Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
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7:30 September 8th 2022 final budget hearing and board meeting is now
7:33 in order I’m
7:34 happy to welcome my fellow board members and the public I would
7:37 like to take this
7:37 opportunity to remind the public that the appropriate place for
7:40 public
7:40 participation in the meeting is during your individual public
7:43 comment
7:43 opportunity as identified in the agenda outside of your
7:46 individual public
7:47 comment opportunity your role in the meeting is as an observer
7:50 this evening
7:51 mr. Gibbs roll call please miss Belford present miss McDougal
7:56 present
7:57 it’s camel miss Jenkins mr. Susan present please stand for the
8:02 Pledge of
8:02 Allegiance
8:24 the board will now hold a moment of silent reflection and invite
8:28 the
8:28 audience to join miss Campbell did you want a request on our
8:31 focus for silent
8:32 reflection this evening as the world is mourning the death of
8:38 Queen Elizabeth
8:38 but we just might have that in our hearts as well
8:54 you
9:01 thank you at this time I would like to offer my fellow board
9:06 members and dr.
9:06 Mullins an opportunity to recognize students staff or members of
9:09 our
9:10 community miss Jenkins actually has a special recognition this
9:13 evening so I’m
9:14 gonna provide her the opportunity to go first all right so I am
9:37 super excited to
9:40 address this in front of everybody we kind of talked about this
9:43 a couple of
9:43 times I had received a phone call on Martin Luther King Day so
9:47 it’s been a
9:48 really really long time from City Councilman Alex goings in
9:51 cocoa and we
9:52 had started this journey together to figure out a way to rejuvenate
9:57 the weight
9:57 room in cocoa high school and I don’t want to spend too much
10:00 time of how that
10:01 happened again because I’ve already told this story but it’s it’s
10:04 done it’s over
10:05 and I’m really excited to celebrate it I want everyone to be
10:08 aware of it I want
10:09 everyone to be aware of all the people it took to come and put
10:11 this together so
10:13 this is a weight room that not only serves the football team
10:17 that was
10:18 highlighted during this project it serves all of the students at
10:21 Coco high
10:21 school there in any athletics program as well as their weight
10:24 training class so I
10:26 want to say a special shout out to Coco City Councilman Alex goings
10:30 thank you
10:31 for making that phone call in the first place to me this would
10:33 have never
10:34 happened without you the next person who is one of the major key
10:38 players is an
10:39 actual satellite high school graduate his name is Patrick
10:42 Abrahams he is a
10:44 college game day producer for ESPN he is an Emmy award-winning
10:48 producer I know we
10:49 had another student in BPS that we acknowledged recently that is
10:53 a college
10:54 game day Emmy award-winning student as well so let’s give a
10:58 shout out to our to
10:59 our amazing students miss Stewart the principal of Coco high
11:03 school thank you
11:04 for all that you’ve done mr. Wilson before you became our COO
11:08 you were you
11:09 were in the game with me on this as well we’ve got athletic
11:11 director mr. mark
11:12 Carstens all of the custodians at Coco high school the amount of
11:17 boxes that we
11:19 had to unbox was insane thank you for being a part of that and
11:24 taking care of
11:25 that for us thank you to the parents and the community members
11:28 who stepped up and
11:29 showed up to build the actual equipment with us to paint that
11:32 room with us to
11:33 put that room together and to tomorrow’s team and a nonprofit
11:38 organization out in
11:38 Orlando who came and sent some volunteers to help support us as
11:41 well as
11:41 building that equipment special shout out to our facilities
11:44 department mr.
11:45 Han Sean Heinz at Breznia I’m sorry if I’m saying your name
11:49 wrong John
11:50 Rittenhouse and Trey rose thank you to every single person who
11:54 participated in
11:55 this it was a four-day event we had to happen quickly on a
11:59 Sunday we got
12:00 together we banged it out we built everything we unpackaged
12:04 everything the
12:05 next day we had the pleasure of Marty Smith an ESPN commentator
12:10 a NASCAR
12:11 coverage commentator working for academies sports and a program
12:16 on
12:16 YouTube called traditions he came out surprised the school
12:20 surprised all the
12:21 coaches and all of the students and did some interviews with
12:24 everybody it was a
12:25 really incredible experience on Monday had some had some tearjerker
12:31 moments he
12:32 they had an opportunity to interview three of our athletes you
12:35 have already
12:36 accepted college applications and offers to go play there and
12:41 one of them is
12:42 actually the valedictorian of the school this year which is
12:45 pretty impressive and
12:46 he’s working towards a perfect SAT score really incredible
12:50 students really
12:51 incredible stories got to hear words from the coaches why they
12:55 do what they
12:55 do why they love these students and what makes Coco High School
12:59 so unique and so
13:00 important to them and that was really important to me so thank
13:03 you again to
13:04 Academy sports and outdoors you had athletics and they gave us $75,000
13:13 worth
13:14 of equipment 75,000 some of the pictures that you’re gonna see
13:22 here are the
13:23 finished weight room however the floors aren’t done yet those
13:25 are coming we
13:26 couldn’t procure those fast enough but they are coming they’re
13:28 gonna get a
13:29 fresh new floor okay so special recognition there is an
13:37 incredible human
13:38 being here today that I asked to come here today and he is one
13:44 of the
13:44 assistant coaches for the football program and I met him early
13:48 on in this
13:49 journey because of mr. goins I would have never known who this
13:53 man was if I
13:54 never received that phone call and I a man I am so grateful to
13:57 have met this
13:58 man mr. James Polston mr. Polston I might get this wrong and I’m
14:11 gonna be aging
14:12 you at the exact same time I apologize in advance
14:15 Coco class of 89 this incredible man went to Coco High School
14:23 himself he
14:24 went off to college I believe you got scholarship for that as
14:28 well went off to
14:29 play for the Los Angeles Raiders the Arizona Cardinals and when
14:33 he retired
14:33 from the NFL unlike many of his colleagues like he said in the
14:39 interview
14:39 I had the pleasure of watching he decided to come back to his
14:42 community
14:43 come back to Coco raise his own children send them to the school
14:46 that he went to
14:47 he loved and he respected mr. Folsom has donated over 15,000
14:53 volunteer
14:54 hours to Coco High School he does not receive $1 as a decision
14:58 coach for this
14:59 school he refuses to take a penny he gives his own financial
15:02 contributions
15:03 when we had talked about doing this room and we said we wanted
15:07 some murals to
15:08 inspire some compute community and pride for Coco High School mr.
15:12 Folsom took it
15:13 on his own right away within 24 hours he got the Vera High
15:18 School graduate Jesse
15:19 Travis to come in and agree to do it for us and he also
15:23 encouraged another Coco
15:25 High School graduate who is now the assistant coach of the
15:28 Chicago Bears mr.
15:29 James Rowe to fund the mural for us so thank you for that and I’m
15:37 just gonna
15:40 share a little tidbit of something that I there was so much from
15:43 your interview
15:44 that I loved but I’m not gonna share it all because I want you
15:46 all to watch it
15:46 when it finally airs but mr. Folsom had explained to Marty that
15:55 they refer to it
15:56 as the jungle the weight room and their training program and he
15:59 said their motto
16:00 is we do more with less which is which is great which is which
16:08 is wonderful and
16:09 it’s wonderful that the students never complained about it but I
16:13 had the
16:13 pleasure of speaking to those students and telling them I’m so
16:16 proud of you
16:17 that you’re able to do more with less but you shouldn’t have you’re
16:20 worthy
16:21 just like everyone else in this school district and I’m so proud
16:23 that you have
16:24 the opportunity to now have this new weight room to continue to
16:26 blossom and
16:27 grow and my favorite part of the interview was when Marty said
16:32 well what
16:34 are you gonna do if we get you a new weight room what’s that
16:36 gonna mean to
16:36 you and his response was we’re gonna need a new motto so mr. Folsom
16:43 I asked
16:44 you to come here today because I know you are respected you are
16:48 admired you
16:49 are loved by your students your staff and even your community
16:52 because I’m
16:52 pretty sure there’s a mr. James Folsom day in the city of cocoa
16:55 but I felt like
16:57 it was absolutely necessary for us as a citrus to just
17:00 acknowledge you and to
17:02 thank you for all that you do that you continue to do and to
17:05 inspire others to
17:06 come back to their community and give back like you do every
17:10 single day and I
17:11 don’t want to be the last one to say positive things about you I
17:14 did ask miss
17:15 Stewart just to share a little bit more about the amazing things
17:20 that you do
17:31 this is truly an honor to be able to express my gratitude not
17:35 just personally
17:36 but on behalf of the school and cocoa community one of the
17:40 things that I love
17:41 most about being principal of cocoa high is the amount of pride
17:47 that our
17:48 community our students our staff and most importantly our
17:52 volunteers like you
17:54 of course you are above heads and shoulders above when it comes
17:59 to
17:59 volunteer hours asking nothing in return nothing this is not
18:03 something that I
18:04 know that you would want or ask for and I’m sure that you are
18:09 standing there
18:10 like please just finish this up but you need to take your moment
18:15 in the Sun
18:15 because you have given so much to the students of cocoa high to
18:20 the community
18:21 of cocoa high coach Karsten said today you are the epitome of
18:27 selflessness and
18:28 I don’t know that I can say that better so I’m gonna leave it
18:32 there from the
18:33 bottom of my heart sir thank you so much for everything you do
18:37 for the school and
18:38 the community of cocoa man it’s all gonna be standing here in
19:02 front of you
19:02 guys um grew up in Virginia Park I tell this to the kids and
19:07 everywhere I speak
19:09 all the time sometimes we got to know what’s our why my why was
19:14 I grew up in
19:14 Virginia Park grew up in a two-bedroom house share one bedroom
19:18 with four
19:18 brothers all five of us in one bedroom no century heat box fan
19:24 in the window
19:26 bunk bags in the room I chose to sleep on the floor to some
19:30 sleeping on the
19:31 floor is a hardship for me it was a luxury because I had an
19:35 opportunity to
19:36 sleep on the floor in the front of a box fan that was also on
19:39 the floor and so I
19:41 mean you know growing up with all the resources that we have now
19:46 I didn’t have
19:47 it nobody in my neighborhood had so it have opportunity to come
19:53 back and give
19:53 back I mean and I can say this right now when in those locker
19:57 rooms I had had a
19:58 lot of veteran leadership with the Raiders in Arizona Cardinals
20:01 and quite a
20:02 few of those guys always talking about going back and give back
20:05 and some of
20:07 their paths was slightly different in mind but we all I mean
20:10 still had the
20:11 same common goal we all had war stories with that being said
20:16 most of them moved
20:17 to bigger cities to give back I mean a lot of them they moved to
20:21 small towns
20:22 cocoa or whatever maybe a lot of guys were from South Florida I
20:26 mean it’s easy
20:27 to go back to South Florida and get back but to come back to
20:30 cocoa demographic
20:31 location I mean household mediums what right at 30 35 to 37
20:35 thousand and so I
20:37 felt like if I can come back and and show these guys the the why
20:41 and and let
20:42 them know what pitfalls to avoid if I can reach one that means I’ve
20:47 done what
20:47 I supposed to do when I came back my ultimate goal was to come
20:50 back for ten
20:51 years and right off into the sunset I’ve been I’ve been here now
20:56 for what 15 years so
20:58 appreciate this opportunity to stay in front of you guys
21:01 appreciate you guys
21:02 for knowledge me man I mean hey we move forward we move forward
21:06 we got more to
21:06 do and the ultimate goal is hopefully 10 to 15 years down the
21:10 road some of the
21:10 kids that had opportunity to to instill livelihood in hopefully
21:15 come back to
21:16 give back the same way that we’re doing thanks for having
21:30 mr. Jenkins I just want to take a quick moment and I hope I’m
21:33 not stepping on
21:34 your toes but I just want to recognize councilman Alex going to
21:37 came in after
21:37 you started so he wasn’t wasn’t here for the recognition but we
21:42 appreciate you
21:44 Alex thank you thank you I appreciate that I kept scanning the
21:47 room I’m really
21:47 sorry Alex I said your name like a hundred times though yeah I
21:51 think he was
21:52 walking in as you were saying it once but I just wanted to make
21:54 sure he knew
21:55 that he was in fact recognized and that you knew that he made it
21:58 so okay that’s
22:00 a tough act to follow but I will now offer my fellow board
22:02 members an
22:03 opportunity for their recognition I’ll talk fast I just wanted
22:09 to recognize a
22:10 couple of things we had lock more elementary in Palm Bay had
22:14 national
22:14 national hero day parade and they organized just about the whole
22:18 entire
22:19 school in the car loop and the Palm Bay Police Department were
22:22 such great sports
22:23 they came to the loop waved at the kids the sirens are going off
22:27 the SWAT truck
22:28 was there they had donuts for the officers at the end it was
22:31 fantastic and
22:33 such a great way for our students to get to recognize our local
22:36 heroes and so
22:37 kudos to lock more and to the Palm Bay Police Department for
22:40 being a part of
22:41 that day you know we have workforce shortage that includes our
22:45 substitutes
22:45 just wanted to give a shout out to the human resources
22:48 department or dr. 30 and
22:50 all her staff have been working really hard on that we have a
22:53 new app called
22:53 red rover and in bright challenged the board a month ago hey y’all
22:56 jump in and
22:57 when you can and sub I’ve already gotten my first three sub jobs
23:00 behind me and
23:00 the app is actually pretty easy to use and I think we’re having
23:05 better bill
23:06 rates than we’ve ever had before so kudos to her team for
23:09 walking the
23:10 substitute new substitutes and the old substitutes through this
23:13 new process and
23:14 first after taking advantage of it so and they have actually
23:16 been doing these
23:17 little sub socials at our schools that are harder to fill so our
23:20 subs get to
23:21 know those schools and realize hey this is a great place for you
23:24 to come meet
23:24 the principal walk with the school and so hopefully we’ll see a
23:27 better fill
23:28 rates at those schools where we’re having a hard time getting
23:30 sub so and
23:31 just one other shout out I noticed it at Bayside High School on
23:35 the first day of
23:35 school but I know some of our other school are doing it as well
23:38 they’re
23:38 really integrating some technology now that we the buses have
23:42 the passes with
23:43 the kids IDs some of the schools like Bayside are integrating
23:48 their ID cards
23:49 on their lanyards with focus with the bus passes with everything
23:54 all together
23:55 so while dr. Mullins and I were there we had a kid walk up I don’t
23:58 know where
23:59 I’m supposed to go and this the administrator came and scanned
24:02 the kids
24:03 ID on the back and they could tell them what class they were
24:05 supposed to go to
24:05 like a freshman who didn’t they were supposed to go and or what
24:08 bus they were
24:08 supposed to be on so it was a great integration of technology
24:11 they’re using
24:12 it for their passes in and out of the bathroom so just proud of
24:14 our schools
24:15 who are all doing something a little differently sometimes but
24:18 they’re
24:18 integrating that technology to try to streamline the process
24:21 that makes it
24:21 easier for students for our staff and for the admin so I’m good
24:27 job
24:28 thank you well it’s funny that you talk about that technology
24:35 because we have
24:36 our transportation director and his staff here tonight which
24:39 everybody here
24:40 who understands the war that we’ve been doing to try to get the
24:44 kids to school
24:45 with to say as an understatement less than the individuals
24:49 needed to do so and
24:51 trying to mismatch at the last minute many times in the
24:54 beginning of the
24:55 morning the staff that’s there takes calls that these three bus
24:58 drivers
24:59 weren’t able to make it and they’re trying to coordinate just
25:01 off the top of
25:02 what they can try to do to make it happen so those individuals
25:05 that are
25:06 sitting right there Mike you raise your hands everybody I’m
25:08 gonna embarrass you
25:08 that team right there is responsible for your central north and
25:12 south area
25:12 transportation and you guys just made us look real good by
25:16 implementing those new
25:17 cards for everybody because now Joey gets on the wrong bus we
25:20 know about it
25:20 we know where he’s at you know what I mean so and then there’s
25:23 one other
25:24 individual that I wanted to thank that’s in part of this team
25:27 she was Miss Emer
25:29 she when I was a teacher at Space Coast noticed that he’s here
25:33 today I was a bus
25:35 didn’t show up for my wrestling team and you stopped and said I
25:39 will take the
25:40 team and you coordinated other buses to go and drove those kids
25:43 to satellite and
25:44 we won that tournament and those kids will always be in
25:46 remembrance we won
25:47 that by the largest margin Space Coast ever had in wrestling and
25:49 it was all
25:50 because of you so thank you so much for that and I appreciate it
25:52 I appreciate
25:52 everything you guys do thank you very much the other thing I
25:55 want to do is
25:56 they’ve got a couple of really cool things that are on the
25:57 agenda tonight
25:58 we’re not really going to talk about them but the Viera high
26:00 classroom
26:01 edition just so everybody knows there’s a CTE program and going
26:04 in there it’s
26:04 gonna be a construction and framing program that kids are
26:07 actually gonna be
26:07 working straight right there and then go to work into Viera
26:10 builders because like
26:11 a lot of Palm Bay Viera and Titusville I was up there the other
26:14 day it is insane
26:16 where they need direct workforce and that is gonna fill that so
26:19 this
26:20 classroom edition that we approved tonight is gonna have that
26:22 inside of it
26:23 and it’s absolutely amazing also marine Oh galley high school
26:27 the only marine
26:28 lab that we have inside the entire county and one of the very
26:31 few inside
26:31 the entire state is getting an overhaul and it’s much needed but
26:35 that is the
26:36 most amazing thing because not many people know that we are one
26:38 or two
26:39 largest manufacturers of boats in the United States not many
26:43 people know that
26:43 we have all of their headquarters here and so that program feeds
26:47 a lot of those
26:47 kids that are ins out there and those kids that actually go
26:49 through that the
26:50 certifications they go on and they end up winning awards and
26:54 taking those down
26:55 all the way all over the place in the United States for like
26:57 Evan rude and
26:58 some of those other outboard motors so it’s a phenomenal program
27:01 I was really
27:01 excited about and then we have the FAFSA liftoff I don’t know if
27:05 you guys know
27:06 about it but many of our students do not fill out for they don’t
27:10 fill out
27:11 information for college and when I was a coach at Space Coast
27:15 not to keep talking
27:16 about it and it’ll galley end at the era at the end of the year
27:18 what would end up
27:19 happening is is we would work with those kids to try to fill out
27:22 FAFSA because
27:23 their families wouldn’t fill it out and this is an opportunity
27:25 for our kids to
27:26 receive money and that was one of the only ways these kids could
27:28 actually get
27:29 cool so our school district is taking an initiative to make sure
27:32 that we do that
27:33 at a better rate so thank you dr. Mullins for all of that I do
27:36 want to throw out
27:37 you guys are all invited the Central Florida Manufacturers
27:40 Association is
27:41 hosting a made in Central Florida it’s they’re trying to
27:46 initiate a very large
27:48 initiative to bring manufacturing back past what it is now so
27:51 many of you know
27:52 that right now a lot of the manufacturers that are coming into
27:56 the
27:56 Space Coast are actually denying it right now we’re seeing denials
27:59 and the
27:59 reason is there’s not enough actual housing like they they say
28:03 that they’ll
28:04 come here for their headquarters but then there’s not even
28:06 enough housing
28:06 here for them to move here so what’s happening is the Central
28:09 Florida region
28:10 is working together to create a like a plan across the board and
28:15 I’ll get you
28:16 guys that information but he I sat down with him and he’s gonna
28:18 reach out to
28:19 each one of you guys to talk about what that means and then um
28:22 Andrew ramjet I
28:23 Giles Malone and a host of other athletic groups are gonna form
28:28 the
28:28 Brevard Athletics Association officially we’ve got almost $100,000
28:33 donated and
28:33 that’s for three different things to assist with athletics many
28:36 of the
28:37 situations and I want to say thank you to miss Jenkins for doing
28:39 the work over
28:40 there inside the weight room and that is throughout the entire
28:43 county as far as
28:44 other things that we can help out with vertically integrate
28:47 recreational
28:48 programs with the high school programs so that the coaches that
28:51 are down in
28:51 rec leagues will be able to learn exactly what the high school
28:54 coaches are
28:55 doing and it’s vertical integration we need to start having
28:58 combines for each
28:59 one of the sports and run that so that we can actually get our
29:02 kids to end
29:03 college scholarships and get promoted so I just wanted to say
29:06 thank you to
29:07 everybody and I was quick I just talked a lot so thank you I
29:16 just have a couple
29:17 and first I want to give another shout out to our facilities
29:21 department our
29:23 facilities department where’s she out in the hallway miss Han
29:28 and her department
29:30 it was like if one thing can happen then the next thing will
29:34 happen we had air
29:35 conditioners and chillers go down one after another and schools
29:39 they have no
29:40 fans and moving people and they worked overtime around the clock
29:45 to make sure
29:46 that our schools were cool and able to accommodate our students
29:50 so shout out to
29:51 our facilities department so thank you very much for that and I
29:55 know that miss
29:57 Jenkins has been thanking everyone but miss Jenkins I really
29:59 want to thank you
30:00 for taking the time and being connected and going forward with
30:04 Coco high school
30:05 that when you looked at that weight room it was really dangerous
30:08 and atrocious
30:09 and now it’s fantastic so thank you very much for putting that
30:13 all together I
30:14 appreciate it
30:17 dr. Mullen thank you miss Belford I do want to make a couple
30:21 recognitions I’m
30:22 gonna ask mr. Susan to help me out here don’t break it you have
30:31 to hold it up
30:32 not let it down I’ve got a long got a long speech very excited
30:39 to share that
30:40 for the tenth year in a row the government finance officers
30:43 Association
30:44 has awarded the certificate of achievement for excellence in
30:48 financial
30:49 reporting to Brevard Public Schools for its annual comprehensive
30:52 financial
30:53 report for fiscal year ending June 30 2021 it’s a year lag so we
30:58 know we’re
30:59 just closing 22 but 10 years right there you go the report was
31:04 judged by an
31:04 impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program which
31:07 includes
31:08 demonstrating a constructive spirit of full disclosure to
31:11 clearly communicate
31:13 its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups
31:17 to read
31:17 the report the certificate of achievement is the highest form of
31:21 recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial
31:24 reporting and
31:25 its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a
31:28 government and its
31:29 management would you please join me I know we have some of our
31:33 accounting
31:33 services team here in the room so can I ask all of our
31:37 accounting services folks
31:38 I see you back there come on stand up
31:50 congratulations and we know that that is no small accomplishment
31:55 ten years in a
31:57 row takes consistent dedication commitment and attention to
32:01 detail to
32:02 ensure that we can out this award and assure our community that
32:08 we are
32:08 committed to not only full disclosure but using every dollar we
32:13 are interested
32:13 from our taxpayers to the benefit of our students and for return
32:17 on investment
32:18 for our community so thank you for our amazing accounting team
32:21 appreciate you
32:22 and I just want to know whose wall does this hang on because it
32:25 requires like a
32:26 200-pound notice mr. Susan’s had to lean on the counter to to
32:32 hold it up
32:34 congratulations accounting
32:40 and then I also want to take a moment and just share this is an
32:45 amazing story
32:47 of recognition of one of our students the type of young men and
32:51 women that we
32:53 have the privilege of helping raise up so if you’ll indulge me
32:56 for just a couple
32:57 minutes a BPS student was recently honored by the Brevard County
33:00 Fire
33:01 Rescue and the sheriff’s office for using CPR to save the life
33:06 of a girl
33:06 struck by lightning you can see her photo pictures should be on
33:11 the on the
33:11 screen two girls two young ladies Lori age 14 and Mackenzie age
33:17 12 were struck
33:18 by lightning in June Lori was in cardiac arrest and was given
33:23 CPR by Ava age 14
33:26 who was a Merritt Island High School student you see her in the
33:29 middle
33:29 depicted with mr. Reimer the principal Ava was on the phone with
33:34 a 9-1-1
33:35 dispatcher giving CPR directions to Ava the brave actions taken
33:40 by Ava helped
33:41 keep Lori alive until deputies and paramedics arrived thanks to
33:45 everyone
33:45 working together Lori’s life was saved Mackenzie also suffered
33:50 severe injuries
33:51 in the lightning strike but both she and Lori were able to walk
33:54 out of the
33:55 hospital thanks to the quick actions of Ava the 911 dispatcher
33:59 first responders
34:00 and the medical staff at health first in Arnold Palmer Children’s
34:04 Hospital Ava
34:05 and first responders were honored during a special ceremony
34:08 where they received
34:09 certificates and challenge coins for their bravery Ava Lori and
34:13 Mackenzie
34:14 also spent time together during the emotional ceremony and again
34:17 you see
34:18 principal James Reimer from Merritt Island High School he
34:21 attended the event
34:22 and showed his pride for Ava and her actions Lori also recently
34:26 started
34:26 attending Merritt Island High School after recovering from her
34:29 injury these
34:30 are sometimes the otherwise unsung heroes across our community
34:35 who at the
34:36 unlikely young age step forward demonstrate bravery and courage
34:41 and
34:41 reach out to our community resources to save lives literally and
34:47 I just don’t
34:48 think it can be understated how proud we are of Ava for her
34:52 bravery her courage
34:54 and keeping the her wits about her in the midst of a very very
34:58 scary and
34:59 dangerous situation so Ava we’re very proud of you
35:10 all right um I just I just have one pretty quick one and that is
35:15 I know it
35:16 seems like it has been forever but this is our first time
35:19 together since school
35:20 started and like I said it seems like forever ago but I just
35:26 have to give a
35:26 shout out to our entire team for the yeoman’s work that they
35:30 have done to
35:31 start off the school year it certainly has not been without
35:34 challenges and
35:35 tribulations but the team has been more committed than ever at
35:39 every level of
35:40 the organization from our transportation folks and our custodials
35:43 teams and our
35:44 obviously our teachers and our media specialists that are facing
35:47 their own
35:48 challenges and you know our our leadership teams at the schools
35:53 and and
35:53 you you name it across the board everybody has just really
35:58 stepped up to
36:00 take on those challenges with their head high and determination
36:05 that we’re gonna
36:05 do what’s right for our kids so just a huge thank you to all of
36:11 you all right
36:17 that is now going to bring us to the adoption of the agenda dr.
36:22 Mullins madam
36:25 chair and members of the board and this evening’s agenda we have
36:27 the
36:28 administrative staff recommendations the final budget hearing
36:30 which includes a
36:31 presentation time for public comment and five items for board
36:35 action one
36:35 recognition one resolution one presentation 37 consent items two
36:40 action
36:41 items one information item and one board discussion topic
36:45 changes made to the
36:46 agenda since release to the public include the addition of items
36:49 f21
36:49 financial statements for period ending April 30th 2022 and I 60
36:55 budget
36:56 amendments for June 30th 2022 revisions were made to a 7
37:00 administrative staff
37:01 recommendations a 8 final budget hearing presentation a 12 2023
37:07 budget adoption
37:08 d18 transportation update presentation f52 viera high very viera
37:15 high school
37:16 classroom edition h59 procurement solicitations and k61
37:22 legislative
37:23 platform issues all right board I would like to request a motion
37:29 on this very
37:30 specifically if you all will indulge and that is to move item b16
37:35 to immediately
37:36 after adoption of the agenda to allow us to do our recognition
37:39 prior to the
37:40 budget hearing if the board would be so kind
37:46 sure to set it be 16 yes second thank you all in favor please
37:52 signify by
37:52 saying aye aye any opposed same sign all right motion passes 5-0
37:58 mr. Gibbs do I
37:59 need to now adopt the amended motion or the agenda as amended
38:04 okay so I will
38:06 entertain a motion from the board motion and a second all in
38:10 favor please signify
38:11 by saying aye aye any opposed same sign motion passes 5-0 and
38:17 with that we are
38:18 going to move to item b16
38:28 we’re getting there hold on
38:36 all right so that puts us at recognition of visitors
38:40 guests and staff dr. Mullins I was expecting you to go to I got
38:49 you no
38:50 worries dr. Beth Eddie deputy superintendent chief chief HR
38:54 officer
38:55 will provide tonight’s recognition on the 2023 principal
38:59 achievement award for
39:00 outstanding leadership and outstanding assistant principal
39:03 achievement award
39:04 dr. study thank you so much miss Belford board dr. Mullins and
39:09 thank you for your
39:09 flexibility this evening we really appreciate it it is my honor
39:13 and pleasure
39:14 to announce our principal and assistant principal of the Year
39:17 Awards for
39:18 Brevard Public Schools the principal achievement awards for
39:21 outstanding
39:21 leadership and the outstanding assistant principal achievement
39:24 awards were
39:25 established in 1988 to recognize exemplary principles and
39:29 assistant
39:29 principles for their contributions to not only their schools but
39:33 also their
39:33 communities the program honors principals and assistant
39:36 principals who
39:37 have spearheaded initiatives to increase student performance
39:40 promote safe
39:41 learning environments and establish partnerships with parents
39:45 and community
39:45 members we know and appreciate the challenges of being a school
39:49 administrator and all of our finalists and winners being honored
39:52 tonight
39:52 exemplify true leadership determination and professionalism in
39:57 working with
39:58 teachers staff parents district and the community to ensure they
40:03 embody the
40:04 mission of this school district to serve every student with
40:07 excellence as the
40:08 standard they are representative of all of the exemplary school
40:12 leaders we are
40:12 so fortunate to have in BPS joining us for the recognition
40:16 tonight will be Joe
40:17 Flora president and Gary Shiffrin executive director of the Brevard
40:21 Association of School Administrators along with Nancy Thompson
40:25 and Malak
40:25 Hamad from the Community Credit Union and you just so you know
40:29 Community
40:30 Credit Union is a member-owned financial institution that has a
40:33 very long history
40:34 of supporting Brevard Public Schools and tonight is no exception
40:38 they’ll be
40:39 providing our winners with a check and some goodie bags we’ve
40:44 had the privilege
40:45 this year of honoring at this board meeting not only the winners
40:49 from this
40:50 year and the the finalists from this year but also from the two
40:53 previous
40:54 years where we have not been able to bring honorees to a board
40:57 meeting for
40:57 recognition in addition we are also I said this we’re going to
41:01 honor finalists
41:02 this year which we have not done previously as well each of our
41:05 principal
41:06 and assistant principal of the year winners will receive a $500
41:09 check and a
41:10 goodie bag from our amazing business partner Community Credit
41:13 Union and a
41:14 $500 check flowers and a gift card from Brevard Public Schools
41:17 our 220 2023
41:20 finalists for principal and assistant principal of the year will
41:23 each receive
41:24 a 2,000 I’m sorry a twenty two hundred and fifty dollar check
41:28 and flowers from
41:29 Brevard Public Schools prior to beginning the recognitions I’m
41:32 going to
41:33 provide mr. Gary Shiffrin with Brevard Association of School
41:36 Administrators a
41:37 moment at the mic to say a few words and then I’ll be back to
41:39 start the awards
41:40 mr. Shiffrin
41:44 good evening everybody on behalf of the Brevard Association of
41:49 School
41:49 Administrators and the Community Credit Union I want to thank
41:53 the
41:53 superintendent and school board for taking the time to recognize
41:57 these
41:57 outstanding educators who hold very important roles in our
42:01 school system
42:02 although we all agree that the teacher is the most important
42:06 person for the
42:07 success of our students it needs to be said that without the
42:11 support of a great
42:13 principal and assistant principal our teachers would struggle as
42:17 they perform
42:18 their jobs our administrators provide the necessary resources
42:23 the motivation
42:24 the research the encouragement and so many other aspects of
42:28 school life that
42:29 allows our teachers to bring out the best in our students for
42:33 their success
42:34 our administrators put in so many hours as they leave home to go
42:38 to work in the
42:39 dark and in many instances arrive back home well beyond sundown
42:44 and most of
42:46 them do not know what a Monday to Friday job is as they are
42:49 attending the many
42:51 sporting events community meetings fundraisers Odyssey of the
42:55 Mind
42:55 competition robotics future problem-solving dinner fundraisers a
43:00 drama or band performance and that is only a few of the many
43:04 tasks they that
43:05 school administrators are involved in on the weekends and I
43:09 would add that the
43:10 accountability issue has become so important over the past years
43:14 that
43:15 administrators are held responsible for literally everything
43:18 that happens in
43:20 their school we ask so much of our administrators and in Brevard
43:24 County I
43:25 can tell you that your administrators do an awesome job without
43:29 their expertise
43:31 and total commitment we would not be as successful as we have
43:34 been over the
43:35 years where we are indeed one of the top districts in the state
43:40 and let me take a
43:41 moment to comment on the amazing work our administrators have
43:44 done over the
43:45 past two years with the pandemic no one and I mean no one could
43:51 have ever
43:51 predicted what COVID would do to turn our education upside down
43:56 the demands
43:58 not only placed on our teachers but also on our administrators
44:01 stretch them like
44:02 nothing anybody could imagine it was not enough to do what you
44:07 had been trained
44:08 to do but during the past two years administrators were having
44:11 to implement
44:12 new creative programs to keep our students and staff safe as
44:17 well as
44:18 deliver instructional programs to ensure our students were
44:21 progressing and
44:23 learning we are so proud of all of you that are being recognized
44:28 tonight you
44:29 represent the very best we find in our awesome administrators
44:33 this recognition
44:35 puts you in an elite group of former principals and assistant
44:39 principals of
44:39 the year as a former superintendent once told me this is a
44:43 recognition that can
44:45 never be taken away from you indeed congratulations or in order
44:50 and you have
44:51 much to be proud of
44:59 Thank You mr. Schifrin I’m going to start with the honorees from
45:03 our 2021
45:04 principal and assistant principal of the year program and move
45:07 forward to this
45:08 year’s honorees we’re going to take a photo of each one in each
45:11 group
45:11 individually and then at the end we’ll do one large group photo
45:14 of all of the
45:15 honorees at this time I would like for school board chairperson
45:19 mrs. Belford
45:19 superintendent dr. Mark Mullins mr. Joe Flora principal at Space
45:23 Coast junior
45:24 senior high and president of the Brevard schools is Brevard
45:27 Association of school
45:28 administrators mr. Gary Schifrin executive director of the of
45:32 Bassa and
45:32 miss Nancy Thompson and miss Mala khamad with Community Credit
45:36 Union to join us
45:37 in recognizing these outstanding administrators tonight along
45:41 with our
45:42 first honoree Chris Reed former principal and endeavor
45:45 elementary school
45:46 current current director of student services and our first honoree
45:50 to come
45:51 to the podium come on up mr. Reid so we’re gonna let mr. Reid
45:58 gather his
46:00 goodies and come on over here and then I’m going to talk about
46:02 him for a moment
46:12 like Chris
46:15 put a zero
46:19 Chris Reid is our 2021 principal of the year winner who began
46:23 his journey
46:24 serving endeavor the endeavor community in October 2018 upon his
46:29 arrival endeavor
46:30 elementary school was identified by the state as a school in
46:33 turnaround status
46:34 under his leadership mr. Reid created a sense of urgency in
46:39 meeting the needs of
46:40 all students and worked diligently to renew endeavor status as a
46:43 community
46:44 school to provide health care and family support services at the
46:48 school in
46:49 addition he is a leader among leaders and he shares coaching and
46:52 academic
46:53 progress monitoring systems with Brevard and state leaders
46:56 please join me in
46:57 congratulating mr. Chris Reid as the Brevard Public Schools 2021
47:01 principal of
47:02 the year
47:14 you
47:18 thank you the next person that we’re going to
47:23 recognize is not present this evening she Terry Kolaga our 2021
47:28 assistant
47:29 principal of the year I retired shortly after receiving this
47:33 award but I wanted
47:34 to take a moment and just honor her accomplishments so she’s not
47:37 going to be
47:38 up here tonight we will deliver her her goodies to her
47:41 individually miss Kolaga
47:43 was a Rockledge Raider since 1980 in 1995 first hired as a
47:47 social studies
47:48 teacher and then becoming the Dean of students in curriculum AP
47:51 for 21 years
47:52 she served as a mentor to countless new assistant principals
47:56 over the years and
47:57 was passionate about her school her community and most
48:00 importantly the
48:01 success of every student at Rockledge High School mrs. Kolaga is
48:05 the epitome
48:06 of the rock and what it means to bleed greater blue
48:09 congratulations miss Kolaga
48:13 our next principal of the year and assistant principal of the
48:21 Year honorees
48:22 are from 2022 mr. Judd Kaminsky and miss Denise Stewart but both
48:27 of you please
48:28 come up and join us at the front of the room
48:43 so I’m going to start with mr. Kaminsky mr. Kaminsky our 2022
49:07 principal of the
49:08 year began his tenure at Palm Bay Magnet High School in January
49:12 2016 having
49:13 worked in the community and also as a graduate of Palm Bay High
49:17 School he knew
49:18 many of the parents students and community members and was able
49:21 to
49:21 immediately build upon those relationships mr. Kaminsky
49:25 encourages
49:26 students to do their best and promotes their successes through
49:29 the Palm Bay
49:29 Magnet High School Facebook page on Bay Magnet High School
49:32 offers students a
49:33 variety of opportunities to include over 20 advanced placement
49:36 courses you’ll
49:37 enrollment courses and a variety of CTE courses and is proud to
49:41 be the only
49:42 school in the county to offer a special program with Florida
49:45 Institute of
49:46 Technology the Pirates to Panthers program allows Palm Bay High
49:49 School
49:50 students to take classes at FIT during their 11th and 12th grade
49:53 years free of
49:54 charge and students who successfully complete six credit hours
49:57 with a 3.0
49:59 grade point average will be automatically accepted for admission
50:02 mr.
50:03 Kaminsky is a strong professional leader who is committed to the
50:06 success of his
50:07 students staff in Palm Bay High School please join me in congratulating
50:11 Judd
50:12 Kaminsky as Brevard Public Schools 2022 principal of the year
50:22 not to miss Denise Stewart receiving Brevard’s 2022 assistant
50:27 principal of
50:27 the year award is Denise Stewart Stewart who received this award
50:30 while assistant
50:31 principal at Cocoa High School he is now principal at Cocoa High
50:35 School so
50:35 congratulations twice since arriving at Cocoa miss Stewart has
50:40 worked tirelessly
50:41 to become part of the fabric that makes up the Cocoa High School
50:44 community she
50:45 has a tenacious belief in her students abilities and is involved
50:48 in all
50:49 academic decisions made for and with those students because of
50:53 miss Stewart’s
50:54 passion for all students she spearheaded a pathway to for
50:58 students to dual enroll
50:59 at Eastern Florida State College called tight Tigers to Titans
51:02 this new pathway
51:03 focuses on non-traditional dual enrollment students and expands
51:07 opportunities for not just high school but also after graduation
51:10 please join me
51:11 in congratulating Denise Stewart as BPS is 2022 assistant
51:16 principal of the year
51:33 you
51:39 thank you congratulations
51:50 give them just a second then I’m going to start with the next
51:54 ones
51:57 new this year we are also honoring our two finalists for 2023
52:05 assistant
52:05 principal and principal of the year miss Jackie and grotta and
52:08 miss Heather Smith
52:09 would you both please come up and join us in the front of the
52:13 room
52:27 you
52:38 the decision to determine the representatives for this year’s
52:41 principal and assistant principal of the Year Award was made
52:44 exceptionally
52:45 difficult by the high caliber administrators we are so fortunate
52:49 to
52:49 have in Brevard Public Schools and we wanted to ensure that we
52:52 also recognize
52:53 this year’s finalists as well as our winners I’m going to start
52:56 with miss
52:56 Jackie and grotta miss Jackie and grotta from Edgewood junior
52:59 senior high school
53:00 is our BPS finalists for 2023 principal of the year and is a
53:04 master mentor
53:05 master mentor leader who has served students and staff at Edgewood
53:09 junior
53:09 senior high for over six years because missing grotta is a
53:12 nationally trained
53:14 mentor there’s a deep understanding of how to be supportive of
53:17 all training
53:18 needs of her teachers and she looks for them to always be the
53:21 best they can be
53:22 for students when the staff at Edgewood were asked what they
53:25 feel has been this
53:26 isn’t grotta single biggest contribution to the culture at Edgewood
53:29 the most
53:30 common answer is her focus on the whole child and the training
53:33 she has brought
53:34 to the school with the same focus please join me in congratulating
53:38 missing grotta
53:38 as finalists for a BPS 2023 Heather Smith who is now the
53:49 principal at Central
53:50 Middle School was previously the assistant principal of the era
53:53 high
53:54 school and as our finalists for assistant principal of the year
53:57 mrs.
53:57 Smith makes every decision with students best interests in mind
54:00 and her
54:01 intentional work the past four years at viera high has
54:04 significantly impacted
54:06 student achievement student culture and the staff on campus she
54:09 is considered a
54:10 leader among her peers and shares best practices with other
54:13 assistant
54:14 principals through coaching and mentoring new assistant
54:16 principals
54:17 please join me in congratulating miss Heather Smith as a finalist
54:20 for BPS 2023
54:22 assistant principal of the year
54:47 thank you
54:52 you
54:57 it is now my honor to introduce and congratulate our 2023 Brevard
55:02 Public
55:03 Schools principal and assistant principal of the year miss Blair
55:07 Lovelace and miss Kelly Groogan would you both please come
55:11 forward
55:22 you
55:36 I’ll start with mrs. Lovelace Blair Lovelace our winner of the
55:41 2023
55:42 principal of the Year award has been the principal at Coquina
55:44 Elementary School
55:45 since 2017 Coquina is a title one school serving a diverse
55:50 population during her
55:51 five years at Coquina miss Lovelace has worked tirelessly to
55:54 improve
55:55 instruction for all students when miss Lovelace took over as
55:58 principal the
55:59 school grade was a D Coquina is now a B under her leadership
56:07 from her first day
56:12 Coquina miss Lovelace made it her mission to have targeted focus
56:15 on core
56:16 strong core instruction for all students he knew for student
56:19 achievement to
56:20 improve that the to improve that the development of
56:22 relationships with
56:23 students families and staff needed to be the priority and it
56:26 still is today miss
56:28 Lovelace is constantly being reflective on the work she and her
56:30 staff are doing
56:31 as she says you can’t be set on something that’s not working her
56:35 recognition of the need for collaboration and communication have
56:38 been essential as she is constantly working with her teachers
56:41 and
56:41 leadership team on what the data show and how to use data to
56:44 move student
56:45 achievement forward her students are her biggest fans and when
56:48 asked to describe
56:49 miss Lovelace either just a few of the words that they say she’s
56:53 interesting
56:55 uplifting supportive she loves us and she’s amazing miss Lovelace’s
57:01 leadership
57:01 at Coquina has positively influenced all aspects of the school
57:04 with the greatest
57:05 impact being student achievement for all students a legacy that
57:09 will last for
57:09 years to come please join me in congratulating miss Blair Lovelace
57:15 as our
57:19 I’m gonna take a second if anyone knows miss Lovelace she knows
57:31 he and her
57:32 school bell right love the bell I I would suggest that we ring
57:37 this bell as
57:37 a ceremonial recognition that we send your applications to be
57:42 principal of the
57:43 year for the state of Florida with great anticipation I put you
57:46 at the top of the
57:48 list in a second we’re so proud of you ring the bell
57:58 miss Kelly Groogan is next receiving provides 2023 assistant
58:03 principal of the
58:04 year award is Kelly Groogan who at the time of the award was the
58:07 assistant
58:08 principal at Riviera Elementary School and is now the assistant
58:11 principal at
58:12 Gardendale separate day school miss Groogan is a go-getter with
58:16 a can-do
58:16 attitude who will find a way to support all stakeholders while
58:20 keeping student
58:21 achievement as the focus when data showed a particular grade
58:24 level
58:24 weakness miss Groogan worked diligently to form a plan with the
58:27 teachers to
58:28 improve student achievement and student performance while
58:31 providing feedback and
58:32 support to ensure the plan was successful miss Groogan has
58:35 handled some
58:36 very difficult situations this past school year while graciously
58:39 covering
58:39 other schools and during these she has demonstrated true
58:43 leadership by acting
58:45 according to established procedures while all the time remaining
58:48 calm and in
58:48 control please join me in congratulating miss Kelly Groogan as BPS
58:52 is 2023
59:15 you
59:20 thank you we’re going to do one group picture of everybody so if
59:24 you all will
59:25 stay up there I’m going to bring everybody else back up
59:45 you
1:00:17 thank you so much and congratulations to our winners
1:00:30 you
1:01:29 board as our esteemed guests are filtering out of the room I do
1:01:32 have a
1:01:34 request from one of our peers for an additional motion on a
1:01:36 rearrangement on
1:01:37 the agenda you are sure I have a request for an additional rearrangement
1:01:44 on the
1:01:44 agenda motion rearrange miss Campbell miss Belford I I move that
1:01:49 we make one
1:01:51 more adjustment to the agenda and move item c-17 our national
1:01:55 suicide
1:01:56 prevention month resolution proclamation to now before we move
1:02:01 on to our
1:02:02 administrative staff recommendations I have a second I have a
1:02:07 second all in
1:02:07 favor please signify by saying I any opposed same sign motion
1:02:20 passes 5-0 so
1:02:22 that then is going to take us in - yes our resolution tonight’s
1:02:31 resolution is
1:02:32 to approve the month of September as national suicide prevention
1:02:35 month mr.
1:02:35 Russell Broon chief strategic communications officer will read
1:02:38 the
1:02:38 resolution mr. Broon
1:02:43 sorry I guess I could have given you some warning on them no I’m
1:02:47 coming up
1:02:48 good evening everybody this is also national suicide prevention
1:02:52 week well so
1:02:53 it’s appropriate whereas September is designated as national
1:02:57 suicide
1:02:58 prevention month as recognized by the National Association of
1:03:01 Mental Illness
1:03:01 and whereas many health officials and community leaders locally
1:03:05 state and
1:03:06 nationally understand that mental illness is a significant issue
1:03:09 of
1:03:10 concern particularly among our youth and whereas the coven 19
1:03:14 pandemic that
1:03:15 depth for mental effect on many students mental health and
1:03:18 whereas we realize
1:03:19 that to address mental health issue requires more open and
1:03:23 honest
1:03:23 discussions about mental health and whereas one major hurdle to
1:03:27 removing
1:03:27 the stigma attached to mental health treatment and discussion
1:03:30 and whereas
1:03:31 parents leaders administrators coaches mentors public officials
1:03:35 and peer
1:03:36 students recognize the importance of emotional health and
1:03:38 whereas we can all
1:03:40 play a valuable role in assisting others who may show symptoms
1:03:43 of stress
1:03:44 depression anxiety or mental illness now therefore be resolved
1:03:48 that the Brevard
1:03:49 Public School Board supports the education of staff parents and
1:03:53 students
1:03:53 on symptoms of and help for mental health problems and be it
1:03:58 further
1:03:59 resolved that for our public school staff will encourage a
1:04:01 positive a school
1:04:03 environment and encourage helping others while also promoting
1:04:06 access to school
1:04:07 based mental health supports and recognizing when young people
1:04:10 are at
1:04:11 risk for or experiencing mental health problems adopted by the
1:04:14 members of the
1:04:15 Brevard Public School Board of our County Florida at the regular
1:04:19 open
1:04:19 public meeting held on the eighth day of September 2022 Thank
1:04:24 You mr. Brun I’ll
1:04:26 entertain a motion second moved by miss Jenkins seconded by I
1:04:32 think this would
1:04:32 Google miss Campbell is there any discussion I I would just say
1:04:38 that we’ve
1:04:39 witnessed tonight a lot of the people who are intricately
1:04:47 involved in the
1:04:48 mental health response of our schools we’ve had assistant
1:04:53 coaches mentors
1:04:55 volunteers our administrators of course we’ve had you know
1:05:00 teachers and we’re
1:05:02 going to be talking about you know bus drivers later and so I’m
1:05:05 just so
1:05:06 thankful that our staff but also our community has come around
1:05:09 us and we and
1:05:10 it’s it’s not we’re not done we need more mentors more
1:05:15 volunteers to be a
1:05:17 part of the equation along with our community support you know
1:05:20 we have many
1:05:21 members of our community here tonight to join us tonight and in
1:05:24 this recognition
1:05:26 but I’m just thankful that we were able to see how many times
1:05:29 did we hear in
1:05:30 that recognition of our administrators alone and in our
1:05:32 assistant coach that
1:05:34 how what an impact they had on their students and as well as
1:05:38 their their
1:05:40 peers and the teachers who work with under them and and so what
1:05:44 a great
1:05:45 recognition of them just all fits together in our in our agenda
1:05:49 for this
1:05:50 evening absolutely Thank You miss Campbell any additional
1:05:53 discussion
1:06:01 all right all in favor please signify by saying aye aye any
1:06:05 opposed same sign the
1:06:07 motion passes 5-0 yes and thank you to our guests who
1:06:12 joined us for the the resolution this evening as well
1:06:20 good evening I’m John at Geneling with Space Coast Health
1:06:21 Foundation and I want
1:06:23 to thank you for this opportunity to say a few words about the
1:06:26 resolution on
1:06:27 mental health many of you know that the mission of the Space
1:06:30 Coast Health
1:06:31 Foundation is to enhance the health and wellness of everyone in
1:06:35 Brevard in the
1:06:36 more than 10 years that we’ve been in existence we’ve
1:06:39 collaborated on numerous
1:06:40 projects with the schools as it relates to this mission and I
1:06:43 thank you for
1:06:44 those opportunities to do so of course this mission involves
1:06:48 mental
1:06:48 health which to which statistics show is one of our communities
1:06:54 most pressing
1:06:55 health needs which is why it is the foundation’s number one
1:06:58 priority our
1:07:00 recent released community health needs assessment for the Space
1:07:04 Coast showed
1:07:05 that 27% of Brevard residents were experiencing fair to poor
1:07:11 mental health
1:07:12 that’s up from sixteen point two percent just three years ago
1:07:17 for our children
1:07:18 between the ages of five and seventeen that figure has jumped
1:07:22 from eleven
1:07:23 percent three years ago to sixteen point one percent this year
1:07:28 obviously we are
1:07:29 concerned at the foundation we use task forces comprised of
1:07:33 health officials and
1:07:34 community leaders including representatives from the school
1:07:37 district I want to thank Chris Moore and Jana Jenkins and Kelly
1:07:42 Seria for their
1:07:43 participation in these meetings these task forces help us to
1:07:47 prioritize
1:07:48 resources and make decisions on grant distributions last year at
1:07:53 one of our
1:07:54 behavioral health task force meetings it came to our attention
1:07:58 about recent
1:07:59 suicides of school children on the Space Coast we also were
1:08:03 informed that some of
1:08:05 these potential tragedies were averted because school staff were
1:08:09 trained and
1:08:10 made aware of the real possibility of students harming
1:08:12 themselves I want to
1:08:15 publicly thank the school staff for their quick action we have
1:08:18 enormous
1:08:19 gratitude to you for averting what could have been a tragedy and
1:08:23 saving students
1:08:24 lives upon learning this we decided to create a committee to
1:08:29 specifically look
1:08:30 at the issues of student mental health and suicide and find
1:08:33 areas where we as a
1:08:35 foundation and as a community could help Catherine daughter from
1:08:39 the Catholic
1:08:40 Charities central Brevard who is here with me tonight there’s
1:08:44 this task force
1:08:45 and because we knew we needed student input as we moved through
1:08:48 this
1:08:49 discussion we were fortunate to have a Bank of America
1:08:52 leadership summer
1:08:53 intern student on our staff to help her name is Hannah Soleil
1:08:57 she’s a senior at
1:08:59 West Shore and is also here tonight Hannah has agreed to
1:09:03 continue her work
1:09:04 with the committee and to help us thank you Hannah we as a
1:09:09 foundation are
1:09:10 committed to helping the district on its mission to improve
1:09:13 mental health
1:09:14 services and student resources we also want to assist in
1:09:17 rallying students
1:09:18 parents and community and business leaders to focus on this
1:09:22 issue of mental
1:09:23 health one way to help is to start by reducing the stigma
1:09:28 associated with it
1:09:29 this resolution will go a long way in assisting our efforts and
1:09:34 we appreciate
1:09:35 your support I’d now like to give Catherine an opportunity to
1:09:39 give you a
1:09:39 little bit of information on this work of the subcommittee
1:09:49 Thank You Jeanette and thank you to the school board for
1:09:54 allowing me to share
1:09:55 just a few words with you I want to say a very special thank you
1:09:58 before I go on
1:09:59 to Kelly Haskins who’s here with us tonight from the launch
1:10:02 credit union
1:10:03 whose son Hunter died by suicide one year ago Hunter was a Merritt
1:10:09 Island
1:10:09 high school graduate who took his life during his first year as
1:10:13 a student at
1:10:14 UCF thank you Kelly for being a part of our sub task force for
1:10:18 lending your
1:10:19 experience and your strength to our suicide prevention efforts
1:10:23 in Brevard
1:10:24 and as some of you may know she has put together a number of
1:10:28 suicide awareness
1:10:29 events for this Saturday on Merritt Island under the theme of
1:10:33 you matter
1:10:34 Merritt Island and I have to say Kelly I’m all inspired by your
1:10:38 bravery and
1:10:39 your drive to your grief thank you there has been an increase in
1:10:46 the reported
1:10:47 youths youth suicidal thoughts attempts and completions in the
1:10:53 county of Brevard
1:10:54 so the data for this remains incomplete at this time the Florida
1:10:59 health charts
1:11:00 shows that the death rate by suicide has risen for youth from 0
1:11:05 to age 19 in
1:11:07 Brevard to 1.4 in 100,000 in the year 2020 this compares to a 3.1
1:11:15 per 100,000
1:11:16 overall for our state as a parent of two teen daughters my
1:11:22 eldest of which Hannah
1:11:23 is a survivor of the Sandy Hook school shootings almost a decade
1:11:27 ago I am very
1:11:29 much aware of the consequences of unnoticed and unattended
1:11:35 mental health
1:11:36 issues and their cost to our families and to our community the
1:11:40 youth
1:11:40 prevention suicide sub task force is comprised of members of our
1:11:44 community
1:11:45 lifetime counseling Brevard public schools Brevard cares the
1:11:49 National
1:11:50 Center for Innovation and Excellence Catholic Charities and
1:11:53 Space Coast
1:11:54 Health Foundation members the task force exists to create
1:11:58 strategies and make
1:11:59 recommendations to the behavioral health task force on actions
1:12:03 to close the
1:12:04 stigma gap that exists between youth and their parents or adult
1:12:08 caregivers on
1:12:09 emerging mental health issues and to create a readily accessible
1:12:13 coping skill
1:12:14 connection and implementation and support for youth throughout
1:12:18 our county
1:12:18 by these efforts we will spark the difficult conversations to
1:12:24 create to
1:12:25 create a supportive and responsive environment for our youth and
1:12:28 empower
1:12:29 our young people to help themselves and each other get connected
1:12:33 before suicide
1:12:34 becomes a viable option in their thought processes this
1:12:37 resolution this coming
1:12:39 together of our school and our community will give us the
1:12:42 opportunity to stretch
1:12:43 farther to reach out to lean in into the lives of our young
1:12:49 people and I thank
1:12:50 you very much thank you we appreciate all the work you all are
1:12:53 doing
1:13:13 you
1:13:49 okay good stuff this evening all right dr. Mullins we are moving
1:13:56 to
1:13:56 administrative staff recommendations you ready
1:14:00 yes I think I have refound my place in all of the adjustments
1:14:08 miss Belford and
1:14:08 members of the board there are two items for your consideration
1:14:11 you hear a motion
1:14:13 move move by miss McDougal seconded by miss Campbell page 3 miss
1:14:18 Jenkins oh you
1:14:20 don’t have a page 3 nevermind administrative staff
1:14:22 recommendations so
1:14:26 I have a motion and I have a second any discussion all in favor
1:14:29 please signify
1:14:30 by saying aye aye any opposed same sign motion passes 5-0 dr.
1:14:35 Mullins thank you
1:14:37 I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize and congratulate
1:14:40 miss Tina
1:14:41 Mila who is here with us this evening miss Milo is being reclassed
1:14:45 from the
1:14:46 position of ESC support specialists and administrative support
1:14:50 to the position
1:14:51 of assistant principal at Space Coast junior senior high school
1:14:54 effective
1:14:55 September 12th congratulations hi thank you so much I want to
1:15:05 thank dr.
1:15:06 Fontaine the ESC side of the house been doing it a long time and
1:15:08 learned a ton
1:15:09 but super happy to join the Space Coast team I’ve been with them
1:15:12 for two years
1:15:13 as their staffer so excited to be part of their administrative
1:15:17 team they are
1:15:17 phenomenal and I’m just thrilled so thank you thank you dr.
1:15:22 Sullivan
1:15:22 flora I’m really excited thank you
1:15:27 go bikers
1:15:34 all right that is going to move us to the final budget hearing
1:15:38 portion of the
1:15:39 agenda dr. Mullins
1:15:48 all right first miss Lisinski our chief financial officer will
1:15:51 provide a
1:15:52 presentation on the proposed 2022 2023 millage levy and final
1:15:58 budget miss
1:16:00 Lisinski
1:16:12 maybe the look didn’t she
1:16:30 you
1:16:45 good evening before I start I wanted to acknowledge Susan denier
1:16:51 and Diane
1:16:51 lichenstein for their incredible heavy lift of completing the
1:16:58 annual financial
1:16:59 report and building the FY 23 budget these two ladies have just
1:17:07 amazing
1:17:08 experience and they’ve come in and looked at processes that we
1:17:13 have done
1:17:13 since I don’t know the dawn of time and they’ve looked at those
1:17:19 processes they
1:17:20 automated they say why do we do this they are just making
1:17:25 incredible changes
1:17:26 and they’re both five star servant leaders that I can’t say
1:17:33 enough about
1:17:34 and I can’t explain how amazing they both are that said I also
1:17:41 have a lot of
1:17:42 gratitude for the entire BPS team we couldn’t do anything
1:17:47 without ET we
1:17:48 couldn’t do you know the grant managers as resource advisors the
1:17:53 bookkeepers
1:17:54 even if we count on everyone and we all know that there’s a lot
1:17:59 of vacancies in
1:18:02 for teachers for bus drivers but also accountants and budgeteers
1:18:10 and
1:18:10 bookkeeper turnover there’s just a lot out there and these two
1:18:17 ladies just
1:18:18 pulled it together with their influence and experience and I
1:18:22 just can’t thank
1:18:23 them enough so this is the second and final budget hearing to
1:18:34 adopt the FY 23
1:18:36 millage rates as well as the FY 23 tentative budget this
1:18:40 tentative budget
1:18:42 was built with our four guiding principles in mind protection of
1:18:47 an
1:18:47 excellent education protection of the effective workforce
1:18:51 maintain the fiscal
1:18:52 strength of the district and protection of the taxpayer
1:19:00 interests
1:19:01 tonight’s public hearing agenda includes a presentation on
1:19:04 proposed millage and
1:19:06 budget an opportunity for public comment and board member
1:19:10 discussion a request
1:19:12 that you adopt a resolution setting the proposed total millage
1:19:16 levy that was set
1:19:18 by the state to support the FY 23 tentative budget a request
1:19:23 that you adopt
1:19:24 resolutions approving this FY 23 tentative budget as presented
1:19:29 and
1:19:30 request authorizing the superintendent and staff to perform all
1:19:34 necessary
1:19:34 actions to comply with the truth in millage requirements the
1:19:41 truth in millage
1:19:42 legislation was enacted in 1980 to redirect taxpayers concern
1:19:48 over rising
1:19:49 taxes from the property appraisers who do not control the levying
1:19:53 of taxes
1:19:54 toward the government taxing authorities that set the tax rates
1:19:59 the truth in
1:20:00 millage legislation requirements are detailed under Florida
1:20:03 statutes trim
1:20:05 timelines are very prescriptive in law and the clock started on
1:20:09 July 1st the
1:20:11 total timeline to budget adoption is 80 days the statute
1:20:16 dictates dictates the
1:20:18 order of business during the budget hearings as laid out in the
1:20:22 previous
1:20:22 slide and trim requires two public hearings for open discussion
1:20:27 of the
1:20:27 millage rates and the proposed budget
1:20:35 millage is a term that represents the tax rate levied on
1:20:38 property one mill is
1:20:40 equivalent to one dollar in taxes per $1,000 in taxable value if
1:20:46 your home has
1:20:48 a taxable value of $100,000 and you’re assessed a mill tax rate
1:20:53 you will pay
1:20:53 $100 in taxes
1:20:58 the Florida education finance program is a mechanism by which
1:21:03 state and local
1:21:04 funds are allocated to Florida school districts the Florida
1:21:08 legislature sets
1:21:10 the required local effort millage rates and the school districts
1:21:13 receive their
1:21:14 rate no later than July 19th in the FEFP second calculation the
1:21:20 school board must
1:21:21 levy the required local effort millage rates in order to receive
1:21:25 any state
1:21:26 funding under the Florida education finance program
1:21:33 the total proposed millage related to school funding for fy23
1:21:39 school year
1:21:40 totals five point four nine five mills this millage rate will
1:21:44 generate revenue
1:21:45 for the general operating and capital outlay funds the required
1:21:50 local effort
1:21:50 rate adjusts year to year why the discretionary and local
1:21:55 capital remain
1:21:56 fixed
1:22:02 the required local effort and discretionary millage makes up the
1:22:07 district’s local operating funds at two two hundred and forty
1:22:11 point one million
1:22:12 dollars and on the capital side the local capital improvement
1:22:16 millage
1:22:17 generates ninety point two million dollars at a ninety six
1:22:21 percent sorry
1:22:23 collection rate as started in the park is stated in the prior
1:22:28 slides the board
1:22:29 must levy the required local effort in order to receive BPS’s
1:22:33 total fy23 school
1:22:36 operating funding from the state the discretionary local effort
1:22:41 millage will
1:22:42 garner forty five million dollars when combined with the RLE we
1:22:47 get the
1:22:48 district’s local portion of two hundred and forty point one
1:22:52 million dollars this
1:22:54 is forty percent of the fy23 FEFP school operating funding the
1:23:00 state funding is
1:23:03 370.7 million and the total FEFP calculation is six hundred and
1:23:09 ten point
1:23:10 eight million dollars the total FEFP includes a pass-through of
1:23:16 over a
1:23:17 hundred and six million dollars for charter schools and private
1:23:20 school
1:23:21 scholarships when a school district levies point seven four
1:23:26 eight Mills and
1:23:27 it generates an amount of funds per FTE that is less than the
1:23:31 state average of
1:23:34 seven hundred nineteen point six two the school district will
1:23:39 receive a
1:23:40 discretionary millage compression supplement that will bring the
1:23:44 direct
1:23:45 the district up to the state average in the case of Brevard our
1:23:49 point seven four
1:23:51 eight Mills generated five hundred ninety six point six two
1:23:56 dollars per FTE
1:23:57 in order to get the state average the state provide an
1:24:01 additional 123 dollars
1:24:04 per FTE which equates to nine point three million dollars the
1:24:09 local capital
1:24:11 improvement millage or LCI will provide the district
1:24:17 ninety point one million dollars
1:24:21 thirty seven point six million comes off the top as it is used
1:24:25 to pay the
1:24:26 district’s debt service which covers principal and interest
1:24:29 payments for
1:24:30 previously bonded debt that was issued primarily between the
1:24:34 years 1996 to 2008
1:24:37 to build schools and provide for major renovations that are
1:24:41 older schools LCI
1:24:43 contributes ten point three million towards maintenance labor
1:24:47 costs LCI also
1:24:49 pays for the district’s property insurance which leaves thirty
1:24:53 six point
1:24:54 two million for capital project needs throughout the district
1:25:04 this slide depicts a historic millage rates over the last 13
1:25:08 years fy12 is the
1:25:10 high-water mark millage rates have continued to decline each
1:25:14 year as our
1:25:15 property values continue to increase in the county
1:25:27 as required by trim we must compare the proposed millage rate to
1:25:30 the rollback
1:25:32 rate when property values rise property taxes generate more
1:25:36 revenue for the
1:25:38 total revenue generated to to stay the same as the prior year
1:25:42 the tax rate must
1:25:44 decrease so the rollback rate rolls back the rate as property
1:25:49 values increase it
1:25:51 represents what the rate would be in order to levy the same
1:25:55 amount of tax
1:25:56 dollars as the prior year under trim the rollback rate is the
1:26:01 basis for
1:26:01 determining if tax rates have increased or decreased the rollback
1:26:06 rate is
1:26:07 normally less than the proposed tentative rate because
1:26:10 maintaining
1:26:11 revenue at the same level as the previous year does not provide
1:26:16 for
1:26:16 funding new student growth or basic inflationary cost increases
1:26:31 this slide depicts the annual certified school property tax
1:26:35 values going back 15
1:26:37 years FY 9 FY 2009 was the highest annual tax roll prior to the
1:26:45 Great
1:26:45 Recession property values continue to increase each year since
1:26:50 FY 13 with the
1:26:52 most significant change this year last year when I presented
1:26:57 this slide the EDR
1:26:58 estimate for Brevard’s FY 23 school tax roll was an increase of
1:27:06 six point nine
1:27:06 percent and you can see it came in at twenty point nine nine
1:27:12 percent and it
1:27:14 did not come close to the sixty two point six billion until
1:27:19 around 2025
1:27:27 this slide illustrates the changes in school related property
1:27:31 taxes for a
1:27:32 homeowner over a seven-year span in this example we started with
1:27:37 a home valued at
1:27:38 two hundred thousand in 2016 and increased the assessed value by
1:27:43 three
1:27:44 percent each year the maximum allowable under save our homes in
1:27:49 2016 the home
1:27:51 would have generated roughly one thousand two hundred and ten
1:27:55 dollars in
1:27:56 school related property tax if the owner qualified for save our
1:28:01 homes by 2022
1:28:04 school year the assessed value of that same home would be two
1:28:08 hundred and thirty
1:28:10 eight thousand eight eight hundred and ten dollars based on that
1:28:14 valuation the
1:28:16 school related property tax would be a thousand one hundred and
1:28:23 seventy four
1:28:24 this is a decrease of thirty five dollars eighteen cents from
1:28:28 the 2021
1:28:30 tax year and across five year a total decrease of thirty five
1:28:35 point thirty
1:28:36 five dollars and forty one cents
1:28:44 so what does this mean you can see that a three point three
1:28:50 dollars and twenty
1:28:51 one cents a day is critical in serving our children’s education
1:28:56 this is less
1:28:57 than the cost of a Starbucks coffee per day and pays for a tutor
1:29:03 once a week for
1:29:05 one hour
1:29:11 over the last several years we faced much uncertainty about the
1:29:15 economy and
1:29:16 how life after the pandemic would look like in the county state
1:29:20 nation and
1:29:21 globally early 2022 has been challenging with mass massive
1:29:27 supply disruptions
1:29:28 resulting from the ongoing pandemic the Russia’s invasion of
1:29:33 Ukraine
1:29:34 additionally the conflict is a major driver increased oil and
1:29:38 food prices job
1:29:40 openings across the nation are at all-time highs which we are
1:29:44 all well
1:29:45 aware as we posture ourselves to recruit and retain Brevard’s
1:29:50 best to teach and
1:29:51 support our community’s future this is a long way of saying our
1:29:55 proposed budget
1:29:57 is our best estimate of revenue against expenses at a snap
1:30:01 snapshot in time this
1:30:04 budget is not money in the bank we are optimistic about our
1:30:08 enrollment as
1:30:09 membership continues to grow and we are also very aware that
1:30:14 rising inflation
1:30:15 will directly and indirectly increase our expenses using a
1:30:19 common phrase from
1:30:21 my military days no plan survives first contact we are prepared
1:30:26 to make
1:30:27 necessary adjustments to ensure we have resources available to
1:30:30 meet the needs of
1:30:32 every student
1:30:34 this is the district’s total proposed budget in summary form
1:30:41 the general fund is where most operating expenditures are paid
1:30:46 and provided
1:30:47 and about 97% of the general operating dollars come from the FEFP
1:30:55 the debt
1:30:55 service fund is used to pay for the outstanding bonds of the of
1:31:00 the district
1:31:01 primarily a primary resource is the transfer from local capital
1:31:05 improvement
1:31:06 funding the capital projects fund accounts for
1:31:11 major construction and renovation projects the district receives
1:31:15 minimum
1:31:15 state support our primary sources are sales surtax property tax
1:31:20 and impact
1:31:21 fees the special the special revenue fund consists of food
1:31:26 services federal
1:31:28 education stable stabilization funds schools internal accounts
1:31:33 and special
1:31:34 revenue fund other which encompasses federal grants the food
1:31:40 service program
1:31:41 continues to be a self-supporting operation with the 68.7
1:31:47 million dollar
1:31:48 budget its funding is primarily from federal reimbursement USDA
1:31:54 commodities
1:31:55 and local sales the projected budget for federal education
1:32:00 stabilization funds is
1:32:03 149.3 million the purpose of these federal dollars are to
1:32:08 address the
1:32:08 impact of kobe 19 to include the areas most impacted by the
1:32:13 disruption and
1:32:14 closure of schools sustain operations and support academic
1:32:18 acceleration others
1:32:20 stabilization grants that come in throughout the year will be
1:32:24 amended into
1:32:25 the budget as approved the school internal funds budget the
1:32:29 school
1:32:30 internal funds budget is 21.2 million these funds are
1:32:35 administered by each
1:32:37 individual school parents and community support generate funding
1:32:42 for this
1:32:42 account examples include front of funds from ticket sales fees
1:32:47 gifts
1:32:48 contributions made by music or athletic booster clubs civic
1:32:52 organizations parent
1:32:54 teacher organizations and school fundraising these these funds
1:33:01 pay for
1:33:02 items such as uniforms field trips travel and sports officiating
1:33:06 revenues
1:33:07 and related expenditures decreased in fy21 and returned to pre kovat
1:33:13 levels
1:33:14 this past year for 2023 school year we expect activity levels at
1:33:20 the at higher
1:33:22 or at the same or slightly higher as last year as the special
1:33:28 revenue other
1:33:29 funds budget is sixty three point five million the source of
1:33:34 these dollars are
1:33:35 from federal grant programs these revenues are restricted for
1:33:39 specific
1:33:40 purposes such as title one IDEA Perkins and Perkins is funds and
1:33:51 experience
1:33:51 opportunity for every child to explore and follow career and
1:33:56 technical
1:33:56 education programs and pathway to earn credentials the internal
1:34:02 service fund
1:34:03 budget is ninety three point seven million dollars and this
1:34:09 includes the
1:34:10 district’s medical property and general liability insurance and
1:34:15 workers
1:34:16 compensation claims an enterprise fund is our school-age child
1:34:22 care program
1:34:22 their budget is five point one million this is self-supporting
1:34:26 fun through
1:34:27 customer charges
1:34:35 this slide projects our ending fund balance for fy23 for all
1:34:40 five funds
1:34:42 using the operating fund as an example starting with the top box
1:34:47 on the left
1:34:47 hand side you see that our beginning balance which which is also
1:34:53 our fy22
1:34:54 ending balance is fifty point six million dollars going down the
1:35:00 column we
1:35:01 established five hundred and ninety nine point five million in
1:35:08 in revenues transfers ends in at twenty eight point four million
1:35:13 which
1:35:13 includes revenue for from facility or facility maintenance labor
1:35:20 property
1:35:21 insurance and capital for charter schools which you also know is
1:35:26 Pico we
1:35:28 are also projecting to receive a transfer of two point three
1:35:31 million from
1:35:32 the enterprise fund this gives us a total revenue of six hundred
1:35:36 and twenty
1:35:36 seven point nine million dollars less estimated expenditure
1:35:41 leaves a projected
1:35:43 fy23 fund balance of forty eight point five million
1:35:48 the bottom box depicts how the fund balance is reported not non
1:35:54 spendable
1:35:55 fund balance are amounts that are not in a spendable form and
1:36:00 this represents
1:36:02 inventory of six hundred and seventy six thousand and prepaid
1:36:07 property insurance
1:36:08 restricted amounts are constrained to specific purposes by the
1:36:13 providers this
1:36:14 the ten point seven million is unspent state categorical
1:36:19 balances to be rolled
1:36:21 forward a signed fund balance are amounts intended for a purpose
1:36:27 the twelve
1:36:28 point three million includes five point seven million of project
1:36:31 balances from
1:36:32 grant donations and school operating unspent balances encumbrances
1:36:38 of three
1:36:39 million and health care infusion of two point seven million unassigned
1:36:44 is where
1:36:45 you’ll find our board contingency funding
1:36:51 so that is the presentation and we recommend the adoption of the
1:37:02 proposed
1:37:02 total millage levy that was set by the state to support the fy23
1:37:08 tentative
1:37:09 budget and we also recommend that you adopt resolutions
1:37:12 approving the fy23
1:37:14 tentative budget as presented are there any questions Thank You
1:37:20 miss
1:37:20 lasinski any questions from board members before I open up to
1:37:22 the public
1:37:23 hearing nope all right the hearing is now open for public
1:37:28 comments we will in
1:37:29 accordance with Florida law accept the speakers in the following
1:37:31 order of the
1:37:31 2023 proposed millage levy followed by the 2023 final budget is
1:37:36 there any
1:37:37 individual who would like to address the 2023 proposed millage
1:37:41 levy is there any
1:37:43 individual who would like to address the 2023 proposed millage
1:37:48 levy all right is
1:37:49 there any individual who would like to address the 2023 final
1:37:53 budget is there
1:37:54 any individual who would like to address the 2023 final budget
1:38:11 firstly thank you all for all your hard work and please don’t
1:38:15 take any of this
1:38:16 as a personal attack I my only concern is that we don’t have
1:38:24 where the dollars
1:38:25 and cents are going all we have is a general pot of where our
1:38:29 money is going
1:38:29 and I feel that that’s extremely irresponsible to pass a budget
1:38:35 that we
1:38:35 don’t know where the dollars are going I’ve said this countless
1:38:41 times the
1:38:42 people need to see where our dollars are being spent you know we’re
1:38:49 talking about
1:38:51 almost 1.5 billion dollars here this isn’t a little bit of chump
1:38:57 change this
1:38:58 is a lot of money could pay a lot of teachers and now this board
1:39:05 is asking to
1:39:06 get more of our money and we don’t even know where our money is
1:39:13 going now do any
1:39:16 of have any of you looked at the budget have any of you looked
1:39:20 at where all of
1:39:21 our dollars and cents are going you’re supposed to be up there
1:39:25 representing us
1:39:27 protecting us protecting our interests providing a quality
1:39:31 education for our
1:39:32 children providing a safe environment for our children we have
1:39:38 air
1:39:38 conditioning that is out constantly we have a new system that
1:39:44 went into our
1:39:45 buses that the first few weeks of school was crashing and people
1:39:49 didn’t know
1:39:49 where their kids were this this is a real problem we need to
1:39:57 know where our
1:39:57 money is going thank you Thank You mr. Laney is there any
1:40:02 individual who would
1:40:03 like to address the 2023 final budget yes and I will be happy to
1:40:18 address that
1:40:18 when we take a break if you would like to ask me okay miss mercy
1:40:34 good evening
1:40:35 madam chair and board my name is Sarah mercy I’m a wife mother
1:40:38 of two children
1:40:39 Brevard Public Schools taxpayer voter constituent college
1:40:43 student and I live
1:40:44 in district 2 for school board and I just want to echo some of
1:40:48 the sentiments
1:40:49 that mr. Laney had shared I think your group did a great job and
1:40:54 great
1:40:54 presentation and it’s not a personal attack but the issue is
1:40:58 that there needs
1:40:59 to be more transparency as to where are the actual dollars are
1:41:02 going why you
1:41:04 know there’s not amounts on certain contracts that I’ve asked
1:41:12 about we don’t
1:41:13 know I don’t understand why our money isn’t allocated more equitably
1:41:18 across
1:41:19 the district as it should be especially at a school like Endeavor
1:41:22 Elementary and
1:41:23 our schools in Cocoa I mean it I don’t understand why things
1:41:31 aren’t where they
1:41:32 should be and you know if I was working a job at another job and
1:41:37 and I was
1:41:38 accountable to my boss such as the school board is accountable
1:41:42 to the
1:41:43 taxpayers at this point I’d be fired but it was very interesting
1:41:47 the election
1:41:48 results the past couple of weeks so thanks so much and have a
1:41:51 good evening
1:41:51 thanks miss mercy all right is there any of the individual who
1:41:56 would like to
1:41:56 address the 2023 final budget is there any individual who would
1:42:01 like to address
1:42:02 the 2023 final budgets all right the public comment portion of
1:42:06 the hearing is
1:42:07 now closed that brings us to the recommendations for the
1:42:13 adoption of the
1:42:14 proposed millage rates and final budget dr. Mullins Florida
1:42:17 statute 2 0 0 dot
1:42:19 0 6 5 requires each taxing authority levying millage to publicly
1:42:23 state the
1:42:24 name of the taxing authority the rollback rates the percentage
1:42:27 of change
1:42:28 from the rollback rates and the millage rate to be levied prior
1:42:31 to the adoption
1:42:32 of the millage levy resolution in compliance with those
1:42:35 requirements the
1:42:36 following needs to be stated the taxing authority is the school
1:42:40 board of Brevard
1:42:41 County Florida the 2023 rollback rates are required local effort
1:42:47 three point
1:42:47 zero five two zero local discretionary zero point six three
1:42:53 three eight capital
1:42:55 outlay one point two seven one zero total rolled back rate five
1:43:00 point nine
1:43:01 five six eight the total millage rate to be levied exceeds the
1:43:06 total rolled back
1:43:07 rate by ten point eight six percent the proposed 2023 millage
1:43:13 rates on can I
1:43:15 stop you for just one moment yes our total rollback rate should
1:43:18 be four
1:43:19 point nine five six eight and I believe you read it to be five
1:43:22 points something
1:43:24 let me repeat it for the record I apologize it’s all good so the
1:43:28 total
1:43:29 rollback rate is four point nine five six eight
1:43:35 the total millage rate to be levied exceeds the total rollback
1:43:40 rate by ten
1:43:40 point eight six percent the proposed 2023 millage rates are
1:43:47 required local
1:43:48 effort three point two four seven local discretionary zero point
1:43:54 seven four
1:43:55 eight capital outlay one point five zero zero for a total millage
1:44:01 rate five point
1:44:03 four nine five
1:44:07 now we will move to into the five separate motions for the board
1:44:11 to
1:44:11 consider I will read each of these recommendations into the
1:44:14 record and
1:44:14 request board action the first item is to adopt the resolution
1:44:20 setting the
1:44:20 required local effort local discretionary and capital outlay
1:44:25 millage
1:44:25 range of five point four nine five mills for 2023 the written
1:44:34 resolution is
1:44:34 incorporated into this motion by reference what are the wishes
1:44:38 of the
1:44:38 board move by Miss McDougal seconded by Miss Campbell’s are any
1:44:42 discussion all
1:44:44 in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed same sign
1:44:48 motion passes
1:44:49 five zero the next item is to adopt the 2023 final budget in the
1:44:56 following
1:44:56 amounts operating six hundred seventy eight million five hundred
1:45:01 sixty thousand
1:45:02 nine hundred seventy four dollars that service thirty seven
1:45:06 million night nine
1:45:08 hundred ninety seven thousand one hundred ninety seven dollars
1:45:12 capital
1:45:13 outlay three hundred seventy nine million six hundred ninety
1:45:18 four thousand
1:45:19 seven hundred eighty four dollars special revenue three hundred
1:45:23 two
1:45:24 million six hundred ninety eight thousand nine hundred ninety
1:45:27 six dollars
1:45:29 internal service ninety three million six hundred seventy six
1:45:33 thousand forty
1:45:34 one dollars enterprise five million ninety six thousand eight
1:45:40 hundred fifteen
1:45:41 dollars subtotal one billion four hundred ninety seven million
1:45:46 seven
1:45:47 hundred twenty four thousand eight hundred seven dollars less
1:45:50 transfers
1:45:52 sixty seven million five hundred eighty four thousand eight
1:45:55 hundred sixty eight
1:45:56 dollars a total budget one billion four hundred thirty million
1:46:01 one hundred
1:46:02 thirty nine thousand nine hundred thirty nine dollars you can
1:46:05 take a deep breath
1:46:06 now what are the wishes of the board moved by miss McDougal
1:46:13 second second by
1:46:14 miss Jenkins is there any discussion all in favor please signify
1:46:17 by saying aye aye
1:46:18 any opposed same sign motion passes five zero dr. Mullins next
1:46:24 is to authorize the
1:46:24 superintendent to adjust the adopted millage levy and budget due
1:46:28 to changes
1:46:29 in the certified tax roll what are the wishes the board move by
1:46:33 miss McDougal
1:46:34 seconded by miss Campbell any discussion all in favor please
1:46:37 signify by saying aye
1:46:38 aye any opposed same sign motion passes five zero next is to
1:46:44 authorize the
1:46:45 superintendent to for the adopted millage levy resolution to the
1:46:48 Brevard
1:46:48 County property appraiser and tax collector no later than 30
1:46:52 days
1:46:52 following the adjournment of the value adjustment board what are
1:46:55 the wishes of
1:46:56 the board move by miss McDougal seconded by miss Campbell any
1:47:01 discussion all in
1:47:02 favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed same sign
1:47:06 motion passes five
1:47:07 zero and last is to authorize the superintendent to forward the
1:47:12 following
1:47:12 to the designated state agencies one the adopted budget millie
1:47:17 levy resolution
1:47:18 certified tax roll rollback rates proposed millage and certified
1:47:22 copies of
1:47:23 the advertisements for the proposed budget and millage rate to
1:47:27 the state
1:47:27 Department of Education to the millage levy resolution certified
1:47:32 tax roll
1:47:33 rolled back rates proposed millage and certified copies of the
1:47:36 advertisements
1:47:37 for the proposed budget and millage rate to the Department of
1:47:40 Revenue one of the
1:47:41 wishes the board move by miss McDougal seconded by miss Campbell
1:47:46 any discussion
1:47:47 quick question real quick report to the state when I’m sorry the
1:47:54 after report to
1:47:55 the state when does that go to the state has that already gone I
1:47:59 know it’s pretty
1:48:00 close now Monday that’s what it is can you send us a copy of
1:48:04 that after when
1:48:05 you send it oh is that okay already have it yeah we we also sent
1:48:10 that is that
1:48:12 part of okay good but that’s the final one there’s no changes to
1:48:15 that that’s
1:48:15 what’s going to the state that’s what’s going okay perfect
1:48:18 perfect that’s all I
1:48:19 needed to know I was when it was going to the state was what I
1:48:21 was worried about
1:48:22 what’s going on Monday thank you any additional discussion all
1:48:26 in favor please
1:48:27 signify by saying aye aye any opposed same sign motion passes 5-0
1:48:31 the public
1:48:32 hearing is now adjourned absolutely I just wanted to say that
1:48:38 you know the the
1:48:40 board has reviewed the proposed budget all all funds and we
1:48:46 submitted to them
1:48:48 also the effort which is in great detail of how we spend our
1:48:52 dollars so there’s a
1:48:55 lot of information on the site that we have and I’m willing to
1:48:59 share if you
1:49:00 would like to come over we just completed the cost report which
1:49:05 is
1:49:06 incredible detail I mean it’ll make your eyes cross so I just
1:49:11 want to assure you
1:49:12 that this presentation is very very high level but the board has
1:49:17 received all
1:49:18 these and receives quite a few briefings along the way this less
1:49:23 than ski since
1:49:23 you’re on that subject would you mind sharing with our public
1:49:26 where on our
1:49:26 website they can find all of that detailed information I know
1:49:29 that the
1:49:29 cost report may not be posted but as far as navigating to our
1:49:33 budget and the
1:49:34 amendments and all of those sorts of things I’m gonna look at my
1:49:46 yeah so
1:49:48 start at the top of the website go to departments you’ll go down
1:49:51 to an alpha
1:49:52 list of all departments and you’ll see financial services then
1:49:56 you go to the
1:49:57 accounting services like from there
1:50:01 Cooper thank you and thank you miss Lissinsky for providing that
1:50:04 additional
1:50:05 information we appreciate it and we have posted not only the
1:50:07 budget but the after
1:50:09 the annual financial report and historical documents as well
1:50:12 everything
1:50:12 is available online yep thank you all right we are now going to
1:50:18 be moving to
1:50:19 presentations it would be my recommendation board that perhaps
1:50:21 we
1:50:22 take about a 10-minute recess recharge and then we’ll come back
1:50:25 into
1:50:25 presentation okay
1:50:31 you
1:52:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]
2:05:57 Our foremen, our technicians in our bus transportation compound.
2:06:02 The only way we’re able to stay functional with the average age
2:06:06 of the fleet that we have,
2:06:08 is our team does a phenomenal job.
2:06:11 And having served in the role of COO previously,
2:06:14 I got an up close look to see how that all operates.
2:06:18 We keep our aging out buses in our field, and we, for lack of a
2:06:24 better word,
2:06:25 we cannibalize our equipment to keep buses working as functional
2:06:32 as possible.
2:06:33 And so we’re able to utilize our buses longer than I would
2:06:40 suggest other
2:06:42 organizations would be able to because our technicians just do a
2:06:46 great job
2:06:47 of maximizing the parts that we have on hand to keep them going.
2:06:55 Here is a breakdown of our area projections and
2:06:59 the routes and runs that we provide across the district.
2:07:02 You can see that our largest concentration of routes and
2:07:07 runs is most significant in the south area, and
2:07:11 then moving into mid south transportation.
2:07:14 So south is down off of University Park Boulevard.
2:07:19 And that compound serves pretty much all of our schools south of
2:07:19 University Park.
2:07:25 Our mid south area transportation,
2:07:27 we’ve been talking, that’s the compound at the Pineapple Avenue
2:07:31 location.
2:07:32 The board knows that we are looking to relocate that site to a
2:07:35 new site,
2:07:36 hopefully within the next couple years.
2:07:38 And we’re continuing the search process for property to be able
2:07:42 to do that.
2:07:42 Our central area transportation site, certainly a large compound
2:07:46 there,
2:07:47 right off of 520, hosts really is our central hub of operations
2:07:54 for
2:07:54 transportation.
2:07:55 You can see they have a significant number of routes and
2:07:58 runs out of that location.
2:07:59 And then our north area transportation office, up office, State
2:08:05 Road.
2:08:06 I just had a blank, 46, right?
2:08:09 » Off Garden Street.
2:08:10 » Garden Street, thank you.
2:08:11 » Grayfield.
2:08:13 » I kept wanting to say State Road 50, I know that wasn’t right.
2:08:21 I wanted to go back just to highlight, I wanted to mention,
2:08:26 you can see on this first slide, we have 241 routes daily.
2:08:30 That means we have about 240 buses on the road at the same time.
2:08:34 But you saw a couple slides later, well then why do we maintain
2:08:37 400 buses?
2:08:39 We have to have every one of our buses have to go through a
2:08:42 multi
2:08:43 step safety review every 30 days.
2:08:46 So on any given day, one 30th of our fleet has to be off the
2:08:51 road
2:08:51 going through safety check before it can go back on the road.
2:08:55 And that’s done in our bus compounds by our technicians
2:08:59 to meet that safety requirement that’s reported to the state.
2:09:05 Like every department across Brevard Public Schools and
2:09:08 across our community and the country, workforce shortage and
2:09:12 workforce challenges continue to remain a difficulty for
2:09:17 the transportation department.
2:09:19 And I say that with the frustration in one respect,
2:09:26 but with tremendous admiration in the other.
2:09:29 Because our transportation team has come to that challenge with
2:09:32 a can do attitude.
2:09:34 And is continually reevaluating their processes, their routes,
2:09:39 their stops.
2:09:41 And I’ll talk in a moment how that has become increasingly
2:09:43 efficient
2:09:44 with the new Re-Axiom system that we’ve onboarded this year.
2:09:49 But before I do that, I wanna state that our recruitment efforts
2:09:53 that we’ve
2:09:53 highlighted in the past have certainly included our
2:09:58 transportation department.
2:10:00 And we’ve done some even additional things.
2:10:02 You’ll see here that we’ve put in place referral bonuses for
2:10:09 our drivers as well as some sign on bonuses with some
2:10:14 considerable compensation.
2:10:16 And after a year of completion, an additional $1,000 for
2:10:20 our drivers to not only promote recruitment, but
2:10:24 also to reinforce retention from a monetary standpoint.
2:10:29 All of our onboarding costs for our perspective bus drivers is
2:10:34 at no cost.
2:10:35 And we’ve reconfigured our training process.
2:10:39 We used to provide CDL training to get your CDL license.
2:10:44 And then we would put you in a holding pattern and
2:10:46 wait for the hiring process to complete.
2:10:49 And then we would get you onboarded.
2:10:51 Now you’re onboarded before the training.
2:10:54 And as long as you get your CDL, you start working and
2:10:56 earning a paycheck that same day and are paid for
2:11:00 the training that you participated in to get the certification.
2:11:05 In addition, transportation has an open interview window every
2:11:09 Wednesday at
2:11:10 each compound.
2:11:12 They participated in every one of our job fairs throughout the
2:11:16 summer and
2:11:17 at all of these different sites.
2:11:19 And we have additional bus driver fairs coming up in those areas.
2:11:24 This says these are areas of highest need.
2:11:26 I’ll show you a breakdown of where our vacancies are
2:11:30 concentrated in a moment.
2:11:32 And over the last couple weeks, we’ve seen some recent resignations
2:11:38 in the north area, which has now made that a high need area.
2:11:41 And we’re in the process of setting up some job fairs in the
2:11:46 north area as well.
2:11:48 So here you see a breakdown of our current drivers versus
2:11:52 vacancies.
2:11:55 We currently have 229 drivers with 45 vacancies.
2:12:01 That definitely is putting a strain on our capacity to be able
2:12:04 to meet
2:12:05 arrival times that we are satisfied with.
2:12:08 I’ll show that to you in just a moment.
2:12:10 But I would also highlight that that’s a definite improvement
2:12:13 from where we ended
2:12:14 last school year with 63 vacancies.
2:12:18 So we definitely are moving in the right direction.
2:12:21 And I know the transportation team is continually working to
2:12:26 recruit
2:12:28 drivers to their department.
2:12:31 To be able to meet some of the demands of the driver shortage,
2:12:35 the team has just completely dug into the tools and resources
2:12:42 available with this new program called Re-Axiom that they just
2:12:47 onboarded a month or two ago.
2:12:49 And what it does is it allows them to see in real time,
2:12:53 in a much more efficient manner, where the buses are traveling,
2:12:57 the time that they’re spending at the different stops.
2:13:00 And it will help them better manage routing and rerouting
2:13:04 to save time and be more efficient across their different stops.
2:13:12 So I commend our transportation team for fully diving into this
2:13:18 program
2:13:18 and leveraging it for all of the assistance they can provide.
2:13:23 Now, you might suggest this is not a slide that we necessarily
2:13:27 want to put up.
2:13:27 But I have always prescribed to being transparent with our data.
2:13:33 And I would never begin to suggest– and I know Mike doesn’t
2:13:36 either–
2:13:36 that a 71%, 72% on-time arrival rate is not something–
2:13:43 that is not our goal.
2:13:44 That is far from satisfactory.
2:13:47 Our goal, in fact, is a minimum of 90%.
2:13:50 And we’re striving for that by the end of first semester.
2:13:54 With that, we’re looking at collapsing routes, collapsing stops.
2:14:01 If we have two stops that are close to each other with two and
2:14:04 three kids
2:14:04 at them, we can consolidate them.
2:14:06 Students may have to walk a little bit further,
2:14:09 but collapse that to one stop, picking up five students.
2:14:13 And that saves time and provides opportunity
2:14:17 to improve our on-rival time.
2:14:20 Our last year, our average is about 82 and 1/2% on-time arrival.
2:14:25 So we definitely have room to return to where
2:14:30 we were providing service last year.
2:14:33 But that was– but this year, not only–
2:14:37 but we’re experiencing– part of the reason that the arrival
2:14:40 time is down
2:14:41 is our bus utilization from students has grown considerably from
2:14:45 last year
2:14:46 to this year, which is great news.
2:14:51 So I want to take this opportunity to highlight Rayaxium again.
2:14:55 I’m actually going to go to this slide first.
2:14:57 I think it gives a better depiction of what the rollout looked
2:15:00 like of this system.
2:15:01 It was installed on all buses.
2:15:03 They have an iPad-like product on the bus.
2:15:06 Students scan their card.
2:15:08 And it identifies what time they come on the bus and, obviously,
2:15:13 their attendance on that bus ride.
2:15:16 Over 21,000 badges were provided to students.
2:15:21 And kudos to our partners to get all of the badges printed prior
2:15:27 to school.
2:15:28 Most of them went out to students during the registration
2:15:31 process.
2:15:32 And now our bus compounds are providing services
2:15:35 to print badges as they’re needed.
2:15:37 You can see that we’ve begun to launch our bulletin sent to the
2:15:41 school
2:15:41 as well as to parents, giving them updates of where buses are,
2:15:46 where they are en route.
2:15:48 And then very soon, we are planning for by second semester,
2:15:52 parents will be able to directly monitor their students’
2:15:55 progress
2:15:56 on our bus through an app that will be available to them.
2:15:59 And they can see exactly when their student gets on the bus,
2:16:03 when they arrive to school, and so on.
2:16:05 So definitely, parent notification helps with assuring parents
2:16:10 that we know exactly what the experiences that their student is
2:16:14 having.
2:16:14 It helps us manage customer service better
2:16:17 and being increasingly responsive as well as provider–
2:16:21 because we can actually see on our system where buses are on the
2:16:25 road.
2:16:25 And if we get notice of a roadblock in front of their route,
2:16:31 we can give them assistance on where to go to reroute to avoid
2:16:35 extended delays.
2:16:38 As well as we can keep our schools increasingly aware of exactly
2:16:43 what
2:16:43 is going on and when they can expect the buses they normally
2:16:47 have to arrive in their schools.
2:16:51 So with that, I just want to echo again or reiterate my thanks
2:16:55 and appreciation and commendation for our transportation team
2:17:00 and the challenges they face.
2:17:02 I want to extend my sincere and personal thanks
2:17:05 to our families for their patience and understanding.
2:17:10 I had a dad email me about two weeks ago at five something in
2:17:15 the evening,
2:17:16 concerned that there was a breakdown in communication
2:17:19 and unaware of a situation where his son was.
2:17:24 I didn’t get to that email until later in the evening.
2:17:27 And he left his phone number.
2:17:30 And I was concerned.
2:17:31 And I called the dad before I called even transportation.
2:17:35 And I said, I hope you have a positive report for me
2:17:38 because I’m getting right before I get ready to call my
2:17:40 transportation team.
2:17:41 And the dad was very appreciative of the reach out.
2:17:44 And his son had gone home shortly after he had sent the email.
2:17:47 He was extremely kind and accommodating in the midst of the
2:17:51 uncertainty.
2:17:52 And he just thanked us for our work, thanked us
2:17:56 for continuing to assure him that we’ll get better
2:17:59 and that that situation ended positively.
2:18:03 And sent that on to the transportation team.
2:18:06 And they quickly went– could go back because we have reactions
2:18:09 and see exactly where the breakdown was and put a correction in
2:18:15 place.
2:18:15 And I just want to add to my appreciation
2:18:18 to the transportation team that as I have had concerns brought
2:18:22 to my attention
2:18:23 and forward them to the team, without exception,
2:18:26 they’re extraordinarily responsive in following up and providing
2:18:30 support and service to our families.
2:18:32 And again, I would express my appreciation
2:18:35 to our community for their understanding, their patience
2:18:38 as we work through this, and know that we’re
2:18:40 committed to continually improve our processes,
2:18:43 work towards full staffing in our transportation department,
2:18:47 and continually improving our on-time arrivals
2:18:50 and continuing to provide great customer service.
2:18:53 Happy to answer any questions the board may have.
2:19:02 I don’t have any questions, but I just want to also thank
2:19:04 the transportation department.
2:19:05 And every morning when I’m on Merritt Island driving around
2:19:08 and I see the big yellow bus, I want to wave and honk.
2:19:11 But I’m afraid that I would make them nervous.
2:19:13 And I just so appreciate you all.
2:19:15 And I did get behind a school bus the other morning on Tropical
2:19:19 Trail.
2:19:20 And there’s a lot of stops on Tropical Trail, let me tell you.
2:19:24 So I just want to thank you all for the hard work
2:19:27 that you do getting our kids to and from school safely.
2:19:30 So thank you so much.
2:19:33 Anybody else?
2:19:36 Mr. Susan?
2:19:37 Please don’t make that recommendation publicly.
2:19:40 No, I’m not.
2:19:41 What we do up here is a little different.
2:19:45 Dr. Mullins, one of the things I was going to say is that–
2:19:48 I heard that we’re having some people in the north that
2:19:50 are resigning and stuff like that.
2:19:52 Are we doing the same thing that we do for teachers with a post
2:19:55 interview to find out exactly what it is?
2:19:57 And then also, we had spoken before about our administrators,
2:20:04 when we were listening to them before, how the culture, just
2:20:06 like you said,
2:20:07 they’re the bookends, right?
2:20:09 And some of the bus drivers were out there saying,
2:20:11 hey, when I pull up to the school, you know what I mean?
2:20:14 It would be nice if we were just family.
2:20:16 There seems to be that little disconnect.
2:20:18 And I know that you’ve been doing a great job.
2:20:20 And Dr. Miller’s amazing, and his team’s amazing.
2:20:23 But if there’s a way that we can rally around the flag on that
2:20:27 piece,
2:20:27 because these kids are, in some cases, are making
2:20:30 it very difficult on our bus drivers.
2:20:32 With some of the discipline that we’re seeing on top of the bus
2:20:35 post-COVID,
2:20:35 they have forgotten what their rules are.
2:20:37 And quite frankly, some of their parents just don’t control them
2:20:40 like they should.
2:20:41 And our bus drivers are feeling that as the bookends.
2:20:44 So there’s a way for me to get out there some sort of a, hey,
2:20:47 just thank your bus driver Fridays or something, you know what I
2:20:50 mean,
2:20:51 something.
2:20:52 I think it would go a long way for us to collaborate as a team.
2:20:55 So that’s all.
2:20:56 Yeah, I know that our school administrators also greatly
2:20:59 appreciate
2:21:01 the drivers that bring their kids to school.
2:21:04 I want to commend Mike toward the end of last year.
2:21:07 He took his staff out to the schools to meet with all of the
2:21:10 principals
2:21:11 and engage with them personally just to build that collaboration
2:21:15 and that connection and to build a culture of togetherness and
2:21:19 team.
2:21:20 And I’ll absolutely echo that message, because it’s important
2:21:23 that we know that we’re in this together.
2:21:26 And we’ve got to work together to make sure that we maximize
2:21:29 the opportunity for our kids.
2:21:30 When I talk about Dr. Miller, one of the things that’s funny
2:21:33 is I get more people tell me about how great he was as a
2:21:35 principal also.
2:21:37 Your legacy inside the school district’s amazing, man.
2:21:40 Because there’s people that come up to me all the time, you have
2:21:42 no idea.
2:21:42 You think you did a good job in transportation?
2:21:44 You should have seen him as a principal.
2:21:45 So I just wanted to say that to you.
2:21:46 Thank you, sir.
2:21:49 I’m done now.
2:21:50 I don’t have the video I was telling you about.
2:21:52 Thank you.
2:21:53 I will just echo the sentiment of extreme appreciation for you
2:21:58 all.
2:22:00 I think there’s nothing worse than when you are frantically
2:22:03 working in really challenging circumstances to get the calls
2:22:08 that–
2:22:09 I just got a call from a board member, and I
2:22:11 need you to check into this stop or this route.
2:22:15 And I know I have been guilty of that multiple times this year.
2:22:19 And so I apologize for putting that additional pressure on you.
2:22:23 But I can’t tell you how incredibly appreciative
2:22:25 I am that every time I have reached out, you all have gotten on
2:22:29 it
2:22:30 and looked into it and done what you can do.
2:22:32 And we can’t fix everything.
2:22:35 But where we can make those improvements,
2:22:36 you all certainly are doing the yeoman’s work to do that
2:22:39 and to serve our families and our students and our schools as
2:22:42 well.
2:22:43 So yes, our bus drivers are absolute heroes.
2:22:48 And I’ll be the first one to admit that I could not be a bus
2:22:50 driver.
2:22:50 I did have a CDL at one time, but you don’t want to recruit me.
2:22:53 I promise you.
2:22:55 But–
2:22:55 Yes, we do.
2:22:56 No, you don’t.
2:22:58 But our bus drivers are amazing.
2:23:01 But the team behind our bus drivers can’t be recognized enough
2:23:05 either,
2:23:05 because we know that you guys have really been put through the ringer
2:23:09 and asked to do figuring out routes for the summer program.
2:23:12 Like, oh, yeah, here, figure this thing out right away
2:23:15 so that we can serve our students.
2:23:16 And so I just want to make sure that you all
2:23:19 know how very much we appreciate your team as well.
2:23:22 So thank you.
2:23:23 And [INAUDIBLE] did you see the story in the newsletter a couple
2:23:27 of weeks
2:23:27 ago, maybe about a month ago now, where the South Area
2:23:30 Transportation
2:23:31 Department went over to University Park and pulled weeds
2:23:34 and did mulching and all that.
2:23:36 So that one got me.
2:23:39 So I love that the partnership works both ways.
2:23:42 And they’re paying attention to the needs of our schools,
2:23:44 just like we want our schools to pay attention
2:23:46 to the needs of our drivers and transportation departments.
2:23:48 But that one was an amazing story of the whole team pulling
2:23:51 together.
2:23:52 Yes, absolutely.
2:23:53 Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
2:23:55 I just was reminded of–
2:23:57 Ms. Belford, you may remember, when we were at Jackson Middle
2:23:59 School,
2:24:00 on the first day of school, I ran out and was welcoming our kids
2:24:04 off the bus.
2:24:05 And I hopped on a bus.
2:24:06 And I think the bus driver’s name was Ms. Sarah.
2:24:08 Forgive me if I got your name wrong.
2:24:10 And I said, how are you doing?
2:24:11 Just checking on you.
2:24:12 How’s the new scanning thing going?
2:24:15 And just as cool as a cucumber, she said, yeah, it’s going
2:24:18 really well.
2:24:19 The kids are a little slow at it, but it’s only
2:24:21 going to get better.
2:24:23 And that was it.
2:24:25 So Mike, you got a great team.
2:24:27 They took on the challenge.
2:24:28 And they’ve overcome it.
2:24:29 So I appreciate you and appreciate every one
2:24:32 of our drivers for their can-do attitude.
2:24:35 Absolutely.
2:24:38 Thank you, Dr. Mullins, for the presentation.
2:24:40 Thank you, Mr. Wilson, for all of your work as well.
2:24:42 We appreciate you.
2:24:44 All right, we’re now at the public comments portion
2:24:46 of the meeting on agenda items.
2:24:48 We have four speakers on agenda items.
2:24:51 Therefore, each speaker will receive three minutes.
2:24:53 Please note that the time is per speaker, not per agenda item.
2:24:55 Topics not specific to agenda items will
2:24:57 be moved to the non-agenda portion of the meeting.
2:24:59 We have a clock in front of me to help keep track of your time.
2:25:01 When your time is over, you’ll be asked to stop and allow the
2:25:04 next speaker
2:25:04 his or her turn.
2:25:06 Always keep in mind that reasonable decorum is expected
2:25:08 and your statement should be directed to the board chair.
2:25:10 The chair may interrupt, warn a terminated participant’s
2:25:12 statement
2:25:13 when time is up.
2:25:13 It’s personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant.
2:25:18 Should an individual not observe proper etiquette,
2:25:20 the chair may request the individual to leave the meeting.
2:25:24 For the audience, please remember
2:25:25 that outside of your personal and public comment period,
2:25:28 your role is as an observer.
2:25:29 Therefore, I would ask that you please not disrupt the meeting
2:25:31 by interjecting comments or noises during public comments.
2:25:34 Since we only have four speakers, I’m
2:25:36 going to call them all up at the same time–
2:25:38 Anthony Colucci, Katie Delaney, Sarah Merski, and Connie Rook.
2:25:42 If you all wouldn’t mind getting on deck on the east wall
2:25:45 so that we can get everyone through appropriately,
2:25:48 that would be wonderful.
2:25:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]
2:26:05 My name is Anthony Colucci, I’m the president of the Brevard
2:26:08 Federation of Teachers.
2:26:09 Tonight, I’m here to address item F27, instructional staff
2:26:14 recommendations.
2:26:15 At the last meeting, all five of you
2:26:17 rightfully delayed the hiring of a community coach,
2:26:20 realizing that the hiring of this coach
2:26:22 over a well-qualified teacher is an issue being
2:26:25 decided in arbitration.
2:26:27 You seem to give clear direction to staff
2:26:30 that you wanted your hired outside legal counsel
2:26:32 to move the process as quickly as possible
2:26:35 to have the arbitration decision prior to the basketball season.
2:26:39 I personally reached out to your hired legal counsel
2:26:42 and offered a way forward that would likely
2:26:44 result in a decision prior to the season.
2:26:47 I promptly received a response of no from your counsel
2:26:51 and final confirmation of a date that worked for them
2:26:54 in November, which begs the question, what
2:26:57 is the role of this board?
2:26:59 Do you really believe that staff have more authority than you
2:27:03 as elected officials?
2:27:05 None of you can explain why all of a sudden the district
2:27:08 is choosing to ignore the arbitration from 17
2:27:11 other than some staff think it’s a good idea.
2:27:14 None of you can explain how a principal can blatantly
2:27:16 ignore board policy and not be disciplined.
2:27:19 It sure seems that we’re back to having a separate set of roles
2:27:22 for principals.
2:27:24 I urge you to not approve the hiring of the community
2:27:26 coach at Cocoa Beach High School,
2:27:28 as well as end this arbitration and hire the teacher
2:27:31 as a boys varsity coach.
2:27:34 And let’s be clear, this is a highly effective educator
2:27:37 and an experienced coach with a proven track record.
2:27:40 I’m asking that you follow the very guidance and procedure
2:27:43 your HR department has honored for the past five years.
2:27:47 But if you choose not to, because it’s
2:27:49 against the advice of staff and BFT prevails
2:27:52 in the arbitration, I will not sit by idly.
2:27:55 That must be held accountable for their poor judgment.
2:27:58 I will be back here and in the media calling
2:28:00 for the termination of the three staff members who colluded
2:28:03 to prevent this well-deserving teacher from getting
2:28:06 this position.
2:28:07 These staff members will be responsible for using
2:28:10 taxpayer dollars to argue this language for the third time
2:28:14 in 15 years.
2:28:15 I estimate the cost around $100,000.
2:28:18 They’ll be responsible for the upheaval
2:28:20 that this will cause amongst the students
2:28:21 on the team and their parents when the teacher ultimately
2:28:24 gets a position.
2:28:26 These three staff members will have caused an uphill battle
2:28:29 for the teacher to earn students’ trust when
2:28:31 the position is awarded to them.
2:28:33 Not to mention, the issue will cause for the community coach
2:28:37 when they’re removed from the position.
2:28:39 And no, this is not the union’s fault.
2:28:41 The union is only asking that the arbitration and practice
2:28:45 be respected.
2:28:46 The situation was intentionally created behind the scenes
2:28:51 without seeking your approval.
2:28:53 They knew the issues this action would cause,
2:28:56 and they did it anyway.
2:28:57 You must hold them accountable.
2:29:00 Thank you, Mr. Colucci.
2:29:02 Delaney?
2:29:09 Since I already spoke on the budget,
2:29:11 I’m going to speak on H58C, the love and guidance procurement.
2:29:18 And I just wanted to share a story that I was at an event
2:29:28 and I met a teacher.
2:29:29 And we were talking about the discipline in the classrooms.
2:29:32 And I asked them, I said to them,
2:29:37 what do you think about your discipline training?
2:29:41 And I didn’t use the name, love and guidance,
2:29:42 because I wanted an unbiased opinion from this teacher.
2:29:48 And the first thing they said was love and guidance
2:29:51 is ruining our schools.
2:29:56 Our kids don’t have consequences for their actions.
2:29:58 They’re getting ice cream and candy
2:30:00 and getting sent back to their teachers.
2:30:04 Our teachers are getting hit, cussed at.
2:30:12 I saw a video of a teacher literally got knocked down
2:30:15 and they were unconscious.
2:30:18 And all the students ran out of the classroom.
2:30:20 They were videoing it.
2:30:25 It’s obviously not working.
2:30:27 And we’re spending 100–
2:30:28 I think I saw 170 something thousand dollars
2:30:32 on a program that’s not working.
2:30:36 And that’s just this contract.
2:30:38 We’ve seen this love and guidance
2:30:40 over and over and over again.
2:30:41 I don’t even know how much money we’ve spent
2:30:43 on them over the past years.
2:30:47 Our kids need boundaries.
2:30:50 They need consequences.
2:30:53 We can’t always pat them on the back
2:30:58 and tell them it’s OK that they behaved poorly.
2:31:01 It’s not OK.
2:31:05 If my kids’ teachers told me that my children were behaving
2:31:10 poorly in their classroom, you better
2:31:12 believe that my kids would come back the next day
2:31:15 behaving like a new child.
2:31:20 We need to teach our kids to respect their teachers
2:31:23 and to not harm them, to not harm anybody.
2:31:28 And it’s a real shame that we’re not
2:31:30 listening to our teachers.
2:31:32 We’re not listening to them when they’re saying that discipline
2:31:36 is the reason why they’re leaving.
2:31:38 I went to Tractor Supply the other day.
2:31:41 The lady who was checking me out,
2:31:43 I was talking on the phone with somebody about all the school
2:31:46 district stuff, talking about discipline.
2:31:50 And she says to me, that’s why I left.
2:31:53 She would rather work at Tractor Supply than be in our schools.
2:32:00 That should tell you something about this conscious
2:32:02 discipline, loving guidance training.
2:32:04 Thank you.
2:32:05 Thank you, Ms. Delaney.
2:32:06 Ms. Merski?
2:32:16 Good evening, Madam Chair and board.
2:32:18 My name is Sarah Merski.
2:32:19 I’m a wife, mother of two children
2:32:21 in Brevard Public Schools, taxpayer, voter, constituent,
2:32:25 college student, and I live in District 2 for school board.
2:32:28 Tonight, I’ll be speaking on agenda items C-17 and F-23.
2:32:34 Your suicide prevention resolution, which is a C-17,
2:32:37 I 100% wholeheartedly support this.
2:32:41 This board finally recognizes the importance of mental health
2:32:45 and how important a parent’s role
2:32:47 in recognizing mental health concerns.
2:32:50 It’s too bad members of this board
2:32:52 called parents like me a liar.
2:32:54 When I was here, board meeting after board meeting,
2:32:57 talking about the mental health concerns on children
2:33:00 with your illegal COVID-19 policies, what
2:33:04 they had on the children of BPS, including the special board
2:33:07 meeting you had a year ago to force face mask our children
2:33:10 after we enrolled them in school, pulling a bait and switch.
2:33:14 There are several mental health clinicians
2:33:16 who spoke out against the detrimental mental health
2:33:18 effects of that particular policy as well.
2:33:21 I quoted many of the statistics tonight
2:33:23 that were shared tonight on suicide and mental health
2:33:27 at past school board meetings.
2:33:30 I took 30 seconds of silence out of my one minute of speaking
2:33:35 time at that time to honor those who had committed suicide
2:33:39 and would commit suicide and who struggle with mental health
2:33:43 issues.
2:33:44 I’ve always said this, and I’m going to say it again.
2:33:48 Mental health is just as important as physical health.
2:33:53 The other agenda item I’m speaking on
2:33:57 is F23, your student code of conduct.
2:34:02 Lots of good things in the student code of conduct.
2:34:05 I read the immunization requirements
2:34:07 with great interest.
2:34:08 What is missing from this is a 681 form provision,
2:34:12 which is a state law.
2:34:15 Whether or not it was intentional or unintentional
2:34:18 to not have this language in your student code of conduct,
2:34:23 it’s still discriminatory against families and parents
2:34:28 who have diverse religious faiths.
2:34:31 I suggest you not pass this without adding that provision.
2:34:35 Also in the student code of conduct,
2:34:37 it says the school board will not
2:34:39 tolerate bullying, cyberbullying, harassment,
2:34:42 dating violence, and abuse, including
2:34:44 cybersexual harassment.
2:34:47 And the board should not tolerate that.
2:34:50 However, you are tolerating materials in libraries
2:34:55 across the district that have a step-by-step book as to teach
2:35:00 a child how to put themselves in these dangerous situations.
2:35:04 It was never about banning books for me, but always about safety.
2:35:08 Thank you.
2:35:09 Thank you, Marcy.
2:35:10 Brooke?
2:35:17 Good evening.
2:35:17 Hi.
2:35:18 I’m going to be speaking to C17 suicide prevention.
2:35:21 Good evening.
2:35:21 My name is Connie Rook, and my three children
2:35:23 have attended Brevard Public School.
2:35:25 I’m a retired military veteran, a BPS volunteer, an avid tutor,
2:35:29 a science fair judge, math tutor,
2:35:30 take stock in children mentor, a robotics coach, a coding club,
2:35:34 and a makerspace sponsor.
2:35:35 So yeah, I’ve logged a couple of hours in our schools.
2:35:38 A couple of weeks ago, during early voting
2:35:40 at Viera Regional, I had a conversation
2:35:42 with an older gentleman about our public schools.
2:35:44 We talked about teacher shortages and history curriculum.
2:35:47 And at one point, he asked me, well,
2:35:49 what about these news reports about boys sneaking
2:35:51 into girls’ bathrooms?
2:35:53 And I stopped him right there.
2:35:54 I said, sir, have you ever met a transgender person?
2:35:57 He seemed a little surprised that I would ask,
2:35:59 and he grunted, well, no.
2:36:01 And I replied, well, I know several.
2:36:03 In fact, I was a college readiness mentor
2:36:04 to a young man at our local high school for five years.
2:36:08 He’s one of the kindest, most empathetic people
2:36:10 I’ve ever known, and we’ve never in a million years
2:36:12 heard another person.
2:36:14 Then I went on and asked him, I said,
2:36:16 do you know anyone that’s gay?
2:36:17 He replied, well, yeah, of course.
2:36:19 And I asked him, do you think that because someone is gay,
2:36:21 they are automatically a predator?
2:36:23 His eyebrows shot up, and he said, no, of course not.
2:36:26 I said, well, when you perpetuate rumors,
2:36:29 and accusations, and lies like that about LGBTQ people,
2:36:33 that’s exactly what you’re saying.
2:36:35 Those lies span the flames of hate and discrimination,
2:36:38 and they put a target on the back of every LGBTQ
2:36:41 student in our community.
2:36:43 You’re setting them up for harassment, bullying, violence,
2:36:47 and even more anxiety and depression.
2:36:51 LGBTQ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide
2:36:57 than their peers.
2:36:58 And you know, they are not inherently
2:37:00 prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation
2:37:03 or gender identity, but rather placed at a higher risk
2:37:07 because of how they are mistreated
2:37:09 and stigmatized in society.
2:37:11 Think about that.
2:37:13 You are putting children at risk.
2:37:15 It’s ugly, and it’s cruel.
2:37:18 Anyone that should does that should absolutely, absolutely
2:37:22 be ashamed of themselves.
2:37:24 And anyone that spreads those lies
2:37:25 has no business whatsoever holding elected office.
2:37:30 It’s OK to say gay.
2:37:33 We have to be better.
2:37:34 We have to do better.
2:37:35 Our schools and our kids, they deserve better.
2:37:39 Thank you.
2:37:40 Thank you, Ms. Ruck.
2:37:43 All right.
2:37:45 That concludes our public comment items on agenda items.
2:37:49 We thank you for your willingness to join us
2:37:51 this evening.
2:37:52 And anyone signed up for non-agenda
2:37:54 will have the opportunity to speak once the board completes
2:37:57 its work.
2:37:59 That is going to move us into the consent agenda.
2:38:01 Dr. Mullins.
2:38:02 There are 37 agenda items under this category.
2:38:05 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
2:38:06 Mr. Susan, I believe you have a request to pull one item.
2:38:09 I’d like to make a motion to pull C27.
2:38:13 Is that what it was?
2:38:14 I wrote it down and handed it to you.
2:38:18 It has number 27 on here, but I think it’s F27.
2:38:22 Yeah, sorry.
2:38:24 All right, so I will entertain a motion
2:38:26 to accept the consent agenda with the exception of item
2:38:28 F27.
2:38:35 Wait.
2:38:36 I was asking for a motion, and I
2:38:39 don’t think that I got a second use.
2:38:41 You want a motion to pull it?
2:38:43 Yeah, I want to pull that item for discussion.
2:38:46 But in order for me to do that, I think–
2:38:48 You don’t need a motion to pull it.
2:38:49 OK, perfect.
2:38:50 Yeah.
2:38:51 So I’ll entertain a motion to accept the consent items
2:38:53 with the exception of the item pulled for discussion.
2:38:56 Moved by Ms. Campbell, seconded by Ms. McDougal.
2:38:59 Is there any discussion?
2:39:01 This briefing included in our–
2:39:05 You’re on computer.
2:39:06 You’re good.
2:39:07 In our consent agenda is the contract
2:39:10 for Revard Federation Teachers.
2:39:13 I wanted to thank Mr. Colucci, EFT team, our HR team,
2:39:16 bargaining team for the work they’ve done.
2:39:18 I did want to just mention, because I’ve
2:39:20 been in contact with several of our 1010 employees
2:39:22 over the last several weeks who are just concerned
2:39:24 that because we went ahead and raised that minimum pay up
2:39:27 to $15 an hour, they think that’s all we’re doing.
2:39:30 I just wanted to just put that word out there one more
2:39:33 time that we are currently in negotiations
2:39:35 with the 1010 contract, so for all of our support staff.
2:39:40 And that will be coming hopefully very shortly.
2:39:43 So I think– and Dr. Thede, I believe you guys go back
2:39:45 to the table within a couple of weeks, correct?
2:39:49 On the 15th.
2:39:49 OK, so just let them know that that’s coming.
2:39:51 We were solidifying this contract tonight.
2:39:53 And thank you for financial services
2:39:55 for the work you guys are doing to try to get that out
2:39:58 to our teachers quickly.
2:39:59 That’s all.
2:40:00 Thank you.
2:40:00 Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
2:40:01 Any additional discussion on consents?
2:40:04 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
2:40:06 Aye.
2:40:06 Any opposed?
2:40:07 Same sign.
2:40:08 Motion passes 5-0.
2:40:11 Mr. Susan, item F27 you have pulled.
2:40:14 It is your motion, sir.
2:40:16 Yes, I’d like to make a motion to withdraw or pull
2:40:20 Wardell Jefferson Collins only for the head Cocoa Beach
2:40:24 basketball coach, not the middle school portion,
2:40:27 because that was not in arbitration for the reasons
2:40:31 that I would discuss, but during discussion, get a second.
2:40:34 Was there a second on that motion?
2:40:37 I have a motion and a second open for discussion.
2:40:40 So–
2:40:41 Is that in your motion?
2:40:42 Yeah, so this isn’t an argument over who’s a better coach,
2:40:47 who’s worse coach, who’s all that other stuff that’s sometimes
2:40:49 where it goes.
2:40:51 And what I’ve said from the beginning
2:40:53 is that I truly believe that the burden of proof
2:40:56 falls on the district to change the ruling
2:41:00 from a previous arbitration before moving forward
2:41:02 with an appointment for this.
2:41:05 That’s how I feel.
2:41:06 We’ve stated this before.
2:41:07 We were all up here.
2:41:09 Since the other pieces were is that it splits the players up.
2:41:14 And so what happened is that last time we said, hey,
2:41:18 let’s do it with expedience and everything else.
2:41:20 And then we saw some of the emails
2:41:22 that were coming through that we tried
2:41:24 to have a meeting prior to, and it ended up
2:41:27 getting pushed to November.
2:41:28 So when I was saying, and I met with Dr. Thede and Dr. Thede,
2:41:31 thank you for being open and honest and sitting with us.
2:41:34 Dr. Thede laid out, hey, it just wasn’t working out
2:41:36 with the lawyers and everything else.
2:41:38 And I was like, well, I truly believe
2:41:40 that if our burden of proof falls on the district
2:41:42 to overturn a ruling that had already happened,
2:41:44 that we still don’t have the right to do so.
2:41:46 So that’s why I was making this motion.
2:41:49 Any additional discussion?
2:41:52 Yeah, I just want to–
2:41:53 because I seconded this motion, I just want to make it clear.
2:41:56 I don’t think our staff did anything intentionally
2:42:00 wrong or inaccurate.
2:42:02 I definitely don’t agree with those statements.
2:42:06 I think that this is a due process that should happen,
2:42:09 and I think we’re following the right steps.
2:42:13 My personal belief is that we shouldn’t
2:42:15 be instating somebody while we’re
2:42:16 in the middle of an arbitration to decide
2:42:18 who is going to eventually end up with this position.
2:42:21 So I just want to make it clear where I stand on this.
2:42:23 It has nothing to do with our staff doing
2:42:24 something wrong by any means.
2:42:27 I just think we need to go through the process
2:42:29 and then follow those steps.
2:42:31 Any additional–
2:42:33 So I just want to say, one of the arguments
2:42:38 is that the students will not–
2:42:42 they might have to switch coaches.
2:42:44 I know for a fact that the man that we’re
2:42:48 talking about at this point is on his own time,
2:42:51 not on school grounds, has a team together,
2:42:54 and is coaching them and helping them with basketball,
2:42:59 even while this is going on at this point.
2:43:02 So the students are already connected with him,
2:43:06 and I think–
2:43:08 I don’t know if they’re familiar with going on or not,
2:43:11 but I do know that he’s already volunteering his time
2:43:13 to do this.
2:43:14 And I do concern–
2:43:15 to me, it’s about the students at this point.
2:43:18 They should have a coach.
2:43:19 They should be able to get ready for basketball,
2:43:23 and that’s where I stand on this.
2:43:26 Can I follow?
2:43:27 Hold on, let me make sure there’s not an additional–
2:43:29 Ms. Campbell hasn’t had an opportunity to come here.
2:43:32 Ms. Campbell?
2:43:34 It’s my understanding after talking with Dr. Fetti,
2:43:36 and I didn’t get a chance to check with Paul,
2:43:37 but he could probably confirm that even
2:43:39 if the arbitration could have been held within a week or two
2:43:44 of our last meeting, that then each side has 30 days
2:43:48 from the time of the arbitration to get their final–
2:43:53 I’m not sure what the word is.
2:43:55 Brief.
2:43:56 What is it?
2:43:56 Brief.
2:43:57 Briefs in, and then the arbitrator
2:43:59 has another 30 days, generally, before they
2:44:02 have to issue an opinion.
2:44:04 So at that point– am I saying that–
2:44:07 roughly.
2:44:08 So at that point, even if we could have had the hearing
2:44:10 within two weeks of our last meeting,
2:44:12 we’re talking about not being able to have a final decision
2:44:15 potentially until right after basketball season
2:44:19 is well underway as far as the tryouts
2:44:21 and all that kind of stuff.
2:44:22 And that was if we had it in August.
2:44:26 So at this point, it really wouldn’t
2:44:27 have mattered if it was before the November date.
2:44:29 We weren’t going to have a decision in a timely manner.
2:44:32 And so we have no idea of knowing what
2:44:37 the arbitrator will decide, but I
2:44:40 know we have past precedent where their arbitrations have
2:44:44 happened.
2:44:45 And the change that the arbitrator had said,
2:44:48 hey, make this change, didn’t happen until the following
2:44:50 season, the following school year.
2:44:52 Pay the person as if they’re doing it, but said,
2:44:55 no idea of knowing how this one would turn out.
2:44:58 But it’s not an automatic that an arbitrator
2:45:02 would require us to change coaches
2:45:05 in the middle of a season.
2:45:10 Mr. Susan.
2:45:11 Yeah, Ms. McDougall, I would caution
2:45:14 to say that he’s coaching them now.
2:45:15 Sometimes they’ll pick up stuff because it’s
2:45:17 illegal for a coach to grab a team prior to season starting,
2:45:21 and the season doesn’t start until near the end of October.
2:45:24 So if he’s out there coaching with them as a team,
2:45:28 I know he’s not doing that.
2:45:29 I’m just saying he might be connecting with them,
2:45:31 but I wouldn’t throw that out there too fast.
2:45:35 And I agree with you.
2:45:36 I’ve seen– listen, this has played out
2:45:38 a hundred times where the community
2:45:39 coach connects with the kids.
2:45:41 He comes up with them like the rec leagues.
2:45:42 Many of them come up with the rec leagues through the system,
2:45:45 and they’re able to connect with them there.
2:45:47 There’s great people that are in the community.
2:45:49 That’s not what’s being argued here.
2:45:51 What’s being argued here is the fact
2:45:53 that the burden of proof, I feel, falls on the district.
2:45:57 You could have one of the greatest coaches ever,
2:45:59 but the fact is that I truly believe
2:46:02 that if you have two prior precedences that
2:46:04 say that this is the way things are
2:46:05 and we’re going in to do it right now,
2:46:08 that we should, as a district, have the court cases and stuff
2:46:13 like that taken care of prior to doing that.
2:46:16 I do want to say that we can talk about the timing being
2:46:18 that way, but there has been the opportunity to meet.
2:46:23 There also– it’s not always going to take it.
2:46:26 If an arbitrator knew that the decision that he was making
2:46:29 was based on the fact that kids would or would not
2:46:32 have a coach at the time, then he
2:46:34 would obviously be one that would hurry up
2:46:36 that arbitration and not wait till the last day.
2:46:40 So I appreciate, Ms. Campbell, your schedule of timing
2:46:44 saying the longest times to push it back,
2:46:47 but I would argue that we truly could have, as a district, met,
2:46:50 got it done, pushed it to the arbitrator.
2:46:51 Arbitrator could have come back prior to the season,
2:46:54 and that’s why I hang my hat on.
2:46:56 Thank you.
2:46:57 Any additional discussion?
2:46:59 Ms. Jenkins?
2:47:00 Yeah, I just want to say, so I seconded this motion
2:47:02 because I think it was valid to have a discussion about it
2:47:06 because we’ve discussed it in the past,
2:47:08 but I think it made sense.
2:47:10 I’ve said publicly, I think we should be
2:47:13 waiting for this arbitration.
2:47:15 But I also don’t believe in leaving these kids
2:47:17 without a coach because we know the timeline, right?
2:47:19 The last time we had this conversation,
2:47:21 we were hoping for this timeline to get a little bit faster
2:47:23 and to get done.
2:47:25 So I know that this school district
2:47:28 will have to honor whatever the results of that arbitration
2:47:31 are.
2:47:32 I just wanted publicly to say for a second time
2:47:37 my beliefs of it.
2:47:38 I do believe we should have waited,
2:47:40 but I’m not going to leave these kids without a coach either.
2:47:43 And so I hope that it doesn’t get delayed anymore
2:47:46 and gets done as soon as possible.
2:47:48 And whatever the results are, I mean, we have to abide by them.
2:47:53 I have to say one last thing.
2:47:54 Hold on.
2:47:55 Anyone else want to comment a second time before I allow
2:47:58 Mr. Susan a third time?
2:48:01 Mr. Susan.
2:48:02 I just want to say thank you to Ms. Jenkins for seconding it.
2:48:05 That’s all.
2:48:07 Anything else?
2:48:10 No.
2:48:13 To clarify, before you call for the vote, Ms. Belford, exactly.
2:48:19 The motion was to approve it minus the coach.
2:48:23 It has been seconded.
2:48:24 So if we vote yes at this time, are we
2:48:28 voting for Mr. Susan’s motion?
2:48:30 Yes.
2:48:31 Or are we voting to approve that–
2:48:35 You’re voting for the motion that was made,
2:48:36 which is to pull the community coach off the–
2:48:39 OK.
2:48:40 I just wanted to clarify before we take a vote so we all know
2:48:43 what we’re voting for.
2:48:44 Yes.
2:48:45 We ready for the question?
2:48:46 Yep.
2:48:47 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
2:48:49 Aye.
2:48:50 All opposed?
2:48:51 Same time?
2:48:52 Aye.
2:48:53 OK.
2:48:54 Motion fails one to four, so I’ll entertain a motion–
2:48:58 well, I’ll entertain a motion.
2:49:01 I would suggest that that motion should probably be to approve
2:49:04 item F27 as presented, but I
2:49:07 will leave that up to your–
2:49:09 Move to approve.
2:49:10 Second.
2:49:11 There you go.
2:49:12 OK.
2:49:13 So we have a motion on the floor to approve item F27 as
2:49:16 presented and a second on that
2:49:17 motion.
2:49:18 Is there any additional discussion needed?
2:49:19 All right.
2:49:20 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
2:49:23 Aye.
2:49:24 All opposed?
2:49:25 Same time?
2:49:26 Aye.
2:49:27 All opposed?
2:49:28 This passes four to one.
2:49:29 OK.
2:49:30 Ms. Belford, if I may, I wanted to wait until the board was done
2:49:33 with that vote just to
2:49:34 make some additional comments that I feel necessary to make in
2:49:38 response to my staff.
2:49:40 First, it was suggested at the prior board meeting that the
2:49:43 process to put the recommendation
2:49:45 on the board meeting was not regular practice, but Dr. Thede,
2:49:50 you know, clarified that with
2:49:52 the board and that was the consistent practice of the board for
2:49:56 that type of position.
2:49:57 So I just wanted– since it was publicly presented that way
2:50:01 previously, I wanted to recognize
2:50:03 my staff had done that appropriately at the last board meeting.
2:50:06 It doesn’t preclude the board from taking the action they did at
2:50:09 the last board meeting
2:50:10 having discussion, but I did want to correct record that it was
2:50:15 done correctly and consistently
2:50:18 with past practice.
2:50:20 The second thing is I want to provide some clarification to the
2:50:26 suggestions of delay.
2:50:28 I don’t think it is appropriate for anyone to interpret delay
2:50:32 being on behalf of my staff
2:50:34 related to this incident.
2:50:36 My staff has been ready to go to arbitration for weeks.
2:50:39 It is not dependent on my staff.
2:50:43 It is ultimately dependent on the availability of three– at
2:50:47 least three other independent
2:50:48 parties.
2:50:49 Only five parties involved in this situation.
2:50:53 That’s the legal counsel for the school district.
2:50:56 That’s the legal counsel for Brevard Federation of Teachers.
2:51:00 It’s the arbitrator, then it’s also BFT’s availability, and then
2:51:04 finally Brevard Public
2:51:06 Schools.
2:51:07 That’s a complex suggestion of schedules to bring together where
2:51:13 at least three of those
2:51:15 entities have very full-time jobs unrelated to Brevard Public
2:51:20 Schools or school districts.
2:51:23 We have to fit into their schedule of availability, and I would
2:51:27 suggest that if there has been
2:51:29 any delay, it’s the result of those outside entities not being
2:51:34 able to coordinate their
2:51:36 schedules throughout the process.
2:51:39 So I just wanted to provide that correction.
2:51:42 My staff has been prepared and ready to present their positions
2:51:46 for arbitration for some time
2:51:48 now.
2:51:49 The challenge has come in bringing five different entities
2:51:52 together for the calendar, and we
2:51:54 were, after the last board meeting and the board’s charge to do
2:51:57 everything that we could
2:51:59 to expedite that appointment, we went back to them.
2:52:01 I think Mr. Gibbs facilitated that once again, and November was
2:52:06 the best date that could
2:52:08 be brought forward.
2:52:09 So I just want to demonstrate my staff’s efforts and their
2:52:12 consistent practice.
2:52:14 Thank you.
2:52:15 I’d like to follow Dr. Mullins.
2:52:17 So I think where the consistency, and what we were talking about
2:52:20 with them putting out
2:52:21 on the agenda, Dr. Mullins, was the fact that there had never
2:52:25 been a basketball coach that
2:52:27 had been put on the agenda in the last five years during that
2:52:30 time, and that’s where the
2:52:31 consistency was talked about.
2:52:33 When Dr. Thedi and I were talking, what she was saying is that
2:52:37 when they receive these,
2:52:39 that it behooves them to put them into the system immediately
2:52:42 after that.
2:52:43 So it was that it was not the fact, when I was speaking before,
2:52:47 it was about how never
2:52:49 in the history of our school district had we already done and
2:52:52 approved somebody.
2:52:53 So when I was saying that it was inconsistent with that, it was
2:52:55 inconsistent with that.
2:52:57 What Dr. Thedi came back and said to me was, is that, you know
2:53:00 what, the inconsistency,
2:53:01 it is not what it is, it’s sitting there that when we receive
2:53:05 the recommendation from, and
2:53:07 we have their paperwork ready, we have to get it in because that’s
2:53:09 what best practice
2:53:10 is.
2:53:11 And that’s when sometimes you see some of them at different
2:53:12 times.
2:53:13 So I just wanted to clear that piece up.
2:53:14 The second piece is, is that the delay in availability in many
2:53:18 law firms, if there’s
2:53:19 a problem with timing, sometimes they’ll have one of the other
2:53:22 associates or the other lawyers
2:53:24 filling in and helping out in different aspects so that they can
2:53:27 get there.
2:53:27 I truly believe that this was an issue that we needed to agenda,
2:53:31 that we needed to come
2:53:32 forward with and get done prior to the time, and I think that if
2:53:35 we would have truly expressed
2:53:37 that to the law firms and made them work as hard as they can to
2:53:40 get there, I think we
2:53:42 could have gotten there.
2:53:43 So I just want to reiterate that’s all.
2:53:44 Any additional?
2:53:45 Okay.
2:53:46 Dr. Mullen, did you have some–
2:53:47 No.
2:53:48 Okay.
2:53:49 Will you please let us know about items under the action portion
2:53:58 of today’s agenda?
2:54:00 There is– next– whoop, sorry, I’m out of my cell.
2:54:05 The first item is H-58, Department School Initiated Agreements.
2:54:09 One of those for the board?
2:54:11 Okay.
2:54:12 Second.
2:54:13 Moved by Ms. McDougall, second by Ms. Campbell.
2:54:14 Is there any discussion?
2:54:15 Yes.
2:54:16 Ms. Campbell?
2:54:17 Sorry.
2:54:18 I know it’s been a long night, but I had asked Ms. Moore if she
2:54:21 wouldn’t mind answering a
2:54:22 couple of questions on this item in– under the health services
2:54:29 contract, which is not
2:54:32 necessarily a monetary contract, but it’s our agreement with the
2:54:35 Brevard County Health
2:54:37 Department.
2:54:38 It incorporates some of the things that we’re doing as far as
2:54:40 the– not questionnaire, what’s
2:54:43 the word I’m looking for?
2:54:44 The form that the parents are having to fill out.
2:54:46 Health consent.
2:54:47 The health consent form.
2:54:49 And because there continues to be a lot of confusion around what
2:54:53 that is, I asked Ms.
2:54:55 Moore if she wouldn’t mind just kind of walking through that
2:54:58 form.
2:54:58 I mean, obviously, everybody knows what a Band-Aid is and taking
2:55:00 the temperature, whatever,
2:55:02 but there’s a couple of terms on that form that have been– have
2:55:04 caused some confusion
2:55:05 and some angst in the community, and I understand why because,
2:55:08 you know, people look at the
2:55:09 news across the country the last couple of years and think of
2:55:12 maybe certain things are
2:55:13 going to happen.
2:55:14 Do you mind just, first of all, just kind of walking us through
2:55:19 those– besides the
2:55:20 obvious ones, what some of those terms mean?
2:55:24 Because I know– for me, the goal is that we get those forms in
2:55:27 because if a parent
2:55:28 hasn’t signed the form to give any kind of direction, then the
2:55:31 school has no choice but
2:55:32 to call them on those.
2:55:34 And I won’t go into all the legislative, you know, because that’s
2:55:37 been explained earlier,
2:55:38 but can you just kind of walk us through mainly what those terms
2:55:40 mean on the form?
2:55:41 Yeah, I can.
2:55:42 First, I do want to take a minute to introduce Chris Reed again.
2:55:47 Award-winning Chris Reed.
2:55:51 You know, whenever we work on any of these documents, it’s just
2:55:54 a balancing game of making
2:55:55 sure that we’re meeting statute language, that we’re working
2:55:58 with our core partners,
2:55:59 which is Department of Health, and working within our policies.
2:56:02 So it’s really a puzzle of making sure that we fit all the
2:56:05 pieces together and that we’re
2:56:07 accurately representing what is expected by our DOE and our
2:56:12 legislators to do in our school
2:56:14 district.
2:56:15 So the consent form, we wanted to make sure it was related to
2:56:21 the other required documents
2:56:24 that we have, which is why what you see in front of you is the
2:56:27 school health plan.
2:56:29 That school health plan is required.
2:56:31 I think it’s required to be revised every two years.
2:56:33 But we also pull it and amend it as needed, and it comes before
2:56:37 you guys to see it again.
2:56:39 So when we put together a consent form, there wasn’t a whole lot
2:56:42 of guidance from the Department
2:56:43 of Education.
2:56:44 In fact, they weren’t allowed to give us guidance.
2:56:46 And there wasn’t a whole lot of guidance from the Department of
2:56:48 Health because, in fact,
2:56:49 they weren’t allowed to give us guidance.
2:56:51 So we decided that our best option was to make sure that we had
2:56:55 a guiding document that
2:56:56 we could refer parents to.
2:56:58 And that’s what you guys are seeing before you tonight.
2:57:00 So I know nursing assessments.
2:57:02 We’ve gotten a couple of questions on that.
2:57:04 The definition of what a nursing assessment is is part of this
2:57:08 document.
2:57:09 The first thing I should let you know is that a nursing
2:57:13 assessment has to be done by an
2:57:15 RN.
2:57:16 Most of the people in our schools are health techs.
2:57:18 We do have some LPNs, but only RNs are, by DOH requirement,
2:57:24 allowed to do a nursing assessment.
2:57:27 And that is designated health care staff conduct reviews of
2:57:30 students’ medical status and
2:57:32 develop a health condition list at the beginning of the school
2:57:35 every year.
2:57:36 Designated RNs will assess students with actual potential or
2:57:39 suspected health problems and
2:57:40 develop appropriate nursing care plans for identified students.
2:57:44 So as we get information in from parents, if they need to review
2:57:48 and revise a health
2:57:49 care plan, that’s what our RNs do.
2:57:53 The school principal reviews and signs in collaboration with the
2:57:56 nursing supervisor
2:57:57 any chronic health forms being considered for approval.
2:58:00 So students who have a chronic health condition, that is going
2:58:03 to necessitate them to have
2:58:04 more absences than a typical child without a chronic health
2:58:08 condition, but not necessarily
2:58:09 more doctor or hospital visits.
2:58:12 There’s a process by which they can submit a chronic health form.
2:58:15 Our RN reviews those to make sure that everything is medically
2:58:20 legit, and then our principals
2:58:22 also sign off so that those students aren’t held to the same
2:58:26 attendance standard.
2:58:28 Again, it’s all in this plan.
2:58:31 Health appraisals, we’ve gotten some questions about what health
2:58:36 appraisals are.
2:58:37 I’m going to skip down because I’m going to go in order of the
2:58:39 document.
2:58:40 Health counseling is on there.
2:58:43 We’ve gotten some questions about health counseling.
2:58:46 Provide health teaching and health advice as appropriate.
2:58:49 The school health staff will provide health teaching, health
2:58:54 advice as required.
2:58:56 Those will be made to the RN supervisor as needed for additional
2:59:00 assessments as needed
2:59:02 of both students and/or parents or guardians.
2:59:05 Also if deemed necessary, the LEA, that’s the local education
2:59:08 agency, will refer a student
2:59:10 to appropriate counsel, social worker, staff.
2:59:13 Parents consent for this service in writing will be done
2:59:18 annually.
2:59:19 We’ve added that throughout this.
2:59:20 That’s part of a couple of other pieces of legislation that we
2:59:24 had to pull in.
2:59:26 Before you go off of that one, that health counseling, that
2:59:29 would be maybe for more of
2:59:30 those chronic, typically for more of those chronic condition
2:59:33 type things like diabetes.
2:59:35 It very well could be.
2:59:36 I mean, I don’t want to limit it and put, you know, but most
2:59:40 often it’s for students
2:59:41 who have chronic conditions or medical conditions that diabetes
2:59:45 is a good one.
2:59:46 Our little ones have a difficult time regulating that.
2:59:51 They have a difficult time understanding what they’re allowed to
2:59:53 eat.
2:59:53 They have a difficult time understanding what they eat and how
2:59:56 it impacts them.
2:59:57 And so we often have ongoing conversation as kids with type 1
3:00:03 diabetes get older.
3:00:06 The other one, I do want to talk about health appraisals because
3:00:08 we’ve gotten a couple of
3:00:09 questions on that.
3:00:10 Chris, what page is that on?
3:00:13 Item two does not help me.
3:00:15 Page six.
3:00:18 I went right past it.
3:00:19 Sorry, guys.
3:00:20 It’s hidden down at the bottom.
3:00:24 It is.
3:00:25 Thank you.
3:00:26 Thank you for giving me that grace.
3:00:27 I appreciate it.
3:00:29 Health appraisal number two, determine the health status of a
3:00:31 student.
3:00:32 The school will request parent guardians to provide new or
3:00:35 updated medical information
3:00:36 to be listed in each student’s file.
3:00:39 We do that every year.
3:00:40 This information is to be shared with need-to-know personnel as
3:00:43 necessary to provide medical
3:00:45 care to the student.
3:00:46 This could include teachers, bus drivers, whoever has a visual
3:00:51 or a time with a child
3:00:52 that has a health condition that needs to be monitored.
3:00:55 School records are reviewed for student health needs.
3:00:58 Daily health needs of students are assessed during clinic visits.
3:01:01 Parents will consent to the service in writing annually.
3:01:05 I think those are the big ones that we keep getting questions on.
3:01:10 With that one, just to help clarify, what that one would be
3:01:13 something, for example,
3:01:15 for a student with a severe allergy that has to carry an EpiPen
3:01:18 or whatever, that would
3:01:19 be something that, so that when you talk about need-to-know
3:01:23 personnel, then that student’s
3:01:25 teacher may, if it’s, let’s say, a peanut allergy, needs to be
3:01:28 aware, and so that’s
3:01:29 part of the whole plan of communication.
3:01:32 Yes.
3:01:33 Yes, and I mean, there’s other steps that go along with that,
3:01:37 but yes.
3:01:38 Right.
3:01:39 Teachers.
3:01:40 Yes.
3:01:41 I mean, every time you read the incident report, there’s a
3:01:42 student somewhere at some school
3:01:43 in the district that had a seizure, and that’s just an ongoing
3:01:47 thing that our clinic.
3:01:49 Thank you for going through those.
3:01:50 Did you have any other ones?
3:01:51 I think everything else is pretty self-explanatory.
3:01:52 Yeah, those are the big three.
3:01:55 This went to SHAC, which is our School Health Advisory Council
3:02:00 yesterday.
3:02:01 They, you know, they took a look at it.
3:02:03 We have some partners from outside agencies, as well as the
3:02:06 Department of Health, as well
3:02:07 as, you know, Department of Education, and some parents that sit
3:02:10 on that committee.
3:02:11 Cheryl McDougall is our board representative on that committee.
3:02:14 They had a couple of little questions, but, you know, we can’t
3:02:18 fit a 20-page or so document
3:02:20 into one sheet, so we do want to keep referring people back to
3:02:23 the School Health Services
3:02:25 plan.
3:02:26 And so…
3:02:27 Well, and I think one of the things that happened, you know,
3:02:30 like I said, my opinion is that
3:02:32 sometimes it’s just what people have heard in the news, and they’re
3:02:34 afraid that what
3:02:35 that might, what that means is something that’s not what it
3:02:38 means.
3:02:38 And so I’m glad we have this document that really more spells
3:02:42 out what it is, who’s responsible
3:02:44 for it, who you can ask.
3:02:47 And the other thing I also consider is that often we think about
3:02:51 terms, things in terms
3:02:53 of our own family and our own experience, and I know that we
3:02:55 have schools, for example,
3:02:57 where Mr. Reed used to be the principal, is a community
3:03:00 partnership school, and the services
3:03:02 that we are not providing through the school, but we are helping
3:03:05 our students and families
3:03:07 connect to in the community, may not be, you know, if my kids
3:03:10 are having health issues,
3:03:11 no big deal, we go down to our doctor, but some of our families
3:03:14 really struggle, and
3:03:15 so we have to think outside the box.
3:03:16 I encourage people to think outside the box and realize that
3:03:19 sometimes our schools, through
3:03:20 our social workers, through our community partners, especially
3:03:23 in a school like Endeavor
3:03:24 that is a community partnership school, we’re helping students
3:03:28 connect with vital just checkups
3:03:30 and, you know, our health head start program, every time they
3:03:33 come to us, they talk about
3:03:35 the hygienist and the dental screenings that is required by
3:03:39 their programs, but those students
3:03:41 from those families don’t always have those connections with
3:03:44 that other families might.
3:03:46 And so, but like I said early, at the beginning, the important
3:03:50 thing for me is making sure
3:03:52 that people get to form in, and if they’re concerned about some
3:03:54 of these services because
3:03:55 they’re still suspicious of whatever it might be, by all means,
3:03:57 don’t check those boxes,
3:03:59 but we need to get them in.
3:04:00 And I know you had shared with me a little bit of why we weren’t
3:04:03 able to at the registration
3:04:04 time because some of it was the fuzziness around what the State
3:04:09 Department of Health
3:04:11 and Department of Education wanted us to have on that, but
3:04:14 moving forward, are we going
3:04:15 to be able to incorporate this form in our annual registration
3:04:20 form so that we can get
3:04:21 a better return from our parents on this document?
3:04:25 Yeah, this is absolutely going into registration next year,
3:04:30 unless there’s some new legislation.
3:04:33 Because as some people know, most of the legislation that gets
3:04:38 passed, we see it.
3:04:39 We see it going through committee, and then it’ll have an
3:04:43 effective July 1st, but it may
3:04:44 be November, December, January before we get any kind of
3:04:48 guidance on it.
3:04:49 So pending any new legislation, this is going to be part of our
3:04:53 registration packet, and
3:04:54 we might, you know, if it was up to me, it’d be part of our
3:04:58 registration packet and updated
3:05:00 after.
3:05:01 But it is, we just sent a memo out, or the memo’s going out on
3:05:05 Monday, for how our schools
3:05:07 are going to input all of this into focus, so we have an
3:05:10 electronic record of everything
3:05:12 right now.
3:05:13 It’s paperwork.
3:05:14 And then we’ll be able to really see, you know, what we’re
3:05:17 missing, what we have, and
3:05:19 start, you know, reaching out to parents to better support them,
3:05:22 make sure they got the
3:05:23 right paperwork, and make sure that we get it in.
3:05:26 - Right.
3:05:27 When we get all that in, and I know it will be a very quick
3:05:28 process, even when it’s available,
3:05:29 would you give us, the board, an update as far as how many
3:05:32 percentage-wise of our students
3:05:34 have that form returned, and how many of them don’t, and I know
3:05:37 our schools are going to
3:05:38 be continuing to communicate.
3:05:40 I have gotten it from both of my children’s schools, reminders,
3:05:42 you know, fill out your
3:05:43 form.
3:05:44 We turned ours in.
3:05:45 - Yeah, thank you.
3:05:46 - But that’s really important.
3:05:47 So in the meantime, if parents are still paying attention to the
3:05:49 board meeting at this point,
3:05:51 and they get a call from the school, it might be because they
3:05:54 didn’t turn that form in.
3:05:55 So thank you for all of that.
3:05:57 I appreciate you, Ms. Moore.
3:06:00 - Just one quick question for you, Ms. Moore.
3:06:02 For our families, obviously this document is available on this
3:06:06 agenda, but where else
3:06:07 can they locate that document to read it?
3:06:10 Do we know where it is?
3:06:12 - The health, the school health services plan.
3:06:16 Last year’s is posted on the website.
3:06:18 It is in a bizarre location.
3:06:22 It is a function of our food services group.
3:06:25 So if you go to departments on our website, you’re gonna go to
3:06:30 food services, and there’s
3:06:32 gonna be a left-hand column, and in the left-hand column, it’s
3:06:35 gonna say school health services
3:06:36 plan.
3:06:37 This one will be signed and sent up to the, does it go to the DOH,
3:06:42 Chris?
3:06:43 That’s what I thought.
3:06:45 It goes to the DOH, and then we will, as soon as everything is
3:06:47 signed, we’ll upload this
3:06:48 one to the food services site.
3:06:51 - Thanks.
3:06:52 Mr. Susan.
3:06:53 - That’s one that you avoided, ‘cause everybody else puts all of
3:06:55 those kind of things into
3:06:56 your bucket, right?
3:06:57 Athletics and everything else, and that one’s in food services,
3:06:59 but you’re still servicing.
3:07:00 - It’s still responsible.
3:07:01 - We’re still doing it, but it shows up on their stuff.
3:07:05 - Oh, is it?
3:07:07 - And then, anyways, that was just kind of a thing.
3:07:09 But I wanna walk through the immunization situation.
3:07:13 When somebody comes in to register, they say, “Do you have your
3:07:15 immunization card?”
3:07:16 Right?
3:07:17 And if they don’t have it, do we tell them, “You need to have
3:07:19 these immunizations,” or
3:07:20 you can have the, you can get the, I forget what it’s called,
3:07:24 right?
3:07:25 - Yeah, yeah.
3:07:26 So, yes, and in the code of conduct, it does talk a little bit
3:07:30 about what our policy states,
3:07:32 and it’s based on parents, parents can send in a note about
3:07:36 their religious beliefs.
3:07:37 We can accept a doctor note about medical conditions, but yes,
3:07:43 it will say what our
3:07:44 immunization policy is, what the expectations are, and then if a
3:07:49 parent has a…
3:07:50 - They know that when they come in, that they can make those two
3:07:53 choices is what I was saying.
3:07:54 - It’s in our student code of conduct, and it’s in our policy.
3:07:56 - So if they walk up and get registered, and they’re, “Hey, you
3:07:59 have to have your immunizations.
3:08:00 Where’s your immunizations?”
3:08:02 We say what?
3:08:03 - Well, I can’t say what 84 different clerks at 84 different
3:08:08 schools might say, but I can
3:08:10 say it’s in our code of student conduct, and it’s in our policy.
3:08:13 And when those questions come to us, we respond with, “You can
3:08:15 certainly write a letter and
3:08:17 let us know that it’s against your religious beliefs for immunization,
3:08:20 or you can bring
3:08:21 in a doctor’s note saying you have a medical reason not to move
3:08:24 forward with immunization.”
3:08:26 - And then…
3:08:27 - By the way, the immunization form is not ours.
3:08:29 The immunization form is the Department of Health.
3:08:31 We have no authority to change or edit that.
3:08:33 - Right, and in the event that somebody does not want to do
3:08:37 immunizations for certain things,
3:08:40 if there is an outbreak of those certain things, then they tell
3:08:43 the individuals who don’t have
3:08:45 those immunizations, there’s like a rule process that they kept
3:08:49 today and all this other stuff.
3:08:51 - So it depends on different, yes, and different diseases have
3:08:57 different definitions of outbreak.
3:09:00 So it’s gonna depend on what the illness is, and what the health
3:09:04 department determines
3:09:05 is a cluster or an outbreak, and then what they’ll do is they
3:09:10 will decide how big a circle
3:09:12 needs to be around.
3:09:14 So I’ll give you a for example, if five students get chicken pox
3:09:18 in a class, that would absolutely
3:09:20 be an outbreak.
3:09:21 The Department of Health would look at the immunization records
3:09:25 of that class.
3:09:26 They would call us and they would say these students are not
3:09:30 immunized for chicken pox
3:09:32 and they need to go home for a very specific period of time, and
3:09:35 that is also different
3:09:36 by every illness.
3:09:40 But they wouldn’t say every child in this school needs to go
3:09:43 home because they’re not
3:09:45 immunized for chicken pox.
3:09:46 - Yeah, I was just walking through it.
3:09:47 - And that changes per illness.
3:09:48 - We get a lot of questions about the immunizations and stuff
3:09:49 like that, so I just wanted to make
3:09:51 it sure it was here.
3:09:52 Thank you.
3:09:53 - Sure.
3:09:54 - That’s it.
3:09:55 - Yeah, you bet.
3:09:56 - Thank you.
3:09:57 - All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
3:09:58 - Aye.
3:09:59 - Any opposed?
3:10:00 Same sign.
3:10:01 Motion passes five-zero.
3:10:02 All right, Dr. Mullins.
3:10:07 - Next is item H59, Procurement Solicitations.
3:10:10 - One of the wishes of the board?
3:10:12 - Move to approve.
3:10:13 - Moved by Mr. Susan, seconded by Ms. McDougall.
3:10:15 Is there any discussion on this item?
3:10:17 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
3:10:20 - Aye.
3:10:21 - Any opposed?
3:10:22 Same sign.
3:10:23 Motion passes five-zero.
3:10:24 We will now move on to the information agenda, which includes
3:10:27 items for board review and
3:10:29 may be brought back for action at a subsequent meeting, however,
3:10:32 no action will be taken
3:10:33 on these items today, Dr. Mullins.
3:10:36 - There is one item under the information category.
3:10:38 - Does any board member wish to discuss the information item on
3:10:41 tonight’s agenda?
3:10:42 All right, we are now at board member reports.
3:10:46 Ms. Campbell requested discussion of our legislative platform
3:10:50 issues, and I sent all of the board
3:10:53 members an email.
3:10:54 The FSBA has a deadline of, I believe, the 16th to submit
3:10:58 legislative platform requests.
3:11:01 So Ms. Campbell wanted to have at least some discussion about
3:11:05 are there some things that
3:11:06 we can submit to FSBA.
3:11:08 I know there’s, you know, we go through a normal legislative
3:11:12 process, but it’s not going
3:11:14 to align with this timeline.
3:11:16 - Right, and I just, you know, there’s no requirement that we
3:11:18 send anything in, but
3:11:19 if we are going to send something in, this is our only chance to
3:11:22 have that conversation
3:11:24 and then to submit it.
3:11:25 Obviously, we’re not ready to have our, yes, our board
3:11:30 legislative documents prepared yet,
3:11:33 but I didn’t know if there was something that we had submitted
3:11:36 before that we were interested
3:11:37 in submitting again.
3:11:39 We, on our personal agenda, we, you know, a lot of movement was
3:11:43 made.
3:11:44 Obviously, we got the appropriation for the fire thing and fire
3:11:49 program, but that’s not
3:11:51 something we would have submitted to FSBA.
3:11:52 Honestly, off the top of my head, I can’t remember exactly what
3:11:56 was submitted last year
3:11:57 to FSBA, just the pre-K item, but I didn’t know if there was
3:12:01 interest in submitting any,
3:12:03 either one of these.
3:12:04 I was thinking particularly the first two ones that we talked
3:12:07 about last year, the pre-K
3:12:08 teachers, having them take a look at that, or the definition of
3:12:13 classroom teacher to
3:12:14 include all instructional personnel, or at least to take a look
3:12:17 at that again, because
3:12:18 it continues to come up and cause problems, so is there –
3:12:23 » Yeah, you know, the other thing that, and I mentioned it when
3:12:28 Mr. Ford was here with
3:12:29 us earlier, but I really think that we have to push them on the
3:12:32 per student station cost.
3:12:34 » Yeah.
3:12:35 I wonder, though, is that, because he, when he shared it, if I
3:12:38 remember what he would
3:12:39 share with us maybe the other day, is that the legislature has
3:12:44 directed the DOE to make
3:12:46 that changes happen.
3:12:47 I mean, I guess legislatively they could say, hey, DOE, now’s
3:12:51 the time, so –
3:12:51 » Well, they were supposed to have done it by 2020.
3:12:54 » Right.
3:12:55 » And they have not done that yet, and I feel like, you know,
3:12:59 as we continue to see
3:13:00 growth –
3:13:01 » And we’re not the only district that would affect, so maybe
3:13:03 that would be –
3:13:04 » Yeah, it’s going to become more and more of an issue in that
3:13:06 area.
3:13:07 » Orange County just built, like, five K-8s.
3:13:09 They’re squeezed.
3:13:10 I’m sure all of the urban districts are exploding.
3:13:12 You know what I mean?
3:13:13 » Yeah.
3:13:14 » Like, you’re right.
3:13:15 I mean, they should have, they were directed to do it two years
3:13:17 ago, inflation costs, everything
3:13:18 else.
3:13:19 » Yeah, and realistically it probably needs to be done on an
3:13:21 annual basis, you know, at
3:13:23 least take a look at how that’s impacted, because that, you know,
3:13:27 without the cost per
3:13:28 student station issue, we would have been very close to not
3:13:33 having to finance for the
3:13:35 middle school.
3:13:36 » Right.
3:13:37 » So I, that would be my recommendation, and I would certainly
3:13:40 support, you know, I
3:13:41 don’t know that they’re going to get anywhere, but I would
3:13:43 support submitting the other two
3:13:44 as well.
3:13:45 » I think, you know, the construction industry literally has
3:13:49 pretty tight indexes that they
3:13:51 can follow.
3:13:52 It’s not a, you know, hey, this is the inflation today or
3:13:55 whatever.
3:13:55 I mean, it’s pretty strict, and the fact that they haven’t come
3:13:58 back in two years
3:13:58 and done it, and we’re getting pinched on it right now, like, we’re
3:14:01 going to literally
3:14:02 have to take out a loan and pay interest because they didn’t do
3:14:06 that.
3:14:07 That, there’s an issue with that.
3:14:08 You know what I mean?
3:14:09 There’s a real issue with that.
3:14:10 So I agree with you on that, and when you’re done, I have one
3:14:14 that I thought I’d throw
3:14:16 in there, too.
3:14:17 » I’m done.
3:14:18 » Well, so, well, three years in there, I was just going to
3:14:21 recommend that we, I was
3:14:22 going to ask Ms. Belfer, would you mind writing up something
3:14:27 that was, that –
3:14:28 » Yeah.
3:14:29 » – encapsulates our conversation about the cost per student
3:14:32 station issue and submitting,
3:14:33 because we probably just need to have one person submit our – I’m
3:14:37 volunteering you.
3:14:39 Do you mind doing that?
3:14:42 » Sure.
3:14:43 » I do.
3:14:44 » I write to everything.
3:14:45 » I know.
3:14:46 You are the wordsmith of the group.
3:14:47 Did you have another one that you wanted to add to our –
3:14:48 » I did.
3:14:49 I did.
3:14:50 I think both of what you were saying also was really good, too.
3:14:51 I was talking about the pre-K and the other piece that just
3:14:53 keeps – I mean, we keep getting
3:14:55 hit with it, and it’s just not fair.
3:14:56 It’s not fair to Dr. Mullen.
3:14:57 It’s not fair to staff.
3:14:58 I agree with you on that.
3:15:00 The other thing that I was going to say is I’ve been getting a
3:15:03 lot of positive with the
3:15:04 legislators on the idea of a review commission to review the
3:15:08 regulation of the DOE on the
3:15:10 school districts over the last, like, 15 years to maybe possibly
3:15:14 reduce some of what we’re
3:15:16 having to deal with, with paperwork and everything else, right?
3:15:19 They actually thought it was a good idea because they’re deregulating
3:15:23 or they’re making it
3:15:24 smaller, right?
3:15:26 Really and truly for us, there are so many things that I feel
3:15:29 like we could streamline
3:15:31 and do better that would take time, less for our teachers and
3:15:33 everybody else.
3:15:34 So I truly believe – I don’t know how I could articulate that,
3:15:39 but there’s some want on
3:15:40 that piece, and I’ll be with them anyway, so I can kind of try
3:15:43 to wordsmith it and put
3:15:44 it in there at the last minute, but that’s where I was thinking
3:15:47 because there’s – I’m
3:15:48 just tired of, like, literally everybody says, “You know, it was
3:15:52 great in 1950.
3:15:53 Our education was great in 1950,” and I’m like, “Yeah, but we
3:15:57 actually were able to
3:15:58 teach for 180 days.”
3:16:00 You know what I mean?
3:16:01 Now we have all these regulations.
3:16:02 We’re teaching, like, 70 days when it’s all said and done, and
3:16:05 that ain’t enough, so that’s
3:16:07 all.
3:16:08 So kind of like a – similar to the federal paperwork reduction
3:16:12 act, you know, we’re just
3:16:14 asking them.
3:16:15 I mean, with the premise that the teachers in the classroom need
3:16:19 more instructional time
3:16:21 and it’s being eaten up by all of the good idea fairies
3:16:24 regulation, quite frankly, over
3:16:26 the last 10 years, they come up with these new ideas, and then
3:16:29 all of a sudden the teachers
3:16:30 were – more paperwork, more regulation, more of this, and all
3:16:33 of a sudden we’re – literally
3:16:35 have, like, half of the days to teach that aren’t testing, that
3:16:38 aren’t running out and
3:16:39 doing fire drills, that aren’t doing, you know, all of those
3:16:42 things.
3:16:42 So that’s all.
3:16:43 Ms. Hahn, I see that you poked your head in the door.
3:16:47 Were you poking your head in in response to what our discussion
3:16:49 was, or did you just happen
3:16:50 to come in the door at that time?
3:16:52 Okay.
3:16:53 Did you have concern about my recommendation to address costs
3:16:56 for student station analysis?
3:16:58 Okay.
3:16:59 Perfect.
3:17:00 I would just like to add, I think it’s really critical that FSBA
3:17:08 get in the fight when it
3:17:11 comes to accommodating the salaries of our staff and our
3:17:15 teachers, and to stop ignoring
3:17:17 the fact that legislatively we are, again, handcuffed when it
3:17:21 comes to how we can give
3:17:22 raises to our staff.
3:17:26 It’s insane that they are dictating the percentages of what we
3:17:29 can give to what staff members
3:17:30 when every single district, quite frankly, is different,
3:17:32 especially, you know, like we
3:17:33 talked today.
3:17:34 We’ve got 22 districts that have millages passed.
3:17:38 Their salaries are very different than ours.
3:17:41 Their discrepancies between certain staff members are very
3:17:44 different than ours.
3:17:45 And to give us an insane calculation that, quite frankly, is
3:17:49 contradictory to the TSIA
3:17:50 calculation that they tell us to give is not only confusing, it
3:17:56 appears to be intentional
3:17:58 to continuously drive wage compression and keep salaries down
3:18:04 for our staff.
3:18:06 So I think FSBA would – I just think it’s their obligation, and
3:18:13 I think we’ve been silent
3:18:15 on it.
3:18:16 All right.
3:18:17 So I’m sitting at – If I can add just a couple considerations.
3:18:23 I know FSBA and FADS collaborate, you know, across organizations,
3:18:28 associations, just some
3:18:30 conversations that we’re having, as I said, on the board for FADS.
3:18:35 One is to begin discussions or proposal to move TSIA allocation
3:18:41 into the FEFP.
3:18:43 As a separate categorical, it is more subject to potential
3:18:46 defunding or underfunding moving
3:18:48 forward, and that is a perpetual recurring cost to districts.
3:18:53 And to provide security for that funding, interest in having the
3:18:58 DOE move it into the
3:18:59 FEFP.
3:19:00 So it’s not likely to be reduced in funding like we saw recently
3:19:04 with a class size amendment
3:19:06 allocation.
3:19:08 Second is reconsideration of the calendar year sit-out for an
3:19:14 individual who retires,
3:19:18 does drop, and can come back into the system.
3:19:21 The reason – My understanding, just to provide some background,
3:19:24 my understanding is that
3:19:25 became an issue based on IRS regulations, having to sit out for
3:19:32 a year.
3:19:34 That has been – That question has been called and answered, and
3:19:38 when the state wanted to
3:19:40 reduce it down back to the 30 days for emergency responders.
3:19:46 And so it was approved for emergency, which opens the door now
3:19:50 for other classifications
3:19:52 of employees that take advantage of or utilize Florida
3:19:55 retirement system.
3:19:57 But that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen automatically.
3:19:59 We’ve got to be a strong voice in saying we want to move all
3:20:02 employment classes back to
3:20:04 a 30-day sit-out, which would allow us to then give
3:20:07 opportunities for continued employment
3:20:10 for teachers, administrators, and so on.
3:20:14 One of the concerns was is that individuals could get reinvested
3:20:18 in the retirement system.
3:20:20 I would propose as a concession that employees aren’t interested,
3:20:25 because the term of reinvestment
3:20:27 is now eight years.
3:20:28 It used to be six.
3:20:30 To expect an individual who has done 30 years, maybe plus five
3:20:35 of drop or seven, and then
3:20:36 to do another full eight to get vested is probably – That’s an
3:20:42 extreme case.
3:20:43 But to keep them in the system for two more years or three more
3:20:47 years certainly is a proposition,
3:20:49 and I think we should lobby to the State Board.
3:20:51 » So –
3:20:52 » I’m going to add on that topic.
3:20:55 I know the Supervisor of Elections – I think I shared this a
3:20:59 couple years ago – was also
3:21:00 interested in that.
3:21:01 So there’s other forces, because I know they look at retirees
3:21:05 frequently for positions
3:21:06 like poll workers.
3:21:07 And I know I’ve heard Roy Scott in the past talk about if it
3:21:11 wasn’t a year, she would
3:21:12 have an easier time finding those poll workers from recent
3:21:16 retirees as well.
3:21:18 » Absolutely.
3:21:19 So I will craft some verbiage around this and then send it to
3:21:25 you all.
3:21:26 And, Dr. Mullins, if you have anything that FADS has already put
3:21:28 together on those two
3:21:29 issues, if you wouldn’t mind forwarding it to me.
3:21:36 And then I’ll send it out to you all just in case you have any
3:21:38 feedback on it.
3:21:39 Mr. Susan, you are now our appointee, so you’re going to have to
3:21:43 be able to speak intelligently
3:21:44 to those issues at the meeting.
3:21:46 » Yeah, absolutely.
3:21:47 » Okay.
3:21:48 » I’m going to be at the Director’s meeting in October.
3:21:49 I’m going to be over there for a couple days on bail and a
3:21:50 couple other things, too.
3:21:51 So that’ll be good.
3:21:52 » Okay.
3:21:53 » Yep.
3:21:54 Absolutely.
3:21:55 I’ll be on there.
3:21:56 » All right.
3:21:57 Anything else on legislative platform issues?
3:22:00 Any other items on board discussion?
3:22:02 » I have something I want to talk about.
3:22:08 » Okay.
3:22:09 » Yeah.
3:22:10 So as elected officials, we operate under Florida Sunshine Law.
3:22:15 We are subject to public records requests, we’re no strangers to
3:22:19 them.
3:22:20 And I want to bring this up to my fellow board members and to
3:22:24 people who are listening.
3:22:26 I’m going to read a statement here from our Sunshine Manual, and
3:22:30 I’m going to kind of
3:22:32 jump around just because there’s a lot of numbers in here and
3:22:34 they’re not going to make
3:22:35 any sense to anybody.
3:22:38 The definition of a public record specifically includes a record
3:22:43 made or received in connection
3:22:46 with official business.
3:22:49 Any connection with official business is public record,
3:22:52 regardless of physical form, characteristics,
3:22:55 or means of transmission.
3:22:56 I’m going to skip a lot here because there’s a lot of references
3:23:00 to chapters and yada,
3:23:01 yada, yada.
3:23:02 That’s not going to make any sense if I’m just saying it
3:23:05 verbally to you.
3:23:06 The determining factor is the nature of the record and not
3:23:09 whether or not the record is
3:23:10 located in a private or government computer or communications
3:23:14 device.
3:23:15 And so the reason I read that, I’m going to be as broad as
3:23:18 possible here.
3:23:19 I submitted a public records request myself to this district,
3:23:25 and the response I got to
3:23:27 something that I requested specifically on a personal device was
3:23:32 that it doesn’t need
3:23:33 to be responded to because it was on a personal device.
3:23:39 And I’ve received plenty of public records asking for things on
3:23:44 my personal device if
3:23:46 it exists.
3:23:48 I know we’ve had a couple of lawsuits come up where we’ve had to
3:23:51 go through our personal
3:23:52 devices, if anything exists, and submit that as well.
3:23:55 And so I just want to bring that up to my fellow board members.
3:23:58 That is a grave concern of mine.
3:24:01 It opens the district up to potential legal issues if we are not
3:24:06 fulfilling those public
3:24:08 records requests.
3:24:10 And I think that the public has an obligation to hear that that
3:24:17 is a response.
3:24:20 And it concerns me.
3:24:21 It concerns me with transparency.
3:24:23 It concerns me with accountability.
3:24:26 Because essentially what that means is that not only us as
3:24:30 elected officials, but anyone
3:24:32 who’s working in the school system is also subject to public
3:24:34 records request.
3:24:35 If we do those things on our personal device, we don’t have to
3:24:39 submit them.
3:24:40 And I don’t agree with that.
3:24:42 And I don’t think that the law says that either.
3:24:47 And I just wanted to make you all aware of that and my concern.
3:24:50 My concern is it’s going to open up some legal issues.
3:24:53 » Thank you, Ms. Jenkins.
3:24:56 Any additional board discussion?
3:24:58 » Paul, do you wish to clarify anything here or are you okay?
3:25:03 Because the public records request was for a record that doesn’t
3:25:07 exist.
3:25:07 And I put plenty of case law, just like other people who said
3:25:12 this to her previously also.
3:25:15 And now I sent that to you for review.
3:25:17 Right?
3:25:18 » Yes.
3:25:19 » Okay.
3:25:20 So the request was not said that it wasn’t that it’s on a
3:25:23 personal device and it doesn’t
3:25:25 happen.
3:25:26 It’s on.
3:25:27 Because the public record doesn’t exist.
3:25:29 Period.
3:25:30 So is that the nature of what was sent to you?
3:25:33 » I can’t remember verbatim what it was.
3:25:36 It was a fairly long email.
3:25:38 There was a if they don’t hold it in public business, like on a
3:25:43 personal device, like
3:25:44 if it’s not being held by the entity, then it wouldn’t exist by
3:25:48 the entity for a public
3:25:49 records request.
3:25:50 » If it doesn’t exist on the device, if it doesn’t exist in the
3:25:54 public, it doesn’t exist
3:25:55 all.
3:25:56 So that’s what those court cases and the defining support and
3:26:01 everything was.
3:26:03 That’s all.
3:26:04 So that’s been clarified before, too.
3:26:09 » I’m just – I wasn’t going to get specific, but now I’m going
3:26:13 to.
3:26:14 The response that I received was not that it doesn’t exist.
3:26:17 » No.
3:26:18 » And that’s a concern to me.
3:26:25 And listen, I did a request of business phone, and there were no
3:26:31 results, yet public statements
3:26:35 were made that these communications had happened.
3:26:38 And I have people in this room who say that these communications
3:26:42 happen on the private
3:26:43 phones.
3:26:44 There’s people who have under oath made that statement.
3:26:49 So it’s concerning to me.
3:26:53 So Mr. Gibbs, I would love for you to clarify for me if the
3:26:56 response I got was that they
3:26:58 didn’t exist at all, because that’s not what happened.
3:27:02 And I wasn’t going to get specific there, but for you to say
3:27:04 that, I’m going to double
3:27:05 down.
3:27:06 That is not the response I received.
3:27:11 » I don’t know what public records actually sent to you.
3:27:14 I know the e-mail correspondence that was going back and forth
3:27:18 with my office, and there
3:27:19 was a case law citing that defined the record under 119 – let’s
3:27:26 see if I can find where
3:27:28 the statement is.
3:27:32 It was in regard to school district-owned devices, call logs on
3:27:38 school officials, personal
3:27:41 and mobile phones would not become public record unless the log
3:27:44 itself was prepared
3:27:45 in connection with official agency business and intended to
3:27:49 perpetuate, communicate or
3:27:51 formalize knowledge of some type based on a 1980 Florida Supreme
3:27:57 Court case, which further
3:27:59 defined the term record as used under 119 Florida statutes to
3:28:02 mean any material prepared
3:28:04 in connection with official agency business, which is intended
3:28:07 to perpetuate, communicate
3:28:09 or formalize knowledge of some type, and it went on to say they
3:28:13 were not aware of a government
3:28:15 official’s personal phone being a public record, as it’s not
3:28:21 held by the public – they’re
3:28:23 not public records unless public agency or public employee makes
3:28:27 use of the logs themselves
3:28:28 based on Nissen versus Pierce County in Washington for 2015.
3:28:36 So I’m going to go ahead and read the e-mail I received.
3:28:39 Good afternoon, Ms. Jenkins, Mr. Susan has provided a response
3:28:42 to your phone log request
3:28:43 citing case law that states personal cell phone records do not
3:28:46 qualify as public records.
3:28:50 That is not saying that they don’t exist.
3:28:52 That is saying that they are not to be – they are not subject
3:28:57 to public records law.
3:29:00 I submitted that to Paul for review prior to he was supposed to
3:29:05 contact your public
3:29:07 records department to tell them to hold until he’s reviewed it.
3:29:10 So the fact that they jumped the gun and did that, whatever, I
3:29:13 can’t speak for the public
3:29:15 records – Well, it’s not jumping the gun when I submit
3:29:17 the request almost a month ago.
3:29:19 No.
3:29:20 Listen, I have a right to say that not only as a fellow elected
3:29:23 official who’s been subject
3:29:24 to the same public records request, I have the right to say that
3:29:28 as a constituent myself.
3:29:30 I think it is subverting public records law, and I think that as
3:29:34 a board we need to be
3:29:35 concerned because there could be legal ramifications for it.
3:29:39 Ms. Jenkins, I would just like to review the fact that our own
3:29:42 attorney just cited case
3:29:43 law specific to your request.
3:29:45 We just went ahead and found out publicly that I returned the
3:29:49 information to Mr. Gibbs
3:29:51 so that he could review it, send it over to the public records
3:29:55 group.
3:29:55 They must have sent an e-mail to you ahead of time.
3:29:58 That was not part of the plan.
3:29:59 So what you’re saying and what you’re doing is outside the scope
3:30:02 of what our legal counsel
3:30:04 is in the process of doing.
3:30:05 So I would refer you to him and find out what it is because that’s
3:30:09 the proper process for
3:30:10 our school board members to take care of.
3:30:12 Absolutely.
3:30:13 And Mr. Gibbs, have I met with you about this?
3:30:14 Yes.
3:30:16 And Mr. Gibbs, do you believe that this case law either supports
3:30:24 or goes against this being
3:30:26 a public record?
3:30:27 Do you believe that it says either way?
3:30:30 I don’t think it’s super clear.
3:30:32 I think there’s a lack of clarity in the e-mail actually
3:30:35 acknowledged there’s no direct on-point
3:30:38 case law finding whether or not personal records would be public
3:30:42 record on a phone login for
3:30:43 a personal device.
3:30:44 Okay.
3:30:45 Thank you.
3:30:46 So I have a right to still be concerned that it is circumventing
3:30:49 public records law.
3:30:50 Thank you.
3:30:52 Are we good?
3:30:55 Dr. Mullen, do you have anything more to add?
3:31:03 If I may, I have three quick updates for the board I think you’ll
3:31:07 appreciate being made
3:31:09 aware of.
3:31:10 One, I want to just provide the board an update on student
3:31:13 enrollment after our three-day
3:31:15 count process.
3:31:18 Enrollment was looking favorable then.
3:31:19 It is looking even more favorable now.
3:31:22 Our enrollment is actually over projection in our elementary and
3:31:26 secondary schools by
3:31:28 over 460 students.
3:31:30 And we continue to grow historically into the October FTE.
3:31:34 So I would let the board know that our projections for this year
3:31:39 were already ambitious.
3:31:42 And we determined those back in January, February of last school
3:31:47 year.
3:31:47 And not only have we met those projections, we’ve exceeded them
3:31:51 considerably across our
3:31:52 traditional elementary and secondary schools.
3:31:55 So very positive, encouraging news there.
3:31:58 Second, just want to do a continuous plug for our mentoring
3:32:02 program framework.
3:32:04 I have mentioned it several times in public presentations.
3:32:09 It is alive and available on our website.
3:32:12 We can monitor like access to that website and we’ve had
3:32:17 considerable numbers of folks
3:32:20 at least visit the website and appear to be going through the
3:32:23 training process.
3:32:24 Our fingerprinting and background check cost is still zero for
3:32:29 individuals to meet that
3:32:31 first benchmark requirement for becoming a mentor.
3:32:35 And I would just implore our board, and I know you do already,
3:32:40 but our community to
3:32:41 go through the mentoring program if you’re available and you
3:32:44 would love to mentor some
3:32:45 of our students.
3:32:46 Our principals are ready and receptive to getting you plugged
3:32:50 into our schools across
3:32:51 the district.
3:32:53 And finally, I want to put a big plug out for our first ever
3:32:58 Parent Academy, which will
3:33:01 be launched end of September or first week in October.
3:33:05 We’re finalizing dates and locations.
3:33:07 The first topic is going to be in the student behavior arena,
3:33:12 how parents and school can
3:33:14 come together and partnering to improve student behavior.
3:33:18 It’s about a 90 minute session.
3:33:20 What’s exciting is we’re really leveraging a lot of technology
3:33:24 and kind of a new venue.
3:33:25 We are simulcasting the training from the boardroom to five
3:33:30 satellite locations across
3:33:32 the district where there will be an in-person opportunity in our
3:33:35 schools.
3:33:36 Our staff there will work with the families at that site where
3:33:40 the instruction will be
3:33:41 delivered simulcast and then they’ll have the hands-on
3:33:44 activities with staff in the
3:33:46 schools.
3:33:47 So we have capacity at the Parent Academy for hundreds of
3:33:51 families to participate at
3:33:53 the same time.
3:33:55 Of course, it’ll also be recorded and parents can utilize it if
3:33:58 they’re not available to
3:34:00 participate in real time to access that information as well as
3:34:03 all the resources that we’ll be
3:34:05 providing our parents along the way.
3:34:07 So that’s the first of several Parent Academy engagement
3:34:11 opportunities that will be continuing
3:34:14 across the school year.
3:34:16 So very excited about that.
3:34:17 We’ll be doing a big launch of the information, the specifics,
3:34:21 locations, the time, how to
3:34:23 access the simulcast and/or the podcast afterwards.
3:34:27 So just got to keep speaking that out there and get the word out
3:34:31 that we have that great
3:34:33 opportunity.
3:34:34 Thank you, Ms. Moore, her team that is working on the content,
3:34:37 and Mr. Bruhn and his team
3:34:39 are working on the logistics of technology and all of that fun
3:34:45 stuff.
3:34:46 So thank you to my team for their great work.
3:34:48 Thank you, Ms. Bell.
3:34:49 I just want to make one quick comment, and I know this is not
3:34:53 board member and it’s not
3:34:55 specific to what you shared, Dr. Mullins, but I just feel like
3:34:58 it’s necessary to make
3:35:00 the comment.
3:35:01 So we talked earlier in the meeting about the fact that this is
3:35:04 the first time that
3:35:06 we’ve come together since the school year started and all of the
3:35:08 great work that went
3:35:09 to making sure that we started off strong and that our students
3:35:12 are being served and
3:35:13 the great work of our bus drivers and all of the people who have
3:35:17 poured in making this
3:35:19 a successful start to the year, albeit with challenges.
3:35:23 I just have to point out, and I know that we internally and as
3:35:26 board members have had
3:35:27 this conversation, and we saw the exact same thing last year
3:35:31 from this team who serves
3:35:32 our district, and that is not only are they maintaining, keeping
3:35:38 us afloat and getting
3:35:40 our school year started, but they are expanding and working on
3:35:44 parent academies and doing
3:35:47 the work that we’re doing in elementary and secondary to
3:35:49 continue to support students
3:35:51 to success and doing all of focus on boarding and the new
3:35:58 substitute app and the I mean
3:36:01 it they just don’t mind boggling.
3:36:04 It is absolutely mind boggling and so yeah, couldn’t let that go.
3:36:16 Okay. All right. We have two public speakers on non aboard non
3:36:24 agenda items.
3:36:25 When I hear the remaining speakers who signed up to comment on
3:36:29 non agenda items each speaker
3:36:31 is limited to three minutes we have a clock in front of me to
3:36:33 help you keep track of your
3:36:34 time and your time is over you’ll be asked to stop and allow the
3:36:37 next speaker has a return.
3:36:38 We hear from the speakers in the order in which they’re signed
3:36:41 up only two of them so
3:36:42 Mr. Laney and then Miss Murphy as stated earlier reasonable
3:36:45 decorum is expected at all times
3:36:46 and your statement should be directed to the board chair that
3:36:49 audience participation interfere
3:36:50 with speakers being hard of hearing me I’ll be forced to clear
3:36:52 the room.
3:36:53 I don’t think we have any audience left other than our two
3:36:55 speakers so shouldn’t be a reason
3:36:56 problem.
3:36:57 Good night and the rocks are leaving so there you go.
3:37:03 Mrs. Mullins do you anticipate being you know disruptive her.
3:37:13 Okay. All right. So we will
3:37:14 start with Miss Delaney. When you’re ready ma’am so there is I’m
3:37:18 going to read something
3:37:21 that I saw today and a mom swap group and I will not say the
3:37:26 child’s name but it’s written
3:37:29 in this and again these are not my words.
3:37:33 This is not something I typically do but here it goes. If your
3:37:37 son named blank is in eighth
3:37:39 grade and goes to Space Coast Junior Senior High and he comes
3:37:43 home with a bloody nose
3:37:44 just know it was my daughter my seventh grade daughter that did
3:37:47 it. It has been he has been
3:37:49 bullying her since the second week of school. He has told
3:37:52 teachers deans and multiple other
3:37:54 adults nothing has been done. I’ve called and spoke to the deans
3:37:59 and multiple other
3:38:00 adults. Nothing has been done. She came home yesterday with
3:38:05 marks from where he stabbed
3:38:06 her and scratched her with a pen. That was the last straw. I
3:38:10 told her that if he touches
3:38:12 her or touches her with anything she has my full permission to
3:38:16 defend herself and do what
3:38:18 she feels necessary to make him stop. If the adults at the
3:38:21 school did what needs to be
3:38:22 done we wouldn’t be in this situation. I have been talking about
3:38:28 this for two years now
3:38:29 at every almost every meeting I’ve been talking about this. I
3:38:33 don’t care if a student is any
3:38:37 kind of demographic any kind of sexual orientation any kind of
3:38:42 anything. I want our kids safe
3:38:45 in school. I don’t care what their label is. It doesn’t matter.
3:38:50 I want our kids to be highly
3:38:51 educated and I want our kids to be safe. And you know we talk
3:38:55 about suicide prevention.
3:39:00 How about how about our kids being bullied relentlessly and none
3:39:04 of the adults are doing
3:39:06 anything about it. And if if an adult does come out about it.
3:39:11 Like a friend of mine.
3:39:13 She gets sued by the district and fired. We need to have an
3:39:24 honest conversation about
3:39:26 this. I will work with anyone. To fix this problem. I don’t care
3:39:33 who you are. I will
3:39:34 work with anyone. I want all the kids in our schools to feel
3:39:39 safe. Something that we don’t
3:39:41 talk about is dating violence. It happens in our schools every
3:39:45 day. I’ve mentioned before
3:39:47 the girl who gets walked around by a leash by her boyfriend in
3:39:51 school. How is that not
3:39:53 stopped. We need to protect our kids. We need to set the example
3:40:01 we need to be the adults.
3:40:03 Thank you. Thank you miss. Good evening madam chair and board.
3:40:19 My name is Sarah. I’m a wife
3:40:21 mother of two children in Brevard public schools taxpayer voter
3:40:25 constituent college student
3:40:26 and I live in district for school board. Wow what a difference
3:40:30 an election make. I want
3:40:32 to touch on a little bit of the materials. The inappropriate
3:40:36 materials in the libraries
3:40:38 that I’ve mentioned before. When those on the dais say kids have
3:40:42 personal electronics
3:40:43 where they can access this material anyway. I would say you are
3:40:47 out of touch with what
3:40:48 the majority of parents in your district and voters want. The
3:40:52 parent leadership team in
3:40:54 Brevard overwhelmingly wants help with keeping their kids safe
3:40:58 online. Let me know if you
3:41:00 need a need a resource to help parents. The other issue I want
3:41:05 to talk about was D 18.
3:41:08 It was on the agenda but apparently I couldn’t discuss it in the
3:41:12 agenda items which is confusing
3:41:14 to those of us who come and we prepare to speak and we time our
3:41:18 speeches to do respect
3:41:20 the business of the board and our time and the board’s time as
3:41:24 well. Just wanted to share
3:41:27 that part. Everyone sitting on the dais should be driving a bus.
3:41:31 Most of you subbed last
3:41:32 year in a classroom. It’s time to drive a bus. I watched you
3:41:37 know there’s been reports
3:41:40 about from all over this district about lots of really again it
3:41:47 goes back to the safety
3:41:50 issue of these children. Children being dropped off where they
3:41:53 shouldn’t be dropped off. People
3:41:55 not knowing where children are. And this is not the fault of the
3:41:59 bus driver. OK. The bus
3:42:02 drivers tried to come and speak at a school board meeting in
3:42:05 February and they only had
3:42:06 one minute and then they were cut off. And that is not fair and
3:42:09 that’s on the leadership
3:42:11 of you Madam Chair. And I’ll leave with this. This past week. So
3:42:19 my son gets picked up before
3:42:21 my daughter on the bus. It’s 50 minutes between time. On Tuesday
3:42:25 morning my son was still
3:42:27 waiting at his bus stop and my daughter was picked up before my
3:42:32 son was. And he said to
3:42:33 the bus driver. Can you please take me to my school too. And
3:42:37 then my son missed a whole
3:42:38 period. The first period of school and then the school ends up.
3:42:43 Calling me or the robo
3:42:45 call and saying that my son was not at school or that he was tardy
3:42:49 or he had missed more
3:42:50 than one period. And then me as a mom I was. Really. I didn’t
3:42:55 know where my son was or
3:42:56 why he wasn’t in school that day. So. You know there’s just it’s
3:43:00 so important to listen
3:43:01 to parents and to work with your constituents. Thank you. Thanks.
3:43:10 I will share with the board
3:43:12 just for your knowledge since there was reference to a situation
3:43:15 at a school in my area. That
3:43:17 particular parent has updated that information and did speak
3:43:20 with leadership at the school
3:43:22 and has spoken with the parent of the child that was referenced.
3:43:26 And all seemed to be
3:43:28 on the same page. So you are aware that. Information was. Left
3:43:33 out. What was shared. All right.
3:43:36 Anyone else have anything for the good of the order this evening.
3:43:39 Then let’s go home.
3:43:40 This meeting is adjourned.