Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
4:00 [ Silence ]
4:30 [ Music ]
4:48 » Good morning.
4:49 The December 17, 2024 board work session is now in order.
4:53 Paul, roll call please.
4:54 » Mr. Trent?
4:55 » Here.
4:56 » Mr. Susan?
4:57 » Here.
4:58 » Ms. Wright?
4:59 » Here.
5:00 » Mr. Thomas?
5:01 » Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
5:03 » I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
5:09 America and to the republic
5:12 for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with
5:17 liberty and justice for
5:20 all.
5:21 » Dr. Rendell, can you address the board with the items on the
5:24 agenda for today?
5:26 » Thank you, Mr. Chair, we have several items on the agenda
5:28 today, five presentations.
5:30 So, the first one that we’re going to talk about is the proposed
5:33 academic calendar for
5:35 year 25-26.
5:37 And for those members in the audience who may not be familiar,
5:40 there are all kinds of
5:42 state statutes and board policy requirements about the calendar,
5:45 like what day we can start.
5:47 For example, there’s a state statute that says we cannot start
5:49 the academic calendar
5:50 any earlier than August 10th.
5:52 If August 10th happens to fall on a weekend, then it’s the first
5:56 Monday after August 10th,
5:58 that kind of thing.
6:00 So, and everybody thinks it’s always about days, and it’s
6:02 actually about minutes, minutes
6:04 of instruction.
6:05 So, as we go through the presentation about the 25-26 calendar,
6:08 there’s going to be
6:10 some discussion about increasing minutes.
6:12 One of the things that we want to do is be able to see if we can
6:15 increase the number
6:17 of instructional minutes that we have throughout the year so
6:19 that we kind of build hurricane
6:21 days into the calendar so that if we do miss a few days due to a
6:24 hurricane or some other
6:26 kind of natural disaster or something like that, we don’t have
6:29 to add make-up days.
6:31 We can absorb, so to speak, the make-up days in the calendar.
6:35 So, that’s something that, you know, all of us need to start
6:37 approaching the academic
6:39 calendar with a change in mindset that it’s not about days, it’s
6:42 about minutes.
6:43 And so, Mr. Pruitt is going to talk a little bit about some of
6:46 the changes and, you know,
6:48 go through the academic calendars that the committee has worked
6:51 up.
6:52 I don’t know if he’s going to talk about the committee a little
6:54 bit, but again, for
6:55 the audience to know that we don’t just, you know, sit in a room
6:57 and make this calendar
6:59 up.
7:00 There’s a committee with all kinds of stakeholders on it that
7:03 looks at the various requirements
7:05 that we have to meet for the academic calendar and then come up
7:08 with some proposals.
7:10 So, Mr. Raymer, chief of schools, and Mr. Pruitt are going to
7:15 present the proposed academic
7:18 calendars for 25-26.
7:19 Perfect.
7:20 Well, good morning, board, and thank you for the opportunity to
7:22 receive board direction
7:24 on the 25-26 calendar and the tentative 26-27 calendar.
7:29 So, with me today, I have Mr. Pruitt.
7:32 He is our director of leadership development, which is under the
7:34 chief of schools and school
7:36 leadership department.
7:37 So, I’m going to turn it over to Mr. Pruitt.
7:39 He’s going to walk through the committee that was involved, the
7:42 recommendations regarding
7:44 25-26 calendar, and then the tentative 26-27 calendar.
7:48 Good morning, board.
7:50 Good morning.
7:51 Thanks for having me this morning, and I just want to take a few
7:53 minutes to kind of run
7:54 through the calendar committee presentation that we put together
7:57 with our folks here at
7:59 BPS.
8:00 Just a great group of folks that we had from all different parts
8:03 of our district, school
8:05 principals and different folks here with different organizations
8:08 within our district that comprise
8:10 the committee.
8:12 We met October 31st and kind of went through some of the
8:16 calendar parameters, as Dr. Rendell
8:19 shared with us, you know, just the different state statutes,
8:21 state board rules that kind
8:22 of guide our calendar as we move to build those, making sure
8:27 that we have enough hours
8:29 and minutes in the school year.
8:32 As Dr. Rendell said, it’s minutes versus days, you know, we had
8:35 talked about that, 4,050
8:37 minutes per semester for high school credit classes, and of
8:39 course, you know, doubling
8:40 that 8,100 minutes per year for high school credit classes, just
8:44 making sure that we have
8:45 those built into the calendar.
8:47 First day is permitted no sooner than August 10th by state
8:51 legislation, and then, of course,
8:54 you know, consideration for professional development,
8:57 professional learning, workdays, hurricane
8:59 makeup days and graduation days, all of those kind of went into
9:02 the discussion as we built
9:03 the proposed 25-26 school year calendar as well as the 26-27.
9:08 So again, the 4,050 minutes each semester and the current
9:13 tentative that you guys have,
9:15 the manila folder in front of you, first semester that we had
9:19 currently that’s on the website
9:22 for 25-26 had 4,052 minutes for first semester and then second
9:26 semester was 4,159 minutes,
9:29 so it’s–it was roughly 2.2 days of instruction that we had
9:33 built into the calendar for second
9:36 semester.
9:37 So we put the committee together with the idea of trying to
9:41 address the makeup days.
9:43 BFT was part of that and they recognized the need to help with
9:48 the minutes and given us
9:49 more time in the calendar and they agreed to reduce the early
9:54 release days from 75 minutes
9:56 of planning to 60 minutes of planning which in turn put those
9:59 minutes back into the calendar
10:00 which again allowed us to build in some more instructional time
10:04 for those makeup days.
10:06 Those changes allowed for a day first semester and three days
10:09 second semester, you know,
10:11 that we have built in to address any hurricane makeup days,
10:14 graduation, things that would
10:16 take away from the instructional time to make sure that we had
10:19 the time built in.
10:20 So again, the calendars are in front of you with the manila
10:24 folder that I gave you the
10:26 proposed 25-26 along with, you know, some of the recommendations
10:30 that we–that we put
10:31 together.
10:32 You know, part of the recommendations that we have if you go to
10:38 the very back of your
10:40 folder is the hurricane makeup day priority recommendation and
10:44 again I go back to the
10:45 minutes that we have built in to this proposed 25-26 that allows
10:50 us to have some flexibility
10:52 with the timing that we have in the school year in the calendar.
10:56 So looking at, you know, making a priority list of days in the
11:00 event that we had to miss.
11:01 We have one day built in first semester so we wouldn’t have to
11:04 really adjust our calendar
11:05 for 25-26.
11:08 If we had to miss two days, we would push into second semester,
11:10 you know, kind of like
11:11 what we did this year.
11:12 Same thing with three days, we’d push in the second semester.
11:15 So we’d essentially be borrowing the minutes from second
11:17 semester and putting them into
11:19 first semester.
11:20 Beyond that, we start looking at the–if we had to miss a fourth
11:24 day and as we continue
11:26 to build our calendars in future years, if we have the ability
11:29 to add in a professional
11:30 learning day during the second semester, we could use that day
11:34 as a potential hurricane
11:35 day as well.
11:36 So again, not taking or adding anything to the calendar, they’d
11:40 already be built in.
11:42 Days five and six, that’s when we start looking at having to
11:45 take our professional learning
11:47 days that are built in the calendar and any student teacher
11:50 holidays that we had.
11:52 Those would be the days five and day six that we would need, you
11:55 know, to make sure we capture
11:57 enough minutes to meet that minimum state legislation for the 40-50.
12:06 Looking at the current tentative calendar, again in your folder,
12:10 we have the current
12:11 one that’s out on the board website right now.
12:15 We had to make some adjustments to address spring break with
12:20 Eastern Florida.
12:22 So the current proposed–or excuse me, current tentative
12:25 calendar 2526 is currently out there
12:27 with the spring break.
12:28 I believe it’s the 17th of March.
12:31 The Eastern Florida calendar with spring break is the following
12:35 week.
12:36 So the proposed calendar that we have put forward is the
12:39 proposed 2526 that addresses
12:41 the week shift of spring break.
12:46 In addition, as I shared in the presentation with BFT, the early
12:51 release time, the early
12:53 release days, you know, part of the discussion with BFT and
12:55 recognizing the minutes is they
12:57 agreed to take away the first early release Friday of the school
13:00 year and make that a
13:01 regular school day, and then again, reducing the planning time
13:05 from 75 to 60 minutes there
13:07 for the rest of the school year on early release days.
13:09 So by doing so, by doing all of that, taking away that first
13:12 early release Friday, and
13:13 then reducing, that’s where those minutes came in for us to
13:17 build into the calendar.
13:18 So those are the two changes for 2526 is the spring break and
13:22 then the early release time
13:24 and the getting rid of that first one, the first week of school,
13:29 August 15th.
13:31 Any questions on the proposed 2526 calendar?
13:35 So I think it’s important to note that Thanksgiving break, which
13:39 is now the full week, is not
13:41 a part of our makeup plan.
13:43 And I know that that means a lot to the families and to our
13:45 students and staff that they have
13:46 that time with their family and not have to worry about that
13:50 Monday or Tuesday potentially
13:51 being pulled as a makeup day.
13:53 So those are days that we committed to being holiday days and
13:57 off days for students and
13:59 staff.
14:00 I mean, I’ll say a thank you to the board for sure of all the
14:05 hard work, all those names
14:07 that come up there.
14:08 It’s amazing the amount of work that goes into the calendar
14:11 making my very first year
14:12 when I sat down and I saw all the effort that went into this, it’s,
14:16 I mean, it is a lot
14:17 of moving parts.
14:18 It’s, it’s a, it’s a tough job to have, so thank you, Mr. Pero.
14:21 Thank you.
14:22 But board questions for this, Katie would like to be first.
14:27 Just really quickly, I want, I thanked him privately, but I want
14:31 to thank Mr. Colucci
14:32 for his cooperation in these negotiations, because in addition
14:36 to the ability to make
14:38 up hurricane days, this allows instructional minutes and two
14:41 extra minutes a day may not
14:42 seem, per high school class may not seem a whole lot, but over
14:44 the year it does add up.
14:45 And so I appreciate that, the work that he did with HR to
14:49 negotiate that.
14:51 So I’m looking at the priority days and it looks like until we
14:55 get to the four day, five
14:57 day, five day, six day mark, we won’t incur any additional costs
15:01 in the bus drivers, IA’s
15:03 cafeteria staff that we don’t hire on the, and I know, I can’t
15:05 remember what the amount
15:06 is.
15:07 I want to say like $200,000, some, somewhere in that range every
15:10 time we have to bring
15:11 all those staff who wouldn’t be there.
15:13 The teachers are getting paid for that day, but those staff aren’t.
15:15 And so it, it incurs additional costs, because we do pay those
15:18 people on a hurricane day,
15:20 even though they’re not doing their job on that particular day.
15:22 So I appreciate that that gives us a little more wiggle room in
15:26 that without incurring
15:27 additional costs until we get into major days off.
15:31 So thank you.
15:32 All right, I’ll go next.
15:36 Thank you for taking the time to one-on-one meet with each one
15:38 of us and really kind of
15:39 go through the calendar.
15:40 It was, I think most people just think this thing gets thrown
15:42 together and they don’t
15:43 really understand all that goes into building a calendar, and I
15:46 express this on our one-on-one,
15:48 excuse me, the recommendation of adding a couple parents to the
15:51 calendar committee.
15:53 I think that’s a valuable input that we should look to add in
15:56 the future.
15:57 One of the other things I think that would help is a uniform
16:00 bell schedule.
16:01 It’s very complicated when we’re looking at specific schools and
16:03 saying, wait, this school
16:04 has enough minutes.
16:05 That school doesn’t have enough minutes because we’re, based on
16:08 whether it’s primary or secondary,
16:10 I believe it should be uniform.
16:11 That way we can manage it a little easier.
16:14 And I expressed this before, this is not necessarily to you, but
16:17 it would be advantageous for the
16:18 DOE to look at allowing our start date to be August 1st.
16:21 Most of our hurricane makeup days all fall in the first semester,
16:24 so we have the flexibility
16:25 more so in the second semester, but we need them in the first
16:27 semester.
16:28 So if we were able to push that back, that would help
16:31 tremendously.
16:32 And the last thing I’m going to say, which should come as no
16:34 surprise to my fellow board
16:35 members is that I, again, am pushing for this modified calendar
16:40 and I have given this thing
16:42 out every time I get the chance to give it to somebody, I give
16:44 it to somebody to have
16:45 them look at it.
16:46 And it’s quite inspiring to hear people, I mean, as far as our
16:50 educators, our students,
16:51 our families go, oh my gosh, this could be so good for our
16:54 family.
16:55 So thank you for doing the work there on the tentative year
16:57 round calendar, which we’re
16:58 going to call modified calendar.
17:00 But I still want to push forward with really looking at for 25,
17:03 26, sending out a survey
17:05 to our families targeting specifically the Port St. John
17:07 community, because there are
17:09 three elementary schools and there’s a junior senior to ask them
17:13 to put up calendar A being
17:15 our traditional school calendar and calendar B being the
17:18 modified calendar and ask the
17:20 families which calendar would you prefer for your family.
17:23 A very simple survey just so that a family in the community can
17:25 have some input there
17:26 and just targeting those specific students that are enrolled in
17:29 those schools just to
17:31 see what their thoughts are.
17:32 We could expand it further if you want to expand it further
17:33 because I already told you
17:34 guys before I would love this to be a district wide initiative,
17:37 but I understand the taking
17:38 the cautious approach and making sure that everything runs
17:41 smoothly.
17:41 It’s going great at Challenger 7, Challenger 7 also didn’t have
17:43 quite as many makeup days
17:44 that they had to make because one of those hurricanes happened
17:47 during a break period.
17:49 So another advantage to this wonderful calendar.
17:53 But thank you for all your work, I appreciate the one on one and
17:55 all that you’ve done to
17:55 make this calendar happen.
17:57 Thank you.
17:58 Mr. Sousa.
17:59 Yes, thank you so much for taking the time with us.
18:02 I know that you worked with the community, I think you do a
18:05 great job.
18:06 Yes, Ms. Wright, your initiative is very successful over there
18:10 and I support it to expand other
18:13 schools when we’re ready.
18:15 But I do think that everything that was said is pretty much in
18:17 line.
18:18 Thank you, Ms. Campbell for everything that you implicated and
18:20 everything else and we’re
18:21 good.
18:22 Thank you.
18:23 Great.
18:25 You guys, thanks once again.
18:26 I mean, in the one on one, those out there might think this is
18:30 all we see, but we spent
18:32 quality time with you guys to go through this amount of effort.
18:37 Ms. Wright, I thought I saw this somewhere else, but using this
18:40 as your Christmas card
18:41 I should have, you’re right, that would have been a good ploy
18:45 there.
18:46 But some of the suggestions that we hear appears perfect.
18:50 I do believe involving more, getting more input from the parents
18:55 is a good thing.
18:56 Maybe a survey talked about some of the options moving forward.
18:59 I think that’s important, but again, you’ve gone over and beyond.
19:05 So I look forward to getting this approved and moved on.
19:09 Mr. Trent, may I just ask one more thing real fast?
19:11 Yes.
19:12 Board, I know we’re missing one member right now, but do we have
19:14 support or does the board
19:15 have an appetite for serving the families as soon as a 25/26
19:19 calendar year for the Port
19:21 St. John community to be set up on that year round modified
19:25 calendar?
19:26 So send the survey out in January, see what the feedback is,
19:29 bring that back to our board.
19:31 Depending on what that feedback looks like, we further this
19:33 discussion as soon as 25/26.
19:35 Do you want to move all the elementary schools in Port?
19:39 Yeah, the three that are in Port St. John would only be
19:41 additional two and then the
19:42 secondary, but the main first step would be we need to survey
19:44 the families to make sure
19:45 this is something that they would be in support of and then get
19:48 that feedback back.
19:50 And I know it’s going to be very quick timing, but it was very
19:52 quick timing for Challenger
19:53 7 and the district did a phenomenal job.
19:54 Thank you so much for all that were a part of that.
19:57 So board, do you have an appetite for going ahead and sending a
20:01 survey out in January?
20:03 So I don’t have a problem with sending out a survey to the Port
20:05 St. John families.
20:06 I would have more pushback on trying to make it happen for 25/26
20:11 because of the timeline
20:13 of placement of staff.
20:15 So that process begins early, I believe in January, when you’re
20:19 talking about positions
20:20 filled and, you know, once we get the survey, then we’re coming
20:24 back to the board and the
20:26 schools and making decisions and getting votes.
20:28 And then we have to find out which staff want to stay, which
20:31 staff don’t want to go.
20:32 And while Challenger 7, we had a good retention rate of staff,
20:36 when you’re talking about like
20:37 a junior/senior high, I think you’re going to have a little more
20:44 movement of staff and
20:46 that, you know, when it talks – when we talk about the calendar
20:48 and – because it was just
20:49 in the leadership team packet in the last – it was last week, I
20:52 think.
20:53 Here’s the timeline principles of when you need to know which
20:55 teachers are coming back
20:57 and when you offer them a contract and if they came on late, you
20:59 know.
21:00 And that whole shuffle of staff is going – it’s going to be
21:03 significant when you’re talking
21:06 about more than one school.
21:07 So I’m not in favor of trying to ask staff to fast track it for
21:10 25/26, but if we get
21:12 a favorable input, that gives us a year to start doing the
21:16 transitions to let people
21:18 think about whether they want to stay, where they want to go,
21:20 what their options are.
21:22 Because the other thing is, the choice windows open for families
21:26 – well, for our choice
21:28 schools, they’ve already closed.
21:29 They closed last week.
21:31 But for – by the time we get through with all this, the windows
21:34 for, like, secondary
21:36 ELO and EPO options, those will have already gone on,
21:39 potentially could be closed, too.
21:41 So that’s just a lot of putting everybody in a whirlwind of
21:45 activity when we could just
21:47 pace it out and give us – give everybody another year, if that’s
21:50 what the community
21:50 desires.
21:51 Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
21:53 Can I ask a quick question, Ms. Campbell?
21:54 Were you – when you said – because the anomaly of the
21:57 secondary, I’ve looked at extensively
22:00 on this project, because, you know, being a secondary teacher
22:02 and stuff like that, I
22:03 can see the ins and outs and everything else.
22:05 You had mentioned that you felt like there was going to be a lot
22:07 of movement in the secondary.
22:09 In Port St. John, is there a reason behind that?
22:12 Like, you had mentioned something about – I just – it would
22:14 help me understand where
22:15 you’re coming from.
22:16 This is – to be quite honest, Mr. Sousa, and I mean, I don’t
22:18 know how much research
22:19 you’ve done.
22:20 I haven’t done research.
22:21 But my guess is, one, you’ve got a larger staff – an elementary
22:24 school the size of
22:25 Challenger 7 has maybe, what, 30, 40 – you know, a handful of
22:30 dozen teachers.
22:32 When you’re talking about a junior/senior high with a population
22:34 of, you know, 13 to
22:36 1600 kids, you’ve got that many more staff.
22:38 And it’s not just the teachers, it’s that many more
22:41 administrators, that many more support
22:43 staff there.
22:44 So you’re talking about a lot more people, and it’s a lot more
22:48 easily done.
22:50 And you’re talking about a lot more activities, because junior/seniors
22:54 have all the sports
22:55 activities and all the music activities, and they have to
22:57 coordinate around – just, you
22:59 know, just let me go in the music world.
23:01 You guys know the sports world, and I know you know that better
23:04 than me, Mr. Sousa.
23:05 In the music world, the music performance assessments, those are
23:10 calendared way in advance.
23:12 And it doesn’t matter whether you’re a year-round schedule or
23:14 traditional schedule, the orchestra
23:16 MPA, for example, is going to be on these dates.
23:19 And some dates we control as a district, our local people do,
23:22 but some dates they’re offered
23:24 by the state.
23:25 And so without having that year in advance of thinking how are
23:28 we going to do the calendar
23:30 in a way for a secondary school that will coordinate with all
23:33 the many activities that
23:34 our high schools in particular have to participate in, that’s a
23:40 lot of twisting and wrenching
23:43 people to get those things happening.
23:44 We just don’t have enough time.
23:45 There’s a lot more to look at in a secondary school than an
23:48 elementary school.
23:49 And so that’s why I think there potentially could be movement.
23:51 If I may just jump in just real fast to address a couple of
23:54 these things.
23:55 Absolutely.
23:56 Okay.
23:57 Just because it’s a good conversation we have to have.
23:58 Sorry, guys.
23:59 I know you’re like, oh, we’re having this, you know, in-depth
24:00 conversation.
24:00 As you know, my child attends Space Coast, so I am at that
24:03 school every single day.
24:05 And interestingly enough, I’ve taken a very unofficial survey of
24:09 putting this calendar
24:10 in front of all of the staff, and every single one of them is
24:13 like, oh my gosh, please, please,
24:15 please make this happen.
24:16 But I really think the survey will be revealing to us on, hey,
24:19 how encouraging is this?
24:21 Are people really in favor of this or not?
24:24 And then move from there.
24:25 I know it seems like we’re moving very quickly.
24:28 I understand that.
24:29 Last year it felt the exact same way.
24:31 We didn’t get the notification from the state until, what was it,
24:34 February?
24:34 I believe it was February.
24:36 February, right, that we were approved to be one of the five
24:38 pilot schools in the state
24:39 of Florida.
24:40 And that was still able to be set up and happen.
24:43 Now, of course, Challenger 7 previously had year-round, so it
24:46 was a little easier.
24:48 But I’m just saying that to say we’re not moving any faster than
24:50 we did the previous
24:51 year.
24:52 And I know it’s an unknown, and I understand the music, the
24:55 sports, those are some concerns.
24:58 So I am curious to hear from our coaches and the people that
25:00 take those additional supplements.
25:01 Is this a concern for you?
25:02 Are you willing to still lead out in those programs if this
25:05 falls during break time?
25:07 Because you still would have some responsibilities there
25:10 depending on what it is, right?
25:12 So I just, I think the survey is a good starting point.
25:14 I know it seems fast.
25:15 Government doesn’t like to move fast, which drives me absolutely
25:18 insane because I like
25:18 to try something.
25:19 Let’s see if it works.
25:20 If it doesn’t, then we can change directions.
25:22 But I think we should start with surveying and then have a
25:25 conversation in January when
25:26 we come back and say, what do the survey results look like?
25:29 And then if we want to expand it beyond just the Port St. John
25:31 community, then we can look
25:33 at that as well for a district-wide and that being a slower
25:35 initiative if that’s something
25:36 the board has an appetite for pursuing.
25:39 Thank you.
25:40 I agree with you as far as see what the survey comes.
25:44 I did want to give you a little bit of thought process through
25:46 the activities with the sports
25:48 and I’m not sure about the music, Ms. Campbell, but one of the
25:51 things you can look at to get
25:53 an example of what this would look like is your wrestling and
25:55 some of your other sports
25:56 that carry on through Thanksgiving, through Christmas and work
25:59 through as many of those
26:00 holidays and being a former wrestling coach, it’s just second
26:04 nature.
26:04 And so I reached out.
26:05 So there’s an example that you can see that we already are
26:08 taking sports through some
26:09 of these breaks.
26:10 The other thing is that as a former coach and some of the
26:12 coaches I’ve talked to about
26:14 it, they’re excited about this because if they can get those
26:17 kids for a longer period
26:19 of time, they can really break stuff down.
26:21 When you have a practice right after school, you can only go for
26:23 so long when the kid’s
26:24 been in school all day and everything else before it gets to be
26:27 too late.
26:28 With these days off, they could actually enhance some of their
26:30 practices and do different stuff.
26:31 You can almost do two a days to work them out for the games.
26:34 And that is extremely impactful for some of the ones that I’ve
26:39 talked to.
26:40 Not all of them.
26:41 And just like Ms. Wright was saying, we all have our friends
26:44 that we call and say, “Hey,
26:46 what do you think about it?”
26:47 And stuff like that.
26:48 But some of the staff that I’ve talked to, some of my friends
26:49 that I’ve talked to actually
26:51 are teachers because I used to teach there for six years at
26:53 Space Coast High School and
26:55 they were positive about this too.
26:57 And it’s just a, “Hey, I’m testing out who I know and some of
26:59 the veteran teachers.”
27:01 So I just wanted to let you know that.
27:03 I’m okay with the survey and then I’m okay if the survey is very
27:05 positive and staff feels
27:06 like, “Hey, we can possibly do this to move in that direction.”
27:10 But let’s do the survey, I think.
27:11 I think that’s respectful and then we can get some answers back
27:13 from that.
27:14 Just to be clear about a couple of things.
27:16 One, I’ve made it very clear, I’m fine with the survey going to
27:18 the Port St. John community.
27:20 I said that, didn’t I?
27:21 Okay.
27:22 Two, I am not against if the Port St. John community says yes,
27:27 giving them that calendar.
27:29 What I’m against is asking people to move the world on a much
27:33 more complicated process
27:34 because moving a secondary school is so much more complicated in
27:39 the shortened timeframe.
27:41 That is what I am opposed to.
27:43 Now, if we come back and the survey says 95% of students,
27:47 families, staff say go, then
27:50 maybe we can, but right now, I can’t give you that commitment.
27:53 So if your question was multi-part, so again, I’m going to go
27:56 with the community, but it’s
27:57 the shortened timeline that I am resistant to at this time, okay?
28:03 Just for the record, sports is extracurricular and I know there’s
28:06 rules that follow FHSA
28:08 break or no break, but music is not extracurricular, it’s co-curricular.
28:12 And so you’re talking about things that kids are getting grades
28:15 for and quite frequently,
28:16 they get grades for after school performances, I mean all
28:18 performance, grades for actual
28:20 performances as well as rehearsals.
28:22 So that’s a little bit harder to do on a break when it’s co-curricular,
28:25 it’s required.
28:26 So just want to add that in there.
28:30 - Dr. Endo, would you like to add anything on the end?
28:33 - Yeah, no, I mean, we have clear consensus to issue a survey
28:36 right when we get back from
28:37 break on a modified calendar in the Port St. John community, so
28:42 we will do that and maybe
28:43 set some parameters for what we view as strongly positive,
28:48 positive, lukewarm, that kind of
28:51 thing and then based on those results, come back to the board
28:55 with action either immediately
28:57 or long-term, that kind of thing.
28:59 So we’ve got that for sure and we’ve got direction on that for
29:03 sure.
29:04 I think Mr. Pruitt still has more though.
29:06 - I do.
29:07 - You do?
29:08 - Oh, I thought you were done with your presentation.
29:09 - That was just year one.
29:10 - I’m so sorry.
29:11 - That was the first year.
29:12 - So just for clarification, for the 25, 26, both modified year
29:16 round and traditional schedule,
29:19 we are good, we’d like to go to the January board meeting for
29:23 approval if that is okay.
29:25 The second question I have, Ms. Wright, is you brought up more
29:27 of a uniform bell schedule,
29:29 most likely for our secondary schools.
29:32 We did work this year to up the requirement or the expectation
29:37 for number of minutes in
29:39 a traditional day and early release day, so everybody was pretty
29:43 much on the same level.
29:45 Would you like us to pursue moving towards more uniform to
29:49 adding more minutes to some
29:50 of those days if we review schedules and calendars?
29:54 Are you trying to help us build more minutes into the calendar?
29:59 - I think until the DOE looks at possibly changing a start date,
30:02 it would be smart for
30:03 us to do that because we always end up in a shortage in the
30:05 first semester.
30:06 That’s my personal opinion.
30:07 I don’t know what everyone else up here feels, but I think if
30:09 all of our secondary are on
30:10 a uniform and we can build a couple extra minutes in there each
30:13 week, that will help
30:14 us.
30:15 - We went with every secondary school had to have a minimum of
30:19 48 minutes in a Monday
30:20 through Thursday and a minimum of 37 on Friday.
30:25 We moved all schools to those numbers this year to make sure
30:29 that we were at least in
30:30 the same arena as one another when it came to potential make up
30:35 days and minutes.
30:37 We can pursue maybe 48 to 49 or 37 to 38 because as Ms. Campbell
30:41 said, even though it’s two
30:43 minutes, two minutes is two minutes, right?
30:44 It’s good instruction and also builds up.
30:46 We have 72 non-early release days in first semester and you have
30:50 an extra minute.
30:51 There’s 72 minutes, which is about a day and a half, a little
30:53 bit over that is built in
30:54 right there and gives kids and teachers more instructional time.
30:57 - Yes, absolutely.
30:58 I’m in favor of that.
30:59 Are you the chair?
31:00 - Yes.
31:01 - So I appreciate you guys asking schools to get the minimum
31:07 minutes.
31:08 And I think when we make this change this next year with
31:11 reducing the early release
31:13 days, we need to make sure it’s clear to schools, don’t do
31:16 something funky with your calendar
31:18 and creative.
31:19 This is to give you those two extra minutes, right?
31:21 So whatever number you gave them this year, add two to it and so
31:23 we can make sure we have
31:24 those.
31:26 But that’s different from, I think Ms. Wright was asking for a
31:31 uniform bell schedule.
31:34 I’m opposed to that for this reason.
31:37 I think we need to let our schools have the flexibility to build
31:40 however they’re gonna
31:41 be so that if you’re thinking uniform bell schedule, I mean
31:43 everybody’s first period
31:45 goes from 845 to whatever second period because there’s so many
31:49 variables.
31:50 We still have a few schools that utilize the power hour and they
31:53 are not the schools who
31:54 have the minutes problem usually.
31:57 I know a lot of schools used, more schools used to have them and
31:59 we had some discipline
32:00 issues in the last handful of years that they got rid, but there
32:03 are still schools I believe
32:04 that are using them like West Shore I think is still using them
32:07 for example.
32:08 I think O’Gally was one of the last holdouts before they think
32:10 they know they still have
32:11 theirs.
32:12 But the other thing is some schools have two lunches, some
32:14 schools have three, some schools
32:15 have four and so I would, I’m in favor of allowing the
32:18 principals to continue to have
32:20 that flexibility to build their own bell schedule.
32:23 Some are having shorter passing periods.
32:25 So whatever works for their campus, I think we need to allow the
32:27 administrators to continue
32:29 to have that flexibility.
32:30 Yeah, so we would look at not necessarily doing first period
32:34 starts at this time for
32:36 everybody ends at that time and passing is this time.
32:38 Everybody has two lunches or whatever that may be.
32:42 We can review can we get 49 minutes in Monday through Thursday
32:46 as opposed to 48 and we’re
32:48 going to go from 37 to 39 because of the reduction of time for
32:52 that.
32:53 Can we get from 39 to 40?
32:54 So that’s what we look at.
32:56 You are 100% correct.
32:57 Some of the cafeterias, different sizes, number of students,
33:00 there’s a lot of variables for
33:01 each school, allow them a little bit of autonomy where we would
33:05 just set the bar at you can
33:07 do what you need to do within your schedule but here’s what you
33:09 have to have in your periods
33:11 and then they would be able to decide number of lunches, passing
33:14 time, things of that nature.
33:16 Is that?
33:17 Yeah, no, that’s what I, I agree with that 100%, yes.
33:20 So sorry, when I said uniform or bell schedule, you’re right, I’m
33:22 using the wrong word and
33:24 so thank you for correcting me on that because it does sound
33:25 like I want everyone’s first
33:26 period to be the same minutes, start at the same time, end at
33:28 the same time but correct,
33:30 adding the minutes to the class and however the school wants to
33:31 figure out how they’re
33:32 doing that, that’s perfectly fine as long as we’re starting the
33:35 day at the same time
33:36 and we’re ending the day at the same time.
33:38 That is really the overall objective, same and they can do what
33:41 they want with those
33:42 minutes within.
33:43 Okay.
33:44 Well, if we’re going to talk about, since we’re talking about
33:48 surveys and trying to
33:50 capture as many minutes as possible, are we talking about a
33:54 survey as well to the, all
33:57 Brevard to find out maybe information on early release days,
34:02 what we feel about having those
34:05 both from BPS employees and parents, is there any conversation
34:10 of that?
34:11 Yeah, so we did talk with Mr. Colucci and BFT and you know, he
34:15 talked with his constituents
34:17 and within the BFT organization of their thoughts on reducing
34:21 from 75 to 60 or protecting Thanksgiving.
34:25 We can do a more extensive survey if you’d like across the
34:27 district, just asking parents
34:29 and families and stakeholders about the early release days in
34:32 time, we’d have to work
34:33 with BFT on what that survey would look like.
34:37 Have we looked at the what ifs, like what if we didn’t have, for
34:40 example, if we didn’t
34:42 have those early release days and Fridays, what would that do to
34:45 our calendar?
34:46 Build in a lot of minutes.
34:49 We still got to go 180 days are equivalent.
34:52 We would have a lot of flexibility to be honest with what we
34:55 would do within the schedule
34:57 and the calendar and what it could actually look like.
35:00 So what it would essentially do is it would build in, we’ll just
35:05 say now it’s 39 to
35:07 nine minutes a day.
35:08 So you know, you’re looking at seven, 800 extra minutes that we’d
35:12 be able to work
35:13 with somewhere around there, which would build in a lot of
35:15 hurricane days, but it’d also
35:16 build in some other opportunities within the calendar.
35:20 Okay.
35:21 Thank you.
35:23 Guys, do you have more?
35:26 Yes.
35:27 Well, I just wanted to talk a little bit about 2627.
35:29 Yes.
35:30 Exactly.
35:31 Go ahead.
35:32 So we did go back and revise some of the 2627 based on the
35:36 discussion we had with BFT on
35:38 reducing the minutes and then looking at the start date of
35:43 August 10th, you know, in 2627,
35:47 we finished well before Memorial Day, you know, so the way the
35:50 calendar shook out, we
35:51 finished before Memorial Day, you know, the spring break we
35:55 would certainly look and want
35:57 to match that with Eastern Florida so that we didn’t have to go
35:59 back and revise.
36:00 So that’s the discussion I’m currently having with Eastern
36:02 Florida, making sure that
36:03 we match with that.
36:05 But you have the draft 2627 calendar in front of you.
36:09 We did make some adjustments as we met with our one-on-one about
36:13 that possibility of a
36:14 PD day.
36:15 Ms. Campbell asked me about that and Mr. Raymer and I put our
36:17 heads together when we were
36:19 looking at the days and making sure that we were 180 for the
36:23 students and 190 for the
36:25 teachers, and we found where everything kind of shook out and
36:28 what you have in front of
36:29 you is the proposed 2627 calendar, again, with the early release
36:34 being 60 minutes and
36:36 then no early release the first Friday of the school year and
36:40 then with the goal of
36:41 the same hurricane makeup priority days as well as getting the
36:45 spring break in line with
36:47 Eastern Florida when the time comes for them to put together
36:52 their 2627 calendar.
36:56 Where is the new day, I’m not seeing that on this one, we had
37:01 our one-on-one –
37:02 » Yes, and that’s what I was saying because you had asked me
37:05 about where that new day
37:06 came from.
37:07 Mr. Raymer and I talked about that and we couldn’t figure it out
37:09 and we’re looking
37:09 at it, looking at it.
37:10 » Okay.
37:11 » And we found it.
37:12 » Okay.
37:13 » It’s gone away.
37:14 » It’s no longer on the cover.
37:15 » It’s no longer there.
37:16 » Okay.
37:17 » But we are, if you notice the end time, again, is well before
37:21 Memorial Day.
37:22 » So we just moved the last day of school up.
37:24 » Yes, ma’am.
37:25 We pushed it up.
37:26 » Okay.
37:27 So I wasn’t crazy.
37:28 » No, ma’am, you were not.
37:29 No.
37:30 » Okay.
37:31 Thank you.
37:32 » But we got the 180 student days, 190 staff days, all fell
37:35 within the parameters that
37:37 we had and it bumped up the end one day.
37:39 » Okay.
37:40 Fantastic.
37:41 » And then, of course, the – as Ms. Wright shared, we already
37:45 – we have the draft 25-26
37:46 year-round calendar also as part of the package, if you will, of
37:49 the three different calendars
37:51 for the – over the course of the next two years.
37:53 » Yeah, go ahead.
37:55 » So this – are we likely – because it sounds like EFSE hasn’t
37:59 made up their mind.
38:01 I mean, if we – how close are we to gelling so that we’re not
38:04 having to revise?
38:05 And I only ask that because there are occasions that people want
38:08 to do, like, super far out
38:10 planning, and if our spring break moves, it can cause a problem.
38:13 And I know we’re – you know, we’re here.
38:14 It’s well over a year before the calendar we’re looking at for
38:16 next year we’re approving.
38:19 How likely are we to, you know, get that – some kind of
38:23 agreement with them that, hey, whoever
38:25 figures it out first wins?
38:27 » I did – I did reach out to Eastern Florida about 26-27 and
38:32 gave them our tentative plan
38:34 for spring break.
38:35 So they have that when their committee –
38:36 » So at least they’ll take it into consideration?
38:37 » Yes, ma’am.
38:38 » Okay.
38:39 Okay.
38:40 » Yes, ma’am.
38:41 They already have it.
38:42 » Good.
38:43 Thank you.
38:44 » I do want to make a quick adjustment.
38:45 So I – when we talked about the early release days, I did all
38:48 days.
38:48 It would actually pick up 100 to 125 minutes because it would
38:51 actually only be the early
38:52 release days I looked at the full semester.
38:55 So if we were to do that about 15 or so in my head early release
38:58 days at, you know, roughly
39:00 nine extra minutes to pick up, you know, that’s what we would
39:03 pick up there.
39:04 So I apologize for the bad math on my part the first time around.
39:07 » It was on the fly.
39:08 So it’s –
39:09 » Yeah.
39:10 So that’s what we’d look up – or that’s what we would pick up
39:13 if we were to work in that
39:14 direction and talk more about that.
39:16 » Okay.
39:18 Any other questions?
39:21 Okay.
39:23 Dr. Rendell, we’re all good?
39:25 » Yeah.
39:26 With the board’s direction, what we’re going to do is put the
39:30 revised proposed 25-26 calendar
39:33 and the 26-27 calendar is on the website for people to view.
39:37 And we’ll put them on the agenda for board approval in the
39:41 January board business meeting.
39:43 » Thanks.
39:44 » And –
39:45 » And we’re going to do the survey.
39:46 » And they –
39:47 » And we’re going to do the survey of the Port St. John
39:49 community.
39:50 » Okay.
39:51 Guys, we appreciate all your work all the time.
39:52 So thank you and we have nothing more.
39:56 » Okay.
39:57 Thank you.
39:58 » All right, Mr. Chair.
40:00 So the next presentation is going to be on the five-year
40:03 strategic plan.
40:04 So like most organizations, Brevard Public Schools has a five-year
40:08 strategic plan.
40:10 The previous plan or the plan we’re currently under did conclude
40:14 with last school year concluded
40:16 in summer.
40:17 And so what we asked staff to do was to take a look at that plan
40:22 and revise that plan.
40:24 We could have contracted with an outside agency and had them
40:27 come in and do a lot of work
40:28 soliciting feedback from the community or, you know, reviewing
40:33 the plan from their lens
40:35 and then coming up with a new plan.
40:37 That costs money and we had just done that with the previous
40:41 five-year plan.
40:43 So we thought we would save some money and just have staff
40:46 review, you know, the five-year
40:49 plan we were working on and then, you know, make some changes
40:53 and revisions to it.
40:55 So that’s what we’re going to present to you today is our
40:58 recommended revisions to the
41:00 previous plan and, you know, hopefully move to adopt that as our
41:05 next five-year strategic plan.
41:07 Some of the things that you will notice if you look through the
41:10 plan is we’ve tried to
41:12 add a lot more measurables, concrete measurables to see if we
41:15 were actually accomplishing the
41:17 things we want to accomplish.
41:19 So, you know, Mr. Wilson, Chief Operating Officer, and Cynthia
41:23 Rain are going to present.
41:24 Cynthia really has been the driving force behind this.
41:29 Instead of hiring a consultant, we just told Cynthia to do this.
41:32 So she has done a lot of work and she is the expert.
41:36 And so she’s not going to go into too much detail today in this
41:39 presentation.
41:40 We actually have a big workday schedule in January where we dive
41:43 deep into last year’s
41:44 plan and this year’s plan, and you’ll be invited to that.
41:48 And, you know, there’s just a lot of detail, but I think the
41:51 differences in this plan is
41:53 there’s a few more concrete measurables for a lot of our
41:56 objectives.
41:57 So I’ll turn it over to Mr. Wilson and Cynthia.
42:01 All right, good morning.
42:05 Good morning.
42:06 Good morning, board chair, board members, Dr. Rundell.
42:09 Dr. Rundell, thank you for stealing my introduction, I
42:12 appreciate it.
42:14 But no worries.
42:15 Job well done.
42:16 Today’s presentation, as Dr. Rundell mentioned, is just – will
42:20 be a high-level overview of
42:21 the newly revised and updated five-year strategic plan.
42:27 And as he also mentioned, got to give a lot of credit to Cynthia
42:31 Rand and her leadership
42:32 throughout this process.
42:34 She ensured that we, and I say we, me and my colleagues, stayed
42:39 the course and on track
42:41 to make sure we had very strong measurable goals throughout the
42:45 strategic plan.
42:47 And she kept us in line.
42:49 She’s a taskmaster, for those of you that aren’t aware of her
42:52 work ethic.
42:53 And she did a phenomenal job of staying in constant
42:56 communication with the cabinet to
42:58 make sure that the deadlines were hit so we would be able to
43:01 present today before the
43:03 year ended to share with you the new plan.
43:06 Without further ado, it appears that we’re having some technical
43:09 difficulties here.
43:10 No, keep going.
43:11 Keep going.
43:12 I see.
43:13 It appears we’re having some technical difficulties here.
43:14 But without further ado, I’m going to go ahead and turn this
43:17 presentation over to Ms. Cynthia
43:19 Rand.
43:20 Thank you, Mr. Wilson, and thank you, Dr. Rendell.
43:24 Thank you, board chair and board members, for the opportunity to
43:28 speak with you today
43:29 to present an overview of the 2025-2030 strategic plan.
43:31 We’ve completed the update and development of the five-year plan,
43:37 and I’m excited to
43:39 share the direction we’ll be moving forward over the next five
43:42 years, pending your approval.
43:44 Our plan will solve the priorities we’ll focus on to support
43:52 student success.
43:54 It zeroes in on important areas like academic achievement,
43:59 operational efficiency, and student
44:01 well-being, making sure our schools are always evolving to meet
44:05 the changing needs of our
44:06 schools.
44:09 The plan was updated and developed through a comprehensive
44:12 review of division priorities,
44:14 past achievements, and ongoing work.
44:17 It reflects reoccurring themes and priorities that have emerged
44:21 from past discussions with
44:22 families, staff, and stakeholders.
44:25 It emphasizes key priorities we know are important to our
44:28 community, including closing achievement
44:31 gaps, supporting students’ mental and physical health, and
44:34 preparing students for future
44:36 success.
44:38 As we worked on updating the plan, it was truly a collaborative
44:42 effort.
44:42 We made sure to incorporate valuable input from every division
44:46 and department, ensuring
44:48 that everyone had a voice in shaping the direction.
44:52 There was also a significant effort put into refining and streamlining
44:57 the plan.
44:58 We made sure that all performance indicators and metrics are
45:02 smart, specific, measurable,
45:04 attainable, relevant, and time-bound so that we can track
45:08 progress and stay on track.
45:10 As mentioned, the updated plan ensures that all divisions are
45:14 well-represented, making
45:15 it a comprehensive roadmap for our future.
45:19 Let’s look at a comparison between the 2019-24 versus the 2025
45:25 and 2030 plan.
45:27 The 2019-24 plan had four goals, 17 objectives with 17
45:33 corresponding performance indicators,
45:36 with 66 strategies and 95 metrics.
45:39 However, tracking progress was a challenge because many of the
45:43 performance indicators
45:44 and metrics were not smart, meaning they weren’t specific or as
45:49 measurable as needed.
45:51 Now in the updated 2025-2030 plan, we still have four goals, but
45:56 we’ve increased our objectives
45:58 to 18 with 18 corresponding smart performance indicators.
46:03 And we’ve streamlined the strategies down to 53 and reduced the
46:08 number of metrics to
46:09 53 corresponding smart metrics.
46:12 This new approach provides a much clearer and more actionable
46:15 framework to help us track
46:17 our progress and achieve success.
46:20 I’d like to highlight our core guiding principles because these
46:23 are the foundation of everything
46:25 that we do.
46:26 Our vision is simple but powerful, deliver the highest quality
46:30 education.
46:31 That’s our goal.
46:32 That’s what drives us every day.
46:34 Our mission is about setting a high standard.
46:37 We’re here to serve every student with excellent, no exceptions.
46:42 Every decision, every action should reflect that.
46:45 And our organizational values focus on what really matters,
46:48 respect, quality, accountability,
46:51 teamwork and more.
46:52 These values guide our work and how we interact with each other
46:56 and with our community.
46:57 These core guiding principles will shape our actions and ensure
47:00 we stay true to our purpose
47:01 as we work toward achieving our strategic plan goals.
47:06 These are the four benchmarks and key performance indicators
47:09 that will be used to measure our
47:10 district’s overall success in meeting the needs of our students.
47:15 Teaching success in these areas relies on educators and staff
47:19 working together to meet
47:21 the goals, objectives and strategies outlined in this plan.
47:25 The previous plan included the same benchmarks but the
47:28 performance indicators weren’t smart.
47:30 There were a few specific numbers or targets to aim for.
47:34 In contrast, this plan outlines these clear and ambitious smart
47:38 key performance indicators
47:40 giving us specific measurable targets to strive for.
47:44 Our first benchmark is third grade literacy and the key
47:47 performance indicator is to increase
47:50 proficiency from 59% to 71% by the end of school year 2030.
47:55 LG1 success is to increase pass rate from 72 to 84% by the end
48:01 of school year 2030.
48:04 College and career acceleration to increase digital tool certifications
48:08 for elementary
48:09 students from 8% to 38%, raise fifth grade science proficiency
48:15 from 58% to 76%, grow
48:17 middle schoolers accessing acceleration opportunities from 70%
48:21 to 93% and to boost high school markers
48:24 of acceleration from 74% to 92% all by the end of school year
48:29 2030.
48:30 And finally, graduation rate to attain a 95% graduation rate
48:35 annually for all subgroups.
48:37 - So I’m gonna interrupt Cynthia right there.
48:39 So this is kind of the metrics that we could look at from the 30,000
48:44 foot view all the
48:45 time.
48:46 Are we on track to meet these metrics?
48:48 And the 2030 goals are actually pretty ambitious.
48:52 Those are some pretty high numbers.
48:54 But the idea is it’s a five year plan and we wanna put some
48:58 things in place to hopefully
49:00 increase by 2% each year or whatever the quota would be to get
49:05 to the goal in five years.
49:07 And so these are all actually pretty ambitious numbers.
49:12 So the idea is if we work the plan for five years, we can
49:16 hopefully get to those.
49:18 Sorry.
49:19 - That’s right.
49:21 And to reach those benchmarks, our strategic plan focuses on
49:25 four critical goals.
49:26 These four goals are consistent with those we focused on last
49:29 year with one key update.
49:31 We’ve shifted from operational sustainability to emphasizing
49:35 operational efficiency.
49:37 This change reflects our commitment to continuous improvement
49:41 and adapting to evolving needs.
49:43 So our first goal is academic excellence to empower students for
49:46 future success, exceptional
49:48 workforce to recruit and retain top talent, community connection
49:52 to build trust and enhance
49:54 the district’s reputation and operational efficiency to ensure
49:58 efficiency to support
49:59 academic success.
50:03 And to achieve those goals, we have 18 objectives.
50:07 So today I’d like to highlight just a couple of them along with
50:10 their smart performance
50:11 indicators to give you another sample of how we’re improving the
50:14 way we measure and track
50:15 our progress.
50:17 The grade words on the screen are the previous performance
50:20 indicators.
50:21 So objective E1, recruit a strong pool of candidates for all
50:24 classifications within
50:25 Brevard public schools and the performance indicator is to
50:28 increase open position fill
50:30 rate from 90% to 95% by the end of school year 2025 and maintain
50:35 a 95% fill rate through
50:37 school year 2030.
50:39 And objective C1, to strengthen public trust in district
50:42 decisions and leadership and the
50:44 performance indicator is to secure at least 10 positive media
50:48 stories each quarter highlighting
50:50 district initiatives.
50:52 And these are only a couple of our objectives, but rest assured
50:55 that the remaining 16 come
50:57 along with smart performance indicators.
51:00 Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, all 53 strategies designed
51:04 to meet our objectives
51:06 are supported by their own corresponding smart metrics.
51:10 Now I am just incredibly proud of the cabinet and staff’s
51:13 willingness to set ambitious targets
51:15 throughout this five-year plan.
51:17 It shows their dedication and commitment to pushing us forward.
51:21 We set these high expectations because we know that striving for
51:25 excellence is what
51:26 drives real progress.
51:28 And by aiming high, we force ourselves to innovate, face
51:31 challenges head on, and accomplish
51:33 things we might not have thought possible.
51:36 Ambitious goals inspire growth, keep us focused, and ensure we’re
51:39 all aligned with our vision
51:41 for the future.
51:42 On the other hand, setting mediocre goals can hold us back and
51:46 limit the potential of
51:47 our students, staff, and our community.
51:50 By aiming high, we will create constant opportunities for
51:53 improvement and make sure that every step
51:55 forward has a meaningful impact on the success of our community.
51:58 So that concludes my high-level overview of our new five-year
52:02 strategic plan.
52:03 As you know, an electronic copy was provided to you before today’s
52:06 meeting and hard copies
52:07 were made available through Lina.
52:09 I hope you had a chance to review it.
52:11 The full plan is comprehensive, you know, nearly 50 pages, and I
52:14 understand it’s a lot
52:15 to take in.
52:16 So I’d like to open the floor for any questions or thoughts you
52:19 may have about the plan.
52:20 If you’d like, we can go page by page, or I’m happy to walk
52:22 through any sections in
52:23 more detail.
52:24 » Okay, Board.
52:25 Who wants to go first?
52:26 » I’ll go first.
52:27 » All right.
52:29 Okay.
52:30 As someone who doesn’t love acronyms, I like this one.
52:39 So go ahead and tell me again what is – what are the acronyms,
52:41 SMART, what do you stand
52:42 for?
52:43 » SMART.
52:44 So it’s specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
52:50 » Gotcha.
52:51 Okay.
52:52 Thank you.
52:53 I am excited about this.
52:54 I’ve been a firm believer of you cannot hit a target you do not
52:56 have, right?
52:56 And so just having a general goal out there, we need to be
52:59 specific and hone in.
53:00 That way we can really be detailed in what we’re doing.
53:02 So I’m excited about the new strategic plan.
53:04 I will tell you they are extremely ambitious goals.
53:07 When I first saw it, my eyes went up and I went, whoo, I hope we
53:09 do achieve this because
53:10 if we achieve this, we will be back into one of the top
53:12 districts in the state.
53:13 I really believe that.
53:14 So kudos to the team on all the hard work that you put in there.
53:17 Kudos to you.
53:18 That’s why you got the oil can.
53:19 I look like you wealth-deserving person you are.
53:22 But no, I’m excited about what this looks like for us in the
53:25 future.
53:25 So thank you.
53:33 Thank you and the whole team for the work that you have
53:36 continued to do and even in
53:37 between the ending of the one and now everybody is continuing to
53:42 pursue that.
53:43 And I know because I’ve sat in some of the meetings, gotten to
53:46 be a fly on the wall over
53:48 the past years of when everybody came together across all
53:51 departments and worked on these
53:53 goals, even sometimes ones that weren’t under your purview to
53:56 get input so that the academic
53:58 team got input from the operations side and the operations side
54:03 got input from, you know,
54:05 the financial side, you know, I guess I have the same,
54:07 communication side, all of that
54:08 so we’re working together.
54:09 And I do know that I’ve heard that term, the smart goals.
54:12 We may not have implemented them with fidelity, but you were
54:16 constantly challenging and so
54:19 was your predecessor, Mr. Novelli, same thing.
54:25 We got to be smart goals, smart goals, smart goals.
54:27 I’m glad that we’ve put people’s feet to the fire this time to
54:30 get it all revised.
54:31 I think that’s great.
54:33 You know, I was thinking as we were talking about those
54:35 ambitious goals, I’m like, okay,
54:36 did we look at what, like St. Johns County and some of those,
54:39 but the thing is we can’t
54:41 look at what they have and aim for that because that’s assuming
54:43 that they’re going to stay
54:44 where they are.
54:46 And I know for a fact that that’s not their intention, just to
54:48 stay at the same levels.
54:49 They’re also constantly trying to improve.
54:51 And at the FSBA conference a couple weeks ago, we heard multiple
54:54 districts say they’re
54:55 going to be the number one district in the state and it’s X
54:57 number time frame.
54:58 So we’re all shooting for the same target.
55:01 So I think that those ambitious goals are good.
55:04 There’s a section in here we’ve had, I think there’s been a bit
55:07 of a pause in it over the
55:09 last couple of years as we’ve had new board members, but there
55:11 previously we’ve had those
55:12 board champions and I’m glad that you highlighted that and I don’t
55:16 know, it’s kind of like the
55:17 wizard, the one picks the wizard board that the staff gets to
55:21 kind of pick.
55:21 I mean, if we had an area we really wanted to do, but I don’t
55:24 know if you noticed where
55:25 you were assigned, I think Mr. Trenton is right on academics and
55:29 Mr. Seuss on operations
55:31 and communications.
55:32 So I just want to make sure you guys highlighted that because
55:34 before we had the pause, I know
55:36 that was something regularly that we met with our area leaders
55:40 and just to get feedback
55:42 and updates and when they were doing those major revisions, we
55:46 got invited in to have
55:48 some input and on different projects that were being done.
55:52 So just want to make sure that you guys noticed that and
55:56 sometimes staff gets busy, it’s our
55:59 prerogative and our schedules are tight to reach out to them and
56:02 say, “Hey, can I meet
56:03 with you or when would be a good time to meet?”
56:06 So make sure that we’re connecting and then when we do our board
56:08 reports and our board
56:09 meeting, those are sometimes things that we can bring to shout
56:12 out to highlight to the
56:13 rest of the board and to the community and the district some
56:15 awesome things that are
56:16 going and some challenging things too.
56:17 So those board champion positions are really important.
56:20 Thank you.
56:22 Yeah, thank you.
56:25 I really enjoy the fact that you guys have the smart measurable
56:29 items but what people
56:30 don’t understand is that from the layman terms of being a parent
56:34 or being somebody like that,
56:36 when you looked at the old strategic plan, it’s difficult to try
56:39 to see those metrics
56:40 and see the available metrics and get those metrics and see if
56:43 we’re doing it.
56:44 There were so many layers that a parent would look at an
56:46 objective and they would say, “Okay,
56:48 it seems like they can move that direction,” but these are like
56:51 specific.
56:51 I mean, communications has to increase our enrollment by 1% each
56:55 year.
56:56 You know what I mean?
56:57 You look at 90 to 95% for retention inside of HR and some of the
57:00 other things, I mean,
57:01 it’s an incredible set and I’ll tell you, I’m really excited
57:06 about it.
57:06 When I started here in 2005, we were a different district and I
57:10 think that we’ve made some
57:11 decisions along the way and now we’re on a way to bring that
57:15 back.
57:16 Many of you, the Sterling Awards of Excellence that the poetry
57:19 used to bring, the governor’s,
57:21 I mean, we used to have area awards.
57:22 We were a different beast and now we’re getting back to that and
57:26 I think I hear it in many
57:28 of the people inside the cabinet and in directors that there’s
57:31 this vision that we should be
57:32 where we were and not better.
57:34 So this gets us there and it gets us to a measurable place so
57:37 that people can get called
57:38 out.
57:39 I mean, let’s face it, if you don’t have something that’s truly
57:41 measurable and you’re not trying
57:42 to get there by the end of the year, people are going to start
57:44 scrambling to make sure
57:45 they’re going to work harder towards those goals.
57:47 So I just really am appreciative of it.
57:50 I did want to ask, one of the things that we’ve seen a strong
57:53 direction inside this
57:54 is the athletic participation.
57:56 Is there a way to add increase of athletic participation in
58:00 different areas, elementary,
58:02 middle, and high school?
58:03 Because we’ve expanded sports, it’s directly attributed to the
58:06 mental health of the students
58:07 and stuff like that.
58:08 Is there a way we can…
58:09 I saw that in there, but I just didn’t see any of the metrics,
58:12 like I was looking for
58:13 the specific metrics, so I didn’t know that there’s a way that
58:16 we could dovetail that.
58:17 And then the other thing is, since we’re on this topic and I don’t
58:19 want to bring it back,
58:20 we do kind of, I’ll wait until the end for the STEM piece.
58:24 So the athletics piece is the only thing that I saw that if we
58:27 could add it somewhere even
58:28 as a subcategory or something, that’d be cool.
58:30 That’s it.
58:31 Thank you.
58:32 Yeah, we can look at ways to incorporate a measurement for that.
58:35 I just, I’ve heard such great things about our elementary school
58:38 sports, how it’s driving.
58:39 I’ve got some principals that are saying they’re using it as a
58:42 way to keep kids out of trouble
58:43 because now they’re saying you won’t be able to play sports in
58:45 the spring unless you do
58:46 this.
58:47 I mean, it’s working the way it does in high school.
58:50 So I think that there’s a good measure to try to drive and that’s
58:52 all.
58:53 It was the only request I had, but amazing you guys.
58:55 And I’d like you to present all of the stuff because you do
58:58 great.
58:58 When you hit, like you came in, you hit the hot topics and then
59:01 you said, “Okay, anybody
59:02 else have any questions?”
59:03 So we don’t have to go through the 71 page document.
59:05 So thank you for that.
59:06 I appreciate you.
59:09 That’s all great information, guys.
59:11 And I would be shocked if Kevin Robinson didn’t have some
59:14 specific numbers in his mind already
59:17 about increasing participation, but that’s, if I know him, I
59:21 know it’s there.
59:22 So, but district-wide would be great.
59:25 When going through this as a coach, as a former teacher and in
59:29 the former life, even teaching
59:32 goals to individuals in goal classes and how to write them, you
59:36 can’t help but to get excited
59:38 about seeing this, talk about the SMART goals, measurable, not
59:43 to talk down on the last set
59:45 of goals versus this one.
59:47 It’s night and day.
59:48 I mean, if you don’t have a target and that’s right, you don’t
59:52 know if you’ve missed.
59:54 To give you another acronym is CCMP, Clear, Concise Mental
59:58 Picture.
59:58 It’s hard to do if you don’t have a number or if you don’t have
1:00:01 something specific because
1:00:03 you could work this down to what you need to do on a daily basis.
1:00:05 I mean, this is a five-year plan, but I’m sure that’s what you’re
1:00:08 talking about.
1:00:09 So that keeps the team and the group focused, I mean, down to
1:00:14 the minute of if this is what
1:00:17 we need to do to obtain our goals.
1:00:19 And without having that specific thing already accomplished in
1:00:24 your mind, it’s not obtainable.
1:00:27 It’s not possible.
1:00:28 So thank you for bringing that out.
1:00:30 I’m sure it was a team effort, but these are proper goals now.
1:00:34 So I appreciate that, and I look forward to helping in any way
1:00:38 we can do to make these
1:00:39 things so obtainable.
1:00:40 So thank you.
1:00:41 That’s wonderful.
1:00:42 Anything else, Dr. Rendell?
1:00:43 Yeah, I just want to kind of bring a theme in that we didn’t
1:00:46 really talk about.
1:00:48 And when we asked the leadership at each school building to work
1:00:51 on their school improvement
1:00:53 plan this last spring as part of the ASCEND Conference and
1:00:56 everything, one of the messages
1:00:58 we wanted them to hear is your school improvement plan should be
1:01:02 about the stuff you’re already
1:01:03 doing.
1:01:04 Like, this should be the work you’re already doing.
1:01:07 It shouldn’t be additional work.
1:01:09 It shouldn’t be a plan that you create just to create a plan and
1:01:11 put it in a notebook
1:01:12 and set it over there.
1:01:14 So we tried to approach the strategic plan the same way.
1:01:16 This is stuff we should be already doing.
1:01:20 And so we’re going to measure our effect on these things that we’re
1:01:26 already doing.
1:01:27 But the various departments that worked so hard on this did a
1:01:32 fantastic job of identifying
1:01:34 things that we’re already doing or should be doing.
1:01:37 And what goals can we set, and how can we measure our progress
1:01:40 towards that?
1:01:41 And so I feel like we have a really, really good product, but it’s
1:01:45 really the result of
1:01:46 all the work of the people involved.
1:01:49 And I actually think Cynthia did a great job of pulling it all
1:01:52 together.
1:01:52 I feel like we actually have a better product than we would have
1:01:55 if we had hired a consultant.
1:01:57 You know, so we actually– the people doing the work did the
1:02:01 work.
1:02:01 And you know, so–
1:02:02 And on that note, I want to give Dr. Rendell his credit, because
1:02:06 he and I had a plethora
1:02:07 of conversations prior to this process even starting when we
1:02:10 were going through the looking
1:02:11 for consultants, et cetera.
1:02:12 I said, we have a person right here within our organization that
1:02:16 can do this work.
1:02:17 And he trusted the fact that– you know, he believed in the fact
1:02:21 that I said, we have
1:02:22 a person, and our person was none other than Cynthia.
1:02:25 And she could do it.
1:02:26 She did it.
1:02:27 She did a phenomenal job.
1:02:28 So Dr. Rendell, thank you for believing in the fact that we
1:02:31 could get this done in-house.
1:02:34 You know, I appreciate that.
1:02:35 You know, I am not an expert in instruction or finance or HR or
1:02:39 communication, but after
1:02:41 doing this for 10 years, I am dangerously knowledgeable.
1:02:45 And I will tell you that every cabinet member and every staff
1:02:48 that I work with and I push
1:02:50 back and when numbers didn’t add up or a strategy didn’t make
1:02:53 sense, and I would just come up
1:02:55 with an idea, you know, I’d send it back or the math isn’t right
1:02:59 or this doesn’t make
1:03:00 sense to me because I kind of thought of myself as somebody just
1:03:03 out there in the public looking
1:03:04 at the plan and they had to make sense.
1:03:07 And I will say they were very open to listening to me and never
1:03:10 made me feel like I shouldn’t
1:03:11 be doing that.
1:03:12 So, thank you.
1:03:13 » Yeah, truly a team effort.
1:03:14 » Yeah.
1:03:15 » Well, good.
1:03:16 All right, we don’t want to make the same mistake and assume
1:03:19 that you don’t have anything
1:03:20 else to add like the last presentation, but are we done here?
1:03:23 » We’re done.
1:03:24 » Are we good?
1:03:25 Thank you guys.
1:03:26 Thank you so much.
1:03:27 » Thank you.
1:03:30 [ Inaudible Remark ]
1:03:31 » I would absolutely support that.
1:03:33 » I have to check with HR on that.
1:03:36 » There you go.
1:03:37 » She’s not part of a bargaining unit, so we could probably
1:03:41 make that happen.
1:03:42 So our next presentation is going to be about the Conduct Stipulation
1:03:46 Agreement, the Alternative
1:03:47 Learning Center, some recommendations to some changes in
1:03:52 expectations and procedures.
1:03:55 It’s really some change in some paperwork and some forms but
1:03:59 also making sure that every
1:04:01 staff member that’s involved in the process understands what the
1:04:05 rules of the game are,
1:04:06 so to speak, what the expectations are and that kind of thing
1:04:09 and make sure we’re consistent
1:04:10 across the district in the application of these policies.
1:04:13 That was one of the things that a couple of years ago with the RSM
1:04:17 audit is, you know,
1:04:18 these inconsistencies across the district and we need to make
1:04:22 sure we have all the correct
1:04:24 terminology in all of our documents and that everybody
1:04:26 understands what the expectations
1:04:28 are.
1:04:29 So Mr. Rammer and Ms. Bland are going to be presenting this
1:04:32 information.
1:04:33 » Great.
1:04:34 Thank you.
1:04:35 » Thank you.
1:04:36 I’m excited to be back at the table as we turn the conversation
1:04:39 to our District Conduct
1:04:40 Stipulation Agreements, our Drug Diversion Program, and then
1:04:44 multiple recommendations
1:04:45 for students regarding the placement at our Alternative Learning
1:04:49 Center.
1:04:49 So with me today I have our Director of Alternative Sites, Misty
1:04:54 Bland.
1:04:54 So she is going to do most of the presentation but I’m going to
1:04:58 start us off.
1:05:00 So the presentation that you guys have in the folder as we work
1:05:02 through, we started
1:05:04 with some DOE data so that we pulled some data from our
1:05:07 surrounding counties from the
1:05:09 DOE website regarding CSER incidences.
1:05:12 So I know Ms. Wright, CSER is School Environmental Safety
1:05:16 Incident Reporting.
1:05:18 And these are 26 different incidences that can happen on campus
1:05:21 that are really crime
1:05:23 violent or disruptive behavior related.
1:05:26 And if you look in our behavior, our student code of conduct,
1:05:29 and you look at our discipline
1:05:31 plan you will see all of those asterisks and identified as which
1:05:34 ones are CSER codes or
1:05:36 which ones are just local codes.
1:05:39 So when you look at the data around us, we have Brevard up top.
1:05:42 So we have the number of CSER incidents for 21, 22, 22, 23.
1:05:47 The DOE has not published 23, 24 data yet.
1:05:50 And then how many of those incidents resulted in alternative
1:05:54 educational placement setting.
1:05:56 And then of the students that were placed in that setting or
1:06:00 depending on the CSER code,
1:06:02 how many were expelled with or without continuing education
1:06:06 services.
1:06:07 So we put our data up there for Brevard Public Schools and then
1:06:09 we put our surrounding schools
1:06:11 of Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Volusia just so you get a
1:06:14 picture of where we’re at
1:06:16 regarding student discipline, placement ALC, and our expulsion
1:06:20 numbers compared to those
1:06:22 that surround us.
1:06:23 Can I ask a quick question, Mr. Chairman?
1:06:27 Where are we at in comparison to enrollment for students in
1:06:30 these counties versus our
1:06:31 county?
1:06:32 So can you just ballpark it so we have context there?
1:06:36 Yeah.
1:06:37 So we’re much smaller than Orange.
1:06:38 All right.
1:06:39 So Orange will be, you know, a couple times larger than us
1:06:41 regarding schools and student
1:06:42 population, Osceola and Seminole will be somewhere in our range,
1:06:48 and then Volusia will be a smaller
1:06:51 district.
1:06:52 Okay.
1:06:53 Thank you.
1:06:54 Yep.
1:06:55 On that chart, the asterisks, does that represent that Osceola
1:06:59 and Volusia are not expelling
1:07:01 students?
1:07:02 That represents that there’s less than 10.
1:07:04 Okay.
1:07:05 Right.
1:07:06 So they don’t quantify unless there’s a larger number than 10,
1:07:08 so that’s what the asterisks
1:07:10 represents.
1:07:11 Oh, thank you.
1:07:13 So we just want to start off with what the counties around us
1:07:16 look like, and then what
1:07:17 Brevard County looks like, and then work into our data as a
1:07:21 county, where we were for the
1:07:23 ‘23-‘24 school year, where we are currently, and for that
1:07:26 information I’m going to turn
1:07:27 it over to Ms. Bland.
1:07:30 Good morning.
1:07:32 Can you hear me?
1:07:36 First I’d like to start with the Alternative Learning Center
1:07:39 data for the ‘23-‘24.
1:07:41 When you look at last year’s data, you’ll see we were at 623.
1:07:45 That is a little lower, and that is due to the drug diversion
1:07:47 program, which I am going
1:07:48 to discuss in the next slide.
1:07:51 Currently for ‘24, and currently you’ll see that the south area
1:07:55 annual total, so all the
1:07:57 kids that have been there currently up to this date of when this
1:08:01 presentation was 142,
1:08:03 and the North Area Learning Center annual was 162.
1:08:07 So when you combine that, it’s about 304, so we are on track to
1:08:11 do basically the same
1:08:13 that we did in ‘23-‘24.
1:08:17 When you look currently where we are right now, you’ll see at
1:08:20 south area we have 107,
1:08:22 and if we brought the blended learning kids back, you would see
1:08:26 the class size would be
1:08:27 16 for the south area, the North Area Learning Center’s 125, and
1:08:32 that class size would be
1:08:34 20.
1:08:36 But the current expulsion total right now you’ll see is 22, and
1:08:40 that is lower if you’re
1:08:41 looking comparative to the expulsion data from the previous year.
1:08:47 Sorry, I’m going to move on to another question.
1:08:52 Go ahead.
1:08:53 All right.
1:08:54 You made a comment, and I just want you to clarify it.
1:08:55 So the blended learning students we brought back, can you
1:08:58 explain what that means to me?
1:09:00 If we brought that back.
1:09:01 If we brought them back, okay.
1:09:04 So currently middle school attends Monday and Tuesday.
1:09:07 High school attends Wednesday and Thursday.
1:09:09 Students that need extra minutes due to an IEP or is not making
1:09:15 gains, they’re currently
1:09:17 they come in on Fridays for one to one based on that class that’s
1:09:21 needed.
1:09:22 Okay, thank you.
1:09:27 So when you look at the drug diversion program, you’ll see that
1:09:31 last year we finished with
1:09:32 320 and 42 expulsions, and this year our placement is 159 and
1:09:40 seven expulsions.
1:09:42 Students are expelled due to lack of attendance, or they failed
1:09:48 their drug tests, or they did
1:09:51 a level four and five infraction at their school.
1:10:09 So what we would like to work through and get some more
1:10:12 direction on is our current
1:10:15 conduct stipulation agreements for alternative learning center
1:10:18 and our current conduct stipulation
1:10:19 agreements for our drug diversion students who remain on the
1:10:23 campus as per the program
1:10:25 that was put in place for last school year.
1:10:27 And make sure that we are moving forward in the direction that
1:10:30 all of us believe are in
1:10:31 the best interest of students, schools, and our stakeholders.
1:10:35 So in your packet, we provided you with our current stipulation
1:10:40 agreements for the alternative
1:10:42 learning center and drug diversion.
1:10:45 So we were hoping to work through those and talk about the
1:10:50 current one and then a possible
1:10:52 example stipulation agreement of the direction that we could go
1:10:57 for both of those options
1:10:59 with some considerations of continuation of education and making
1:11:03 sure that we’re providing
1:11:05 students an engaging opportunity with their academics.
1:11:09 Graduation and keeping students on pace to graduate with their
1:11:13 cohort.
1:11:13 The risk ratio report, school engagement, and then ESC students
1:11:17 do receive continuing
1:11:19 educational services during expulsion, but our non ESC students
1:11:23 do not.
1:11:24 So those are some of our considerations that we would be looking
1:11:28 at in the stipulation
1:11:29 agreement.
1:11:30 So I’m going to have Misty kind of walk through where we are
1:11:32 currently in those stipulation
1:11:34 agreements and then talk about the example and look for
1:11:37 direction on any movement that
1:11:39 we would make with those stipulation agreements.
1:11:41 Keep them the same.
1:11:42 They have not been reviewed for the ALC in five to six years, so
1:11:45 this is a good opportunity
1:11:47 for us to review that stipulation agreement.
1:11:49 And then drug diversion just to make sure that last year was the
1:11:51 first year that we
1:11:52 were implementing the program as desired whenever it was first
1:11:55 introduced to Brevard Public
1:11:57 Schools.
1:12:00 So the first papers you have in front of you are the current
1:12:02 process and example process
1:12:03 of the school based drug diversion program that started not this
1:12:08 year, but the prior
1:12:10 year.
1:12:11 And when you look at this, they are the same.
1:12:14 The first part, the only way a student would get expelled from
1:12:18 their school for the stipulation
1:12:20 conduct agreement is again, lack of attendance, they fail the
1:12:25 drug test or they complete,
1:12:27 they have a level four or five infraction.
1:12:31 So and we don’t have any other steps besides that.
1:12:37 So sometimes there are issues on campus of kids completing level
1:12:42 one, two and three offenses
1:12:44 and they are currently not put up for an expulsion under this
1:12:50 current stipulation conduct agreement.
1:12:54 And an example, which is again, just an example that students
1:12:58 and principals would have the
1:13:01 option depending on a student’s behavior, when you turn it over
1:13:04 you’ll see that students
1:13:06 receive two referrals that are processed as level one or two.
1:13:10 The first offense, they would be suspended five days and the
1:13:12 second offense they’d be
1:13:13 placed up for a 10 day pending full expulsion and on the second,
1:13:19 if a student receives one
1:13:21 level three, four or five, they would be placed up for a full
1:13:24 expulsion.
1:13:25 And again, this is just an example, we want to talk about this
1:13:31 first before we go to the
1:13:33 next one.
1:13:37 » I’m actually good to move on, but if anybody else has
1:13:40 questions, we have this reviewed
1:13:42 to us.
1:13:43 » Just when we put the drug diversion program in place, I think
1:13:49 at least my, maybe we didn’t,
1:13:52 I don’t know that I ever said it quite specifically, but my
1:13:55 thought was not that a student, that
1:13:57 they had to be pretty much close to perfect.
1:14:00 If we’re allowing you to stay on campus and stay enrolled in
1:14:02 your current classes and
1:14:03 yes you can be searched all the time and yes you have to have,
1:14:06 but you better remind your
1:14:08 P’s and Q’s.
1:14:09 I don’t like the idea that a student can, is getting to stay on
1:14:12 campus and thinking
1:14:13 that they can cuss at a teacher or whatever and they’re just
1:14:16 fine.
1:14:17 So I think this is, I think this is actually, this update is
1:14:20 more of a reflection of what
1:14:21 the desire of the board was.
1:14:24 So I think that, and it still gives them a little bit of wiggle
1:14:27 room because it’s suspension,
1:14:29 which they wouldn’t necessarily have been suspended for level
1:14:31 one or two, but it’s just
1:14:33 showing, hey, you’re already on thin ice, so we want to make
1:14:37 sure that that, and hopefully,
1:14:39 you know, the goal, again, I just have to, you know, what seems,
1:14:42 maybe seem obvious to
1:14:43 us, may not be obvious to the public, the goal is not to expel
1:14:46 more kids, the goal is
1:14:48 for students to take it seriously and realize you don’t need to
1:14:51 be doing this on our campus.
1:14:52 So I think this is a better reflection of what our original
1:14:56 desires were and so I’m
1:14:57 in favor.
1:14:58 Yeah, through the discussions that we have had and through
1:15:01 discussions that we’ve had
1:15:02 with principals over the past year and a half, looking at this
1:15:07 would more align with the
1:15:10 intention of the program whenever it was first put in place for
1:15:14 last school year, so, and
1:15:16 once again, I do want to reiterate what you just said, the goal
1:15:19 is to change behavior,
1:15:20 change outcomes, and have students moving in the appropriate
1:15:24 direction, not expel them,
1:15:25 so put in nice language that provides clear expectations and can
1:15:31 change behaviors and
1:15:33 change outcomes.
1:15:34 Right.
1:15:36 So not that I, I’ll take the, I’m not going to speak for you two,
1:15:43 but, that I’m assuming
1:15:45 the lack of questions here was in support of what we’re doing.
1:15:50 Yeah, that’s, that’s how I would take it.
1:15:52 This panel made it clear, but.
1:15:53 Yep.
1:15:54 If I may just jump in, Mr. Chairman.
1:15:55 Okay.
1:15:56 Absolutely.
1:15:57 Just again, to reiterate, I am 100% in favor of the new stipulation
1:16:00 agreement.
1:16:00 When will this go into effect?
1:16:02 So we would look for direction on that implementation side.
1:16:07 Okay.
1:16:08 We were looking at two different timeframes.
1:16:10 One would be January of ‘25 as we look at the new semester, and
1:16:13 the other one would
1:16:14 be August of ‘25 as we get into the new year so that we can get
1:16:17 everything in place and
1:16:19 everybody understands that this is getting implemented, so we’d
1:16:22 look for direction from
1:16:23 you on the choice in which you would like us to pursue either
1:16:27 January or August.
1:16:28 If I may, I’ll go ahead and give you my choice would be January.
1:16:31 Yep.
1:16:32 Okay.
1:16:33 Can you give us some pros, cons, feedback on, because I know in
1:16:36 our conversation we
1:16:37 had some, we don’t want kids who are, like, one kid is having
1:16:41 one and one kid is having
1:16:42 the other, but when the, with the drug stipulation agreement,
1:16:45 this is just a one semester expulsion,
1:16:47 right?
1:16:48 So we, we would end up with students on different stipulation
1:16:50 agreements regardless of when
1:16:51 we implement because if a student was to do this, let’s just say
1:16:55 April of ‘25, they’re
1:16:57 still going to be under that stipulation agreement at the turn
1:17:00 of the August of ‘25 school year,
1:17:01 so regardless of when we implement this stipulation agreement,
1:17:05 we will have to balance a little
1:17:07 bit of two different stipulation agreements going on at the same
1:17:10 time, but we would be
1:17:11 transitioning off of the old one and into the new one as we get
1:17:14 into February, March,
1:17:16 April.
1:17:17 Well, for, for me, this one, because this is more a reflection
1:17:19 of our original intent,
1:17:20 I think this one should be, uh, take effect soon, immediately,
1:17:23 January.
1:17:24 Okay.
1:17:25 All right.
1:17:26 Yeah, January.
1:17:27 Well, thank you, so I, I believe we have, uh, clear consensus on,
1:17:31 uh, the stipulation
1:17:33 agreement and timeframe implementation, so, uh, with that being
1:17:35 said, we’d like to go
1:17:36 to the current ALC stipulation agreement, work through that one.
1:17:44 The stipulations from the school-based stipulation conduct in
1:17:47 the Alternative Learning Center,
1:17:49 they mirror each other, they’re almost identical except for, um,
1:17:55 number six, which talks about
1:17:57 a metal detector, students going through that, and then the
1:18:00 dress code at the Alternative
1:18:01 Learning Center, um, but when you turn it over, this stipulation
1:18:04 conduct agreement was
1:18:05 done prior to COVID, and when you go through it, you’ll see that
1:18:10 students have, um, a warning,
1:18:13 they’re suspended one to three days, then three to five, then
1:18:16 another three to five,
1:18:18 and during that, we have an MTSS meeting or an IPST, um, we go
1:18:23 through and make sure we’re
1:18:25 meeting kids’ needs, review their BIP, and review that if
1:18:29 necessary, and then after that,
1:18:31 they are suspended up to ten days, but I do want to clarify one
1:18:34 thing, that just because
1:18:36 it says that there’s warnings, that does not mean that, based on
1:18:39 the fence, that’s what
1:18:40 students get.
1:18:41 If a student does something like cuss at a teacher, they’re
1:18:43 absolutely not getting a
1:18:44 warning, they’re absolutely being suspended, but this was, um,
1:18:49 basically the setup of the
1:18:51 way it was developed of just making sure we meet students’ needs,
1:18:54 um, and again, this
1:18:55 was done pre-COVID, um, when you look at the example pro-, um,
1:18:59 process, it’s set up exactly
1:19:01 like the drug diversion, where students’ level two referrals are
1:19:04 processed, they’re going
1:19:05 to get, um, they get one level one or one level two, they get
1:19:09 two chime, times, the
1:19:11 first offense are going to be suspended for five days, the
1:19:14 second one they’d be expelled,
1:19:15 students that receive level three, four, five, they’re
1:19:19 automatically placed up for expulsion,
1:19:21 and the levels I did place in your packet as well in the very
1:19:25 back.
1:19:26 I do want to just add that all expulsions will come through the
1:19:29 office, go through student
1:19:30 services, Dr. Rundell, um, you know, to be vetted and make sure
1:19:34 that we’re moving in
1:19:35 the appropriate direction, so I don’t want to, anyone to think
1:19:38 the school just gets to
1:19:39 say, hey, here it is, you know, students being expelled, it does
1:19:42 get vetted through student
1:19:44 services, through my department, and then through Dr. Rundell’s
1:19:49 office.
1:19:50 And I just want to add that at the ALC, we’re obviously still
1:19:53 going to work to meet students’
1:19:55 needs and to make sure, um, we are setting them up for success.
1:20:03 So we’d be looking for the same thing here, um, thoughts and
1:20:06 guidance, uh, of board direction
1:20:08 regarding the, uh, current stipulation agreement versus example
1:20:12 one that was, uh, provided,
1:20:14 and then implement, mentation timeline that you guys believe
1:20:17 would, uh, be most appropriate
1:20:18 for Brevard Public Schools.
1:20:20 Well, who wants to say that?
1:20:23 Mr. Chairman, I mean, I don’t, I don’t mind.
1:20:26 Same question as far as, does, is this one more complicated,
1:20:30 having the multiple stipulation
1:20:32 agreements going on at the same time than the drug diversion,
1:20:36 because you’ve got kids
1:20:37 year after year, happy year, I mean, I know we’re, at some point,
1:20:41 we’re going to have
1:20:43 an overlap, um, and we can’t go back and, necessarily, and
1:20:46 rewrite stipulation agreements,
1:20:49 I mean, the parents would have to agree to that, because of what
1:20:52 they signed, you know,
1:20:53 what they, we have to stick to what they previously signed, but
1:20:55 any thoughts, I mean, I’d love
1:20:57 your open feedback on that.
1:20:59 I spoke to my administrator at the ALC to get their feedback and
1:21:04 the teachers, and regardless
1:21:07 of whatever date we are going to have them overlap, and there is
1:21:11 no issue, it’ll be a
1:21:12 board decision on, um, which way you would like to go.
1:21:16 Okay.
1:21:17 Well, I, I’ll go ahead and finish off, then, sorry, I, I know
1:21:22 that I’ve expressed to Mr.
1:21:24 Raymer my concern about seeing expulsions, uh, in our agendas
1:21:29 that I’ve seen kids are
1:21:30 doing things again, I’m like, why are, why are they still there,
1:21:33 um, so I think we probably
1:21:35 need to go ahead and implement it.
1:21:37 Starting, sorry, when?
1:21:41 In January.
1:21:42 January, okay.
1:21:43 All right, I’ll go next, if that’s okay.
1:21:46 Sure.
1:21:47 All right, um, yes, absolutely start this today, if we could get
1:21:50 away with it, I would
1:21:51 say start it today.
1:21:52 Uh, here’s my issue, these students in secondary, which is the
1:21:55 bulk of the population that is
1:21:57 in our alternative learning center, are only there for two days.
1:22:00 This is their second chance that they are getting, instead of
1:22:03 being expelled.
1:22:04 So I express this to you, Mr. Raymer, I think, uh, the general
1:22:07 public believes the term expulsion
1:22:08 means removed from our school system.
1:22:11 We kind of use like, hey, I’m expelled, I’m going to the ALC.
1:22:15 You’re not expelled because it’s different, it’s in lieu of,
1:22:18 right?
1:22:18 So I think we, we need to be very clear in what we’re saying so
1:22:21 that our definitions
1:22:22 aren’t changing for the community, um, yes, absolutely start
1:22:26 this January, uh, this is
1:22:28 their second chance and, and they should honestly take advantage
1:22:32 of it, and if they don’t, then
1:22:34 there’s consequences that will be had from that.
1:22:35 So I’m in favor of starting it right away.
1:22:38 Yep, no brainer, move forward.
1:22:41 Uh, same, same, January, uh, thank you for making the changes
1:22:46 already.
1:22:47 Um, I don’t think we’re done with ALCs, um, but this is a good,
1:22:52 a good step.
1:22:53 No, we continue the conversation, obviously, when we talked, uh,
1:22:56 at the end of last year,
1:22:57 we talked about, uh, going back to five days a week, due on
1:23:00 class size and, uh, we’ll continue
1:23:02 discussions about other, uh, potential options for alternative
1:23:05 learning centers to, uh, enhance
1:23:06 that aspect.
1:23:07 Thanks.
1:23:08 Can I, um, going back to the first slide that you gave us, when
1:23:13 you’re looking at other
1:23:14 districts, especially like Osceola and Seminole that are really
1:23:18 close to our size, I think,
1:23:19 in fact, I think one of them is right ahead of us and one is
1:23:21 right behind us when it comes
1:23:22 to student population.
1:23:24 When you, if you’ve taken a look at what they’re doing, do you
1:23:27 feel like there are things that
1:23:29 are good that we can learn from or that it’s just, I’m trying to
1:23:35 be careful, different
1:23:38 or a reporting thing or they’re just putting up with stuff, just
1:23:41 to be quite honest.
1:23:43 I mean, what, do you have a take on that when we compare it?
1:23:47 Because it’s not that there’s, except for maybe Seminole, but Osceola’s
1:23:50 population is
1:23:51 not, um, you know, I, I wouldn’t say, oh, well, I would expect
1:23:55 better behavior in Osceola.
1:23:57 I would think we were right next to each other.
1:23:59 We share a lot of characteristics.
1:24:02 Some counties, um, do have students do online instruction in
1:24:07 lieu of expulsion.
1:24:09 Um, and some don’t necessarily send them to an alternative
1:24:14 placement.
1:24:16 They may go to a different site, but it’s not considered an
1:24:19 alternative placement.
1:24:20 So there’s a variety of things that they do.
1:24:22 But those two were the, um, when I spoke to the districts that
1:24:26 they do.
1:24:27 Okay.
1:24:28 So instead of a student being expelled, they would put them in
1:24:30 online instruction and the
1:24:31 ALC or wherever they were would currently keep, um, moving in
1:24:36 their academics.
1:24:38 They just would not come on campus.
1:24:39 Right.
1:24:40 So then they don’t have to report them to the state as, um,
1:24:43 alternative education placement
1:24:45 setting or as expulsion?
1:24:47 If they’re not, if they’re not expelled, then they’re not.
1:24:51 There’s other, there’s other variables also besides what she was
1:24:54 saying.
1:24:54 There’s also the, the student composition, the type of students
1:24:57 that are in there, whether
1:24:58 they’re low socioeconomic, title one, other areas that we find
1:25:02 that’s consistent throughout
1:25:03 the state that have more disciplinary problems, um, are
1:25:06 consistent with those districts too.
1:25:08 If you look at the makeup of them.
1:25:10 So just saying that they have 73, because I ran through and put
1:25:13 them all down here.
1:25:14 Um, like Osceola has 73,000 kids.
1:25:17 Um, to say that they’re exactly the same, um, as us is, you know,
1:25:21 wide variety of issues
1:25:23 and demographics and other things that come into play.
1:25:26 So with that, I just wanted to kind of, yeah, I know I’m just,
1:25:29 what I’m seeing is they have
1:25:29 fewer, they have lower numbers, so I’m trying to figure out how
1:25:32 they, how they have those
1:25:33 lower numbers.
1:25:34 Right.
1:25:35 Yeah.
1:25:36 So some of it’s, uh, coding, uh, or placement, I should say, or
1:25:39 how a school, um, our alternative
1:25:41 sites are set up as alternative sites, um, not necessarily as
1:25:44 school based sites.
1:25:46 Um, so there’s something there and then there’s, you know, steps
1:25:50 along the way, uh, potentially,
1:25:52 uh, where you could do an online instruction piece or something
1:25:55 of that nature in lieu
1:25:56 of actually following through with the full expulsion.
1:25:58 Right.
1:25:59 So that’s, uh, why we would potentially see some of the
1:26:01 different numbers.
1:26:02 Um, and these were the counties, we just pulled these counties
1:26:05 because they just bought up
1:26:06 against Brevard.
1:26:07 So, uh, we figured that they would be the most, uh, relevant to
1:26:10 us regarding our knowledge
1:26:12 base of those counties as opposed to others throughout the state.
1:26:15 I, I appreciate that and I, I am not opposed, because we do have
1:26:20 a barrier, um, with using
1:26:22 virtual school, um, I, I’m not opposed to us exploring avenues
1:26:26 of allowing people to
1:26:27 access some kind of virtual school, uh, clearly not having
1:26:31 access personal with any students
1:26:33 or staff, um, especially if it’s a violent offender, but I’m, I’m
1:26:39 interested in us opening
1:26:40 up opportunities if, if, if there’s proven track record, not,
1:26:44 not to, not to fix our
1:26:45 numbers, but to make sure that students can keep moving forward,
1:26:48 because I do think, I
1:26:49 mean, education is the game changer, right?
1:26:51 And if we have students who are caught up in, um, drug
1:26:55 situations and we can keep them
1:26:57 moving forward, so hopefully they can come back, um, and be
1:26:59 better, because, you know,
1:27:00 after they get expelled, they’re going to come back.
1:27:02 Are they, if they’re, are they going to be in our schools longer
1:27:05 because they didn’t
1:27:06 do any, didn’t have access to anything, and so then they are
1:27:08 going to be in our schools
1:27:10 till they’re 19 plus, or drop out, whatever, um, it looks like
1:27:14 some of their schools are
1:27:15 maybe successfully doing, I only, I only want to know if it’s
1:27:18 successful, though, um, but
1:27:20 if there’s options, just under certain cases, you know, us not
1:27:23 allowing students to do virtual
1:27:25 drives them to Florida Virtual sometimes, and sometimes they don’t
1:27:28 even allow that,
1:27:28 so, depending on the offense.
1:27:30 So if there’s an opportunity that looks reasonable, I’d be
1:27:33 interested in hearing it in the future.
1:27:35 Yeah, so Misty and I have per, I don’t want to say pursued, we
1:27:38 have reviewed is a better
1:27:40 word there, potential options that we could have as a district
1:27:43 regarding students who
1:27:45 are placed up for full expulsion, so we’ll continue that
1:27:48 conversation and then propose
1:27:50 some potential ideas that could come that way.
1:27:53 As you said, education is a game changer, and we want to keep
1:27:55 students continuing with
1:27:56 education and engaged in the school, or at least engaged in
1:27:59 academics, so when they do
1:28:00 return to the school, they’re not a semester behind their cohort
1:28:04 or a year behind their
1:28:05 cohort, that they’re still on pace for graduation, and sometimes
1:28:08 when they’re not on pace, the
1:28:09 behavior escalates at that point, just because there’s, there’s
1:28:13 no other, you know, they
1:28:14 don’t feel a way out because they’re behind their cohort or
1:28:18 behind the graduation side
1:28:19 of the house.
1:28:20 So we will continue those conversations to look at options that
1:28:23 could be available.
1:28:24 Thank you.
1:28:25 Great, great.
1:28:26 I think you can get that from our board here.
1:28:28 We’re very open to ideas, because we know these are vulnerable
1:28:34 students, I mean we need
1:28:37 to do what’s best for them, look at the other districts, I think
1:28:39 you’re doing a great
1:28:40 job at that, and like I said before, I think we’re going to be
1:28:44 continuing these conversations
1:28:47 in the near future, but I appreciate this so far.
1:28:49 Perfect.
1:28:50 So we will move forward with those two stipulation agreements
1:28:54 and implementation in January.
1:28:56 The next item that we wanted to talk about was based off of our
1:28:59 drug diversion discussion
1:29:01 that we had at the end of last year, which were students that
1:29:03 are recommended for ALC
1:29:05 multiple times, and there was discussion on policies, procedures
1:29:09 behind that.
1:29:10 So we did pool what our current district discipline manual
1:29:14 states, which is that we may withhold
1:29:17 the alternative learning center, however we do not execute that,
1:29:21 I would say, very often.
1:29:23 So we did the same thing here, we put our current process that’s
1:29:26 in the discipline
1:29:27 manual and then an example of what we could move towards, and
1:29:32 the example is grade bands,
1:29:34 K-6 and 7-12, and students being permitted to attend the ALC one
1:29:39 time in each of those
1:29:41 grade bands, and then the second time we would look at the other
1:29:45 side of expulsion.
1:29:47 So I know through our one-on-one discussions there were some
1:29:50 different concerns there,
1:29:52 but we also wanted to open that up for more direction on if we
1:29:55 want to revamp the language
1:29:57 that’s in our current process, or if we want to move towards
1:30:01 keeping it the same.
1:30:03 - I’ll go last, I’ll go second.
1:30:07 - Okay, I’ll go first, I’ll jump in.
1:30:11 What would be helpful to me is if you were able to provide us
1:30:13 with how many students
1:30:14 have actually had multiple placements in the ALC through K-12, I
1:30:19 mean, you can break it
1:30:21 up if you want to, the K-6 versus the 7-12.
1:30:24 Just so I know, how many students are we talking about, are
1:30:26 there multiple repeat offenders
1:30:28 that we have that are at the ALC year after year after year, yes?
1:30:33 - It’s approximately 140 something students, I don’t have the
1:30:37 number but I can get that
1:30:39 to you, but I know the number is about 140 students that have
1:30:43 been a repeater at one
1:30:44 time.
1:30:45 - Okay, all right, so my recommendation would be absolutely to
1:30:48 break it up, I express this
1:30:50 to you, Mr. I remember when we talked, is that I think the K
1:30:52 through six, because you’re
1:30:53 talking about such younger children, and a lot of times this is
1:30:56 their first exposure
1:30:57 to education or in a controlled setting, maybe a little more
1:31:00 grace there, so maybe two times,
1:31:02 because again, more years, and then maybe once in the 7th
1:31:04 through 8th, which is traditional
1:31:06 middle school, and once in the 9th through 12th, so being a
1:31:09 maximum potential of four
1:31:11 times if they were to be, and that’s a lot, that’s a lot of
1:31:14 grace given, that would be
1:31:15 my recommendation on it, but I don’t know what the board’s
1:31:19 appetite is for this, so
1:31:20 I’ll turn it over, somebody else wanna jump in?
1:31:23 - Yeah, I actually was thinking along those same lines, having
1:31:27 been a middle school teacher
1:31:29 for seven years, there’s books written about middle schoolers’
1:31:36 brains, and that is why
1:31:38 the 712th grade band is the one that I hesitate just a little
1:31:45 bit, just because it is a new
1:31:48 start, unless you’re in a junior or senior, it’s a new start in
1:31:51 a new school, and I have
1:31:52 seen so many students who in 8th grade were just knuckleheads,
1:31:58 and then they got to 9th
1:32:00 grade and something happened and all of a sudden they’re more
1:32:02 mature, now it doesn’t
1:32:03 mean that couldn’t be another mistake, but if we say, but then
1:32:06 again, I hesitate, because
1:32:08 everybody’s got a different offense in their mind, if we’re
1:32:11 talking about a violent student,
1:32:13 but then there’s other things on here that aren’t that, right,
1:32:19 we’re not, so I just
1:32:21 hesitate with the grade bands being so broad for the secondary,
1:32:23 because that’s where we
1:32:24 are getting most of our students, and because those frontal lobes
1:32:30 and the development, I
1:32:32 think I would like an additional grade band in there.
1:32:36 And even if it’s 6 through 9 or 6 through 8 or 7 through 9, I
1:32:41 mean, whatever it is,
1:32:43 I think it would be good to have one more grade band in there.
1:32:51 » Grade bands, I support it, would like to move forward.
1:32:58 » Yeah, so, I mean, we’re talking about an expellable offense,
1:33:05 not necessarily a mistake.
1:33:08 So I’m very much like Mr. Susan there, I mean, K-6, one time to
1:33:14 commit it, because
1:33:15 it’s not like you’re the model student and then, well, you just
1:33:20 committed an expellable
1:33:21 offense, it’s those students that have probably had multiple
1:33:27 situations happen, and then it
1:33:29 becomes an expellable offense.
1:33:33 And then if we’re able to give them multiple, multiple, multiple
1:33:36 trips to the air.
1:33:37 I don’t know, personally, I don’t think we’re doing what we’re
1:33:42 supposed to be doing of going
1:33:44 back to the consequence.
1:33:45 7-12, I completely understand that.
1:33:48 At many of our schools, that’s high school, and to have someone
1:33:53 to go to the ALC multiple
1:33:55 times while they’re in a high school setting, again, to the
1:33:59 public, I don’t believe we’re
1:34:02 doing what’s best for students.
1:34:04 I mean, that matters up there.
1:34:06 I don’t think we’re doing that.
1:34:09 Because there’s plenty of opportunity before it becomes an expellable
1:34:14 offense, in many
1:34:15 cases, obviously.
1:34:17 So again, having worked at the ALC and saying, you know, here’s
1:34:24 Johnny for the fourth year
1:34:26 in a row, and second semester, he or she is back again,
1:34:32 consequences will curb behavior.
1:34:36 We’re not talking about removing kids and expelling them out as
1:34:40 soon as possible.
1:34:41 But if we see, if the students see– and you can’t pull anything
1:34:45 over on kids.
1:34:46 They’re smart.
1:34:47 If they understand, I can’t do that again, that message gets
1:34:52 through.
1:34:53 But to hear up to four times to go to the maximum, that is
1:34:58 worrisome.
1:34:59 So I would agree.
1:35:02 The two bands are probably one too many, but I’ll take the two,
1:35:06 and I hope we can continue
1:35:08 to discuss this.
1:35:09 Mr. Chairman, can I jump in for just one second?
1:35:11 Yes.
1:35:12 Because I misunderstood something.
1:35:13 So a level three is not– there’s not a recommendation for
1:35:17 placement on level three.
1:35:18 It has to be four or above, correct?
1:35:20 Yes, ma’am.
1:35:21 And this is just our secondary on here.
1:35:23 So I don’t– unless– did you give us the elementary?
1:35:25 OK.
1:35:26 So I’m just– to look at what the offenses are on level four, I’m
1:35:30 going to retract what
1:35:32 I said and actually agree with you, Mr. Trent, because the
1:35:35 offenses are pretty serious offenses.
1:35:38 This is not– I said a bad word or, you know, I– they’re pretty
1:35:42 serious.
1:35:43 They’re very serious, actually.
1:35:45 Is it possible to look at the elementary?
1:35:47 I don’t have that up in front of me right now.
1:35:49 What are the offenses for level four?
1:35:50 Are they the exact same?
1:35:51 Do they mirror this or no?
1:35:52 It’s really close.
1:35:53 Yes, it’s close.
1:35:54 It’s close.
1:35:55 For four and five, it’s almost identical.
1:35:57 OK.
1:35:58 The assessors are identical.
1:35:59 Assessors, right?
1:36:00 Assessor, assessor.
1:36:01 And almost all of these are– almost all of these are assessor
1:36:05 except for classroom disruption
1:36:07 major, chronic misconduct.
1:36:09 We do have the chronic misconduct, but that’s not necessarily
1:36:12 straight to the ALC.
1:36:13 ALC is an option on a level four, right?
1:36:16 Correct.
1:36:17 And to prove chronic destruction is– While in harassment.
1:36:24 Here’s the thing to– I just, you know– here’s why– again, I
1:36:30 don’t actually have a problem
1:36:32 with the kindergarten to sixth grade one.
1:36:33 It’s just that secondary one because, again, think of a
1:36:37 different thing.
1:36:38 If a kid gets in a fight that’s assessor fight and gets sent to
1:36:42 the ALC in middle school
1:36:44 and then we’re saying if they get in a high school and they get
1:36:47 involved in the wrong
1:36:48 crowd and they show up with a vape pen that has THC oil in it,
1:36:53 then forevermore they’re
1:36:55 done.
1:36:56 They can’t do the drug diversion program.
1:36:58 They can do the ALC.
1:37:01 So I’m just thinking about different things.
1:37:03 I mean, if we have a middle school, high school grade band and
1:37:07 let’s say they got involved
1:37:08 in a fight in a middle school and high school, they do have an
1:37:13 opportunity to pursue, you
1:37:15 know, to have a second chance for that– for a different offense.
1:37:18 But what we’re saying is if they went to the ALC, if with just
1:37:21 the two grade bands as it’s
1:37:22 written, they go to the ALC in middle school and they get
1:37:25 involved in secondary, you know,
1:37:26 in high school, it’s– there are no other options.
1:37:29 They are going to be expelled right away with the exception of
1:37:31 it’s got to run through your
1:37:33 office and make sure everybody handled it correctly, right?
1:37:35 » Well, except the drug diversion, students would be allowed–
1:37:39 so if you’re saying the
1:37:40 second offense was drugs that they’ve never been caught, they
1:37:42 would be able to do the
1:37:42 drug diversion–
1:37:43 » OK.
1:37:44 » – at their school–
1:37:45 » OK.
1:37:46 » – if they haven’t used that option yet.
1:37:47 » Right.
1:37:48 » So the second time– OK, because they wouldn’t be going to
1:37:50 the ALC–
1:37:50 » Yes.
1:37:51 » – for that.
1:37:52 » Right.
1:37:53 » OK.
1:37:54 » So they’re– with the introduction of the drug diversion
1:37:57 program, I think that even
1:37:58 makes more sense to limit the number of ALCs because the drug
1:38:01 diversion program is actually
1:38:03 an extra strike.
1:38:04 So, I mean, we’re playing in the league where you get four
1:38:07 strikes now, I mean, so it’s
1:38:09 different.
1:38:10 » So what you’re recommending is they get one chance in K
1:38:12 through 6 and one chance in
1:38:13 7 through 12, right?
1:38:14 » Correct.
1:38:15 » Two chances total?
1:38:16 » Right.
1:38:17 I mean the experts, that’s what their recommendation was and I’m
1:38:20 all for that.
1:38:21 » OK.
1:38:22 Listen, I–
1:38:23 » We just called you experts.
1:38:25 » – as somebody who has graduated from Brevard County Public
1:38:27 Schools, I think I’m the only
1:38:28 one sitting here that has graduated from our schools and we used
1:38:30 to know back in the day,
1:38:31 we did not fight in school.
1:38:32 We did not do these things because if you did, there was a hefty
1:38:34 punishment that came
1:38:35 along with it and we’ve kind of gotten away from that with leniency
1:38:38 on tolerating some
1:38:39 of these things.
1:38:40 So, if that’s– I mean, if that’s what it takes to get our
1:38:43 schools back to a place where
1:38:44 we don’t have kids that are acting out in such a way that’s
1:38:46 dangerous to our staff,
1:38:47 to our other students, then I would be in favor of it, so.
1:38:51 » We will follow the current process through the remainder of
1:38:54 this year and then the new
1:38:56 process would be within the discipline manual for the start of
1:38:59 next year if that’s OK with
1:39:00 everybody.
1:39:01 » And I think it’s also good to remind everybody that this is
1:39:05 supported by a lot of the principals
1:39:07 and a lot of the teachers and stuff like that.
1:39:09 That’s something that I’m not sure if you guys talked about, but
1:39:11 this move is very supported
1:39:12 by our teams.
1:39:13 So, thank you.
1:39:14 » Yeah.
1:39:15 And I believe that was– thanks for bringing that up, Mr. Schusen,
1:39:18 that was one of my questions
1:39:19 in the one-on-one as well.
1:39:21 » Mm-hmm.
1:39:22 [ Inaudible Remark ]
1:39:23 » – building principal, what are you hearing and that’s
1:39:28 exactly what I heard and we have
1:39:30 to take that into consideration as well, so we appreciate it.
1:39:33 [ Inaudible Remark ]
1:39:34 » That’s what I thought that I misread it.
1:39:38 » Last thing, I just wanted to ask ‘cause I know Ms. Wright had
1:39:42 touched on it, so our
1:39:43 offenses are expelable offense that we hold in advance at the ALC,
1:39:46 right?
1:39:47 And I know that there’s been some communication expressed to me
1:39:51 that there’s confusion with
1:39:53 that.
1:39:54 You know, we have an expulsion hearing but then we put them at–
1:39:57 put the student or place
1:39:58 the student, I should say, at ALC and if they do something there
1:40:01 that they shouldn’t have
1:40:02 done then we expel them.
1:40:04 So there was a discussion or some communication on there’s a
1:40:07 little bit of confusion there
1:40:09 maybe in the general public and that, you know, placement at ALC
1:40:13 should simply be called
1:40:14 placement at ALC and expulsions should be called expulsion.
1:40:19 Do we want to investigate separating those two or continue with
1:40:23 that’s an expulsion offense
1:40:26 or we will hold it in advance at ALC and then if you do what you’re
1:40:30 supposed to do behavior-wise,
1:40:31 grade-wise at ALC then you return to the public school that you
1:40:35 are zoned to attend.
1:40:36 » So you’re just talking about relabeling what we’re already
1:40:40 doing?
1:40:40 » Well, it’s–
1:40:41 » I mean I know amongst us we use the term expelled, expelled.
1:40:45 » Yes.
1:40:46 » You know.
1:40:47 I mean if we eliminate the expelled, expelled, you know, that
1:40:49 which those are the– that
1:40:50 is what we say, right?
1:40:52 » Expelled, expelled.
1:40:53 » I know.
1:40:54 That’s a good question, I know that there’s varying opinions on
1:40:57 that but Ms. Wright said
1:40:58 it a little bit earlier in the presentation about a little bit
1:41:01 of the confusion of, you
1:41:02 know, we tell a student or a family, you know, that they’re
1:41:05 expelled and then they get actual
1:41:07 placement at ALC so they’re not actually expelled, they’re
1:41:09 getting the academic setting at ALC.
1:41:11 And if they do something at ALC then they get expelled, expelled,
1:41:14 expelled, right?
1:41:15 » Right.
1:41:16 » So that’s where that would come in.
1:41:17 So there’s a little bit of discussion there.
1:41:20 We are perfectly fine with continuing with the terminology and
1:41:23 language that we use at
1:41:24 schools or using or we can, you know, coach the schools and the
1:41:27 administrators up a little
1:41:29 bit more on communication and the language side of making sure
1:41:32 that it’s articulated
1:41:33 appropriately if that will suffice in trying to curb the
1:41:37 confusion.
1:41:38 » Well, if I could speak for just a second.
1:41:41 » Go ahead.
1:41:42 » I kind of knew where you were headed.
1:41:43 So when a student commits an expelable offense currently, a
1:41:48 parent could deny or refuse ALC,
1:41:52 correct?
1:41:53 » Correct.
1:41:54 » Because they could, they could expel, right?
1:41:58 » Not necessarily.
1:41:59 So students now when they’re placed up for an expelable offense,
1:42:03 they automatically go
1:42:04 to the ALC.
1:42:05 » So it’s anonymous.
1:42:06 » And at that time they can choose to do home instruction, that’s
1:42:09 so we’re not letting
1:42:10 students fall through the cracks.
1:42:11 » Correct.
1:42:12 » And then at that time they can choose a different option.
1:42:15 » So if a parent doesn’t choose those options, I mean, we’re
1:42:18 giving them that option to the
1:42:20 ALCs, right?
1:42:21 So they’re expelled from our public school setting and they’re
1:42:23 going to an alternative
1:42:25 learning center.
1:42:26 So they, to me personally, that they committed the expelable
1:42:28 offense, this is the process
1:42:30 of being expelled.
1:42:32 It doesn’t necessarily mean without education where you’re going
1:42:35 to give them that chance
1:42:36 of the ALC.
1:42:37 But if they choose to do none of those, I believe it would, it
1:42:42 would continue into the
1:42:45 expulsion.
1:42:46 » Absolutely.
1:42:47 And so to remove that word expel or an expulsion or an expelable
1:42:52 offense, I think would be
1:42:54 also misleading because they have committed that offense.
1:42:58 » And we have pre-expulsion hearings and expulsion hearings, I
1:43:00 mean, just to kind of
1:43:01 mince words.
1:43:02 I mean, I don’t mind continuing to use the term expelled,
1:43:04 expelled for us, you know,
1:43:06 if we need to.
1:43:07 » Because we may need that later.
1:43:08 » Right.
1:43:09 » Yeah.
1:43:10 So what we’ll do is.
1:43:11 » What does that mean?
1:43:12 That’s so silly.
1:43:13 Let me just jump in for just a second because I’m just, oh my gosh,
1:43:14 wait, you’re expelled
1:43:15 but you’re at the ALC.
1:43:16 So you’re not really expelled.
1:43:17 You’re still in Brevard.
1:43:18 » You’re expelled from.
1:43:19 » You’re not expelled.
1:43:20 You have alternative placement.
1:43:21 So I mean, I think it’s fine to say you committed an expelable
1:43:23 offense but let’s not call
1:43:24 it an expulsion because an expulsion means you are removed from
1:43:28 our school system.
1:43:29 And I think the general public believes that.
1:43:30 I think they would be alarmed if we were saying we’re expelling
1:43:32 kids, we’re expelling kids
1:43:33 but actually we’re not.
1:43:35 They’re going to the ALC.
1:43:36 They’re not expelled.
1:43:37 It doesn’t show up on their educational record.
1:43:39 So it’s not an expulsion.
1:43:40 Like we’re changing the definition of the word expel.
1:43:43 » If they complete it.
1:43:44 They committed the expelable offense but they’re not truly
1:43:46 expelled, you’re right.
1:43:48 » They’re not.
1:43:49 » So, I mean, it could be better communication in that admin
1:43:52 hearing or in that, you know,
1:43:54 hearing that’s held at the school where it’s broken down more
1:43:57 like you just said so we
1:43:59 could, when we meet with deans once a month with student
1:44:02 services, Justin Armstrong holds
1:44:04 out monthly meeting, we could work through different
1:44:09 communication.
1:44:10 Keep everything the same but we’re going to communicate it
1:44:13 differently to make sure everybody
1:44:14 understands the difference between the two and what we’re doing
1:44:17 right now versus what
1:44:18 could happen in the future based on behavior, grades, attendance,
1:44:23 et cetera.
1:44:24 » We used to just call it removed or expelled from the regular
1:44:28 program and the alternative
1:44:29 learning centers actually used to be called the abeyance centers
1:44:32 because we were holding
1:44:33 the expulsion in abeyance which means it was still there and if
1:44:40 you didn’t successfully
1:44:42 get your time at the alternative learning center or the abeyance
1:44:45 center then the expulsion
1:44:46 was still in play.
1:44:50 And so, you know, I think it’s just a better job of us
1:44:53 explaining the process when we’re
1:44:56 involved in the process and you’ve committed an expelable
1:44:58 offense but rather than expel
1:45:00 you from school entirely, we’re going to give you the option of
1:45:03 enrolling in this alternative
1:45:05 school and hold your expulsion in abeyance, we might start using
1:45:10 that term again, while
1:45:11 you complete your school at the alternative learning center.
1:45:15 » Here’s something that’s come up in my realm here, the ESE
1:45:23 side of things.
1:45:25 Principals are saying do virtual school in lieu of the ALC.
1:45:32 I don’t know that they’re contemplating the ESE implications.
1:45:36 They still have to provide those services.
1:45:38 So when they’re in our ALC facility, that’s easier because we
1:45:42 have the staff on site.
1:45:43 I don’t think they’re contemplating the staffing issue for those
1:45:47 ESE services when they’re
1:45:48 on virtual school so they might be trying to maybe get parents
1:45:52 to jump on the virtual
1:45:53 school a little bit more.
1:45:55 So I think we need a better job of educating principals on hey,
1:45:58 remember, you have to make
1:46:00 sure you’re providing these services if you’re putting them on
1:46:03 virtual school.
1:46:04 If you don’t have the capacity because you’ve already got 20
1:46:07 kids on virtual school, maybe
1:46:09 that’s not an option for those kids anymore.
1:46:11 So they have to start considering those options.
1:46:13 » Yeah, we can do that.
1:46:15 » And then also when does the board get involved?
1:46:18 Like if they go to full blown hearing, they render an opinion on
1:46:22 expulsion, are they allowed
1:46:24 to go to the ALC?
1:46:28 » I mean currently right now students that do take it to the
1:46:31 board, they are allowed
1:46:33 to attend the ALC.
1:46:36 » During that time.
1:46:37 » Right.
1:46:38 » Well even what if they render an opinion of hey, nope, you
1:46:41 did this, we’re agreeing
1:46:43 with the superintendent’s recommendation, are they still allowed
1:46:47 to go to the ALC?
1:46:48 » No so when we go through an expulsion hearing and a three
1:46:51 panel board is what we’re saying
1:46:53 and they, you know, give their recommendation of how we’re
1:46:57 moving forward and if the recommendation
1:46:59 is to, you know, uphold that, then that’s what we uphold, you
1:47:04 know, based on that recommendation.
1:47:08 » So they’re doing the expelled, expelled version if they go to
1:47:11 that hearing.
1:47:12 I just want to make sure everybody understands that because that’s
1:47:16 a, this is a big, it’s
1:47:17 a big undertaking to get the board members and we have costs
1:47:20 associated with that.
1:47:21 So if they go through that process, the board may want that to
1:47:26 be clear that you are out
1:47:29 if you go through our process, the superintendent has the
1:47:31 authority to simply place them so
1:47:33 I think that’s better for the stipulation side of the house.
1:47:38 » I’m thinking about some expulsion hearings we’ve had in the
1:47:45 past where parents, the result
1:47:49 of the recommendation was we said no, we uphold the
1:47:51 superintendent’s recommendation for you
1:47:53 to go to the ALC.
1:47:54 They wanted to not be expelled at all or not be, not have that–
1:47:59 » They can challenge the discipline imposed like this isn’t a
1:48:01 level four or the discipline
1:48:03 was too severe.
1:48:04 » So I don’t think that–
1:48:05 » Right, yeah, if the recommendation is there, that’s fine but
1:48:08 if the recommendation is expulsion,
1:48:11 we should not be allowing students to still go to ALC if they’re
1:48:14 undertaking this.
1:48:15 » Yeah, so the board will, could recommend superintendents or
1:48:20 uphold the superintendent’s
1:48:22 recommendation in which we would then follow that which may be,
1:48:25 you know, they would continue
1:48:26 or be at the ALC or recommend if the superintendent recommend
1:48:30 expulsion and they uphold then that’s
1:48:33 the direction we would go.
1:48:34 » Right.
1:48:35 » I have no further questions.
1:48:36 Any board members?
1:48:37 We’re good?
1:48:38 » No.
1:48:39 I’m good.
1:48:40 » All right.
1:48:42 Thank you so much.
1:48:43 » Thank you.
1:48:45 » Mr. Chair, we’ve been at this for a little over 90 minutes
1:48:49 and so if you want to take
1:48:51 a short break–
1:48:52 » Yes, please.
1:48:53 » And then–
1:48:54 » All right.
1:48:55 We recess for five minutes.
1:48:56 » Good job.
1:48:57 » OK.
1:48:58 » All right.
1:48:59 » Thanks.
1:49:21 » Thank you.
1:57:05 » All right.
1:57:15 Welcome back.
1:57:16 Dr. Rendell?
1:57:17 » Thank you, Mr. Chair.
1:57:18 Our next presentation is about a development that is looking for
1:57:19 an impact fee reduction.
1:57:20 So I’m going to turn it over to Sue Han and she’s going to walk
1:57:23 us through and then introduce
1:57:25 our guest.
1:57:26 » Sure.
1:57:27 Good morning, everybody.
1:57:28 I’ll be introducing Mr. Ryan Hyler.
1:57:29 My name is Sue Hyler and I’m the owner of the Sticks Development
1:57:34 Company and they are
1:57:35 developing affordable housing in kind of a unique manner where
1:57:39 they are looking to convert
1:57:41 defunct hotel units into affordable housing that are very small
1:57:46 units and have a relatively
1:57:48 small population.
1:57:49 And so in doing so, they’re developing these units in a manner
1:57:52 that is different from our
1:57:54 own.
1:57:59 In the educational impact fee parameters, there is a rate for
1:58:01 multifamily unit.
1:58:02 It’s based on typically more children than you would see in this
1:58:05 type of product.
1:58:06 So there really isn’t a precedent for this.
1:58:10 The county governs impact fees in Brevard and so they have an
1:58:12 impact fee ordinance.
1:58:14 They set the rate.
1:58:16 We do an impact fee analysis about every decade now that looks
1:58:21 at how many students are generated
1:58:24 by a particular residential land use.
1:58:26 They look at construction costs and things like that that
1:58:29 develop the rate structure.
1:58:31 And so their ordinance allows for an independent impact fee
1:58:35 analysis when there is something
1:58:37 that is different than the parameters that were in the original
1:58:40 rate study.
1:58:41 And this particular product is different than the housing units
1:58:44 that were looked at in the
1:58:45 original rate study.
1:58:46 And so Mr. Hyler will be proposing to do an independent impact
1:58:50 fee analysis that is submitted
1:58:52 to Brevard County.
1:58:53 The county manager has the authority to grant a different rate
1:58:57 based on an independent analysis.
1:59:00 But typically the county is collaborative with the school board
1:59:03 and they would ask us
1:59:04 for our perspective on that.
1:59:06 And so I thought it would be a good idea to have Mr. Hyler come
1:59:09 in and talk through the
1:59:10 proposal, the study, and bring that study back to you all when
1:59:13 it’s completed probably
1:59:15 in February so that we can render an opinion to the county
1:59:18 should they ask for one.
1:59:20 And with that I will introduce you.
1:59:22 Thank you everyone for giving us this opportunity.
1:59:25 Can you guys hear me okay?
1:59:27 So we’re really excited about being a part of this community.
1:59:31 We have purchased the former Melbourne All Suite Hotel on
1:59:35 Highway 192.
1:59:37 It’s on New Haven just east of 95 right around Sam’s Club area.
1:59:42 There’s a restaurant currently in the property called the Sushi
1:59:45 Factory that you may be aware
1:59:46 of.
1:59:47 It used to be a waffle house.
1:59:49 So our business model for a portion of our business is to,
1:59:52 exactly as Sue said, buy defunct
1:59:55 hotels and convert the existing hotel room footprint into a
1:59:59 studio apartment.
2:00:01 And one of the challenges in affordable housing in today’s world
2:00:04 is construction pricing.
2:00:06 So I was just telling Sue we’re breaking ground on a ground up
2:00:09 facility in January and we
2:00:12 have built the exact same building footprint four times over now.
2:00:17 The first one was in 2014.
2:00:19 That property project cost us $124,000 a unit to build.
2:00:23 This one we’re breaking ground on next month is $300,000 per
2:00:26 unit to build.
2:00:27 So more than double the price over the past 10 years.
2:00:31 So inflation is real.
2:00:33 But that also impacts market rate housing, right?
2:00:36 And so you cannot afford to build ground up apartment projects
2:00:42 and deliver it at what
2:00:43 would be considered an affordable or a workforce housing price
2:00:47 in today’s market.
2:00:49 So for us this is a market based solution to affordable housing.
2:00:55 We do not use government subsidies.
2:00:58 We do not use tax credits.
2:01:00 This is all private funding, private lending to convert these
2:01:04 properties into a workforce
2:01:06 and an affordable product.
2:01:08 So here in the Melbourne property we’ll have 245 units with our
2:01:13 rental rates ranging from
2:01:16 what is defined as Florida housing and U.S. HUD as area median
2:01:20 income.
2:01:21 So typically the affordable housing rate is considered 80% of
2:01:25 median income and the rent
2:01:27 in Brevard County published this year is $1,324 per month at the
2:01:32 80% of AMI.
2:01:34 All of our apartments right now have been underwritten under
2:01:37 that.
2:01:38 Our lowest underwriting is about $1,225 a month.
2:01:41 And what’s unique to our property type, and I’ll get a little
2:01:44 bit more into this,
2:01:45 is that we provide an all inclusive rent.
2:01:48 So it’s a one stop shop.
2:01:50 We include all utilities, cable internet, water sewer, and we
2:01:55 also do a valley trash
2:01:56 service.
2:01:57 So six nights a week you leave your trash can outside of your
2:01:59 apartment door, someone
2:02:01 comes around during the night, they take your trash away.
2:02:04 And what we’ve actually found is it really helps us keep the
2:02:07 property clean.
2:02:09 But our residents see it as a huge benefit and they kind of see
2:02:14 it as a luxury add on
2:02:15 to the property.
2:02:17 We redevelop with the same classic finishes that we use in all
2:02:21 of our ground up facilities,
2:02:23 stainless steel appliances, solid surface countertops, provide
2:02:27 the same amenities.
2:02:28 We have fitness center, onsite management, pool, onsite laundry,
2:02:32 everything that you
2:02:33 would expect to see.
2:02:35 And really the only thing that differs here is the size of your
2:02:40 apartment.
2:02:41 So this is an interesting stat.
2:02:44 In the U.S. every year we develop more three car garages than we
2:02:48 do studio or one bedroom
2:02:50 apartments.
2:02:51 And so when you look at the majority of your ground up multifamily,
2:02:55 the majority of your
2:02:57 unit mix is typically a two bedroom with some mix of one bedroom
2:03:01 studios and three bedrooms
2:03:02 on the larger size.
2:03:04 And so when you get into affordability, you either have to have
2:03:07 a roommate in a two bedroom
2:03:09 unit or you look for smaller housing or you look for more rural
2:03:13 housing, which leads to
2:03:15 a much longer commute.
2:03:17 And so another interesting stat is that the lower the income strata,
2:03:22 the larger the percentage
2:03:24 of their income a person spends on transportation, and that’s
2:03:27 typically due to longer commute
2:03:29 times.
2:03:30 So those folks can’t afford to live closer to their jobs, so
2:03:33 they spend much more time
2:03:35 in the car.
2:03:37 In this trade area specifically on 192, over 40,000 daytime
2:03:42 employees commute into that
2:03:44 area every single day for their jobs.
2:03:47 A lot of retail jobs, everything from Target to Walmart to
2:03:51 restaurants, Starbucks, et cetera.
2:03:53 And so there’s a ton of daytime population there, but not enough
2:03:59 affordable housing or
2:04:01 attainable housing to support that local workforce.
2:04:04 So again, I’ve already talked about the cost to construct.
2:04:08 So we’ve looked a lot at national studies on why these smaller
2:04:13 units make sense, and
2:04:15 73% of all apartment dwellers that were surveyed nationwide have
2:04:18 said that they would look
2:04:19 at a micro or studio unit just in exchange for smaller rent as a
2:04:23 way to save money.
2:04:25 And 97% of those renters said the primary decision maker was
2:04:28 based on location.
2:04:30 So they’re truly looking for proximity to their jobs.
2:04:34 So these are some photos of a project that we actually just
2:04:37 opened about two months ago
2:04:39 in Charleston, South Carolina.
2:04:41 And I’ll say we currently have the same business model
2:04:44 operational.
2:04:45 We have one in Columbia, South Carolina, one in Charleston.
2:04:48 We have two in Osceola County with a third under construction.
2:04:52 We just closed on this property, and we have one under
2:04:54 construction right now in Naples.
2:04:56 So a total portfolio of about 1,600 units.
2:05:01 So very similar to the property that we just purchased, two-story
2:05:06 hotel, full renovation.
2:05:08 We added a brand-new pool here, outdoor living space.
2:05:12 So these are some photos of the interior of the unit.
2:05:15 Again, stainless steel appliances, soft-close cabinetry, solid
2:05:19 surface countertops, tile
2:05:23 backsplashes, and then into the amenities, a full fitness center,
2:05:28 on-site laundry.
2:05:30 And so because our units are so small, we don’t do laundry in
2:05:34 the unit, right?
2:05:35 But we do a technology feature on our washers and dryers that
2:05:40 actually allow people to pay
2:05:41 via Apple Pay as well, so you’re not having to walk around with
2:05:44 rolls of quarters.
2:05:45 So it’s much more modern and user-friendly.
2:05:48 We do clubhouse space.
2:05:50 We do shared dining rooms that you can reserve if you want to
2:05:53 throw a birthday party, things like that.
2:05:57 So when we look at our current operational communities, 94
2:06:03 percent of our residents are
2:06:05 single-person occupants.
2:06:07 One person lives there.
2:06:09 Fifty percent of our residents are in hospitality, food,
2:06:12 beverage, tourism.
2:06:14 But then you get into some of the other areas, and we actually
2:06:18 have 5 percent of our resident base
2:06:19 works for local government or for education.
2:06:22 I think this group will think this is interesting in our
2:06:25 community in Columbia, South Carolina.
2:06:27 One of our residents is a retired school music teacher.
2:06:30 She has three things in her apartment.
2:06:32 She has a king-size bed, a two-person dining table, and a baby
2:06:36 grand piano.
2:06:37 And so it’s really interesting how people choose to live in this
2:06:42 space, right?
2:06:44 And for someone that’s retired and on a fixed income, your water
2:06:48 bill doesn’t fluctuate,
2:06:50 your electric bill doesn’t fluctuate, you know exactly what you’re
2:06:53 paying every single month.
2:06:55 So across our entire portfolio right now, we have two minors
2:07:00 under the age of 18.
2:07:02 And so this is not a property type that generates a lot of
2:07:07 students.
2:07:08 One of the other things that is important to point out is under
2:07:13 HUD fair housing laws,
2:07:15 we are allowed to restrict our occupancy of our apartments to
2:07:20 two residents per unit.
2:07:22 And so in no situation do you end up with a couple and a child
2:07:26 living there.
2:07:27 You may end up having a single parent with their child, but
2:07:30 across the board we always restrict occupancy.
2:07:33 And that’s to preserve the quality of the community.
2:07:35 We don’t want overcrowding.
2:07:37 And so these are super small square footages, and we want people
2:07:42 to be comfortable in their homes
2:07:43 and not overcrowded.
2:07:47 Okay, so Brevard County specifically.
2:07:51 So when we look at that 80% of AMI level, we pulled data from
2:07:56 the Bureau of Labor Statistics
2:07:58 on local employment data, which is done by individual employment
2:08:02 category
2:08:03 and offers annual salaries within each of those employment
2:08:08 categories.
2:08:09 So we looked at what a one bedroom rent would be on the 80% of
2:08:14 AMI mark for HUD
2:08:16 and compared that to local employment numbers.
2:08:19 59% of the county cannot afford on their own as a single person
2:08:24 to pay for a one bedroom apartment.
2:08:27 And so when you look at that same level at a studio, you get a
2:08:32 little bit closer, right?
2:08:34 You’ve got 48%, but when you look at our underwritten rents, 72%
2:08:38 of the county would be able to afford that
2:08:41 to live independently and on their own.
2:08:43 So when you look at your starting teacher salaries that are
2:08:47 making upper 40s, low 50s,
2:08:50 when you look at teacher’s assistants that are making the $17, $18
2:08:55 an hour mark,
2:08:56 to qualify for our unit, I want to say the number is $17.80 an
2:09:00 hour
2:09:01 is what a person would need to make to qualify.
2:09:04 And so that is typically much lower than what you’re seeing on
2:09:08 any market rate housing out there today.
2:09:14 Okay, so as Sue mentioned, Brevard County allows for an
2:09:17 alternative fee study.
2:09:19 Currently, the impact fees do not differentiate between the type
2:09:24 of apartment,
2:09:25 only the type of development as a whole.
2:09:28 So there’s a single family residence category, there’s a multifamily
2:09:31 residence category,
2:09:32 but within that multifamily, there is no distinction between one
2:09:36 bedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom.
2:09:39 So when you look at the number of people that live in an
2:09:43 apartment,
2:09:45 so on the left is our studio with a limited occupancy of two
2:09:49 people.
2:09:50 On the right is your traditional three bedroom garden style
2:09:53 apartment that would allow six people.
2:09:57 And it’s five times the size, but across the impact fee category,
2:10:02 the impact fee is the exact same for all of those units.
2:10:07 So across the state, there are a little under a dozen
2:10:11 municipalities that actually do differentiate by unit size.
2:10:16 Typically, they look at the square footage of the unit with Brevard
2:10:21 County looking at one bedroom or less,
2:10:24 and Osceola County is actually in the process of adopting a
2:10:27 studio or a zero bedroom category.
2:10:30 So there is some precedence across the state to allow for a
2:10:33 separate impact fee for the smaller square footages.
2:10:39 So there have been a couple of previous studies, some were
2:10:42 independent to us, two we were involved in,
2:10:47 but three have been done over the past four years in Osceola
2:10:52 County,
2:10:53 and we recently completed one in Collier County for our Naples
2:10:56 project that shows a substantially lower student generation rate
2:11:00 for the square footages that we’re talking about compared to
2:11:04 traditional multifamily.
2:11:06 So if you kind of blend the student generation rates across
2:11:10 these studies,
2:11:12 it would show that our 245 unit property would generate
2:11:16 somewhere between one and seven students.
2:11:19 The current impact fee suggests that we would have 27 students.
2:11:24 And so, again, across our entire portfolio right now, we only
2:11:28 have two students living in our communities.
2:11:32 And so the rate of 27 is extremely high compared to what the
2:11:36 data both suggests and what we’re seeing in the real world.
2:11:40 And so the example that I kind of use is if you go to McDonald’s
2:11:45 and you order a cheeseburger, you don’t pay for a Big Mac, right?
2:11:48 You pay for the cheeseburger. And so our request to this group
2:11:52 would be to allow us to go out and complete a study
2:11:55 and actually pay for the impact that our community will have on
2:12:00 the school system.
2:12:02 So, again, what we would like to do is go out, complete an
2:12:05 independent study, bring it back,
2:12:07 have our consultant present the data to this group, and then
2:12:10 have you guys kind of weigh in on that
2:12:12 and potentially make a recommendation to the county manager.
2:12:18 All right. Board?
2:12:22 I’m going to go ahead and go because I have a couple of
2:12:23 questions. I was the one who asked the questions before.
2:12:26 Sure.
2:12:27 A few things. So you stated that HUD will allow you to limit the
2:12:31 occupancy.
2:12:32 Correct.
2:12:33 If you didn’t know the state, you will limit the occupancy.
2:12:34 We will.
2:12:35 You will limit the occupancy.
2:12:36 Yes, we will.
2:12:37 And we do.
2:12:38 And the current occupancy will be two per unit?
2:12:41 Correct.
2:12:42 Yes.
2:12:43 Okay.
2:12:44 So this is Live Local. So 40 percent of them have to fall in
2:12:48 that AMI, correct?
2:12:49 Yeah. So let me clarify that. Yeah. So under Live Local, that’s
2:12:52 our requirement.
2:12:53 But the requirement is actually 120 percent of AMI for Live
2:12:56 Local.
2:12:57 Okay. Right. From a higher rent.
2:12:58 Yeah. And so it’s higher, right?
2:13:00 And so there is a market rate that we can charge for this square
2:13:06 footage.
2:13:07 And what we have typically found is that market rate is under
2:13:11 the 80 percent of AMI mark.
2:13:13 And so we underwrite to that number or below because there’s a
2:13:17 point in time where a person would rather go get a two bedroom
2:13:21 with a roommate, right?
2:13:23 But it’s a market-based rent. And so we reference the 80 percent
2:13:29 mark, but under Live Local it’s actually much higher is our
2:13:32 requirement.
2:13:33 Okay. All right. Wonderful. And what is the current occupancy
2:13:35 that you have under your entire portfolio?
2:13:36 It sounds like some of these are newer projects. Is that right?
2:13:38 Yeah. Yeah.
2:13:39 So what have you sold or what’s your occupancy rate looking like
2:13:41 as an overall in the portfolio?
2:13:43 So the one in Charleston, it just opened its end lease up.
2:13:46 Ours in Columbia, we have stayed 97 percent occupied since the
2:13:50 day we opened and that one’s been open since 2019.
2:13:54 In Osceola, we have two properties that have been open since –
2:13:59 one opened in December of ‘21 and the other opened in March,
2:14:05 April of ‘22.
2:14:07 And those have been between 90 and 96 percent fluctuate.
2:14:11 Good.
2:14:12 Yeah. So I mean it’s – I mean it is a sought after product.
2:14:14 All right. Wonderful. Well, I love the fact that, you know,
2:14:16 obviously not taking any kind of government funding, I believe
2:14:19 that that’s obviously a huge benefit.
2:14:21 And I love the fact that you’re renovating something that’s
2:14:23 there that maybe isn’t being utilized or that it should be
2:14:26 utilized.
2:14:27 Is there any kind of stipulation that will be set as far as the
2:14:29 developer selling to a private entity later on that would maybe
2:14:32 increase the occupancy allowed in that unit or no?
2:14:35 Yeah. So we are happy to enter into an agreement like that.
2:14:38 Okay.
2:14:39 We’re absolutely happy to.
2:14:40 All right. Just as far as –
2:14:41 We can work with Sue. And we’ve done that in Osceola County as
2:14:44 well where we entered into an agreement with the school district
2:14:47 where if that ever changed, the district had the ability to come
2:14:50 back and charge those added fees.
2:14:52 Okay. I would be favorable to that. I love the idea of this.
2:14:56 Honestly, I think this is exactly what Live Local was created
2:14:58 for was to take these properties like this and turn them into
2:15:00 something.
2:15:01 What is – can I ask – no, I’m not going to ask that.
2:15:04 Ask, ask, ask.
2:15:05 All right. What is the rate going to be, the rental rate going
2:15:08 to be for the properties that aren’t in that AMI percentage?
2:15:10 They’re all – so here’s the thing. They’re all the same.
2:15:13 They’re all the same.
2:15:14 Yeah. So right now, our underwritten rents, including utilities,
2:15:17 range between $1,225 and $1,325 a month.
2:15:20 Okay.
2:15:21 And so the – and again, our Live Local requirement is 120
2:15:25 percent of AMI mark.
2:15:27 Right.
2:15:28 And I sent that to you, I believe. I think that the hundred –
2:15:30 it’s like $1,700?
2:15:32 That’s insane.
2:15:33 It is, right? It is. But so in Osceola right now, the AMI in Osceola
2:15:40 for 80 percent is a little bit higher. It’s like $1,365.
2:15:47 Our cheap, least expensive apartment is $1,220, and I think our
2:15:53 most expensive is $1,390.
2:15:57 And so we’re right there within that range, yeah.
2:16:00 Okay. All right. Wonderful.
2:16:01 Well, I think this is – you know, Tiny House Nation has
2:16:03 probably done a really good job for making studios a more
2:16:06 attractive future for people.
2:16:08 So, yeah, but thank you for coming and presenting. I’m in favor
2:16:10 of the study going forward and looking at that,
2:16:13 bringing it back to possibly finding a way to reduce some of the
2:16:17 fees for you guys to be able to renovate that property.
2:16:21 Thank you.
2:16:24 Great presentation. You just really hit all the marks as far as
2:16:27 getting the good information to us.
2:16:30 How does – because we’ve had a couple different organizations
2:16:32 come. One was specifically built with – as a nonprofit,
2:16:37 whatever,
2:16:37 and we had another one that was not necessarily – so I’m trying
2:16:40 to figure out how you fall in – it’s not like St. Stephen’s Way.
2:16:45 That was a different kind of thing. But how does this project
2:16:47 fall in comparison to those other two projects?
2:16:50 Sue would maybe be able to answer that one better.
2:16:52 Okay.
2:16:53 So I’ll start. I think there are different models of this.
2:16:57 So the St. Stephen’s Way project was one that was housing
2:17:03 existing families with existing kids in the school system.
2:17:08 Right.
2:17:09 So there was no net impact. So that was the basis of the
2:17:12 agreement and the – it was basically an exemption agreement
2:17:16 that was tri-party between the school district, the county, and
2:17:20 the developer.
2:17:21 So we had another proposal that was looking for an exemption,
2:17:25 but they were generating students.
2:17:28 And we – I don’t believe we ended up supporting that.
2:17:31 Right.
2:17:32 And so from my perspective as a facilities person, if there are
2:17:36 students – if there’s a net increase in students,
2:17:40 then I will be advocating for paying for that net increase in
2:17:44 students.
2:17:45 Because if you recall, even the impact fee rate that has been
2:17:48 adopted by Brevard County is substantially less
2:17:51 than the actual cost of that impact.
2:17:53 Right.
2:17:54 So the impact fees are only paying for a portion of what it
2:17:56 costs to actually support additional students in our schools
2:18:00 or in the school district in general.
2:18:02 So there are a couple different ways that you might see a
2:18:06 proposal.
2:18:07 In this particular case, the developer is proposing to pay for
2:18:09 that impact. It’s just the impact is predicted to be smaller.
2:18:13 Right.
2:18:14 Yeah, no, I appreciate that. I just wanted to make sure I could
2:18:17 wrap my mind around we did this, but then we did this and this,
2:18:20 so that that makes perfect sense.
2:18:22 I think I agree with the this is a great way to follow the live
2:18:29 local.
2:18:31 Because I’m trying to think of what are all the objections
2:18:33 people are going to have.
2:18:35 You know, people complain when we have new apartment complexes
2:18:37 go up.
2:18:38 But the truth is people don’t want to see these old properties
2:18:40 sitting around because they don’t get torn down.
2:18:42 They sit there and they look terrible.
2:18:44 And here’s the reality.
2:18:46 I’ve toured a lot of old defunct hotels, if I can just be candid.
2:18:49 And at some point, people live in these regardless, right?
2:18:54 I mean, that’s the reality.
2:18:56 And so by renovating it, by making it feel new again, we don’t
2:19:01 have a net impact on traffic.
2:19:04 We don’t have a net impact on utilities, right?
2:19:07 Because it’s been an operational, so this one was built in 1977,
2:19:10 it’s been impacting the road system since 1977, right?
2:19:14 And so we’ve done traffic studies to understand and we actually,
2:19:19 our type of community has a net reduction over hotel use because
2:19:23 it’s less transient.
2:19:25 And so as a whole, it is a much more sustainable way to look at
2:19:30 these properties
2:19:31 and to prevent them from becoming a nuisance to the local
2:19:35 community.
2:19:37 Right. Well, and I agree.
2:19:38 That was one of the things I had notes I had made that a long
2:19:41 commute is what affects traffic more.
2:19:43 And that is the chief complaint when we have more people moving
2:19:47 in is the extra traffic.
2:19:49 Minimalism is in vogue for sure.
2:19:54 So the other question, last question I had was how does the
2:19:57 underwriting work, who’s underwriting or is it just,
2:20:01 are you guys underwriting with your other projects that are, I’m
2:20:04 not sure how that.
2:20:05 Yes, so we do the underwriting, right?
2:20:07 So this is our business model.
2:20:09 And so what we have just learned across the portfolio is that
2:20:15 the market can
2:20:17 and will pay about the 80% of AMI mark for this product type.
2:20:22 And so that has just kind of become our adopted underwriting.
2:20:25 Okay. Well, you know, when I look at the impact, you know, this
2:20:31 kind of housing is needed absolutely for our employees,
2:20:35 especially for those young teachers.
2:20:37 And if they come from outside, there’s not a parent they can
2:20:38 live with until they get enough money, which could be years.
2:20:41 I mean, if we’re getting them from other places and we do that
2:20:44 quite frequently, it’s really hard to find housing.
2:20:47 And so I think this is a good use of this avenue and if the
2:20:51 alternative fee.
2:20:53 Now, you guys are already starting, so this won’t necessarily
2:20:57 help you with this project, will it?
2:20:59 Or if the timing?
2:21:00 Yes. So the way that the impact fees are done in Brevard County
2:21:03 is that the fees are paid at the certificate of occupancy.
2:21:06 And so we have basically through construction to work out.
2:21:10 Okay, so we have some time.
2:21:12 But potentially, would you be looking at other places in Brevard
2:21:15 to replicate the model?
2:21:16 We’re always looking.
2:21:17 Okay. Good.
2:21:18 Yeah.
2:21:19 All right. That’s all I had. Thank you.
2:21:20 Yeah.
2:21:21 All right.
2:21:22 So I want to say thank you.
2:21:24 The particular property that you’re working on I know has been a
2:21:27 nemesis to a lot of the area in that area, and it’s been a lot
2:21:30 of the leaders in that area.
2:21:31 So thank you for coming forward with it.
2:21:33 One of the questions I had, great presentation, way to lay it
2:21:37 out, very easy to understand and go through.
2:21:40 Paul, do we leave ourselves, and this isn’t particular for you,
2:21:43 but when we make decisions like these, whether we do or we do
2:21:47 not support it,
2:21:48 are we leaving ourselves open for risk for lawsuits in the
2:21:51 future if we decide to go the opposite in a similar situation?
2:21:55 Ultimately, this is a county thing, so whether the board
2:21:58 supports or doesn’t, the county can move forward.
2:22:02 So it’s their program.
2:22:03 They just usually seek our input and what we recommend, and they
2:22:07 may or may not take that.
2:22:09 So it’s their decision so we don’t leave ourselves open for risk?
2:22:12 Right.
2:22:13 Yeah.
2:22:14 It’s their program.
2:22:15 So if they think that we’ve made a mistake in our recommendation,
2:22:17 they would move forward if they think there’s some legal basis
2:22:20 that they have to move forward with allowing this.
2:22:23 Okay.
2:22:24 I like the business model.
2:22:25 I like it.
2:22:26 Good job.
2:22:27 I’m in favor.
2:22:28 Thank you.
2:22:29 All right.
2:22:30 Well, that’s clear.
2:22:31 You got clear direction.
2:22:32 We’re open to the impact fee study.
2:22:33 Okay.
2:22:34 So appreciate it.
2:22:35 All right.
2:22:36 Thank you.
2:22:37 Thank you guys very much.
2:22:38 All right.
2:22:39 Mr. Chair, the last presentation today is about Zero Eyes, and
2:22:45 we are always looking to ways to improve the safety and security
2:22:49 that we provide to our students and staff on campuses.
2:22:53 I’m always looking for other layers of security that we can add.
2:22:57 So Zero Eyes is a video monitoring system, and I’ll let them
2:23:00 explain what it is and everything, but it’s just an additional
2:23:04 tool that we are looking at.
2:23:07 Today, we’re just in presentation mode.
2:23:09 Yes.
2:23:10 We’re not necessarily proposing this or anything like that, just
2:23:14 a presentation for you to see the product, learn about the
2:23:17 product and that kind of thing.
2:23:19 And then, you know, we get direction today to move forward on
2:23:24 considering it, you know, we would do that.
2:23:27 But right now, today, it’s just this is an additional layer of
2:23:30 security that we could add to our buildings, and we just wanted
2:23:33 to give you the information and the presentation on it.
2:23:36 So Mr. Wilson, the chief operating officer, is back at the table,
2:23:44 and he’s going to, you know, take over and also introduce Brett
2:23:52 and the rest of the team.
2:23:56 We all set?
2:23:57 It’s good.
2:23:58 Awesome.
2:23:59 All right.
2:24:00 Ford, thank you so much for having us today.
2:24:01 I’m going to introduce you and you can roll in.
2:24:06 In our ongoing efforts to enhance the safety and security of our
2:24:10 schools, we are pleased to have with us Brett and JT from Zero
2:24:14 Eyes.
2:24:15 Zero Eyes specializes in using artificial intelligence to detect
2:24:20 firearms and live security camera footage.
2:24:24 Acting as an early warning system, it helps prevent potential
2:24:27 active shooter situations by integrating with existing security
2:24:31 cameras and alerting authorities when firearms are detected.
2:24:39 Several schools in Florida are using this technology, just
2:24:42 several school districts, excuse me, are using this technology
2:24:45 within the state.
2:24:47 Just to name a few, Indian River County, Sumter County, Leon
2:24:52 County, Hernando County, as well as Florida Atlantic University,
2:24:59 Florida Southwestern College, the Villages Charter, Pembroke Primes
2:25:05 Charter, and the Benjamin School, just to name a few of the
2:25:10 organizations within the state that’s using this technology.
2:25:14 I’m going to turn it over to Brett and JT to let them present
2:25:18 what Zero Eyes has to offer.
2:25:20 Brett.
2:25:21 Awesome.
2:25:22 Thank you.
2:25:23 Brett Mendel, Vice President of Education and Government
2:25:24 Solutions.
2:25:24 If JT Wilkins here, he’s the Senior Vice President at Zero Eyes.
2:25:27 I want to go into this one.
2:25:30 We’re recording.
2:25:31 How’s that?
2:25:32 Is that good?
2:25:33 We can give you a handheld if you want.
2:25:34 This is good.
2:25:35 I’m happy back here.
2:25:36 What I plan to show you today is sort of a two-part presentation.
2:25:39 It’s not going to be a sales pitch.
2:25:40 It’s going to be more of a tactical demonstration.
2:25:41 I’m going to go through a few slides, explain the technology,
2:25:43 how it works, and then we’ll
2:25:44 go into a live demo and show you this thing in action here.
2:25:47 So Zero Eyes itself, we have one mission.
2:25:49 It’s to stop, mitigate, prevent as much gun violence as possible.
2:25:52 So we have the saying in the top left, “Save time, save lives.”
2:25:55 And really what we mean by that is the more time we can give
2:25:57 back to first responders,
2:25:58 law enforcement, school personnel in the event of an active
2:26:00 threat, the better chance we
2:26:02 have of saving a life.
2:26:03 So quick back story.
2:26:04 You know, the company itself, founded by a group of former Navy
2:26:06 SEALs, special forces,
2:26:07 special operations guys who went to serve after 9/11, you know,
2:26:10 they come back, they
2:26:11 get their Ivy League MBAs, and 2018 comes around.
2:26:14 Naturally, that’s when the Parkland shooting happened, right?
2:26:16 Tragic day across the nation.
2:26:18 Seventeen people shot and killed, 17 shot and injured.
2:26:20 Really a turning point for schools across the nation with their
2:26:22 security measures.
2:26:23 So you see more lockdown drills, reunification plans.
2:26:26 You see metal detectors.
2:26:27 Our CEO, his daughter was in middle school at the time, went
2:26:29 through one of her first,
2:26:30 you know, intense lockdown drills, and I think we all know how
2:26:31 they go.
2:26:32 People coming around, you know, banging on the doors.
2:26:34 Daughter comes home upset, dad marches down to the school, talks
2:26:36 to the principal, the
2:26:38 resource officer.
2:26:39 They explain the drill.
2:26:40 It makes perfect sense to him.
2:26:41 He started looking at the cameras and asked, you know, what are
2:26:43 you doing with your security
2:26:44 cameras?
2:26:45 When I was overseas, we could detect a drone, an enemy, a weapon,
2:26:47 you know, virtually anything.
2:26:48 Why not do the same?
2:26:49 And, you know, the feedback he got from his daughter’s school
2:26:51 and more and more schools
2:26:52 was that, hey, cameras at schools are generally used for forensics.
2:26:55 In other words, after there’s a fight or a theft or an incident,
2:26:57 you’re going back and
2:26:58 rolling the tapes.
2:26:59 It’s quite seldom you find a school district that has someone
2:27:01 dedicated to monitoring every
2:27:02 single one of their thousands of camera feeds in real time.
2:27:05 So that’s where the whole concept came from, you know,
2:27:07 transforming what’s ultimately a
2:27:08 video recorder to a proactive gun detection system.
2:27:11 So ZeroWise itself, we’re a U.S.-based company headquartered
2:27:13 right outside Philadelphia.
2:27:15 And what we are, we’re an artificial intelligence computer
2:27:17 vision software that layers on your
2:27:19 existing security cameras to detect guns in real time.
2:27:22 So really what differentiates ZeroWise from any other weapon
2:27:25 detection system on the market
2:27:26 is our human-in-the-loop element.
2:27:28 It’s what we refer to as the ZOC, which stands for ZeroWise
2:27:30 Operation Center.
2:27:31 So if you think of a real-time crime center or a military
2:27:34 command center, 911 dispatch,
2:27:36 that’s what we mimic our ZOC after.
2:27:37 Again, staffed 24/7, 365 by ZeroWise employees, everyone that
2:27:41 works in the ZOC, you have to
2:27:42 be either former military or former law enforcement, and we do
2:27:44 this for a reason.
2:27:45 These are individuals that aren’t just trained and experienced
2:27:47 at recognizing active threats,
2:27:49 but they can also articulate what’s going on on a common
2:27:50 demeanor.
2:27:51 And, you know, quite frankly, it could be a high-intensity
2:27:53 situation, but really the
2:27:54 sole purpose of the ZOC is to verify every detection that our AI
2:27:58 gets to make sure, hey,
2:27:59 is this a true positive or is this a false positive?
2:28:01 So if you get an alert from ZeroWise at law enforcement level,
2:28:04 education level, you know
2:28:05 it’s something that absolutely deserved attention because it’s
2:28:07 been human verified.
2:28:08 So we are what I like to call camera agnostic.
2:28:11 In other words, we integrate with your existing video camera
2:28:13 infrastructure.
2:28:14 We’re all about making the most of your school district’s
2:28:16 existing security technology investments.
2:28:18 So we layer on your cameras the video management system.
2:28:21 We can do access control, mass notification.
2:28:23 We had extensive calls with your IT team and your CIO to confirm
2:28:27 100 percent compatibility
2:28:28 with your Mercado camera system.
2:28:30 And, you know, that’s good knowing that we work on all your
2:28:32 existing cameras.
2:28:33 And really what the technology is doing here is providing
2:28:36 arguably the two most critical
2:28:38 pieces of information you could ask for in the event of an
2:28:40 active threat, and that’s
2:28:41 time and situational awareness.
2:28:42 So what I mean by that, you’re going to know the exact location
2:28:44 of the threat, what they
2:28:46 look like, what type of weapon they have, and most importantly,
2:28:48 how much time has elapsed
2:28:49 since the threat was underneath each camera view.
2:28:51 Did I do something on the mic?
2:28:52 No.
2:28:53 All right.
2:28:54 Moving forward.
2:28:55 So to bring you through the workflow, top left, here’s your
2:28:57 existing security cameras.
2:28:59 Now, we require that at least 0.1 percent or more of the firearm
2:29:02 is in frame of the
2:29:03 camera to get a detection.
2:29:04 So, in other words, it doesn’t have to be fully brandished.
2:29:06 It could just be part of the barrel or part of the handle.
2:29:08 As soon as that happens, our system gets a detection and it
2:29:11 sends a key frame image to
2:29:12 our operations center.
2:29:13 So think of a key frame image like a snapshot or a screenshot on
2:29:15 your cell phone.
2:29:16 It’s a still frame image.
2:29:18 Within three to five seconds, that ZOC analyst is either going
2:29:20 to dispatch an alert or they’re
2:29:22 going to mark it as a false positive.
2:29:23 So when they click “dispatch,” several things happen
2:29:25 concurrently.
2:29:26 We have two phones that ring in the operations center.
2:29:28 One’s dialing our primary security point of contact at that
2:29:30 school.
2:29:31 The other’s dialing the 911 dispatch center that covers that
2:29:34 school’s jurisdiction.
2:29:35 So it’s a live person on the phone telling you exactly what’s
2:29:37 going on.
2:29:38 Concurrently, you have visual alerts sent out to the name users
2:29:40 throughout the district,
2:29:41 whether that’s SROs, guardians, principals, board members,
2:29:44 whoever it may be.
2:29:45 And you get these alerts a variety of ways, through mobile app,
2:29:47 through the desktop, through
2:29:48 text message.
2:29:49 And that’s what’s going to show you a map of your buildings with
2:29:51 the pin drops showing
2:29:52 a breadcrumb trail of how much time has elapsed since the threat
2:29:54 was underneath each camera
2:29:56 view and what their last known position was.
2:29:57 So, again, that’s situational awareness factor.
2:30:01 Going forward, we like to share this because we want you to know
2:30:03 our trust in this space.
2:30:04 JT and I were some of the early employees with Zero Eyes.
2:30:07 We’re around 200 full-time employees now.
2:30:09 We have those operations centers across the country.
2:30:11 So our primaries right outside Philadelphia, our secondaries in
2:30:13 Hawaii, we do that for
2:30:15 geo and failover redundancy.
2:30:16 In other words, does it make sense to have someone monitoring
2:30:18 for detections at, say,
2:30:19 3 a.m. local time on the East Coast when it could be a much more
2:30:21 reasonable hour of the
2:30:22 day in our Pacific ZOC?
2:30:24 So the company itself, we’re over 80% veterans over here.
2:30:27 And, you know, schools, K-12 districts, you guys care about
2:30:30 privacy concerns too.
2:30:32 So we’re FERPA compliant as well as Ed2D law compliant.
2:30:34 So, in other words, we are not watching a live feed of your
2:30:36 school security cameras.
2:30:38 The only time we can see inside your camera is when our AI
2:30:40 detects an object that it thinks
2:30:41 is a gun.
2:30:42 So there’s no bias towards race, gender, ethnicity, behavior.
2:30:45 Again, the AI is looking for one thing and one thing only.
2:30:48 Is this object a gun or is it not?
2:30:51 Next to that is our Safety Act designation.
2:30:52 So we’re the only video analytic weapon detection system that
2:30:55 carries the Safety Act designation
2:30:56 from the Department of Homeland Security.
2:30:58 So what that should mean to you is DHS can drop in on us.
2:31:01 They could do pressure testing or stress testing on our
2:31:03 technology any time they want to make
2:31:04 sure we’re keeping up with our end of the bargain.
2:31:06 So because we have the Safety Act designation, we are now
2:31:08 considered and classified as anti-domestic
2:31:10 terrorism technology.
2:31:12 So the system itself, we’re deployed in over 450 school
2:31:14 districts across 42 states.
2:31:16 I think the only one I didn’t hear earlier was Seminole County
2:31:19 Public Schools.
2:31:20 You know, our education clients in Florida, they pretty much
2:31:22 raised their hand.
2:31:23 If you want to speak with any of their security personnel, superintendents,
2:31:26 board members,
2:31:27 they’re pretty much open to talking with anyone.
2:31:29 So this was originally designed for schools.
2:31:32 Naturally, we had to make a pivot when COVID hit because
2:31:34 students weren’t in the classroom.
2:31:35 So we started working with commercial and government entities
2:31:37 and we’ve been extremely
2:31:38 successful there.
2:31:39 You can see Verizon, Home Depot, Subaru, Transwestern, you know,
2:31:42 obviously a lot of NDAs in there
2:31:43 and then some major government entities.
2:31:46 But going forward, you know, I’ll go through the next one here.
2:31:50 This is really like – this is what you have to consider that
2:31:52 your security team is looking
2:31:54 at in the event of an active threat.
2:31:56 You know, it’s going to be pretty difficult to find where the
2:32:00 gun is in this camera feed.
2:32:02 So if you were to say, hey, we have someone dedicated to
2:32:04 monitoring all the camera feeds,
2:32:05 I’d challenge them.
2:32:06 I’d say find the firearm.
2:32:08 And we get all of our data from the FBI, Department of Homeland
2:32:10 Security, NationalGunViolence.org,
2:32:12 and they’ve looked at every school shooting since Columbine.
2:32:14 So this is 20-plus years of data.
2:32:16 And they’ve broken it down into a three-stage sequence, the prep,
2:32:18 active, and response stage.
2:32:20 And what the numbers show are staggering.
2:32:22 Almost 80 percent of the time there’s been a school shooting,
2:32:24 the gun’s been brandished
2:32:25 underneath one of the security cameras, anywhere from 30 seconds
2:32:28 to 30 minutes before the first
2:32:29 shots fired.
2:32:30 And that’s what’s classified as the prep stage.
2:32:31 You know, that could be the assailant mentally preparing
2:32:33 themselves to go shoot unarmed civilians
2:32:35 or their peers.
2:32:36 It could also be them physically preparing themselves by
2:32:37 assembling a long gun, you know,
2:32:39 pulling out of a backpack or the trunk of a car, approaching
2:32:41 from a parking lot or sports
2:32:42 field.
2:32:43 You think about Parkland, obviously a sensitive topic,
2:32:45 especially in the state of Florida,
2:32:47 but he was underneath the stairwell camera with that, you know,
2:32:49 long gun there, and it
2:32:51 was brandished.
2:32:52 He exits the stairwell, goes down the corridor, and he was
2:32:54 passed underneath several cameras
2:32:55 before the first shot was fired.
2:32:57 So obviously a hypothetical scenario here, but who knows how
2:33:00 many lives could have been
2:33:01 saved that day if our technology was around at this point in
2:33:03 time.
2:33:04 So I’m going to pass it over to J.T.
2:33:05 We’re going to walk through a couple of detections here and
2:33:07 explain, you know, how our technology
2:33:08 has been effective in the past.
2:33:12 All right, we’ve got it working there.
2:33:17 So first off, thank you again for having us today.
2:33:19 My name is J.T. Wilkins, Senior Vice President of Sales here at
2:33:21 Zero Wives.
2:33:22 I’ve been with the company for about three and a half years.
2:33:24 I’m a Marine veteran.
2:33:25 I spent 14 years on active duty, medically retired in 2020, went
2:33:29 down range a number
2:33:30 of times, fell in love with the mission at Zero Wives, been here
2:33:33 ever since.
2:33:34 So it’s important to note, as Brett’s talking about a lot of
2:33:38 hypothetical situations, with
2:33:40 the 450 clients that we have on the platform today, we’ve seen
2:33:45 real world arrests on the
2:33:47 backside of this.
2:33:48 This is one of the ones that we’re looking at today.
2:33:50 This was one of our transit clients in the Northeast.
2:33:53 The individual, if you can kind of see, it’s a little blurry on
2:33:55 the screen here, but the
2:33:57 individual was brandishing a firearm, pulled it out of his waistband,
2:34:01 was sitting on the
2:34:02 subway platform, this was a gun-free zone, was not supposed to
2:34:04 have a firearm in this
2:34:05 location.
2:34:07 We saw that, we dispatched that to law enforcement within about
2:34:10 four seconds after that human
2:34:12 verification process went through.
2:34:14 The Transit Police Department interdicted that individual and a
2:34:17 few minutes after that
2:34:18 we resolved that information without further incident.
2:34:22 In this case, the individual was heavily intoxicated, waving a
2:34:26 firearm on the platform.
2:34:28 We’re not sure what he was doing, what his plans were, but at
2:34:31 the end of the day he had
2:34:32 the firearm, he was intoxicated and he was in a place he wasn’t
2:34:35 supposed to have them.
2:34:37 So we have a few more here.
2:34:39 All these are from 2023.
2:34:42 So in your top left, this individual was in a municipal parking
2:34:45 lot, brandishing an AR-style
2:34:47 rifle.
2:34:48 We dispatched this within about three seconds to local law
2:34:51 enforcement.
2:34:52 They interdicted this group of people.
2:34:55 The guy had actually put the firearm away at this point.
2:34:58 I guess he was just showing it to some folks but was not
2:35:00 supposed to, again, on government
2:35:02 property, not supposed to have that firearm there.
2:35:04 When the Police Department arrived, they showed them the
2:35:06 dispatched alert that we sent them,
2:35:09 very clearly showing it was this individual with this truck with
2:35:12 this type of firearm.
2:35:13 They found it, talked to the guy and then they went along their
2:35:16 way.
2:35:17 In the top right, we’re looking at an individual that was pacing
2:35:21 around turnstiles waiting
2:35:22 for potentially someone to come through there to commit some
2:35:25 type of act against that individual.
2:35:27 Again, dispatched that within seconds.
2:35:30 Transit police were there within a few minutes.
2:35:33 This guy ran from the Police Department, ditched the gun, fought
2:35:37 police and then when he was
2:35:39 interdicted, they later found out that this individual had
2:35:41 multiple arrest warrants out
2:35:44 for a battery of different crimes that this individual committed.
2:35:49 So he was arrested.
2:35:51 Bottom left, we’re looking at a, you can see on the bottom right
2:35:55 there the timestamp, 2.38
2:35:57 a.m. a bunch of kids had broken into one of our schools, was
2:36:01 walking around with a firearm.
2:36:03 Again, dispatched that alert to local law enforcement.
2:36:08 They interdicted them and were later arrested.
2:36:12 And then bottom right, another incident of an individual brandishing
2:36:16 a firearm in a public
2:36:17 location, dispatched and was later interdicted by law
2:36:21 enforcement.
2:36:23 So what we’re doing by showing you all these images is that this
2:36:26 technology works.
2:36:28 It’s not it’s not security theater.
2:36:31 It’s something that we can place today that would increase your
2:36:35 security posture almost immediately.
2:36:37 When you look at the cameras and the capital investment that you’ve
2:36:40 made into your camera infrastructure
2:36:42 and talking with the district, there’s well over 5000 individual
2:36:47 camera streams.
2:36:48 It’s physically impossible to watch every single one of those
2:36:52 every single one of those camera streams.
2:36:54 Every single school district that we talk to, every single
2:36:56 entity that we talk to, they don’t have the ability to look at
2:36:59 these cameras.
2:37:00 And so they become a forensic or a reactive tool on the backside.
2:37:03 What we’re trying to do here is make it proactive. What’s
2:37:05 important to note here is in this image is the value of our
2:37:09 operations center.
2:37:10 So our our software is designed to pick up brandish firearms.
2:37:15 That doesn’t matter if it’s someone that’s carrying it this
2:37:18 lawfully.
2:37:19 Once it becomes comes out of that holster, we’re going to get
2:37:21 that detection. So in this case, you can see uniformed police
2:37:24 officers that have that that weapon out.
2:37:27 This could have been an active shooter drill at one of our
2:37:28 schools. We see that quite a bit.
2:37:30 What’s important to note is that that weapon was in the holster,
2:37:33 kind of like the gentleman off to the back right there.
2:37:36 We’re not going to get that detection. We don’t train our
2:37:39 software to detect holstered firearms.
2:37:41 We’re deployed everywhere from Florida and Texas all the way up
2:37:44 to Chicago. This isn’t a partisan issue.
2:37:47 This is a this is a we’re trying to detect someone that has
2:37:50 doing something harmful with a with a firearm in a place that
2:37:54 they’re not supposed to have that out.
2:37:55 So we can have any one of the officers walk around this room
2:37:58 right now with their holster firearms.
2:38:00 We’re not going to get that detection in the event that we do
2:38:02 the operations center to very clearly see that those are uniformed
2:38:05 officers.
2:38:06 And we’re going to go a different dispatching route or at least
2:38:08 a different notification route and said, hey, we did see this.
2:38:11 We want we want to let you know that the software is working or
2:38:13 at least that it’s you know, it’s it’s it’s on and we saw the
2:38:16 firearm.
2:38:17 But we’re not going to send the cavalry. And what we know never
2:38:22 want to do is escalate a potential situation into something that
2:38:28 it may not need to be.
2:38:30 So last year in February, I think everyone saw the news on the
2:38:34 Michigan State University.
2:38:36 Unfortunately, we just had another incident yesterday. And so we’re
2:38:39 fully aware of the impact of that on the Wisconsin community.
2:38:44 But I wanted to show this video very quickly. So this is, again,
2:38:48 the video, the Michigan State University shooter walking into
2:38:51 the building that he walked into just shortly before he started
2:38:54 firing on on the individuals that were there.
2:38:57 I want to make it very, very clear. Zero wise was not going to
2:39:00 stop the shooting from happening. This happened within seconds.
2:39:03 We’re not a do everything tool. We’re a situational awareness
2:39:06 platform. Our goal is to be able to give back time to law
2:39:09 enforcement.
2:39:10 So within the seconds after this image, this guy started
2:39:12 shooting. There was nothing we can do.
2:39:14 What we could have done, though, in this scenario, if we were
2:39:17 deployed and got this detection was reduce the three and a half
2:39:21 hours of panic that had gone on in the greater Lansing area.
2:39:25 There was, I believe, somewhere in the ballpark of one hundred
2:39:29 and fifty nine one one calls that came in over a seven and a
2:39:32 half square mile radius.
2:39:34 Roughly about 15 of those were shots fired calls, and they came
2:39:37 in roughly five and a half square miles around where the
2:39:40 shooting happened.
2:39:41 The shooter ended up being found roughly three quarters of a
2:39:43 mile away from the building, and it took them 90 minutes to gain
2:39:47 access to the video just to be able to figure out what was the
2:39:50 description of the weapon in the shooter.
2:39:52 So our value proposition in that scenario is we’re going to give
2:39:55 you we’re going to give you this image in three to five seconds,
2:39:58 roughly, and we’re going to get this out as fast as humanly
2:40:00 possible and we’re going to keep on sending you as much
2:40:03 information to provide situational awareness through the life
2:40:07 cycle of an active shooting.
2:40:08 God forbid that ends up happening.
2:40:12 So, Brett, I’ll hand it back to you for the rest of the
2:40:14 presentation here.
2:40:16 Awesome. So I want to walk you through the user interface. You
2:40:19 can see exactly what we’re doing here, what you’re looking at on
2:40:20 this screen.
2:40:21 This is our internal user interface. So, in other words, this is
2:40:24 what the ZeroEyes Operations Center is looking at the majority
2:40:26 of the time.
2:40:27 Again, they’re staring at a blank screen. They’re not watching a
2:40:29 live feed of your cameras.
2:40:30 Now, as soon as a firearm is detected, a loud nuclear alarm goes
2:40:33 off in the ZOC, you know, something that’s going to get their
2:40:36 attention.
2:40:37 And you can see the bounding box, which is drawn around the
2:40:39 object that it thinks is a firearm.
2:40:41 So above this key frame image is the camera names. We’re going
2:40:43 to match your school’s camera naming convention or camera nomenclature,
2:40:46 if you would.
2:40:47 So you can see all these detections coming in on the right side
2:40:50 from first to last. And I’ll sort of click through this.
2:40:51 You can see the different dispatched alerts here. It is as close
2:40:53 to real time as it gets.
2:40:55 Every step they’re taking, different carry configurations, there’s
2:40:58 negative objects or what they call a lot of noise in the
2:41:00 background trying to trip up the AI.
2:41:02 But what your takeaway should be is you see them clicking
2:41:04 dispatch here.
2:41:05 As soon as they click that the first time, that’s when the
2:41:07 phones are ringing and the visual alerts are going out.
2:41:10 So this is what it’s going to look like on the client-facing
2:41:12 view.
2:41:13 This is what would go to your desktop, to your mobile app. And
2:41:17 what you’re looking at here, these different pin drops represent
2:41:19 your cameras that have zero eyes.
2:41:21 So the greenish-teal color pin drops with a zero underneath them,
2:41:24 those are your cameras that have not detected a firearm yet.
2:41:27 The purple and the white pin drops are your cameras that have
2:41:29 detected a gun.
2:41:30 And you see a timestamp below showing how much time has elapsed
2:41:32 since the threat was underneath that camera view.
2:41:35 So as I click play here, you can see a minute and 26 seconds
2:41:38 from the northeast side of the building, a minute and 21 seconds,
2:41:42 then southwest, then back to the northeast side of the building.
2:41:45 So you’re essentially getting a breadcrumb trail so you don’t
2:41:48 only know where they’ve been but where they’re going and also
2:41:50 that last known position.
2:41:52 This white icon is just showing you the corresponding detection
2:41:54 on the right side of the screen.
2:41:56 So you know from looking at this, a minute and 32 seconds ago
2:41:59 the threat was underneath this camera view doing this action.
2:42:02 So that’s really what I have for you for a slide show here.
2:42:05 Next, it’s one thing to show a recording, obviously you can
2:42:08 doctor up and do anything you need to do to make it look good,
2:42:11 but it’s another thing to see the analytic live in person.
2:42:14 So we have a few fake firearms here, they’re airsoft weapons
2:42:17 with no ammunition in them or anything like that.
2:42:20 I have a Linux machine right here that is acting as our server,
2:42:23 which we would come on site and install.
2:42:25 We get boots on the ground, we’ll install the server, we’ll test
2:42:27 all your cameras for detection, we’ll do hands-on training with
2:42:29 your staff and law enforcement.
2:42:31 Because we very much run under the impression, hey, you have the
2:42:33 best technology in the world, but what good is it if the people
2:42:36 using it aren’t effective.
2:42:38 So that being said, I’m just going to switch the video and put
2:42:41 it over here and I’ll work with JT to show you some detections.
2:42:45 Give me one second.
2:42:52 Let me just switch the display over here.
2:43:02 Right here.
2:43:07 All right.
2:43:09 Sweet.
2:43:10 So that red bounding box you see, that is showing you the
2:43:13 detection.
2:43:14 Every time you see that red box there, that’s an alert, that’s a
2:43:16 key frame image that’s going to the operation center.
2:43:19 So, again, this is just showing you how well the AI works.
2:43:23 Something that’s another differentiator from us and other
2:43:26 technologies is we use organic data sets to build our AI.
2:43:29 So we have a Hollywood style green screen lab at our
2:43:31 headquarters and we have a team of individuals that walk around
2:43:34 with different firearms and different carry configurations.
2:43:36 And they take tens of thousands of pictures of those individuals
2:43:39 and we load those 3D images into the AI.
2:43:41 That’s how we train the model with real live data.
2:43:43 So you can see JT is holding a pistol here, that’s a black on
2:43:47 black detection, right? Dark gun, dark shirt here, still getting
2:43:49 the detection.
2:43:50 So, again, hopefully this is something you never have to use,
2:43:52 right?
2:43:53 But in the event you do have to use it, you’re damn happy you
2:43:56 have something like this in place.
2:43:59 One other thing I want to show you here just before we wrap up
2:44:02 is I want to bring you through, you know, I talked about a few
2:44:05 different ways we send alerts out.
2:44:07 So I showed on the last screen the desktop view, but what you’re
2:44:11 looking at here on the top left, probably what your live cameras
2:44:14 look like today without any analytics running.
2:44:16 Next to that are the mobile app alerts.
2:44:18 So the mobile app is simply just a condensed version of the
2:44:21 desktop app.
2:44:22 You can specify what users you want throughout the district to
2:44:25 have access to this.
2:44:26 The text message alerts, now the text alerts, they give you a
2:44:27 little bit of higher level information.
2:44:29 There’s such thing as over inundating schools with too much data.
2:44:32 You want to make sure the right people have the right
2:44:33 information.
2:44:34 So what you get in the text alerts is the building name, the
2:44:36 camera name, and the hyperlink to the key frame image.
2:44:39 Now, something else that’s cool is, especially because you have
2:44:42 Vercata cameras, you know, they’re one of the best cameras on
2:44:44 the market and they have tons of analytics.
2:44:46 In the top right, that’s our integration with the video
2:44:48 management system, what Vercata calls Vercata command centers.
2:44:51 We’ll integrate into your video management system, and how that
2:44:53 works is when we dispatch an alert, your camera feeds will
2:44:56 actually pull up in real time.
2:44:57 They’ll populate to that live camera feed.
2:44:59 And the reason we do that is say they stole the firearm away or
2:45:02 they ditched it into a bush or back in a backpack or a trash can.
2:45:06 This gives you the best chance of seeing what’s going on in real
2:45:08 time on your side from the camera views at each individual
2:45:11 school level.
2:45:12 So this is really, you know, in a nutshell what we have for you
2:45:14 for our presentation here, but we’d love to hear any feedback
2:45:18 and answer any questions for the group.
2:45:21 » Guys, I want to say thank you so much for, you know, putting
2:45:25 forth the presentation that you have and, you know, thank God
2:45:29 there’s innovative people such as yourselves and the people who
2:45:33 came up with this.
2:45:35 Board, questions?
2:45:40 » I echo.
2:45:41 Thank you for digging into the creative side of things and
2:45:44 developing a product that is designed to keep us all safe and
2:45:47 especially our students and staff.
2:45:50 So my question would be when you send the alert, it’s still on
2:45:55 our– you know, we have rave apps and things to lock things down.
2:46:00 You’re sending the alert, it’s still on our side.
2:46:02 If we’re in schools, obviously after hours– I was really glad
2:46:05 to see that it’s continuing to work after hours because ours,
2:46:08 you know, the sheriff’s department oversees that even when we’re
2:46:11 not on campus.
2:46:12 But it’s still on our people to do the lockdowns, correct?
2:46:15 » That’s correct.
2:46:16 So what we would never want to do is send an alert from
2:46:19 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania or Honolulu, Hawaii and lock down the
2:46:23 school with the potential threat still inside.
2:46:26 » Right.
2:46:27 » So we’re providing the information.
2:46:28 We do have integrations with those type of access control
2:46:31 platforms where we can send those alerts into the platform and
2:46:35 then it’s kind of a one-stop shop.
2:46:38 It depends on what you have.
2:46:39 » Right.
2:46:40 » But yeah, we’re not going to ever make that decision on your
2:46:43 behalf.
2:46:44 » Right. » So we send those alerts out.
2:46:46 It’s kind of like a la carte.
2:46:47 You get to choose where the alerts go to.
2:46:49 So whether that’s to the school resource team, the local public
2:46:53 service answering point, you know, to the individual principals,
2:46:57 superintendent’s office, whatever that you’d like, that’s how we
2:47:01 can set those alerts up.
2:47:03 » Right.
2:47:04 » So I’m glad you were able to talk to the technology
2:47:07 department because everybody has to integrate to cooperate in
2:47:11 order to make this – to take advantage of the quick response
2:47:15 time too.
2:47:16 So that’s all I have.
2:47:19 » Fred.
2:47:21 » First off, thank you for your service to our country.
2:47:23 I appreciate any of our military.
2:47:25 That is the ultimate sacrifice.
2:47:27 Ms. Campbell and I had the opportunity to go and actually tour
2:47:30 Parkland that was frozen in time since that massacre took place
2:47:34 and nothing hits home quite like that and really understanding
2:47:37 that security has to be of the top priority for our district.
2:47:40 If we can’t ensure your children are going to go home every day,
2:47:42 I don’t want to have your children in our schools and my own
2:47:44 children are in our schools.
2:47:45 So I feel very, very, very passionate about security measures.
2:47:48 I wanted to ask just a couple of questions that you had.
2:47:51 You know, what is the false alarm rate?
2:47:53 What do you guys see on that?
2:47:54 Is there like a – how many false alarms do you get in a school
2:47:56 system?
2:47:57 And I don’t know if that’s easy to answer or not.
2:48:00 Like does it happen frequently?
2:48:02 Let’s put it that way.
2:48:03 » Yeah, so that’s a good question and we get it a lot.
2:48:06 So no AI is perfect.
2:48:08 There’s a lot of objects that look like firearms out there and
2:48:11 inevitably our system pulls false positives just like any else.
2:48:14 The way that we mitigate those false positives is with our Zero
2:48:17 Wise Operations Center.
2:48:19 So the goal is that you would never receive a false positive
2:48:23 here to the school district.
2:48:25 We’re going to remove those from that sequence so that human in
2:48:30 the loop reviewer is going to zoom in.
2:48:32 They’re going to be able to determine gun or no gun and then
2:48:35 make the decision to either dispatch or push that through our
2:48:38 false positive process.
2:48:40 And when we push that through our false positive process, the
2:48:43 system is relearning.
2:48:44 Now it’s not happening on the edge.
2:48:46 We have a team dedicated to do that.
2:48:48 But we’re saying no, that was, you know, during like the COVID
2:48:51 days with the COVID sprayers, right?
2:48:53 They have a pistol grip on them and when you were walking around
2:48:56 and you were disinfecting the building because it has that
2:48:59 pistol grip, we get that.
2:49:00 We’re deployed in the Department of Defense installations.
2:49:03 The scanner to scan the ID cards, that pulls the false positives
2:49:06 because it very much looks like a firearm.
2:49:08 But we’re very easily able to tell that that’s not a threat.
2:49:13 Okay. One of the questions I had is that the software is created
2:49:16 in a way to pick up the firearm itself.
2:49:18 So in the event that somebody were to brandish a firearm, let’s
2:49:21 just say and something goes down and then they toss the firearm
2:49:25 and then they go mingle and get in the middle of a crowd.
2:49:27 Does the software detect that individual or stay with that? Is
2:49:30 the capability there for them to track that individual?
2:49:33 So the pinpoints that we see on there is tracking where the gun
2:49:36 is going, right?
2:49:37 But what happens if they set the gun down and they go somewhere
2:49:39 else? Is there any way for that to happen?
2:49:42 Yeah. Great question. So short answer is no. We never want to
2:49:47 start identifying people, especially children.
2:49:50 We get you get on a rabbit hole very, very quickly from a
2:49:53 legality perspective and a privacy infringement perspective when
2:49:56 we start identifying individuals.
2:49:59 So what we do is detect firearms and firearms only. We’re very,
2:50:03 very good at it because we have all the integrations that we
2:50:06 have.
2:50:06 And because of the the improvement of your your camera
2:50:09 infrastructure, when we send those alerts into the monitoring
2:50:12 dashboard,
2:50:13 into the camera dashboard of the video management system that
2:50:15 Brett was walking you through up there, a lot of times what our
2:50:18 clients will do is set that to like a 10 second delay.
2:50:21 And then once that alert hits the platform, they can do the
2:50:24 follow from that point off of that live camera.
2:50:27 And that way they’re able to follow the individual because you’re
2:50:29 getting the description of what ultimately what weapon that they’re
2:50:31 carrying.
2:50:32 And as a byproduct of that, we ultimately take a quick snapshot
2:50:35 of the individual.
2:50:37 Now that person’s back could be turned to us because, again, we’re
2:50:39 only looking for the firearm, but you still get a description of
2:50:41 the individual that’s carrying the firearm.
2:50:44 OK. And to that point, what you can do in Vercada, and one of
2:50:46 the reasons it’s a great camera, those analytics, you can walk
2:50:49 on to a key person of interest or a key subject.
2:50:51 So depending on what your licensing plan is with them, you can
2:50:54 say, you know, white male with a red hat and jeans on, something
2:50:57 like that.
2:50:58 Or if you have that key frame image, you can draw a box around
2:51:01 it and it can locate it on your camera.
2:51:03 So I’m not sure if you have that feature in your Vercada system,
2:51:06 but key object tracking is very popular for their analytics.
2:51:09 All right. I don’t think I have any other questions.
2:51:11 I mean, God willing, we never need this type of software.
2:51:14 Honestly, I wish you lived in a utopian society where it wasn’t
2:51:16 necessary, but that’s not the reality of the world that we’re in.
2:51:18 So I appreciate the work that you guys are doing to keep
2:51:20 everyone safe.
2:51:21 It looks like you’re working with a multitude of different
2:51:22 companies.
2:51:23 And, you know, schools obviously is where our heart is, so I
2:51:25 appreciate that being your initial initiative.
2:51:28 So thank you.
2:51:29 » Thank you.
2:51:30 » So I had a couple of quick questions.
2:51:31 So we ID the individual on the campus somewhere.
2:51:36 It goes – the alert goes in.
2:51:38 Our team’s alerted.
2:51:39 Then they act – they send in SROs to coordinate everything else.
2:51:43 So I’m an SRO on campus.
2:51:45 This comes in, then all of a sudden I hear my team would
2:51:48 coordinate those pops on the camera, right?
2:51:52 So like if all of a sudden the camera’s over here on the backside
2:51:55 of the building, they’ll say, you know, room 109 or whatever it
2:51:58 is, advance there, right?
2:52:00 So that coordination and everything’s on us.
2:52:02 You guys are just alerting, right?
2:52:05 » That’s correct.
2:52:06 » Okay. And then it’s in real time.
2:52:08 So if we have a situation, what I’m hearing you say is that as
2:52:10 they’re popping around the building, our law enforcement would
2:52:13 be able to coordinate with those pops.
2:52:15 I’m saying identifications, right, to the location of the
2:52:18 individuals and about, right?
2:52:20 Because that’s one of the things law enforcement runs into is
2:52:22 not knowing exactly where they’re at.
2:52:24 With our cameras, this will also not only pre-identify but
2:52:27 identify throughout an active situation.
2:52:30 Is that about – am I thinking correctly?
2:52:32 » Yeah, that’s exactly right.
2:52:33 » That’s what I was watching inside that piece right there was
2:52:35 the numbers that were popping.
2:52:37 And it shows like that?
2:52:38 Is that all part of –
2:52:39 » In an ideal world, we get the alert, we’re going to dispatch
2:52:41 it through.
2:52:42 And when we’re on the phone with 911 dispatch or SRO, whoever,
2:52:45 they’re getting, you know, the communications from ZeroWise.
2:52:48 And they’re regurgitating that to, you know, the other first
2:52:50 responders through radio comms.
2:52:52 » That’s the question.
2:52:53 So you guys are seeing it.
2:52:55 Is our team seeing that or is that your team seeing that?
2:52:57 » Yes, yes.
2:52:58 » That’s it.
2:52:59 OK, so our team sees it.
2:53:00 That’s it.
2:53:01 Thank you.
2:53:02 » Yeah, so you’re going to get – so kind of going back over
2:53:03 this.
2:53:04 So the bottom right there would be the – is the customer facing
2:53:06 page, is the client facing page.
2:53:08 So you’re getting that mapping component.
2:53:10 I think the state of Florida pushed the critical response group
2:53:14 mapping requirement across the entire state.
2:53:17 We integrate with CRG maps so that those building plans, the
2:53:20 mapping plans, they’ll already be preloaded in the system.
2:53:23 We work very closely with their company.
2:53:26 And in addition to that, you’re getting the mobile app alert.
2:53:29 So whoever is that incident commander on site and is going
2:53:32 through that process would be the one that we ultimately want to
2:53:35 have that mobile app.
2:53:36 So they’re still continuing to get those alerts while they’re in
2:53:38 route to that situation.
2:53:40 » Got it.
2:53:41 » And then, again, you know, that backup scenario is making the
2:53:44 actual phone call.
2:53:46 » Okay.
2:53:47 Thank you.
2:53:48 Thank you for the time.
2:53:49 That’s all I needed.
2:53:52 » Dr. Endell, do you have any questions on this?
2:53:54 » I don’t have any questions.
2:53:56 Like I said, this is a presentation of the technology.
2:53:59 We’ll be following up with you individually for feedback and to
2:54:02 see if there’s something we want to pursue as a district.
2:54:05 I think Mr. Wilson, anything else?
2:54:07 » No, nothing else.
2:54:08 Just looking forward to continuing to have these collaborations
2:54:12 and moving forward to keep our campus safe.
2:54:15 » So I do have to maybe chime in on a couple of things here,
2:54:18 just maybe just one.
2:54:20 It sounds wonderful, right?
2:54:22 But at what point – it’s obviously not in the presentation –
2:54:27 did we talk about cost?
2:54:30 It’s not today then, I guess, right?
2:54:34 » I’m guessing not, but someone looks across the table.
2:54:37 » So the cost is based on the number of camera streams that the
2:54:41 district decides to move forward with.
2:54:44 It’s super scalable.
2:54:46 I have preschools on our platform with three cameras.
2:54:48 We have universities with 3,000.
2:54:51 It just sort of depends on the scale at which you decide to move
2:54:54 forward with and then the decision on the budget that you want
2:54:57 to move with this as well.
2:54:59 So again, I think Seminole County, they have a few thousand
2:55:02 cameras with us.
2:55:03 Indian River County has roughly 1,500.
2:55:07 So there’s all sorts of different shapes and sizes that you can
2:55:10 go with.
2:55:11 It’s really the determination within the side of your own
2:55:13 environment to determine what makes the most sense for you.
2:55:18 And we’re happy to help you through that process.
2:55:20 » Okay, so of the districts that you have currently, where do
2:55:23 we fit in?
2:55:24 Are we the largest district?
2:55:26 » You would be one of the largest, yes, if you went with 100%
2:55:30 of your coverage.
2:55:32 » And oftentimes with schools, they’ll come back with a
2:55:35 budgetary number and they’ll say,
2:55:36 “What’s the max number of camera streams we can monitor for what’s
2:55:39 within our budget?”
2:55:40 We’ll give you that number and our operations team will help you
2:55:42 sort of handpick which cameras or at least we’ll make
2:55:44 recommendations.
2:55:45 Ultimately, it’s your call.
2:55:46 But school districts have found that pretty helpful.
2:55:48 We come on site or we’re looking at your maps and we’re saying,
2:55:50 “Hey, there’s an overlapping cross shot here or there.”
2:55:53 Maybe we don’t have to have, you know, that quad camera covered.
2:55:55 But if we go on this pan tilt zoom camera, you’ll have
2:55:57 sufficient coverage.
2:55:59 » Sure.
2:56:01 No, I appreciate it.
2:56:02 » I also want to say one quick thing.
2:56:03 You guys get the first man in, last man out award because they
2:56:05 were here this morning before any of us were set up.
2:56:07 » I noticed that.
2:56:08 » So I appreciate that.
2:56:09 » Absolutely.
2:56:10 I’m sorry.
2:56:11 » But I’m sure you learned something.
2:56:12 » Yes.
2:56:13 » Yeah, absolutely.
2:56:14 » Well run meeting.
2:56:15 You took care of your Christmas shopping on your phone over
2:56:16 there.
2:56:17 » Right.
2:56:18 » That’s all we have.
2:56:20 We appreciate you guys greatly.
2:56:22 » Thank you.
2:56:23 » Wonderful holiday.
2:56:24 » Thank you very much for your time.
2:56:25 » Thank you.
2:56:26 Appreciate it.
2:56:27 » Take a seat.
2:56:28 Good job.
2:56:29 » All right.
2:56:30 So any board members have anything further to discuss?
2:56:34 » Really briefly before Mr. Susan jumps in there, I just had –
2:56:42 we talked a couple of times just really quickly about schools
2:56:45 and how we’re going to invite them up.
2:56:46 I sent you guys email.
2:56:48 I just want – if we’re going to have any – if no one’s
2:56:50 interested in it, I’m fine with that.
2:56:52 I’m already moving forward with, you know, visiting the new
2:56:54 schools to District 5.
2:56:56 But I just would like to get some, hey, let’s just leave it and
2:57:00 everybody just go with even if it’s not even.
2:57:03 Even if Mr. – you know, Thomas just has one high school,
2:57:05 everybody’s good with that.
2:57:07 Let’s just – if we can get kind of some consensus and then I’ll
2:57:09 drop it and never mention again unless it becomes a problem.
2:57:13 But we didn’t – we haven’t really gotten feedback.
2:57:15 I haven’t gotten feedback and I think it would be helpful.
2:57:17 » Okay.
2:57:18 » You want that now?
2:57:19 I’m okay with the way it is now.
2:57:22 » I feel as though I really – I mean, my feedback is kind of
2:57:24 irrelevant because it doesn’t impact my district whatsoever.
2:57:26 So I would prefer the people that’s – districts that it impacts
2:57:29 to really be the ones to have the feedback with it.
2:57:32 So whatever the Board wishes on this, I’m going to let you guys
2:57:35 take that one.
2:57:36 » Of course we don’t have Mr. Thomas here.
2:57:37 » Right, right.
2:57:39 Mr. Susan, I’m going to say the same as – the main reason that
2:57:44 we made the switch is to stop the confusion or to clarify some
2:57:50 situations.
2:57:51 And I think if we do anything other than that, we’re just going
2:57:53 back on why we did it the first time.
2:57:55 So I’m completely okay.
2:57:58 But I do understand in your area if there’s some – if there’s a
2:58:01 high school where you share many of those students,
2:58:04 just make it – make it practice that, you know, both of you are
2:58:08 visiting and, you know, more people there than married.
2:58:13 I think that would be fine.
2:58:14 And then you can kind of tag team events for anything you want
2:58:17 to do on that.
2:58:18 » I’m going to hear from Mr. Susan and then I’ve got to respond
2:58:21 to that suggestion.
2:58:22 » I just said yep.
2:58:25 » Did you have anything?
2:58:26 » No, I mean, I could go on and on about the argument, but I
2:58:28 just thought you were looking for –
2:58:29 » No, I’m not arguing.
2:58:30 I just want to send feedback.
2:58:32 So I just – so if we’re – my suggestion is moving forward,
2:58:36 then if we’re going to have an uneven number of schools is one.
2:58:39 And I did this already in practice, but different ones do
2:58:42 different things.
2:58:43 If someone reaches out to me, even if it’s about a situation
2:58:46 that’s not at one of my schools, I’m going to put that in quotes,
2:58:49 I just respond.
2:58:51 I send it – I don’t send it to one of you if it’s not a school
2:58:53 in my area.
2:58:54 I send it to the right staff member who’s going to get them the
2:58:56 right question.
2:58:57 I try to get them the answers.
2:58:58 I don’t worry about this is not my school.
2:59:00 And we had this conversation when we had this discussion a
2:59:01 couple years ago.
2:59:02 We shouldn’t have my schools.
2:59:03 But you – all of us know we talk about that, right?
2:59:05 » Sure.
2:59:06 » So my suggestion would be if someone reaches out to you it’s
2:59:08 because they want to talk to you.
2:59:09 Or if they reach out to all five of us, you know, whoever can
2:59:11 get them to answer quickest because that’s the goal is to serve
2:59:14 our community and to answer those questions.
2:59:17 The other thing that could potentially cause an unevenness is we
2:59:20 have a practice started by Ms. Wright when she was chair that in
2:59:23 the pre-expulsion hearings and things like that, that we don’t
2:59:26 want the person who is the school board member sitting on
2:59:32 potentially an expulsion hearing panel if it’s – I would just
2:59:36 suggest we would do that if it’s reasonable.
2:59:39 Because there are times schedule conflicts, whatever, that we
2:59:41 will try to do that.
2:59:42 But we’re not going to – I don’t think we have it anywhere in
2:59:44 writing, Paul.
2:59:45 I don’t think we do.
2:59:46 But that we just leave that flexible because, you know,
2:59:48 especially with an uneven number of students, not just schools
2:59:52 but students, I think it would just be – we’ll try to do that.
2:59:55 But if we can’t, we can’t kind of practice.
2:59:57 I think those are the only times that we’re really – that and
3:00:00 graduation week is really the only times that it would make a
3:00:04 huge impact on students.
3:00:06 » Okay.
3:00:07 » Yes.
3:00:08 » Okay.
3:00:09 » Not for that.
3:00:13 I just want to wait for Ms. Campbell if you have anything else.
3:00:15 » No, go ahead.
3:00:16 » Do you have anything?
3:00:17 » I don’t.
3:00:18 » So Dr. Endell, one of the things that I noticed over the last
3:00:21 couple of years is we’ve got so many things going on with
3:00:24 Destination Mars.
3:00:26 We’ve got innovation games.
3:00:28 We’ve got STEM coordinators and everything like that.
3:00:31 I was going to ask Dr. Endell the other day in our one-on-ones,
3:00:33 but I thought it would be more appropriate for you guys, because
3:00:36 I would love to put a comprehensive plan together.
3:00:39 Like this is what we do, because I think we’re doing so much,
3:00:42 and it’s organically grown in the last four or five years to the
3:00:46 point now where we have a significant impact with STEM-related
3:00:49 activities throughout our district.
3:00:52 Is that something you think we could do, or do I need board
3:00:54 approval?
3:00:55 Like I didn’t want to give Dr. Endell a task without you guys
3:00:58 knowing about it.
3:00:59 » Yeah, so what Mr. Susan is talking about, at least what he
3:01:02 communicated to me, was maybe a comprehensive review of all the
3:01:05 different programs we have in the STEM field, so to speak.
3:01:09 Destination Mars, now Destination Moon, Destination Space, where
3:01:12 the sixth graders go to the Kennedy Space Center.
3:01:15 The innovation games, now we have a STEM unit at every
3:01:18 elementary school.
3:01:20 We have a lot of high school field trips, actually, that go to
3:01:23 the Space Center.
3:01:25 There was a physics group from one of our high schools at KSC
3:01:28 the other day.
3:01:29 So maybe we put together like a comprehensive review of
3:01:31 everything we do and present it to the board and i.e. the public,
3:01:35 so that we all kind of know that we’re knee-deep in STEM already.
3:01:41 And so just kind of a review for the board and obviously the
3:01:46 public.
3:01:47 » What it was for me is that we have groups that are always
3:01:49 coming up with great ideas, right?
3:01:51 Like the coined thing for every company is to say, oh, we’re a
3:01:54 STEM company.
3:01:55 I remember when COVID hit or when STEM was sexy, like Office
3:01:59 Depot called and said, we’re a STEM company.
3:02:02 I said, no, you’re a furniture, like you’re an office company.
3:02:05 But the problem is that we’re always being requested by all
3:02:07 these groups to do all these things.
3:02:09 And the problem is I ran across and it was like I was dealing
3:02:12 with the Somali warlords was when I requested, I said, oh, well,
3:02:16 I know we get money from like Northrop Grumman over here and all
3:02:18 that stuff.
3:02:19 I said, well, we can just carve some of that out for innovation
3:02:20 games.
3:02:21 That’s what I was trying to do.
3:02:23 Oh, boy, you go ahead and try to go down there and try to get
3:02:26 that from somebody else who has a dedicated curriculum based.
3:02:29 You know what I mean?
3:02:30 So and we just need to kind of understand where it is.
3:02:32 And then what I’d really like to do, Dr. Rendell, is find out
3:02:35 who are the big players that don’t play with us, right?
3:02:38 Like I haven’t seen some of our big aerospace companies that
3:02:41 have come to us, but we do have some that do.
3:02:43 You know what I mean?
3:02:44 So just understanding dynamically that whole scope I think would
3:02:47 help us.
3:02:48 Yeah.
3:02:49 So as part of that review, we could list all the business
3:02:51 partners and what programs they’re associated with.
3:02:54 You know, Boeing is a big partner with us for Destination Mars,
3:02:57 Now Moon.
3:02:58 A lot of companies underwrite the costs associated with
3:03:00 Destination Space for the sixth graders.
3:03:03 You know, the Education Foundation, you know, is the broker for
3:03:06 a lot of that support.
3:03:08 And so, yeah, comprehensive review of not just the plans but how
3:03:11 they’re funded and who the partners are.
3:03:13 And that could reveal who is not at the table yet and probably
3:03:17 should be.
3:03:18 You guys okay with that?
3:03:19 Yeah.
3:03:20 Actually, the part about the sponsors, the part I was going to
3:03:23 add in there, if we do the presentation,
3:03:25 let’s highlight the companies that are already supporting us in
3:03:27 different ways and maybe that will highlight the ones that are
3:03:30 missing.
3:03:31 Yeah.
3:03:32 And then also if we could also, not to beat a dead horse, but
3:03:35 some of it flows into the workforce piece but not so much STEM.
3:03:40 So there’s some other stuff that we can – so like a couple of
3:03:42 years ago, before COVID,
3:03:44 we had the largest construction and trades jobs program in the
3:03:47 state of Florida and then COVID wiped it out, right?
3:03:50 But we do a lot of things.
3:03:51 Like we send our students over to Orange County for like
3:03:54 construction days every once in a while.
3:03:56 We do these things.
3:03:57 If we can do that on the CTE front too, just so that we can kind
3:04:01 of see what’s going on.
3:04:03 And then because I think there’s some opportunities to grow in
3:04:05 some areas and bring on some more opportunities for our kids.
3:04:08 That’s all.
3:04:09 If you guys are okay with that, I didn’t want to go forward
3:04:11 without your guys’ permission.
3:04:13 Okay.
3:04:14 You okay with that, Dr. Rendell?
3:04:16 Yeah.
3:04:17 I mean, we did a CTE presentation a few months ago and that’s
3:04:19 going to be an annual thing.
3:04:20 Okay.
3:04:21 You know, where we say, hey, here’s where we’re at with our CTE
3:04:22 program.
3:04:23 Sure.
3:04:24 Here’s where we want to go.
3:04:25 And, you know, obviously we need board support to make that
3:04:27 happen anyway.
3:04:28 Yeah, I think that’s appropriate to do it during that time.
3:04:30 I think it’s just as long as – because that was the most
3:04:32 phenomenal presentation because they were showing up like what’s
3:04:34 coming in two years, what’s coming in three.
3:04:36 Yeah.
3:04:37 That was really good.
3:04:38 I think that would take care of it.
3:04:39 I was mostly for –
3:04:40 But some of that stuff is going to need funding outside of what
3:04:42 we have.
3:04:43 Yeah.
3:04:44 So we’re going to have to either go for appropriations from the
3:04:46 state or federal government.
3:04:48 Sure.
3:04:49 Or we’re going to have to go for more sponsorships.
3:04:51 Okay.
3:04:52 And then the last thing I had board was that I was asked to –
3:04:57 when we originally came up with our calendar, we had some events
3:05:01 that were happening over the summer.
3:05:03 One of those events was the new teacher academy comes here.
3:05:07 So that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, they were going to be
3:05:09 inside the boardroom.
3:05:10 But what ended up happening is that when we chose one of those
3:05:13 dates, it fell into the Tuesday.
3:05:16 So we have a workshop on July 29th where we’re here in the boardroom.
3:05:20 But they would have to go to another whole campus and do that
3:05:23 stuff.
3:05:24 I was requested, if it was an opportunity, if we could just move
3:05:28 the workshop like we have in the past to one of the rooms over
3:05:31 here, they can have the boardroom.
3:05:32 They don’t have to rework everything.
3:05:33 Absolutely.
3:05:35 Either way, they said that – I said, superintendent’s
3:05:38 conference room is sometimes small.
3:05:40 Could you check the availability of one of these breakout rooms
3:05:42 over here?
3:05:43 They said that we could have the one that we always meet with
3:05:45 the workshop if we need it.
3:05:47 So it’s appropriate, but I just wanted to bring that up to you
3:05:48 guys.
3:05:49 Yeah, that’s totally fine.
3:05:50 Depending on the topic, I mean, you know, today, I’m pretty sure
3:05:52 we could have held everybody, including cabinet and district, to
3:05:55 this conference room.
3:05:56 Yeah.
3:05:57 I think we’re okay.
3:05:58 But if that’s okay with you guys, I wanted to kind of – if that’s
3:06:00 okay, Dr. Endell.
3:06:01 Yeah, we’ll look at what’s available as far as the training
3:06:03 rooms.
3:06:04 And if they’re not – if they’re a part of the new teacher
3:06:06 orientation, then we’ll just jump into the conference room.
3:06:08 Yeah.
3:06:09 Okay.
3:06:10 Sounds like a plan.
3:06:11 And that’s all I have.
3:06:12 Sorry to run off my list here.
3:06:13 No, that’s why we’re doing this.
3:06:15 No, that’s it.
3:06:16 I mean, if there’s no further business, this meeting is adjourned.
3:06:34 Thank you.