Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 We’ll be right back.
0:30 Good evening. I’m happy to welcome all of my fellow board
0:33 members and the public and call the September 9th, 2021 final
0:36 public budget hearing and school board meeting to order. This is
0:40 a business meeting of the board held in the public. As such, the
0:44 board is authorized to adopt rules or policies to maintain orderly
0:48 conduct and proper decorum in a public meeting. Please note that
0:52 your presence here is subject to those rules and policies.
0:57 Pursuant to Florida Statute 877.13, it is unlawful and a misdemeanor
1:03 of the second degree, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a
1:08 $500 fine for any person.
1:12 Pursuant to knowingly disrupt or interfere with the lawful
1:16 administration or functions of any educational institution or
1:20 school board or knowingly to advise, counsel or instruct any
1:24 school pupil or school employee to disrupt any school or school
1:28 board function or activity on school board property.
1:34 Pursuant to facilitate an amenable environment for all, please
1:37 be aware of the following.
1:39 For our policy, masks are currently required at all times while
1:43 indoors on school district property unless a verified medical
1:46 exemption has been provided.
1:50 If you must leave the building for any reason, you will not be
1:53 permitted to re-enter, your seat will be given to the next
1:55 person waiting to enter.
1:57 Three, the appropriate place for public participation in the
2:01 meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as
2:04 identified in the agenda.
2:06 Outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role
2:10 in the meeting is as an observer.
2:13 Four, I will ask persons deemed to be knowingly or intentionally
2:16 disrupting this meeting of the school board of Brevard County or
2:19 not complying with policy to stop or leave.
2:22 If persons receiving the warning choose not to follow my
2:25 instructions, I will instruct Brevard County Sheriff’s deputies
2:28 to take any law enforcement actions they deem appropriate and
2:31 you may be escorted, detained, or arrested depending on the
2:35 conduct.
2:37 Persons who refuse to depart after a warning may also be
2:40 committing the crime of trespassing, in accordance with Florida
2:43 statute section 810.08.
2:46 These statutes apply to conduct on all school board property,
2:49 which includes this boardroom, as well as the outside of this
2:52 building, to the sidewalk.
2:53 If you continue to cause a disruption, you are advised that you
2:58 are in violation of Florida State Statute 877.13.
3:03 Or, if you fail to leave the premises after being warned by the
3:05 sheriff’s office, you are committing trespass and the board has
3:08 authorized the sheriff’s office to enforce these rules.
3:11 In the event multiple individuals fail to adhere to these
3:14 expectations and board business cannot continue due to
3:17 disruption, I will call a recess and request that the law
3:20 enforcement officers present clear the boardroom of attendees.
3:24 When the room is cleared, the board will return and resume their
3:27 meeting with no public presence.
3:28 Those who are signed up to speak will be seated under the front
3:31 entry area and called in when it is your time to speak.
3:34 Ms. Escobar, roll call please.
3:37 Ms. Belford.
3:38 Present.
3:38 Ms. McDougall.
3:40 Present.
3:40 Ms. Jenkins.
3:41 Present.
3:42 Mr. Susan.
3:43 Present.
3:43 And Mrs. Campbell.
3:44 Present.
3:45 The board will now hold a moment of silent reflection in memory
3:49 of DPS family members who recently passed away.
3:53 Dana Mitchell, a before and after child care group leader from
3:56 Imperial Estates.
3:57 Clarice Jackson, a cafeteria cashier from Cambridge Elementary.
4:01 Linda Jabkowitz, a cafeteria manager from Food and Nutrition
4:05 Services.
4:05 And Candace Verity, a Head Start advocate.
4:23 Thank you.
4:35 Please stand for the pledge.
4:42 At this time I would like to offer my fellow board members and
4:49 Dr. Mullins the opportunity to recognize students, staff, or
4:54 members of the community.
4:55 If you’d like to start us off, Ms. McDougall.
4:58 I’m going to start by giving a huge shout-off to the facilities
5:06 department.
5:09 Especially a couple weeks ago, Coco had a blown transformer and
5:16 they had to vacate this school got real hot, obviously.
5:22 And the transformer wasn’t a little one.
5:26 They had to bring in a crane from Daytona, which meant our
5:30 facilities team worked through the night to make sure the next
5:35 day with Florida power and light to make sure that there was air
5:39 conditioning.
5:41 So my shout-out is to, I hope I get everybody’s name right,
5:47 Kevin Batchelder, Mike Vilgatti, did I say that right?
5:54 Did I say that right, Ms. Tan, I don’t know if I did.
5:57 Ron Anderson, Sean Click, Greg Walsh, Larry Elmore, Jason Fitcher,
6:03 Keith Stevenson, and Jim Ross.
6:06 So a big shout-out to them for working through the night to make
6:09 sure the next day that our students and staff had air
6:11 conditioning.
6:12 So thank you very much for going above and beyond.
6:15 Thank you, Ms. McDougall.
6:17 Ms. Campbell?
6:18 Thank you.
6:19 So I just wanted to highlight a special recognition week that is
6:25 coming up.
6:26 September the 12th through the 18th is National Arts and
6:29 Education Week.
6:30 We have Arts and Education Month, which is in the spring, but
6:33 National Arts and Education Week is next week.
6:35 And I just applaud all of our arts teachers, which include our
6:39 elementary music and strings teachers,
6:41 our art teachers, which have all the different kinds, drawings,
6:45 ceramics.
6:46 This is not your mama’s art class, you know.
6:48 We have digital arts as well, band, orchestra, choir, theater,
6:52 music theater.
6:53 My family has particularly been blessed to be a part of many of
6:57 these programs,
6:59 and I’m so thankful for all of our arts teachers across the
7:01 district who do such a fantastic job
7:03 and always represent our district well, and our students under
7:07 their tutelage represent our district well
7:09 in state competitions and national competitions as well.
7:12 So thank you to all of our arts teachers.
7:15 Thank you.
7:16 Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
7:16 Ms. Bankin?
7:17 Yeah.
7:18 Can I put myself on now?
7:21 Yeah.
7:21 Thank you.
7:22 I, this Saturday, there are a lot of events going around, going
7:29 on around Brevard for 9-11,
7:32 and I found one that I thought would be particularly interesting
7:35 to participate in.
7:36 I’m really looking forward to it.
7:37 The Cocoa firefighters are doing a 9-11 Memorial stair climb,
7:42 and they are going to be climbing 2,071 steps,
7:46 which equals the 110 floors of the World Trade Center, and it’s
7:49 going to be taking place at the Richard Blake Stadium,
7:52 and you’re still able to register if you want to participate.
7:55 There’s, there’s no time to complete it, and you don’t have to
7:58 complete it completely if you can’t,
8:00 but you can register at Cocoa911stairclimb.com.
8:06 Thank you, Ms. Bankin.
8:07 Mr. Susan?
8:08 Yeah, I wanted to say, I don’t know if everybody out here
8:11 follows sports or anything like that,
8:13 but this weekend opened up college football, which reminded me,
8:17 since you mentioned Cocoa,
8:19 that we got a little bit of a bet coming.
8:20 And they’re number one.
8:21 Right?
8:22 Who’s number one?
8:23 Cocoa.
8:23 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
8:25 Cocoa is an amazing program, and for those of you that don’t
8:28 know,
8:28 Ms. McDougall and I have a little running bet that when Rockledge
8:31 plays Cocoa,
8:33 we always have to, whoever wins has to wear whatever it is on
8:36 the other outfit, right?
8:38 So last year, I had to wear the Cocoa Tiger hat, which I think I
8:41 still have a rash from,
8:43 but we’re going to be doing something else this year.
8:45 That game is going to be Wednesday, November 3rd, and it’s in my
8:50 house this time.
8:51 So I’ll make sure you’re taken care of, and they don’t harass
8:54 you too much.
8:54 But look, I think we got it this year.
8:57 Don’t hold your breath.
8:58 And then I wanted to say thank you to Russell Broome.
9:01 We were working on getting together, and the school board
9:04 members were talking about it.
9:05 We’re going to start talking about our career and technical
9:08 programs,
9:09 and we’re going to get into our schools and start showing those
9:11 off.
9:11 So Russell Broome and everybody are doing it.
9:14 We’re going to try to show our community what we have.
9:17 Last year, we did a couple of them, but so that everybody here
9:19 knows, we have aviation.
9:21 We have automotive, construction, and everything else.
9:25 And while this is going on, we can’t forget that these kids need
9:28 to get to work.
9:29 So I just wanted to say thank you to Russell for working on
9:31 setting that up,
9:32 and we’re going to get moving here in about a month and a half.
9:34 Thank you.
9:35 Thank you, Mr. Susan.
9:36 Dr. Mullen?
9:37 Thank you, Ms. Belford.
9:39 I want to take the opportunity just to give a shout-out and my
9:43 appreciation
9:43 to several BPS staff members across several divisions here at ESF.
9:50 Over the last couple of few weeks, we’ve experienced absences at
9:54 a higher rate than we anticipated,
9:55 and with a lower rate of substitutes available,
9:59 it required and called on folks here to go out to our schools
10:04 and support our classrooms and our schools.
10:07 And without any reservation or any hesitation, our staff jumped
10:12 to response to support our schools,
10:15 to keep our schools open, to meet the needs.
10:17 Certainly, Leading and Learning sent several staff out to our
10:22 schools,
10:22 student services, even operations, government-community
10:26 relations, human resources, and so on.
10:29 But even in our schools, administrators are going to help other
10:34 schools in administrative capacities.
10:36 Going down an administrator themselves at their school to help
10:39 another school that’s in need,
10:40 just a tremendous demonstration of dedication and a commitment
10:44 to teamwork,
10:45 and I just continue to be immensely proud of this organization
10:49 and the work that we go to to serve our kids and serve our
10:52 schools.
10:53 So thank you to our team.
10:55 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
10:57 I know, board members, we have talked quite a bit about the
11:01 struggles
11:02 that we’ve been having with getting testing for our faculty, our
11:06 staff, and our students.
11:07 And hopefully you all saw Ms. Moore’s email that went out this
11:12 week
11:12 that we are going to have some of those home test kits that we
11:15 will have in our schools
11:16 and at facilities here for symptomatic individuals to be able to
11:20 test at home,
11:21 alleviating some of that challenge.
11:24 And so I just want to give a shout-out to all the folks that are
11:26 coordinating that.
11:27 Obviously, as you can imagine, distributing throughout the
11:29 district is not easy all the time, right,
11:34 making sure that we have everybody covered.
11:35 So just super excited that we’re going to have that opportunity
11:38 for our students
11:40 and our staff and our faculty to be able to get back to loving
11:43 learning as soon as possible.
11:46 And then I also want to give a shout-out to many of our schools
11:49 have transitioned
11:51 and already taken part in the virtual open houses since we gave
11:55 the direction
11:56 that we didn’t want large groups of people around had the
11:58 opportunity to participate in one of them last night.
12:02 And, you know, if there’s anything that I can say that has come
12:06 out of this challenge of the last 18, 19 months,
12:11 it’s that our folks have gotten incredibly creative about the
12:14 way that we work.
12:15 And they just did a phenomenal job on the open house last night
12:18 and great information.
12:20 And the nice thing is it’s there that we can go back to anytime
12:23 and view it again.
12:24 So really a bonus there.
12:26 So thanks to everyone who is working so hard to work around and
12:30 over the challenges that we’ve been facing.
12:34 All right, that is going to bring us to the adoption of the
12:37 agenda.
12:38 Dr. Mullins.
12:38 Ms. Belford and members of the board, on this evening’s agenda,
12:42 we have the final budget hearing,
12:43 which includes the superintendent’s presentation, public
12:46 hearings, and recommendations.
12:48 On the regular school board meeting, we have administrative
12:51 staff recommendations,
12:52 16 consent items, two action items, and one information item.
12:58 Change is made to the agenda since it was first released to the
13:01 public on Tuesday, August 18, 2013.
13:04 F21 are as follows.
13:05 Items A16 on its administrative staff recommendations, F22 on
13:10 instructional staff recommendations,
13:13 F23 on support staff recommendations, F18 on meeting minutes,
13:19 and F26 on code of student conduct all received revision.
13:24 Attachments were added to items A7 on superintendent’s
13:27 presentation, final public budget hearing,
13:31 A12 on adopt the 2021-2022 budget, and F21 on annual financial
13:39 reports for fiscal year 2020-21.
13:42 What are the wishes of the board?
13:44 Move to approve.
13:45 Second.
13:46 Moved by Mr. Susan.
13:47 Seconded by Ms. McDougall.
13:49 Is there any discussion?
13:49 Hearing none, please vote.
13:51 Okay.
14:01 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
14:29 Any opposed, same sign?
14:31 The motion passes 5-0.
14:33 Okay, it’s saying that it’s a present.
14:36 Yes, that’s what we’re here.
14:37 Did you get that, Pam?
14:40 Maybe it’s just figurative?
14:47 All right.
14:59 We will proceed with the second and final public hearing for the
15:04 2021-2022 proposed millage rates and tentative budget.
15:10 The hearing of September 9, 2021 is now in session.
15:18 I feel like I might have.
15:20 All right.
15:23 Now we will move into the presentation portion of this hearing.
15:26 Ms. Cindy Lysinski, Chief Financial Officer, will make a
15:28 presentation on the proposed 2021-2022 budget and millage levy.
15:32 Ms. Lysinski.
15:34 Good evening, Madam members, Dr. Mullins.
15:42 This is the second and final budget hearing.
15:46 This slide depicts the agenda for this evening.
16:08 So I’m going to start off with the truth and millage.
16:10 So the truth and millage legislation requirements are detailed
16:14 under Florida statutes.
16:16 Trim timelines are very prescriptive in law, and the clock
16:21 started on July 1st.
16:23 The total timeline to budget adoption is 80 days.
16:26 The statute dictates the order of business during the budget
16:29 hearings, and trim requires two public hearings for open
16:34 discussion of the millage rates and the proposed budget.
16:38 So millage is a term that represents the tax rate levied on real
16:47 estate or other property.
16:51 One mill is equivalent to $1 in taxes per $1,000 in taxable
16:56 value.
16:57 If your home has a taxable value of $100,000 and you’re assessed
17:03 a mill tax rate, you would pay $100.00.
17:08 The Florida Education Finance Program, or FEFP, is the centerpiece
17:16 for financing Florida school district’s operating costs.
17:23 Funding for FEFP combines state funds primarily generated from
17:30 sales tax revenue and local funds generated from property tax
17:34 revenue.
17:35 Our balance here in Brevard is approximately 65-35%.
17:42 So 65% of our funding comes from the state, 35% comes from our
17:49 taxes on our property.
17:51 Required local effort is the local amount of funds the district
17:55 receives from levying the state-certified local millage rate on
17:59 the district’s taxable property.
18:02 And it’s key to understand that the Florida legislature sets
18:07 this rate.
18:08 So the Florida legislature sets the required local effort millage
18:12 rate.
18:13 And the school board must levy this RLE effort millage rate in
18:19 order to receive any state funding under the Florida Education
18:22 Finance Program.
18:23 So in order to get the 60% of the funds, we have to make sure
18:29 that we levy the RLE in order to get the funding for our school
18:36 district.
18:41 The proposed required local effort, which is set, again, by the
18:46 legislature, is 3.602.
18:49 The legislature establishes maximums for the basic discretionary
18:55 operating and the capital outlay millage rate.
19:00 The total proposed millage related to school funding for 2001-2002
19:08 school year is 5.850 mills.
19:11 This millage will generate revenue for the general operating and
19:15 capital outlay funds.
19:17 Ms. Lisinski, can I interrupt you for just one second?
19:20 I apologize.
19:20 I just want to remind our audience that you are required to have
19:23 masks while in the boardroom.
19:25 So please make sure that your masks are on and you’re wearing
19:27 them appropriately.
19:27 If you are not going to be wearing them in the boardroom, then
19:30 we would ask that you leave.
19:31 Okay?
19:32 Ms. Lisinski?
19:33 Sure.
19:35 So maintaining these millage rates at the same level as in 2021
19:41 allows the district to continue our work to serve every student
19:46 with excellence.
19:47 And then here you can see how the funding comes.
19:55 And then the different areas.
19:57 So the required local effort is required, again, in order to
20:01 participate in the Florida Education Finance Program.
20:06 So if we want to fund our district, we must levy that tax.
20:11 And we will receive approximately $178.9 million in local tax
20:18 proceeds.
20:20 And then we have the full basic discretionary millage, which
20:24 will garner about $37.2 million in operating costs.
20:28 And in addition to that, since when we levy the 7.48 millage
20:35 rate, we end up not being, we end up being below the state
20:40 average.
20:41 So because of that, we’re able to generate an additional $7
20:46 million, $7 million, $360 million.
20:54 And then the local capital improvement millage or LCI will
20:59 provide the district $74.5 million, $37.6 million comes off the
21:07 top to pay district’s debt service,
21:10 which covers principal and interest payments for previously
21:14 bonded debt that was issued primarily between the years 1996
21:19 through 2008 in order to build schools and provide major renovations.
21:25 LCI contributes $10.3 million towards maintenance costs for
21:29 labor.
21:31 LCI also pays for the district property insurance, which leaves
21:35 $21.1 million for capital needs projects throughout the district.
21:49 So this slide depicts the historic millage rates over the last
21:52 10 years.
21:53 Since FY13, the required local effort millage rates have
21:58 declined each year as our property values have increased in the
22:02 county.
22:03 This has been the trend because of the healthy growth of
22:06 statewide property values each year since the Great Recession.
22:11 Lawmakers reduced the RLE millage rate to limit the revenue
22:15 generated from this source.
22:17 This is a conscious effort to reduce the tax burden on
22:20 homeowners.
22:21 As required by TRMM, we must compare the proposed millage rate
22:30 to the rollback rate.
22:33 The rollback rate is the millage rate that would generate the
22:36 same amount of revenue as last year
22:39 if applied to the current year’s adjusted taxable value.
22:42 Said another way, the state rolls back the rate as property
22:46 values increase
22:47 to bring the total dollars available roughly equivalent to the
22:50 prior year.
22:51 Under TRMM, the rollback rate is the benchmark for determining
22:55 if tax rates have increased or decreased.
22:58 The rollback rate is generally less than the proposed tentative
23:02 rate.
23:02 When the rollback rate is less than the proposed millage rate
23:07 that we receive from the state,
23:08 we must advertise a tax increase.
23:10 So the certified school property values is a large component of
23:23 how education is funded in the state of Florida.
23:26 FY 2009 was the highest annual tax roll prior to the Great Recession.
23:34 Property values have increased each year since 2013.
23:37 And if you look down here, you’ll see the 2021 values is what
23:44 was recently certified by the property appraiser.
23:47 And the 2021-2022 values are the latest state projections for
23:51 next year.
23:52 And this projection actually doubled since March when the Office
23:58 of Economic and Demographic Research put out their projections.
24:05 And it’s amazing to me that our tax roll during such an
24:09 uncertain time has increased over $3 billion.
24:12 This is mainly due to high demand for homes driven by low
24:16 interest rates and growth.
24:27 The next slide illustrates the changes in school-related
24:29 property taxes for a homeowner over several years.
24:33 In this example, a home valued at $200,000 in 2016 would have
24:38 generated roughly $1,210 in school-related property tax.
24:45 If the owner qualified for Save Our Homes by a 2021-22 school
24:51 year,
24:51 the assessed value of the same home would be $220,000.
24:58 Based on that valuation, the school-related property tax would
25:04 be about $1,142.
25:06 This is an increase of $0.09 from 2020 tax year.
25:19 And so, you know, what does this mean?
25:21 You know, the average family will pay about $1,000 in property
25:26 taxes on a home assessed at $200,000.
25:30 And what that means to the schools in the district is $2.2.80 a
25:37 day.
25:39 And then the $2.80 per day pays for teachers, school counselors,
25:44 buses, electricity, fuel, I mean, lab equipment, laptop.
25:50 Just everything that we need with that $2.80 a day.
26:04 And so, now we’re here at the 2021-22 proposed tentative budget.
26:09 Both the operating and the capital budgets are balanced.
26:13 A year ago, we faced much uncertainty about the economy.
26:16 What, you know, how long the length and the severity of the
26:20 pandemic in the country, or in the county, in the state, in the
26:25 nation, and globally.
26:26 The board made difficult decisions and made budget reductions in
26:30 anticipation of budget reduction of $16 million due to
26:34 enrollment decline and additional cuts to cover rising FRS and
26:40 healthcare costs.
26:43 That said, it could have been worse.
26:45 The district was fortunate to be held harmless in school year 21.
26:50 As a result, we were able to capture approximately $8.9 million
26:55 in one-time savings from FY21 classroom savings that we were
27:01 able to balance our FY22 budget.
27:07 Although using one-time savings is not ideal, it is consistent
27:14 with how we utilized our funds during the Great Recession.
27:19 We still have uncertainty around enrollment, and we’ll continue
27:22 to monitor and make necessary adjustments in order to minimize
27:26 our dependence on one-time dollars,
27:28 while at the same time ensure we have resources available to
27:33 meet the needs of every student.
27:45 This, like, kind of lays out or breaks out a little bit further,
27:49 and it starts with the fund balance as of July 1st.
27:53 It shows our revenues, our expenditures, transfers in, transfers
27:58 out, and projected fund balance for June 30th.
28:01 And again, I know I say this every meeting.
28:04 A budget is a plan based on estimated revenue and expenditures.
28:08 It is not money in the bank.
28:09 It is a starting point.
28:12 A starting point.
28:13 Lost revenue like enrollment decline, increased expenses, and/or
28:18 emerging requirements impact the bottom line.
28:21 No plan survives for first contact.
28:24 The key is to build branches and sequels as we closely monitor
28:27 the execution of our budget.
28:30 And then the total tentative budget is $1,281,988,000.
28:43 Do I got that right?
28:44 $698,000.
28:48 And then the next step is a notification of the final millage
28:53 and budget.
28:54 Are there any questions?
29:00 I think our members have questions for Ms. Lisinski on the
29:05 presentation?
29:07 Ms. Campbell?
29:09 I just had a quick comment.
29:11 I just had a quick comment and a thank you.
29:15 I was trying to find the place and I couldn’t find where you
29:19 guys had talked about.
29:21 I think it’s in the section on the special revenue.
29:23 Yep, there it is.
29:24 That talks about our ESSER dollars.
29:27 And first of all, I want to thank you.
29:28 I know we’re going to be approving it later, our annual
29:31 financial report.
29:32 I just appreciate that you guys put all that in its own section,
29:36 because I think that helps
29:37 for us to see the federal dollars that have come in COVID relief.
29:41 It also helps the public to be able to see it.
29:43 And I just wanted, and I can see it in the budget as well, even
29:49 though we haven’t received
29:51 the next set of dollars.
29:53 But I would encourage the public to take a look at the annual
29:57 financial report for last year
30:00 as well as my federal board members starting on page nine or I
30:03 think about page 15.
30:05 It lists the income we have received.
30:07 There was some question back in the spring in the legislature
30:10 about school districts who hadn’t used their CARES Act dollars
30:13 because they were looking at old data that showed this is how
30:17 much you’ve gotten in.
30:18 But I just wanted to highlight that for the first round of money
30:21 that we received last year, which was not cutting the gear money,
30:26 but the ESSER number one from the CARES Act was $17 million.
30:30 And out of that, as of June 30th, there was only $1.8 million
30:35 left of that to be expended, which at this point, a lot of that
30:40 could actually be expended.
30:42 And then there’s a page that I think the public needs to see in
30:45 the board on page 12 of the annual financial report that lists
30:49 ESSER II, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in December of
30:55 last year.
30:56 And we still haven’t received those dollars and it makes
30:59 planning very difficult.
31:00 And so I appreciate the work that you guys are doing and our
31:02 staff to try to cash flow that.
31:05 I see that we’ve made some expenditures, but we’re still waiting
31:08 on that.
31:09 So if you have any updates, I’d love to hear them, but I’m not
31:11 putting anybody on the spot on that.
31:12 But I just think it’s important for us to continue to remember
31:15 in the public to understand that those dollars were passed.
31:18 They’ve already been set aside.
31:20 We’re still waiting through the state process.
31:22 I know Brevard Public Schools has issued our county plan to use
31:27 those dollars, but they’re not here yet.
31:31 But it also is a good, because I continue to get questions about
31:34 what did you guys spend the money on?
31:36 This is a good place to start.
31:37 And what is our plan to use it moving forward?
31:40 That is all in here in the budget.
31:42 So thank you guys for putting that in there.
31:45 Not really a question, but I just appreciate it.
31:47 And I want to make sure that the public is aware that we’re
31:49 still waiting on the second round money.
31:51 And of course, the American Rescue Plan was passed in the spring.
31:54 And we really have no idea when those dollars are going to come,
31:57 which could be really beneficial to our district as we continue
32:01 to fight the challenges of the pandemic.
32:05 As far as technology and student support catching kids up who
32:09 have missed so much school, buying PPE and all of that.
32:14 And then just trying to get out of this over the next few years.
32:17 And so just the public needs to be aware of that.
32:19 And I want to highlight it as often as I can until we have the
32:23 advantage of those dollars to actually use.
32:26 So thank you guys for your work to do.
32:28 And if you wanted to add anything, jump right in.
32:29 But mainly it was a thank you.
32:31 Well, actually, some good news.
32:33 There is some movement.
32:34 Yay!
32:35 And of the four areas, the academic acceleration, we received
32:39 those funds.
32:40 So that was $10.8 million.
32:42 And we also received the non-enrollment assistance funds.
32:46 We’re still waiting on the lump sum, which is the big amount,
32:49 the $38.65 million.
32:51 And the good news is the state has called.
32:54 They only had one question.
32:55 So I think that should be moving.
32:58 Fantastic.
32:59 Can you give me the, the academic assistance was $10 million?
33:02 10.8.
33:03 Okay.
33:04 And then what was the other bucket?
33:05 Non-enrollment assistance, 2.177.
33:08 Okay.
33:09 We’re still waiting on the tech assistance, 2.7 million.
33:13 And then the lump sum, we’re still waiting on.
33:16 All right.
33:17 Thank you so much.
33:18 That is good news.
33:20 We have not heard anything about ESSER number three yet.
33:24 or our American rescue plan funds.
33:26 So we are still waiting to get direction from the state on those
33:30 funds.
33:31 But the, the state did reach out and ask a couple of questions
33:34 just, but we haven’t received.
33:39 And Dr. Mullins, did, did you indicate that the state has not
33:43 yet submitted to the federal government, their plan on ESSER 3?
33:47 That was my last understanding.
33:49 Yes.
33:50 I, as of last communication, the state had not received approval
33:54 from the federal government for their version of application for
33:58 ESSER number three.
34:00 So, yet I, I do know that not only other states have received
34:04 the funds and distributed in the districts, but particularly
34:07 school districts have received the funds and started utilizing
34:10 them in their districts in other states, not in Florida.
34:14 It is my understanding from something I read this last week that
34:17 the state has received about two thirds of, of that money.
34:21 We just don’t have the other third is what, which is the waiting
34:24 on the application.
34:26 I don’t know if that.
34:27 That’s true.
34:28 Okay.
34:29 But that’s not to suggest districts have received two thirds.
34:34 Right.
34:35 No, the state.
34:36 The state has received two thirds of ESSER number three.
34:39 We’ve not received the first release of what, what is called, uh,
34:44 oh, just left me, uh, invitation.
34:48 What is it?
34:50 Yes.
34:51 RFA.
34:53 Request.
34:54 For application.
34:56 Thank you.
34:57 It’s having a brain block there.
34:58 Thank you.
35:00 Yes.
35:01 And anything else from Ms. Lisinski?
35:04 Okay.
35:05 We are going to move on to, let’s see.
35:10 The hearing is now open for public comments.
35:15 We will, in accordance with Florida law, accept the speakers in
35:17 the following order.
35:18 The 2021-2022 proposed millage levy followed by the 2021-2022
35:24 tentative budget.
35:25 Is there any individual that would like to address the board on
35:28 the 2021-2022 proposed millage levy?
35:31 Um, yes, you can.
35:32 If you, hold on, if you could, uh, Ms. Lisinski, we have one, if
35:43 you could free the mic.
35:45 You, you mentioned that we could, uh, you encourage the public
35:48 to look at this or someone did maybe Katie.
35:52 Um, and I just was wondering where we would find that
35:54 information.
35:55 So, um, if you can go ahead and, and take a seat if that was the,
36:00 um, and, and we will address that.
36:03 Typically we don’t address questions during the public comment,
36:05 but I will get to it when we wrap up.
36:07 Okay.
36:08 Is there anyone else that would like to address the board on the
36:13 2021-2022 proposed millage levy?
36:17 Is there any individual that would like to address the board on
36:20 the 2021-2022 proposed millage levy?
36:24 Is there any individual that would like to address the board on
36:28 the 2021-2022 tentative budget?
36:32 Is there any individual that would like to address the board on
36:35 the 2021-2022 tentative budget?
36:39 The public comment portion of this hearing is now closed.
36:44 Ms. Lisinski, would you like to address where our public can
36:47 access this information?
36:49 Would you like to address where our public can access this
36:53 information?
36:55 Okay.
37:02 I’m sorry.
37:03 The, um, the AFR and the, um, budget document are both attached
37:08 to tonight’s agenda.
37:09 So if you go to the school board webpage and go down through the
37:13 agenda, you will find both attached.
37:16 Okay.
37:17 You can download them.
37:18 Thank you.
37:20 All right.
37:21 That is going to bring us to recommendations for the adoption of
37:24 the 2021-2022 proposed millage levy
37:27 and tentative budget.
37:28 Ms. Lisinski.
37:29 Thank you.
37:34 Uh, Florida statute 200.065 requires each taxing authority levying
37:43 millage to publicly state the name of the taxing authority,
37:48 the rollback rates, the percentage of change from the rollback
37:52 rate, and the millage rate to be levied prior to the adoption of
37:56 the millage levy resolution.
37:58 In compliance with those requirements, the following need to be
38:02 stated.
38:03 The taxing authority is the school board of Brevard County,
38:07 Florida.
38:09 Required local effort, 3.5600.
38:15 Okay.
38:16 The 2021-22 rollback rates are the required local effort of 3.5600.
38:28 Local discretionary is 0.7209.
38:34 Capital outlay.
38:35 Capital outlay is 1.4456.
38:40 Total rollback rate is 5.7265.
38:45 The total millage rate to be levied exceeds the total rollback
38:50 rate by 2.16%.
38:52 The proposed 2021-22 millage rates are the required local effort,
38:59 3.602.
39:01 Local discretionary, 0.748.
39:05 Capital outlay, 1.500.
39:10 Total millage rate, 5.850.
39:15 Millage rate, 5.850.
39:18 There are a total of five separate motions.
39:21 I will read each of these recommendations into the record and
39:24 request board action.
39:27 A. Adopt the resolution setting the required local effort, local
39:31 discretionary, and capital outlay millage rate of 5.850 mills
39:38 for 2011, I’m sorry, 2021 and ‘22.
39:44 The written resolution is incorporated into the motion by
39:48 reference.
39:49 What are the wishes of the board?
39:51 Second.
39:52 Moved by Mr. Susan.
39:53 Seconded by Ms. Campbell.
39:54 Is there any discussion?
39:55 We need a voice vote, Ms. Escobar.
39:59 Yes.
40:14 The motion passes 5-0.
40:31 Ms. Lisinski?
40:34 A. Adopt the 2021-22 budget in the following amount.
40:41 Operating, 647,856,346.
40:49 Special revenue, 200,401,712.
40:57 Debt service, 38,034,923.
41:05 Capital outlay, 304,639,848.
41:14 Enterprise, 2,214,044.
41:21 Subtotal, 1,193,146,873.
41:31 Less transfers, 67,177,914.
41:40 Total, 1,125, I’m sorry, 1,125,968,959.
41:54 Internal service, 88,841,825.
42:02 What are the wishes of the board?
42:05 Move to approve.
42:06 Second.
42:07 Moved by Mr. Susan.
42:08 Seconded by Ms. Campbell.
42:09 Is there any discussion?
42:24 Hearing none, please vote.
42:28 The motion passes 5-0.
42:34 Ms. Lisinski?
42:35 C. Authorize the superintendent to adjust the adopted millage levy
42:40 and budget due to changes in the certified tax rule.
42:44 What are the wishes of the board?
42:45 Move to approve.
42:46 Second.
42:47 Moved by Mr. Susan.
42:48 Seconded by Ms. McDougall.
42:49 Any discussion?
42:50 Hearing none, please vote.
42:54 Thank you.
43:25 The motion passes 5-0.
43:27 Ms. Lisinski?
43:28 D. Authorize the superintendent to forward the adopted millage
43:34 levy resolution to the Brevard County property appraiser and tax
43:37 collector no later than 30 days following the adjournment of the
43:43 value adjustment board.
43:43 What are the wishes of the board?
43:44 Move to approve.
43:45 Move by Ms. Lincoln.
43:46 Second.
43:47 Seconded by Ms. Campbell.
43:48 Any discussion?
43:49 Please vote.
43:50 - Seconded by Ms. Schuchel. Any discussion? Please vote.
44:20 The motion passes 5-0. Ms. Listenski.
44:40 E. Authorize the superintendent to forward the following to the
44:45 designated state agency.
44:47 The adopted budget, millage levy resolution, certified tax roll,
44:53 rolled back rate,
44:54 proposed millage, and certified copies of the advertisement for
44:59 the proposed budget
45:00 and millage rate to the State Department of Education.
45:04 Two, the millage levy resolution, certified tax roll, rolled
45:10 back rate, proposed millage,
45:12 and certified copies of the advertisement for the proposed
45:16 budget and millage rate
45:17 to the Department of Revenue.
45:19 What are the wishes of the board?
45:20 I hope to approve.
45:21 Seconded.
45:22 Moved by Ms. Schuchel.
45:23 Seconded by Ms. McDougall.
45:24 Is there any discussion?
45:26 Hearing none, please vote.
45:29 The motion passes 5-0.
45:42 This hearing is now adjourned.
45:48 Thank you, Ms. Listenski and team.
45:58 We appreciate you being here.
46:01 All right, Dr. Mullins, will you please let us know about the
46:04 administrative staff recommendations this evening?
46:06 Yes, Ms. Belford and members of the board.
46:08 This evening you’ll be asked to approve the reclassification and
46:11 transfer of first,
46:13 Christina Donahue from the position of assistant principal at
46:17 Andrew Jackson Middle School
46:19 to the position of 10-month assistant principal at O’Galley High
46:23 School effective September 10th.
46:25 Second, the reclassification of Alicia Lenderman from the
46:30 position of Title I teacher at Endeavor Elementary
46:33 to the position of interim assistant principal at Endeavor
46:37 Elementary effective September 10th.
46:40 And third, the reclassification and transfer of Mrs. Christina
46:45 Harver from the position of 10-month assistant principal at Endeavor
46:49 Elementary
46:50 to the position of principal at Gemini Elementary School.
46:54 What are the wishes of the board?
46:56 Moved by Mr. Susan.
46:58 Seconded by Ms. Campbell.
46:59 Is there any discussion?
47:03 Thank you.
47:04 Please vote when you’re able.
47:13 Yeah, it just seems to be moving a little bit slow.
47:28 Good.
47:29 We’re getting there.
47:29 Got it.
47:30 Motion passes 5-0.
47:31 Mr. Belford, if I may, just give my congratulations to our three
47:42 most recent administrative appointees,
47:44 Ms. Donahue, Ms. Lenderman, Ms. Carver.
47:47 Congratulations.
47:48 I know you’re out there.
47:49 You wanted to make sure it was actually official.
47:51 So you are ready to start tomorrow.
47:54 Congratulations.
47:55 And thank you for your continued leadership in our community and
47:58 in our schools to care for and help educate the children of Brevard
48:02 County.
48:03 Well said, Dr. Mullins.
48:04 Thank you.
48:05 All right, folks, we are now at public comments.
48:09 We have 23 speakers signed up to speak this evening.
48:13 We have only one speaker on an agenda item.
48:16 It’s my recommendation that we hear only speakers who have
48:19 signed up to specifically address the business items on the
48:22 agenda during this portion of the meeting and hear the remaining
48:24 speakers following the conclusion of board business.
48:26 Does anyone wish to make a motion?
48:28 I’ll make a motion to support the people who are on the agenda.
48:33 I make a motion that we go ahead and support the people who are
48:38 speaking towards the agenda at this point and move everyone else
48:43 to the end of our meeting before we close.
48:45 Do I have a second?
48:47 Sure.
48:48 So I have a motion by Ms. McDougall and a second by Mr. Susan.
48:53 All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
48:56 Aye.
48:57 Any opposed?
48:58 Same sign.
48:59 Motion passes 5-0.
49:01 All right.
49:02 So our first speaker is Matthew Dawley.
49:06 Matthew, if you would please approach as I am reading the
49:09 instructions.
49:10 Each speaker is limited to three minutes.
49:12 We have a clock in front of me to help you keep track of your
49:14 time.
49:14 When your time is over, you will be asked to stop and allow the
49:16 next speaker his or her turn.
49:18 Always keep in mind that reasonable decorum is expected at all
49:20 times and your statement should be directed to the board chair.
49:23 The chair may interrupt, warn, or terminate a participant’s
49:26 statement when time is up.
49:27 It’s personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant.
49:30 Should an individual not observe proper etiquette, the chairman
49:32 may request the individual leave the meeting.
49:35 Let’s all encourage an environment appropriate for our children
49:37 who may be present or are watching from home.
49:39 Mr. Dawley, do you want one second?
49:43 Before you start the timer, I don’t want to speak on agenda item.
49:47 I just thought you had to put something down, so I just picked
49:49 the letter and wrote it down.
49:50 Oh, okay.
49:51 So I’d like to recycle back to being the 11th speaker.
49:54 I don’t want to cut line.
49:55 It’s kind of not fair.
49:56 Okay.
49:57 Perfect.
49:58 Thank you, sir.
49:59 All right.
50:00 That’s going to move us into the consent agenda.
50:02 Dr. Mullins.
50:03 There are 16 agenda items under this category.
50:07 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
50:08 Does any board member wish to pull any item from the consent
50:14 agenda?
50:15 Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to accept the consent
50:18 agenda as presented.
50:19 Second.
50:20 Moved by Mr. Susan.
50:21 Seconded by Ms. McDougall.
50:22 Is there any discussion?
50:23 Hearing none, please vote.
50:38 The motion passes 5-0.
50:51 Dr. Mullins, will you please let us know about the items under
50:54 action?
50:55 There are two items under this category.
50:57 The first one is G-34 on procurement solicitations.
51:02 Do I have a motion?
51:03 Move to approve.
51:04 Second.
51:05 Moved by Mr. Susan.
51:06 Seconded by Ms. Campbell.
51:08 Any discussion?
51:10 Please vote.
51:12 All right.
51:18 Ms. Escobar indicates we need a voice vote.
51:19 All board members in favor?
51:20 Please signify by saying aye.
51:21 Aye.
51:22 All opposed?
51:23 Same sign.
51:24 Motion passes 5-0.
51:25 Dr. Mullins.
51:26 Item G-35 is on department school initiated agreements.
51:30 Do I hear a motion?
51:31 Move to approve.
51:32 Second.
51:33 Moved by Mr. Susan.
51:34 Seconded by Ms. McDougall.
51:36 Is there any discussion?
51:38 Hearing none, voice vote.
51:40 All in favor?
51:41 Please signify by saying aye.
51:42 Aye.
51:43 Any opposed?
51:44 Same sign.
51:45 Motion passes 5-0.
51:46 All right.
51:51 We will move on to the information agenda, which includes items
51:53 for board review and may
51:54 be brought back for action at a subsequent meeting.
51:56 No action will be taken on these items tonight.
51:58 Dr. Mullins.
51:59 There is one item under the information category.
52:02 Does any member wish to discuss this information item?
52:05 All right.
52:07 We will now hear the remaining speakers who signed up to comment
52:10 on non-agenda items.
52:11 Each speaker is limited to three minutes.
52:13 We have a clock in front of me to help you keep track of your
52:15 time.
52:16 When your time is over, you will be asked to stop and allow the
52:18 next speaker his or her turn.
52:19 We’ll hear from the speakers in the order in which they signed
52:22 up, including those who may be waiting outside.
52:24 As stated earlier, reasonable decorum is expected at all times,
52:27 and your statement should be directed to the board chair.
52:29 Should audience participation interfere with speakers being
52:32 heard or hearing me, I will be forced to clear the room.
52:34 When I call your name, please line up along the east wall of the
52:37 boardroom to facilitate the smooth transition of speakers.
52:40 Let’s begin with our first three speakers.
52:43 Scott Seville, Matt Wojkowski, James Ludwa.
52:49 I’m sorry, Jamison Ludwa.
53:04 Scott, whenever you’re ready, feel free to approach.
53:11 Thank you.
53:12 It’s a pleasure getting to listen to this on the agenda items
53:17 that you have that are not COVID related.
53:21 You guys do a great job.
53:23 You really do.
53:24 All of you.
53:25 All right.
53:26 I do want to talk a little bit about the COVID.
53:29 Last time I was here, I talked about how my sister had passed
53:34 from it and best friend in the world.
53:38 She was an awesome person.
53:39 Anyway, her daughter lives in San Francisco, and she kept
53:42 telling me, you know, we really are diligent about masks out
53:46 here.
53:47 We’re really diligent about getting the COVID vaccines.
53:50 And I thought, well, I’m going to just run because this is a
53:53 real life scenario.
53:54 I’m going to run the numbers and see what they look like.
53:56 San Francisco was 73% vaccinated.
54:01 Brevard County is 55%.
54:03 I like San Francisco because its population is 875,000 and Brevard
54:10 is 615,000.
54:13 So San Francisco has, County has 42% more people.
54:18 The number of cases in San Francisco County are 50,000.
54:23 This was as of about a week ago.
54:24 Anybody can look this up.
54:26 In Brevard County was 72,000.
54:29 So San Francisco, although it has a 42% higher population, they
54:35 have 31% less or 22,000 less cases.
54:41 And then I thought, well, what are the deaths?
54:43 The deaths in San Francisco so far have been 589.
54:48 In Brevard County, 914.
54:51 So 36% less.
54:55 I think that this is a great comparison because they are 42%
55:03 larger than us.
55:05 Yet they are between 30% cases less and 36% deaths less.
55:12 That’s another 300 deaths that, you know, maybe we could have
55:17 done something about.
55:18 So I just think this is a good real-life explanation and let’s,
55:26 you know, let’s continue to save lives.
55:28 And I applaud the efforts of everyone here and understand that
55:32 even the people on opposing sides care about their children and
55:37 care about their family members.
55:40 And so let’s save some lives.
55:43 Thank you, Scott.
55:46 Matt.
55:48 Well, thank you for your service.
55:51 I do appreciate it.
55:52 My name is Matt Wojciechowski, registered Republican.
55:57 I have a doctorate in engineering.
56:00 And I’m a registered professional engineer in three states.
56:03 That makes me an expert witness in the court.
56:07 Hey, Matt, can you just move that mic a little bit closer to you?
56:10 I’m sorry.
56:11 Yeah.
56:12 Perfect.
56:13 Yes, thank you.
56:14 I’m a registered professional engineer in three states, which
56:17 makes me a person that can testify in a court of law as an
56:20 expert.
56:21 And myself and my fellow professional engineers take that very
56:25 seriously.
56:26 It’s a great burden to do that.
56:28 And it’s difficult.
56:31 I have 15 issued utility patents.
56:34 These are real inventions.
56:36 They are not the same patents that you hear about on the Home
56:39 Shopping Network.
56:41 I’ve also worked in filtration for a number of years.
56:45 And I want to talk to you about filters.
56:47 First of all, there is a screen filter.
56:49 This is the kind of filter that you use in your screen door.
56:52 And it allows things to be stopped that are bigger than the mesh
56:55 and things to go through that are smaller than the mesh.
56:59 Another type of filter is a depth filter.
57:01 They use a torturous path to trap particles and they rely on
57:05 thickness of material.
57:07 These are the type of filters that you use in your car, in your
57:19 furnace and COVID masks.
57:22 To give you an example, a COVID mask rating is approximately 0.1
57:28 microns.
57:29 That’s one-tenth of a millionth of a meter.
57:33 The COVID virus is approximately 0.125 microns,
57:39 which is about 25% larger than the torturous path of the filter
57:43 that you have on right now.
57:49 So you are protected by these type of masks in your house, in
57:54 your car and walking around.
57:56 As far as the school system precedent goes for protecting the unprotected,
58:01 I’ll cite an example from my high school days.
58:04 Initially, we had smoking lounges in our high school.
58:07 When the relationship of cancer to smoking was developed,
58:11 the faculty of that high school took out the smoking lounges.
58:17 They didn’t want the kids to smoke anymore.
58:19 So they were protecting the unprotected.
58:21 They believed it was their duty and acted positively.
58:25 Part of the sworn responsibility you have are to protect our
58:28 children.
58:29 I’d like you to do that.
58:31 Any questions?
58:34 Thank you, Matt.
58:35 We appreciate you joining us.
58:36 As Jamison is approaching, the next three speakers after will be
58:42 Reese Ledwa, Cheryl Wojciechowski, and Katie Delaney.
58:47 Hi.
58:48 My name is Jamison.
58:49 I’m in second grade.
58:50 I think masks are important.
58:51 Last time, when only one out of four people voted for masks, I
58:55 was very unhappy.
58:56 And now three people voted for masks.
58:58 I would like to make the votes five to zero for masks.
59:01 I’d like everybody to please listen to the mask rule and wear a
59:04 mask correctly when inside.
59:08 I would feel much safer if I saw everyone listening to the
59:10 teachers and wearing their masks.
59:12 Thank you for those of you who voted for masks for trying to
59:15 keep us safe and healthy.
59:17 Thank you, Jameson.
59:19 Reese?
59:20 Hi.
59:21 My name is Reese.
59:22 I’m nine years old in the fourth grade in Brevard Public Schools.
59:24 I wanted to say thank you for making us safe for giving us masks
59:25 back to us.
59:26 Everyone is very stressed about everything about the masking in
59:29 Brevard Public Schools.
59:30 I think masks should be continued.
59:31 This virus creates things that should not be in our everyday
59:34 lives.
59:35 Infections are rising every day, and that is because everyone
59:38 isn’t wearing masks.
59:40 I was really worried about it when everyone wasn’t wearing masks,
59:45 but now I feel much safer.
59:45 with everyone wearing masks.
1:00:02 The Delta variant is very dangerous and two times more
1:00:05 contagious.
1:00:06 There are over three million cases in Florida, and many have
1:00:09 been children.
1:00:10 The schools are full of children that could get infected, and
1:00:13 that can have serious consequences.
1:00:14 Masks are vital to everyone’s health.
1:00:18 If we wear them, then this COVID pandemic will cease.
1:00:22 This pandemic is very dangerous, but if we all work together,
1:00:25 wear masks, social distance, and sanitize,
1:00:28 then this pandemic can stop and everyone can rejoice with
1:00:31 friends and family.
1:00:33 Thank you for your time.
1:00:34 Thank you, Reese.
1:00:36 Cheryl?
1:00:38 Hi.
1:00:42 Dr. Cheryl Wojciechowski.
1:00:43 I’m mom of two kids who attend school in Brevard County.
1:00:46 Members of the school board, thank you for reinstating masks.
1:00:49 I know it was a difficult decision.
1:00:52 For some board members, I know it wasn’t your initial choice,
1:00:55 but when it happened, you respected it and complied with the
1:00:58 regulation.
1:00:59 Thank you for that.
1:01:00 I think this is a wonderful example for our children.
1:01:02 I can tell you now that I have a little boy and a little girl
1:01:04 who are much less afraid to go to school.
1:01:06 I’m still nervous sending them, of course.
1:01:08 And I know the homeschool option is there, but my two kids need
1:01:11 to be with their friends and teachers.
1:01:13 They learned better that way.
1:01:15 And now it’s much less of a risk to their health.
1:01:18 For the past 15 years, under four presidents, I’ve worked as a
1:01:21 scientist for the State Department and the United States Agency
1:01:25 for International Development.
1:01:26 Part of my job, I negotiate with Arab and Israeli scientists and
1:01:29 help them work together, comply with U.S. regulations,
1:01:33 international research regulations.
1:01:35 Unfortunately, the attentions that I’ve experienced in this room
1:01:38 before and after these meetings are much more stressful than any
1:01:42 interaction I’ve ever felt between Arab and Israeli scientists.
1:01:45 I myself have let this tension get under my skin, and I
1:01:49 apologize for that.
1:01:51 I have a proposition. Members of the School Board, I don’t think
1:01:55 you want to see this tension between your constituents.
1:01:58 I’d like to extend an invitation to you and your constituents to
1:02:04 writeffss.bevard@gmail.com.
1:02:07 I would like to have a calm, short, virtual conversation to see
1:02:11 if we can agree on ground rules and establish a respectable
1:02:15 decorum from here on out.
1:02:17 We won’t agree on some things, but I know that we all love our
1:02:20 kids and want to show them the best example of how adults behave
1:02:25 when they disagree.
1:02:27 With good intentions only, please, ffss.bevard@gmail.com.
1:02:33 Thank you for your time and your service.
1:02:35 Thank you.
1:02:36 As Katie is approaching, our next three speakers will be Chris Paganone,
1:02:41 Danielle McDonough, and Joey Kaliwa.
1:02:44 Katie.
1:02:45 Members of the Board, your COVID mitigations are failing
1:02:51 students of Brevard County.
1:02:54 I am speaking tonight for a local healthcare worker that cannot
1:02:59 be here today.
1:03:00 She has done all the things you’ve asked of her.
1:03:03 Her daughter is vaccinated.
1:03:04 She wore a mask even before, I’m sorry, even when it wasn’t
1:03:09 illegally being mandated.
1:03:13 Yet, she was faced, she was forced to quarantine, even though
1:03:19 she was well past the threshold of the two-week policy.
1:03:23 During that time, since there was no e-learning and no work was
1:03:30 sent home, her straight-A student got marked with multiple zeros
1:03:35 for participation grades while under a forced quarantine,
1:03:39 resulting in two Fs.
1:03:41 Again, this child is vaccinated and she wore a mask.
1:03:45 Your policy and failure to implement or maintain it has yet
1:03:51 again failed another child.
1:03:54 You all should be ashamed.
1:03:56 The mother is still fighting with the school to make it right.
1:04:01 That brings me to my next topic, the achievement gap.
1:04:06 Here we are on month two and we still have members of the board
1:04:09 focusing more on COVID mitigations that don’t work instead of
1:04:14 their bigger failure, the widening achievement gap.
1:04:18 I have sent many of you multiple emails, phone calls, voicemails
1:04:24 about the achievement gap, never getting a response.
1:04:29 Is it that you don’t care?
1:04:34 If you did, you would return an email, or you would make some
1:04:41 kind of effort outside
1:04:44 of claiming that it’s the fault of teachers unknown bias.
1:04:48 Now, I would like to put on public record that our COVID numbers
1:05:02 in the schools have
1:05:04 been continuously going down according to your dashboard over
1:05:08 the past three weeks.
1:05:09 And I want to point out that that was prior to the mask mandate
1:05:13 coming into effect, which
1:05:14 was just Tuesday.
1:05:18 In conclusion, many times in the student code of conduct that is
1:05:22 on tonight’s agenda, it
1:05:24 speaks of respect for one another.
1:05:26 It speaks of privacy, anti-bullying, and so on and so forth, yet
1:05:32 when multiple reports of
1:05:34 being refused entry to the school, bullying by administration,
1:05:37 and food being refused,
1:05:39 BPS did not stand by their students.
1:05:41 Instead, they insinuated that they were lying.
1:05:45 You three should be ashamed.
1:05:50 Okay, have a great day.
1:05:52 Chris?
1:05:54 Hi there.
1:05:55 My name is Christopher Paganone.
1:06:00 I am actually here to talk about data and information.
1:06:06 One of the things that I’ve had a problem with is getting actual
1:06:10 data from the school board and
1:06:12 from the county regarding the number of cases per school.
1:06:16 And I keep hearing the word PII being used.
1:06:20 I am a professional certified systems engineer.
1:06:24 I hold the CISSP.
1:06:26 My number is 579277.
1:06:29 That makes me an expert witness in information protection.
1:06:33 So, let’s talk about the PII issue.
1:06:38 Under NIST SP800-122, that is the actual document number.
1:06:45 The name is for the guide for protection of PII.
1:06:49 It clearly delineates that there’s only two ways to get to
1:06:54 identifying a student or a person
1:06:56 by information.
1:06:58 Those two ways are either by direct method or through indirect.
1:07:02 Releasing, according to the Department of Education’s Student
1:07:07 Privacy Policy Office on
1:07:09 their memo March 2020, they were asked directly, “Can you
1:07:13 release the number of cases per school?”
1:07:15 And they said generally, “Yes, it is not an issue of PII,”
1:07:19 according to them.
1:07:20 It’s clearly delineated that a reasonable person, if they cannot
1:07:24 arrive at the identity of the individual,
1:07:28 then you have no PII conditions.
1:07:32 PII, by definition, is when its distinguishing identity is your
1:07:36 name, Social Security number,
1:07:38 date of birth, place of birth, your parent’s identification.
1:07:41 Indirect or linkable information is known for weight, sex, aid,
1:07:47 very specific information.
1:07:50 The key here is that when you say, “I had a student out of
1:07:53 school for COVID,” in this specific
1:07:56 school, if you’re not releasing how many other students are out
1:08:00 that day for other causes,
1:08:02 you have nothing to go with.
1:08:04 There is no PII there.
1:08:06 It would not hold up in a court of law.
1:08:09 And that is my professional opinion.
1:08:11 So I would like to ask the board to please give us the PII
1:08:17 numbers by day or as often as you report them.
1:08:20 I don’t care whether it’s by day, every three days, every five
1:08:21 days, or every seven days.
1:08:23 But it can be by school.
1:08:26 Because that tells us what’s happening in the school.
1:08:28 And it also will help you guys see, specifically, if you have a
1:08:32 school that’s going out of control,
1:08:35 you can tactically affect it.
1:08:37 Instead of sitting here and blanket and say, “We’ve got 500
1:08:40 students across the county that are sick.”
1:08:42 I’d like to know if 300 of those students were in one school, or
1:08:45 are they spread in large numbers?
1:08:48 Or do you have other schools that are at zero?
1:08:51 You can also parse this information from how many students you’re
1:08:55 quarantining, so not really getting anything from your PII.
1:08:58 Thank you very much.
1:08:59 Thank you.
1:09:00 Danielle?
1:09:02 Danielle McDonough: Hi there.
1:09:07 I’m Danielle McDonough.
1:09:08 Dr. McDonough.
1:09:09 I’m a nurse practitioner.
1:09:11 As you guys know, you’ve heard me speak before.
1:09:13 I want to say thank you for bringing masks back into the school.
1:09:16 My children all say thank you.
1:09:19 I’d like to just say that I think it’s really evident in this
1:09:22 week’s dashboard by the fact that kids started wearing masks in
1:09:26 school immediately after the mandate was put into effect.
1:09:31 My daughter’s class of 24 students in fifth grade at Meadow Lane,
1:09:35 an interior classroom, had 100% compliance.
1:09:40 Her teacher was already wearing a mask.
1:09:42 Sadly, students had already been in the classroom with COVID,
1:09:47 and a large number of kids ended up quarantined by the end of
1:09:50 the week.
1:09:51 But fortunately, they’re all going back to school now.
1:09:54 Danielle McDonough: But I think looking at the dashboard of a
1:09:58 Monday a week prior with I think there was over 500 cases
1:10:02 compared to this week where there was just a little more over
1:10:05 100 cases.
1:10:07 I think it makes it’s really evident that masks work.
1:10:12 We can’t continue to have this battle every two weeks.
1:10:15 We can’t continue to have this battle every month.
1:10:17 Danielle McDonough: You guys teach math and you teach science.
1:10:22 Danielle McDonough: You teach the kids statistics in high school.
1:10:26 Danielle McDonough: If you’re going to teach the subjects, then
1:10:29 we should be teaching the kids that we understand how to utilize
1:10:34 this information.
1:10:35 Danielle McDonough: We should follow the science and we should
1:10:38 follow the math.
1:10:39 Danielle McDonough: It’s real data.
1:10:41 Danielle McDonough: It’s not made up.
1:10:42 Danielle McDonough: The people in the hospital are not imaginary.
1:10:46 Danielle McDonough: They’re real.
1:10:47 Danielle McDonough: They’re human beings.
1:10:48 Danielle McDonough: They’re related to somebody who lives in our
1:10:51 community.
1:10:52 Danielle McDonough: When somebody says that their family member
1:10:54 died, we should have empathy for that.
1:10:57 Danielle McDonough: We shouldn’t say people die.
1:11:00 Danielle McDonough: Sadly, that’s what I’m hearing in our
1:11:03 community and it needs to end.
1:11:04 Danielle McDonough: We need to set an example as a community and
1:11:07 say that we understand the science.
1:11:09 Danielle McDonough: We’re going to follow the science and we’re
1:11:11 going to wear masks in school where kids aren’t vaccinated.
1:11:14 Danielle McDonough: When you want to lift the mask mandate, my
1:11:16 11 year old child’s not old enough for a vaccine, but we vaccinate
1:11:21 against chicken pox because chicken pox causes a loss of
1:11:24 learning day.
1:11:25 Danielle McDonough: So why would we not wear a mask to protect
1:11:29 against loss of learning days.
1:11:31 Danielle McDonough: We need to keep the kids in school and we
1:11:33 need to keep them healthy and safe.
1:11:35 Danielle McDonough: So we need to make a plan going forward at
1:11:39 what point is it safe to remove the mask mandate at what point
1:11:43 would you have to reinstate the mask mandate.
1:11:46 Danielle McDonough: At what point is the vaccination level in
1:11:49 the communities sufficient enough.
1:11:51 Danielle McDonough: That is a plan that the board should be
1:11:54 working on going forward so we don’t have to come back to this
1:11:57 conversation at every meeting.
1:11:59 Danielle McDonough: I thank you for your time.
1:12:01 Danielle McDonough: I thank you for everything you’re doing.
1:12:02 Danielle McDonough: Have a good night.
1:12:03 Danielle McDonough: Thanks, Danielle.
1:12:04 Danielle McDonough: As Joey’s approaching, our next three
1:12:07 speakers will be Sarah Chiaviro, Matthew Dolly, and then Heather
1:12:12 Peterson.
1:12:13 Joey?
1:12:14 Joey Chiaviro: First, I want to say thank you to the two board
1:12:16 members who had the courage to vote no on the mask mandate.
1:12:19 We will not forget should you decide to run for reelection.
1:12:23 But the emergency meeting, one of the board members volunteered
1:12:26 her political party affiliation as a Democrat and then stated
1:12:29 that her decision was not political.
1:12:31 But the only explanation I could come up with as to why you
1:12:33 would vote for a mandate when the facts and data contradict that
1:12:36 decision would be that it’s political.
1:12:38 So when I look to political reasons as to why somebody would
1:12:41 make a decision to mask an innocent child and put that
1:12:44 unnecessary responsibility and burden onto them, I came across a
1:12:47 study at Dartmouth University that determined that the liberal
1:12:50 media negatively skewed over 90% of their stories to exaggerate
1:12:53 the fear of the COVID pandemic, regardless of what the data and
1:12:57 the science were saying at the time.
1:12:58 And in the words of the CNN producer caught on hidden tape by
1:13:02 Project Veritas, fear sells.
1:13:05 Then I found a Gallup survey that interviewed Democrats and
1:13:07 Republicans to determine their understanding of the harms of
1:13:09 COVID.
1:13:10 The data shows that chances of being hospitalized as you get
1:13:13 COVID is somewhere between one to 5%, which means that one in
1:13:17 five people out of 100 who get COVID could end up in the
1:13:21 hospital.
1:13:22 But 41% of Democrats surveyed believe that 51% that’s one out of
1:13:26 every two people who get COVID go to the hospital and another 28%
1:13:29 of Democrats believe that 20 to 49% of people who get COVID will
1:13:34 be in the hospital.
1:13:35 So almost 70% of Democrats surveyed believe that one out of
1:13:38 every five people who get COVID end up in the hospital.
1:13:41 The next study was my absolute favorite.
1:13:43 It found that white liberals are more prone to mental health
1:13:46 disorders than individuals who identify as conservatives or
1:13:49 moderate.
1:13:50 62% of white who classify themselves as very liberal or liberal
1:13:53 have been told by a doctor they have a mental health condition
1:13:57 as compared to only 26% of conservatives.
1:14:01 They found that the reasoning behind this was that the constant
1:14:05 misinformation from liberal media, which they referred to as
1:14:09 panic porn, creates unwarranted fear and stress.
1:14:12 So if you’re angry like I am and confused as to why we cannot
1:14:14 get through to certain board members using facts, scientific
1:14:18 data and critical thinking, the data shows there’s a high
1:14:23 possibility you are trying to reason with a highly misinformed
1:14:25 individual who might have a mental disorder who cannot make
1:14:28 rational decisions because they are driven by one thing and that
1:14:30 is fear.
1:14:31 Which explains why one of our board members sat in a plastic box
1:14:37 for almost a year last year and while they were six feet apart
1:14:41 from each other probably vaccinated more mass the entire time.
1:14:44 So the problem that we really have here is a virus of the mind
1:14:47 and I have suggestion to fix this problem, which is to the one
1:14:50 board member who’s so concerned about racial equity and
1:14:53 inclusion as I stare up at a board with zero racial diversity.
1:14:57 I think it’s time for her to lead by example, acknowledge her
1:14:59 white privilege, put her money where her mouth is and step down
1:15:02 as a board member to allow her position to be filled by a person
1:15:05 of color.
1:15:06 We wouldn’t want any racist hypocrites on the board now, would
1:15:08 we?
1:15:09 And since I still have six seconds, all three of my kids got
1:15:12 COVID.
1:15:12 They had a fever for a day and coughed like three times.
1:15:14 We’re not clapping.
1:15:20 Sarah.
1:15:30 I’m Sarah.
1:15:31 I’m a Brevard County resident, taxpayer, registered voter,
1:15:34 stakeholder, and I’m a mom of two children in BPS.
1:15:37 The COVID-19 BPS dashboard shows numbers going down and that is
1:15:41 a wonderful thing.
1:15:43 I don’t want anyone to get sick and I’ve helped people get
1:15:45 connected with medical professionals and treatments that worked
1:15:49 incredibly well.
1:15:50 My family and I continue to pray for those who are sick to get
1:15:53 well sick.
1:15:54 Unfortunately, this illegal mask mandate isn’t about science,
1:15:57 health, or safety, but about money, power, and control.
1:16:00 I based that statement on the panel of one-sided experts you
1:16:03 brought in saying that no matter if there’s a mask mandate in
1:16:06 place or not, there’s going to be community spread.
1:16:10 You didn’t listen to it.
1:16:11 You didn’t listen to them by not keeping mask wearing a parental
1:16:13 choice.
1:16:14 This is a passionate issue, but the focus needs to be getting
1:16:17 back to education.
1:16:19 How we do that is keeping masks a parental choice.
1:16:22 You didn’t get voted in based on emotion, but to make choices
1:16:26 based on fact and the law.
1:16:28 I’m a law-abiding citizen.
1:16:30 This is a legal issue.
1:16:31 You created a big legal mess for the BPS system instead of
1:16:34 allowing the judicial system to play out and being guided by the
1:16:38 laws you are held to.
1:16:40 Since three board members moved forward with this unprecedented
1:16:44 unlawful vote to enact an illegal mandate for the BPS district,
1:16:48 then those members who supported this deliberate attack against
1:16:51 a functioning and reputable school system must be held
1:16:54 accountable.
1:16:55 I, as well as many others, feel you have broken your corporate
1:16:58 fiduciary responsibility that undermines the efficacy of the
1:17:02 entire school system.
1:17:04 Three board members chose to put our children in this illegal,
1:17:07 unstable situation, not the parents.
1:17:10 This illegal, unstable situation is taking a mental health toll
1:17:13 on our children and families with four weeks into the school
1:17:17 year,
1:17:17 now facing difficult choices and leaving hundreds of families
1:17:20 scrambling, confused, and illegal back and forth.
1:17:22 With our children in the middle and taking the brunt of it.
1:17:27 Those on the board who choose to vote and supported a board-wide
1:17:31 vote on an illegal mask mandate have created an environment with
1:17:34 this that questions your ability to act independently as a board
1:17:38 member.
1:17:38 And I request you do the right thing and undo this policy
1:17:41 immediately.
1:17:42 I am not challenging your authority to vote.
1:17:45 I have lost faith in your ability to make a lawful and
1:17:48 independent decision.
1:17:49 The illegality of enacting this policy and the downfall of it
1:17:52 was well laid out by your vice chair.
1:17:55 Independently and as a board, you need to let your yes be yes
1:17:59 and your no be no.
1:18:00 If you are unable to make a decision and stick with it, it is feckless
1:18:02 and untrustworthy leadership.
1:18:04 Thank you.
1:18:06 Matthew Dawley.
1:18:10 Hello.
1:18:11 My name is Matthew.
1:18:12 Thank you for having me.
1:18:13 Village idiot.
1:18:14 So the first thing I want to talk about to the public.
1:18:15 If you’re a member of the public and you engage and act or
1:18:16 believe in using any kind of intimidation, whether it be through
1:18:16 verbal or physical actions or destruction of property.
1:18:23 I’m going to say this publicly now.
1:18:24 You are not on my side.
1:18:24 I do not care what political alignment you have.
1:18:26 I do not agree with such actions and I never will stand beside
1:18:30 you or behind you with that kind of demeanor.
1:18:34 Furthermore, to speak to the public from some of the stuff I’ve
1:18:35 heard tonight, I might agree with some discontent or some, you
1:18:40 know, feelings.
1:18:42 The five, six people that sit in front of you at the school
1:18:45 board are not mentally ill.
1:18:47 And if you’re a member of the public, you’re a member of the
1:18:48 public.
1:18:49 You’re a member of the public.
1:45:06 Thank you, Ron.
1:45:07 Have a great night.
1:45:08 Julia?
1:45:09 I am reading from the Parents’ Bill of Rights.
1:45:20 And it says, “Infringement of parental rights, the state,
1:45:26 any of its political subdivisions, or any governmental entity,
1:45:30 or any other institution may not infringe on the fundamental
1:45:35 rights
1:45:35 of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, health care,
1:45:40 and mental health of his or her child.”
1:45:44 It doesn’t stop there.
1:45:46 It also says, without demonstrating that such action is
1:45:53 reasonable
1:45:54 and necessary to achieve a compelling state interest,
1:45:59 and that such action is narrowly tailored
1:46:03 and is not otherwise served by a less restrictive means.
1:46:09 It didn’t stop before the word “unless.”
1:46:13 It continued with the word “unless.”
1:46:17 And it established that if there is a compelling state interest
1:46:22 that you can show, then you have the right to make decisions.
1:46:28 And for the life of me, I cannot figure out any reason why
1:46:35 anyone with integrity would have read that
1:46:39 and heard the judge rule on it and rule on it again and stand
1:46:51 here and quote lawyer Google
1:46:51 or quote Steve Bannon or whoever they’re getting it from and
1:46:54 claim that your decision was illegal.
1:46:56 Now, there is zero integrity in claiming that that was an
1:47:02 illegal decision.
1:47:05 And when they come at you and they yell at you that you’re fired
1:47:10 and they’re going to take your job
1:47:12 because you made that legal decision, they’re making an
1:47:15 assumption about your integrity and they’re assuming that you
1:47:17 have none.
1:47:18 They’re assuming that you’re so power hungry that you would put
1:47:22 children’s lives at stake just to keep your job on the board.
1:47:28 Now, if someone comes up to you and says put people’s risk at
1:47:32 lives for me or put people’s lives at risk because I want you to.
1:47:38 There’s only one response to that.
1:47:40 You look them in the eye and you roar at them and you say not no
1:47:45 but oh heck no.
1:47:46 I’m not doing that.
1:47:48 Now, they’re here making noise, but they’re not the only
1:47:54 citizens in Brevard County.
1:47:56 They don’t represent the people who are immune compromised and
1:47:59 can’t come to this Petri dish of an event.
1:48:03 They don’t represent the thousands of people who have signed petitions
1:48:08 for Mexico.
1:48:09 There’s a lot of people they don’t represent and that includes
1:48:12 me.
1:48:13 Some of us value integrity.
1:48:15 We value lives.
1:48:17 We value integrity.
1:48:19 - Thank you, Julia.
1:48:21 All right.
1:48:22 Jaysana.
1:48:23 And then after that, we have Cindy Martin, Aurora Shainer, and
1:48:26 then Melissa Hanson.
1:48:28 Jaysana Oakwood.
1:48:30 No?
1:48:34 All right.
1:48:35 Cindy Martin.
1:48:36 No Cindy Martin either.
1:48:42 Thank you very much.
1:48:53 Good evening, everyone.
1:48:54 Thanks for being here.
1:48:55 Thank you to the two board members who opposed the mask mandate.
1:49:00 The Miami Herald reports today that yesterday, George, Judge
1:49:04 Cooper lifted an automatic stay that had been triggered when the
1:49:08 DeSantis administration appealed the September 2nd ruling to
1:49:11 the first district court of appeal.
1:49:12 The motion filed Wednesday night requested that the Tallahassee
1:49:16 based appeals court reimpose the stay while the underlying
1:49:22 battle about the September 2nd ruling moves forward.
1:49:26 The motion contends in part that Cooper’s ruling violated
1:49:30 constitutional separation of powers and delved into policy and
1:49:34 political issues about whether schools should be allowed to
1:49:38 require masks.
1:49:39 As long as the mask mandate litigation continues, students have
1:49:42 the right to choose whether they wear a mask or not while
1:49:48 attending school.
1:49:52 demonstrating that your masks are effective in filtering out
1:49:56 COVID-19 viruses. I haven’t seen
1:49:59 one yet. There hasn’t been one produced yet. I’d love to see it.
1:50:03 I promise you I would read every
1:50:05 word and I would share it. I did send out one of the masks that
1:50:11 your BPS schools provide to
1:50:14 students to an independent lab and I am personally paying for a
1:50:17 report of efficacy of filtration for
1:50:19 COVID-19 and its associated variant. I’m happy to pay for that.
1:50:23 I have some extra money. It’s going to be
1:50:26 six weeks before I receive that data for you. I’ll be happy to
1:50:29 share it. Also please be aware that the
1:50:32 administration and teachers bullying and retaliating against
1:50:36 students with medical exemptions will not
1:50:39 be tolerated and legal action will be taken. Some kids actually
1:50:44 document these instances of bullying
1:50:46 and retaliation for their medical exemptions by teachers and
1:50:50 staff at BPS schools. A lot of these
1:50:53 kids have recording devices and they do record. They also know
1:50:58 how to use YouTube pretty well.
1:51:01 I’m sure you did hear about the Las Vegas substitute teacher who
1:51:07 taped a mask to her student’s face
1:51:09 which humiliated that student in front of his classmates and
1:51:14 caused irreparable harm psychologically to him.
1:51:17 According to his statement, he knew of at least five other
1:51:22 students who endured such treatment by a teacher
1:51:26 doing the same type of thing to other students. I predict that
1:51:30 that will be litigated.
1:51:33 We definitely don’t want a situation whereby BPS is sued for
1:51:36 conduct such as this.
1:51:38 This is a fantastic school system. I agree with the previous
1:51:42 speaker. I do believe that this board
1:51:44 is extremely intelligent. I also believe that the timing of
1:51:47 Judge Cooper’s ruling is very suspicious.
1:51:49 Thank you.
1:51:50 Thank you, Cindy. Aurora?
1:51:52 Aurora?
1:51:53 Good evening.
1:51:54 Aurora?
1:51:55 My fourth grade, the fourth grade students are currently
1:52:03 learning about government and yet our
1:52:06 very own local school government is letting our children down by
1:52:10 breaking the law.
1:52:11 In the social studies weekly last week, my fourth grader, my
1:52:17 fourth grader’s favorite question was, quote,
1:52:19 “What are some common issues that face the state of Florida?”
1:52:22 Close quote.
1:52:23 His answer was, quote, “Current issues in Florida are mask
1:52:27 mandates in schools.
1:52:29 The Brevard School District Board members broke the state of
1:52:33 Florida law by voting the mask mandates
1:52:36 without parental opt-out. Florida House Bill 241, Parents’ Bill
1:52:40 of Rights effective July 1, 2021.” Close quote.
1:52:44 I’m going to add that you not only broke the law, but you broke
1:52:47 their trust, and what you’ve done
1:52:49 and continue to do is unethical and unconstitutional. My son
1:52:54 said, “Why do I have to follow their school
1:52:56 mask mandate if they don’t follow the state law? Our kids don’t
1:52:59 need your permission to breathe oxygen.
1:53:02 It’s a God-given right to all of us. The masks are not proven to
1:53:06 prevent the spreading of the virus.
1:53:08 Why are we quarantining healthy kids? A headache is not a reason
1:53:12 to send a child home for 10 days
1:53:14 and miss on school. It’s our mission as a school district to
1:53:18 serve every student with excellence.
1:53:20 Then why are, if that’s the, you know, that’s the question, so
1:53:24 then why are the kids having to pay for
1:53:26 your lack of excellence by not being allowed to breathe normal
1:53:29 levels of oxygen during their school hours?
1:53:32 The parents should be able to opt out without a doctor’s note. I
1:53:36 have my parental right to make
1:53:37 medical decisions for my children, not you, not other parents.
1:53:41 No person should be mandated to do
1:53:43 anything. I’m anti-mandate, especially not in this free country
1:53:48 of ours, not for a 99.9 survival rate
1:53:51 virus. We are, we all have an immune system. How about mandating
1:53:55 vitamins, fruits and vegetables?
1:53:56 Well, you know, I’m anti-mandate. So virtual learning could be a
1:54:02 solution for those at risk or afraid of
1:54:04 getting sick. I take care of my health and my kids’ health and I
1:54:08 like, I like to keep it that way.
1:54:10 Our free agency is our ultimate human right. Please stop quarantining
1:54:14 our healthy kids and stop
1:54:16 asphyxiating them. My child, my choice. I’m an immigrant and a
1:54:20 mom who cares about keeping my kids
1:54:22 and America free. Thank you. Thank you. Melissa. And as Melissa
1:54:28 is approaching our next two speakers
1:54:30 will be Shondelle Barber and then Christopher McGill. Hi. So I’m
1:54:35 here to speak out about the
1:54:36 implementation of the mask mandate. Your mission on the board
1:54:40 says to serve every student with
1:54:43 excellence as a standard, to serve, to be a servant. That does
1:54:47 not mean mandating or forcing.
1:54:49 As a parent, we know what’s best for our children. I’m not here
1:54:52 to tell other parents how to raise their
1:54:54 children, what to feed them, how they should behave, and nor
1:54:57 should you be dictating without consent from
1:54:59 the parents. Consent matters. It’s the ultimate form of respect.
1:55:03 Have you asked the children how they feel,
1:55:06 what they want? Again, it’s a respectful choice. Just as parents
1:55:09 are split, they are as well. My child
1:55:12 has struggled to keep up with his peers, and now you’re forcing
1:55:16 another layer of distraction to his
1:55:18 learning. How are children supposed to understand compassion
1:55:22 when they cannot see faces? How are they
1:55:24 supposed to overcome speech impediments when they can’t see how
1:55:27 to proper pronunciation? How are they
1:55:29 be able to be inspired when they’re being restrained? If you’re
1:55:34 scared, then you have an option, right?
1:55:37 You’re an adult. You can make the decision for yourself and your
1:55:40 family. You can mask. Our children
1:55:42 should not be living this way without parental consent. Our
1:55:45 children have already been stripped
1:55:47 away of their innocence. They have grown up faster than we did
1:55:49 at their age. My kid comes down with mandatory
1:55:52 lockdowns, right? Like we’re having conversations about hiding
1:55:56 from potential shooters in the building.
1:55:58 Now we’re worried about a mask too. We teach our children to be
1:56:02 respectful of others, but are we
1:56:04 teaching them that today? Don’t they deserve respect? We teach
1:56:07 our children that they can only control their
1:56:09 own actions and reactions. We should practice what we preach.
1:56:14 You take care of you, we’ll take care of us.
1:56:16 We all make choices. I hope you can all reflect on the choices
1:56:19 you made and feel confident and secure
1:56:21 in the results that will follow. Please be respectful of choice.
1:56:25 Choice for all. We just heard about the
1:56:28 budget with respect to enrollment. We all make choices. Remember,
1:56:32 a person’s a person no matter how small.
1:56:35 And again, I’d like to say thank you to the two members who
1:56:39 actually allowed us as parents to still
1:56:41 have a choice in how our children are raised. Thank you. Thank
1:56:45 you. Shondell.
1:56:46 Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is
1:56:55 Shondell Barber. I’ve been a resident
1:56:56 of VR for six years and I grew up in Florida. I have three
1:57:00 children, ages six, seven, and nine,
1:57:03 that have attended Brevard County. We moved to this county
1:57:06 because of the school board and because of the
1:57:08 the schools and the excellence they have proven. However, today
1:57:12 I’m here to
1:57:12 upset and I need to fight for my children right now. Okay. And I
1:57:18 do applaud the ones that did that
1:57:20 did vote for this. I’ve been in the dental industry for 20 years.
1:57:25 I hold a bachelor’s degree in business.
1:57:27 I have OSHA certified training compliance and I hold a bachelor’s
1:57:31 in business and theology.
1:57:33 The coronavirus. When I found this out, I was appalled. This is
1:57:38 from the American Medical
1:57:41 Association Encyclopedia 1989. The coronavirus is listed in that
1:57:46 book as what? A common cold.
1:57:49 Okay. That’s 1989. Google has removed. Why is my mic not working?
1:57:54 Okay. Just checking on you.
1:57:56 Great. The CDC director has openly admitted that COVID-19
1:58:00 vaccines cannot protect you. Also starting
1:58:04 to change the language from immune to protected. That’s next.
1:58:09 Headaches, anxiety, sensory issues,
1:58:12 psychological effects, violates the disability act. You are
1:58:17 breaking the law and I will make sure that all of
1:58:21 you are responsible for it. And if it gets to the point to the Nuremberg,
1:58:25 you might want to be a little
1:58:26 careful next time. Mask wearing. Right? And these are all by
1:58:31 proof of all the doctors. By wearing a mask,
1:58:34 the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will
1:58:38 concentrate the nasal passages,
1:58:40 enter into the olfactory nerve, and goes right straight to the
1:58:43 brain. That’s Russell Brad, the AMD. 17
1:58:47 studies were analyzed and concluded that none of the established
1:58:53 conclusive relationships between mask,
1:58:56 respirator use, and protection against influenza, common cold,
1:59:00 slash coronavirus,
1:59:02 for our medical history, states that the coronavirus is a common
1:59:08 cold. Wearing masks for long periods
1:59:10 of time. That my children are lying. They’re being upset. They
1:59:16 can’t learn. They’re pulling their masks
1:59:19 and they’re treated as if they were bad if their mask flips down
1:59:21 their nose. Tyranny. You’re you you’re
1:59:25 violating my rights as a citizen. And as a parent, I pay taxes.
1:59:30 I pay a lot. This year, I’m gonna pay you
1:59:33 zero. Because that’s exactly what you earn. I hope DeSantis will
1:59:37 take your salary away. Because what you’re
1:59:40 doing right now is illegal. What’s going on in North Carolina is
1:59:44 the same thing. Our rights are being
1:59:47 violated. You’ve also violated the rights of the Special Needs
1:59:50 Disabilities Act, the IPA. Thank you.
1:59:53 We appreciate you joining us this evening. Christopher McGill.
1:59:56 You’re done, ma’am. Please step away.
1:59:59 Please step away from the mic, ma’am.
2:00:04 Yes, out.
2:00:08 Yeah, out.
2:00:11 That’s okay.
2:00:14 Okay.
2:00:21 Christopher McGill. Thank you for your patience, sir.
2:00:23 I’m Christopher McGill. I have a beautiful little daughter named
2:00:29 Adeline McGill. She attends
2:00:31 Sun Tree Elementary. I try to look at everything on both sides.
2:00:36 I want to see it from one person’s
2:00:37 point of view and another person’s point of view and try to come
2:00:39 together. It seems like everyone can’t
2:00:41 figure that out. But also when I like to look into things
2:00:44 because, you know, anybody can tell you
2:00:46 anything. But does that mean it’s trustworthy to believe? It
2:00:49 doesn’t matter if it’s
2:00:51 your average Joe or a person that has 14 different degrees
2:00:55 because we’ve come to find out that there’s
2:00:56 evil, there’s corruption in every level, industry, company,
2:01:00 agency, government, anything that you
2:01:02 could possibly think of, it does exist. So with that said, I
2:01:07 took a screenshot of what this mask
2:01:12 box labels on it. The ones that a majority of you are wearing
2:01:16 and you’re making others wear as well.
2:01:18 It says, this product is an ear loop mask. This product is not a
2:01:22 respirator and will not provide
2:01:25 any protection against COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus,
2:01:30 or other viruses or contaminants.
2:01:32 Wearing an ear loop mask does not reduce the risk of contracting
2:01:35 any disease or infection.
2:01:37 The user is solely responsible for the addition of appropriate
2:01:43 personal protective equipment.
2:01:45 So what that states is the mask does nothing. They don’t want to
2:01:50 be held liable. So that’s why they
2:01:51 label their box that. So why don’t you guys read what it states
2:01:55 before you tell others that they need to wear
2:01:58 this? It’s disrespectful. And if we want to get to that topic,
2:02:02 we can look at last year’s numbers. I
2:02:04 had, I know we had another gentleman and I respect that
2:02:06 gentleman and his numbers and stuff like that.
2:02:08 But, um, Florida had a very like low case numbers and, and you
2:02:12 know, we didn’t have a mass mandate. But if
2:02:14 you looked at a lot of these other states, they had multiple
2:02:16 mass mandates and they had higher numbers
2:02:18 your deaths. So at the end of the day, we, these numbers, they,
2:02:23 they matter because it shows you that
2:02:25 the mass didn’t work. Um, I also want to let you know that the
2:02:30 same agencies that you guys listen to
2:02:32 are telling you to enforce masks. There’s the, they’re the same
2:02:34 ones that are telling you that there’s a
2:02:35 Delta variant. Do we have a test for a Delta variant? Because we
2:02:39 don’t. It’s a lie.
2:02:44 I also want to say, are any of you in possession? Or have you
2:02:48 been, uh, stated to receive any federal
2:02:51 funding on the condition of a universal masking and if any other
2:02:54 COVID protocols, if anyone,
2:02:56 the staff and or students for the school district, if so, you
2:03:00 are then representing these individuals
2:03:02 and not the, the ones that have elected you. So I just want to
2:03:05 put all you guys on notice. If you’re
2:03:07 receiving any kind of gifts, assets, any kind of, uh, bonuses,
2:03:13 you’re being promised things
2:03:14 by special interest groups. If you don’t think that we’re not
2:03:17 going to figure this out, we do have
2:03:18 whistleblowers. People are inside and they’re scared to death
2:03:21 because they have gag orders put on them,
2:03:24 but they’re going to blow the whistle and they’re going to
2:03:25 expose a lot of what’s going on. So hopefully
2:03:27 you guys think before you take your next actions. Thank you, sir.
2:03:29 We appreciate you joining us. God bless you guys.
2:03:31 All right. That is going to conclude our public comments for
2:03:36 today. Does anyone,
2:03:38 any other board member have anything else to report? Um, I will,
2:03:44 I’m just going to make one short comment
2:03:47 before I turn it over to Dr. Mullins and then Mr. Gibbs needs
2:03:50 some time this evening as well.
2:03:52 There have been lots of, um, comments made accusations about
2:03:57 students being bullied and I just want to
2:04:00 make it very clear that no one on this board is supportive of
2:04:04 any faculty or staff bullying students
2:04:08 over masks. We’ve made it very clear that is not the expectation.
2:04:11 Um, given that I’m not saying it has not
2:04:14 happened, but I am saying that general statements of this taking
2:04:18 place don’t help us. If there is a situation
2:04:21 where this is taking place, then number one, contact the
2:04:25 principal and number two, let us know. But
2:04:28 generalities of these things taking place don’t help us to
2:04:31 address the issue. So if you actually want
2:04:34 the issue addressed, much better to reach out to us so we can
2:04:37 address it directly. Um, instead of making
2:04:41 individual, making broad public statements where we can’t
2:04:44 actually address it. All right, Dr. Mullins,
2:04:47 do you have anything more to add this evening? Ms. Belfort, Ms.
2:04:51 Belfort, thank you for those comments.
2:04:52 I do want to also add, I, I feel it necessary to come to the
2:04:57 defense of some amazing staff members,
2:05:00 men and women who have devoted themselves to serving our
2:05:03 children in our cafeterias across the district.
2:05:06 Some allegations have come forth that have been determined
2:05:11 invalid and the suggestion that the men and
2:05:14 women who put themselves on the front line last school year
2:05:17 throughout the summer
2:05:19 and continuously throughout last year to ensure that our kids
2:05:24 have a healthy meal for them was very
2:05:27 disappointing. Um, and those to the degree that we could
2:05:31 investigate those allegations, they were
2:05:34 completely found completely determined unfounded that children
2:05:39 were denied food because they weren’t
2:05:40 wearing a mask. Um, so I, I had the opportunity to visit one of
2:05:45 the cafeterias that were, uh, accused of
2:05:50 that and provided that staff the reassurance, but I could tell
2:05:54 you that they were hurt and I just, uh, want
2:05:57 to acknowledge their work and their service and their dedication
2:06:00 to our kids and their selfless, um, commitment
2:06:04 to serving the kids of our county and ensuring that they have
2:06:08 healthy meals every day, uh, available for them.
2:06:12 So thank you.
2:06:13 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
2:06:15 All right.
2:06:17 At this point, the chair recognizes the board’s attorney, Paul
2:06:20 Gibbs.
2:06:20 Good evening board members. I’m notifying you that advice is
2:06:24 needed regarding OJCC case Pablo
2:06:28 Berbano versus the school board of Brevard County, Florida, case
2:06:32 number 21-007623RLD.
2:06:36 Pursuant to 286.011 Florida statutes known as the Government of
2:06:40 the Sunshine Act, I am requesting
2:06:42 an attorney-client session with the board for the purpose of
2:06:45 discussing the evaluation and or compromise
2:06:48 of said claim. I will ask the board’s clerk to cause reasonable
2:06:52 public notice of the time and date of
2:06:54 this attorney-client session and the names of the persons
2:06:57 attending to be published. It is suggested
2:06:59 that the attorney-client session be held September 17th, 2021 at
2:07:03 1:00 p.m. As required by the statute,
2:07:07 only the following individuals will be present: Misty Belford,
2:07:10 board chair, Matt Susan, vice chair,
2:07:12 Katie Campbell, school board member, Jennifer Jenkins, school
2:07:15 board member, Cheryl McDougal, school board member,
2:07:18 deputy superintendent, Dr. Beth Beddy, sitting in for
2:07:21 superintendent, Dr. Mark Mullins, Paul
2:07:24 Gibbs general counsel, William Rogner Esquire, the HR law firm.
2:07:28 I will ask a court reporter to record
2:07:31 the session also as required by statute. Her notes will be fully
2:07:34 transcribed and filed with the clerk of
2:07:36 the school board upon the conclusion of any litigation and or
2:07:39 settlement of all claims arising out of this
2:07:41 incident. The transcript will be made public record. Recommend…
2:07:46 sorry. No worries. I recommend the board
2:07:49 hold an attorney-client session pursuant to section 286.011
2:07:53 Florida statutes to discuss a pending claim.
2:07:55 If there are no objections, I will instruct our attorney to
2:07:58 schedule the attorney-client session
2:08:00 to be held September 17th, 2021 starting at 1:00 p.m. or as soon
2:08:05 thereafter as the matter may be heard.
2:08:06 Do I hear any objection from any board member? Hearing none, Mr.
2:08:11 Mr. Gibbs, move forward as directed. Thank you. All right. There
2:08:16 being no further business,
2:08:17 this meeting is now adjourned. Have a great night.
2:08:41 We’ll see you next time. We’ll see you next time. We’ll see you
2:08:48 next time. We’ll see you next time.