Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
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11:53 - Good afternoon.
11:55 Good afternoon. The February 21st, 2023
11:58 board work session is now in order.
12:00 Paul, please call roll.
12:02 - Mr. Susan.
12:03 - Here.
12:04 - Ms. Wright.
12:05 - Here.
12:06 - Ms. Campbell.
12:07 - Here.
12:08 - Ms. Jenkins.
12:09 - Here.
12:10 - Mr. Trent.
12:11 - Here.
12:15 - I pledge allegiance to the flag
12:17 of the United States of America
12:19 and to the Republic for which it stands,
12:21 one nation, under God, indivisible,
12:24 with liberty and justice for all.
12:29 - We now begin with a public hearing
12:31 on board policy 0169.1,
12:33 participation at board meetings.
12:35 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
12:40 Dr. Miller, you don’t want to get up here
12:41 and address the item?
12:43 No? All right.
12:45 Listen to the speakers.
12:46 Is there anybody here? No? All right.
12:48 Mr. Paul Gibbs, do you need to address
12:50 the board on any issue here?
12:52 - I don’t have, I don’t have anything.
12:55 I just want to point out that I did make
12:57 the changes requested at the last meeting,
13:00 including the public comment period
13:02 is extended until the start of public comment,
13:04 so they can sign up to speak
13:05 up until we start public comment.
13:07 - And you said that is inside there,
13:09 but it’s not in here. - Yeah, I highlighted it
13:11 in here that that’s the only change
13:13 since the last board meeting.
13:15 - All right, any other board members
13:16 wish to discuss any other items besides that?
13:19 - I do. It’s been brought to my attention
13:21 by a few of our voters that they really wish
13:23 that we would duplicate the county commission’s process
13:27 for public comments in the manner that they would,
13:30 we would allow them to speak to more than one topic,
13:33 which would extend their time.
13:35 And so I know, obviously, we don’t want to start
13:37 policymaking over again or hinder what we’re doing currently.
13:41 I just want it to be, I want to bring it up to you guys
13:43 and ask if that’s something that this board
13:45 wishes to move forward with so that somebody’s able
13:47 to speak on more than one item.
13:49 And it may not be the wish of the entire board.
13:51 I just, I promised that I would bring it up
13:53 and we would discuss it.
13:55 - So, just so everybody clarifies, the county,
13:57 every, for each one of the items,
13:59 it gives an opportunity for public speakers
14:01 to come up and speak about it.
14:03 And there’s two sides to that. One, usually at the county,
14:08 you have different people come to speak to those items.
14:12 One of the things that I would say on the other side
14:14 of the argument is that some people may just come
14:17 and speak to every item. But, you know, even if they do,
14:21 it’s their right as an individual.
14:23 So, I’ll just kind of explain that.
14:25 If anybody hasn’t been over the county,
14:27 I can go into even more depth, but that’s kind of
14:29 where you were going. So, any other conversation?
14:32 - I hear what you’re saying, just in practice,
14:35 we’ve very rarely had someone, we’ve had people come up
14:39 and use the three minutes and actually get through
14:41 quite a few things. And in addition, even though
14:44 we do only have that one time specified,
14:49 when we do, like, when, at our next meeting,
14:54 evening meeting, in the first one in March,
14:57 when we have, when these policies come on,
14:59 they will have regular public comment time,
15:01 you can also comment on these, anything that comes
15:03 from public hearing, our boundary changes,
15:05 those things all get a separate public comment time.
15:10 And so, I’m just, you know, like I said,
15:12 in reality, even sometimes we’ve had people talk about,
15:14 oh, I’m not getting enough time, and they ended up
15:16 with, like, 45 seconds left, even.
15:18 So, it’s just, I don’t know, I, at this time,
15:22 I’m not interested in completely rearranging
15:25 what we’ve done. I think we’ve got a good, you know,
15:27 good something working with these changes.
15:31 Ms. Jenkins?
15:33 Yeah, I don’t actually believe that that’s
15:36 a majority request or concern of the general public.
15:40 I think it’s a specific handful of people,
15:42 and I will argue that the last revision
15:45 of the public comment policy, once the crowds died down,
15:48 technically, people got more time to speak
15:50 than ever before, because they were able to speak
15:52 on non-agenda items as well as agenda items.
15:54 And they spent at least half of their six minutes
15:57 that they were allotted, complaining about
15:59 that they wanted more time. I don’t remember
16:02 any instance where someone had six minutes to speak
16:06 and ran out of time to talk about something
16:08 they wanted to talk about. So, I don’t think
16:10 it’s an actual concern right now for the community.
16:13 We also have in there, correct me if I’m wrong,
16:17 I don’t have it open, sorry, where we can vote
16:21 to extend it, correct? Thank you.
16:23 So, any time we feel like there’s a hot topic
16:26 or a bunch of hot topics on the agenda
16:28 and a public comment happens, we can vote
16:30 to extend that public comment time and period
16:32 for people to have a longer time to speak.
16:34 So, I think that provision in there is enough
16:37 for us to tackle that challenge.
16:40 Ms. Jenkins, just for point of clarification,
16:42 are you saying that we would actually possibly
16:46 vote to extend past the three minutes,
16:48 or can you explain that a little bit more?
16:51 You could.
16:52 Yeah, I know, but I want her to clarify.
16:54 I’m not sure why I need to clarify for you, Mr. Susan,
16:56 because this was something that existed prior
16:58 to the last policy.
16:59 So, yes, you can vote to extend the three minutes
17:02 at any point.
17:03 Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that everybody knew
17:05 that we were starting at three minutes, that’s all.
17:07 You know, I’m sorry, Mr. Trent,
17:10 did you wish to speak on this one?
17:13 It’s going to be much of the same.
17:17 I do think we need to look at what other boards
17:21 are doing, and if we can speak on agenda items
17:25 and non-agenda items and give our public, you know,
17:29 six minutes to speak at a meeting, that is quite a bit.
17:32 But if we have the flexibility when we do have
17:34 the hot topics to extend that, I think that’s always good.
17:38 But I do think it’s a good idea for us to continue
17:41 to have this conversation, especially today.
17:44 Ms. Wright, if you can explain.
17:46 So, under your proposal, I know much like the county,
17:49 but if only I can say it again, there would be one time
17:52 where everybody gets to speak, and then we would go
17:55 each policy or whatever item, like, walk me through that.
18:00 Even like a city council meeting, you’re able to fill
18:03 a comment card out to each specific item.
18:07 So, it gives you more time to be able to speak
18:09 if there’s multiple things that you want to speak on.
18:11 I understand the ramifications of what this looks like
18:13 for the board, I realize that in reality.
18:16 But I also think that it is important for us to hear our public.
18:19 So, that is the only reason that I’m bringing it forward
18:21 is because despite what other board members are stating,
18:24 it was brought to my attention that this is a desire of the
18:26 public.
18:27 And I, as somebody who’s elected, said I will bring it forward
18:31 and discuss it with our board and see what their thoughts are on
18:33 moving this.
18:35 So, I don’t, and again, don’t want to hinder what we’re
18:36 currently doing.
18:38 So, I am in no way suggesting that we stop this policy
18:40 and go to rewriting the policy.
18:42 I just want it to be something that we discuss
18:44 because it may come up at a future time that we look at moving
18:47 towards duplicating what some of our other forms of government
18:50 are doing for public comment.
18:52 Can I make a suggestion? I, because I did some of this
18:56 when we were revising this over the last couple of years,
18:59 I’m going to make a suggestion that we each spend some time
19:02 watching some of the other school board meetings around the
19:04 state,
19:05 especially ones our size.
19:06 Because it’s not fair to compare us to, like, some of the little
19:08 teeny-tinis
19:09 that may only have two or three, you know, they only have 2,000
19:11 people
19:12 in their county or something like that.
19:14 So, but to see how they structure it, to get some ideas,
19:18 we certainly have the flexibility to do it however we want.
19:21 But I think that would be a great place to start
19:23 because school districts are a different animal.
19:25 I’ve seen some that, like, they have, they put all the consent
19:30 agenda items together.
19:31 So you can’t, if you’re going to do something in the consent,
19:33 you’ll still only get three minutes to speak to anything under
19:35 consent.
19:36 But then you might get another three minutes to something
19:38 that’s under the action, you know, agenda.
19:41 And then they do a general one anyway also.
19:43 So there’s some different ways to do it.
19:45 But I think it would be good to get an idea.
19:47 I mean, we obviously have this, but even among the city
19:49 and the municipalities in Brevard, everybody does a little
19:52 different.
19:54 And, you know, there are also different sizes and different size
19:56 complaints.
19:57 So I think it would be good for research purposes, you know,
20:01 go on YouTube, fast forward to the public comment part,
20:04 or play it on two times speed, it’s always fun.
20:07 And just pick up some ideas from there too.
20:10 And of course, FSBA, our FSBA membership is a great resource too.
20:14 Just ask some of your school member friends from across the
20:15 state,
20:16 “Hey, what are you doing, what are you doing?”
20:18 Because honestly, we’re not the only district that has redone
20:21 this.
20:22 Over the last couple of years, a lot of school districts and
20:23 school boards
20:25 are discovering, “Hey, maybe we do this a better way.
20:28 Maybe there’s a different way.”
20:30 All within legal bounds.
20:32 But, you know, just whatever meets the needs of our district.
20:37 Any other discussion on it?
20:40 Yeah. So as someone who has been sitting here for two years,
20:43 having this conversation over and over and over again,
20:46 I feel like we continuously are solving problems that don’t
20:49 exist.
20:50 And it’s baffling to me how many times over the past three
20:52 months
20:53 we’ve heard, “Well, the County Commission does this and that.”
20:55 We are not the County Commission.
20:57 We are equally elected officials who can make our own decisions.
20:59 We don’t have to reflect what they’re doing across the street.
21:02 Just because they’re doing it doesn’t mean it’s right.
21:04 Again, never said that these complaints weren’t brought to you,
21:07 but I don’t believe that they’re a majority.
21:09 And I also don’t believe that it’s an actual issue
21:12 that we’ve even had present in this boardroom.
21:14 So I think it’s something to pay attention to.
21:17 And if it is a problem and becomes a problem
21:19 now that we’ve revised it back to the one time speaking for
21:20 three minutes,
21:22 then it’s something to address.
21:24 But to just imagine that it’s going to become a problem
21:28 I think is a waste of time for us to start this process over.
21:31 Thank you, Ms. Jenkins.
21:33 I like it. My only question would be kind of where Campbell was
21:37 at is
21:38 if we pull up for consents, do we do each item?
21:41 Do we do action items? You know what I mean?
21:43 You know, Paul, one of the things I was looking at is,
21:46 you know, when we go to the adoption of the agenda,
21:48 do we allow public speaking there? No.
21:50 But what would legally put us in a good place
21:53 where we could give people the right to talk at each one of them?
21:55 And if you could do like a legal review
21:57 of what we legally could allow on each topic for them to speak
22:00 to
22:01 and then bring that back at the next meeting,
22:03 then we might be able to take a look at it.
22:05 And to be honest with everybody up here,
22:07 I mean, I would rather stall it two weeks, get it done right,
22:10 rather than go back and come back and do it later on.
22:13 I mean, it wouldn’t be stalled two weeks.
22:15 We’d have to restart the ad process, so it’s going to be a
22:17 longer period.
22:18 Right. Again, I’m not suggesting that we stop the process
22:23 that we’re currently doing. I think we should do this
22:25 because that way we don’t have to, every board meeting, go,
22:28 “Can we make the motion to extend the speaking time?”
22:30 You know, so let’s move this forward and then I just,
22:32 this is a conversation that’s going, I believe, to come up again.
22:35 So I would just want it to be on everyone’s radar.
22:37 It was literally just to kind of get it out there and say,
22:39 “Hey, this is something that we should consider doing
22:41 just to give everyone the ability to speak as much as possible
22:44 to the items that are there.”
22:45 One of the things I spoke to Mr. Gibbs about this,
22:47 and I would like you to research this,
22:49 but a lot of other school districts do not televise public
22:51 comment, period.
22:52 And I think that there is a benefit to that to a lot of
22:54 districts.
22:56 They have seen a benefit to that.
22:58 So I would like Mr. Gibbs to research that, if possible,
23:02 just to look at the legality of how they do that
23:05 and benefits and the downside to that as well.
23:08 You want me to take this one?
23:10 Are we good? Are we good on this one?
23:13 No, we’re not done. We’re not done.
23:15 So this was a conversation we had last time.
23:18 I fought that tooth and nail because, quite frankly,
23:22 there’s this narrative in this conversation.
23:25 You guys said it in your campaign of a lack of transparency,
23:28 so absolutely not.
23:29 We have a perception in this public that we’re not being
23:30 transparent.
23:32 Again, it’s one that you guys read in your campaign.
23:34 I do not believe in shutting off the camera
23:36 when people are making public comment.
23:38 Leave it on.
23:39 If there’s nothing to hide, leave it on.
23:41 And quite frankly, I’ve said it time and time again,
23:43 any time we’re meeting.
23:44 I personally think it should be recorded and filmed as well.
23:47 I don’t know why it’s only happening in this boardroom.
23:49 All we have to do is pop open a cell phone.
23:51 I’ve argued that for the past two years as well.
23:53 No way. Absolutely not.
23:55 Just because it’s recent history.
23:57 Ms. Campbell?
23:58 Yeah. We got crucified for doing that very thing.
24:01 From the right and from the left,
24:03 we heard from consistent messaging,
24:05 “Don’t turn the cameras off because I want to see everybody
24:08 sitting and I’m watching from home.”
24:10 And what we ended up doing was we passed the policy
24:13 and then we had to vote.
24:15 What you’re talking about we don’t want to do,
24:17 we had to vote until we could fix it back.
24:19 We had to vote for the next three meetings
24:21 to leave the cameras on during the non-agenda items
24:23 that we had at the end.
24:25 We can do whatever we want to,
24:27 but I’m just telling you ahead of time,
24:29 we already made that mistake in this county
24:31 and it didn’t go over very well.
24:33 I think part of it is,
24:37 is that there’s multiple ways to do it.
24:39 Like I know Orange County has it before the meeting starts
24:42 and there’s other things.
24:43 So I think we can all do as Ms. Campbell said,
24:45 let’s go look at some options and stuff like that.
24:47 Let’s keep our minds open based upon what you see.
24:49 And then Paul if you can bring back some sort of legality on it,
24:52 that’d be great.
24:53 Any other further discussion on this item?
24:55 Good. Hearing none,
24:56 we shall now begin with public hearing on board policy 9800
24:58 charter schools.
25:00 Is there anyone present who wishes to speak to this item?
25:07 No. Okay. Is there anyone present who wishes to speak to this
25:10 item?
25:15 No. Do any board member, wait.
25:17 Ms. Klein, do you wish to address the board on this topic or are
25:20 you okay?
25:22 All right.
25:23 Do any board members wish to discuss this topic?
25:26 Yep. Go. Yes, Ms. Campbell.
25:28 I just had a community member provide some feedback.
25:31 I just wanted to clarify the changes that were making this
25:34 policy
25:35 from the short policy that it was to the very long policy it is
25:37 now.
25:38 Those are all based in statute, correct?
25:42 Yeah. Previously our one pager was something that district had
25:45 created
25:47 as their charter school.
25:49 We are moving to Neola’s template.
25:51 Neola’s template is about 25 pages long.
25:54 So yeah, that’s why it grew by 24 pages.
25:56 But the template is literally word for word pretty much straight
25:59 out of statute.
26:01 So there’s not a lot of we can create our own version in here.
26:05 We’re bound to follow the statute anyways.
26:07 It’s just now being put in our policy.
26:10 So even before we had the policy changes, we were doing what the
26:12 statute said.
26:13 We just didn’t have it written in there.
26:15 Okay. Just thank you for that clarification.
26:18 Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
26:19 And in reviewing a lot of these policies,
26:21 that seems to be consistent with what we have.
26:23 Anybody else wish to discuss this item?
26:27 No? Hearing none, let’s move on.
26:29 We will now here begin with the public hearing on board policy 3120.11.
26:33 Reference for veterans and employment. Is there anyone present
26:36 who wishes to address this item?
26:39 Anyone present who wishes to address this item?
26:42 Ms. Carol Green, do you have any want to say anything on this
26:45 item?
26:47 Okay. Thank you.
26:48 Does any board members wish to discuss this item?
26:51 You guys should all be proud of this item because this is a big
26:53 deal.
26:54 And it’s something that I think we should push out our
26:55 commitment to veterans.
26:57 All right. With no discussion, we can move on to the next one.
26:59 We will now begin with public hearing on board policy 5121.
27:03 Controlled Open Enrollment.
27:04 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
27:13 Okay. Ms. Klein, do you wish to address the board?
27:17 But I see Ms. Green coming up. What am I? It says Klein.
27:20 They’re just turning down. Do you wish to address this item in
27:22 any way?
27:24 No? All right. Do any board members wish to address this policy?
27:28 Hearing none, I just wanted to ask the question.
27:31 Last time we were here, there was some wraparound adding our
27:34 employees to Tier 1, not Tier 2.
27:37 Now, I will be honest with you. After reading the policy, I
27:39 think they are Tier 1, but it’s just a weird wording.
27:43 Like, it seems that if an employee has their child with them,
27:46 that they can transfer into that school if they’re hired.
27:50 And the only issue was, just so I can do this, if I am a teacher
27:53 who has my child with me at one school,
27:56 and then I go teach at another school because I transfer,
27:58 because that’s something that we as a board are committing to,
28:02 would they be able to drag their kid with them to go there? That’s
28:04 all.
28:05 So we would make those accommodations.
28:08 But Tier 1, the reason we have to separate that is those are the
28:12 statutory guidelines within 5121.
28:17 Yeah. And we could always, just for proof of law, put the
28:21 faculty right on – as long as they don’t go above those,
28:27 we’re adding to it, we can put them on Tier 1.
28:29 That’s right.
28:30 But I’m okay. As long as you’re telling me that every time an
28:31 employee has a situation, we’re going to take care of them, that’s
28:33 all that matters.
28:34 We do.
28:35 And then we’ll just tell the rest of the employees that are
28:36 concerned that they’re Tier 2.
28:38 Listen, it doesn’t matter. Just call Ms. Cline.
28:40 Just call me.
28:41 It’s okay, people.
28:42 Just call me.
28:43 All right. Good. We’re good there.
28:44 All right. I’m okay. Does anybody else wish to discuss this item?
28:47 I don’t think – I can’t think we would have a staff member who
28:50 would literally be frustrated because we’re putting foster kids
28:53 and custody –
28:55 kids cutting custody issues or military personnel over their own
28:57 families. I think they understand.
29:00 Yeah. I mean, but there’s other things that occur. But according
29:01 to Ms. Cline, we work it out and we’re good.
29:04 So, all right. Moving on, we will now begin with a public
29:07 hearing on Board Policy 7440.03, use of small unmanned aircraft
29:11 systems in school settings.
29:14 Is there anyone present who wishes to address this item?
29:18 Anyone present who wishes to address this item?
29:22 Ms. Green, do you wish to address this item?
29:25 Do any board members wish to address this policy?
29:28 Hearing none, we – Paul, do you – I mean, you look like you’re
29:31 ready to go there.
29:32 No? Okay. Hearing none, I’m going to move on.
29:36 Next up, we will now here begin with public hearing on Board
29:38 Policy 9130, public complaints.
29:41 Is there anyone here who wishes to address this item?
29:44 Anyone here who wishes to address this item?
29:47 It’s public complaints. It’s not what you think it is.
29:52 Mr. Paul Gibbs, do you wish to address the board if needed?
29:56 No, I just wanted to point out – I did add that the part that
29:58 was cut off that Ms. Campbell pointed out last time, so it
30:01 should be good to go.
30:04 Mr. Gibbs, you seem like Johnny on the spot today. This is a
30:05 good job. Here we go.
30:08 Next up, do any board members wish to address this – discuss
30:10 this policy?
30:12 No? All right. That concludes our public hearing items.
30:16 Next topic is Superintendent Search, Discussion, and Direction.
30:20 Ms. Andrea Messina with the Florida School Board Association
30:22 will lead the conversation.
30:24 You have the floor, Ms. Messina.
30:27 May I take the chair, or do you want me to –
30:29 You can – whatever you feel comfortable with.
30:32 I have some spreading out.
30:33 Yeah, no problem. Like, kick the other ones out and everything
30:36 else and make sure that the microphone works for you and all the
30:40 good stuff.
30:42 Appears that it works. Can you hear me?
30:46 Yep.
30:47 Okay. Well, hello, board members. It is a pleasure to be back
30:50 with you here today as we continue to move through the process
30:54 of community input and developing the advertisement, which we’re
31:01 hoping is going to be able to go out on Friday to begin your
31:04 Superintendent Search activities.
31:07 I do want to point out, attached to your agenda, you should have
31:11 a number of items.
31:13 First, I want to point out the community forums and focus group
31:15 summaries, which were provided along the way as those particular
31:20 summaries were conducted.
31:23 You should have also a copy of the student forum that was
31:29 conducted, and I actually have all of the student input sessions.
31:37 Very interesting. I don’t know if you spent any time reading all
31:39 of that, but we have all of those focus group summaries.
31:41 Then you should have received a link so that you could interact
31:45 with the community survey results, and you had just under 5,000
31:51 responses from your community.
31:55 What I have done with those community responses, we had five
32:00 questions that asked–
32:03 Hang on. I’m sorry. Somebody didn’t have their cell phone turned
32:05 off at the meeting. I apologize.
32:09 We’re good. Go ahead, Mr. Sanders.
32:12 Respondents to the survey were asked, as you recall, to
32:15 prioritize from among 10 items.
32:19 One thing I want to remind you is that each respondent, so
32:22 almost 5,000 of them, for every question, the items were
32:27 randomized.
32:29 So those 10 items weren’t in the same order for every person who
32:33 took the survey, which gives the survey a little bit more
32:36 credibility because the items that floated to the top were
32:40 legitimately ones that people identified no matter where they
32:44 appeared on the list.
32:46 So I went through each of the five items and prioritized them
32:50 one through five. You’ll notice that in the area of academic
32:54 excellence, the item that came in with 40%, the top ranking item,
32:59 is commitment to all children and willing to visit classrooms
33:02 and participate in school activities.
33:05 So people want somebody who’s visible. In the area of
33:09 exceptional workforce, the number one item with 63.9% of people
33:14 identifying it has experience motivating staff and students,
33:19 improving morale, and generating enthusiasm.
33:23 So you’re looking for a dynamic and motivating leader. For the
33:27 area of community connection, the number one item with 58.6%
33:33 collaborates with faculty and community members, responds to
33:38 diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizes community
33:41 resources.
33:43 So that’s, again, speaking to the motivating factor and the
33:47 collaborating desire. For operational sustainability, the number
33:53 one item with 42.6% of respondents identifying it is responsible
33:58 for all aspects of student and staff safety and security.
34:04 That’s a big surprise, including oversight of district security,
34:07 so safety and security priority. And then for the area of
34:10 personal leadership qualities, the number one item with 49.9% of
34:14 respondents identifying builds trust and respect and serves as a
34:18 role model for staff, students, and community.
34:22 So really interesting information. I should point out that we
34:26 asked all respondents to identify the categories that they felt
34:31 represented them. People could identify more than one.
34:36 So we had 66.2% who identified as a parent or guardian. We had
34:42 61.4% who identified as a community member, 41.4% public school
34:49 employee, current or former, and then 11.9% business leader, 7.9%
34:56 student, and 13.7% other.
35:00 Quite a number of parents, 66.2%, which I think is really worthy
35:06 of recognition. I also want to point out that there are, let’s
35:12 see, 65, almost 40 pages at the very end of the survey of
35:18 additional information people wanted to share.
35:22 So people were asked to identify what are the top two or three
35:26 strengths, and you have hundreds of pages of that. When I went
35:31 through, what I heard was people really believed that your
35:35 diversity, your teachers, your community, the opportunities and
35:39 programs you provide.
35:42 People really like the location, the Space Coast. They like Cape
35:46 Canaveral being here. Students, kids, however they identified
35:51 that technology. The support staff, they like the fact that
35:55 there’s innovation, technology, high performance and
35:59 expectations, integrity, and resiliency.
36:02 And I thought that was a really valuable insight from members of
36:05 your community on the strengths that they saw. I will say then,
36:10 followed by that, they wanted to identify the challenges that
36:14 the next superintendent was going to be facing.
36:18 No surprise, staff retention and pay, behavior and student
36:22 discipline, morale, cohesion, both of the community and the
36:27 board, politics, poverty, academic integrity, and technology.
36:33 So those were the things that were identified in the strengths
36:36 and the challenges, and then you had the area that had just some
36:40 additional stuff which ran the gamut of what people said. One
36:44 person put their name and address, and it wasn’t even from this
36:47 state. It seems like they were in South Dakota or something.
36:50 I asked my husband to fill me in on that. That is a Breaking Bad
37:00 character. Say that again? I asked my husband about that when I
37:03 was reading through it last night, and he said, “Read that again?”
37:03 And he said, “That’s a character off of Breaking Bad.” So a
37:04 little humor thrown into the mix.
37:05 So I thought you got some really valuable information, and what
37:08 our goal is in gathering this information is to provide you with
37:12 some perspective from the community, from all facets of the
37:16 community that can help guide you as you’re going through this
37:19 process.
37:21 It can guide you as you’re reviewing resumes. It can guide you
37:25 as you’re interviewing final candidates, and what we tried to do,
37:30 and this is where I’m going to pivot to the qualifications. What
37:35 we tried to do, excuse me, qualities in the qualities sheet that
37:39 you have, and you should have 16 qualities listed there, is we
37:44 tried to really summarize to the best of our ability everything
37:48 that we saw in all of the feedback,
37:51 both in person and online, in these 16 qualities. Now what these
37:55 qualities, we want to walk through them and discuss them and see
37:57 if you want to change them if you think we’ve left anything out.
38:01 But one of the reasons we provide these qualities, we posted on
38:03 your search portal, so when people are, when we advertise, we
38:07 say, “Go visit the portal. You’ll get more information.” These
38:10 are the things that they’re going to read are the things that we
38:13 are looking for.
38:14 These are the things we’re going to focus on when people talk to
38:17 us and ask questions about your district. These are the kinds of
38:21 qualities, based on what we read, we believe this community has
38:24 said they’re looking for.
38:27 So I want to walk through them and see if you want to make any
38:30 changes or edits to them. I started, and they’re numbered one
38:35 through 16. You guys have access to this, correct? Yeah, okay.
38:40 Do you want us to go each one and give you our feedback, or do
38:42 you want to run through them all and then if we have changes?
38:45 What’s easier for you?
38:45 I just want to give a brief overview, and then if people have
38:48 specific input, we can take that.
38:51 I tried to put them in rank order, at least at the beginning,
38:54 safety, security one, academics two. Some of the other things
38:59 fell into place down the line from there, but I wanted to be
39:02 clear that safety and security and student academics were at the
39:04 beginning.
39:06 So you’ll notice some key phrases that we pulled from the
39:09 community survey top ranking items, things like collaborates,
39:14 community, builds trust, things like that. All of that is kind
39:18 of baked into these statements.
39:21 Number one focuses on safety and security. Number two focuses on
39:24 student performance by identifying all achievement gaps and
39:29 setting some goals, measurable strategies.
39:33 Number three demonstrates commitment to all children and shows
39:36 support. This is the one that includes visiting schools and
39:40 celebrating success.
39:42 Number four references collaborating with the school board, and
39:44 it focuses on strategic plan school board policies and
39:47 accountability measures.
39:50 Number five is really the one that we tried to pull together to
39:53 focus on innovation and trends in education as leadership.
39:59 Number six is building trust and respect by leading with
40:02 integrity, optimism, humility and vision because we saw several
40:06 comments about that.
40:09 Number seven is building open, honest relationship and building
40:13 consensus, resolving challenging issues. We heard that in some
40:17 of our face-to-face sessions.
40:21 Number eight is familiarity with district culture and engaging
40:26 with the diverse communities.
40:30 Number nine is accessible, approachable, visible in schools. Ten
40:34 speaks to the motivation of students and staff but maintains
40:38 high expectations.
40:41 Eleven speaks to school finance, budgeting, business operations.
40:45 Twelve speaks to implementing a behavioral plan, setting
40:50 standards for students and staff with consequences
40:54 but understanding the importance of listening to parents,
40:56 principals and teachers in this kind of a plan.
41:00 Thirteen speaks to legislators, community business, civic
41:03 partner engagement. Fourteen is relationships with high-tech
41:07 companies in the Space Center.
41:10 Fifteen is building a volunteer program and sixteen is being
41:14 decisive and able to build consensus.
41:18 So if there are any suggestions for either changes or if we’ve
41:22 left anything out, happy to hear them now.
41:27 Any wishes, any board members wish to address the qualities? Ms.
41:33 Campbell?
41:35 These are great and considering how much input you had, I very
41:38 much appreciate that you guys were able to consolidate them out
41:42 into the sixteen.
41:44 On number eight, is familiar with Brevard County School District
41:46 culture and traditions or is willing to fully engage with the
41:48 school district?
41:50 Oh, or. See, reading is fundamental. Because I was thinking,
41:53 okay, if somebody coming in from the outside, I don’t assume,
41:57 but I want them to get there really fast.
41:59 So is willing or is willing to fully engage with school district
42:02 and diverse communities. So, thank you. Question answered. I’m
42:05 good.
42:06 Thank you, Board Member Campbell. Consider it done.
42:09 Anybody else? No? Okay. Do you want us to reduce it down to ten?
42:17 Did you want us to keep it at sixteen? What would you like from
42:20 us?
42:21 If you’re comfortable with all of them, I mean, you guys have a
42:24 large district and you have a lot of needs, and I think it
42:28 really will help people understand if I’m going to apply, these
42:33 are some of the expectations.
42:36 And if I’m short in one area or another, that doesn’t exclude me,
42:38 but I’m going to need to know that I’m going to have to have a
42:41 plan to overcome that area of shortcoming.
42:44 Yep. What I would ask, if everybody else is finished, is where
42:47 it says builds and enhance relationships with high tech
42:49 companies, Kennedy Space Center and the military, it’s number
42:52 fourteen on the list.
42:54 If we can put in there builds and enhances a pipeline of CTE2
42:58 and enhances, you know what I mean? Basically, our trades
43:03 pipeline to all of these.
43:07 We can see our commitment to trades, which is one of our top
43:10 three arguable components of our school district.
43:15 You can wordsmith it to however you want it, but you get my
43:18 point. And that’s the only one that I wish to kind of upgrade if
43:21 everybody’s okay with that.
43:24 Chairman, are you specifically looking for the word trade or is
43:28 career technical?
43:30 Some CTE programs, right, career and technical educational
43:33 programs, trades programs is what everybody knows them as.
43:38 So if you want to put in there however you want to word that is
43:41 just basically not only to create the relationship, but the
43:44 pipeline to those companies from our students.
43:48 That’s pretty much it.
43:49 And are you looking for a pipeline to enter the program or a
43:52 pipeline to exit the program into employment?
43:56 To come out of our schools and enter into all of the trades
43:59 inside the local area. We are the eighth largest manufacturing
44:02 base in the United States and just that is a commitment.
44:06 Not many people know that we have 580 manufacturers in our
44:09 county.
44:11 Okay, so here’s what I have. You tell me if this fits your needs.
44:14 I’m going to add some language to the end of this one.
44:18 Builds and enhances a relationship with high tech companies,
44:20 Kennedy Space Center, the military and other related entities
44:23 and develops a pipeline for placement upon successful completion
44:26 of programs.
44:28 You’re amazing. Thank you.
44:33 I mean she took the words out of my mouth. I was sitting here
44:35 like man, that’s exactly what I was thinking.
44:38 All right, everybody else good? Okay, I think the next one. What
44:42 is the next topic you need from us?
44:45 The next one is the qualifications and this is important because
44:50 when we post the advertisement, we put the required
44:54 qualifications, the preferred qualifications and that’s going to
44:57 determine whether somebody applies or not based on meeting those
45:01 qualifications.
45:03 The document you have in front of you shows you that currently
45:06 based on your job description, you require an earned doctorate
45:10 preferreds, which was kind of odd language, but that’s what’s
45:13 there.
45:15 MBA or equivalent is required, but the earned doctorate is
45:18 preferred and a minimum of 10 years successful managerial
45:21 administrative experience and a Florida driver’s license.
45:26 So, MBA or equivalent, 10 years successful managerial
45:29 administrative experience and driver’s license. That’s what you
45:33 guys have currently.
45:35 What we’re suggesting you consider is a master’s degree from an
45:37 accredited college or university, we like to use the word
45:41 accredited, 10 years of successful managerial administrative
45:44 experience, which is what you already have, the Florida driver’s
45:48 license, which is what you already have.
45:51 Under preferred based on the input that we saw, doctorate degree
45:54 from an accredited college or university, classroom school-based
45:58 or district level education experience.
46:02 So, having it under preferred but not required means that other
46:05 people could apply, but what we heard from a lot of the input
46:10 was people really are looking for an educator, somebody that has
46:13 some experience, but we didn’t want to have it required.
46:18 So, we are suggesting you put it under preferred and then the
46:21 third preferred, which you don’t have any reference to, is
46:24 experience in a school district with more than and we have at
46:27 least 20,000 students, but given your size, it could be more.
46:32 Just remember nationally, school districts are much smaller than
46:36 they are in Florida, so by saying 20,000, we thought that that
46:41 would at least, people will have had experience with systems and
46:45 processes to a degree that can be scaled up to the size of your
46:49 district.
46:51 So, I’d like to hear any input or conversation on these
46:53 suggested recommendations, please.
46:57 » Any board members?
46:59 Ms. Campbell?
47:00 » I’d like to thank you for making these changes because when I
47:02 see MBA, Masters of Business Administration, that’s not even
47:05 what –
47:06 » There’s a reason for that.
47:07 » Right, right, right.
47:08 So, I think this makes sense to make those changes and then we’ll
47:11 need to update our – and approve a new – a revised job
47:17 description, you know, with these changes.
47:23 So, I am a fan of all of the considerations.
47:30 » Anybody else?
47:32 » Go ahead.
47:35 » The required makes sense.
47:37 The preferred, even though that’s not required, so we’re not
47:42 bound by anything there.
47:45 The experience in school districts of more than 20,000 students,
47:48 I personally just think that limits and it might, you know, even
47:51 though it’s not required, it wouldn’t scare me off if I was in a
47:54 district that had 15,000 students.
47:58 But I would feel better if that was not there or a lower number
48:03 like 15,000 students personally.
48:08 » I think – thanks for bringing that piece up.
48:12 Does anybody else wish to discuss lowering it past 15,000 or,
48:16 you know, have a problem with dropping it down to 15,000?
48:22 » I would – especially since we’re only living under preferred,
48:25 I’d like to keep it right where it is because we are, you know,
48:28 a large district, you know, the 11th largest or 10th – I can’t
48:32 remember what the last count is – in the state of Florida.
48:35 And, you know, there is a lot that we – that falls under that
48:38 kind of leadership and the systems that we have in place that
48:42 other districts just don’t have.
48:46 Just don’t have that kind of scale.
48:49 Just very simply, I think we deserve somebody who has that kind
48:53 of experience and need.
48:56 » Anybody else wish to discuss that?
48:58 Ms. Jenkins – oh, go ahead.
48:59 No, go ahead and ask the question then we’ll get to Ms. Jenkins.
49:02 » When applicants come in and apply for this, are you going to
49:06 rank them based on how they rank up on the required plus
49:10 preferred so those ones will obviously elevate to the top or how
49:14 does that work?
49:16 » First off, we don’t rank any of them ever but what we would
49:21 do is we would – when we bring the applicant pool to you and
49:26 the first time we bring it to you, you’ll have it before we
49:28 physically come and review it with you.
49:32 But we will walk through – here is the packet – let’s not call
49:36 it a packet but here are the applicants that we believe meet
49:41 your qualifications.
49:44 Okay, so let’s say we have a strong qualification that comes
49:46 from a district with 15,000, okay?
49:50 We would say here is a superintendent – this person has been
49:52 named superintendent of the year in Idaho, pick a state.
49:56 All these awards, whatever, but came from a district with 15,000.
50:02 So board, would you like us to keep that person in or funnel
50:05 that person out?
50:08 We would funnel any, we bring them all to you but we would
50:10 acknowledge to you they don’t meet the 20,000 limit.
50:15 However, we think you ought to at least look at it and have some
50:17 conversation related to it.
50:19 » Okay, thank you for the clarification.
50:21 » So they’re not filtering anything for us.
50:23 » Right. I personally – I don’t have an issue with the size or
50:26 the number of students.
50:29 What I think is really important is Florida is very unique as a
50:31 school district, you know, as the state goes, as our statutes
50:34 and rules and all of that.
50:37 I would love to see experience in Florida.
50:39 I don’t know if that could possibly lower the applicants because
50:42 of the fact that we are going to be looking nationwide.
50:46 But I think it’s very important that someone has history with
50:48 Florida because, again, if you come from a different state,
50:51 you’re not familiar with all the rules and the sunshine and the
50:52 different things.
50:54 That’s a hard landing, so to speak, on getting your feet wet in
50:57 a district that has a lot of things that you’re not familiar
51:00 with.
51:01 That’s my personal opinion.
51:03 » Can I ask for clarification?
51:05 I would say that has experience working within Florida school
51:07 districts.
51:09 » So if they were a teacher in Florida but then became an
51:10 administrator in another state, would you consider that?
51:14 » I would. They would be familiar with Florida’s rules.
51:17 » Okay.
51:18 » I think it’s just different around the country.
51:21 I think one of the biggest struggles that we have is sunshine.
51:24 That is a challenge for a lot of people to understand how that
51:26 works for a superintendent role on who you can talk to and
51:29 things of that nature.
51:31 So I would like someone with experience there.
51:34 » Can I go back to the size?
51:36 » Yeah.
51:37 » So I don’t think we should manipulate the size at all because,
51:41 again, we’re 49th in the nation, not just 10th in Florida.
51:46 We’re large. We’re really, really large.
51:47 And typically with that, every state’s going to be different
51:48 based on how they structure their education system comes a giant
51:51 budget to manage.
51:53 So lowering the number of students most likely is going to lower
51:55 the amount of staff that they’re used to working with as well as
51:58 the budgets that they’re in charge of.
52:01 So I think it’s good where it is.
52:03 If somebody is near that number or even significantly below, if
52:05 they think they’re qualified, they’re going to apply anyway,
52:07 right?
52:09 They’re going to put their foot in the door.
52:11 And if the rest of their application is justifying them being
52:12 the right candidate, that is not going to deter us from taking a
52:15 look at them.
52:17 I’m going to be a hard counter and a no to the preferred from
52:20 being from Florida.
52:23 We already have made a decision to do a nationwide search.
52:26 And by putting that on there, I think we’re reverting back to
52:29 not being a nationwide search and giving this preference to
52:32 someone who is already within the state.
52:36 I argue that education law is continuously changing, if not by
52:40 week, sometimes by day.
52:43 And so if somebody’s qualified enough to lead the 10th largest
52:47 district in the state of Florida, I think they’re going to be
52:50 qualified enough to keep up to date with what’s going on here in
52:52 Florida and get up to speed.
52:55 I think by doing that, we’re going to limit our applicant pool.
53:00 I agree with the – I don’t want to limit our applicant pool to
53:03 the state of Florida.
53:05 And we wouldn’t be, right?
53:07 But I don’t even want to put it on there because I don’t want
53:08 people to think, oh, well, probably not going to take me
53:10 seriously.
53:12 We don’t know what’s out there.
53:13 And the truth is we have had this conversation before.
53:15 We are maybe not literally, you know, but we are in competition
53:19 with several districts in our own state.
53:23 And if we’re, you know, there’s – I know there’s always, you
53:26 know, jostling around just like we have with principals in our
53:29 schools, people moving around.
53:32 I think we need to leave that wide open.
53:34 And we can’t – there’s nothing to say that when we get into the
53:36 interview process that we can’t personally consider.
53:39 You know, I – you know, if you want somebody in Florida and we’ve
53:41 got absolute candidates and one of them’s from Florida and the
53:43 other four are not, you personally can have that.
53:46 But I wouldn’t want to put it on the application and be limiting
53:49 in any way because we may just have a rock star out there that,
53:52 you know, wants to come here.
53:55 And if they’re smart enough to be – and qualified, and I think
53:58 Ms. Jenkins was getting it at the same point – to do this, they’ll
54:03 catch on real quick.
54:05 You know, I have faith that they can catch on real quick if it’s
54:07 the person that we choose.
54:09 You know, there’s going to be a lot of new to get used to, even
54:11 if they have experience, even if they’re coming from a school
54:13 district that has 100,000 kids in another state.
54:17 There’s going to be a lot of new to get used to, but obviously
54:19 we would want someone who is capable of handling all that change.
54:23 I also – just to double down on that, too – you know, there’s
54:26 no guarantee with this, but just – I feel like it’s a safe
54:31 assumption.
54:33 If somebody’s considering to make a move across the country to
54:35 come here, they’re probably going to stay here for a little
54:37 while.
54:39 Not to say if they’re coming from Florida, they’re not committed
54:40 in staying here a long time, but that’s just something to think
54:42 about as well, too.
54:44 Because we have experience here in Brevard, where we had people
54:45 internally from the state of Florida who only stayed for a year
54:48 or two and then dipped out for a higher-paying job somewhere
54:50 else.
54:51 So it’s not always the worst thing to just look outside.
54:59 » Yeah, just to continue on the number of students, is it –
55:03 because it is a nationwide search, and one of the reasons we’re
55:08 49th in the country is because not all states have county
55:11 districts.
55:13 From having experience in school districts outside of the state
55:17 of Florida, many have smaller –
55:21 » Most.
55:22 » – municipalities, most, right. Some of the most effective
55:25 and efficient superintendents that I’ve dealt with literally had
55:29 one school, you know, one large school.
55:32 But, you know, I just – I don’t want to see to limit our – to
55:35 see limiting our pool.
55:38 We are – it’s a big competition here, and, you know, throughout
55:41 the country, if they have 5,000 students in a school district,
55:46 which might just mean a couple high schools,
55:49 it doesn’t mean they’re – they could not be up for the task
55:52 here.
55:54 So, you know, if they see that, that he or she sees that, it
55:56 just could be a hindrance.
55:59 I just want to make sure that we realize it is a nationwide
56:01 search, and they don’t need to be from Florida, and they
56:05 certainly do not need to have, you know, 20,000 students under
56:10 their, you know, guidance.
56:13 » Do you have a figure, or do you just want to remove it
56:15 completely?
56:17 » Well, again, I think if you’re the right candidate, you’re
56:18 going to apply no matter what.
56:20 So us putting anything there doesn’t seem like, you know, I’ll
56:23 have the majority of the board for that, but putting any figure.
56:27 We just – we want the right person.
56:29 So I agree with what Ms. Jenkins says that they don’t have to be
56:32 from Florida, and, you know, I agree with Ms. Wright that it
56:36 doesn’t have to be 20,000 students.
56:39 That’s right. I think if you’re the right person for the job,
56:41 you’re going to apply for us to put that in there as preferred.
56:45 It doesn’t serve any purpose. It’s not going to weigh in on my
56:49 decision to have them, so I don’t want it to be out there for
56:52 the person attempting to apply.
56:55 » So does the rest of the board want me to leave 20,000 as the
56:58 figure?
57:00 » Yeah, I wanted to talk at the end.
57:02 » Yeah, he didn’t talk yet.
57:04 » If I can talk. Is everybody else good?
57:07 » We’re done.
57:08 » You know, one of the things about the 20,000 is that we in
57:12 Florida say 20,000. If you look at where the break point of that
57:16 is, is that you talk about a limiting factor.
57:19 Because Florida is so unique, there’s many other school
57:20 districts that are very small.
57:23 And so where you also may want to try to look at is that we don’t
57:25 fund our schools the same way many of the other schools do
57:28 throughout the state.
57:31 So you may have a school district that’s at 8,000 that has a
57:33 massive budget, where in Florida we would have 10,000 and more
57:37 staff and more resources and everything else.
57:40 I mean, you go to some of these other school districts in
57:41 Michigan, you go in Kentucky, you go to other places, and they
57:44 have literally turfed their fields.
57:47 Their facilities are all brand new. So it’s difficult to put
57:49 down that there’s a 20,000.
57:52 And I agree with you that you literally are saying preferred
57:55 that these are the only people that we want to see. I’m okay
57:59 with lowering it to 15,000.
58:03 I’m okay, and I know that everybody who’s going to be a
58:05 potential candidate for us would eventually watch this.
58:10 So I think that, like you had said, if we don’t want to lower it,
58:12 at least everybody knows that it’s not an actual requirement and
58:16 they’ll come.
58:18 That’s not what I mean. So I’m okay to move it down, but I think,
58:20 Ms. Campbell, were you okay to move it down or did you want to
58:23 keep it up?
58:25 No, I’d like to keep it where it is, under preferred. It’s not
58:27 required. They can read. They can’t. Then we’re in trouble.
58:31 Ms. Jenkins, you’re not in favor of it?
58:34 No, and I’m going to reiterate. I get that Florida is structured
58:38 differently. I understand that.
58:41 But this is almost one quarter of the size of our district. This
58:43 isn’t even anywhere near the size of our district.
58:46 And quite frankly, yes, you absolutely could be coming from a
58:48 district that only has 8,000 and may be qualified to serve this
58:51 district.
58:52 But you will be a rare unique individual, and we’ll notice that.
58:54 Because this is a very unique size district.
58:59 It’s very, very large. Our budget is tremendous. You have to be
59:02 the right candidate to be able to fulfill that.
59:05 And odds are, if you don’t have the experience with something
59:07 with a significant size, it’s going to be really difficult to
59:10 transition to a district this large.
59:13 Again, it’s not the size of our district. It’s one quarter of
59:16 the size of our district. So, remember that.
59:20 So, thank you, Ms. Jenkins.
59:22 I’m okay with lowering the number as well.
59:25 Did you want to lower it to 15, or did you want to lower it to
59:26 10?
59:28 I don’t think that it even necessarily needs to be there, so I’m
59:30 comfortable with taking it off of there. But that’s, again…
59:34 Mr. Trent, where’s your guidance? Seems like there’s a majority
59:36 to move it. Where do you want to go?
59:44 Lower would be best. You know, if we can gain support in that,
59:47 removal of it altogether would be…
59:54 I know they can read, but let them apply, and then we can also
59:57 read. We’ll look at their resume.
1:00:00 It’s the character of the person that we’re hiring, not the size
1:00:03 of the team that they led.
1:00:06 Their leadership skills and their experience in whatever team
1:00:10 they led is why they’re going to be sitting here.
1:00:15 Character and capability, and I think the number speaks to the
1:00:18 capability.
1:00:20 Well, I think, if I can speak, because I have pretty good
1:00:22 relationships with a lot of superintendents across the state of
1:00:26 Florida.
1:00:28 There’s one in particular that I wanted to talk about, which is
1:00:30 a good example.
1:00:32 The superintendent from Suwannee County, elected superintendent,
1:00:36 is amazing.
1:00:38 And he’s a very strong leader in the panhandle among the NEFEC
1:00:42 and a couple of the other organizations.
1:00:46 And Suwannee County is only 6,000 students.
1:00:48 And so I would put him up against many of the superintendents
1:00:51 that are out there.
1:00:54 And I know for a fact he’s not going to apply for ours. That’s
1:00:55 why I’m going to use him as an example.
1:00:58 But the issue is that there are people out there that may be
1:01:00 what we’re looking for.
1:01:02 They may be so dynamic.
1:01:04 And I just, you know, regardless of if we lower it or not, I
1:01:06 just want people to understand that just because you’re in a
1:01:09 larger school district doesn’t mean that you’re better than the
1:01:11 guy that’s in the smaller one.
1:01:13 You know what I mean?
1:01:14 And so I’m okay with lowering it down.
1:01:17 If you guys want to put a number there, if you want to do
1:01:19 something, that’s fine.
1:01:21 But I think we’ve pretty much set the tone that, and everybody
1:01:23 up here, I think even you, Ms. Campbell, agreed, and Ms. Jenkins,
1:01:26 that it’s not a requirement.
1:01:28 So you can come in. But I think it did show some indication over
1:01:31 where our minds are when we look at the applications for the
1:01:34 future.
1:01:36 So with that, Mr. Trent, where would you like this thing to go?
1:01:39 I’d like to have it removed.
1:01:44 I’m in favor of removing it as well.
1:01:46 All right. So we can remove it.
1:01:47 The issue, the reason that I was wanting to remove it or lower
1:01:50 it was because I truly believe that at the salaries that some of
1:01:54 the school district superintendents are getting to,
1:01:57 that we may be able to attract somebody from the outside that is
1:02:00 not only, may not even be a part of a school district.
1:02:05 You know what I mean?
1:02:06 And they may have some opportunities there.
1:02:08 And that’s part of the later discussion.
1:02:10 But as far as that goes, and then I think that we had the nicks
1:02:13 on the experience in Florida.
1:02:16 The issue that I wanted to bring up, if I may, and I apologize,
1:02:20 does anybody else have any other issues that they wanted to
1:02:22 bring up in here?
1:02:24 I can’t, I hear the majority of the board, but I’m going to say
1:02:27 it again for public record’s sake.
1:02:33 We are the 10th largest school district in the state of Florida.
1:02:35 We are the 49th largest in the United States.
1:02:40 If you can’t come to a consensus that you believe that the
1:02:43 capability and your overall ability to manage a large district,
1:02:48 only nearly a quarter of the size of us, is important,
1:02:53 then I’m concerned about our ability to even filter these
1:02:56 candidates.
1:02:58 That literally blows my mind.
1:03:01 Blows my mind.
1:03:03 We have over a billion dollars in our budget.
1:03:06 70,000 students, 9,000 employees.
1:03:10 We are tremendous.
1:03:12 It doesn’t mean you can’t apply.
1:03:14 Do we need to define preferred versus required?
1:03:17 I’m just so confused.
1:03:19 This is the most important thing we are putting on paper to
1:03:21 start this process.
1:03:23 And if we can’t agree that experience matters, what are we going
1:03:27 to be doing over the next two months?
1:03:31 It doesn’t make any sense to me.
1:03:34 I wanted that on public record.
1:03:36 Thank you, Ms. Jenkins.
1:03:38 Anybody else wish to talk about any other issues?
1:03:41 I have one that I wanted to bring up.
1:03:43 Dr. Shiller, did you wish to speak?
1:03:48 I know I’m not part of the search process, but I’d like to just
1:03:51 raise a couple of observations.
1:03:54 One, you have an MBA as a possibility, but you don’t speak to a
1:03:59 JD,
1:04:00 in the event that someone does not have an MBA, but they have a
1:04:03 Juris Doctorate.
1:04:05 I just leave that on the table.
1:04:08 $1.5 billion budget, a third of which is facilities.
1:04:14 I didn’t hear that mentioned.
1:04:17 I’m not quite sure if that was something that came up as part of
1:04:20 the input from the community,
1:04:24 but I would just put that to your mind, because as I look back
1:04:28 over my time here,
1:04:31 engaged with the facilities and the budget and everything else
1:04:33 that we’ve been talking about,
1:04:36 that might be a consideration for you as well as a preferred
1:04:41 whatever,
1:04:43 as long as there’s almost a third and it’s going to grow,
1:04:47 particularly with options.
1:04:50 I hear administrative experience, but I didn’t hear anything
1:04:52 about leadership experience.
1:04:54 There’s a vast difference between administering a district and
1:04:56 leading a district, hopefully both.
1:05:01 And I would have to tell you, having worked in districts from 3,000
1:05:07 to 740,000 states up to 2.7 million,
1:05:14 there’s a huge difference in this size district than that of
1:05:18 running a much smaller one and a much larger one.
1:05:22 This is a unique number, and you might want to consider the
1:05:26 complexity of the district.
1:05:29 And that’s all I will leave it with, just as observations for
1:05:33 your consideration
1:05:35 that I’m sitting here critiquing in my own mind of things based
1:05:38 on being in the seat,
1:05:40 that it does provide some unique – I didn’t hear anything about
1:05:43 collective bargaining experience,
1:05:46 because that is part of the job description and statute and
1:05:51 policy.
1:05:53 I do think that’s an important piece. I didn’t hear anything
1:05:56 about policy,
1:05:58 and everything that is recommended is coming through
1:05:59 superintendent about policy and administrative regulations.
1:06:04 I could go on some others, but I just would like to just bring
1:06:06 these up for your consideration.
1:06:09 I’m sorry to interrupt.
1:06:10 No, Dr. Shiller, you bring up some great points.
1:06:12 I think the current job description had the MBA, but the – for
1:06:15 consideration was removing the MBA.
1:06:19 Is that correct? So that wouldn’t be an issue.
1:06:21 The JD/MBA, I think you’re on point there.
1:06:23 And then I do like your leadership experience, because there are
1:06:29 some unique individuals
1:06:30 that can point out to the leadership experience, and it might
1:06:32 bring them up.
1:06:34 So I would love that to be discussed as far as a topic.
1:06:38 And then I think that that brings us to – was there anything
1:06:42 else that you wish –
1:06:44 you spoke about all of the qualifications under the statutes
1:06:46 that we currently have.
1:06:48 As far as, you know, a lot of those, I think that they’re
1:06:50 pertinent to the job.
1:06:53 I don’t know if we just start listing too many things if it just
1:06:54 becomes a list.
1:06:56 So – but with that, I was going to ask if anybody else had any
1:06:58 other questions.
1:07:00 I think that some of those things – you know, some of the
1:07:04 things that Dr. Shiller mentioned
1:07:08 actually are part of our job – so our job description – this
1:07:10 is really just the top line
1:07:12 if you go look in our job descriptions, which I think Dr. Thede
1:07:15 sent us back in December
1:07:17 if you want to go back and search in your emails, or you can
1:07:18 find them online.
1:07:20 It’s a little harder to find them off our website.
1:07:22 But this is like the top section, right?
1:07:26 Here’s the requirements, the qualifications.
1:07:28 And then there’s all this list of things that they do, which
1:07:29 includes all those things that you just said.
1:07:33 So we can take – when we start revising the job description, I
1:07:35 think that’s a good point
1:07:37 of things that we can consider and make sure that all those are
1:07:40 in that, in the full job description.
1:07:43 As far as changes here, I think, you know, it might be worth
1:07:47 looking at the option –
1:07:50 you know, where you put a JD when you put it under, you know, or
1:07:54 a master’s or – I’m not sure how that –
1:07:57 » I have a suggestion on that.
1:07:59 » Yeah.
1:08:00 » A master’s degree from an accredited college university or
1:08:01 equivalent,
1:08:03 because the JD would kind of be considered equivalent.
1:08:07 » To a master’s.
1:08:08 » If that’s okay.
1:08:09 » Yeah. And then as far as leadership experience, I mean, we
1:08:12 can just put another –
1:08:14 if we wanted to, you know, tenures of a successful managerial/administrative/leadership
1:08:19 experience.
1:08:20 If it, you know, if it moved the board to do this, slash, slash,
1:08:23 slash, I like slashes and hyphens.
1:08:27 » May I ask for a clarification on that?
1:08:32 Perhaps we would remove managerial and actually replace it with
1:08:35 leadership,
1:08:38 because you really are looking for a leader, not a manager.
1:08:40 » Right.
1:08:41 » If that’s okay?
1:08:42 » Yeah.
1:08:43 » So it would be tenures of successful leadership/administrative
1:08:44 experience.
1:08:46 » I like that.
1:08:47 » For everyone, I’m seeing heads shake.
1:08:50 » Oh, is it going to be a problem to say Florida driver’s
1:08:53 license?
1:08:55 » Oh, yeah. That’s going to disqualify some people.
1:08:59 » Or able to secure.
1:09:02 » That is true. We’re looking outside of Florida.
1:09:05 » Okay. Or able to secure. Which means?
1:09:08 » You can drive. That’s what we want. Legally.
1:09:12 » There’s no reason that you can’t get a driver’s license
1:09:13 legally.
1:09:15 » Yes.
1:09:16 » Which means it hasn’t been removed in another state.
1:09:18 » Right, right, right.
1:09:19 » Mm-hmm.
1:09:22 » Any other discussion?
1:09:26 Okay. I think we’re good on this one. Did you want to read it?
1:09:28 » Can I just summarize and make sure? Yes. Thank you.
1:09:31 Under required, I have master’s degree from an accredited
1:09:34 college or university or equivalent.
1:09:38 I have ten years of successful leadership/administrative
1:09:42 experience.
1:09:44 I have Florida driver’s license or able to secure.
1:09:48 I’ll work on the phraseology there.
1:09:51 We have removed experience in a school district with more than
1:09:54 20,000 students, so that’s left off.
1:09:58 And we did not add the Florida education experience.
1:10:04 I just want to make sure I have everything.
1:10:08 » Yep. I think that’s good.
1:10:10 » Perfect. Then the next item for your consideration is
1:10:14 determination of a salary.
1:10:18 Each of you should have a chart in front of you.
1:10:23 And I want to explain to you what you see on this chart so I can
1:10:25 help you to understand it.
1:10:28 Hold on one second. I need to make a note.
1:10:31 There was one other thing on the qualities, not the
1:10:34 qualifications, but the qualities because superintendent was
1:10:38 correct.
1:10:40 I’m not sure that we highlighted the facility item.
1:10:44 You have one on here that says demonstrates knowledge of school
1:10:46 finance and efficient budgeting as well as other business
1:10:49 operations.
1:10:51 If I can add business and facilities operations. Is that
1:10:54 acceptable?
1:10:56 Okay. That way we’ve covered everything superintendent asked.
1:11:00 So on the salary chart, what we have in front of you is the
1:11:04 listing of the appointed superintendents in Florida by student
1:11:09 count.
1:11:11 Number of full-time employees, annual revenues. What you’ll see
1:11:14 on the third column from the right is the superintendent base
1:11:19 salary that was reported to the Florida Department of Education
1:11:22 in 21-22.
1:11:24 So if you look on the back, you’ll see the link where you can
1:11:27 find those specifically listed.
1:11:30 It is in accountability data on the Florida Department of
1:11:33 Education website.
1:11:35 We do that intentionally so that people can’t say, you know, we
1:11:41 can’t chase bonuses and salaries that superintendents get
1:11:45 throughout the year based on newspaper articles.
1:11:49 We have to have a single source document.
1:11:51 So that tells you where our single source document is and then
1:11:54 we pull in that column, the 21-22 salary.
1:11:58 We also for comparative purposes had the 20-21 salary so you can
1:12:02 see how it changed from one year to the other.
1:12:06 But what we did do is we added, you’ll notice in the current
1:12:09 column, the most five recent superintendents that had been hired
1:12:14 in large districts in Florida.
1:12:17 And so for example, if you’ll look at Lee County, the 21-22
1:12:21 salary that was listed for the department is 208,999 but their
1:12:25 current superintendent Bernier was brought in at 255.
1:12:30 So I wanted you to see both the DOE reported data and then the
1:12:33 salary that was negotiated since that DOE data was reported.
1:12:39 So the next time the DOE data is reported, it’ll have Lee County
1:12:42 at 255 just to kind of give you a comparison.
1:12:46 When we look at Brevard, you will see that you are one up from
1:12:51 Lee with some just slightly fewer students.
1:12:56 Looking at your current superintendent’s salary as well as the
1:13:01 salary for the districts above and below you which you can see
1:13:06 Osceola is currently at 211.
1:13:10 However, they’re also looking for a superintendent and that
1:13:12 salary is likely to go up.
1:13:14 Collier right now is at 275. They’re currently looking for a
1:13:19 superintendent, also likely to go up.
1:13:22 You’ve got Sarasota currently at 215, looking for a
1:13:24 superintendent, likely to go up.
1:13:27 St. Lucie’s currently at 204, Marion 215. So there’s a number of
1:13:32 over 200 superintendent-based salaries below you in size and
1:13:38 then the ones above you in size.
1:13:42 Real quick, you had mentioned the ones that are currently going
1:13:45 out. We just got, I think we got Charlotte schools came in.
1:13:49 You’re indicating those other schools like Sarasota and some of
1:13:51 the other ones, school districts, not what they’ve advertised
1:13:55 yet because they haven’t gotten to that place.
1:13:57 You’re just saying this is where they’re at now.
1:13:59 Correct. That is correct.
1:14:01 And so we are recommending that you look at, number one, the
1:14:05 size of your district.
1:14:08 Number two, we think you should have a wide range because you
1:14:10 don’t know how much experience and how much talent you’re going
1:14:14 to be bringing in.
1:14:16 So we’re recommending that you consider a range between 195 and
1:14:20 275, a wide range, large district.
1:14:28 I’d like to get your feedback.
1:14:34 Ms. Jenkins.
1:14:35 I think that’s way too low. Way too low.
1:14:41 The amount of superintendent positions that are open across the
1:14:44 state of Florida and across the nation.
1:14:47 Again, if we want the best of us, there is no way we’re getting
1:14:49 somebody in here that low. No way. Not someone who’s that
1:14:52 qualified.
1:14:54 The other unique, that’s the word I’m going to use, attribute
1:14:57 about the state of Florida is the insanely hostile political
1:15:01 environment in which our public education systems are in.
1:15:09 It’s going to have to be tempting for people to come here from
1:15:11 out of state.
1:15:13 So I think that’s incredibly low, if I’m being perfectly honest.
1:15:17 I don’t think we’re getting anyone in here under 275, and I
1:15:20 think that’s low, if I’m being blunt.
1:15:24 If we’re going to get somebody with a really solid, rock solid
1:15:27 resume, I think we’re pushing closer to three. That’s my opinion.
1:15:34 Ms. Campbell.
1:15:36 Yeah, this is a great conversation to have because I think when,
1:15:40 especially during election season, everybody’s got an opinion.
1:15:45 And one of the things that often comes up is how much
1:15:47 superintendent gets paid, they get paid too much, they don’t
1:15:51 take into consideration the CEO of the largest corporation in
1:15:55 the county, the largest employee base.
1:15:59 But this is really important data for us to have because the
1:16:03 truth is it’s not a matter of, it has to do with how are we
1:16:07 going to get somebody.
1:16:10 How much is it going to pay to get somebody, to get somebody
1:16:12 good.
1:16:14 I don’t necessarily agree with Ms. Jenkins as far as, do I think
1:16:16 somebody’s going to come in for 195? No.
1:16:21 But we had to have some wiggle room because somebody comes in
1:16:23 without a doctorate, there’s going to be some, you know,
1:16:26 negotiations that happen based on degrees.
1:16:29 And if they come in and then they earn a doctorate, you know,
1:16:30 there might be something that we put in the contract that would
1:16:32 allow that to go up.
1:16:34 And we have, I think the superintendents are allowed, like we
1:16:37 have in the district, like if you have a master’s, there’s a
1:16:40 supplement for teachers.
1:16:43 Same thing for a doctor. I think even for cabinet level, there’s
1:16:46 a supplement, Carol, if there’s a supplement for cabinet level
1:16:50 and above that, if you get a doctorate, right, there’s a
1:16:53 doctoral supplement.
1:16:55 No, doctorate is at the administrative level, I’m pretty sure.
1:16:59 So, I won’t put you on the spot.
1:17:02 But what I was going to say is if we’re looking, she gave, she
1:17:05 supplied us with these most, these five most recent.
1:17:09 And the only ones in the most recent that are over, actually the
1:17:11 only ones on the sheet at all that are over 300,000 are in the
1:17:15 really big school district categories, like orange, 330, just
1:17:19 tired.
1:17:21 350 Cartwright, well for right now, I know they have to go back
1:17:26 out and get another one. Broward, 370. Pinellas is still quite a
1:17:32 bit larger than us, 290. Lee, quite a bit larger than us, 255. I
1:17:38 think that is a good flexible.
1:17:41 One that’s pretty high, Collier. They’ve been doing that for a
1:17:43 couple of years, they only have 46,000 students. I want to find
1:17:47 out where they’re getting all their money, first of all. More
1:17:50 than the same sources we’re getting.
1:17:54 But I think we need to, I think that’s a good range. I mean, it
1:17:57 leaves it wide open. It seems to be pretty reasonable for the
1:18:01 size that we are.
1:18:03 And it leaves us some wiggle room, so I think that 195 to 275, I
1:18:07 mean just to put it out there as a range, I’m assuming, I mean
1:18:10 195, is there, can you kind of explain some of your thinking
1:18:14 along the low end of things?
1:18:17 Well, what we were thinking was you may have somebody that you’re
1:18:19 taking a chance on that’s never had any superintendent
1:18:22 experience, but somebody who for whatever reason you believe you
1:18:26 want to take a chance on.
1:18:28 And we wanted to give you enough of a range that if they came in
1:18:31 low, sometimes some districts want to bring in someone for maybe
1:18:36 two years at a lower, and then if they go beyond that, they give
1:18:39 them quite a boost.
1:18:41 So we were just, we also recognized that this is a very fiscally
1:18:45 conservative community, and so.
1:18:49 Yeah. No, I like the range, but I think, like I said, I think
1:18:51 this is an important conversation because that goes around, and
1:18:54 I’m sure we’re not the only community that goes around that, you
1:18:58 know, the superintendents get paid too much, and this is just
1:19:00 the reality of what it takes to get a CEO of that ability,
1:19:06 capability into a district like ours.
1:19:10 But I’m fine with the ranges presented.
1:19:14 Anybody else?
1:19:16 Yeah. Have, have we thought about saying regionally competitive
1:19:23 for the salaries? Because as some of these other superintendents
1:19:29 get hired, I mean the numbers can change the average, the idea
1:19:33 of we might have, I know that happens in the coaching realm all
1:19:38 the time, you know, once that top coach goes, the salaries
1:19:42 starts to reduce.
1:19:45 Or go up higher, depending on your pool. But, you know, the
1:19:49 range, once again, I don’t think it’s going to scare off the
1:19:54 right candidate because they’re going to come in and say that
1:19:58 that’s my job, and we’ll talk about what it would take me to get
1:20:02 here.
1:20:04 I do believe we’re going to get the quality candidates. I mean,
1:20:07 hey, when I was looking for a job here, many principals said,
1:20:11 yeah, I know you’re taking a 30% pay cut, but you get that in
1:20:15 sun and sand here, you know, coming from the Midwest.
1:20:20 So maybe we’ll get the Florida discount from superintendents
1:20:23 from around the country. So, yeah, I highly doubt it. Anyone’s
1:20:27 going to come here and try to run a billion and a half dollar
1:20:30 corporation for 195,000. I know teachers up north that almost
1:20:35 make that teaching five classes a day.
1:20:38 Not that that’s right either. But, I mean, if we were going to
1:20:42 do anything with the range, I would probably squish it a little
1:20:45 bit, leave it on the high end and, you know, 225 and above. I
1:20:50 mean, we’re talking about somebody with leadership skills.
1:20:54 So if we think we’re going to scare off the right candidate by
1:20:58 thinking we’re a cheap district at putting it at 195, again,
1:21:02 people are going to apply and we’re going to pick the right
1:21:06 person. So whatever we want to do here.
1:21:12 Either not say it at all, just say it regionally competitive or,
1:21:15 you know, maybe something like 225 to 275, that range. I don’t
1:21:20 think we’re going to go lower than the last contract we had on
1:21:23 that. That’s all I have to say on that.
1:21:26 I like your second idea. I don’t like the regionally competitive
1:21:28 idea just because I think that then people have to go out and do
1:21:31 the, right, right. And they get something like this, you know,
1:21:36 and it’s widely varied.
1:21:39 And I will tell you this, if you say regionally competitive,
1:21:41 people from out of state are going to say, what’s their range?
1:21:45 Yeah, right. But I see the 225 to 275.
1:21:49 That makes more sense.
1:21:51 Ms. Wright.
1:21:53 No, I like what you’re saying, Jean. I don’t disagree. The 225
1:21:56 to 275 is probably a realistic range. I don’t, I mean, if you’re,
1:22:01 but I also, I understand what you’re saying on if we’re going to
1:22:04 take a chance on a candidate that maybe doesn’t have every
1:22:07 single thing on this list.
1:22:09 And we think this is a good candidate that really could benefit
1:22:11 our district. I see what you’re saying there on the wiggle room
1:22:14 and maybe the contract being negotiated differently for that
1:22:17 type of a candidate.
1:22:19 So honestly, I’m okay with the range that you suggest. You’re
1:22:21 the expert. You guys are, you know what you’re doing when it
1:22:25 comes to looking for these candidates. So I trust your judgment
1:22:28 on this.
1:22:30 So I’m okay keeping it even at the 195 to 275.
1:22:34 I do also want to remind you guys that this is the base salary,
1:22:36 not the full compensation package.
1:22:39 And so somebody that might get a small lower base salary might
1:22:43 also want some behavioral, you know, performance compensation or
1:22:48 there’s some other pieces. This is just the base salary.
1:22:53 Okay. So I wanted to kind of take it on a different tour.
1:22:57 Currently, many of, and to Ms. Jenkins, I agree with you 100%,
1:23:03 many of the other school districts throughout the nation, their
1:23:08 associate superintendents are making what our max is right now.
1:23:14 So for to attract the best and the brightest in the nation, I
1:23:17 believe we had to go a lot higher.
1:23:21 The other factor that we’re dealing with is, is that this is not
1:23:24 a normal school district and that we will attract the right
1:23:28 people.
1:23:30 But if we really want that dynamic person out there that’s
1:23:33 willing to take a, come down here, I’ve mentioned it to three
1:23:37 people. I said, I’m thinking about going to X on the salary and
1:23:41 they said I’d come for that.
1:23:44 And they never even mentioned that they wouldn’t before. And
1:23:45 these are people that would not be coming. So I’m not saying
1:23:48 that they are, but they would say that they would.
1:23:51 So when I looked at that, I said, okay, if I’m in Michigan,
1:23:54 Indiana, Kentucky, wherever that is, and my school district is
1:23:58 because I’m looking at it right now, we have some of the largest
1:24:02 like Miami dates, the fourth largest school district in the
1:24:04 nation.
1:24:06 Hillsborough is number seven, orange is number nine. I mean, we’ve
1:24:09 got arguably half of the top 10 in our, in our state.
1:24:14 The issue though that I run into is, is that if we’re going to
1:24:16 attract somebody to come here from out of state and in a larger
1:24:19 district, just like Ms. Jenkins, because I want to honor her
1:24:23 requests for that is, is that we may have to go higher than what
1:24:26 their associate superintendents were making.
1:24:30 The other thing is, is that when we talk about being regionally
1:24:32 competitive, if you look at what the salaries are for the CEOs,
1:24:35 for the corporations that we have just existing here in Brevard,
1:24:39 they’re higher than what we’re offering.
1:24:43 And so what we’re doing is, is we’re looking at Grumman, we’re
1:24:45 looking at Boeing, we’re looking at L3 Harris, NASA, all these
1:24:49 big companies, and we’re saying, hey, we’re looking for a
1:24:52 dynamic leader.
1:24:54 We are one of the very few opportunities for a school district
1:24:57 to try to attract somebody from outside of the, outside of the
1:25:02 norm because of our tie into space and because this person will
1:25:06 be putting together the people who are going to be going to Mars.
1:25:11 That’s literally what we have. The people that work inside of
1:25:13 our schools that get the career and technical traits will be
1:25:16 going to space.
1:25:18 And I think we need a dynamic look. And it may not be that those
1:25:20 people come and apply, but we may need to do that.
1:25:24 I would suggest, and this is just me, that we keep the bottom
1:25:26 between, at about, I’m not kidding you, I would keep the bottom
1:25:30 at 250 and then I would bring the top up to 350 with an
1:25:33 incentive package to four.
1:25:36 And I’ll be honest with you, the reason for that is, is that
1:25:38 that will attract and that will send a message that Brevard is
1:25:41 going after the best and the brightest in the nation.
1:25:45 And that to me means a lot. And I think that what we end up
1:25:48 doing when we go to lowering it to all those other ones, we’re
1:25:51 just saying, well, you know, here’s what it is.
1:25:55 So like if we have somebody we take a chance on, I could see 225,
1:25:59 250. But I also know that if somebody dynamic came and they said
1:26:03 I would come for 350, then those chances are not going to happen
1:26:08 if we’re stuck at 275.
1:26:11 So I think it’s the regionally competitive along with our larger
1:26:14 school district attraction, if that’s where we want to go.
1:26:19 And I think, and I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think that,
1:26:21 this is the last thing. So I spend a lot of time in a lot of
1:26:24 school districts and there’s not much difference once you get to
1:26:27 a certain amount on the size.
1:26:31 Because then all of a sudden it just becomes more, it literally
1:26:34 is larger numbers, larger people.
1:26:37 But the bottom line is, is that we can, I don’t like not paying
1:26:41 our people enough that Miami-Dade does or Broward. And I don’t
1:26:46 care that they have more kids. I just think that we have more
1:26:49 things that we offer as far as opportunities with space.
1:26:50 So that’s my thing. I’d like to up it to 350 with an incentive
1:26:54 package to four.
1:26:57 And the taxpayers are screaming into their cell phones right now.
1:27:03 Just take a minute. I hear you. And this is why we’re already
1:27:08 looking at a range that goes far beyond what we just were paying
1:27:11 our superintendent, which we were already being criticized on a
1:27:15 regular basis.
1:27:17 We’re still being criticized by the people who are helping us
1:27:23 pay the salaries. That is, that’s a hard sell. And also
1:27:29 filtering down. We have a group of people who work directly
1:27:32 under that person, and listen, everybody knows that the person
1:27:36 who, the buck stops at the seat down at the end of that table.
1:27:41 And everybody understands that. And even though really, and it
1:27:43 stops with us as elected officials, but we all understand that
1:27:46 the person who’s getting the phone calls in the middle of the
1:27:48 night when something goes wrong is not the five of us, it’s the
1:27:51 person who’s going to be sitting down at the end of this table.
1:27:55 But I’m not comfortable with going up to 350 with an option for
1:27:59 400. I hear what you’re saying, you know, someone coming outside
1:28:04 the box, you know, and I like shrinking up a little bit because
1:28:08 honestly, putting the 195 out there does seem a little bit kind
1:28:12 of like we’re low balling.
1:28:15 But I, so just so people will take us seriously, I say we move
1:28:19 it up, whether it’s 225 or even just 210 or whatever, but I
1:28:23 wouldn’t, I don’t want us to put the bottom range any lower than
1:28:28 the 225.
1:28:30 And if you want to make it 225 to 300, I might go with you there.
1:28:34 But I, we answer to a lot of people in this community who I don’t
1:28:37 think are ready for that kind of step.
1:28:41 If I can clarify, and I’m not trying to go in between you guys
1:28:44 real quick, but this does not mean that if somebody applies that
1:28:47 they automatically get to it, it’s just saying if we get
1:28:50 somebody that is so extremely dynamic that we’re willing to go
1:28:54 there to get that person.
1:28:57 By saying we don’t, that’s all. I just wanted to let you know.
1:28:59 So like if we do get somebody who is in the 225 to 275 range,
1:29:03 that’s fine.
1:29:05 But I’ll tell you, like right now, we would literally be saying
1:29:08 that the top 10 school districts in the United States, we are
1:29:12 not going to attract their CEOs, their superintendents.
1:29:16 So anyways, I’m sorry. Go ahead. Anybody else? Go ahead.
1:29:22 No, we may not be in the top 10 in the nation if we’re 49th
1:29:24 largest in the nation, and that’s okay too.
1:29:29 And again, thanks for getting us back to reality on this is just
1:29:32 the base salary. So there can be a lot of incentives, like their
1:29:38 staff.
1:29:41 You know, they need to look at, you know, maybe between now and
1:29:44 the time the superintendent starts, our structure doesn’t look
1:29:48 the same, and our taxpayers might be okay with 300 if there’s
1:29:54 not as many people in that top group.
1:29:58 So I’m just saying, that stuff needs to continually be looked at.
1:30:05 If we kept everything exactly the same as we have now, and we
1:30:08 come out with that position, $150,000 a year more, I’m never
1:30:14 turning on my phone.
1:30:17 I don’t know how dynamic that person would have to be for that
1:30:20 to happen. So I will give him Matt’s number and change mine.
1:30:26 But yeah, if we want to increase it a little bit there. But
1:30:29 again, just like we could read when we have required and
1:30:32 preferred requirements for them to apply, if we’re talking a
1:30:36 select few, if Superman or Woman walks in and applies,
1:30:42 we could always say, “You know we’re going to have to go outside
1:30:43 the range to get this person to come here and accept this.”
1:30:47 But to put it out there at the beginning, that might be sending
1:30:51 the wrong message that everyone who does apply, “Well why would
1:30:56 you, you’re going to hire me, but you’re going to hire me at the
1:30:58 bottom?”
1:31:00 So I would almost have it, the reverse is us, let’s take that
1:31:03 individual on an individual basis, and if they come in and they’re
1:31:08 just perfect, and we can offer more, we can always do that.
1:31:12 To actually put that in writing, I think we would be really
1:31:15 setting ourselves up for a nightmare between now and then, so I
1:31:18 think that’s probably enough.
1:31:21 Well, I still like the 225. I do like bringing that up there. If
1:31:24 we want to, you know, I’ll split the difference there too.
1:31:29 If we go up to 295, something like that, or even 300, you know,
1:31:32 225 to 300. I have a feeling things might be, you know, look a
1:31:35 little different around here by the time we actually hire a
1:31:37 superintendent.
1:31:39 They may be able to come in, there’s some temporary positions
1:31:43 out there. I don’t know how that would look. I don’t know how
1:31:48 the other districts are in Florida, where they can come in and
1:31:50 bring in a little bit of their own team.
1:31:53 I think we have some interim positions, you know, for top
1:31:56 cabinet positions that is very attractive. I know if I were
1:32:00 applying for a superintendent’s job or a head coaching position,
1:32:03 if I could bring my offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator,
1:32:08 and special teams guy in, or person, that maybe I’ll take a
1:32:12 little bit less.
1:32:14 But if other districts only have one position available, that
1:32:16 matters. So maybe you can enlighten us a little bit on that.
1:32:20 I’d like to get that out as soon as possible. I mean, to see
1:32:23 what this new person could actually bring with them, how much of
1:32:27 a team they could bring in, if that matters on being attractive.
1:32:33 Ms. Wright.
1:32:36 Okay, I’m with you on bumping the minimum. I’m not with you at
1:32:39 the top where you’re at. I just can’t justify it. When I look at
1:32:43 Miami-Dade and they have a budget that is four times ours, and
1:32:46 we’re talking about paying our superintendent more than they’re
1:32:50 paying theirs, that’s hard.
1:32:53 But for me, I can’t, I just can’t get there. Their population,
1:32:56 their students, their employees, everything is drastically
1:32:59 larger than our district. So I’m okay with saying, hey, let’s
1:33:03 bump the minimum up to the 225 to attract a more qualified
1:33:06 candidate.
1:33:08 I’m okay with, I would say, I would want to stop it at 300 would
1:33:12 be probably my very top that I would be at for base salary.
1:33:18 Okay. Just so everybody knows.
1:33:21 Can I go please for my time?
1:33:23 Ms. Jenkins, sure.
1:33:25 Thank you. I find it interesting that we started this
1:33:27 conversation where I made that exact statement and then we went
1:33:31 backwards and now we’re back there again. I find it very
1:33:34 interesting.
1:33:36 You know, there was a statement that we may not scare off a
1:33:38 candidate with $195,000. Yes, we will scare off a candidate with
1:33:42 $195,000. Absolutely will.
1:33:48 Taking a chance. I’m not taking a chance on anybody. We should
1:33:54 be getting a very qualified pool of candidates to look at. I ain’t
1:33:57 taking a chance on anybody because we owe it to our community to
1:34:01 not be taking a chance.
1:34:03 Because I don’t know if we’ve been paying attention, but our
1:34:04 community wasn’t pleased with the decision that was made, nor
1:34:07 are the leaders of the industries within this community.
1:34:12 Those same leaders as Mr. Susan restated who are making a
1:34:16 significant amount more money than a superintendent that we’re
1:34:21 bringing into the school district who is a who should be an
1:34:24 everyday partner with those industries.
1:34:28 I had a meeting the other day and I’m not going to get specific
1:34:29 here because they’re debating whether or not they’re going to
1:34:32 say it themselves.
1:34:34 But I was informed that a significant number of industry leaders
1:34:39 in this county are very concerned about the actions that were
1:34:43 taken by this board when it comes to our superintendent firing
1:34:47 and the discipline conversation because they are having trouble
1:34:51 recruiting people in already for those jobs.
1:34:55 They’re calling them and asking questions about the school
1:34:59 system. You can tap your finger all you want, Mr. Susan. You
1:35:04 need to take a minute to think about the decisions we’re making
1:35:05 for this position.
1:35:06 It is so critically important. It doesn’t just impact the school
1:35:08 system. It impacts the businesses and industries around us.
1:35:12 Never mind the children that we work with every single day.
1:35:16 This is a very, very, very important decision. I’m not taking a
1:35:19 chance on anybody. And I hear you, Andrea, when you say that
1:35:22 this is a fiscally conservative community.
1:35:26 I argue that from the day we made this terrible decision because
1:35:28 we’ve already spent a ton of money by making this decision we
1:35:31 should have never made.
1:35:34 And unfortunately, that same day, I argue that I made this very
1:35:38 same statement. By firing our superintendent, we now have an
1:35:42 issue of supply and demand. And how it works in industry and in
1:35:47 business is that you’re going to totally fine with getting
1:35:50 somebody who’s less qualified than the person before.
1:35:54 It doesn’t make any sense. There is no way we are getting a
1:35:57 qualified candidate in here under $250,000. And I do not believe
1:36:01 we’re going to get a superior candidate for under $300,000.
1:36:07 This is very, very important. And Mr. Trent, I’m going to tell
1:36:11 myself you didn’t just threaten the jobs of our cabinet members
1:36:14 here in public. Because I don’t know if you all forgot, but you
1:36:18 just voted for an organizational chart that increased the number
1:36:22 of staff members, not decreased.
1:36:26 So out of respect for the people who work for us and do the day
1:36:28 to day work, I’m going to say I’m sorry you had to sit here and
1:36:31 listen to that. Because I do not wish for our next
1:36:34 superintendent come in and replace you or remove your positions
1:36:37 to make their salary higher.
1:36:40 That’s a non-negotiable for me as well. And that’s going to be a
1:36:42 non-negotiable for the taxpayers as well.
1:36:46 For the industry leaders who are already concerned about the
1:36:50 stability of this school district. Insanity. Absolute insanity.
1:36:56 This responsibility is so tremendous. So tremendous.
1:37:02 Is it funny to you, Ms. Wright? It is? You are. Great. All right.
1:37:08 Ms. Jenkins. No, sir. I am not done. Point of order. I am not
1:37:11 done, sir. Point of order. Point of order. I am not done, sir.
1:37:14 You do not have to do that.
1:37:16 No, sir. I am not done. No, sir. Point of order. Point of order.
1:37:23 Point of order. Point of order. Point of order. Point of order.
1:37:24 Point of order. Point of order. Point of order.
1:37:26 Point of order. Point of order. Point of order. That would be
1:37:28 correct. That all comments should be directed toward the
1:37:30 chairman.
1:37:32 So Ms. Jenkins, if you can address. So Ms. Wright, please don’t
1:37:33 direct your comments to me. If you can address your comments to
1:37:35 me. Yes, say the same thing to Ms. Wright, please, sir.
1:37:38 Well, the issue is that you’re the one lobbying them. Mr. Susan,
1:37:39 I am sick and tired of your rules being applied to one school
1:37:42 board member and not the rest of them. They’re Robert’s rules.
1:37:45 You don’t know Robert’s rules, sir. No, you don’t. I just asked
1:37:47 the parliamentarian and he just verified it. Absolutely not.
1:37:50 Listen to me. I just did.
1:37:52 I am sick and tired of being disrespected by certain members of
1:37:54 this board and I will speak out whenever I feel. This is an
1:37:58 extreme responsibility to our community.
1:38:01 And the fact that you’re laughing about it up here is ridiculous.
1:38:04 Nobody’s laughing about the decision that we’re making here.
1:38:07 Really? Really? Point of order.
1:38:09 Point of order. Give me a break. Absolutely ridiculous.
1:38:16 Thank you, Ms. Jenkins. I’ve spent some time with many of the.
1:38:19 It’s a good time to talk about the business leaders because they
1:38:22 are very interested in expressing their gratitude for a possible
1:38:27 superintendent in videos.
1:38:29 And I think that that’s something that we should do. I forgot it
1:38:31 actually. If there’s an opportunity, many of our leaders inside
1:38:34 the community, I’ve met with them and they’re excited about
1:38:37 being a part of the process that we have, the vocal process.
1:38:41 So they asked if they could do like one minute videos saying,
1:38:44 hey, we’re Brevard. This is who we are all the way from many of
1:38:47 the leaders of our corporations and in government across our
1:38:50 county.
1:38:52 So I might work with Tammy to try to set that up. So did anybody
1:38:56 else wish to talk about the actual salary? I’m glad, Ms. Jenkins,
1:39:02 that you agree and that I agree with you in the fact of raising
1:39:05 that base salary up.
1:39:08 So I here’s what I would say. Let me just say this. We are a
1:39:11 dynamic school district that is better than all of these. Right.
1:39:14 Like all of them. I promise you, we are better than Miami Dade,
1:39:18 better than Hillsboro, better than all of them.
1:39:22 Mullins is total salary was three hundred and ten thousand
1:39:23 dollars. Just so everybody knows, it wasn’t two twenty five. We
1:39:26 raised it up to twenty five plus incentives, plus some other
1:39:29 stuff that was inside there.
1:39:31 I didn’t put that out because Dr. Schiller made us drive it. And
1:39:34 then, you know, if we how about this? Here’s a here’s a little
1:39:38 outside thought.
1:39:40 What if we were to say, OK, the salary is between two twenty
1:39:42 five and three hundred plus incentives in the future. Right.
1:39:47 But what if we put in there, if you are a interesting, dynamic
1:39:49 individual who’s out there that wishes to apply to become a part
1:39:52 of the school system and you don’t fit in that salary range,
1:39:55 would we at least put them on another thing and say we might
1:39:58 consider you?
1:40:00 Because that’s what I’m trying to get at is, is like we had very
1:40:02 close a chancellor to come to the school district.
1:40:06 We might be able to attract a chancellor from another school
1:40:08 district, but we can’t do that with the three hundred. That’s
1:40:10 all.
1:40:12 So would you guys be willing to put something like that in there
1:40:14 and that way you’re not saying it’s a specific special case?
1:40:18 I’m going to go back to something that I think Mr. Trent said,
1:40:21 and that is or maybe it was Ms. Wright. Once we put it on paper,
1:40:25 we better be ready to pay it. And you say three hundred thousand
1:40:28 salary. That was package.
1:40:30 That’s not salary package, including insurance and benefits and
1:40:32 all that stuff.
1:40:34 But this is the base. This is where we are. And I just my my
1:40:37 responsibility to the taxpayers of the county, I can’t see
1:40:42 moving that and that high of a range.
1:40:46 Like I said, I will move the bottom up to two twenty five, but I
1:40:50 can’t see the top going past.
1:40:53 I’m not comfortable putting the top of the base salary of the
1:40:55 very first year they come to us.
1:40:58 And I hear I hear you. There are there are definitely going to
1:41:00 be people we already know from other places in the country who
1:41:03 aren’t willing to come to Florida period.
1:41:06 This is this is where I also know sometimes we talk about what
1:41:10 happens in other states and whether it’s teachers or superintendents
1:41:15 or principals, Florida.
1:41:18 The cost of living is much lower here than than in many, many
1:41:21 other places, and it’s higher in some places, higher than where
1:41:25 my home state, but it’s lower than I mean, to say what if you’re
1:41:29 going to talk about California, for example, you know, you
1:41:32 better be paying them a million and a half because they can’t
1:41:36 even buy a house.
1:41:38 But we’re but let’s you know, we do our we are responsible. This
1:41:42 is what our taxpayers are gonna look at is something like this
1:41:46 because it’s publicly available. We’re going to pay three
1:41:48 hundred and fifty when, you know, like you said, Hillsborough,
1:41:50 Broward, Miami Dade are so much larger than us.
1:41:54 Who do we think we are? And now I agree we should boast and brag.
1:41:57 This we have an amazing school district, but we’re also
1:42:00 responsible and I just and my that responsibility cannot put the
1:42:03 top above of the base salary above three hundred thousand.
1:42:09 OK, I think we’re right at three hundred. Are you guys willing
1:42:12 to say that plus incentives that might reach to three fifty?
1:42:17 Well, I believe that’s in this if it’s OK for me. Absolutely. Is
1:42:20 that’s what you had mentioned was this is base salary. And if
1:42:24 you’re a superintendent candidate, you probably understand that
1:42:28 base salary is not the end point, but the beginning.
1:42:33 So that would if we if we’re talking base salary. Yeah, it’s I
1:42:36 mean, you said yourself what Dr. Mullins was two twenty five and
1:42:40 it was three over three hundred three ten.
1:42:43 It’s I think that’s an under it’s understood if I can for a
1:42:47 moment because I was mentioned, I don’t I don’t do this often,
1:42:52 but I just I just cannot allow.
1:42:57 This narrative to continue that this board made a mistake and
1:43:00 now we’re paying for it, can’t allow it. I don’t want to hear
1:43:04 that anymore.
1:43:05 We made the decision and we go on. We made it based on what we
1:43:09 felt was right for this district. And we’re going to pay for the
1:43:13 leadership to take charge of Brevard and go forward.
1:43:18 It’s not it’s not an added expense because of decisions that we
1:43:21 made in the past. We made those decisions that got us in these
1:43:25 seats.
1:43:27 And I’ve not gotten those same emails or phone calls. I’m not
1:43:32 hearing that from the business community out there.
1:43:36 So I’m very confident in the decisions we’ve made. I’m kind of
1:43:40 tired of sitting up here with the picture being painted that we
1:43:43 have our tails between our legs because of decisions we’ve made.
1:43:48 I think we’re making the right decisions for this county. We are
1:43:50 fiscally conservative in Brevard. We’re actually conservative in
1:43:54 Brevard.
1:43:56 So those are the people that we respond to. And that’s what we’re
1:43:59 going to have moving forward.
1:44:02 So I would look at other counties if it doesn’t fit your
1:44:05 narrative, but not in Brevard.
1:44:08 Thank you, Mr. Chen. Last up, Miss Wright.
1:44:12 And again, I am back to the salary focusing on this. I agree.
1:44:16 Let’s bump up the minimum because I don’t want someone to look
1:44:19 at this and go, I’m not even going to apply because 195 is just
1:44:22 nowhere in the realm of what I am going to accept.
1:44:26 We’re talking base salary. So I would be in agreeance of let’s
1:44:28 bump up the minimum. Let’s take the maximum to, you know, we
1:44:33 have to agree on a number.
1:44:36 Again, base salary. We don’t want a candidate to say, hey, I’m
1:44:38 not going to apply because that base salary is not there because
1:44:41 the reality of it is this is all negotiable, right?
1:44:44 I mean, it is. So when you’re looking at the base salary, we
1:44:47 want anybody who feels like they’re qualified and ready to come
1:44:50 and work with us and help our district out.
1:44:54 I 300 is kind of where I’m capped at for base salary.
1:44:59 All right. And then plus incentives and the negotiations can get
1:45:01 us other places. Thank you, Miss Campbell.
1:45:05 I appreciate that. I think everybody here gave some passionate
1:45:07 speeches. I think that we are good. I think everybody’s weighed
1:45:12 in.
1:45:13 I think the direction is 225 to 300 plus incentives. And I think
1:45:18 that’s good. And then we have a couple other topics to discuss,
1:45:21 don’t we? Miss Messina.
1:45:24 Mr. Chair, I just want to confirm from the board and maybe this
1:45:30 actually would go to your attorney.
1:45:34 Do you have any policy that determines limit to the years of the
1:45:38 contract to your three year contract?
1:45:42 Is there any provision that I need to be aware of?
1:45:45 We usually just negotiate the contract. I would say historically
1:45:48 they’ve been three year max.
1:45:51 So can I advertise is prepared to offer up to a three year
1:45:54 contract and up to gives you a two or three or however you.
1:46:00 Well, usually the standard procedure in our county is a three
1:46:02 year contract with two one year extensions. But this is a little
1:46:06 different.
1:46:07 Just so you know. So like we strive to try to continue to keep
1:46:09 that. So the three years is kind of consistent.
1:46:13 I’d like to hear from my board members. This is where we’re
1:46:15 going to offer the contract. But just for point of clarification,
1:46:17 that’s what we do.
1:46:19 We do a three year and either a one in one or a two year
1:46:21 extension on it.
1:46:23 The reason I ask is because a two year contract is not as
1:46:25 desirable as a three year contract.
1:46:29 And so if they know that through negotiations they can get up to
1:46:33 a three year contract, that is more of an incentive than up to a
1:46:38 two year contract.
1:46:40 And is a four year contract more incentivized than a three year
1:46:42 contract?
1:46:44 Potentially.
1:46:46 All right. I’ll wait for the other board members to speak. Miss
1:46:47 Campbell.
1:46:49 I think up to three is good. And because there is a change, you
1:46:51 know, we talked about taking a chance on somebody, whatever that
1:46:54 may be, may look differently.
1:46:56 But if there’s, you know, there may be leaves us a little wiggle
1:46:59 room, but also gives them a little wiggle room in the back and
1:47:02 forth of the negotiation.
1:47:05 So I think we need to leave it to our standard practice of up to
1:47:08 three.
1:47:13 Mr. Chuck.
1:47:16 The practice sounds perfect for this. Okay. I’m in agreement.
1:47:20 All right. Miss Jenkins.
1:47:24 I didn’t ask to speak. Thank you.
1:47:27 Okay. I agree. Three years is standard. And not only that, but
1:47:31 you don’t want to start getting too far past that.
1:47:34 So I think that that’s it. Now, you don’t really talk about
1:47:36 extensions because what we did with Dr. Mullins was we, you know
1:47:39 what I mean, we negotiated those after the three years and stuff
1:47:41 like that.
1:47:43 Okay. I think your next step up to a three year contract. Yes.
1:47:47 Okay. Perfect. All right. So then what I should tell you is the
1:47:50 final item that we need to discuss today and or I need to inform
1:47:55 you about today is the advertisement venues.
1:47:59 You should have a list. And as you can see from the listing, the
1:48:04 top items, they’re not all of the places where we typically
1:48:09 would find superintendent applicants are require any payment.
1:48:16 But the American Association of School Administrators is a very
1:48:19 popular place where people look, the Association of Latino
1:48:22 Administrators and Superintendents, Education Week, Florida
1:48:25 Association of School Administrators and the National Alliance
1:48:28 of Black School Educators.
1:48:31 Those are all places that we find people look to when they’re
1:48:33 looking for a superintendent position.
1:48:37 So those are the ones that we would recommend. Wondering if that
1:48:40 meets your approval.
1:48:45 Board, those are included. And when we talked about the
1:48:48 estimates on the front end, this was all what we had planned out.
1:48:53 Right. You’ve got 30 days and 60 days since we’re only leaving
1:48:57 it open for 30 days.
1:49:00 It would be the 30 day. The one item, the Education Week top
1:49:04 school jobs, they just changed how they advertise and they don’t
1:49:08 allow for a 30 day.
1:49:11 How fast, for some of these, are they putting it online so it’s
1:49:15 immediate? Because I know some of them do paper publications,
1:49:19 but this is going to be in their digital access.
1:49:23 So it can be almost immediate.
1:49:25 We discussed in your timeline they would go up on Friday and so
1:49:28 then they’ll start being available on Friday.
1:49:32 And typically these venues, these platforms, sometimes feed into
1:49:39 like some of the Yahoo searches and some of the Indeed type
1:49:46 things.
1:49:49 They’ll kind of pop up through that because they’re connected
1:49:51 through these.
1:49:53 Good. Did you guys say that you wanted to advertise and all
1:49:59 those ones as options on top?
1:50:03 I like the Hispanic and the black school educators and all that
1:50:06 stuff. We good on that? Good.
1:50:10 And just to clarify, these are not additional costs to us. These
1:50:12 are included in the cost of hiring FSBA for?
1:50:16 No, these were when we submitted the list. It’s kind of broken
1:50:19 out separately because these are direct pay.
1:50:22 Okay. I mean, honestly, I’m okay with just picking the top one,
1:50:26 the American Association of School Administrators.
1:50:30 But if you think there’s a benefit to advertising in all of them,
1:50:32 we can advertise in all of them?
1:50:35 Education Week is pretty big, if I may. And then I would, to be
1:50:39 honest with you, it sends a message of, hey, we would like to
1:50:45 see, you know what I mean, the other areas.
1:50:47 And I think that if we didn’t add the Latino, the black school
1:50:50 educators, stuff like that, I think that that’s appropriate, you
1:50:54 know.
1:50:55 I think that that would be great for me. I say we advertise
1:50:57 where we can, but that’s just me. I’m sorry.
1:51:00 Right. No, that’s fine. Do we belong, does Brevard belong to any
1:51:04 of these associations that would allow us to have some
1:51:08 advertisement in there without additional costs?
1:51:12 Typically, well, if you are, it would go through your HR
1:51:15 department and they would already be there.
1:51:19 But these are the prices that they give their members as far as
1:51:22 I will confirm that. But I believe that to be true.
1:51:26 Okay.
1:51:27 Superintendent, you have to also understand advertising for
1:51:29 superintendents. Some of these, they see that as like the
1:51:34 revenue as opposed to principals, assistant principals, they
1:51:37 know they can charge for superintendent search.
1:51:41 So sometimes that’s how that, because of the position itself,
1:51:44 sometimes it falls in a different category.
1:51:47 Okay.
1:51:48 Like the education week, they just bifurcated that out like two
1:51:51 weeks ago. And they only for superintendents and it’s only for
1:51:56 60 days. It didn’t used to be that way.
1:52:00 Good.
1:52:02 Anybody else?
1:52:06 All right. Then we are going to update the qualifications, the
1:52:09 qualities, everything with the recommendations that you gave
1:52:13 today.
1:52:15 We will be working with your staff to get these up on Friday and
1:52:23 we will start getting application packets. They’re going to be
1:52:32 coming in to Mr. Reichardt. I do want to confirm typically what
1:52:37 we ask for an application packet is a cover letter, a copy of
1:52:38 your current resume, maximum of three letters of recommendation.
1:52:40 And just to kind of give you an idea, we say maximum of three so
1:52:43 that they’re very discerning in the ones that they include.
1:52:48 We did have people before that, we had one guy that brought in a
1:52:52 radio flyer with plaques and things to kind of demonstrate the
1:52:57 affirmation of his character of being a superintendent.
1:53:02 So just we limit it so that you all have some focus. And we also
1:53:06 ask for a copy of their transcripts from their highest degree
1:53:10 attained.
1:53:12 We tell them very clearly that the certified copy of the
1:53:15 transcripts will be required if they end up being a finalist
1:53:18 later, but right now we want at least a copy of the transcript
1:53:22 of the highest degree attained with the assumption that the
1:53:25 other degrees would have been verified in order to get to the
1:53:27 highest.
1:53:29 So that packet upon completion, which means all of the pieces
1:53:33 are present, then it all gets submitted to Mr. Reichardt. Mr.
1:53:38 Reichardt will assign it a number.
1:53:42 So let’s say Mr. Trent is applying and we’re still waiting on
1:53:45 one of his letters of recommendation and then Ms. Wright applies,
1:53:49 but she has everything.
1:53:51 She gets applicant number one because her packet is complete and
1:53:54 then when Mr. Trent’s third letter comes in, he becomes
1:53:57 applicant number two and then three and then four and then five.
1:54:02 applicants you’ll have the name the number you know we’ll have
1:54:07 the email the
1:54:07 phone number all that kind of stuff when we share them with your
1:54:12 staff to post
1:54:13 them on to the website we typically will do that once a week so
1:54:18 that all of the
1:54:20 ones that come in as I said mr. Reichert will get them he works
1:54:23 with the
1:54:23 applicants if they say I’m waiting on this waiting on that he
1:54:27 kind of bird
1:54:27 dogs them gets them all for the week in a single packet digital
1:54:34 will send it to
1:54:35 your staff staff will typically share it with the board and then
1:54:39 post it on to
1:54:40 your superintendent search portal so that your community can be
1:54:44 reviewing the
1:54:45 application packets along with you so all of those will come in
1:54:50 once a week
1:54:51 you’ll get an update here’s three applications two applications
1:54:54 however
1:54:54 many come in I do want to remind you I think we spoke about this
1:54:58 when we were
1:54:59 out at the zoo that time the bulk of the applications will come
1:55:04 in the last two
1:55:06 or three days that’s typically because of the sunshine law and
1:55:12 the sooner
1:55:13 somebody applies the sooner they’re having to answer questions
1:55:16 their name
1:55:17 appears you will also be hearing anybody that applies I don’t
1:55:23 care who it is
1:55:24 I think I mentioned this before you’re gonna start getting
1:55:27 emails from people
1:55:28 who love this candidate and people who hate this candidate we’re
1:55:32 used to that
1:55:32 around here and the appropriate response is thank you we look
1:55:35 forward to taking
1:55:36 all pertinent information into account you please do not engage
1:55:40 just thank you
1:55:41 for your information if somebody is interested in applying and
1:55:46 they want
1:55:46 some information and they they call you for any reason they call
1:55:50 you miss
1:55:50 Campbell you say I really am NOT at liberty to discuss this with
1:55:54 you please
1:55:55 call Andrew Messina bill Vogel John Reichert refer them to us it
1:56:00 the minute
1:56:01 you start talking to somebody then rumors start and that just
1:56:05 will
1:56:06 undermine the credibility of the process so anybody that’s
1:56:09 interested thank you
1:56:11 for your interest talk to our search facilitation team one of
1:56:15 the things
1:56:15 that’s really valuable from today’s conversation what I take
1:56:21 away is that if
1:56:22 if I brought to you a really superstar applicant you might be
1:56:27 willing to
1:56:28 consider if salary was a deal breaker for that person I could
1:56:32 say listen here’s
1:56:33 this candidate but I got to tell you you’re gonna have to go
1:56:35 higher than 300
1:56:36 to get them yeah I heard you guys say I might not like it but if
1:56:40 that’s what I
1:56:41 have to do I might be open to hearing about it so I appreciate
1:56:44 the
1:56:44 conversation today more than anything our goal is to have a very
1:56:51 have a
1:56:52 process that is above reproach for the applicants and for the
1:56:56 board and for
1:56:58 your staff because we can’t have anybody accusing anyone of
1:57:03 favoritism or getting
1:57:04 special treatment or getting inside information or anything like
1:57:08 that so
1:57:08 just please refer them to us we are happy and consistently
1:57:13 talking to people
1:57:14 as as you probably know it took me a number of hours to get here
1:57:19 from
1:57:19 Tallahassee and so when when I as a matter of fact is today
1:57:22 Wednesday note
1:57:23 tomorrow’s Wednesday I’m talking to somebody from out of state
1:57:25 Wednesday I
1:57:26 said I’ll be in my car Wednesday here’s the window and I stack
1:57:29 up the phone
1:57:29 calls and talk to the people because people are already calling
1:57:32 people are
1:57:33 already asking questions and we’re excited to get the
1:57:38 advertisements posted
1:57:40 everybody good miss Messina thank you so much for all your
1:57:45 dedication and hard
1:57:46 work we really appreciate it anything we can do any hiccups
1:57:48 please call we can
1:57:50 make things happen we have great staff and we’re excited to see
1:57:53 what the next
1:57:54 steps are thank you yeah I was just gonna say if you guys would
1:58:01 like we could
1:58:02 take a five-minute recess real quick yeah thank you
1:58:32 you
2:07:46 welcome back before we get started with the transportation just
2:07:50 30 second
2:07:51 comment real quick I was looking at the zero zero zeros for
2:07:55 review right and one
2:07:58 of the issues that we have is is that many of the policies that
2:08:02 we had go
2:08:03 farther back than like 2012 2010 when I was looking at the
2:08:08 statutes they were
2:08:10 2014 so I’m looking at the policy the statute is telling me like
2:08:15 five or six
2:08:15 extra things then what was in the policy and the statute was
2:08:19 from like 2014 right
2:08:21 so what I was trying to do is is if we were to discuss the zero
2:08:24 zero zeros
2:08:25 without the Neola and statutory updates with the yellow lines we
2:08:29 may be trying
2:08:30 to say we wanted to add stuff that may or may not be a part of
2:08:34 statute so
2:08:34 basically Paul had gotten all of the Neola’s and statutes for
2:08:39 the zeros in
2:08:40 the 1000s and he had asked he said look it’s probably and I I
2:08:44 actually kind of
2:08:45 led the conversation and just said it would be better if we had
2:08:48 all of those
2:08:48 together when we’re reviewing them and so Paul did you want to
2:08:51 talk real quick
2:08:52 about it I just gonna say I had I have I can email you all the
2:08:56 ones or zero and
2:08:57 the ones and zeros but mr. Susan had said Neola has an option
2:09:01 that you can
2:09:02 log in and see every district’s policies even the ones that they’ve
2:09:06 done in-house
2:09:07 for their counties I can get with Neola and see how we do that I
2:09:11 don’t know
2:09:12 about that I’ll have to confirm it but in the meantime I’ll
2:09:15 email you the zip
2:09:16 files for all the zeros and ones even the ones that we haven’t
2:09:19 adopted in the
2:09:20 past so if there’s one that’s not on our books that maybe you
2:09:23 guys are like hey
2:09:23 we really like this I want to bring it forward for you know
2:09:27 recommending we
2:09:28 adopt here you can see all of them not just the ones that we’ve
2:09:32 gotten so the
2:09:33 first part was let’s get the current updated redline version so
2:09:37 that we’re
2:09:38 discussing it directly right and then the second piece is is
2:09:42 that I found out
2:09:43 while we were out just as of this morning that there’s actually
2:09:47 in board
2:09:48 docks through Neola an opportunity that we would be able to
2:09:50 search all the other
2:09:51 school districts in Florida that may have similar policies so we
2:09:56 might be
2:09:56 able to find better ideas stuff like that so with that I would
2:10:00 ask him that I
2:10:01 was gonna move it to the seventh as discussion and just kind of
2:10:06 push those
2:10:07 off if that’s okay with everybody just with the circumstances we
2:10:11 okay all right
2:10:14 next miss miss Campbell you good today on top for today was
2:10:21 going to be all of
2:10:22 the zero zero zero zeros yes ma’am and then those one two three
2:10:25 four from the
2:10:27 1000s and three from the 2000s that were listed is that the ones
2:10:31 that are listed
2:10:32 or let me just says and other related policies they throw ones
2:10:35 that have to do
2:10:36 with the superintendent administrative procedures yeah those
2:10:39 those are all
2:10:39 those drafts all that stuff just because I just want to make
2:10:43 sure we know what
2:10:43 we’re need to be preparing for obviously we’ve already looked
2:10:46 through our these
2:10:47 for today but what you know so just so it’s clear we’re moving
2:10:51 everything back
2:10:52 a little bit yeah because even the work the board powers and all
2:10:56 of those things
2:10:56 hadn’t been updated in so long they were referring one of them
2:10:59 referred to a
2:10:59 statute that didn’t even have any reference to what we were it
2:11:03 was just
2:11:03 it’s just old so I think I think that works if that’s okay with
2:11:06 you and what
2:11:07 we’ll do is go from the transportation plan through those other
2:11:11 issues so next
2:11:12 topics the transportation plan dr. Schiller will be providing
2:11:15 the board
2:11:16 with this information thank you mr. Susan members of the board
2:11:21 as you may
2:11:22 recall about two weeks ago you directed the interim
2:11:26 superintendent to study the
2:11:30 issues and the problems regarding transportation and bring
2:11:33 forward
2:11:34 recommended solutions today members of our work group that I
2:11:38 established are
2:11:39 here to present where we are to date they’ve been working with
2:11:44 me around the
2:11:45 clock truly a very strong effort I would just like before they
2:11:49 begin I would just
2:11:50 like to reiterate that this whole issue of transportation is
2:11:54 quite complicated
2:11:56 it has many interrelated matters and not a single solution that
2:12:00 will solve all
2:12:01 matters anything that is complex problem that has a simple
2:12:06 solution is wrong
2:12:07 because simple solutions do not address long-term issues nor
2:12:12 prospective issues
2:12:13 so with that in mind there are many matters and I want to turn
2:12:17 this over
2:12:18 right now to members our work group led by Rashad Wilson our
2:12:21 chief operating
2:12:22 officer Rashad thank you and your members for all the very hard
2:12:26 work
2:12:26 you’re doing with us with me every virtually every day thank you
2:12:32 Chairman
2:12:33 Susan board members and superintendent Schiller Monday last week
2:12:37 dr. Schiller
2:12:38 facilitated a new transportation work group to address the
2:12:43 transportation
2:12:44 mountain identified the hills and rocks which are big and small
2:12:48 challenges and
2:12:49 develop a plan to resolve them this is this is a large focus
2:12:54 issue or mountain
2:12:55 for transportation as the department has had little attention to
2:12:59 continuous
2:13:00 improvement over the years
2:13:05 these work group members represent the cross-functional
2:13:07 assistance needed to
2:13:09 improve trends rotation the team led by dr. Schiller include
2:13:14 myself
2:13:16 Russell Cheatham assistant superintendent chief information
2:13:20 officer Cindy Lasinski chief financial officer dr. Carol green
2:13:26 interim chief HR
2:13:27 officer and director of labor relations and attorney Paul Gibbs
2:13:33 additionally Cynthia Rand my project manager dr. Miller
2:13:39 transportation service
2:13:41 director and Jefferson Smith assistant director of
2:13:44 transportation services
2:13:46 bring technical expertise and in-depth knowledge of
2:13:50 transportation to the work
2:13:51 group this cross-functional approach will improve problem
2:13:56 solving and lead to
2:13:57 smarter more sustainable solutions the first work group meeting
2:14:05 was primarily
2:14:06 spent on identifying the hills and rocks or challenges that are
2:14:11 facing
2:14:12 transportation three hills identified were retention and
2:14:16 recruitment operations
2:14:18 and fleet management on the retention and recruitment Hill the
2:14:24 rocks identified
2:14:25 were salary and benefits working conditions and bus driver
2:14:32 training on
2:14:34 the operations Hill identified rocks were the edulog bus routing
2:14:41 system
2:14:41 including possible add-on modules or software updates other
2:14:47 software options
2:14:49 and bail schedules on the fleet management Hill the rocks
2:14:55 identified
2:14:56 were parts inventory maintenance technicians and a fleet
2:15:02 replacement
2:15:02 plan our strategies are analysis of salary staffing and benefits
2:15:13 we are
2:15:14 currently gathering transportation salary staffing and benefits
2:15:18 information
2:15:19 from our three peer counties Osceola Seminole and Volusia to
2:15:25 help formulate a
2:15:26 compensation strategy that is internally equitable and
2:15:31 externally competitive
2:15:33 next reaffirm bus driver discipline referral process the work
2:15:39 group has
2:15:39 already addressed the retention challenge of bus driver working
2:15:42 conditions by refining the process for bus drivers to report a
2:15:47 discipline
2:15:48 incident a memo was sent to the leadership team
2:15:52 bassa 10/10 BFT transportation and school board members reaffirming
2:15:58 the
2:15:58 process if you will there’s an updated version to that memo and
2:16:05 we took what
2:16:05 happened we use the information from the discipline steering
2:16:10 committee to make
2:16:11 the appropriate adjustments and changes within the memo
2:16:14 next we have the cost-benefit analysis of the routing system
2:16:19 options we are
2:16:21 developing a cost-benefit analysis to address the potential
2:16:25 upgrading of the
2:16:27 current edu log routing system to their new and improved Athena
2:16:32 solution or
2:16:34 choosing routing software option choosing a new routing software
2:16:38 all
2:16:39 together next we have our implement inventory
2:16:43 management system the Tazville bus shop inventory management
2:16:47 system has been
2:16:48 completed with part location by shelf row and box number this
2:16:55 mess this
2:16:56 method will be implemented at the south and central bus shops
2:17:00 this will improve
2:17:02 transportation’s ability to identify which and how much stop to
2:17:07 order at what
2:17:09 time it will also eliminate our it will also eliminate over
2:17:15 purchasing items by
2:17:17 allowing shops to transfer from shop to shop and lastly develop
2:17:23 a fleet
2:17:24 replacement plan we are working on a yellow and white fleet
2:17:29 replacement plan
2:17:30 to know what vehicles are going to cost and for how long we will
2:17:36 have them this
2:17:38 will yield a consistent schedule for vehicle maintenance and
2:17:42 replacement
2:17:47 this is a staffing snapshot of transportation staffing levels
2:17:55 for
2:17:55 school year 2022-23 transportation was allocated 276 eight-hour
2:18:04 positions for a
2:18:06 total of two thousand two hundred and eight hours bus drivers
2:18:11 are staffed from
2:18:13 six to eight hours depending on their routes also as of February
2:18:19 15th we have
2:18:21 233 bus drivers working from six to eight hours for a total of
2:18:26 one thousand
2:18:27 six hundred and fifty six hours this means we have five hundred
2:18:32 and fifty two
2:18:33 allocated hours remaining which can be used to hire 92 six hour
2:18:40 bus drivers or
2:18:42 69 eight-hour bus drivers or any combination in between we
2:18:49 currently have
2:18:50 16 technician vacancies based on our 29 allocated positions all
2:18:57 technician
2:18:57 positions are eight hour positions from the start of school year
2:19:02 22 23 we hired
2:19:05 34 bus drivers and lost 60 for a net higher to loss of negative
2:19:12 26 I think
2:19:13 there’s a document that you received in the pack that gives you
2:19:16 from August to
2:19:17 February 15th if I’m not mistaken of the people we have lost we
2:19:22 have hired three
2:19:24 technicians and lost two so we have a positive of net one both
2:19:30 technicians and
2:19:31 22 bus drivers have left the district due to low wages
2:19:41 our strategic plan to have 50% of buses our yellow fleet below
2:19:48 the industry
2:19:49 standard life cycle of ten years was met in 2021 we started in
2:19:55 2019 at 36% today
2:19:59 we are at fifty five point four percent of our 426 buses being
2:20:05 under 10 years
2:20:06 old our white fleet includes pickups sedans SUVs vans trucks
2:20:16 semi trucks and
2:20:17 wreckers the transportation white fleet age has increased over
2:20:21 the years which
2:20:23 lends to the high numbers of 295 vehicles being older than 10
2:20:31 years this
2:20:32 was due to several factors including lack of funding moving
2:20:36 white fleet
2:20:37 ownership to departments and more
2:20:44 transportation has diligently selling older buzz older buses and
2:20:50 purchasing
2:20:50 new buses every year to keep our fleet at an optimum level the
2:20:54 data shows as a
2:20:56 result of the last three years of selling and buying buses we
2:21:00 have 40 less
2:21:01 buses in our fleet
2:21:11 this slide shows the yellow fleet replacement funds budgeted
2:21:14 each year
2:21:15 since 2016 although budgeted amounts have gone up the last
2:21:22 couple years over
2:21:23 the last year bus prices have gone up twice due to supplier cost
2:21:28 on July 1
2:21:30 2022 state of Florida Department of Education amended last year
2:21:36 school bus
2:21:36 contracts with increased prices and the new contract effective
2:21:42 Jerry January 1
2:21:42 2023 includes another price increase this means what used to buy
2:21:50 30 buses
2:21:51 will now only buy 25 buses delivery time has also suffered in
2:21:57 these economic
2:21:58 times on past contracts lead time was 240 days to receive buses
2:22:05 currently lead
2:22:07 times have exceeded one year for example we are still waiting
2:22:12 for delivery on our
2:22:13 buses the purchase order issued on 11/3 2021 we expect this
2:22:20 delivery to finally
2:22:21 be here in March which is over 480 days
2:22:29 over the years white fleet replacement funds have been reduced
2:22:34 to reduce due to
2:22:36 funding and competing priorities this has resulted in our
2:22:41 largely older white
2:22:42 fleet in years past the white fleet replacement funds flow to
2:22:48 the
2:22:49 transportation budget transportation based on department input
2:22:53 would purchase
2:22:53 vehicles and place them district-wide due to inventory
2:22:58 management and
2:22:59 department needs this process was adjusted a couple years ago by
2:23:04 having
2:23:04 individual divisions or departments request white fleet dollars
2:23:09 in their
2:23:09 budgets transportation continues to assist by sourcing what they
2:23:14 need
2:23:14 getting quotes in ordering them
2:23:23 analysis of the last few years of data shows that we have
2:23:26 substantially reduced
2:23:29 our routes from 349 routes in 2020 to 249 routes today
2:23:37 this resulted due to several factors including Kobe charter
2:23:42 school
2:23:43 participation lack of bus drivers route consolidation etc our
2:23:50 project for school
2:23:52 year 23 24 is to our projections excuse me our projections for
2:23:57 school year 23
2:23:58 24 there’s 226 routes based on eliminating all double and triple
2:24:06 routes
2:24:07 in double banks as well as bus driver salary increase so that we
2:24:12 can gain
2:24:13 applicant
2:24:18 this slide is a workflow work schedule of our work group our
2:24:25 work group schedule
2:24:26 is as follows the analysis of salary staffing and benefits is
2:24:30 dependent upon
2:24:31 peer district response to data request as well as expertise and
2:24:36 ability of
2:24:37 staff to complete in a timely manner this is currently in
2:24:41 process the bus
2:24:43 driver discipline a referral process memo was complete and sent
2:24:47 on February
2:24:47 15th with your blessings I will send the updated version out
2:24:51 this evening spring
2:24:53 negotiation is where we will examine if adding one or two
2:24:57 training days to the
2:24:58 bus driver contract to increase bus driver training can happen
2:25:03 this is
2:25:04 dependent upon the local 10/10 bargaining process the cost-benefit
2:25:09 analysis of routing system options is in process we will be able
2:25:14 to implement our
2:25:15 inventory management system in the south and central shops by
2:25:21 June 30 20 23 and
2:25:23 lastly a yellow and white fleet replacement plan is in process I
2:25:30 have
2:25:30 with me dr. Michael Miller and the director of transportation as
2:25:36 well as
2:25:36 Jefferson Smith the assistant transportation director to assist
2:25:42 with
2:25:42 any questions if there be so
2:25:47 do any board members wish to discuss the presentation thank you
2:25:51 so much Rashad
2:25:52 this is a lot this is since we’ve been on here this is probably
2:25:56 one of the most
2:25:57 comprehensive overviews let’s get to work rally the flag so I
2:26:00 really want to
2:26:01 make my applaud to you and staff and dr. Schiller thank you very
2:26:05 much I just
2:26:06 want to say that I have my notes but I go last so who would like
2:26:11 to go first
2:26:13 miss right mr. Wilson you made a comment that the white fleet
2:26:18 dollars were placed
2:26:19 in department budgets rather than transportation can you
2:26:23 elaborate on that
2:26:24 a little bit because I’m just not sure why that would happen or
2:26:28 how that
2:26:28 happened we decided to move the dollars to the different
2:26:34 departments they knew
2:26:35 their needs and then transportation was not the one that made
2:26:38 the decision what
2:26:39 vehicle was purchased in which department would get it can you
2:26:43 give me
2:26:43 an example like what department would you put a white fleet
2:26:47 maintenance and
2:26:48 maintenance okay it’s food services okay and then when we’re
2:26:57 looking at the data
2:26:57 here you know it looks like obviously we need some new buses but
2:27:01 the the
2:27:01 underlying issue is we need bus drivers right we we need drivers
2:27:06 and based on
2:27:08 everything in your experience dr. Miller what’s the number one
2:27:11 reason that you
2:27:11 think we need more bus drivers or that we don’t have enough bus
2:27:14 drivers the
2:27:16 two top reasons the reason we need bus drivers is because of
2:27:19 salary and because
2:27:21 of student discipline okay and have you looked at your budget
2:27:24 year-to-date for
2:27:26 what is slated to be remaining in the transportation department
2:27:30 for unused
2:27:31 funds for these these salaries that we’re not able to obviously
2:27:33 pay since we
2:27:34 don’t have the driver in place we get back close to two million
2:27:39 dollars a year
2:27:39 and unused budget okay all right I’m gonna hold my questions
2:27:47 someone else go mr. Trent miss Campbell miss Jenkins anybody
2:27:52 okay miss Campbell
2:27:53 first of all I also thank you for presentation all the work that
2:27:58 you guys
2:27:58 and the whole team did on this so going back to just you know
2:28:05 because I this is
2:28:07 not the world you know that we live in all the time right it’s
2:28:10 transportation
2:28:11 but this I know just to clarify so this six hour eight hour
2:28:15 positions so I know
2:28:17 by contract all of our bus drivers are guaranteed six hours
2:28:20 whether they have a
2:28:21 short day and they only drive four I know that never happens but
2:28:26 if you know
2:28:28 our drivers are all the time and especially now having to pick
2:28:32 up an
2:28:32 extra route or somebody’s out and they’re gonna double back or
2:28:35 whatever
2:28:36 that they’re hourly so if they’re normally a six hour bus driver
2:28:41 but that
2:28:41 day they did eight or even sometimes let’s say ten let’s say
2:28:44 there was a rack
2:28:44 or whatever they’re they’re getting paid they’re hourly for what
2:28:48 they actually
2:28:48 put in correct yes okay whether there’s six or eight but the
2:28:51 eight I’m assuming
2:28:52 gets to kind of the preference of picking those routes so that
2:28:56 they’ve got
2:28:56 they know they’re guaranteed those eight hours every day is that
2:29:00 my yes the
2:29:01 drivers they work anywhere from six to eight hours that it’s
2:29:04 usually the same
2:29:05 every day okay okay and so then going to the fleet so besides
2:29:13 the you talked
2:29:15 about when it switched to from the from you from transportation
2:29:20 the white fleet
2:29:21 transportation going from that you to the department’s besides
2:29:28 besides the
2:29:29 purchasing how else are we supporting that wait do we support
2:29:34 with scheduling
2:29:34 maintenance we do we do all the maintenance on all the vehicles
2:29:38 and in
2:29:39 the county I’ve got we have 12 technicians that are working on
2:29:43 four
2:29:44 hundred and some white fleet every 30 days and then we have
2:29:48 close to 700 white
2:29:49 fleet okay and I you know that that includes and mr. I think
2:29:53 includes if you
2:29:54 go to any of our schools they have like a blast program or yet
2:29:57 those minivans
2:29:57 that they’re driving to take the students out to you know
2:30:01 workplaces or
2:30:02 whatever that includes that as well so we’re so we’re supporting
2:30:05 them with all
2:30:05 the maintenance we’re supporting them with purchasing when they
2:30:08 need something
2:30:09 are we when you do the maintenance are you know you guys kind of
2:30:13 keeping up
2:30:14 with shelf life of each of those vehicles making a
2:30:17 recommendation say
2:30:18 you’ve probably only got another year left on this vehicle you
2:30:21 need to start
2:30:22 budgeting for purchase of a new one or how does that work they’re
2:30:25 in they’re
2:30:26 in touch with our truck shop and they make those decisions it
2:30:30 gets to a
2:30:32 certain point to where they’re not cost effective to repair
2:30:35 right just like our
2:30:36 everyday vehicles well I’m just wondering like so when let’s
2:30:40 just say a
2:30:40 school that has a minivan that stays there at their school right
2:30:43 they use it
2:30:44 for blast they use it for taking students out every day when it
2:30:47 starts
2:30:47 getting to the end of their shelf life that would be I’m
2:30:50 assuming would be
2:30:50 under like student services because I would be an ESE yes then
2:30:55 is that
2:30:56 department having to save up in budget because I know okay next
2:30:59 year we’re
2:30:59 gonna need to buy a new vehicle so we need to put in our budget
2:31:02 that’s money
2:31:03 okay so that’s no longer in transportation so every department
2:31:06 is
2:31:07 having to save up for that yes each department goes to budgeting
2:31:11 okay but
2:31:12 initially when it went from transportation to the department’s
2:31:17 that
2:31:17 was budget that fell under your department so it went out today
2:31:21 so
2:31:21 they’re not having to pull it out of their existing budget they
2:31:23 were each a
2:31:24 lot at a certain amount per year yes okay just want to make sure
2:31:28 I got a
2:31:28 brain-strain right and we’re making sure that the the vehicle
2:31:37 meets the standards
2:31:39 for whatever the uses right and it has to become under our
2:31:42 current contracts
2:31:44 they have to purchase from our vendor our prove vendors that the
2:31:47 board is
2:31:47 approved but the parts and the replacements are all coming out
2:31:50 of the
2:31:51 transportation budget right okay we may come back to that but
2:31:56 that’s that’s all
2:31:57 I had for that I just wanted to make sure I had my brain
2:31:59 straight and then on
2:32:01 the the routing system so it seems like we just did that and
2:32:06 since I’ve been on
2:32:07 the board so my question is are we just satisfied with our
2:32:10 current routing
2:32:11 system because I thought we put in something that was like the
2:32:15 GPS and it
2:32:16 was supposed to help us do all that are we just buying that it’s
2:32:18 not we’re
2:32:18 talking two different things the edger log system is the routing
2:32:22 system that we
2:32:22 actually use the GPS the the reaction is our GPS and our student
2:32:29 tracker okay
2:32:29 but didn’t we also put in absolutely mixing those things up I’m
2:32:33 sure I am
2:32:33 but I was thinking we also instituted a new routing system in
2:32:35 the last four
2:32:36 years am I wrong we had edger log when I got here four years ago
2:32:40 okay so so this
2:32:41 is looking at we made it up right right right so I’m assuming
2:32:46 then if it’s on
2:32:46 here then we are dissatisfied it’s going right now we’ve looked
2:32:51 at a couple of
2:32:51 presentations of other companies to see if their product meet
2:32:56 our needs better
2:32:57 but edger log has a new version coming out called Athena and we
2:33:01 have a
2:33:02 presentation on that this Friday okay see if we want to go to
2:33:05 the upgrade of that now
2:33:06 is is edgelog something that we pay year to year or is it
2:33:09 something we paid once
2:33:10 and we got it and so if we buy something new we have to pay we
2:33:13 pay year to year
2:33:13 okay so it’ll be we could be just swapping out cost for cost yes
2:33:18 we’re not
2:33:19 gonna have to budget to buy a new system okay is that pretty
2:33:23 normal in industry
2:33:24 standards to pay yes so we know we’re gonna have a recurring
2:33:28 cost of that okay
2:33:29 that’s all I have right now thank you miss Campbell anybody else
2:33:35 wish to
2:33:35 discuss the topics at hand mr. Trent miss Jenkins no all right
2:33:43 my turn okay
2:33:45 so you had mentioned that you refined the referral reporting
2:33:49 system it’s been
2:33:50 a real big deal for me for since like September can you go
2:33:54 through that with
2:33:54 me what the deal is and everything else doing the steering
2:34:12 discipline steering
2:34:13 committee there were some individuals within the committee that
2:34:18 that wanted to
2:34:20 that has some concerns we’ll make some additions and we took we
2:34:26 took took them
2:34:27 to consideration added those updates to the memo and I wanted
2:34:30 you guys to take a
2:34:32 look at it first and I’m going to send it back out to the masses
2:34:36 once you had
2:34:37 the opportunity to take a look at it but we considered all the
2:34:40 input from the
2:34:41 steering committee yeah the um so if I’m a if I’m a driver and I
2:34:48 fill out a
2:34:48 discipline form it’s a three-ply what do I do what am I doing if
2:34:52 it’s at the end
2:34:53 of the day what’s the plan well that this that the principal
2:34:58 designee whoever
2:34:59 he or she is at the bus stop yeah well be given that document
2:35:03 okay then
2:35:04 depending on when they get it or at the infraction they will
2:35:08 then go proud if
2:35:09 it’s the preference system principal he or she will process the
2:35:14 the referral if
2:35:15 you will then at that time they were they will give the
2:35:19 discipline the
2:35:21 appropriate discipline for the infraction and then they would
2:35:25 give
2:35:26 communication some kind of communication back to the bus driver
2:35:29 again we made a
2:35:30 change we put within 24 hours love it I read that that was
2:35:34 awesome but but then
2:35:35 again no but the infraction depends on the turnaround task and I
2:35:40 saw the
2:35:41 infraction is going a lot of investigations etc etc so we’ve
2:35:46 changed
2:35:46 it from 24 one of the recommendations was more time yeah so we
2:35:51 put 24 to 72
2:35:52 hours 72 hours but if it’s time for harm it’s within 24 hours
2:35:55 physical yeah 24
2:35:57 that’s the key I mean like look we all know that so one of the
2:36:02 issues that we
2:36:03 were dealing with this is that on the bus driver I get something
2:36:06 that happens
2:36:06 it’s physical harm now the kid just gets back on gives me a smirk
2:36:10 and he’s just
2:36:10 still riding my bus while I’m trying to stew and he’s acting
2:36:13 appropriate so
2:36:14 thank you for that one of the things I was going to mention is
2:36:17 is that so I’m a
2:36:18 bus driver I have a referral kid does something inappropriate a
2:36:21 fight or
2:36:22 whatever at the end of the day the issue is that I’ve got to go
2:36:26 pick that kid up
2:36:26 in the morning have him get on the bus I drive the kid to the
2:36:30 stop one of the
2:36:31 things that we can do so that the and this is just a thought
2:36:34 process I was
2:36:35 working with Cheatham about it is that we could actually have
2:36:38 somebody at the
2:36:38 district bus stop scan and email those to the teacher or to the
2:36:42 principal that
2:36:43 way when the administrator gets there they can automatically see
2:36:46 it on their
2:36:47 email as it’s coming in because sometimes the bus drivers don’t
2:36:50 make
2:36:51 their way back until the next day and if it’s you know what I
2:36:54 mean that’s all so
2:36:55 just some if we can get innovative on that piece the other piece
2:36:58 that I would
2:36:59 suggest is if we can do scheduled survey showing the hey how do
2:37:06 you feel is this
2:37:07 and it gives them an opportunity if we could do that twice a
2:37:10 year quarterly or
2:37:11 something like that it gives them the opportunity to see trends
2:37:14 that because
2:37:14 there’s a lot of really good principles that are doing a lot of
2:37:17 good things and
2:37:17 then there’s some principles that have a lot going on in their
2:37:19 disk they’re
2:37:20 building right so what we would want to do is is be able to
2:37:23 pinpoint where some
2:37:24 of the issues are and then lend extra support survey to who
2:37:27 could you clear
2:37:28 the bus drivers yeah so like an idea like this so and this is
2:37:31 just
2:37:31 suggestions I don’t I’m not speaking for the board right now but
2:37:34 the idea would
2:37:35 be that we have some sort of evaluation process over how do they
2:37:39 feel right do
2:37:40 you feel supported as far as time wise with the discipline give
2:37:43 me an example
2:37:44 if it’s not something like that that way we’re consistently
2:37:46 monitoring and we’re
2:37:47 not just letting them out into the field you know what I mean
2:37:49 and and not giving
2:37:50 them an opportunity to communicate back to us these are just my
2:37:54 suggestions
2:37:55 doesn’t mean that they’re worth it did you want to say am I
2:37:57 rolling oh okay go
2:37:59 ahead miss right go ahead so I guess I one of my biggest
2:38:03 questions is where
2:38:04 where does the two million dollars go at the end of the year
2:38:05 that’s not being
2:38:06 spent on transportation yeah where’s that going I haven’t been
2:38:11 to the end of
2:38:12 the year in this role yet so yes that goes to the CFO in order
2:38:22 to then place
2:38:22 into the reserve fund to fund balance so can that can this board
2:38:30 direct
2:38:30 differently for that money absolutely absolutely once it comes
2:38:37 to the budget
2:38:37 piece we can only if it’s paid we control that two million so if
2:38:46 we as a
2:38:47 school board decide that we don’t want it to go back to the
2:38:50 general fund just
2:38:51 like that we can steer it however we want as long as I think it
2:38:55 is very very
2:38:56 important I mean honestly having toward these bus depots with dr.
2:38:59 Miller thank
2:38:59 you so much for taking me around and showing me the staff there
2:39:03 the mechanics
2:39:04 there I mean they have been there for years and years and years
2:39:07 and they are
2:39:07 bringing some of them have tens of thousands of dollars of their
2:39:10 own tools
2:39:11 that they have there that are working on our buses to keep our
2:39:14 babies safe when
2:39:15 they’re transporting them to and from school so I I just really
2:39:18 feel and I’ve
2:39:19 said this from the first time I toward it we have got to
2:39:21 prioritize this and
2:39:23 make sure that they understand how much they are valued with our
2:39:26 district and I
2:39:27 know we you know the negotiation aspect of it for the pay rate
2:39:31 system that’s
2:39:31 going to be coming up in the future but for the right now the
2:39:34 immediate time for
2:39:35 these bus drivers that are pulling double duty and our mechanics
2:39:38 that are
2:39:39 that are pulling double triple duty I really feel like it would
2:39:43 be a good a
2:39:43 good thing for this board to look at making that a priority on
2:39:46 trying to to
2:39:47 compensate them dr. Schiller you want to say something yes
2:39:51 certainly the board
2:39:54 may earmark that money and it and as we go forward with end-of-the-year
2:40:02 fund
2:40:02 balances and to be able to go forward with the collective
2:40:06 bargaining money side
2:40:08 of the issue once we know all of our revenues and fixed costs
2:40:13 then the this
2:40:16 this particular group of represented by local 10 10 and all
2:40:20 those different
2:40:21 workers on the core people all the way through transportation
2:40:25 then we can as
2:40:27 we’re going through recommend to you how we can appropriately
2:40:33 address the
2:40:35 salaries in order to one for recruitment and retention so that
2:40:39 is so that we have
2:40:41 already identified a fund if that is what the board wishes plus
2:40:45 whatever else
2:40:46 may be able to be identified what’s the what’s the tentative the
2:40:51 tentative
2:40:52 timeline on that process that you’re that you’re talking about
2:40:55 well as the
2:40:57 CFO will present in tonight in her cameo appearance number two
2:41:03 is basically the
2:41:04 timing as we pointed out is that we will not have solidified
2:41:08 state funding
2:41:10 numbers until early July once a legislative session but we’ll
2:41:16 also at
2:41:17 that point understand the fixed costs the increases if any that
2:41:21 we’ll see from
2:41:22 the benefits and for the insurances and then the board will know
2:41:27 after it does
2:41:27 as we’re going through program by program with the budget of
2:41:31 what it is
2:41:31 and with your priorities how that pot of money will be allocated
2:41:36 that the board
2:41:37 has for next year that’s for future funds so the the current
2:41:41 budget that we
2:41:42 have right now with the two million dollars that potentially are
2:41:44 going to be
2:41:45 given back for staff that’s been this has already been earmarked
2:41:48 for staff
2:41:48 that we’ve not currently hired that is for our existing budget
2:41:52 can we not talk
2:41:53 about that now instead of waiting until July I don’t want to
2:41:56 wait until July no
2:41:58 none of us want to wait till July we would recommend that when
2:42:03 we come back
2:42:04 to you and probably the next board meeting as we get all of this
2:42:08 data
2:42:08 together and see where our salaries are compared to is a scat I
2:42:12 believe as well
2:42:14 as these other school districts that we don’t do a quick fix
2:42:18 solution as much as
2:42:19 what we do will then roll into both recognition of where we have
2:42:25 been paying
2:42:26 these folks this year as well as prospectively for retention
2:42:30 very
2:42:31 important and recruitment in an attempt for some folks who may
2:42:35 have left us for
2:42:36 those particular reasons to reconsider joining and therefore the
2:42:40 point would be
2:42:41 it would then be a sustainable amount on the salaries as opposed
2:42:47 to a one-time
2:42:47 feel-good quick fix and that would be we believe and if I’m if
2:42:52 anyone was to
2:42:54 disagree the strategy that would be long-term smart and short-term
2:42:59 smart as
2:43:00 opposed to doing something that someone may get that went after
2:43:04 a paycheck and
2:43:05 after all of that you prorate that out it may it may not be as
2:43:10 much as something
2:43:11 it would be sustainable over time and I hear you and I I guess I
2:43:15 don’t I when we
2:43:16 look at this being one or the other I don’t think it should be
2:43:19 one or I think
2:43:19 it can be both because that money has already been earmarked for
2:43:23 transportation and the other thing that concerns me is I don’t
2:43:26 want us to do
2:43:27 this deep dive and then all of a sudden what we find out is oh
2:43:30 we need to start
2:43:31 we need to offer more we need to pay more what tends to happen
2:43:34 there is that
2:43:35 our seasoned employees that have been with us the longest end up
2:43:39 not it
2:43:39 doesn’t the scale doesn’t move with them if that makes sense so
2:43:42 you’ll say oh we
2:43:42 need to bump our pay rate up significant for our new hires but
2:43:46 we don’t equally
2:43:47 bump the pay rate up for the people that have been there for
2:43:49 that amount of time
2:43:50 we’re not across all fronts for clarification I may not been
2:43:53 clear I’ve
2:43:54 been working with miss Barney as well as with our staff we need
2:44:01 to look at the
2:44:02 breadth and depth of the compression and all of the grades of
2:44:07 the entire pay
2:44:09 scale because we don’t want oh they just put the money in the
2:44:12 upfront to get
2:44:13 someone new and then have the inconsistencies of those people
2:44:17 who have
2:44:18 been with us and their salary so that’s what I’m saying a
2:44:21 comprehensive solution
2:44:22 is and I’m not talking long term this is accelerated typically a
2:44:27 consultant will
2:44:28 do this and it’ll take about two to three months in order to
2:44:32 bring this
2:44:33 together we’re we’re meeting every week and they have their
2:44:37 homework assignments
2:44:38 that they go back every day on working now gentlemen please
2:44:42 please elaborate on
2:44:44 anything here that you’d like to elaborate on as we’ve discussed
2:44:47 in your
2:44:47 own in order to help clarify but the board can direct whatever
2:44:53 you’d like I
2:44:54 was if we can stay on this thread I was I have a list right so I
2:44:58 was gonna go
2:44:59 through it but she hit one that’s right on my list so we’ll go
2:45:02 to it I sure was
2:45:05 gonna get a little upset on this one but I’ve been advocating to
2:45:09 just take the
2:45:10 salaries of the south of the area of the vacant positions and
2:45:14 then take them and
2:45:16 apply them back to the individuals that are there for instance
2:45:19 bus drivers we
2:45:20 have the number of stipends that those individuals have gone
2:45:24 like we know how
2:45:25 many extra rides they put in take the extra salaries and it may
2:45:28 not be as much
2:45:29 as people think but like what you were saying miss Wright is
2:45:32 that right now we
2:45:33 don’t need to plan on something that’s going to take six eight
2:45:36 months to
2:45:37 implement and then our finance department remember they are so
2:45:40 slammed
2:45:40 that they can’t get out all of the extra stuff we’d be eight
2:45:43 months down the road
2:45:44 and losing our veterans so my thing was saying hey we can still
2:45:47 do that there’s
2:45:48 only this much money so whether we take a small amount of it
2:45:52 shoot it in the arm
2:45:52 now and then go back and give the extra salary increases later I
2:45:57 think we should
2:45:58 take the extra salaries that are inside of each one of the you
2:46:01 know areas like
2:46:03 bus drivers mechanics mechanics we have seven out of twelve take
2:46:06 the extra
2:46:06 salaries give them right back to him for doing that on an even
2:46:09 spiel we’ve never
2:46:10 done that before but we are in a crisis mode and I’ll be honest
2:46:13 with you if we
2:46:14 didn’t have those mechanics in there if we didn’t have the IAS
2:46:17 that we have if
2:46:18 we didn’t have the bus drivers this place would collapse and we’re
2:46:21 close
2:46:21 like we get reports almost every day about this we need to take
2:46:24 care of the
2:46:25 people that are in there and it’s a quick fix real easy this is
2:46:28 how much is
2:46:28 still in there this is how much we can have and this is brother
2:46:31 so that was my
2:46:31 thought process on that um did anybody want to talk on that
2:46:35 anybody okay I just
2:46:39 that one piece because I I’m not opposed to doing that but I
2:46:48 think it’s important
2:46:49 for us to remember and recognize that it’s a band-aid and it’s a
2:46:53 one-time
2:46:54 payment and what makes a more significant impact in our hourly
2:46:59 workers
2:46:59 lives is for us to actually do the work to give them higher pay
2:47:03 to go towards
2:47:04 their retirement they would rather have a higher hourly rate to
2:47:08 rely on steadily
2:47:10 throughout the year than a one-time payment through the two
2:47:15 years that I’ve
2:47:15 been here there has been a downfall of salaries for all the
2:47:20 vacant positions
2:47:21 that we have across the district and sometimes that money is
2:47:24 used to help
2:47:24 increase that hourly pay or salary whatever we’re talking about
2:47:28 whatever
2:47:28 department because we have a we have a crisis in this department
2:47:34 like we do
2:47:35 other departments it’s not just about the recruiting it’s about
2:47:40 the retaining
2:47:40 and we got a kind of address it across the board because fixing
2:47:43 one problem
2:47:44 isn’t going to help us in the long term with the other I’m not
2:47:48 opposed that if
2:47:49 we do send that money straight to people and give them a little
2:47:52 you know thank
2:47:52 you for stepping up and sticking with us and sticking through it
2:47:56 but I think it’s
2:47:57 important to find out what what they actually want because so
2:48:01 many times we
2:48:02 couldn’t afford raises and we did give one-time payments and
2:48:05 they’re kind of
2:48:05 tired of it and so I think it’s important for us to instead of
2:48:09 just
2:48:09 reacting because it seems like the right thing than a feel-good
2:48:12 thing we need to
2:48:13 ask them really what they feel like impacts their daily life a
2:48:16 little bit
2:48:16 more and it doesn’t sound like from dr. Schiller that this is
2:48:19 going to be a long
2:48:20 long haul of a discovery of how to fix this problem or make it a
2:48:24 little bit
2:48:24 better and it doesn’t mean that you can’t read nig on it either
2:48:27 and say
2:48:27 forget it just give the two million dollars like we planned on
2:48:29 in the first
2:48:29 place but I think it’s important for us to to ask those workers
2:48:33 themselves what
2:48:34 what would benefit their lives a little bit more because again
2:48:38 from past history
2:48:39 I just I feel like often typically 10/10 is a little frustrated
2:48:42 with just getting
2:48:43 a bonus so I would say I agree just so everybody understands
2:48:49 when we get our
2:48:50 revenues back there’s a reoccurring which is how much is reoccurring
2:48:55 and
2:48:55 then there’s the non reoccurring so regardless we never take and
2:48:59 create
2:49:00 reoccurring raises on non reoccurring dollars what you guys are
2:49:04 we’re to all
2:49:05 talking about is non reoccurring dollars so what will happen is
2:49:08 is we will either
2:49:09 give that to them and move that make the move now or literally
2:49:12 give them the same
2:49:13 thing in three months is all I’m saying so non reoccurring is
2:49:17 the money that is
2:49:18 left over from salary lapse and everything else reoccurring is
2:49:21 the money
2:49:22 we get from the governor and some of the other things like the
2:49:24 resin of the
2:49:25 millage and everything else inside of our taxes so whether we
2:49:28 give it now or
2:49:29 we give it later whether the bus drivers wanted a certain way or
2:49:33 not it’s
2:49:33 literally the only way we can give it now the what’s happened in
2:49:36 the past is
2:49:37 that they take these non reoccurring dollars have them fall to
2:49:41 the bottom
2:49:42 line lump them all together and then we give them out based on
2:49:46 other things so
2:49:46 like bus drivers ia’s everybody else teachers everybody else and
2:49:51 there’s this
2:49:51 big one and then they go in and negotiate and they say okay the
2:49:54 teachers
2:49:54 get this much non reoccurring the bus drivers get this much non
2:49:57 reoccurring
2:49:57 and it’s unfair because sometimes we can’t give and then what it
2:50:00 ends up
2:50:01 being it’s just a straight stipend here’s the difference the
2:50:04 difference is
2:50:05 is that if we’re able to give those stipends as an increase it’s
2:50:07 an
2:50:07 incentive base and I’ll tell you why you’re not only telling the
2:50:10 people that
2:50:11 have actually worked and done what they said they would do and
2:50:14 come up for us
2:50:14 and are the people that are taking all those runs you’re giving
2:50:17 them a back but
2:50:18 you’re also at the same time telling people who are applying
2:50:22 that there’s
2:50:22 this option and I’ll tell you why many people that are dealing
2:50:25 with fifteen
2:50:25 sixteen seventeen dollar an hour jobs are willing to take a job
2:50:29 knowing that
2:50:29 there might be opportunity for more money and this is an
2:50:33 opportunity to do
2:50:33 that you see that everywhere with people at McDonald’s or
2:50:37 wherever so that was my
2:50:38 my reasoning behind it is is that not only would you be able to
2:50:41 tell them
2:50:42 thank you for being there for us not give the same to this
2:50:46 person that did
2:50:47 this person so like this person that doesn’t do any extra runs
2:50:49 gets the same
2:50:50 money as the other person that’s what we’ve done in the past
2:50:52 this does it that
2:50:53 way so that’s the reason that I brought it up but that’s not for
2:50:56 us to
2:50:57 determine I don’t know if we go back into negotiations but I
2:51:01 would like dr.
2:51:01 Schiller you said you’re going to the negotiations with 1010 and
2:51:05 the teachers
2:51:05 union correct yes sir we are prepared for a meeting with the
2:51:12 board in order to
2:51:13 gather the board input on the contract but it would be non-monetary
2:51:19 because
2:51:19 again what my pledge to the - oh I’m not going to be here when
2:51:24 the money comes in
2:51:25 but what I can do is resolve with BFT and with local 1010 are
2:51:33 any and all
2:51:34 language issues that we can get to the point that are not
2:51:37 necessarily
2:51:38 monetarily related for example one might be trying to correct
2:51:45 the
2:51:47 inconsistencies in the salary guides of steps and when someone
2:51:51 is for example at
2:51:52 step 9 and they go to an upper page a new job going back and
2:51:59 lose two dollars
2:52:00 and 40 cents an hour you know I’ve been working with in that
2:52:04 respect I mean we
2:52:06 can correct a lot of the issues that may be contributing to our
2:52:11 problem but I am
2:52:13 not in a position because that’ll be coming a little bit later
2:52:16 when the funds
2:52:17 become available of then to apply the salary I won’t be here and
2:52:22 so bottom
2:52:23 line is it comes down to that would be a welcome gift for your
2:52:29 permanent
2:52:29 superintendents to do well I think I think one of just so the
2:52:33 new board
2:52:33 understands the way it works is is the legislature will send X
2:52:37 amount of
2:52:37 dollars that will happen by the end of May so we’ll know the reoccurring
2:52:42 dollars somewhere in there right then they evaluate they do
2:52:45 stuff but
2:52:46 literally the non-reoccurring dollars we can take care of right
2:52:49 now so and
2:52:50 there’s no there’s no question that we you know and I’ll just be
2:52:53 honest I feel
2:52:54 very strongly about this so I’m sorry go ahead miss Campbell so
2:53:07 this may be more
2:53:08 of a Cindy Lissinski question but if you know priority number
2:53:12 one is recruitment
2:53:13 and retention of drivers in this area but is there a possibility
2:53:17 that we could
2:53:18 use that we can use some of these dollars that drop to the
2:53:26 bottom to help
2:53:27 with our white fleet I know we can’t use capital dollars for
2:53:30 operating but I
2:53:31 think we can use operating for capital if there’s a way to at
2:53:35 least designate a
2:53:36 chunk of it to improve the white fleet because honestly that
2:53:40 seemed like that
2:53:41 would improve life for some of our technicians because they’re
2:53:45 working on
2:53:46 not vehicles that are requiring heavy maintenance they’re just
2:53:50 doing the very
2:53:51 simple updating so it seems like it would we could kill two
2:53:54 birds with one
2:53:54 stone by using some of that funding to make a dent in our white
2:53:58 fleet problem
2:53:59 and that makes conditions better for our maintenance staff just
2:54:06 throwing that out
2:54:06 there and I think I say asks any but I know that we we can move
2:54:10 funds from
2:54:11 operating to capital expenditure expenditures right yes so you’re
2:54:15 saying
2:54:16 that people vacant salaries you would the vacant salaries you
2:54:21 may want to take
2:54:22 a portion of that to offset the cost of the white I’m offering
2:54:25 that as an
2:54:25 opportunity because I you know we’ve got to find that from
2:54:27 somewhere and white
2:54:28 fleet dollars usually have to usually we we designate that out
2:54:31 of capital but a
2:54:32 lot of times those are the ones that get cut we need a new box
2:54:34 truck nope not
2:54:34 getting a box truck this year because it fell down to the bottom
2:54:37 of the list and
2:54:37 we didn’t have enough or we’ve got to replace emergency you know
2:54:40 a building
2:54:41 caught on fire at one of our schools and so now we have to
2:54:44 designate capital to
2:54:44 that so but if we have some a designated I don’t know you know
2:54:50 five hundred
2:54:50 thousand I don’t know something would be a lot depending on the
2:54:52 size of the truck
2:54:53 it’d be out five hundred thousand by a lot of minivans it wouldn’t
2:54:55 buy a lot of
2:54:56 them well it might buy ten minivans I’ll take that back but you
2:54:59 know what I mean
2:55:00 we could we could maybe do something towards that with what
2:55:05 falls to the
2:55:05 bottom and leave that up to staff to you know almost to work
2:55:09 that out but it’s an
2:55:10 option right could ask the bus drivers would you guys rather
2:55:12 receive money for
2:55:13 the stipends or yeah no no I have with that regard I I will plan
2:55:31 on when we go
2:55:31 to those negotiations bringing forward short-term or non-recurring
2:55:35 dollars to
2:55:36 the table so that we can do that just so you guys know and right
2:55:39 now is not the
2:55:39 time we’re bringing it up as a topic but I when we get in there
2:55:42 um all right so
2:55:44 let’s keep going down my list okay perfect the two billion
2:55:51 dollars is that
2:55:52 strictly from staff bacon vacancies yes okay thank you all right
2:55:57 so on that note
2:55:59 as far as the white fleet we used to and I have it down here as
2:56:03 one of the topics
2:56:04 we used to say we were going to go out and rent our white fleet
2:56:07 from Enterprise
2:56:08 or there was an idea that we might actually now I know that the
2:56:11 box trucks
2:56:12 and some of that stuff we don’t want to do that too but if you
2:56:15 guys remember
2:56:16 there were some vehicles we were using is that 40 pickup trucks
2:56:20 40 pickup
2:56:20 trucks is that something that we still want to do or do we we’re
2:56:25 looking at
2:56:25 that okay we already had a contract yeah we’re looking at the
2:56:29 advantages of
2:56:30 costs of benefits of leasing versus purchase yeah that’d be is
2:56:36 it altogether
2:56:37 interrelated issue that one thing is a will impact something
2:56:42 else is what miss
2:56:43 Campbell had suggested so we’re trying to look for a
2:56:45 comprehensive solution to
2:56:47 bring back to you in a matter of weeks I I just know we already
2:56:50 had one so if you
2:56:50 guys are doing it might be able to get the numbers off that the
2:56:53 other thing is
2:56:53 is that we used to allow coaches to get their CDLs to drive the
2:56:57 buses to the
2:56:58 away games and stuff like that it saved money we plan on holding
2:57:01 a class this
2:57:02 summer for any of our employees that are interested in getting
2:57:05 their CDL love it
2:57:06 that’s a huge opportunity because then I know that you have some
2:57:09 bus drivers that
2:57:10 really like that over time and they get into scraps over it
2:57:13 literally but the
2:57:13 thing is is that it’s an opportunity for the school to save some
2:57:17 money if the bus
2:57:18 driver is the coach and he can drive it we put a survey out
2:57:20 there last year and
2:57:21 we had several people that were interested in getting their CDLs
2:57:26 coaches
2:57:27 media specialists were interested yeah because they can take
2:57:31 them yeah it’s a
2:57:32 it’s a different thing as I told him I think a bus driver
2:57:34 shortage I don’t
2:57:35 have a bus shortage I have a bus driver all right so back in the
2:57:42 day when I was
2:57:43 teaching choir art the school district where I taught in Texas
2:57:46 had and I would
2:57:48 didn’t have to have a CDL but they had some larger vehicles that
2:57:51 we could use
2:57:51 to transport small groups do we have that so that like let’s say
2:57:54 a choir
2:57:55 teacher wants to take a you know that’s you know we have a
2:57:58 couple of ants in the
2:58:00 district we can do that with it’s we have to be very careful
2:58:03 certain wheel
2:58:04 base and roll over there’s a very specific instructions from the
2:58:10 state
2:58:10 that we have to follow in order to do that okay thank you real
2:58:14 quick
2:58:14 clarifying question it was said in a meeting that I recently had
2:58:19 that we have
2:58:19 students that attend the North Area AL sleet C slash stuff
2:58:24 coming out of Palm
2:58:26 Bay do we drive those individuals in big buses all the way up or
2:58:31 it was it was
2:58:33 like Fieldstone and stuff like that we those students are going
2:58:36 to Gardendale
2:58:36 this year it’s good and we are transporting students from Mecco
2:58:40 from
2:58:40 men’s to make out to are they on a pickup list or is it just one
2:58:44 bus going
2:58:45 all the way up we have a if I’m not correct if I’m correct I
2:58:49 think we have
2:58:50 about 12 buses that are just designated for Gardendale so they
2:58:54 only pick up
2:58:55 those students that’s that came across and I was like wow maybe
2:58:58 there’s
2:58:58 something we can do with a South Area opportunity or something
2:59:01 like that all
2:59:02 right then okay got another problem these parents seem to think
2:59:08 and I’ll say
2:59:08 it publicly that they can get on our buses and it seems to think
2:59:12 that some of
2:59:12 our law enforcement officers don’t think that they need to
2:59:14 arrest them and put
2:59:15 them into trespassing and we have a couple videos that we’ve
2:59:19 watched where
2:59:20 the parents get on clear the entire bus and say get off get off
2:59:23 and the kids
2:59:24 like I don’t want to get off I don’t even know my parents phone
2:59:26 number and I
2:59:26 don’t live here so we need to be able to that’s the one that I
2:59:29 asked you guys to
2:59:30 take a look at here’s the deal the deal is is that we need to
2:59:33 get an emergency
2:59:34 thing out to our law enforcement that says that if there’s a
2:59:37 parent on our bus
2:59:37 that decides to get on there and act inappropriately or starts
2:59:40 coming up and
2:59:41 influencing the security of our bus those people need to be
2:59:44 arrested and
2:59:44 trespassed period period I don’t know how you guys feel about it
2:59:48 but it’s
2:59:48 causing disruption with our bus drivers and the bus drivers they
2:59:51 don’t know so
2:59:52 like they open the door hey what’s going on they open the door
2:59:54 parent comes on
2:59:55 starts the conflict with one of the other students please I’m
2:59:57 sorry you
2:59:58 cannot access our bus like you can stand out there and try to do
3:00:00 it but it’s a
3:00:01 huge huge thing and it’s happening it’s happened like three
3:00:05 times in the last
3:00:05 month so we you know have we got anything wrapped around that is
3:00:09 that a
3:00:09 concern what’s going on there so here’s what it is the bus
3:00:19 drivers are trying to
3:00:21 say this person needs to be arrested but sometimes they don’t
3:00:24 know the law
3:00:25 enforcement doesn’t what do we do what do we do to make that
3:00:27 happen is that
3:00:28 officer Neil sending something out do you guys agree with trying
3:00:31 to get these
3:00:32 people off our buses and definitely okay it’s a safety issue for
3:00:37 the driver and
3:00:38 the students I need you get here you bet I would be there and I’d
3:00:48 probably be one
3:00:48 of those parents so I can understand the the frantic emergency
3:00:51 that would cause a
3:00:52 parent to board a bus but I think what we have to do is we need
3:00:55 to message to
3:00:56 our parents hey these procedures are in place for a reason this
3:01:00 is why we cannot
3:01:01 have you getting on a bus and clearing a bus and putting kids
3:01:05 potentially in more
3:01:06 danger in traffic so I understand both sides of it I think if we
3:01:09 sent something
3:01:10 that said that this is the rule for our bus riders no I agree
3:01:13 then then at least
3:01:14 they might know a little bit more because honestly if you’re a
3:01:17 parent and
3:01:17 you get a text from your child and says there’s an emergency I
3:01:20 need you you know
3:01:21 any parent is gonna run right there and well and probably the
3:01:24 same thing and in
3:01:25 many of those cases the buses the the students were not in any
3:01:28 kind of danger
3:01:29 the issue is is the parents were like you know I mean I saw one
3:01:32 where the
3:01:33 parents were leveraging a parent into the back of it I mean it’s
3:01:35 crazy I saw
3:01:36 one that wasn’t even a parent so yeah there’s yeah this one wasn’t
3:01:40 even yeah
3:01:41 there’s one that was so dr. Miller can you put together a formal
3:01:44 communications
3:01:45 for Russell Broom to send out to our parents and then also work
3:01:48 with mr. Neil
3:01:49 yes on securing the fact that these law enforcement agencies
3:01:52 should know that
3:01:52 they have to arrest parents who access our love officer Neil
3:01:58 that’s good dr.
3:01:59 Miller and Justin thank you so much for being here I appreciate
3:02:01 you guys taking
3:02:02 the time that you have with me personally touring the bus depots
3:02:05 and
3:02:05 talking to the bus drivers and our mechanics and and I just want
3:02:08 to hear
3:02:08 from you at this point what what do you think our bus drivers
3:02:12 and our mechanics
3:02:13 would appreciate right now with the situation that we’re
3:02:16 currently in I
3:02:17 think they would like to see their salaries raised okay it helps
3:02:21 with their
3:02:22 retirement okay that’s one of the benefits of working in these
3:02:30 positions
3:02:31 it’s not that you’re going to make a lot of money but you’re
3:02:33 gonna have a
3:02:34 retirement when you retire and if we could raise those salaries
3:02:38 that would
3:02:38 help with their retirement and to add to that I talked one
3:02:43 supervisor for fleet
3:02:45 and another technician from leaving our district to go to
3:02:49 another district and
3:02:50 that was last week and we will be losing another attack as of
3:02:54 March 3rd we
3:02:56 received that word as we were sitting in the bathroom that we
3:02:59 have another
3:02:59 technician leaving so because of salary can I ask why salary I
3:03:07 know the millage
3:03:08 is in the future and people have to eat now and they have to buy
3:03:11 eggs now but is
3:03:15 them I mean is the millage making a difference at all are they
3:03:17 looking into
3:03:18 what difference it’s gonna make for them next year today yeah no
3:03:26 I I understand
3:03:27 I’m just wondering how much of that is because we do have a
3:03:30 especially with 10
3:03:31 10 employees because they’re not as engaged in the process in
3:03:35 general
3:03:36 sometimes it’s it’s not you know just the awareness of what’s
3:03:40 out there here’s
3:03:41 what’s coming and yes it’s next year but I’m wondering how much
3:03:43 is that you is
3:03:44 even that awareness is there that especially for our veterans
3:03:50 you know
3:03:50 there’s there’s you know for the ones who have been with us for
3:03:53 17 18 years I
3:03:54 can’t remember the cutoff is it’s like $4,400 extra a year that’s
3:03:58 a significant
3:03:58 impact to people who will stick around for and through next
3:04:02 school year but I’m
3:04:03 wondering how much awareness that is there what is there
3:04:05 anything that we can
3:04:06 do that communicates best you know and I mean not saying we don’t
3:04:10 do something
3:04:11 now but I’m saying even for the future that that’s gonna be a
3:04:14 huge a huge deal
3:04:15 next year how can we communicate that best to them you know
3:04:18 because there’s
3:04:18 not necessarily they’re not doing jobs that they need to check
3:04:20 their email
3:04:21 every day but what’s the best way to get that message out there
3:04:24 to that group of
3:04:25 employees I feel like I don’t remember when we have this
3:04:30 conversation but we
3:04:31 did talk about this as a board for messaging the communication
3:04:35 about the
3:04:35 millage to all of our staff members because we already had a
3:04:39 conversation
3:04:39 about how it was gonna be spent but I truly don’t believe like
3:04:43 most of our
3:04:44 staff really knows how it might impact them and when it’s gonna
3:04:47 impact them I
3:04:47 thought that was the most important piece too because a lot of
3:04:50 people have
3:04:50 this misconception that it was gonna happen right away and when
3:04:52 you’re
3:04:53 already frustrated and tired and overworked and you’re ready to
3:04:55 leave
3:04:56 already when you find out it’s not happening tomorrow when you
3:04:58 thought it
3:04:58 was that’s gonna that’s gonna make you a little bit more
3:05:01 frustrated right and so
3:05:03 I think it’s really important and I felt like we gave that
3:05:06 directive but maybe we
3:05:08 didn’t for us to do that across the board because we do know the
3:05:11 answer and
3:05:12 so I think we need to look into re communicating that to our
3:05:14 staff members
3:05:15 again you’re right it’s not gonna fix the problem now but for
3:05:17 those who are
3:05:18 kind of teetering on the line or just need a little something to
3:05:21 help them
3:05:21 hang on it’ll help question I have a question are we to survey
3:05:27 the bus
3:05:28 drivers and ask them if they prefer a bonus or a pay increase no
3:05:35 because we
3:05:36 can’t the so here’s what it is there’s non-reoccurring dollars
3:05:40 and there’s
3:05:41 reoccurring right so we can’t say one or the other because we
3:05:44 can’t take one to
3:05:44 the other okay so I would say because I heard someone say that
3:05:47 yeah I think I
3:05:49 think the argument would be or the question would be would you
3:05:53 like us to
3:05:53 negotiate the bonus and in a you know the argument is is would
3:05:58 you like us to
3:05:59 do a bonus now that is more or at the end of the year once they’re
3:06:03 all in
3:06:03 because the other problem we have is is we can’t do it right now
3:06:06 because we
3:06:07 don’t know what bus drivers are gonna need and what the bottom
3:06:09 line is gonna
3:06:10 be but once the last day’s there BAM if you have worked these
3:06:14 days it’s also a
3:06:15 retention thing that we will pay you based on how many runs you
3:06:20 had because
3:06:21 of this is our pot hundred thousand two hundred thousand dollars
3:06:24 we know how
3:06:24 much it is and we will pay you in a month two months well that
3:06:27 means that
3:06:28 they’ll stick around they won’t jump over the summer and they’ll
3:06:30 be able to
3:06:31 understand that we’re going to take care of them at the back but
3:06:33 you can message
3:06:34 that now that’s all so a survey would say would you like an
3:06:37 incentive based
3:06:39 stipend or a flat stipend at the end of the year with non-reoccurring
3:06:43 dollars
3:06:43 and then of course we will be working to get reoccurring dollars
3:06:46 that’s what my
3:06:46 suggestion would be does that make sense okay I was getting back
3:06:50 to my list we’re
3:06:51 still good all right the other thing is is that um can people
3:06:54 work half days
3:06:55 yes okay just wanted to make sure all right and then we got the
3:07:00 CDL and then
3:07:01 we got the ALCs I think I got my list taken care of yep yep that’s
3:07:07 it we’ve
3:07:09 talked about mixed positions before I know we have very few in
3:07:12 the district
3:07:12 but what positions do we have where people can do more than one
3:07:19 thing I mean
3:07:20 because obviously before and after care that doesn’t work for a
3:07:22 bus driver
3:07:22 because you know it’s at the same time cafeteria stuff there’s a
3:07:27 potential as
3:07:28 long as they don’t do breakfast but we have more lunch to you
3:07:31 know do do we
3:07:33 recruit to those people mr. Thornton and I have discussed that
3:07:38 coming up with a
3:07:39 position where they could drive the bus and work in the
3:07:43 cafeteria right and at
3:07:44 listen I’ve worked in it’s not ideal but I’ve worked in a
3:07:47 statement a state where
3:07:49 teachers a friend of mine’s band director in Oklahoma for years
3:07:52 and years
3:07:52 and years and he drove a bus drop his kids off left parked the
3:07:57 bus went and
3:07:58 taught band all day it’s a long day and then drove kids home it’s
3:08:02 not ideal I
3:08:02 don’t know if in the state of Florida if we can do that or if
3:08:05 anybody would be
3:08:05 interested the teachers teach seven out of seven classes when I
3:08:09 was when I was a
3:08:09 teacher you know that I mean I mean look you might find somebody
3:08:12 that says I mean
3:08:13 I I taught classes then I went out right out to the lacrosse
3:08:16 field or the
3:08:17 football field coached and then I literally drove to the night
3:08:20 school so
3:08:21 like there are people out there for teachers to drive a bus oh
3:08:31 too full-time
3:08:32 yeah yeah yeah it’s not full-time it’d just be a stipend and
3:08:35 that would be an
3:08:36 interesting contract between the BFT contract and contract you
3:08:39 need to be
3:08:39 working under both so I was gonna I mean someone can correct me
3:08:44 if I’m wrong here
3:08:44 but just from my own experience my dad worked as nighttime
3:08:50 security for
3:08:51 adult ed but he wasn’t allowed to take a part-time job somewhere
3:08:55 else because of
3:08:56 because of the potential of like overtime and stuff there’s
3:08:59 weird
3:08:59 conflicts there so I’d be a full-time teacher I have a feeling
3:09:02 there’s gonna
3:09:02 be a weird conflict we can look at it we’re allowed to take
3:09:06 other jobs so all
3:09:07 right um we all good I feel like this was an update and you guys
3:09:16 are on it and
3:09:16 appreciate it I think you’ve gotten some ideas from the board of
3:09:19 yes you know
3:09:20 what we’re like I don’t think we necessarily have to give them
3:09:23 go go
3:09:23 there for and do it just go there for and keep going sir we
3:09:27 thank you and let
3:09:28 me tell you this group is and the folks who are not here today
3:09:31 and our project
3:09:32 manager who’s sitting back there they are bringing together the
3:09:37 same and we’ll
3:09:37 have it done for you right quick and where it’s going to be
3:09:40 interrelated I
3:09:41 won’t tell you what we charge for but for this special
3:09:45 consulting experience
3:09:46 okay thank you guys so much thank you everybody um we’re gonna
3:09:54 move into these
3:09:55 next three things they’re just requests that I put down I needed
3:09:58 to get board
3:09:59 majority to have staff work on it bring it back for larger
3:10:02 discussion and then
3:10:03 the other thing that we have is we moved the zero zero zeros off
3:10:07 if you guys look
3:10:08 at it but then there’s dr. Schiller’s student conduct and safety
3:10:11 and security
3:10:12 which is a big big opportunity I was wondering if we could get
3:10:15 through these
3:10:16 three break and then move the student safety to two tonight
3:10:22 right is that okay
3:10:23 that way you guys have your mental and food out of what’s left
3:10:30 student conduct
3:10:31 safety is the most important I feel like and urgent so I mean is
3:10:36 that I don’t
3:10:37 know if we need to do it tonight I mean dr. Schiller do you have
3:10:39 our preference
3:10:40 between do we go ahead and do it now between now and 4 30 or we
3:10:42 have about
3:10:43 five minutes worth of real quicks and then I could give you an
3:10:46 overview of
3:10:47 where it is so that you know where we go with it or where you go
3:10:50 with it I don’t
3:10:51 think the five minutes of real quick it’s gonna be five minutes
3:10:54 I don’t think
3:10:55 that we can get through this in 30 minutes and I think we’ll be
3:10:58 getting
3:10:58 into our hour I think we move it to the tonight to do a really
3:11:01 good job that’s
3:11:02 your that’s your preference all right um so just so you guys
3:11:07 know the next
3:11:08 topics the parental involvement in schools the item up for
3:11:11 discussion is
3:11:12 related to barriers in which eating with students and lunch and
3:11:14 there are others
3:11:15 that are implemented during kovat actually were implemented and
3:11:19 are still
3:11:20 around okay so like this one along with the kovat policies are
3:11:23 kind of the same
3:11:24 thing but I kind of segmented them because I wanted to discuss
3:11:27 them two
3:11:27 separate the idea over the next three items is just getting
3:11:31 bored majority
3:11:32 that we would like staff to bring us something back and then
3:11:35 discuss it on
3:11:36 the seventh but here’s what it is right now if you try to go to
3:11:39 eat lunch with
3:11:40 your kid at school there’s a host in a variety of barriers that
3:11:44 are inside
3:11:44 there there’s other barriers that are big between volunteering
3:11:47 and everything
3:11:48 else that weren’t there prior to kovat so my idea was just to
3:11:52 ask staff to go
3:11:53 identify those barriers bring them back so that we can then take
3:11:56 a look at it as
3:11:57 a board and then decide what we want to do whether we want to
3:12:00 keep the parental
3:12:01 non lunch and all that stuff so if I can just get a majority to
3:12:06 move forward with
3:12:07 it discussion would be at the next meeting but just hearing what
3:12:09 they are
3:12:10 and deciding on is what I was looking to do today that’s the
3:12:13 action item so
3:12:15 clarification please as I understand what you’re saying is that
3:12:18 should the
3:12:19 board wish to go in the direction as you’re recommending that’s
3:12:23 it that we
3:12:23 would as staff identify the barriers so that and bring it back
3:12:27 to the board for
3:12:28 discussion at the seventh because I think there’s going to be
3:12:31 some that we
3:12:32 don’t even know about that I don’t know about and it’s not
3:12:34 appropriate for me to
3:12:35 say we should okay is this or this should thank you for
3:12:38 clarification yep is
3:12:40 everybody wish to talk about it or is there a majority miss
3:12:43 Jenkins yeah just
3:12:45 point of clarification I’m fine with them going through and
3:12:49 finding barriers
3:12:50 and identifying them for us but this wasn’t because of kovat
3:12:53 this was because
3:12:53 of Marjory Stoneman Douglas what happened was when kovat came
3:12:57 and it
3:12:58 naturally shut down the process we identified schools that weren’t
3:13:01 necessarily following the process after Marjory Stoneman Douglas
3:13:04 and so there
3:13:05 was a miscommunication in communities where parents felt like
3:13:08 all of a sudden
3:13:09 you’re shutting me out because of kovat but reality was well
3:13:12 they’re kind of
3:13:13 bending and breaking the rules a little bit letting parents onto
3:13:15 their small
3:13:15 community campuses when they shouldn’t have been so I don’t
3:13:18 think there’s
3:13:19 anything wrong with us identifying these barriers so we can make
3:13:22 sure that all of
3:13:22 our schools are following that same process but when we rolled
3:13:26 back from
3:13:26 kovat that’s when some of our schools realized they weren’t
3:13:31 necessarily doing
3:13:31 the right thing in the first place okay we’re good everybody
3:13:36 move forward bring
3:13:37 it back okay and then next topic is kovat policies kind of the
3:13:41 same thing
3:13:41 dr. Schiller has inside of your board documents some items that
3:13:45 he had
3:13:45 identified that are kind of lingering out the idea is is hey dr.
3:13:50 Schiller can
3:13:51 you and staff identify any kind of kovat related items bring
3:13:55 them back for either
3:13:56 approval or discontinuance is that good for everybody
3:14:04 we’re good yeah all right I mentioned last time to include the
3:14:10 facial covering
3:14:12 policy yeah there’s there’s those and then there’s just there’s
3:14:15 just a lot of
3:14:15 them right like there’s and there’s stuff that’s just still
3:14:18 lingering around
3:14:19 through policies procedures we just need to kind of take a look
3:14:22 at it that’s all
3:14:23 the seven yes sir and then the next topic is ESF sub volunteer
3:14:29 in schools
3:14:30 what I what I had mentioned was is I would like to try to get a
3:14:35 system many
3:14:36 people currently go and volunteer their time at the school
3:14:40 district we have a
3:14:41 lot of directors that are doing those but one of the issues that
3:14:45 we have is
3:14:45 is that and we have resource teachers that go in and they work
3:14:48 with some of
3:14:49 the teachers with that said there is something about going in
3:14:53 and taking a
3:14:54 day and saying I am here to the majority of the other
3:14:57 individuals that are in
3:14:58 here secretaries individuals plus we have a very big drop inside
3:15:04 of our
3:15:05 schools for instance many of our substitutes and title ones many
3:15:08 of our
3:15:09 volunteers and title ones don’t exist you may already know that
3:15:12 our PTOs in
3:15:13 our title one schools are usually the teacher because they don’t
3:15:16 have parents
3:15:17 right the volunteers that are inside of our schools are there’s
3:15:21 in some of our
3:15:22 title ones they’re just not there now there are good cases but
3:15:24 in some others
3:15:25 and non title ones are the same way so the idea is to fold we
3:15:29 get people to
3:15:30 start being a part of a school once possibly twice a year and
3:15:35 then we also
3:15:37 connect the workforce into the school we help out a little bit
3:15:42 and then also we
3:15:43 kind of start tying a connection that I think sometimes is lost
3:15:45 so my thought
3:15:46 process was because I don’t know what that looks like like I’m
3:15:49 like hey I’d
3:15:50 like to try to do this and then have some sort of a form that
3:15:53 they fill out
3:15:53 so that we can talk about good stuff but I don’t know the
3:15:56 specifics I know miss
3:15:58 Campbell has a very strong opinion about it but I thought today
3:16:02 just let’s
3:16:03 identify what it looks like and then come back and then I had
3:16:06 something else
3:16:06 dr. Schill I thought mr. Susan I’ve asked staff and they have
3:16:13 gathered a
3:16:14 preliminary list of hours and the number of people who are here
3:16:19 in these areas
3:16:20 and it’s a remarkable number of hours and days that they’re
3:16:25 either volunteering
3:16:26 or already substituting and not part of their job description if
3:16:31 I may I know
3:16:31 time is short if we can send that to you perhaps tomorrow so
3:16:35 that you have a
3:16:36 frame of reference of the data but I was very impressed at that
3:16:39 point I I can’t I
3:16:41 tell you hats off to all the individuals that do it’s it’s
3:16:44 pretty amazing I think
3:16:46 that those would be the people that would not even has it to
3:16:48 have to fill
3:16:49 out a form they’d already have the film filled out for him
3:16:51 filled out it’s more
3:16:53 about the other individuals and giving them an opportunity but I
3:16:55 think we do
3:16:55 need to honor them I think the other thing dr. Schiller that we
3:16:58 would like is
3:16:59 is you know just sort of a all hands on deck here with the last
3:17:03 couple of years
3:17:04 right or the last couple of months so what we have is is the
3:17:08 need in our
3:17:10 schools for retention recruitment volunteers academics all of
3:17:14 that so what
3:17:15 I would like to do is is give you the opportunity to evaluate
3:17:19 possibly looking
3:17:20 at sending some of our staff that are currently in our
3:17:22 headquartered buildings
3:17:23 into the schools to cover some of the vacancies for substitutes
3:17:26 if that’s okay
3:17:30 we’re already doing that we already have been doing that we had
3:17:34 some staff
3:17:34 members at the district who went and helped out for months at
3:17:37 certain schools
3:17:38 where there are major vacancies I have a strong opinion about
3:17:42 this too I think it
3:17:44 is just another moment in which we kind of degrade the
3:17:53 profession of educators
3:17:55 when we just assume someone can jump in and do their job there
3:17:58 are plenty of
3:17:59 people up at this district that love what they do and they love
3:18:01 that they do
3:18:02 it for kids but they don’t want to work with kids or they aren’t
3:18:06 qualified to
3:18:06 work with kids and that’s okay that they acknowledge that we can’t
3:18:10 force people
3:18:11 to go support those schools if they’re they’re not prepared to
3:18:15 do it but I
3:18:16 think I think you need to take a minute to look over how the
3:18:19 staff has district
3:18:21 has already been supporting our schools because it is beyond
3:18:24 impressive by how
3:18:26 much they’ve been doing thank you I’m not taking away the work I’m
3:18:33 not saying
3:18:33 that they should have to be substitutes go ahead go ahead yeah
3:18:40 so I’m gonna
3:18:42 bring back my illustration I hope you looked at that last time
3:18:45 about the
3:18:46 carrot and the stick right there is that I talked about last
3:18:50 time am I making
3:18:51 people hungry sorry there’s a carrot way in a stick way and I
3:18:55 think we need to be
3:18:56 very careful in how we do this because what I don’t what I don’t
3:19:00 think you’re
3:19:00 intending to say is that we’re now going to put a mandate on all
3:19:04 the staff who
3:19:05 work in this building because that’s very much a stick that we’re
3:19:09 gonna beat
3:19:09 people with who I asked dr. Green asked for if we could get you
3:19:13 know data on how
3:19:15 many vacancies are in this building this building where we have
3:19:18 people who yes
3:19:18 our instructor former you know classroom teachers who are now
3:19:21 instructional
3:19:22 coaches and and support in that way or their curriculum experts
3:19:27 you know all
3:19:28 the different titles that they have and directors and assistant
3:19:31 directors and
3:19:31 all of that but we also have people who are scheduling
3:19:34 maintenance and they’re
3:19:35 running payroll and they have they would have going into our
3:19:39 schools even to just
3:19:40 sub one day there they would not have as much training as we
3:19:43 give ourselves we
3:19:44 give ourselves and it may not be the most exciting thing but
3:19:46 before someone
3:19:47 goes into sub in our school unless they have an education degree
3:19:50 they have to do
3:19:51 I can’t remember how many hours but it has several you know
3:19:54 hours of online
3:19:55 video training that they have to go through we’re talking about
3:19:57 putting
3:19:57 people in a classroom who did not take this job to work with
3:20:01 kids some people
3:20:02 some of them yes some of them didn’t they got it they’re they’re
3:20:05 excellent
3:20:05 accountants they’re excellent maintenance people but we’re
3:20:08 saying that
3:20:08 if they work in in this building they have to work in a school
3:20:11 at the carrot
3:20:13 way and I understand the connection I believe the connection can
3:20:16 be important
3:20:17 but the carrot way of doing this would be and I would be
3:20:21 offering an incentive
3:20:22 hey we want you to have the opportunity you even said mr. still
3:20:26 a while ago
3:20:26 giving them the opportunity I like that phrase giving
3:20:29 opportunities so that once
3:20:30 a year potentially twice if you want to go and and make that
3:20:35 personal connection
3:20:36 with a school maybe a school close by that we give them you know
3:20:39 to fill in as
3:20:40 a sub or to go jump in in the cafeteria for a day or whatever do
3:20:45 morning duty
3:20:46 afternoon duty we we can find a way of doing incentives if it’s
3:20:50 subbing we’re
3:20:51 saving money if we have somebody from up here going in and subbing
3:20:55 we could give
3:20:56 them a you know a $50 one-time bonus of some kind you know just
3:21:01 throwing ideas
3:21:02 out there and we still are saving money but it’s but if there’s
3:21:05 some kind of
3:21:05 incentive to do that as well as the connection I am going to
3:21:10 continue to
3:21:11 feel very strongly about issuing a mandate because of all those
3:21:14 reasons but
3:21:15 there’s another reason I just wanted just as focus and it’s
3:21:18 although I
3:21:19 understand we’re moving the zero zero zeros to a later date and
3:21:22 I definitely
3:21:22 agree with that but there was there was one policy that as we’re
3:21:25 going through
3:21:25 just help focus me back on that and that is zero one two three
3:21:30 and it says in
3:21:31 there focus the board action on policy making goal setting
3:21:36 planning and
3:21:37 evaluation and insist on regular and partial evaluation of staff
3:21:41 but that
3:21:41 when we start talking about this what we’re talking about right
3:21:45 now we are
3:21:45 talking about operations we’re talking about the job of the CEO
3:21:48 and I
3:21:49 understand that there are some times when the board may want to
3:21:52 step in and
3:21:52 give direction very specific direction to the CEO but those
3:21:56 cases we better
3:21:57 have a really good reason before we take those reins from the
3:22:01 CEO of this district
3:22:02 onto the board to tell him how to do the job of filling those
3:22:05 holes especially
3:22:06 what’s going to impact a lot of people and I’m just also just
3:22:09 gonna guess and
3:22:10 then maybe I may be wrong I’m gonna guess that because some of
3:22:14 the people in
3:22:15 this building are part of different bargaining units some part
3:22:18 of BFT and
3:22:19 some part of 1010 that part of that may have to come to
3:22:22 negotiations we may have
3:22:24 to come to negotiations before we can tell people who work in
3:22:26 this building oh
3:22:27 and you have to work one or two days a year subbing in a school
3:22:33 so I again that
3:22:34 again is a stick and we talk about morale morale is low and
3:22:38 making people
3:22:40 do things that they didn’t sign up for her whatever good reasons
3:22:43 we may have
3:22:44 that is morale busting right there and I’m not willing to step
3:22:47 into another
3:22:48 morale busting situation so I think we need to tread very
3:22:53 lightly and be very
3:22:54 careful they’re creating an opportunity sure creating even an
3:22:58 incentive love
3:23:00 that letting people at this building have the opportunity to
3:23:03 step into our
3:23:04 schools and love on our kids and and remind them of why we’re
3:23:08 doing what
3:23:09 we’re doing love that mandating no never so it wasn’t clear
3:23:16 before hopefully
3:23:17 clear now let me I would like to respond to some of them it’s an
3:23:24 absolutely that
3:23:24 it could be a policy we we have policy making we could put it
3:23:28 into policy and
3:23:29 we could say here’s what we would like because maybe I said it
3:23:32 wrong and I keep
3:23:33 trying to say it it’s not all substituting so if you have
3:23:36 somebody
3:23:36 that’s running payroll they work alongside the accountant at the
3:23:39 school
3:23:39 if you have somebody that’s in ESC then they work along the side
3:23:43 of the blast
3:23:43 program they get their first-hand account of what’s happening
3:23:47 inside of
3:23:48 the schools that’s my point I apologize about it sounding one of
3:23:52 the things that
3:23:53 you have and one of the leadership qualities that I’ve had even
3:23:57 as a boss
3:23:58 of other individuals and I’ve always loved in leadership is
3:24:01 somebody that
3:24:02 gets in and understands the workflow of the people that they
3:24:05 represent and this
3:24:06 gives them that opportunity that if there’s an individual that’s
3:24:09 working out
3:24:10 there in the district that they’re not just somebody that shows
3:24:12 up and talks to
3:24:13 80 of them but actually once a year sits with them and walks
3:24:16 through the process
3:24:17 I think that is there I can understand the policy the morale
3:24:21 being low this
3:24:22 isn’t about that this is about having them understand the boots
3:24:26 on the ground
3:24:26 many times we do things from this district and other places
3:24:30 around the
3:24:30 county and there’s one of the biggest things is if they only
3:24:34 understood what I
3:24:35 do on a regular basis they would not be passing this so I think
3:24:38 it’s an
3:24:39 inhibitor as far as or it helps them understand what the people
3:24:43 that they’re
3:24:44 affecting with their jobs and I would consider us we’ve gone and
3:24:47 subbed and
3:24:48 stuff like that but I wanted to say I didn’t I didn’t want I
3:24:51 didn’t want I
3:24:52 didn’t want everybody to think this is about substituting this
3:24:55 is more about
3:24:55 working with the people that you serve or you work for because I
3:24:59 feel sometimes
3:25:00 the roles get reversed right sometimes the district or whoever
3:25:05 it is gets
3:25:05 blamed that they’re not representing the people and we should be
3:25:09 serving them
3:25:10 dr. Blackburn one of his greatest statements he ever said was we
3:25:12 are here
3:25:13 to serve the teachers serve the bus drivers serve them and this
3:25:17 is an
3:25:17 opportunity to do so so I wanted to say that and I think
3:25:21 bargaining units that’s
3:25:23 why I was saying like there’s no way that I can say here’s what
3:25:26 we need to do
3:25:27 is just said hey conceptually go see it you have a lot of people
3:25:30 that are
3:25:30 already doing it let’s offer it to the other people let’s see
3:25:33 what it looks
3:25:33 like bring it back that’s it sound good is there anybody that
3:25:38 opposes us doing
3:25:39 this I would say lead by example I don’t want to hit how many
3:25:48 times I’ve
3:25:48 supported a classroom and substitute in a classroom just this
3:25:51 year alone so I
3:25:52 think for us appear to make these statements when some of us may
3:25:56 not have
3:25:57 necessarily done that leave by example first sure and this would
3:26:02 have to be a
3:26:03 negotiated but if it if somehow we wanted to offer where you get
3:26:08 a you know
3:26:09 a paid day off to leave this building and go support our school
3:26:13 voluntarily I
3:26:14 don’t think there’s anything wrong with that creates a sense of
3:26:17 community but
3:26:19 from day one the conversation was was about mandating and
3:26:21 requiring our staff
3:26:23 so let’s let’s be clear about that I’ve had that conversation as
3:26:27 well as well in
3:26:28 the past about even like our teachers and our support staff you
3:26:31 know allowing
3:26:32 again it has to get negotiated but having a conversation about
3:26:35 possibly
3:26:36 allowing them one free day to go to their kids school and
3:26:38 participate in an
3:26:39 event or something creating that culture and sense of community
3:26:43 and supporting
3:26:44 each other but I think I’ve made it clear I stand with miss
3:26:47 Campbell on this
3:26:48 one okay so we’re all good with dr. Schiller bringing it back as
3:26:53 an idea
3:26:54 well if I can speak on this a little bit is more than just
3:26:59 substituting a I think
3:27:01 we can give dr. Schiller direction waiting to be in policy to
3:27:06 look at the
3:27:07 staff at the central office to see if we have anybody it’s
3:27:11 certified as maybe as
3:27:12 a resource teacher or content specialist if we have vacancies in
3:27:15 the schools can
3:27:16 he not reassign those individuals for classroom those 58 days
3:27:24 are people who
3:27:26 we didn’t have an elementary social studies content specialist
3:27:30 for the first
3:27:31 part of the year because that person went to Saturn and taught a
3:27:34 third grade
3:27:35 class for months and it’s just now back so all the work that is
3:27:38 content
3:27:39 specialist was supposed to do it wasn’t being done because she
3:27:42 was teaching in
3:27:42 the classroom and she wasn’t the only one you can see the months
3:27:45 fit from 58
3:27:45 days up to five months on that reactor we still but I think your
3:27:49 point is is
3:27:50 that we still have those individuals we still have openings at
3:27:53 the schools is
3:27:54 what you’re saying and we have stellar examples of individuals
3:27:58 who are
3:27:59 volunteering there may be an opportunity for others to do the
3:28:03 same or go to work
3:28:04 there or be reassigned up look whatever yeah that’s what you’re
3:28:08 asking exactly
3:28:10 that’s exactly it should be you should obviously with his
3:28:14 experience and the
3:28:14 experience individuals that he has around them not us but then
3:28:19 we should
3:28:20 give them the direction to reassign if need be with discussion
3:28:25 obviously their
3:28:26 content I’m not saying take a bookkeeper here seven teach
3:28:29 accounting and our
3:28:31 substitute a class we don’t need it’s not that we don’t need
3:28:34 substitutes I’m
3:28:35 more interested in putting teachers back in those classrooms
3:28:37 that’s what our
3:28:38 students need so if if that’s and it’s not up to us right now it’s
3:28:42 it should be
3:28:42 dr. Schiller and his expertise to look at top to bottom to see
3:28:46 if he can help our
3:28:48 students in this and do it do it immediately I think it’s
3:28:51 something that
3:28:52 could be quickly done you can talk to dr. Schiller about that or
3:28:56 we can I think
3:28:57 the idea that I had was to help out the schools and say hey here’s
3:29:03 the things
3:29:04 that we can do to help out and and do it in a way that it is
3:29:07 collaborative and
3:29:08 stuff like that so it’s not a stick what I’m hearing you say is
3:29:12 is that you
3:29:13 wanted to try to move forward with an idea that in the event the
3:29:17 last couple
3:29:18 of months or even whatever that is because my concern is is we
3:29:23 need to
3:29:23 start filling the holes to finish out the year and so I’m all
3:29:27 about looking at
3:29:29 those opportunities we already have staff doing that that’s not
3:29:31 an issue I
3:29:32 think I’m okay with that I don’t disagree I mean honestly
3:29:37 everything that
3:29:37 we do needs to be focused around children right we’re we’re in
3:29:40 the
3:29:40 business of children educating children and so I don’t think
3:29:43 that there’s an
3:29:44 issue with creating an opportunity for anyone that’s sitting
3:29:47 here to be able to
3:29:48 go and work in school I can’t see the disadvantage of that
3:29:53 from what we originally had talked about an opportunity versus
3:29:57 we’re saying
3:29:58 everybody has to do it there’s two separate things that is very
3:30:01 very
3:30:01 different create an opportunity having some release time you
3:30:06 know yeah not
3:30:07 it’s great and I said I’m even interested looking at incentives
3:30:10 for
3:30:10 people to do things I don’t know how you do that outside of subbing
3:30:13 because it’s
3:30:14 not necessarily going to be a cost savings but we you know
3:30:16 create those
3:30:17 opportunities create opportunities for staff to be from here to
3:30:20 be released to
3:30:20 go mentor a kid in the school you know I I’m interested in that
3:30:24 but I I want to
3:30:26 go back to the point that mr. Trent made a little while ago I
3:30:30 think it would
3:30:31 probably be good if for for any of us who aren’t aware to go and
3:30:36 sit down and
3:30:38 you could meet with either of the leading and learning assistant
3:30:40 superintendents and find out what everybody does because there
3:30:44 is a
3:30:45 misconception you know I’ve heard it the cubicle farm and all
3:30:48 that stuff but some
3:30:49 of these people who are content specials specialists and these
3:30:53 resource teachers
3:30:54 we’ve got a boatload we have a vocal of vacancies we also have a
3:30:58 boatload of
3:30:58 brand spanking new teachers and the content specialists and the
3:31:02 resource
3:31:02 teachers are the ones primarily who are going out and support
3:31:05 they’re supporting
3:31:06 all so if you’re the science resource teacher you’re supporting
3:31:10 all of the
3:31:10 elementary science or the secondary science teachers we’re all
3:31:13 you’re
3:31:13 supporting them but you’re particularly supporting the brand new
3:31:17 ones who need
3:31:19 that more hands-on and we in addition to needing you know
3:31:23 teachers in classrooms
3:31:25 we also need support for the brand new teachers in the
3:31:28 classrooms in those
3:31:29 content areas so it would be really good before we start talking
3:31:32 about oh it
3:31:34 could be cuz it just sound this may not have been your intent at
3:31:37 all but it kind
3:31:37 of came across as we’ve got people up here here we don’t really
3:31:40 need up here
3:31:41 so let’s put them back in the classroom because the jobs are
3:31:42 doing up here is
3:31:43 not important and I don’t think that’s what you meant but it
3:31:45 absolutely is how
3:31:46 it came across so let’s just be careful but it would be really
3:31:49 good I think it
3:31:50 would be good to take a walk through the departments and find
3:31:52 out well what do
3:31:53 you do what do you do what do you do not in a scary way and when
3:31:55 we need to be
3:31:56 careful when we walk through this building we can be scary not
3:31:59 because the
3:32:00 way we look but because of our positions but it would be good
3:32:02 idea to find out
3:32:03 what I see people laughing what what do people do in this
3:32:07 building because the
3:32:08 perception out there is there’s way too many people in this
3:32:10 building but do we
3:32:11 even know what they do have we been in the print shop have we
3:32:14 been through
3:32:14 payroll do we know how many take people we have doing each job
3:32:17 it would be
3:32:18 really good for us to know that before we start suggesting that
3:32:22 maybe we don’t
3:32:23 need all of them because we’re pretty if you compare us to other
3:32:27 districts we can
3:32:28 be pretty trim I think that that’s I think you bring up a good
3:32:31 point that we
3:32:32 should look at that at the organizational flow of how things are
3:32:34 working or because you were right the conception in the
3:32:37 community is we’re top
3:32:38 heavy I’ve heard it over and over and over again and so is that
3:32:42 something that
3:32:42 dr. Schiller could look at on on how our structure is set up
3:32:46 right now with our
3:32:48 people of the district and can we talk with those departments
3:32:50 Campbell is saying
3:32:51 well honestly his expertise I would rely on because he he’s been
3:32:56 a lot of
3:32:56 districts to know and we’ve already had the conversation about
3:32:59 what our
3:33:00 directors do and what other districts and what we just to follow
3:33:03 up right what
3:33:04 you know he was talking about how in other districts they’re
3:33:07 looking at what
3:33:08 it was like 17 to 1 or whatever but the thing is that’s all they’re
3:33:12 doing right
3:33:13 all they are doing so and our directors have may only have nine
3:33:16 schools but
3:33:17 they’re also doing major departments so you know I mean he has a
3:33:22 level of
3:33:22 expertise and maybe his level of expertise can help us to say
3:33:25 hey you
3:33:25 know what actually would you guys favor of him looking at that I
3:33:30 think that we
3:33:30 should use his expertise while he’s here and his knowledge I
3:33:33 think looking at it
3:33:34 making recommendation moving into that direction as far as twofold
3:33:39 one what is
3:33:40 the organization of what we have here at the headquarters and
3:33:43 then two if we can
3:33:44 have a school focused agenda to where if there’s individuals
3:33:48 that can put in all
3:33:49 hands on deck in the next couple of months and attend maybe some
3:33:52 of the
3:33:52 schools to support like they have been make those
3:33:55 recommendations that’s all
3:33:56 absolutely okay I need to jump in here we beyond took a train
3:34:00 off a track well
3:34:02 miss Campbell said was I suggest you walk through this building
3:34:05 and learn
3:34:06 what the people here do that’s what she said we hired an interim
3:34:10 superintendent
3:34:11 to do the job of an interim superintendent we didn’t hire him to
3:34:14 do
3:34:14 a consultation of the organizational structure of this
3:34:18 organization in just a
3:34:19 couple of months we’re going to have a full-time superintendent
3:34:22 who can very
3:34:23 well come in here and do whatever he wants to the organizational
3:34:26 structure
3:34:27 itself I think the important part of this conversation is as
3:34:37 miss Campbell
3:34:38 said it was presented and stated multiple times as a mandate and
3:34:41 clearly
3:34:42 that’s not where it is anymore so the important part is that
3:34:45 looking at
3:34:46 options for this to be voluntary what’s best for our kids is to
3:34:50 not just throw
3:34:51 people in front of our kids to fill a spot so just because
3:34:54 somebody is a
3:34:55 certified teacher that now what works up at the district doesn’t
3:34:57 mean they’re the
3:34:58 best person to go back into a classroom and stand in front of
3:35:00 kids it’s not
3:35:01 what’s best for our kids so put the train back on the tracks I
3:35:11 was if but if
3:35:13 we are to look at someone to replace the substitutes that are in
3:35:17 those classrooms
3:35:19 on a daily basis it would be a certified teacher that is already
3:35:23 in our district
3:35:24 and I would err on the side of that professional teacher to be
3:35:28 in that
3:35:29 classroom rather than a substitute so all we were asking is for
3:35:32 our interim
3:35:34 superintendent and his years of experience to possibly now look
3:35:38 at you
3:35:39 know our organization it was brought up to see if we can run
3:35:44 this more
3:35:45 efficiently and effectively while you were here for the new
3:35:48 person he or she
3:35:49 that’s going to be coming in there’s nothing there’s nothing out
3:35:54 of the
3:35:54 ordinary superintendent in your position would be doing so we
3:35:59 also need to look
3:36:00 at you know the evaluation system of our you know how is that
3:36:04 going to work with
3:36:05 our directors and our our staff is is that are we just going to
3:36:09 ask our new
3:36:10 person that’s coming in to start doing evaluations you know or
3:36:16 recommendations
3:36:17 for assignment for the next year or do we ask or give direction
3:36:22 to our
3:36:23 superintendent to start working on that now so maybe we can have
3:36:27 some
3:36:27 recommendations for appointment by the time his contract is done
3:36:32 here I would
3:36:33 like to maybe if this is the time let’s let’s have him working
3:36:38 on that I mean I
3:36:43 my thing is is that our staff needs evaluations right they need
3:36:47 them like in
3:36:48 the superintendent who comes in and has not spent the time here
3:36:51 wouldn’t be able
3:36:52 to do them so somebody needs to be able to do those so I don’t
3:36:55 have a problem
3:36:56 with allowing dr. Schiller to move forward with evaluations of
3:37:00 staff it’s
3:37:03 done about now to the end of the year and you don’t really right
3:37:08 because the
3:37:08 reappointment happens like in May for a June lie one I don’t
3:37:13 think that there’s
3:37:13 any question about like the reappointment process I think what
3:37:16 it is
3:37:16 is that there just needs to be some evaluations done well he’ll
3:37:23 be able to
3:37:24 review the evaluations is what it is good again please review
3:37:29 the memo that
3:37:30 we sent out that detailed the protocols and the timelines that
3:37:34 have been
3:37:35 established in this district that aligned with state statutes
3:37:38 and what I
3:37:40 had asked is the clarity if you wish for me since I’ve been here
3:37:45 to continue
3:37:46 that process and be responsible for those evaluations so that is
3:37:51 completed
3:37:51 as it has been in the past using the state and the local
3:37:55 protocols and and
3:37:57 whatever and but what I’d asked was a clarity I’d be you know I
3:38:01 see it as part
3:38:03 of my job if so directed if you prefer the new person to come in
3:38:07 you’re not
3:38:08 going to hit the timelines for a brand new person walking in
3:38:11 here that the
3:38:11 state have prescribed for final decisions to be made about reappointments
3:38:17 and I’m just seeking as I didn’t memo the clarity because it’s
3:38:23 coincident that
3:38:23 the deadline that this district has used on a timeline is that
3:38:27 in order to get
3:38:29 all the reappointment letters completed get all the evaluations
3:38:33 done all the
3:38:34 notifications whatever that May 9th is coincident with the date
3:38:40 of the
3:38:41 appointment of your permanent superintendent okay and what I’m
3:38:46 saying
3:38:46 is for the goodness of our staff for what we need to do is that
3:38:54 we must do
3:38:55 the evaluation as they must as our principals must evaluate the
3:39:00 teachers
3:39:00 and it goes right down the line okay and that our our cabinet
3:39:06 evaluate their
3:39:07 their directors then it’s left to your interim superintendent to
3:39:14 evaluate the
3:39:15 cabinet members and I just want to make sure the board
3:39:19 understands that there is
3:39:21 a process there are statutory language and I need that direction
3:39:25 the staff
3:39:26 needs that clarity then the board will need to decide is it that
3:39:32 I sitting here
3:39:34 for a period of months then have the obligation burden that the
3:39:38 board wants
3:39:39 to make the recommendations to the board for reappointments in
3:39:44 the areas of all
3:39:45 staff virtually based on the evaluation processes okay which
3:39:52 would happen
3:39:52 according to our protocols and timelines have been long
3:39:55 established on May 9th or
3:39:57 do you wish to defer that to in the assumption that you appoint
3:40:03 someone and
3:40:04 that person becomes operational in time to do it and the furthest
3:40:09 date out they
3:40:11 has to be done is by the end of June and so it’s just a matter
3:40:16 of your timing and
3:40:17 to whom you wish to default the responsibility yeah I think
3:40:24 doing the
3:40:25 evaluations I think reappointments based on the evaluations can
3:40:29 be done by the
3:40:30 interim or the new superintendent I don’t know I mean I don’t
3:40:38 know I mean
3:40:38 like I wouldn’t it be recommendation anyway like a
3:40:41 recommendation from dr.
3:40:42 shot I don’t think assigning a reappointment or not wouldn’t be
3:40:48 something that dr. Schiller he should make the recommendations
3:40:51 based on the
3:40:52 evaluations and write the new superintendent that comes in make
3:40:55 their
3:40:55 own choices that’s what the assumption that you have an
3:40:58 operational
3:40:59 superintendent we talked about our timeline is negotiable for
3:41:11 you know when
3:41:12 they would be here we may not have some until beginning of
3:41:15 August we talked
3:41:16 about other school districts not named until June or even if
3:41:18 they’re in the
3:41:18 state of Florida you know fiscal year doesn’t end till the end
3:41:22 of June we
3:41:24 don’t need to leave people hanging we’ve talked about again and
3:41:27 again and again
3:41:27 instability there needs to be we need people need to know for
3:41:31 sure I’m here
3:41:32 coming back you know and allow and go ahead and get this done
3:41:37 because we may
3:41:38 not have you know if dr. Schiller’s contract is that May 31st at
3:41:42 the at the
3:41:42 most we might and if he’s gone and we don’t it’s not extended
3:41:46 then we might
3:41:47 have an acting but that’s a lot of pressure to put on an acting
3:41:51 I think we
3:41:52 just need to move the process that way we normally do at that
3:41:56 that may meeting
3:41:57 and and just get it done and that way the person coming in knows
3:42:00 they’ve got a
3:42:01 competent cabinet that’s got you know you know highly effective
3:42:07 evaluations
3:42:07 all the time they’re ready to go and ready to support him and we
3:42:11 have
3:42:11 vacancies we’ve got wiggle room every superintendent who’s come
3:42:14 in here has
3:42:15 made changes and adjusted people either you know immediately in
3:42:18 case you know
3:42:19 like when I first got on the board dr. Thady moved from HR and
3:42:23 then to COO and
3:42:25 then to announce you use me student services to COO and then HR
3:42:29 because
3:42:29 that’s what the superintendent wanted to move around they
3:42:31 understand there’s
3:42:32 gonna potentially be some movement and like so we’ve already
3:42:35 talked about today
3:42:35 we have some interim positions that need to be filled anyway so
3:42:38 I think we just
3:42:40 need to move it along so that whoever comes in knows they’ve got
3:42:43 a team ready
3:42:43 to go on the ground we’re not questioning who’s going to be here
3:42:46 is
3:42:47 not going to be here but we need to go ahead and move forward
3:42:49 with it
3:42:52 I guess you got your direction I just to clarify I believe I
3:43:01 heard I’m trying to
3:43:03 take copious notes here so we know and we have a record and I’m
3:43:05 sure that’s
3:43:06 being done in the minutes but our process will go forward
3:43:11 according to the
3:43:13 protocols and the timelines and that I as your interim
3:43:17 superintendent till May
3:43:19 31 will have for you the completed or I will have completed not
3:43:26 for you but I
3:43:27 will have completed and on file the evals for those who report
3:43:34 to the
3:43:34 interim superintendent the cabinet and that’ll be completed as
3:43:40 customarily done
3:43:41 filed and so forth and that I am NOT to do the reappointments
3:43:46 but to do
3:43:48 recommendations I need clarity on that because my opinion is we
3:43:55 go ahead and do
3:43:56 the reappointments according to the timeline that we usually do
3:43:59 we need to
3:43:59 have the reappointments done because we may not have a new
3:44:02 superintendent in it
3:44:03 in a good time frame and the one coming in you know you know
3:44:07 needs to have it
3:44:09 needs to have a team assembled and ready to go even if that you
3:44:14 know it’s we’ve
3:44:15 obviously we have some interim son I hope stick around a little
3:44:21 bit longer
3:44:21 maybe than May 31st just in case but we I think we need to go
3:44:25 ahead and move
3:44:26 forward the reappointment process as we usually do what about
3:44:33 what about if the
3:44:34 incoming superintendent we assign him on May 9th he wants the
3:44:40 opportunity to
3:44:42 call them back he would be able to write to what say there’s an
3:44:48 issue yeah I saw
3:44:49 about him because I’m saying like this is I still think that the
3:44:54 incoming
3:44:54 superintendent should have the option for whatever he wants
3:44:58 right as long as
3:44:59 when he gets here he’s able to make a decision or she make a
3:45:03 decision based on
3:45:04 what they would like right so if you were in the process of
3:45:07 reappointing and
3:45:08 not reappointing and all that stuff they can still come back if
3:45:12 they like
3:45:12 somebody and say I would like to retain this person does that
3:45:16 make sense to you
3:45:17 okay are you saying that if you are you saying that if you
3:45:22 recommend somebody to
3:45:24 not be reappointed that the person that we bring in could say oh
3:45:27 no I really do
3:45:28 want them okay well I mean we we move people around all the time
3:45:32 even in the
3:45:33 middle so I think you know there’s that’s like I said everything
3:45:36 we have
3:45:37 positions it’s understood I think our cabinets intelligent
3:45:39 understands that
3:45:40 some moving around may happen just as it has happened in the
3:45:42 last four years but
3:45:43 like I said for stability sake we need to have the appointment
3:45:46 process and not
3:45:47 leave people hanging wondering you know what’s gonna happen
3:45:50 right okay that’s
3:45:52 what we’re that’s what we’re trying to get at is that in
3:45:55 fairness to all staff
3:45:56 that they know that the process is going forward and there’s a
3:46:02 date by which
3:46:03 that’s been established where and this is where I need clarity
3:46:08 where the
3:46:08 reappointment recommendations to the board would be going
3:46:13 forward and and
3:46:15 those are recommendations what the board does with that on May 9th
3:46:19 is up to the
3:46:21 board dependent upon if you’ve made an appointment and the
3:46:25 operational date of
3:46:26 the person beginning because if it’s left open again you have
3:46:33 until and help
3:46:35 me here dr. Green you have until June 30th by state statute but
3:46:39 that is not
3:46:40 necessarily the protocol that’s been followed here because of
3:46:44 the process so
3:46:47 maybe you can mold this over a little bit more now I think you
3:46:51 got we all are
3:46:52 saying I’ve won you got direction okay very good yeah thank you
3:47:03 okay with that
3:47:05 we with that with no other discussion I’ll be back at 530
3:47:17 you