2020-06-10 - School Board Work Session

0:00 Thank you.

2:17:55 continue a commitment around that this year okay we are you guys

2:17:58 good with that and i just so you

2:18:01 know you can have your employee or your teams reach out to them

2:18:04 too so those pre-k teachers

2:18:05 are in the process of meeting with debbie mayfield randy fine

2:18:08 all of them and talking about the

2:18:10 legislation that we may be bringing but something that they felt

2:18:13 so there’s an opportunity that in

2:18:14 the event we can’t bring them to the school to actually have our

2:18:17 people just reach out to them

2:18:19 and have a conversation over the phone it’s also very good for

2:18:22 them because they can connect to the

2:18:24 principals so just another observation and opportunity and i

2:18:27 think a good point of that

2:18:28 it’s not just our legislative members but our our you know our

2:18:32 city officials and things like that

2:18:34 because some of them are very active in our schools but some of

2:18:37 them really without an invitation you

2:18:39 know and a tour guide you know to kind of help connect them i

2:18:42 think that’s really important for

2:18:44 those of it who aren’t connected because they don’t already have

2:18:46 kids in our schools or they’d already

2:18:47 have that partnership with their specific schools in their city

2:18:50 so i think that’s really important just

2:18:52 to kind of tag you know we even put a you have to have a certain

2:18:55 number or whatever but i think it

2:18:57 would be good at each least annually to host either one large

2:19:00 one or several small ones um you know

2:19:04 within our within our district so we’ll say at least annually on

2:19:08 that yeah just be careful of large groups

2:19:11 because nothing ever gets done it just doesn’t so like if you

2:19:17 bring them intimately into a school

2:19:17 and discuss topics but yeah like a large one everybody just pontificates

2:19:20 and nothing gets done yeah

2:19:21 that’s all but at least if we can set a goal of at least each of

2:19:26 us will do at least one can we do

2:19:27 that and some of us will do a lot i think that i think you get

2:19:32 more points mr susan i’m gonna make it

2:19:35 a competition who hope no i don’t i’m just kidding so that gives

2:19:41 us five objectives do you all want to

2:19:44 stick at five do you want to expand i missed one i i oh i’m

2:19:47 sorry that gives us four i’d like to propose

2:19:51 one sure uh a goal of maybe quarterly or annually a board slash

2:19:56 leadership development opportunity for

2:20:00 us we’ve done a couple of those things at an off-site but maybe

2:20:03 if we put it as a goal we’ll make sure it

2:20:06 gets done quarterly twice semi-annual twice semi-annually like a

2:20:11 leadership development like we

2:20:14 had when we had the leadership yeah yeah just something that

2:20:17 makes sense can i i’m sorry i missed that

2:20:19 this touches something that i was going to discuss is that we

2:20:22 have we have no we have no collective um

2:20:27 want to try to go to master board right but i think that this

2:20:30 board could really use some kind of

2:20:32 collective team understanding of what our goal is and what we

2:20:37 can do so we’ve talked in the past about

2:20:40 bringing somebody in to do kind of what the master board is but

2:20:43 not the organization that we normally

2:20:45 go through so i know that there might be some other ones to

2:20:48 technically get that i would entertain and

2:20:51 i didn’t know if you guys wanted to the opportunity for us to

2:20:55 engage one of those organizations minus the

2:20:57 one that we we don’t want to go to that if if we want to i i

2:21:01 think that it would really help us i think

2:21:03 that us getting together understanding each other but then also

2:21:07 the roles and the and every i think

2:21:08 it would infinitely save us a lot of late night sleep so if we i

2:21:12 i wanted to bring that as an

2:21:14 opportunity um or a you know an idea so what do you guys think

2:21:18 who else provides anything for school

2:21:20 board other people do we can get it i mean i wouldn’t

2:21:23 necessarily have to be a school board

2:21:25 it could be a thing but a leadership team maybe we can reach out

2:21:28 to the county or some of the other

2:21:30 organizations and say the county runs different like we are

2:21:33 completely different in the way we

2:21:35 think but you know we the i can’t remember her name miss

2:21:38 desperate to the gal that you brought in

2:21:39 to do the leadership styles oh uh dransfield mr you know

2:21:42 something like that you know those kinds of

2:21:45 things if we say varied you may be something like what you’re

2:21:47 talking about but maybe you know twice

2:21:50 once or twice a year that we commit to miss belford did you go

2:21:53 through master board no we haven’t done

2:21:57 master i went through chair chairmanship changing but we haven’t

2:22:00 done the board before all the five of

2:22:02 us were it was hanging on our wall in the conference room for a

2:22:05 while they were master board i reached

2:22:07 out to some some board members from a long time ago um just

2:22:11 asking processes procedures what are your

2:22:14 thoughts what did you guys run into and i went through some of

2:22:17 the things and they said you know

2:22:18 what the one thing that really helped us was master board

2:22:22 training and i and i and i i i really liked

2:22:24 the lady that came in and spoke to us and it was great but like

2:22:27 we literally need somebody to talk to

2:22:29 us from a school board perspective of what our roles and

2:22:32 responsibilities are and what lanes we need

2:22:34 to be in and how we can effectively do that because i think that

2:22:37 that would help us so i would i would

2:22:39 i mean here’s here’s what i would think i think we reach out to

2:22:41 the organization that normally does it

2:22:43 tell them look we got issues we don’t you know there’s a there’s

2:22:46 an issue there let’s try to find

2:22:48 how we can make that happen and maybe they can set something up

2:22:51 the same way that’s all i don’t i

2:22:53 don’t know and i’m just thinking outside the box and i apologize

2:22:55 for the record i’m not a hundred percent

2:22:57 opposed i just what i have attended of theirs i haven’t found

2:23:00 real useful and so that’s why i’ve

2:23:02 been like i don’t know that we want to spend the money and do it

2:23:05 but i’m open i’m not like oh i i’m not

2:23:07 going to do it because it’s them if it’s useful it’s helpful the

2:23:11 rest of you want to do it i i’m a

2:23:12 team player miss belford do you know who usually does those

2:23:15 trainings out of the fsba team you like

2:23:19 which which one of the is it the executive is it andrea messina

2:23:23 usually it’s tina tina pinkison okay

2:23:25 maybe they have something they can send us tell us how much it’s

2:23:28 going to be what exactly it would cover

2:23:30 and they have information on it the the challenge with the

2:23:32 master board training and the reason that

2:23:34 we haven’t done it in the past is i if i recall it’s about 25

2:23:36 000 for the master board training

2:23:38 um requires the superintendent and the board to participate at

2:23:43 each of several meetings throughout

2:23:44 the year um and then you get your master board certification but

2:23:47 every time a board member

2:23:48 changes you have to go through the whole thing again to continue

2:23:52 your master board certification and

2:23:54 so money trap um but i mean yeah mr susan do you mind reaching

2:23:59 out to them and having

2:24:00 conversations seeing what the options are i’ll be with them

2:24:02 tomorrow can we pay half price and just

2:24:04 get the material and right or we just or you just call the guy

2:24:07 that normally does it and say hey look

2:24:09 would you do this for us we really need some help and and they

2:24:12 would work with us i don’t i think

2:24:14 that in the current environment we need we could make that

2:24:16 recommendation so as for our objective

2:24:20 and i think it would be inclusive of what you’re recommending mr

2:24:23 susan semi-annual professional

2:24:24 development opportunities for the board is that good for our

2:24:27 objective that gives us

2:24:30 collective five professional development do we want to is there

2:24:34 is there anything that you all feel

2:24:35 needs to be included beyond that is there a way to set that

2:24:39 objective at a previous like meaning

2:24:41 what do we need currently may change year to year so that growth

2:24:45 or that development maybe there’s a

2:24:47 caveat that says you know we’re there’s a direction like the

2:24:50 board needs to give direction as to what

2:24:52 they need help in because every year it might be different right

2:24:55 so that’s just my thought process so that we when we go to spend

2:24:59 the

2:24:59 time to do it the yeah the chair can reach out collectively and

2:25:03 say hey what do we need what

2:25:04 do you guys feel and then that growth or that development can be

2:25:07 streamlined into what we’re doing

2:25:09 yeah and i think that’s a you know these are annual objectives

2:25:12 so they’re going to change every year

2:25:13 but i think as we go through and do our quarterly board check-ins

2:25:17 that’s a great time to say hey i feel

2:25:19 like we need some guidance in this area can we look at this for

2:25:21 our next pd did that work so are we good

2:25:26 with five objectives is there anything else that anyone wants to

2:25:28 add beyond that

2:25:31 okay did you get all of those msaskibar awesome so the next

2:25:34 thing that we need to discuss is our fsba

2:25:37 membership and i gave each of the board members a copy of the

2:25:39 budget for the board there was some

2:25:41 question as to whether dollars were set aside for that

2:25:43 membership or whether they had to be requested

2:25:47 we do have dollars that have been allocated previously we have

2:25:52 done fsba membership for four of the board

2:25:54 members i believe the annual cost on that is 23 524 for all five

2:26:01 of us to be members

2:26:02 if only four of us join the total amount will be 18 819.20 i do

2:26:09 desire to continue my membership

2:26:12 with fsba mr susan mcdougall yes i do miss campbell yes miss duskiewicz

2:26:17 would you like to join us no thank

2:26:20 you i will continue to abstain and save us what five thousand

2:26:23 dollars but can i speak can i can i jump in

2:26:27 for a minute um i wish you were because on friday the calls that

2:26:32 we have had um they have been very

2:26:35 valuable and they’ve had in really speakers that really speak to

2:26:39 what we’re struggling with what’s going

2:26:41 on how are they dealing with it across not only the state but

2:26:46 the last one was the southern

2:26:48 educational school board regional board um and they had a it’s i

2:26:55 share that with you all because

2:26:56 i think their website would be very helpful so i think there is

2:26:58 some value i agree that sometimes

2:27:01 the conferences don’t really have things that i want to go to

2:27:06 but some of the other things that

2:27:08 they do offer it is valuable just an fyi thank you miss mcdougall

2:27:12 can i speak to the memberships

2:27:14 in general um we had an allocated budget for two memberships um

2:27:19 and then all of a sudden we look at

2:27:21 our budget and there was a discrepancy in that either membership

2:27:25 i thought we had given board direction

2:27:27 that we would have each board member would have the opportunity

2:27:31 to join two of these organizations

2:27:33 and we had an allocated amount and then in the event that a tina

2:27:36 desk of itch or somebody didn’t

2:27:38 wasn’t a part of one or matt susan wasn’t a part of one that the

2:27:41 board allocation revenue could then be

2:27:43 spent in a way that they felt inside their schools i thought we

2:27:46 had given that direction up at the

2:27:47 brevard achievement center conference room and we did it in the

2:27:52 morning there so is there any

2:27:54 discussion about that because it came up a couple of times in

2:27:57 via emails and i would like to discuss

2:27:58 we discussed how i remember it is we discussed allocating i

2:28:01 think 7500 so enough for your fsba or the

2:28:04 fcsbm and then we allocated the 7500 so you could join both any

2:28:08 board member could be a member of both

2:28:10 um i don’t know that we said you could spend it within your

2:28:14 school after that but it’s not being

2:28:17 reflected even in our budget so um is it i think that there’s an

2:28:22 opportunity for professional

2:28:25 development i think that there’s an opportunity to do a lot of

2:28:27 different stuff there and i just

2:28:28 collectively as a board i think that it it’s our budget so in

2:28:33 the event that there’s an opportunity to

2:28:35 utilize funds instead of travel or whatever it’s it’s kind of

2:28:39 been an opportunity that we can give

2:28:41 that back to our schools if we don’t use it i mean i i would

2:28:44 like that discussion i i actually i would

2:28:46 like to say that in the event that we don’t do fsba that we don’t

2:28:49 join these organizations the 7500 can

2:28:51 be used as seed money for projects or or anything that we do it

2:28:55 doesn’t appear to me that we have

2:28:57 seventy five hundred dollars allocated we have twenty five

2:28:59 thousand dollars allocated for dues and fees and

2:29:02 then each board member is allocated um twenty two fifty for

2:29:08 travel

2:29:09 i do remember that conversation mr seuss and i was i came out of

2:29:15 that you know trying to remember that we

2:29:17 were going to allocate for each board member the amount of money

2:29:20 it would cost to join both organizations

2:29:22 so um whether that happened or whatever you know at this point

2:29:27 one of the organizations is debunked

2:29:30 correct we dissolve dissolved is dissolved and so that

2:29:33 opportunity is not there so we have opportunity for

2:29:36 savings i would just say if you know if one of our members doesn’t

2:29:39 choose to join and we have a savings of

2:29:41 five thousand dollars or however much it is ultimately it is

2:29:44 going back to the schools because it falls to the

2:29:45 bottom line and it gets you know spent uh i i don’t i don’t want

2:29:50 to have some creative way to divert it

2:29:52 some other direction i mean it’s it’s going back to the kids and

2:29:55 to our organization as a whole but

2:29:57 now we have you know we would have had to lower it back down

2:30:00 this year anyway because we wouldn’t have

2:30:02 had the opportunity to join two organizations one of the issues

2:30:06 that we had was we had a certain

2:30:08 amount of capital dollars that were allocated to us so that we

2:30:10 could allocate those to our schools a couple

2:30:12 years ago and it gave us an opportunity to touch on areas that

2:30:15 had not been funded prior and some of

2:30:17 unique things that we are passionate about as board members we

2:30:21 ultimately understand that holistically

2:30:23 the entire budget that’s our that’s our duty like every single

2:30:26 dollar that is spent is our responsibility

2:30:29 to approve right um and i think collectively we run into these

2:30:32 situations where there’s some really

2:30:34 cool things at the last minute that we could fund um and that’s

2:30:38 why i would like to have the conversation

2:30:40 that we utilize those funds the way that we would like whether

2:30:43 that’s fsba membership whether that’s

2:30:45 growth for the for the school board member or whether that’s

2:30:47 seed money that we want to choose we’ve

2:30:49 allocated it every year um and that’s my family that’s all i was

2:30:53 able to do some nice stuff for my title

2:30:55 one schools when i had the revenue so you’re suggesting that we

2:30:59 have because what’s showing on our budget

2:31:03 right now is the 25 000 which fsba is going to cost us uh 18 19

2:31:09 19 19 000 so that’s going to leave a

2:31:13 total of 6 000. but who made this budget because this isn’t the

2:31:18 budget we approved like that’s my biggest

2:31:21 problem how did these numbers change from what we allocated for

2:31:24 our own budgets that i’ve gotten in

2:31:26 the past are a little bit different when i asked for those excel

2:31:29 spreadsheets i mean we found two

2:31:31 hundred thousand dollars in our own budget falling to the bottom

2:31:33 line every year under workers comp it

2:31:35 was a bizarre thing right so there’s there’s actual there’s

2:31:38 another way to do that and this spreadsheet’s

2:31:41 great don’t get me wrong but the actual like i just feel that tina

2:31:44 now because she doesn’t join fsba

2:31:46 should be able to use those dollars the way that she sees fit

2:31:49 whether she wants to give it back to

2:31:50 the district that’s great you as an individual but if you wanted

2:31:52 to use that as seed money towards your

2:31:54 other stuff you could but it’s not budgeted as tina’s money it’s

2:31:57 budgeted as dues and fees from

2:31:59 the board it’s different than what we said before when we sat

2:32:02 down we all said we’re going to allocate

2:32:04 this amount of money for each board member the way that they did

2:32:07 that process wise behind is not

2:32:09 consistent with what we said so we said we’re going to have this

2:32:12 money for each board member prior it’s

2:32:14 not set up as board member one two three four but they do have

2:32:17 that breakdown inside there they have your

2:32:19 breakdown on on capital on cost on everything so on your travel

2:32:23 on every one of those so that

2:32:25 that is a separate breakdown somewhere else i’m just saying in

2:32:28 the event and i don’t miss belford like

2:32:30 this would mean that i as an individual would not have any

2:32:33 revenue but i wanted to be able to in the

2:32:35 future if we don’t want to be a part of fsba or if we wanted to

2:32:38 utilize that extra funding that we had

2:32:40 um i’d like to we might need to address so my calculations say

2:32:46 that we should have 35 500 in

2:32:49 that account for the two for the two we need to address if we

2:32:52 want to keep that now that there’s

2:32:54 only one organization everyone wants to join or if that just

2:32:57 rolls into dues and fees and you can use

2:32:59 it for other dues and fees because i think everybody ran short

2:33:04 all of you that went to an fsba conference

2:33:07 and then when we tried to go to tellahassee with the students uh

2:33:10 you guys were like we didn’t have

2:33:12 you yeah you were out of budget so i offered i’d send some of my

2:33:16 funds over to you like it you know it

2:33:19 got so i don’t think i don’t think this is a good budget for us

2:33:22 is what i’m saying we’ve got too much

2:33:24 in this account not enough in the travel it’s just i think we

2:33:26 need to address this and maybe today’s

2:33:28 not the day but yeah probably i’m not going to be able to

2:33:31 resolve it today but so would we like to

2:33:33 put that down as a discussion for our next board check-in and

2:33:37 miss escobar could we get a breakdown

2:33:39 on how those dollars are broken out inside the budget attempt to

2:33:46 i also know that i take the ads

2:33:51 out of that 25 the ads for our meetings come out of the dues and

2:33:56 fees

2:33:57 so that tends to be

2:34:01 right especially when we have to run for all of that with

2:34:07 25 000. but dues and fees no she’s is a different light item

2:34:14 than the 25

2:34:15 the dues and fees is a 737 under function 71. yeah and then we

2:34:23 have our these own individual dues

2:34:25 and fees maybe they’re maybe those are conferences like when we

2:34:28 go to a conference if we go to fsba

2:34:31 it’s 300 or if we go to a like a two-day workshop it’s 150

2:34:35 dollars that’s what that dues and fees

2:34:37 goes towards i really just want to scratch this thing and make

2:34:42 my own little spreadsheet because

2:34:44 this is this is not why i call it dues and fees and it’s object

2:34:47 737 if it’s something completely

2:34:50 different then i think i think you’re right madam chair like

2:34:53 maybe this is for a longer larger discussion

2:34:55 maybe we have our cfo come in and explain the reasons behind

2:34:59 this stuff and then we go from there

2:35:01 but my overall intention is to allow flexibility for our own

2:35:05 budgets depending on what we do

2:35:07 because i might be already in tallahassee for something and not

2:35:11 need to use the money to travel

2:35:12 with the kids i would like that flexibility or if i wanted to

2:35:15 pay for something out of our board budget

2:35:17 as long as it’s within our purview then i would like to do that

2:35:20 and that’s all so if that’s for a

2:35:22 further discussion i think you’re right though like we’re i’m

2:35:24 looking at a different budget on my screen

2:35:26 this is a different budget and they do make sense we just don’t

2:35:29 know how so um would you please make

2:35:34 note for me to follow up for our next board check-in to request

2:35:37 finance join us for discussion on the

2:35:38 board budget and how that all works out like the specific um we

2:35:42 had scheduled them quarterly but we

2:35:45 may need to look at scheduling one sooner depending on how many

2:35:47 takeaways we leave with today so um so fsba

2:35:53 membership everyone’s good with the four board members who’ve

2:35:57 opted to join fsba authorizing

2:35:59 pam to move forward with can i make a recommendation that tina

2:36:02 gets to spend her own money the money she wants

2:36:04 it has to fall within i i don’t necessarily agree unless we

2:36:12 unless we revamp what we’re doing but

2:36:16 the way it stands now no because it’s designated for

2:36:18 professional development for dues and fees for

2:36:21 her to say tina can use her money to pay for the people that are

2:36:23 going to come in and work with us on

2:36:25 there we go since that’s one of the goals i brought forward that

2:36:29 sounds like a dues and fees as long as

2:36:31 it stays within the you know i don’t want it to be you know hey

2:36:35 let me give your school two thousand

2:36:37 dollars for a new copy or boom like i’m a you know or give a

2:36:40 program very godmother that they can’t

2:36:43 even fundraise out of a title one school i understand but i

2:36:45 think we have to uh in being true to the

2:36:50 budget i think we need to stick with what it’s been designated

2:36:53 for so we’re good on fsba membership yep

2:36:56 um that moves us along to community mapping and dr melons did

2:37:00 you purchase books for them

2:37:02 have they received them i did and they’re in the uh in my office

2:37:05 to take with them today awesome

2:37:07 so um the neck i handed out a page to you all that um no you don’t

2:37:14 have to now um i handed out

2:37:16 a page to you all it says community mapping at the top and this

2:37:19 is going to be one that we are going

2:37:21 to revisit for a a more in-depth discussion as well but i’m

2:37:23 going to give you a high level overview

2:37:26 dr melons has purchased some books for each of the board members

2:37:29 called communities cannot do it alone

2:37:31 and it’s a schools cannot do it alone thank you um and it’s a

2:37:36 book that um i had read a while ago

2:37:40 like a long while ago and then for whatever reason um picked it

2:37:43 up again and read through it again and

2:37:45 it just seemed to really ring true with some of the challenges

2:37:47 that we’re facing right now and part of the

2:37:50 the concept of that book is really bringing our community

2:37:54 together around education um which i feel

2:37:58 like we do we have a very supportive community in brevard with

2:38:03 regards to education but what i tend

2:38:05 to see is that um you know tina is whacking on one side of the

2:38:09 tree and math whacking on another side of

2:38:12 the tree and the um children’s hunger project is on this side of

2:38:17 the tree and the community food bank

2:38:19 is on this side of the tree and we’re all kind of you know whacking

2:38:22 away at the tree on different

2:38:24 issues but we’re not getting to where we need to go because we’re

2:38:27 not uniting in our efforts and we

2:38:29 could do so much more if we could unite in those efforts and

2:38:32 really be on the same page so part of

2:38:34 getting to that point um is mapping out your community and

2:38:38 identifying who are the people in our

2:38:40 community that we need to be connected with and what are they

2:38:43 doing in our community so rather than me

2:38:45 going i have this great idea that i need to do this when someone

2:38:48 else is already doing it we already

2:38:50 have those connections and and that map to say this is who’s

2:38:53 working on this issue and hey maybe if

2:38:56 we partner them with this other organization we can tackle this

2:39:00 together so rings true for you know

2:39:03 feeding children it rings true for um early childhood education

2:39:08 so many aspects of our community

2:39:10 challenges there are a lot of great people working on but we’re

2:39:14 just not moving in the same direction

2:39:16 so um one of the things that i would like for us as board

2:39:20 members to do if you all are not opposed

2:39:22 is to take part in mapping our district um and i don’t mean like

2:39:27 drawing a map um but what it what it

2:39:30 consists of is sitting down and identifying uh and you’ll see on

2:39:33 this spreadsheet foundations that are

2:39:36 in your community civic groups that are in your community youth

2:39:39 activities that are available in

2:39:40 your community churches that are are in your community um and

2:39:44 identifying who those people are

2:39:46 like a point of contact and their contact information and then

2:39:51 what do they do so maybe you have a

2:39:53 non-profit called you know tithesville angels well what do they

2:39:57 do what what issues are they tackling

2:39:59 the goal is eventually to have all of brevard county mapped out

2:40:04 so we can identify these different

2:40:06 groups but i felt like it would be easier rather than us and and

2:40:09 nikki’s working on this as well but rather

2:40:12 than us dumping that concept on on the team here at bps we are

2:40:16 out in our community a lot

2:40:18 and we have a lot of that information so if we can all just

2:40:21 collectively start kind of filling in some

2:40:24 blanks so my thought was first um these groups are just groups

2:40:29 that i jotted down like just brain dump

2:40:32 here some some different types of groups that i can think of for

2:40:34 us to identify in the community

2:40:36 um so what i would like to ask is for you all to just at this

2:40:40 point just look through these groups

2:40:42 and help me identify what we’ve missed that that needs to be

2:40:46 included as to the different types

2:40:48 of groups in the community that we should be considering and

2:40:51 then once we have gone through

2:40:53 that exercise and we’ve added everything in then i will go ahead

2:40:56 and create or ask pam or tammy to

2:40:58 create um a smart sheet where we can start plugging this

2:41:02 information in once we’re all on the same page

2:41:06 with where it’s going are you guys amenable to that task go

2:41:10 ahead you know tina doesn’t like smart

2:41:12 sheet huh i don’t like smart sheet but that’s not what my common

2:41:16 question but it’ll be good because

2:41:18 it won’t duplicate or google docs or whatever i don’t care what

2:41:22 we use but that way we’re not duplicating

2:41:25 if we’re all using the same document right because yeah because

2:41:28 we don’t want to and and we can have

2:41:30 it broken down by district but you know a lot of things cross

2:41:33 over yes and so i think it just makes

2:41:36 more sense for us to have a cohesive document that we can work

2:41:38 on mutually are you guys good with that

2:41:40 sounds good okay when you’re talking about schools are you

2:41:42 talking about our schools or charter schools

2:41:45 and supportive schools because i see schools down here i just

2:41:47 didn’t know that yeah all of the above so

2:41:49 what are the private schools in your community what are the

2:41:52 universities that are serving special needs

2:41:54 students what are our university partners as well college yeah

2:41:59 so um if you guys could um task

2:42:02 yourselves with reviewing this if i give you two weeks is that

2:42:05 long enough for you to review and make

2:42:06 suggestions on for categories categories to be included and just

2:42:12 to save some time here and duplicative

2:42:14 efforts um like dr moens already has a list of all the churches

2:42:18 that he meets with right um my thing is is

2:42:21 that like i’m i love this list like this is me right so i’m

2:42:24 going to go through it but i don’t want to

2:42:25 lose or miss things so is there any way that like um dr moens

2:42:29 you could provide all those contacts for

2:42:32 your churches you know what i mean because i’ve got 25 that i

2:42:35 meet with on fridays that call in

2:42:37 and so i can provide those but i don’t know if they’re all mine

2:42:40 in my area plus we may want to engage

2:42:42 the chambers for some of these things because they have multiple

2:42:45 master lists of contacts like they have it by

2:42:48 category so we could literally start there and then whittle down

2:42:52 to the next level that would be my

2:42:54 idea if we can engage the chambers get dr moens and our

2:42:57 communications department to fill now

2:43:00 then we come behind and be all my uh you know my rotary’s not in

2:43:04 there or that kind of stuff if i could

2:43:06 make that suggestion because that would do that would save us a

2:43:09 lot of time in our two weeks yeah well and

2:43:11 and the those two i’m not asking you to fill in these categories

2:43:14 i’m just asking you to identify

2:43:16 during these next two weeks to identify categories that we have

2:43:19 not included oh and then we can

2:43:22 move forward on the next step i thought you’re asking for the

2:43:24 list done in two weeks i was like oh my

2:43:25 god like i’ve got to drive around for a while no yeah i i mean

2:43:28 off the top of my head i would just add

2:43:30 to schools our colleges and universities specifically okay and

2:43:34 chambers

2:43:35 miss falford may i just ask pam will you please um get with tammy

2:43:42 and ask her to forward our

2:43:44 community ambassadors list as well as our business partners list

2:43:48 from government community relations

2:43:50 to all the board members just it’ll help spark some yep who we’re

2:43:53 already connected with perfect

2:43:56 mr gibbs when my edc meets or organizations meet i would love to

2:44:00 bring one of my other school board

2:44:02 members if we’re in their district and it’s a non-voting type

2:44:05 thing is that going to give you a heart

2:44:06 attack if i reach out to miss campbell and said hey we’re

2:44:09 meeting at this manufacturer that’s inside

2:44:11 your thing and i think it would be a great community connection

2:44:13 as long as she’s in there we’re not

2:44:15 talking about issues right legally you can do it i don’t

2:44:19 recommend doing it just from a perception

2:44:22 would you like to come and stand between us it’s just being at

2:44:26 the same event when it the perception

2:44:28 is going to be really they didn’t talk about school district

2:44:30 things the entire time they were at that

2:44:32 event together i mean what happens if the group brings up

2:44:35 something that is likely to come before

2:44:38 the board at some point are one of you leaving i mean yeah i

2:44:41 mean if i come as an observer yeah we can

2:44:45 come we can do this right i mean you can you the law does not

2:44:50 prohibit you from attending the same

2:44:52 functions it prohibits you from having any kind of discussions

2:44:55 with one another about things that

2:44:58 are board business or likely to come before the board yep

2:45:01 because i think that would help a lot of

2:45:03 organizations i would like to go to a board meeting for the

2:45:06 children’s hunger project i would love you

2:45:08 guys to come one at a time to a board meeting at the edc all of

2:45:11 these different components i think so

2:45:13 we can learn basically our you know anyways okay thank you uh

2:45:17 with your permission i would like to flip

2:45:21 flop item eight and item nine because i feel like item nine i’m

2:45:25 crossing my fingers is going to be a less

2:45:27 lengthy conversation than item eight um so i would like to knock

2:45:32 that knock that out if we could and then we

2:45:35 can get on to item eight which is our graduation discussion are

2:45:39 you guys good with that sure okay

2:45:42 dr mullins um miss duskovich had asked that we add this item to

2:45:47 uh the agenda for discussion but i know

2:45:50 that you have done some work around this so if you wouldn’t mind

2:45:53 um filling us in on where you’re at at this

2:45:55 point and sure well just for for uh background or summary um you

2:46:03 know i’ve had an ongoing relationship

2:46:06 with our naacp leaders across the district but particularly

2:46:10 south brevard or the south branch of

2:46:12 naacp uh primarily because i i as an area superintendent down

2:46:16 there for for several years and um developed a

2:46:20 relationship with president james minus and and other uh naacp

2:46:25 leaders there uh president minus reached

2:46:27 out to um miss deskovich or i think miss deskovich actually

2:46:31 reached out to president minus and just

2:46:33 wanted to touch base and and uh see how um stay connected with

2:46:38 what’s going on in the world around

2:46:41 us and and certainly in our community and president minus shared

2:46:44 with us and and then forwarded the board

2:46:47 several uh resolutions that were being developed and um shared

2:46:51 at the recent florida state conference naacp

2:46:55 uh president minus highlighted five uh particularly that of 15

2:47:00 resolutions that were developed

2:47:03 uh and just uh bring them to our attention and and share them

2:47:07 with us and say let’s let’s have ongoing

2:47:09 conversation around them and the five that he uh share or he

2:47:14 highlighted specific education was resolution

2:47:18 resolution number two titled bias training courts and schools uh

2:47:22 resolution number four

2:47:26 curing the epidemic of black youth suicides resolution number

2:47:33 five i don’t i think they’re numbered for our

2:47:36 management actually they’re not numbered from them but this one

2:47:39 was civics education instruction and k-12

2:47:42 the next was covet 19 and education

2:47:47 and uh another parent teacher associations donations deepen

2:47:53 educational inequities

2:47:55 so i think we’ve had them maybe a week a little over a week and

2:47:59 had a chance to to go through them i’ve

2:48:01 not had the opportunity to sit down with staff necessarily and

2:48:05 go through them and share them

2:48:06 with them but um had some conversation with miss deskovich um

2:48:11 one that i particularly wanted to

2:48:13 highlight is bias training uh courts and schools i know the

2:48:18 board is aware and and uh our community or

2:48:21 some community leaders are aware we actually had scheduled uh

2:48:25 overcoming racism training scheduled

2:48:28 but it was originally june i think 8th and given our as and it

2:48:32 was inclusive of our entire leadership team

2:48:35 which is all of our principals uh district leaders cabinet of

2:48:38 course the board was invited we invited

2:48:40 our naacp leaders as well and we were uh anxiously looking

2:48:45 forward to that training and and really coming

2:48:48 together as a organization around uh this issue even before we

2:48:54 uh long before uh the current awareness

2:48:58 that uh you know we’re all uh responding to so that has been rescheduled

2:49:03 uh in september because

2:49:05 it is best facilitated when we can come together in a large

2:49:08 gathering when we can come together as

2:49:10 an organization so it is already rescheduled for september i don’t

2:49:13 remember the date off the top of my head

2:49:15 i think it’s september 2. um and inclusive of all the the

2:49:18 individuals i have already mentioned

2:49:21 we have a uh included is an ongoing work working relationship

2:49:26 with a gentleman who is leading that

2:49:28 training to work with our leaders uh throughout the district as

2:49:32 follow-up as well so uh just wanted to

2:49:36 to highlight that um also uh been been in discussion with dr sullivan

2:49:43 and looking at our curriculum

2:49:45 particularly in middle school u.s history and our social studies

2:49:50 electives in high school

2:49:52 she is in the process of working with her social studies content

2:49:56 specialist and teachers in the fall

2:49:59 to look at our eighth grade u.s history curriculum at african-american

2:50:04 history specifically and modules

2:50:07 that could be developed to um enhance and complement the

2:50:11 curriculum that we have in place

2:50:14 but in addition uh i believe a year ago maybe two years ago we

2:50:19 piloted or launched a african-american

2:50:22 history elective course a year-long course uh for high school

2:50:27 and um it was uh in place in one high

2:50:30 school this year we’re looking to expand that a little bit

2:50:33 further this coming this coming school

2:50:34 year and continue to grow that um it does take time when we add

2:50:39 electives keep in mind that typically

2:50:41 your our student population is pretty static in terms of student

2:50:46 growth so when we add electives we have

2:50:48 to think about what we take off as electives because we don’t

2:50:51 have enough students to go through

2:50:54 all the electives if you will so we have an intentional plan and

2:50:58 path to continue to grow that

2:51:00 as an elective but i wanted to share that particularly in

2:51:03 response to the civics education instruction

2:51:06 in k-12 i followed up with president minus on monday i believe

2:51:12 and just let him know we were working

2:51:15 through these things i shared with him some of the same uh

2:51:18 highlights uh with him and he was very

2:51:21 appreciative and understood let’s uh continue to come together

2:51:24 and talk through these and and so on so

2:51:27 that’s kind of where we’re at at this point um dr mullins can i

2:51:31 say something in regards to your

2:51:33 u.s history piece so um the gentleman that you brought to our

2:51:38 engagement uh last year the

2:51:40 principal to palm beach lakes high school has the most

2:51:43 phenomenal program there in regards to what

2:51:46 it was and kenny johnson and i were actually going to get in the

2:51:49 car drive down there meet with them we

2:51:51 had it all set up and then covet happened right um i would i

2:51:54 would engage that conversation when we’re

2:51:57 talking about adding it to the curriculum to be engagement into

2:52:01 the high school portion not the

2:52:03 seventh or possibly eighth grade because the 16 year old high

2:52:07 school engagement is ultimately infinitely

2:52:11 more substantive towards some of the race issues that they’re

2:52:14 trying to address i think eighth grade’s

2:52:17 great we touch on it and stuff like that but there’s a there’s

2:52:20 an actual curriculum that talks to as

2:52:22 opposed to just talking about the slave and the trial triangle

2:52:24 trade and the slave trade to actually

2:52:26 talk about the kingdoms and the the beautiful things that were

2:52:29 in africa right and that piece can be

2:52:31 added very quickly into our 10th grade american history and that

2:52:35 i think is part of a conversation

2:52:37 i used to do it in my class when i taught american history um

2:52:39 and i think that that’s something we

2:52:41 can do so please as you’re moving forward with that part of the

2:52:44 discussion um add that piece into

2:52:45 10th grade because i think it’s i think i would find it more i

2:52:49 don’t know that that seems to be a flashpoint in

2:52:51 time for kids when that the the individuals that are there that

2:52:55 need that education are not there and

2:52:57 i would also say that the elective is 100 right but moving

2:53:01 towards adding it as part of a part of our

2:53:04 education inside of our school district is needed because it can’t

2:53:07 we can’t always offer the elective

2:53:08 to everybody right we can’t always do that pieces so offering a

2:53:11 supplement to it would help that’s all

2:53:14 and then in the ptas is he talking i spoke i looked at the pta

2:53:18 donation one and it says inside there

2:53:20 that he says low socioeconomic is he talking about title one

2:53:23 schools so when we’re framing our argument

2:53:26 over the ptas would that be to title one schools or what was

2:53:28 that piece there do you know what i mean

2:53:30 well i i wouldn’t suggest we had in-depth conversation about it

2:53:35 so i i wouldn’t want to try and

2:53:36 interpret or you know speak on behalf of uh president minus the

2:53:41 nflacp but those are some of the things

2:53:43 that we’ll talk through and continue to meet with them about um

2:53:46 as we move forward we as a board or you

2:53:48 as a staff yes i i think i think this is the opportunity

2:53:52 absolutely a time that we must you know look for

2:53:59 expanded conversation and opportunity to continue conversation

2:54:03 going across

2:54:03 you know former formalities um we need to ensure that we have

2:54:07 the right voices at the table and

2:54:09 diverse voices at the table and and continue the conversation

2:54:13 and i’m very receptive and open to

2:54:15 all of that as we have been but i think quite frankly for us uh

2:54:19 just to that point we we got to look

2:54:21 at our our frame of how we have done and if we’re at a place and

2:54:27 i believe we are a place that our frame

2:54:30 hasn’t brought the results we want of ensuring equity access

2:54:35 opportunity to all of our students

2:54:38 and this is our time to say to challenge our frame and say how

2:54:43 do we move past where what we have had

2:54:46 as structures and conversations in the past and move beyond them

2:54:49 not that conversations aren’t happening and

2:54:51 the relationships aren’t there we’ve got i believe very positive

2:54:55 relationships across our community

2:54:58 across many different groups inclusive of uh our black leaders

2:55:03 so we build on that and we say uh let’s

2:55:07 let’s build and let’s um look to construct what we want to be

2:55:12 next mrs balfour hold on just one second

2:55:17 mrs daskovich you had actually requested that this item be

2:55:20 included in discussion i think did you want

2:55:23 to take what what were you looking to achieve are we i don’t

2:55:27 want to gloss over what an outcome that you

2:55:30 were looking for um i i wanted to you know i gave him to dr he

2:55:37 sent him to dr mullins and i i guess a week ago

2:55:40 so i i just wanted to open the discussion get these in front of

2:55:44 you all uh so we can start having these

2:55:46 discussions like dr mullins recommended uh and then i’m hoping

2:55:50 that we can get a document from

2:55:53 dr mullins and staff because i feel like when i read through

2:55:57 these oh we are we’re doing that and

2:55:59 i don’t think the community knows how hard you know dr sullivan’s

2:56:03 the one that comes to mind she has

2:56:05 driven this since i’ve been on the board a lot of these ideas

2:56:08 and so uh i think we need to communicate

2:56:12 that in our conversations to the community what we are doing and

2:56:17 uh what we plan to do where we’re

2:56:18 not and we look at these and we can say oh we’re already doing

2:56:21 that one great but we could do this a

2:56:22 little better or we could do that a little better so i wanted to

2:56:25 have that discussion and maybe direct

2:56:27 dr mullins to have staff put something together tangible that we

2:56:30 can see exactly what we’re doing

2:56:32 and where do we want to go um one of these in here does give me

2:56:37 concern and pause like i don’t know

2:56:39 that we could carry that out but maybe as a discussion we could

2:56:41 figure out how maybe ptas could

2:56:44 adopt a title one school if they choose to i know in the

2:56:47 Atlantic we adopted palm bay elementary for a

2:56:50 year or two when i was um serving there and it wasn’t it still

2:56:54 wasn’t equitable but we did a book drive

2:56:56 for them and we did some things and maybe there’s you know maybe

2:56:58 this is phases maybe there’s process

2:57:00 maybe it’s just educating some of the more wealthier ptos and ptas

2:57:04 on what the needs are a lot of them

2:57:05 will step up and and be willing to serve so i think there’s work

2:57:09 that can be done here i just i thought

2:57:11 it was important to and timely to get it in front of all of us

2:57:14 for a discussion for ms campbell i would

2:57:17 just say i i agree ms desk but it’s good for us to look at all

2:57:20 of these and as i was looking through each

2:57:22 one i was like okay what after i look you get through the

2:57:25 whereas is right the circumstances

2:57:27 situations that they’re pointing to but what is the ask for each

2:57:30 one and you know out of the five

2:57:32 really only two of the ass directly come to us the bias training

2:57:37 one in the one about um it was number

2:57:40 six on our list about coven 19 education about making next

2:57:44 school year be a time to make up for

2:57:45 lost time and i know that’s already part of our plan um but i

2:57:48 mean just to be aware of these other ones as

2:57:50 well because they’re you know they do affect us um you know one

2:57:54 that asked us to the cdc one of you

2:57:56 know a couple to the legislature um one to the doe so you know i

2:58:01 but i totally agree that you know this

2:58:04 document these documents were formed as a statewide here’s as a

2:58:07 state what we want to see there are

2:58:09 some things that we’re doing really well in brevard that we need

2:58:11 to continue to do better but that we

2:58:13 need to communicate to our to our naacp leadership and to our

2:58:17 our whole community here’s here’s what

2:58:20 we’re doing and make sure they are aware um of what is already

2:58:23 in place um and we want to join them

2:58:25 but i i just want to take a time and i know um you know this is

2:58:28 our first time and we may also address

2:58:30 this next tuesday but this is our first time to gather since all

2:58:35 of the the national turmoil has um starting with the death of george

2:58:40 floyd and then um

2:58:41 um and then you know the riots and things like that and i think

2:58:45 it would be

2:58:45 you know i just want to say as you know we’ve we’ve been asked

2:58:48 if i’ve gotten a few emails i’m sure

2:58:50 you guys have have as well and a few places where we’ve been

2:58:53 asked you know every leader elected or

2:58:56 otherwise has been asked to to make a statement to weigh in and

2:59:00 i you know as a board member i’ve

2:59:02 thought okay as in in this role as a leader what is my

2:59:05 responsibility because the things that are that

2:59:09 are we’re talking about aren’t necessarily related to our the

2:59:13 conflict is not over what’s happening in

2:59:17 our schools okay but our schools are a huge part of the solution

2:59:24 and education and the way we come

2:59:27 together they’re training the next generation um you know i’ve

2:59:30 had a conversation with someone that some

2:59:33 of the things that are um evil still in our in our nation some

2:59:41 of that is going to have to be diluted

2:59:43 over time over generations and so we have the great

2:59:46 responsibility and privilege of pouring into this

2:59:49 generation and the next generations and setting things up to con

2:59:53 so that the path towards restoration

2:59:55 reconciliation can continue so i just think it’s important for

2:59:58 the people who are watching and just

3:00:00 you know because i i know how the people in this room feel that

3:00:04 we know racism is wrong and we’re

3:00:06 doing everything we can and we’re so proud of our staff for the

3:00:08 the things that they’re doing i say

3:00:11 everything we can we can do more can’t we dr mullins um but that

3:00:15 is our goal and so i just think

3:00:16 it’s important for us you know in this time and again i hope

3:00:19 that we’ll say something also again our

3:00:21 our more watched meeting next week but just to say this is

3:00:26 important to us and whatever falls within

3:00:29 our power of influence as a school board and as superintendent

3:00:32 as our district leadership and

3:00:34 even down to our teachers and our other staff and um you know

3:00:38 this is we want to be part of the solution

3:00:41 and so um i’m thankful for our great relationship we have with

3:00:46 um mr minus and with our other naacp

3:00:49 leaders and glad they feel comfortable sending this to us and

3:00:51 that we can have those conversations but

3:00:53 um you know i’m thankful for this team and for the work that you

3:00:57 guys are already doing and that

3:00:59 you’re that your goal is to continue to work um towards even

3:01:03 having a greater impact on our our students

3:01:06 i’d like to say something very well said mr susan i just wanted

3:01:11 to say um dr mullins in the years

3:01:14 that i’ve been a part of this organization since 2005 i’ve never

3:01:18 seen a superintendent more engaged

3:01:20 into this realm along with deputy superintendent miss sullivan

3:01:24 you deserve huge credit for this

3:01:26 i’ve asked you and i know you’re not a boaster like i know you’re

3:01:29 not like it drives me crazy i’m

3:01:30 like some days i just wish you would run out front hold a press

3:01:32 conference and tell everybody what you’re

3:01:34 doing because this area you are a champion and i have never i’m

3:01:38 telling you um i wrote my history thesis on

3:01:42 civil rights when i was at florida state and i wrote it about

3:01:45 harry timore so i spent two months writing

3:01:48 a paper that is about harry timore not even knowing i was moving

3:01:50 to brevard and i understood the in the

3:01:53 civil rights for this county going back 150 years and i’ll tell

3:01:56 you that it’s very very significant and

3:01:58 i’ll tell you as soon as i came here as a teacher the first

3:02:01 thing i did was get on the harry timore board

3:02:03 and start working on bringing kids up there and doing all that

3:02:05 stuff and i’ll tell you the lack of

3:02:08 what you’re doing was needed so bad then and i want to commend

3:02:11 you for what you do like i want

3:02:12 everybody to know like big banner across the world that dr mullins

3:02:16 and dr sullivan have been leading

3:02:17 this in what you’ve done right so that’s the first thing i

3:02:20 wanted to say um i also wanted to say i’ve

3:02:23 been meeting with the ptos ptas and they’ve been cross

3:02:25 collaborating amazingly enough our ptos and sun tree

3:02:28 viera have been literally donating clothes food money everything

3:02:32 into our into our title one schools down in the

3:02:34 south they’ve actually started to become friends and they’re

3:02:37 starting that cross collaboration

3:02:39 i think one of the issues that you run into is that a lot of our

3:02:41 title one schools receive title one

3:02:43 funding right so that’s a huge chunk of money that they’re

3:02:46 getting to offset some of the costs

3:02:47 so when the ptas are raising up money some of the things that

3:02:50 that title one covers is what the ptas up

3:02:52 north and i think that’s part of the discussion holistically but

3:02:55 i’m telling you they are ready

3:02:56 like you just talked about adopt a school you don’t even like we

3:02:59 just have a circle of the ptos ptas

3:03:01 and one will say hey we need uh baking goods because we have a

3:03:04 bunch of birthdays coming up and

3:03:05 then all of a sudden the sun tree moms come down with literally

3:03:08 that um they’re talking about outdoor

3:03:10 classrooms whatever it is it’s just like boom they all do it so

3:03:12 getting them into a room and just

3:03:14 letting them talk i think it’s part of that discussion too but i

3:03:17 did just want to say dr mullins i know

3:03:19 you don’t like to boast but man this is you like this is yours

3:03:22 you lead this district and great job that’s all

3:03:25 you know could you do a press conference or something big bold

3:03:29 you look so uncomfortable

3:03:31 sir and this is well deserved that accolades i i appreciate that

3:03:36 i i would um it’s those are very

3:03:38 humbling comments um but my i’m not gonna this has been a very

3:03:43 heavy time if you know that this has been

3:03:49 an area i have wanted to to lead and champion for our community

3:03:53 i i would defer to

3:03:54 our black leaders our black moms dads our kids and say do you

3:04:01 feel that way

3:04:01 and i’m not prepared to say that they would say yes

3:04:07 because we can do more we must do more and yes there have been

3:04:12 requests for a statement or a message

3:04:15 and uh it it is i felt personally and even professionally it was

3:04:22 necessary to take the time to

3:04:25 understand better

3:04:29 because i don’t know that i understood all i could or should and

3:04:35 i met i i met with our principles

3:04:39 all day yesterday and spent the first considerable amount of my

3:04:44 time with each each of the principal

3:04:47 groups sharing my personal journey over the last couple weeks

3:04:52 with the the images of the atrocities of

3:04:56 the death of george floyd with the realization of what happened

3:04:59 with ahmad avery and needing to

3:05:03 pause and just seek to understand better

3:05:09 why and how we are here

3:05:12 and i

3:05:15 i don’t have the answers yet

3:05:23 i believe that we are a community that we can come together and

3:05:26 we can work toward them

3:05:27 not can we must and we will

3:05:31 i shared with our principals yesterday

3:05:35 every one of us every one of us

3:05:40 if i were to survey said we got into this career this profession

3:05:46 to make a difference

3:05:49 and now we’re confronted with the reality with the personal

3:05:53 challenge

3:05:54 are we making a difference for our white children for our black

3:05:58 children for our brown children for our

3:06:01 children with different political preference with our children

3:06:06 our boys our girls our

3:06:09 children who have gender identity differences

3:06:15 because if we’re talking about racism and discrimination we’ve

3:06:19 got to be thinking

3:06:19 about every one of the kids that come to us in our schools

3:06:22 and that’s a very personal challenge to me

3:06:26 and uh

3:06:28 and this is a time to

3:06:31 really do some some deep consideration

3:06:36 because at the end of the day we are com discrimination is

3:06:40 intolerable

3:06:41 discrimination in any form in any way and every in any

3:06:46 possibility and we have to make deliberate

3:06:49 decisions and choices to be anti-racist and to be anti-discriminatory

3:06:57 and framing that message almost is easier in in talking than it

3:07:02 is in written word

3:07:04 um so i um i i just share that now because uh sometimes i feel

3:07:11 like i’m better in spoken word than

3:07:13 written word um but uh most of all uh i hope it’s expressive of

3:07:20 my heart

3:07:22 for our community every corner facet representation of our

3:07:27 community because if we can’t come together

3:07:30 the end of the day no one person no one group can bring systemic

3:07:35 change we’ve got to do this together

3:07:39 and as educators change has been we have been the groundwork the

3:07:46 foundation of change

3:07:48 in society in our country and in our community and this is an

3:07:52 opportunity to make sure

3:07:54 that we don’t let this go by us

3:07:58 and not answer to the moral imperative

3:08:02 so not can we change

3:08:06 not may we change we will change we will bring change we will be

3:08:14 high be behind the change and we

3:08:16 will leave the change

3:08:17 i don’t know what that looks like yet and you know what i don’t

3:08:23 know that i should be having the

3:08:24 strongest voice of what that is

3:08:25 we need to make sure we have the voice we we did youth truth

3:08:32 survey yesterday uh this year for the

3:08:34 first time as a district if there’s anything i’m proud of i’m

3:08:37 proud of the fact that we

3:08:38 launched hearing our children’s voice i challenged our

3:08:42 principles yesterday

3:08:44 have you pulled out your survey results and started looking at

3:08:48 the voice of your black children

3:08:49 of your brown children of all the diversity represented in your

3:08:54 kids

3:08:54 and i had to admit i hadn’t as a superintendent for us

3:08:59 collectively i said but i will be now

3:09:03 so um a statement of we will

3:09:10 before we take time to understand and dig and evaluate and know

3:09:17 where are we and then let’s make sure we

3:09:20 have the voices at the table of where are we going to go because

3:09:23 we’ve got to do it together and

3:09:26 um i know we will i’ve seen our community do that and uh i i’m

3:09:33 humbled that i am in a place of great

3:09:38 responsibility and great leadership at a time when we can we can

3:09:46 make an impact we can fulfill our moral

3:09:50 imperative and we can be champions for every one of our kids and

3:09:54 maybe for the first time we’ll come

3:09:57 closer to accomplishing our mission as an organization and as

3:10:00 educators than we ever have before

3:10:02 when we can say we have served we are serving we’ll continue to

3:10:07 serve every

3:10:09 student with excellence excellence in the classroom and what

3:10:12 they learn because we’re not gonna we’re not

3:10:15 gonna settle for high anything but high expectations for our

3:10:18 kids preparing them to academically excel

3:10:21 every one of our kids in their future that is the promise of

3:10:25 their future but it has to be on a

3:10:30 foundation and a and a rock solid demonstration of day-to-day

3:10:36 actions and day-to-day words and day-to-day

3:10:38 deeds of dignity and respect and looking out for each other and

3:10:42 lifting each other up

3:10:43 and without that our kids won’t be served with excellence that’s

3:10:51 what we have to take this time

3:10:52 to make sure that we we understand and we answer to and we act

3:10:59 for it so thank you yeah hey uh

3:11:05 first francisco get that clip i want that window from beginning

3:11:10 to end cut me out i want beginning

3:11:12 to end i want that i know you hear me back there you got it and

3:11:15 then email that all to us so we can

3:11:16 share it out and i will say this behind you dr mullens we do

3:11:19 need to lead and i understand that there’s

3:11:22 that humble leadership that’s behind you nobody knows these kids

3:11:25 and spends time more with them than us

3:11:27 there’s not a coordinating agency that spends more time and

3:11:30 understands those kids than us

3:11:31 we as a district of schools everybody else need to lead this

3:11:36 this situation and i look forward to

3:11:38 seeing what you’re powerful of i mean you just did that that’s

3:11:41 better than any freaking press release

3:11:42 that i’ve had in four years i’ll just tell you right now that

3:11:46 was amazing thank you sorry i’m all pumped

3:11:48 up now i’m gonna go run a mile thank you dr mullens for your

3:11:52 leadership through that um i know

3:11:57 we’ve discussed the the struggle of how to uh verbalize what we’re

3:12:06 working towards so i appreciate you

3:12:08 sharing that um okay are we miss deskovich did you dr mullens do

3:12:13 you feel comfortable with the requests

3:12:17 i think it started with the request for a document kind of outlining

3:12:20 what we are currently doing around

3:12:22 equity and support are you comfortable with that request okay

3:12:28 any additional requests on this particular

3:12:31 topic obviously one that we will be revisiting i think on a on a

3:12:34 fairly regular basis so anything else

3:12:37 for today on the topic of the resolutions okay then that brings

3:12:43 us to graduation discussion and i

3:12:45 believe miss deskovich you requested a discussion around

3:12:49 graduation today as well yes um i think it’s

3:12:54 been it’s pretty well known that postponing graduations to july

3:12:57 is has been very frustrating to me and i

3:13:00 have a large group of parents and families that are frustrated

3:13:05 but time is moving on and

3:13:07 um so i spent some time uh speaking and asking mr gibbs to to

3:13:13 help figure out where the authority lies um who

3:13:18 gets to like if we all five of us decided that we didn’t like

3:13:22 this decision and we wanted to try to

3:13:25 force through uh an earlier graduation what what would that look

3:13:30 like and um legally you know is that in our

3:13:33 authority realm is that and so if i could i didn’t prepare you

3:13:37 mr gibbs i’m sorry but you already know

3:13:39 this stuff because you told me and you sent it to me so you

3:13:42 could kind of for the public’s purview a

3:13:44 little bit too and for the other board members that may not have

3:13:46 read their email just um help us

3:13:49 understand where we are and what the board’s authority is to to

3:13:53 change a date on a graduation all right um

3:13:56 um first the statutes and regulations do not mention who has

3:14:01 what this authority at all um so everything

3:14:05 there is not even an ag opinion that i found saying you know

3:14:08 superintendent versus school boards has this

3:14:11 authority so when i was looking at it i looked at it and this

3:14:15 would be the basis of my opinion

3:14:17 operationally how does it work everything that goes into it and

3:14:21 uh it would seem to me based on the

3:14:24 structure of the statutes that it is more of an operational

3:14:27 determination for the superintendent

3:14:30 to make and that’s just my opinion i’m sure it works and there

3:14:33 may be policies that other districts

3:14:36 have adopted that say we’re going to approve these dates um i

3:14:39 didn’t get that deep into it at this point

3:14:42 however i would say even if statute said it was the board’s

3:14:46 decision by past practice in this district

3:14:50 that power would have been delegated to the superintendent

3:14:53 because when i was looking at it

3:14:54 this board has i was not able to find any evidence that the

3:14:58 board has approved those dates in the past

3:15:00 i was told that the superintendent sets them and the board is

3:15:04 advised of those dates so and that’s

3:15:07 consistent with how it’s worked this year so and you know the

3:15:11 superintendent sets he advised the board

3:15:14 the pandemic came out they moved from may to june at the time

3:15:18 they were moved from june to july

3:15:20 the pandemic was still up we were not in phase two yet then the

3:15:24 governor opened up phase two

3:15:26 and that opened up opportunities for larger gatherings so i

3:15:31 would have my conclusion would be

3:15:33 ultimately that the superintendent had no expectation that he

3:15:37 would need board approval to move those dates

3:15:40 at least this year if you guys want to look at perhaps a policy

3:15:44 moving forward that is something i can do

3:15:46 additional research on i know in reaching out to other districts

3:15:50 their superintendents are all making

3:15:53 the decision as far as i anyone that responded to me if when

3:15:56 their dates have moved they have been at the

3:15:59 superintendent’s authority and obligation so they are not taking

3:16:03 it to the board some didn’t even change their

3:16:06 dates at all i think there were some smaller districts in the

3:16:09 panhandle that went off in may no problem

3:16:11 but those that have moved have moved with the superintendent

3:16:15 leading

3:16:15 so that’s really it miss belford i wanted to discuss it because

3:16:22 of my displeasure but it turns out

3:16:24 i don’t really have the authority to do a darn thing about it so

3:16:27 just wanted that publicly to be to be out there

3:16:29 mr gibbs when you came to that conclusion which statutory power

3:16:34 did you look at in order to allow

3:16:36 the superintendent to make those type of indications i looked at

3:16:40 all of the duties and obligations and

3:16:42 responsibilities and the statutes of the board and the

3:16:45 superintendent as well as the regulations on

3:16:47 those and the board sets the broad stroke parameters there’s no

3:16:51 like i said there’s no reference anywhere

3:16:53 as to graduation other than graduation requirements those are

3:16:57 set by the state the school board and its

3:16:59 policy has implemented those graduation requirements and it is

3:17:03 even called for in its policy graduation

3:17:05 ceremonies and it set you know the requirements for

3:17:08 participating in those graduation ceremonies

3:17:11 that’s as close as anywhere as the guidance gets so i concluded

3:17:16 that you know the broad strokes are

3:17:19 it’s an operational decision the superintendent’s going to do

3:17:21 and that makes sense you know strategically

3:17:24 how much goes into planning graduation for this number of high

3:17:28 schools you know is this event open is it

3:17:31 available is you know how many times are you having to flip

3:17:34 schools i got to move this school to that date

3:17:36 now if that had to come to the board every time is the is the

3:17:39 venue even open now before it gets on to the

3:17:42 next board agenda for approval by the board i mean can you do it

3:17:45 yes i’m sure there are districts where the school board does it

3:17:49 but like i said i didn’t get that deep into it in the time i was

3:17:52 looking at it but uh just the overall

3:17:55 structure and scheme of the statutes and then i turned to well

3:17:58 even if it was the school boards

3:18:00 is the school board utilizing it and that’s where i looked at

3:18:04 historically the board has not set those

3:18:06 dates here in brevard so i would have said you guys have delegated

3:18:11 that authority to the superintendent

3:18:13 based on past practice and the superintendent going into this

3:18:17 covet situation had no expectation that

3:18:19 he needed to clear those dates prior to you know making those

3:18:23 decisions he did it in may to june there

3:18:26 was no say hey wait a minute we need a board agenda approval

3:18:29 there wasn’t any agenda item saying we

3:18:31 needed to set those dates in may before coded so no and there

3:18:35 was no problems with that so to expect that

3:18:39 the superintendent would bring the decision to go from june to july

3:18:43 because that one’s more

3:18:45 controversial i would say would be disingenuous and not fair to

3:18:49 the superintendent i guess my question

3:18:52 is is and i’m sorry madam chair can i go back and forth a little

3:18:54 bit here so my question is is that um i

3:18:57 understand past practices like we’ve never questioned when a

3:19:01 school wants to hold their graduation like

3:19:03 that’s just been something that we do i think that the policy

3:19:06 sets that we are going to have graduations

3:19:09 the question that i have is is that under the extenuating

3:19:12 circumstances of having covid and under

3:19:15 the extending circumstances that we’ve sort of not followed the

3:19:19 same policy because of the way that

3:19:21 we’re doing it and all of those things do you find that that

3:19:26 circumstance negates previous um you know

3:19:30 what i mean things that we’ve done to the point where this is

3:19:33 fresh territory um here here’s the philosophical

3:19:35 argument that i ask does the board have the right to interject

3:19:40 here so the superintendent decides to

3:19:43 make a school board meeting or to have a graduation and says we’re

3:19:47 not going to go ahead and graduate

3:19:49 in june we’re going to graduate in july should the school board

3:19:53 have the opportunity to speak to that

3:19:56 you can certainly speak to it and you guys can all say hey we

3:19:59 prefer to if this were looked at for a june

3:20:02 graduation if you dig in and say we’re ordering you and he says

3:20:06 i don’t believe it’s your authority

3:20:08 you’re going to end up in courts and this and you’re not going

3:20:10 to have graduation until august

3:20:13 if i could clarify for our public yeah um the board members were

3:20:20 notified that the recommendation was

3:20:23 going to be made that graduation would be postponed until july

3:20:27 so this is not a situation where the

3:20:29 superintendent reached out to the board and said i’m doing this

3:20:33 and i don’t care what you have to say

3:20:36 we all had an opportunity for input and if we had said to him if

3:20:41 the majority right because we we because

3:20:45 of sunshine we can’t speak to each other on the issue right but

3:20:48 if the majority had said to him

3:20:50 i’m not comfortable with this i think it’s important that our

3:20:55 public know that this board has such a

3:20:58 relationship with our superintendent that he’s he’s not going to

3:21:02 overturn the board i mean you guys are

3:21:04 almost making it sound like i’m i’m digging my heels in and he

3:21:08 didn’t listen to me and now i just it

3:21:10 feels incredibly uncomfortable to me and i feel like we’re

3:21:13 putting dr mullins in kind of an icky

3:21:15 situation here because that’s that’s not how it went down we all

3:21:20 received the notification we all had

3:21:22 opportunity for input right so and i get that maybe something

3:21:27 came up after the fact maybe you’re

3:21:29 reflecting you know your constituents feedback i absolutely get

3:21:32 that i just don’t want to give

3:21:34 the perception that dr mullins went against the wishes of the

3:21:39 board but how do you know that because

3:21:42 i gave my feedback and i was very strong on it but i because of

3:21:46 sunshine i have no idea what the four of

3:21:48 you said i can wonder and guess which is why i wanted to bring

3:21:52 it up today because you know i’ve

3:21:55 seen some things publicly that mr susan maybe wasn’t too

3:21:57 thrilled i have no idea what their private

3:21:59 conversation was maybe he said go ahead and now he’s like i don’t

3:22:02 really i have no i have no idea

3:22:04 because we’ve never none of us have ever discussed it so yeah it’s

3:22:06 an uncomfortable situation and we

3:22:08 seem to have to do this often not usually directed at poor dr mullins

3:22:12 but because we can’t have private

3:22:13 conversations our uncomfortable conversations have to be public

3:22:18 and so you know this is it’s a new

3:22:20 territory like everything else right now because because who’s

3:22:24 moved graduations a month and then

3:22:26 another month nobody ever because never had to do it before

3:22:29 historically it’s not an issue what historically

3:22:32 it’s not been an issue and it’s never come up but yeah this year

3:22:35 being what it is this has arisen so

3:22:38 madam chair you’re 100 right dr mullins reached out to us we

3:22:41 just expressed our situations in between

3:22:43 i think the problem is is that the collaborative effort of how

3:22:46 those go to be i think that um you know as

3:22:50 far as us discussing the situation i i as a school board member

3:22:54 don’t know that there might be objections

3:22:57 there might be other things that we need to go to and you know

3:22:59 those those kind of things i think now

3:23:02 hindsight going back maybe something that we need to have part

3:23:05 of our discussion and i’ll explain the

3:23:07 athletics piece i expressed that i would i didn’t want to move

3:23:10 forward with the athletics piece that

3:23:13 we were doing right i wanted to try to open up athletics as fast

3:23:16 as possible but there was no venue for

3:23:18 me to kind of explain the why there was no process in place to

3:23:21 do that and part of that is that we haven’t

3:23:24 been meeting but once a month right but the other process is is

3:23:28 that i see it happening right now it’s like

3:23:31 it’s it’s it’s catching me because there are decisions that are

3:23:34 being made operationally that

3:23:35 affect our community and affect our citizens and our voters that

3:23:38 i think that we should have input on

3:23:40 and i think that in during this time since we’re you know i’m

3:23:43 not throwing haymakers or arguing i’m

3:23:45 just saying that right now we are in a place where the decisions

3:23:47 collectively should include the board

3:23:49 moving forward um in athletics in graduations in all of that now

3:23:54 that we have an opportunity to look at it

3:23:57 when i looked at statutes uh mr gibbs i read the the

3:24:00 constitution and it says um school boards shall

3:24:05 operate control and supervise all public schools in their

3:24:09 respective districts and may exercise any power

3:24:12 as expressly prohibited by the state constitution or general law

3:24:17 right so those pieces give us

3:24:20 that general i felt area of control over this area and that that’s

3:24:25 where when i started looking at this

3:24:28 i was like look there’s i’ve never seen a situation where dr mullens

3:24:31 and and thank you to him that if

3:24:33 three board members said they disagree with anything that he

3:24:35 would ever not move forward and say the hell

3:24:37 with you guys like i just i will give a hundred percent i just

3:24:40 think that we collaboratively should discuss

3:24:43 the decisions right as we move forward for some of these big

3:24:46 topic issues um including graduation and

3:24:48 athletics and stuff like that that’s all and i think that i i

3:24:51 would have loved to have heard your

3:24:53 objections or your objections ms campbell or miss mcdougall your

3:24:57 positives like look what do we have

3:24:59 as a board because ultimately the people that we represent are

3:25:02 the ones that we’re affecting both with work

3:25:04 with athletics with kids with all that stuff we are responsible

3:25:08 to them and they don’t come to

3:25:10 they don’t yell at the school district and people they yell at

3:25:14 us so collectively we should have a

3:25:15 voice that’s my only opinion and and i would suggest that moving

3:25:19 forward we have that opinion in that

3:25:21 collective voice but i’m only one board member and no matter

3:25:24 what the statute says as long as other

3:25:26 board members are willing to to do that then i can’t win but

3:25:29 that’s what my piece was well and i would

3:25:32 suggest that we we did have the the collective voice as far as

3:25:35 giving direction to the superintendent

3:25:38 my my point my i guess my issue of concern is it almost sounds

3:25:44 as though a claim is being made that

3:25:47 the superintendent did not take input from the board and i think

3:25:50 that he did and i if any of us question

3:25:54 that he fudged the majority stance on that i mean i i don’t

3:25:58 think that’s where you guys are going

3:26:02 but i feel almost like that’s how it’s being portrayed well we

3:26:05 don’t know if three board

3:26:06 members agreed with him or not like that’s that’s just a really

3:26:11 the issue is more if three board members

3:26:14 disagreed or five disagreed did he have the authority to go do

3:26:18 that that’s where my issue was and that was

3:26:21 settled with our attorney that’s and my issue is is you know the

3:26:26 how and everything else in the past

3:26:29 um i think that collectively we should have a voice and where i

3:26:33 say that is is this right now there’s

3:26:36 actions and teams and they’re moving and everything like that

3:26:38 and they’re they’re going forward with a

3:26:40 lot of operations like we’re going to hear about an athletics

3:26:43 portion that we may be doing some different

3:26:45 things but part of that original process is where i would like

3:26:49 to engage and give board direction as

3:26:51 to what our feelings are on certain things prior to getting a

3:26:53 phone call and saying hey we’re moving

3:26:55 forward with this do you have any concerns i don’t know what i

3:26:58 might miss i don’t know if you had

3:27:00 something you wanted to say that’s all i i think that and i was

3:27:03 going to make a recommendation that we

3:27:05 might want to notice meeting every week here until this thing

3:27:08 crisis comes out because we don’t know what’s

3:27:09 coming and i think that having those conversations and having dr

3:27:13 mullins he’s he’s very open about

3:27:14 everything he’s not hiding anything he’s not sitting there

3:27:18 saying oh but what he’s doing is is that

3:27:20 he’s he’s trying to run a district and he’s trying to do it as

3:27:23 best as possible and what we’re saying

3:27:24 is hey we’re the collective voice the the people can we be a

3:27:28 part of that voice moving forward in an open

3:27:31 forum not just on a phone call that that was my piece well i

3:27:34 think sometimes that comes down to a

3:27:36 scheduling issue which you know brings brings your point forward

3:27:39 that i get um but i i would ask mr

3:27:43 gibbs her original question was if three board members are

3:27:46 against something do we have the

3:27:49 collective right to say no in that situation so dr and dr mullins

3:27:52 did not do this please please do this

3:27:54 but for moving forward she asked that point of question what is

3:27:57 your thoughts on that as it stands

3:28:00 is the board as i said there’s no clear yes or no on that just

3:28:04 the overall structure he’s in charge of

3:28:07 operations and the district has never set those dates so again

3:28:11 if you were to say next year who sets

3:28:13 graduation dates i would say you guys have delegated that

3:28:16 authority absent your taking action to the

3:28:19 superintendent even if it were clearly yours if it’s not

3:28:23 something we’re voting on or have traditionally

3:28:26 voted on yeah you’ve never you’ve never set those so i mean that’s

3:28:30 where it is where i where i wrap

3:28:32 my head around this piece is the traditional part is out the

3:28:35 window due to the fact that we’re in code

3:28:37 right so like that’s that’s the piece that i’m like we’re to say

3:28:40 to make arguments over based in

3:28:43 proper processes and procedures my argument is we’re in a

3:28:45 different place right now that was that was the

3:28:48 piece right here would be my concern with that and any other

3:28:51 operational decisions that he has to make

3:28:53 during the next few months is that do you do we really as a

3:28:56 county want five politicians as much

3:28:58 as i don’t like like being called that making operational

3:29:01 decisions over all these little things

3:29:04 do we want the person who’s tasked and who has a whole team of

3:29:06 people who are experts in their field

3:29:08 making these decisions i feel like we wouldn’t be even be here

3:29:11 except for people are so unhappy and i

3:29:13 i understand why people are unhappy but let’s just talk about

3:29:18 this board for just a minute we were made

3:29:20 aware um the day that the announcement was made which was may

3:29:25 the 29th okay um we were made aware of that

3:29:31 decision on that day the governor made his announcement to move

3:29:34 us into phase two if that were to affect

3:29:36 any of our decision making last wednesday if at any time a

3:29:41 member of this board wanted to call into

3:29:44 question the decision that dr mullins made or ask for a recall

3:29:47 considering new information of us being

3:29:49 a phase two as soon as the governor made that announcement on june

3:29:52 3rd any of us could have

3:29:54 called a meeting and we would have had time to advertise so that

3:29:57 we could have a meeting before and have

3:30:00 this have a voting time today nobody did that and so here we are

3:30:04 in a meeting where we can’t really vote we

3:30:07 can have this discussion i’ll be completely honest before we

3:30:10 could do anything to vote to overturn to

3:30:12 override the super would be next tuesday and at that point we

3:30:15 have the june graduations were supposed

3:30:17 to be thursday the 18th and then starting with our virtual

3:30:20 school and then graduations on that saturday

3:30:23 and honestly at this point even if we were to have made the

3:30:26 decision today i think it is very unfair of

3:30:29 us to ask our team to have such a quick turnaround and to yank

3:30:33 people’s chains one more time and i

3:30:35 understand why people are upset but at this point when that

3:30:38 announcement was made on may 29th as

3:30:40 unhappy as people were they started planning of here’s our

3:30:43 graduation dates it’s going to be july

3:30:46 and our teams are prepared for that and we’re doing all the

3:30:48 other things that we’ve got to do right now

3:30:50 but then for us to hear on june 10th say okay in eight days or

3:30:55 10 days or some of them have a little

3:30:57 bit longer let’s turn the ship around and and and get this done

3:31:02 i just don’t think it’s fair um and i

3:31:05 like i understand why people are upset and they and some of them

3:31:08 have been so vocal and and communicating

3:31:10 that um and and really lately the the kind of word that i’ve

3:31:13 been getting let’s just be on it and get

3:31:15 it on the table is people let’s do the alternative graduations

3:31:19 let’s do this county’s doing this and

3:31:21 this county’s doing that well you know i feel like our

3:31:23 superintendent has moved forward with the wishes of

3:31:25 the students that he met with back in april who even said even

3:31:28 if it gets pushed to july we want an in

3:31:30 person graduation and it wasn’t just those students because i

3:31:32 don’t want to put all the pressure on

3:31:34 them and that wouldn’t be fair but our um our just our school

3:31:38 leadership and all that was was made

3:31:41 collectively and and so to have an in-person graduation and

3:31:44 people have done all kinds of creative

3:31:46 things and i will say this can i i don’t know if you would agree

3:31:49 with me but i believe the class of 22 has

3:31:51 been the most celebrated senior class of all time and it’s i

3:31:55 know they’ve missed out on so much and

3:31:57 that’s why we poured so much into them but across the nation i

3:31:59 think they’ve been celebrated because

3:32:01 because we all recognize what how much they lost out on but i

3:32:05 just um would not think that it would

3:32:07 be fair at all to ask people to turn the ship around in such a

3:32:10 short time frame um at this point

3:32:13 when really as a board we could have either any of us could have

3:32:16 called this at an earlier time if i may i’ve got

3:32:21 several issues here one i attempted to i inquired about calling

3:32:25 an emergency board meeting and it

3:32:27 turned out we couldn’t meet until tomorrow with notices and

3:32:30 stuff so it’s at this point it doesn’t

3:32:31 make any sense can you ask him to explain that process of how

3:32:35 that worked how that request after

3:32:38 you’re done well it wasn’t a direct request i didn’t get that

3:32:41 far i said how would this work

3:32:42 and he said i would he and i had some mixed communications which

3:32:46 is why there was issues

3:32:48 between all of us but i said to him can you send out an email or

3:32:51 he said i would send out an email

3:32:53 something of that nature asking if you all wanted to have an

3:32:55 emergency board meeting

3:32:57 and uh it turns out he made phone calls instead or special yeah

3:33:01 he made it very clear it’s not an

3:33:02 emergency because it’s not a disaster it’s a special board

3:33:05 meeting uh and uh anyway i i also at the same

3:33:11 conversation asked about the authority like because i wasn’t

3:33:13 sure if we should have a board meeting if we

3:33:15 didn’t have the authority to do anything why call everybody in

3:33:18 and scramble if there’s if we have no

3:33:19 authority to do anything and uh he mr gibbs kind of ran with it

3:33:23 and called you all and apparently

3:33:26 three of us said we wanted to do it but at that moment i was

3:33:28 like oh wait no because at the same

3:33:29 time he told me we really don’t have the authority so that’s why

3:33:32 there was no special board meeting and

3:33:33 now we are i mean it is getting too close which is why i just

3:33:36 wanted to take the time today for mr

3:33:38 gibbs to say that the thing i take issue with miss campbell is

3:33:42 you saying politicians making decisions

3:33:44 these are big decisions for our community and this is our

3:33:48 responsibility we may be politicians but we’ve

3:33:51 been elected by the people we’re the voice of the people and i

3:33:54 take that so seriously and so intently

3:33:57 this is these are public schools that are supposed to be

3:34:00 represented by the public and we are the only

3:34:03 five voices representing the public these are all well he’s our

3:34:06 employee and those are all his employees

3:34:08 they’re not technically responsible to the public of the public

3:34:12 schools so to me this is a huge

3:34:14 philosophical debate and this is kind of what i wanted to get in

3:34:17 today to understand from the five

3:34:19 of us how we look at our positions and i think that’s even what

3:34:21 mr susan was pointing out in our

3:34:23 training from fsba or somebody how we view our positions are we

3:34:28 supposed to just uphold what our

3:34:32 employee recommends because they are the experts or are we

3:34:35 supposed to be the voice of the public in

3:34:37 the public schools and i think we may disagree on how i view

3:34:39 that well your point is very well taken so mr gibbs are

3:34:44 you saying that she requested an emergency meeting and that the

3:34:48 reason that she didn’t was because

3:34:50 she was told that no matter what even if we had the emergency

3:34:52 meeting we did not have the authority

3:34:54 to change the graduation date even if we had a majority of

3:34:57 school board members

3:34:58 no i had made plans to schedule the special session for tomorrow

3:35:03 and she said no based upon my information

3:35:07 uh you know my opinion that it was given to the superintendent

3:35:11 even if it was yours as i explained

3:35:13 earlier when i walked her through that she was like there’s no

3:35:16 need for this special work session

3:35:18 two reasons i decided not to one his opinion he didn’t say there’s

3:35:21 nothing you can do it was not

3:35:23 that kind of conversation he said this is my opinion this is how

3:35:26 you’ve done it traditionally

3:35:27 and that’s precedence and i accepted that and two um somebody

3:35:31 mentioned that the date would have to be

3:35:35 so far out that you had that we were going to meet it has to be

3:35:38 48 hours you have to have 48 hours

3:35:41 notice all right the earliest we could get into florida today

3:35:44 was tuesday so 48 hours was thursday

3:35:47 you were already coming here today so she was you know at that

3:35:51 point happy to discuss it here since

3:35:54 my opinion was that the the authority had been given at a very

3:35:58 minimum to the superintendent so i received

3:36:00 a phone call i think on thursday was it was it thursday that

3:36:03 started that no it was uh friday

3:36:05 was it friday or thursday friday and then at that point it’s a

3:36:10 we would put it inside the newspaper

3:36:12 you have to advertise it yes and then they need 48 hours they

3:36:17 need 48 hours no they they couldn’t get

3:36:19 it in the paper until tuesday four days to put an advertisement

3:36:24 in the florida today that’s because

3:36:27 they don’t work for weekends so here’s talking about friday and

3:36:30 monday before the ad to run on tuesday

3:36:33 but the florida today said that they could not get an ad in the

3:36:36 paper until tuesday because of the way

3:36:39 that their infrastructure works they need two days leeway and

3:36:42 there’s not saturday or sunday

3:36:46 so the earliest according because of the restrictions and the

3:36:49 and the thing would have been thursday

3:36:51 that we could have done it that’s the earliest we could have

3:36:53 gotten and then but then it hinges back

3:36:56 on your opinion that even if three board members said we want to

3:36:59 have graduations in june

3:37:01 we couldn’t do that not barring us being politicians you guys

3:37:06 can do whatever you want to do at the end

3:37:08 of the day you guys could have held the meeting and said hey all

3:37:11 five of us want to change back and i mean

3:37:14 you can sit here today and ask dr mullins to look at june dates

3:37:18 and change it back and understand i’m

3:37:20 not making this argument right now over the graduation i’m

3:37:23 making this argument because

3:37:24 we have some serious issues coming forward before us and this

3:37:28 sets precedent that the school district

3:37:30 cannot make a decision on operations during a coveted crisis to

3:37:36 make it even if we’re in the majority

3:37:38 that’s what that’s where i’m going with this whether it’s

3:37:40 athletics whether it’s graduations whether

3:37:41 it’s all of that stuff even school opening days i mean like do

3:37:45 you does that make sense if it’s a

3:37:47 statutory well it’s going to depend if it’s a statutorily given

3:37:50 right to the superintendent or it’s a

3:37:52 school board area i mean you certainly have the authority to

3:37:57 give directives on areas in your area if

3:37:59 it’s operational then it’s statutorily been given to the

3:38:02 superintendent even the constitution says you

3:38:05 have the authority unless it’s mandated or given to the

3:38:08 superintendent so that’s the way it’s set up

3:38:12 the question here is who has it it’s there’s no clear answer all

3:38:16 right you read it and you

3:38:17 there’s no guidance anywhere it doesn’t say the superintendent

3:38:20 has authority over graduation dates

3:38:22 it doesn’t say the school board has authority over graduation

3:38:25 dates you’re going to have to read

3:38:26 it and infer and that’s what i did and that’s why i said even if

3:38:30 it was given to the school board the

3:38:32 school board is never executed its authority to schedule those

3:38:36 dates so it delegated if you had it you

3:38:39 would have delegated it at some point in history whenever

3:38:42 graduation ceremonies came up i don’t know how

3:38:45 far back it goes it was given to whoever was superintendent to

3:38:48 schedule and that’s how it’s operated

3:38:53 so i’ve just never seen in an emergency if you guys want to do

3:38:57 that that’s there’s certainly you could

3:38:59 call for certain things we don’t have standing meetings like

3:39:04 every day or i know the county did

3:39:06 every day they were having meetings to discuss issues as they

3:39:09 came up if you wanted to implement

3:39:11 those you can you’re free to do that it doesn’t give you any

3:39:14 additional authority over what area you have

3:39:18 so if it’s an operational decision it would be an operational

3:39:21 decision which falls on the superintendent

3:39:23 Okay, so what I guess I’m getting at is we are in a time period

3:39:28 where we need to have this discussion, and thank you, Ms. Belford,

3:39:30 for bringing it up.

3:39:31 If three board members say that we want to have graduations in

3:39:36 June, you’re telling me that that doesn’t matter.

3:39:40 I’m trying to get to that essence because we may have these, and

3:39:43 I understand that you’re trying to go around,

3:39:46 but maybe what we need to do is, as a board, say that during

3:39:49 this COVID crisis, these issues are what we are going to ask for

3:39:52 collaboration and input on,

3:39:54 but we need to figure this out.

3:39:57 Like, I don’t want to just kind of let this thing go and then

3:39:59 just, eh, whatever, because this is huge right now.

3:40:01 If you can ask for collaboration on anything you want, I’m

3:40:04 saying that there’s nothing here saying one way or the other.

3:40:08 In my opinion, the way it’s set up, it’s an operational, but

3:40:12 even if it were yours, the board has delegated it.

3:40:15 If you want it back, you would need to undertake rulemaking to

3:40:18 say we’re going to approve graduation dates.

3:40:21 There would need to be some form of notice that says we’re

3:40:25 taking it back because you’ve never exercised that duty.

3:40:29 You don’t walk in one day and say, hey, we’re changing

3:40:33 graduation dates.

3:40:35 Which what I’m hearing, Mr. Susan, is that it’s a bigger issue

3:40:38 than the graduation dates.

3:40:40 So to rule-make over setting graduation dates going forward, I

3:40:45 don’t think is resolving the concern that you’re bringing

3:40:47 forward.

3:40:48 No, but I think that, I’m sorry.

3:40:50 I think that this is athletics, this is school openings, this is

3:40:55 procedures, this is all of that stuff that affects our people.

3:41:00 So when these people say, you know –

3:41:02 Well, procedure – I want to click procedures rulemaking.

3:41:04 So if you have rules on it, those would govern.

3:41:06 There are no rules on graduation dates, like I said.

3:41:09 So if there’s no – in the absence of rules, then the school

3:41:13 board has the authority to make the decision.

3:41:13 If it’s a policy decision, you would absolutely have – but you’d

3:41:17 have to undertake rulemaking.

3:41:18 Isn’t policy decision, isn’t it the policy that we are going

3:41:22 under for graduations that we are changing?

3:41:25 So ultimately, if it’s a policy that we are following to make

3:41:29 the change, the date change that falls under the school board,

3:41:32 because we are the policy holders?

3:41:32 There’s no reference to graduation dates in policy.

3:41:35 It just says they will be held.

3:41:36 Okay, so if it’s not in the operation of the – if it’s not

3:41:42 expressively said by the policy, if it’s not expressively said

3:41:46 by the superintendent, that that type of an operation and duty

3:41:50 falls under the school board to make the operation?

3:41:53 Operations or superintendent.

3:41:55 Operations, day-to-day operations.

3:41:58 The board has directed graduation ceremonies.

3:42:01 It has not provided any other parameters.

3:42:03 The superintendent has the obligation as the CEO to implement

3:42:07 that policy for graduation ceremonies.

3:42:09 He has done that.

3:42:10 He schedules them year after year.

3:42:12 He goes about to make sure they come off.

3:42:15 This year, we got a wrench thrown in with COVID-19.

3:42:18 And the CDC guidelines on distancing and everything, and he

3:42:24 considered, you know, met with students and leadership, and

3:42:27 everybody wanted the in-person, as Ms. Campbell just said.

3:42:30 So he moved them to the summer.

3:42:33 When he decided – when he made the decision to move it again,

3:42:37 those parameters were still in place.

3:42:39 There’s no guidance.

3:42:40 The school board has not taken any guidance.

3:42:42 If you – the board wants to say, hey, let’s revisit graduation

3:42:46 policy and say, we want this, and we want to set these dates and

3:42:50 approve these dates, I will look at that for you.

3:42:52 But in – right now, I don’t know that that’s addressing your

3:42:56 thing.

3:42:56 If you’re talking about something else, facility use, where it’s

3:43:00 a school board right, then you can certainly weigh in on that.

3:43:05 I – I –

3:43:06 So, I mean, the answer to your question is more complicated than

3:43:10 graduation.

3:43:10 I don’t know that we can build the discussion of your issue

3:43:13 around graduation, because it’s going to depend on whose right

3:43:16 it is.

3:43:16 That’s where I’m trying to get to.

3:43:17 And I don’t think that this system was set up with the clause

3:43:21 that I read in order to allow decisions to be made during a

3:43:25 crisis without board input, which is not what happened.

3:43:28 I’m sorry, okay, I’m – please don’t understand.

3:43:30 I’m not saying that.

3:43:31 But without – without three board members approving.

3:43:34 Like, I – I just – I literally have a severe problem, just

3:43:37 like you were saying.

3:43:38 And then I – I understand that we keep saying that we ask the

3:43:41 kids.

3:43:41 But we asked the kids in April, was what I heard, right?

3:43:44 I mean, did we ask them in April?

3:43:45 And meaning that May, this decision was made.

3:43:48 So, if we’re asking them in April, I don’t understand.

3:43:51 We keep saying we polled the students.

3:43:53 We polled the students.

3:43:54 And, I mean, I would have thought that we would have –

3:43:57 pulled the community with the students, the PTOs, the other

3:44:02 groups that are inside there and said,

3:44:03 graduating class, what do you – what would you guys like?

3:44:06 Like, I understand we keep using that as some kind of a shield

3:44:09 that we went to the public.

3:44:10 But was that done – I’m sorry, and maybe there was a

3:44:13 clarification.

3:44:13 It was done in April?

3:44:16 I didn’t – it wasn’t –

3:44:17 I will clarify because I was – I was part of that discussion

3:44:20 with our student government leaders.

3:44:22 And I agree, it does not necessarily fall back on them, Mr.

3:44:27 Susan.

3:44:27 Because we spoke with the students, Dr. Mullins and I, and Dr.

3:44:31 Sullivan.

3:44:31 And there were several other staff members that were on the call.

3:44:34 The one thing that the students made very, very clear was that

3:44:38 they wanted a traditional in-person graduation.

3:44:40 And they were fine with a date in June and a date in July at

3:44:44 that point in the conversation.

3:44:46 And the thing that I will say is that, you know, Dr. Mullins

3:44:52 made the decision to push graduation based on the

3:44:56 recommendations from the CDC

3:44:56 and our ability to both provide a traditional graduation as well

3:45:01 as to be able to provide it safely.

3:45:03 And I’ll throw out there if you – because I think it’s

3:45:07 important.

3:45:07 How many of you have read the actual step-by-step plan for

3:45:11 reopening Florida?

3:45:12 Any of you?

3:45:13 Okay.

3:45:14 So here’s a big, big, big, big concern that I have.

3:45:17 And I’ll tell you, you guys know, right, like I try really hard

3:45:25 to take into account the perspective of all.

3:45:28 Under phase two, although everyone thinks that the world has

3:45:32 been completely reopened and we don’t have to do anything

3:45:35 anymore,

3:45:35 there’s still a very clear recommendation that senior citizens,

3:45:40 anyone with a preexisting condition, stay at home still in phase

3:45:46 two.

3:45:46 And so what my mind goes to is how many students do we have

3:45:51 graduating whose mother or father is battling cancer and can’t

3:45:58 go to their graduation?

3:46:00 Or is that student going to be comfortable going to that

3:46:04 graduation and then going home to someone who’s going through

3:46:08 treatment for cancer and is immunocompromised?

3:46:09 How many of our medically fragile students do we have that are

3:46:13 graduating this year that couldn’t go to their own graduation

3:46:16 right now

3:46:16 because technically they’re still supposed to stay home?

3:46:19 How many grandparents – we have, what, 5,000 grandparents

3:46:25 raising grandchildren in Brevard County?

3:46:27 How many of those students are graduating that have been raised

3:46:30 by their grandparent and their grandparent would not be able to

3:46:34 go to their graduation right now

3:46:34 under the CDC recommendations?

3:46:37 I just – in phase three, it opens up and those people who are

3:46:41 currently recommended to stay home then are encouraged to still

3:46:45 utilize social distancing,

3:46:46 and minimize, you know, exposure to large crowds.

3:46:49 But right now under phase two, they’re still supposed to stay

3:46:51 home.

3:46:52 And 75% of our students, 50% of our students who are graduating

3:46:57 may be completely comfortable and have no concerns about going

3:47:00 to graduation.

3:47:00 But graduation shouldn’t be for 50% of the students.

3:47:03 It should be safe for everyone to attend and for their families

3:47:06 to attend.

3:47:06 And that’s what our students wanted.

3:47:08 They didn’t want to stay six feet away from their peers.

3:47:10 They wanted to hug them and squeeze them and jump up and down

3:47:13 with each other and celebrate.

3:47:14 And it’s just frustrating to me.

3:47:18 And I get that people want to move forward.

3:47:20 But I don’t think we’re thinking about every student that we’re

3:47:24 supposed to be serving

3:47:25 and every family that we’re supposed to be supporting in trying

3:47:29 to push this forward.

3:47:29 I just can’t –

3:47:32 I didn’t think we were going to have the graduation argument.

3:47:35 That’s why I just kind of asked Mr. Gibbs so we could not get

3:47:38 into pointing fingers.

3:47:39 But with that argument, Ms. Belford, I have plenty of parents

3:47:42 that their students are heading off to the military.

3:47:45 July 1 seems to be the big day.

3:47:47 So there’s no answer for including everyone in our graduations

3:47:52 with what has happened.

3:47:53 And that’s not anyone’s fault in particular.

3:47:55 That is, you know, what’s happening in the times.

3:47:58 And so I just – I want to stand up for the people that are also

3:48:03 going to miss their graduation.

3:48:04 I don’t think they are saying anything negative against the

3:48:08 people that are too sick to come out for the graduation.

3:48:10 But, you know, they’re going to now miss their graduation

3:48:12 because they won’t be here.

3:48:13 So it’s just a really unfortunate situation all the way around.

3:48:17 It is.

3:48:18 Can I – in phase two, it’s my understanding that it’s for 50 or

3:48:23 less groups.

3:48:23 Do we have any graduation class that’s less – I don’t even

3:48:27 think Edgewood or West Shore.

3:48:28 There’s – but if you’ve watched – and you’ve been home, Cheryl,

3:48:31 so surely you’ve been watching a lot.

3:48:33 There’s – you know, you look around the country.

3:48:35 They’ve done different – they’ve done 50.

3:48:36 They’ve divided up three sessions, the smaller schools.

3:48:39 They’ve done six feet on field.

3:48:40 You know, they’ve done – there’s a lot of creative –

3:48:42 Well, there is creative.

3:48:43 And I’m just wondering for our – I’m just throwing this out

3:48:48 there.

3:48:48 That I know that in one district what they did, the students did

3:48:52 walk, but they live streamed the whole event.

3:48:54 So every single parent could go ahead and see that whether they

3:48:58 could attend or not.

3:48:59 Just – I’m just saying because I want to throw this out there,

3:49:03 guys.

3:49:03 What’s going to happen if we are the same place in July?

3:49:07 Well, and I – I think we’re going to have to be prepared for

3:49:11 plan, you know, B or C if we get to that point.

3:49:13 Absolutely.

3:49:14 I don’t – you know, we –

3:49:16 I – I’ve reached out to my grandparents reaching grandchildren

3:49:20 representatives.

3:49:21 I’ve got a couple of them.

3:49:22 And I asked them.

3:49:23 I said, personally, talk to me about this graduation.

3:49:27 Would it make a difference?

3:49:28 And they said if we were to go, it would not make it based upon,

3:49:34 you know, the phase two or the phase three?

3:49:36 They were under the same impression when I was talking to them

3:49:40 that – and this is just for discussion.

3:49:42 Again, I’m not trying to advocate for things, but I just – when

3:49:47 we say that the – what about those people?

3:49:48 What about those people for cancer?

3:49:49 What about those people for medically fragile?

3:49:52 And that’s their choice to come to this graduation or not.

3:49:56 What I was mostly concerned about was the children that were

3:50:00 actually crossing the stage with the students,

3:50:01 just like was pointed out, was the military, the kids that are

3:50:05 going away to work,

3:50:06 the kids that are going away to colleges or to already have leases

3:50:10 signed for June, July 1st.

3:50:11 I think – and that’s where I come back to the let’s have these

3:50:15 collaboratively discussed, right?

3:50:17 Because you bring up a good point.

3:50:18 And Ms. McDougall, you do too.

3:50:20 But I think in order for our public, which is the other piece to

3:50:24 it I think that we’re kind of missing,

3:50:25 is that the public needs to know all of this, and a lot of this

3:50:29 comes out in public discussion.

3:50:30 So when we make the decision to – we’re going to go to July,

3:50:35 but the school board did not make a public discussion over the

3:50:39 events,

3:50:39 then there’s not the argument.

3:50:41 So like right now, people are going to hear you say that, and

3:50:44 they’re going to say,

3:50:44 look, yeah, I mean, I have a grandparent, and that makes total

3:50:48 sense.

3:50:48 But not having that discussion in the public, not having that

3:50:51 conversation, does not allow them to understand that end of it.

3:50:54 And then when we do that, then they get upset, and then they

3:50:57 come back, and then we as a school district didn’t look like we

3:51:00 were transparent and stuff like that.

3:51:01 Which is, you know what I mean, not the case here.

3:51:03 But I do, I fundamentally keep going back to two pieces.

3:51:07 One, I think it is the school district’s responsibility to do

3:51:11 things that are during the COVID crisis.

3:51:13 The second one is, is that it behooves us to our people inside

3:51:17 of our community to have these discussions openly in front of

3:51:21 the sunshine,

3:51:21 so that all of the issues can be brought out, just like we do on

3:51:24 everything else.

3:51:25 Dr. Mullins does an amazing job, he comes out, he presents the

3:51:28 budget, he presents the argument, we debate it, and then we give

3:51:33 direction.

3:51:33 That has happened so many times.

3:51:35 And I think that normally, if this was in operation, everything’s

3:51:39 in operation.

3:51:39 Now that we’re in COVID, these decisions are affecting huge

3:51:43 amounts of people in different ways, and I think that that needs

3:51:46 to be before the people.

3:51:47 I think fundamentally, we need to make that decision pretty soon,

3:51:51 if not today, that where do we want this one to go as far as

3:51:53 direction?

3:51:53 Do we want to give input into the athletics portion, into the

3:51:58 graduation, into not traditional operations?

3:52:02 Because we’re in COVID, or don’t we?

3:52:05 I think that’s the argument.

3:52:06 And it sounds like, you know, Ms. Campbell, you’re on one side,

3:52:10 where you’ve made an argument that five politicians in a room,

3:52:15 you know what I mean?

3:52:15 It’s scary.

3:52:16 I want to clarify that when you’re done.

3:52:17 Okay, I didn’t mean to say it.

3:52:19 I’m just saying, like, I believe that the power of the people is

3:52:22 inside the voice of our school district, that we need to be

3:52:25 making decisions in a crisis situation.

3:52:27 I would like to also have them collaborate.

3:52:29 That’s what I would like.

3:52:30 That’s all.

3:52:31 So I think what we need, and I’ll come to you, Ms. Campbell, for

3:52:35 clarification on that comment.

3:52:36 But I think what we need in order to move forward is, what do

3:52:40 you want to be run by the school board, number one?

3:52:45 Because there are thousands of decisions being made every single

3:52:48 day.

3:52:48 So I think we need clarity on what things you think should be

3:52:53 about before us.

3:52:54 And then I think the second question is, do we need to alter

3:52:59 meeting dates in order to make that occur?

3:53:02 Because, like, I mean, we’re back here next Tuesday.

3:53:05 So surely there’s going to be an opportunity to discuss some

3:53:08 things next Tuesday.

3:53:09 And then we’re back two weeks after that.

3:53:11 So is the frequency of meetings enough to accommodate those

3:53:16 things that you want the school board to have clarity on?

3:53:19 And I don’t know if that’s something, I don’t know how we define

3:53:23 that.

3:53:23 You know what I mean?

3:53:24 I’m happy to have the discussion.

3:53:25 I’m happy to, I’m not trying to shut you down.

3:53:28 I’m just saying.

3:53:30 No, I agree with you.

3:53:31 So if we had a meeting every week and this conversation had

3:53:36 happened, we might be able to give direction.

3:53:40 So meaning that if we had scheduled one for every Tuesday, we

3:53:44 wouldn’t have had to run through this crazy idea with Florida

3:53:47 Today taking four days to put an ad in and all this other stuff.

3:53:50 So maybe the idea is not so much, hey, we want to literally

3:53:53 oversee every single operation and all the stuff that’s going on.

3:53:56 I mean, I think that part of that is, is that we should meet.

3:54:00 And if there’s a big, I think that in big, tough issues like the

3:54:03 athletics, that that should be discussed in the open as to why

3:54:06 we’re making decisions one way or the other.

3:54:08 And that would give us an opportunity to say, hey, Dr. Mullins,

3:54:12 I’m putting this on the agenda.

3:54:12 Because the main problem we had was, is that right now you were

3:54:16 trying to call an emergency meeting, but we didn’t have enough

3:54:20 time to give the thing.

3:54:20 And was it with all these other pieces till it?

3:54:22 I was inquiring about emergency meeting.

3:54:24 I want to be clear.

3:54:25 I didn’t ever actually say let’s call an emergency meeting.

3:54:27 I was, I was called and said that there’s a board member that is

3:54:30 requesting.

3:54:30 That’s because Mr. Gibbs and I had a miscommunication.

3:54:32 Okay.

3:54:33 All right.

3:54:34 So that, that’s what I was going off.

3:54:35 I’m sorry.

3:54:36 I would say that a lot of it could be alleviated by having a

3:54:39 meeting every Tuesday.

3:54:40 So that during this crisis, if something comes up and Dr. Mullins

3:54:43 needs board direction, we can do it in the public.

3:54:45 I also think that by doing that, we are collectively showing our

3:54:50 public what our voices are and we can do that here and they can

3:54:54 understand rather than all of a sudden everybody jumping on

3:54:57 Facebook and attacking and assuming and everything else.

3:54:59 And that also doesn’t make Dr. Mullins into a situation like he’s

3:55:03 the evil guy behind the curtain in Wizard of Oz pulling strings,

3:55:06 right?

3:55:06 We’re all open.

3:55:07 We’re all transparent.

3:55:08 We’re having the meetings.

3:55:09 And any issue that comes up, we can discuss.

3:55:11 But being limited during a time of crisis becomes an issue, I

3:55:15 think.

3:55:15 And I would recommend that we meet every Tuesday.

3:55:17 Would you be satisfied if we tentatively scheduled a meeting on

3:55:22 our off weeks in between meetings?

3:55:24 And then if we don’t need them, we don’t have them?

3:55:28 Is there a concern about meeting?

3:55:30 Well, no.

3:55:31 My only –

3:55:32 We don’t have enough on the agenda?

3:55:33 I mean, like –

3:55:34 Yeah.

3:55:35 My only concern is what?

3:55:36 I mean, if there is a particular issue that you feel like needs

3:55:38 to be discussed, I’m absolutely more than happy to meet.

3:55:40 But I don’t want to show up and have a meeting just because we

3:55:44 said we were going to have a meeting when there’s not really

3:55:48 anything pressing.

3:55:48 You know what I mean?

3:55:49 And there’s always things going on.

3:55:51 But Ms. Campbell.

3:55:54 So if I can kill two birds with one stone and answer that last

3:55:57 question, but also just want to clarify.

3:55:59 And I’m glad you brought that up.

3:56:01 Because Ms. Deskovich, honestly, sometimes I tend towards the

3:56:05 one side, yes.

3:56:05 But I will say this.

3:56:06 I think there are people in our community who actually think

3:56:11 that over the summer that this board, the five of us, are going

3:56:15 to be making decisions on are we going to be wearing masks when

3:56:17 we go back?

3:56:18 How – what cleaning products are we going to be – I mean,

3:56:21 seriously, they think we’re making – people say, wow, you’ve

3:56:23 got a lot of decisions to make this summer.

3:56:24 And we do.

3:56:25 We have a lot of really important decisions to make this summer.

3:56:27 But those specifics aren’t the decisions that this board is

3:56:31 tasked with making.

3:56:32 We task those, and the legislature has, to the superintendent.

3:56:37 I don’t think I said that right, but you know what I mean.

3:56:40 As far as having the discussion, you know, we’ve got the

3:56:44 reopening task force that has already been collecting

3:56:48 information.

3:56:48 I think there are up to 6,000, 7,000 comments from the public.

3:56:52 You know, I – and they’re taking in those where they are

3:56:57 specifically asking each group of people to have their input.

3:57:03 And they’re also looking at documents and the CDC guidelines and

3:57:06 all of that and, you know, budgetary constraints and all of that.

3:57:08 You know, I am happy to have whatever discussion we’ve had

3:57:12 several, you know, hearty ones today.

3:57:15 What I wouldn’t want to do is hamstring that task force because

3:57:22 they may be looking at the input of 7,000 different people from

3:57:27 our county.

3:57:27 And then the board come in and have a discussion and we have the

3:57:31 few people – I haven’t talked to 7,000 people.

3:57:32 I’ve got an email from – on this topic, an email on this topic

3:57:36 – and come in and then we might actually override something

3:57:39 that they’re working towards when they’ve got the larger input,

3:57:44 if that makes sense.

3:57:45 And plus they know, you know, what facilities can do, what

3:57:49 transportation can do.

3:57:50 We could come in as a board and say, we want you to do this with

3:57:53 busing next year.

3:57:54 You know, they’ve already been looking at experts.

3:57:56 And so I’m not – I don’t want to give away our authority.

3:58:00 And I’m not saying that.

3:58:01 And you’re right.

3:58:02 Thank you for reminding me to get where I need to be.

3:58:05 But at the same time, I don’t want to hamstring the people who

3:58:09 are doing the job because we, as a board,

3:58:10 might come in and go, oh, no, never mind.

3:58:11 I know you’ve been working on that for a really long time.

3:58:13 And you’ve been listening to 7,000 people, but we want you to do

3:58:17 this.

3:58:17 So I just think we need to be really careful moving forward this

3:58:20 summer in those issues to not take over

3:58:24 when they’ve done a lot of work in those areas.

3:58:29 I’ll just – if there’s a second – we’re not really doing

3:58:33 Robert’s rules in that fashion right now.

3:58:34 But I can second Matt’s request with Missy’s – with your caveat

3:58:40 of let’s calendar it and put it on there.

3:58:43 I think it shows to the public that we’re engaged, that we’re up

3:58:46 on the issues.

3:58:47 And if there’s nothing pressing, we cancel it, if everyone else

3:58:52 is okay with that.

3:58:53 Yes, ma’am.

3:58:54 Mr. Gibbs, if we advertise for a meeting and then we cancel it,

3:59:03 we would have to advertise that we’re canceling it, correct?

3:59:07 You’d have to get it out publicly that it’s canceled.

3:59:10 You couldn’t, like, 5:30 roll around.

3:59:12 We don’t really have anything to talk about, so we’re canceling

3:59:15 it.

3:59:15 So you might as well at that point go on and just say, hey, we

3:59:19 don’t really have anything pressing.

3:59:21 Can you 24 hours before?

3:59:23 And is website and social media enough or you have to cancel it

3:59:26 in the same manner that you called it?

3:59:27 The questions that are going to come up are how are you going to

3:59:30 hold these?

3:59:30 Are they going to be in person?

3:59:31 Are we opening our facilities up to these meetings?

3:59:34 No.

3:59:35 Or are we saying no?

3:59:36 Because if you’re saying no, you have to accommodate public

3:59:41 comment if you’re having a board meeting

3:59:43 where you can vote on anything.

3:59:46 So that if you’re not holding in-person meetings, that means you’re

3:59:51 doing the recorded.

3:59:52 That’s 24 hours alone right there.

3:59:54 You’ve already got public comment.

3:59:55 So you’re going to have to hold that board meeting simply to

4:00:00 come on air and say, we only have public comment tonight.

4:00:03 And here it is.

4:00:04 And we’re done.

4:00:05 So that would be a question.

4:00:07 If you’re going to have public, it might be easier.

4:00:09 You can come in and say, hey, we don’t really have anything.

4:00:12 Or you can just let it up.

4:00:13 Is there anybody that has any comments?

4:00:15 And do it that way.

4:00:17 But you’re going to have people that are invested either way.

4:00:20 So I don’t know if you’re going to want to discard those

4:00:24 opinions.

4:00:24 If they came out, if you’re holding in public, are you going to

4:00:27 want to just say go home at 5:30 because you don’t have anything

4:00:32 really to discuss as a board on that Tuesday?

4:00:34 Or are you going to say, we’re not listening to those public

4:00:37 comments this week.

4:00:37 We’ll do it next week when we come on, if they call in and

4:00:41 recorded their conversation.

4:00:42 So those are the kinds of decisions you’re going to have to make.

4:00:45 If it’s a work session where you don’t need a vote, just you

4:00:49 have something every week that you can collaborate with the

4:00:53 superintendent.

4:00:53 This is what my people are working on.

4:00:56 What’s your opinions on that?

4:00:58 The public gets to sit there and listen to it.

4:01:00 You don’t do public comments generally at work sessions.

4:01:03 This discussion is going to be had if there’s a major decision

4:01:07 that you want to vote on and you want to ask the superintendent

4:01:10 if he’ll put it on the next agenda.

4:01:11 You would have that opportunity at that point.

4:01:13 You wouldn’t be inconveniencing anybody.

4:01:15 So those are the types of decisions you’re going to have to

4:01:18 decide if you want to hold weekly meetings.

4:01:20 Otherwise, my recommendation would be you advertise them, you

4:01:23 hold them.

4:01:23 If all that is is we’re going to bring the public recording up

4:01:26 and everybody’s going to listen to it and we’re going to say

4:01:29 that’s all we got.

4:01:30 Have a good evening.

4:01:31 We’re adjourned and that’s what you do.

4:01:33 Our staff is working seven days a week right now.

4:01:35 We are in the middle of a COVID crisis.

4:01:37 I think that we as school board members can come in once a week

4:01:41 and listen to public comment and discuss any items that we have

4:01:44 coming up.

4:01:44 I do. I truly do.

4:01:45 I think that the responsibility, I think that by us not, and

4:01:50 this is my personal opinion, but us not coming in because we may

4:01:54 not have anything or in the middle of a crisis, there’s always

4:01:58 going to be pieces and parts that we need to discuss.

4:02:00 So my recommendation would be to come in and allow public

4:02:04 comment and allow people to speak so that if there is a landmine

4:02:08 out there that we can address it.

4:02:10 That’s all.

4:02:11 And I think that we owe it to our staff who’s working their tail

4:02:16 off too, to be part of the team.

4:02:18 I would just ask consideration, Mr. Susan, that us being here

4:02:22 creates additional work for our staff as well.

4:02:24 I know it goes both ways, but Dr. Mullins.

4:02:37 Thank you, Ms. Belford.

4:02:43 I just got to frame my thoughts.

4:02:50 I’m going to take this opportunity to speak publicly, that I

4:02:56 work very hard to keep this board as informed, sometimes on a

4:03:03 daily basis, well beyond the hours of a traditional work day.

4:03:09 I accommodate your schedules, your individual needs, your

4:03:15 individual perspectives, and they consistently and predominantly

4:03:20 weigh into every decision that’s made in this organization.

4:03:23 Because I honor and revere your role to represent our community

4:03:27 and to represent your constituents.

4:03:29 The decision of graduation was not made arbitrarily, flippantly,

4:03:37 or without careful consideration, realizing that there was no

4:03:44 even close to win-win situation.

4:03:46 We went through a deliberate and intentional process to evaluate

4:03:54 graduation when it became evident that it was not going to be

4:03:59 feasible at the end of the regular school year.

4:04:04 We presented to the board, and the board affirmed a plan to have

4:04:09 graduation in June as a backup and July as a backup as well.

4:04:13 I took the input of principals who received input from their

4:04:18 students, their seniors, their parents.

4:04:21 Yes, I met with our student government students via Skype and

4:04:29 got their input.

4:04:30 Everyone understood, at least at the moment, the implications of

4:04:34 the world we’re living in, the concerns and the safety measures

4:04:38 that would need to be in place in consideration of each of those

4:04:44 dates.

4:04:45 I was presented the realization that to meet people’s

4:04:49 expectations, the district would have to make a decision by June

4:04:54 1st for the June dates.

4:04:56 I conferred with staff, I considered the situation, we were in

4:05:02 phase one, and no indication of when we were going to move

4:05:07 beyond that.

4:05:08 I met my expectation to the announcement, weighed into

4:05:17 consideration all of the factors, and I made the deliberate

4:05:23 decision to not put my kids, our kids, in the middle of a grown-up

4:05:28 decision.

4:05:29 I don’t think that’s a fair place to have put them in, because

4:05:32 as much difference as represented in this room right now, there’ll

4:05:36 be as much difference represented among the students.

4:05:41 My heart is heavy and broken, quite frankly, for our kids who

4:05:47 have not had a traditional graduation.

4:05:50 And my heart is heavy as the father of a military-bound young

4:05:54 man myself, that our kids who are going in the military may not

4:05:58 experience an in-person graduation.

4:06:00 But my first and number one responsibility to this community, to

4:06:04 this organization, to my role as a superintendent, is the health,

4:06:09 safety, and welfare of our kids.

4:06:13 And it may be a long time before we have universal agreement on

4:06:20 what health, safety, and welfare of our kids and our community

4:06:27 is going to be.

4:06:28 And we’re going to continue to struggle and strive and

4:06:33 disagreement on what that is.

4:06:35 At the end of the day, regardless if it’s my decision to make

4:06:39 graduation when it is or it isn’t, it will be my responsibility

4:06:42 to answer to the health, safety, and welfare of our kids.

4:06:47 And I would ask my board, our board, to understand and honor

4:06:53 that.

4:06:53 And help me answer to our community where we’re at and why we’re

4:06:58 there.

4:06:58 And we’re going to continue to work through the difficult

4:07:01 decisions.

4:07:01 This is one of many that’s facing us for August 11th.

4:07:08 I’m going to take this opportunity and iterate to our public and

4:07:12 to this board.

4:07:12 And I know you know, but the men and women who are serving this

4:07:17 district right now, through this environment we have faced, are

4:07:22 some of the most admirable, hardworking, dedicated, committed

4:07:27 individuals.

4:07:27 I have ever seen and worked with.

4:07:32 I can’t think of a cabinet member that isn’t working a 12 hour

4:07:36 day in this building Monday through Friday.

4:07:39 And I know some of them and many of them are working on the

4:07:42 weekends because I’m calling them and sending them emails,

4:07:45 getting clarification.

4:07:45 And it’s not, it’s not Monday morning when I get a reply.

4:07:52 I am concerned at the proposition and suggestion of more

4:07:57 meetings to discuss.

4:07:58 You have entrusted me to be your CEO of this organization and to

4:08:02 handle the day-to-day operations and the decisions of this

4:08:05 organization.

4:08:05 And I will continue to work valiantly to uphold my

4:08:12 responsibilities and charge this district forward.

4:08:18 You know, Mr. Susan, you’ve mentioned athletics.

4:08:22 My staff has been working above all of the other

4:08:30 responsibilities of the job to develop a safe and sound process

4:08:35 and plan for students to have access to our campuses, to resume

4:08:37 conditioning in the summer, which is voluntary and not paid, but

4:08:37 our individuals, our coaches are not paid to do it.

4:08:37 So we’re prepared to move forward, but I’m cautious now because

4:08:51 I’m cautious now because I’m hearing or it’s being suggested

4:08:59 that the board is preparing to have further discussion around it.

4:09:02 Have further discussion around it.

4:09:07 I support our staff’s process to put together the guidelines

4:09:11 where we were prepared to roll it out and begin training with

4:09:14 athletic directors tomorrow, but I can certainly pause that if

4:09:17 that’s the wishes of the board.

4:09:17 But I can’t pass up this moment and not implore that our staff

4:09:25 is working like warriors to support our community and our

4:09:32 students in a time we’ve all come to the word unprecedented.

4:09:40 It seems to be redefined every day.

4:09:45 So I would, I would, I understand the concern and the challenge

4:09:51 around graduation, but I would ask are we, is the board

4:09:55 suggesting a change in our process and our procedure over the

4:10:00 indication of one situation that could, that could impact the

4:10:08 efficiency of the organization?

4:10:09 I will certainly honor and respect the wishes of the board.

4:10:14 But I could not pass up the opportunity to one implore to, uh,

4:10:20 the community, the work that our employees are doing to support

4:10:25 them and our kids during a time that none of us, it, this doesn’t

4:10:31 even compare to the movies.

4:10:32 Our goal, our focus, our priority right now, our mission right

4:10:38 now is to open on August 3rd with a safe and confident

4:10:43 environment for our staff and our, and our students.

4:10:48 Our number one mission is to educate and serve our kids.

4:10:53 And we have an enormous climb ahead of us to do that and ensure

4:10:58 the community confidence that I can in six weeks confidently sit

4:11:02 here and say before our community, we are ready.

4:11:06 We have got every universal precaution in place and we’re going

4:11:10 to do everything we can to keep our kids safe.

4:11:13 Let’s get back to the business of focused, intentional, and

4:11:18 deliberate learning.

4:11:21 So I would ask of the board, if this is a direction we’re moving

4:11:26 in that I be provided very clear direction and understanding of

4:11:31 what the expectation is and what, what that will, the

4:11:36 expectation will be upon me and our staff, uh, moving forward

4:11:39 and the information that will be requested and required at these,

4:11:43 uh, additional meetings.

4:11:44 Uh, because it’ll be important that I meet with them and help

4:11:47 them understand what the, um, the, um, the additional

4:11:50 expectations are.

4:11:51 Thank you.

4:11:52 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.

4:11:56 I can follow.

4:11:59 So Dr. Mullins, I think that it, you, you pointed out some great

4:12:04 things.

4:12:04 Everybody’s moving.

4:12:05 We’re all going towards the same direction.

4:12:07 Staff is pushing and they’re making these recommendations and

4:12:11 efficiency.

4:12:12 And there’s not a single person in here that would disagree with

4:12:15 that.

4:12:15 I think where the main issue that I would say is, is that just

4:12:18 like when I was speaking to you before about, I said, Hey, I

4:12:22 have some concerns about the athletics piece, the groups of kids

4:12:25 that are going to be allowed back.

4:12:26 What sports, all that stuff can we discuss.

4:12:28 That’s awesome, right?

4:12:29 So you and I might be able to collaborate on that one issue, but

4:12:33 everybody in here may be wanting input on that piece, or they

4:12:36 may want to give it to you.

4:12:37 And I may be wrong or right based on information that I hear

4:12:40 from my peers.

4:12:41 One of the, when we go, I, I, the philosophical thing that you

4:12:46 just said, kind of, I agreed all the way.

4:12:48 And then the philosophical piece at the end was, if we have

4:12:52 meetings, we are somehow going to change the health and wellness

4:12:57 of our students.

4:12:58 And I, I just, my thing was twofold.

4:13:03 I truly believe that the school board should be weighing in and

4:13:06 giving direction.

4:13:07 And if that’s not at the time when it begins part of the

4:13:10 conversation, whether it’s all of those pieces of the athletics

4:13:13 that in the beginning, we say, Hey, here’s what our concerns are.

4:13:16 Or at the end, we need to have some input in there.

4:13:19 And I think that also the people need to understand the argument

4:13:23 from holistically why we’re doing certain things.

4:13:25 And so when I say that the extra meetings is to accomplish those

4:13:29 two, it’s actually bringing the school district into the fold of

4:13:33 the decision making process, which is statutory, statutorily

4:13:36 what we’re supposed to do.

4:13:37 And just being a part of the process, not just sitting here

4:13:41 watching it happen from a 30,000 foot view.

4:13:44 And I think that was what my concern was.

4:13:46 So when I’m making my suggestions, please understand that it is

4:13:50 in no way a vote of confidence against what you do.

4:13:53 You and your staff do an amazing job.

4:13:55 I just think that during this process, there’s been some

4:13:59 questions that have been raised as to our role.

4:14:01 And I feel like we have the right to make those suggestions in

4:14:05 those moves.

4:14:06 That’s all.

4:14:07 And I would recommend that we meet every Tuesday, take public

4:14:10 input.

4:14:10 And then if there’s an issue that comes up, we would like to

4:14:13 discuss, we can discuss it there.

4:14:14 But just like right now, the athletics that you’re going to, you

4:14:17 supposedly are going to roll out with the athletic directors.

4:14:19 I would like to see that prior to it being rolled out.

4:14:21 That’s all.

4:14:22 And I think that that’s a part of a conversation for us to say.

4:14:26 That’s all.

4:14:27 Ms. Kim, what would you like to weigh in on an additional

4:14:41 meeting?

4:14:43 I don’t want to have a meeting for meeting’s sake.

4:14:48 Not casting, not making a judgment on motives or anything.

4:14:51 I don’t want to have a meeting so that we are seen as having the

4:14:55 discussion.

4:14:55 I feel like when I have input, I give it.

4:14:59 And to Dr. Mullins and to Cabinet, I’ve sent articles and like,

4:15:03 hey, have you seen this?

4:15:04 And almost every single time it’s been, oh yeah, that’s the

4:15:07 document we’re working off of.

4:15:08 You know, responding to the public, directing their input to the

4:15:14 people who need it.

4:15:15 I, you know, am I willing to come here on Tuesdays?

4:15:19 Is there something we need to talk about?

4:15:21 But I honestly, I prefer us, you know, when Dr. Mullins has

4:15:26 something that he needs us to vote on to move forward.

4:15:28 Then we, then we come together.

4:15:30 But if the, you know, if the wishes most of the board is to meet

4:15:34 every week, I’ll be here.

4:15:36 I’ll clear my calendar except for the first week of July.

4:15:39 Ms. Duskovic.

4:15:40 I am flexible with what the board wants to do.

4:15:47 I can come Tuesdays, no problem.

4:15:50 I would also, maybe we should consider the work session version.

4:15:55 So that, I feel like a board meeting puts staff maybe at more

4:16:01 work.

4:16:01 And that would have to be something Dr. Mullins would have to

4:16:03 weigh in on.

4:16:03 But taking, recording public comments and then, or them coming

4:16:08 in.

4:16:08 You know, it just sounds like a lot more work.

4:16:10 But hearing the public voice is important, Mr. Susan.

4:16:14 So, again, I just draw back to we’re the representatives of the

4:16:19 public.

4:16:19 So you reach out and say, send me what you want me to voice.

4:16:23 I think that’s more what it’s about, Dr. Mullins.

4:16:25 For me, I don’t know about Mr. Susan.

4:16:27 It’s not about micromanaging the operations for me.

4:16:30 It’s more about, and Ms. Campbell, I kind of picked up on what

4:16:35 you said.

4:16:35 A meeting for meeting just to, it sounds a little bit like just

4:16:41 so we can sit out here and talk.

4:16:41 But there’s also a role for that in our form of government.

4:16:45 That if 200 people message me, they want to hear their voice

4:16:50 heard.

4:16:50 And I’m glad I had forgotten about the 6,000 public voices.

4:16:54 That’s super important.

4:16:55 But if they can’t physically be here, I’m their representative.

4:16:59 And there’s a role for them to watch it and hear their concerns.

4:17:04 There’s sickly and elderly people right now that are thrilled

4:17:08 that you spoke up from.

4:17:09 There’s a military student that’s probably happy that I spoke up

4:17:12 for them.

4:17:12 And there’s a role where they feel heard when these things are

4:17:15 discussed publicly.

4:17:16 If you’ve watched the news, there’s some other districts in

4:17:18 Florida right now where a district came up and presented to the

4:17:22 public two options for opening.

4:17:24 And all five board members have now publicly come out and said,

4:17:26 we never heard it.

4:17:27 We never saw it.

4:17:28 I wouldn’t expect something like that to happen here.

4:17:30 But without us touching base more when stuff is changing so much,

4:17:35 I wonder if it’s not an opportunity to touch base more.

4:17:38 Again, not to micromanage, Dr. Mullins.

4:17:40 At least I don’t feel like it’s to micromanage.

4:17:42 It’s to be the public voice with each other and to touch base

4:17:46 with each other because it’s frustrating that I can’t talk to

4:17:49 you all about everything we’re going through.

4:17:52 Was that a nice confusing non-answer for you?

4:17:56 Ms. McDougall.

4:17:58 I want to say, Dr. Mullins, I certainly have no desire to micromanage

4:18:04 you.

4:18:04 I think the team is doing a fabulous job.

4:18:06 This is a very difficult time.

4:18:08 It’s unprecedented as we say over and over again.

4:18:12 I understand that it would be nice, certainly for me, to see you

4:18:17 all more often and to talk about things.

4:18:19 But at what point, what do we decide that we want to weigh in in?

4:18:23 At what point do we say, wait a minute, stop.

4:18:27 We need to talk.

4:18:28 We’re going to hinder our staff to–this is a very short window

4:18:34 and who knows what tomorrow is going to bring.

4:18:36 We just don’t know.

4:18:37 It changes all the time.

4:18:38 So a meeting, do we want to put one on every Tuesday?

4:18:42 I’m not sure.

4:18:43 I don’t know if we need that.

4:18:45 But I understand that we are the voice of our public and I do

4:18:50 want to represent them.

4:18:51 And that’s kind of why I talked about alternative graduations

4:18:55 because I think we need to be thinking of that because I don’t

4:18:59 know what July is going to bring.

4:19:01 So again, this is a wishy-washy response.

4:19:04 I don’t feel unless there is something that we need to weigh in

4:19:09 at this point.

4:19:10 I like the work sessions.

4:19:11 I do.

4:19:12 We talk about a lot of different things.

4:19:14 But I can’t say that I think we need every single Tuesday.

4:19:21 So I’m not hearing that the majority of the board–I will tell

4:19:27 you, I’m more than happy to be here on Tuesdays.

4:19:29 I have no problem coming here and having discussions and, you

4:19:32 know, I think that it can be fruitful.

4:19:33 But I do think that we have to be cognizant of, I mean, how many

4:19:36 people we have.

4:19:37 We have Dr. Mullins.

4:19:38 We have Mr. Gibbs.

4:19:39 We have Ms. Escobar.

4:19:40 We have Mr. Francisco.

4:19:42 We have Louis.

4:19:43 We have staff on hand in case we have questions.

4:19:47 Like, us coming here puts a drain on the resources that are

4:19:53 already incredibly strained, whether we like it or not.

4:19:55 It’s just the way it is.

4:19:57 So if I may suggest–and we have to be cognizant of timeline

4:20:03 because Pam has to have a way to advertise.

4:20:07 We are back here together next Tuesday.

4:20:09 So it’s not even a week away, right?

4:20:14 And then we have another one on June 13th.

4:20:16 So it’s only 15 days apart.

4:20:19 Perhaps the better option, rather than just scheduling to be

4:20:24 here every Tuesday, is if there is an issue that comes up, any

4:20:30 board member can send an email to Paul, right?

4:20:34 And say, “I have concerns about this.”

4:20:38 Or realistically, the best way to handle it would be to speak to

4:20:42 Dr. Mullins and say, “Dr. Mullins, I really feel like we need to

4:20:45 get board input on this.”

4:20:46 And then he can coordinate scheduling that work session for the

4:20:50 following week, rather than us setting up meetings and taking up

4:20:54 staff time.

4:20:55 As far as I’m concerned, I trust him to take board input and be

4:21:02 honest in following up with the rest of the board as far as his

4:21:08 actions.

4:21:09 You know, I don’t think he’s ever going to tell us, “Oh, only

4:21:14 two people felt this way.” Or, you know what I mean?

4:21:17 I think if there is a board request to move in a direction, he’s

4:21:21 going to follow through with it.

4:21:23 And I think perhaps–

4:21:24 I would never want any of our teams to stop what they’re doing

4:21:28 or to slow down what they’re doing because we might meet on a

4:21:31 Tuesday and change the direction.

4:21:33 Because they’ve got stuff to do in a really timely fashion.

4:21:37 So would you all be comfortable with just knowing that the

4:21:40 opportunity is there to request that we meet on and off Tuesday?

4:21:43 If there’s something that comes up that you feel needs urgent?

4:21:48 First off, if I could request it, it just seemed like everybody

4:21:54 was kind of gray area.

4:21:55 Like, “Well, I like the idea, but not really.”

4:21:57 So I would like to get a yes or no if we could, just yes or no.

4:22:01 The second piece is, the answer to your question, Ms. Belford,

4:22:05 is that we’ve already tried to possibly make a request for a

4:22:11 meeting, which would have slowed down and taken it up.

4:22:14 Like, if you make the request on a Friday, the earliest that we

4:22:18 can get that meeting is the next Thursday.

4:22:20 So if we’re meeting on a Tuesday, generally everything can

4:22:24 usually come up right then.

4:22:26 But by Friday, something might come up.

4:22:29 We can’t meet until the following Thursday.

4:22:31 And then sometimes everybody says, “Well, do you really want to

4:22:34 come in because we’re going to be back here the following

4:22:36 Tuesday?”

4:22:36 And I just think it becomes that piece.

4:22:39 I truly believe that in no way is this a confidence vote on Dr.

4:22:43 Mullins.

4:22:43 And I don’t want that to be this way.

4:22:45 I just truly believe that there needs to be an avenue for the

4:22:47 people to come out and express what they’re feeling.

4:22:49 And I truly believe that we as board members need to be giving

4:22:54 our collective thoughts on the processes and things that were

4:22:59 coming in.

4:22:59 There’s a thousand pieces that are coming, like the teachers’

4:23:03 union, if you have to extend days.

4:23:04 Like, all of these things need to be collaborated and

4:23:07 communicated.

4:23:08 And we’re only meeting, I think, twice in the next month, I

4:23:13 think.

4:23:13 And so a lot of those pieces, I feel like having a meeting would

4:23:17 be good.

4:23:17 Now, that’s me.

4:23:18 I just said, “I would like to have a meeting.”

4:23:20 But I would just ask if everybody could say yes or no or give a

4:23:25 definitive, “I don’t want to meet or I do.”

4:23:26 You know what I mean?

4:23:27 Because what you’re saying is, let’s just let everybody just

4:23:31 make a request.

4:23:31 And I think that’s too nebulous.

4:23:33 Because we still don’t even know what our power is as far as a

4:23:37 school district and what we can make a decision about.

4:23:39 Right?

4:23:40 I think that the – like, if we can’t – if operationally, like

4:23:45 if it’s found out from the state statutes that no,

4:23:47 you are not allowed to say anything about graduation or that,

4:23:50 well, then we are in wrong by having meetings to try to do that.

4:23:54 I feel that we have the right to oversee if something’s hicking

4:23:58 up as collaboratively.

4:23:59 That’s just me.

4:24:00 I’ve always been that way.

4:24:01 I don’t know that just discussing it is wrong.

4:24:04 So I would say you’re not wrong to have this type of discussion

4:24:08 if you wanted, you know, at the end – in mid-May, if it came up.

4:24:12 Like, when are we going to do and you wanted a meeting on let’s

4:24:16 talk this out.

4:24:16 I don’t remember when it went to the board.

4:24:19 Dr. Mullins mentioned it went to the board as far as approving

4:24:24 June and July alternative dates.

4:24:25 But that was an opportunity.

4:24:27 So if you just want to have meetings to discuss key issues, I

4:24:32 mean, who has the authority is a different question.

4:24:34 If you just want to discuss it, you guys can sit here and

4:24:38 schedule meetings twice a week to come in and discuss things if

4:24:41 you want.

4:24:41 So you can come in here and discuss all day and let everybody

4:24:45 know what your opinion is.

4:24:47 There’s nothing wrong with that.

4:24:49 You’re going to take up – you might take up resources if you

4:24:52 need staff to come in and provide that input.

4:24:54 Ms. McDougall, would you like to schedule a meeting every week,

4:24:59 yes or no?

4:24:59 Mr. Susan?

4:25:01 Yes.

4:25:02 Ms. Duskovich?

4:25:03 I don’t think it’s a black and white issue, but I’m going to say

4:25:11 no because I am – I want to meet when it’s important.

4:25:15 So I said no.

4:25:17 Ms. If it’s a work session, can we cancel the night before or

4:25:25 you can’t because there’s no public comments?

4:25:28 Mr. I mean, you can cancel them.

4:25:30 It would just get posted that, hey, we’re not going to hold it.

4:25:34 Ms. Yeah, and there’s no public comments if you go back out for

4:25:37 the night before.

4:25:37 Ms. Right.

4:25:38 Ms. Do we have to advertise a cancellation?

4:25:40 Mr. I would – you’re not going to be able to get an ad in the

4:25:44 day before.

4:25:44 You’d have to, I would say, send out a – at least put it on the

4:25:48 website, post it wherever you can that you’re canceling.

4:25:51 Ms. Sorry, I’m not giving you a yes to it, though.

4:25:54 I’m going to say yes to a work session and maybe we just

4:25:58 schedule one right now in between.

4:26:00 Ms. Campbell?

4:26:02 Ms. I probably made it a little harder right now because we’ve

4:26:05 had – this is one of the times we have three weeks doing more

4:26:07 meetings.

4:26:07 So not counting today.

4:26:09 Do we have three weeks between the next two weeks?

4:26:12 Ms. No.

4:26:13 We have two in June.

4:26:14 We have two in July.

4:26:15 Same as usual.

4:26:16 Just not –

4:26:17 Ms. This is the only long stretch.

4:26:18 Ms. Yep.

4:26:19 Ms. This is the long stretch.

4:26:20 Ms. No.

4:26:21 Okay.

4:26:22 I’m going to go now as well.

4:26:23 If we would like to have a discussion at Tuesday’s meeting about,

4:26:33 you know, if we feel like there’s anything on the horizon that

4:26:37 we need to anticipate, then I think we can – we can certainly

4:26:40 –

4:26:40 bring that up, but I think we need to make sure that it comes up,

4:26:45 you know, in enough time that we can – Pam can make

4:26:48 arrangements for a meeting to be scheduled.

4:26:52 All right.

4:26:53 Is there any additional discussion for today?

4:26:55 Thank you.

4:26:56 Dr. Mollins, I think you said you were going to give us an

4:27:01 update on athletics, but then you just said you don’t want to

4:27:06 give us an update on athletics.

4:27:08 I can give the board an update on the work that staff has done.

4:27:14 Ms. Moore has met with school – high school principals and high

4:27:20 school athletic directors, a small group of them, to work

4:27:24 through a – what is called our return to activity plan,

4:27:27 allowing students back onto campus in a very controlled

4:27:32 environment, with protocols and guidelines of what are expected.

4:27:35 to ensure their safety.

4:27:40 Ms. Moore presented it to principals last week, gave them all an

4:27:47 opportunity to weigh in and provide input to the proposal.

4:27:50 She met with them again yesterday, after my meeting with

4:27:55 principals, and solidified the – solidified the recommendations

4:28:01 of return to activity.

4:28:02 We are moving toward – or preparing – we were preparing for as

4:28:08 early as a June 22nd – that’s Monday, June 22nd – access to

4:28:13 campus.

4:28:13 between tomorrow and next week, athletic directors would be

4:28:18 trained and would ensure they had the right processes and

4:28:23 procedures in place.

4:28:24 It would allow coaches on a volunteer basis to provide

4:28:28 conditioning opportunities for their athletes.

4:28:32 No guests would be allowed on campus outside of staff and the

4:28:35 student athletes.

4:28:36 They would be expected to work in groups no larger than 10.

4:28:42 There could be multiple groups at a conditioning session, but

4:28:47 they would be required to work in groups of 10.

4:28:51 We are at this stage of the return to activity plan.

4:28:58 Locker rooms would not be utilized.

4:29:00 Workouts should be conducted with the same groups of five to 10

4:29:06 students.

4:29:06 And be adhering to a minimum distance of six feet between

4:29:10 individuals at all times.

4:29:12 There’s other guidelines and expectations for facilities

4:29:16 cleaning, hydration.

4:29:18 We are prohibiting the use of multiple-use water stations.

4:29:23 Students are expected to bring their own water bottle and not

4:29:27 share them.

4:29:28 And then guidelines on equipment – towels, shoes, clothing, and

4:29:36 so on.

4:29:39 So I can – I would suggest at this point that we not slow the

4:29:46 process, but continue to train athletic directors tomorrow,

4:29:48 unless there’s specific direction from the board to pause.

4:29:51 And we will provide the full details of the stage of plan and

4:29:56 wait for further direction.

4:29:58 Can I ask a quick question?

4:30:00 Dr. Mullins, inside of the gymnasium, for instance, we have, say,

4:30:05 volleyball or one of those sports.

4:30:08 Am I hearing you correctly, that if they were to work – they’re

4:30:12 working out inside, they cannot have more than 10 people?

4:30:15 Is that right?

4:30:16 Or is that outside and inside?

4:30:17 I’m sorry.

4:30:18 Dr. Mullins, limitations on gatherings.

4:30:21 No gatherings of more than 10 people at a time, inside or

4:30:24 outside, in any one place – in any one area or place.

4:30:29 Gyms and football fields can be considered two separate areas or

4:30:33 places if students are appropriately separated.

4:30:35 With appropriate separation, a track could also be considered a

4:30:39 separate area from a football field.

4:30:40 As many groups as can be supervised by an adult and that meet

4:30:44 all gathering guidelines is allowable.

4:30:46 So, Dr. Mullins, if we have a football team that has 60 kids,

4:30:51 are they only allowed to have two sets of 10 on a football field?

4:30:55 Meaning that, like, the football players are – 10 are allowed

4:30:59 on the football field, 10 are allowed on the track.

4:31:01 So, meaning that they would have to have two coaches, and if

4:31:05 they’re to continue to maybe have them all at one time rather

4:31:08 than all day, that would be that they would have to have

4:31:11 different locations throughout the school of groups of 10.

4:31:13 Is that what I’m hearing you say?

4:31:14 After conferring with coaches, athletic directors, and all of

4:31:19 the high school principals, they felt like this accommodated the

4:31:23 needs that they would have for conditioning.

4:31:26 Okay, but I’m just asking, so if a football team has 40 or 50

4:31:33 people, they can utilize the different facilities throughout the

4:31:37 day at the school as long as they’re separate in different

4:31:40 locations.

4:31:40 So, if there’s one on the soccer field, there’s one on the

4:31:43 football field, there’s one on the track.

4:31:45 So, that was all I was just asking.

4:31:46 That’s correct.

4:31:47 A group of football athletes could be as many as 50 or 60 as

4:31:52 long as they are managed in groups of 10, and there’s

4:31:56 appropriate supervision.

4:31:56 So, on a football field, 50 yards by 100 yards, only 10 people

4:32:01 can go there.

4:32:01 Is that right?

4:32:02 Just, I’m trying to make clarification so everybody understands.

4:32:05 Mr. Susan, I’m confident that we would make those clarifications

4:32:08 with athletic directors when we train them.

4:32:10 I can’t speak specifically.

4:32:11 I can ask Ms. Moore to come and speak if that’s the request of

4:32:16 the board.

4:32:16 I think what the question there is, is that part of the concern

4:32:21 is the larger teams, also band, say for instance.

4:32:25 You have your bands that may want to start to condition.

4:32:28 It’s very difficult for one individual or maybe three or four

4:32:32 individuals to take and condition all of those kids in separates

4:32:37 all day long to accommodate the large size.

4:32:39 So, if you have a band that needs to work out at Rockledge or

4:32:44 Vieira, then they have 200 people inside of there.

4:32:48 Then you’re going to be talking about 20 coaches trying to run

4:32:51 an hour worth or whatever that is.

4:32:52 It just, it becomes a piece.

4:32:54 So, I would hope that during the conversation with the athletic

4:32:57 directors and everybody else, that social distancing on a field,

4:33:02 which is six feet apart, could accomplish part of that goal,

4:33:06 maybe in larger numbers than 10.

4:33:07 That’s all.

4:33:08 I will tell you, Mr. Susan, that I asked about, you know, they

4:33:11 had started a discussion about marching bands, you know, which

4:33:14 happens usually in the summer.

4:33:14 And she said once they get done with the athletic part of it,

4:33:17 that that was what they were going to be turning their attention

4:33:20 to next.

4:33:20 Oh, so this doesn’t even include the band and stuff like that.

4:33:25 This is only athletics.

4:33:26 I do not believe this includes band.

4:33:29 Okay.

4:33:30 Do you know, Dr. Mullins, of a specific time certain that we

4:33:34 might be able to get back and have that conversation with the

4:33:37 band directors and stuff like that?

4:33:38 Because I apologize.

4:33:39 I thought that athletics was also inclusive of band and possibly,

4:33:44 because I do know that those kids need to be in shape too, Ms.

4:33:47 Campbell, right?

4:33:48 Because they’re out there in the heat and everything else, so.

4:33:51 Those kinds of things.

4:33:52 I mean, I can’t speak for every school, but they usually start

4:33:54 in July.

4:33:54 I would just offer to the board that Ms. Moore is in regular and

4:33:58 ongoing conversation with our school leaders and that includes

4:34:02 representatives and she’s bringing forward a balanced approach

4:34:06 to providing access to our campuses while also meeting the needs

4:34:10 of the programs that have made the request.

4:34:11 I can’t tell you at this moment, Ms. Moore provided this to me

4:34:17 at six this morning when we were in the office and I haven’t had

4:34:22 a chance to fully read it since we’ve come to this meeting.

4:34:27 If I just may real quick, thank you for making that happen.

4:34:32 Any additional comments, questions, concerns?

4:34:36 All right, then we are adjourned.

4:34:38 Dr. Mullins?

4:34:39 I just, I would appreciate direction from the board.

4:34:41 Are you comfortable with us moving forward or would you like

4:34:44 time to review it?

4:34:44 I realize I’ve been keeping informed individually, but happy to,

4:34:48 we’ll get this out to the board and.

4:34:53 Ms. Campbell, you’re comfortable with them moving forward?

4:34:55 Yes.

4:34:56 Don’t, don’t pause.

4:34:57 Ms. Deskovich, comfortable with them moving forward?

4:34:59 Yeah, open something.

4:35:00 Anything.

4:35:01 Yes, I’m comfortable.

4:35:02 Mr. Susan?

4:35:03 Yes, and please get it as fast as possible to those band

4:35:05 directors to appropriately open them too.

4:35:08 Thank you.

4:35:09 Good.

4:35:10 Thank you.

4:35:12 Jeremy?

4:35:13 Don’t forget to sign Dr. Mullins.

4:35:14 .

4:35:44 you