Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Thank you.
2:30 Can you hear me now?
3:00 Good evening.
3:29 In consideration of the current health and safety concerns
3:32 during the COVID-19 emergency,
3:33 guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as
3:36 well as Executive Order
3:38 20-91 issued by Governor DeSantis, it is necessary to modify our
3:42 board meeting process to comply.
3:45 Board members and staff may be participating by phone rather
3:48 than being present in the boardroom.
3:49 The educational services facility is closed to the public, but
3:52 the board meeting audio
3:54 and video are being live streamed so the community can watch and
3:57 listen to the meeting through
3:58 usual channels.
3:59 Community members who wanted to make comments were asked to
4:03 register in advance on the district
4:05 website.
4:05 Those who registered were called Monday evening and their
4:08 comments were recorded, limited
4:10 to three minutes each.
4:11 These comments will be replayed under the public comment section
4:14 of the agenda.
4:15 Ms. McDougall will be joining us telephonically this evening.
4:18 For transparency, Ms. Escobar will be calling for the board’s
4:23 aye or nay votes for each item requiring
4:27 a vote.
4:28 Pam, roll call please.
4:29 Ms. Belford?
4:32 Present.
4:33 Ms. Deskovich?
4:34 Present.
4:35 Ms. McDougall?
4:36 Present.
4:37 Mr. Susan?
4:38 Present.
4:39 Ms. Campbell?
4:40 Present.
4:41 The board will now hold a moment of silent reflection and invite
4:45 the listening audience
4:46 to join us.
5:00 Thank you.
5:01 We will now say the Pledge of Allegiance.
5:04 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
5:09 and to the republic for
5:12 which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with
5:16 liberty and justice for all.
5:21 At this time, I want to offer my fellow board members and Dr.
5:24 Mullins the opportunity to recognize
5:25 students, staff, programs, and community members for the
5:28 contributions afforded to provide public
5:31 schools.
5:32 Before I turn it over to the first board member, I do want to
5:35 share with you all that I received
5:37 a call this afternoon from one of our frequent visitors to our
5:42 board meetings who asked that
5:45 I tell you all to please make sure you speak into your
5:47 microphone because he can’t join us
5:49 this evening.
5:51 And he had difficulty hearing last time.
5:53 So it was Mr. Bradley who reached out, who we all know and love,
5:56 of course, and so we appreciate
5:57 him letting us know that we need to keep those mics close to us.
6:02 Mrs. Campbell, you want to start since you’re down on that end?
6:04 Yes, I will.
6:06 I wanted just to mention, there’s so many people doing such
6:10 great work and I noticed that the
6:12 last time around, you know, we follow the comments.
6:14 There’s people, oh, what about this group of people?
6:16 What about this group of people?
6:17 And I know that we recognize them at an earlier board meeting.
6:19 So I know we can’t hit everybody every time, but there’s a few
6:22 that I just want to point
6:23 out tonight that we haven’t talked about as much.
6:25 One is the Brevard Schools Foundation, who has continued to do a
6:30 couple of things.
6:32 One, continue to meet the needs of our needy students by this
6:34 weekend they were out handing
6:36 out school supplies and hygiene items and they’re continuing to
6:41 collect those as well as their
6:42 enormous fundraising efforts to help us with the money that we
6:47 collected that we were asking
6:49 for from our community to help with the hot spot for our
6:52 students who don’t have the internet
6:54 home.
6:55 And so I just want to thank Janice Kershaw and her team of
6:58 employees and also her wonderful
7:00 team of volunteers who have been packing things and just trying
7:04 to continue to reach out to
7:05 our students who may not have the materials necessary to get to
7:09 distance learning.
7:10 And then also I want to do a shout out to our instructional
7:12 assistants who are doing all kinds
7:14 of different things right now, who are making phone calls and
7:17 meeting with students over the
7:19 phone to help them with their studies.
7:24 They’re doing all different kinds of things.
7:25 I’ve seen some in the earlier weeks helping with the food pickup
7:29 in that first week.
7:31 And so just a shout out to our instructional assistants for the
7:34 work that they’re doing to
7:35 support our teachers and students in this time.
7:39 Thank you Ms. Campbell.
7:40 Mr. Susan.
7:41 Yeah first off I wanted to say thank you to Mr. Kevin Thornton
7:47 for the mobile sites that
7:48 were put into my district.
7:50 Ms. Migliore requested that we had one that was in really bad
7:54 shape that we needed to get
7:55 some some food to and she was right we have almost 70 meals
7:59 first was thinking about 50 now
8:00 we’re at 70 and I also wanted to say thank you to Ms. Gauman
8:04 for requesting to get a site east of US-1 over by Pineapple
8:08 Avenue.
8:09 That has turned out to be an amazing opportunity for kids that
8:12 can’t get there.
8:13 Many people know that the reason that these children can’t get
8:16 there is because one sometimes
8:17 parents aren’t at home to actually drive them but the other
8:20 issue is that sometimes there’s so
8:21 many kids in one household that their parent can’t actually get
8:25 into the car to get.
8:26 So thank you to Kevin Thornton and to those principals who are
8:28 doing such a great job as far as
8:31 requesting those mobile sites.
8:32 The other piece I want to say is thank you to Family Promise, Fancy
8:35 Farmer who we play for,
8:37 the 18 PTOs and the 20 churches that we’ve been working with to
8:40 take care of the need inside of the community.
8:42 There’s just some amazing things that have been going on as the
8:45 principals identify what the need is.
8:46 These individuals are showing up and assisting in any which way
8:50 that they can.
8:50 I’m just so very proud of those individuals for what they’re
8:54 doing.
8:54 doing we have an event on Friday we’re going to be going through
8:59 our food distribution sites and we’re
9:01 going to start at Sherwood and we’re going to go to six sites
9:04 where we honk the horns and thank the
9:06 individuals that are inside there and also we are giving
9:09 donations to Brevard Schools Foundation
9:11 which will be distributed and divided up among the six schools
9:14 inside of our district.
9:15 I’m just so proud of the principals that keep the parents for
9:17 everything that we’re doing here
9:19 and I’m just really excited to talk about those individuals and
9:22 what they’re doing.
9:23 thank you Mr. Susan Ms. Tuskevich Thanks Ms. Belford I have two
9:31 first we want to
9:33 thank our custodial staff for all the hard work that they have
9:37 been doing to keep our schools
9:39 clean but to get all the schools wrapped up and sealed up I don’t
9:41 know if you’ve stopped
9:43 by any of the schools but you see a lot of the they’re all they’re
9:46 literally sealed with tape
9:48 and such but you know that it’s been sanitized and no one is in
9:52 and no one is out.
9:53 so I know that that was a ton of work for them and I’m not that
9:56 we’ve given them enough shoutouts and
9:58 gratitude for their hard work. The other one is AMI Kids the one
10:04 of the physicians that I represent
10:08 us all serving on that board. They this week they’re taking
10:12 their students and their culinary program
10:15 and Discover Life Church donated $5,000 for food for the kids at
10:21 AMI Kids and their culinary program
10:23 to prepare meals and I’ve had their meals before when we have
10:27 our board meetings there the kids cook for us
10:28 and it’s phenomenal. So they already did one with 500 meals and
10:35 they cooked chicken alfredo with broccoli I
10:37 mean these are delicious meals breadsticks and they’re serving
10:40 the meals to anyone that needs a meal
10:42 a good hot meal at Discover Life Church so they’re doing that
10:45 again on Thursday night from 4 to 6 p.m.
10:49 at Discover Life Church on Ugali and the kids won’t be serving
10:52 the food because they’re not allowed
10:53 to leave the campus but they did cook prepare and package the
10:56 meal and then we have meals and then
10:58 we have volunteers coming in to transfer it and serve it and I
11:01 have one last thing to mention and that
11:03 is out of our communications department Matt Reed and and his
11:06 group they are doing on Monday night we’re
11:08 hoping everyone will join us Monday May 4th at 8:15 p.m. I think
11:11 we’re kicking off teacher appreciation week
11:15 with let your love shine and we’re asking everyone to get the
11:19 biggest boldest brightest light you have
11:22 at 8:15 p.m. and stand outside and shine it up in the sky
11:25 interestingly enough I was talking to my aunt
11:28 on the way here and she said I saw that on your page I’m
11:30 definitely going to get out and do it my
11:32 neighbors are doing it and your cousin’s doing it and I said
11:35 which cousin the one in Colorado and I said
11:37 this is for Brevard school teachers oh no no no she’s doing it
11:41 in Colorado so I’m guessing maybe this I
11:43 don’t know if it’s a nationwide thing already and we’ve picked
11:45 up on it or if our communications
11:46 department came up with it but sounds like it’s going to spread
11:49 rather quickly so thanks Ms. Belford
11:50 thank you Ms. Deskovich Dr. Mullins
11:53 thank you Ms. Belford first I wanted to do a shout out to Bill
11:59 Meharis we heard from him earlier today
12:01 in the board workshop but he is responsible for coordinating
12:04 this last Friday’s be the light campaign
12:07 where we lit our stadiums across our district for from 8 20
12:11 which is 2020 military time for 20 minutes
12:14 in recognition of our our seniors our class of 2020 and just
12:19 want to thank him for putting that together
12:22 we had all 16 high schools uh stadiums lit holy trinity
12:26 participated mcc eastern florida
12:29 and you triple sa and uh just a great representation of our uh
12:33 community supporting our our seniors
12:36 um school lunch hero day is coming up on Friday um as mentioned
12:44 we’re recognizing our uh food service
12:47 workers approximately 400 folks across our district who have uh
12:51 continued to faithfully serve our students
12:53 as of april 23rd we’ve served 924 254 meals to students to the
13:02 kids in our community that is
13:04 amazing april 23rd so we’ve had to just about break a million uh
13:10 so uh we have uh we have uh great staff
13:15 and appreciate their hard work um mr thornton and his team have
13:18 done a phenomenal job of i can’t even
13:21 imagine the logistics of keeping food in and preparing and so on
13:25 uh just want to let everyone
13:27 know since we won’t be together again before the week of may 4th
13:31 that is national teacher appreciation
13:34 week and we will be celebrating our teachers and staff with our
13:37 district delivered themed activities check
13:40 out our facebook page and social media and follow the activities
13:44 we have going on and finally want to do a
13:47 shout out to clear channel advertising if uh you’re not already
13:51 aware they very generously contributed
13:53 their digital billboards also in honor of our class of 2020 um
13:59 and uh for during the week of may 18th to
14:01 24th when they would have normally they would be graduating so
14:05 uh we had to announce uh due to logistics
14:08 i believe yesterday that we had to cancel problems for the rest
14:11 of this year very disappointing for our
14:14 students but exciting that our community is rallying around
14:18 alternative ways to recognize our graduating
14:21 class so thank you to our community and our staff for
14:23 recognizing our students thank you dr mullins and
14:27 i’m going to piggyback a little bit on that uh community
14:30 recognition you know last time i talked about the
14:33 the ripple effect of the ripple effect of things and um i just
14:37 realized i’m going to pause because i
14:40 have forgotten to include miss mcdougall was visually going
14:43 through the room and um i didn’t really
14:46 forget about you miss mcdougall but i did uh i did forget to
14:48 call on you so i will pause and give miss mcdougall an
14:51 opportunity for her recognitions thank you thanks mcdougall um i
14:56 just want to um piggyback what dr mullins and said yes don’t
14:59 forget
14:59 all the wonderful food service people that are out there and
15:03 have been out there it’s amazing how many
15:05 meals we have served and dr mullins i’m glad you brought up the
15:08 may 4th week for teacher appreciation
15:10 teachers thank you for being um creative diligent and hanging in
15:16 there um you’re doing amazing work
15:18 so i want to thank you and also want to give a shout out to
15:21 student services department there’s so many
15:23 people in that department that um i’d love to recognize but
15:26 today i’m going to recognize kim bias
15:28 um thank you kim for everything you’re doing with um the our esc
15:32 students for for patricia fontaine and
15:35 missy bland who’s working with our djj students and making sure
15:39 that our alcs and everything is running
15:41 smoothly for those students there too they’re doing a phenomenal
15:43 job i just want to make sure everybody
15:45 knows that um the student asked the effort expert i’m sorry
15:50 asked the expert uh the uh student services
15:54 department worked with communications to put this together they
15:56 did a fabulous job i think if you
15:58 haven’t looked at that or haven’t listened to any of those they’re
16:01 really well done so parents staff if
16:04 you have some questions you want to ask an expert they’re doing
16:07 a great job so that’s really all i have at this
16:09 that’s a good point thank you miss mcdougall um so following
16:14 along on recognition of the community and
16:17 kind of the ripple effect that we’re seeing i don’t know if you
16:20 all have seen but at many of our food
16:23 our feeding sites throughout the district food distribution
16:28 sites um we have had community
16:29 organizations that have been coming to feed our staff that are
16:33 feeding our students and so um restaurants
16:36 that are bringing you know you name it churches that are
16:39 contributing and purchasing meals just local
16:41 community members that have purchased meals and brought them out
16:44 to to support those who are
16:46 feeding our kids so um a huge thank you to them for all that
16:49 they are doing to support our team
16:51 and i also have to give a shout out to our teachers um we
16:56 leading learning dr sullivan and dr and miss
17:00 kline sent out a survey to our teachers uh inquiring about the
17:03 online learning experience and the support
17:06 that they’re getting and how things are going um and we got over
17:11 i’m gonna say 250 pages of open response
17:14 feedback from the teachers in addition to the very specific
17:18 survey questions and in reading through
17:20 those it is so exciting for me to see how many of our teachers
17:24 are just truly embracing the challenges
17:26 that we’re facing um they are making the best of it they are
17:29 appreciative of all the support coming
17:31 out of the district they are working hard with their students
17:34 many of them have said that they are
17:36 putting in a lot more hours than they typically would because
17:38 they know how important it is that they
17:40 have that individual connection with their students to help them
17:43 through the challenges and so
17:44 we appreciate all of that hard work and being willing to think
17:49 outside the box and work outside the box and
17:52 learn new ways of doing things because it truly is making a
17:54 difference for our students and we appreciate
17:56 it and then the last is and we have touched on some of these
18:00 senior recognitions but um i don’t know
18:03 about all of the schools in the district but i know that the um
18:07 three of my high schools in district
18:09 one all three of my high schools in district one um have in
18:12 addition to the be the light and and the
18:15 clear channel and all of those things they have been going out
18:17 and putting signs in the yards of every single
18:20 senior um to recognize them and then i also had one of my
18:23 elementary schools pinewood elementary
18:25 that went out and put signs in the yard of every one of their
18:28 teachers and it was i don’t remember
18:30 the the figures but it was a ridiculous amount of hours and
18:34 miles that it took for them in multiple
18:37 counties and um to get out and put the signs uh in the yards of
18:40 the teachers and obviously as i’m i’m driving
18:43 around my my district i’m seeing those signs out and um so much
18:47 appreciation for all of that hard work
18:49 that’s going on to make sure that nobody’s falling through the
18:51 cracks when we’re we’re distance
18:52 learning so we appreciate it all and um we uh we’re just very
18:57 grateful you’ve always said
18:59 brevard takes care of brevard i think as you’re saying and uh
19:03 and we’re definitely seeing that so
19:05 thank you all right that brings us to the adoption of the agenda
19:10 dr mullins
19:13 miss belford and members of the board on tonight’s agenda we
19:16 have administrative staff recommendations
19:18 19 consent items and four action items changes made to the
19:21 agenda since being released to the public
19:24 are as follows a7 on administrative staff recommendations
19:27 received a revision
19:29 items f15 on job description public information officer and g28
19:34 on resolution extension of one half cent
19:38 school capital outlay our additions
19:43 thank you dr mullins miss escobar before i i ask for the wishes
19:46 of the board i just want to verify
19:48 we are not going to vote on the agenda plus we’re just going to
19:52 do a voice vote tonight so we’re
19:53 not duplicating right i think that’s easier okay super so board
19:57 members we won’t actually be
19:59 checking the vote box miss escobar will be calling roll call so
20:02 what are the wishes of the board
20:05 um moved by miss campbell seconded by miss deskovich is there
20:10 any discussion all right miss escobar
20:13 miss belford hi miss mcdougall i
20:22 ms deskovich hi mr susan and miss campbell hi all right the
20:28 motion passes five zero dr mullins will you
20:33 please let us know about our administrative staff
20:35 recommendations there are two persons on this
20:37 evening’s agenda for the board to consider what are the wishes
20:40 of the board move to approve second
20:42 moved by miss deskovich seconded by miss campbell any discussion
20:46 all right miss escobar
20:52 miss belford i miss mcdougall i miss deskovich i mr susan and
21:00 miss campbell hi and the motion passes 5-0
21:04 we are now at public comments as indicated in my opening
21:09 statement persons wishing to comment were
21:12 registered in advance on the district website and were then
21:14 called and the comments recorded
21:17 we will listen to the recorded messages at this time
21:27 all right good evening everyone my name is susan han and i’m the
21:30 assistant superintendent
21:32 for brevard public schools in consideration of the current
21:36 health and safety concerns during
21:37 the covet 19 emergency guidance from the centers for disease
21:40 control and prevention as well as
21:42 executive order 2091 issued by governor desantis it has been
21:46 necessary to modify our procedures for public
21:48 comment tonight your comments will be recorded and we will play
21:51 them back under the public comment
21:53 section of the board meeting tomorrow each speaker is limited to
21:56 three minutes our moderator will keep
21:58 track of your time and ask you to conclude your comments when
22:00 you’ve reached three minutes
22:02 always keep it from as expected at all times please keep your
22:06 comments appropriate for our children who may
22:09 be watching or listening from home before speaking please state
22:12 your name the organization you represent
22:15 if any and identify the topic topic you will be discussing we
22:18 won’t be answering questions on tonight’s
22:20 call but our staff will follow up with you if you have a
22:22 question or need a response thank you ben
22:25 please go ahead all right thank you very much uh so if you have
22:28 a comment go ahead and press zero now
22:30 and our screener will go ahead and get you through to get your
22:33 public comment you will have three minutes
22:35 to speak um and as soon as you get put through i will bring you
22:39 to the speaker platform and we’ll get
22:42 your comment so go ahead and press zero now if you have a
22:45 comment anthony go ahead with your comment
22:47 my name is anthony colucci i’m the president of the brevard federation
22:52 of teachers
22:53 we were pleased that governor de sanchez put the health and
22:56 safety of our students our families
22:58 and our teachers and staff first when he made the decision that
23:01 school buildings would remain
23:02 closed for the remainder of the year of course remote learning
23:06 is not ideal and we know our
23:08 teachers will miss their students but this is the state when it
23:12 comes to stopping the spread of
23:14 covid19 we are hopeful that schools will reopen in august
23:18 however the board needs to proactively plan
23:21 what open schools will look like in an article called nine ways
23:25 schools will look different when
23:27 and if they reopen npr provides key ideas drawn from interviews
23:31 with health public health experts
23:33 education officials and educators from around the country for
23:37 what reopening might look like
23:39 some of the suggestions include stepped up measures these
23:43 include wearing masks temperature checks hand
23:46 washing frequent sanitation and social distancing roles in force
23:51 even for very small children class sizes of 12 or
23:54 fewer standard schedules reducing class size this drastically
23:58 would probably mean
24:01 for example one group of kids might attend school on monday wednesday
24:04 friday one week then tuesday
24:07 thursday the following week or there could be morning and
24:10 afternoon shift no assemblies sports games
24:13 or parent conference conferences continuing remote learning to
24:17 some degree social emotional and practical help for kids
24:21 developmental experts say destruction from the pandemic
24:24 constitutes an adverse childhood experience for every american
24:28 child
24:28 i urge this board to start developing strategies to keep
24:31 students staff in our community safe when we return
24:34 it’s in crucial it’s crucial to begin this effort as soon as
24:38 possible as it will require serious planning
24:40 it is prudent for the board to meet with public health experts
24:43 to receive recommendations
24:45 from there be wise to discuss those recommendations with
24:48 teachers education support professionals and administrators
24:51 to get feedback as to how and and if they could be implemented
24:56 this is uncharted territory and this territory is
25:00 might most likely dangerous this board must start charting a
25:03 safe course for brevard county thank you
25:06 stay safe stay calm stay determined to deliver the best
25:09 education you can and stay home thank you very much
25:12 anthony next we are going to go to vanessa vanessa go ahead move
25:17 her comments good evening vanessa skipper vice president
25:21 i wanted to follow up and thank you for a great workshop last tuesday
25:26 i’m extremely hopeful that we can work
25:28 together for common sense and sustainable solutions and wanted
25:31 to recap tonight for
25:32 those listening. We discussed the focus on improving the mental
25:35 health of our instructional
25:37 staff. Teachers are overwhelmed and sometimes to ineffective
25:41 instruction or even teachers
25:43 leaving the profession altogether. We believe that by working
25:46 together to have district-wide
25:48 awareness and training, better education for employees regarding
25:52 access to EAP and continuing
25:54 training for administrators, we can get teachers the help that
25:57 is needed. Additionally, we
25:59 talked for a second time about the substitute shortage. We know
26:02 that this shortage causes
26:03 undue burden on our administrators and our teachers and in the
26:06 end, the real losers are
26:07 our students who are most likely put into an overcrowded because
26:11 there was no substitute.
26:12 We need to fix this issue now more than ever. Teachers feel
26:15 pressured to go to work even when
26:17 they’re sick because they don’t want their teammates to have to
26:19 take on their students when a substitute
26:21 cannot be found. We need six teachers to use their sick time to
26:25 stay home. Some solutions
26:27 that were discussed were to increase pay incentives for hard-to-fill
26:31 schools, pay teachers to cover
26:33 classes, move PD to the summer or teacher work days, and promote
26:36 the work our substitutes do.
26:38 We then discussed health insurance. We feel that there has not
26:42 been a solid enough discussion of
26:43 solutions or changes and that there needs to be a solid timeline
26:46 for a consideration of a plan
26:48 for 2022. There is a lack of understanding about our self-funded
26:52 insurance plan, anger over changes
26:54 and increases, a belief that we don’t have good health insurance,
26:57 and when we have constant
26:59 changes, there is a confusion about what’s covered and what’s
27:02 not covered. This also leads teachers
27:04 to avoid health care to save money, and that helps no one. We
27:07 need transparency on possible solutions
27:10 change before any decisions are made. We discussed retention.
27:16 Last year, 515,000 P.S. at an estimated cost of $5,918,000.
27:23 Research tells us that teachers leave
27:25 because of the lack of a competitive compensation package, lack
27:28 of training and mentoring, and an
27:30 overwhelming work environment. The solution to compensation is
27:33 obvious. If our compensation schedule is more
27:36 lucrative than anywhere else in Florida, then teachers will
27:39 think twice before leaving. We need more
27:41 mentors and more support for our new and early career teachers
27:44 at the school sites. We need to lighten up on
27:46 data-obsessive programs and return to teaching each other than
27:50 monitoring numbers produced by a computer. And we need
27:53 more administrators who truly value their teachers. Teachers
27:56 want to feel that their opinion is heard and matters, and they
27:58 want an administrator who is flexible and not rigid in beliefs
28:02 or expectations. We’d like to partner with BPS to spotlight,
28:04 administrator to our teachers. We want an effective and caring
28:10 educator who feels value in front of every student, in every
28:14 desk, in every classroom and Brevard, and we can do that if we
28:16 work together. Thank you.
28:16 Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Francisco, for making sure that
28:30 we can get our public comment plugged in there, and thank you to
28:30 Sue Han for facilitating the comments last evening. At this
28:30 point, we are moving into the consent agenda. Dr. Mullins.
28:30 Wait, Ms. Belford. I apologize. That’s right. I know we used to
28:46 have an opportunity to respond. Not necessarily respond to Mr.
28:46 Colucci, but just playing off of what he said, you talked about
28:46 our return. I know I received as a parent an email from the
28:46 Department of Education yesterday. I don’t know if you guys did
28:46 as well.
28:46 Asking teachers, parents and students for input on what our
28:55 return to school might look like across the state. So I just
29:04 want to encourage all of our teachers and parents and students,
29:04 I believe they invited you to go online. If you didn’t get that
29:04 email, you can probably access it off of the Department of
29:04 Education
29:04 website. Have you seen that? Did everybody receive it? If not, I’ll
29:07 forward it to the board. Okay. But, and I know I put the link on
29:21 my Facebook page, but please go and because it’s an opportunity
29:22 for us to have input on what opening the schools for the summer,
29:22 for the fall would look like. And it’s a very short time.
29:22 survey. I think it was only like five or six questions and you
29:26 didn’t ask for any personally identifying information beyond
29:34 what they already have your email address. So just encourage
29:41 everybody to go and take the opportunity to have your voice
29:43 heard.
29:43 Thank you, Ms. Campbell. Any additional board discussion or
29:49 response to the speakers? Ms. McDougall, are you good? I am good.
29:54 All right. Then I will turn it over to Dr. Mullins for our
29:58 consent agenda.
30:00 There are 19 agenda items under this category. Thank you, Dr.
30:04 Mullins. Does any board member wish to pull any item?
30:10 Okay. Okay. Then I will entertain a motion to accept the consent
30:12 agenda as presented.
30:15 So moved.
30:17 Moved by Ms. Suscovitch. Seconded by Ms. Campbell. Is there any
30:22 discussion?
30:23 All right. Then I will call the vote. Ms. Escobar.
30:26 Mrs. Belford.
30:39 Aye.
30:40 Mrs. Campbell.
30:42 Aye.
30:43 Mrs. Descovitch.
30:44 Aye.
30:45 Mrs. McDougall.
30:46 Aye.
30:47 And Mr. Susan.
30:48 Aye.
30:49 And the motion passes 5-0.
30:52 We’ll move on to the action agenda, Dr. Mullins.
30:55 Come on.
30:58 Ms. Belford and members of the board, there are four items under
31:01 this category.
31:02 The first item is G-28 on the resolution regarding the extension
31:06 of the one-half-cent school capital outlay sales surtax.
31:11 What are the wishes of the board?
31:13 Move to approve.
31:15 Second.
31:17 I’ll second it.
31:18 Moved by Ms. Campbell.
31:19 Seconded by Ms. McDougall.
31:20 Is there any discussion?
31:21 I just want to, in case the public is wondering why we’re doing
31:25 this again, we needed to add the language state law recently
31:31 passed that has us sharing the tax if we move forward with
31:36 trying to put it on the ballot in the fall with charter schools.
31:40 And so we had to amend the language to include them so that it
31:43 could be approved by OPAGA.
31:45 Thank you, Ms. Tuskevich.
31:47 And I think that’s an important, you know, we had some
31:50 discussion prior to and after the last board meeting about the
31:53 importance of beginning the process to be prepared should we
31:56 decide that that is the direction that we’re going at a later
31:59 time in the kind of the timeline of this process.
32:02 But one of the things that we had not even considered in that
32:05 timeline, and thankfully Mr. Gibbs has encouraged us to make
32:08 sure that we are prepared in taking the steps to go forward, was
32:12 that the Department of Revenue may come back and give us
32:15 feedback on our resolution as well.
32:17 And so that’s exactly what occurred.
32:19 They reached out to us requesting our resolution and indicated
32:22 that the prior interpretation that the sharing of charter had to
32:25 be only included in the resolution needed to be changed so that
32:28 we actually included that language in the ballot language as
32:31 well.
32:32 And so thankfully we are still within our timeline to move
32:35 forward based on that.
32:37 So the board is just approving that small change of inclusion in
32:41 the ballot language as opposed to just the resolution.
32:45 Any additional comments, questions, concerns on that?
32:48 All right, then I will call for the vote.
32:50 Ms. Escobar.
32:51 Ms. Belford.
32:52 Aye.
32:53 Ms. Campbell.
32:54 Aye.
32:55 Ms. Deskovich.
32:56 Aye.
32:57 Ms. McDougall.
32:58 Aye.
32:59 Mr. Susan.
33:00 Aye.
33:02 And the motion passes 5-0.
33:03 Dr. Mullins.
33:04 Next we have item G-29, which are our department school
33:07 initiated agreements.
33:09 What are the wishes of the board?
33:11 Move to approve.
33:12 Second.
33:13 Moved by Ms. Deskovich.
33:14 Seconded by Ms. Campbell.
33:15 Is there any discussion?
33:16 Then we’ll call the vote.
33:17 Ms. Escobar.
33:18 Oh.
33:20 Ms. Deskovich has discussion.
33:21 I do have a question.
33:22 I was going to email this morning and I forgot.
33:24 I had a teacher email me about this question.
33:25 Okay.
33:27 All right.
33:28 Yes.
33:29 I had a teacher email me about this one and asked if we’ve done
33:34 any kind of sampling to
33:36 see if our teachers are using this.
33:38 I didn’t talk to her personally, so I don’t know if she feels
33:40 like they’re not or they are,
33:42 but do we have any idea on that?
33:44 I’m sorry, Ms. Deskovich.
33:45 Which item?
33:46 It’s on the Nearpod.
33:48 G-29.
33:49 And, you know, maybe is Dr. Sullivan available somewhere to us?
33:56 I believe we can call her.
33:59 Is she not in the building or she is in the building?
34:02 How are we?
34:03 Last school board meeting, a couple of them were hiding.
34:06 Right.
34:07 I separated back there.
34:08 Mr. Cheatham’s recommendation.
34:11 Maybe Mr. Cheatham knows.
34:13 I can tell you anecdotally, Ms. Deskovich, that my children’s
34:17 teachers are using them.
34:18 Are using them.
34:19 Okay.
34:20 Just, well then, for her benefit, because maybe she’s watching
34:22 since she had concerns, if
34:23 we could just hear from Mr. Cheatham.
34:24 Yeah, absolutely.
34:25 Thank you.
34:26 Thank you, Mr. Cheatham, for coming to the rescue.
34:27 No problem.
34:28 What’s the question?
34:29 I had a teacher reach out.
34:31 I’m not sure if she is not a fan of Nearpod or what’s the issue,
34:35 but she said, you know,
34:36 have you guys asked if anybody’s using this before you spend the
34:38 money on it?
34:39 Do you have any?
34:40 I know, I’m sorry I didn’t prepare you for tonight.
34:42 I completely forgot to follow up earlier.
34:44 If you get numbers on it, I can get you the specific numbers of
34:46 the logins and things
34:47 of that nature.
34:49 Nearpod has come a long way.
34:51 It was used for years as a free tool for a while.
34:54 And then we were given the option of choosing between that and
34:59 Discovery Education.
35:01 And we upped Nearpod to the paid version because it added some
35:04 additional tools and such.
35:07 But as far as the use, I’d get with leading and learning just to
35:10 find out exactly.
35:11 If you could just send that to me so I can share it with her, I
35:14 would appreciate it.
35:15 Thank you.
35:16 No problem.
35:17 So many of you –
35:19 Mic, Mr. Susan.
35:20 Like, right into the mic.
35:22 You’ve got to be really close.
35:23 Is that better?
35:24 Nope.
35:25 You’ve got to be close.
35:26 Like, this close when you’re talking to these.
35:27 Like, you like it.
35:28 Yep.
35:29 All right.
35:30 There you go.
35:31 So basically, years ago, when we received the capital allocations
35:33 as school board members,
35:34 we had an opportunity to fund certain things.
35:37 I was at a conference with all of the teachers.
35:39 There was probably 150 of the best teachers and minds that we
35:42 had inside of our county.
35:44 And there were these breakout sessions.
35:45 And I remember one of those breakout sessions being near time.
35:49 And I remember sitting in a room full of teachers as they were
35:51 listening to all of the pieces that this had.
35:54 And I, as a former teacher, remember sitting there saying, “Oh
35:57 my gosh, this is one of the most amazing tools that I can
35:59 utilize.”
35:59 If utilized correctly, right?
36:00 Because you want to give tools, but at the same time, you want
36:03 to make sure that they’re being utilized.
36:05 And I was sitting in there, and I just looked across this room.
36:08 And in the room, there were people standing because it was so
36:10 packed.
36:11 It was the sitting and then the standing.
36:13 They wanted to hear about this.
36:14 And I just said to the room, and these are the leaders and these
36:17 were the lead teachers in our district, “How many of you would
36:19 use this?”
36:20 Every single teacher in there raised their hand.
36:23 And then on top of that, those were the lead teachers.
36:26 I said, “How many of your schools would use this?”
36:28 And they raised their hands.
36:29 So I don’t know about the fidelity of it being used at the
36:31 school district because that always is something.
36:33 You can have a shiny object, but you may not be using it.
36:35 But I will tell you from a teacher’s perspective that this was
36:39 an amazing tool.
36:40 And I was happy to take part of my allocation as far as my
36:42 funding and put it to it so that some of my schools could use it
36:45 as a pilot.
36:46 And then based on that pilot, we were able to see the
36:48 utilization that we ended up purchasing some of the stuff for.
36:51 Just to give you a historical perspective on what happened.
36:54 So we were using the free version before?
36:56 Correct.
36:57 Before this.
36:58 And I’m assuming you collaborated with Leading and Learning and
37:03 they said, “We want this.”
37:04 And you moved forward, correct?
37:05 To a degree.
37:07 Pam Alec was kind of – she led that.
37:09 I’m sorry.
37:10 Who was that?
37:11 She was our integrator manager at the time.
37:12 She worked with Leading and Learning.
37:15 A lot of our tools are being used now that weren’t being used
37:17 before.
37:18 Like Mr. Seusson said, the fidelity kind of comes and goes.
37:21 But with our online education, we’re seeing things used a lot
37:24 more than they ever have before.
37:27 And it’s just interesting because we’ve had a lot of tools that
37:30 we’re using every day now that it seemed like no one ever used.
37:33 But now everyone’s using it.
37:34 So it just depends on where that sits.
37:36 But we can find out.
37:37 I can get the numbers for you.
37:38 Thank you.
37:39 I appreciate it, Mr. Cheatham.
37:41 Any additional discussion?
37:44 All right, then I will call the vote.
37:47 Ms. Escobar?
37:49 Ms. Belford?
37:50 Aye.
37:51 Ms. McDougall?
37:52 Aye.
37:53 Ms. Campbell?
37:54 Aye.
37:55 Ms. Deskovich?
37:56 Aye.
37:57 And Mr. Susan?
37:58 Aye.
37:59 And the motion passes 5-0.
38:01 Dr. Mullins?
38:02 Item G30 is on procurement solicitations.
38:07 What are the wishes of the board?
38:09 Move to approve.
38:10 Moved by Mr. Susan?
38:11 Second.
38:13 Seconded by Ms. Campbell.
38:14 Any discussion?
38:15 All right.
38:16 I will call the vote.
38:17 Ms. Escobar?
38:18 Mrs. Belford?
38:19 Aye.
38:20 Ms. McDougall?
38:21 Aye.
38:22 Ms. Campbell?
38:23 Aye.
38:24 Ms. Deskovich?
38:25 Aye.
38:26 Ms. Deskovich?
38:27 Aye.
38:28 And Mr. Susan?
38:29 Aye.
38:30 And the motion passes 5-0.
38:31 Dr. Mullins?
38:32 Item G31 is on entry of final order in Brevard County School
38:47 Board versus Lisa Lemieux, Doha Case Number 19-2194 TTS.
38:53 What are the wishes of the board?
38:55 Move to approve.
38:56 Second.
38:57 Moved by Mr. Susan, seconded by Ms. Deskovich. Is there any
39:00 discussion?
39:02 All right.
39:03 I will call the vote.
39:04 Ms. Escobar?
39:05 Mrs. Belford?
39:06 Aye.
39:07 Ms. Campbell?
39:08 Aye.
39:09 Ms. Deskovich?
39:10 Aye.
39:11 Ms. Deskovich?
39:12 Aye.
39:13 Ms. McDougall?
39:14 Aye.
39:15 Ms. McDougall?
39:16 Aye.
39:17 And Mr. Susan?
39:18 Aye.
39:19 Motion passes 5-0.
39:20 At this point, we’re moving on to board member reports and
39:21 discussion points.
39:22 Mr. Susan, you’ve indicated that you had an item that you would
39:23 like to bring up under this section.
39:34 Yes.
39:35 Thank you, Chair Belford.
39:36 I really appreciate the opportunity to discuss this.
39:38 As many of you know, we had a situation that just occurred where
39:41 our pre-K teachers were not given the best and brightest
39:46 supplement.
39:46 This was something that we all thought was included inside of
39:49 our state-funded, mandated best and brightest that was the last
39:52 piece of it.
39:53 But now we are looking at a situation where our pre-K teachers
39:57 were left out.
39:58 Right now, as it speaks, Leon, Hillsboro, Gulf, Lake, Lee, Wakulla,
40:04 Okaloosa, St. John’s, in one form or another, have tried to make
40:09 up the gap in funding for the pre-K teachers being a part of the
40:12 best and brightest.
40:13 To take a step back, many people don’t understand that our pre-K
40:17 teachers, which is part of our Thrive by Five, which says that
40:21 90% of brain development occurs before the age of five years old,
40:25 straight from Dr. Mullen, that is part of our district strategic
40:28 plan.
40:29 And currently, they are left out because they are not considered
40:32 a classroom teacher under the K through 12 strategic plan and
40:36 definitions of a teacher.
40:38 So what ends up happening is, once again, our pre-K teachers,
40:41 who, just as much as any other teacher, sit inside of the
40:44 meetings, go through the faculty meetings, are a part of the
40:47 strategic plan, are left out.
40:49 And many of our other districts are looking forward to finding a
40:52 way to keep them.
40:54 Because what’s happening in our district is, right now, many of
40:57 them are applying because they are certified to teach K through
41:00 three.
41:01 So many of them are teaching, they’re applying to take those
41:04 other teaching classes, which is going to leave our pre-K decimated.
41:08 And the reason for that is, is not only are they left out of
41:11 best and brightest, but also they are forced to retire early
41:14 based upon their role as not being a classroom teacher.
41:17 So there’s, there’s other issues that are out there.
41:20 But what I wanted to bring up, and I’ve asked this in the past,
41:23 is how much it actually costs to fund if we were to give our pre-K
41:27 teachers a bonus or a stipend of some sort,
41:30 to tell them that we care about them and show them what we, as a
41:33 district, have said is part of our strategic plan and what we’re
41:36 moving forward.
41:37 If other school districts can do it, I think we can.
41:39 I looked at the numbers.
41:41 If you take the schools that are sitting out there currently,
41:44 that are, are best and brightest eligible, we stand if every
41:48 single pre-K teacher inside there, roughly 54, at $1,600.
41:54 A best and brightest check runs roughly at about $86,400 if
41:57 every one of them was eligible, and I don’t think they are.
42:01 But if they were, that would be the case.
42:03 So what I wanted to do today was bring it up, and I apologize,
42:05 Chair Belford, about not giving you this ahead of time.
42:08 It’s just something that literally has been happening as we
42:11 speak, as far as the conversations and the pieces.
42:14 But I’d like to see if anybody else has any comment on the pre-K
42:17 issue as far as bringing them in and trying to see something.
42:21 And I’d also like to ask Dr. Mullins if there’s a way as we can
42:24 find out if who would be qualified and how much that actually
42:28 would cost.
42:29 And I would like to see if there’s an opportunity to put it into
42:31 our, as part of our budget negotiations that we have on the
42:35 operating side.
42:36 Ms. Belford, can I ask a clarifying question for Mr. Seusson?
42:41 Because you were talking about best and brightest, which this is
42:44 the final year.
42:45 And so are you asking for us to do something, a bonus that would
42:51 be for this year?
42:52 Because moving forward, there’s no best and brightest.
42:54 Right, it’s not a reoccurring expense.
42:55 It’s only the teacher salary supplement, which actually they are
42:58 included in that.
42:59 So you’re talking about just this current year.
43:01 Yep, as every single one that has been up till now, it’s a non-reoccurring
43:05 expense that is not guaranteed every year.
43:08 But yes, it is only for this year.
43:10 It is a non-reoccurring expense.
43:11 It’s not something that we have to put into the budget.
43:13 As we look tonight with some of the transfers that are moving
43:15 around, there’s an opportunity, I feel, with some of the ways
43:18 that we can cut budgets to include them.
43:20 I feel strongly about this.
43:21 I advocated in Tallahassee for it.
43:23 It’s something that I feel very positive about.
43:25 So I wanted to see if anybody wanted any discussion.
43:27 And my only request besides that is to see how much it actually
43:30 would be to include them inside of our best and brightest for
43:33 the future, Dr. Mullins.
43:36 Ms. Belford.
43:38 I see no harm with exploring it a bit if Dr. Mullins is willing
43:42 and everybody agrees to at least get us the numbers of exactly
43:46 how many pre-K teachers we’re looking at.
43:49 And since it’s non-recurring funds, maybe there is a potential
43:52 and a possibility somewhere.
43:54 I don’t know until you take it from here.
43:57 But I’m okay with exploring that.
44:00 Ms. McDougall, did you want to comment?
44:03 I’m also okay with exploring it.
44:06 It would be interesting to understand how much it would cost and
44:09 how many teachers are we talking about.
44:11 So, yes, I’m open to exploring it.
44:15 Okay.
44:16 Dr. Mullins, comfortable with bringing that information back to
44:19 the board at a later date?
44:20 Yes, ma’am.
44:21 All right.
44:22 Any additional board discussion items?
44:26 Ms. Campbell?
44:30 I just wanted to, you know, just share some things that I know
44:35 we are aware of as board and superintendent and district
44:39 leadership.
44:40 But just, you know, sometimes when the community, something hits
44:44 them for the first time, I don’t know that they’re always aware.
44:47 And so there’s been, there’s talk, you know, all of this with
44:50 the coronavirus and doing the distance learning and everyone
44:53 being quarantined at home.
44:55 There’s, you know, everybody’s, so many opinions are floating
44:58 around and there’s some, oh, if we can do this now, we can do
45:00 this all the time.
45:01 But I just wanted to just share that one of the reasons why I
45:04 believe that this distance learning, as hard as it’s been, has
45:09 been as successful as it has been,
45:12 is because our teachers and our administrators, our school staff
45:15 and our district leadership have spent three-fourths of this
45:18 school year building these relationships with their students.
45:22 And so they have those relationships built.
45:25 And so it’s hard, but we can do this because the systems are
45:29 already in place.
45:31 And so, you know, if what’s handed down to us from the state for
45:34 the beginning of next school year, and I’m telling you right now
45:38 I’m praying against this, is that we, you know, we don’t go back.
45:41 We’ll do the best that we can.
45:43 But it would be a whole different ballgame if we were doing this
45:46 at a different time of the year.
45:48 And so I just want to, first of all, it’s kudos to our school
45:52 staff for the relationships that they do spend through the year.
45:55 But I just want people to understand that this is not easy.
45:58 And also being a musician, I’m going to tell you what, our music
46:00 programs are doing, our music teachers are doing a great job of
46:05 coming up.
46:05 But you can’t have band with everybody in their own homes.
46:10 You can’t have chorus.
46:12 And listen, I’ve watched so many virtual choir videos.
46:14 I am addicted to those things.
46:16 But you can’t.
46:17 That’s not the way you do choir.
46:19 That’s not the way you do orchestra.
46:20 That’s not the way you do band.
46:22 Or elementary music.
46:23 And art.
46:24 And drama.
46:25 And all those things.
46:26 And group projects.
46:27 You know, as much as I maybe didn’t like them when I was in
46:29 school.
46:30 There are so many things that we can’t do when we’re together.
46:32 And so I just want the public to realize that this is something
46:34 that we’re doing because we have to do it right now.
46:37 And there may be some people who fall in love with this way of
46:40 learning and they decide to do virtual.
46:42 And that’s great.
46:43 But there are some things that are just really hard.
46:47 And I just want to recognize for our musicians and our artists
46:50 and our other classes that they’re making do.
46:54 But it’s really hard to teach what they teach long distance.
46:56 Our culinary classes.
46:57 My goodness.
46:58 How do you even do that?
46:59 You know, car repair and all that.
47:01 You know, so they’re doing such a great job.
47:03 But I just want to acknowledge that I realize how hard this is
47:06 for you guys.
47:07 I realize how hard it is for our students who are missing that
47:10 opportunity to make great music together.
47:13 To collaborate together.
47:14 To be hands on.
47:15 Because we just can’t.
47:16 Because some things you just can’t do with the screen very well.
47:19 And so I just want to make sure that our public realizes that.
47:22 Who is not connected to our schools as well.
47:24 If they’re even watching.
47:25 You know, I’m preaching to the choir.
47:26 But like I said, our team is doing a great job.
47:30 But it is very difficult.
47:31 And I just want to make sure our public is aware of how much
47:34 harder this would have been.
47:36 If we didn’t already have so many of those things in place.
47:38 And the great job that our team has done.
47:41 Up to this.
47:42 Up to the point that, you know, before spring break.
47:44 Is the reason why we’ve been able to be as successful as we have
47:47 been.
47:48 So it was a little soapbox time.
47:49 But I figured that was the best time to get on it.
47:52 Ms. Belfort.
47:53 I’m very sorry.
47:55 The video has gone down for a second.
47:58 Do you want to wait till it comes back up so that we can resume?
48:01 I just have one more thing.
48:03 We probably should hold.
48:05 It’s still up on YouTube.
48:15 But it’s not.
48:16 It’s delayed though.
48:17 There’s something wrong here.
48:18 Is it?
48:19 I don’t think the YouTube stream ever stopped.
48:20 FYI.
48:21 Just to go like this.
48:22 All right.
48:23 Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
48:24 I appreciate that insight.
48:25 Mr. Susan.
48:26 I apologize.
48:27 Normally, I would send an email.
48:27 But today, right before our meeting, my computer went to the Fritz
48:30 and the screen went out.
48:31 So I was just going to make these requests here.
48:33 I was going to ask, due to the, we’re in the budget, if I could
48:36 get all $500 plus expenses
48:39 by cost center and description, going back from the cost center
48:42 to the cost center.
48:44 So I was just going to make these requests here.
48:45 I was going to ask, due to the, we’re in the budget, if I could
48:49 get all $500 plus expenses
48:51 by cost center and description, going back from 17, 18, 18, 19,
48:56 and 19, 20 up to date.
48:59 Also a cost.
49:00 Hold on, Mr. Susan.
49:01 Can you repeat that?
49:02 Because I didn’t even understand what you’re asking for.
49:04 Sure.
49:05 So one of the things that I requested in the past, and said that
49:08 we would eventually get
49:10 there, is to ask for all $500 or more expenses by cost center
49:15 and description.
49:17 Does that make sense for the whole budget?
49:20 Since 2017, 2018.
49:22 17, 18, 18, 19, 19, 20.
49:24 It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight.
49:26 But we can at least start with this year’s budget going back.
49:30 And the main reason that I was asking for it, is that we’ve done
49:33 it in the past.
49:34 And it shows a breakdown of each one of the cost centers, and
49:36 what they’ve been spending
49:37 their money on, basically.
49:39 The other thing I would like to do is make a cost breakdown of
49:42 the COVID related savings,
49:43 which I think we touched on inside the meeting.
49:46 But if we could start putting that together as far as what we’re
49:48 saving on a regular basis,
49:50 that would be good too.
49:51 That’s it.
49:52 And I would do that normally in email, but because I don’t have
49:54 the ability to get to all
49:56 you guys in the next couple of days, that’s all.
49:58 Thank you.
49:59 Thank you, Mr. Susan.
50:00 Any additional board discussion?
50:02 Ms. McDougall, anything that you would like to say before I hand
50:07 it over to Dr. Mullins?
50:08 No.
50:09 Okay.
50:10 Thank you.
50:11 All right.
50:12 Dr. Mullins, do you have anything else you wish to add?
50:13 No, ma’am.
50:14 Thank you.
50:15 All right.
50:16 There being no further business, this meeting is now adjourned.
50:23 Thank you.
50:53 you