3:16:24 such as dual enrollment, that keeps them connected
3:16:26 with their current school.
3:16:28 I do think there are so many unanswered questions,
3:16:30 as many have echoed before me.
3:16:33 What is distance going to look like
3:16:35 when cases arise?
3:16:37 Please help us understand what that system is going to be
3:16:41 and how that’s going to be different from e-learning
3:16:44 and how that will be implemented
3:16:47 if getting the computers takes two weeks in and of itself.
3:16:52 And then what are the exact prescribed timelines
3:16:54 and guidelines when cases do arise at each level,
3:16:56 at the class, school, bus, and district level?
3:17:01 We were given some guidelines and basically told
3:17:04 that they are not ready yet.
3:17:06 We have not really come up with that formula yet,
3:17:09 and we don’t really know.
3:17:11 How can we vote and understand as parents
3:17:15 what our options are if we do not really understand
3:17:17 what our children are being placed into
3:17:21 when they go back in the fall?
3:17:22 Please help us help everyone in the district
3:17:26 get their students back safely and with a full understanding
3:17:29 of what they will be facing.
3:17:32 Thank you very much.
3:17:34 - All right, thank you very much for your comments.
3:17:37 Next up we have Joseph.
3:17:39 Joseph, go ahead and state your name
3:17:42 and then your comments, please.
3:17:47 - Yes, my name is Joseph Vissadomine.
3:17:50 I have three students in the Brevard County School System
3:17:53 as well as my wife is a teacher
3:17:55 in the Brevard County School System.
3:17:58 My question is with certain areas requiring masks
3:18:04 like Cocoa Beach, would it be a requirement
3:18:07 for those children attending the school
3:18:09 to also wear a mask being that we are considering
3:18:11 teachers essential workers?
3:18:14 I know some other areas do not have that as a mandate,
3:18:18 but it is mandated and required for all essential workers
3:18:21 and people inside of publics and other places
3:18:26 to be required to wear a mask.
3:18:29 Similar comments to the gentleman earlier.
3:18:33 I don’t see how we can revise the CDC’s guidelines
3:18:36 from three feet– from six feet to three feet
3:18:39 and optional masks.
3:18:41 If we are going to do three feet,
3:18:43 then we are going to have to require masks.
3:18:48 That’s just the way it works.
3:18:49 It can’t be maybe.
3:18:52 I appreciate it, and I’ll give you the rest of my time back.
3:18:56 - Okay, thank you very much for your help–
3:18:58 or for your comments, Joseph.
3:19:00 Next up, we have Tom.
3:19:01 Tom, go ahead and state your name and comments.
3:19:08 - Hi, my name is Tom Ville.
3:19:10 I’m a parent of a rising junior at Satellite High School.
3:19:16 I want to start by thanking all of you on the school board
3:19:19 for your willingness and your efforts to serve the community,
3:19:23 and I recognize that you’ve been given an impossible task.
3:19:27 I’ve listened to the almost three hours of comments
3:19:30 that you’ll hear, and I want to just focus on this.
3:19:34 This decision will have greater consequences for the community
3:19:38 than any other you will ever make on the board,
3:19:42 because it will mean life and death for some.
3:19:46 Outbreaks and spread of COVID-19 in our schools
3:19:50 will surely spread and affect every single corner
3:19:55 of our community,
3:19:56 including our most vulnerable populations.
3:20:00 Amazingly, it feels like the true magnitude
3:20:03 of this pandemic is being lost.
3:20:06 Saturday, 15,300 people tested positive for COVID in our state.
3:20:13 That means more people tested positive in Florida
3:20:17 than in all of Europe.
3:20:20 At this meeting, you will vote on whether or not
3:20:23 to approve a plan for reopening our schools in 30 days.
3:20:28 I want you to consider these daily test results.
3:20:32 60 days ago, only 479 people tested positive in Florida
3:20:38 on that day.
3:20:39 30 days ago, 1,902 people tested positive.
3:20:45 But again, this Saturday, 15,300 people tested positive.
3:20:51 That’s an increase of more than 800% in the last 30 days.
3:20:56 Now project that forward and imagine what things
3:20:59 are going to look like 30 days from now, on August 11th,
3:21:04 when teachers, staff, and children
3:21:07 will be reentering brick-and-mortar schools
3:21:10 if you approve this plan.
3:21:13 It feels like a train is coming.
3:21:15 It’s accelerating faster and faster.
3:21:19 Your plan gives parents some options
3:21:22 to get their kids off the tracks,
3:21:24 but it will surely leave some of the kids, all of the teachers,
3:21:29 and all of the staff standing on the tracks
3:21:32 to get hit by that train.
3:21:35 There are some things about the spread of COVID
3:21:37 in our community that cannot be controlled,
3:21:40 but this is not one of those.
3:21:42 Do not reopen brick-and-mortar schools at this time
3:21:46 for the sake of the kids,
3:21:48 for the sake of the teachers and staff,
3:21:51 and for the sake of the entire community.
3:21:53 Thank you.
3:21:55 - Thank you very much for your comments, Tom.
3:21:58 We are getting close to the end, so next up is Cassidy.
3:22:02 Cassidy, go ahead and state your name
3:22:05 and your comments, please.
3:22:08 - Hi, my name is Cassidy Nicholas.
3:22:10 I am a second-generation Brevard County teacher.
3:22:13 I recently moved back to Brevard
3:22:15 to begin my fourth year of teaching mathematics.
3:22:18 I love this county and the educational opportunities
3:22:21 it has given me growing up here.
3:22:23 However, I was warned about returning home.
3:22:25 I was prepared for a pay cut.
3:22:27 I was prepared to teach an extra class.
3:22:29 All teachers consistently go above and beyond
3:22:32 in the classroom, after school, and on weekends.
3:22:36 However, I have to draw the line with our lives.
3:22:39 As a school shooting survivor,
3:22:41 I walk into my job every day
3:22:43 extremely aware of the risk of gun violence.
3:22:46 I work through my PTSD every day in the classroom
3:22:49 to provide my students with the best education possible.
3:22:52 However, even the growing threat of gun violence
3:22:55 was not enough to keep me away from my students,
3:22:58 but the risk of going back to school during a pandemic
3:23:00 in the epicenter of the world is just too much to bear.
3:23:04 Many of us are high risk for COVID-19,
3:23:06 and sending us into classrooms is a death wish
3:23:09 for us and our family members.
3:23:11 My mother and I are both high risk for COVID-19.
3:23:14 We both have asthma, and my mom just had heart surgery.
3:23:17 We have given so much to the school system over the years,
3:23:20 but I have to draw the line with our lives.
3:23:22 The death of one child, teacher, or staff member
3:23:25 is already too much.
3:23:27 The lasting effects of coronavirus
3:23:29 on our physical and mental health
3:23:30 will long outweigh any educational losses
3:23:33 by continuing distance learning.
3:23:36 Knowledge can be recovered; lives cannot.
3:23:39 Many teachers will have to make some difficult decisions
3:23:41 following this meeting.
3:23:42 I love my job.
3:23:44 I love my students, I love Brevard,
3:23:46 and I love teaching math,
3:23:47 but I’m not willing to risk my life
3:23:49 or the life of my family members
3:23:51 for a job where I’m underappreciated,
3:23:53 underpaid, and overworked.
3:23:54 Thank you.
3:23:57 - Thank you very much for your comments, Cassidy.
3:24:00 Next up, we have Lisa.
3:24:01 Go ahead, Lisa, with your name and comments.
3:24:05 - Hello, my name is Lisa Breen,
3:24:08 and I agree with many of the comments,
3:24:11 but it just seems not to be the greatest time
3:24:13 to be reopening school
3:24:15 with the current situation in Florida.
3:24:18 And if you do open the schools,
3:24:21 it should really be done with a maximum of care,
3:24:24 which doesn’t seem to be in the current plan
3:24:26 from what I heard in your last meeting.
3:24:30 Students need to be spaced six feet apart
3:24:34 as to CDC guidelines.
3:24:36 Masks need to be mandatory.
3:24:37 That doesn’t seem to be in the plan right now,
3:24:41 and it’s a very scary situation.
3:24:44 I would like to reiterate the point that some have made
3:24:48 that science, not politics,
3:24:50 should be directing the decisions here.
3:24:55 Many people have been proponents of a hybrid system
3:25:00 where students go to school,
3:25:02 let half the time and do distance learning half the time
3:25:06 to reduce the amount of children in any classroom,
3:25:09 and I think that that’s a very good idea
3:25:12 and that it shouldn’t be discarded
3:25:15 just because it might not be a popular thing with–
3:25:20 a popular thing politically.
3:25:24 Teachers should have as many choices as possible.
3:25:26 I can’t imagine having to make this choice myself
3:25:29 to go back into the classroom or lose my job.
3:25:32 I’ll keep it short. That’s all I wanted to say.
3:25:35 But I do think that the hybrid model
3:25:39 should be looked at more closely.
3:25:40 Thank you.
3:25:42 - Okay, thank you very much for your comments, Lisa.
3:25:44 Next up, we have Christine.
3:25:46 Christine, go ahead and state your name
3:25:48 and then your comments, please.
3:25:51 - Thank you. Yes, my name is Christine Rowe.
3:25:54 I have two incredibly bright children,
3:25:56 one a social-friendly rising third grader
3:25:59 and the other a gifted 11-year-old
3:26:01 entering sixth grade who was really hoping
3:26:04 to enter Edgewood next year.
3:26:06 We are most definitely affected by the change in our world.
3:26:09 I’m also a member of the Student Advisory Council,
3:26:11 PTO, and a school volunteer.
3:26:14 The fact that I must sign up, write a timed speech,
3:26:16 wait on hold for hours,
3:26:18 and say anything at all about child and staff safety
3:26:20 and the inability for the brick-and-mortar system
3:26:23 of pre-pandemic days to handle any of this
3:26:25 is so bizarre, it only further proves to me
3:26:28 that my decision to not trust the district
3:26:30 with the lives of my children and family is correct.
3:26:33 This shouldn’t even be a discussion.
3:26:35 Our country, in particular our state and our citizens,
3:26:37 didn’t handle this virus intelligently,
3:26:40 and this puts us in a position we are now finding ourselves.
3:26:43 Anything less than a complete shutdown at this point
3:26:45 will most definitely lead to sickness and death of so many.
3:26:49 By not delaying school openings
3:26:50 or creating a new type of schooling altogether,
3:26:53 a shameful lack of care and leadership
3:26:54 will be exhibited from the very people
3:26:56 that we are expected to trust with our children
3:26:58 and our educators.
3:27:00 This breach of trust may mean my children
3:27:02 will never return to public school.
3:27:04 I no longer trust you.
3:27:06 Hospitals are filling, my family and friends
3:27:09 in the healthcare field are genuinely worried,
3:27:11 as well as teachers and support staff
3:27:13 that confide in me privately.
3:27:15 Cases are skyrocketing and grown adults
3:27:17 are vehemently against wearing masks, sometimes violently so.
3:27:20 The choice to send your children to school
3:27:22 should be crystal clear to anyone.
3:27:24 Do you think that mandatory masks will work?
3:27:27 Have you never dealt with a parent
3:27:28 who refuses to pull up in a drop-off line
3:27:30 or been asked not to use a cell phone?
3:27:32 It’s not pretty.
3:27:34 Do you think parents won’t send their children to school sick?
3:27:37 Then you’ve never dealt with a three-month life outbreak.
3:27:41 This isn’t a complicated concept.
3:27:43 Not one child, not one teacher should be exposed to
3:27:46 or brought to an untimely death
3:27:48 by the premature opening of our schools, period, full stop.
3:27:52 Protect our kids.
3:27:54 Do you want them to get sick?
3:27:55 Do you want them to get their teachers sick?
3:27:57 Do you want them to show no signs
3:27:58 and get their grandparents sick?
3:28:00 Do you want to explain why their friend has died
3:28:02 or why they’re not at school?
3:28:04 Or why their beloved teacher is dead or not at school?
3:28:06 Their bus drivers, their lunch ladies, their principals.
3:28:09 Do you really think that the social and psychological damage
3:28:12 of not being in school won’t be just as equal, if not worse,
3:28:15 as they will surely be modified
3:28:17 for hugging their friends and teachers,
3:28:19 for sharing a secret with a friend,
3:28:21 for breaking into a game of tag?
3:28:23 Will this snuffing out of the very thing
3:28:24 that makes them innocent children
3:28:26 not be a constant psychological stressor,
3:28:28 if not emotionally abusive?
3:28:30 Along with the hand washing, disinfectants,
3:28:32 don’t touches, don’t stand there,
3:28:34 backups, walk over here, not there.
3:28:36 Did so-and-so sneeze? They must have COVID.
3:28:38 And why is that mask better than mine?
3:28:41 This isn’t a hard choice.
3:28:42 We must protect our kids and our community.
3:28:46 Teachers in schools are not babysitters.
3:28:48 They are not daycare.
3:28:50 I’m sorry. This truth is tough.
3:28:51 This truth is tough for three minutes.
3:28:53 Go ahead and wrap up, please.
3:28:55 This truth is tough for many parents,
3:28:57 and God forbid, maybe the economy,
3:28:58 but it’s the cold, hard truth.
3:29:00 We must protect our teachers and school staff.
3:29:03 I don’t have the answers on what to do,
3:29:05 but I will be homeschooling from now on
3:29:07 and supplementing with my own content.
3:29:09 If we don’t start brainstorming and getting creative
3:29:11 and trying new things and discussing the reality,
3:29:14 not the hopefulness, the reality of this,
3:29:16 we are sure to get hit hard and hit well.
3:29:19 Thank you.
3:29:21 - Thank you very much, Christine.
3:29:23 All right, just one reminder.
3:29:25 If you have dropped off the call
3:29:27 or you still need to get into our line
3:29:29 to make your comments, please press zero,
3:29:33 and the screener will be able to speak with you.
3:29:35 Right now, we have Lyle up next.
3:29:38 Go ahead and state your name and your comments, Lyle.
3:29:43 - Sure. Hi, my name is Lyle Smith.
3:29:46 Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
3:29:48 My wife, Heather, and I are parents of Aiden,
3:29:50 a student at Manatee Elementary.
3:29:52 We are all concerned about reopening the schools.
3:29:55 We are all anxious to get back to some kind of normal
3:29:58 in our lives, but this is not a normal time,
3:30:01 and it won’t be anytime soon.
3:30:04 The number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise
3:30:06 at an alarming rate.
3:30:07 There is no vaccine.
3:30:09 There is no cure and too few treatments.
3:30:13 The only consistent, effective approach
3:30:15 has been what it was from the beginning–
3:30:17 face coverings, wash your hands,
3:30:18 physical distancing of at least two meters.
3:30:22 Opening our schools at this time
3:30:23 flies in the face of all of that expert advice.
3:30:26 A CDC report came to light this week that said,
3:30:30 “Full-sized, in-person classes present the highest risk
3:30:33 of spreading coronavirus.”
3:30:35 We attended your online workshop last week
3:30:37 and learned that this board has clearly placed
3:30:40 opening the doors ahead of health and safety.
3:30:43 Your own presentation last week said as much in bold type.
3:30:47 To me, that is remarkably short-sighted and irresponsible.
3:30:51 Questions remain, like how can you possibly ensure
3:30:55 physical distancing in a classroom with 23 children?
3:30:57 What epidemiological or infectious disease specialist
3:31:01 has the board engaged for expert guidance
3:31:03 in establishing a plan?
3:31:06 How often will staff be tested
3:31:08 to ensure a healthy school environment?
3:31:10 Will the school district be providing regular testing
3:31:12 of all students to ensure that same healthy environment?
3:31:16 What happens when staff or students
3:31:17 begin to test positive in any one school?
3:31:21 How often will that affect operations in other schools?
3:31:25 How many positive tests within one school
3:31:27 will necessitate closure of that campus?
3:31:30 Last week, Palm Beach County School officials
3:31:32 announced they would continue at-home learning
3:31:35 because the risk of reopening classrooms was too great.
3:31:37 Yesterday, the two largest districts in California,
3:31:41 Los Angeles and San Diego, announced the same.
3:31:45 I have come to know some of you
3:31:46 as people with truly good intent.
3:31:49 However, to judge you based on how you’re addressing
3:31:53 the reopening of our school that this time,
3:31:55 when people’s long-term health and, yes,
3:31:57 their lives are at risk,
3:31:59 the only conclusion I could possibly draw
3:32:02 is that you are more interested in cheering yourselves
3:32:04 for opening the door on August 11th
3:32:07 than you are about the welfare of our students
3:32:09 and teachers and staff.
3:32:12 If we’ve learned anything, we’ve learned that
3:32:14 whenever groups congregate without proper protections
3:32:17 in place, the numbers go up.
3:32:19 Seven to 14 days later, we start to see the effect.
3:32:23 If you open the doors as carelessly as your plan
3:32:26 seems to suggest at this time, seven to 14 days later,
3:32:30 we’re going to be looking at closing those same doors again.
3:32:33 There’s nothing mystical about August 11th.
3:32:36 There are too many unanswered questions.
3:32:39 If it means pushing back school opening
3:32:41 a few weeks or a month, take the time.
3:32:44 Get it right.
3:32:45 I urge you to be serious about it.
3:32:48 We’ve had enough of the unserious
3:32:50 from our state and federal leadership–
3:32:52 - All right, Mr. Spial, that’s your three minutes.
3:32:54 Please wrap up.
3:32:56 - I will.
3:32:57 We’ve had enough of the unserious
3:32:58 from our state and federal leadership.
3:33:00 They’ve all passed the buck to the localities.
3:33:02 We need you to get this right.
3:33:04 Thank you.
3:33:06 - Thank you very much for your comments.
3:33:08 All right, next up, we have Chip.
3:33:09 Go ahead and state your name, please,
3:33:12 and then your comments.
3:33:16 - Hi, my name is Chip Bock.
3:33:18 I have a daughter that will be a junior this year.
3:33:20 I work in healthcare, specifically peripheral vascular
3:33:22 and interventional radiology.
3:33:23 I’ve spoken with physicians across the U.S.
3:33:25 at Weill Cornell Medical Center, Tulane Medical Center,
3:33:28 UCLA Medical Center, Advent Hospitals in Central Florida,
3:33:31 and many, many others.
3:33:32 In April, they told us about hypercoagulopathy,
3:33:35 hypercoagulation of the blood.
3:33:36 They were seeing in people, testing positive for COVID
3:33:39 and in hospital-admitted patients.
3:33:41 This led to several peer-reviewed clinical studies
3:33:42 I can divide to the board.
3:33:44 Autopsies reveal micro clotting, killing the lungs,
3:33:46 kidneys, and other organs,
3:33:48 and they’ve now documented the hypercoagulation
3:33:50 as being a unique part of COVID contraction.
3:33:53 This is why pneumonia-like symptoms are occurring.
3:33:56 Antibiotics do not work,
3:33:57 and anticoagulant therapy has been found to be ineffective.
3:34:00 Asian health has been proven to not matter.
3:34:02 Children and adults can catch COVID and spread it to others.
3:34:06 Putting people right now in enclosed rooms
3:34:07 has shown to increase the amount of exposure,
3:34:09 which directly relates to the severity
3:34:11 the illness once contracted.
3:34:12 Strokes and PEs are spiking in healthy teens across the U.S.
3:34:15 directly related to COVID-19.
3:34:18 Mark Lipsitch, an epidemiologist
3:34:20 with Harvard’s P.H. Chan School of Public Health,
3:34:22 stated in a statement at the end of June
3:34:24 that someone should be studying the issue of kids and COVID,
3:34:27 though he acknowledged that after the past brutal months,
3:34:29 he didn’t have the energy to do it.
3:34:31 But he said the timing of the start of the school year
3:34:33 in the United States is so variable
3:34:35 that “early start states”
3:34:37 could provide evidence for those that wait until after Labor Day.
3:34:40 Florida and Brevard County schools are “early start states.”
3:34:44 Our administration is now moving to Plan B,
3:34:46 which is designed to go full steam ahead
3:34:47 and dam the torpedoes.
3:34:49 This entails opening schools to push through the virus
3:34:51 with known expense of life and health.
3:34:53 This is a proven military tactic used globally
3:34:56 by our own military throughout history.
3:34:57 The World War II D-Day invasion plan documents
3:35:00 outline the same approach.
3:35:01 U.S. Secretary of Education Betty DeVos
3:35:03 stated this past week that “only .02% of kids
3:35:07 are likely to die in the reopening of the schools.”
3:35:10 That calculates to a loss of 14,740 U.S. children,
3:35:13 not including teachers.
3:35:15 This matches the D-Day invasion plan document.
3:35:17 Send as many soldiers and equipment as possible
3:35:19 into the beach in the first wave,
3:35:21 many will die, and much will be lost.
3:35:23 By the time the second and third waves hit the beach,
3:35:25 the enemy will have weakened,
3:35:26 and the beach will be taken by sheer overwhelming numbers.
3:35:29 Replace the words “early open states”
3:35:31 with “first wave on the beach.”
3:35:33 The epidemiology of this virus states it is weak.
3:35:36 It dies very easily outside of the host.
3:35:39 Therefore, other countries like New Zealand
3:35:41 have been able to get past it.
3:35:43 Don’t make our kids part of the first wave on the beach.
3:35:46 Don’t make Brevard’s children an anecdotal data point
3:35:49 in the first wave experiment results of COVID 2020
3:35:53 when studied by future generations.
3:35:55 Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach County school boards
3:35:57 have already issued their orders
3:35:58 to not be in the first wave on the beach.
3:36:01 2020 school board members, I ask you,
3:36:04 now say to you all,
3:36:06 how will you be recorded in this time in U.S. history?
3:36:10 Thank you, and stay safe.
3:36:13 - Thank you very much for your comments, Chef.
3:36:15 Next up, we have Barbara.
3:36:17 Go ahead and state your name and send your comments, please.
3:36:22 - Okay, hi, my name is Barbara Wilcox,
3:36:23 and I am an early childhood teacher
3:36:25 member of our public schools,
3:36:26 and I will come right out and tell you
3:36:28 that this virus terrifies me.
3:36:30 My family has been social distancing since spring break
3:36:32 because my husband is older and in the age range
3:36:35 of those with the highest risk.
3:36:37 I do not want to have this virus,
3:36:39 nor do I want to give it to him.
3:36:41 So I’m begging you, do whatever needs to be done
3:36:43 to start the school year with distance learning.
3:36:45 One child or one teacher or one custodian or one bus driver
3:36:50 or one administrator getting this virus is one too many,
3:36:54 especially when we have an option to do it in a safer way.
3:36:58 Distance learning is the only safe way at this time.
3:37:02 If you are unwilling to do that, then I request
3:37:04 that we start the school year as late as possible in August.
3:37:07 The concerns brought up at your planning meeting
3:37:08 were just inconveniences.
3:37:10 We are not ready to return to school.
3:37:12 There are too many questions that need answered.
3:37:15 Rushing the beginning of school is not being responsible.
3:37:18 If we can’t do distance learning,
3:37:19 postponing the beginning of school is the next best thing.
3:37:23 Also, make masks mandatory.
3:37:25 Research has already shown that masks
3:37:27 are our best defense for this virus.
3:37:29 It’s not 100% perfect, but it is our best, safest,
3:37:32 and most affordable option.
3:37:34 Safety first, always.
3:37:36 We, all of us, need to understand
3:37:38 that we have a moral obligation to protect each other.
3:37:41 This is a health issue.
3:37:43 As an early childhood teacher,
3:37:45 the e-learning option for elementary,
3:37:47 as explained at the planning meeting,
3:37:49 is developmentally inappropriate for primary learners.
3:37:52 Being tethered to a computer throughout the entire school day
3:37:55 all day every day is an unreasonable expectation
3:37:58 for a kindergartener.
3:37:59 Even interacting with a teacher through videoconferencing,
3:38:02 they would still need a parent ready to redirect,
3:38:05 refocus, and support them.
3:38:07 It is an unreasonable expectation for a parent also.
3:38:10 In addition, this scenario does not give any flexibility
3:38:13 to working families.
3:38:15 Unless I have misunderstood, it is Florida Virtual School,
3:38:18 not Brevard Virtual School,
3:38:20 that gives a flexible option that working families need
3:38:23 if they want to keep their children safe at home.
3:38:25 I would request that you look into that to verify
3:38:28 and then fix the e-learning concept
3:38:30 to better meet the needs of our students and their families.
3:38:33 Finally, I’d like to address the mental health aspect.
3:38:36 This virus, even if you do not get it,
3:38:39 can affect your mental health.
3:38:41 School will not be normal.
3:38:42 Social distancing is not the social connection
3:38:45 that children need.
3:38:46 We have no idea how this type of school situation
3:38:48 will affect their mental health,
3:38:50 and I’m not convinced that we have the resources available
3:38:53 to deal with it, especially when, not if,
3:38:56 the virus invades our schools.
3:38:58 You need more time.
3:39:00 Thank you for listening, and I wish you the strength
3:39:03 to do what needs to be done.
3:39:05 Thanks.
3:39:07 - Okay, thank you very much for your comment, Barbara.
3:39:10 Next up, we have Cassie.
3:39:12 Cassie, go ahead and state your name and then your comment.
3:39:16 - Hi, my name is Cassie, and as a concerned parent,
3:39:19 I have reservations regarding the finalization of plans
3:39:21 to open Brevard County Schools this fall.
3:39:23 I read the plans that were presented
3:39:25 at last week’s meeting and thought the eLearning plan
3:39:27 for Brevard Elementary students using Microsoft Teams
3:39:30 is a good plan for students whose parents want structured
3:39:33 education at home with face-to-face learning
3:39:35 from a teacher at their school.
3:39:37 I feel that this not only benefits students
3:39:39 who must stay home or are able to stay home,
3:39:41 but additionally, it’s more safety for teachers,
3:39:44 especially those who are at risk of the COVID virus
3:39:46 due to age and/or pre-existing conditions.
3:39:49 However, I don’t understand why eLearning
3:39:51 is not an option for Brevard secondary students.
3:39:54 So older students tend to be more responsible
3:39:56 and will likely keep masks on in school.
3:39:58 There’s no mandatory requirement for masks
3:40:00 to be worn for most classes,
3:40:02 and this causes a potential spread of the COVID virus
3:40:04 to their peers and teachers.
3:40:06 So it’s been stated that children are more likely
3:40:08 to not get this virus or spread it.
3:40:10 There’s not enough studies to support this assumption.
3:40:13 This virus has been in this country
3:40:14 for only around six months, and there are new findings
3:40:18 that scientists are still discovering
3:40:19 almost on a daily basis.
3:40:21 My son is in a choice school and has to attend
3:40:23 at least part-time at his school to retain his seat.
3:40:26 This is particularly worrisome to our families,
3:40:28 since my mother-in-law is in hospice at our home,
3:40:31 and I have a pre-existing condition.
3:40:33 Both Orange and Osceola counties have learning-at-home programs
3:40:37 that are tied to the students’ home schools.
3:40:39 Besides being one of the larger school districts in the state,
3:40:41 we are one of the top districts in the state
3:40:43 with high-performing schools.
3:40:45 So I have to ask you why our district could not come
3:40:47 with an eLearning type of plan
3:40:49 to accommodate our middle and high school students.
3:40:52 I believe we need the option of schools being open for students
3:40:55 who have special needs and/or for parents who have to work,
3:40:58 but for those students who need or can stay home,
3:41:00 there should be a distance-learning option
3:41:02 to teach all students from their home schools.
3:41:05 I understand that children and teens
3:41:06 need the socialization as well, but these are not ideal times.
3:41:10 Just this last weekend, we broke the daily record
3:41:12 in the country of new cases for an individual state,
3:41:14 even surpassing the record set by New York.
3:41:17 It was also reported that a teacher with preexisting
3:41:19 conditions died in Arizona from the COVID virus,
3:41:22 and two other teachers at the same school
3:41:24 have come down with the virus during their summer school term.
3:41:27 These teachers were following protocols using masks and gloves.
3:41:31 Today, the Orange County Health Director announced
3:41:34 that the average age of people diagnosed with COVID
3:41:36 is starting to rise.
3:41:38 It is just extraordinary that schools in Brevard County
3:41:40 were closed back in March for far, far fewer cases.
3:41:43 They are now being phased open in a state
3:41:45 that is often referred to as the new epicenter of this country.
3:41:48 If schools must open, couldn’t we at least offer
3:41:50 the best distance-learning possible to students
3:41:53 who must or prefer to stay home?
3:41:55 Thank you.
3:41:57 - All right, thank you very much, Cassie.
3:41:59 Okay, one final call for speakers.
3:42:01 Anyone who is a speaker, please–
3:42:04 or who needs to state their comments can press zero.
3:42:07 It looks like we are holding on for one final one.
3:42:12 So just–I appreciate your patience.
3:42:20 Oh, looks like we may have had an accidental pressing
3:42:23 of a button there, so I turn this over to Sue.
3:42:27 Go ahead and let us wrap up.
3:42:31 - Oh.
3:42:34 Christina, I think you do have one more.
3:42:36 - We do have one more. Sorry.
3:42:37 Didn’t just pop up on my computer.
3:42:39 So we have less. Go ahead, less.
3:42:42 - Well, state your name and then your comments.
3:42:44 - Okay. My name is Les Dono.
3:42:47 My wife is a kindergarten teacher in Brevard.
3:42:50 I’m a senior citizen, 77 years old,
3:42:54 which puts me in the high-risk category
3:42:56 of the CDC guidelines regardless of any health issues.
3:43:01 I’m very concerned about her welfare in school.
3:43:05 I understand that the state of Florida
3:43:07 and the Department of Education
3:43:09 are pushing for schools to open.
3:43:12 I do not agree with that,
3:43:13 and it seems that might be beyond your ability to change.
3:43:18 So I respectfully request
3:43:21 that if you cannot stop schools from opening in August,
3:43:24 that you do whatever you can in your power
3:43:27 to make the start date as late as possible.
3:43:30 Give yourself and the teachers and parents
3:43:33 more time to determine the best plan.
3:43:36 Maybe by that time, the Department of Education
3:43:39 will determine that safety of the students and teachers
3:43:42 is everyone’s best interest.
3:43:44 If you can’t stop the school from opening
3:43:47 and refuse to postpone the beginning of school,
3:43:50 then at the very least, you must make masks mandatory.
3:43:55 There has been more and more data
3:43:57 that this virus is airborne
3:43:59 and more and more data that wearing a mask
3:44:02 is the best way to reduce spreading the virus.
3:44:05 I know my wife will wear a mask all day every day
3:44:08 because she cares about the students
3:44:10 and her fellow teachers and wants to keep them healthy.
3:44:14 I want her to have the same respect.
3:44:17 The best thing, at least–
3:44:20 the least expensive way to reduce the spread
3:44:23 of this horrible virus is to wear a mask.
3:44:26 Please keep my wife safe so she can stay healthy,
3:44:29 and then I also will be able to stay healthy.
3:44:33 While we don’t know the long-term effects of this virus,
3:44:36 we do know that it’s deadly.
3:44:39 We know that there can be long-term health consequences
3:44:43 from it.
3:44:44 We know that long-term health consequences
3:44:46 are also expensive.
3:44:48 She is already anxious,
3:44:50 and that is not good for her mental health either.
3:44:54 I implore you to do the right thing.
3:44:56 Start school with virtual learning
3:44:59 or at the latest date possible,
3:45:02 and make masks mandatory.
3:45:04 Thank you.
3:45:07 - All right, thank you very much for your comments, Les.
3:45:09 It looks like no one else has any comments,
3:45:11 so Sue, go ahead and wrap up.
3:45:15 - Yes, thank you, Christine.
3:45:17 I just want to say thank you to all of our speakers tonight.
3:45:19 I appreciate everyone’s patience
3:45:21 in this difficult circumstance,
3:45:23 and thank you to our team at Telephone Town Hall
3:45:25 for being with us.
3:45:27 ♪ ♪
3:45:34 - Okay, we do have one additional comment
3:45:38 that Ms. Escobar is going to read for us.
3:45:40 There was a technical glitch
3:45:41 with one of the callers last evening,
3:45:44 and so he has submitted his comments
3:45:47 that he had introduced to the callers,
3:45:49 and I’m not sure if he’s going to read it or not,
3:45:51 but he’s going to read it for us.
3:45:53 I’m going to read it for you.
3:45:54 - Thank you, Christine.
3:45:55 I just want to say thank you to all of our speakers tonight.
3:45:57 I appreciate everyone’s patience
3:45:59 in this difficult circumstance,
3:46:02 and thank you to our team at Telephone Town Hall
3:46:04 that he had intended to provide us verbally last night
3:46:08 via email this morning.
3:46:09 So Ms. Escobar is going to read those into the record for us.
3:46:12 - My name is Danielle Shea from Melbourne.
3:46:14 My family and I recently moved from Pennsylvania
3:46:17 in mid-March during all the crazy,
3:46:19 so our Longleaf Elementary daughter
3:46:21 and Johnson Middle School daughter
3:46:23 had to start and finish the year virtually.
3:46:26 I’m speaking after seeing the Spectrum News 13 piece
3:46:29 that reported the Brevard County Teachers Union VP
3:46:32 said that sending students back to school would be a disaster.
3:46:36 Upon reading the article, I also got to review the draft
3:46:39 of the Brevard County reopening plan.
3:46:42 First, regarding the teachers’ comments,
3:46:43 I believe Governor DeSantis is absolutely right
3:46:47 in attempting to get things back to livable in Florida,
3:46:50 and having a common-sense reopening plan
3:46:52 will be key in doing so.
3:46:55 While I truly appreciate the care and safety
3:46:57 put into the reopening plan for our children,
3:47:00 I am truly concerned about any mandated masks
3:47:03 and extreme social distancing.
3:47:06 Regarding masks, there are articles everywhere,
3:47:09 but one such article from the CDC mentioned
3:47:12 the proper masks for the proper environment,
3:47:15 and unless our children are already sick,
3:47:17 are going to operate in a sterile environment,
3:47:20 or in a contaminated workplace, they do not need masks.
3:47:24 If they already are sick, they shouldn’t be in school.
3:47:27 When we exhale, we are ridding our body of carbon dioxide
3:47:30 and lung contaminants.
3:47:32 A mask on a healthy person does nothing
3:47:34 but trap all this nasty stuff in,
3:47:37 and mixed with a person constantly touching the mask
3:47:39 to adjust it, do you really think this is helping anyone?
3:47:43 Per the CDC website, there have been no deaths
3:47:46 under the age of 20.
3:47:48 The majority of deaths are in the elderly
3:47:50 or people with underlying conditions.
3:47:52 Why should our children suffer?
3:47:55 Before leaving Pennsylvania, I was on the school board
3:47:57 for eight years, and one thing that was ever-increasing
3:48:00 was the need for mental health intervention.
3:48:03 I don’t know if that’s the case in Florida.
3:48:05 However, I fear it will absolutely be the case
3:48:08 if we start subjecting our kids to social isolation,
3:48:13 because that’s what it is.
3:48:14 It’s not simply distancing, no playing on playgrounds,
3:48:17 not hanging with their friends at lunch,
3:48:19 or during group sessions.
3:48:21 The American Academy of Pediatrics,
3:48:23 which you mentioned in the draft,
3:48:25 sees the importance of children being physically able
3:48:27 to learn and socialize.
3:48:29 Please consider leaving the mask wearing
3:48:32 as an individual decision.
3:48:34 Our children have more of a chance of death
3:48:36 by car accident or drowning than by COVID,
3:48:39 and they’re still getting into cars and going to the beach.
3:48:42 The flu is still a thing,
3:48:44 and each of your children do die from the flu,
3:48:46 but we don’t require masks every flu season.
3:48:49 The parents that feel so strongly about masks
3:48:52 could do the e-learning alternative,
3:48:54 or their own children could wear a mask.
3:48:56 The best preventative is still the mandate
3:48:58 that has been told by our grandmothers for generations.
3:49:01 Wash your hands, don’t touch your face,
3:49:03 sneeze or cough into your elbow.
3:49:05 This virus is not going away,
3:49:07 and we have to learn to live with it,
3:49:08 the key word being live.
3:49:10 Thank you.
3:49:13 - Thank you very much, Ms. Osterbar.
3:49:15 Board members, are you okay?
3:49:17 Typically, I would ask if anyone would like to respond
3:49:19 to any of the public speakers,
3:49:23 but I personally feel like we probably need
3:49:26 to get through the presentation of the plan,
3:49:29 which will probably address a lot of those things.
3:49:31 But is there any individual thing
3:49:34 that you all feel the need to address
3:49:37 before I move on to the consent agenda?
3:49:40 Ms. Campbell.
3:49:41 - Just briefly, and I think some of the people
3:49:43 who left comments on this particular issue of us
3:49:45 not of us having a virtual meeting,
3:49:47 we’re obviously not having a virtual meeting,
3:49:48 we are having an in-person meeting.
3:49:50 We’ve actually not had a virtual school board meeting
3:49:52 at all since the events back in March.
3:49:54 But I just want people to be aware
3:49:55 that the main reason for that is not for us,
3:49:58 but it’s for the mandate for the phase that we’re in
3:50:02 to not have meetings of over 50 people.
3:50:04 And we regularly have more than 50 people in this room.
3:50:07 So I just want people to know that we hear you,
3:50:10 and we’re gonna move back to allowing the public in
3:50:14 as quickly as we can.
3:50:16 We actually just had that conversation last Thursday.
3:50:18 But we have been having these in-person meetings
3:50:20 for our school board meetings as much as possible.
3:50:24 But we appreciate those comments.
3:50:27 - Very good.
3:50:28 All right, that will take us into the consent agenda,
3:50:30 Dr. Mullins.
3:50:33 - There are 18 agenda items under the consent agenda.
3:50:37 - Thank you.
3:50:38 Does any board member wish to pull any items
3:50:39 from the consent agenda?
3:50:44 Seeing none, I will entertain a motion
3:50:46 to accept the consent agenda as presented.
3:50:50 - Second.
3:50:51 - Moved by Ms. Deskevich, seconded by Ms. Campbell.
3:50:54 Is there any discussion?
3:50:56 All right, Ms. Deskevich,
3:50:57 if you would please call for the vote.
3:51:00 - Ms. Belford.
3:51:01 - Aye.
3:51:01 - Ms. Deskevich.
3:51:02 - Aye.
3:51:03 - Ms. McDougall.
3:51:04 - Aye.
3:51:05 - Ms. Campbell.
3:51:06 - Aye.
3:51:07 - And Mr. Susan.
3:51:07 - Aye.
3:51:09 - Okay, we will move on to the action agenda, Dr. Mullins.
3:51:13 - Ms. Belford, there are seven items under this category.
3:51:17 The first action item is the district reopening plan.
3:51:19 As I stated earlier, and you’ve mentioned,
3:51:21 I’ll be presenting the plan to the board
3:51:23 and the viewing audience prior to the vote.
3:51:27 I will make my way to the podium
3:51:29 so that we can display the presentation as I discuss it.
3:51:33 - Thank you.
3:51:49 (muffled speaking)
3:52:03 All right, can the board hear me okay?
3:52:06 Okay.
3:52:07 So before we get started,
3:52:08 I’ll acknowledge that the reopening plan looks
3:52:11 and it’s gonna be very familiar or similar
3:52:14 to the presentation we made last Thursday
3:52:17 to the board in the workshop session,
3:52:19 which essentially was the draft
3:52:20 and the work that had been done leading up to it.
3:52:24 I’ll be going through it again,
3:52:25 but I wanna note before we get started
3:52:27 that there had been modifications.
3:52:29 I wanna highlight those before we get started
3:52:31 so you know what to anticipate.
3:52:33 And particularly for our listening audience,
3:52:35 as we had several viewers last Thursday,
3:52:38 they’ll know where there may be differences
3:52:40 in modifications since we met last,
3:52:42 because I want to acknowledge last week was the draft.
3:52:46 The intent and the purpose was to present the work
3:52:48 that the task force had done,
3:52:51 the feedback that they had received
3:52:52 through lots of different sources
3:52:54 and present it to the board to receive your feedback
3:52:57 and input, as well as continue listening to our community
3:53:01 and identifying where we may need to make some modifications
3:53:04 and adjustments to meet the needs of our community.
3:53:07 And as anticipated and as we’ve been living
3:53:10 for several weeks, things change from day to day and so on.
3:53:14 So I think you’ll see that.
3:53:16 Specifically, we have modified the language around masks.
3:53:22 We have, I’ll be providing an update
3:53:24 on our elementary work groups around their efforts
3:53:27 to further detail the work
3:53:29 and the expectations for our schools.
3:53:33 I’ll provide an update on the secondary plan
3:53:35 that includes the development
3:53:37 of an e-learning option for our students.
3:53:41 We’ll be providing a review of work conditions
3:53:44 related to leave, medical leave for students,
3:53:50 or excuse me, for staff in the event
3:53:52 that they have to be quarantined or test COVID positive.
3:53:57 And then I’ll also be presenting a calendar modification
3:54:00 with a recommendation that we move the student start date
3:54:04 of school from August 11th to August 17th.
3:54:09 And I’ll discuss that at the end of the presentation.
3:54:14 So to get started, as we’ve been working,
3:54:17 we early in the realization of COVID
3:54:19 and as a district identified priorities
3:54:23 when we left for spring break
3:54:25 and we’re addressing the needs that were evident
3:54:30 as we went into this situation.
3:54:33 Number one, maintain the health and safety welfare
3:54:35 of our students, as well as our staff.
3:54:37 While providing a quality learning opportunity
3:54:40 and access to those learning opportunities for our students,
3:54:44 while also sustaining financial stability,
3:54:47 and then providing the community the supports
3:54:49 and resources necessary to maintain both the wellbeing
3:54:53 and the academic success of our students.
3:54:55 I think there’s a robust evidence
3:54:58 of the support we provided our community
3:55:00 during the last nine weeks of the school year,
3:55:02 where we served over one and a half million meals.
3:55:05 We provided over 15,000 devices, 2,000 hotspots,
3:55:09 as well as a variety of supports
3:55:13 from virtual IEP meetings to staffing meetings and so on.
3:55:18 And we’re prepared to continue
3:55:20 and provide all of those supports as we move forward.
3:55:27 When the task force met, they first grounded themselves
3:55:30 in our strategic plan to ensure that we were remaining
3:55:34 on course and on pace to meet our objectives.
3:55:37 And that was not a difficult ask, quite frankly,
3:55:42 because our strategic plan clearly aligns with the work
3:55:46 that we were doing and the work we were faced
3:55:49 and are faced with doing,
3:55:51 it just required modifications and reconsidering.
3:55:54 Whether it’s ensuring our students are engaged daily,
3:55:57 providing our students with skilled, certified teachers
3:56:02 who hold high expectations, equitable supports,
3:56:08 quality learning and education for our students
3:56:12 who are experiencing achievement gaps,
3:56:15 as well as providing all families access
3:56:17 to literacy supports.
3:56:20 And our exceptional workforce objective,
3:56:23 continuing to staff our schools and district positions
3:56:28 with high quality employees,
3:56:30 continuing meaningful professional development
3:56:34 and continuing to compensate our employees.
3:56:38 Community connection, keeping our public aware
3:56:43 and building trust in our community
3:56:46 and our ability to sustain our students and our staff.
3:56:50 Expanding stakeholder engagement,
3:56:51 I think that is evident that I’ll share in a few minutes
3:56:54 the number of participants and individuals
3:56:58 who contributed our online portal
3:57:00 for feedback and input to our plan.
3:57:04 As well as monitoring and measuring external
3:57:08 and internal customer service satisfaction.
3:57:15 And then operational sustainability.
3:57:17 Obviously it’s been mentioned by our speakers today,
3:57:20 we had discussion at length last week,
3:57:22 that there is a significant element
3:57:24 of operational sustainability.
3:57:26 We’re fortunate to have CARES Act funds,
3:57:30 all be at one time funds available to the district
3:57:34 to apply to and support our learning environment
3:57:38 moving forward to provide safe, healthy
3:57:40 and fully equipped working learning environments.
3:57:43 To transport our students safely and efficiently
3:57:46 and to incorporate sustainable
3:57:47 financial procurement practices.
3:57:50 And I already gave a shout out to our procurement department
3:57:53 for the work that they’ve done.
3:57:54 And I will take this opportunity
3:57:56 to respond to one of the individuals
3:57:59 that provided a comment earlier,
3:58:01 was concerned about our ability to obtain
3:58:04 and procure equipment, devices and so on.
3:58:08 That is a non-issue for us right now,
3:58:10 because our team and our procurement department
3:58:13 were first out of the gate to acquire masks
3:58:17 and cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer.
3:58:20 We’re in the process of receiving those right now,
3:58:23 getting them warehoused, getting them inventoried
3:58:25 and getting them distributed to our schools.
3:58:28 So I can confidently tell you,
3:58:29 we are well ahead of the supply chain challenge
3:58:34 that other districts may be experiencing.
3:58:38 All of this work done within the context
3:58:40 and the framework of equity.
3:58:42 That is our priority as educators
3:58:44 and certainly as Brevard Public School leaders
3:58:48 to ensure that each child has access
3:58:50 to relevant and challenging academic experiences.
3:58:53 And that essentially aligns with the recent emergency order
3:58:58 from the Florida Department of Education,
3:59:00 Commissioner of Education,
3:59:03 with a priority on ensuring that all of our students
3:59:06 have access to quality learning experiences.
3:59:08 And I’ll go into more detail on that in a few minutes.
3:59:14 As our team proceeded, they obviously
3:59:21 leaned on and sought out these agencies and resources
3:59:28 as we were facing an unprecedented situation
3:59:32 to garner the expertise and the direction
3:59:35 from those agencies.
3:59:37 But we also went out to our community.
3:59:39 At the beginning of June, we stood up a online portal
3:59:43 for any individual across our community to provide input.
3:59:47 And we received 11,991 inputs or items related to,
3:59:57 through the portal.
3:59:59 For the different types of stakeholders
4:00:01 across our community, parents and guardians
4:00:03 had access to the portal,
4:00:05 but also our school advisory councils across our 83 schools
4:00:09 met with principals and had robust discussion
4:00:12 about the impact of returning or reopening schools
4:00:16 on their local school environment.
4:00:18 And then principals provided that feedback
4:00:21 to our task force.
4:00:24 Teachers and staff, they too could access the portal.
4:00:27 However, teachers were provided specific teacher type
4:00:31 feedback opportunities because I think I’ve said before,
4:00:34 there are a teacher isn’t a teacher.
4:00:38 We have primary teachers, we have intermediate teachers,
4:00:41 we have middle school teachers
4:00:43 that are both core subject area and elective oriented.
4:00:47 We have high school teachers where in any high school,
4:00:49 we just have dozens upon dozens of different types
4:00:52 of courses that require different kinds of certification
4:00:56 and learning environments and laboratories and so on.
4:00:59 The team identified over 40 different teacher type
4:01:03 classifications and they sought feedback and input
4:01:06 from all of those different types of teachers.
4:01:09 In addition, our site-based administrators
4:01:12 were certainly given access to the online portal,
4:01:15 but also participated in a specific survey
4:01:17 for administrators to really garner and understand
4:01:20 their perspective and the challenges
4:01:22 that they know they would be facing at the school level
4:01:25 that we may be overlooking as we proceeded.
4:01:30 And of course, our community leaders
4:01:32 participated in input and feedback through the portal,
4:01:35 as well as were invited into the school advisory council
4:01:39 discussions at our school level.
4:01:41 So you can see we had a very robust opportunity
4:01:44 for our community to provide input
4:01:47 in all of the considerations.
4:01:48 And I will steal or if you will, plagiarize the feedback
4:01:55 or comment of, I think it was Dr. Sullivan.
4:01:58 Every comment and feedback, a lot of them were repeated,
4:02:02 but often there were nuggets of ahas that contributed
4:02:07 to the task force in considering,
4:02:08 OK, we need to think about this element of transportation
4:02:13 or here’s something about cafeterias we need to consider
4:02:17 and so on.
4:02:19 In summary, I wish I could present
4:02:21 to the board and our community that there
4:02:23 was a prevailing or predominant perspective, but there isn’t.
4:02:31 As diverse as our community is, which
4:02:34 is a rich benefit to us as a community,
4:02:38 there also is diverse opinion, perspective, and position
4:02:42 on a lot of the issues we’re facing today
4:02:45 related to reopening.
4:02:50 I know there is concern about reopening our schools
4:02:55 and there is also readiness for our students to return.
4:02:58 What I would say is, as much as I’m presenting a plan today,
4:03:03 there is also still much work to be done.
4:03:07 We have 83 schools and over 40 different school design types.
4:03:13 We can’t make decisions today or recommendations today
4:03:17 for all schools necessarily when they may not
4:03:22 be applicable to all schools or accommodate different school
4:03:26 needs.
4:03:27 But what we’ve tried to do is build expectations
4:03:32 and requirements that apply to all schools
4:03:35 and our leading and learning directors
4:03:37 are now working with school leaders individually
4:03:40 and their leadership teams at the school
4:03:43 to fine-tune and further refine the applications
4:03:47 across the schools.
4:03:48 You saw a glimpse of that in the principal checklist that’s
4:03:52 provided at the end of the presentation.
4:03:54 So our school-based administrators,
4:03:56 who I hailed earlier with a shout-out,
4:03:59 are continuing a considerable amount of work
4:04:02 even now to fine-tune and refine the plans of reopening
4:04:07 for their specific school.
4:04:08 And our district leaders are working closely with them,
4:04:11 bringing like principals together
4:04:14 in a like-school design to collaborate and discuss
4:04:18 how are you handling coming into school, dismissal, class
4:04:23 change, but then also working with principals
4:04:27 with a absolutely unique school design
4:04:30 to make sure that we’re making every consideration possible.
4:04:35 But again, I would suggest the plan, the implementation,
4:04:40 isn’t final.
4:04:41 And it will need revising as we go along.
4:04:45 But I’m confident our administrators
4:04:47 are making great strides in putting
4:04:50 all of the measures in place to maximize safety.
4:04:59 The American Academy of Pediatrics
4:05:01 has been referenced several times.
4:05:03 We presented it last week.
4:05:05 Obviously, they have a vested interest
4:05:08 in the perspective of working with children, our youth.
4:05:11 And we went to them for their guidance
4:05:16 as we developed the plan that we’re moving forward on.
4:05:22 You’ll see in the action item agenda recommendation
4:05:27 that the board approved the plan.
4:05:30 But also, it allows for adjustments
4:05:33 given the uncharted waters we’re in and what
4:05:36 may change as we go forward.
4:05:42 Again, the AAP, or American Academy of Pediatrics,
4:05:46 has advocated that all policy considerations for the coming
4:05:50 school year should start with the goal of having students
4:05:52 physically be present in school.
4:05:55 However, it was referenced that more recently, late last week,
4:06:00 that the AAP released an additional statement
4:06:03 acknowledging that further consideration needed
4:06:08 to be made at the local level about the decisions of how
4:06:12 and when to reopen schools.
4:06:14 And acknowledging that a one-size-fits-all approach
4:06:17 is not appropriate for the return to school decisions.
4:06:21 Hence, why we have continued to evaluate the feedback
4:06:23 and the input from the board, as well as our community,
4:06:26 to continue to refine and develop
4:06:28 our plan moving forward.
4:06:33 So I’d like to just overview the opening efforts that
4:06:39 are operational related.
4:06:40 And then I’ll talk for a few minutes
4:06:42 about the educational elements.
4:06:45 Things like removing clutter from our classrooms
4:06:48 to include actually warehousing those items,
4:06:52 inventorying and tracking them so that they
4:06:55 can be returned to schools once we’re
4:06:57 beyond our current situation.
4:06:59 But schools and our distribution warehouse department
4:07:03 are already working together to get those items removed
4:07:05 because the reality is our schools don’t have space
4:07:09 to keep things stored.
4:07:13 Ensuring that desks will be turned in the same direction.
4:07:16 We have gone to a very collaborative learning
4:07:18 environment.
4:07:19 We’re going to have to suspend that practice as we
4:07:22 go into the new school year.
4:07:24 And our school leaders will be required to do that.
4:07:28 Addressing traffic patterns, installing plexiglass barriers.
4:07:34 Schedules will be designed to minimize
4:07:36 congregation of communal areas.
4:07:38 School teams are working on their arrival and dismissal
4:07:41 protocols to minimize interaction.
4:07:44 Water fountains are going to be restricted for use only
4:07:46 with filling a water bottle.
4:07:50 Cleaning products have been procured
4:07:53 and are being provided to schools, as I already
4:07:55 addressed, from PPEs, the hand sanitizer, and so on.
4:08:00 And our staff are being trained on additional cleaning
4:08:04 procedures and protocols as we move forward.
4:08:07 I want to emphasize this doesn’t identify specific details
4:08:13 because much of this work is happening at the school level.
4:08:16 And we’re working with our administrators
4:08:18 to ensure they have all of the information and the materials
4:08:21 they need.
4:08:24 Continuing with operational efforts going on,
4:08:27 even right now, maintenance is working on filter changes,
4:08:32 as well as we’re planning to extend air conditioning running
4:08:35 times for our schools to increase air circulation.
4:08:40 Transportation is working toward no more than two students
4:08:44 per seat, as well as an emphasis on students,
4:08:53 staff, we want to support you and encourage you to stay home
4:08:57 when you are not well.
4:09:00 And we are going to work with you on attendance,
4:09:02 and we’re going to work with you on interfering with the
4:09:06 learning
4:09:06 environment, and so on, ultimately
4:09:09 supporting the ongoing learning of our students
4:09:11 in those instances.
4:09:13 We recognize, and I’ll talk about it a little bit more
4:09:16 later on, that our clinics are going
4:09:17 to be critical to the support of our schools,
4:09:20 as they will help assess and evaluate
4:09:24 the health and well-being of our students and staff.
4:09:27 So we’re looking at our clinics to ensure
4:09:29 that they can accommodate for space
4:09:31 and separation of individuals.
4:09:34 We’re developing our professional development
4:09:36 protocols that includes videos and guidelines,
4:09:41 and the development protocol of when
4:09:43 to close a classroom, a school, and decision points.
4:09:46 We had quite a bit of discussion,
4:09:47 and I know there have been requests and expectations
4:09:49 from the community as well as the union of what
4:09:52 that is going to be.
4:09:53 We’re going to address that again
4:09:54 towards the end of the presentation today.
4:09:57 In addition, we’re standing up a designated custodial strike
4:10:02 team that will be nimble and able to go into a school
4:10:06 classroom and do rapid deep cleaning as is necessary.
4:10:12 So to recap, the district’s purchased supplies
4:10:15 for operations.
4:10:17 We’ve obtained over 1,000 thermometers
4:10:19 for the organization currently.
4:10:21 They’ve already been received and distributed.
4:10:24 Face masks– we have hundreds of thousands of face masks
4:10:29 that have been made available to schools and our transportation
4:10:32 department.
4:10:33 We’ve also obtained a face shield.
4:10:37 It’s a plastic covering, very lightweight, very comfortable.
4:10:41 I have one in my office.
4:10:43 For all of our teachers, every one of our teachers
4:10:45 will receive a face shield in addition
4:10:49 to every one of our instructional assistants
4:10:51 so that they have an alternative to a mask that
4:10:54 allows a student to see their lips when they’re talking.
4:10:59 We forget how often we depend on reading lips and enunciation
4:11:06 to sustain that literacy continuity in our classrooms.
4:11:10 Plexiglas dividers have been obtained
4:11:13 are being distributed to our schools.
4:11:15 Cleaning products for every classroom–
4:11:17 that is something we’ve gone out and done
4:11:21 since our last conversation.
4:11:22 Every classroom will have the availability
4:11:24 of a disinfectant spray bottle and materials for the teacher
4:11:28 to use at their discretion.
4:11:30 We introduced the misting fogger that every school and district
4:11:34 site will have that allows for additional disinfecting
4:11:37 and in a very comprehensive way.
4:11:40 And then we’ve also made funds available to our schools
4:11:43 for individual or site-based purchases through CARES Act.
4:11:49 From an educational perspective, we’ve
4:11:51 developed early warning systems to collect data and target
4:11:56 students who would benefit from additional summer instruction.
4:11:59 We have approximately 400 students
4:12:01 who are participating in summer learning
4:12:03 now across our district, also being provided transportation.
4:12:08 We’ve begun to review our medically fragile students
4:12:11 and develop individual health plans for them.
4:12:13 Already, staff are working on that in preparation
4:12:15 for the school year, as well as prepare
4:12:18 to address our students with disabilities
4:12:21 to make progress on their IEP goals
4:12:23 upon the return to learning.
4:12:28 Our ET department, Educational Technology, Mr. Cheatham,
4:12:31 has the unenviable task of managing tens of thousands–
4:12:36 I think, if I remember correctly,
4:12:37 up to 80,000 devices across our district.
4:12:41 We discussed last time that we distributed 15,000 devices.
4:12:46 His team is working tirelessly to inventory, clean,
4:12:52 and re-image devices and computers
4:12:55 for flexibility of use in the coming school year.
4:12:58 We don’t anticipate utilizing labs like we have in the past.
4:13:02 We’re going to be pushing more devices
4:13:03 into the classroom for individual student use,
4:13:06 as well as be prepared to support students
4:13:09 who may need a device for e-learning
4:13:11 or if we have to implement distance learning.
4:13:16 We’ve also provided every one of our schools
4:13:19 additional school counselor hours and additional hours
4:13:22 for assistant principals at the elementary schools,
4:13:25 because, as the board knows, our elementary schools
4:13:30 don’t have assistant principals, typically, in the summer.
4:13:33 And we provided them hours for that assistance.
4:13:36 In addition, we’re supporting students in transition
4:13:39 through the summer.
4:13:40 That includes meals, social worker support,
4:13:43 and additional supplies and provisions
4:13:45 as we determine what they may be.
4:13:49 Further, we are developing our social-emotional curriculum
4:13:53 for students who are confronted with the challenges
4:13:58 exacerbated by COVID-19.
4:14:00 We’re developing and preparing to launch
4:14:03 our trauma-informed compassion fatigue training
4:14:06 for school staff.
4:14:09 None of us anticipated the duration and the depth
4:14:13 of what COVID would present us on that Friday
4:14:17 before spring break.
4:14:18 I think it was March 15.
4:14:20 I think we mentally thought this was going to be a short run,
4:14:24 because we were getting ahead of it.
4:14:26 But we’re now confronted with the reality
4:14:28 of this is going to be a longer duration reality.
4:14:30 And this training, in particular,
4:14:32 begins to give staff the skills and the supports
4:14:36 and the concepts to help manage students
4:14:41 as they work through trauma, as well as
4:14:44 how to manage compassion fatigue in their own lives.
4:14:50 We’re preparing to have technology
4:14:51 available for use on day one.
4:14:54 Our school improvement plan process
4:14:56 will include additional requirements
4:14:59 for academic support programs that
4:15:01 can be funded through CARES Act funds, as well as begin–
4:15:08 we are working on curriculum plans and resources
4:15:11 for blended instruction with high quality
4:15:15 instructional materials.
4:15:17 So there was a lot of work going on, even right now,
4:15:21 in preparation for the school year,
4:15:23 both in a very tangible, operational way,
4:15:26 but also from an educational or academic way,
4:15:29 not only to meet the needs that we identify right now
4:15:31 of our students who are in academic and enhanced learning,
4:15:36 but also in preparation for the return.
4:15:39 I’d like to take a few minutes and review and provide
4:15:42 another look at the emergency order that was provided
4:15:46 last Monday, July 6, from the Florida Department of Education,
4:15:50 our commissioner.
4:15:53 Essentially, the emergency order provided or presented
4:15:58 seven assurances for school districts
4:16:01 as they worked on reopening of schools.
4:16:05 Assurance one, districts will assure
4:16:08 that all brick and mortar schools open in August,
4:16:10 at least five days per week for all students.
4:16:15 Assurance two, districts must provide the full array
4:16:17 of services that are required by law
4:16:20 to include in-person instruction and all of the services
4:16:23 that we need to provide to our diverse students
4:16:27 and population.
4:16:29 Assurance that the district will provide robust progress
4:16:32 monitoring to all students.
4:16:34 We actually were pleased, and that aligned with us completely
4:16:38 because we were already developing our reentry progress
4:16:43 monitoring plan, because we know we
4:16:46 need to assess and measure our kids’ academic growth
4:16:49 since they left us.
4:16:51 It’s been months since they were with us,
4:16:53 so we are working toward that plan already.
4:16:57 Assurance four, districts will work with IEP teams
4:17:01 to determine the needed services,
4:17:03 including compensatory services where needed or appropriate.
4:17:07 Assurance five, the district will work with English language
4:17:11 learner committees to support our ELL students who
4:17:15 may have regressed during this time of absence.
4:17:19 Districts must share with the department regularly progress
4:17:22 monitoring data.
4:17:23 We have to actually submit our progress monitoring data
4:17:27 to the state and demonstrate that we are not only collecting
4:17:30 data, but we are also responding to that data,
4:17:34 and that we will collect reopening plans
4:17:36 from each charter school to ensure that they are meeting
4:17:40 these assurances as well.
4:17:43 So in summary, there’s really three components
4:17:46 to the emergency order.
4:17:51 Three components, one in format, in content, and progress,
4:17:55 or progress monitoring.
4:17:57 In format, we can provide either live synchronous
4:18:01 or asynchronous education.
4:18:04 Synchronous being alongside the traditional school day,
4:18:08 and asynchronous being provided more statically on a platform.
4:18:14 But it must also include the ability for students
4:18:17 to interact with teachers and peers.
4:18:20 With relation to content, we must provide the same content
4:18:24 and instructional hours, whether in person or at home.
4:18:27 So our e-learning platform or model
4:18:30 must align with the formatting requirements,
4:18:34 but also utilize the curriculum and the instructional hours
4:18:39 that students experience in our schools.
4:18:42 It must address equity for all types of learners,
4:18:45 our low income, ESE, ELL, and struggling students.
4:18:49 And it must focus on narrowing achievement gaps,
4:18:52 and through progress monitoring, determine if students
4:18:55 are making progress or not, and put
4:18:57 the appropriate academic corrections in place, which
4:19:01 includes any students who may be learning through the e-learning
4:19:05 platform at home.
4:19:08 Progress monitoring, we must maintain automated attendance
4:19:10 records by day and hours of instruction for all students.
4:19:15 We must have a system for monitoring daily engagements
4:19:17 in every class, again, conduct progress monitoring,
4:19:22 and provide the results to the DOE.
4:19:25 So ultimately, all non-traditional education plans
4:19:30 must be submitted to the Florida Department of Education
4:19:33 by July 30th, and it requires approval from the DOE
4:19:38 to proceed with that plan.
4:19:41 So that leads us to the framework of our plans,
4:19:44 both the elementary options, as well as the secondary options.
4:19:48 Our elementary options continue to include full-time in-person
4:19:52 at school, a full-time Brevard virtual school option,
4:19:58 a part-time in-person or part-time Brevard virtual school
4:20:03 option.
4:20:04 I was surprised to hear by one of the speakers
4:20:06 earlier that they found Brevard virtual school to not be very–
4:20:11 I don’t remember the exact word, but I got a sense flexible.
4:20:13 I would suggest that is not the case.
4:20:15 Our BVS program is prepared and willing to be
4:20:20 very flexible with our students in consideration,
4:20:25 particularly if that part-time in-person or part-time BVS.
4:20:29 But we’re also continuing to develop our full-time
4:20:32 e-learning from school at home platform for students
4:20:37 in elementary schools.
4:20:39 And that is, in the state’s term, in the emergency order,
4:20:43 it’s identified as the innovative learning option
4:20:47 that is permissible upon approval.
4:20:49 So I’d like to spend a few minutes outlining
4:20:52 what that looks like.
4:20:55 Before I do that, before I talk about e-learning,
4:20:57 let me just highlight our in-person at school components.
4:21:04 It will be a traditional school day.
4:21:06 Desks will be spaced apart, maximizing social distancing
4:21:11 to the extent possible.
4:21:13 There will be modifications to activity.
4:21:16 Our work groups are working on clustering students
4:21:21 in activities.
4:21:22 So not every student may get all four different
4:21:26 activity experiences each week, like we have had in the past.
4:21:31 They could be clustered in groups and have activity
4:21:34 for an extended period of time to minimize the exposure
4:21:40 of the activity teachers to every student across the school
4:21:44 to cohorts of students for periods of time.
4:21:48 Our elementary work groups are also working to address
4:21:51 departmentalization, where teachers see perhaps a hundred
4:21:55 students throughout the day across a grade level,
4:21:58 to minimize that mobility or that number of students.
4:22:03 At the very least, moving the teacher versus
4:22:05 moving the student.
4:22:09 Our elementary work groups are also looking to provide
4:22:13 principals guidance and leadership on classroom setups,
4:22:17 cafeteria setup and procedures, as well as the development
4:22:21 of virtual tours and virtual meet and greets because you’ll
4:22:25 see later that we are limiting visitors and guests on campus.
4:22:29 But we want to extend engagement of our families and guardians
4:22:33 to our schools with their students, whether they choose
4:22:36 the in-person traditional option or they select the e-learning
4:22:43 option at their local school.
4:22:46 Again, these things are part of the principal checklist that
4:22:51 we’ll review at the end.
4:22:54 Our elementary e-learning model will be a live, teacher-guided,
4:22:59 online quality instruction that mirrors the exact school day,
4:23:05 from 8 to 2.30.
4:23:07 It provides equivalent experience to the traditional
4:23:09 classroom, where students will learn and collaborate with their
4:23:12 peers and teacher in a virtual platform utilizing
4:23:15 Microsoft Teams.
4:23:18 Students will have supportive learning materials at home, and
4:23:21 will even have the opportunity to receive group drive-in
4:23:27 support therapy or support services as dictated or guided
4:23:31 by their IEP or EP.
4:23:35 Students will be able to interact and see other
4:23:37 e-learning classmates and their teacher through the chat
4:23:40 feature as well.
4:23:43 But with an e-learning environment, we have to
4:23:46 recognize that there will be additional expectations for all
4:23:50 of the stakeholders involved in that environment because it will
4:23:53 be removed from the day-to-day interaction of the school.
4:23:56 Expectations for parents, for teachers,
4:23:59 as well as our students.
4:24:01 So I’ll just highlight some of them that are identified here,
4:24:03 and that we would expect our parents to work towards setting
4:24:06 up a dedicated space in the home with supplies and materials
4:24:10 that
4:24:10 really promotes and focuses the learning environment.
4:24:14 That parents would be prepared to assist their child with
4:24:17 accessing the online materials and monitor their participation
4:24:22 and progress to ensure attendance as well as
4:24:25 participation and be prepared to reach out to the teacher and
4:24:28 say
4:24:29 my child is struggling or not understanding a
4:24:32 particular component.
4:24:34 At the same time, our expectations for teachers
4:24:37 include delivering interactive, engaging,
4:24:39 and standards-aligned instructional experiences from
4:24:44 the school site for our students and communicate in an ongoing
4:24:49 way weekly with parents and daily with students.
4:24:54 Lesson plans will need to provide for some flexibility as
4:24:58 well as be prepared to shift to any necessity for a substitute.
4:25:04 And we will be providing our teachers particularly
4:25:08 e-learning school-based professional development to
4:25:10 support them in the development of this learning environment.
4:25:15 Ultimately, the teacher will need to adhere to the school
4:25:17 site schedule.
4:25:18 That includes activity experiences that will stand up
4:25:21 and provide to students that they can do in their home.
4:25:24 Either virtually or pause and do activities in their home
4:25:28 learning environment.
4:25:30 Teachers will need to be intentional and explicit about
4:25:33 timing, pacing, progress monitoring,
4:25:36 and the expectations for students.
4:25:37 And again, it will mirror the traditional classroom setting.
4:25:41 We also have expectations for our students.
4:25:45 That they will be an active learner.
4:25:47 That they will need to help own their progress and reach out to
4:25:51 the teacher when they may be struggling and need help.
4:25:55 But also be prepared to work to some degree independently but
4:26:00 with teacher assistance.
4:26:03 Students will be expected to complete progress monitoring
4:26:07 diagnostics in a secure location at least three times per year.
4:26:11 So there may be instances where a parent needs to bring the
4:26:13 child into the school at a designated time to be able to
4:26:17 participate in progress monitoring.
4:26:23 Ultimately, this is not the distance learning model of last
4:26:28 spring.
4:26:29 This is a very robust, engaging e-learning experience that
4:26:34 requires both additional effort on the teacher’s part but also
4:26:37 on the student and their family.
4:26:42 We have already pushed out a survey to elementary parents to
4:26:46 provide, get some sense of what the response or interest may be
4:26:50 in the e-learning opportunity.
4:26:53 Right now, of the students we have enrolled,
4:26:57 it appears as though we have probably a 25% response interest
4:27:03 rate in an e-learning opportunity through their
4:27:06 child’s school.
4:27:07 So we’re continuing to monitor that as we continue to get
4:27:11 survey results.
4:27:15 I want to highlight, you’ll see in the bottom right hand corner
4:27:18 of this slide, that our e-learning model requires
4:27:23 ultimately the DOE’s approval.
4:27:26 Our elementary team right now, we just received the template
4:27:29 from the DOE, I believe it was Friday,
4:27:32 for the submission of our innovative learning options for
4:27:37 what we’re calling Viera Elementary School e-learning.
4:27:41 So our e-learning plan has to be submitted to the state by July
4:27:48 30th, and they’re assuring expeditious approval or
4:27:53 turnaround.
4:27:55 So that takes us to our secondary options.
4:27:58 We presented last week that we are prepared for our full-time
4:28:03 in-person school option at our secondary sites.
4:28:07 Again, full-time Brevard Virtual School,
4:28:10 a part-time in-person or part-time Brevard Virtual School
4:28:14 option, a full or part-time dual enrollment option.
4:28:22 Since we met last week, we also engaged in what a e-learning
4:28:26 option would look like in our secondary schools.
4:28:31 That becomes increasingly feasible as we have walked out
4:28:35 our examination of block scheduling.
4:28:39 We are, at this point, very optimistic about the feasibility
4:28:43 of block scheduling, as our administrators are continuing to
4:28:46 work with leading and learning to identify what that would
4:28:49 look like.
4:28:51 And an acknowledgment that a block schedule environment is
4:28:56 most optimal, the most optimal option for maximizing safety.
4:29:01 So our secondary e-learning platform that is being developed
4:29:08 and reviewed would require, ultimately, the availability of
4:29:12 all teachers in a school environment.
4:29:15 There has been a suggestion of an e-learning option for just
4:29:19 certain types of students, but that does not meet the DOE’s
4:29:23 assurances of an equitable option or access to all
4:29:26 students, and we certainly, it would not align with our own
4:29:30 equity framework, so we are pursuing an e-learning option
4:29:34 across secondary for any student who would want to access that
4:29:37 option.
4:29:39 Again, it is additionally feasible with a block schedule
4:29:42 environment.
4:29:43 It does require meeting all of the DOE assurances that I
4:29:47 reviewed earlier and final approval.
4:29:50 And ultimately, I want to recognize it would reduce the
4:29:54 in-class student numbers in the classroom because a teacher may
4:30:00 be supporting both in-person and e-learning students within a
4:30:05 section or a particular period throughout the day.
4:30:10 In presenting this to our school leaders, they stand ready to
4:30:15 continue working on block and standing up e-learning as we
4:30:18 move forward.
4:30:22 I want to take a moment and just review both the opportunities
4:30:26 and acknowledge the challenges that come with the consideration
4:30:29 of block.
4:30:31 The opportunities our school administrators and custodians
4:30:34 will need to manage fewer class transition, ultimately half as
4:30:38 many, from seven-period day traditional schedule to a
4:30:43 four-period day block, less students in a space throughout
4:30:47 the day, fewer shared materials, and the configuration provides
4:30:52 the opportunity to ultimately accelerate graduation because we
4:30:56 do have students who find themselves with the ability to
4:31:02 graduate in December because they were able to meet all of
4:31:06 their course requirements with the block scheduling and give
4:31:11 them the access and opportunity to either pursue workforce or do
4:31:15 early admissions.
4:31:18 At the same time, there are challenges that we have
4:31:20 acknowledged and weighed.
4:31:22 That is the impact of hurricane days having on the instructional
4:31:27 hours, a single day absence has a greater impact because one day
4:31:32 essentially equates to two days of learning.
4:31:36 Professional development, which is part of the reason that I’ll
4:31:39 be proposing the modified school calendar in a little bit to
4:31:43 provide teachers additional four days of pre-planning to support
4:31:48 them in the preparation not only for this platform but also our
4:31:52 e-learning platform as well.
4:31:55 And advanced placement testing, those students who would be
4:31:58 taking an advanced placement course first semester would have
4:32:02 some delay second semester as they awaited to take the AP
4:32:07 placement test.
4:32:09 I will tell you that as a district, we have impressive AP
4:32:13 test results and I attribute and give kudos and shout out to our
4:32:18 teachers.
4:32:20 My own children who took AP classes, they took them
4:32:23 throughout the year but there were many weekend sessions that
4:32:27 my kids went to.
4:32:29 Thank you, Mr. Cattell, you got my son through AP Calc by virtue
4:32:34 of those weekend efforts and I would suspect that our AP
4:32:39 teachers would continue to provide those opportunities to
4:32:42 our students in preparation for the AP exams.
4:32:48 So that is a summary of our secondary learning options.
4:32:52 You can see that we have worked toward providing more
4:32:56 flexibility and options to our students moving forward and will
4:33:00 certainly have more information in the coming days and next week
4:33:03 or so for our secondary students.
4:33:07 That takes us into our in-school guidelines, particularly around
4:33:11 different areas, the first being health screening.
4:33:18 It is important to note and acknowledge that our parents,
4:33:22 our guardians, our grandmas and grandfathers who are helping
4:33:26 care for our kids, we absolutely as always but even more so are
4:33:31 dependent on them being a first level of daily health check of
4:33:35 their child.
4:33:37 A child’s guardian is the most knowledgeable individual of a
4:33:41 child’s health, understands what’s going on at home and in
4:33:45 that environment at home and we ask that they fully engage in
4:33:50 monitoring their child’s health and help us manage that and we
4:33:55 support them keeping their child home when they may be showing
4:33:59 signs of illness, regardless of what the illness is.
4:34:05 At the same time our schools will identify students who may
4:34:10 not necessarily have equally supported supports at home and
4:34:14 be prepared to support our kids when they come onto campus.
4:34:18 We will be allowing parents excused absences when a student
4:34:27 is kept home as a result of school officials for health
4:34:31 related reasons.
4:34:37 Again, school and parent partnership is critical as we
4:34:41 move forward to ensure that all students are properly supported
4:34:45 and that staff have the information they need to assist
4:34:48 students and keep students safe as well as keep our staff safe.
4:34:55 Parents and legal guardians are responsible to promptly pick up
4:34:58 or properly arrange for the pickup of a student sent home
4:35:01 through the clinic and we ask them to have backup plans and be
4:35:05 prepared to respond to a school if and when we need to reach out
4:35:09 to them.
4:35:11 We will verify contact information when students
4:35:14 register and make sure that it is updated in our district
4:35:19 database system so that we have emergency contact information.
4:35:22 We ask parents, as always, but it’s critically important that
4:35:25 as their personal information changes that they provide us
4:35:30 updates to that throughout the year.
4:35:38 Face coverings, as we discussed and considered the practice of
4:35:44 face coverings, again, we went to the American Academy of
4:35:47 Pediatrics because they understand best the impact and
4:35:53 the utilization of face coverings, particularly for
4:35:56 children.
4:36:00 They acknowledge that evidence continues to mount on the
4:36:04 importance of universal face coverings to interrupt the
4:36:07 spread of COVID.
4:36:09 But they also acknowledge that some individuals, students or
4:36:14 staff, may be unable to safely wear a cloth face covering
4:36:19 because of certain medical conditions, as well as there may
4:36:23 be developmentally appropriate and feasible considerations that
4:36:27 have to be taken, particularly with some of our youngest
4:36:29 learners.
4:36:32 So we have leaned on the AAP for consideration of face coverings
4:36:36 and they will continue to be a go-to reference that we will
4:36:41 need to count on for guidance, but at the same time, with an
4:36:46 expectation and understanding that everyone will need to be
4:36:49 responsible, but also be reasonable as we move forward.
4:36:55 That leads us to our proposed recommendation for face
4:36:59 coverings.
4:37:00 You’ll see that the language has been modified from what was
4:37:04 last
4:37:04 presented, so that when social distancing cannot be adhered to,
4:37:10 it is expected that students and staff wear a face covering.
4:37:13 Of course, it also must adhere to dress code and applies the
4:37:19 face covering over the nose and mouth and not the full face.
4:37:24 In addition, it’s expected that students wear a face covering
4:37:29 while on the bus.
4:37:31 Again, we have options for our teachers where they can use the
4:37:36 face shield that’s been provided or another option, an
4:37:40 appropriate
4:37:41 face covering option for them.
4:37:43 We see an environment where social distancing is acceptable.
4:37:47 There’s no question that face covering isn’t necessary, but
4:37:52 when that social distancing is not feasible, then it is the
4:37:56 expectation that both staff and students utilize a face mask.
4:38:00 So we see everyone having a face mask and utilizing them
4:38:03 throughout the day as it is necessary.
4:38:07 We would propose that this is a non-disciplinary practice, as
4:38:10 was discussed when we were together last week.
4:38:13 And ultimately, we are counting on and I believe it’s
4:38:18 appropriate to expect all individuals to be both
4:38:21 responsible and reasonable in the monitoring and managing of
4:38:25 face masks in our classrooms and across our district and our
4:38:29 schools.
4:38:34 Hand washing and hand sanitizer, a lot of discussion has been
4:38:39 made about hand sanitizer, making it available, using it
4:38:42 frequently, but I think we have to pause and not forget that the
4:38:46 actual number one disinfecting recommendation is hand washing.
4:38:53 And we have acknowledged that and we’ll have prioritized that
4:38:59 across our schools.
4:39:00 We’re developing hand washing videos to guide students on the
4:39:04 best practices, we will ensure that our bathrooms and
4:39:08 restrooms are properly supplied and consistently supplied across
4:39:15 our different work environments, but we will also have hand
4:39:18 sanitizer available throughout all of the district.
4:39:23 Every one of the classrooms will have hand sanitizer provided by
4:39:26 the district, they will be hand sanitizer stations throughout
4:39:30 the school, and it will be emphasized and reinforced
4:39:35 throughout the school day.
4:39:41 Transportation, certainly provides a unique challenge for
4:39:45 social distancing, that is why we have moved to the expectation
4:39:49 that all students will wear a mask when they enter the bus.
4:39:55 They’ll be provided a hand sanitizing station as they enter
4:39:59 and expected to use it and utilize it as they exit the bus.
4:40:03 Students will also be assigned a seat, they’ll be required to
4:40:08 sit in the seat, and if they have a family member on the bus
4:40:12 with them, a sibling, they will be grouped together to keep
4:40:16 family units together.
4:40:19 We’ll be guiding them on appropriate distance between each
4:40:23 other when they enter and exit the bus.
4:40:26 Our bus drivers will be wiping down seats in between the routes,
4:40:32 we’ll utilize windows being open when the weather permits, and
4:40:36 we’ll address misconduct on the bus appropriately as it’s
4:40:40 brought
4:40:40 to our attention when students arrive to school.
4:40:43 Again, I would reach out to our parents and guardians, that if
4:40:48 your child is going to utilize our buses, you’ve got to partner
4:40:52 with us in helping set up and uphold these expectations to
4:40:57 ensure that not only their child is safe, but all children on
4:41:01 the
4:41:01 bus are safe as well as our bus driver.
4:41:09 Food and nutrition services, they have also been busy this
4:41:12 summer, not only providing meals out in the community on a daily
4:41:16 basis, but also providing meals to our summer enrichment
4:41:20 academic sites and getting into every one of our schools and
4:41:24 evaluating and identifying what the cafeterias look like.
4:41:29 All cafeteria staff will be required to wear masks and
4:41:33 gloves during preparation and meal service, hand sanitizer
4:41:36 stations will be placed outside cafeteria entrances.
4:41:40 We will have a robust advertisement marketing for our
4:41:46 mealpayplus.com plan, which eliminates the necessity of cash
4:41:52 transactions.
4:41:54 Parents can contribute to their child’s account online and their
4:41:58 child will have it available to them and they don’t need to
4:42:00 punch a keypad, they’ll either be provided a badge that will
4:42:04 scan like we do here, or they’ll be able to verbally provide
4:42:08 their student ID number so that we minimize interaction.
4:42:12 Serving lines have already been modified, additional markings
4:42:16 have been put in place for social distancing and
4:42:19 directional guidance, as well as modified meal access points to
4:42:29 include grab and go meal packages, expanding the access
4:42:34 and availability of meals for students to really diversify
4:42:41 where they will get their lunch or breakfast from.
4:42:45 In addition, we’ll continue to have a mobile feeding program
4:42:50 for students who are either on e-learning or distance learning
4:42:54 if they choose those platforms.
4:43:01 I mentioned earlier, our school clinics are going to be a vital
4:43:05 component to our school environment more than ever
4:43:08 before.
4:43:10 We discussed last week that fortunately we’re experiencing
4:43:13 the lowest summer turnover across nurses or health techs
4:43:18 than we’ve ever experienced before because there hasn’t
4:43:22 really been a work break for our health techs.
4:43:26 They have been fully employed over the summer by the health
4:43:29 department meeting the demands of our current situation.
4:43:32 That’s good for us because they’ll be returning to our
4:43:35 schools.
4:43:36 We do have some vacancies but the health department has been a
4:43:39 phenomenal partner with us to address the need as well as
4:43:44 acknowledge the necessity to have our health techs staffed in
4:43:48 our schools.
4:43:51 Again, parents are our first level of daily health check
4:43:55 defense and we implore them to work with us and evaluate their
4:44:00 child’s health every morning and if they identify symptoms, they
4:44:06 are encouraged to keep their child home and it will be an
4:44:08 excused absence.
4:44:10 Clinic areas of course will be cleaned throughout the day.
4:44:13 Students and staff who are ill should stay home.
4:44:16 If students with symptoms associated with COVID comes to
4:44:20 school, they will be sent to the health clinic for evaluation
4:44:24 and
4:44:25 as appropriate, parents will be contacted and students will be
4:44:29 sent home.
4:44:30 Temperatures will be taken upon entering the clinic.
4:44:32 If the temperature is over 100 degrees, parents will be
4:44:35 notified that the student is too ill to remain in school.
4:44:39 They will be isolated or put in a separate area required to wear
4:44:43 a mask during that period until their parent or guardian can
4:44:46 come and pick them up.
4:44:49 Our principals, administrative teams are working right now to
4:44:53 expand the clinic environment and have backup plans in the
4:44:59 event that they have multiple students that obviously require
4:45:06 social distancing to be implemented.
4:45:11 Custodial services, we presented this last week.
4:45:15 All our custodians will be trained and monitored in
4:45:18 utilizing best practices for cleanliness and for
4:45:21 disinfecting services.
4:45:23 We provided an image there that is in fact the disinfectant
4:45:28 misting machine.
4:45:30 I think Ms. Han referred to it as R2-D2 last week, but that is
4:45:36 actually the tool that is used and it accommodates
4:45:40 comprehensive and rapid disinfecting in an environment
4:45:44 that may be necessary.
4:45:46 Each school, each one of our schools has been provided this
4:45:50 liquid disinfectant misting machine.
4:45:53 It’s designed to quickly move from room to room and broadcast
4:45:56 spray through a handheld wand.
4:45:58 It’s both for preventative cleaning and deep cleaning.
4:46:01 Those have already been deployed to our schools.
4:46:11 It has been mentioned and referenced the social and
4:46:14 emotional impact of our current environment on both our kids as
4:46:17 well as our staff and the academic learning gaps that in
4:46:25 some cases have gotten greater since our students haven’t been
4:46:31 able to benefit from in-person learning for the last several
4:46:35 weeks of the school year.
4:46:37 So the first days of school will be critical for our teachers as
4:46:43 we determine the strengths and weaknesses in content areas,
4:46:46 their skill attainment, behavioral expectations and
4:46:48 readiness in the event of distance learning.
4:46:51 Our schools are developing their plans to assess students when
4:46:54 they first come back to us.
4:46:56 They’re provided support by our district staff.
4:47:01 We are required to be prepared to implement distance learning
4:47:05 again in the event that a classroom or a school has to be
4:47:09 closed for a period of time.
4:47:11 And we will be prepared just like we were last spring for
4:47:15 that necessity if it becomes a reality.
4:47:21 Each teacher will be provided support and further professional
4:47:26 development to integrate digital tools into their courses.
4:47:29 We have an enormous array of digital tools for our teachers
4:47:33 that have been available all along the way,
4:47:37 but some teachers may need additional support.
4:47:40 That will be our expectation when they return to be able to
4:47:43 utilize that digital platform.
4:47:46 They’ll be expected to work in a blended format to minimize
4:47:49 challenges when individual students or classes may need to
4:47:53 pivot to distance learning.
4:47:57 Teachers and staff who provided services to students with
4:48:00 disabilities will work with individual students,
4:48:03 families, along with the district support teams and
4:48:06 administration to meet IEP goals and related services to the
4:48:09 extent possible, even when distance learning is necessary.
4:48:15 Our students with disabilities last spring,
4:48:17 I’m going to maybe do, make a dangerous attempt here to
4:48:23 recall the data that I shared with the board a couple months
4:48:26 ago now about the numbers of IEP meetings we held
4:48:30 virtually last year.
4:48:32 I believe it was over 3,000 meetings and 300 staffing
4:48:42 meetings, something like that.
4:48:44 Our ESC teams adapted to the supports we needed to provide to
4:48:48 our ESC students.
4:48:50 Am I going to suggest it was ideal?
4:48:52 No, we want to be face-to-face with our kids,
4:48:55 but we are learning and we are adapting and we are implementing
4:49:00 additional practices to support our students with disabilities
4:49:03 in preparation for whatever the platform is that they may choose,
4:49:07 whether it’s in person, e-learning or when distance
4:49:11 learning is necessary.
4:49:20 In addition, all students will receive the required mental
4:49:23 health curriculum and be supported through a social
4:49:25 emotional framework that was presented to the board a couple
4:49:28 weeks ago.
4:49:29 Each school will implement an academic support plan to provide
4:49:32 additional instructional assistance,
4:49:36 tutoring, before/after school assistance,
4:49:39 enrichment, embedded aid in the school day.
4:49:42 As we move forward, schools will develop a plan to provide
4:49:45 additional support for students who are temporarily on distance
4:49:49 learning.
4:49:51 We’ve just enhanced our focus tool to support our teachers as
4:49:55 well and to regularly update parents and students on academic
4:49:59 performance.
4:50:02 Our secondary students will continue to have access to
4:50:04 programs that accelerate their learning,
4:50:06 such as CTE, career and technical ed,
4:50:10 advanced placement, international baccalaureate,
4:50:12 Cambridge, early admission college,
4:50:15 virtual school, credit acceleration programs and Excel
4:50:20 diploma options.
4:50:22 We mentioned last week that we will encourage and explore early
4:50:27 graduation options for our students and help them
4:50:31 accelerate if that’s the option, if that’s what they want to
4:50:34 do.
4:50:38 A lot happens in a schoolhouse outside the 8 to 2.30 or 8.30 to
4:50:43 3.45 school day, so an acknowledgment of both academic
4:50:49 programs and extracurricular activities,
4:50:51 the task force has recommended these guidelines,
4:50:56 but they will be reconsidered and reevaluated throughout the
4:50:59 year based on prevailing conditions.
4:51:02 Through our discussion last week we recognized that we may need
4:51:06 to pause and reevaluate some of these as we move forward,
4:51:10 but right now and as we anticipate the start of the
4:51:13 school year, school field trips will not be authorized,
4:51:16 playground equipment will not be utilized,
4:51:19 chorus programs or other lessons that involve singing must sing
4:51:23 outdoors, PE will not dress out and utilize locker rooms.
4:51:29 In courses where labs and shared hands-on materials for students
4:51:35 are, that is the environment, they’ll be provided supplies to
4:51:37 maintain cleanliness between use.
4:51:40 Students will be encouraged to bring their own water bottles
4:51:43 and will be prohibited from sharing them,
4:51:45 hence water fountains can only be used to fill water bottles.
4:51:48 There will not be group assemblies in our schools.
4:51:53 Our athletic and extracurricular activities,
4:51:56 clubs, will continue to follow the return to activity guidelines
4:52:00 that we have already rolled out.
4:52:02 And then open house parent conferences,
4:52:05 these events will be planned virtually to keep our parents
4:52:09 and families engaged in the school and share vital
4:52:13 information, but also limit presence on campuses.
4:52:20 For visitors on campus, again these guidelines will be
4:52:23 reconsidered throughout the year based on prevailing conditions.
4:52:27 And this is not, these decisions or recommendations are not made
4:52:32 lightly because volunteers and visitors on our campus,
4:52:35 they are part of the lifeblood of our school environment.
4:52:39 But the task force has recommended and believes it’s
4:52:43 vital that we limit risk of individuals outside visitors
4:52:48 coming onto campus, so they, our visitors to schools are limited
4:52:53 to emergency situations, enrollment or required meetings.
4:52:57 Non-essential visitors and volunteers will not be permitted
4:52:59 on school campuses to include walking students to class,
4:53:03 eating lunch with students or attending classroom events
4:53:06 or celebrations.
4:53:08 Parents may not drop off items for student pick up that are not
4:53:11 medically or academically required.
4:53:15 And our contracted service providers will be required to
4:53:18 complete a self screener prior to being allowed on campus and
4:53:21 they must adhere to all school health guidelines that we’ve
4:53:24 discussed today.
4:53:32 At this time I have asked Ms. Moore to come up and go through
4:53:37 our slides related to students and staff who are exposed to
4:53:41 COVID and those practices.
4:53:43 She is our resident expert at this time.
4:53:46 I don’t know that she would say that because she feels like
4:53:48 every day some of the conditions and guidelines change from the
4:53:53 Department of Health, but if she’s the closest thing to the
4:53:57 expert then I’m definitely not, so I’ve asked her to cover the
4:54:00 next few slides for the board and the public.
4:54:09 » I was going to say good morning, but I think it’s good
4:54:11 afternoon, isn’t it?
4:54:13 I think the first thing I’d like to just have a minute of time
4:54:17 on
4:54:17 is the partnership between Brevard Public Schools and the
4:54:20 Department of Health, because as I was listening to some of our
4:54:24 speakers this morning, it became evident that maybe that
4:54:29 partnership, that collaboration isn’t well known.
4:54:33 So, Brevard Public Schools and the Department of Health have
4:54:35 had a contract with one another for many, many years.
4:54:38 They are the ones that provide our health techs and school
4:54:41 nurses, but more importantly they collaborate with us in all
4:54:47 manners of infectious disease.
4:54:49 In fact, when Coronavirus COVID-19 was first started being
4:54:54 spoken about in the news back in February, we contacted Dr.
4:54:58 Barry
4:54:58 Inman, who is the head epidemiologist in Brevard
4:55:02 County, as well as Maria Stahl, and asked for them to come out
4:55:06 and present to our principals.
4:55:08 And so, back in March, prior to us even going on spring break,
4:55:12 prior to us even knowing that the events were going to rapidly
4:55:16 roll out for us to close schools, Dr. Inman, again the
4:55:20 head epidemiologist in the county, Maria Stahl, and Maureen
4:55:25 Kelly all came and then presented to our principals
4:55:27 about what COVID-19 is, what the symptoms are, what the long
4:55:32 range impact might be, and at the time, you know, it perhaps
4:55:39 wasn’t taken as seriously, but very shortly thereafter it was.
4:55:46 So, I think the public should also know that whenever there’s
4:55:49 an infectious illness with a student in our schools, Dr.
4:55:53 Inman works with me and my office to determine what the
4:55:57 impact of the school is, what the notification is, what the
4:56:01 exclusions from school are, and so that’s a longstanding
4:56:04 relationship and a working partnership that we’ve had for
4:56:07 a while.
4:56:08 In terms of this plan, we have had Patty Siebert and Maureen
4:56:13 Kelly, both employees of the Department of Health, working
4:56:17 with us extensively, and there are certainly parameters by
4:56:20 which the Department of Health can work with us.
4:56:23 There are areas in which they can tell us what to do, and then
4:56:28 there are areas in which they are not allowed, in which they
4:56:30 can only guide us and recommend us, and they have worked
4:56:35 wonderfully between those two areas to ensure that we had the
4:56:39 information we needed.
4:56:42 Ultimately, we sent this plan to Dr. Inman up at the Department
4:56:47 of Health to review, and he gave us some suggestions as well.
4:56:52 I think it’s just important to understand before I go into this
4:56:56 section of slides that there is nothing in these slides that I
4:57:02 don’t first call our contact at the Department of Health Patty
4:57:05 Siebert about.
4:57:07 We have had ongoing cases, contacts to cases, presumed
4:57:12 cases in Brevard Public Schools, in some of our even return to
4:57:20 activity programs, and for every single one, the very first step
4:57:24 is me calling Patty Siebert and saying, “Here’s our situation.
4:57:28 Let’s make sure we’re on the same page.” So while I
4:57:31 appreciate Dr. Mullins giving me the title of expert, I will
4:57:36 tell
4:57:36 you that I have a very, very low level of expertise, but I don’t
4:57:42 depend on my level of expertise.
4:57:44 I depend on the actual experts for the Brevard Department of
4:57:47 Health.
4:57:49 So as we begin to look at students or staff who are
4:57:53 exposed to COVID-19, I think it’s really important for
4:57:56 everybody to get in their mind that those are really two
4:57:58 different, very, very different groups.
4:58:02 The protections that protect adults don’t necessarily protect
4:58:06 students in our schools, and the protections that we have to
4:58:11 guarantee our students in schools don’t apply to adults.
4:58:15 So one size does not fit all.
4:58:18 One size does not fit all in any part of this.
4:58:22 And so it’s very difficult for me to give one answer to anybody
4:58:26 on any of the questions that I’m being asked.
4:58:30 In fact, I’ve written out the 10 to 12 questions I have
4:58:36 to ask for every single case that we get in Brevard Public
4:58:40 Schools in order to say these are the things I need to know,
4:58:43 so I know our next steps and I know how to answer the questions
4:58:47 that the Department of Health is going to ask me.
4:58:52 So the very first thing that we need to understand is if we have
4:58:55 a student or staff who is exposed to somebody with COVID-19
4:58:59 in their home, they should expect to self-quarantine in
4:59:03 that home for 14 days.
4:59:06 You know, at that point, if they become symptomatic,
4:59:10 they go into another category.
4:59:12 But at this point, the only thing we might know is that
4:59:15 someone is in their home and they have tested positive.
4:59:18 We are still advising people who travel out of state that we
4:59:21 look
4:59:21 on the Department of Health and the CDC’s websites for concerns
4:59:26 about where they may have traveled and whether or not
4:59:28 there is still a quarantine order in place for those places.
4:59:37 If students or parents who are ordered to quarantine,
4:59:40 we ask them to follow the doctor’s orders.
4:59:44 When we get into the section of the slides that talks about,
4:59:47 you know, when you can come back,
4:59:49 I think the very first thing people need to understand is we
4:59:53 can give guidelines for people to coming back.
4:59:56 The actual person who says whether somebody can come back
5:00:00 after a quarantine order from the Department of Health is the
5:00:02 Department of Health.
5:00:05 The section on leave, I’m actually not going to try to
5:00:08 address it at all because I know Dr. Theddy is going to come up
5:00:11 and she spent a lot of time on this.
5:00:14 And again, students look different than adults,
5:00:17 our big people and our employees.
5:00:20 And so, there’s other things that revolve around our
5:00:22 employees such as a workman’s comp claim if it’s directly
5:00:26 attributed to the work that they’re doing at school.
5:00:28 And so, I know Dr. Theddy is going to talk more about that.
5:00:37 If there’s a student or staff member who is diagnosed with
5:00:39 COVID-19, the first thing I have to say again for the very start
5:00:45 of it is that the Department of Health will direct their
5:00:48 recovery, it’s not going to be Brevard Public Schools.
5:00:52 However, in Brevard Public Schools, we have to do some of
5:00:56 that contact tracing.
5:00:57 We are in partnership with them.
5:00:59 The Brevard Department of Health will do immediate family
5:01:03 contact
5:01:03 tracing, but then will say to us,
5:01:06 “What has been the impact on the schools?”
5:01:08 And so, part of the questions that we have to ask at the
5:01:10 schools is, “In what areas has this person worked?
5:01:14 When was the last day this person was at school?
5:01:17 What people have been in contact with them for longer than
5:01:20 15 minutes and closer than 6 feet?”
5:01:25 And you’ll see in these slides, I think at one point I say
5:01:28 closer than 6 feet for 10 minutes,
5:01:30 because two weeks ago it was 15 minutes,
5:01:32 last week it was 10 minutes, this week it was 15 minutes.
5:01:34 So, we’re doing our best to keep up with changing guidelines,
5:01:38 but we have to also be aware that there are
5:01:40 changing guidelines.
5:01:44 We will always work in coordination with the
5:01:46 Department of Health as it is determined that students and
5:01:49 staff can come back to school.
5:01:51 There are things that we can expect of our staff that we
5:01:54 cannot expect of our students.
5:01:57 And so, I think it’s important to understand the concept of
5:02:01 FAPE, or a Free Appropriate Public Education.
5:02:04 Students are guaranteed FAPE.
5:02:06 They are guaranteed a free and appropriate public education.
5:02:11 And so, if it is determined that our policies and guidelines
5:02:15 deny
5:02:15 students that, we have to be very,
5:02:17 very, very careful of what we say,
5:02:19 what we do, and how we process through this.
5:02:22 So, you may hear me answer back, “We can’t do that because of
5:02:25 FAPE.” And it is because we may be,
5:02:28 may be, in a position of denying students a free and appropriate
5:02:31 public education.
5:02:33 That applies to the kids, it doesn’t apply to the adults.
5:02:37 And I’m going to talk more about the instructional continuity
5:02:40 plan when I get to another slide,
5:02:42 because the speakers are correct.
5:02:45 There will be occasion for us to be closing down buildings,
5:02:48 and I don’t think any of us can go into this with our eyes
5:02:50 closed. We need to be eyes wide open in acknowledging that this
5:02:56 is, this is, this is not even close to the best case scenario
5:03:00 that any of us would have liked to have found ourselves in.
5:03:03 But this is the scenario we were presented.
5:03:05 And so, we’re going to serve our students as best we can.
5:03:11 So, these are the Department of Health CDC guidelines for
5:03:14 students returning.
5:03:15 You’ll notice that this slide was different.
5:03:17 This information came out from the CDC the night before our
5:03:21 last presentation, and so we’ve incorporated it in here.
5:03:25 Again, if a student, if a person has been evaluated and are
5:03:29 positive, they are going to follow the Department of Health
5:03:33 guidelines on returning to work or school.
5:03:36 If they are negative and they have to stay home until 10 days
5:03:43 have passed, this is, this is really long winded,
5:03:45 but it’s 10 days have passed since the symptom first,
5:03:49 since they became first symptomatic,
5:03:51 and three days beyond any symptom including a fever.
5:03:58 If the individual has been clinically evaluated without a
5:04:01 COVID test, meaning you have met all of those based on the
5:04:07 information that’s being asked to you by a healthcare
5:04:10 professional, they have determined that you in all
5:04:13 likelihood are a presumptive case of COVID.
5:04:17 Then again, they’re going to recommend that you contact your
5:04:20 health department.
5:04:21 They are going to recommend that you contact your medical
5:04:23 provider to get tested, but the Department of Health cannot make
5:04:27 somebody get tested.
5:04:29 They have stated that to me unequivocally several times.
5:04:33 They cannot make anybody get tested.
5:04:37 However, if you are a presumptive case, same thing,
5:04:40 you get to stay home for 10 days beyond when your symptoms first
5:04:44 appeared and three days beyond any symptoms that you have had.
5:04:48 Siblings or household members are also asked to stay home.
5:04:51 Again, simply, I know this says individual who has been
5:04:54 clinically evaluated, you would have heard me speak about it
5:04:56 last time as a presumptive case, a case where they have had
5:05:00 contact with COVID and they are symptomatic.
5:05:06 In the case when somebody has not been clinically evaluated
5:05:10 and they’re experiencing some symptoms of COVID-19, again,
5:05:15 we are recommending they contact the health department and their
5:05:17 medical provider to get tested.
5:05:20 However, it’s the same thing, 10 days beyond when your symptoms
5:05:25 first appeared and three days beyond any symptoms that you
5:05:30 have had.
5:05:36 So, this question is one of the ones that I got asked.
5:05:43 I think that it’s been included in the former slide, but I just
5:05:47 wanted to make sure that we’re all on the same page, that
5:05:53 school nurses will be working with anybody who is sick in our
5:05:56 schools and they will be telling them that they need to stay
5:05:59 home and separate themselves from people in that home as much
5:06:02 as possible and if they have answered yes to any of the
5:06:05 following questions, then they should stay home and follow the
5:06:09 guidelines from the preceding slide before they are allowed to
5:06:15 return.
5:06:23 I thought so.
5:06:24 I’m going to say one more thing before you do this.
5:06:26 One of the - and I thought it was in the preceding slide and I
5:06:30 don’t know - I don’t know if a slide is coming up, but I’ll go
5:06:35 ahead and talk about it now.
5:06:36 One of the questions was about the closing of schools and I
5:06:41 think it’s really important for everybody to understand the
5:06:44 situations that we have dealt with have all been very
5:06:47 different.
5:06:49 I have been keeping the board members apprised since our last
5:06:52 meeting of the number of cases that we have dealt with each day
5:06:57 and each one of them have been very different and having to ask
5:07:03 the questions and get the answers is important and I think
5:07:06 it’s important for our public to understand that when we talk
5:07:10 about closing schools, we’re talking about a minimum of three
5:07:14 days.
5:07:15 We have to close the schools.
5:07:17 They have to be vacant for 24 to 48 hours and then they have to
5:07:21 be deep cleaned before we allow students to re-enter the
5:07:23 building and I’ll give you two very different scenarios so you
5:07:27 can understand why I can’t just give you an answer on when this
5:07:31 happens, we will always close the school.
5:07:34 So, we could have a fifth grader who rides a bus to school with
5:07:39 his second grade brother.
5:07:41 He comes on campus, he goes and he picks up his lunch in the
5:07:45 cafeteria along with his second grade brother where they sit
5:07:48 with their friends.
5:07:49 They divide and go into their separate class and the second
5:07:52 grade brother has activity with art that day and the fifth grade
5:07:55 is on a rotating schedule and has math in one class and
5:07:59 English in one class and science in the next class and when we
5:08:03 start asking those deep questions about who you were
5:08:06 with and where you traveled in that school, it becomes evident
5:08:08 really quick that the spread was pretty wide in that school and
5:08:12 that school will need to be closed for three days once we
5:08:16 find out that fifth grader actually tested positive and was
5:08:19 ill.
5:08:21 Same scenario, fifth grader gets out of his mom’s car that
5:08:26 morning, is greeted by somebody right at the gate.
5:08:31 The person at the gate looks at that person and realizes they
5:08:34 don’t look well, walks him into the clinic, the temperature is
5:08:38 taken and he is sent home that day and later tests positive.
5:08:43 The exposure in that school is very limited on that day and so
5:08:49 I will tell you right now, I’m not going to make those
5:08:52 decisions in isolation.
5:08:54 I’ll be making those decisions with a response team and that
5:08:56 response team will meet daily.
5:09:00 In fact, Dr. Theti and I were talking that it might be meeting
5:09:03 twice daily because grass cannot grow under our feet on these
5:09:07 decisions and so we will be looking at the entirety of the
5:09:12 case and we will be making the decision to close schools based
5:09:20 on all of the information that we have in front of us.
5:09:23 Another of the callers mentioned, you know, what are
5:09:25 you going to do when it is no longer, you are no longer able
5:09:30 to function because of employees being out sick.
5:09:33 So I will tell you that one of the things we have done is asked
5:09:36 our schools at what point is it not safe for you to function
5:09:39 anymore and they have given us a percentage of their faculty
5:09:43 that
5:09:43 they think that they can no longer run schools with.
5:09:46 The first mission of the response team which meets next
5:09:48 week will be to determine at what point does the school need
5:09:51 to be closed until the staff is healthy enough for that school
5:09:56 to function safely.
5:09:58 And I think those are all of the concerns that you’ve heard from
5:10:02 the people from our speakers.
5:10:04 We are aware of all of those concerns and we’re trying to
5:10:07 work through them.
5:10:08 I appreciate our community’s concern and I more than
5:10:18 appreciate their fear and understand it and take it very
5:10:26 seriously.
5:10:37 » Good afternoon.
5:10:38 Mrs. Moore, I apologize to you because the slides you were just
5:10:41 talking about are actually after mine and I messed that up when
5:10:45 I
5:10:45 inserted these slides so I apologize.
5:10:47 We had a lot of discussion last Thursday regarding employees and
5:10:51 how to handle employees so I’m going to spend a little bit of
5:10:53 time talking about our employees.
5:10:56 As you know, our schools are identified as essential services
5:10:59 both in current and previous executive orders which means our
5:11:02 operations continue and our employees are considered
5:11:06 critical infrastructure workers.
5:11:08 Mrs. Moore discussed a little while ago what happens if a
5:11:12 staff member or a student is exposed or lives with somebody
5:11:15 with covid and I’m going to talk a little bit about that as well.
5:11:19 They are separate issues but at the same time they are
5:11:21 intertwined issues because we are going to have situations
5:11:25 like this in our schools where our response team is going to
5:11:29 have to meet and work through these on a regular and quick
5:11:32 basis.
5:11:34 So for this first slide, in the event that a staff member is
5:11:37 exposed to covid-19, the employee or staff member would
5:11:41 follow the CDC guidance listed below but to avoid confusion
5:11:45 because I know there will be some, the caveat is if the
5:11:49 employee lives with somebody as Mrs. Moore said in the previous
5:11:51 slide who has been diagnosed with or is a presumptive case of
5:11:55 covid-19 in which the employee should self-quarantine at home
5:11:59 as directed by the Department of Health.
5:12:01 I’m going to talk a little bit more about that in an upcoming
5:12:04 slide so I’m going to leave it there but for now, as of today,
5:12:08 the recommendations for the CDC and the Department of Health for
5:12:12 staff who are contacts to positive or presumptive cases
5:12:16 that are not close familiar relationships are in the chart
5:12:20 below. They have to take their temperature, wear face masks,
5:12:24 practice social distancing, they will not stay at work if they
5:12:27 become symptomatic during work, shouldn’t share any kind of
5:12:31 materials or objects and there should be no congregating and
5:12:34 break rooms or other crowded spaces.
5:12:36 I do want to talk a little bit about employees and critical
5:12:40 infrastructure workers and it’s important to note that according
5:12:43 to the CDC guidance, we have to ensure continuity of operations
5:12:48 and continuity of instruction of these essential functions and
5:12:52 that’s why we’re considered critical infrastructure workers.
5:12:56 And following potential exposure to covid-19, they would remain
5:13:01 at work as long as they are asymptomatic and that’s when I
5:13:05 talk about the mask, the taking of the temperature and as the
5:13:08 moment they become symptomatic, they would not any longer be
5:13:11 allowed to remain at work. We’ve been practicing these, it’ll be
5:13:15 implemented when we do our return to school but we’ve been
5:13:19 practicing these procedures with our staff at ESF and other
5:13:24 ancillary sites that have been on site all summer.
5:13:31 However, in the case from the previous slide where an employee
5:13:35 lives with someone who has been diagnosed with covid-19 or is
5:13:38 presumed to have covid-19, there are certain things that that
5:13:42 employee will need to do and we’ve had situations like this
5:13:44 as well. Obviously notify the supervisor, work with the
5:13:48 department or school secretary and the office of employee
5:13:52 leaves, work with the supervisor to determine if daily work
5:13:56 assignments may be completed efficiently and effectively
5:13:59 through remote work. If so, as potentially in the case of a
5:14:03 teacher and I list a teacher as an illustrative case only who is
5:14:06 a contact to a case with a close familial relationship, in other
5:14:11 words lives with an individual diagnosed with covid-19, remote
5:14:14 work may be arranged. You’ve seen that in other slides where
5:14:18 we talk about pivoting quickly to distance learning in the
5:14:21 event that a classroom or school needs to be shut down. If daily
5:14:25 work assignments cannot be completed efficiently and
5:14:28 effective through remote work, the employee will work with his
5:14:31 or her school or department secretary to determine the
5:14:34 appropriate leave to be taken which may include emergency sick
5:14:36 leave under the FFCRA, the Families First Coronavirus
5:14:40 Response Act, employee accrued leave or illness in the line of
5:14:44 duty, if applicable, which will be described in the next slide.
5:14:48 Additionally, employees, and I heard this from the callers
5:14:52 today, I listened to all of the comments and I heard many
5:14:55 comments related to employees with underlying medical
5:14:58 conditions. Employees with underlying medical conditions
5:15:02 may also seek accommodations under the Americans with
5:15:04 Disabilities Act to continue performing the essential job
5:15:08 functions that they’re assigned to. So that’s also another
5:15:11 option that we have available. I’ve been working with our
5:15:13 Office of Risk Management on that process as well. Staff
5:15:20 leave considerations. Current available considerations for
5:15:24 leave for staff who become ill with COVID-19 include the 10
5:15:28 sick days that are allowable under the Families First
5:15:30 Coronavirus Response Act and all employees are eligible to
5:15:34 receive these days if they have or suspect they have COVID-19.
5:15:39 An additional 10 sick days are allowable under the illness and
5:15:42 injury and line of duty leave and that’s awarded to employees
5:15:46 if the illness can be shown to be work related. That’s a total
5:15:49 of 20 sick days and keep in mind that 20 sick days equates to a
5:15:53 month of work, taking weekends out of it. That an employee
5:15:58 currently has available if diagnosed with COVID-19 is shown
5:16:01 to be a work related illness that is not the employee’s
5:16:04 personal sick leave. If the claim or if the illness is
5:16:09 suspected to be work related, it would be reported as a workers
5:16:12 compensation claim and the claim would be investigated. If the
5:16:16 claim is accepted as work related, once the 20 days have
5:16:20 been exhausted, the employee would receive 66.66% up to a
5:16:26 maximum of 971 weekly of pay through workers compensation and
5:16:31 then the balance of the 33.3 is paid through the employees
5:16:35 earned
5:16:35 sick leave. That’s already a workers compensation. I listened
5:16:39 really carefully to all of the comments and I heard the passion
5:16:42 behind all of the comments from staff, from parents, from the
5:16:46 community related to COVID-19 and I truly understand those
5:16:50 comments and I appreciate all of them. It’s critical to me as
5:16:54 your Chief Human Resources Officer to make sure you
5:16:57 understand that we take the safety and health of our
5:16:59 employees very, very seriously. I don’t underestimate in any
5:17:04 way the passion that people feel about this issue and I want to
5:17:08 be a support to them. Although we have 9,000 employees and we
5:17:12 in human resources don’t directly touch 9,000 employees
5:17:15 every single day, we do in our offices deal with individual
5:17:20 cases from many employees every single day and we will continue
5:17:24 to do so as we evaluate individual cases related to
5:17:28 COVID-19 because as Ms. Moore said, every case is different
5:17:32 and although there may be a standard answer in some cases,
5:17:36 in other cases we’re going to have to look carefully at the
5:17:39 Americans with Disabilities Act, at the FFCRA and at other
5:17:43 workman’s compensation and other things that we can do to
5:17:46 support our employees should they become ill or have to
5:17:50 quarantine due to COVID-19. There will be cases where
5:17:53 somebody will have to quarantine and they are well in which case
5:17:56 we’ll look at the remote work option for them but we will do
5:17:59 all of that when we anticipate working hard to meet our
5:18:03 individual employees needs. Thank you.
5:18:14 » So we spoke about our medically fragile students on,
5:18:23 I don’t remember what day it was, Thursday when we originally
5:18:26 presented and this is again with our partnership with the
5:18:30 Brevard Department of Health. They actually hold all of these
5:18:33 records and they began reviewing these records back in June.
5:18:38 They have gone through and made an individual health plan for
5:18:41 each of these students and the question from them was what is
5:18:46 Brevard Public Schools going to do to help us implement these
5:18:49 individual health plans. So we looked at them and we determined
5:18:53 that they really needed to be handled just like any of our
5:18:55 federal paperwork. We needed to make sure that our teachers had
5:19:00 a copy of them. We need to make sure that they were reviewed
5:19:03 with our teachers and that our teachers signed off that they
5:19:05 were responsible for implementing them. We also wanted
5:19:09 to make sure that as we began to review those plans if there was
5:19:13 another plan that needed to be written whether that was a 504
5:19:17 or even an IEP based on the information that now has come to
5:19:22 light because of these individual health plans or even
5:19:25 as we began to review medically fragile students, we fully
5:19:28 expect, fully expect that we are going to hear from parents that
5:19:34 there are other underlying health conditions that the
5:19:36 schools were not aware of for quite some time. People hold
5:19:40 medical information close to their chest. I don’t blame them.
5:19:43 It is personal information but we fully expect that as we enter
5:19:47 into school that we’re going to hear more about that and we’re
5:19:50 going to be implementing more individual health plans and we
5:19:53 may be looking at more 504s or IEPs. We really do need our
5:19:58 parents to be working in close collaboration with us during
5:20:01 that time. We already talked about the school closure piece.
5:20:08 I don’t think I have anything to add there but I did want to say
5:20:11 one other piece. Several of the speakers spoke about
5:20:15 notification and who and when will be notified. So this is the
5:20:23 way it works. Again, students and employees are different. If
5:20:26 it is a student at one of our sites, the Department of Health
5:20:30 writes the notification. The Department of Health will give
5:20:33 us the letter. It is directed only to those people that had an
5:20:36 immediate contact with the student. So back on my other two
5:20:40 scenarios, when you talk about a second grade and a fifth grader
5:20:44 who had access to several students, 60 kids might get that
5:20:48 notification. The school will be closed down for three days.
5:20:51 Parents will be notified about the school closure but only
5:20:54 those 60 students who had a direct contact with that second
5:20:57 grader and that fifth grader will actually get the
5:21:00 Department of Health notification. The notification
5:21:02 includes guidelines for parents on symptoms as well as what
5:21:06 their next steps might be. In terms of an employee, that
5:21:10 notification will come from Brevard Public Schools. In both
5:21:13 cases, the notification will be upon us being notified that
5:21:16 there’s a positive case. There is a slight delay and by slight
5:21:21 I mean hours within the same day of notification from the
5:21:26 Department of Health because we have to communicate with them.
5:21:29 This is the information if we get it first and we have gotten
5:21:34 it first on many occasions. Here’s the positive case we know
5:21:38 about. They verify and they send us the letter. That takes us a
5:21:40 couple of hours. In the case of Brevard Public Schools, we’ll be
5:21:45 putting out that notification as soon as we get that information.
5:21:49 That notification is new because we’ve been trying to work with
5:21:53 the Department of Health to give us an employee notification as
5:21:55 well and they were working with Tallahassee and each entity is
5:22:00 responsible for notifying their own employees so we’ve developed
5:22:04 our own notification.
5:22:14 » As we near the end of the presentation or the plan, just a
5:22:18 couple more slides. I want to come back to school safety
5:22:21 guidelines that were discussed last week. One of the questions
5:22:25 or concerns that was expressed is how are we going to handle or
5:22:27 manage whether it be fire drills or active assailant drills
5:22:32 which
5:22:33 are required in statute for our schools. I did make contact with
5:22:37 Joy Frank, the attorney for the Florida Association of District
5:22:42 School Superintendents, made her aware of our concern. She did
5:22:46 do
5:22:46 some follow up and she received - I expressed our request or
5:22:52 recommendation by the work of our security team, the Sheriff’s
5:22:58 Department, that we be allowed to utilize simulated events or
5:23:03 simulated drills with our schools and our students to
5:23:08 avoid mass exit and students huddling into the safe corner of
5:23:14 a classroom. And she received preliminary feedback that a
5:23:19 simulated option looked like it was going to - there was a
5:23:23 favorable response. So she’s going to continue to walk that
5:23:27 out from her perspective. In addition, Mr. Novelli, our
5:23:32 district school safety specialist, is attending
5:23:35 training with the Florida Department of Education’s Safe
5:23:38 Schools Office next week and will be presenting or requesting
5:23:43 that that be discussed at that meeting as well. So I am hopeful
5:23:47 that we’re going to receive the allowance or flexibility that
5:23:51 would be appropriate to the environment that we’re in right
5:23:53 now. But I don’t have that guarantee at this point. But we
5:23:56 are - we are quickly and actively working to address
5:24:00 that. But again, our school - our district and school
5:24:05 security office, under the leadership of Major Lanza, is
5:24:10 very aware of all of the work we have done through the task
5:24:14 force. Actually, Lieutenant Neal was on the task force and
5:24:17 presented the concerns of our district security office along
5:24:21 the way. And they are prepared to adapt, adjust and support
5:24:25 our schools while also understanding that they need to
5:24:29 maintain social distancing and all of the other practices that
5:24:33 we have in place with our school. So I want to express my
5:24:37 appreciation to Major Lanza, Lieutenant Neal and Mr. Novelli
5:24:42 for working through those issues and contributing to our
5:24:46 considerations of reopening. Just quickly, Brevard After
5:24:53 School. There have been some questions about our after
5:24:55 school program. We will be - we will be providing our after
5:25:00 care program - before and after care program as we have in the
5:25:03 past. Of course, there will be some school specific guidelines
5:25:07 in place that our administrators are working
5:25:09 through with our after - Brevard After School
5:25:14 coordinators who return actually to work very soon and
5:25:20 addressing their - the space that they utilize for after
5:25:25 care and making sure that we have all of the practices in
5:25:28 place to include a staggered entry, drop off and pick up
5:25:33 procedures, how students will utilize and manage backpacks
5:25:37 and personal items. Also establishing the guidelines for
5:25:43 small group activities, ultimately groups of less than
5:25:46 ten like in our return to activity plan and of course
5:25:52 utilizing or maintaining social distancing guidelines and the
5:25:55 utilization of masks. We - not knowing exactly what the
5:25:59 utilization will be of our after care programs right now,
5:26:03 we may have to limit some enrollment as we move forward
5:26:06 and evaluate the space that they have to utilize in their
5:26:08 schools with these guidelines. So, our coordinator is going to
5:26:12 begin working through that and will provide additional guidance
5:26:15 to our schools here in the coming week.
5:26:22 Our district government and community relations office is
5:26:25 going to continue to maintain and update our COVID-19 web
5:26:31 page which will become the hub or the universal collection
5:26:35 place for all of the work and documents that we have collected
5:26:41 already and will continue to be working on which includes the
5:26:44 reopening plan that we’ve gone through today with any
5:26:49 modifications after discussion with the board. Government
5:26:54 community relations is working closely with the task force to
5:26:57 put together an FAQ, frequently asked questions document that
5:27:01 will be posted on the website as well as informational fact
5:27:04 sheets, links and videos that will be part of our reopening
5:27:08 resources platform moving forward. So, I would encourage
5:27:14 our community and parents to continue to utilize the COVID
5:27:18 website for a one-stop shop resource for information.
5:27:26 I just want to quickly reference the principal checklist. This -
5:27:30 it is a draft document because it continues to grow but
5:27:35 ultimately our principals are utilizing this as their
5:27:38 accountability preparation when they meet with their director.
5:27:42 And their director or their direct supervisor is working
5:27:45 again with them one on one and in small groups particularly if
5:27:49 schools share the same school design as they work through
5:27:52 logistics and so on to ensure that they have a viable plan for
5:27:56 all of the elements that we’ve discussed today and as well as
5:27:59 that are represented on the checklist to ensure that we are
5:28:02 upholding and adhering to our return to school or reopening
5:28:08 plan expectations and guidelines that have been presented.
5:28:16 I’ll leave up here the task force that has done a tremendous
5:28:19 amount of work. I believe 13 - 12 or 13 different district
5:28:25 representatives as well as two health department
5:28:27 representatives. You met one of them last week, Ms. Patty
5:28:31 Seibert. But I too want to take this moment to express my
5:28:37 appreciation to the team for their work but also for the
5:28:40 great amount of input that has come from our community both in
5:28:44 terms of suggestions and concerns but also requests for
5:28:50 how are you going to manage my child or my situation and so on.
5:28:54 The team has worked diligently to try and address as many
5:28:58 different circumstances as possible. The reality is I don’t
5:29:02 know that we can address them all in a reopening plan but
5:29:06 we’re prepared to work closely with our families whether they
5:29:10 choose the in person school attendance option or they pursue
5:29:15 the Brevard virtual option or the e-learning option to help
5:29:19 them manage what the new normal is going to look like moving
5:29:24 forward. Address their concerns, do our best to address their
5:29:28 fears and do everything we can to help them transition their
5:29:33 child to the most appropriate and supportive learning
5:29:37 environment that they’re comfortable with as we move
5:29:40 forward. It will be a plan of adaptation as we are confronted
5:29:46 and presented with new circumstances and situations. I
5:29:52 hope that the evidence of our past performance. Brevard
5:29:57 Public Schools stood up a distance learning platform in 10
5:30:03 days. We had glitches on day one. Kind of good glitches
5:30:11 because we had so much participation and utilization
5:30:15 that we had to manage that from an ET perspective and they did
5:30:18 a wonderful job. By day three our students and our families
5:30:23 experienced a lot, just a much more smooth transition. That’s
5:30:29 a tribute to the commitment of leadership on our district’s
5:30:34 part, a commitment to leadership on our school’s part and I have
5:30:39 no reason to believe or any indication that our leaders
5:30:45 won’t continue to step up and support our community, support
5:30:48 our parents and support our students as we transition
5:30:51 through whatever the options are that we have tried to be as
5:30:54 diverse and supportive as possible for our students to
5:30:59 provide a meaningful learning path moving forward. So again,
5:31:05 thank you to our community for their input. Thank you to our
5:31:08 speakers even today that have provided additional, their
5:31:13 interests and their concerns. I think and trust that we’ve
5:31:16 addressed many of them already in the presentation that we’ve
5:31:20 already made and the work we’re doing moving forward and we’ll
5:31:24 continue to update our community through the COVID webpage as we
5:31:30 have more information and resources available. At this
5:31:33 time I’m going to suggest Madam Chair to return to my seat only
5:31:38 for board discussion or questions so that if staff
5:31:41 members need to come up and address a specific question they
5:31:44 can come back to the podium. Yeah, that’s fine Dr. Mullins.
5:31:48 And I actually for the board members, I would like to
5:31:50 recommend that we take maybe about a 10 minute recess, get
5:31:52 our bodies and our minds moving again because I know we’re going
5:31:55 to have lots of comments, questions, discussion before we
5:31:58 move forward. So I just want to make sure that we’re all at our
5:32:01 best as we move into that. So we’ll go ahead and recess for
5:32:03 about 10 minutes and then we will resume.
5:32:14 [Music]
5:41:34 ♪♪
5:42:53 Alright, we are reconvening from our recess and Dr. Mullins,
5:42:56 before we get into discussion, I believe that you wanted to
5:42:58 discuss calendar modification.
5:43:02 Yes, thank you Ms. Belford. The board has been provided three
5:43:07 handouts. One is a summary of the calendar modification based on
5:43:11 a later start date.
5:43:12 The second handout is our current adopted 2020-21 calendar. You’ll
5:43:19 see that off to the left margin in the blue strip.
5:43:21 And the third handout is the proposed 2020-21 calendar with an
5:43:27 August 17th start.
5:43:29 So the consideration of this came from awareness and
5:43:34 consideration that our staff need additional time to prepare for
5:43:39 the very different school year that we are walking out and
5:43:46 proposing for this coming school year.
5:43:47 So staff looked at teacher in-service days that were built into
5:43:52 our calendar throughout the year and there essentially were four
5:43:56 full days that were student holidays but teacher work days or
5:44:01 teacher professional development in-service days.
5:44:04 So we took those four days throughout the year. You’ll see in
5:44:12 the summary handout that those four days consist of two planning
5:44:19 days between grading periods, the February in-service day and
5:44:22 the post-planning day.
5:44:24 So a total of four days they have been swept or scooped and
5:44:30 built into the first before school starts with students.
5:44:36 Adding those four days to the existing six days of pre-planning
5:44:41 gives our teachers and administrators, our school-based
5:44:46 personnel, ten pre-planning days and delays the student start to
5:44:51 the following Monday or, excuse me, August 17th.
5:44:55 So originally, the original calendar was students started on
5:45:00 August 11th. The new student start date would be August 17th.
5:45:06 You see the implications or the opportunities and challenges.
5:45:11 The opportunities, it continues to align with Eastern Florida
5:45:15 State College semester calendar.
5:45:17 It would not affect the pay dates for any employee type. Minimal
5:45:23 start date changes would be needed given the later start dates.
5:45:28 So any other later start date would have an interruption in our
5:45:34 pay cycle for employees but this recommended calendar does not.
5:45:40 Our employees would receive their consistent pay schedule. It
5:45:45 also aligns favorably with FHSAA and the school year would end
5:45:49 at the same time.
5:45:50 All of the other holidays remain the same. The winter break
5:45:54 holiday, the spring break holiday and other teacher-student
5:45:58 holidays remain the same on the calendar.
5:46:01 It’s just those four in-service days. The challenge is or the
5:46:08 cons, if you will, is it does take time that teachers would have
5:46:13 later throughout the year to manage their classrooms, grading
5:46:19 and grade input periods.
5:46:21 It does eliminate two hurricane days in first semester from the
5:46:26 adopted 2021 school calendar but weighing out those
5:46:31 circumstances and in conversation already with union leaders
5:46:35 with their support,
5:46:36 I am recommending that we modify the calendar to reflect an
5:46:41 August 17th start so that our teachers and schools have the
5:46:46 additional planning time to continue to meet the needs that we
5:46:50 proposed.
5:46:51 The e-learning platform, any distance learning requirements
5:46:55 certainly supports preparations for teachers in the block
5:46:59 scheduling environment and so on.
5:47:01 This would require board approval. Obviously we would need to
5:47:06 get this information if the board so chooses and so approves, we
5:47:12 would need to get this communicated to our parents and our
5:47:15 community as soon as possible.
5:47:16 Understand that the board would not be prepared to add this as
5:47:21 an approval for today in which case I would request a special
5:47:25 board meeting within the next week to get direction or approval
5:47:30 from the board unless there is clear direction today that there
5:47:34 is not an interest in pursuing this calendar.
5:47:36 But I believe if there is board support, I believe we need to
5:47:41 move quickly to get it approved and get it communicated to our
5:47:46 community.
5:47:47 Thank you Dr. Mullins, we appreciate you and your team taking a
5:47:50 look at that. I know there were lots of concerns about impacting
5:47:54 the pay of our employees after there have been so many struggles.
5:47:58 So thank you for looking into that and coming up with a possible
5:48:02 solution that would still keep them financially whole. We
5:48:06 appreciate that.
5:48:07 Would you like to return to your seat now and then I will open
5:48:14 up for board members.
5:48:19 Would you all prefer to maybe break the presentation down into
5:48:23 sections. Do you want to just each board member take their time
5:48:27 to go through all of their questions on the presentation.
5:48:31 What’s the Mr. Susan, I would suggest that we do it either by
5:48:36 pages or by topic, because we might be all over the place.
5:48:39 That’s just my suggestion. I think that may be a pretty good one.
5:48:42 Yeah, I would agree. I can also suggest that maybe since it’s
5:48:46 fresh that we could start with the calendar while we’ve got it
5:48:48 up here. Are you all good with that?
5:48:50 Yeah, so we will open conversation around the calendar proposal.
5:48:54 Ms. Campbell, since it was your proposal, do you want to start
5:48:57 our discussion?
5:48:58 Sure, sure. I’m happy to. So this is, this is one of the things
5:49:01 that a lot of people have been asking for. It may not be pushing
5:49:04 the calendar, the school start back as far as some would like,
5:49:07 but this meets our state guidelines, but it also, you know,
5:49:11 takes care of our, our employees payroll.
5:49:13 I just had one question. So I think this is great. I’ve said one
5:49:18 question just to clarify the, there is a change of the end of
5:49:22 winter break from the, from the current calendar to the proposed
5:49:27 calendar. It actually, we come back two days later.
5:49:29 So I missed in there somewhere where those extra two days came
5:49:37 from.
5:49:38 Dr. Thetti, could you come to the, I think we’re going to use
5:49:48 the, oh, there you go.
5:49:52 We would actually come back from winter break two days earlier
5:49:56 under the proposed calendar, moving the four days. They still
5:50:00 have 10 days of winter break. That’s in policy. We would,
5:50:03 instead of coming back on January 6th, the new proposed calendar
5:50:07 has us coming back on January 4th.
5:50:09 Right. So I’m trying to figure out, one, because it allows us to
5:50:15 finish the school year before Memorial Day, leaving the end of
5:50:20 the school year at the same day. Gotcha. Thank you.
5:50:23 Ms. Campbell, I’d also add that I want to acknowledge that first
5:50:28 semester exams are moved to after winter break.
5:50:31 Right. And it’s, it’s good to have a couple of days to catch up.
5:50:36 Correct. So just to summarize, for our viewing audience who
5:50:39 doesn’t have the benefit of the handout, second semester would
5:50:44 end on January 8th.
5:50:52 Excuse me. First semester, did I say second semester? First
5:50:56 semester would end on January 8th, which is the Friday after the
5:51:01 winter break. The first day back for students would be Monday,
5:51:05 January 4th.
5:51:06 So there’d be Monday, January 4th, Tuesday, January 5th as
5:51:12 regular school days. And then the sixth, seventh, and eighth
5:51:18 would be the early release exam days. So that still gives us two
5:51:23 full weeks with three weekends, you know, for our winter break.
5:51:24 Correct. Ms. Duskovich? Yes, Dr. Mullins, you did say that BFT,
5:51:29 you’ve been in communication with them and this is what they
5:51:33 would like, this is what they support.
5:51:36 They have been supportive, yes. We have not formally sat or have
5:51:40 an MOU with them because needed board direction first, but they’ve
5:51:45 been supportive of this proposed calendar.
5:51:47 Okay, I mean, I can imagine what our teachers are going to be
5:51:51 doing during those extra four days, but for the public who sees
5:51:55 that the teachers have this other pre-planning, what’s the
5:51:58 benefit of giving them these extra days to prepare under these
5:52:00 circumstances? You vaguely touched on it, but I think…
5:52:03 Sure. The reality is that the look of this school year is going
5:52:07 to certainly be very different. Teachers are going to be facing
5:52:11 with needing to manage a different classroom environment without
5:52:16 some of the resources and the learning environments that they
5:52:20 had.
5:52:20 Their small group learning center, their literacy center, those
5:52:25 types of things, because we are literally taking out extra
5:52:29 furniture from our classrooms to expand and maximize student
5:52:33 desk spacing and social distancing.
5:52:36 Our teachers need, I think Ms. Campbell said, grieving the loss.
5:52:42 There is going to be some grieving loss of what my classroom
5:52:47 used to look like and how I used to operate. I believe this
5:52:51 gives our teachers, particularly in the elementary environment,
5:52:52 additional opportunity to re-evaluate and re-adapt to this
5:52:58 situation and begin to continue modifying their lesson plans
5:53:02 that have to look different and be delivered differently
5:53:05 than they would have had previously. In the secondary
5:53:10 environment, as we move, as we implement block scheduling, it
5:53:14 would provide our teachers that additional time to modify their
5:53:19 lessons and adapt to a longer instructional day and period.
5:53:24 In addition, both elementary and secondary are going to be
5:53:27 adapting to an e-learning environment, getting familiar with the
5:53:31 platform, making sure they know how to utilize the tools, and so
5:53:35 on. So there is definitely increased planning expectations and
5:53:40 necessities for our teachers and staff.
5:53:43 Okay, thank you. Ms. McDougald, sorry, Ms. McDougald, did you
5:53:55 have questions or comments? I did. I have a quick question. Pull
5:53:56 your mic a little bit closer, Ms. McDougald. Is that better? No?
5:53:57 A little.
5:53:58 Anyhow, I have a quick question. And so I’m curious on what
5:54:03 would be the impact if, because I’m hearing from parents and
5:54:09 some staff, can’t we move it back even further? So if we moved
5:54:13 it back to the 24th, what’s the impact for our teachers and our
5:54:16 students?
5:54:17 How would the teachers come back and be able to do more work?
5:54:20 Because I am concerned about the changes that they’re going to
5:54:23 have to make in this short time period. I appreciate this, and I
5:54:27 certainly support that. But what’s the impact if we go to the 24th?
5:54:32 I’ll attempt to summarize them, but I think Dr. Thede is
5:54:38 probably best prepared to respond. Dr. Thede, you flagged me
5:54:44 down if I’m not getting it right. The maximum amount of planning
5:54:48 time we could propose for teachers is two weeks without a
5:54:51 further, if we were to add more days, we would be looking at a
5:54:54 compensation impact.
5:54:56 So it would move, teachers would then not return to likely
5:55:02 August 10th versus August 3rd. And then students would report on
5:55:09 August 24th, I believe.
5:55:12 If that’s what you’re proposing. It would interrupt our pay
5:55:18 schedule for employees. It would significantly delay employees
5:55:24 who don’t start on August 10th, our bus drivers, our cafeteria
5:55:29 staff, and so on. It would then further extend their employment
5:55:34 gap and pay.
5:55:36 It would mal-align, if you will, our Eastern Florida State
5:55:40 College semesters with our dual enrollment students. And it
5:55:45 would extend the end of the school year into June after Memorial
5:55:50 Day.
5:55:50 So when we evaluated that or even a later start date against the
5:55:58 benefits and the challenges, we felt like this is the
5:56:05 recommendation.
5:56:07 Any other questions or comments, Ms. McDougall? Mr. Season? So I
5:56:23 looked at the same thing, and thank you, Ms. McDougall, for
5:56:23 bringing that point up, because when I look at moving the block
5:56:24 and we move to all of the different components to this, I think
5:56:24 we need as much time as possible.
5:56:24 And I think that when I was looking at it to try to develop a
5:56:29 plan of how to do that with Inside the Box that we were doing, I
5:56:34 targeted our early release days. So one of the questions I was
5:56:38 going to ask Dr. Mullins was we have built in early release days
5:56:39 at the end of every week.
5:56:40 If you were to take those early release days and you were to
5:56:43 move those into the front of the year, it gives us a
5:56:46 considerable amount of time without extending the calendar for
5:56:50 planning at the beginning of the year.
5:56:52 And when I looked at all of these pieces that you brought up,
5:56:57 the financial impact, it would stay the same for teachers and
5:57:01 staff except for the gap.
5:57:03 Eastern Florida State would be a week early. I understand that.
5:57:08 But we wouldn’t have to extend a Memorial Day. We wouldn’t have
5:57:11 to do a lot of those things, and it would give us that
5:57:13 opportunity in the front. Did the staff look at that?
5:57:16 We did not, unless Dr. Thede, you want to correct me, we did not.
5:57:22 I would suggest that early release days are built into the
5:57:26 collective bargaining agreement with BFT so it would require
5:57:31 bargaining.
5:57:32 The only reason I say it is when I count them, I’m counting 1, 2,
5:57:36 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 early
5:57:42 release days, which would probably give us a little bit of a
5:57:45 window in the beginning.
5:57:46 It would also maybe give us an opportunity not to lose our exams
5:57:54 until after the second semester after winter break if we were to
5:58:02 look at that as an option. And the main reason that I bring it
5:58:05 up is that the more I was looking at the need for if we are
5:58:06 going to move to block, which it seems like that is a definite
5:58:06 positive thing for what we’re trying to do, I would try to do
5:58:09 everything I can to try to make that happen.
5:58:12 The only issue that we have, and I’m probably going to get
5:58:15 attacked by my football coaches, is football would start a week
5:58:18 early, right? They would have their game before school starts in
5:58:22 eastern Florida state and the gap for our bus drivers. That
5:58:26 would be the issue that I would see off the bat.
5:58:28 There’s other employee groups, food service, instructional
5:58:34 assistants, bus drivers. Yes, there would be a delay in
5:58:39 different employee groups pay periods. There would be a gap in
5:58:44 income, if you will.
5:58:45 Yeah, so when I was looking at the gap of the income, Eastern
5:58:49 Florida State College, the football, I think it behooves us that
5:58:53 if we can squeeze those days to get a couple of extra ones at
5:58:56 the beginning of the year, considering the conditions in the
5:59:00 current environment, I would like to make that a positive look
5:59:04 for a start date.
5:59:06 I would like to try to release, and I know that it takes the
5:59:09 union representatives to do it, but I would like to try to do
5:59:13 anything we can to extend the beginning of the start date for
5:59:16 the year so that we can plan and prepare inside of our classes.
5:59:20 Can I just ask a point of clarification, Mr. Susan? You’re
5:59:26 talking, in essence, about taking the non-student hours on our
5:59:31 early release days and moving those non-student hours to the
5:59:36 beginning of the calendar.
5:59:39 So our early release days would now be full student days, and so
5:59:43 you’re just taking advantage of those non-student hours and
5:59:47 suggesting that it be moved to the beginning.
5:59:50 And in particular, if you’re looking at your early release days
5:59:54 during the exam days, we’ve built in three days on the calendar
5:59:58 for those days, and if you remember, we’re moving to block
6:00:01 schedule.
6:00:02 If the students are taking four classes, they don’t need three
6:00:05 days worth of early release, which means that we can consolidate
6:00:08 the early release days for the exam schedules also.
6:00:11 You could, I remember when I was teaching block, we went two and
6:00:15 two. So we had two exams on one day, we had two exams on the
6:00:18 other. We didn’t have early release days on those days.
6:00:21 So if that’s the case, then we could move a lot of these early
6:00:25 release days to the front, because I have a feeling that we’re
6:00:30 going to be in communication. I mean, right now, the FHSAA is
6:00:33 meeting to discuss on what they’re going to do for sports.
6:00:33 We’re trying to get our emergency contact people to try to
6:00:36 understand if we have to do fire drills and everything else. I
6:00:38 think this gives us some extra window of time to try to be ready,
6:00:43 and I would like to have that as an option to be supported.
6:00:48 - Ms. Belfort, one of my concerns about that is I really feel
6:00:54 like, obviously, it has to be discussed with BFP. I just wonder
6:00:59 where teachers stand on that, because they asked and bargained
6:01:03 for those days so that they were spaced out throughout the year
6:01:06 so that they had that time,
6:01:07 and we’ll be cutting that planning time from them now weekly. If
6:01:11 they want it, absolutely, I can support that, but I’m not sure
6:01:15 that they would want those days back in the beginning and then
6:01:18 have a full year without any planning time at all.
6:01:21 - And it appears to me that there’s no way to take any more days
6:01:25 than what have already been taken without having a couple
6:01:29 thousand of our employees not have a paycheck in that first
6:01:33 cycle of August.
6:01:34 Because for all of our employees who are, their jobs are student
6:01:39 centric, you know, their start times, that’s a lot of people to
6:01:43 not get that first paycheck.
6:01:45 - And I would take, I took that into consideration when I was
6:01:48 looking at it, because you have your IA’s, you have them all,
6:01:50 but I would put the public safety ahead of paychecks is where
6:01:54 that rubber came from.
6:01:55 And I would say as a former teacher that I would have wanted the
6:01:59 planning time up ahead. We’re talking about transitioning to e-learning.
6:02:04 We’re talking about teachers that are now going to have to put
6:02:08 together a ton of pre-planning for their lesson plans.
6:02:11 We have to teach these teachers for the first time to transition
6:02:15 to block. There is so much that’s coming that we need every day
6:02:18 that we can.
6:02:19 And I understand again, like this isn’t something that is the
6:02:22 most prolific thing in the world as far as something we’re going
6:02:25 to continue for the rest of the time.
6:02:27 But I think it’s all hands on deck and I think this might be
6:02:29 something we could consider and look at. That’s all.
6:02:36 - Dr. Mullins, do you, would you like direction from the board
6:02:40 as to whether to consider that alternative or?
6:02:43 - I have one more too.
6:02:46 Yes, I would request direction from the board.
6:02:49 Again, I believe that if we’re going to move towards a modified
6:02:53 calendar this late in the summer that we need to do it expeditiously.
6:02:58 I have no doubt that staff can put together a similar proposal
6:03:03 for the scenario that Mr. Susan has proposed.
6:03:06 We could have it ready within a week.
6:03:08 So I would propose that the board consider a special meeting a
6:03:14 week from today.
6:03:15 I would also like to add that if there was an opportunity, one
6:03:18 of the other things that we do as a school district is we are in
6:03:22 school classes longer than, or more days than other school
6:03:26 districts because they extend their day by a couple of minutes.
6:03:28 So there’s an opportunity for extending the school day by five
6:03:31 or six minutes to grab another little bit of time.
6:03:34 So if you have one day that doesn’t match up because we have
6:03:37 four hours and we don’t, maybe we could extend a couple of
6:03:40 minutes.
6:03:40 So that’s what I was trying to say. My goal would be to try to
6:03:43 extend to create as much planning in the beginning of the year
6:03:46 as possible with something like that.
6:03:47 That’s all.
6:03:51 - So I don’t, we can certainly look at it, but if we extend the
6:03:56 school day that could have pay and bargaining implications as
6:04:00 well.
6:04:00 But we can certainly put together.
6:04:02 - Absolutely.
6:04:03 - Not to mention having our students are in, you know, that’s
6:04:06 longer hours.
6:04:07 You know, we had one of our commenters who said, you know, get
6:04:11 in, get out and go home.
6:04:12 The couple, the few things that you just suggested is longer
6:04:16 time for, you know, longer time in our school days for the
6:04:19 students and teachers to be with one another.
6:04:21 - I was just trying to say that if we could extend it five or
6:04:23 six minutes, it would give us an extra day.
6:04:25 But it does inhibit an extra cost and an extra bargaining and
6:04:29 everything else.
6:04:30 So I do understand that.
6:04:32 It was just one of the options that if we’re caught between
6:04:35 something, we may want to look at. That’s all.
6:04:37 But I do understand the ramifications behind it and I know it
6:04:40 has a low threshold for support.
6:04:42 - I will add, you know, I appreciate that.
6:04:45 We did consider the implications of the loss of hurricane make-up
6:04:50 days.
6:04:50 I mean, that is a real, we experienced that this past year where
6:04:54 we had to have a hurricane make-up day.
6:04:56 And we have limited our options with the proposed calendar and
6:05:02 we, there were options that we considered.
6:05:04 What are our back-up plans if we had to have a, you know, make-up
6:05:09 a day for hurricanes?
6:05:10 Honestly, presenting to the union for agreement to extend the,
6:05:15 to eliminate the early release days was an option to not have to
6:05:19 extend the school year later in the calendar.
6:05:21 Also utilizing winter break days or spring break days.
6:05:26 So we didn’t necessarily consider scooping up early release days
6:05:31 for additional planning days.
6:05:34 We did consider that they could be an option for hurricane make-up
6:05:38 days.
6:05:38 But if we scoop them up as well, that would eliminate that from
6:05:42 the hurricane make-up day option.
6:05:44 - And there’s some other things that I’ll bring up once we hit
6:05:47 the block scheduling in one of the other topics that I think
6:05:50 would alleviate some of the concerns for planning and stuff like
6:05:53 that.
6:05:53 - So nothing else specific on calendar?
6:05:56 - No, sir. No, ma’am, sorry.
6:05:58 - Ms. Doskovich.
6:06:01 - Just, I think it’s very important that before staff spends too
6:06:05 much time doing this, that we contact BFT.
6:06:08 If teachers in general don’t think this is a good idea and don’t
6:06:12 want to give up those days, I hate to see staff.
6:06:14 They’re working on so much stuff to be scrambling to figure it
6:06:18 out, to us have a meeting to hold that and BFT have zero
6:06:21 interest.
6:06:22 - Well, and they’re not the only, our other union as well,
6:06:25 because they’re the ones whose pay is going to be affected.
6:06:27 - Right.
6:06:28 - It would, correct me if I’m wrong, Dr. Thede, it would require
6:06:32 bargaining with both bargaining units?
6:06:34 - That’s correct.
6:06:36 - So either plan would require plan bargaining from both units,
6:06:41 right?
6:06:41 - The current proposal does not.
6:06:45 - We’ve made both unions aware of the August 17th and because it
6:06:50 does not impact the direct pay, we’re okay there.
6:06:53 And we’re working with BFT on Thursday on an MOA and it would
6:06:57 likely become part of that.
6:06:59 The alternate plan that you just proposed has some implications
6:07:02 because those early release days are not teacher early release
6:07:05 days.
6:07:05 They’re student early release days.
6:07:07 So they’re full teacher days.
6:07:09 If we shift that hour and 15 minutes onto the beginning, it has
6:07:13 the potential, I haven’t looked at it yet, you know, because we
6:07:17 didn’t consider it,
6:07:18 but it has the potential to extend the amount of days we would
6:07:22 have to pay teachers.
6:07:24 And right now we pay them for 190 days plus six days of holidays.
6:07:28 So I have staff, I have to have staff look at that and see what
6:07:31 the implication is.
6:07:32 In addition to the implication for our 10, 10 union employees
6:07:37 who may not start on time and would miss a paycheck.
6:07:41 So all of those are things we have to look at and consider.
6:07:46 - So I would suggest for that, as Ms. Deskevich indicated,
6:07:50 perhaps we provide direction to the superintendent that Dr. Thady
6:07:55 and her team work with our union representatives to get some
6:07:58 feedback on the options that have been put forward.
6:08:01 And Dr. Mullins has requested a special board meeting with us
6:08:05 next week.
6:08:06 So if our union representatives say, yes, teachers love this and,
6:08:11 you know, our 10, 10 staff love this,
6:08:14 they can potentially bring us back a recommendation along those
6:08:17 lines next week.
6:08:17 Does that work for you, Dr. Mullins, to expedite?
6:08:20 - Yes, thank you.
6:08:21 - Okay, all right, so we will move on to the meat of the
6:08:29 presentation.
6:08:31 Does anyone have anything they want to address on the first
6:08:39 eight slides,
6:08:41 which are primarily talking about the strategic plan and equity
6:08:46 framework?
6:08:47 Anything that needs to be addressed in there?
6:08:50 The first eight slides, the strategic plan and equity framework?
6:08:54 - No, ma’am.
6:08:55 - No questions, comments there.
6:08:56 Perfect.
6:08:58 Any comment or question on the community feedback slides?
6:09:09 Okay, that’s going to move us then to slide 10 and 11,
6:09:13 which are the opening guidelines that were considered from the
6:09:17 American Academy of Pediatrics.
6:09:19 Anyone have, actually that would be 10, 11 and 12.
6:09:24 Anyone have comments or questions on that section they’d like to
6:09:27 address?
6:09:27 Ms. McDougall.
6:09:28 - I just have a quick question.
6:09:30 What are we talking about when we say social distancing?
6:09:35 What are we talking about in a classroom setting?
6:09:39 Is it three feet?
6:09:40 Is it six feet?
6:09:41 Is it 10 feet?
6:09:42 Is it two feet?
6:09:43 I mean, I don’t know because social distancing can mean
6:09:48 different things to different people.
6:09:48 So I’m just curious what we’re talking about.
6:09:53 - We have used six feet as the guideline,
6:09:55 but in the classroom it would be social distancing to the full
6:10:00 extent possible.
6:10:03 - So points of clarification on that.
6:10:05 Do we anticipate, because the American Academy of Pediatrics
6:10:08 actually states that for the school setting,
6:10:16 three feet appears to be as beneficial as six feet as long as
6:10:25 students are asymptomatic and wearing masks.
6:10:31 Evidence suggests that spacing as close as three feet may
6:10:34 approach the benefits of six feet of space,
6:10:36 particularly if students are wearing face coverings and are asymptomatic.
6:10:41 - So do you anticipate that we would be less than three feet of
6:10:45 separation in classrooms?
6:10:47 - That’s a little bit of a difficult question to answer.
6:10:50 I do believe we will, I can’t assure six feet.
6:10:56 But it is dependent on how many students we have choose eLearning
6:11:00 and how many are in class in those classrooms.
6:11:04 So we’re working towards six feet, but it’ll be to the full
6:11:08 extent possible.
6:11:10 I can’t guarantee that every classroom will have six feet of
6:11:14 social distancing,
6:11:15 hence why we’ve made the recommendation that face coverings will
6:11:19 be utilized when social distancing is not feasible.
6:11:22 - Okay. Anyone else have questions, comments on slides 10
6:11:29 through 12?
6:11:31 - I have comments about class size, so I don’t know if that fits
6:11:37 in here because it would affect how many you can fit in a
6:11:41 classroom, obviously, in the distance.
6:11:43 - Sure, go ahead.
6:11:46 - So I’ve been pondering a lot, obviously, since Thursday’s
6:11:50 meeting and trying to figure out if there’s a possible way for
6:11:53 us to reduce class size.
6:11:55 I mean, one of the public comments stood out to me, the
6:11:59 gentleman said, he said it very clearly, when a group gets
6:12:03 together, numbers go up.
6:12:05 I mean, I think we all kind of agree on that.
6:12:08 And so to me, the best way to keep numbers down is to keep our
6:12:13 groups small.
6:12:14 And we do the average, we all know, 18 and 22 for class sizes in
6:12:19 elementary school.
6:12:20 And I pushed staff a little bit at the last meeting, like, can
6:12:23 we cap that at 18 and 22 instead of doing averages?
6:12:26 And so I just emailed our poor CFO just an hour ago and asked
6:12:31 for a cost summary.
6:12:33 Has anyone had an opportunity to…
6:12:36 - I don’t believe so. I haven’t been able to look at email.
6:12:39 Dr. Thede, no?
6:12:41 - Ms. Lisinski, had a chance to look at the cost implications of
6:12:47 strict adherence to 18, 22 in elementary?
6:12:52 - No, I guess we don’t have that.
6:12:57 - Okay, I’m sorry, I know that was a short, I brought it up at
6:13:00 the last meeting, but I didn’t follow up this week.
6:13:01 And then I was sitting here listening to everyone and thinking,
6:13:04 we really need a dollar amount on that.
6:13:06 Doesn’t have to be exact at this point.
6:13:08 But I think we as the board need to know, oh, that’s gonna cost
6:13:12 $100 million
6:13:13 when we couldn’t come up with that.
6:13:15 But I was looking at our contingency fund, which you did just
6:13:18 email to me.
6:13:18 Thank you, Ms. Lisinski.
6:13:21 I never want to dip into our contingency.
6:13:23 It’s for emergencies.
6:13:24 Well, this is an emergency.
6:13:27 Our 3% is unacceptable.
6:13:29 I always want to have three months worth, but by law, we only
6:13:32 need 3%.
6:13:33 So there’s $2 million in there.
6:13:35 That could get us to classes smaller somehow.
6:13:38 It’s just running some numbers.
6:13:39 It gets us 32 more teachers.
6:13:41 I have a feeling that’s not going to help a ton with class sizes.
6:13:45 But maybe it can start digging away at grade level at a time.
6:13:50 I don’t know.
6:13:51 I wonder if there’s something we can do to get these class sizes
6:13:54 down.
6:13:54 We were getting emails all week that said some of those lower
6:13:58 level classes would have upwards of 25, 26 kids in there.
6:14:02 And I hear often from the staff, oh, that can’t be true.
6:14:06 But then we hear so many teachers say it is true.
6:14:09 I don’t know what the truth is there.
6:14:11 But I have great concerns when we start going above 25 because
6:14:15 one of the callers was listing out your chances of being exposed
6:14:19 when you start going past 25 people in a room.
6:14:23 You know, we’re going to discuss masks.
6:14:25 We’re discussing sanitizing.
6:14:26 We’re discussing all these things.
6:14:27 But I think one of the things we know is more people in a room,
6:14:30 more chances you’re going to get it, more exposure.
6:14:32 So it’s just I wish we could reduce our numbers somehow.
6:14:36 Just for clarification, Ms. Klein, you correct me.
6:14:41 Even with average, we are bound to no more than three more in an
6:14:45 A1 class.
6:14:46 So 18 at most could go to 21 in, is it five?
6:14:51 Three in primary.
6:14:52 So K to 2 could go to 21 and three to five could go to five
6:15:02 above 22.
6:15:04 So up to 27.
6:15:06 We typically try and not do that.
6:15:08 We cap at 25.
6:15:10 But there may be – I can’t tell you that there wasn’t an
6:15:13 instance that it didn’t happen.
6:15:14 Okay.
6:15:15 I have e-mails over the past couple years where that’s been
6:15:18 blown away, 29 in sixth grade.
6:15:21 People that I trust, too, and no, not just a faceless e-mail.
6:15:25 So I know we’ve gone over that.
6:15:27 I think we need to just work really, really, really hard to not
6:15:31 get that high again.
6:15:32 And I don’t know if the board needs to take action to make sure
6:15:35 that doesn’t happen or if we can have a verbal or if we just
6:15:40 announce publicly teachers come running forward if you have 30
6:15:43 kids in your class in a K6 classroom.
6:15:46 We just – we can’t risk that right now.
6:15:49 If we’re not even allowing, you know, our volunteers that are
6:15:53 almost like employees come into our school because of exposure,
6:15:56 then we can’t have five extra kids in the classroom.
6:15:59 I feel very strongly about that.
6:16:04 Mr. Susan.
6:16:05 I think you’re 100% right.
6:16:06 I think where you’re going to see a lot of those high numbers
6:16:09 are going to be in the electives, especially inside the block
6:16:12 scheduling.
6:16:13 And there needs to be some concern of what to do; right?
6:16:16 One of the things that I was looking at is I was going to ask
6:16:19 when we got into this conversation, how can we increase the
6:16:23 amount of students that an individual teaches online?
6:16:27 Because the more people that the online teachers can take in,
6:16:31 the less people needs to be inside the class.
6:16:34 Because when I was doing the components to how we were going to
6:16:38 do this, if the idea is that as they go online it has to follow
6:16:42 the same guidelines as the ones inside the class, then we’re
6:16:45 just shifting and there’s no way to reduce.
6:16:48 So the question is if somebody can give me some – Dr. Mullins,
6:16:54 if moving to Brevard Virtual or moving to online eLearning, what
6:16:59 are the rules there?
6:17:01 And we like we do in some of the other areas.
6:17:04 So we know that there’s been those cases where those electives
6:17:07 are higher.
6:17:08 They’re a fact; right?
6:17:10 We know them.
6:17:11 The teachers e-mail us and they’re there.
6:17:13 But it’s on a class – on a school average.
6:17:15 So there’s a lot of other classes, whether they’re ESC or
6:17:17 whatever, they get counted into that average and it drops it
6:17:20 down.
6:17:20 So how do we do that?
6:17:22 And the question I would have is what is our limitations on eLearning
6:17:27 and then if we go over that, who’s going to come and get us in
6:17:31 trouble?
6:17:32 Who’s going to – what penalties do we get?
6:17:36 I’ll try to answer the question. I’m not sure – eLearning doesn’t
6:17:53 have limitations other than the plan has to be how you’re going
6:17:53 to manage and ensure consistent curriculum learning experiences
6:17:54 from a student in the school to the eLearning.
6:17:54 How are you going to ensure the support services?
6:17:58 How are you going to progress monitor?
6:18:00 We have to demonstrate a plan and criteria for all of those
6:18:03 things to the state before they’ll approve us to go stand up an
6:18:07 eLearning platform.
6:18:08 Same for elementary school.
6:18:10 In terms of capacity, I don’t know that there is a capacity
6:18:15 limit. In terms of feasibility, particularly in the secondary,
6:18:21 we need all of our teachers being accessible, if you will, or
6:18:26 available for the eLearning consideration.
6:18:30 Because every time you pull out just one teacher’s availability,
6:18:34 you create – you probably remember the term singletons, those
6:18:38 kind of things, it chokes your schedule.
6:18:40 It constricts your flexibility with students.
6:18:44 So we need all of our teachers available. We need all of them
6:18:47 prepared to support both platforms.
6:18:50 The union has been very supportive so far. We know it presents
6:18:56 some additional considerations by our teachers, but the benefits
6:19:01 are is it de-densifies our classroom environment.
6:19:04 But we’re still bound to class size, whether it is an in-person
6:19:09 or an eLearning or a hybrid or combination of both.
6:19:12 Class size applies to our mesh subjects. It does not apply to
6:19:17 electives.
6:19:18 » And it would apply to our mesh subjects or in elementary
6:19:21 school to the overall average of the school.
6:19:24 So if we have – and here’s where – so if I can try to explain
6:19:29 what I’m saying.
6:19:30 If you have 20 kids in teacher one, teacher two, and teacher
6:19:33 three, that’s 60 total kids.
6:19:35 Now, we want each one of those classrooms to be reduced down so
6:19:38 that we can have our social distancing, right?
6:19:41 So if the first two teachers, teacher one and two, have only 13
6:19:46 kids that stay inside their class,
6:19:48 then the third teacher who would go online would have to take up
6:19:52 not only their class but the other vacancies that have been
6:19:56 created and gone off.
6:19:57 Now, if they can do that and we can add extra children to the eLearning
6:20:02 or the Brevard Virtual, we got it.
6:20:05 We can reduce the class sizes and we can get that window in
6:20:09 there.
6:20:09 But if we’re – if what you said is true, then I think that it’s
6:20:14 something as long as the eLearning teachers are willing to do it,
6:20:16 it might be a possibility.
6:20:18 So I was trying to help you. The other thing is if you look at
6:20:21 – I think it’s line numbers 331, 332, 333 on our budget
6:20:26 transfers today.
6:20:27 There’s a million dollars in travel between the three of them
6:20:30 that hasn’t been spent yet, so don’t spend that money yet.
6:20:32 We can use the travel that we’re not traveling for part of that.
6:20:35 So – sorry, Dr. Moles.
6:20:37 Just a point of clarification of what you said, and you guys
6:20:41 correct me if I’m wrong.
6:20:42 I don’t think we can transfer those students to Brevard Virtual.
6:20:46 The eLearning may have some flexibility, but we’re – that’s a
6:20:51 completely separate FTE.
6:20:53 Absolutely. My example was set for eLearning for the school
6:20:56 between three teachers, say at Suntree Elementary.
6:20:58 Okay. So you’re talking about having, you know, 13 kids in one
6:21:02 class for your example of 2020-20, you know, normally, 13 kids
6:21:06 in one class in school,
6:21:07 13 kids in another class in school, and then the other teacher
6:21:12 would be responsible for 34 kids.
6:21:15 If I’m doing my math right, I may be off by 10, 15, somewhere.
6:21:20 You can’t get away from it one way or the other, but if you
6:21:24 truly are trying to figure out a way to reduce that class size,
6:21:29 the question is, one of the options is, is that the eLearning
6:21:32 teachers take a couple of more students on.
6:21:34 I don’t believe the DOE – I don’t know for sure, because eLearning
6:21:38 or innovative learning options is new.
6:21:40 It may depend on us getting approval from the – I don’t – my
6:21:43 suspicion is, is they are going to hold us to class size
6:21:47 amendment requirements to the eLearning classroom.
6:21:51 What if there was an IA, just hypothetically, what if there was
6:21:56 an IA assigned to that eLearning class that now has 40-something,
6:21:58 and they could help check in, follow up with students so that
6:22:01 that teacher, is that – does that bring the class size down?
6:22:05 An IA does not contribute to the reduction of class size.
6:22:11 Dr. Sullivan?
6:22:15 So the secondary model that we’re looking at would – every
6:22:22 teacher would carry some students in each period that are eLearning
6:22:28 and in front of them, and that total is their class size.
6:22:33 So I think that’s exactly what Mr. Susan was saying.
6:22:38 I want to make sure we’re speaking the same language.
6:22:40 So if Ms. Campbell has four music classes in her first period
6:22:45 class, she might have 13 of her 25 that have chosen eLearning,
6:22:50 that means there’s only 12 in front of her.
6:22:53 And so it is a strategy that de-densifies classrooms, as Dr.
6:22:58 Mullen said, and that’s why since between Thursday and Tuesday,
6:23:05 we really couldn’t commit until we were further down that we
6:23:09 could do block,
6:23:10 because that allows more time in the classroom for the teacher
6:23:15 to pivot maybe small group lesson for the children in front of
6:23:20 them,
6:23:20 and then potentially 15 minutes of small group lesson for the
6:23:23 children online.
6:23:24 And the block enables that, which is why we needed a couple of
6:23:29 days to see that we could pull that out.
6:23:32 So because of the specialty classes, that’s why Dr. Mullen has
6:23:37 mentioned a couple of times it’s really an all-day affair.
6:23:40 So the benefit to the teachers, of course, is every one of those
6:23:44 eLearning students comes out of their generated roster.
6:23:48 And so they could conceivably have 10 children in front of them
6:23:52 or eight children in front of them,
6:23:54 depending on how many of them choose an eLearning option.
6:23:57 Or secondary. I think Mr. Susan was specifically talking about
6:24:02 –
6:24:02 No, either way. I was just giving an example, and Ms. Sullivan,
6:24:05 you did an eloquent way of explaining that, so thank you so much.
6:24:08 I really appreciate that.
6:24:09 I thought that’s what you were saying. I just want to make sure.
6:24:11 Thank you.
6:24:12 I would add, I don’t want to – in that a teacher who might have
6:24:17 three classes of English, one.
6:24:20 They may not have a class that has an eLearning student in it,
6:24:24 but the other two classes may have.
6:24:26 So there’s lots of permutations of when you build a master
6:24:30 schedule.
6:24:31 We can’t assure that every class will be de-densified with eLearning
6:24:38 kids because all of the dominoes have to align just right.
6:24:42 We certainly would hope to work toward that, and it may
6:24:46 naturally, particularly if eNumbers climb,
6:24:49 but I don’t want to leave to suggest that it will happen in
6:24:53 every classroom because that wouldn’t be a fair statement that
6:24:58 we could assure or guarantee.
6:25:00 Is that correct, Dr. Sullivan?
6:25:02 So the eLearning at home option is going to de-densify
6:25:06 potentially secondary schools if this all plans out,
6:25:10 but it’s not going to de-densify in elementary school. Is that
6:25:14 –
6:25:14 Not at this point. We’re looking to cluster eLearning students
6:25:18 with an eLearning teacher.
6:25:20 Now, we also have to – we have to be able to pivot in either
6:25:24 one of those environments, elementary or secondary,
6:25:27 that if or more realistically when a student wants to transition
6:25:32 back to in-person, we have to accommodate them,
6:25:34 and the expectation is that they transition back to their
6:25:37 classroom teacher.
6:25:38 So they would be transitioning into that teacher’s classroom.
6:25:44 So a whole – to remain eLearning only is not likely to be for
6:25:53 the duration.
6:25:54 If you weren’t able to do what I was saying about the three
6:25:58 teachers,
6:25:58 then you would just have to hire another teacher to take on the
6:26:00 workload of the eLearning to alleviate the in-class learning, if
6:26:04 that makes sense.
6:26:05 Which is why I was looking at contingency for funds, because if
6:26:09 you’re going to try to bring down class size, you need money.
6:26:15 But $2.1 million isn’t going to go very far.
6:26:20 So I think, though, that, you know, obviously we would all like
6:26:26 to see our class sizes smaller if there are opportunities to
6:26:29 create that.
6:26:30 So definitely to keep top of mind. Does anyone else have
6:26:36 anything from 10, 11, or 12,
6:26:37 which is the American Academy of Pediatrics opening guidelines
6:26:44 that are being utilized and discussed?
6:26:49 If not, I have a couple of questions I would like to ask.
6:26:54 Dr. Mullins, on slide number 12, it’s the latest statement from
6:26:59 the AAP.
6:27:00 Coupled with, you know, it was the joint statement that was
6:27:03 released by the superintendents group and the national union.
6:27:11 The next to the last line says, for instance, schools in areas
6:27:18 with high levels of COVID-19 community spread should not be
6:27:20 compelled to reopen against the judgment of local experts.
6:27:23 And I’m struggling, and I suspect you are as well, to identify
6:27:32 who are our local experts that have the ability to provide
6:27:42 judgment on the appropriateness of our reopening.
6:27:45 We heard last week that our local department of health indicated
6:27:52 that they did not have the authority to tell us that we should
6:27:56 not open schools at the local level.
6:27:57 And that there weren’t really any significant metrics, right?
6:28:00 She said we’re going in a bad direction, but there’s not a – if
6:28:04 our positivity rate is over 15% or if our death rate is over,
6:28:08 you know, 2%,
6:28:10 has the Florida Department of Health, like the state level
6:28:14 Department of Health, weighed in on the directive to open brick
6:28:21 and mortar schools?
6:28:24 Not that I’m aware of.
6:28:26 Okay.
6:28:32 So would the state Department of Health be our local experts
6:28:37 that are referenced in the statement?
6:28:40 Ms. Moore, do you know who’s – I’m frustrated, quite frankly,
6:28:45 because I feel like we have been – we’ve been put between a
6:28:48 rock and a hard place, right?
6:28:49 We’ve been told that we must open brick and mortar schools
6:28:54 unless the local health experts tell us otherwise.
6:28:58 But I can’t identify who our local health experts are that feel
6:29:05 as though they have the authority to do so.
6:29:10 I don’t – I don’t know how to answer that question.
6:29:13 I can tell you our local Brevard Department of Health do not
6:29:16 believe they are the local experts that are allowed to lead that
6:29:19 conversation.
6:29:20 I do know they are allowed to discuss – they are allowed to,
6:29:25 based on statute, declare an emergency about infectious illness
6:29:31 for students who are to be excluded from school due to
6:29:35 vaccination.
6:29:35 But it is a case-by-case basis and not a whole school district.
6:29:39 Got it.
6:29:40 Okay.
6:29:41 If I remember the reference correctly, I believe it was we’re
6:29:45 the local Department of Health but we’re part of a statewide
6:29:49 agency, so, therefore, they would not make that decision in
6:29:53 isolation.
6:29:53 Did I get that right?
6:29:54 Yeah, they can – they are called an integrated agency, and all
6:29:58 of the local health departments are part of the one Tallahassee
6:30:02 Department of Health.
6:30:04 Can I follow up to that?
6:30:06 Just the fact that we don’t know, can we get somebody to give us
6:30:09 an answer, whether it’s the local or the state?
6:30:12 And then – I mean, because what’s happening is our public is
6:30:15 pounding on our district and us for this topic, and we’re trying
6:30:19 to find out ourselves, and they’re not giving us an answer over
6:30:22 there.
6:30:22 If we can find that out and then just ask them, who is it?
6:30:25 And then – because what I’m finding is, is in many of our
6:30:28 organizations that are above us that are giving us guidance,
6:30:31 whether it’s the FHSAA, whether it’s the Department of Health,
6:30:33 whether it’s a lot of these different –
6:30:35 they’re waiting to the last minute, which is putting a lot of
6:30:38 our school districts in a tough spot.
6:30:39 So, that’s all.
6:30:40 If we can do something like that, we’ll get fired up here.
6:30:45 Is that okay, Ms. Moore?
6:30:47 I’m not sure where to go with that.
6:30:49 Our local Department of Health has already said that they are
6:30:52 not that agency.
6:30:53 It seems to me that’s a bigger question for our superintendents
6:30:57 to ask our governor.
6:30:58 I’m not – I think we need clarification for the state, so I’m
6:31:03 not sure where to go with that question.
6:31:07 I mean, I can certainly ask our local Department of Health again
6:31:11 to ask the Department of Health in Tallahassee if they are the
6:31:15 agency, and I will be happy to do that.
6:31:18 But again, I think it’s a bigger question that our superintendents
6:31:23 need to get direction from our DOE or governor.
6:31:27 We just need direction over who is going to do it.
6:31:30 I understand.
6:31:31 And if they don’t know who, then they need to provide a name up
6:31:35 in Tallahassee who should.
6:31:36 And I think that I’m tired of our staff, including you, getting
6:31:40 beat up over this, along with Dr. Mullins and our board members,
6:31:42 and it’s not fair to everybody to do that.
6:31:44 So, if there’s anybody that we need to call or go up there, Dr.
6:31:48 Mullins or superintendents, because this is happening across the
6:31:51 state.
6:31:51 So, I’m done.
6:31:52 But if you’re looking for direction, I would first go to the
6:31:54 Department of Health locally and say, “Who is it that tells you
6:31:57 what to do?”
6:31:57 And then I would call that person and see if they’re the ones
6:31:59 that are going to do it and keep going up until we get an answer.
6:32:01 That would help.
6:32:02 So, Mr. Susan, if I might recommend, only because, you know, we’ve
6:32:07 referenced so many times all that our team is trying to tackle
6:32:10 at the moment.
6:32:11 Dr. Mullins, if you could reach out to FADS and see if they’ve
6:32:15 gotten any indication, I will reach out to FSBA and see if they
6:32:18 have been able to get any information there.
6:32:21 As well as I spoke with Representative Placencia the other night,
6:32:26 he said if there was anything that he could help us with to
6:32:28 please let him know.
6:32:28 So, I will reach out to him as well and see if we can’t, you
6:32:32 know, walk this up the chain and see if we can get some answers.
6:32:37 Although, I will say in total honesty, I doubt that we will
6:32:42 because, you know, even the callers have said that they have
6:32:46 reached out and are not getting answers to who that falls on.
6:32:49 So, but we’ll walk it up the chain and see what we can do.
6:32:53 Thank you, Ms. Moore, for clarification on that.
6:32:55 I didn’t mean to put you in a bad situation.
6:32:58 I’m just trying to get to the bottom of it because it’s so
6:33:02 incredibly frustrating.
6:33:04 Ms. Belfort, I have a question that goes along with that because
6:33:08 you mentioned the rate of the spread and that’s what the big
6:33:12 concern is with even the American Academy of Pediatrics mentions
6:33:16 the rate of the spread.
6:33:17 Do we know or can we find out, say, what Miami-Dade’s rate of
6:33:21 spread is because the governor has left them in a different
6:33:25 stage than us and that’s why they can still do at-home learning
6:33:30 only compared to our rate of spread.
6:33:32 Because we have to have metrics. I mean, we have to have some
6:33:35 way to measure.
6:33:35 We do. You can actually go onto the Department of Health’s
6:33:38 website and there’s a link and it shows county by county. There’s
6:33:41 a map.
6:33:41 Yeah, I’ve been looking at that through some of the, earlier in
6:33:44 the meeting I was going through there, but I didn’t see rate of
6:33:47 spread.
6:33:47 If that’s what we want to mention, if that’s what we want to
6:33:50 measure, then I just want to look at rate of spread.
6:33:52 Because people are arguing, we’ve had so many cases, it’s
6:33:55 growing, death, no, we’re only going to look at death rates.
6:33:57 If a public health crisis is how much it’s spreading, then let’s
6:34:00 make that our standard.
6:34:01 And we need to be able to say to the public, it’s okay for us to
6:34:06 open because our rate of spread is X lower than Miami’s, or look,
6:34:11 ours is the same and now we have to go to the state and really
6:34:12 scream and yell.
6:34:12 Like, how come we’re in a different stage if it’s spreading at
6:34:15 the same rate as it is there?
6:34:16 I don’t, this shouldn’t be hard for us to figure out and
6:34:20 somebody in the health world needs to answer that question for
6:34:24 us.
6:34:24 I strongly feel that because one of my questions later in our
6:34:29 presentation is if we’re going to ask students to stay six feet
6:34:34 apart or wear a mask, or when are we going to stop?
6:34:37 What’s the measure? Is it when everybody feels better? Is it
6:34:43 when there’s no COVID anywhere again?
6:34:45 Again, we have to have some benchmarks so that people know and
6:34:48 parents can come back and say, rate of spread now is X for three
6:34:52 months.
6:34:53 And you guys promised that we can roll these things back and the
6:34:56 playground can open back up.
6:34:57 We’ve got to be able to measure some of this stuff. We can’t
6:35:00 just go on feeling. So, that’s my piece. Thank you.
6:35:02 Absolutely agree, Ms. Doskovich. The other, I think the other
6:35:06 reference that many of the recommendations make is the level of
6:35:09 community transmission.
6:35:10 And there are lots of plans that identify low, moderate, and
6:35:14 high levels of community transmission, which is, I’m assuming
6:35:18 the same thing as rate of spread.
6:35:20 But I’ve yet to be able to find any metrics that identify what
6:35:24 is a low level of transmission, what’s a moderate, and what’s a
6:35:28 high.
6:35:29 So, I think there’s, Ms. Moore, if you have the magic wand and
6:35:32 can get answers to those things, you texted Patty?
6:35:35 I did.
6:35:36 Excellent. Thank you so much. So, just flag me down if you get
6:35:39 an answer.
6:35:39 All right.
6:35:40 I’ll circle back to you. Any other questions on slides 10
6:35:49 through 12?
6:35:51 Okay. Then we will move on to our prior to opening operational,
6:35:55 which is going to be on slides 13 and 14.
6:35:58 Any comments or questions on either of those slides?
6:36:02 I think that one of the questions I have is based on 13.
6:36:11 So, it has to do more with after opening, but relates to how the
6:36:16 desks are going to be turning the tables and everybody facing
6:36:20 the same direction.
6:36:21 Because there were a few comments, and I’ve had a few emails
6:36:24 about, you know, I think there just needs to be some
6:36:27 clarification.
6:36:28 Are we saying there shall be no interaction between students?
6:36:31 I don’t get that picture, but people are starting to think that
6:36:34 what class is going to look like is for, you know, 30 minutes,
6:36:38 45 minutes,
6:36:39 90 minutes, depending on age level, that the kids are going to
6:36:42 be in their desks facing the same way and stuck there for the
6:36:45 whole entire block.
6:36:46 And can you give us some more clarification of what exactly that
6:36:54 means and might look like?
6:36:57 Certainly. As just like we’re sitting right now facing forward,
6:37:03 so when we’re giving instruction, direct instruction, students
6:37:07 won’t be engaged in that collaborative group.
6:37:09 That does not mean that we’re not going to be able to turn and
6:37:14 talk, you know, kids talk.
6:37:17 When we do small group, we’ll be putting our mask on and having
6:37:22 small group or the teacher will be wearing the face shield.
6:37:26 I heard earlier students at home in e-learning, they can’t sit
6:37:32 all day long.
6:37:33 We’re not expecting that. Just like in the classroom, we’ll be
6:37:37 doing the brain breaks, we’ll be doing recess, we’ll be moving.
6:37:42 But we’re going to maintain our social distance and we’re going
6:37:47 to, when we’re not, make sure our mask is on and we’re
6:37:50 recommending that mask as much as possible.
6:37:53 But although what we don’t want is we know that it’s transmitted
6:38:03 by bodily fluid and children talk and they get excited.
6:38:08 And so we don’t want that face to face opportunity for
6:38:13 transmission.
6:38:18 Any other board members have questions on slide 13 or 14? I have
6:38:23 one on I’m sorry.
6:38:24 This is when you want to go. No, I’m I always go after you.
6:38:28 OK, I’m 13. This is just the I’ve been getting lots of emails
6:38:35 and about who’s going to be doing the pumps of the hand sanitizer.
6:38:41 That may sound odd, but people are afraid and they’re concerned
6:38:46 and it’s safety.
6:38:47 Do we have those automatic things where you just stick your hand
6:38:50 underneath it and it spits out?
6:38:52 I mean, is that a possibility under I mean, CARES Act, we’re
6:38:55 probably using all the money up, but anyhow, I just wondered if
6:38:59 that’s a possibility for our classrooms and certainly for the
6:39:02 lunchroom.
6:39:02 I would think that would be an easy thing. But just asking. Mr.
6:39:08 Novelli, I’m going to put you on the spot.
6:39:09 Do you happen to know if our hand sanitizer dispensers that are
6:39:15 in stanchions around campus are touchless?
6:39:21 I guess dispense just by putting your hand under them or do they
6:39:27 require the depression of a paddle or a handle or something like
6:39:32 that?
6:39:33 So I think we heard last time the gallon jugs of hand sanitizer
6:39:37 in the classroom have a pump and it sounds like the dispensers
6:39:42 around the campus would have a paddle.
6:39:44 You’ve seen those have a paddle to dispense the hand sanitizer.
6:39:51 Mr. Susan, just really fast, and this has been stated before,
6:39:54 but I received a couple of emails on it since the last meeting,
6:39:57 and I think that some people wanted some clarifications.
6:40:00 If there’s a request for plexiglass barriers or if the PPE hand
6:40:04 sanitizer and additional cleaning products run out, we’re going
6:40:09 to provide those.
6:40:09 Right. I mean, that’s the case with it, as any of the there was
6:40:13 just some people said, like, what happens when I run out?
6:40:15 Well, we’ve ordered enough to supply us for the year, and I just
6:40:19 wanted the public to know that that’s it.
6:40:21 Excellent. Anyone else have anything on 13, 14? Ms. McDougall?
6:40:31 Ms. Hand, I have a question for you. With our HVAC and the
6:40:35 filters that you’re changing, I know there’s some furnaces, and
6:40:41 I have no idea what the cost or if it’s feasible or whatever.
6:40:43 Like, there’s some kind of little thing that you can, I’m going
6:40:47 to get the name all wrong, that will kind of kill viruses before
6:40:51 they go through the system.
6:40:53 Does that make any sense to you?
6:40:56 It’s kind of like something like that, but it’s different. They
6:40:59 have a different name. It’s like an ion or.
6:41:08 Good afternoon, everyone.
6:41:13 There are a couple of different things on the air conditioning
6:41:16 systems. We we looked at filters first, and we’re in the process,
6:41:22 as I stated earlier, of changing out about 13,000 filters.
6:41:26 There are different types of filters. We looked at what we can
6:41:30 do, and our filters are a certain size. So we’re kind of stuck
6:41:33 with that size.
6:41:34 We can’t do really bigger filters in most of our air
6:41:37 conditioning units, nor are the mechanics of the machine able to
6:41:42 overcome, for example, a thicker filter.
6:41:45 We have to be careful about how we affect our air conditioning
6:41:49 systems overall. They’re pretty sensitive and they’re pretty
6:41:53 tightly designed.
6:41:54 I think what you may be referring to is the ultraviolet light
6:41:59 units, and we’ve been looking at those, but the science isn’t
6:42:03 crystal clear on whether they do or do not actually kill the
6:42:07 virus.
6:42:08 They’re somewhat expensive, especially if they’re replicated
6:42:11 everywhere throughout the school district. From what my guys are
6:42:14 telling me, they last about a year.
6:42:16 We can barely get our filters changed. I’m not confident that we
6:42:21 can keep up with thousands of ultraviolet light units with the
6:42:25 custodial and the maintenance staff that we have.
6:42:29 So what we’ve tried to do is really prioritize what our
6:42:33 workforce is able to do and what our custodial teams are able to
6:42:37 do with the resources that we have as supplemented by our CARES
6:42:41 Act,
6:42:41 and not create things that we will not be able to sustain over a
6:42:47 longer period of time with the resources that we have.
6:42:52 Anything else back on 13-14? Moving ahead then, slides 15
6:42:59 through 17, our purchase supplies and the recap of the
6:43:04 educational things that have taken place prior to opening. Ms.
6:43:10 Campbell?
6:43:11 Thank you for those questions, Mr. Cheatham. I know we’ve talked
6:43:16 about technology needs before, which you guys did a monumental
6:43:20 job of taking care of in the spring.
6:43:22 I know it was already mentioned today, we passed out more than
6:43:26 15,000 devices, including laptops and hotspots, and then we are
6:43:31 still waiting on many of those to come back.
6:43:34 We’ll have to replenish some of those that were broken or are
6:43:40 not usable anymore.
6:43:42 With the e-learning, and of course if we have to do any pivots
6:43:46 to distance learning, we’re going to have to pass out laptops
6:43:50 and hotspots again.
6:43:51 I’m assuming we’ll have those people identify it already. But we’re
6:43:57 still going to need those devices at school.
6:43:59 Many of those devices that were passed out are ones that are
6:44:02 being used in our classrooms. Now we may have some people who
6:44:05 choose virtual and we may have a smaller population in each
6:44:07 school because of that.
6:44:08 So we may have some extra, not extra, but it will be less tight
6:44:12 I guess. So that’s kind of my first question of how are you
6:44:17 anticipating that going?
6:44:19 And then I’ve got one real quick one of our virtual. It’s a bit
6:44:32 of a mix. We have some schools that gave out just about
6:44:33 everything they had, so for those schools we have to watch
6:44:33 closely as the e-learning options put out there.
6:44:34 We’re going to have to talk with those schools and see what
6:44:37 percentage of devices do they feel comfortable letting go off
6:44:41 campus so that they can still function to some level on campus.
6:44:44 But those are definitely the things we’re looking at. The e-learning
6:44:48 piece, we’re still figuring that out, I’ll be honest with you.
6:44:51 But we’re trying to figure out those percentages to where what
6:44:55 can you have off campus and still function on campus. But it’s a
6:45:00 bit of a moving target for sure.
6:45:02 Right, and I know some of our schools are close to one to one
6:45:07 device, but some of those are not laptops. They’re desktops that
6:45:12 can’t be taken home.
6:45:14 Correct, we have schools that are close to one to one. Some are
6:45:17 desktops, some are older devices. We have aging devices within
6:45:20 our schools and some of those devices aren’t the best devices to
6:45:23 do e-learning with.
6:45:24 So we’re going to do the best we can. Again, we’re going to use
6:45:28 some of the CARES Act’s funds to replace some of the devices
6:45:31 that went out last year.
6:45:33 We’re fixing devices that came back damaged from last year as
6:45:37 well, so we’re hoping to get as many back into rotation as we
6:45:41 can.
6:45:41 But it’s still going to be pretty tight when you talk about
6:45:44 having devices going home versus devices being in our schools at
6:45:48 the same time.
6:45:49 If there’s any large corporations listening today who would like
6:45:52 to donate a couple million dollars towards the laptop fund, that
6:45:55 would be great.
6:45:56 That wasn’t my second question. Just putting a plug in there.
6:46:00 Contact Brevard Schools Foundation.
6:46:02 So when we do Brevard Virtual School, and we’re going to have
6:46:06 greater numbers in Brevard Virtual School than ever.
6:46:09 When we do Brevard Virtual School, do we loan out devices for
6:46:12 Brevard Virtual or are families expected to have their own
6:46:15 device?
6:46:15 I see you say, shaking your head, yes. We do. If a family has a
6:46:19 need, we do that.
6:46:20 And do they have their own inventory, or do those usually come
6:46:23 – yes, they have their own inventory.
6:46:29 Okay. So they have some, but they’re going to need more, is what
6:46:32 you’re saying.
6:46:33 The inventory still comes from E.T., though.
6:46:35 It still comes from E.T., but we’re not taking laptops from the
6:46:38 school where they used to go or anything.
6:46:40 It runs through their technology budget.
6:46:44 We are – poor Mrs. Price. I’ve asked her to pivot three or four
6:46:51 different times now.
6:46:52 As we’ve rolled out eLearning, now we’re expecting some of those
6:46:55 to pull back.
6:46:56 And so she amplified her enrollment, so her concerns were sky
6:47:01 high. Her concerns late last night, when I told her, were a
6:47:05 little less.
6:47:05 So we’re all on the roller coaster together.
6:47:09 Right. But just wanted to check that they do have the
6:47:11 availability of families need to do that, but they don’t have
6:47:13 their own devices. Thank you.
6:47:14 Absolutely.
6:47:15 That’s all I’ve got on those pages, Ms. Faulkner.
6:47:17 Thanks, Ms. Campbell. Ms. Duskovich.
6:47:19 I have a couple questions to follow up with that.
6:47:21 Dr. Sullivan, do we know what is Brevard virtual school numbers?
6:47:25 It was interesting. I think some – maybe Dr. Mullen said
6:47:28 earlier about 25 percent look like they’re looking at eLearning.
6:47:31 Maybe that was elementary school at this point.
6:47:33 And so what’s Brevard virtual school looking like? Do we know?
6:47:36 Every given day. She’s currently looking at about 600 full-time
6:47:43 students.
6:47:44 But that was just prior to Thursday’s announcement of some –
6:47:49 Is that K-12?
6:47:50 K-12 full-time, yeah. But that was just prior to Thursday’s
6:47:55 announcement on elementary eLearning and, of course, today’s
6:47:59 comments towards secondary eLearning.
6:48:02 So she’s going to take the next couple days continuing to reach
6:48:07 back out to families.
6:48:08 She already received some declinations after Thursday’s board
6:48:12 meeting from some of our elementary families.
6:48:14 And we’ll outline and put up for parents when they’re choosing
6:48:19 between either eLearning or virtual the pros and cons and what
6:48:23 might be the best fit for their family.
6:48:25 But I think she’s naturally assuming her numbers to go down a
6:48:29 bit over the next few days.
6:48:30 And that 600, do you have any idea what last year was?
6:48:34 About 150.
6:48:35 Wow.
6:48:39 Thank you. And then last, Mr. Cheatham, I have great concerns
6:48:46 because we have a budget hearing coming up where I believe we
6:48:53 are removing positions.
6:48:55 I’m trying to think of a nicer word, but eliminating several
6:49:02 positions for your IT team, which means some schools wouldn’t
6:49:06 have full coverage.
6:49:07 Am I correct in that? And when would that start?
6:49:11 They were vacant positions. So it’s five positions. It would
6:49:22 have started July 1. But they’re vacant. It’s not a layoff or an
6:49:26 elimination of people. It was a position.
6:49:26 I still have great concern, and maybe this will be a better
6:49:30 conversation at the budget hearing, but just to kind of give
6:49:34 everyone a heads up that I’ll probably bring it up there because
6:49:38 if we’re going to be doing eLearning from home, I imagine that’s
6:49:42 not a time for a school to be without a full-time tech.
6:49:44 So we may want to look at that as an outside question. Like I
6:49:50 said, maybe that’s for the budget hearing. But do you want to
6:49:52 respond to that at all?
6:49:54 It’s a concern. It’s definitely a concern. But we’re putting
6:49:59 together some shared services plans to help cover the schools,
6:50:04 but it’s a concern.
6:50:05 So just for example, if we’re doing eLearning at home from a
6:50:08 school and you have a shared tech and the tech is at a different
6:50:11 school and the system goes down or there’s a crash, it just
6:50:15 seems like you need somebody on site to be able to help.
6:50:18 And just back to my earlier point in the budget presentation now,
6:50:24 what, probably a month ago, it’s absolutely not ideal. It’s a
6:50:30 concern. Budget cuts are never ideal, and they’re always a
6:50:32 concern.
6:50:32 And the reality is I probably said no short of eight or ten
6:50:35 times. We can eliminate positions, but it’s going to lower level
6:50:39 of service.
6:50:40 So I don’t disagree. It definitely is a concern. It’s just we’ll
6:50:45 have to do our best to manage it.
6:50:47 Of course I understand, but also we are eliminating positions
6:50:51 and lowering service, but asking at a time when we’re increasing
6:50:56 the IT demands.
6:50:57 So we may need to look somewhere else for those eliminations,
6:51:02 maybe.
6:51:03 Thank you, Ms. Doskovich. Ms. McDougall, did you have anything
6:51:07 on those two pages?
6:51:08 Mr. Susan, did you have anything? It actually was three pages, I
6:51:13 guess.
6:51:13 I think I’d like a couple of deeper questions on Florida Virtual,
6:51:17 but I can wait until later on unless this is the appropriate
6:51:22 time. Do we think that’s going to come up again?
6:51:25 I actually have, while we’re on Brevard Virtual, I have just a
6:51:28 quick question on Brevard Virtual. So if you want to ask it now,
6:51:32 go right ahead.
6:51:33 When I went through it, if I could make some suggestions, I
6:51:38 walked through the Brevard Virtual platform and it transitions
6:51:43 from Brevard Virtual to Florida Virtual.
6:51:45 And then you land on Florida Virtual, you can get your
6:51:48 information, but in order to get back to Brevard Virtual, you
6:51:52 have to click back.
6:51:53 The user interface on that Florida Virtual is a lot stronger
6:51:58 than it is on our Brevard Virtual. And it’s an issue that I
6:52:02 brought up before in just the transitional pieces.
6:52:05 Like when they go to click on, if you’re looking on Brevard
6:52:09 Virtual and you go to see elementary, whatever it is, or
6:52:13 secondary, it just says the class.
6:52:16 But if you go to Florida Virtual, there’s options to see just
6:52:19 kind of a description and stuff like that.
6:52:20 So I don’t know, and it’s been a concern for a lot of my parents
6:52:24 in that a lot of them, the user-friendly opportunities, I feel
6:52:29 like if we’re going to compete against those people that we need
6:52:32 to put up a better one than what they do.
6:52:34 And Gibbs can look at if we can just copy and paste all their
6:52:37 content information or not onto our own policy or not, or onto
6:52:41 our own website.
6:52:41 But I think that there’s some significant savings there if we
6:52:45 present a good platform in that we are able to capture savings
6:52:48 from people leaving to Florida Virtual.
6:52:51 I have a list of things that I’m going to forward to the
6:52:56 principal. She’s been very good and very open to a lot of stuff.
6:53:00 And then, so that was just the first one, just kind of wanted to
6:53:04 say that. And then the other piece is that the, I’m assuming
6:53:08 that the Florida Virtual is following the, or Brevard Virtual is
6:53:11 following the same class size requirements.
6:53:13 And if so, is that an aggregate over, do you see what I mean?
6:53:18 Like we have it by school-based average, does Brevard Virtual,
6:53:23 can they expand as, I mean, what’s the limitations there for
6:53:28 class size? Sorry.
6:53:29 That’s okay. I think I got the question. I’m not 100% sure. But
6:53:33 no, Brevard Virtual School, as a franchise of Florida Virtual
6:53:38 School, is governed by the guidelines set for the state for that
6:53:41 Brevard Virtual School platform.
6:53:42 They don’t have class size constraints. So the teachers, it
6:53:46 really depends on the environment, whether it’s a full-time
6:53:50 environment or a part-time, but they carry rather significant
6:53:54 loads of students.
6:53:55 And when they reach a capacity point, that’s when the students
6:54:01 get moved over to Florida Virtual School, which we want to
6:54:05 continue to avoid.
6:54:07 So we’ve added some capacity to Brevard Virtual School. And in
6:54:11 fact, prior to COVID, we were looking to add capacity anyway in
6:54:15 analyzing the number of students that we lose to Florida Virtual
6:54:18 School.
6:54:19 So it’s a delicate balance of adding capacity where we know we
6:54:23 can get enrollments. So it’s not the same standard at all.
6:54:27 Our e-learning would follow the traditional school. Brevard
6:54:30 Virtual School would continue to operate as they do. Minus for
6:54:34 secondary, they would pivot to block.
6:54:36 And that’s beautiful because that would actually help us with
6:54:40 capacity inside of our schools as far as our, you know what I
6:54:43 mean, as far as our costs.
6:54:45 Yeah. It helps de-densify, particularly in a part-time situation.
6:54:50 In a full-time situation, the FTE unit goes to Brevard Virtual
6:54:55 School, which is a slightly lower FTE.
6:54:58 The part-time would de-densify with some additional costs, but
6:55:04 marginal additional costs.
6:55:06 And then the other question I had was advanced placement,
6:55:10 Cambridge, those opportunities. Are we moving on Brevard Virtual
6:55:14 platform to offer those?
6:55:15 Are we offering those back at the school? What were your
6:55:18 thoughts on that? Because that was a huge concern for our
6:55:20 constituents.
6:55:20 Sure. And a very reasonable concern. So there’s already several
6:55:26 advanced placement opportunities. But with e-learning, now in
6:55:31 discussion since late last night, it should be really easy for a
6:55:36 student.
6:55:37 I mean, I’m not going to say easy because they’re hard classes.
6:55:39 So it’s not easy. But by participating in e-learning as we are
6:55:44 working it out right now,
6:55:46 that student would have their teacher, their Cambridge class,
6:55:50 their IB teacher, and they would choose to do it at home.
6:55:54 And so that’s why I mentioned earlier, a teacher teaching IB
6:55:57 biology might have some students in front of them, some students
6:56:02 at home.
6:56:03 There are some limitations in the natural sciences that have
6:56:09 some lab requirements that might have to be a day where a
6:56:14 student comes in or things like that,
6:56:15 because those advanced classes do have required lab minutes. But
6:56:20 from my interaction with those families, they will work that out.
6:56:25 And I think you’ve all interacted with a lot of those families
6:56:28 as well. So they might potentially put some of those lab
6:56:31 activities on Fridays or something like that and flip flop with
6:56:36 a less dense situation.
6:56:38 » That’s great. And then one last question on the virtual. I
6:56:43 apologize. It’s a big thing. So there’s some courses that
6:56:46 Florida Virtual offers, and we don’t, and that’s a capacity
6:56:49 issue.
6:56:49 Is there a way to capture when you, on that website, hey, you
6:56:54 know, there’s 50 parents that would love to teach, would love to
6:56:59 learn Mandarin Chinese.
6:57:00 And we do have a Mandarin Chinese person, that kind of stuff. Is
6:57:02 there a fluid way to capture some of that stuff?
6:57:05 Or is that just kind of pie in the sky because we’re trying to
6:57:08 just deal with the basics right now?
6:57:10 » Yes, ish. I know you hear ish from me a lot. Heather does
6:57:15 that, I’m sorry, Mrs. Price does that now to capture where to
6:57:19 add units.
6:57:20 » Okay.
6:57:21 » It’s primarily historical. You know, it’s looking at what
6:57:25 courses are our kids requesting that we don’t offer, and then we
6:57:29 turn around and try to offer that.
6:57:31 We try not to do it too whimsically because we want to be able
6:57:34 to maintain employment for a teacher and not have a teacher
6:57:37 convert over to Berard Virtual School, and we can’t maintain
6:57:41 that.
6:57:41 So she carefully monitors all those enrollments and requests for
6:57:46 Florida Virtual School in addition to ours and modifies our
6:57:49 offerings as a result.
6:57:51 In fact, we’ve added in the last few years, we’ve added teachers,
6:57:55 we’ve added courses based on that enrollment pattern, and we try
6:57:58 to do it in a way that protects the district financially.
6:58:01 » Awesome. And another question on the transitioning from block
6:58:06 to six period Florida Virtual and back, are we going to be
6:58:10 trying to do block at the virtual or how are we doing that?
6:58:13 » Yes, they’re actually a super easy pivot. So our Berard
6:58:17 Virtual School secondary courses will operate in block as well.
6:58:21 » Wow.
6:58:22 » And so she can make that happen. For our students that are
6:58:26 choosing courses in Florida Virtual School, in lieu of one of
6:58:30 our courses, we would encourage them to select that option as
6:58:34 well.
6:58:34 When a student takes a course, they can choose either a 36 week
6:58:39 option or an 18 week option and so that they stay on pace.
6:58:43 But if not, we can actually work with it too. There’s when, you
6:58:46 know, some of our students finish sooner than they anticipate in
6:58:50 virtual school and some finish longer.
6:58:52 And we always find ways to make that work.
6:58:55 » Awesome. So what I’m hearing you say is we should tell the
6:58:58 public that if they are going to sign up for something, it’s
6:59:00 advantageous for them to sign up through Berard Virtual because
6:59:03 it’s a seamless transition as opposed to possibly dealing with
6:59:05 Florida Virtual because of the block schedule.
6:59:07 » Yeah. Well, honestly –
6:59:08 » Yep, yep. Okay, that sounds good.
6:59:09 » Yes, it –
6:59:10 » Okay. The other question I have maybe for –
6:59:12 » Yes.
6:59:13 » Maybe from Ms. Klein, there’s – as I was looking on Florida
6:59:18 Virtual School, the sixth grade is contingent on having multiple
6:59:24 classes there. Am I to assume that if I am a parent in sixth
6:59:26 grade signing up for Florida – or Berard Virtual, that I will
6:59:29 have multiple teachers or just one teacher?
6:59:34 Because if you look on Berard Virtual, it says K through 5.
6:59:37 » Yeah.
6:59:38 » Right? But then you get to the sixth grade and it starts
6:59:41 talking like it’s almost like middle school. And I just wanted
6:59:44 to give the parents out there that answer.
6:59:47 » Within Berard Virtual School, students exist differently as a
6:59:52 full-time student than they would as a part-time student.
6:59:56 So even though it looks like secondary, there’s still a full-time,
7:00:01 like, leadership umbrella. You’re not taking four random courses
7:00:06 that aren’t connected.
7:00:08 So our full-time teachers teach under an umbrella that’s
7:00:12 different than our part-timers. And so the sixth grade student
7:00:16 might have different teachers in all likelihood, but would still
7:00:21 have an overarching leadership and framework that’s part of
7:00:25 being a full-time student.
7:00:27 » Okay. I just – that was – when I was looking through it, it
7:00:30 was one of those questions. And we have got a good transition
7:00:34 going back and forth, course updating, multiple teachers, 7 to
7:00:37 12, got it.
7:00:38 Okay. I think that’s it for my questioning. Oh, one other thing.
7:00:42 You guys – there was an offer by a local restaurant to feed us
7:00:45 if we wanted to for dinner, just to think about it.
7:00:48 He said that he would take care of – he has children inside the
7:00:52 room. It’s not the pizza, by the way. And Pam has that number.
7:00:57 So if you’re interested in ordering food, we could probably do
7:00:58 something like that. That’s all.
7:00:59 » Thank you, sir. Miss Klein.
7:01:11 » So we have started our summer school classes, right? And we
7:01:17 are transporting students on buses, and we have them in
7:01:22 classrooms, and I am curious how that is all going with regard
7:01:27 to safety.
7:01:28 Are we seeing compliance with our expectation of masks? Have we
7:01:33 had any entire classes that have had to be shut down because we’ve
7:01:37 had a positive case? Like what – how is that all flowing?
7:01:41 » So we haven’t enforced masks because we recommended, but –
7:01:51 so we have some masks and some not. We have had no shutdowns to
7:02:00 date. Knock on wood, Chris Moore.
7:02:04 » We anticipated about 766 children, and we have almost 400. I
7:02:14 was chatting with some of the principals that are host schools,
7:02:19 and they’re talking about the manpower it takes to separate six-year-olds.
7:02:29 But, you know, they’re modeling it. They’re expecting it. So far
7:02:36 it’s going well. Tomorrow we begin rising up kindergarten. So we’ll
7:02:42 see how that enrollment begins. But so far it is – it’s going
7:02:49 extremely well.
7:02:51 » Excellent. Thank you. All right. Any board members have any
7:03:02 additional questions on anything up to slide 17?
7:03:04 » I’ve got another Brevard virtual question, but I was going to
7:03:15 do it on 22 when we got there. But while we’re on the topic and
7:03:21 people are listening, because it relates to elementary and
7:03:22 secondary, there was some questions from some of our commenters
7:03:22 and some of our e-mails that are concerned that Brevard virtual
7:03:23 is not as flexible as Florida virtual.
7:03:25 And so can you just clarify – and I’m specifically speaking
7:03:29 about Brevard virtual full-time, where someone would not be
7:03:33 enrolled in their school but would do Brevard virtual full-time.
7:03:37 Do they follow a, say, typical 8 to 2.30 day? Or do they – you
7:03:43 have to keep in pace per week, unlike the flex version, but you
7:03:47 still get it done during the day in your own time. What’s the
7:03:51 flexibility on that?
7:03:52 It’s actually similar, whether it’s Brevard virtual or Florida
7:03:56 virtual, depending on the platform that you choose. So a full-time
7:04:00 program is going to be less flexible because it is following a
7:04:05 scope and sequence of a full-time educational experience.
7:04:09 They are receiving instructional minutes. They are getting all
7:04:16 of the benefits and distinctions of an accredited public school.
7:04:22 They are a school within Brevard with its own school number.
7:04:22 Students get a diploma versus a homeschool student who might do
7:04:29 Florida virtual classes. So a parent, though, can choose
7:04:35 flexible options at Brevard virtual school. If they wanted it to
7:04:41 be their full-time option and be flexible, that might be a homeschool
7:04:42 student choosing the components of Brevard virtual school that
7:04:45 makes sense.
7:04:46 It really depends on what works for the family. And Mrs. Price
7:04:51 and her team, there’s like a whole training video thingy that a
7:04:56 parent does to understand those choices.
7:04:59 We’re really running three different models in elementary and
7:05:03 three different models in secondary. And so I would encourage
7:05:06 them to call them directly. It might take a day or two to get
7:05:09 the call back because what their friend tells them, they may not
7:05:13 have realized it’s in reference to a different model.
7:05:16 And so the true Brevard virtual school as your school of record
7:05:21 is less flexible because it’s meeting all of those expectations
7:05:26 as serving of your school of record.
7:05:29 But rather than e-learning through their school they’re
7:05:33 registered with right now, they just need to contact Brevard
7:05:38 virtual and say here’s the hours that our family could do school.
7:05:43 What do you have that would fit the best?
7:05:46 What do you have that would fit the best? And if the student
7:05:50 might be more effective in that situation, it just really
7:05:55 depends on the student’s and the parent’s dynamics on what fits
7:05:59 for them.
7:06:00 But they offer the same flexibility as well.
7:06:02 » Okay. Thank you.
7:06:11 All right, then we will move on to slide 18 through 21, which is
7:06:18 our reopening requirements, the assurances from the state and
7:06:24 the framework. Anyone have – yes, Ms. McDougall.
7:06:28 » I just want to reach out to our community because I’ve heard
7:06:32 from many people that we are not taking safety in consideration.
7:06:36 And I just want to say the Florida Department of Education and
7:06:40 our governor and the mandate, you’re absolutely right.
7:06:43 They did not include safety in it at all. And we are doing our
7:06:47 very best to make sure that our students and our staff come back
7:06:52 in a very safe way.
7:06:54 So when you look at the requirements that were set for us from
7:07:00 the governor and the commissioner, it was truly academics, which
7:07:05 is what we do.
7:07:06 But all of us here on the board, our staff, we are very
7:07:10 concerned about the safety for our educators and all of our
7:07:14 staff and our students.
7:07:16 And I just needed to put that out there loud and clear that we
7:07:21 are doing the best we can within the mandate that we got.
7:07:26 » Thank you, Ms. McDougall. Ms. Deskevich.
7:07:29 » I just want to address, because one of our public comments
7:07:33 suggested, I feel like it did, or someone emailed me recently,
7:07:38 it starts to all run together, that maybe we were not in the
7:07:42 spring meeting IEPs and meeting 504 plans, maybe Ms. Moore or Ms.
7:07:47 –
7:07:47 yeah, no, I’m sorry, I noticed – yeah, I’ll ask it again, sorry.
7:07:54 Okay. No, it’s either leading and learning or you. There’s been
7:07:59 some suggestion that in the spring we completely just ignored IEPs,
7:08:01 504 plans.
7:08:01 And so I just – I want to address that publicly. I don’t know
7:08:04 the answer to that, specifically what we did to make sure those
7:08:07 were met or if we’ve got hours that we need to make up and to
7:08:09 still serve us.
7:08:10 I don’t know. Can you give us an update on that, please?
7:08:12 » Sure. I can – there’s two ways to look at it, and Dr.
7:08:15 Sullivan, please jump in as if I miss anything. The first – oh,
7:08:20 let me take this off.
7:08:21 The first thing is that there are – we offered services to meet
7:08:26 what was in the IEP to the best of our ability.
7:08:30 And so there are going to be some – two different ways to look
7:08:34 at it, both with compensatory time and with extended school year.
7:08:38 So if there was a service not offered because we were not able
7:08:41 to meet it remotely, we will be offering compensatory time to
7:08:43 make up those services as we engage into this school year.
7:08:48 The other thing is that the services – most of the services our
7:08:51 student gets, the vast majority, are through the accommodations
7:08:55 given in the classroom.
7:08:56 So their regular gen ed teacher would have been giving their ESC
7:09:01 accommodations, their IEP accommodations through the gen ed
7:09:05 curriculum.
7:09:06 Our students that are on access points absolutely had the same
7:09:11 level of continuity of instruction as our students who are not
7:09:15 on access points.
7:09:16 And those would be our students who are in self-contained
7:09:19 settings.
7:09:20 Our students who lost progress or lost progress on their IEP
7:09:27 goals, those are the students we’re targeting right out of the
7:09:32 gate for ESY, extended school year.
7:09:34 So as we come back into schools and we’re doing our evaluations,
7:09:38 we’re going to be looking at evaluating IEP goals and seeing if
7:09:42 we’ve lost progress and offering extended school year
7:09:44 opportunities before, after school, Saturday, however it is that
7:09:49 we can make up that ground.
7:09:51 So I don’t know – Dr. Sullivan, did I leave out something
7:09:57 important?
7:09:58 » You got it. The reality of it is much of that time we were in
7:10:08 the lockdown, which limited a lot of ones that require contact.
7:10:08 Many of the services that we couldn’t do were those very
7:10:14 personal services that are OT, PT, and involve some hands-on
7:10:20 services.
7:10:21 But we didn’t ignore it. We knew we couldn’t do it. I think is
7:10:26 the best way to say it.
7:10:27 » And it sounds like we’re going to make them up, right? We’re
7:10:30 tracking it. We know what we owe and it will be taken care of.
7:10:33 That’s just what I wanted on the public record. Thank you so
7:10:36 much.
7:10:36 » And that the federal government gave us the flexibility to do
7:10:41 that as well, right?
7:10:42 » Yeah, that is correct. I mean, there’s a couple of different
7:10:46 ways.
7:10:46 We were given permission to delay certain things with parent
7:10:53 permission and including meetings. And so we’ve been keeping
7:10:58 track of those things that the parents said we understand you
7:10:59 can’t meet this in this way.
7:11:00 Or they have said we don’t want you to meet this in this way.
7:11:04 And we’ve been tracking those and we’re going to be following up
7:11:08 on those as soon as we can go live face-to-face.
7:11:10 We try to the best of our ability to meet all of the services,
7:11:14 even those OT, PT, vision impaired, hearing impaired services
7:11:18 that we offer.
7:11:19 Our behavior services, our mental health services, we were able
7:11:26 to do a lot because we had worked on a plan where we could do
7:11:30 some face-to-face instruction.
7:11:32 But we absolutely know that those services were not offered to
7:11:37 the level that they could have been offered face-to-face, 100%.
7:11:42 And so our real test is, you know, we know we’re going to be
7:11:46 offering some compensatory services.
7:11:48 But our real goal is to really see where we have lagged behind
7:11:53 on IEP goals and to offer extended school year to make that up
7:11:57 for students.
7:11:58 So that’s our overarching goal is that students didn’t lose
7:12:06 ground.
7:12:07 Anything else?
7:12:10 On reopening requirements 19, 20, or 21.
7:12:16 Mr. Susan?
7:12:18 Nope.
7:12:19 All right. You all are going to have to bear with me for a
7:12:22 minute because I’m going to beat a dead horse, but I feel like
7:12:24 it needs to be beat.
7:12:25 Mr. Gibbs? Do you have a mic? You do have a mic. I can almost
7:12:32 see you past the monitor.
7:12:34 So you clearly are our general counsel for the district, right?
7:12:38 Assurance number one, the district will assure that all brick
7:12:41 and mortar schools open in August at least five days per week
7:12:44 for all students.
7:12:45 Is it your interpretation that the five of us can choose not to
7:12:54 open schools in August?
7:12:57 The school district controls the schools. The state controls
7:13:02 your purse strings.
7:13:03 So if you read the executive order, let’s see, it’s section two,
7:13:17 reopening plans.
7:13:18 The order actually says in order to receive the flexibility and
7:13:22 continuity provided for in this order,
7:13:25 school districts must submit to the department a reopening plan
7:13:29 that satisfies the requirements of this order.
7:13:31 So if you want the continuity of your funding to continue as
7:13:35 they’re proposing for the first semester of the school year,
7:13:39 you have to reopen in August. That’s their hook.
7:13:43 But you can say we’re opening in September. They can cut your
7:13:48 funding.
7:13:49 Would there be any other repercussions to us deciding to delay?
7:13:53 It’s possible that they seek removal of elected officials from
7:13:57 office by the governor and have the governor appoint a board who
7:14:00 will reopen the school in August.
7:14:02 It’s possible that they take that step. I mean, I can’t speak
7:14:07 for the DOE or where how far they would be willing to go.
7:14:10 But there’s other measures they could take along with cutting
7:14:14 funding, like I said.
7:14:15 So in essence, we would we would not receive any funding from
7:14:19 the state to keep the district functioning, right?
7:14:21 They’re proposing in their executive order to hold us harmless
7:14:24 for enrollment.
7:14:25 They’re going to allow us to continue under our funding under
7:14:30 pre-COVID attendance numbers.
7:14:32 As long as we meet their mandate. It’s just like what the
7:14:35 federal government does. You take our money, you play by our
7:14:38 rules.
7:14:39 They’re saying we’re going to fund you for the first semester.
7:14:43 But you’re going to reopen schools five days a week in August.
7:14:48 That’s their hook. So is it also your interpretation that.
7:14:56 That requirement to open five days a week in August eliminates
7:15:01 our opportunity for.
7:15:03 We had a super bright student that called in and I just so
7:15:07 enjoyed his advocacy for him and his peers.
7:15:10 But he put forward what he called the three to model, which we
7:15:14 had we had been discussing prior to the executive order calling.
7:15:18 We called it staggered schedule or something like that, where we
7:15:21 had part of the students there part of the time.
7:15:23 Is it your interpretation based on the language in the executive
7:15:27 order that that would be an acceptable recommendation for our
7:15:31 brick and mortar option?
7:15:33 I would say it’s probably something we could propose. I mean,
7:15:36 the proposal would have to be accepted by the DOE.
7:15:38 So they would tell you whether they accept that or not.
7:15:41 The idea the order does state they want five days a week for all
7:15:44 students that wish to attend.
7:15:46 So I don’t if you take it literally, it’s they want schools open
7:15:50 so all students can attend brick and mortar schools five days a
7:15:55 week.
7:15:55 That would be the literal interpretation. OK.
7:15:59 And do you get any you know, we had some discussion earlier
7:16:03 about who the the local officials are that could potentially
7:16:07 weigh in on the safety of our return.
7:16:09 So the.
7:16:15 That’s not my executive order. Give me one second.
7:16:22 Too many documents at this point. It’s the I have it here. It’s
7:16:26 subject to the advice and orders of the Florida Department of
7:16:30 Health, local departments of health.
7:16:34 That’s the exact language from the DOE. So the State Department
7:16:38 of Health.
7:16:38 And then it goes comma local departments of health, executive
7:16:43 order 20 dash one for nine and subsequent executive orders.
7:16:48 It’s the second page for I think a first sentence in section one
7:16:52 a year on your reopening requirements.
7:16:55 And so it says absent these directives from right from the
7:17:00 Department of Health or then the day to day decisions to open or
7:17:06 close the school must always rest locally with the board.
7:17:10 If I understand correctly from the memo that you provided to us
7:17:14 earlier.
7:17:15 What that really comes down to is if.
7:17:19 We’re in week three of school.
7:17:22 And Miss Moore is working with the health department and we
7:17:26 identify that we have a case in our school.
7:17:28 We do at the local level have the opportunity.
7:17:32 The authority, I guess, in conjunction with our local health
7:17:35 department to say we are closing a school for three days for
7:17:38 cleaning.
7:17:38 But it does not that language does not mean that we can opt not
7:17:43 to open schools, correct?
7:17:45 That would be unless you can get the DOH to say we’re
7:17:48 recommending you don’t reopen. And that’s what’s going around
7:17:51 right now.
7:17:51 There’s another county. I can’t remember which one it is there.
7:17:54 DOH has told them we will not recommend you close a school and
7:17:59 we will not recommend you delay opening.
7:18:02 And so they’re under the same opinion that they are kind of out
7:18:06 of luck without the support of their local health authority.
7:18:14 Well, I think so, Mr. Susan is saying that that that seems to
7:18:18 contradict.
7:18:19 But I think actually what Mr. Gibbs is saying, Mr. Susan, is
7:18:23 that their local DOH is saying it is they don’t have the
7:18:26 authority to tell them to close schools.
7:18:28 So it’s the same thing that we’re being told here locally is
7:18:31 that our local folks do not feel like they have the authority to
7:18:34 tell us to close schools.
7:18:35 And I have no idea what’s coming down through the DOH that’s not
7:18:39 going around my circle.
7:18:41 So have in your I know you have nearly constant communication
7:18:45 with your circle of legal representatives for school districts
7:18:49 throughout the state.
7:18:50 Is there any one any of your general counsel representatives
7:18:55 that are advising their district to not open in August brick and
7:19:00 mortar?
7:19:01 Not that I’m aware of. I know there is talk with Miami Dade and
7:19:06 Broward about their date.
7:19:08 They I don’t believe they’ve said yes or no, but they’re still
7:19:12 in phase one.
7:19:13 So they have never come out of phase one. So they’re still under
7:19:17 the meetings of 10 people or more requirement.
7:19:20 So they can’t reopen in phase one is their argument.
7:19:24 So since they’ve never been brought out, they’re playing under
7:19:28 different set of rules.
7:19:29 OK. So can I add to that? Just just one second, because I don’t
7:19:34 want to confuse our local Department of Health’s ability to
7:19:38 close us for three days versus their ability to say we’re not
7:19:42 going to open at all.
7:19:44 Right. And so I’m just reading Florida statute one zero zero
7:19:47 three point two two.
7:19:48 This allows for the Department of Health to declare an emergency
7:19:51 and any students who have not properly vaccinated can be
7:19:54 excluded temporarily from school and mandates that school board
7:19:57 exclude these individuals when there’s an outbreak of a communicable
7:20:00 disease for which particular students have not been vaccinated.
7:20:03 And so as you look at COVID, we identify that as an illness and
7:20:08 infectious illness without a vaccine and just by sheer necessity
7:20:12 to exclude all students from school, that would in essence turn
7:20:17 into a school closure.
7:20:19 I will tell you that I have gotten information from the
7:20:22 Department of Health.
7:20:23 I know what our our our level is, our our spread rate is, but I’m
7:20:29 waiting to find out what the interpretation of that spread
7:20:35 weight rate is.
7:20:37 Right now, we are one point five to three.
7:20:41 And so I’ve written and said, I need information on number one
7:20:46 what that rate is for the three big Broward Dade palm so that we
7:20:50 have a comparison, as well as what that rate means to us as a
7:20:54 community.
7:20:55 So just so that you know there is there is a rate, we can get it.
7:20:59 It seems to be a little bit under lock and key at Tallahassee
7:21:02 because that’s where we’re having to go back and forth from, but
7:21:05 we’ll keep trying to get that information for you.
7:21:07 Awesome. Thank you so much for that. That’s huge that you were
7:21:13 able to get that info.
7:21:13 We appreciate it.
7:21:17 I think that is all of the questions that I had on, and I will
7:21:21 just throw out Palm Beach meets tomorrow. So, I guess that’s
7:21:25 when they’re discussing their reopening so it has not been
7:21:29 released today.
7:21:30 Okay, super Thank you Mr. Gibbs.
7:21:35 I think that’s all the questions that I had on 19 to 21 Is there
7:21:40 anyone else that has questions on that particular section.
7:21:45 All right, I’m going to recommend that we take a brief break to
7:21:50 refresh and before we get into the specifics of the elementary
7:21:55 and secondary plans and I think we need probably some clarity as
7:22:00 well on what remains on our schedule today after this, and
7:22:04 potentially some talk about food because I’m not sure that we’re
7:22:10 leaving anytime soon.
7:22:10 So, we will go ahead and take about a 10 minute resource, and
7:22:19 then we will be back with you.
7:22:40 Okay.
7:36:30 We have heard since Thursday, and then also today some, some
7:36:35 questions, ask and listen.
7:36:37 I realized everybody, we’re, people are asking for the moon, you
7:36:42 know, in addition to keeping
7:36:43 everybody safe, but is there, is it possible to make the
7:36:46 elementary eLearning more flexible
7:36:47 for say families with one device and four kids, and I know
7:36:52 Russell’s working on that,
7:36:54 Mr. Cheatham, or families who are, can’t, you know, their jobs
7:37:00 don’t allow them to sit
7:37:01 side by side and help their child, is there a way to make the,
7:37:05 or a possibility, are you,
7:37:07 where are we on that?
7:37:09 Everything’s possible.
7:37:11 Don’t say that too loud.
7:37:14 We know it needs to mirror the instructional day that you’re in
7:37:18 school.
7:37:18 However, we also know that, say if you have a first grader and a
7:37:22 fourth grader, their
7:37:24 activity times are different, when they’re doing small group is
7:37:27 different, when they’re
7:37:28 doing independent work is different, so there is some
7:37:31 flexibility within the day because
7:37:33 the student’s schedule is different.
7:37:35 So, first and foremost, we have to look at the student’s
7:37:40 schedule and figure what will
7:37:42 work with the family.
7:37:44 However, if the eLearning doesn’t work, then they have the
7:37:48 opportunity of the Brevard Virtual,
7:37:50 which is more flexible than the eLearning.
7:37:52 Thank you.
7:37:53 Is that all you had, Ms. Campbell, on that section?
7:37:58 That is all I have on that section.
7:38:00 All right.
7:38:01 Ms. Duskovich, you got anything on that section?
7:38:02 Elementary.
7:38:03 Microphone, please.
7:38:04 Sorry, I’m still going over my notes.
7:38:07 I’m going to get caught back up.
7:38:13 I can come back to you if you want me to.
7:38:22 Yes, do that, please.
7:38:23 I don’t want to miss my elementary questions.
7:38:24 Okay.
7:38:25 Ms. McDougall, you got anything for that section?
7:38:26 No, no, no.
7:38:27 Elementary, though.
7:38:28 Okay.
7:38:29 Mr. Susan?
7:38:30 Nope.
7:38:31 Okay.
7:38:32 Ms. Klein, one of the things that people have been asking is, is
7:38:42 there an opportunity to
7:38:46 decrease class size in elementary like we anticipate we may be
7:38:53 able to do in secondary
7:38:55 with the eLearning approach that’s being proposed?
7:39:01 And I know we can’t guarantee smaller classes in secondary
7:39:05 because of eLearning, but I think
7:39:07 there’s a perception that that might at least have some impact
7:39:11 on the number of students
7:39:12 that we have in the classroom.
7:39:15 So I am tracking, our principals are tracking on a Google Doc
7:39:19 how many parents are completing
7:39:21 the survey by grade level, by ESC program, how many devices they’ll
7:39:25 need, how many hotspots.
7:39:28 So I’m gathering that information as we speak.
7:39:33 When we look at a school that perhaps may only have one or two
7:39:37 kindergartners, I think
7:39:39 that’s a conversation with the principal and the teacher to say,
7:39:45 you know, will you take
7:39:47 the two kindergartners and we add different, you know, we figure
7:39:51 out the class sizes for
7:39:53 that.
7:39:54 But the state plan doesn’t give us much flexibility on class
7:40:00 size.
7:40:01 We can’t go over, we can’t go under.
7:40:03 I will tell you that I’ve already spoken to the principals and
7:40:07 shared with them that in
7:40:09 the event we have a teacher out, we can’t go to doubling up
7:40:13 classes, we can’t double
7:40:16 up activity classes, we have to maintain the class size as much
7:40:21 as possible.
7:40:23 So yes, there’s always possibility.
7:40:25 My work group that’s working on the eLearning at home and also
7:40:31 going through the assurances,
7:40:35 they’re working, they have a meeting at 8 o’clock in the morning
7:40:38 to go through many
7:40:39 of these recommendations and changes.
7:40:43 So we are writing it for the assurances and hopeful that we’ll
7:40:51 get full approval by the
7:40:54 DOE very quickly.
7:40:56 Also waiting on the charters to submit their plans to us.
7:41:02 - Okay, and then the other, and this actually, I’m bringing it
7:41:08 up now ‘cause we’re discussing
7:41:10 elementary first, but I think it probably speaks to both
7:41:14 elementary and secondary.
7:41:16 I have not used Microsoft Teams, so I’m not familiar with that
7:41:20 platform, but I know on
7:41:21 many of the platforms that we’ve been utilizing for virtual
7:41:25 meetings, there is an opportunity
7:41:27 to record the meeting and make that available at a later time.
7:41:31 So for our eLearning students or for our students who are sick
7:41:38 and can’t be there at that point
7:41:41 in time, do we, number one, have the ability, number two, the
7:41:49 capacity, and number three,
7:41:52 the willingness on behalf of our teachers to consider the
7:41:58 recording of the eLearning
7:42:01 experience for those students who may not be able to join them
7:42:03 during a specific time
7:42:04 period.
7:42:05 - So we’re working very closely with our friends in ET, Mr. Cheatham,
7:42:11 and he is also looking
7:42:13 at a contract with Zoom, but Teams and Zoom both you can record,
7:42:19 and so you can easily
7:42:21 record a meeting, capacity, and I believe we need a long
7:42:29 conversation with our BFT friends
7:42:34 on what we’re putting on our teachers, but at this point, you
7:42:38 know, we talk about flexibility
7:42:41 and grace.
7:42:42 I think we have to work very hard to make students, accommodate
7:42:48 our students as much
7:42:49 as we can while accommodating our teachers, because we can’t add
7:42:54 so much on their plate
7:42:56 that they’re unable to do the job of teaching.
7:43:01 So of course we can look into all of that.
7:43:04 I can’t make any promises today.
7:43:06 - Absolutely appreciate that, thank you.
7:43:10 Mr. Cheatham is flagging me down.
7:43:12 I’m guessing he’s gonna tell me that we’re gonna need millions
7:43:14 of dollars of servers
7:43:15 to handle all of the recordings, right?
7:43:17 - No, I was just gonna say, we have to be careful when it comes
7:43:20 to recording, you know,
7:43:21 it changes the way that we can show classes and interact with
7:43:24 the students.
7:43:25 - It changes the what?
7:43:26 - The way that we interact, ‘cause if you record, sometimes you’re
7:43:29 recording the faces
7:43:30 of the students in the classes when you’re displaying that way,
7:43:33 just depends how the
7:43:34 interaction’s being run as to whether we can record it and share
7:43:38 it and do some of those
7:43:39 things.
7:43:40 - Okay, super.
7:43:41 Thank you, Mr. Cheatham.
7:43:42 - I just heard from, if I could add, that the flexibility that
7:43:48 the state is offering
7:43:49 and the flexibility that we are suggesting we take advantage of,
7:43:52 and they’re offering
7:43:54 pending approval, you know.
7:43:57 The expectation is that child is robustly participating in the
7:44:01 school day.
7:44:01 So what you described, that child would be absent.
7:44:04 Now, like any other absent student, we would have mechanisms for
7:44:09 them to do their makeup
7:44:10 work and, you know, the teachers would provide it, but again,
7:44:14 these are teachers full-time
7:44:16 working all day versus in our distance learning environment,
7:44:20 some of our teachers preferred
7:44:22 evening hours or did two hours here, two hours there, two hours
7:44:26 here.
7:44:27 This is an environment where the teachers would be doing a full-time
7:44:31 static situation.
7:44:32 For a student that really has those diverse needs on a regular
7:44:35 basis versus being absent
7:44:36 a couple of days, that’s where BVS has some opportunities for
7:44:40 some flex option for the
7:44:42 child who does it in the evening.
7:44:44 So we’ve tried to put something together for everything, but we
7:44:48 can’t make each option
7:44:50 great for everybody, we want an option for somebody.
7:44:53 So the expectation is that teacher is taking attendance first
7:44:57 period and that includes
7:44:58 the children in front of them and the children electronically.
7:45:01 In the case of elementary, they might be all electronic, but
7:45:03 that teacher’s working a full
7:45:05 caseload all day.
7:45:07 - Thank you very much for that clarification and thank you for
7:45:10 all the work that you all
7:45:14 have done to try to accommodate all of the very different needs
7:45:18 in our community.
7:45:20 I know it has been no small feat and you really have done a
7:45:23 phenomenal job of putting together
7:45:25 some options, so we appreciate you.
7:45:28 I don’t think I have anything else on elementary, Ms. Duskovich,
7:45:31 you have your questions ready?
7:45:32 - I do, Ms. Klein, departmentalizing, you know that’s coming, I
7:45:36 brought it up Thursday,
7:45:38 still on my mind, still have a lot of teachers asking me how
7:45:41 that’s going to work and concerned
7:45:44 that they’ve been teaching sixth grade math for 20 years and now
7:45:46 they’re gonna have to
7:45:47 pick up science and social studies and language arts real quick.
7:45:51 So what are we gonna do to address that?
7:45:53 So we actually met this morning to talk about departmentalizing
7:46:00 and you know, we have some
7:46:03 brilliant, brilliant principals who are thinking outside the box
7:46:09 and so we have a variety of
7:46:12 things that we’re looking at, we have to talk to our friends in
7:46:16 ET to see if they’re possible.
7:46:19 However, we know as a former sixth grade teacher who taught only
7:46:25 ELA, you wouldn’t want me
7:46:28 teaching your math, child.
7:46:30 So I know that that is real and we need to work around it, I
7:46:37 think we can, the easiest,
7:46:40 the simplest method is the teacher rotate, but then you have
7:46:46 concerns with if they’re
7:46:48 doing hands on science, then you’re rotating all that, but
7:46:52 departmentalizing for sixth
7:46:55 grade is not out the window.
7:46:58 Of course, I wouldn’t recommend departmentalizing in our K
7:47:04 through four, fifth grade’s on the
7:47:08 fence sometimes, but if it works for the school and it works for
7:47:12 the teachers, we’re going
7:47:14 to work around it to make it meet the need.
7:47:18 All of our elementary schools currently departmentalize for
7:47:21 sixth grade, so there’s some that already
7:47:22 don’t and so they don’t have an issue here, so it’s just some of
7:47:25 our elementary schools.
7:47:26 It’s probably less than, I don’t want to predict, but a majority
7:47:31 of them do, departmentalize
7:47:34 in sixth grade, some departmentalize in fifth, but it just seems
7:47:40 to me that it’s vital, especially
7:47:42 with math and the strength of our sixth grade math scores, so we
7:47:45 know that our sixth grade
7:47:47 students that are departmentalized are, I mean, yes, I agree, I
7:47:51 think it’s working,
7:47:53 and I know right now we’re still kind of in crisis mode, but if
7:47:55 we want to deliver the
7:47:56 best education, I’m hoping that we’re working towards, I would
7:48:00 hate to see the ELA teacher
7:48:02 who hasn’t taught math in 20 years try to step in this year and
7:48:05 whip out excellent math
7:48:06 curriculum.
7:48:07 Yes, we have some really exciting opportunities that I want to
7:48:12 make sure they’re viable before
7:48:15 I share.
7:48:16 Okay.
7:48:17 Thank you, ma’am, I appreciate it.
7:48:19 Next question, it’s kind of for both of you.
7:48:21 I haven’t heard, maybe I missed it, wasn’t paying attention, but
7:48:23 is there a deadline
7:48:24 for parents to decide which path they’re taking so that we can?
7:48:30 We would love, absolutely love them to decide by the 20th if
7:48:36 they’re going to go with the
7:48:39 e-learning.
7:48:40 Of course, we know that that’s flexible because life changes,
7:48:47 things change, but we, for us
7:48:50 to plan accordingly for what teachers we need to do, e-learning,
7:48:56 we need to know who’s committed
7:48:58 to it.
7:48:59 So we have a, the team that’s working with me on that, we’re
7:49:06 working on an agreement
7:49:09 to say, you know, we need you to make the commitment.
7:49:13 So we haven’t released that yet.
7:49:15 I’m meeting with them one day this week, I’m not sure, I’m sorry,
7:49:19 you’re making a commitment
7:49:21 that yes, I want you, they’ve completed the survey and the
7:49:25 survey says, do you want to
7:49:28 be, would you like to be part of this and if yes, complete the
7:49:32 survey, if no, you know,
7:49:34 you’re finished.
7:49:35 But that’s just a survey.
7:49:37 Now we need to reach back out to those parents and say, are you
7:49:41 really ready to accept this
7:49:42 platform?
7:49:43 So then, then principals can make a decision on how many
7:49:46 teachers they need and what grade
7:49:48 levels for e-learning.
7:49:50 I feel like we need to really promote that and make it a heart.
7:49:55 I know that people are going to be flexible and as things change,
7:49:57 we have to let people
7:49:58 move around.
7:49:59 But I think we also need to convey if July 20th is the date,
7:50:03 please, you know, I’ve seen
7:50:04 other districts doing it.
7:50:05 Here’s your graphic.
7:50:06 It goes out 100 times.
7:50:07 It’s everywhere.
7:50:08 Pick one.
7:50:09 You have till July 20th, pick one and so that we can start
7:50:12 planning because absolutely.
7:50:14 I was just waiting until we finished this or meeting today prior
7:50:20 to making those decisions
7:50:22 without you.
7:50:23 So, you know, as soon as we’re a go, we will work on that.
7:50:28 And then also knowing that it could change if the DOE doesn’t
7:50:33 accept our plan.
7:50:35 I understand.
7:50:36 But we have to keep moving forward because, you know, otherwise
7:50:40 we’re paralyzed by things
7:50:41 may change because things are changing.
7:50:43 And my last question is VPK, can you – does that fit completely
7:50:47 perfectly into your elementary
7:50:49 plan or is there something different for them?
7:50:51 And I know that’s a question for both of you so either.
7:50:54 » It’s both of us and Ms. Moore.
7:50:58 Because we all own a piece of VPK but Marilyn Chappie is my
7:51:02 director of early childhood
7:51:04 and she works directly with the office of early learning.
7:51:10 And she has been in continuous conversation trying to get
7:51:16 answers about VPK and how will
7:51:18 that look.
7:51:19 And are there any provisions by the DOE?
7:51:22 We haven’t received a clear answer on any of that yet but we’re
7:51:27 – yes, they keep saying
7:51:29 it.
7:51:30 That information is coming.
7:51:31 But we haven’t received it.
7:51:34 What we do know is when we went out for emergency at home
7:51:39 learning, the office of early learning
7:51:43 provided us very much flexibility with our VPK program.
7:51:50 The biggest concern is not required.
7:51:56 So if it’s not required, then are we going to get funded for it?
7:52:03 So that is the question we keep asking.
7:52:06 Because we are funded only partial day for VPK and so we pay the
7:52:12 other part out of our
7:52:14 title one.
7:52:16 So more information to come on our VPK.
7:52:19 Right now we’re pulling them into our early learning and Marilyn
7:52:25 is working with both
7:52:27 ESC and our CTE program to make sure we have a quality program.
7:52:35 » Two questions.
7:52:36 One, do VPK parents have the same four choices that you’re
7:52:39 presenting to all elementary students?
7:52:43 » They do not have the virtual component.
7:52:47 » So there’s no e-learning from school option.
7:52:49 » There’s no BVS.
7:52:51 » There’s no Brevard virtual school for VPK.
7:52:53 They can still e-learn from home.
7:52:55 So they have two choices really, go to the class or e-learn from
7:52:59 home.
7:53:00 » Unless we’re not approved for the e-learning because the e-learning
7:53:03 under the state assurances
7:53:05 does not include pre-K.
7:53:07 » Is that what you were talking about, the funding?
7:53:08 Because why would they not fund us for VPK this year if they
7:53:12 have every other year?
7:53:14 » Well, VPK is only funded for half a day.
7:53:17 » Right, but you said we put in title one for the other half.
7:53:20 So you’re saying that first half of money is at risk for some
7:53:23 reason this year?
7:53:24 » We don’t know.
7:53:25 We’re waiting on answers from the – » Why would it be at risk
7:53:28 this year?
7:53:28 What’s different?
7:53:29 » Because it’s not a required instructional day.
7:53:32 So students are in that by choice.
7:53:35 They’re not required.
7:53:36 » But it wasn’t required last year.
7:53:38 Why would they change it this year?
7:53:39 » Last year we were at an emergency.
7:53:42 Remember when we went out in March, we were in emergency.
7:53:45 We just – they didn’t stop our funding in March.
7:53:48 » Speaking to the e-learning.
7:53:50 » I don’t think I’m – I don’t know if I’m super confused or
7:53:54 what’s not clear.
7:53:56 » Tina, I think you’re speaking – I’m sorry, Ms. Deskovitch.
7:53:59 I think you’re speaking to the brick and mortar and she’s
7:54:02 speaking to the e-learning.
7:54:04 » Is that what’s going on here?
7:54:05 » Right.
7:54:06 When you go to e-learning, that’s – » You’re talking about
7:54:08 just the e-learning
7:54:09 portion.
7:54:10 » Right.
7:54:11 Right.
7:54:12 » I’m talking about VPK in general.
7:54:13 It’s not going away, right?
7:54:14 » Right.
7:54:15 Right.
7:54:18 » They may not be able to e-learn.
7:54:19 » That’s correct.
7:54:20 » Okay.
7:54:21 What I was hearing is that we may not have a VPK program because
7:54:22 –
7:54:22 » No, no, no.
7:54:23 We are scheduled to have VPK.
7:54:24 But it will be – the only thing we know for sure, it is brick
7:54:28 and mortar.
7:54:29 » Understand.
7:54:30 » Sorry.
7:54:31 » No, no, no.
7:54:32 It’s – I think we – it’s been a long day.
7:54:33 So we are – » Dr. Sullivan says she’s different.
7:54:37 Do you have any more elementary questions?
7:54:40 » I want to remind everybody, five of our programs are high
7:54:47 school programs.
7:54:49 And those are funded through career and technical education and
7:54:55 are related to the adult – to
7:54:57 the high school students in the class as well.
7:55:01 And so if we don’t have high school students working in the lab,
7:55:05 we have some potential
7:55:07 problems there.
7:55:08 And so we are still in gray area on those high school VPK
7:55:15 programs because it’s a combination
7:55:19 of the high school students in the class that runs the programs.
7:55:26 » Thank you.
7:55:29 » That it for elementary, Ms. Vescovich?
7:55:33 Anyone else have any other questions that came up while we were
7:55:35 –
7:55:35 » Yeah, Ms. Klein, this Office of Early Learning, if we don’t
7:55:40 hear back from them, say like
7:55:42 Monday of next week, could you give me the name of the person
7:55:46 because I may drive up
7:55:47 there.
7:55:48 Because I got to go see the Department of Health, too.
7:55:51 » Absolutely.
7:55:52 I will e-mail you the contact address.
7:55:54 » Thank you.
7:55:55 » I’m going to the directory here.
7:55:56 I’ve got all of their phone numbers.
7:55:57 I’m ready to go.
7:55:58 » Okay.
7:55:59 Thank you.
7:56:00 » Thank you.
7:56:01 » Ms. Belford.
7:56:02 » Yes, ma’am.
7:56:03 » I would just say one more thing.
7:56:04 And it really would probably just segue into the secondary.
7:56:06 We’ve continued to hear from parents that they’re not interested
7:56:11 or they have a problem
7:56:13 with the e-learning because the distance learning – they’re
7:56:14 calling it distance learning.
7:56:15 The distance learning didn’t work for them last year.
7:56:17 So it’s been said many times before, but I’m not sure there
7:56:20 probably are people here listening
7:56:21 now who haven’t listened to it before that are e-learning.
7:56:25 And if we have to pivot – first of all, let me start with e-learning.
7:56:28 Our e-learning is not going to be the same as distance learning.
7:56:30 Everybody shake your head really big because it’s not.
7:56:32 » It is not.
7:56:34 » We are going to be able to have face-to-face interactions.
7:56:37 In fact, that’s required by the order, right?
7:56:41 There’s interactions with the teacher, interactions with peers.
7:56:44 And so whether it’s Zoom or Teams or whatever, there is going to
7:56:49 be interaction.
7:56:50 There’s going to be – you know, it’s more developed because one
7:56:54 thing, we have more
7:56:55 than ten days to put it together.
7:56:57 And I appreciate all the guys you guys – the work you guys have
7:56:59 done towards that.
7:57:00 But the other thing I would say is even if we have to pivot to
7:57:05 distance learning because
7:57:07 a school needs to close down for three days or 14 days or
7:57:10 whatever that, you know, we
7:57:11 work out, even then, that distance learning will also be better
7:57:15 than in the spring because
7:57:17 we’ve had more time and the training and the students will be
7:57:20 more ready.
7:57:20 » That is correct.
7:57:21 And we are currently working on the continuity of instruction
7:57:26 plan.
7:57:27 And so we have a cross-functional team that is working on
7:57:31 developing that plan for in
7:57:34 the event.
7:57:35 We would have to go to distance learning.
7:57:37 » Right.
7:57:38 » We can – absolutely.
7:57:39 But that’s the key to why it is so important that on the very
7:57:44 first day, we start that
7:57:46 blended learning instruction.
7:57:49 And our teachers become very familiar with all the platforms,
7:57:53 all the instructional material.
7:57:55 And our students understand how to use FOCUS and how to use the
7:58:00 LaunchPad to get to the
7:58:02 information they need.
7:58:03 » Right.
7:58:04 Good.
7:58:05 Thank you.
7:58:06 I just wanted to reiterate that one more time.
7:58:07 » Yeah.
7:58:08 » This will be so much different and better than what we did
7:58:12 amazingly put together.
7:58:14 But this – we’ve had so much more time to prepare for what this
7:58:17 is that’s coming.
7:58:18 » Excellent observation, Ms. Campbell.
7:58:20 And Ms. Klein, I have one final question on elementary.
7:58:24 At least I believe it to be a final question.
7:58:27 And I know the answer.
7:58:28 I just want to make sure that our public hears the answer.
7:58:31 So the assurances that we talked about earlier that your work
7:58:35 team is currently working on
7:58:37 putting the plan together and really could go elementary or
7:58:41 secondary as well as the
7:58:43 previous comment.
7:58:44 Am I correct in understanding that we must commit to brick and
7:58:51 mortar in order for us
7:58:53 to offer the innovative solutions?
7:58:56 So in order for us to be able to do the e-learning, we must have
7:59:00 our schools open for students
7:59:02 to sit their butts in the chairs and get instruction, right?
7:59:05 » That is correct.
7:59:06 That is assurance number one.
7:59:07 » Thank you, ma’am.
7:59:09 All right.
7:59:11 Anything else for elementary before we move on to secondary?
7:59:14 All right.
7:59:15 Then we will move over to secondary, which will take us through
7:59:21 slide 29.
7:59:23 So 27, 28, 29.
7:59:25 Comments, questions on that section?
7:59:27 » Just if I could real quick, I just heard Broward is going e-learning
7:59:31 to start the year.
7:59:34 They are still in phase one, but just so everybody knows, August
7:59:38 19th, they are opening up, decided
7:59:41 this afternoon, e-learning.
7:59:44 And that was with support of their two hospital district heads
7:59:48 saying that they cannot keep
7:59:49 their people safe.
7:59:53 » Can I break in as well because our local department of health
7:59:56 is getting slammed with
7:59:57 some phone calls.
8:00:00 And so they have sent me the language and I just want to read it
8:00:02 to you so that you
8:00:03 guys have it so that there’s no misunderstanding from our public
8:00:06 out there about what is our
8:00:07 authority and what is their authority.
8:00:10 So Florida Department of Education Order 2020 E06, and this came
8:00:14 from the Tallahassee Department
8:00:16 of Health, gives authority over the decision of whether to open
8:00:19 schools and how to open
8:00:20 schools to the local school board and school superintendent.
8:00:24 The local county health department does not have the authority
8:00:26 to determine when and how
8:00:27 students will return to school.
8:00:29 The county health department works collaboratively with the
8:00:31 local school board to provide county
8:00:32 data and trends and educate on mitigation strategies to make the
8:00:35 school environment
8:00:36 as safe as possible.
8:00:38 And then we are responsible for following the governor’s
8:00:42 executive orders.
8:00:43 And then we go to the statute that I told you before which is
8:00:46 about excluding students
8:00:48 that if we have to exclude students from school in essence
8:00:52 closes our schools.
8:00:53 So that is the guidelines under which our local department of
8:00:57 health is operating based
8:00:59 on the information they’re getting from Tallahassee.
8:01:02 And I don’t want to leave our community with the impression that
8:01:05 they’re just not responding
8:01:07 to us because they have been very responsive to us.
8:01:09 » I appreciate that clarification Ms. Moore and I too would
8:01:12 suggest to our public that
8:01:13 it is not a local department of health issue, it’s just really
8:01:18 trying to determine who has
8:01:21 the authority to make this decision because the statement that
8:01:23 you just read makes it
8:01:25 sound like the five of us have the freedom to say we are not
8:01:28 opening schools.
8:01:29 But Mr. Gibbs, you’ve indicated that we do not in fact have that
8:01:34 based on the executive
8:01:36 order, correct?
8:01:38 » You can decide not to reopen, the DOE can then say we aren’t
8:01:42 funding you.
8:01:43 So if you go e-learning, I don’t know if that means they’re
8:01:46 going to put you on virtual
8:01:47 funding and cut your funding that you would normally receive for
8:01:52 your district within
8:01:53 person.
8:01:54 So starting out the year you may not be held harmless.
8:01:56 So you could lose, I don’t know what that would equate to, I
8:01:59 wouldn’t even try to guess.
8:02:00 » Millions and millions and millions and millions.
8:02:06 Mr. Gibbs, is there any indication that Broward has had any
8:02:10 approval from the state for them
8:02:12 to go to e-learning or did the Broward school board just decide
8:02:14 that that’s what they’re
8:02:15 putting forward to the state is that they’re just doing e-learning?
8:02:18 » I’ve gotten limited information and it’s just basically that
8:02:22 today, after they did
8:02:23 it in about face, they were set to open with brick and mortar
8:02:27 August 19th and I guess at
8:02:29 today’s meeting when they got the numbers from DOH, they’re two
8:02:34 hospital districts,
8:02:35 not the DOH, said that there’s no way Broward can keep their
8:02:40 kids safe and they were saying
8:02:43 they did not need to reopen schools.
8:02:45 So the superintendent recommended they do not open and the board
8:02:49 backed that.
8:02:51 That’s what I’m getting.
8:02:52 I’ve not, you know, verified anything from news stories or
8:02:55 anything.
8:02:56 » Okay.
8:02:57 Very good.
8:02:58 Thank you.
8:02:59 » Yes.
8:03:00 » I appreciate you sharing that.
8:03:01 Ms. Deskevich.
8:03:02 » But they are in a different phase than us, correct?
8:03:03 Right?
8:03:04 They’re in the south Florida that are – okay.
8:03:07 We need to be clear on that because that’s a big difference
8:03:09 between us and them.
8:03:11 But you guys keep talking about we don’t have the authority.
8:03:15 We can do it.
8:03:16 They would withhold funds.
8:03:17 But I feel like there’s more to that.
8:03:19 We get our authority from the Florida constitution which, I mean,
8:03:24 the statute or the constitution
8:03:26 reads that it’s the paramount responsibility of the state to
8:03:29 provide the education.
8:03:30 I mean, we’re elected locally but our authority comes from the
8:03:34 state and if the state says
8:03:35 you will open, where do we get the authority to say no, we won’t?
8:03:40 I don’t think we have that legally.
8:03:44 » They’re not saying you can’t.
8:03:45 They’re just saying if you want the flexibility.
8:03:47 When you read the order, that’s what I read.
8:03:49 If you want that flexibility and continuation of funding, you
8:03:54 have to reopen.
8:03:55 They aren’t saying – we’re saying you can’t delay reopening.
8:03:59 They’re just saying they’re not going to guarantee you your
8:04:03 funding.
8:04:04 They might.
8:04:05 I don’t know if that would be they change you over if you’re
8:04:08 electronic to being all
8:04:10 virtual funding and what that would equate to if you said we’re
8:04:16 just going to do digital.
8:04:19 » Thank you.
8:04:20 » Okay.
8:04:21 We’re moving on to secondary.
8:04:22 Any questions, comments, concerns for 27 through 29?
8:04:30 » I would just say thank you because that’s probably the number
8:04:37 one thing we’ve been asked
8:04:39 about is offering that eLearning option for secondary.
8:04:41 I know we still have to finesse it and work it but that meets
8:04:46 the needs of our IB Cambridge.
8:04:49 For the sake of clarity, I’ve already prepared the slide that’s
8:04:52 going to go in the presentation
8:04:54 at this point.
8:04:55 I can go ahead and just read a couple high points since we don’t
8:04:59 have a visual.
8:05:00 So all secondary students will be able to choose a full time at
8:05:03 home eLearning option.
8:05:06 Students will participate in a standard school day with academic
8:05:09 and attendance expectations
8:05:11 that match their schedules.
8:05:13 So again, that’s important.
8:05:15 And I think that we all recognize that would have been ideal in
8:05:18 the spring but we didn’t
8:05:19 have that option.
8:05:21 Students will be scheduled in the exact manner as other students.
8:05:25 Students will select their option prior to the first day of
8:05:29 school or upon enrollment.
8:05:30 So each of our schools manages registration a little differently
8:05:35 and in my very quick
8:05:36 conversation with principals very early this morning, we talked
8:05:40 about them obtaining that
8:05:41 declaration when they do registration because honestly it won’t
8:05:45 impact our scheduling like
8:05:47 it will in elementary where they need it sooner but it will
8:05:51 impact how we eventually schedule
8:05:53 that course.
8:05:56 Students will be responsible for attendance, participation in
8:05:59 class, required progress
8:06:01 monitoring and other course expectations.
8:06:04 And so where we’ve mentioned that eLearning is not distance
8:06:07 learning and in some cases
8:06:09 that’s a woohoo but for some kids that’s not a woohoo because
8:06:12 they appreciated the getting
8:06:14 the assignment, doing it whenever they did it and turned it in.
8:06:17 This won’t mirror that.
8:06:19 This is an educational experience as it should be.
8:06:24 Students will continue to receive services through IEP 504 or ELL
8:06:29 plans.
8:06:30 Some services may require some on campus time depending on the
8:06:34 student’s goals.
8:06:35 I’m not saying they will, I’m just saying there are each IEP is
8:06:40 so custom that there
8:06:42 might be some need for some on campus services and we just
8:06:46 wanted to include that.
8:06:48 Teachers will have both in person and eLearning students on
8:06:51 their class roster.
8:06:53 Students scheduled for eLearning will count towards class size
8:06:57 and again that was one
8:06:58 of the differences there.
8:07:00 Within the 90 minute block, teachers will lead instructional
8:07:03 activities for both groups
8:07:04 of students which is why we weren’t really prepared to roll this
8:07:09 out until we felt better
8:07:11 about block schedule and so a teacher might go between 15
8:07:14 minutes here and 15 minutes
8:07:16 there.
8:07:17 The guidelines that we’ve received from the DOE on these eLearning
8:07:20 options and potential
8:07:21 video in classroom, I think Ms. Moore mentioned it last week,
8:07:25 the video would need to be directed
8:07:27 towards the teacher or you would have to have permission from
8:07:32 every student in the class.
8:07:34 So what I’m imagining as a possible made up scenario is I’m the
8:07:38 teacher, I’ve given some
8:07:40 instruction, the students are doing some formative assessment
8:07:44 perhaps or collaboration and then
8:07:45 they’re working and then I’m working with my computer with the
8:07:49 camera for those students
8:07:50 and again they’re getting me, they’re getting direct, they’re
8:07:53 getting interactive but it
8:07:55 may not necessarily be the eLearning students always interactive
8:07:59 with the in-person students
8:08:01 unless we obtain FERPA permission which I imagine in many cases
8:08:05 the teachers will attempt
8:08:07 to obtain FERPA permission from the students in the classroom.
8:08:11 We believe that teachers can choose the method to provide that
8:08:15 live engagement with students
8:08:16 on eLearning and so again as Ms. Klein mentioned that slide
8:08:22 talks about not only required inner
8:08:24 interaction but required engagement and participation in the
8:08:29 class time and with an improved plan
8:08:32 students may also compensate, schools may also compensate
8:08:35 teachers for tutoring or help
8:08:37 sessions that are delivered either virtually or in person for eLearning
8:08:42 and in-person students.
8:08:43 So one of the things we mentioned earlier was that we’ve
8:08:46 provided schools additional
8:08:48 funds through CARES Act to provide things like tutoring and
8:08:52 extra help.
8:08:52 They could use those funds also for our eLearning students and
8:08:56 we could compensate teachers
8:08:58 for you know maybe twice a week help sessions or things like
8:09:02 that and so it would primarily
8:09:04 be a synchronous environment with potentially some asynchronous
8:09:09 elements if perhaps the
8:09:11 teacher has videoed a lesson and they show it to the students
8:09:14 first.
8:09:15 We do that right now in flipped classrooms where the students
8:09:19 view content first before
8:09:21 they engage in classrooms so a teacher might have an
8:09:24 asynchronous lesson developed like
8:09:26 that and I think that’s it.
8:09:32 That is phenomenal Dr. Sullivan thank you so very much.
8:09:38 I want to say that this is all on the we feel that our teachers
8:09:44 will be in support of it
8:09:46 because of the benefits to the classroom.
8:09:49 This is totally principals and teachers and schools that will
8:09:55 make the magic happen.
8:09:57 I have the blessing of saying things and having an incredible
8:10:01 team of people that get things
8:10:02 done and so all credit and all quick turnaround was because of
8:10:07 the attitude of principals
8:10:09 and the teachers and them believing and knowing what their
8:10:12 teachers want to do what’s right
8:10:13 for kids.
8:10:14 Thank you Dr. Sullivan so does the e-learning option I know most
8:10:21 of my emails have been
8:10:23 about IB so does that mean IB students will have this e-learning
8:10:28 option?
8:10:28 All secondary students that is amazing.
8:10:31 Whether it’s our IB students or students who have access points
8:10:35 or our students who love
8:10:37 auto body again some of those classes are where they might have
8:10:41 to do some in-person
8:10:43 lab components and that’s why I was vague we offer 450 courses
8:10:48 and so I there are some
8:10:49 circumstance if a student wants to maintain their certification
8:10:54 to do lab hours but yes
8:10:55 we we were not going to put up a plan that wasn’t all students
8:10:59 and we felt really strongly
8:11:01 about that and Dr. Mullins and I wrecked our brain for many many
8:11:05 late nights figuring out
8:11:06 a solution that would be for all kids.
8:11:09 Okay you keep saying all kids but I’m going to keep on because
8:11:11 people are going to keep
8:11:11 asking does that also mean West Shore and Edgewood choice
8:11:14 schools choice programs are
8:11:15 they also going to?
8:11:16 West Shore and Edgewood choice schools choice programs and so it
8:11:20 eliminates the panic that
8:11:21 students and parents are rightfully having that they would lose
8:11:25 their seat in their school
8:11:27 we don’t want that for anybody so this would of course they
8:11:29 would be properly enrolled
8:11:30 in their school with West Shore teachers with we’ve got choice
8:11:35 students at Rockledge at
8:11:36 Cocoa High at Astronaut at Heritage we have choice students
8:11:40 throughout the district so
8:11:41 this would equally protect all students who have chosen a
8:11:46 pathway again some of those
8:11:48 pathways do have some specialized items that would require some
8:11:52 lab time just as a as a
8:11:54 warning but by and large that’s huge because the you know it’s
8:12:01 been IB it’s been the academies
8:12:03 from different schools I don’t want to lose my spot people have
8:12:05 been really concerned
8:12:06 about that so this opportunity is wonderful thank you thank you
8:12:12 thank you.
8:12:12 One of our callers recommended that we call College Board and I
8:12:17 think it was a I think
8:12:18 it was a young man maybe and I thought that’s not a bad idea I
8:12:22 mean it’s going to be a national
8:12:23 problem and I know they’re not going to say sure we’ll change it
8:12:26 just for you but maybe
8:12:29 we can call College Board and see if they’ll do AP tests mid
8:12:32 year.
8:12:33 So as the secondary person I have to say the students that
8:12:38 presented today were in my opinion
8:12:41 a reflection of our awesome secondary education because they
8:12:44 were just amazing we are in constant
8:12:46 conversation with College Board they are incredibly receptive
8:12:50 the challenge is schools all over
8:12:51 the country currently operate on block but we are not afraid to
8:12:56 ask we literally have
8:12:58 them on speed dial and they really like working with Brevard
8:13:02 they take a lot of pride in the
8:13:04 AP success of Brevard so we plan to capitalize on that and we
8:13:09 will certainly ask questions
8:13:11 you know the worst case scenario they study so we’re feeling
8:13:15 okay about this is a good
8:13:17 case where the worst case scenario is not that bad.
8:13:20 Understand but hopefully that student is watching or someone
8:13:23 will tell that student that their
8:13:24 request will be we will ask and I am so so pleased at the
8:13:29 students that took the time
8:13:31 to advocate.
8:13:33 Thank you thank you I think that’s all my secondary questions Ms.
8:13:41 Belford thank you
8:13:42 so much.
8:13:43 All right thank you Ms. Deskovich anyone else have any questions
8:13:48 comments concerns specific
8:13:50 to secondary I just want to say thank you very much for the e-learning
8:13:57 and secondary
8:13:57 because those are the most I have lots and lots of parents
8:14:02 community people even teachers
8:14:05 reach out to me why can’t we do this so thank you for going the
8:14:09 extra mile and making this
8:14:10 happen and people I just want everyone to hear it’s Edgewood
8:14:14 West Shore our choice schools
8:14:16 also AP, IB the whole gamut so we’re not a limit we’re not
8:14:22 leaving anyone out in our
8:14:25 secondary school so thank you you’re welcome and I can’t turn
8:14:30 the mic without like recognizing
8:14:32 the process like this board engaged in a really robust board
8:14:37 workshop to flesh these things
8:14:39 out we made changes we heard feedback I am a process person and
8:14:44 I think this is a good
8:14:46 example of how the process worked and that’s why we have it new
8:14:51 today in our plan even
8:14:53 though it’s not physically there until I get out of here today.
8:14:59 Thank you Dr. Sullivan all right so we are going to I was
8:15:07 waiting after Ms. McDougall
8:15:12 okay so when I when I taught before I used to do a recording and
8:15:17 posted on my my thing
8:15:19 so that I can’t kind of familiar with it Dr. Sullivan would it
8:15:23 be smarter that if there
8:15:24 are enough e-learning children to do a whole block of e-learning
8:15:27 for a teacher if that’s
8:15:28 the case instead of a mix-and-match and the only reason I say
8:15:32 that is I got away from
8:15:33 recording while I had other kids inside the class because of the
8:15:36 nonsense that sometimes
8:15:37 goes on with those kids and I started pre-recording them prior
8:15:40 to my lectures prior to getting
8:15:42 in there and then posting all that stuff is that something that
8:15:44 you’ll be looking at to
8:15:45 consolidate for so pluses and minuses in a really large school
8:15:50 so you probably have your
8:15:52 Viera hat on there might be a potential of it conglomerating
8:15:57 into a section in a small
8:15:59 school it’s not at all likely you know because you have again
8:16:03 lots of singleton classes two
8:16:05 sections things like that so maybe it’s just going to depend on
8:16:09 the thing the difference
8:16:11 is the negative side of that is you’re not spreading the
8:16:15 students to de-densify your
8:16:17 classroom and so that ends up kind of back to where we are in
8:16:21 some of the other challenges
8:16:23 if there if you have all 25 in one class and then your other
8:16:27 classes are all in person
8:16:29 you’re not getting the benefit of less students in front of you
8:16:32 unless they take that extra
8:16:34 planning block and utilize that as the e-learning section would
8:16:38 reduce the in you know what
8:16:40 I mean the the class capacity it could but then again that’s a
8:16:44 cost not attached to kids
8:16:46 so we are expecting some teachers using their planning block but
8:16:49 we would pay them for that
8:16:51 of course and it would represent different group of kids so
8:16:54 maybe so you get one of my
8:16:56 ish answers just as long as it’s an option that if it’s there
8:17:00 they could look at okay
8:17:01 the next thing so if we have a bunch of kids that are leaving
8:17:05 some of our capacity schools
8:17:07 for brevard virtual that then means that they’re open schools
8:17:14 for transfers we’ve still got
8:17:17 to protect the total enrollment so right now I know viera high
8:17:22 for example is really hoping
8:17:24 to come in as close to projection as possible because again lots
8:17:28 of staffing things are
8:17:29 related to it so I’ve got my two big high schools watching very
8:17:34 closely to keep their
8:17:35 third dean and we have so much staffing tied into accounts that
8:17:41 I know for sure they’re
8:17:43 very aggressively trying to keep their kids and this e-learning
8:17:46 model allows them to keep
8:17:47 their kids and no I agree I’m just saying that if if you have viera
8:17:54 high school and
8:17:54 you have 200 kids or whatever that decide to go brevard virtual
8:17:58 they’re no longer inside
8:18:00 that cost center does that allow more transfers to come in or
8:18:03 are we locking and continuing
8:18:05 down the same no matter what because those kids may come back
8:18:08 yeah that the kids I was
8:18:09 going to say we have to protect a seat for every child who’s in
8:18:14 district yep and students
8:18:16 who are full-time bvs would be able to transition back into
8:18:19 their home school relatively easily
8:18:22 we actually mentioned that on thursday and so I do not foresee a
8:18:27 mid school year mid
8:18:29 whatever we typically lock openings on the 17th we’re extending
8:18:35 that for bvs so the 17th
8:18:37 is the last day so that we can make sure we have teachers hired
8:18:41 at the schools right to
8:18:42 do the jobs the exception that we have made to that lands long-standing
8:18:47 guideline is for
8:18:49 brevard virtual school we are allowing parents to take until july
8:18:54 31st to make some final
8:18:57 decisions because it’s a weighty decision but in terms of
8:18:59 transferring one school to
8:19:01 another that actually closes the 17th I think it would be
8:19:04 advantageous though that you can’t
8:19:06 have those transfers coming in and out and because of brevard
8:19:09 virtual if all of a sudden
8:19:10 this goes away then all of a sudden viera high school ends up
8:19:12 with 22 and that’s the
8:19:13 direction that I did but I did want to just make sure for the
8:19:16 people out here that think
8:19:17 that all of a sudden when one of our high schools drops below
8:19:20 enrollment that they can
8:19:21 start applying I don’t think that’s applicable because of that
8:19:24 that’s all yes sir yeah you’re
8:19:25 correct okay the next thing is is that okay so I was looking at
8:19:30 this and and you’re probably
8:19:33 not going to be happy with me for saying this but okay here’s
8:19:36 what I have if I’m a teacher
8:19:38 and I have three there’s two pieces to this if I have three
8:19:42 classes and I have an extra
8:19:43 planning at the end of the day does it behoove us to let that
8:19:47 teacher plan from home leave
8:19:50 to go home so that the custodial staff has a larger window of
8:19:53 time to clean those classrooms
8:19:55 does that make sense it does that’s not something I can speak to
8:19:59 that’s a condition of employment
8:20:02 okay that would absolutely need to be a discussion led by human
8:20:06 resources teachers have plannings
8:20:09 you you have to by definition have that percent of your students
8:20:12 of planning each period so
8:20:13 in a four period day you’d have to have a fourth of your
8:20:17 teachers basically in planning
8:20:19 each period so that’s kind of how we begin the framework of the
8:20:22 schedule is you know
8:20:24 how many you need and then how many sections you need each
8:20:27 period for your total students
8:20:28 and I I would find it difficult to get into a situation where
8:20:34 there’s advantages to disadvantage
8:20:37 that block but I leave that to my friends and human resources
8:20:41 and of course in conversations
8:20:44 with the union our teachers that are in planning are still going
8:20:48 to be engaging in you know
8:20:49 school activities answering parent phone calls be available for
8:20:54 things and we could certainly
8:20:56 utilize some time in cleaning during those planning periods they
8:20:58 do that now a lot of
8:20:59 times in planning periods the custodians come barreling through
8:21:03 they keep a schedule but
8:21:04 I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying or no nor do I have the
8:21:08 authority to say and I wouldn’t
8:21:10 ask you to do that now it was just on a perspective of two
8:21:14 angles one was to get the teachers
8:21:17 off campus as fast as possible for minimal exposure that was one
8:21:19 of the issues that we
8:21:20 dealt with before also giving the custodial staff a larger
8:21:23 window to be able to clear
8:21:25 those areas it also goes to at the end of the day instead of
8:21:28 making the teachers stay
8:21:30 at the school for a variety of reasons we’ve moved a lot of our
8:21:34 professional development
8:21:36 to online so they could leave the school so that there’s minimal
8:21:41 exposure and do online
8:21:43 virtual professional development that was and I’m not asking for
8:21:47 a decision now I just
8:21:48 would like that to be I personally would like that to be part of
8:21:51 the conversation as we
8:21:52 go forward with minimalizing the amount of time that the
8:21:55 teachers are inside of the school
8:21:57 looking at having them you know what I mean leaving and at the
8:22:01 appropriate times but not
8:22:03 stay there longer than they need to that’s all yeah on the flip
8:22:07 side it would probably
8:22:08 require them utilizing their phones and some other kind of
8:22:11 conditions that come with the
8:22:13 typical expectations and planning period to include IEP meetings
8:22:19 and MTSS processes and
8:22:21 things to support our students so I certainly the first people
8:22:25 who have influence have heard
8:22:27 to look at it okay that’s it that’s all I had thank you yep all
8:22:36 right I’ll just share
8:22:38 quickly with you all because we were just having the
8:22:40 conversation and Miss Duskovich
8:22:41 you were asking about the power of the board apparently Senate
8:22:46 President Bill Galvano did
8:22:48 a I guess oppressor with Governor DeSantis this weekend and the
8:22:52 question was posed about
8:22:54 school boards being able to make their own decision about
8:22:58 opening schools and per this
8:23:01 quote President Galvano said yes the answer is yes the Florida
8:23:05 Department of Education
8:23:07 cannot be ignored must be adhered to school boards cannot ignore
8:23:11 this order and he said
8:23:13 they must do so in exact accordance with State Education
8:23:15 Commissioner Richard Corcoran’s
8:23:17 July 6th executive order so I think that is confirmation of what
8:23:22 you were putting out
8:23:24 there I hadn’t heard it read that or saw that but that’s I just
8:23:27 just from my knowledge of
8:23:28 the Constitution and we take our oath yes of what we oath what
8:23:31 we oath to what we take
8:23:32 our oath to is the US Constitution and the Florida Constitution
8:23:36 that’s what we’re bound
8:23:37 to I mean you know we want to put students first we want to
8:23:40 serve our community but we’re
8:23:41 bound to what our oath was so it’s down in the weeds but it’s
8:23:45 important in this instance
8:23:47 because people want us to go against it and I don’t think
8:23:50 legally we have the authority
8:23:52 well and I think it’s interesting for our public as well the the
8:23:55 headline on the article
8:23:57 is Florida school boards say they will decide when to resume
8:23:59 classes the state constitution
8:24:01 prescribes and the very first sentence says a growing number of
8:24:05 Florida school boards
8:24:06 say they will defy a state order to open schools next month if
8:24:10 local county health departments
8:24:12 say it’s not safe to do so so really really kind of misleading
8:24:15 so I encourage our public
8:24:17 as we start hearing about districts that are are suggesting that
8:24:20 they will not be going
8:24:21 back to make sure that you look at the details because I think
8:24:25 that’s that’s rather important
8:24:27 okay we are moving on to 30 and 31 which is health screening I
8:24:33 know this is an area that
8:24:35 we had identified as as potentially needing to revisit but that
8:24:45 is responsibilities of
8:24:47 parents and legal guardians and the actual health screening
8:24:51 recommendations anyone have
8:24:52 comments questions concerns they’d like to address this desk
8:24:57 bitch sorry I don’t know
8:25:00 why these are just from today too from the public comments and
8:25:04 oh this was from a bunch
8:25:06 of emails and I have no idea if this is truth or fiction but I
8:25:09 think we need to clarify
8:25:10 it publicly I think it’s for you miss more are we going to ask
8:25:13 our teachers and employees
8:25:15 to sign some sort of waiver that if they have some samples going
8:25:20 around online that they
8:25:22 say other districts are asking their employees to sign saying we’re
8:25:26 not responsible if you
8:25:28 know they catch COVID-19 or something of that nature do we have
8:25:32 any waivers in the works
8:25:33 that we want them to sign I have no waivers in the works but I’m
8:25:37 but that may be an HR
8:25:38 question nor do I they may be getting it from the fact that for
8:25:43 our extracurricular voluntary
8:25:45 return to activity plan we did ask people to to sign a waiver
8:25:49 but we have nothing in
8:25:51 the world the record loud and clear none of our employees are
8:25:54 going to be asked to sign
8:25:55 a waiver before they come back to schools in the classroom
8:25:58 correct that is correct go
8:26:00 ahead we’ll say it together that’s correct thank you so much
8:26:05 miss desk bitch yeah I think
8:26:06 that maybe some people are doing that in fear that they may be
8:26:09 personally responsible and
8:26:11 I think mr. Gibbs can probably explain that we’re holds harmless
8:26:15 as teachers and and things
8:26:16 for the stuff like that correct armless hold harmless for what
8:26:22 so if the teachers cannot
8:26:24 be personally sued right for that through state statute and
8:26:31 everything else so I think
8:26:32 that the question is not are we meaning we don’t have to because
8:26:36 it’s already statutorily
8:26:37 law that they cannot be held responsible for anything that
8:26:41 happens they would not be personally
8:26:43 liable yeah right it would be they would see the school district
8:26:47 yeah I’m just trying to
8:26:49 relieve some teachers minds that are worried about a waiver
8:26:52 coming their way and I think
8:26:53 yeah no no I just wanted to convey that okay last question is in
8:26:57 your presentation miss
8:26:58 Moore you said close the school and I’ve seen a lot of
8:27:03 discussion about this there are times
8:27:06 that we would just shut down a building right I want to make
8:27:09 sure the words not interchangeable
8:27:11 right when with there’s a student that went in building a B and
8:27:16 C and tested positive
8:27:18 you could potentially shut down building a B and C but the rest
8:27:21 of the school could stay
8:27:22 open right just because yeah it was there it doesn’t mean the
8:27:25 whole school is going
8:27:26 to get shut down every time someone gets diagnosed yeah like the
8:27:30 example that I gave where we
8:27:32 have siblings that might travel a pretty wide distance across
8:27:36 the school you then begin
8:27:37 to look at the whole school there are other instances in where
8:27:41 sections or grade levels
8:27:42 might be shut down every single one of those cases is going to
8:27:46 be evaluated separately
8:27:48 the Department of Health does sit on that response team with us
8:27:51 as well as pretty much
8:27:52 a representative from every division up up here at ESF thank you
8:27:58 that’s all I have Miss
8:28:00 Mulford Mr. Susan you have questions comments on this section
8:28:07 well I think Gibbs is this
8:28:09 where we’re going to talk about our screenings yes we are on
8:28:12 health screenings Miss McDougal
8:28:15 was before me though so I had asked to utilize the screening
8:28:22 tool to temperature check students
8:28:26 as they’re coming in and give the schools an opportunity or the
8:28:29 teachers an opportunity
8:28:31 to do that we’ve already deployed these to the schools and so
8:28:34 the idea was that we would
8:28:36 create a sort of a perimeter around to try to stop any of the
8:28:41 students from coming in
8:28:43 that may have a temperature so when I did that it was the idea
8:28:46 that we would come back
8:28:47 and discuss this a little bit more Mr. Gibbs put together a
8:28:51 response here that I’ve read
8:28:53 through and I would like to discuss that is everybody okay with
8:28:59 that okay so Mr. Gibbs
8:29:01 I read through this is there anything in anywhere that says that
8:29:06 it is prohibited for us to
8:29:08 do it I mean I understand you’ve got in here you’ve got what
8:29:12 Miami-Dade it’s more just
8:29:14 considerations mostly for you to take okay under normal
8:29:18 circumstances I would be hesitant
8:29:20 to tell you to do that just like if HR called me in March and
8:29:24 said hey we want to temperature
8:29:26 check all of our employees I would have said hold on a second
8:29:29 there’s rules that say you
8:29:30 can’t do that unless it’s specifically job related since COVID’s
8:29:36 hit the EEOC is saying
8:29:37 you can ask COVID related questions and do temperature checks
8:29:41 because it potentially
8:29:43 affects the health and safety of all your employees in the
8:29:46 business so I would say that
8:29:48 you know in this if you got challenged on temperature check I
8:29:52 think you would prevail
8:29:53 in the current climate as it is that’s where I would fall there
8:29:56 is you were concerned you
8:29:58 said hey if we do this these are some of the concerns that I
8:30:00 have it’s a whole lot of questions
8:30:02 and considerations the board might want to take thank you in
8:30:05 there more than it is guidance
8:30:07 because we’ve never been here before yeah and I appreciate that
8:30:10 because that’s when
8:30:11 I was looking at it I said okay it didn’t feel like it was like
8:30:13 a legal opinion it felt
8:30:15 like you were doing just what you just said so thank you one of
8:30:18 the other things I kind
8:30:19 of just wanted to bring up the health screenings like that or
8:30:23 the temperature checks I’m sorry
8:30:25 because I was trying to figure out a way so that our parents
8:30:28 could feel more confident
8:30:30 that we are going to stop as many individuals from coming in as
8:30:34 possible so I did a little
8:30:35 bit of research and first off I to in order one of the issues
8:30:41 that Miss Campbell had was
8:30:43 that there may be an opportunity for large groups to be getting
8:30:48 consolidated at the front
8:30:49 there are right now for almost the same cost as handing these to
8:30:54 teachers thermal image
8:30:55 cameras that you can attach to your cell phone that as the
8:30:58 students walk through it’ll tell
8:30:59 you exactly who’s got a higher temperature before they’re even
8:31:03 walking through literally
8:31:05 there’s opportunities to find other ways to screen the students
8:31:09 for temperature checks
8:31:10 beyond just screening them with a temperature check does that
8:31:14 make sense so I didn’t want
8:31:16 when we’re looking at the temperature checks of students coming
8:31:19 in I didn’t want it to
8:31:20 be held with the fact that a temperature check off of a student
8:31:24 which takes less than 1.5
8:31:26 seconds I do it practiced it on my kids I made sure that this
8:31:29 was that we did it right
8:31:30 but the thing is is that with that it gives the school the
8:31:34 teachers the parents everybody
8:31:37 the opportunity that if they wanted to do that to make sure that
8:31:40 their people felt safe
8:31:41 that they could that was all so is there anybody any board
8:31:45 members that are in objection to
8:31:47 allowing what we had talked about before do we need direction
8:31:50 here I didn’t understand
8:31:52 dr. Mullins what is your call on the temperature checks we just
8:31:58 received the you know mr. Gibbs
8:31:59 has been working on that just received it the recommendation
8:32:04 that was made to the board
8:32:06 on Thursday has not changed to today primarily because I’ll use
8:32:11 the word there are some risks
8:32:14 presented with the practice of temperature checks by individuals
8:32:18 other than the clinic
8:32:19 I feel like because there is risk to the district the board
8:32:23 needs to take a position on that
8:32:25 will certainly follow the wishes of the board but to recommend
8:32:28 something with with risk
8:32:29 that is unprecedented I didn’t think it would feel as
8:32:31 appropriate to make that recommendation
8:32:33 myself so certainly will follow the direction of the board if
8:32:41 that’s if that’s the world
8:32:42 of what mr. Gibbs what I’ve read what you said what you handed
8:32:49 us earlier or mostly
8:32:51 because just gave it to right before the meeting so I didn’t
8:32:53 have time to read it in detail
8:32:55 but I scanned it this is the first I’ve heard about a thermal
8:32:59 imaging camera or yeah for
8:33:00 my phone I’m reading about it right now online as you bring it
8:33:05 up mr. Susan is that is there
8:33:07 any privacy issues I’m a little creeped out by I think I have I
8:33:10 could be walking around
8:33:12 in somebody’s thermal imaging scan it like it guys guys if we
8:33:17 can just stay on the screening
8:33:20 we’ll just stay there I have not let’s just stay there okay I
8:33:24 just don’t know anything
8:33:25 about this obviously I don’t I don’t know how let’s just it’s
8:33:28 they’re using them across
8:33:29 the districts there’s there’s kiosks that people are purchasing
8:33:33 that’s it it’s something
8:33:34 that is being used but it was just something that I said let’s
8:33:37 just ignore it if you want
8:33:39 to try to if it’s something that you need time for that’s fine I
8:33:42 didn’t want to throw
8:33:43 it out there as an idea to try to get it done tonight but I did
8:33:47 want to say part of my conversation
8:33:49 that I was trying to get at was I felt that we needed to make a
8:33:53 stronger perimeter support
8:33:55 for our teachers our parents in our in our students and I think
8:33:57 that this was the way
8:33:58 to do it and it didn’t want to because I want to lose my mind
8:34:02 when I hear somebody say that
8:34:04 you know it only captures 50% of the people well that’s 50% of
8:34:07 the people that would shut
8:34:08 down a school so what I what I wanted to say was instead of not
8:34:12 saying instead of saying
8:34:14 no find a way to say yes that’s what I’m saying that’s all and
8:34:17 if it’s being held up that
8:34:19 because you have to have somebody standing there then look at
8:34:21 these other options that
8:34:22 are out there that other school districts are already purchasing
8:34:24 throughout the country
8:34:25 that’s all that’s all I I understand what you’re saying and I
8:34:29 understand the concerns
8:34:30 I just put but just to remind everyone we even had a doctor on
8:34:34 our call today that was
8:34:35 one of the public commenters who said it was an ineffective screener
8:34:39 and I just feel like
8:34:40 from what Mr. Gibbs has brought from the you know you know got a
8:34:44 doctor confirming I just
8:34:45 feel it the same way about this and from all the other problems
8:34:48 that it will create no
8:34:49 matter which way we do it potentially feel the same way as Ms.
8:34:53 Hand shared about the
8:34:54 you know the UV lights something that’s not proven to be
8:34:58 effective or it’s questionable
8:35:01 effective and it can cause more problems you know Mr. Gibbs and
8:35:07 I know this and if anybody
8:35:10 from the public would like a copy of this you can certainly
8:35:12 email and I’ll forward it
8:35:12 to you you know you have the student who you know if a teacher
8:35:17 is doing in their own classroom
8:35:19 like we were talking about the other day they’ve decided you
8:35:22 know they want to be one teachers
8:35:23 to do it and you know you’re going around or letting them before
8:35:26 they walk in the door
8:35:27 you know okay you go this way you go that way we’ve got sheep
8:35:29 and the goats and everybody
8:35:30 knows where the goats are going and if they go down to the
8:35:33 clinic to actually confirm
8:35:34 because a teacher taking the temperature doesn’t count right
8:35:37 fully as you know that just means
8:35:39 go down to the clinic and let them confirm and they go down to
8:35:41 the clinic and the clinic
8:35:42 says no they don’t meet the threshold they don’t you know then
8:35:45 then they’re going back
8:35:46 to class and what kind of chaos have we created in that scenario
8:35:51 I just you know I think we
8:35:53 have a good plan and I just if we start off that way too then we’re
8:35:59 saying we’re going
8:36:01 to do it what what’s about the day that the morning is crazy and
8:36:04 we didn’t get everybody
8:36:05 checked before they came in the gate but we told people in our
8:36:07 plan that we’re going to
8:36:08 do that every day I am not in favor of adding that to our screen
8:36:16 so can I respond miss Belford
8:36:20 so we have already deployed a thousand of these to our schools
8:36:26 for the specific purpose
8:36:29 of doing what I’m asking to do the other problem thing is is
8:36:33 that if you speak to saying that
8:36:35 they’re ineffective because a doctor called in to speak on
8:36:40 public comment that we don’t
8:36:42 even know if he’s a doctor and you’re quoting also the UV lights
8:36:47 for Suhan I would ask some
8:36:49 clarification over what it is said that these are not affect
8:36:53 these are ineffective because
8:36:55 if Disney’s using them if we bought them a thousand of them then
8:36:59 there seems to be some
8:37:01 disconnect there and the fact that it causes more problems is
8:37:05 just suggestions that are
8:37:07 here that’s not fact when you’re sitting here and you’re going
8:37:11 through each one of these
8:37:13 there’s scenarios that say that if I temperature check a student
8:37:16 and say hey you might not
8:37:17 be feeling well once you head to the dock to the to the the
8:37:22 nurse we already do that
8:37:24 when you see a kid and you say you don’t look so good maybe you
8:37:27 should go to the nurse it’s
8:37:29 the same application but hang on that is not the only way that
8:37:33 is not the only way that
8:37:35 you can tell a kid that see to corner it into a corner and say
8:37:40 that this is the exact way
8:37:42 that it’s going to happen here’s the outcome I don’t think I don’t
8:37:46 agree with that I think
8:37:48 what you’re asking you’re asking to do it as a fence around the
8:37:51 school which means before
8:37:53 either they walk into the building on the campus or before they
8:37:58 walk into a classroom
8:38:00 okay so you’re talking about doing it that way so it at the door
8:38:04 so there is going to
8:38:05 be a separation and everybody so then for the people who aren’t
8:38:09 again you don’t have
8:38:10 this we’re talking about privacy rights and honestly we’re
8:38:15 talking about bullying and
8:38:17 we’re talking about a lot of other things and I’m not saying
8:38:19 bullying comes before someone’s
8:38:20 health but there’s there’s there’s just a lot of ways that this
8:38:24 can go wrong Ms. Campbell
8:38:25 are you suggesting that we should return all thousand thermal
8:38:28 screeners no I’m saying we
8:38:30 use them for the purpose that they were bought we’ve got our
8:38:33 teams who are coming for it
8:38:34 they have a place and our what we were presented the other day
8:38:38 is that we know in our schools
8:38:40 we have parents we have students who don’t have this family
8:38:44 support who can do that we
8:38:46 have our homeless liaisons at each school I’m assuming we’re
8:38:49 gonna especially have them
8:38:51 with the kids that are assigned to them we’ve got students that
8:38:54 we’re following up on that
8:38:56 we’re gonna we’re gonna have private ways for that check to be
8:38:59 done every day we’re
8:39:00 gonna have you know different for our extracurricular teachers
8:39:05 who were doing you know band camp
8:39:07 but a band camp they’re gonna be doing it every day just like
8:39:09 their sports they’re gonna
8:39:10 do it every day I’m there I’m not saying they’re going to waste
8:39:13 and if we can find another
8:39:14 way I just don’t like this particular way of using them and we
8:39:18 can argue about it all
8:39:20 day no no no you brought up a good point I would like to address
8:39:24 I have significant issue
8:39:25 with identifying a specific group of individuals based on their
8:39:30 socio-economic or their their
8:39:32 home life that we’re gonna target those kids to do testing I
8:39:35 think that’s actually what
8:39:37 you are talking about is extremely high Mr. Gibbs can you say
8:39:41 that if we are targeting
8:39:43 a specific type of people based on their demographics wouldn’t
8:39:47 that be a very bad situation wouldn’t
8:39:49 that I mean do you agree I don’t know enough specifics about
8:39:53 this status of these students
8:39:55 I mean I could even easily say you have an affluent student that
8:39:58 teachers might be aware
8:40:00 don’t have you know necessarily parental support at home so if
8:40:04 you were saying we’re only targeting
8:40:05 low-income then I would be concerned even even the same same
8:40:09 token I’m also concerned
8:40:10 with the privacy is the one aspect of temperatures that does
8:40:13 concern me I don’t know how you
8:40:15 get around it though everybody knows what kids they rode the bus
8:40:18 with everybody knows
8:40:19 what kids are supposed to be in their class if all of a sudden
8:40:23 they’re not there everybody’s
8:40:25 gonna know something happened between the bus ride and getting
8:40:30 to class I just I think
8:40:32 I think we need to really look back at looking at identifying
8:40:37 children that may not have
8:40:39 parental support and testing them only with these things I think
8:40:43 I would like for miss
8:40:45 more to clarify that because that was presented to us so we don’t
8:40:48 we don’t twist the words
8:40:49 of no no no I’m okay with it yeah it’s more thank you by
8:40:56 function of the child study team
8:40:57 in each school has a child study team we look at the whole child
8:41:01 we look at their academic
8:41:03 progress we look at their social emotional progress we look at
8:41:07 their mental health needs
8:41:08 that’s the function of the of the child study team it would be
8:41:12 by function of the child
8:41:14 study team that we review and make their physical health also
8:41:18 one of those areas that we look
8:41:20 at and say this child is going to need extra support from us has
8:41:24 nothing to do with socio-economic
8:41:26 level it has nothing to do with race it has nothing to do with
8:41:30 neighborhood it has to
8:41:31 do with how the child study team looks at the whole child and
8:41:35 physical mental health
8:41:36 academic well-being all of that is rolled into what that team
8:41:41 studies so you feel confident
8:41:43 that we can test those kids with the screeners outright without
8:41:48 any kind of negative repercussions
8:41:51 I confident is an interesting word I feel like the schools have
8:41:57 the schools understand
8:41:59 FERPA I think the schools understand what the child study team
8:42:04 is meant to do every
8:42:05 time I feel confident over something there’s going to be an
8:42:08 individual someplace that proves
8:42:09 me wrong Mr. Susan and that’s why we have OCR complaints and
8:42:14 that’s why we sit in litigation
8:42:16 so I feel like we will put it out in a way that our schools can
8:42:22 manage it and that I
8:42:24 believe our administrators have know what they’re supposed to do
8:42:28 and and will be able
8:42:29 to do it and I will hope that everybody will comply with the
8:42:33 processes that are put in
8:42:35 place but but make no mistake I am I am fully prepared that we’ll
8:42:40 have an OCR complaint
8:42:41 on this issue at some point thank you I think I guess what I was
8:42:45 getting at is is that if
8:42:47 Mr. if Mr. Gibbs says that there is nothing in this in the
8:42:51 statutes that prohibits this
8:42:54 if he’s saying that under the current conditions we would
8:42:57 prevail I just wanted to give it
8:42:59 it as an option to our teachers and our principals that if they
8:43:03 want to do it that they have
8:43:05 that option I’m not mandating that they do it I’m asking that if
8:43:09 they wanted to that
8:43:11 we provide the resources for that school to do it if the
8:43:14 teachers wanted to then we provide
8:43:17 them the resources to do it I would rather give them the choice
8:43:20 than take away the opportunity
8:43:22 would you like to weigh in on this one and then we’ll try to
8:43:26 kind of see where our consensus
8:43:29 is as a board yeah it kind of went around and around but I agree
8:43:33 with Mr. Susan’s last
8:43:35 statement that I would like them to have the option I have
8:43:37 talked to several teachers and
8:43:39 some have zero interest in doing this and some absolutely want
8:43:43 to do it a couple of
8:43:44 them said if I’m forced to I will or if I feel yeah I think I
8:43:47 think we need flexibility
8:43:49 here if it’s going to be done right I still have a concern about
8:43:53 how it’s done but even
8:43:54 speaking to them they said oh we know how to be discreet you
8:43:57 know we’re not going there’s
8:43:59 going to be no shaming and embarrassing because in my mind I
8:44:01 have that vision of little Johnny
8:44:03 and everyone you know calling him a name and but I think we have
8:44:08 to trust our our employees
8:44:10 on this and so I support having them available I don’t think we
8:44:13 need what we say three hundred
8:44:15 thousand dollars worth to make sure everyone had one I think
8:44:17 maybe we start with what we
8:44:18 planned on purchasing which is is it 100 per school is that what
8:44:22 that breaks out to be
8:44:23 how many did we buy no we no we we’ve got we gave like 10 per
8:44:28 100 100 don’t do math
8:44:30 in your head Tina does go ahead purchased right around a
8:44:36 thousand and the lowest amount
8:44:40 is five for a small elementary school up to our large high
8:44:46 schools have just under 20
8:44:49 so I don’t know what that magic number is and that’s probably
8:44:51 what you’re going to look
8:44:52 to meet to us for right right or now can you I would like to
8:44:56 just let them if Suntree elementary
8:44:58 says hey we feel like we can confidently with the way that we
8:45:02 balance our income and give
8:45:03 them the opportunity to do it and if those teachers wanted to
8:45:06 give them the opportunity
8:45:07 I wouldn’t say you only get 10 you only get five we deployed
8:45:10 enough to do what they wanted
8:45:12 to do but now I would just want to give the opportunity for them
8:45:16 to order more if they
8:45:17 wanted them that’s all I’m okay with that can I make a
8:45:20 suggestion that if it’s the will
8:45:22 of the board to do something like that that the way we word it
8:45:27 for example if you fly
8:45:29 on Southwest they say you know this you know there is a
8:45:33 possibility that before you get
8:45:35 on the plane you can be temperature checked but that doesn’t
8:45:38 mean they’re necessarily
8:45:39 going to do it right but they are saying it out front so that
8:45:42 you know because I think
8:45:43 if we’re going to you know that in other words I’m what I’m
8:45:46 saying is we add it in there
8:45:48 so that we’re if we get to a day and then something somebody
8:45:50 slips through the cracks
8:45:51 that we’re not saying every child will be temperature checked on
8:45:55 the way into the door
8:45:57 but then we get flexible for schools to work out their own plan
8:46:02 for teachers I’m still
8:46:04 kind of iffy about this because I think it comes back to privacy
8:46:07 rights and what we can
8:46:09 and cannot do but that’s one way to write it in thank you miss
8:46:15 Campbell miss McDougal
8:46:17 I just want to clarify that miss Campbell you’re not saying that
8:46:20 they can’t send somebody
8:46:22 to the clinic that’s not what I’m hearing at all no no that’s
8:46:24 that’s they can send people
8:46:26 to the clinic the way they’ve always sent it to the clinic kids
8:46:28 got their head on the
8:46:28 desk they look you know that they don’t have to they don’t even
8:46:32 have to have a hundred
8:46:33 degree temperature to get sent to the clinic or sent home is my
8:46:36 understanding of the way
8:46:37 it’s been presented because there’s so many other symptoms
8:46:39 besides fever right so I I
8:46:42 support what Mr. Susan’s saying I think we leave it up to the
8:46:46 school they have the ability
8:46:47 to to test who they think is possible you know I I’m not sure I
8:46:52 can see a one of our
8:46:54 big high schools testing everybody as they come through the door
8:46:58 it would be a miracle
8:46:59 but I also just want to point out for people the information we
8:47:03 got from Mr. Gibbs and
8:47:05 he reached out to other districts and I’m very surprised about
8:47:09 some of this Miami Dade
8:47:10 superintendent has reported that they’re not doing temperature
8:47:14 checks but he talks about
8:47:15 masks and distance are the effective way to slow the spread now
8:47:19 remember these are two
8:47:21 of the highest areas and Brevard and Broward has also confirmed
8:47:25 they’re not checking temperatures
8:47:27 and they say due to too many students and their Department of
8:47:32 Health advised them against
8:47:34 it because it’s only 30 percent effective so I’m surprised that
8:47:39 large counties are not
8:47:41 doing them but I feel that we can leave it up to our teachers
8:47:45 and our staff the admin
8:47:47 staff to say okay if we need to do what we do it and let it up
8:47:51 to them they’re the ones
8:47:52 who are on the school and Osceola is doing it and Osceola is
8:47:57 doing it on a random through
8:47:59 the week so that’s all.
8:48:03 So I I agree with much of what’s been said when I look at the
8:48:13 AAP recommendation there
8:48:16 are three things that they address with regard to safety in the
8:48:20 classroom and as I referenced
8:48:22 earlier they say that that three foot spacing is is shown to be
8:48:28 likely as effective as six
8:48:31 foot spacing in the event that everyone’s wearing masks and they
8:48:38 are asymptomatic.
8:48:41 And so I that asymptomatic piece I think is is a big piece and
8:48:44 obviously there are lots
8:48:46 of different symptoms that we could look at but I feel as I
8:48:53 expressed her last meeting
8:48:56 I am incredibly concerned that we are sending teachers back into
8:49:00 a classroom many of whom
8:49:02 who are in high risk categories or have people that they care
8:49:05 about that are in high risk
8:49:07 categories and so I am absolutely not in favor of mandating that
8:49:11 every student be temp checked
8:49:14 on the way into school but if it’s going to make one of our
8:49:17 teachers feel better to be
8:49:18 able to temp check her students as they come into the classroom
8:49:21 in the morning or his students
8:49:22 as they come into the classroom in the morning if that if that’s
8:49:26 going to help them feel
8:49:28 a little bit better about being in the classroom with their
8:49:31 students as one piece of you know
8:49:33 multiple layers of protection then I would suggest that we give
8:49:38 them that that peace
8:49:39 of mind even I mean you know we’ve we’ve thrown it out there
8:49:43 fifty percent of it only catches
8:49:46 fifty percent of cases the health department said only thirty
8:49:48 percent of cases it’s it’s
8:49:50 not a be all end all it’s not an absolute definite but I feel
8:49:53 like if we can make them
8:49:55 feel a little bit better about the situation then we should do
8:49:58 that so I I would not support
8:50:00 mandating that all students get temp checked I would suggest you
8:50:05 know notifying people
8:50:07 that there’s a possibility that their child is going to have
8:50:09 their temperature taken if
8:50:10 they’re going back into brick and mortar school and then you
8:50:15 know do what we can to accommodate
8:50:17 the wishes of the teachers who maybe maybe each of our schools
8:50:21 can kind of ask their
8:50:23 teachers to let them know if they would like to have a thermometer
8:50:26 and then we can look
8:50:27 at trying to get some more order to accommodate I don’t think we
8:50:30 need to order one you know
8:50:32 for every teacher but maybe if there’s some way that we could
8:50:34 get a consensus there that
8:50:36 would be my recommendation.
8:50:38 Yeah I need a point of clarification with Mr. Gibbs right now we
8:50:41 do have a Florida statute
8:50:43 about health screenings and what health screenings specifically
8:50:51 what health screenings we’re
8:50:52 allowed to do and then including in our registration packet is
8:50:57 an opt out form it’s a permissive
8:51:00 form so if it’s not returned we assume that the parents are
8:51:04 opting in so I just need to
8:51:06 know if we’re going to have to redo that registration form to
8:51:09 include the daily temperature check
8:51:11 if a if a teacher decides to take that option.
8:51:15 I don’t know that you have to redo that form you’re talking
8:51:19 about one thousand three two
8:51:21 two correct?
8:51:22 I’m talking about Florida statute three eight one point zero
8:51:25 zero five six mandates the
8:51:27 Florida Department of Health in cooperation with the Department
8:51:29 of Education provides
8:51:30 student health screenings for possible identification of unknown
8:51:34 or unrecognized diseases or defects
8:51:36 they include vision hearing scoliosis height and weight and
8:51:40 parents are allowed to opt
8:51:42 out of those screenings based on a form we include in our
8:51:45 registration packet.
8:51:47 Right those are not necessarily school health checks but again I
8:51:54 would I don’t know that
8:51:56 you have to redo your form I would certainly put a notice in
8:51:59 there and if they opt out
8:52:01 if you want to screen them and opt out you might want to provide
8:52:04 that to the parents
8:52:05 because if their parents are saying I want out for some reason
8:52:09 then that’s a sure sign
8:52:10 if you screen them you might get whacked with a lawsuit.
8:52:15 So each school will have to because registration forms have
8:52:18 already been done and out and returned
8:52:20 so each school will have to provide each student with permission
8:52:23 form or at least notification
8:52:25 that that’s not that’s what the option that teachers have that
8:52:29 option.
8:52:29 What I’m hearing is they’re leaving it up to the school so it
8:52:33 would be possible it’s
8:52:35 not a guarantee so I would certainly include it in all the forms
8:52:38 that get sent home at
8:52:40 the beginning of the year that this is a possibility there is
8:52:44 legal recommendations from some of
8:52:46 the bigger firms that say get parental permission prior to
8:52:50 testing but the question then is
8:52:52 going to be what happens if a parent says no it’s the same thing
8:52:55 if they opt out are
8:52:56 you going to force them to one of your virtual platforms.
8:53:00 Can I ask a point of I mean we already are going to have a
8:53:04 teacher have a student walk
8:53:07 in front of them and if they exhibit signs of COVID we are going
8:53:11 to send them to the
8:53:12 nurse correct is that considered a health screen?
8:53:18 No what they’re doing is through observation making the decision
8:53:21 to send them to a health
8:53:23 professional to be evaluated so and that’s I’m basing that just
8:53:26 on the information that
8:53:28 Mr. Gibbs provided because I was looking at that difference as
8:53:31 well.
8:53:31 Yeah I looked at that too and if you look at it being a health
8:53:34 observation the teacher
8:53:36 is not making a ruling that you have COVID or anything they’re
8:53:40 saying hey you’ve exhibited
8:53:42 the same respect or the same issues that we see in the non
8:53:47 temperature checking so I don’t
8:53:49 know if temperature checking a student as the same as looking at
8:53:53 them and saying they
8:53:54 have to go down to the clinic falls into some new defined
8:53:57 screening that we have to send
8:53:59 home stuff.
8:54:00 It’s the same process.
8:54:01 They’re not they’re going to go to the nurse and the nurse is
8:54:03 going to be the one that
8:54:04 truly performs the health screening not the teacher because the
8:54:07 teacher is just making
8:54:09 an observation hey you’ve got a higher temperature according to
8:54:11 this thing go get checked out.
8:54:13 They’re not performing a true health screening which is where
8:54:16 that that statute is defined.
8:54:18 When I looked at this earlier I looked it up while we were there
8:54:23 and it’s defined as
8:54:26 basically as like the nurse making that determination not the
8:54:29 teachers so I didn’t understand why
8:54:31 we would apply that section because it’s an observation to it.
8:54:35 I defer to Mr. Gibbs’ judgment.
8:54:37 My question was we allow parents to opt out of the health
8:54:42 screenings that we mandate as
8:54:44 a district and as a health department and I defer to Mr. Gibbs’
8:54:48 judgment.
8:54:48 The same would be true for the vaccinations they get the right
8:54:51 to opt out for religious
8:54:52 purposes so they can come to school if they object.
8:54:57 At the same time the clinic nurse or teacher that’s serving in
8:55:01 that position is performing
8:55:03 my quite the CDC calls temperature checks health checks that’s
8:55:07 what they call them so
8:55:08 if you’re going to say health screening is the same thing it’s
8:55:11 going to be there.
8:55:12 I still would say if you get sued not that we want to get sued
8:55:16 but I think in the current
8:55:18 climate you would prevail again that’s you’re prevailing in a
8:55:23 lawsuit so take it on knowing
8:55:25 that it’s a lawsuit.
8:55:27 I would also caution against just leaving it up to every school
8:55:30 to implement this without
8:55:32 any guidance.
8:55:34 What does a positive or a high temperature from a teacher mean?
8:55:39 Do they go to the nurse?
8:55:41 You might want some guidance for your principals and
8:55:44 administration as to what this means is
8:55:46 a high temperature of presumptive COVID.
8:55:49 If it’s confirmed by the nurse are they going home for 14 days
8:55:52 in which case it’s going
8:55:53 to trigger your COVID response at the district level for that
8:55:56 school or is it just going
8:55:58 to be hey you got a high temperature you know we’re going to
8:56:00 call your parents and see if
8:56:02 you can go home for the day and then come back in the morning
8:56:05 when they check you out
8:56:06 in the morning.
8:56:07 You’re probably going to get a bunch of students with Tylenol in
8:56:09 the morning that passed the
8:56:10 morning check.
8:56:11 I think when I look at it and this is something to workshop to
8:56:15 is that the nurse is making
8:56:17 all those calls if the nurse is performing those screenings and
8:56:20 the people have opted
8:56:21 out but it’s just like an observation like anything else please
8:56:24 go see the nurse that’s
8:56:25 the way that I saw it and you’re right I think that that
8:56:27 guidance needs to be given so that
8:56:29 there’s not a misconception because I don’t even think that we
8:56:32 would want our teachers
8:56:33 to be sitting here saying you have COVID or anything like that
8:56:36 just go to the nurse because
8:56:38 that’s the professional.
8:56:39 I agree with you.
8:56:41 I would second thought Mr. Gibbs do we, do our, I don’t know how
8:56:47 to word this, do our
8:56:50 or maybe Ms. Moore, do our families sign a waiver allowing our
8:56:57 nurses and the clinics
8:56:59 to take their temperature?
8:57:02 They do not, no.
8:57:04 So it’s just, it’s assumed that if they go to the clinic the
8:57:08 nurse can do whatever he
8:57:10 or she feels needs to be done when they’re there?
8:57:13 That is correct.
8:57:14 On the health card that they turn in they, they know they turn
8:57:19 that health card into
8:57:21 to the school but it’s a Florida Department of, it goes right to
8:57:24 the Florida Department
8:57:25 of Health.
8:57:29 I’ve never been asked that question before quite frankly Ms. Belford,
8:57:33 yes, it is the
8:57:34 assumption that the nurse works for the Department of Health and
8:57:38 she’s there to treat students
8:57:39 for illness.
8:57:42 So my recommendation would be that we, we move forward with
8:57:46 giving teachers the opportunity
8:57:48 should they choose to temperature check their students with it
8:57:52 just being a quick check
8:57:54 and then sent on to the nurse for verification with guidance
8:57:58 that this is no different than
8:58:01 any other student that we would be sending to the clinic.
8:58:04 If a child, when my kids are in school if they are running a
8:58:07 fever the teacher would
8:58:09 touch them and say they feel hot and send them to the clinic and
8:58:12 the nurse would take
8:58:13 their temp and call me and I would go and get them.
8:58:16 So that, that would be my recommendation as to how we move
8:58:19 forward and certainly you all
8:58:21 can take into consideration you know we don’t want this to be a
8:58:25 flag that this kid has COVID
8:58:28 it should just be this particular child is running a fever and
8:58:31 we need to do what we
8:58:32 do with fevers and then everything else be handled as we would
8:58:36 without the temperature
8:58:38 check would be my recommendation.
8:58:41 Mr. Gibbs parent permission or no parent permission?
8:58:43 That would be a district call I mean I don’t know that you have
8:58:46 to do but if you’re going
8:58:48 to do it I mean my question is if you if a parent objects what
8:58:51 are you going to do are
8:58:52 you going to kick them out of school or are you going to let
8:58:54 them sit there if you’re
8:58:54 going to let them sit there there’s no point in doing a parent
8:58:56 permission.
8:58:58 Is he going to object to a teacher saying you look like you have
8:59:01 COVID?
8:59:02 Or if they’re just sitting there pale and they’re sweating and
8:59:05 it’s 70 degrees in the
8:59:06 class and they say hey go to the nurse.
8:59:09 Yeah I, I, I don’t, I feel like it’s the same I think I feel
8:59:13 like we’re overcomplicating.
8:59:16 They have a fever in that I mean whether it’s COVID or strep
8:59:19 throat they don’t need to be
8:59:20 there it’s the same it’s the same way we’ve sent them to the
8:59:24 clinic all along except they’re
8:59:26 well the difference I guess would be the data the temperature is
8:59:32 giving them data so if
8:59:34 I’m sitting there observing and somebody’s sweating maybe they
8:59:37 just got too many layers
8:59:38 of clothes on but they’re pale and they’re sweating I send them
8:59:41 to the nurse nurse says
8:59:42 no they’re fine and they come back to class if you know I there
8:59:47 could be hey I took his
8:59:49 temperature it’s 101 now there’s data behind that at some level
8:59:54 so is that data a FERPA
8:59:55 record and you know I kind of get into that it’s like there
8:59:59 there’s no clear guidance
9:00:00 here like I said this is uncharted we’ve never had mandatory
9:00:04 school in the middle of a pandemic.
9:00:07 And I would argue that you know the teacher touching my child’s
9:00:11 head and saying this child
9:00:12 is warmer than they should be would also be you know a piece of
9:00:16 data a piece of information
9:00:18 like I get where you’re coming from and I appreciate that you’re
9:00:20 trying to protect us
9:00:21 Mr. Gibbs and certainly there are lots of considerations I
9:00:26 understand that but I just
9:00:28 I feel like it’s simple enough thing for us to do it’s a risk I’m
9:00:31 willing to take as a
9:00:31 board member to provide that comfort for our teachers if they
9:00:34 choose to to tempt their
9:00:35 students but absolutely with no mandate that all of them all of
9:00:39 the students become so
9:00:40 well for me I attempt to clarify the direction of the board
9:00:45 please so if I understand correctly
9:00:48 we will add to the plan the notification of students possibly
9:00:52 being temperature checked
9:00:54 by staff throughout the day when in attendance at school we will
9:01:00 develop guidelines for staff
9:01:02 if they choose to want to have a touchless thermometer and
9:01:07 utilize it with their students
9:01:10 will run that through the Department of Health and Mr. Gibbs for
9:01:15 you know clarity and you
9:01:18 know approval for the guidelines and then we will make available
9:01:23 to staff at their request
9:01:25 and willingness to follow the guidelines a touchless thermometer
9:01:29 and if a principal requests
9:01:32 that he would like some not just for the teachers that he can
9:01:35 they can get them for their school
9:01:36 too I said staff yeah so it’s not limited to teachers board
9:01:41 members good with that consensus
9:01:43 traction is there any desire for an opt-out to parents no same
9:01:52 thing is an opt-out I don’t
9:01:55 know why they would opt out because it would be just like before
9:01:58 COVID if somebody looked
9:02:00 like they had a fever we would send them to the nurses and then
9:02:02 we would take the temperatures
9:02:03 so no I don’t think it’s that different quite frankly but we let
9:02:09 them opt out of health
9:02:11 screenings and hearing screenings and all other screenings so we
9:02:15 just define this isn’t
9:02:17 a health screening it’s just an observation you’re going down
9:02:20 they make you temperature
9:02:22 check to get medical care they make you temperature check to go
9:02:25 to Disney they make you it is
9:02:26 it is not a it’s not a foreign object or something it’s becoming
9:02:31 a norm we’re noticing now in
9:02:32 the packet right was that the oh no the packets that my
9:02:35 recommendation would be to put something
9:02:36 in there that goes home letting everybody know that thank you
9:02:40 yeah so we’ll add that
9:02:42 it’ll be included in the plan notifying students and parents of
9:02:46 the possibility of a temperature
9:02:48 check while in attendance at school and we’ll include it in our
9:02:52 registration packet information
9:02:54 it will not be included in the 20 2021 registration packet that
9:02:59 packets out done turned in it’ll
9:03:01 be included in the 21 22 we could we could make a separate page
9:03:04 which would just be the
9:03:06 notification page but that registration packets it’s already
9:03:10 completed we can put it in for
9:03:12 new students to Brevard Public Schools we’ll be happy to do that
9:03:17 I just feel like there
9:03:18 just needs to be notification yeah we’ll make every effort to
9:03:26 reasonably notify through
9:03:29 the advertisement of the plan and to our schools and students
9:03:32 that this is going to be a practice
9:03:33 applied in our schools even if we you know if we’re sending home
9:03:37 hand-washing information
9:03:38 with families in the beginning of the school year maybe a little
9:03:41 note your child maybe
9:03:42 to I mean I don’t think we have to I don’t think we have to
9:03:45 recreate the wheel here and
9:03:47 make it any more comfortable with that that’s why okay I see
9:03:54 yeah I see that food has arrived
9:03:59 do you all want to take a break to grab food before we go to
9:04:03 face coverings do you want
9:04:05 to just eat our way through it what’s the preference of the
9:04:09 board mr. Susan what’d you
9:04:14 say I’m okay to stop take a break grab something come back and
9:04:17 then or however you want to
9:04:19 do it you want to take like a 10-minute run to the restroom and
9:04:21 get your get your plates
9:04:22 and then we’ll resume the meeting all right we will take about a
9:04:26 10-minute recess then
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9:25:10 all right we are back in session and moving through our school
9:25:14 reopening plan mr susan i think
9:25:17 we are back in session and moving through our school reopening
9:25:20 plan mr susan i think you
9:25:22 requested a moment to show some appreciation for our dinner yeah
9:25:25 i just wanted to say we just had
9:25:27 a fabulous dinner the entire cabinet and school board and
9:25:30 superintendent and staff from jenna’s
9:25:33 pizza charlie called and he said hey i know you guys are in the
9:25:36 middle of the meeting if i can
9:25:38 send some food over there sent over some amazing food he’s also
9:25:42 a big supporter of our schools
9:25:44 all the way through the melbourne area he’s almost in every
9:25:47 school offering up pizza for events and
9:25:49 stuff like that so a big shout out goes to charlie at jenna’s
9:25:53 pizza and many thanks because we
9:25:55 definitely work better when we’re not hungry right so you gotta
9:25:58 have those meatballs those meatballs
9:26:00 are good stuff right there we certainly appreciate the sustenance
9:26:03 to get us through okay so we are
9:26:06 moving into slide 32 and 33 dealing with face coverings um any
9:26:14 comments questions concerns
9:26:17 from any board members on those two pages
9:26:23 miss mcdougal
9:26:27 thank you i you know we heard from at least a third of the
9:26:33 parents teachers people who called
9:26:36 in about mandating face coverings and how all the science is
9:26:43 coming out that the way to stop the
9:26:47 spread is social distancing and face covering so i like that we
9:26:53 changed the language expected but i
9:26:57 kind of like mandate better um and i don’t know if anyone else
9:27:01 has the appetite for that but um
9:27:06 you know what i heard our governor say over the weekend was that
9:27:10 this is an airborne virus which
9:27:13 it is and that it spreads even with talking in a air-conditioned
9:27:21 closed area so what exactly do
9:27:24 we consider a classroom right now we’re spread out we have a
9:27:28 much bigger area than a classroom
9:27:30 would have so i feel relatively comfortable um but i really do
9:27:37 want to support the safety of our
9:27:40 teachers and our students so yes expected is good and if that’s
9:27:45 the best that the board wants i will
9:27:48 go with that i like mandate better mr susan did you i’ll wait
9:27:55 for them to weigh in oh i’m supposed
9:27:58 to go a second to last go you ready miss kibble you’re still
9:28:02 chewing do you want to swallow my
9:28:05 pizza um i am i’m willing to change the language from where we
9:28:13 to what they’ve put in there today
9:28:15 which is expected because i do i do expect our staff and and and
9:28:21 our students to do that but i
9:28:24 um you know i won’t repeat the things that i said you know for
9:28:28 time’s sake on thursday about not
9:28:30 wanting it to be mandated but i i just you know i go back to the
9:28:34 survey that um mr calucci sent
9:28:37 us that the teachers he collected from the teachers back a few
9:28:40 weeks ago and even of the
9:28:42 teachers and of course it’s been you know almost a month granted
9:28:45 since some of them put their input
9:28:47 in but they you know how many of you uh expect to or anticipate
9:28:52 wearing masks and only 65 percent
9:28:54 said yes and of the ones who said yes how often and the you know
9:28:58 all the time was i think about
9:29:00 48 so you know there’s just going to be times when when it’s not
9:29:06 going to be necessary or would be
9:29:09 actually getting in the way so of you know i just don’t want you
9:29:13 know kids they’re not to be the
9:29:15 discipline factor and as soon as we say mandate and we all say
9:29:18 we don’t want a discipline you know
9:29:19 practice placed on it we’re asking people to be i think the
9:29:22 words were be reasonable in their
9:29:24 monitoring of it um you know if we say mandate then we we take
9:29:30 that out you know if we say
9:29:32 mandate then we have to start making lots of exceptions except
9:29:36 for this person except for
9:29:37 that person except for when you’re on the playground except for
9:29:39 when you’re whatever
9:29:40 i mean if you if you say mandate um so i think the way that it
9:29:44 is expected you know we’re gonna set
9:29:47 that bar you know this is where this is where we want everybody
9:29:53 to be um but not have to come up
9:29:55 with you know a page full of rules when it would you know we’re
9:30:00 not you’re not going to be in
9:30:02 trouble if you don’t have it all miss deskovich so i i’m sure
9:30:07 you all read through what dr sullivan
9:30:10 sent us from um the american pediatric association right can i
9:30:15 say that right american academy of
9:30:17 pediatrics thank you american academy of pediatrics one of the
9:30:21 things i liked about it and i think we
9:30:23 should pay attention to is the breakdown i mentioned on thursday
9:30:27 some of my concerns
9:30:28 was having the same expectations of a pre-k student that’s four
9:30:32 years old and a 17 year old
9:30:35 and you know senior when you look at the pre-k recommendations
9:30:40 on here
9:30:43 they have a higher prior strata higher priority strategies and
9:30:46 lower priority strategies and
9:30:49 under the face covering section that one’s put under lower it’s
9:30:52 the only one that’s put under
9:30:54 lower and it says for face coverings for children in pre-k
9:30:58 setting may be difficult to implement
9:31:02 i tend to agree with them anybody that’s ever had a four-year-old
9:31:04 and then around a four-year-old
9:31:06 and when you move up into the elementary school the face coverings
9:31:12 is now in higher priority
9:31:14 but it also says children should wear face coverings when harms
9:31:21 for example increasing hand mouth nose contact do not outweigh
9:31:27 benefits
9:31:28 which would be the potential covet 19 risk reduction so i i don’t
9:31:32 know that if we want
9:31:34 to or we don’t want to but i almost feel like maybe we need
9:31:37 different language for different
9:31:38 age groups and maybe dr mollen do you want to weigh in on that
9:31:41 what you think if our staff can
9:31:44 interpret this can they assume if we use the language expected
9:31:47 that maybe four-year-olds it’s
9:31:49 not as expected as it would be from a 17 year old if that’s even
9:31:53 that the board agrees with me but
9:31:56 uh i i have a really hard time with pre-k even kindergarten uh i
9:32:02 i you know i don’t know what
9:32:05 to do with them they’re so little it seems more dangerous to
9:32:08 have all the touching and the dropping
9:32:10 and putting back on and wiping and it seems worse thoughts
9:32:15 anybody
9:32:19 in presenting it i i defer to we will continue to use the american
9:32:24 academy of pediatrics as
9:32:25 the reference and the go-to when making those discretionary
9:32:28 decisions of ages and that sort
9:32:30 of thing i realize that brings in some discretion but i if we’re
9:32:36 not going to mandate i think we
9:32:38 need the ability to have some discretion for our staff for those
9:32:43 youngest learners the pre-k and
9:32:45 that sort of thing like you’ve suggested i guess what i’m saying
9:32:48 is do we need different language
9:32:49 for pre-k than we do secondary students do we need expected
9:32:55 assuming because i’m not willing
9:32:57 to go all the way to mandate i don’t know if three are yet sure
9:32:59 because the other two haven’t weighed
9:33:00 in but i’m not willing to go to mandate but i am flexible in
9:33:03 this language especially if we want to
9:33:06 do we need to differentiate do we need to have expected for
9:33:10 older is it helpful to be highly
9:33:12 recommended for four-year-olds or do you think the word expected
9:33:16 can be translated correctly
9:33:18 if if i could make a suggestion yes we have individual teams
9:33:22 that are right now working
9:33:23 on this plan so for example my resource teachers for asd and and
9:33:28 our support and participatory
9:33:30 level are reviewing the guidelines and making specific
9:33:33 guidelines for their group i think we
9:33:36 have people in pre-k i think we’re going to have people all over
9:33:38 this district uh up up here and
9:33:41 leading and learning and student services and hr that are going
9:33:45 to be looking at how this
9:33:46 specifically relates to specific subgroups and are going to be
9:33:49 creating guidelines around it
9:33:51 i don’t think that needs to be included in the plan i think we’re
9:33:53 going to have resource teachers
9:33:54 working on it i don’t think i know we’re going to have resource
9:33:57 teachers working on it and do you
9:33:59 think that they’re going to kind of pattern after this and have
9:34:02 more flexibility for four-year-olds
9:34:05 and yeah what they’re going to do is i mean some of that seems
9:34:08 common sense but with 9 000 employees
9:34:10 we can’t always assume that everyone is going to interpret
9:34:13 things the same way so i’ll specifically
9:34:15 talk about this asd population and our participatory supported
9:34:20 level units they’re going to be looking
9:34:22 at okay so our it is expected they wear masks is that what does
9:34:28 that look like for an asd student
9:34:31 and what are some of the things that we’re going to have to know
9:34:34 going in and work with that student
9:34:36 on what does that mean to wear a mask and are there sensory
9:34:39 issues same with supported
9:34:41 and participatory we’re going to have to teach them you know how
9:34:44 to wear the mask and how not
9:34:45 to touch the mask and how not to drop it on the floor and to
9:34:47 pick it up it’s all going to be part
9:34:49 of what those individual teachers they’re experts i mean they
9:34:53 are experts in their field and they’re
9:34:55 going to see things that i didn’t see and you didn’t see but
9:34:58 they’re going to see through this
9:34:59 and say we need to define what expectation looks like with those
9:35:03 special populations
9:35:05 we need to give our teachers guidance and we need to teach them
9:35:08 and give them the information to
9:35:10 teach the students on how to do this safely and appropriately
9:35:14 given that specific population
9:35:17 thank you miss moore the other text in that statement is when
9:35:20 social distancing cannot be
9:35:23 adhered to and i think it’s important that if we go this route
9:35:27 that we also point that out because
9:35:30 in the cafeterias i guess we’re sitting x feet apart if i did we
9:35:34 have that written
9:35:35 somewhere or was i reading a different county’s plan might have
9:35:38 been reading aseola’s um
9:35:42 there’s going to be a lot of times that you can social distance
9:35:44 aseola their plan was interesting
9:35:46 there it’s it’s not their plan but it’s like a three-page flyer
9:35:49 it looked like that maybe
9:35:50 they’re sending out to parents and it it actually said things
9:35:55 like wear your mask in the hallway but
9:35:58 you know if you’re at your desk and everybody is spaced out and
9:36:01 sitting you can take a break
9:36:02 for a while and miss campbell kind of referred to you need a
9:36:04 break sometimes if you’ve had it
9:36:06 on for hours and hours and hours i just want to make sure we don’t
9:36:09 have you know a kid just needs
9:36:12 a little break and they take it off and then teacher is you know
9:36:16 not happy and they’re scared
9:36:18 and the kids are picking on them or i just this whole mask thing
9:36:22 is so i mean just look around
9:36:24 with adults they can’t even behave nicely with each other when
9:36:27 you know and make exceptions for
9:36:29 each other so i have concerns for our staff and our students um
9:36:34 short answer is i’m most comfortable
9:36:36 with our former language of strong strongly recommended but i
9:36:41 understand that uh expected is
9:36:43 is might be where we end up going does that give you enough to
9:36:46 work with for me and i would love
9:36:48 to see a little differentiation between ages mr susan well i’d
9:36:54 like to mandate um common areas
9:36:58 and i’ll tell you why classrooms are going to be very difficult
9:37:02 to to monitor and to keep in
9:37:04 control but i truly believe in what miss campbell and others
9:37:07 have said that there’s going to be
9:37:09 situations where everybody gets together that they’re going to
9:37:12 be on top of each other they’re
9:37:13 going to want to move together they’re going to bump into each
9:37:15 other and if we’re going to truly
9:37:17 stop the spread of this virus um i think that we need to do
9:37:21 everything we can in order to do that
9:37:23 now i think that inside the classroom that’s very difficult a
9:37:26 lot of my teacher friends have said
9:37:27 that it’s going to be way too much for us to actually monitor
9:37:30 and work inside the classrooms
9:37:32 and keep them on top of it and just like you said miss deskevich
9:37:35 they want to take those things off
9:37:37 they want to be able to um you know eat and all a bunch of other
9:37:41 things but but the key is is that
9:37:43 in those common areas in between the class changes in between
9:37:47 all that stuff i think that it behooves
9:37:49 us to do it because if it is going to stop the transmission of
9:37:52 what we hope is you know and help
9:37:54 our students and and not shut down schools and not infect people
9:37:58 um i think we would we would do it so
9:38:00 my idea is not to go as far as you do cheryl but i’d be open to
9:38:03 going for the common areas and then
9:38:06 with a strong suggestion that’s like we have currently thank you
9:38:13 i’m sorry sure so we talk
9:38:16 about as long as there’s social distancing so i’m getting
9:38:22 questions asked what exactly will
9:38:25 consist of social distancing how far apart we’re saying six but
9:38:29 we know some of our classrooms
9:38:31 that’s going to be very difficult to do six feet apart i’m just
9:38:35 saying it’s the reality so if we
9:38:38 say expected does that give the teacher the teeth to do what
9:38:43 they need to do to keep everyone in
9:38:45 that classroom safe i just i’m asking the question that’s all so
9:38:50 anyone want to i mean i i think we
9:38:58 discussed that we’re basically utilizing the aap three foot in
9:39:03 our classrooms correct miss more no
9:39:06 when we were discussing social distancing it is six feet um and
9:39:11 please correct me if you have a
9:39:13 different impression uh i’m looking at dr dr uh sullivan and
9:39:18 miss klein but um it is 12 feet and
9:39:23 when we said that i was six feet six feet sorry i was just
9:39:26 adding i was just adding um it is six
9:39:29 feet and when we said expectation that if that can’t be met that
9:39:34 uh that students wear a face
9:39:37 covering it was based on the six foot guidance when we talk you
9:39:41 know the three feet number came
9:39:44 out of some aap information that we were given but the fact of
9:39:48 the matter is when we were talking
9:39:50 about face coverings we were talking about if we can’t meet that
9:39:53 six feet criteria we would we
9:39:56 would expect that our students wear our students and our and our
9:39:58 teachers wear face coverings
9:40:01 to add to uh the confusion um the doe reopening plan also
9:40:10 referenced the three feet and the
9:40:12 smaller distances so after thursday’s board meeting some
9:40:16 different directions from the board
9:40:18 in our discussion with dr mullins um that’s why we clarified the
9:40:23 language on the social distancing
9:40:25 meaning the six foot so in some cases that would mean in the
9:40:29 classroom some cases that would mean
9:40:31 in the hallways it the campuses are so different that’s the
9:40:37 tricky part um but our intention was
9:40:41 what has been practiced in society in general is if you can’t
9:40:45 social distance you wear the mask
9:40:49 so that if if that’s the definition then we’re gonna have some
9:40:53 kids that are considered us six
9:40:56 feet apart and wouldn’t have to wear the mask all day and then
9:40:58 we have some classrooms that
9:41:00 can only be three feet apart and would have to sit in a mask all
9:41:03 day that seems very unfair
9:41:06 this unfortunately pandemic is not fair right but i’m looking at
9:41:11 the the pediatric site again
9:41:14 and it says desks should be placed three to six feet apart so
9:41:20 and and i just want to be clear
9:41:22 where that was just our logic we defer to whatever you guys
9:41:26 decide no i i’m trying to you know i’m
9:41:28 talking about what’s right and what’s healthy and what’s
9:41:30 recommended by experts right now and the
9:41:33 american academy of pediatrics did i get it right that time yes
9:41:38 is recommending three to six feet
9:41:41 six feet why would they why would they start with the three
9:41:44 because they want to be nice and they
9:41:46 know we have small classrooms i i wouldn’t think the american
9:41:49 academy of pediatric pediatrics
9:41:52 because i think they actually lay it out in the document they
9:41:55 say evidence suggests that spacing
9:41:58 as close as three feet may approach the benefits of six feet of
9:42:02 space particularly if students are
9:42:05 wearing face coverings and are asymptomatic so that’s their
9:42:10 logic for justifying
9:42:13 three feet because they have apparently found although they don’t
9:42:16 cite their source that
9:42:17 three feet gives the same benefit as six feet if there are face
9:42:21 coverings and asymptomatic
9:42:25 so let me just throw this out there one of at least my major
9:42:28 concerns and i think it is with
9:42:29 you all for mandating masks or highly recommending or expecting
9:42:34 masks is to protect our teachers and
9:42:36 staff because many of the people that want to send their
9:42:39 children back to brick and mortar
9:42:41 are that i have heard from absolutely do not want any masks and
9:42:47 so you know i’m like well okay if
9:42:50 you’re super afraid and you absolutely want your kids in a mask
9:42:53 you have all these other options to
9:42:55 do online schooling and such that’s where your safest anyway is
9:42:58 to do e-learning at home or
9:42:59 brevard virtual but now then we have this teachers and staff
9:43:03 that we want to protect and they don’t
9:43:05 want a classroom full of students some of them do not want a
9:43:08 classroom full of students that are
9:43:10 unmasked but the teacher could social distance the students may
9:43:15 not have a choice if we have
9:43:17 20 in a classroom and it’s small but the teacher can social
9:43:22 distance is that what do you guys think
9:43:24 is that a fair statement the teacher can always stay six feet
9:43:27 apart or no is that not a just in
9:43:30 some cases but by the nature of their job at some point they’re
9:43:34 gonna have to get close
9:43:39 i feel like here you know we’ve it’s we’ve upped the language
9:43:42 from where we were on thursday
9:43:45 i think we’re we’re in this balance and we’re not going to make
9:43:48 everybody happy
9:43:50 um in any of these decisions today probably are we going to make
9:43:54 everybody happy because people
9:43:56 think so differently i think by by leaving it at expected we can
9:44:02 up the bar of the the expectation
9:44:06 level right probably up the bar of the percentage of people who
9:44:10 aware of them right um we’re you
9:44:15 know like i said we have our support from the union i know i
9:44:17 just got an email the other day
9:44:18 saying hey i hope you’ll support miss belford i think you were
9:44:21 the first one to bring it up
9:44:22 the other day to bring it changing language from strong
9:44:24 encouraged to expect like transportation
9:44:27 um but we we don’t have the discipline factor in there but we do
9:44:32 have the here here’s what i’m
9:44:35 concerned these are the two things i want to stay away from i
9:44:38 want us to stay away from you know
9:44:41 disciplining either an employee or a student because i took a
9:44:44 breather but i also have heard
9:44:45 some some concern from some teachers that they somehow i’m not
9:44:50 sure how this got around but they
9:44:52 they were they had the expectation that they won’t be able to
9:44:55 have let’s say a mask lesson on the
9:44:57 first day of school this is why we wear one this is how we wear
9:45:00 one and instruction in that and i
9:45:02 i know that didn’t come from anybody in this room so i i also
9:45:05 want to stay away from that i don’t
9:45:07 have a problem at all even though i don’t want us to mandate
9:45:09 masks i don’t have a problem at all
9:45:10 with a here’s here’s how we take one careful here’s how you wear
9:45:14 it you don’t you know put it under
9:45:15 your chin like we see people all the time um you know this is
9:45:19 this is what social distancing means
9:45:21 because you know kindergartners don’t necessarily know what that
9:45:24 means i don’t want us to do that
9:45:26 either i i’m fully open unless there’s some reason why they can’t
9:45:31 i don’t see any reason why we can’t
9:45:33 have teachers who actually incorporate that in part of our a
9:45:36 science lesson or a social studies
9:45:38 lesson or you know morning meeting or whatever am i am i on
9:45:42 target with that yeah yeah
9:45:45 no nobody nobody from here has said that they can’t do that in
9:45:48 fact it would be totally
9:45:50 appropriate good good thank you for saying that it’s on the
9:45:53 record so let’s discuss mandated for
9:45:57 a second what is if if we went with mr susan’s route of mandating
9:46:01 in common areas so you think
9:46:03 in hallways and things of that nature mr susan where you start
9:46:05 walking around and getting closer
9:46:07 together is that what you’re recommending yeah and dr mullins
9:46:11 made a good point um one of the
9:46:13 issues when we start mandating which is i think some of the
9:46:17 biggest piece is the um becoming
9:46:19 a disciplined nightmare that’s what i was just going to ask what
9:46:22 happens when they when they
9:46:23 won’t right i mean you got the kid that wears the hat in the
9:46:26 hallway take the hat off i told you for
9:46:27 the fifth time go down to the office right so um i just i want
9:46:31 to try to put as many controls in
9:46:33 place because i want our teachers to feel safe like miss belford
9:46:38 said um i i you know the reason
9:46:40 that i wanted to do common areas is because there’s i saw
9:46:43 another school district did it
9:46:44 and that seems to me to be the place where they would spread it
9:46:47 the most right
9:46:48 but i don’t want to bring a recommendation forward that’s going
9:46:51 to end up becoming a massive
9:46:53 disciplinary issue for some of our admin they’re already going
9:46:57 to be taxed so i wanted to discuss
9:46:58 it i wanted to throw it on the table say hey let’s workshop this
9:47:01 thing let’s see what happens and then
9:47:03 if we can get it through we do if we don’t then i’ll tell you
9:47:06 right now if i’ve got a bunch of
9:47:07 people walking around that school saying no i’m not wearing a
9:47:09 mask i’m not doing this stuff and
9:47:11 i’m ready to mandate that point because i want to protect my
9:47:14 teachers if i’ve got kids that are
9:47:15 going to go into classrooms and act inappropriately um i feel
9:47:19 strongly that if we don’t do something
9:47:21 about it that we need to protect our teachers and our other
9:47:24 students so that’s all so you want
9:47:25 a punishment at that point if they don’t know we just got to
9:47:28 find a way we have to find a way to
9:47:30 make sure that individuals take this serious and wear masks
9:47:34 period because if we mandate and they
9:47:36 refuse what’s what is the if we mandate and they refuse it’s
9:47:41 going to be a discipline issue so then
9:47:44 you’ll have kids being sent down and so what what’s the if there’s
9:47:48 no meat the kids are going to be
9:47:50 like you’re not gonna do anything to me i’ll keep walking down
9:47:52 there and keep going back to the class
9:47:54 is there a punishment at that point we look at it and say are we
9:47:57 going to create punishments
9:47:59 because it’s the other end of that is is that we’re shutting
9:48:02 down schools and kids are sick
9:48:05 and teachers are sick and we have to go that route my daughter
9:48:08 is going to get on a bus
9:48:09 whether it’s august 17th or 24th she’s going to sit next to a
9:48:12 kid right next to her whether that
9:48:14 person has a mask on or not i would like to think that you know
9:48:18 that the individuals that are around
9:48:20 her are going to be wearing a mask and that’s just how i feel um
9:48:24 i think the same thing for
9:48:26 my 17 year old when she goes to viera high school she’s going to
9:48:28 be walking through that courtyard
9:48:30 and i would like to think that if the bottleneck’s at one of the
9:48:33 gates that she’s protected that she’s
9:48:35 not going to walk through what would be um some other things
9:48:38 that’s just my personal view but i
9:48:40 don’t want it to create a nightmare but i still don’t want to i
9:48:43 mean what are we saying that we
9:48:45 wouldn’t want it to become a discipline issue but at the same
9:48:47 time if we’re not going to protect our
9:48:48 teachers and our students from from shutting down schools i mean
9:48:51 that’s you know that’s all so
9:48:53 there’s got to be a window and this might be it but i wanted to
9:48:55 discuss i wanted to make it a
9:48:57 discussion i just don’t think i’m clear on you is you you want
9:49:00 to mandate it but without punishment
9:49:01 or without repercussions without discipline how are you going to
9:49:04 make that happen we’d all would
9:49:06 like to think that everyone’s going to be wearing one and
9:49:08 protecting our children that are next to
9:49:10 them but how are we going to make sure that happens do we do we
9:49:14 send them home i mean is
9:49:16 that is that legal if you don’t wear a mask you go home i i just
9:49:19 want to understand where you stand
9:49:21 on this this can’t be a i wish everybody was we have to make a
9:49:26 decision today on on with actual
9:49:28 you know could i i haven’t had an opportunity to weigh in yet
9:49:32 and i think that um i think maybe
9:49:35 we should hear all of the thoughts before we try to to whittle
9:49:38 it down if you guys are okay with
9:49:40 that um so i have i have a couple of concerns one the statement
9:49:46 that i read to you all a few minutes
9:49:48 ago and that is that the three feet is appropriate when students
9:49:54 are wearing masks and are asymptomatic
9:49:59 and i have expressed throughout this process my extreme concern
9:50:03 for our students and their
9:50:05 families but also especially for our faculty and our staff
9:50:10 because they don’t have the option of
9:50:14 distance learning or or e-learning virtual learning not being
9:50:19 exposed right we we just
9:50:20 don’t have good options for them to not expose themselves and
9:50:24 secondarily the people that they
9:50:26 care about and so that has weighed incredibly heavy on me
9:50:30 throughout this process and it didn’t
9:50:34 really hit me until we were a good ways through our meeting last
9:50:37 thursday that we’re talking three
9:50:40 feet not six feet in our classrooms and then when i read this aap
9:50:46 suggestion i went because i really
9:50:51 was not aware when we were having the discussion that that three
9:50:55 feet from the aap is is with face
9:50:57 coverings and asymptomatic and so that is a a serious serious
9:51:02 concern for me later in the
9:51:04 document it actually goes on to say that school staff working
9:51:07 with students who are unable to wear
9:51:09 cloth face covering and who must be in close proximity to them
9:51:12 should ideally wear n95 masks
9:51:15 when access to n95 masks is limited a surgical mask in
9:51:18 combination with a face shield should be
9:51:21 used face shields or other forms of eye protection should also
9:51:24 be used when working with students
9:51:26 unable to manage secretions and so basically what they what they
9:51:30 have said is if we are not going to
9:51:33 make our students wear masks then we should make our teachers
9:51:37 wear masks to keep them safe
9:51:42 and both of those i think are i think are reasonable
9:51:47 expectations to be able to keep
9:51:49 our schools open to be able to send our teachers and our staff
9:51:52 home to their families at night with
9:51:54 some level of comfort and safety to give our teachers some level
9:51:58 of comfort in coming back
9:51:59 into the classroom as opposed to choosing to retire or changing
9:52:02 careers altogether
9:52:04 i do think that we need to give exceptions so if they are if so
9:52:12 social distancing at the six foot
9:52:14 level is doable then i i think they should have an opportunity
9:52:20 to not wear a mask during that
9:52:22 time frame when they are in fact six feet away from everyone i
9:52:26 think we need to give some
9:52:29 exceptions for extenuating circumstances um for our kids that
9:52:33 have sensory issues for our um you
9:52:36 know our teachers that have asthma and and can’t wear a mask for
9:52:40 i think there’s some level of
9:52:42 common sense that perhaps the the working group can put in there
9:52:46 um and i like that we have moved
9:52:49 to expect but my concern is like when i asked earlier about how
9:52:53 summer school is going and how
9:52:56 mask wearing is going we’re not we’re not pushing masks right we’re
9:52:59 not we’re not enforcing because
9:53:01 we just say that we expect masks and so i i feel like we need to
9:53:05 make it very clear that we expect
9:53:07 everyone to have a mask on unless you are six feet away or you
9:53:10 have some reason that you literally
9:53:13 cannot wear a mask and i i think we need to even take it to the
9:53:16 point that we need to offer a mask
9:53:18 if a student comes into a class or is getting on a bus and and
9:53:21 they don’t have a mask on i think we
9:53:22 need to offer and encourage for them to wear one not in favor of
9:53:26 discipline i you know the last
9:53:27 thing we need to do is to spend kids from school or anything
9:53:30 crazy like that but at the same time
9:53:33 we’ve got to have some strong language to encourage that this is
9:53:37 actually taking place
9:53:39 because otherwise i i fear that we’re not even going to have
9:53:43 enough teachers to start the school
9:53:45 year and then as soon as they start getting sick we’re going to
9:53:49 be up a creek and meeting class
9:53:50 size amendment forget it at that point we’re not going to have
9:53:53 any options so i i do feel strongly
9:53:56 i would be happy to mandate with exceptions but if if you know
9:54:01 the will of the board is to just
9:54:03 expect then i would ask that we be very clear that that is a
9:54:07 strong expectation and that our
9:54:10 team members do what they can to encourage that that is followed
9:54:13 through on without discipline
9:54:15 so my two cents i don’t know how that plays in everyone else’s
9:54:23 thoughts but
9:54:26 i do like by the way the differentiation miss deskevich like
9:54:30 following the pre-k probably
9:54:33 doesn’t need to wear based on the recommendations in here and
9:54:37 secondary schools they were very clear
9:54:39 there’s no reason why yeah and to support that when you look at
9:54:43 cases diagnosed that age group
9:54:45 is yeah very minimal very very minimal and maybe that’s because
9:54:49 most of them are home with their
9:54:50 mom i have no idea why that’s minimal or they just don’t
9:54:53 transmit it i’ve read things about that
9:54:55 but between the the you know the the chance of them really
9:54:59 keeping it on and not making
9:55:00 it more of a disaster and the fact that the cases are very
9:55:03 minimal
9:55:08 so i guess we need to because this is something we’re voting on
9:55:10 today right it’s on the action
9:55:12 agenda we need to if there was any changes that we’re going to
9:55:17 make today
9:55:20 you know do at least three of us feel like we need to change it
9:55:24 from what it is
9:55:25 right here today knowing this is a flexible breathing document
9:55:32 you know or when you say you want it to be very strong you want
9:55:37 to leave this
9:55:37 wording the way it is but make sure in our implementation of it
9:55:42 that we are providing
9:55:43 masks that we are you know talking about it they’ve already
9:55:46 talked about making videos
9:55:47 to encourage people along with the hand washing videos and all
9:55:50 that where you know what are we
9:55:52 talking about personally i would like to go to mandate but that
9:55:57 that’s just my i because i i
9:56:01 feel like we’re not going to get um response but i understand
9:56:05 that we need to find a happy medium
9:56:06 that works for everyone so um the only thing that i would say is
9:56:09 i think we need to define social
9:56:11 distancing um because three feet is not social distancing so if
9:56:17 we’re when we cannot be six feet
9:56:21 apart when there are exception you know what i mean i i and
9:56:24 whether that is done in this statement
9:56:26 or done in implementation i don’t care but um but i do think
9:56:29 that we need to be very proactive about
9:56:32 encouraging supporting um all students to wear masks if they are
9:56:39 not six feet away
9:56:40 and staff as well quite frankly unless they have obviously those
9:56:45 students who have sensory issues
9:56:47 or health issues that prevent them from wearing masks we
9:56:49 understand that but miss belford can i
9:56:52 ask um miss klein and miss solomon to weigh in on what they
9:56:55 think since this is a big deal um miss
9:56:58 klein first and miss solomon second or vice versa we will work
9:57:11 to to make it whatever we can happen
9:57:17 i’m thinking about capacity in the classroom of six foot feet
9:57:21 between each desk
9:57:26 on the state plan i believe page 58 it talks about six feet is
9:57:33 is not always possible in
9:57:35 the classroom so we will make those adjustments and cafeteria
9:57:44 will have to make additional
9:57:48 adjustments in there as well because currently the plan was
9:57:54 three students on at a seat area
9:57:58 with the bench seat i think was six feet we’ll have to go to two
9:58:03 one on each end
9:58:07 miss klein is it is your interpretation that it’s going to be
9:58:10 very difficult to make sure
9:58:12 guarantee that we’re going to be um three feet apart six feet
9:58:17 apart i mean here’s what i’m
9:58:19 getting at if we’re wearing masks inside the classroom you can
9:58:24 do small group correct correct
9:58:26 you can get closer the the validity of the education and the the
9:58:30 is is a little bit more
9:58:33 and i i just physically there’s a couple of my schools that i
9:58:37 know down in the melbourne area
9:58:39 that i think a lot of the kids are going to come back and i
9:58:41 think that we’re going to be in a
9:58:42 situation where six foot social distancing is going to be very
9:58:46 very difficult and i know that
9:58:48 right now we we want to be able to say oh no we’re going to be
9:58:51 six foot social distance i can promise
9:58:54 you there will be instances inside our school district that we’re
9:58:58 not going to be so at that
9:58:59 point does it behoove us to do this so anyways miss klein i’m
9:59:03 sorry that wasn’t a question that’s
9:59:05 me just rambling um do you have anything else to say on the
9:59:09 topic so i will say that currently in
9:59:12 our summer gear program we have struggled with keeping students
9:59:18 six feet not because
9:59:21 we don’t have space because those class sizes are extremely
9:59:24 small but because children like to be
9:59:28 near each other and so that’s been a something that we’ve dealt
9:59:33 with every day in the summer
9:59:36 program the other thing is i i truly believe in the hallways
9:59:41 because to mandate right you think of
9:59:45 17 first graders in a line six feet apart walking down the
9:59:50 hallway they’re going to have to be in a
9:59:54 mask in in the hallways but i also know that we have to take
9:59:58 into account children who cannot
10:00:01 physically wear masks also adults we have teachers who because
10:00:06 of a medical condition cannot wear a
10:00:09 mask and i think we have to remember that as we plan this out
10:00:13 but i also believe that
10:00:16 as miss moore said earlier we have groups that are working on
10:00:22 trying to work this down
10:00:26 by specific grade level the side by specific need and i agree
10:00:31 with miss deskevich it’s important
10:00:34 that we look at it by developmental level because a first grader
10:00:38 or a kindergartener
10:00:40 or a four-year-old in a mask is different than a 17-year-old
10:00:47 so just just to add for clarification and that it’s for a month
10:00:50 because i met with the team about it
10:00:53 i don’t know a couple days ago now the social distancing the the
10:00:57 caveat when social distancing
10:00:59 cannot be adhered to is applicable wherever a student is in the
10:01:03 in the school whether it’s in
10:01:04 the classroom whether it’s in the hallway you know those types
10:01:08 of things so that it’s not that’s not
10:01:10 a caveat just in the classroom that’s anywhere the the vision is
10:01:16 like we are wearing the mask
10:01:18 you know pulling up the whatever it it’s one of these all day
10:01:22 long and we teach and we help our
10:01:25 students and each other remember and hold have some i would
10:01:29 suggest positive peer pressure that
10:01:31 we all own each other’s safety by applying our med hey we’re so
10:01:35 we’re too close let’s put our mask on
10:01:39 maybe maybe that’s over over idealistic but that was what we
10:01:44 talked about it’s going to be an on
10:01:45 and off and on and off circumstance and situation which is a
10:01:49 different environment than just
10:01:51 strongly recommend because then you have an environment where
10:01:55 students never have a mask
10:01:57 and never wear a mask and those who do by choice so just that
10:02:01 was my vision of encapsulating what
10:02:05 this statement feels and it will be a culture building
10:02:09 environment i mean mandatory masks
10:02:12 will be there’ll be as much effort managing that environment as
10:02:15 they’re with this just from a
10:02:16 different perspective but again i just i had to share that
10:02:20 because that was my thought process
10:02:22 as we went through this from the strongly recommend to the
10:02:26 expectation so
10:02:34 so i’m the one that read the 13 000 plus comments and
10:02:43 our teachers our students and our parents feel strongly and feel
10:02:49 differently and so
10:02:54 you know that’s going to present itself as an issue pretty
10:02:56 immediately to our schools
10:02:59 we have staff members and teachers that feel strongly about
10:03:03 masks and not wearing them and
10:03:06 we have several that feel strongly about wearing them so we’re
10:03:09 balancing the strong opinions of
10:03:11 parents students themselves and teachers and staff and
10:03:16 administrators and they’re not always
10:03:19 medically driven or at least they are in their mind so we landed
10:03:24 at expected and at social
10:03:27 distancing because i’d like to believe that regardless of
10:03:33 everybody’s different opinion
10:03:37 that people’s personal space everybody respects like regardless
10:03:42 of the differing opinions
10:03:47 whether those opinions are driven by medical political i don’t
10:03:51 know whatever that everybody
10:03:53 respects people’s personal space and so the fact of the matter
10:03:58 is i think we all are the kind of
10:04:00 humans that respect that that respect even if it’s not
10:04:03 necessarily what i do on my own on the weekend
10:04:06 i’m going to wear it because i’m in your personal space and six
10:04:08 feet is really our personal space
10:04:11 and where it used to be maybe like two feet and so now our
10:04:14 personal space has gotten wider and so
10:04:19 i think ultimately like that’s where i land like no matter what
10:04:24 you feel about masks in general
10:04:27 like people deserve their personal space to feel comfortable and
10:04:31 safe and we can do that for each
10:04:33 other um so i i don’t know if that answered your question on my
10:04:38 opinion um our campuses are really
10:04:40 different and some of our campuses the the outdoor space they
10:04:44 actually are spread apart um you know
10:04:47 like our presidential schools i would have to say yeah you need
10:04:51 to wear i mean that’s just too much
10:04:53 contact so um we landed here because it was really about each
10:04:59 person deserves their space to be
10:05:02 respected that’s all i got for you dr mullins you want to weigh
10:05:09 in i i just think we we keep
10:05:14 going with the narrative here’s where i keep going back and
10:05:17 forth we keep going with the narrative
10:05:19 that we’re gonna be socially distanced we’re gonna do all those
10:05:23 things and and i agree with you miss
10:05:24 celibate that we are going people do respect each other um but i
10:05:29 do know that on those buses those
10:05:31 kids are sitting next to each other in those common areas they’re
10:05:34 gonna like you said line
10:05:35 up those little first graders they’re gonna bump into each other
10:05:39 um there’s there’s a lot there
10:05:41 that i think is is really really concerned for me for spread and
10:05:45 if that’s what we’re literally
10:05:48 going to move our entire secondary over to a new policy
10:05:51 procedure to capture 50 reduction in the
10:05:54 amount of travel and everything else i think that this is
10:05:56 something that we should really work on
10:05:58 and and have a conversation about so that’s all dr mullins
10:06:06 after we work through the the comments and the feedback from the
10:06:10 community and our board
10:06:11 discussion last week this is the language that we are bringing
10:06:15 forward this recommendation
10:06:17 but we certainly will follow the wishes of the board
10:06:26 mr mcdougal did you want to talk i i just for a few minutes
10:06:30 i i don’t have a problem i can go with expected it is expected
10:06:36 when you are less than six
10:06:41 if the social distancing isn’t there it’s got to be expected
10:06:44 because we wear a mask to protect the
10:06:48 other person we’re not necessarily protecting ourselves we’re
10:06:51 protecting the other person
10:06:53 so i really feel that’s an important message that we convey to
10:06:57 our students and staff you’re
10:07:00 protecting your students you’re protecting your buddy especially
10:07:04 if you’re not been able to be
10:07:06 six feet apart i get that six feet apart i get that somebody who’s
10:07:11 four five three it’s going
10:07:13 to be very difficult and i don’t i would be very surprised if we
10:07:17 can get those students to do that
10:07:19 and maintain it it it would be very difficult no i don’t want
10:07:22 any punishment but i do expect that
10:07:25 in a classroom when people are two feet apart or three feet
10:07:28 apart that they’re wearing a mask
10:07:32 that’s what i expect
10:07:39 so as much as i would like to push toward mandate for all the
10:07:42 reasons that i stated
10:07:44 i am i am fine going with the expected um but i do think we need
10:07:53 clarity and however you achieve this
10:07:55 when your work groups get together i do think we need clarity on
10:07:58 social distancing being six feet
10:08:00 apart and not three feet apart i do also think that it needs to
10:08:08 be um that all of our adults
10:08:13 need to be encouraged to encourage the others to be wearing
10:08:18 masks so
10:08:21 what i don’t want is for example i got an email from one of our
10:08:23 bus drivers who said
10:08:25 and i don’t know if everyone was copied on it or not but uh he
10:08:28 or she is driving for our summer
10:08:30 program and um the other morning five kids got on the bus maybe
10:08:34 it was six kids got on the bus
10:08:36 five kids had a mask um there was no mask offered to the sixth
10:08:41 one just assumed that there was a
10:08:45 decision made not to wear a mask as opposed to hey did you want
10:08:50 a mask so you can have the same as
10:08:52 your friends or you know what i mean i think there was an
10:08:54 assumption that it was a protest
10:08:56 to wearing a mask as opposed to just a lack of having a mask to
10:08:59 wear um and then in the afternoon
10:09:02 when the kids got back on the bus uh i i think only one or two
10:09:07 of them had masks still at that
10:09:09 point um and there again no mask offered to them so my concern
10:09:14 is that if we go with expected
10:09:18 as opposed to mandate that our adults who are are primarily
10:09:22 going to be responsible for keeping our
10:09:25 school safe right because we’re not going to be there to handle
10:09:28 it each and every day at all of
10:09:30 our schools um i think it’s really important that they do the
10:09:33 best that they can to encourage
10:09:36 that students are participating that doesn’t mean you strong arm
10:09:38 them and tell them you know you
10:09:40 have to wear a mask or you’re going to get in trouble but i
10:09:42 absolutely don’t think there’s
10:09:43 anything wrong with saying hey susie i have an extra mask here
10:09:47 did you want to wear it
10:09:49 um because i i i think we apparently siri thinks her name is susie
10:09:55 i apologize um
10:09:59 but i think we need to do what we can to encourage as many
10:10:03 people as possible and to be prepared to
10:10:05 support those students in doing that so that would be that would
10:10:09 be my request dr mollins if you feel
10:10:10 that appropriate can i ask the question to miss deskevich and
10:10:15 miss campbell what at what point
10:10:17 would it be that you guys feel sufficient that we would move to
10:10:19 something that would be mandatory
10:10:21 at all that’s what i was i think that’s what i’m wrestling with
10:10:24 um because in my mind i see
10:10:27 a sequence of events happening in coming back and that’s the
10:10:30 reason i was willing to go there but
10:10:32 is there a will to say that you know once if this is what we see
10:10:35 the kids aren’t social distancing
10:10:37 we’re seeing you know people are things are happening would you
10:10:40 guys move towards that
10:10:41 then or is that not something that you would do then i would
10:10:45 rather oh miss campbell go ahead
10:10:51 i would rather see us work really hard to social distance i
10:10:55 would rather see us come up with funds
10:10:58 so that we can bring down the class sizes high school’s one
10:11:03 thing i think those kids can put
10:11:05 on a mask and manage it but when i picture what i just picture
10:11:08 being in the elementary school and
10:11:13 social distancing i think you can make that especially in
10:11:16 classrooms if we had the funds
10:11:18 like that works you’re six feet from somebody you’re hopefully
10:11:22 not gonna you’re
10:11:26 what’s the word for your tears and your sneezes and your
10:11:30 fluids your body fluids are probably not going to go six feet uh
10:11:35 you know masks they just
10:11:39 especially with the little ones like pull it up over your nose
10:11:41 pull it down pull it here it just
10:11:43 seems so i don’t know that it’s just it’s super frustrating i
10:11:46 want us to be able to have smaller
10:11:48 class sizes desperately i want us to be six feet apart because i
10:11:52 think that is the safest
10:11:56 avenue if we come back and there’s 30 kids to a class and
10:12:00 they’re socially distanced one foot different scenario we come
10:12:03 back to this
10:12:09 which classes do we have 30 kids in no just i was just throwing
10:12:11 out a hypothetical
10:12:15 we’re not socially distanced well pe i’m hoping they can be six
10:12:19 feet apart if there’s 30
10:12:21 right they should be outside you know in the same document that
10:12:24 we’re pulling from
10:12:26 it says this is for the elementary school kids again similar
10:12:29 similarly reducing classmate
10:12:31 interaction or play in elementary school age children may not
10:12:35 provide enough covid risk
10:12:37 reduction to justify potential harms i was listening to this
10:12:40 trying to do six feet at the
10:12:42 tables and you know you’ve seen some of those images online of
10:12:46 two little guys at opposite
10:12:48 the ends of the table in a cafeteria and then a whole nother
10:12:51 table and two little guys and
10:12:54 those images are are sad like and i think that’s what they’re
10:12:58 trying to capture in here that some
10:13:00 of these decisions we’re making where’s the where’s the cost
10:13:04 there’s other harms there’s
10:13:06 other harms and that’s what they’re trying to say there’s
10:13:09 emotional harms there’s mental harms and
10:13:11 so i’m just trying to get my head around where that line is and
10:13:15 i think it’s different for age
10:13:18 groups i think two teenagers having to sit like that they may be
10:13:22 irritated with you but they can
10:13:24 do it and i don’t think there’s emotional harm five-year-olds
10:13:29 six-year-olds doing that week
10:13:31 after week after week you know don’t touch stay apart put your
10:13:35 mask on i understand we need to do
10:13:37 we want to do it for health reasons but with their numbers being
10:13:39 so low them being the carriers so
10:13:42 low of every all the research how much do we want to put on them
10:13:48 and and cause these problems that
10:13:50 i think that the cat american pediatric thank you i think that’s
10:13:57 what they’re trying to get at with
10:14:00 this document that we need to watch their mental health and so i
10:14:04 know i just muddied the water a
10:14:06 little bit with some other things but this whole plan this whole
10:14:10 document is a big picture and i
10:14:11 want to make sure we’re capturing the whole picture and we don’t
10:14:16 get mired down with making
10:14:19 it so scary and miserable for the littlest learners does that
10:14:24 make sense thank you miss belford
10:14:32 i want to keep the guidelines as we have on this here i think he’s
10:14:36 done a lot of work i to your
10:14:38 point a little while ago about mandating in in common areas i
10:14:41 think that would be really
10:14:42 difficult for us to do in the because so like i’m picturing um viera
10:14:48 and uh bayside and and heritage
10:14:50 which their common areas are this huge outdoor courtyard that
10:14:53 might be one of the places where
10:14:54 it’s a good time to take it off and take a breather because you’re
10:14:57 out in the sunshine and you’re out
10:14:58 in the big wide open spaces so i it would be difficult knowing
10:15:01 how different all our buildings
10:15:03 were to say this so and obviously we can’t do in the cafeteria
10:15:07 because that’s when they’re eating
10:15:11 so i’m would like to leave it here as uh as is i’m not sure if i
10:15:20 put my two cents in but
10:15:21 yes i can go with the words expected on there so are we is there
10:15:29 anyone opposed to keeping
10:15:30 the language the way it is and just ensuring that the team
10:15:34 understands our areas of concern
10:15:36 and can move forward and address those in appropriate ways
10:15:42 i’m just going to go you good with that mr susan you go with
10:15:45 that if if under the guidelines that
10:15:48 everybody in here just made this decision are true when we start
10:15:51 to come back but if we start
10:15:53 finding out that there’s classrooms of 30 that our teachers aren’t
10:15:55 coming back because they’re
10:15:57 afraid there’s all of those things i would like to revisit this
10:16:00 and i’ll tell you why is because
10:16:02 i’m looking at this process and i think that there might be some
10:16:05 areas that that’s going to happen
10:16:07 and we may have to make some decisions to protect our people um
10:16:10 i and i also i i wrestle with the
10:16:14 discipline policy just like you said it’s a great point but i i
10:16:17 really want people to wear masks
10:16:19 i really do and i really want our people to be taken care of and
10:16:22 i want our students to be
10:16:24 because what um we’re about to get into is all of the scenarios
10:16:27 where we’re shutting down schools
10:16:30 where we’re taking teachers out where we have deaths where we
10:16:32 have i mean all of that and we
10:16:34 will have asked ourselves at that point should we have and that’s
10:16:38 what i’m afraid of i don’t want
10:16:40 to look back and say that i should have i want to look back and
10:16:42 said i did everything that i
10:16:44 could at the beginning to minimize the risk and i think there’s
10:16:47 some risk here so i would like to
10:16:49 come back to this if we start to hear that things aren’t working
10:16:52 out the way they are that’s all
10:16:54 and i i would suggest you know for for all of us and for our
10:16:57 public
10:17:00 this is where we are at this moment but um i would fully
10:17:03 anticipate that we are
10:17:05 going to see many iterations of of this plan as we move forward
10:17:08 miss deskevich
10:17:11 with the face coverings and with a few other things in this plan
10:17:14 i was hoping
10:17:15 that maybe we could set a date to re-review for potential of
10:17:21 needing more done or the potential
10:17:24 of rolling it back right now i feel like if we vote on this
10:17:27 tonight that technically means face
10:17:30 coverings forever right until we say no more so but i would like
10:17:34 a hard date for us to sit down
10:17:36 i’m hoping we can leave tonight with a hard date that we’re
10:17:38 going to review it again in so many
10:17:39 days whatever we think that is a fair date so that to mr susan’s
10:17:44 point if things have gotten worse
10:17:47 i mean i think if things start getting way worse we’re going to
10:17:49 be getting frantic calls and stuff’s
10:17:50 going to happen but i just think it’s it’s our role to to set a
10:17:55 date and re-review re-review
10:17:57 re-review to review this again i think that i was i i might
10:18:01 suggest that we do that at next week’s
10:18:04 special meeting because our our drop dead date that we want to
10:18:07 revisit may change depending on
10:18:09 our school start date that’s fine is that yeah yeah yeah okay
10:18:13 and i just want to remind everybody
10:18:15 that on the bottom of almost every page of this it says these
10:18:17 guidelines may change depending on
10:18:19 local state or federal guidelines so at such a point if there
10:18:23 was a statewide mandate or
10:18:25 something like that did we you know we obviously have built-ins
10:18:28 the flexibility to make those
10:18:29 changes so dr mollins are you good with yes so the board is
10:18:36 providing their their direction that
10:18:40 will remain with the language that’s provided i just want to add
10:18:43 that this language is with
10:18:46 every expectation from the staff that we honor adhere and
10:18:51 encourage this utilization this is not
10:18:56 attempting to take a soft position it’s it is taking setting
10:19:01 clearly and a clear expectation
10:19:04 of what is going to be the practice in our schools and across
10:19:07 our workplaces because that will be the
10:19:09 expectation for our staff as well um i don’t go anywhere without
10:19:13 my mask i want to be sure i am
10:19:16 modeling and living up to the expectations of the organization
10:19:20 uh so uh please know that that
10:19:22 absolutely is the are the position of staff and the position of
10:19:26 this superintendent and that will
10:19:28 be the the communication that goes out to our staff across the
10:19:32 schools we will build some public
10:19:34 service announcement like videos and we will ensure that we have
10:19:38 masks available in those
10:19:40 scenarios where students may not have them and we will be moving
10:19:44 towards the full implementation of
10:19:46 this expectation thank you all right um how about 34 and 35 hand
10:19:54 washing and hand sanitizer and
10:19:58 transportation mr susan got anything on those two i’m saving it
10:20:10 miss deskovich you have anything
10:20:12 on those two all right then let’s move on to food nutrition
10:20:16 services and school clinics
10:20:21 comments questions concerns
10:20:25 mr susan
10:20:29 no i’ll wait
10:20:32 what are you waiting for well i was just going to ask she did a
10:20:36 really good job of walking through
10:20:37 what it’s going to look like when those um but i didn’t know one
10:20:41 of the issues that i had miss
10:20:43 moore was just to walk through what that looks like when a
10:20:47 student goes there for them i think
10:20:49 you kind of touched on it but if you can just give me kind of a
10:20:53 okay a student has said you are in my
10:20:55 class you kind of exerted please go see the clinic right walk me
10:20:59 through the person walks down checks
10:21:01 in to the clinic what happens here parent notification stuff
10:21:05 like that if you don’t mind
10:21:11 i think you might have to turn it on nope oh yeah there it is i
10:21:15 can give you the typical case
10:21:17 scenario so if a student is sent down to a clinic they’re going
10:21:22 to do a first check assuming nobody
10:21:25 else is in the clinic at the time on the first check if it’s
10:21:28 determined that the child is
10:21:30 exhibiting symptoms of of covid or any illness really but
10:21:34 specifically since we’re talking about
10:21:36 covid symptoms of so covid and and a temperature they’re going
10:21:41 to make an attempt to notify the
10:21:43 parent and they’re going to give that child a face covering and
10:21:49 put that child in an area
10:21:51 that they are not in the traffic pattern of the clinic with the
10:21:56 hope that that parent is going
10:21:59 to show up in a relatively short amount of time to pick that
10:22:03 child up the nurse will also give
10:22:05 the nurse or health tech will also give that parent the
10:22:08 department of health information
10:22:11 which will give you the the signs and symptoms and will make a
10:22:15 recommendation that that child
10:22:17 see a health care provider and send them on their way is that
10:22:23 student then supposed to
10:22:26 because they exhibited signs told not to come back for a
10:22:29 specific amount of time or told to
10:22:32 stay away are they allowed to come the next day that’s the
10:22:34 question so the the health tech or
10:22:38 nurse will in all likelihood tell them they can’t come back
10:22:41 until they are symptom free
10:22:44 she cannot diagnose covid 19 right and we cannot deny a child
10:22:48 fate based on
10:22:52 anything less than a case of presumptive case or a contact to a
10:22:56 close case so i think you have
10:23:00 mentioned it you know or somebody here mentioned it that there
10:23:04 is you know there is a chance that
10:23:07 the parent might say my child’s fine the next day fever free no
10:23:11 symptoms and bring the child back
10:23:14 into school and i think that we can have an expectation that
10:23:18 that child be checked in through
10:23:20 the clinic to be evaluated again but i don’t think we can have
10:23:24 an expectation that child
10:23:26 that children stay out for 10 to 14 days based on nothing more
10:23:31 than a one day
10:23:34 sure cough or no i i okay and then that student comes back in
10:23:40 what about and i’m sorry to go
10:23:42 through this with you it’s just that area so i’m a student that
10:23:46 is just travel out of state
10:23:48 or i’m a student that’s been gone for three or four days when i
10:23:51 how does that look coming back
10:23:53 are we going to then pull them in question them stuff like that
10:23:55 or we’re just going to allow them
10:23:56 to go to class and then how does that work is there any stop gap
10:24:00 there because i know that
10:24:01 i was driving back from north carolina this last weekend to pick
10:24:05 up my daughter and when i was
10:24:07 driving back florida had checks right there at the at the state
10:24:11 line so what what are we doing
10:24:13 when people come back so when students travel out of state we
10:24:17 would treat them just like we would
10:24:18 treat any any person under the cdc and doh guidelines of if you
10:24:24 travel to the cdc areas
10:24:26 that are designated you’re going to be quarantined for 14 days
10:24:30 so that would be the expectation there
10:24:32 it would also be the expectation of our schools that they would
10:24:36 provide instruction during that
10:24:38 time the other case scenario you mentioned was i’m sorry i
10:24:43 forgot no that’s good it’s just the
10:24:45 absence yeah but there was another oh a three-day absence so if
10:24:49 a child is out for more than three
10:24:52 days for three days or more without notification it is our
10:24:55 expectation of our schools to call that
10:24:58 family that’s in our code of student conduct it’s in our policy
10:25:01 to find out what’s going on and we
10:25:03 would have to make that decision based on the information that
10:25:06 the family gave us and of course
10:25:08 all of this is under the the supposition that we’re being
10:25:12 informed of these things
10:25:15 and would there just to verify because you talked about traffic
10:25:18 it is a separate room that the
10:25:20 students will go be placed into it is a separate area there are
10:25:24 some of our yeah some of our
10:25:25 clinics are really big and we’re going to be able to cordon off
10:25:29 a space in them some of those some
10:25:32 of our schools i mean it’s it’s just hard for me to guess in 80
10:25:35 different schools what that area
10:25:37 might look like but it is we are the clinics are aware that it
10:25:43 needs to be a separate area
10:25:45 and the principals and our health techs or nurses will be
10:25:47 working on that okay okay
10:25:54 okay all right i’m good because you did cover the other stuff in
10:25:56 your presentation thank you
10:26:00 anyone else for food nutrition or school clinics
10:26:06 okay moving on to custodial services and academic and social
10:26:10 emotional learning
10:26:19 anything mr susan nope all right moving along to academic
10:26:27 programs and extracurricular activities
10:26:37 and visitors to campus i’ve got one quick one on page 41. we are
10:26:44 the fourth bullet point says that
10:26:46 pe classes won’t dress out and there has the question has been
10:26:49 asked does that mean that
10:26:51 the locker rooms will not be utilized in any way i know that i
10:26:55 because it came up from one of the
10:26:57 pe teachers that um that’s a place where there’s a lot of
10:26:59 bathrooms and that’s kind of the chance
10:27:02 that you know people kids you know hold it all day and they
10:27:04 usually have some time because they’re
10:27:05 changing clothes to use those restrooms are we saying locker
10:27:07 rooms are completely going to be
10:27:08 closed or just not dressing out i guess that’s a dr solomon
10:27:14 question um i i would certainly think
10:27:17 there would be appropriate times for the restroom to be utilized
10:27:20 as a restroom for the students in
10:27:21 the pe class it’s going to be the closest restroom just like you
10:27:25 would send a student to a restroom
10:27:26 in general but obviously we don’t want a large group of students
10:27:30 gathering changing clothes and
10:27:32 doing all those things that happen in a locker room because it’s
10:27:36 it won’t even be close to three feet
10:27:39 so we want to minimize that but certainly i could see it very
10:27:44 appropriate for students
10:27:45 to use the restroom okay thank you anyone else have anything on
10:27:50 41 or 42 visitors to campus
10:27:55 are we going to actively go and try to get our volunteers to
10:27:58 turn around and become substitutes
10:28:02 there was a lot of positiveness from my volunteers from my manatee
10:28:08 um ralph
10:28:09 williams in those areas that they would like to start substituting
10:28:12 is there a way that we can
10:28:14 send that information to volunteers who have registered
10:28:17 absolutely i mean if we would welcome
10:28:18 the opportunity to talk to moms you know community members about
10:28:23 being substitutes we’re definitely
10:28:25 interested in that we can put together a campaign and give them
10:28:29 an opportunity to come in could a
10:28:30 substitute also perform like ia’s and everything right so you
10:28:35 could they could act in there as we
10:28:37 bring in substitutes for ia’s when that’s on yeah okay and then
10:28:41 um besides us just saying here right
10:28:44 now because we have thousands of people watching this hey please
10:28:47 if you’re a volunteer become a
10:28:48 become a substitute if you can to be a part of the school to
10:28:51 support and everything else is there a
10:28:52 way that we can identify and send something out like can we
10:28:55 email them are they registered in the
10:28:57 system do we do social media push how do we get it because i
10:29:00 truly believe our substitute issue is
10:29:02 going to become a major issue and i’m trying to circle something
10:29:06 here yeah dr 30 do we have
10:29:08 volunteers in a email database i don’t know that piece i don’t
10:29:11 know but i do know we are actively
10:29:13 working through a substitute campaign right now for this very
10:29:16 reason we’ve got some social media
10:29:18 campaigns going on working with gcr we can certainly add
10:29:22 volunteers to that list i don’t
10:29:24 know if the database maintains insecurity email addresses but we
10:29:28 can certainly target that
10:29:29 population of individuals i do just need to caution you that
10:29:32 they would have to go through
10:29:34 the employment process to become employees as substitutes yeah i
10:29:37 mean whatever the process is
10:29:39 going to the school filling out the paperwork i mean i don’t
10:29:42 think a lot of them would have an
10:29:43 issue with that and i think we could capture them i was amazed
10:29:46 at how many of our volunteers were
10:29:47 actually former teachers that then just raised their children
10:29:50 and while they’re in elementary
10:29:52 school are sitting there and i i know that now after we start
10:29:55 circling the wagons and we start
10:29:57 getting closer to school i think there’s going to be a big push
10:29:59 for the community to rally around
10:30:00 the schools and rally around our teachers and i think that’s a
10:30:03 great opportunity for us to to
10:30:04 get a win there we can reach out to our principals and ask them
10:30:07 just to send us their volume i
10:30:09 imagine some of them have their volunteers on a little email
10:30:12 maybe that’s what they do too maybe
10:30:14 they send that request that and make an effort to contact them
10:30:17 and then the other thing is is that
10:30:19 we have um our extracurricular activities the florida high
10:30:22 school sports association is
10:30:24 our athletics association is is meeting um this week or next
10:30:27 week to reset guidelines and reset
10:30:29 everything um it’s next monday it is yeah it’s monday i wish
10:30:33 they could have had that meeting
10:30:35 about two weeks ago right um but you know my main concern we’ve
10:30:41 got kids coming back and then all
10:30:43 of a sudden literally they’re in pads and then a week later they’re
10:30:47 hitting and possibly injury you
10:30:48 know what i mean injury is there any opportunity that if the fa
10:30:52 if the florida high school athletics
10:30:55 sports athletics comes out and says it’s okay to open those up a
10:30:58 little bit earlier that we would
10:31:00 do something like that or are we still going to try to keep
10:31:02 along our lines would we follow their
10:31:04 guidelines or are we still going to stay strict with ours i have
10:31:08 a lot of concerns over that i
10:31:10 have concerns of of what takes precedence in protecting our kids
10:31:15 and protecting our families
10:31:19 so we started the return to activity plan i i would say about
10:31:23 three weeks ago now four weeks ago
10:31:28 we are we are we have had i’m going to to say between seven and
10:31:34 ten
10:31:36 instances of a covid positive case taking all of the precautions
10:31:41 that we put into place
10:31:45 and so as we see the cases rise and as we know the precautions
10:31:51 that we put in place
10:31:52 are lessened as the return to activity plan continues i have a
10:31:58 concern of what that means
10:32:00 for the spread because part of the activity plan was that we
10:32:04 keep the kids in very small groups
10:32:07 and so as we’ve had to send people home for 10 to 14 days it has
10:32:12 been very small groups of students
10:32:15 as opposed to 40 or 50 students i continue that same concern as
10:32:22 we go into school because now that
10:32:26 group of students is going to be touching an even larger group
10:32:30 of kids so i have that concern
10:32:35 balanced against the concern that florida high school athletically
10:32:39 athletic association may
10:32:44 decide that they’re going to keep to the to the fall plan of
10:32:47 high school athletics and what that
10:32:49 might mean to students who aren’t conditioned because our return
10:32:53 to activity plan has been
10:32:55 protecting them and the community against covid so mr susan i
10:32:59 don’t have an answer for you i have to
10:33:02 wait and see what they say and then i’ll bring the committee
10:33:05 back together and we’ll take we’ll
10:33:06 take input from other athletic directors um but the fact of the
10:33:11 matter is it’s a lose-lose decision
10:33:14 uh and and we’re going to make the decision that uh best
10:33:18 protects the students um
10:33:22 period and i i um i ran some of the scenarios through when i
10:33:26 started thinking about it because
10:33:28 you’re talking about that if a student tests positive inside of
10:33:31 a classroom that the scenario
10:33:33 that plays out right um student tests positive on a football
10:33:37 field or a baseball team what’s the
10:33:40 proper process do you can you kind of talk to that right now or
10:33:43 would you rather wait until fhsaa
10:33:45 comes out next monday and maybe we communicate that on tuesday
10:33:48 sure i can well i can tell you
10:33:49 what’s happening now and i can tell you what would happen then
10:33:52 okay um so now if a student
10:33:54 comes in and they’re the contact to a fam a familial case a
10:33:57 presumptive case or a case
10:33:58 themselves we would um exclude them the pot of people that they
10:34:05 are currently practicing with
10:34:08 as well as the coaches that they worked with so we have had to
10:34:11 on some occasions uh collapse
10:34:14 a whole program for 14 days because the coaches worked they didn’t
10:34:18 have any coaches to work with
10:34:20 the rest of the kids um and that and and they were part of the
10:34:24 the small pod that got quarantined for
10:34:27 14 days in the case of a student that were were to come into us
10:34:31 after we were in full play um and
10:34:35 tested positive for covet or was the presumptive case it wouldn’t
10:34:39 just be the athletics that would
10:34:40 be impacted it would be the academics as well um so we would
10:34:44 track back to the last day that
10:34:46 student was in school we would do the contact tracing on that
10:34:50 student and make the determination
10:34:52 if that was going to shut down um the football team for 14 days
10:34:57 if that would shut down the
10:35:00 football team and certain specific classes for 14 days or if
10:35:04 that would shut down the building for
10:35:06 14 days depending on what our contact tracing turned up in that
10:35:11 case those aren’t very good
10:35:14 scenarios every scenario sucks is my motto now well and i’ll be
10:35:18 honest if we’re gonna sit here
10:35:20 and have the discussion that we may need to have a different
10:35:24 standard for masks when people are
10:35:26 passing each other in the hallway and yet we want to encourage
10:35:29 kids to get up and to participate and
10:35:31 sorry football fans but to get up in a sport where part of the
10:35:34 sport is getting up in each other’s
10:35:35 faces i’m sorry i have a problem with that i mean you know i don’t
10:35:39 know what fhsa will do next
10:35:41 monday but i i anticipate if they’re dealing with the same kind
10:35:44 of pressures that we are that they’ll
10:35:46 put some major shifts into the season until we see some
10:35:49 improvement across the state so the other
10:35:52 question is is that is there an opportunity in there that if it’s
10:35:56 a baseball team or something
10:35:57 like that and all the kids two days later go out and test and
10:35:59 they come back negative that there’s
10:36:01 any opportunity for them to return to play are they
10:36:04 automatically out for 14 days no the way
10:36:06 because i’ve because at the very beginning of the return to
10:36:09 activity plan i had to work through each
10:36:11 of those scenarios with the department of health and the fact of
10:36:14 the matter is the incubation
10:36:15 period is five to seven days and so when we talk about being out
10:36:19 for 14 days from the point of when
10:36:22 we know there’s a case the incubation period of anybody that
10:36:25 would be involved in that case is five
10:36:27 to seven days and then we would have to wait till result test
10:36:30 results come back which right now is
10:36:32 seven to ten days so we’re looking beyond the 14 days when we’d
10:36:35 have all the information to make
10:36:37 that decision to begin with so there’s lots of different case
10:36:41 scenarios i have had a student
10:36:44 drive over and take a rapid test in orange county and they were
10:36:47 able to get their test results back
10:36:49 and when i went to the department of health they did they
10:36:51 determined that they were still in the
10:36:54 incubation period and so they had to wait another they had to
10:36:58 wait out that time at five to seven
10:37:01 days of incubation period is what you’re saying correct okay
10:37:05 that’s where the i i believe i you
10:37:07 know i wasn’t i wasn’t part of those high level discussions but
10:37:10 i believe that’s where where that
10:37:12 time period came from with the department of health is that
10:37:16 there is and i mean like the
10:37:18 united states department of health right right right i would
10:37:20 like to come back on tuesday after
10:37:22 fhsaa because i think this is broad discussion i think miss campbell
10:37:25 wants to weigh in i think
10:37:26 it’s something that we should do so if we can do that that’s it
10:37:29 and i’m okay um and that’s it would
10:37:33 you if you guys if it sounds as if we’re holding a special uh
10:37:37 meeting correct next week i don’t know
10:37:40 if we’re coming back all right we’re moving toward a special
10:37:42 board meeting on tuesday the 21st at 9 30
10:37:45 a.m but we’re not going to be here for 12 hours i’m bringing
10:37:53 three meals i don’t believe you
10:37:58 miss belford if i could just um i still have the same concerns
10:38:01 that i had last week on this list i
10:38:03 won’t uh you know beat it to death but um i’m still really
10:38:07 especially talking about sports and
10:38:10 people being near each other and sharing equipment uh yet we’re
10:38:13 not going to let our smallest kids
10:38:14 play on playground equipment when all the public parks are open
10:38:17 it still really bothers me um and
10:38:20 then i do like the opportunity with our volunteers i had a
10:38:24 volunteer reach out this week that said she
10:38:27 called it was her time to get fingerprint she’s about to expire
10:38:30 and she called up here and they
10:38:31 basically said don’t bother just uh get fingerprinted in october
10:38:35 november and i said that was we’re
10:38:37 going to lose these volunteers she’s and she was she was mad she’s
10:38:40 like i’m going to go volunteer
10:38:41 somewhere else i’m like no she’s been a volunteer in one of my
10:38:44 beachside elementary schools for like
10:38:45 12 years and you know if that conversation could just be more
10:38:49 like hey but here’s an opportunity to
10:38:52 sub or i you know i think i reached out to major lansa and asked
10:38:56 him i said can’t she at least come
10:38:58 up and get fingerprinted can’t we keep that process going so we
10:39:01 don’t lose her but i guess
10:39:03 we’re trying to keep people out of the building and so i i don’t
10:39:06 we might want to look at a new
10:39:07 approach before we you know are desperate for volunteers when
10:39:10 things are back in full force
10:39:16 i don’t have anything on that page but i do have something on 42
10:39:21 about okay visitors in the school
10:39:25 limited to emergency situations or enrollment so we will be
10:39:29 having i’m assuming parents right
10:39:31 now come into the school with their enrollment packets like new
10:39:35 people into the area so i want
10:39:37 to share a scenario that happened because a staff member reached
10:39:42 out to me over the summer she was
10:39:45 the office manager somebody came in didn’t know they had covid
10:39:51 she got covid she is currently
10:39:53 still out but she was asymptomatic for several days which is
10:39:58 typical of this virus and she wiped
10:40:01 out the whole front office so the whole front office now is out
10:40:05 at this particular school
10:40:07 she is very afraid she says and this is where i like mandating
10:40:12 masks so if someone is walking
10:40:14 into our school going to hand a packet we have no idea where
10:40:19 they’ve been who they are who their
10:40:23 contacts are and so we’re putting our office people at risk and
10:40:26 certainly we’re going to put plexiglass
10:40:29 but is that going to be enough so i really i don’t know i think
10:40:35 we’re making a mistake by not
10:40:37 mandating masks but i would like something on the door of the
10:40:40 school if you’re walking into the
10:40:42 school as a guest your the expectation is you will have a mask
10:40:46 if you don’t have a mask please ask for
10:40:49 one i just think we can’t put our staff into harm’s way so um a
10:40:55 couple of things because i
10:40:59 i had a i had a voice inside my over to the over there that that
10:41:04 was curious as to how that shut
10:41:07 down a whole upfront office and i will tell you that was one of
10:41:10 the first or maybe the second case
10:41:12 we handled and the guidelines were different at that point at
10:41:17 this point um the front office
10:41:19 wouldn’t be the front office staff would not be all sent home
10:41:24 but the front office would still
10:41:26 be shut down for 24 to 48 hours and then we would have our team
10:41:32 work with the custodians to cleanse
10:41:35 that area but to your point yes we we are looking at having
10:41:40 signs on all the schools saying this is
10:41:43 what our expectation is as people come in the other thing that’s
10:41:47 being worked on and beth betty
10:41:48 can talk about it more is about what our personal workspaces
10:41:52 look like and what we can say as an
10:41:54 employee as people enter our personal workspace and i’m thinking
10:41:59 in terms of like a a school
10:42:01 counselor in their office that’s working with a parent
10:42:05 registering classes and our personnel
10:42:07 should have the expectation that they can say you know if i’m
10:42:11 working with you in this space
10:42:14 you have to wear a mask if that person entering into that space
10:42:19 does not want to do it then we’re
10:42:21 going to have to schedule a time where a larger space is
10:42:25 available or a different way to do the
10:42:27 the meeting either skype or or some other way because we do have
10:42:32 to protect our people especially
10:42:33 those that have smaller workspaces that engage with the public
10:42:37 more often dr betty so miss moore
10:42:40 you just stole all of it because that was the entire plan no we
10:42:44 uh we were pending the outcome
10:42:46 of this evening’s meeting we have information set to go out to
10:42:49 employees potentially tomorrow morning
10:42:52 that reflects the discussion tonight and the expectation for
10:42:56 masks and what workspaces look
10:42:58 like what it looks like when you walk out of your workspace and
10:43:01 you’re within six feet of somebody
10:43:03 else miss moore is correct if there there’s an occasion where
10:43:07 somebody is without a mask that
10:43:11 we’re and the person in the workspace doesn’t want that we’re
10:43:13 going to
10:43:15 stop that meeting and find a larger location where we can people
10:43:19 can be six feet distanced or
10:43:21 everybody will be wearing a mask we’ve identified different
10:43:24 locations everywhere public areas
10:43:28 shared workspaces there are some shared workspaces that are very
10:43:33 appropriately
10:43:34 socially distanced and there are some shared workspaces that are
10:43:37 not so appropriately
10:43:39 socially distanced and then we talk about personal workspaces
10:43:43 and the expectation for the face
10:43:45 covering so we will be providing that guidance to all of our
10:43:48 schools it will go out in a separate
10:43:50 email tomorrow and then be put in the leadership team packet as
10:43:54 well next monday dr teddy to that
10:43:58 point um can our teachers request that anyone that enter their
10:44:02 classroom wear a mask this is guidance
10:44:06 for all employees so if another adult is walking into a
10:44:09 classroom the the teacher can say i request
10:44:12 that you please wear a mask if you’re entering my room so we
10:44:15 have to keep in mind the expectation
10:44:16 of social distancing if social distancing cannot be maintained
10:44:19 and that’s what miss moore was
10:44:20 talking about with the personal personal workspace if there is
10:44:24 no way when somebody walks into a
10:44:25 classroom or into a cubicle to maintain social distancing then
10:44:29 yes but social distancing is still
10:44:31 and i know one of the questions you had was the definition of
10:44:34 social distancing
10:44:35 and that has been defined by the cdc as six feet okay thanks
10:44:42 all right anyone have anything else for 41 or 42 all right then
10:44:47 we move into
10:44:50 let’s say 43 through 47 which are the processes that um 46 um
10:45:04 the processes that miss moore walked through as far as what
10:45:07 happens in in these different
10:45:09 scenarios yeah this is my last question i think that i had
10:45:14 written down um so we needed some
10:45:18 clarification uh before this of of testing and quarantining and
10:45:22 if a kid is sent home for a fever
10:45:25 but it’s strep or various other things you know um or they have
10:45:31 a sore throat you know and it’s
10:45:32 strep or allergy related whatever are we still going to require
10:45:36 them to quarantine the same
10:45:38 as a presumed covid and i think you answered that um that you
10:45:44 know without without knowledge of it
10:45:48 being covid that no that would be you know like if it’s strep
10:45:50 and they go to the doctor and they
10:45:51 get antibiotics and they’re you’re whatever then they come back
10:45:55 after they’re you’re supposed to be
10:45:57 on that for 24 hours before you before you’re not contagious
10:46:00 anymore or three doses whatever
10:46:02 that they’ll be able to come back and we’re not going to presume
10:46:04 that everybody has a fever or a
10:46:06 covid symptom has covid so i i think uh i’m going to use one of
10:46:11 dr selvins terms ish um so for a
10:46:15 student that has covid like symptoms and has a contact to a case
10:46:21 we are making that presumption
10:46:24 okay for a student that has covid like symptoms sees a a
10:46:28 physician or their um their health
10:46:32 provider and is tested for strep then that they are under now
10:46:36 that doctor’s care and we will
10:46:38 follow the orders of that doctor okay gotcha and which they
10:46:41 usually have to give a note saying they
10:46:43 can return to school on such and such day correct so i am really
10:46:48 um grateful for page 45 that you
10:46:50 added in here because i think this is um this is clear one of
10:46:56 the problems that we are having right
10:46:58 now is the length of time because so many more people are going
10:47:02 to get tests whereas a couple
10:47:03 weeks ago you could get a test and get the results back like at
10:47:06 the efsc site you could get it in two
10:47:08 days um sometimes even under 48 hours so um but now it’s a lot
10:47:13 longer and so you’re waiting around
10:47:15 and people are having to retest and come back so this these
10:47:19 columns here that on page 45 mean that
10:47:21 you know we can do as a presumed case we can go ahead and treat
10:47:24 that we don’t have to wait for
10:47:26 you to get a positive test before we put this in place if you
10:47:29 have the contacts and you are
10:47:31 exhibiting symptoms you’re still going to fall the 14 days and
10:47:34 then we also don’t have to um
10:47:38 we’re not waiting around for those results to come back because
10:47:41 that came up on thursday if you know
10:47:42 an employee was you know as a contact they’re at 2014 days well
10:47:46 then but they they didn’t get their
10:47:48 test until day whatever then they have to wait 14 days beyond
10:47:51 you know if once the 14 days hit and
10:47:53 you’re symptom free for this many days and fever free you know
10:47:57 that we’ve listed here then then you
10:47:59 can come on back i i guess the other thing that relating to this
10:48:04 is i think i think now i think
10:48:06 this has to do with more doctor studies i think that’ll wait
10:48:09 till 47. so that was it just just
10:48:11 wanted to know making sure if we find out it’s something else
10:48:13 that we we have a way for people
10:48:15 come back thank you anyone else for just one thing i want to
10:48:21 clarify because i’m getting
10:48:25 texts from people saying why can’t you mandate um about the fevers
10:48:31 so you can’t you can’t tell
10:48:34 somebody they’re they’re concerned and we know this happens that
10:48:38 some parents will give their
10:48:40 kid tylenol and they’ll come back the next day so we do not have
10:48:44 the legal ability to make somebody
10:48:47 go get tested or even go to the doctor for that so i i want
10:48:51 people to really understand that it’s not
10:48:54 that we wouldn’t like that but we don’t have the legal authority
10:48:58 to do that and i think people are
10:49:00 thinking we do have that power and we don’t all right all right
10:49:05 anyone else for very good point
10:49:09 this mcdougal by the way anyone else for 43 through 46 i’m gonna
10:49:15 just thank you for bringing
10:49:17 that up because i’ve heard that attend too and i’ve also seen a
10:49:19 lot of recommendations for us
10:49:21 to have all staff tested before we don’t have the authority to
10:49:24 force our staff to be tested before
10:49:26 they start work is is that a true statement under the eeoc and
10:49:32 the ada in this particular
10:49:38 environment we can but we don’t provide the testing and it would
10:49:42 be in all everyone would
10:49:44 be test have to be tested or just those that are symptomatic and
10:49:47 we’ve been on the symptomatic side
10:49:50 thank you additionally miss deskovich that was one of the
10:49:54 conversations that we had on one of
10:49:55 the friday calls with fspa with the the state health department
10:49:59 and they said that they do not
10:50:01 recommend because that test is only a moment in time test and so
10:50:04 we could test all of our
10:50:06 employees two weeks prior to school starting and by the time
10:50:09 school starts it doesn’t mean
10:50:10 they could all be positive so it there’s make this yeah there’s
10:50:14 a little value there and it related
10:50:16 to what mr tucson was saying a little while ago the sooner that
10:50:19 you get a test after you’re exposed
10:50:21 the the much higher the the the possibility that it’s a false
10:50:24 negative so right you know people who
10:50:28 you find out oh i was with someone yesterday and had covet and
10:50:30 you go out that afternoon and get
10:50:31 a test it’s probably going to be negative because it right hasn’t
10:50:34 had a chance to do its thing yet
10:50:36 and that is also the guidance from eeoc and ada they say the
10:50:39 same thing the the negative test
10:50:41 doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not going to develop the
10:50:44 virus at some point in the future
10:50:49 okay um that’s moving us on to 47 through 49
10:51:02 any comments questions concerns there uh this is great thank you
10:51:07 for the extra clarification
10:51:09 but just for the people who may be joining us now um and don’t
10:51:12 want to go back and watch the 12
10:51:13 hours oh we’re not 12 hours yet um what it obviously if someone
10:51:20 is ill right they’re symptomatic
10:51:22 they’re ill they’re they’re home they’re they’re taking their
10:51:25 leave but if someone is quarantined
10:51:27 because of whatever is are we because we have this you know our
10:51:32 in and out plans are what is it called
10:51:36 no no no no the blended no when we have to go it’s continuity of
10:51:41 instruction but continent
10:51:43 thank you continuity plan too many words um the continuity plan
10:51:48 when when people if if that
10:51:50 there’s nothing necessarily to keep a teacher who’s home who’s
10:51:54 asymptomatic or just had to
10:51:56 quarantine because there’s some of their someone contact or
10:51:58 close contact to continue to teach from
10:52:00 home if their class is from home that’s why we have that
10:52:03 continuity plan place right so
10:52:05 if someone is there the questions about if i have to quarantine
10:52:07 for all these days i’m losing
10:52:08 pay no if you’re working from home and we have to renegotiate
10:52:12 the mou and all that because that
10:52:15 ended at some point the one that we had in the spring but they
10:52:18 can continue that class somebody
10:52:19 made fun of me for saying the word pivot but if we pivot to you
10:52:22 know the to distance learning then
10:52:24 the class also does then then they’re still working they’re
10:52:27 still getting paid and none of
10:52:28 these leave situations have to take effect that’s correct okay
10:52:32 so the only time the leave has to
10:52:33 take effect is if let’s say just they are having to stay at home
10:52:37 but their class is not well keep
10:52:40 in mind that when we talk about employees we are talking about
10:52:43 all 9 000 employees we’re not just
10:52:45 talking about teachers so um as you saw in the slides uh there
10:52:49 are occasions and teachers were
10:52:51 my illustrative example where there is the possibility for
10:52:54 remote work and in which case
10:52:56 there would be no leave taken however not all positions in our
10:52:59 school district lend themselves
10:53:01 to remote work that’s the caveat that i have to make sure
10:53:04 everybody understands because i want
10:53:06 to make sure all the listening audience also understands that we
10:53:11 do have classifications of
10:53:12 employees whose work does not lend itself to remote work and in
10:53:16 those cases we would have
10:53:18 to work through our leave scenarios on the um on the exposure if
10:53:22 somebody is uh living with somebody
10:53:25 with a positive presumptive covid case that was one of the
10:53:28 examples i gave as well like our our
10:53:30 bus drivers on our campus yes that’s correct thank you anyone
10:53:35 else have anything on 40
10:53:41 7 through 49 i do mr susan on page 49 we talk about team um
10:53:50 staff leave considerations workers
10:53:52 compensation and those kind of things um i had mentioned before
10:53:57 that i feel very strongly that
10:53:59 if an individual is gets um the virus that it’s it’s going to be
10:54:05 a difficult thing on them to go
10:54:07 through this and as an employee there can you can see some
10:54:11 scenarios where you may be out months
10:54:14 because of all of a sudden one person in your family the next
10:54:17 time it just could go around and i
10:54:20 and and i wanted to reiterate and if everybody else doesn’t want
10:54:22 to comment they don’t have to
10:54:24 but i feel very strongly that we should make up that extra 33.33
10:54:30 on that worker’s comp just so
10:54:31 that they get a full paycheck when they’re home because they
10:54:35 contracted the virus while they were
10:54:36 with us or they were forced to stay home and they can’t work
10:54:41 they can’t provide for their for their
10:54:44 families in some instances our bus drivers wouldn’t even be able
10:54:48 to receive a paycheck to actually pay
10:54:50 for the insurance which is what a lot of them actually go for so
10:54:53 you would have people that
10:54:54 would be falling behind to not even be able to pay for their
10:54:57 insurance and some of those other
10:54:59 things so it’s a big concern for me um i didn’t know if anybody
10:55:02 else wanted to weigh in on this
10:55:04 i feel very strongly about it i think it’s a negotiated part of
10:55:07 our contract
10:55:08 but it might not need to be if we just make the decisions to
10:55:11 take care of our people that’s all
10:55:16 um i’ll i’ll be happy to respond on that one mr susan um i think
10:55:21 your heart’s in the right place
10:55:23 on it um but i i think that is an unending can of worms um that
10:55:33 is not we would we would in essence
10:55:38 be saying board contingency will be willing to give it all up
10:55:43 because we have no earthly idea
10:55:45 what the cost of that could potentially be um you know some
10:55:49 people might be out for a month and some
10:55:52 people might be out for eight months um if they have hospital
10:55:56 bills are we going to pay the cost
10:55:59 of the hospital bills are we going to like i just question where
10:56:03 where the logical threshold is on
10:56:06 that um like i said i think i think it would be a fabulous thing
10:56:09 for our employees and i think
10:56:11 absolutely if they are um if they are sick and it’s proven that
10:56:17 it is a work-related exposure
10:56:21 uh i think we definitely need to do what we can and i’m thrilled
10:56:24 to know that they’re they’re
10:56:25 able to get workers comp if that’s investigated and determined i’m
10:56:29 just concerned about the the
10:56:31 financial impact of committing beyond what’s already in place
10:56:36 along those lines can i ask
10:56:40 about you know i don’t i don’t know workman’s compensation so i
10:56:44 want to ask the question
10:56:47 so how would we who investigates whether the employee got it
10:56:51 here at school or got us some
10:56:55 how do you figure that out we currently actually have that
10:56:58 process for all workers compensation
10:57:00 claims and that goes through risk management and mark langdorf’s
10:57:04 office and he has 14 days
10:57:07 to either pay or deny the claim so there is a limited time frame
10:57:10 in which it has to be
10:57:12 investigated and there will be some cases that won’t be um
10:57:16 related to work and there’ll be other
10:57:18 cases that may be related to work and each one will have to be
10:57:21 investigated individually
10:57:26 so one of the other things because this is in my area of
10:57:28 insurance is workers compensation
10:57:31 there’s a return to work plan a lot of times what we do is is we
10:57:34 take our workers and um there are
10:57:38 some investigations that turn up that they’re frivolous lawsuits
10:57:41 in order to continue to close
10:57:43 the back end of that what employers do and we do a very good job
10:57:47 of it in instances is we offer
10:57:49 people other employment so that they can capture that pay
10:57:52 paycheck and they can can continue to do
10:57:55 that um dr thedi is there an opportunity that if a person is at
10:58:00 home forced to stay home they’re not
10:58:03 able to perform the duties at school that we would be able to
10:58:07 capture or not teach that we would be
10:58:09 able to capture them into another position something online
10:58:13 could they take um professional
10:58:15 development days i mean is there any opportunity to capture some
10:58:20 some days at work for them because
10:58:22 we know that it happens in workers comp so if you get your leg
10:58:25 hurt then they say you can’t be a
10:58:27 delivery driver but you can go and you can do secretarial work
10:58:30 on a computer right do we have
10:58:31 anything like that in place for these employees when they do
10:58:36 this so that’s a quite a loaded
10:58:38 question because it’s related to job classification of employee
10:58:42 what accommodations we can make under
10:58:44 the americans with disabilities act ada and the contractual
10:58:49 obligations we have with our unions
10:58:52 as well so i do know that under you know common workman’s comp
10:58:56 claims mr langdorf’s office works
10:58:58 through different scenarios with employees as they are
10:59:01 appropriate because we get involved in
10:59:03 those in human resources quite frequently trying to work with
10:59:06 reasonable accommodations for employees
10:59:09 it’s very difficult to give you one answer in a one-size-fits-all
10:59:13 because i can tell you from
10:59:15 experience one size does not fit all in the workers comp arena
10:59:19 and it won’t in the covid
10:59:21 arena either so i hesitate to answer with a yes or no i can tell
10:59:25 you we’ll investigate each one
10:59:27 and we’ll work with our employees
10:59:32 i understand that and i think it’s i think it’s going to be
10:59:34 challenging
10:59:35 because we’re hearing that students children are asymptomatic so
10:59:40 it’s going to be it’s
10:59:44 i don’t envy that position i’m just curious how that’s all going
10:59:47 to play out
10:59:49 you are correct we’ve actually had those discussions because you
10:59:52 know we work very
10:59:52 closely with miss moore in the department of health and and in
10:59:56 risk management and hr we do
10:59:58 understand that there will be children or potential
11:00:00 opportunities that somebody may be asymptomatic
11:00:04 it is um it is an area where things are changing and evolving
11:00:11 and you know we rely on our guidance
11:00:13 from the equal employment opportunity commission and from the
11:00:17 americans with disabilities act
11:00:20 guidance that we get we do get quite a bit of guidance from them
11:00:23 along with the cdc and the
11:00:24 department of health and we’re going to have to take those cases
11:00:27 individually and and yes i i
11:00:29 fully understand what that could potentially look like would
11:00:33 there be a problem if they say for
11:00:37 instance could teach an online course while they were home could
11:00:41 we is that legal under our workers
11:00:43 comp well if you’re talking about teachers we’ve already talked
11:00:46 about the um the the potential to
11:00:49 famous word pivot into a um a distance kind of learning
11:00:54 environment however it depends on the
11:00:56 health of the employee because if you have somebody who is out
11:01:00 sick we have to make sure
11:01:02 that we are not infringing on any family medical leave issues or
11:01:06 any health issues you don’t want
11:01:08 an employee who is actively very ill forced into a situation
11:01:13 where they’re trying to do something
11:01:15 different so that’s why i say it’s hard to give a one size fits
11:01:18 all because it’s going to depend
11:01:20 on the individual employee and the condition of that employee i
11:01:24 just i here’s the scenario i play
11:01:27 out in my head so we’re going to send an investigator in to see
11:01:30 if we’re going to pay them
11:01:31 workers count based upon if they got covid in the workplace
11:01:34 right but we can’t test the kids to find
11:01:37 out who has it we don’t know if there’s an asymptomatic kid
11:01:40 inside the class that maybe
11:01:42 possibly gave it to the instructor it becomes a nightmare and i
11:01:45 think mr gibbs already alluded
11:01:48 to the fact that it’s very difficult to pinpoint when you
11:01:51 actually got got covid earlier today i um
11:01:54 do you see what i’m saying i do understand what you’re saying
11:01:56 and i agree with you i agree it’s
11:01:58 going to be very difficult in some cases it’ll be clear cut and
11:02:01 there won’t be an issue and
11:02:02 in other cases it will not nearly be as easy but i i do think we
11:02:06 have processes in place to work
11:02:08 through it we have processes in place to accommodate to the best
11:02:11 of our ability our employees
11:02:13 and um you know i think we have to work through each one is
11:02:16 there a certain time this worker’s
11:02:18 comp will run out if i’m out and all of a sudden i’m told to go
11:02:22 back out on leave every time i go
11:02:24 out on leave i’m forced to go because somebody was in my
11:02:28 classroom so i all of a sudden my family
11:02:30 member or somebody in the classroom they said nope you were next
11:02:32 to that person you have to go and
11:02:33 you have to socially you have to stay home right um are are they
11:02:37 gonna is it just going to retrigger
11:02:39 another worker’s comp claim every single time keep in mind that
11:02:42 our our employees all of us
11:02:44 we’re critical infrastructure workers so under the scenarios
11:02:47 that you’ve described unless they
11:02:49 are living with somebody who has a covid positive case or a
11:02:53 presumptive case they would not
11:02:55 necessarily be excluded from work if they’re just exposed to covid
11:03:00 19. no i know but i’m saying that
11:03:03 they come back to work and they’re going in another scenario
11:03:05 since it’s set to where they
11:03:06 have to go home it resets another worker’s comp claim every
11:03:11 single time if it is related to the
11:03:13 workplace you see where i’m going it’s going to be very
11:03:18 difficult to identify if it and i think that
11:03:21 there’s something we need to protect our people there that’s
11:03:23 where this was about i’m going to
11:03:25 try to come up with some ideas for you for tuesday all right
11:03:28 happy to talk with you about them okay
11:03:33 all right i need some anything else on 48 and 49
11:03:44 how about 50 and
11:03:50 51 all right then how about 52 and 53
11:04:11 54 and 55
11:04:15 i’ve got 53 if i can ask real quick there’s something that came
11:04:18 up
11:04:20 so one i apologize i was you’re moving pretty quick there so the
11:04:24 aftercare after school programs
11:04:29 is there a way that we can give teachers preference into the
11:04:32 spots because i’m looking at
11:04:35 the the amount of people that we can put in a aftercare
11:04:38 situation is there any way that we can
11:04:41 look at giving teachers preference to the after care hi mr susan
11:04:49 hi i think we have to look at
11:04:54 it case by case and school by school depending on the slots that
11:05:00 are available the um
11:05:05 the funding to operate the program so of course we will if the
11:05:12 teacher will work with their principal
11:05:14 then the principal will work with us to try to make that happen
11:05:18 but i really don’t know at this
11:05:21 time how many spots we’re going to have available we’re doing a
11:05:25 survey as we speak on how many
11:05:30 students can fit in the cafeteria with social distancing and
11:05:34 what other spaces within the
11:05:36 building can we we use for aftercare so i think that’s up to the
11:05:42 we as a school board can make
11:05:44 a decision on if we want to make press prints for the teachers
11:05:47 so if i can walk through this
11:05:49 scenario for you at say um sunday elementary manatee elementary
11:05:53 staff some of the largest
11:05:55 aftercare programs right and there’s a lot of teachers kids that
11:05:59 are inside of there um
11:06:00 from the guidelines that we have we’re looking at 50 people per
11:06:03 um cafeteria or wherever it’s kind
11:06:05 of a massive amount of people that you can do so if if it was
11:06:09 that say for instance hypothetically
11:06:11 we were only having 50 that were allowed in there i would like
11:06:15 the opportunity regardless of revenue
11:06:17 to allow the teachers to take precedence over having their kid
11:06:21 there that that’s what i would
11:06:22 i would like to do and i and i would fall back on and i’m sorry
11:06:26 like it’s i know i keep saying
11:06:28 you know as if we have all the money in the world but the bottom
11:06:31 line is is that i i think we’ve
11:06:32 been down this path before with the teachers and i know that it’s
11:06:36 a reduction in rate but at the
11:06:37 same time this goes a little bit further than that i think if we’re
11:06:40 going to tell our teachers that
11:06:41 they that we we we support them that this is an angle that we
11:06:45 could take care of it very
11:06:47 inexpensively so i would ask if there’s any direction from the
11:06:52 board to allow us to take
11:06:54 precedence with teachers and the aftercare programs mr system
11:06:58 ask a question sure you’re
11:07:00 talking about any bps employee yes i don’t mean teachers i
11:07:04 apologize i i said that and you’re
11:07:06 right it’s any bps employee and then i’m not aware of any bps
11:07:12 employee who hasn’t had a space
11:07:15 in their current school absolutely i wouldn’t say that you
11:07:18 wouldn’t but in the in the fact of when
11:07:20 we went moving if it’s that easy to where we can just make it a
11:07:24 precedent because i and the only
11:07:25 reason i bring this up is because it came up to me with four
11:07:28 different teachers this week that they
11:07:29 said hey can we get preference and i know that all of us are
11:07:32 going to do the right thing we’re going
11:07:33 to try to make them part of the team we’re going to make them
11:07:36 work in there but i think it sends
11:07:38 a message to our people that we are going to take precedence for
11:07:41 you and that’s the reason i brought
11:07:42 it up i mean if we’re going to do it anyway i can’t imagine a
11:07:45 scenario where a principal is
11:07:47 going to tell the teacher no i’m sorry you can’t come here for
11:07:51 aftercare right so if we’re going
11:07:52 to do it anyway it sends a message and we’re on the front end of
11:07:55 the of the the conversation
11:07:59 anybody care to weigh in i’m not opposed to the concept mr susan
11:08:03 but i think that we need to give
11:08:05 this client an opportunity to investigate the full impact of
11:08:10 that before we give direction certainly
11:08:13 i want to do all that i can to support our employees but i feel
11:08:19 like that is a dive into
11:08:22 a murky pond and that we we probably need to make sure we know
11:08:26 the the actual impacts of that
11:08:28 decision before we we make a decision on that if you don’t mind
11:08:32 absolutely is how do we find that
11:08:34 out and how do i not create a bun i mean i think we know how
11:08:36 many teachers are actually in the
11:08:38 system we have it flagged already right because they have a
11:08:40 reduced rate inside of our aftercare
11:08:42 center so we would know they’re already in there i guess the
11:08:46 other question would be how many we’re
11:08:48 going to be carving off so if if we have 150 that are normally
11:08:52 at manatee we already know how many
11:08:54 teachers are going to be in there because they’ve already gone
11:08:56 there they’re already registered it’s
11:08:57 already inside the system the idea would be how many how much
11:09:01 revenue is being taken off the bottom
11:09:03 end because we are socially distanced and we don’t have enough
11:09:06 people okay and then i also
11:09:08 need to know what space we have available yeah so if i’m not
11:09:13 mistaken that is due back to me by the
11:09:16 20th of space available nice so i i hope to get you an answer
11:09:22 soon but i can’t i think it’s not
11:09:26 a question of if we can it’s just how much we’re going to lose
11:09:28 because we don’t have enough space
11:09:29 for the other people that actually will because i know our
11:09:32 principals are going to stand up and
11:09:33 try to do the right thing and get their people in there it’s
11:09:36 just going to be how much money
11:09:37 our after cares are going to lose because they can’t put the
11:09:40 other 70 kids inside of a classroom
11:09:42 but i think it would do something very well for our employees if
11:09:45 we were able to get out ahead of
11:09:46 it and say we do we do value you and you have first right that’s
11:09:51 all sorry that was 53.
11:09:56 okay i think unless anyone has anything else that we may have
11:10:00 actually gotten
11:10:01 through the uh reopening 52 i gotta say something about 52 i’m
11:10:06 sorry can i throw something at you
11:10:07 yep yep afterwards because i’m probably gonna do it again so you
11:10:10 can register a bunch of them
11:10:12 um 52 is our our fire drills um okay so i looked and gibbs you
11:10:16 can back me up if you want to but i
11:10:18 look through our statutes and actually our the it says that we’re
11:10:21 supposed to work with our local
11:10:23 people on our fire drills and what we expect and stuff like that
11:10:27 what i would ask is if there’s
11:10:28 an opportunity to do a virtual option where we would um
11:10:32 virtually show how the fire alarm goes
11:10:36 or something in that respect um i looked at the statutes and it
11:10:40 does not say that we can’t do that
11:10:41 it just says that as long as we agree on what it looks like and
11:10:45 in the event there’s a fire alarm
11:10:46 everybody leaves um i could be wrong because i was going through
11:10:50 it but that’s a big area of concern
11:10:52 for me so i it just might be an opportunity that’s what i shared
11:10:55 earlier that we believe that there
11:10:57 are options other than a traditional evacuation that there are
11:11:01 options that might be a simulation
11:11:03 like experience okay that was i heard simulation i just didn’t
11:11:06 know okay all right that’s it
11:11:08 thank you anyone have anything else on the reopening plan
11:11:15 all right then at this point i will ask for a motion to approve
11:11:17 the district reopening
11:11:19 plan granting the superintendent discretion to make necessary
11:11:22 changes based upon direction
11:11:24 and or guidance from the governor florida department of
11:11:26 education or state or local
11:11:28 department of health and grant the superintendent discretion in
11:11:31 lessening the restrictions and the
11:11:33 reopening plan should the circumstances weren’t doing so as
11:11:38 amended as amended thank you mr
11:11:41 gibbs move to approve move by miss campbell second seconded by mr
11:11:48 susan is there any discussion
11:11:54 no i thought i thought i heard someone come with discussion no
11:11:59 discussion
11:12:02 okay are you wanting to specify what amendments are being made i’m
11:12:07 just asking
11:12:10 would you like to specify which amendments are being made mr gibbs
11:12:13 i don’t have that written
11:12:14 down so no i would not but did we actually amend anything and
11:12:20 you’re mandating temperature checks
11:12:23 at least so i mean or you’re allowing temperature checks so the
11:12:27 amendment that i well amendment or
11:12:29 the guidance that i have written down is uh related to the
11:12:32 temperature checks notifying
11:12:35 there were three things notifying on our changing in our plan
11:12:40 and notifying on our website that
11:12:43 students may be may participate in a temperature check will
11:12:48 provide guidelines to staff and make
11:12:50 available to staff at their request and assuming their
11:12:53 willingness to follow the guidelines a
11:12:55 touchless thermometer so i have a motion from miss campbell to
11:13:02 approve with amendments as
11:13:06 read previously do i have a second are you kidding me gotta say
11:13:13 it yeah second emotions
11:13:21 i said i have a motion to approve as read previously the reopening
11:13:26 plan with the
11:13:27 amendments that dr mullins just read to us i have a motion do i
11:13:31 have a second yes you have a second
11:13:33 thank you motion by miss campbell seconded by mr susan what are
11:13:38 you guys doing you guys just
11:13:39 stand there looking like is there any discussion it’s really
11:13:42 late sorry that’s why people need
11:13:45 coffee all right um zescobar would you please call for the votes
11:13:49 mrs belford aye miss mcdugal aye
11:13:52 mrs deskovitch aye mrs campbell aye mr susan aye and the motion
11:13:57 passes five zero next we have
11:14:00 department school initiated agreements uh oh dr mullins you were
11:14:04 supposed to say that but i
11:14:06 said it for you you want me to just keep going sure what are the
11:14:09 wishes of the board second
11:14:12 moved by miss mcdugal seconded by miss deskevich is there any
11:14:15 discussion
11:14:17 miss eskebar please call for the vote mrs belford aye miss mcdugal
11:14:21 aye mrs deskevich aye mrs campbell
11:14:24 aye mr susan aye and the motion passes five zero dr mullins item
11:14:29 g30 is on procurement solicitations
11:14:32 what are the wishes of the board moved to approve second moved
11:14:35 by mr susan seconded by miss campbell
11:14:37 any discussion miss eskebar please call the vote mrs belford aye
11:14:42 miss mcdugal aye mrs deskevich aye
11:14:46 mrs campbell aye mr susan aye the motion passes five zero dr
11:14:50 mullins the next four items are in
11:14:52 reference to policies a policy work session was held on june 16
11:14:55 with the rue development workshop
11:14:57 on june 30 which was the the public’s first opportunity to make
11:15:01 comments today would be
11:15:03 the public’s second chance to comment before the board takes
11:15:06 action as i stated earlier there were
11:15:08 no recorded comments regarding any of the policies on this this
11:15:12 morning’s agenda which it was a whole
11:15:14 lot of hours ago so um this evening’s agenda now i will now call
11:15:18 for the motion to approve the
11:15:19 revisions to board policy nine eight zero zero charter schools
11:15:24 wish thank you second moved by
11:15:27 miss mcdugal seconded by mr susan any discussion miss eskebar mrs
11:15:33 belford aye miss mcdugal aye
11:15:35 mrs deskevich aye mrs campbell aye mr susan aye the motion
11:15:40 passes five zero is there a motion to
11:15:42 approve the revisions to the board policy five six one zero
11:15:45 removal suspension and expulsion of
11:15:47 students move to approve moved by miss campbell seconded by mr
11:15:51 susan any discussion miss eskebar
11:15:56 mrs belford aye miss deskevich aye miss mcdugal aye mrs campbell
11:16:02 aye and mr susan aye
11:16:04 the motion passes five zero let’s move on to policy seven one
11:16:10 one zero student accommodation
11:16:12 do i have a motion move to approve second moved by miss deskevich
11:16:15 seconded by miss campbell any
11:16:17 discussion miss eskebar mrs campbell aye mrs deskevich aye miss
11:16:24 mcdugal aye mrs belford aye
11:16:27 mr susan aye motion passes five zero do i have a motion to
11:16:30 approve the revisions to policy seven
11:16:33 one two zero criteria for balancing school membership to
11:16:36 capacity moved to approve second
11:16:40 uh who moved i did move by miss campbell seconded by miss mcdugal
11:16:46 i believe uh any discussion
11:16:50 all right miss eskebar mr susan aye mrs belford aye miss mcdugal
11:16:56 aye mrs deskevich aye mrs campbell
11:16:59 aye the motion passes five zero we are now at board member
11:17:03 reports and discussion points
11:17:07 we don’t have anything on the schedule is there anyone don’t
11:17:10 even i am i am i gotta say something
11:17:12 i’m sorry um so one of the things i i wanted to say thank you to
11:17:17 the esau there’s a samantha
11:17:21 navario who’s working with me on esau i went through the actual
11:17:25 translations everything else
11:17:27 and found that we have done an amazing job with with making sure
11:17:31 that people can be notified on
11:17:33 our website if they go to it all they have to do is click down i
11:17:36 put it in hebrew i put it in every
11:17:38 single language that was out there it was amazing so i wanted to
11:17:40 say thank you to that the other
11:17:42 thing is is that um i think one of the pieces that we it wasn’t
11:17:44 part of the reopening but i think it
11:17:46 needs to be part of it is our well care centers and what they do
11:17:50 for us for this covid response
11:17:52 and i think that we had mentioned before about possibly taking
11:17:55 them to identify the individuals
11:17:57 that need the well care when they test positive and stuff like
11:18:00 that that should be part of what
11:18:02 they do that it should be number one along with the cancers and
11:18:04 everything else that we have
11:18:06 the other thing that i was thinking about is is that um i had a
11:18:10 like a yoga instructor and
11:18:11 a couple other individuals come up and they said that they would
11:18:14 be interested in providing
11:18:15 services to our schools virtually so there might be an
11:18:18 opportunity for well-beings and and welfare
11:18:21 of the of the staff to take advantage of some of those things
11:18:23 virtually whether that’s yoga after
11:18:26 after school or or meditation or whatever it is in your group
11:18:29 and i think that we’re missing when
11:18:31 we start looking at this there’s going to be some some detoxing
11:18:34 from the day there’s going to be
11:18:36 some de-stressing and i think we need to put some of that in
11:18:39 place that’s all but i think that our
11:18:41 well care centers and the main reason i brought this up was that
11:18:43 our well care centers need to
11:18:44 be pushing need to be working on this this needs to be firing on
11:18:47 all cylinders that’s it very good
11:18:51 thank you dr mullins do you have anything further to report
11:18:54 nothing to report except i have to take
11:18:57 one maybe two minutes for some acknowledgments and i know the
11:19:01 board i believe the board
11:19:04 again has been has experienced a level of expertise and a level
11:19:10 and depth of knowledge
11:19:12 and understanding and preparation that far exceeds any
11:19:16 expectations the level of information
11:19:21 and detail you are provided with what had to have been a hundred
11:19:25 plus questions throughout today
11:19:29 whether it’s from facilities or operations uh elementary leading
11:19:33 and learning that we
11:19:36 were collecting space information about brevard and aftercare i’ve
11:19:39 never thought of that to the
11:19:42 level of detail that dr solomon has around brevard virtual
11:19:46 school it blows me away
11:19:49 dr thedi has had workman’s comp and risk management for 14 days
11:19:55 and to put the presentation together and be able to answer in-depth
11:19:59 hypothetical scenarios and
11:20:00 situations not to mention you can see why i punted the
11:20:05 discussion around our scenarios of when
11:20:08 different situations happen to to miss more to manage and
11:20:11 understand that world to the complexities
11:20:15 of 80 000 devices across our district through et and mr ketum
11:20:22 had the opportunity to pitch hard
11:20:26 the budget cuts that were impacting his ending he’s a team
11:20:29 player i just i my admiration and respect
11:20:33 for this team of professionals could never be higher and i just
11:20:36 had to take the opportunity
11:20:38 to thank them for all of the amazing work they put in to prepare
11:20:41 our district to move forward with
11:20:43 this plan thank you thank you dr melinson i would absolutely uh
11:20:49 second that and add that if i may
11:20:53 speak on behalf of all of the board members we’re so appreciative
11:20:57 that you all sat with us for 12
11:20:59 hours last week to work through the intricacies of the plan and
11:21:03 uh took our concerns and our feedback
11:21:06 and uh worked it worked it into the plan to the best of your
11:21:10 abilities and i think you have shown
11:21:14 not only have you shown your phenomenal expertise in your areas
11:21:17 of responsibility but i think you
11:21:18 have also shown our community how very much each and every one
11:21:22 of you cares about our faculty and
11:21:24 our staff and our students and so um we thank you and um unless
11:21:29 anyone else would like to to speak
11:21:34 and i will call this manager mrs belford yes
11:21:39 the workshop are we rescheduling it to another time i would
11:21:43 request we reschedule yes
11:21:48 so to be determined send us yes mr susan we have a workshop
11:21:52 following this
11:21:55 it was supposed to be at 11 a.m we could have it just at 11 p.m
11:21:58 at this point um
11:21:59 i’m going to veto that i don’t know if i have that powers chair
11:22:02 but i’m invoking that powers
11:22:04 chair to veto an 11 p.m workshop this evening um no perhaps we
11:22:08 can work it in after our special
11:22:11 meeting next uh next tuesday so um so yeah no no workshop and
11:22:16 and thank you again i hope you can
11:22:19 all go home and get some rest especially miss han who handled
11:22:22 all of our public comments last night
11:22:24 you are a a warrior and we appreciate you so with that meeting
11:22:33 adjourned
11:22:54 so