Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
2:14 [MUSIC]
2:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]
2:45 » Good afternoon, the March 8th, 2022 board work session is now
2:49 in order.
2:50 Tammy, roll call please.
2:51 » Mrs. Belford, Mrs. Campbell.
2:54 » Present.
2:55 » Mrs. Jenkins, Ms. McDougall.
2:57 » Present.
2:58 » Mr. Susan.
2:59 » Present.
2:59 » Will you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?
3:03 » I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
3:09 America.
3:10 And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
3:15 indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
3:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]
3:22 » This afternoon’s work session is to hold a public hearing on
3:27 board policy 2605.
3:29 Is there anyone present who wishes to address the board policy
3:33 2605,
3:33 research and evaluation?
3:35 Ms. Delaney.
3:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]
3:49 » Did you hear her hit the gavel?
3:51 I mean that was with the four whack.
3:53 I was like, I better wake up, this is happening right now.
3:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]
4:23 » Trying to figure out where I saved my speech.
4:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]
4:36 » I’m here to discuss item H30, board policy 2605,
4:41 research and evaluation as it relates to the survey.
4:47 As such, I’m sorry, such as the Youth Truth Survey given to our
4:51 children,
4:52 grades three and up, as well as the TNTP Survey given to our
4:56 teachers.
4:57 Parents need to be aware that the Youth Truth Survey was
5:00 administered to our
5:01 children starting at the end of the year,
5:07 last year through the beginning of this year.
5:11 Some parents were notified of the survey,
5:14 while some could not find any evidence of being notified.
5:18 But other parents that were notified,
5:21 there was absolutely no mention of the nature of these questions.
5:25 The survey contained nor that this survey was completely
5:31 optional.
5:32 In this survey, there were questions asking our children to
5:35 assess
5:37 how their peers value people of different sexual orientations,
5:41 gender identity,
5:41 and race.
5:43 In this survey, it asks our children how often they see people
5:49 of diverse
5:49 backgrounds in the schools, artwork, publications, and textbooks,
5:54 etc.
5:56 In this survey, it asks our students how often they learn about
6:01 people of
6:01 different sexual orientation, gender identity, and race.
6:05 In this survey, it asks our students if
6:10 they are taught about people being treated unfairly because of
6:13 their sexual
6:14 orientation, gender identity, and race.
6:17 And at the end of the survey, it asks our children their gender
6:21 identity.
6:22 This survey was administered to third through 12th grade.
6:27 Moreover, when we look into the organization based out of
6:31 California that
6:32 we are paying what we thought was tens of thousands, but
6:36 now we know it’s over $200,000, to data mine from our children.
6:44 Parents may also want to know that they were founded and
6:49 are funded by none other than the Bill and Melinda Gates
6:52 Foundation.
6:55 If you don’t believe me, Google Youth Truth Survey, and
6:58 you can go there to their page to verify.
7:04 You want to claim that there is no CRT being taught in our
7:07 schools, yet
7:10 we are seeing a pattern within our schools consistently having
7:14 to bombard
7:15 our children with talk about sexual orientation, gender identity,
7:21 and race.
7:24 It’s being shoved down their throats at every turn.
7:27 Our children are walking into libraries with sexually explicit
7:32 all LGBTQ plus specific books on display, not just on the
7:37 shelves.
7:38 » Thank you, Ms. Delaney.
7:39 We appreciate you joining us today for comment.
7:41 Is there anyone else that wishes to address policy 2605,
7:44 research and evaluation?
7:45 Ms. Hall?
7:49 » Just going to pick up where Katie left off.
7:52 These books are on display for our middle and high school
7:55 students.
7:55 We have pictures of gender queer on display at Edgewood Junior
7:58 Senior High
7:59 before it was removed from the libraries last fall.
8:02 This has gone so far beyond what our public schools were meant
8:06 for, and
8:06 it is time for parents.
8:07 to stand up and push back on this agenda.
8:09 Within board policy 2605, it states on line B5,
8:13 the right of a parent to opt out
8:15 of any district level data collection
8:17 relating to the minor child that is required by law.
8:21 One of the things we would like to see for this policy
8:23 further expanded upon to include language
8:25 requiring the distribution of the survey questions
8:27 in their entirety to parents
8:29 in order to ensure that the questions
8:31 are not inappropriate for their child.
8:33 Along with the copy of the questions,
8:35 we would like to see language requiring a notice to parents
8:38 about the right that they can opt out.
8:42 Some of our members did discuss the survey with Dr. Sullivan
8:45 and we wanna thank her for her time
8:47 in addressing our concerns.
8:49 We want the record to reflect that we were told
8:51 that parents would be getting the questions in advance
8:53 along with the opt out
8:55 and that these controversial questions
8:56 would be removed from future surveys.
8:58 So we do appreciate that feedback
9:00 and we hope that it does happen.
9:02 In addition, parents should also be informed
9:04 about who will be in possession of their data
9:06 after the surveys are conducted
9:07 and if third party companies are being used
9:09 to conduct the surveys,
9:11 they should not promote CRT in any capacity
9:13 or be funded by politically motivated organizations.
9:16 I would question why surveys cannot be done in house
9:20 just like the parent surveys are done.
9:22 It begs the question of why we are paying so much money
9:24 for surveys like these in the first place.
9:27 Finally, we would like to briefly touch
9:28 on the highly inappropriate teacher survey
9:30 that went out assessing our educators biases.
9:33 I believe that we’ve said it before
9:35 that all of this hyper focus
9:36 on how unconsciously bias our teachers are
9:38 and how there’s no such thing as a non racist policy,
9:41 tying it all to the education gap within our schools
9:44 is implying that our system and teachers
9:46 are as a whole are racist.
9:49 So please tell me how you as a teacher
9:51 would answer this following question.
9:53 Teachers and leaders at my school understand
9:56 that they have bias and are actively working
9:57 to mitigate its impact.
9:59 Think about this for a second.
10:00 If I’m a teacher answering this question,
10:02 if I select strongly agree,
10:04 then I’m admitting that me and my peers
10:06 are inherently biased.
10:08 But if I select strongly disagree,
10:09 then I and my peers are not only inherently biased,
10:12 but we’re actively not working on our bias
10:14 to mitigate its impact.
10:16 So there’s no right answer to this question.
10:18 And by the way, the organizations that the school district
10:21 is paying to conduct this assessment
10:22 is also funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
10:26 We can do better by our teachers
10:27 and our students as a district.
10:29 We need to stop with all of this added nonsense
10:31 in our schools and get back to the basics.
10:34 Thank you.
10:35 - Thank you.
10:37 Is there anyone else present who wishes to address
10:39 Board Policy 2605, Research and Evaluations?
10:43 Is there anyone else present who wishes to address
10:45 Board Policy 2605, Research and Evaluation?
10:49 All right, does any board member have anything to discuss?
10:59 - Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Board.
11:01 I’m Sarah Mercy, wife, mother, student, taxpayer,
11:04 registered voter, and I live in District 2
11:06 for School Board.
11:07 I’m speaking on behalf of myself.
11:10 I want to thank Dr. Sullivan for her hospitality
11:12 and transparency on the youth through survey.
11:15 She had the conference room set up
11:16 and walked me through a lot of the data.
11:18 I was able to work with her and one of her other assistants
11:21 on my concerns about the inappropriate questions.
11:25 I appreciate the time that she took to spend with me,
11:29 as well as the others that were in that room.
11:33 I would appreciate, as well, we discussed being able
11:38 to allowing parents to opt their child
11:40 out of the survey itself,
11:41 and I would include teachers in that.
11:44 I look forward to the presentation in April
11:46 and continuing to work with Dr. Sullivan and her team.
11:48 Thank you.
11:49 - Thanks, Ms. Marski.
11:51 Is there anyone else present that wishes to address
11:53 Policy 2605, Research and Evaluation?
11:57 Anyone else present who wishes to address
11:59 Policy 2605, Research and Evaluation?
12:02 All right, Board members, anything to discuss
12:05 pertaining to this policy?
12:06 Ms. Campbell.
12:07 - Ms. Klein, does this policy cover the surveys
12:13 that were mentioned in the public comment,
12:14 or is this just about academic evaluation,
12:17 academic progress?
12:19 - You are correct, it’s academic evaluation.
12:22 - Thank you.
12:25 - Mr. Susan, did I–
12:27 - Yeah, so part of the policy that we’re looking at
12:31 calls for individuals to receive information
12:35 so that they can evaluate what our–
12:37 - Mic on.
12:39 - It is, it is.
12:40 So we have a list of all of those companies, right?
12:43 We don’t have, we’re not giving information
12:46 to some group that we don’t know about, right?
12:48 There’s nobody that’s able to obtain it.
12:50 So in the event in the future that if somebody said,
12:53 we would like to see who gets our kids’ data,
12:55 that’s fair, right, we can do that, right?
12:58 Right, Dr. Mullins?
12:59 I mean, it’s like College Board, that kind of stuff, right?
13:04 - I’d ask you to repeat the question.
13:05 I’m not sure I’m following what your request is.
13:06 - So some of the data that we have
13:08 that were reviewed by military organizations,
13:10 College Board, those kind of things, right,
13:12 is what we’ve done for 50 years, right?
13:15 Like, as long as that’s 17 years that I’ve been on the Board
13:18 and if there’s an event that parents were like,
13:20 hey, where does my kids’ data go?
13:22 We’d be able to tell them,
13:23 and there would be an understanding
13:24 of where our information for our kids goes, right?
13:27 - I think it’s just directory data
13:29 that goes to those organizations, Mr. Susan.
13:31 I don’t think we’re releasing academic data.
13:33 The only time we release academic data is,
13:35 well, the students actually submit their data.
13:37 We’re not–
13:38 - Totally understand, but in the event
13:40 that there’s any data going to any organization,
13:42 we know exactly who that is and we can provide that data.
13:45 There’s not a, what I’m trying to get at,
13:47 and I’m not trying to dice any of the who, the what,
13:51 the when, the where, the why,
13:52 but we can offer up whatever company or whoever
13:55 we give that data to or anything like that.
13:57 I mean, that’s, and we’ve been doing this for a long time.
13:59 When I was inside schools, that–
14:03 - Yeah, I would, Mr. Gibbs, I know,
14:07 has reviewed all of our contracts, particularly.
14:09 I know you reviewed the contract
14:11 with Youth Truth Survey and others.
14:14 We have privacy clauses and agreements
14:16 and that type of thing in those,
14:18 in our contracts, if I’m correct.
14:20 - We do, anything that we’re collecting student data,
14:23 it has a FERPA clause in the contracts themselves,
14:26 so they can’t release that information.
14:28 There are, like, deaggregation exemptions and stuff
14:31 where if they’re using it for, like,
14:33 to show national statistics and everything,
14:35 then they can use the actual data points themselves,
14:38 but not any identifying information usually.
14:41 Whether or not we, what information is going where,
14:44 you’d have to look on a case-by-case basis
14:46 to see what program is using what data is.
14:49 And any company that has that has to contract through us,
14:51 has to get a FERPA clause and everything else.
14:53 So we would be able to show that to anybody
14:55 that wanted to.
14:56 - If they’re getting data and access
14:57 to student information, there’s a contract
14:59 that’s gonna govern that access and data.
15:01 - Perfect, thank you, that’s it.
15:04 - Any other board member have any questions, comments?
15:07 All right, that will then conclude our public hearing.
15:10 As there is no further business, this meeting is adjourned.
15:13 - I will tell you.
15:19 (upbeat music)
15:49 (silence)