Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL

2021-01-18 - Board Meeting

0:00 Music playing.

4:59 If you continue to cause a disruption, you are advised that you

5:02 are in violation of Florida State Statute 877.13 or if you

5:06 failed to leave the premises after being warned by the Sheriff’s

5:08 Office, you are committing trespass and the Board has authorized

5:11 the Sheriff’s Office to enforce these rules.

5:13 Music playing.

5:48 Present. The board will now hold a moment of silent reflection

5:51 and invite the audience to join.

5:53 Thank you. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

6:18 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

6:25 and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God,

6:30 indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

6:33 At this time, I would like to offer my fellow board members and

6:37 Dr. Mullins the opportunity to recognize students, staff, or

6:41 members of the community who’d like to start us off tonight.

6:46 Ms. Jenkins.

6:47 I just wanted everybody to be aware that Palm Bay High School is

6:51 going to be hosting a rising 9th grade meeting on January 25th

6:55 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

6:57 And they are going to have an opportunity to highlight their new

7:00 fire academy program, as well as all the other magnet programs

7:03 that they have at that high school.

7:04 So I encourage you to check that out if you’re in that area.

7:08 And just really quickly, I know we say this all the time, but it’s

7:11 our first meeting back from winter break, and we were kind of

7:14 hit hard, we all know.

7:16 So I just want to give a shout out to all of our staff members

7:18 at every single level of this organization from the inside out

7:21 for pushing through, carrying us through.

7:24 It was really, really difficult.

7:26 I had the pleasure of subbing at some of the schools for the

7:28 past week and a half, and one school had 13 staff members out,

7:31 and it’s a tiny little elementary school.

7:33 So they were hit really, really hard.

7:35 Substitutes are short, and the one thing that I really

7:38 appreciated at one of the schools was there were three parents

7:41 there substituting for the day to help pick up the slack and

7:45 take that burden off some of our staff members.

7:47 So I appreciate all of you, and thank you for supporting our

7:50 schools and our community.

7:51 And again, thank you so much to our staff.

7:53 It’s been the most difficult two years, and of course, after a

7:56 long winter break, that’s not how you wanted to come back, but

7:58 you pushed through as usual.

8:00 So thank you so much.

8:00 Thank you, Ms. Jenkins.

8:02 Ms. Campbell.

8:03 Hi.

8:04 So last week, I was able to attend the Florida Music Education

8:07 Association Conference, and I just wanted to recognize some

8:11 really awesome programs and individuals from our district.

8:15 There were too many Brevard Public Schools students in all-state

8:19 ensembles to recognize all of them tonight, but I’m just going

8:22 to narrow it down to a couple of things.

8:24 One, three of our schools were recognized with the high

8:27 enrollment award, where you have to have at least 40, for middle

8:31 schools, at least 45% of our students.

8:32 You have to have 25% of your student body enrolled in a music

8:36 class, and for the secondary, I believe it’s 30%.

8:40 Jackson Middle School and Central Middle School were both

8:42 recognized.

8:43 I think they have like 49% and 50% enrollment in music programs,

8:47 and then Titusville High School was recognized as a high school.

8:50 And it goes for three years, so congratulations to all the music

8:53 teachers at those schools and administrators and counselors who

8:57 allow those schedules to be flexible enough for those students,

9:00 that many students to participate.

9:02 But congratulations to those three schools.

9:04 And then I did want to highlight one family.

9:06 Like I said, we had too many all-state students to recognize,

9:09 but I wanted to recognize one particular family.

9:12 This family has four children in our schools, and they, I was

9:19 talking to the mom, or I saw the mom share this week that years

9:25 ago, the children all realized that they would have one year

9:30 when all four of them could make all-state at the same time.

9:35 And it was this year, and they did it.

9:38 Nice.

9:38 So I wanted to recognize the Smith family.

9:40 They’re in the Meadow Lane Central Mel High Feeder Chain.

9:44 Allie Smith, who’s a senior at Mel High, made the reading chorus,

9:47 which is the best sight reading scores in the state of Florida

9:50 for high school students.

9:52 And Sammy Smith made the concert choir.

9:55 Drew Smith, who attends Central Middle School, made the treble

9:59 Middle School Choir.

10:01 And then Eve Smith made the elementary school chorus.

10:04 And I believe was the only BPS elementary school student in the

10:06 elementary school chorus.

10:07 So congratulations to the Smith family.

10:09 That’s quite an accomplishment.

10:12 So they also are super supportive of all the arts in our

10:15 district and in our community, as well as other organizations

10:18 that support music in our area.

10:21 So I’m just really proud of all of them and their parents for

10:23 the task they had last week of running all over downtown Tampa

10:26 from concert to concert, rehearsal to rehearsal.

10:29 So congratulations.

10:30 Thank you.

10:32 Ms. Campbell?

10:34 Mr. Susan?

10:34 Yeah, thank you.

10:36 First off, I wanted, you know, tonight we had a GPS monitoring

10:41 for our buses, and it’s coming across as a contract.

10:45 And it gave me an opportunity to stop and say thank you for all

10:50 the hard work that Dr. Miller, who took over our transportation

10:54 department years ago, did.

10:56 Not many people understand the story behind Dr. Miller, but he

10:59 was a principal, went into retirement, and then was asked to

11:01 come back and head our transportation system.

11:04 And just the same as Ms. Jenkins was talking about substitutes,

11:07 our bus drivers are in the same situation.

11:10 Our buses, not many people understand, but we had to cut back on

11:13 some of our buses years ago, and our fleet was very old.

11:17 So he came into a situation, he’s done an amazing job, and it

11:20 gave me an opportunity to just say thank you to Dr. Miller for

11:23 his dedication to coming back off.

11:24 And we’re at that point in our community right now where we’re

11:28 asking those who have given so much to give a little bit more.

11:32 And the reason is, is that we are in one of the worst situations

11:36 when it comes to COVID and all of our people out, and our people,

11:40 it’s a bad situation.

11:41 So thank you to Dr. Miller, and thank you for his guidance.

11:44 The other thing is, is I want to thank Russell Cheatham for the

11:47 new color on the front.

11:48 Many of you guys are coming through.

11:49 Notice that we’ve started doing some construction in there, and

11:52 it was Russell’s idea to put the green up there.

11:55 And going forward, we may paint some more corridors in the area,

11:59 that lighter tint green.

12:01 So I just want to say thank you, Russell, for all your hard work

12:03 and dedication to that.

12:04 Also, Dr. Mullins and I, can we talk about the trades tour yet?

12:09 Okay.

12:10 So last December, I went to O’Galley and said, let’s just start

12:14 showing off our trades.

12:15 We’ve got to get moving, right?

12:17 Because there’s businesses out there that don’t know what trades

12:20 we have, and the trades can’t connect to the businesses, and the

12:22 kids are inside there, and they need jobs, right?

12:25 So these kids are graduating with certifications, and then they’re

12:27 going to work at McDonald’s, some of them.

12:29 So we need to connect our businesses to our trades.

12:32 So I just ran out there, and Dr. Mullins came, and we went

12:36 through three of the trades, got 10,000 views in two days, and I

12:41 had people coming up to me from Vieira Regional and all that

12:44 stuff.

12:44 Now, that kind of spurred it, like, okay, so just running up

12:47 there, going online, and showing off the trades is one thing,

12:50 but Dr. Mullins is like, okay, let’s sit down and really plan

12:52 this thing out.

12:54 So now, literally, we’re going to make an announcement.

12:57 The details are coming, but there’s a very good chance that

13:00 almost all of the CTE programs in this county are going to be

13:03 viewed, and you’re going to be able to see what we got.

13:07 Because many of you hear from us saying that we’ve built great

13:10 trades programs, but not many of you have actually seen them.

13:13 Nor the kids that are so qualified to work that haven’t gotten

13:16 an opportunity because our business owners don’t know about it.

13:20 So we’re putting together a big package, and we’re going to go,

13:24 I think we can announce that we’re doing Vieira High School

13:27 February 1st.

13:28 We’re doing Rockledge High School February 9th, and then

13:31 Melbourne High School later on in February.

13:33 We’re showing off a lot of those programs, and we’re inviting

13:36 the businesses and individuals to come on the tour, and it’s

13:39 going to be fun.

13:40 So thank you, Dr. Mullins.

13:41 Many of you don’t understand, but if there’s a person in the

13:43 state of Florida that deserves credit as a superintendent for

13:46 trades, it’s Dr. Mullins.

13:48 And the reason for that is that he has dedicated so much capital

13:53 allocation.

13:54 He put together a person for trades just for apprenticeships.

13:59 That’s all the person works on.

14:00 He’s restructured a lot of that under Dr. Sullivan for that

14:03 department.

14:04 There’s a lot of credit that goes to Dr. Mullins.

14:06 Machine shops, aviation, everything has gone under his watch.

14:10 So thank you, Dr. Mullins, and I’m looking forward to our tour

14:12 together.

14:12 Yeah, I’ll go ahead and add to that.

14:15 Just to clarify, we’re going to be offering tours across all of

14:19 our high schools, so we’ll be sending out exclusive invitations

14:23 to our business community to come alongside, learn about our

14:26 programs, and we’re going to make a shameless ask to either be

14:30 part of our industry boards as part of our schools, as well as

14:34 support and provide internships for our high school students.

14:39 So it’s a very exciting initiative, and you’ll be hearing more

14:42 about it.

14:42 Mr. Bruin is going to be pushing out Facebook videos and so on,

14:48 so even if you don’t have an invitation to the tour, you’ll have

14:53 an opportunity to see up close exactly what’s happening in our

14:56 trades programs and our CTE programs across the district.

15:00 And the key is, and the key is to stop talking and get to work

15:03 because a lot of our businesses are talking, a lot of our people

15:06 are talking, but they’re not offering the internships.

15:09 So it’s a selfless ask, but it’s also me saying there’s many

15:14 other communities where the business takes the kids in to train

15:19 them so that they have the experiences.

15:23 And in some businesses, they say, well, we just don’t have

15:25 enough time, it’s just too much of a burden.

15:27 It’s society in the future.

15:29 Our kids are getting outpaced right now by every other major

15:32 developing nation in many areas, and it’s up to us as a

15:35 community to make that comeback.

15:38 So it’s going to be a little bit of a shameless, but it’s also

15:41 going to be kind of a let’s go and stop talking and get to work.

15:45 Because if there’s one thing I hate is business owners coming up

15:47 and saying, we need more trades.

15:49 Oh, yeah, we have them.

15:50 You need to hire our damn kids.

15:51 So that’s what we’re going to be doing.

15:53 So we’re going to show it off, and then we’re going to tell them

15:55 that we need to have their support.

15:56 And we would appreciate your support to telling those businesses

15:58 to get to work, too.

15:59 Last thing is, is that I wanted to get your guys’ gauge on this,

16:02 and maybe this is more of the end of the conversation,

16:05 but we’re in full mode up in Tallahassee right now with the

16:07 session, and we had a legislative plan.

16:11 We talked about certain things, right, our fire school.

16:17 We have all of those things.

16:19 I’m in Tallahassee once a week now, and I would like to, I don’t

16:23 know if we ever,

16:24 did we ever officially vote and support the legislative agenda

16:26 and send it up to Tallahassee?

16:28 We did that already, right?

16:29 We already did that.

16:30 So I think we need to kind of come up with a game plan of how we’re

16:33 going to advocate for our district consistently, right?

16:36 So, like, what is our plan?

16:38 Who are we talking to?

16:39 Let’s support our legislators.

16:40 Tyler Soroy has the firefighter school.

16:42 What are we doing to help him, right?

16:44 We have some of these other issues.

16:47 Teacher pay is becoming a major issue right now, right?

16:49 What are we doing to show our support for them during this time?

16:52 So I would love that discussion, but I’ll collaborate in any way

16:56 that I can.

16:57 All right?

16:57 And I think that’s it for me.

17:00 I’ve talked too much.

17:00 You talked a little bit, too.

17:02 All right, I’m done.

17:04 Thank you, Mr. Susan.

17:05 Great segue.

17:07 One of my recognitions this evening is actually Representative

17:09 Soroy.

17:10 So when we came back to school and we started seeing significant

17:14 absences as a result of potential COVID infections, and there

17:18 was so much difficulty in getting tests.

17:21 We had, for example, in our North Area Bus Depot, almost half of

17:24 our bus drivers were out the first week of school.

17:26 Not all of them COVID, but people couldn’t get tests.

17:32 And so I reached out to Representative Soroy and said, hey, is

17:34 there something that you can do to assist us?

17:37 He called me back within five minutes and said, here’s a number

17:40 at Brevard Health Alliance.

17:41 Call them.

17:42 Called Brevard Health Alliance.

17:44 Within 30 minutes, we had a guarantee of tests coming in in an

17:47 hour.

17:48 Dr. Mullins and Dr. Thetti and the staff jumped on it and made

17:51 arrangements to pick those up the next day so we could have

17:54 tests available for our folks.

17:56 So we are certainly blessed to have a good relationship with our

17:59 representatives here in Brevard.

18:00 And, you know, we think about all of the education issues, but

18:04 they help us with lots of different issues.

18:06 And so many thanks to Representative Soroy as well as Brevard

18:10 Health Alliance for helping us get through that stretch of

18:14 challenge.

18:16 Not that all of the challenges have gone away, but it was a big

18:18 help at the time.

18:19 And then also, I wanted to give a shout out to the city of Coco,

18:23 who did their annual economic development breakfast this week.

18:28 Dr. Mullins, myself, and several of the staff members were able

18:31 to attend.

18:31 And if you’ve never attended that, it is such a great experience

18:35 to see what they’re doing within the city of Coco,

18:38 to understand the challenges and the things that they’re doing

18:40 to overcome it.

18:42 And Dr. Mullins was so excited about the internship situation

18:46 that he did get up and talk to them about our CTE tours as well

18:50 and really pushing that and encouraging them to get involved.

18:52 So we thank them for that opportunity to promote how all of the

18:56 great things going on in the city of Coco can also assist in

19:01 addressing some of the challenges that we have in the district

19:03 as well.

19:04 And then was just going to do a quick reminder, and Mr. Susan

19:08 has mentioned, legislative session has resumed.

19:11 There’s an awful lot going on.

19:13 I encourage you, go on, sign up for updates from the various

19:16 committees.

19:17 There are lots of things moving and lots of things moving fast.

19:21 We are blessed to have Representative Placentia, who’s put

19:24 forward the teacher pay issue as well as the assessment issue.

19:27 So we want to make sure that we reach out to him and thank him

19:31 and see what we can do to support, as well as many others.

19:34 So I think that is all that I have at the moment.

19:37 So that is going to bring us to the adoption of the agenda.

19:42 Dr. Mullins.

19:43 Before I, Ms. Belford, before I do the agenda, do you mind if I

19:47 take a couple moments and just do some recognitions?

19:52 Yes, so sorry.

19:53 First, I’m very excited to share, and the board is certainly

19:58 aware, we just launched the Harry T. Moore, Harriet V. Moore

20:05 Center curriculum initiative with our fourth, eighth, and tenth

20:10 grade students.

20:12 And we began this week field trips for our eighth grade students

20:16 to the Moore Center.

20:18 So very excited that our own students will have the opportunity

20:22 to learn about our own local history, the legacy of the Moores

20:27 and their contributions to the early civil rights movement, and

20:32 how they made an impactful change in our community, not albeit

20:37 70 years ago.

20:38 So very excited, and I want to express my appreciation to our

20:41 teachers who have taken on a new curriculum.

20:44 Our resource teachers and the curriculum writing team did an

20:48 absolutely fabulous job of coming together and really bringing

20:53 together rich historical learning opportunities for our kids.

20:57 We’re in the process of doing the training for teachers so that

21:01 they can be adequately prepared to deliver that for our students

21:04 in the coming weeks.

21:06 So thank you for our teachers taking this on, and look forward

21:09 to them doing a fabulous job on that.

21:13 Also, I want to just highlight, if you haven’t been made aware,

21:16 then you haven’t seen the paper, you haven’t looked at our

21:18 website, need to go out there and just know that we are formally

21:23 celebrating our Teachers of the Year, our Employees of the Year,

21:28 our Rookie Teacher of the Year finalists, our Emerging Teacher

21:33 of the Year finalists, our Administrators of the Year.

21:37 With February 1st, we have the Employees of the Year recognition

21:41 dinner at Rockledge Country Club.

21:43 Very excited to celebrate our Employees of the Year, followed by

21:47 our Teacher Summit.

21:49 For all of our Teacher of the Year recipients, we’re bringing

21:54 them together for a day of professional dialogue and exchange,

21:59 and really elevating their recognition as Teachers of the Year

22:03 and giving them an elevated voice and giving us feedback as well

22:08 as collaborating with each other at the summit.

22:11 And then the next day in the evening, we have the ABC or Applauding

22:15 Brevard’s Champions Awards where we recognize our Teacher of the

22:19 Year finalists as well as our Rookie and so on.

22:23 So stay tuned, there’ll be highlights of that on our website as

22:26 well as in the news media as we go through that.

22:29 And then finally, I do want to do a special recognition, and

22:33 this goes to the testament that has already been acknowledged,

22:37 of how our employees, Team Brevard, continues to rise above and

22:42 go above and beyond.

22:44 On January 12th, after attending a meeting at one of our high

22:48 schools, Major Brian Neal and one of his sergeants, Alan

22:52 Morrison, were traveling near an elementary school.

22:54 When they saw a young elementary student darting across the

22:58 street, fell, sprawled out into the street, obviously hurt, kind

23:03 of stumbled into the intersection, they immediately put on their

23:08 lights, they stopped traffic, they intervened, got the little,

23:11 the student in safety and in care and attended to the situation.

23:17 They were the community leaders we know them to be, thank you

23:22 for always being on duty, no matter where you are and in what

23:26 situation, so Major Neal, appreciate you, Sergeant Morrison,

23:30 thank you for continuing to represent our community in such a

23:34 great way.

23:35 Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Dr. Mullins,

23:40 and that will then bring us to the adoption of the agenda.

23:43 All right, with that, Ms. Belford and members of the board, on

23:49 this evening’s agenda, we have administrative staff

23:52 recommendations, 25 consent items, six action items, and 20

23:56 information items.

23:57 Changes made to the agenda since it was first released to the

24:00 public on Tuesday, January 11th, 2022, or as follows, item F10,

24:05 student expulsions was added and revisions occurred on item A7,

24:09 administrative staff recommendations, item F9, meeting minutes,

24:14 item F12, instructional staff recommendations, item F15, Rockledge

24:19 High School’s World Championship Robotics Field Trip, let me

24:24 just repeat that because it just sounded awesome.

24:26 Awesome, Rockledge High School’s World Championship Robotics

24:32 Field Trip, go Raiders, item H51, board policy 2410, school

24:39 health services, and H54, board policy 3215, smoking a tobacco-free

24:44 environment.

24:45 What are the wishes of the board?

24:47 Moved by Ms. Jenkins, seconded by Ms. Campbell, is there any

24:51 discussion?

24:52 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

24:55 Aye.

24:55 Any opposed, same sign.

24:57 The motion passes 5-0.

24:59 Dr. Mullins, will you please let us know about the

25:01 administrative staff recommendations?

25:03 Ms. Belford, members of the board, there are three items for the

25:05 board to consider.

25:06 What are the wishes of the board?

25:10 Move to approve.

25:11 Second.

25:11 Moved by Mr. Susan, seconded by Ms. McDougall, is there any

25:14 discussion?

25:14 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

25:17 Aye.

25:18 Any opposed, same sign.

25:19 Motion passes 5-0.

25:21 Dr. Mullins?

25:23 At this time, I would like to recognize three of our employees

25:26 who have retired, as the board just approved.

25:30 I’d like to recognize Karen Strickland on her recent retirement

25:33 from the position of Director of Budgeting and Cost Accounting

25:36 and FTE.

25:37 Also want to recognize Mary Ellen Ganopoulos on her retirement

25:41 from Assistant Principal at Cocoa Beach Junior Senior High

25:45 School, effective February 18th.

25:50 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.

25:51 All right, that is going to bring us to the public comment

25:54 portion of the meeting on agenda items specifically.

25:57 Those of you not speaking specifically to agenda items will have

26:00 your opportunity to speak later in the meeting.

26:02 We’re not skipping over you.

26:05 We have got 11 speakers signed up for agenda items.

26:09 One of our speakers, it is actually not an agenda item, so that

26:13 speaker will be moved to the non-agenda item grouping.

26:17 So, that gives us 10 speakers, meaning each speaker will receive

26:21 three minutes to speak this evening.

26:24 Please note that the time limit is per speaker, not per agenda

26:27 item.

26:28 Topics not specific to agenda items will be moved to the non-agenda

26:30 portion of the meeting.

26:32 We have a clock in front of me to help you keep track of your

26:34 time.

26:35 When your time is over, you will be asked to stop and allow the

26:37 next speaker his or her turn.

26:39 Always keep in mind that reasonable decorum is expected, and

26:42 your statement should be directed to the board chair.

26:45 The chair may interrupt, warn, or terminate a participant’s

26:48 statement when time is up, it’s personally directed, abusive,

26:51 obscene, or irrelevant.

26:54 Should an individual not observe proper etiquette, the chair may

26:57 request the individual leave the meeting.

26:58 I’ll call up three speakers at a time, and if you guys could

27:01 kind of get on deck on this side of the room so that we can move

27:03 through.

27:04 First three speakers are Catherine Delaney, Carrie Takacs, and

27:09 Sarah Mursky.

27:10 My name is Katie Delaney, and I’m here to speak tonight.

27:24 about, I’m here to request that the loving guidance training for

27:28 the teachers be removed from the schedule.

27:32 This is $79,500 that is going to CRT training for our teachers.

27:41 It goes right along with the Matthew Kincaid training that they

27:44 got last year.

27:48 This is continued racist training.

27:49 If you go to the Conscious Discipline website, which is the

27:56 people who run this training, it is very clear that this

28:03 organization is far left.

28:04 They have a whole page of their website dedicated to Ibram X. Kendi,

28:09 a huge proponent of Marxism.

28:12 This is a quote from him: “The only remedy to racist

28:16 discrimination is anti-racist discrimination.

28:19 the only remedy to past discrimination is the only remedy to

28:22 past discrimination is present discrimination.

28:25 The only remedy to present discrimination is future

28:28 discrimination.

28:29 This man pushes hate.”

28:32 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said this: “Returning violence for

28:39 violence multiplies violence.

28:39 Adding deeper darkness to a night already void of stars.

28:48 Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.

28:52 Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

28:55 I’m switching gears because it was made clear today during the

29:00 workshop that the language for H44 is too loose and

29:09 needs further revision.

29:11 This is not a black and white issue.

29:13 This is a very gray issue.

29:15 The language is too loose.

29:17 We need clear language that’s going to protect our girls and

29:21 their sports.

29:22 Girls all over the country are losing their scholarships because

29:25 of biological boys going on girls teams

29:28 and getting their scholarships to college.

29:30 Our mothers fought for decades to get women’s rights.

29:38 This is ridiculous.

29:39 I just want to point out again, $79,000 for this teacher

29:46 training, $1,500 per teacher.

29:50 53 teachers are assigned to go to this training.

29:53 That’s not even one teacher per school.

29:56 We looked on the website, $79 for the whole year could have

30:01 gotten these teachers full access to everything.

30:04 So why are we spending $1,500 per teacher to send them on a

30:09 vacation?

30:10 Thank you.

30:11 Thank you, Ms. Delaney.

30:12 Mr. Cox?

30:12 Hello.

30:13 Thank you.

30:14 I decided to bring a visual representation of today’s agenda,

30:23 which, when you go through everything,

30:28 is 1,300 pages, crazy, we get one week to go through this, which

30:36 is where some of us found the seminar that Mrs. Delaney was just

30:41 talking about.

30:41 How is it expected that community members can go through this

30:46 and see what’s going on in our schools in seven days?

30:50 I mean, there’s a science book from our district.

30:59 There’s a Bible that’s 1,200 pages.

31:07 And this is the agenda.

31:10 It’s just crazy to me that we’re given seven days to go through

31:14 it, especially when things like this seminar are buried in it.

31:19 When you go to the website of Conscious Discipline, there’s

31:25 Critical Race Theory, there’s Ibram X Kendi.

31:29 Literally, what our governor has told you not to do, that’s what

31:32 these teachers are going to be trained in.

31:34 And I get it, it’s not going to the kids, but the teachers are

31:37 trained in it to implement it in the classroom.

31:39 So I ask that for future notice, maybe we could get it earlier.

31:44 I know you guys get it 14 days out, or maybe it could be smaller

31:48 and more transparent.

31:49 Thank you.

31:51 As Sarah’s approaching, our next three speakers will be Danielle

31:54 Jackson, Amanda Martucci, and Stel Bailey.

31:57 If you all wouldn’t mind getting on deck.

32:00 Sarah, whenever you’re ready.

32:01 Yep.

32:02 Good evening, Madam Chair and Board.

32:03 Happy New Year.

32:04 I’m Sarah Mirsky, taxpayer registered voter, recent college grad,

32:08 wife, and mom to two children.

32:10 I’m in District 2 for School Board.

32:12 I’m speaking on four agenda items tonight.

32:15 Agenda item H41, I am glad that the School Board is coming into

32:20 compliance with their policy

32:22 to align with state law on the Parental Bill of Rights.

32:25 However, I am concerned about a lot of the language for this

32:29 particular agenda item, fitting along

32:33 with federal language or laws.

32:36 So I would actually like for this to be reviewed by our Attorney

32:40 General, just to give our board

32:43 guidance on that.

32:45 I’m going to move on to agenda item G-37B, the loving guidance

32:50 training.

32:51 I’m confused as to why BPS staff would need this type of

32:54 training when I looked up the organization.

32:57 I only saw mental health credentials for one person.

33:01 I want to make sure this type of mental health training is unbiased

33:05 and all the trainers are licensed

33:08 mental health professionals.

33:10 This organization seems to be aligned with a partisan extremist

33:14 political agenda.

33:16 There are numerous examples of this on their website and on

33:19 their social media pages.

33:20 I want to know what the purpose of this training is, how it

33:25 aligns with state and executive order,

33:28 and the directives of the Florida Department of Education.

33:31 Also, if this training is needed, to make sure our tax dollars

33:35 go towards nonpartisan, well-qualified,

33:38 licensed mental health professionals for training for our BPS

33:42 staff members and teachers.

33:44 If someone could get back to me on this, I would appreciate it.

33:48 H-44, agenda item.

33:50 Let’s table this issue and see what our State Attorney General’s

33:53 guidance on this is as well.

33:56 Let’s have our attorneys for the school board also study the

33:59 Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, F-32.

34:03 Let’s make sure all of our tax money is going towards the

34:06 correct things.

34:07 Thank you.

34:09 Thank you, Ms. Mursky.

34:11 Ms. Jackson.

34:14 Hi, good evening.

34:20 I’m here to address the Apollo Imperial Estates rezoning on the

34:24 agenda.

34:25 I’m not going to stand here and reiterate what I wrote in my

34:27 survey response.

34:27 I trust that you guys all read those.

34:29 I just want to emphasize that these kids have been through

34:31 enough in the last couple of years,

34:33 and there’s no one in sight for this pandemic.

34:35 The only constant my son and our family really has had for the

34:39 last two years is the community.

34:41 He shows up at school every day.

34:45 I know you think the two-year plan allows for some choice, but

34:47 like most working parents, that is not the case for us.

34:52 Families that rely on the bus transportation.

34:56 Families that rely on the bus will be put in a position to rely

34:58 on other families for transportation, which would create a

35:03 financial hardship,

35:03 as in paying for carpooling gas money to other families that are

35:06 taking my kids to and from school every day in an economy that

35:10 isn’t getting any better either.

35:12 At one point in my childhood, I was moved to five schools in six

35:16 years and I can tell you that it negatively impacted the social

35:20 aspect of growing up.

35:22 I promised my kids that they would not have to change schools

35:27 and would grow up with the same friends and school staff they

35:29 start with.

35:30 Please consider not changing these boundaries as there is no

35:32 benefit from most of the proposed section in the district or the

35:36 distance to either school.

35:38 And both schools are overfilling and struggling to keep staff

35:40 right now as it is.

35:42 Thank you.

35:44 Ms. Martucci?

35:46 First, good job on saying my last name.

35:55 I did write an email, so I just want to touch base on some of

35:58 the stuff I said.

35:59 We live on the same street.

36:00 My daughter is friends with her children and we had an

36:05 expectation that her children

36:07 would watch out for my little girl in school and then we hear

36:11 the Apollo things

36:13 changing to Imperial if they have to leave they already know the

36:17 kids in the

36:18 school they already know the teachers in the school they know

36:21 where to tell her

36:23 to go and because I won’t be there so I just don’t think that’s

36:26 a good idea to

36:27 change it to Imperial because we know nothing about that like

36:33 she already

36:34 reiterated the children have been through enough on this year

36:37 and these

36:38 past two years and it’s just hard to go through all that I also

36:42 looked at some

36:43 stats the social economic stuff Apollo has a better rating than

36:51 Imperial States

36:51 does for social economic they do more they have a higher rating

36:55 scale for kids

36:56 of lower lower income lower families they push more and they do

37:00 more with that

37:01 program Imperial States is already struggling so why put 50 100

37:07 more kids

37:07 in their school when they are already struggling thank you thank

37:12 you as Miss

37:14 Bailey’s approaching Charles Middleton you are on the you’re

37:20 signed up to speak

37:20 under student discipline which is not actually an agenda item

37:22 that we’re

37:23 discussing this evening there’s no no item associated with that

37:26 so you’ll be moved

37:27 to the non-agenda speakers so our next three speakers will be

37:31 Chelsea are I’m

37:34 I’m not going to do such a good job with this name I’m sure

37:36 Chelsea Parvianen

37:38 Jennifer Stratford and then Shawn Sima Miss Bailey

37:42 hi my name is Stel Bailey I’m here to talk on F33 which is about

37:46 the formerly used

37:47 defense site and improving the right of entry form I am the

37:50 executive director of

37:51 five for zero a non-profit organization that works on

37:54 environmental health here in

37:55 Florida and especially Bavar County this is where I grew up I

37:58 worked on the

38:00 satellite beach cancer cases and I also played a pivotal role in

38:04 getting the

38:04 formerly used defense site established and the investigation

38:08 going in South

38:09 Patrick Shores I’m also a co-facilitator of a national PFAS

38:14 contamination

38:14 coalition and the community liaison for the Academy of Sciences

38:20 so I do a lot of work

38:20 in environmental health and in early 2019 we went to Washington

38:26 DC and we talked to

38:27 Congressman Posey showed him data documentation scientific

38:32 evidence testing

38:33 results that we had did in the area concerning you know toxins

38:38 in the water

38:39 and we found PFAS which is a forever chemical it doesn’t break

38:43 down and the

38:44 reason why we call it a forever chemical is that it’s still

38:48 there after decades we’re

38:50 working on Department of Defense contamination and I just really

38:54 really

38:54 want I know that you guys inherited this issue that this is

38:59 something that you

39:00 know decades ago people did not address and you have the

39:04 opportunity to do

39:05 something right and to get a scientific evidence and this

39:08 community some closure by

39:10 getting this information we do know that children are most

39:14 susceptible susceptible

39:15 to environmental exposures they take in more they’re developing

39:19 and they have

39:20 multiple exposure pathways so if we can just get answers on this

39:24 situation we

39:26 don’t want this lingering any longer it’s already gone on for

39:29 way too long the

39:30 Department of Defense knew that these chemicals were dangerous

39:33 and we know that

39:34 they have high pollution issues since the 70s they knew that PFAS

39:38 was it was a

39:39 harmful chemical and they continue to use it knowing that it was

39:42 harming the

39:43 environment and humans the potential of exposure of toxins is

39:48 there but we

39:49 won’t know without scientific evidence and we believe in getting

39:52 the science

39:53 behind this we don’t want this lingering again over the

39:56 community of unknowing this

39:58 is our kids were talking about five zero it does offer the

40:02 school board an

40:03 opportunity to collaborate as well we are looking to get

40:07 drinking fountains

40:09 with filters into the schools and we’re trying to work on a

40:12 project and proposing

40:14 that this year so please feel free to reach out thank you thanks

40:17 so

40:19 all right Chelsea

40:33 all right my name is Chelsea Parvianen and I’m a concerned

40:36 taxpayer citizen here in Brevard County I lived here my whole

40:36 life and have seen a lot of changes I address this room right

40:36 now on the F32 and H44 I’m a former Viera high school soccer

40:36 player and I can’t imagine going against boys during my match

40:36 you all my friends would have lost their college scholarships by

40:36 the way so I’m here to address the George Soros money that is

40:36 now here in our school

40:37 taxpayer citizen here in Brevard County I’ve lived here my whole

40:40 life and have seen a lot of changes I address this room right

40:43 now on the F32 and H44 I’m a former Viera high school soccer

40:49 player and I can’t imagine going against boys during my match

40:53 you all my friends would have lost their college scholarships by

40:57 the way so I’m here to address the George Soros money that is

41:01 now here in our school board district okay the George Soros

41:05 money don’t cut my mind

41:07 please um CRT is here but Floridians are smarter than that you

41:12 can’t divide us from race we know it’s about economics so

41:18 Chelsea I am gonna interrupt you for just a second because I

41:21 just need some clarity I have you down for speaking on H44 which

41:24 is our non-discrimination policy and then you also said F32

41:31 which is actually a modification to our sales surtax plan so if

41:35 you could keep your comments focused

41:37 on those two for me okay yeah thank you

41:39 so you follow the science right not pseudoscience you have to

41:46 look at the science of the male anatomy

41:49 when you are allowing them to play against women in sports uh

41:52 god made man and woman that’s facts

41:56 just please stop the grooming of our children and that’s all I

42:04 have to say info wars

42:07 check it out thanks chelsea jennifer

42:10 good evening jennifer shackard the president’s voter also

42:22 sophomore at satellite high school

42:24 uh just want to quickly address that I am speaking on the board

42:29 policy 2266 sex just sex non-discrimination based on sex I ask

42:35 that you guys table this until after

42:37 this is for the review by our state attorney general’s office

42:39 for further clarification seems to be a lot of gray area and I

42:42 think it really needs to be more explained out before a decision

42:46 is made um we don’t want another loud loud county situation in

42:52 our district here where boys are competing on girls teams boys

42:56 that feel like girls are going into girls restrooms and girls

42:58 that feel like boys are going into boys restrooms and

42:58 possibly putting our students and our children since it’s all

43:02 about the safety and health of the students like you guys claim

43:06 let’s really just table this until lawyers and attorney general’s

43:10 office have to further um uh look at this and decide further and

43:15 discuss it further thank you

43:15 thanks jennifer and as sean is approaching our last speaker for

43:21 agenda items will be michelle beavers reminding the rest of you

43:24 that signed up to speak to non-agenda you will be called at the

43:28 end okay sean

43:29 thank you very much uh thank you very much uh i come in peace uh

43:32 i i come to address uh the most safety conscious school board in

43:39 the united states of america

43:42 in february of 2016 my seemingly healthy 16 year old daughter

43:49 who was an elite athlete and a cheerleader at viera high school

43:52 collapsed and died running on a treadmill it’s good news i’m

43:57 going to tell you thankfully there were some people there that

44:00 night that knew cpr and they saved my daughter’s life

44:04 my wife and i went to orlando medical center and we held hands

44:09 and we prayed over my daughter

44:11 and we begged god that if she would live we would do everything

44:16 in our power to pay it forward

44:17 july 19 2016 i sent an email to our brevard county school board

44:27 many of those members are no longer here

44:29 and i then met mr matt susan who is an absolute powerhouse i

44:36 lived in district four hey sean i’m just going to ask you

44:40 to keep it focused on the board as a whole for me okay okay

44:42 thank you but i do want to lead up to it i’m going to say real

44:46 quick

44:46 i stood before this board and y’all passed the cpr and aed

44:51 policy

44:52 that led to us going to the state of florida and we passed three

44:58 state laws we passed one national resolution

45:01 so i stood next to the state of florida and cpr i stood next to

45:04 my daughter

45:04 may

45:08 of 2017

45:12 and i pointed out that because those gentlemen that night acted

45:18 in a gym i would one day watch my daughter

45:20 get married and have a baby and graduate high school

45:23 well that happened my wife my daughter’s a wife and she’s going

45:28 to be a mother and that’s because somebody acted

45:31 and you all acted you passed that law that policy and then you

45:36 passed an ekg policy

45:38 does that mean that’s being like that um but that policy was the

45:44 first policy in the united states of america

45:47 and now we have a policy a law that’s in front of the florida

45:51 state legislature

45:53 that law in brevard county has saved 40 kids lives

45:57 a kid in your district who was found to have the deadliest heart

46:02 condition there could be because we identify that

46:05 his friends knew what to do when he collapsed and died

46:09 and they saved his life

46:11 this is the safest county in the united states

46:15 there’s a lot of stuff that we talk about in this place i watch

46:19 it

46:19 but because of you all and your bravery

46:22 i know that when my kid gets off the bus

46:25 that he’s going to have a chance there’s work to do

46:29 we need to update some policy

46:31 but thank you and i want to say this publicly

46:35 thank you sean

46:36 that this county needs to really be thankful for the safety that

46:40 you do provide with our kids

46:42 the number one killer on school campus

46:44 is sudden cardiac arrest

46:46 thank you

46:48 i was going to talk a little bit about the aed policy

47:03 my kids when they first started the littlest ones started in

47:06 school

47:07 they went to pineapple cove

47:08 and pineapple cove does not have an aed at the time

47:11 i wrote letters to health first and got it one donated so my

47:14 kids could attend there

47:14 because there’s a cardiac condition that runs in our family

47:18 so although we have it in high school

47:19 i would like the board to consider having it in all schools

47:22 not especially charters the charters are overlooked

47:24 they’re kind of considered the black sheep of the family

47:27 the other schools are given these things

47:29 and charters have to purchase them themselves

47:31 i don’t think that’s very fair for the parents who have their

47:33 children in these schools

47:34 um and if you’re wondering where that money could come from

47:37 if you didn’t do that seventy nine thousand dollar training

47:39 you could use that money to put in aed to these schools

47:42 which would be a great idea because it’s not just the kids who

47:45 are at risk

47:45 it’s all of our teachers

47:46 the principals and staff that also could use these things

47:49 um and um that’s that’s pretty much it i would like you to

47:54 consider

47:54 revising your aed policy to include all these elementary schools

47:58 and all these charter schools that don’t have them

47:59 thank you thank you michelle

48:01 okay that is going to move us to the consent agenda dr mullins

48:09 there are 25 agenda items under this category

48:19 thank you dr mullins does any board member wish to pull any item

48:24 from the consent agenda

48:24 hearing none i’ll entertain a motion to accept the consent

48:28 agenda as presented

48:28 move to approve

48:31 moved by miss mcdougall seconded by miss campbell is there any

48:34 discussion

48:34 all in favor please signify by saying aye

48:36 all in favor please signify by saying aye aye

48:39 any opposed same sign motion passes 5-0

48:42 all right dr mullins please let us know let us know about the

48:51 items under action

48:52 yes madame chair there are six items under this category the

48:55 first one is on katie campbell’s

48:57 fsba travel confirmation what are the wishes of the board

49:01 move to approve second moved by mr susan seconded by miss mcdougall

49:05 is there any discussion

49:07 hearing none all in favor please signify by saying aye aye all

49:11 opposed is that an aye mr yes okay sorry

49:14 all opposed same sign motion passes 5-0

49:18 i don’t think so mr gibbs do we have to have public comment on

49:25 miss campbell’s travel

49:26 i think it was i think it was not in my script

49:28 well as long as they have an opportunity before it is approved

49:35 you can so if they had an opportunity

49:37 right before it i love you but i don’t want to talk about you

49:41 all right dr mullins the next item is on procurement solicitations

49:48 what are the wishes of the board move to

49:49 approve second moved by mr susan seconded by i think i heard

49:54 miss campbell um any discussion

49:57 hearing none all in favor please signify by saying aye aye any

50:03 opposed same sign motion passes

50:05 5-0 dr mullins the next action item is on department school

50:08 initiated agreements what are

50:09 the wishes of the board moved by ms jenkins seconded by ms mcdougall

50:14 is there any discussion

50:17 all in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed same

50:21 sign motion passes 5-0 dr mullins

50:24 your next action item is to hold a public hearing and approve

50:27 the secondary mathematics

50:29 textbook adoption is there anyone present this evening who

50:32 wishes to address the secondary

50:33 mathematics textbook adoption anyone present this evening who

50:37 wishes to address the secondary

50:39 mathematics textbook adoption hearing none do i have a motion

50:43 from the board i move i can move

50:47 the secondary mathematics textbook adoption is there any one

50:50 present this evening who wishes to address the

51:08 elementary mathematics textbook adoption all right board i will

51:18 entertain a motion to approve

51:19 move to approve moved by ms campbell second seconded by ms mcdougall

51:26 is there any discussion all in favor please signify by saying

51:30 aye aye any opposed same sign motion passes 5-0 dr mullins

51:34 the last action item is to hold a public hearing and approve the

51:38 attendance boundary proposals for school

51:40 year 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 is there anyone present this

51:48 evening who wishes to publicly address the attendance

51:50 boundary proposals for school year 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 is

51:52 there anyone present this evening who wishes to publicly address

51:53 the attendance boundary proposals for school year 2022-2023 and

51:54 2023-2024

51:54 and 2023-2024 is there anyone present this evening who wishes to

52:05 publicly address the attendance boundary proposals for school

52:06 year 2022-2023 and 2023-2024

52:06 all right hearing none i’ll entertain a motion from the board

52:09 second moved by ms campbell seconded by mcdougall is there any

52:13 discussion all in favor please signify by saying aye aye any

52:17 opposed same sign motion passes 5-0

52:17 all right we will move on to the information agenda which

52:26 includes items for board review and may

52:28 be brought back for action at a subsequent meeting no action

52:30 will be taken on these items tonight dr mullins

52:32 there are 20 items under the information category does any

52:36 member wish to discuss any of the

52:38 information items

52:39 all right does any board member have board member reports

52:44 oh one dr ms can i vote absolutely

52:48 so funny so um it’s i just want to bring to people’s attention

52:57 that um oh i forget all right i just want

53:01 to bring to people’s attention that this um from misty bland

53:04 director of alternative sites she put out a um

53:08 a memo to remind people that the it is the national human

53:12 trafficking prevention month

53:15 and according to florida department of education i don’t know if

53:18 we all know this florida is the third

53:20 in the nation for reporting human trafficking cases so um as as

53:26 a collaborative effort with our esf

53:29 departments working together to offer age-appropriate curriculum

53:33 and instruction for students k-12 as

53:35 directed by the state board of education rule 6a dash 1.094124 fac

53:41 um i just want to let people know that

53:45 this is an issue that i think many of us know and are familiar

53:49 with but i wanted to bring attention that

53:51 this is national human trafficking prevention month and i have a

53:55 telephone number um that you can reach out

53:58 for for if you should need it and for a hotline if anybody wants

54:01 to see me afterwards for the hotline number

54:03 but i just thought we should bring that to people’s attention

54:06 thank you ms mcdougall mr susan

54:09 yeah i just you know um

54:13 i wanted to

54:15 so mr seema came in here and he was speaking right um and he’s

54:21 very emotional and his speeches get me

54:23 emotional and i don’t think some things came across that i think

54:26 he wanted to say so i was

54:27 going to say i’m for you sean um he has passed three laws on his

54:31 own in tallahassee representative

54:35 latvalla who is the chairman of the education committee said

54:38 that he is the most effective lobbyist

54:41 in tallahassee and he does it for free there is nobody more

54:45 passionate about an issue but there’s also

54:47 nobody more effective at getting things across the finish line

54:51 he came to us and it’s us um thank you

54:54 for the shout out to me but they’re part of the board is what

54:56 made it happen um and we did something

54:59 spectacular and now it’s moving across the state there are

55:02 people literally saving lives of individuals

55:05 across the state of florida for what you do sean um not many

55:08 people understand that there’s something

55:10 that just broke recently um the cost of somebody a child when

55:14 they have a heart attack and are

55:16 transported is in between a quarter million to a half million

55:20 dollars worth of cost both the family

55:22 the providers and everything else um that’s a massive thing that

55:25 insurance companies don’t want to pay

55:27 and instead what he did was engage the insurance companies over

55:32 in orlando and they actually have

55:34 insurance carriers that are now going to add to their insurance

55:38 policies a wellness check that includes an ekg test

55:42 i mean to say that you’re saving lives is one thing sean but

55:47 like to literally get insurance carriers to

55:49 come out and say that they’re going to do this to support you um

55:52 and the efforts of helping our children

55:55 is incredible he’s now working with our district to put together

55:59 our ekg response policies and everything else like we talked

56:02 about the other day

56:03 um but the reason i said all that is because the reason he’s

56:06 here today is not because

56:07 he wants to be bragged about or tell us about how great we are

56:10 he wants ekgs for the whole state of

56:12 florida and that’s what he’s here for today and we found it to

56:15 be one of the most prolific things

56:17 um that saved kids lives and we now have people in tallahassee

56:21 that don’t think that this is a good idea

56:23 like hey we should just make it optional and kids die literally

56:29 sean is on a text and every time i look

56:31 at it i cringe because it’s either great things or something

56:33 that happened across the state the same

56:35 people that say that we don’t need it to be uh that they don’t

56:38 need it and it can be optional and

56:40 they don’t have it in their school district have kids dying and

56:43 it’s sick it’s literally wrong and

56:45 i want to thank you sean um i’m going to put my full force

56:48 efforts behind working with you to get that

56:50 thing across the finish line um and if we don’t get it again we’ll

56:53 keep going until we do and more and

56:55 more the school district orange county so swanee county us osceola

56:59 county many have all signed on

57:01 citrus is on the line sarasota is on the line charlotte’s on the

57:05 line they’re all moving and it’s

57:07 the most important thing is saving these children and you get

57:10 credit but we have work to do so if part

57:12 of what you guys say even though it wasn’t on the option is to

57:15 push this we can do it and we can save

57:17 lives and we’re the first right i like being the first sean

57:20 first in the nation to have that policy so

57:23 that’s it thank you thank you mr susan um was was tickled to see

57:27 sean show up this evening because

57:29 i had a facebook memory that popped up this week from the heart

57:32 conference sean um and the young lady

57:34 that spoke her brother uh was the one with the heart condition

57:38 um such a dynamic young woman and uh doing

57:41 great work alongside you so it was it was funny when you showed

57:44 up tonight i was like that’s ironic so

57:46 thank you for the work you do

57:49 all right

57:54 all right any other board discussion items dr mullins do you

58:00 have a superintendent’s report

58:01 oh sorry miss campbell i didn’t mean to skip you i know we got

58:05 the email about um all county

58:06 concerts sorry to be the music beat the music drum tonight haha

58:10 um but next weekend is all county weekend

58:14 and and so if you guys can come to at least one concert you will

58:17 just be thrilled um the chorus

58:20 concert i believe is in the early afternoon and then the

58:23 orchestra concert in the late afternoon and

58:25 that night the band concert uh featuring our the best of the

58:29 best across brevard in all uh three of our

58:32 music performance areas so you guys uh take advantage of free

58:36 tickets uh email miss or and let her know

58:39 um that you’d like to come it’s going to be a great week and

58:42 miss campbell maybe we can we can just have

58:44 staff follow up with us after the meeting but i think because i

58:46 was going through my calendar last night

58:48 i think we had to request tickets by the 14th so well some of us

58:52 missed a deadline and got some anyway okay

58:55 so so we will we will reach out and see what can be arranged

58:59 thank you very much for for bringing

59:01 that up we appreciate it all right dr mullins superintendent

59:04 report i don’t have a full report

59:06 but i did want to add to the our accolades earlier this evening

59:09 of our see our career in technical

59:11 education and trades programs across the district you know some

59:14 recognitions were made in haste and i i just

59:17 i need to we need to center our uh um appreciation and and

59:22 accommodation aware uh dr sullivan secondary

59:26 leading and learning assistant superintendent her team under her

59:29 leadership uh rachel rutledge grace

59:32 i never get greece’s last name right so that dick that’s it um

59:38 grace is the the uh workplace based

59:43 coordinator and is continually working in our community rachel

59:46 rutledge you remember her dynamic

59:48 gal who came and shared about our cte programs probably i don’t

59:52 know half a year uh six months ago

59:55 uh i i’m out in the community a lot but i’m almost beat by them

59:59 and uh they’re they’re just out all the

1:00:01 time met with edc last week talked uh with manufacturing

1:00:04 companies about how they can partner with our

1:00:07 programs just uh great work going on behind the scenes making

1:00:12 opportunities available for our kids so

1:00:15 had to give those shout outs as well so thank you there’s one

1:00:18 more uh janice schultz who retired that

1:00:21 built all of the footprints for what we have so she deserves the

1:00:25 credit there too awesome thank you very

1:00:28 much anything else all right then we are going to be moving into

1:00:32 our non-agenda public comments um

1:00:36 each speaker is limited to one minute we have a clock in front

1:00:39 of me to help you keep track of

1:00:41 your time when your time is over you’ll be asked to stop and

1:00:43 allow the next speaker his or her turn

1:00:45 we’ll hear from the speakers in the order in which they signed

1:00:47 up including those who

1:00:48 may be waiting outside although i think we still have some empty

1:00:51 seats this evening

1:00:52 as stated earlier reasonable decorum is expected at all times

1:00:56 and your statement should be directed to

1:00:57 the board chair should audience participation interfere with

1:01:00 speakers being heard or hearing me i’ll be

1:01:01 be forced to clear the room when i call your name please line up

1:01:04 along the east wall of the boardroom to

1:01:06 facilitate the smooth transition of speakers and we will begin

1:01:10 with our first three speakers catherine delaney

1:01:12 my name is catherine delaney i’m here to ask about just because

1:01:23 i didn’t have enough time

1:01:28 to ask about just before this is a 500 000 service that it’s not

1:01:34 outlined what it is um so i’ve i’ve emailed i’d like

1:01:39 to know specifically what services warrants a 450 000 difference

1:01:45 from our previous year

1:01:47 um secondly if and when the stop woke act gets passed in

1:01:56 legislation that training that you all just

1:02:00 approved will be against that so now you’re opening us up again

1:02:05 to litigation

1:02:07 i just hope that you guys stop wasting our money please thank

1:02:12 you thanks katie sarah

1:02:17 mrski again um i want to speak on the current encouragement of

1:02:26 mask wearing it seems that it

1:02:27 is currently against the law to quote strongly encourage mask

1:02:31 wearing at the district level of any

1:02:34 kind it is squarely at the parent’s sole discretion as your

1:02:37 current mitigation plan for the second semester

1:02:40 also suggest to quote strongly consider taking the coven 19

1:02:44 vaccine i strongly consider the district and

1:02:48 the school board not give medical advice unless they are

1:02:51 licensed to practice medicine in florida

1:02:53 i strongly encourage the school board to come into compliance

1:02:57 with the state law

1:02:58 and the directives for the florida department of education thank

1:03:01 you thanks sarah as mr bryant’s

1:03:04 approaching our next three speakers will be clinton branch ronald

1:03:07 shaw and chris bird mr bryant uh thank

1:03:10 you board for allowing me to speak today i just want to thank

1:03:13 sean for what a powerful testimony

1:03:15 uh of kids that are that are being saved but i also want to let

1:03:20 the board know that

1:03:21 other children need help as well just wanted you to be aware

1:03:26 that i spoke with a young senior

1:03:30 student about 12 months ago she said mr bryant i have i had my

1:03:36 first black teacher when i was in 12th

1:03:40 grade so can you imagine being in a broad public school system

1:03:44 seeing your first black teacher i want

1:03:47 to just talk about diversity when i look at the overall black

1:03:51 population they are about 15 percent of the

1:03:54 population right now the broad county school system has only

1:03:59 around three three or five percent of black teachers

1:04:04 in the administration you only have three percent though our

1:04:09 kids need to see diversity thank you mr bryant

1:04:13 we appreciate it clinton brant

1:04:23 good evening um i’m a believer in jesus christ here and um i’m

1:04:27 going to speak from that point

1:04:29 of view i don’t know if there are other believers up there but i

1:04:33 i do want to make a point here i’ve

1:04:35 got my bible something that’s missing desperately from our

1:04:39 school system i understand it can be taught

1:04:43 in the school as long as you adhere to certain pretty strict

1:04:46 rules but you can teach the bible in public

1:04:49 school so i just bring that forth please don’t can please

1:04:53 consider that in the future uh when we gather

1:04:55 together in the morning many of us spend time praying for you

1:04:59 all our prayer focus is that god

1:05:01 would give you the wisdom to make the right decisions for our

1:05:05 children in our future because

1:05:06 we all have a responsibility and you have a particular

1:05:09 responsibility that the children uh and we’re losing

1:05:13 them i gotta we’re losing at the soul of this generation all i

1:05:17 can say is there’s a difference between right

1:05:21 and wrong and pointing that out is not hate speech or domestic

1:05:26 terrorism thank you mr branch we appreciate

1:05:28 that in the prayers mr shaw good evening i’m ronald shaw the

1:05:37 vice president the first vice president of the

1:05:41 bavard alliance of black school educators also known as bavard

1:05:46 aspie bavard aspie is affiliated with

1:05:48 the national alliance of black school educators the nation

1:05:52 premier non-profit organization devoted to

1:05:56 furthering the academic success of our nation’s children

1:06:00 particularly of african descent we are

1:06:03 celebrating our fifth year of being organized in bavard county

1:06:07 this month we have sponsored various

1:06:10 events throughout the county uh teacher appreciation week at emma

1:06:14 jewel school southwest middle school

1:06:16 madison middle school financial aid and literacy night coco high

1:06:20 school support needy families during holidays

1:06:24 back to school drives at golf u elementary sherwood elementary

1:06:29 coco high head start

1:06:30 we meet every fourth monday of the month at 6 30. for more

1:06:35 information we can be emailed at brevard

1:06:38 aspie a s a b s e at gmail.com thank you thank you mr shaw

1:06:45 uh as chris is approaching our next three speakers will be stephen

1:06:48 rainey michelle beavers and then

1:06:49 charles middleton chris good evening chris bird district 2

1:06:54 parent um i would like to draw attention

1:06:57 to something that i’ve emailed you all this was back in uh end

1:07:01 of october beginning of november

1:07:03 um i was asking a question about closing the achievement gap

1:07:08 using cdo’s

1:07:08 and referred you to an article on research conducted by the

1:07:12 heritage foundation using

1:07:15 findings from the national assessment of educational progress

1:07:18 and the national center for education

1:07:21 statistics they looked at over the course of 10 years um all

1:07:26 schools use who have hired chief diversity

1:07:29 officers over the course of 10 years not only did they not close

1:07:33 the achievement gap it actually widened

1:07:36 so i sent those articles i asked for statistics showing um what

1:07:41 evidence we had that this would

1:07:44 improve the achievement gap dr mullins did reply but what he

1:07:49 sent me was not what i asked and i did

1:07:53 email you two more times and i’m just requesting more

1:07:56 information thank you chris stephen rainey

1:08:06 i’ll give them a hand

1:08:20 my name is mark rainey i’m a member of our constituent of matt sussman’s

1:08:27 area and i’m one of the 323 remaining

1:08:31 bus drivers um that we have our bus drivers drive 6 900 route

1:08:36 miles a day they average about 103 miles

1:08:39 a day that’s 6.5 million miles a school year and they deliver

1:08:43 one third of your registered students

1:08:46 that’s 5200 stops between all the drivers per day delivering 24

1:08:51 000 students a day okay

1:08:54 that national average for these guys is 21 an hour we’re not

1:08:58 here asking for a raise for them we’re

1:09:01 here to ask you to consider a starting pay average that will

1:09:05 allow us to recruit and retain and and keep

1:09:09 retention yes it may affect them but we need to be able to

1:09:12 recruit more drivers we’re 60 drivers short

1:09:15 it is a bus crisis it bus driver crisis it is not coming and it’s

1:09:19 not going it is full-blown and today

1:09:23 that i thank you thank you mr rainey michelle beaver

1:09:29 okay super thanks michelle charles middleton

1:09:35 hello i’m charles middleton i have a phd in laser physics and i’m

1:09:44 the genius who couldn’t figure out

1:09:45 the agenda correctly so thanks for this amount of time uh i’m

1:09:49 also a cto of a small business that has

1:09:52 hired an intern from brevard schools and we’re incredibly happy

1:09:55 worked out great and i advocate

1:09:56 that for everybody um i’d like to briefly talk about the uh

1:10:00 school discipline and disproportionality

1:10:03 among students of color we’ve seen some real progress as we’ve

1:10:07 implemented a district-wide

1:10:09 discipline program and uh gone from a risk ratio of students of

1:10:13 color being three times as likely as

1:10:15 white students to be suspended to better numbers now but there’s

1:10:19 still a lot of work to do and uh other

1:10:23 metrics that we should be tracking to understand how the

1:10:26 progress is being made and where we need to

1:10:28 focus and i look forward to working with the board and uh

1:10:32 getting the data public and seeing how we can

1:10:35 best help all of our students thank you thank you mr middleton

1:10:37 feel free to reach out to any of us okay

1:10:39 all right that concludes our non-agenda public speaking the

1:10:45 board wishes to thank this evening

1:10:46 speakers your willingness to speak to us is very much

1:10:49 appreciated anyone have anything else for the

1:10:50 good of the order real quick um mr susan you know i already have

1:10:54 the gavel in my hand i did that’s why i

1:10:55 caught it um there was a lot of concern about the uh conscious

1:10:59 discipline um just so everybody knows it

1:11:01 does not start until the summer so if there’s an opportunity for

1:11:04 us to get um conscious disciplines

1:11:06 uh curriculum what they’re going to present that we make sure um

1:11:09 we’ve made a dedication to our our

1:11:12 people that we will not teach crt inside of our schools and we

1:11:15 won’t do it um in any of the trainings

1:11:17 so that has been said that is state law so we will make sure of

1:11:20 that just so you guys know it doesn’t

1:11:22 start until july um plenty of time to review those things and um

1:11:26 the maxim health care staffing which

1:11:28 was the one that did the staffing there was some uh allegations

1:11:31 that they might be uh work with other

1:11:33 corporations so i’m just going to ask paul to work with me on

1:11:36 making sure that that’s good that’s all

1:11:38 thank you mr susan anything else for the good of the order

1:11:41 during none this meeting is now adjourned

1:11:44 have a great night thank you

1:11:52 so

1:11:59 you