Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 and conservation team member.
0:01 Thank you.
0:14 Matt Reed, Assistant Superintendent of Government and Community
0:20 Relations, will lead the Pledge of Allegiance.
0:26 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
0:31 and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
0:35 indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
0:39 Okay, that brings us, oh, at this time I would like to offer my
0:46 fellow board members and Dr. Mullins the opportunity to
0:51 recognize students, staff, or members of the community.
0:54 Anybody want to volunteer to go first?
0:58 I’ll vote first.
0:58 I can go first.
1:00 Ms. McDougal.
1:03 First I want to do a big shout out to the Cocoa High School
1:10 students, staff, and the community who participated in Cocoa
1:15 Beach, not Cocoa Beach, Cocoa High School, Black History Month
1:18 Breakfast.
1:19 It was phenomenal, the work that went into it, the people that
1:23 attended, the community, the choir is always amazing.
1:26 And the orchestra was beautiful.
1:29 It was just a wonderful breakfast.
1:30 It was my first breakfast since being on the board, and it was
1:33 wonderful.
1:33 So a shout out to the Cocoa High School staff and students.
1:38 Also, Seagal View, they had a Black History Read-In, and I want
1:42 to thank the community for coming out and reading to the
1:46 students and participating in the different classrooms.
1:49 And it was all around Black History Month and books that were
1:54 either about or by or written by African Americans or people of
1:58 color.
2:00 Another thing that was kind of fun was Tropical Elementary TK,
2:04 the amazing TK of Ms. Wilcox’s class.
2:07 It’s just an amazing little class.
2:09 They had a Dr. Seuss breakfast, and the TK class raised enough
2:13 money and bought enough books to give every single kindergartner,
2:18 which is 100 students, a Dr. Seuss book.
2:21 And at the same time, Merritt Island, Edgewood, Jefferson, I’m
2:25 forgetting somebody.
2:27 Who am I forgetting?
2:28 Edgewood, Merritt Island, and Jefferson all came to read to
2:33 every single child that day in the classroom.
2:36 So that was really another fun green eggs and ham breakfast.
2:40 I also want to talk a little bit about the impact pins.
2:45 I was able to give out several impact pins.
2:47 One was to a Mr. Burns at Cape View.
2:50 He’s a sixth-grade math teacher, and his class did exactly what
2:55 Kyle did.
2:56 They stood up and cheered, and they hooted and hollered.
2:59 So thank you, Mr. Burns, for being such a great math teacher.
3:03 Then I was at Coco High School, another math teacher, Laura
3:07 Carroll, who teaches algebra.
3:09 And, again, her kids just cheered her on and were very thankful.
3:14 She, as it said, that she uses empathy, not sympathy, to
3:18 motivate her children, or students, rather, and their scores
3:23 have all gone up.
3:25 I also want to give an impact pin to Erin Morchester at Edgewood,
3:30 the media specialist, where she is a bridge builder and an
3:34 impact person.
3:36 And she is the PI coordinator, along with being the media
3:39 specialist.
3:40 And she just finished up doing the 20-book read.
3:42 And they just got back today from an amusement park down in Palm
3:47 Bay.
3:47 I’m not sure what it was.
3:49 I’m dreading.
3:50 Okay, thank you.
3:51 So I don’t know.
3:53 But anyhow, they did that.
3:54 And last for my pins, one of our – one of the people, and I
3:59 can’t remember, last week talked about our administrators.
4:04 And I was fortunate enough to present an impact pin to Principal
4:08 Reamer at Merritt Island.
4:11 And I just want to read – I don’t have the permission, so I
4:13 won’t give the name of the person who wrote this.
4:16 But I’d like to read what they said about Mr. Reamer.
4:20 Please allow me to express my deep appreciation and respect for
4:23 Mr. James Reamer.
4:24 I’ve been teaching for Brevard County Schools since 1997.
4:27 Prior to that, I was an owner and operator of a child care
4:30 center.
4:31 So I like to think that I know a thing or two about teaching and
4:33 leading.
4:34 Because I’ve been feeling this way for some time, I thought I’d
4:37 take a moment to share some positivity.
4:39 My experience with Mr. Reamer at Merritt Island High School has
4:43 been entirely positive.
4:45 He takes time to make his faculty feel supported and valued.
4:48 He builds relationships with students and staff that create a
4:51 sense of community.
4:52 In person and in writing, he takes time to demonstrate that he
4:56 values his staff.
4:57 I recognize that a school administrator’s job is enormously
5:00 difficult.
5:01 So it is important for us who see excellence to take the time to
5:04 appreciate it.
5:06 So I wanted to share that because he’s been there – I think
5:10 this is going on year three, is that right?
5:13 And he’s pretty amazing and we’re very glad that he’s there.
5:18 And then I just got this, hot off the press, and one – this is
5:21 my last thing, I promise.
5:22 I think this is going to be – might be in our heart of Brevard
5:27 upcoming, but I just thought it was important to read this.
5:30 And this goes out to Cape View Elementary School.
5:35 This all began on December 7th, 2019, when I received the worst
5:39 phone call of my life.
5:40 My oldest of three kids was in an accident while visiting her
5:43 father for the weekend and ended up in critical condition in
5:46 Arnold Palmer High School – I mean hospital, sorry.
5:50 She ended up staying in the PICU for two and a half weeks and
5:53 was discharged on Christmas Eve.
5:55 We finally got to come home and take – and try to get back to
5:58 normal routine and schedule, but being a single parent of three
6:01 kids is not easy.
6:02 Not only did the staff of Cape View Elementary help my kids and
6:07 I with Christmas presents and food, they were there for us
6:11 emotionally.
6:12 They have been there and willing to help with anything and
6:15 everything.
6:16 I honestly don’t think I could have gotten through this tough
6:18 time if it wasn’t for them.
6:20 The amazing thing is that it just wasn’t one person helping, it
6:24 was every staff member at Cape View.
6:26 Whether they made dinner for us or offered to take my daughter
6:30 to her many appointments, they went above and beyond.
6:34 We will be forever thankful.
6:35 And I want to say thank you very much to all the Cape View staff.
6:41 It’s an amazing school like so many of our schools, but thank
6:43 you to Cape View and their staff.
6:45 And that’s it.
6:48 Thank you, Ms. McDougall.
6:50 Ms. Deskovich.
6:50 I think we just had a scout troop enter the room.
6:55 Are you guys here visiting?
6:56 You’re doing maybe working on a badge for government or
6:59 something of that nature?
7:00 What troop are you from?
7:01 701 in Florida.
7:03 701.
7:05 So welcome to Troop 701.
7:07 We’re glad to have you guys tonight.
7:09 Shout-outs for me.
7:12 I’m going to start with Stone Middle School Black History Celebration.
7:17 They have this every year, and the students perform, and they
7:21 read poetry, and they dance, and it is fantastic.
7:26 And as much as I love all that part of the event, my absolute
7:32 favorite part of the event is that Macedonia Baptist Church
7:37 comes, and they cook all the food.
7:39 So thank you to Stone Middle School, and Ms. Golding, she was
7:48 the program director this year, and to Macedonia Baptist Church
7:55 for all their volunteers that cook all that food, come in and
7:59 serve the food, and clean up.
8:01 Matt, you know those ladies, and they are just, their hearts are
8:07 so huge.
8:08 It was a fabulous event and a fabulous day.
8:12 Next, most of you know about the program Tied Together.
8:18 It’s Mr. Outlaw comes into the schools and does, teaches, they
8:22 get mentors, male mentors to come into the school, and they
8:25 teach young men how to shake hands, look you in the eye, and
8:28 they all learn how to tie ties.
8:30 And I attended to the one at West Shore last week, interestingly
8:33 enough, I think there was four young men, four, that knew how to
8:37 tie a tie, four, how is that humanly possible?
8:40 So it’s apparently a much needed skill to be taught in our
8:43 schools, but the neat thing is a lot of our schools now are
8:45 developing programs for young women.
8:47 And that day I also attended the program that their guidance
8:52 staff put together with the SRO for the young women, and I
8:56 thought it was an exceptional program.
8:58 They called it Empower Her, Empower Her, and they talked about a
9:03 lot of life skills for women, and you know, we’ve come a long
9:07 way from when I used to have to, when we did that, I don’t know
9:10 about how, I guess we’re all about the same age, I don’t know
9:12 about you all, but when they would divide us, when we were kids,
9:14 right, the women learned how to sew and make dinner for your
9:17 husband.
9:17 So this was not, this was not that quality, this was talking
9:21 about girls in college and education, and there was some from
9:26 the SRO on protecting yourself and things of that nature.
9:30 So I thought it was, it was really, really successful.
9:33 And then today, O’Galley High School did the same thing, and
9:37 they put on, they probably brought in 75 professional women from
9:41 the community, everything from judges, Judge Jacobus was there,
9:46 attorneys,
9:47 women, just everything, drag car racing with Larson Motorsports,
9:52 two of the girls that work there, you name it, they had
9:57 veterinarian, women pilots, and then they divided up all of the
10:00 girl student body over four sessions,
10:02 and they, the girls got to pick which adult mentor they wanted
10:06 to sit with, which was a little unnerving, it felt a little bit
10:10 like middle school, you know, like when you’re the last one
10:14 picked for PE, not that was, that was ever me.
10:17 So you were hoping the kids wanted to sit with you and found you
10:20 interesting enough, and it was, it was remarkable.
10:24 It was really, really, so you had four separate groups, and you
10:27 had to almost sell yourself in the beginning, like say what you
10:31 did, and so the first time I was like, I’m Tina Deskovich, I’m
10:33 on the school board, and I will say like onesie, twosie showed
10:36 up.
10:37 And so the next level, so for the sophomores, I was like, if you
10:40 want to learn about politics, come see me, right, and so then I
10:44 got more over there, and so I learned with each class.
10:47 By the seniors, I had a full, full class, so it, it was really
10:50 great though.
10:51 They talked about, the whole name of the event was Worthy, and
10:56 what, about self-worth for these girls,
11:00 because the guidance department put it together with our former
11:02 last year teacher of the year, Ms. Shannon Crailing, and they
11:06 said that they felt like the girls in their school,
11:08 the source of all their problems that they come to them with was
11:11 a lack of self-worth, self-worth, and where, where you get your
11:15 self-worth from, and so in those little small groups, you know,
11:17 we just had five girls with each one of us, we talked on a very
11:20 individual basis about where, where that comes from, does your
11:25 self-worth come from social media, does it come from your
11:27 friends,
11:27 or does it come from your family, and from yourself, and so it
11:30 was, I thought it was a phenomenal program, and they actually
11:33 ordered and put together,
11:35 and I think Ms. Crailing made them, these beautiful little
11:38 bracelets that had Worthy on one side, and then on the other
11:42 side, it had the anchor logo from the school with Galley High
11:46 School on there,
11:46 and we gave those to each of the girls. I think it was a pretty
11:49 impactful event, so I just wanted to thank their whole, their
11:52 social worker, their guidance department,
11:54 and especially Ms. Crailing for putting that together, and
11:56 bringing the community together to support our young women, and
12:00 then last,
12:02 what is this, so last week, the parent leadership team meeting,
12:07 and I just want to thank our parents that are a member of that,
12:09 they drive from all over the county,
12:11 some of them have to bring their littles with them, because they’re
12:15 moms, and the kids are home with them, or dads, or you know,
12:17 there were dads there with their small kids too,
12:19 but they make an effort to get here, and some of those distances
12:22 are like 45 minutes if you’re way up in Titusville, or way down
12:25 in the south end of the county,
12:27 and they come to be educated on what’s going on in our district,
12:30 and this month’s meeting I thought was exceptionally fantastic.
12:35 Dr. Mullins took the time to be there, and let, just had open
12:37 mic, and let them ask questions, and he just gave them honest
12:42 answers,
12:42 and it was a good listening session, so thank you Dr. Mullins
12:44 for doing that, and for the, the team, the parent leadership
12:48 team,
12:48 Jenny Gleason, and all her people that put that together every
12:51 month, and for all the parents that put their time in to serve
12:53 on that committee.
12:54 Thanks, Ms. Belfort, I know that was extremely long.
12:57 No worries. Thank you, Ms. Duskovich. Mr. Susan, you ready?
13:00 Yeah, I want to say thank you to Ms. Hamilton and the K9 Commandos.
13:05 I went and met with them on Monday, and they said that you guys
13:08 are all big supporters of their organization.
13:10 I think that being with those kids is what we love to do, and at
13:14 the same time, they had a grant that didn’t come through for
13:17 them, and they reapplied for the same grant to Petco, and the
13:20 grant didn’t come through again.
13:21 They heard word like two days ago, so they’re down some revenue,
13:25 so what I’m going to do is I’m going to work with them on
13:27 getting into some businesses in my local area and raising some
13:30 funds, so we’re going to do some fun videos, and if they said,
13:34 can we get the other school board members to do a video with us
13:37 also, so depending on how my first one goes, and nobody’s
13:40 attacked by any animals, then I think you guys could come on in.
13:43 Are they bringing us dogs?
13:44 They’re bringing dogs to locations and doing fun videos, so it
13:48 would be a fun thing to do.
13:50 Yeah, we have one behind the counter, actually, just a minute
13:54 ago, so, but I did want to say thank you to Virginia, Ms.
13:56 Hamilton, for the K9 Commandos and everything that she does in
13:58 that regard, because that is an amazing program, and I think
14:02 that they’re going to try to start working on therapy dogs
14:04 inside the schools, too, which would be great, not the kids
14:06 doing it, but actually bringing in certified professionals to do
14:10 that and funding source to bring that through.
14:12 The next thing is I wanted to say thank you to Mr. Scott Rook
14:14 for meeting with me over the security issues the other day.
14:17 He had some great ideas, so I’m going to bring those forward to
14:20 our security meetings that we have coming up.
14:23 Also, the innovation games, Ms. Lukton did an amazing job.
14:27 Those of you guys that are in the scouts that don’t know about
14:31 our innovation games, but we have absolutely every single drone
14:35 racing, underwater drones, product pitching.
14:38 We have all the major corporations come together at the Florida
14:41 Solar Energy Center, and what ended up happening was everything
14:44 that you wish it could be, competition, kids getting excited.
14:48 One kid literally ran across the gym when his team won the drone
14:52 race for middle school, which was the enthusiasm that I have
14:55 never seen before in that STEM competition.
14:58 But I did want to reach out to Ms. Clewis from AFTAC, and I’ve
15:03 asked them to come on the 24th meeting, and I’m sort of making
15:06 sure that’s okay with you guys in a second, but I saw something
15:09 – they came and presented at Croton Elementary School, and they
15:12 go to many of your schools.
15:12 But I wanted to say that I have never seen what I saw.
15:17 So I went in, and the student engagement was out of control.
15:20 They brought in – they were freezing stuff.
15:22 They were shattering the frozen stuff.
15:24 Kids were all circled around that, and then they had this polyurethane
15:29 cup that was going up.
15:31 There were so many kids running from place to place, and I have
15:34 taught for nine years, and I have never seen the engagement out
15:37 of a small STEM program, as I did that night with those
15:40 organizations.
15:41 And they are there helping out.
15:43 And on the way out, this is the truth, and I’m putting stuff
15:47 inside the car, and this kid comes out and says, Mommy, thank
15:50 you for bringing me to this STEM tonight.
15:53 It meant so much to me.
15:54 And here I’m thinking, these kids, you can’t ask them to get to
15:57 school.
15:58 And this kid came after school, and he was so happy that his mom
16:01 brought him there, and that’s what it was all about.
16:03 So I wanted to say thank you to AFTAC and Ms. Clewis for what
16:05 they did.
16:06 And that’s it.
16:07 And I had some other things on the Innovation Games that I was
16:09 going to talk about later on.
16:10 Thank you.
16:11 Thank you, Mr. Susan.
16:12 Ms. Campbell.
16:13 All right.
16:14 I’ve got a lot, but I’m going to go fast.
16:17 So the Elementary Music Festival was a couple of Saturdays ago.
16:20 I want to say congratulations to the students and teachers for
16:24 putting on a wonderful day of concerts.
16:26 They did a fabulous job.
16:28 Speaking of music, the Department of Education put out, along
16:33 with the Florida Music Education Association, this year’s
16:38 Florida Arts Model Schools.
16:39 Now, we have a lot of those in Brevard County, but the new ones
16:42 coming on for this year include Central Middle School, yay, O’Galley
16:47 High School, Kennedy Middle School, Quest Elementary, and Southlake
16:51 Elementary.
16:51 And then the Advancing Arts Grant included Cambridge Elementary.
16:56 And so congratulations to those schools.
16:58 Some of the criteria, one of the biggest criteria of that is
17:01 this percentage of participation of your students in an arts
17:05 program, whether it’s band, chorus, art, or drama.
17:08 So congratulations to those schools.
17:11 Also want to recognize Ms. Deborah Foley from Government and
17:15 Community Relations, who has been nominated for the Excellence
17:19 in Mentorship Award.
17:21 That’s part of the Women Who Rock Awards from Florida Tech’s BISC
17:25 College of Business, the WeVenture organization that they have.
17:30 So congratulations to Ms. Foley.
17:32 Bruce Lindsey from Facilities, our Manager of Energy and
17:35 Resources Conservation, was given the 2020 Best of Green Schools
17:39 Award.
17:40 So congratulations to him.
17:42 And let’s see.
17:45 Oh, I am going fast.
17:46 So last week I was at West Melbourne School for Science Talent
17:51 Show.
17:51 And it was like a normal school talent show.
17:54 Kids got up and they danced and they sang and they played the
17:56 piano.
17:56 They played the piano.
17:57 But I just have to say there was some really great moments of
17:59 the night.
18:00 My favorite moments of the night are when the principal, Ms.
18:03 Benson, got up and sang with her daughter.
18:06 One of my son’s former math teachers got up and played a drumline
18:10 solo, Mr. Baker.
18:12 And then a handful of other teachers, Ms. Poplar, Ms. Panda, a
18:14 couple others, got up and danced to a country song.
18:18 I just have to highlight those teachers and the principal
18:20 because when they get up and do that, it just, I mean, the kids
18:23 went crazy.
18:24 It just was such an awesome moment for them to share their heart
18:27 and their talent.
18:28 And I don’t care how old you are.
18:30 It’s nerve-wracking to get up and on the stage in front of a
18:34 whole cafetorium full of students and their parents.
18:36 So thank you to those teachers and Ms. Benson and the principal
18:39 for sharing their talents with their students.
18:43 Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
18:45 Dr. Mullins.
18:46 Thank you, Ms. Belford.
18:49 Just want to recognize two of our high schools tonight.
18:52 One, Rockledge High School was just recently recognized by the
18:56 Cambridge International Organization.
18:59 They’re at Cambridge High School.
19:01 And they are, they have received the designation, a very rare
19:05 designation, as a Cambridge Assessment International Education
19:11 Site for Demonstration Status.
19:13 And I, it’s best said by the representative from Cambridge, and
19:19 he quotes, “We’re excited that Rockledge High School is becoming
19:21 one of the first demonstration centers in the United States and
19:25 look forward to showcasing the exemplary work of the school
19:28 leaders, educators, and students,” said Mark Cavone, regional
19:32 director for Cambridge International North America.
19:35 Rockledge has a long history of successfully implementing the
19:38 Cambridge Pathway and resulting in strong results for students.
19:42 So congratulations to the entire Rockledge High staff, faculty,
19:46 for just really building a program of excellence for their
19:49 students.
19:50 I’ll highlight again the first demonstration center in the
19:53 United States.
19:54 So great job, Rockledge.
19:55 And Ms. Escobar is going to help load a, there’s a neat little
20:01 news clip on one of our high schools, Heritage High School, that
20:05 has the only water conservation program in the district, but
20:12 also I believe there’s only two in the state.
20:14 So it’s best demonstrated by the news clip that was about two
20:20 minutes.
20:24 Students, they learn about breaking water, wastewater, and they’re
20:29 also contributing to studies that monitor sea level rise.
20:31 News 6’s James Barbero shows us how these students are helping
20:35 to forecast change.
20:37 The next generation studying global weather patterns and rising
20:43 sea levels could be this group of bright young minds on the
20:46 Indian River Lagoon.
20:47 They’re very engaged and immediately are concerned.
20:52 These students go to Heritage High School in Palm Bay and
20:55 Kendall Duran is their teacher.
20:57 Enlighten them daily with the, like, new research that’s coming
21:01 out.
21:01 This is Brevard County’s Academy of Environmental Water and
21:05 Technology.
21:06 It’s one of the school district’s career and technical programs,
21:09 which the students can get jobs right out of high school.
21:13 Heritage says it has more than 100 students in grades 9 through
21:17 12 getting an education that includes forecasting change.
21:21 All different aspects of environmental stewardship, right, and
21:25 climate change.
21:26 And so one of the things that we do is we participate in the See
21:30 a Difference Lagoon Day, a day in the life of the Indian River
21:34 Lagoon.
21:34 Kendall’s students are taking samples that not only give an
21:37 indication of the lagoon’s health, year-to-year data can also
21:41 show how water levels might be changing.
21:43 It’s compiled with other data that’s taken throughout the county
21:47 on that day, and they get to track it throughout the years.
21:51 In other Brevard schools, the district tells us it follows state
21:56 education standards when it comes to teaching about climate and
21:59 related issues in our classrooms.
22:01 That includes an environmental science elective.
22:04 Heritage High School tells us that some of the students in its
22:07 program, they graduate and then they go on to study engineering.
22:10 NASA’s engineers right now, they tell us that on our coast, sea
22:14 levels are expected to rise three feet in the next 60 or 70
22:18 years.
22:19 In Brevard County, I’m James Sparvero getting results, News 6.
22:24 So a huge applause to Ms. Duran, the teacher of the program, as
22:28 well as got to do a shout out to City of Palm Bay Water
22:31 Management because they, yeah.
22:37 City of Palm Bay Water Treatment Center is a partner with that
22:40 program specifically, and it’s a great, it’s just a great
22:44 opportunity for our kids.
22:47 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
22:48 I just have a few quick ones I will throw out there.
22:52 Sarah, in Government and Community Relations, has been putting
22:56 together, as you all probably know, the Coffee with the Board
22:59 with our Legacy Club members.
23:00 And I had the opportunity to do the Coffee with the Board up in
23:04 the north end of the county a couple of weeks ago, and great
23:08 conversation, great input.
23:11 They, they were really excited to hear the information that we
23:14 were sharing with them.
23:15 Mr. Reid joined me as well, and I feel like there’s another
23:19 staff member there.
23:21 Is there somebody else there, Mr. Reid, that I’m forgetting?
23:24 So anyway, great, great conversation, and I think they walked
23:28 away knowing a lot more about our district and some of the great
23:32 things that we’re doing.
23:33 So many thanks to Sarah for putting those together.
23:35 We appreciate it.
23:36 I also had, annually, I have the opportunity to join a special
23:40 day with the Titusville Student Advisory Council.
23:43 And for you all that may be unfamiliar, the City of Titusville
23:48 has a standing Student Advisory Council.
23:50 The students apply to be a part of the Advisory Council.
23:53 They meet on a regular basis throughout the year.
23:55 But once per year, they do a special event with GEO, who many of
24:00 you probably know, and planners from the city of Titusville.
24:05 And they bring in, they have the Student Advisory Council
24:09 students bring in peers from their schools.
24:12 And all of the students come together in this conference room at
24:16 the hospital.
24:17 And they learn all about how to plan and what you have to
24:20 consider when planning in the city.
24:22 And so this year was a little bit unique in that they actually
24:25 were presented different scenarios.
24:27 Usually each table, each group of students is given the same
24:30 scenario and asked to develop based on that scenario.
24:34 So two years ago, I think they did, they were planning for a
24:37 potential civic center.
24:39 But they have to know all of the setbacks.
24:41 They have to know the requirements for green, greenery on the
24:44 property.
24:45 They have to know drainage requirements and number of parking
24:49 spaces required and all of these aspects of planning.
24:54 This year, each of the tables had a different one.
24:56 So one of the groups was working on designing a town around a
24:59 fault line.
25:00 One was working on designing an island, a new island had
25:05 developed in the Indian River Lagoon apparently.
25:08 And they were working on how to develop that.
25:10 And so just really a great opportunity for those students to
25:13 learn a little bit about what goes into planning our communities.
25:16 And for them to also obviously work on teamwork and that sort of
25:19 thing.
25:20 And the students have such a great time and it really is an
25:23 awesome opportunity.
25:24 So many thanks to the students who are serving on that Titusville
25:28 Student Advisory Council.
25:29 And also to the city of Titusville for providing that
25:32 opportunity to them.
25:33 And then yesterday I had the opportunity to join in.
25:38 Tansy Jones reached out to me and asked me if I would present at
25:41 the secretary’s conference.
25:43 And so I had about a 30, it was supposed to be 30 minutes.
25:47 It was more like probably about 45 minutes that we chatted just
25:51 about some of the things that,
25:52 that each and every one of us can do to really positively impact
25:55 the culture at our schools.
25:57 And build community relationships and impact student achievement.
26:01 So we had some great discussion.
26:03 And Tansy and I think a team, Mike Alba is not here is he?
26:09 It’s a, correct me if I’m wrong Dr. Thede, but it’s a team of
26:13 secretaries who come together to plan the conference, right?
26:16 And so Tansy was the one that reached out to me initially.
26:18 But many thanks to all of them who, who took on that
26:21 responsibility to put together.
26:22 From what I heard a great conference for all of their peers.
26:25 And I believe that is all I have for recognition.
26:28 So Dr. Mullins that will bring us to the, the adoption of the
26:32 agenda.
26:33 Ms. Belford and members of the board on tonight’s agenda, we
26:35 have administrative staff recommendations.
26:38 A presentation, 26 consent items and two action items and two
26:42 information items.
26:44 You also have the yellow supplemental agenda, which are changes
26:47 made to the agenda since being released to the public.
26:49 Item A7 on administrative staff recommendations received revisions.
26:52 Item F16 and F17 on suspension of administrative employees were
26:57 additions.
26:58 What are the wishes of the board?
27:01 Move to approve.
27:02 Second.
27:03 Moved by Mr. Susan.
27:04 Second, seconded by Ms. McDougall.
27:07 Any discussion?
27:09 Please vote.
27:11 And the motion passes, 5-0.
27:25 Dr. Mullins?
27:26 There we go.
27:27 There are two persons on this evening’s agenda for the board to
27:31 consider.
27:32 Did I skip?
27:33 No, you’re good.
27:34 I was actually supposed to say, will you please let us know
27:39 about our administrative staff recommendations.
27:43 So you, you covered that faux pas well.
27:45 Thank you.
27:46 What are the wishes of the board?
27:48 Move to approve.
27:49 Second.
27:50 Moved by Ms. Campbell.
27:52 Seconded by, seconded by Ms. Duscovich.
27:55 Any discussion?
27:57 Please vote.
28:24 And the motion passes 5-0.
28:26 Dr. Mullins?
28:27 Tonight we have the opportunity to recognize and congratulate
28:32 two outstanding principals,
28:34 educators, who on their upcoming retirements at the end of June.
28:40 Two educators who combined have dedicated over 75 years to
28:45 public education.
28:47 First, I want to say thank you to Ms. Norma Hostetler, principal
28:51 of Lockmar Elementary for everything you’ve done for our kids
28:55 and the Lockmar community.
28:58 Ms. Hostetler has been an educator in Brevard for 45 years.
29:04 She began as a teacher at Roy Allen Elementary, moved to Lockmar
29:13 when it opened, I believe as a teacher, and then moved into the
29:18 ranks of administration and has been serving as the principal at
29:20 Lockmar for many years.
29:22 So, congratulations, Ms. Hostetler, thank you for your selfless
29:26 dedication to the students of South Brevard and wish you all the
29:30 best in your upcoming retirement.
29:34 You get the microphone.
29:35 That’s the least we can do for you.
29:37 Well, I just want to thank you, Dr. Mullins and school board
29:40 members for allowing me to be a Brevard public school employee
29:44 for 45 years.
29:45 I didn’t even realize 45 years had passed until I looked at a
29:49 little certificate I got last fall and I’m like, I see it in
29:53 print, I don’t believe it.
29:56 It certainly went quick and I thank you for the opportunity for
30:01 me to be able to be at Lockmar.
30:03 I went there in 1982 when the school opened and served in
30:07 several capacities, becoming the principal there in 1999.
30:12 Both of my children went there.
30:15 I think it’s a great school.
30:16 I even had a custodian tell me yesterday she got a $50 discount
30:20 on her car repair when the guy found out that she worked at Lockmar
30:24 because he went there, his children and other family members,
30:28 and he said that’s the least I can do to support Lockmar.
30:31 So, thanks again for the opportunity.
30:35 And next we want to congratulate and recognize Miss Ellie Lee,
30:43 principal of Audubon Elementary.
30:48 Miss Lee, thank you also for your selfless dedication to the
30:52 students of Brevard, for your 28 years of service to our
30:57 students, our community, as principal of Audubon most recently,
31:01 but also formally the principal of Quest Elementary.
31:04 And I’m not sure where your journey was before that, but thank
31:10 you.
31:11 Thank you very much, board members and Dr. Mullins, for giving
31:18 me the opportunity to serve Brevard public schools as a teacher
31:22 at Apollo Elementary and an academic specialist at Enterprise
31:27 Elementary.
31:27 And then I worked my way down the district and to the central
31:32 area to Quest as the AP and principal and then out to Audubon as
31:36 the principal.
31:38 So I appreciate the opportunity.
31:41 It’s been a great career.
31:43 Great people that I’ve worked with.
31:45 I’ve formed many great relationships with my colleagues and with
31:50 the people that I’ve worked with.
31:53 And I couldn’t be more happy to say that, you know, now I’m
31:58 moving on, time to give it to the new generation so they can
32:02 take the lead in this.
32:04 And I wish everyone in Brevard County the best of luck and best
32:09 wishes for success.
32:11 And I’m hearing great things about Brevard County.
32:12 So thank you very much.
32:13 Thank you.
32:14 Dr. Mullins, will you please let us know about tonight’s
32:25 presentation?
32:28 Tonight we have the privilege of showcasing Central Middle
32:33 School’s home base program.
32:35 With us this evening is Mr. Todd Scheer, principal of Central
32:39 Middle School, to introduce the presentation and the staff he
32:43 has with him tonight.
32:43 Thank you, Madam Chairman, school board members, Dr. Mullins.
32:48 I did bring along two people tonight that I would like to
32:51 introduce.
32:52 One is my home base teacher at Central Middle School currently
32:57 and in the future, Ms. Diana Pittinger.
32:59 And also district resource teacher with autism programs is Mr.
33:05 Dietrich Brown.
33:07 And Dietrich, thank you.
33:14 This isn’t going to be a presentation about ASD, but I do want
33:18 one slide.
33:19 ASD is a neurological-based disability.
33:24 And it has an uneven pattern of development.
33:27 It’s a brain-based disability.
33:30 Students are born with this ASD.
33:33 The one key that I want to mention is they can be delayed in
33:38 their weaknesses one-third to two-thirds of their chronological
33:43 age.
33:43 What that means, if you’re a 12-year-old, you may act like an
33:48 eight or even a four-year-old.
33:51 Often individuals with extreme strengths and a special interest
33:55 and debilitating weaknesses in social communication, interaction,
34:00 and sensory regulation.
34:02 I want to tell you how this started for myself.
34:06 Back in 2017, I was the principal at Southwest Middle School.
34:10 And in January, on a Friday during lunchtime, we serve about 300
34:17 students.
34:18 And all of a sudden, there was this scream in the entrance of
34:23 the cafeteria.
34:24 And I was alarmed, as a lot of people had no idea what was
34:27 happening.
34:28 Went back there and tried to talk with the student who was
34:32 sitting on the floor screaming.
34:34 And it was a brand-new student.
34:36 Brand-new student had started that morning at Southwest.
34:40 Had no idea.
34:42 Now, I can tell you and you’re aware of middle school students.
34:46 Everybody who goes to middle school, their first day, their
34:50 first week, their first month, the anxiety of starting in middle
34:56 school is something we all have to come to grips with.
35:00 For students with ASD, you can take that 10 times, the anxiety.
35:07 So this student had come into the cafeteria at Southwest for the
35:12 first time, 300-plus students, barely made it in the door, and
35:17 just basically a meltdown.
35:21 But that actually led to a lot of questions for me.
35:28 This was not the first of many rodeos at Southwest.
35:32 There’s a lot of great programs at Southwest.
35:35 But we take our mission very seriously.
35:38 All staff, principals, administrators, our mission to serve
35:42 every student with excellence.
35:44 And coming to find out about this student in ASD was a journey
35:50 that I needed to spend some time on.
35:54 I assembled an outstanding team.
35:56 I cannot say, Dietrich Brown, how much he has meant.
36:00 I did not know Dietrich before this week.
36:03 Lisa McBee, our support specialist.
36:06 Deanna Irwin, Dale Daly became an integral part of this.
36:10 The core teachers, four core teachers who were recruited.
36:14 The behavior analysts, speech and language.
36:17 I want to give a shout out to Dr. Dawn O’Brien and Dr. Patricia
36:21 Fontan, because at the time, I was proposing something that, you
36:26 know, we want to do something different here.
36:28 And the support we had was incredible.
36:31 Unfortunately, in our business, we are very reactionary.
36:38 We put out fires.
36:41 And that is about as opposite for a student with ASD.
36:46 It’s just not what you want to be.
36:49 You want to be in front.
36:51 You want to front load for a student with ASD.
36:55 So that’s not what we wanted to be was reactionary.
36:59 A reactive model.
37:02 Administrators, we provide structures with little regard for the
37:05 needs of teachers supporting students with ASD.
37:08 Administration, general education, exceptional education,
37:13 students with ASD.
37:14 We have supports, but are they really reaching to the student
37:19 that we need to?
37:20 Parent concerns.
37:21 I know over the years, principals, administrators, district
37:28 staff, my child with ASD will not make it in middle school.
37:33 There’s no way.
37:34 They’re not going to be able to handle it.
37:36 The switching of classes, bullying, my child’s not going to have
37:39 the supports that they need.
37:41 I understand those concerns.
37:43 I will tell you, when I met with Dietrich Brown, and we started
37:49 talking about students with ASD, and I received quite an
37:53 education in terms of numbers, and we talked about two or three
37:58 students that I had on campus at that time.
38:00 Todd, here’s the rest of the story.
38:04 You have three students in sixth grade currently who are coming
38:08 to Southwest next year who are severe autism.
38:11 So, wow, wait a minute.
38:14 I’ve got to rethink how we’re going to approach this because I
38:18 can’t have them come the first day of school, the first week of
38:22 school, and things fall apart.
38:23 That’s not what we’re about.
38:25 We need to look more like this, not a firefighter, but how are
38:29 we going to nurture these students?
38:32 And I want to make sure we nurture all students, but students
38:40 with ASD, we have to understand their needs if we’re going to
38:44 help them.
38:45 When Dietrich and I met, we started talking about what do we
38:49 need to do differently?
38:51 And my question to him, let’s start with what can be our ideal
38:56 situation.
38:57 Let’s start at the top.
38:59 The one thing that was a little disturbing to come to find out,
39:03 Dietrich, I will get a team together at the school, and we want
39:08 to go visit a model program, a model that we can see somewhere.
39:15 I want to see another middle school, and how they’re addressing
39:19 students with ASD.
39:20 All right, I’ll find out for you.
39:23 The answer to that, he came back a couple of days later.
39:26 There wasn’t one.
39:27 He looked around the state, he talked with UCF, and there just
39:32 was not a model or program addressing students with ASD around
39:37 the state that we could go look at.
39:40 That was a little scary.
39:43 What do we need to consider?
39:45 A model considers the learning environment of a middle school
39:48 student.
39:49 Let me rehash.
39:50 A student will see seven teachers a day, 45-minute periods,
39:54 class changes, schedule changes, multiple assignments.
39:57 It’s chaotic.
39:58 It’s chaotic as it is.
40:00 Can you imagine a student with ASD?
40:03 I like movies.
40:07 I’m a big movie person, but I will tell you, and I know it’s
40:11 Hollywood, but what I envisioned in early on conversation was
40:15 that movie Rain Man.
40:17 I had to think about Rain Man, and in that movie, Tom Cruise had
40:22 to learn very quickly about his brother and what his strengths
40:26 were, what his weaknesses, and his schedule.
40:30 I never forgot.
40:31 And that’s how I tried to start thinking about how are we going
40:36 to help students with ASD adjust to middle school because it can
40:42 just be overwhelming.
40:44 It’s critical.
40:45 This was a critical piece I want to mention tonight.
40:47 Three days of training.
40:49 Teachers bought into this.
40:51 And not only teachers that were going to work with the students
40:55 in the home base program, but the core academic teachers.
40:58 Three days of training.
41:00 First one, understanding students with ASD.
41:04 Different thinking, different communication, interacting
41:08 classroom supports.
41:09 The second day, addressing social understanding and emotional
41:13 regulation.
41:14 Perspective, social expectations, unwritten rules.
41:18 And the third one is unpacking individual supports.
41:21 Learning what students’ strengths, talents, and interests,
41:25 individual education plans.
41:27 When you learn the strengths and weaknesses, you have to use
41:31 those to your advantage to have that student succeed through one
41:35 day.
41:36 Student with ASD.
41:39 Strengths and talents.
41:40 Social communication is very challenging.
41:43 Emotional regulation.
41:45 I’ll talk about that in one minute.
41:47 Organizing and planning can be a difficult challenge.
41:51 Creating positive relations.
41:53 Most students, first perspective, they stay away.
41:58 They stay away.
41:59 Which, you know what will happen down the road.
42:02 Isolation, depression.
42:03 Individualized supports for students.
42:07 Here are the key supports for our home base program.
42:11 Same person, same place, same time.
42:14 We have one teacher, one IA.
42:17 At Southwest and at Central currently, the program had the model
42:22 of home base.
42:24 We had anywhere from seven to 12 students that we addressed
42:29 through the home base program.
42:31 Direct instruction and social understanding and emotional
42:35 regulation.
42:36 How to help them calm down when that anxiety becomes too much.
42:41 We provided the academic support.
42:43 Obviously, I have some students that are seventh grade, some
42:46 that are eighth grade.
42:47 So, the teacher and the IA work hand in hand together.
42:51 One week, the teacher goes with the seventh graders and the IA
42:54 goes with the eighth graders.
42:56 They switch the following week.
42:58 At any time in that classroom during the day.
43:01 If the student starts to become overwhelmed.
43:04 Show high anxiety.
43:06 Starts to have a meltdown.
43:08 That teacher is able then to take that student back to home base.
43:13 And go through a calming down period.
43:16 So that hopefully with whether it’s five minutes, 15, 20, could
43:20 be an hour.
43:21 We want to get them back on the regular program for the rest of
43:24 the day.
43:25 Regroup, reset, rejoin.
43:27 But the students learn that the home base is a safe place.
43:32 They have a safe person that they have made contact with
43:36 throughout the day.
43:37 We train, trained ESE teachers, core teachers.
43:41 We have a sensory room.
43:43 Sensory room has tactile items to help the students calm down.
43:48 Just as an example.
43:49 A heavy weight blanket.
43:51 To watch a student put a heavy weight blanket on themselves.
43:55 And just go from a level 10 anxiety.
43:59 Down to about a four or a three within a few minutes.
44:03 It’s amazing.
44:05 The home base classroom.
44:09 It is a location for social personal and learning strategies.
44:14 We are front loading.
44:16 We want to be out in front.
44:18 Not be reactive.
44:20 Accessible time to support students experiencing overwhelm.
44:24 That happens a lot.
44:26 It happens a lot to regular middle school kids.
44:29 Just 10 times more with students with ASD.
44:33 Continuum of support for class changes, lunch, fire drills,
44:38 other less structured or challenging situations.
44:41 When we started our first year, we had eight students.
44:47 We did not even attempt to go to the cafeteria the first couple
44:51 of weeks.
44:52 weeks of school we didn’t even do it our goal hey if we can get
44:57 a few students down to the cafeteria
44:59 by the end of the first nine weeks a victory i will tell you by
45:05 the end of the year we had all
45:07 of our students in the cafeteria socializing with other students
45:12 it it works it works you have to
45:15 slow down you have to go to at a pace that they are comfortable
45:20 with social personal class instruction
45:23 at the home base addressing the social communication um you know
45:28 in the movie rain man if you think back
45:32 if you saw that movie the social communication the personal
45:36 interactions it can be a challenge
45:38 check in we ask them where are you today we ask them throughout
45:42 the whole day because the teacher
45:44 and the ia are there with them we set up an emotional scale for
45:49 them direct instruction in
45:51 the emotional regulation zones of regulation we have a five
45:54 point rating which i’ll show you in a second
45:56 we try to teach them and have them help us understand where they
46:02 are during different times of the day
46:05 and for each student it can be a different emotion a different
46:10 zone at any given time that the teacher
46:13 could start an activity that it just no way can’t handle it i
46:18 will tell you the interactions that go on
46:21 between the teacher and diana penninger for instance they preload
46:26 they had an act for an example yesterday
46:29 the team had an activity in the gymnasium they had a packet of
46:34 materials they rotated around stations
46:37 that’s going to be a lot for a student with asd miss penninger
46:41 took the packet and broke it down into sections
46:44 where she gave suggestions she went over it ahead of time with
46:48 the students that’s what we mean by front
46:51 loading is it extra work absolutely that’s great collaboration
46:55 between the classroom core teacher and miss penninger who’s
46:59 there as the home base teacher that’s what is needed to get the
47:02 student to a level of success
47:04 here are our thrive our five point scales avoidance and that
47:11 that happens i mean
47:12 think about this every middle school student we live in the
47:15 world of avoidance we we try to go up to thrive but i will tell
47:19 you
47:20 talking to parents of students with asd their world for years is
47:27 in that avoidance and and tolerate they dream of getting up to
47:33 manage engage and thrive
47:36 uh the presentation tonight i could spend a lot of time talking
47:40 to you the success that we’ve had at southwest we’ve begun this
47:44 year at central and it is working
47:48 relationships we all know how important relationships are but
47:52 when a student with asd knows who that one person
47:56 throughout the day the i the instructional assistant and the
48:00 teacher they know their special interests they are able to
48:02 connect the curriculum
48:04 somehow to that special interest of the student that gets them
48:08 engaged play to the strengths play to the talents and the
48:12 interests
48:12 find a novelty humor and fun in everyday instruction and
48:16 interaction home base outcomes increased inclusion and
48:20 interaction with peers that’s huge that’s absolutely huge very
48:25 difficult and challenging in middle school
48:27 improved attitudes of staff students and parents or caregivers
48:32 the teachers that have engaged in being part of the home base
48:38 program have gone through the training
48:40 i can’t tell you how thrilled they are to be making a difference
48:46 every day with students with asd
48:48 it’s amazing were they nervous at the beginning absolutely did i
48:53 have to challenge them to go outside of their box absolutely
48:57 and every one of them has lived up to it students moving up the
49:01 five point scale thrive over the course of the year
49:04 you’ve got to say here’s where we are where are we going to be
49:08 at the end of the year i know we can do better
49:11 and this is a big one discipline is handled in home base
49:16 the reality of the reality of the situation students in some
49:19 schools that throughout the state throughout
49:21 the country they’re in regular classrooms they don’t have the
49:25 supports they start acting up they start
49:27 having anxiety if the teacher during that lesson if they don’t
49:31 have anybody else they’re off to the
49:33 dean’s office and then it’s it’s more of a discipline issue so
49:36 home base allows us to take care of
49:39 meltdowns and anxieties all in home base calm them down and re-engage
49:44 them in the curriculum
49:46 we gave you a copy earlier this year there was a great article
49:52 that came out in bps news on the asd
49:55 program at southwest if you didn’t get a chance i it’s a great
49:59 article i think it really brings
50:01 to light the whole program or the whole model i became principal
50:06 at central middle school in 1819
50:09 i was able in my second year this year to start the home base
50:13 there here at central we have nine
50:16 students currently in the program i will tell you last year i
50:20 had some eighth graders that i every day
50:24 man i wish i had home base and i made sure going into this year
50:29 we put that model in there there are
50:31 two more middle schools currently jackson and hoover that are
50:35 using some variations of this home base
50:37 model and i believe they’re having some success it may be a
50:40 little tougher in smaller schools
50:42 you all are invited at any time i’m sure mr shaw at southwest
50:47 would love to have you visit you’re
50:50 certainly welcome at central middle school to come visit home
50:53 base and and see for yourself but i hope
50:56 this enlightened you a little bit to our our unique program i
50:59 feel we have at central right now
51:01 thank you thank you thank you so much for coming and sharing the
51:08 information
51:14 so i’m going to put you on the spot with one question okay just
51:16 because um i have lots of
51:20 conversations with different individuals throughout our district
51:23 on some of the challenges that we see in
51:25 schools and certainly with some of our special needs students
51:27 the challenges that you referenced as far as
51:30 meltdowns and outbursts and those sorts of things um we hear a
51:33 lot about as well and oftentimes i will
51:35 say hey check out this program at this school or this program at
51:38 that school and they’re intrigued but
51:40 they say to me well is the district paying for that at that
51:44 school so i’m going to put you on the spot
51:46 just a little bit to say is this something that you have managed
51:50 to do within your allotted funds
51:54 um both at you know at two schools now you’ve managed to do that
51:57 so have have you worked out a
51:59 way with your allotted funds to do that i’m going to give you an
52:02 honest answer as a principal when we
52:04 started down this path in the spring before when looking at this
52:08 model and what can we do uh i did go and
52:12 ask the district and i am very thankful that we had a plan we
52:17 had a very good plan i had a district resource
52:20 teacher that a hundred percent was on board and and trying to do
52:24 something to start meeting the needs
52:27 of a group of students and i can’t thank uh at the time uh dr
52:31 boberski and dr fontan for supporting
52:34 that with a unit nye and and the promise i had after that is
52:39 after year one i will find a way after year
52:43 one because if it if it does work we’re going to want to
52:46 continue it i’ll find a way so right now uh
52:49 first year at central it was in my par i greatly appreciated
52:53 that it makes a difference i think the
52:56 results are there uh the data uh right now i think there’s some
52:59 discussion i know there’s been some
53:01 visits by district staff to take a look at the home base program
53:05 at southwest and central i think there’s
53:08 some areas there that may want to take a look towards our
53:12 students with ebd possibilities but um i hope
53:16 down the road uh you know if the unit is there certainly it
53:19 helps the school uh it’s needed very
53:23 good thank you very much and uh miss moore i’m going to ask you
53:26 i don’t know if you know the answer to
53:28 this but i’m i’m guessing that you you probably do um the we had
53:34 talked as as we have been for
53:37 the past several years looking at opportunities for savings to
53:40 make more dollars available for salary
53:42 and one of the things that we did last year in order to be able
53:46 to come up with additional dollars
53:49 for salary and and miss klein and dr sullivan you guys can
53:52 probably weigh in too but one of the things
53:54 that we did was we eliminated some reserve positions are those
53:58 reserve positions that we
54:00 have previously eliminated are those the types of positions that
54:04 are utilized for special circumstances
54:06 like this where we’re going to do a short-term funding um on on
54:08 a position until the school can
54:11 take over and and so yes chris moore’s shaking her head yes as
54:15 are jane klein and dr sullivan so
54:17 i just i want to make sure that we as we discuss how we address
54:21 the concerns that we’re hearing from our
54:22 schools that we really wrap our head around um how everything
54:27 plays together for us to be able to
54:29 address it so thank you very much for the work that you’re doing
54:32 it looks like a phenomenal program
54:33 and i’m going to try to come by and see you mr susan did you
54:36 want to say something no any other board
54:38 members i just have a quick question mr brown were you the one
54:42 that we were dr mollens and i were
54:44 speaking with at okay just what i thought you were but you didn’t
54:47 look the same as you did
54:48 is that what it is well thank you thank you all very very much i
54:55 actually met a gentleman two days
54:56 ago who was very distraught about his uh autistic grandson who
55:02 is uh homeschooled right now and they
55:05 want to put him in school and he said what do you have like how
55:08 are you gonna and so i’m gonna actually
55:10 copy this and put it in the mail to him tomorrow so thanks so
55:13 much
55:13 mr susan you wanted to come i just wanted to say um mr sheer
55:19 thanks for your enthusiasm
55:21 um i was hired by mr sheer when at space coast and the day that
55:26 i was hired he literally just gave me a
55:29 stack of stuff and stayed on me the whole time made me the
55:31 teacher that i was but he also makes all the
55:34 people at his school the same and his enthusiasm hasn’t changed
55:37 in the many years that i’ve known
55:38 him and i also want to say thank you to mr brown many of my
55:42 students were you pushed them at at ogalley
55:45 and they really didn’t like you i’m not going to lie to you
55:49 because you made them better and i now
55:53 know because they’re in the community working that it was
55:56 successful in some of those endeavors so thank
55:58 you for everything that you guys give you’ve made a difference
56:01 thank you
56:02 any other board members wish to comment at this time okay all
56:08 right then yes thank you
56:10 all right then we are now at public comments uh school board
56:18 policy limits our our public comment
56:21 time to 30 minutes for the portion of the meeting during which
56:23 the public is invited to participate and
56:25 provide public comment we only have four speakers this evening
56:30 so um each speaker is limited to three
56:33 minutes we have a clock in front of me to help you keep track of
56:35 your time when your time is over you’ll
56:37 be asked to stop and allow the next speaker his or her turn
56:40 always keep in mind that reasonable decorum is
56:42 expected at all times and your statement should be directed to
56:44 the board chair the chair may interrupt
56:47 warn or terminate a participant statement when time is up
56:51 personally directed abusive obscene or irrelevant
56:54 should an individual not observe proper etiquette the chairman
56:58 may may request the individual leave
57:00 the meeting let’s all encourage an environment appropriate for
57:03 our children who may be present
57:04 or are watching from home i’m just going to go ahead and call
57:08 our first four speakers since there’s only four of
57:10 them um we have nicolette severe anthony collucci kyle savage
57:16 and kathy west as you all make your way up
57:20 before speaking please state your name the organization you
57:23 represent if any and identify the topic that you
57:25 will be discussing
57:32 good evening good evening school board um my name is nicolette
57:37 severe i am i work for the u.s census bureau
57:40 first i wanted to thank the superintendent and matt reed for all
57:45 of the help that they have extended
57:47 throughout this year helping us promote the census in the
57:51 schools so i’m basically here to remind
57:53 everyone that the census is coming around the corner we’re all
57:56 going to receive an invitation this week
57:59 inviting us to complete the census online so as many may know uh
58:03 the the data that the census yields
58:06 determines how many seats the state of florida secures in
58:10 congress so it gives us power and representation
58:14 in congress in addition it determines how many or where the 675
58:19 billion dollars are allocated within our
58:22 our communities our states and our counties school programs such
58:27 as vpk luncheon programs um title one easel
58:32 are all funded by federal funding so we’re encouraging you all
58:37 to help us promote the census um schools
58:40 are predominantly or our biggest supporter of promoting the
58:45 census so the bureau has rolled out the
58:49 uh statistics statistics in the school sorry which is our sias
58:53 um sis program which was lounged last week
58:57 and will roll all the way to june of 2020 schools throughout the
59:02 nation are holding events um are
59:05 including statistics in the schools and their programs they’re
59:09 posting announcements on their marquees on
59:11 social media they’re hosting rallies so basically i’m just here
59:15 to thank you again the brevard public school
59:18 for coming um and supporting the census and to remind everybody
59:23 else to fill out their census when it comes
59:25 thank you very much for your time thank you have a great evening
59:32 mr colucci
59:46 my name is anthony colucci i’m the president of the brevard federation
59:52 of teachers
59:54 tonight i am honored and humble to humble to inform you that the
59:58 membership has reelected me to this
1:00:00 position for three more years the level of support i have for
1:00:04 members can be seen by the fact that i was
1:00:06 unopposed in my election i’m proud of our union’s
1:00:09 accomplishments since i became a release officer
1:00:13 for starters we’ve increased our membership by over 700 members
1:00:17 the past two years we’ve been able to
1:00:19 to secure respectable raises a great deal of beneficial contract
1:00:24 language one in arbitration one a special
1:00:27 magistrate hearing and gain the support of the community in our
1:00:30 plight for fair pay
1:00:31 i’ve been part of this district much longer than most of you and
1:00:36 will most likely be here after you’re
1:00:38 gone i say that because i think it’s important for all of you to
1:00:42 realize your decisions will impact me
1:00:44 and other teachers for years to come after you’ve gone on to
1:00:48 other things over the next three years i sure hope that
1:00:51 this board chooses to have a productive relationship with the 5
1:00:55 000 teachers we represent you can’t love
1:00:58 teachers but hate the teachers union they are the union and i am
1:01:02 their elected representative
1:01:04 since being a release officer most of you on this board have
1:01:08 tried to ignore my input until you no longer
1:01:10 could when i told you that our previous hr department was beyond
1:01:14 difficult and incompetent no changes
1:01:16 happened until this union won three arbitrations in a row and bft
1:01:21 was forced to call impasse two years
1:01:23 in a row when i repeatedly told you a certain principal was
1:01:27 being awful to her teachers no changes happened
1:01:30 until the community rallied and called for her resignation when
1:01:34 i told you you could afford better raises last
1:01:36 year and even a neutral party agreed with that assessment no
1:01:40 changes happened until we rallied week
1:01:43 after week after week when i told you your previous cfo was not
1:01:47 transparent with the district funding
1:01:50 no changes happened until the entire community saw it with their
1:01:53 own eyes guess what i would really
1:01:56 prefer not to be the guy who tells you i told you so uh i would
1:02:00 like to have this district avoid problems
1:02:03 but that change needs to happen with you you need to be
1:02:06 transparent with what’s going on in this
1:02:08 district and willing to accept that your beliefs information are
1:02:12 not always accurate we need to
1:02:14 address problems quickly not put them back up to put them on the
1:02:18 back burner we need to lobby our
1:02:20 politicians with one voice and one message not many and most
1:02:24 importantly we must craft and implement
1:02:27 solutions together that way if they don’t work out there’s no
1:02:31 finger pointing but rather collective
1:02:32 responsibility that allows us to get back up regroup and try
1:02:36 again i do believe that we have a really
1:02:38 good school district but i also believe that it can clearly and
1:02:42 unquestionably be the best school
1:02:44 district in the state if we commit to working together i look
1:02:47 forward to the board workshop and hopefully
1:02:49 that will be a path to collaboration thank you mr calucci
1:02:57 mr savage thank you um so i just want to first of all start off
1:03:03 by taking by taking time to thank my
1:03:05 school obviously from what miss mcdougall read capeview
1:03:08 elementary is a wonderful place to be at
1:03:11 and i would never be here right now if it wasn’t for my
1:03:13 principal if it wasn’t for my principal who saw
1:03:16 somebody with a biology degree an army veteran not one day in
1:03:18 the classroom i was like you know what he’s
1:03:20 gonna make a good he’s gonna make a good teacher and for all
1:03:23 those years and even this year when i make
1:03:25 a mistake she’s there to pick me up and say this is how you do
1:03:28 it better and some of the wonderful
1:03:30 leadership in the back miss klein and dr mellow so thank you i
1:03:34 would be lying to you if i didn’t say
1:03:36 this last year has been a complete whirlwind since becoming the
1:03:39 treasurer of the brevard federation
1:03:41 and teachers i’ve learned a ton of information and it has been
1:03:44 an honor to work on behalf of my fellow
1:03:46 teachers in brevard additionally it has been an honor to work
1:03:50 with dr mullins the board and members
1:03:52 of the district senior staff to improve working conditions of
1:03:54 our teachers and the learning environments
1:03:57 of our students i’m excited to be leaving the classroom this
1:04:00 summer to serve the members of bft full
1:04:02 time as a release officer however i’m not gonna i’m not gonna
1:04:05 lie to you i’m gonna miss the classroom
1:04:07 being inside those four walls has been the best thing i’ve ever
1:04:10 done and i’ve had some pretty
1:04:12 cool experiences in life being a fifth grade math teacher is
1:04:15 just amazing i’m really gonna miss my
1:04:18 students my rally cry and focus going forward into my new
1:04:22 endeavor with bft is going to be urgency
1:04:24 while i truly respect every stakeholder i’ve worked with over
1:04:27 the last year in this room and people not
1:04:29 in this room i have left many meetings or conversations
1:04:32 frustrated not frustrated with an individual person
1:04:35 but frustrated with the process and pace it takes to get
1:04:38 anything done guess what with all my conversations
1:04:41 i had with people in this room we agree on 90 of the problems
1:04:45 facing the brevard public schools
1:04:47 let’s work together on those bft bft looks forward to working
1:04:52 with you on many different
1:04:53 issues that are facing us in brevard whether it can be how we
1:04:56 improve our new teacher experience
1:04:57 with mentor teachers whether it’s vanessa working with the
1:05:00 district on retention and recruitment
1:05:03 whether it’s making sure all students have equitable discipline
1:05:06 it’s not equitable right now that needs
1:05:08 to change our paid maternity leave for our employees many of
1:05:11 these issues we can work together and make a
1:05:14 difference it will change teacher or students lives just some of
1:05:17 those four issues i listed right there
1:05:19 let me explain to you the reason i’m bringing urgency to this
1:05:24 wonderful opportunity
1:05:26 i stand in front of you as a student who never completed the
1:05:29 ninth grade i know what happens to
1:05:31 a student who loses faith in school who doesn’t have a strong
1:05:34 family structure at home who doesn’t have
1:05:36 anything to look look forward to you’re looking at that student
1:05:39 if it wasn’t for one person changing my
1:05:41 life i would still be a high school dropout i know the urgency
1:05:44 of making a difference in a student’s life
1:05:47 furthermore everything i know about leadership comes from two
1:05:51 places the united states army and general
1:05:53 mattis and if you don’t know who general mattis is my time’s
1:05:55 really short it’s probably one of the
1:05:57 greatest leaders in america and our generation i was honored to
1:06:00 work with him for 12 months and he
1:06:03 he taught me three things and then i will stop miss belford he
1:06:05 taught me always lead from the front
1:06:08 always be humble and always respect everybody you work for bft
1:06:11 and myself are ready and we would
1:06:13 really like to work with you guys to lead forward thank you
1:06:17 thank you mr savage we appreciate you
1:06:23 miss west miss west
1:06:53 good evening how you guys doing today um my name is kathy west
1:06:58 um i’m a substitute teacher i’m here on
1:07:01 behalf of the subs um we’re still waiting on our pay increase um
1:07:08 we need to make sure that we’re paying
1:07:11 our employees a competitive wage um uh we can’t like i said we
1:07:19 can’t pay our bills with box tops we can’t pay
1:07:24 our bills with poppy tabs you’re stunning my growth
1:07:30 waiting for a raise
1:07:32 also i wanted to mention i read this article
1:07:41 and online and i don’t think we want any of this to happen to
1:07:46 any of our people people are committing
1:07:49 suicide because they can’t make enough money i don’t think we
1:07:53 want that to happen to any of our people
1:07:56 that concludes my announcement
1:07:57 thank you miss west and thank you for joining us this evening
1:08:03 all right that moves us into the consent agenda dr mullins
1:08:12 there are 26 agenda items under this category
1:08:16 does any board member wish to pull any item from the consent
1:08:20 agenda
1:08:21 i think we might need to pull
1:08:23 f18 and f19
1:08:27 i checked with dr mullins they’re driving i already reviewed
1:08:32 both of them and they’re they’re fine
1:08:33 f18 well it’s certainly the board’s prerogative to pull those if
1:08:37 you’d like
1:08:38 if it’s in reference to the earlier position that out of state
1:08:45 airfare
1:08:47 trips are canceled the bayside high school naval jrtc is
1:08:50 traveling by chartered bus
1:08:52 and the heritage high school automotive program is not traveling
1:08:57 until next school year
1:08:59 okay then no i don’t need to pull anything as well all right
1:09:02 then i will entertain a motion
1:09:04 to accept the consent items as presented move to approve second
1:09:08 moved by mr susan seconded by
1:09:10 miss deskovich is there any discussion please vote
1:09:21 i don’t know
1:09:22 i don’t have anything here
1:09:24 i’m going to cancel that and i’m going to do
1:09:28 okay
1:09:29 ms escobar is canceling that vote and redoing it because there
1:09:34 was a technical glitch of some sort
1:09:35 and the motion passes five zero
1:10:04 all right we’ll move on to the action agenda dr mullins
1:10:08 uh miss belford and members of the board there are two items
1:10:15 under this category item g36
1:10:18 department school initiated agreements what are the wishes of
1:10:21 the board vote to approve
1:10:22 moved by mr susan seconded by miss mcdougall any discussion
1:10:26 please vote
1:10:58 the motion passes 5-0 we’re now at the information portion of
1:11:18 our agenda the agenda there will be no
1:11:20 action on these items this evening but may be brought back at a
1:11:23 later time does anyone want to discuss
1:11:25 anything on the information agenda we might have more issues
1:11:31 with travel i don’t know
1:11:32 with the um cte national competitions
1:11:37 i’m sure staff will
1:11:43 dr sullivan says we’re fine yep miss cline says we’re fine so
1:11:51 dr sullivan is the cto well yeah dr sullivan already said she
1:11:56 was giving us two thumbs up
1:11:58 move along she says she’s on it long she said she volunteered to
1:12:02 drive she’s going to yeah she’s
1:12:03 she’s going to drive them all the way there all right uh with no
1:12:09 questions on the information agenda
1:12:11 does any board member have anything further to report i don’t
1:12:14 have a report but i forgot in the
1:12:18 acknowledgements uh you mentioned miss mcdougall uh barbara wilcox
1:12:22 and the um yeah i forgot to mention it
1:12:27 was on my list and i just didn’t mention so she had she had
1:12:31 their group had a another big milestone this
1:12:34 week uh congressman posey read a whole block it was kind of like
1:12:38 a proclamation on the united states
1:12:40 house floor uh called the group out and the school by name and
1:12:45 even miss wilcox by name and
1:12:47 she found that out on friday at our parent leadership team
1:12:50 meeting and i was sitting next to her and
1:12:53 i mean she was very emotional which made me very emotional i was
1:12:56 like your name is being read on
1:12:58 the house floor today for bringing kindness to the entire united
1:13:02 states in washington dc that’s a
1:13:03 really big deal she’s a tk1 teacher you know in her little
1:13:07 school in our little community and
1:13:09 she’s impacting our entire nation and i just i think that that’s
1:13:13 amazing yeah
1:13:22 thank you miss deskovich for reminding us all about that
1:13:26 oftentimes we get uh you know if we come
1:13:29 across those things throughout the week and sometimes we forget
1:13:32 to mention them once we get up here so
1:13:33 i appreciate that mr suze uh miss campbell um so i was able to
1:13:38 meet a few weeks ago with the south
1:13:41 area in double acp and i just wanted to share some some things
1:13:44 that came out of that meeting um our
1:13:47 their main driver of the you know the main reason why they want
1:13:51 to meet with me is because
1:13:52 they’ve taken a look at our our student data with our reading
1:13:56 levels and the the very side data
1:13:59 that 64 65 percent depending on the year last few years of our
1:14:03 african-american students in grades
1:14:06 three through ten are reading uh below grade level and i i know
1:14:10 that we’ve seen that data i know that
1:14:13 it those are numbers that dr mullins and dr sullivan and jane
1:14:17 klein that caused them to lose sleep at night
1:14:20 and so it was they weren’t presenting anything new to me but you
1:14:24 know we i was able to share with
1:14:25 them some of the things that were um that the staff is already
1:14:28 working on i know the strategic plan
1:14:30 includes um several items that relate to all our subgroups that
1:14:33 we don’t want to just see success
1:14:36 on the average but that every subgroup for african-american hispanic
1:14:40 english language learners our
1:14:41 esc students our free and reduced lunch students that every subgroup
1:14:45 has growth and success and so
1:14:47 i promised them to keep that in front of us um i we we talked
1:14:50 about i just think that we are on the
1:14:53 right track with some things i you know our thrive by five that
1:14:55 we can’t wait till they get to us in
1:14:56 kindergarten um to start teaching them you know if we can get
1:15:00 books in the hands of parents and students
1:15:02 so that they can start that path to literacy earlier on um i
1:15:05 shared with them our changes in our gifted
1:15:08 policy that kind of removes the um kind of makes our our gifted
1:15:12 screening colorblind that we’re going to
1:15:14 screen all students uh we have already started this year um to
1:15:18 doing that um our dr sullivan’s
1:15:21 a aggressive um push to algebra one in middle school for all
1:15:25 students that that we’re eliminating you
1:15:27 know you know we’re making that a more colorblind blind process
1:15:31 as well um but i i also came out that
1:15:33 i just want you to know they are with us they’re wanting to help
1:15:36 us and they have already instituted
1:15:38 at university park elementary a mentorship program and members
1:15:42 of the naacp come in and they’ve trained
1:15:43 them to come and work with our students at university park i’ve
1:15:47 asked them to be open to expand that
1:15:49 and definitely want to see increased volunteers um throughout
1:15:53 our county um and even if it’s just
1:15:55 coming in and being an ear for students to read to but you know
1:15:59 when i when i hear those numbers
1:16:01 you know my my gut reaction is oh give me 25 students and i’ll
1:16:06 go let me go help myself but
1:16:08 that’s you know and i definitely think we want we have done that
1:16:11 in the past as a board and we can
1:16:12 continue to do that on an individual basis but i also realize it’s
1:16:15 not our job as a board to come and
1:16:17 come up with the plan because our staff is already doing that
1:16:20 but what is our job as a board is to
1:16:22 make sure that our staff has the resources they need to take
1:16:26 care of this problem because it’s a problem
1:16:28 and we as a board have that responsibility so as we move forward
1:16:32 in the decisions that we’re going to be
1:16:34 making we remember that that’s our role we need to make sure
1:16:37 they have what they need because 65 percent
1:16:40 of our african-american students not being able to read on grade
1:16:42 level is a problem and um we can
1:16:47 support the people who um are supporting those students so just
1:16:51 want to share that thank you
1:16:53 thank you miss campbell and mr susan so one of the things that
1:16:59 we had was the innovation games and it
1:17:01 went off really well um and i want to tell you miss lukton had
1:17:05 run around to all those programs
1:17:08 for months prior putting together as many of the drones and
1:17:12 whatever she could just to get them
1:17:14 to where they needed to be um for instance johnson she came in
1:17:17 there and they’re still 3d printing with
1:17:19 the old drones they had communication errors she worked with
1:17:22 them all right um but what we’re seeing is
1:17:24 is that um there was a cost for busing this year which we couldn’t
1:17:27 afford to cover from a district
1:17:29 perspective along with multiple programs that because of the busing
1:17:33 cost and the infrastructure
1:17:35 for the drones and the sea perches and all that stuff we had
1:17:37 schools that couldn’t that couldn’t compete
1:17:40 so one of the things that i noticed as we had a couple of
1:17:43 meetings right before that
1:17:45 was that there was a need to have an or a group of people come
1:17:48 together to support those innovation game
1:17:50 programs along with maybe some other stem stuff in our community
1:17:54 so what i did was i reached out to drs
1:17:57 angel investments naval research fpl northrop grumman boeing and
1:18:00 the astronaut memorial foundation
1:18:03 and they said that they’d like to get together um and see what
1:18:06 the district needs and then support those
1:18:09 programs through that not take away from what they’re already
1:18:13 giving but see if there’s a way that they
1:18:14 can utilize some of their subcontractors and other individuals
1:18:18 to not only help with i know i always
1:18:20 lose to the animals right um to not only help with the revenue
1:18:24 to create these programs but then also
1:18:26 the mentorships and the volunteers that are taken i mean they
1:18:29 were literally putting together the
1:18:31 pools the night before and they were blowing over at the um
1:18:36 solar energy center and they were just
1:18:38 trying to fill them and they’re bringing in i mean there’s just
1:18:41 so much that’s needed there
1:18:42 we’ve created an amazing program and in order to grow and
1:18:44 support it i think we need to bring in some
1:18:46 of those businesses so they’ve all agreed to sort of start
1:18:48 coming together and it would be
1:18:50 run kind of um through the economic development council which we’re
1:18:53 already starting something
1:18:54 there um and then also uh pull together the parents from each
1:18:58 one of those organizations and the and the
1:19:00 schools to say hey here’s what we have we have a heat map we’re
1:19:03 going to need these things and then
1:19:04 they come together and they say we support them so i just wanted
1:19:06 to kind of give you the heads up
1:19:08 that you know it’s not me running it it’s just putting all those
1:19:11 people together and seeing what
1:19:13 they’re doing that’s all um just to give you a heads up because
1:19:16 in order to grow that program we need to
1:19:18 give them the financial support and the mentor support that they
1:19:20 need any questions on that
1:19:22 one okay there’s drones now for 40 bucks for a controller and a
1:19:26 drone so you can retrofit an
1:19:27 entire school for 160 bucks the sea perch program that’s inside
1:19:32 the uh from the office of naval
1:19:33 intelligence you can get now for like under 150 bucks i mean we’re
1:19:37 at a point where we can supply
1:19:38 these programs and for under a thousand dollars you can move a
1:19:41 lot of these programs to the innovation
1:19:43 games so it’s not like we’re talking about raising a hundred
1:19:45 thousand dollars it’s only ten twenty
1:19:47 thousand dollars to support these programs um so that’s good any
1:19:51 questions on that all right
1:19:52 i would just say you know want to make sure our you know working
1:19:56 with our pi coordinators on that
1:19:57 because a lot of those are our partners and coordinate that with
1:20:01 uh sure yep um so the next thing is is that i
1:20:05 wanted to i i one of the things that keeps me up at night is our
1:20:09 insurance that’s coming up and i wanted
1:20:12 to take a second um i i was looking at the timeline and i’ve
1:20:15 said it before and i just kind of wanted to
1:20:18 throw some stuff on your guys’s radar if we take the next if we
1:20:23 go back from the time that we have open
1:20:25 enrollment which is october um early november and we go back 60
1:20:30 days to building the enrollment to print
1:20:32 the educate wellness um to build the to print the uh pamphlets
1:20:37 that they get the packets the the
1:20:40 paperwork in order to educate our wellness coordinators to do
1:20:43 all that takes at least 60 days at the minimum
1:20:45 if you take the 60 days it takes prior to that to create it
1:20:49 inside of the networks
1:20:51 to our online you know programs that have to be put into place
1:20:57 all of the programs that have to be
1:20:59 implemented with the different networks and everything else that
1:21:02 takes another 60 days
1:21:03 if somehow we were able to negotiate with the contract um
1:21:07 through the union of whatever it was
1:21:09 that we chose it basically gives us 45 days from now until the
1:21:13 time that we would have to go negotiate
1:21:15 with the con with them which would be the end of april to try to
1:21:19 come together with a plan
1:21:21 to listen to what we have offered to us to go back and talk
1:21:25 about a plan and then move forward with
1:21:27 something so i just wanted to let you guys know that we’re
1:21:30 getting close to you know time constraints
1:21:32 which i think everybody is and then i wanted to throw a couple
1:21:35 of ideas that we’ve mentioned before
1:21:36 out um one of the issues that we have is education um one of the
1:21:41 problems that we have is that each
1:21:44 one of the schools we have a wellness coordinator and they
1:21:46 volunteer their time so that they can do work
1:21:49 but i think that we can utilize them more by giving them a stipend
1:21:52 and let me explain we get 80 000
1:21:54 dollars for wellness dollars from signif right that goes to do
1:21:58 different stuff but that can fund
1:21:59 part of the stipends but where i really started doing some
1:22:02 analytics was on the flexible spending
1:22:04 account if you have two people at each school that utilize the
1:22:09 maximum amount for both flexible spending
1:22:12 and for the um child care just two that would be close to a
1:22:17 thousand dollars in savings for the flexible
1:22:20 spending account um that we could utilize for the stipends
1:22:24 meaning that if we drive flexible spending
1:22:26 account savings by having people utilize their dollars for child
1:22:30 care and the right things we can save
1:22:32 enough money to be able to provide stipends so that those people
1:22:36 would be educating and want to educate the
1:22:38 people that are inside their groups we went to an open
1:22:41 enrollment years ago and when we went to an open
1:22:43 enrollment there was a lot of distrust because of the
1:22:45 organization that was coming in they felt like
1:22:47 they were being sold so there’s nobody that can sell like our
1:22:51 people that they trust right so for
1:22:54 them to understand what their needs are and to answer questions
1:22:57 our wellness coordinators are already
1:22:58 doing it and there’s an option to be able to pay them to
1:23:01 continue that’s all just an idea because in order to make the
1:23:04 change that we need
1:23:04 we have to um educate our people on each one of the things that
1:23:09 we’re doing so if we’re going to create
1:23:12 a preferred network they need to be educated it just can’t be a
1:23:16 a group that comes in here on a weekend or
1:23:18 one of those things they have to be site-based education um if
1:23:21 we’re going to do those different
1:23:22 things so the other thing that i wanted to say i met with osceola
1:23:26 county’s risk manager just to see what
1:23:28 they were doing over there um they’ve gone into doing a couple
1:23:31 of new things that i would like to
1:23:33 talk to you guys about which is one of them is that instead of
1:23:37 creating a preferred network narrow
1:23:39 network they’ve actually taken and created programs where people
1:23:42 buy into them financially so
1:23:44 there’s a program where you can go direct to mris outpatient
1:23:48 surgeries and stuff like that
1:23:50 so say um there’s five places in the county that provide mris
1:23:53 and outpatient surgeries for under 500
1:23:56 dollars they’ve made it to where they don’t have to pay co-pays
1:23:59 to go to that so that’s driven all of
1:24:01 the people that are a part of that program to go there without
1:24:04 having to create a disruption or an
1:24:05 education if you want a free copay you go to those same thing
1:24:08 with pharmacy and it can ride along with
1:24:11 our contracts and not hurt what we have currently so there’s
1:24:14 just a lot of other options that i that i i
1:24:16 asked dr mullins and he’s looking into but i think we need to
1:24:20 keep our scope open and take a look at
1:24:24 some of those specifically to the pharmacy mris and going direct
1:24:29 to like our health first parish medical
1:24:31 and stewart i know we’re moving to ask signa to do it but if you
1:24:35 bring them in and you ask them hey
1:24:37 what can you provide you get some different options that we’re
1:24:39 not getting through the current provider
1:24:41 that we have that’s all so just kind of um i’ll send a kind of
1:24:44 an overview that goes through all
1:24:46 of it to each one of you but i want to throw it on your radar
1:24:49 that our time is getting tight there’s
1:24:50 some options that we can do to save and i think that we should
1:24:53 look at it that’s all and if you
1:24:54 guys had any questions i was going to be there i have a couple
1:24:57 questions sure may i of course um the
1:25:01 stipends and the who you said that there was mistrust and we
1:25:05 used to have others come in was that aflac or who
1:25:07 who came in it was it wasn’t mistrust but there was a couple
1:25:10 people that said it was aflac listen
1:25:12 the game that everybody plays is that they will bring in their
1:25:16 enrollers they will bring in aflac they’ll
1:25:19 bring in an enrolling company and what ends up thank you thank
1:25:23 you what ends up happening is they don’t um
1:25:26 they’re not our people so they’re not being and we already our
1:25:30 employees felt like they were being sold so
1:25:33 you’re recommending that we have two of our own employees at
1:25:36 each one at each location we already
1:25:38 have them there they’re already there they’re already answering
1:25:40 questions they’re already doing
1:25:41 the work if we want to and you want to give them a stipend just
1:25:44 an idea okay does that have to go
1:25:46 through bft to get so we have stipends to go through them so we’d
1:25:50 have to mr colucci is saying no
1:25:56 some of them are yeah they are i mean i i i understand i mean
1:26:00 any of them are secret the
1:26:01 school secretary many of them but they’re already doing this and
1:26:04 it’s a burden already on them and
1:26:06 i think literally if you look at the flexible spending accounts
1:26:08 that we would save and then on top of
1:26:10 that there’s your enroller there’s are they trained now they’re
1:26:13 doing it but are they doing it and they
1:26:15 don’t know much or do we spend the time training them that you
1:26:17 think they’re very knowledgeable they’re
1:26:19 very knowledgeable and in depending on the school like kennedy
1:26:22 that woman’s crazy she puts in
1:26:23 all of their flyers everything she’s out there watching right
1:26:26 now and she just no she appreciates
1:26:28 me crazy i talked to her all the time about that but there are i
1:26:31 think that you would see an
1:26:33 improvement in the level of service just based upon the fact
1:26:36 that they have an opportunity to by giving
1:26:38 them a stipend yep okay and i’m not against it i just i want to
1:26:43 understand exactly what what you’re
1:26:45 suggesting so are they currently teaching about fsas about
1:26:50 flexible spending accounts i should say
1:26:53 otherwise you feel like it’s not to fidelity um we’ve seen a
1:26:56 drop in the overall amount of individuals
1:26:59 that are going towards the flexible spending we saw an increase
1:27:02 after we added the extra couple of
1:27:04 months on the flexible spending and did the open enrollment
1:27:07 where we used the enrollers there was a
1:27:09 significant increase during that year and we would see that
1:27:12 again oh the past enrollers you’re talking
1:27:14 about affleck again they did a great job it’s just some people
1:27:16 because of the way it was but we saw
1:27:18 significant increases in flexible spending accounts okay and
1:27:21 that’s that’s all maybe um mark not this mark
1:27:25 langdorf couldn’t think of his last name maybe he can give us
1:27:30 some suggestions on how we can
1:27:32 increase because if the fsa’s that’s a win-win for us and for
1:27:34 our employees if there’s a way for us to
1:27:37 expand that that sounds like a and i don’t know if it’s stipends
1:27:41 or maybe mr langdorf has some other
1:27:43 suggestions or ideas i i’d like to hear about that if we can yep
1:27:46 thank you that’s it
1:27:49 uh and just as a circle back on that dr mullins because i keep
1:27:53 forgetting to mention it to you i
1:27:55 think we had talked about coming back together um in april
1:28:00 sometime joint sciac board um so i just
1:28:04 wanted to make sure i mentioned that to you so it’s still on
1:28:07 your radar as well yep it’s on the actually
1:28:11 it’s on my list to talk to you about this week awesome thank you
1:28:14 all right there being no further
1:28:17 anyone else have comments oh dr mullins i’m sorry i didn’t mean
1:28:20 to cut you off down there not a problem
1:28:22 just real quick i want to remind the board that at our next
1:28:25 board meeting i will be uh making a
1:28:27 presentation in response to the board’s uh request that uh look
1:28:33 at options for compensation moving forward
1:28:36 for the district i’ve engaged in many community conversations
1:28:40 around uh the district the work we’ve
1:28:43 done uh as well as uh done some research and some suggestions
1:28:46 that have been made relative to
1:28:49 different ways of doing the work uh in the district so i’ll be
1:28:52 bringing a report to the board at the next
1:28:54 board meeting just wanted to remind you that that’s coming uh
1:28:57 march 24th super thank you dr mullins we look
1:29:00 forward to any additional discussion there being no further
1:29:04 business the meeting is adjourned have a great
1:29:17 uh