2021-09-21 - School Board Meeting

0:02 Public allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, an indivisible with liberty and justice for all. At this time, I would like to offer my fellow board members and Doctor Mullins the opportunity to recognize students, staff, or members of the community who would like to get us started this evening. I can, Miss Jenkins. I have two tonight.

0:34 So, last board meeting, I mentioned that I was going to be participating in the Cocoa firefighters 911 stair climb. I did do it. It was a wonderful event.

0:45 There was over 200 people there. There was firefighters from all over central Florida participating, as well as some of our sheriffs that are here today. It was an honor to participate in that.

0:56 And I want to thank the Cocoa firefighters for putting that on, as well as the city of Cocoa Mayor Mike Blake and city Councilman Alex goins for being so cordial and having me there. So thank you so very much for that. Another thing you can see, we are all wearing our Kaine shirts today.

1:13 I was grateful enough to receive one from Miss Barbara Wilcox, the most amazing teacher at tropical elementary. So, as most of you probably are aware, she had a project that she started with her students to create a symbol of kindness. And it has made it all the way to the US House of Representatives with Congressman Bill Posey to hopefully get it to be an official act of symbol of kindness for the United States.

1:38 And I just want to share a really sweet story about Miss Wilcox. About seven years. Well, more than that.

1:46 Way more than that. When I was at Brevard Community College in an elementary education course, it was my first education course I ever took. I had the pleasure of volunteering at endeavor elementary, and one of the first classrooms that I spent time in was Miss Wilcox’s class.

2:02 And I was so moved by her. She was a woman who was dedicated to her job, loved her students, clearly had a passion for what she did. And that stuck with me from that moment.

2:15 And when I was in the audience one day when she was up here, when you guys were making a resolution for the kindness of brevard public schools, I instantly recognized her just because she is just the most incredible educator. And so I just want to give her a really huge shout out for the amazing things that she has accomplished over the years for her students and just sticking it out with us. So thank you very much, Miss Wilcox.

2:37 Thank you, Miss Jenkins. And just as part of my recognition this evening, I’ve asked Mister Francisco to play the kindness video, the resolution video. So he’s waiting on that cue when he gets to my point.

2:48 So nice overlap there. Who wants to go next? Miss McDougall, I just have one thing. I wanted to go ahead and give a shout out.

2:59 Not a shout out, but to remind everyone that there is a 2021 Hispanic Heritage Month art and essay contest that for our students. And the theme is celebrating hispanic american community leaders and champions. And the deadline date is 05:00 p.

3:29 m. eastern time on Monday, the 11th of and students in grades k through three have a chance to win cash prizes for submitting their artwork. So I’m sure they can reach out to their art teachers to get more information.

3:37 But I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware there was a contest where our students can participate in. That’s all I have. Thank you, Miss McDougall.

3:51 And to our audience members, if you would please just make sure that if you did not present a medical exemption at the door, that you do have your mask on. Otherwise, we’ll have to ask you to leave the boardroom. Okay, who’s next? Miss Campbell.

4:17 So our school district has created a partnership. Or not created, but joined in partnership with the Department of Defense with their new Skillbridge program, which allows service members in their last 180 days of service to continue to be paid by the military, but to take that time to do internships, apprenticeships with different employers. And brevard Public Schools is now one of those employers.

4:42 And so we’re going to be able to basically recruit people who are looking for jobs as a military. And I believe our update from Doctor Mullins this weekend that we got on Monday said we’ve actually already had several people inquire, and we have two people who’ve completed the approval process and are ready to start their internship. So I think it’s exciting, especially considering we have a base here in brevard for us to develop those partnerships.

4:55 And we already have. There’s been programs before. I can’t remember what the troops to teachers program, but this program will enable people to go into all different kinds of employment opportunities within our district.

4:58 So that’s really exciting. That’s it. Super.

5:01 Thank you, Miss Campbell. Mister Susan. Good.

5:10 Doctor Mullen. Thank you, Miss Belford. I want to just take the opportunity to celebrate some of our kids.

5:35 We just received announcement that 17 of our now high school seniors qualified for the national Merit semifinalist status. These are students who took sat last year as a junior. They joined less than 1% of students across the United States who received the highest scores in their state, and now they compete for the National Merit Scholarship program.

6:05 So very excited for those 17 students who in a year, with perhaps the greatest amount of interruptions and disruptions we’ve ever faced as a school system, they rose above that. They excelled, they performed, and now they are continuing to be recognized. So congratulations to those students and all of the educators, including those at home who have surrounded them to help them excel and exceed in their academics and to be recognized with that great honor.

6:41 And then I also want to just recognize that Brevard Public schools will join the nation and recognizing Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 through October 15. As we begin this observance, we will be celebrating hispanic heritage since 1968, and it celebrates the rich history, culture, and contributions of hispanic and latino ex Americans across all american citizens and all of our ancestors that have made our country what it is today. Very exciting.

7:34 We have some great activities going on, everything from virtual Zumba classes to actually a forum, a panel discussion on hispanic culture and heritage moderated by our very own doctor Sullivan. And just want to give a big thank you and shout out to several of our staff who have helped put together all of the activities and the engagement opportunities for our district, our students, our staff across the district, Doctor Danielle McKinnon, Marilyn Borges in our Ese department, and two principals, Anna Diaz and Maggie Rassel. So thank you to our staff for helping us just honor and celebrate the heritage across our community.

7:51 Thank you Doctor Mullins, and as I referenced earlier, I will forego my recognition time. Mister Francisco, if you could please cue that awesome video of our tropical TK one students and the resolution before Congress. Culper will do.

8:00 My apologies. Okay, thank you. No worries.

8:40 House resolutions 509 recognizing a national symbol of kindness and urging acts of kindness throughout our nation, representatives Bill Posey and Darren Soto are leading efforts to advance resolution in the House resolution recognizing a national symbol of kindness and urging acts of kindness throughout our nation. Whereas we are kind when we act on the best infants of another without expecting anything in return, whereas our national character is to live one another by being kind. Whereas the United States has been a beacon of kindness to the rest of the world.

9:24 Whereas kindness for each other brings unity and makes our nation stronger than any one of us. To meet our challenges layers, we need the healing and compassion that kindness can bring us in these times as children, often the best teachers of kindness. Whereas the students of the traditional king kindergarten of tropical elementary school, York County, Florida have created a special symbol of kindness and whereas these special children have won the hearts of people from many states in appreciation and support for their symbol of kindness, now therefore be its result.

9:36 Section one, short title. This resolution may be cited as the kindness’s daily sunshine resolution or the kids resolution. Section two, expressing support for recognition of the symbol of kindness.

9:54 That has a representative expressed support for the recognition of the symbol of kindness created by the students of the transnational kindergarten of Tropical Elementary School, Brevard County, Florida. Kindness is daily centering. Please support the kids resolution.

10:04 Thank you. Stay at home. We’re able to see that.

10:17 I’m sure it’ll be aired out on our social media and other formats as well. Doctor Mullins, you look like you wanted to say something there. Well, Miss Belford, I just wanted to acknowledge I am in full support of the Kindness resolution and our kids program.

10:27 I got the memo late to wear my shirt, so I’ll make up for it another time. No worries. No worries.

10:38 Okay. That is going to bring us to the adoption of the agenda. Doctor Mullen, Miss Belford, and members of the board.

11:00 On this evening’s agenda, we have administrative staff recommendations, 14 consent items, three action items, and two discussion items. Changes made to the agenda since it was first released to the public on Tuesday, August 18, 2021, are as follows. Items a seven on administrative staff recommendations, and f 13 on instructional staff recommendations received.

11:17 Revisions and additions to the agenda are items f ten on student expulsions and two discussion items k 28 on social media challenge and k 29 on board member redistricting. What are the wishes of the board? Moved to approve. Second.

11:22 Moved by Mister Susan. Seconded by Miss McDougall. Is there any discussion? Hearing? None.

11:43 Please vote. Oh, never mind. Yeah, actually, that will give me a moment, Miss Escobar, for me to fix my boo boo there.

12:00 Board members, we. At the end of our agenda, we have item g 25 on department school initiate agreements, and g 26 on procurement. Procurement solicitations, which come after our discussion of g 24, which is the emergency mask mandate.

12:07 Do you all want to take those before we get into the mask discussion? Okay, so I will. Yeah, please. I’d move to do everything.

12:16 Miss Belford. Mister Gibbs, is that okay with you? I believe it was. Amanda.

12:23 The. The agenda to move g 25 and 26 above g 24. That work for you, Mister Susan? Absolutely.

12:30 All right. I have an amended motion on the floor for Mister Susan. Do I have a second? 2nd from Miss Campbell.

12:40 Any discussion? Do you need a voice vote on that, Pam? Since we did amended motion? I do. Okay. All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

12:43 Aye. Any opposed? Same sign. Motion passes.

12:55 50. All right. Doctor Mullins, will you please let us know about the administrative staff recommendations? Yes, I would like to.

13:01 Yes. Miss Belford? This evening you’ll be asked to approve three persons under this category. What are the wishes of the board? Moved to approve.

13:04 Second. Moved by Mister Susan. Seconded by Miss McDougall.

13:20 Is there any discussion? Well, I got a. Yeah, I got the adoption of the agenda as well. Right.

13:24 Let me just. Yeah. Mm hmm.

13:30 I’ve got them. That’s what I was getting all excited about. Announcements.

13:40 You need a voice vote, Miss Escobar. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye.

13:46 All opposed? Same sign. Motion passes 50. Doctor Mullins, you get to read.

14:10 All right. Now is my opportunity to recognize and congratulate three of our newest administrative appointees. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Miss Melanie Nelson on her transfer from the position of assistant principal ten months at Pinewood Elementary School to the position of assistant principal ten months at Endeavor Elementary School.

14:22 Congratulations, Miss Nelson. Thank you for making yourself available to serve the children of endeavor elementary. And I’d also like to recognize Miss did.

14:26 I was cheering for you. Okay. I thought there was clapping.

14:37 Getting ready to break out. We’re gonna clap at the end. And also want to recognize Miss Kimberly Stockton on her appointment as interim principal at Southwest Middle School.

15:05 Congratulations, Miss Stockton, and thank you for coming out of retirement to assist us. Congratulations to all that is going to move us to public comments. Just another reminder for anyone who is in the boardroom without a medical exemption, that I need you to please be wearing your mask.

15:18 You can either put your mask on while you’re in the board room, or we will ask that you exit the boardroom. So making sure everyone is aware. All right, we are now at public comments.

15:33 We have 31 33 speakers signed up this evening. It’s my recommendation that we hear. Actually, that doesn’t matter, because everyone is going to be on the agenda this evening, I believe.

15:54 Give me a moment. We have three non agenda speakers this evening. So, board members, would you like to just take all 33 together in the beginning of the meeting? Yes.

16:11 Anyone opposed to that? Do I need an official motion? Mister Gibbs? All right, each speaker is going to be limited to three minutes. We have a clock in front of me to help you keep track of your time. When your time is over, you will be asked to stop and allow the next speaker his or her turn.

16:25 Always keep in mind that reasonable decorum is expected at all times, and your statement should be directed to the board chairman. The chairman may interrupt, warn, or terminate a participant’s statement when time is up. It’s personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant.

16:42 Should an individual not observe proper etiquette, the chairman may request the individual leave the meeting. Let’s all encourage an environment appropriate for our children who may be present or watching from home. Our first three speakers, and if you all would not mind kind of being on deck over here on the.

17:11 Was that our east side? Anthony Colucci, Katie Delaney, and then Molly Williams. Mister Klucci, before we get started, sir, in the back, in the striped shirt, would you please put your mask on for me? Yeah. Thank you.

17:18 My name is Anthony Clucci. I’m the president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers. Has there been many.

17:25 Mister Colucci, hold on 1 second. I’m not sure your mic is on. Give me a moment.

17:33 There we go. Let me restart. You okay? Am I okay or would you like it on? I’d like it on, but if you need to take it off, you can.

17:36 No, that’s fine. Okay. My name is Anthony Colucci.

17:59 I’m the president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers. As there have been many loud and angry voices here week after week after week, the reality of what our teachers are dealing with is being drowned out by a minority. As a representative of your teachers, whom 3000 are dues paying members, tonight, I’m here to tell you that your teachers are worn out.

18:26 Unfortunately, one of the most common questions we are receiving in our office is what is the board policy for resigning? We cannot continue this trajectory while at the same time having 150 instructional vacancies. So how did we get here? For starters, teachers are losing too many planning periods to cover for absent colleagues. There is too much pressure to make up for learning loss.

18:41 Teachers are trying to implement a new reading curriculum. They are spending additional hours keeping quarantined students on track. And at the same time, my teachers are only trying to do their jobs and see children in front of them.

19:06 Not little Republicans or Democrats are walking on eggshells because of intense parents who are looking for a reason to be offended. So tonight, my ask is, as you consider policies, choose ones that make teachers jobs more manageable. As you consider what to do with federal Covid grants, consider what will keep your teachers working as BPS employees.

19:26 Consider hiring teachers to work with quarantined students. Consider addressing the substitute crisis. Consider making sure Brevard’s classrooms are equipped with 21st century technology and offer premium pay to your workers when so few people are willing to do the work to keep our schools open.

19:43 As we work through negotiations, think about what will keep teachers here and what will chase them away. Think about the negative impact 150 classrooms without teachers has on the district. And then think about how wrong decisions can exacerbate the issue.

20:09 Think about correcting the wage compression issue that is deflating our veteran teachers. Don’t think about how much this will cost the district to do so, but rather think about what sort of investment this district needs to make in order to keep teachers working for BPS. So please, it’s time to put our teachers voices at the forefront of your thinking and stop allowing the angry voices of a few to provide direction to you.

20:13 Thank you. Thank you. Mister Clooney.

20:27 Miss Delaney. Hi there. I wanted to start off by giving a shout out to Jennifer Cockerell.

20:44 I’m sorry, I’m horrible with names. And Patty Henning, they helped us with the ELA curriculum review and we just really appreciate them. And they were super friendly, helpful, awesome ladies, and we really appreciate them.

21:06 So the next thing I would like to talk about is right here I have. I’m on the SaC committee for my kids school and I got this form and it shows my kids school’s results from the FSA, the district and then the state. The numbers are pretty alarming in the district.

21:27 And I know, I’m sure you all know that the most alarming is it’ll be last year’s 8th grade class. 79% got a two or below, which means they are not on grade level. Here we are again, a year later, fighting over Covid mitigations that do not work.

21:59 While all of you ignore this achievement cap, it’s between 30 and 50% of the children in this district cannot read and write and cannot do math. Why are we here? Are you here to tell us how to parent, or are you here to educate our children? Because you’re not doing either. Because you know what? Parents are still going to send their kids to school without masks because it’s our right.

22:21 And you three are breaking the law again. So I would ask that you do the right thing and put a parent opt out and follow the law. Duvall county as well as Pasco county have gotten rid of all Covid medications.

22:35 Not some, not masks, not quarantine, all of it. There are not children dropping in the streets there. Their numbers aren’t sky high.

22:42 This is ridiculous. You’re wasting our time and you’re hurting our children. You’re not educating them.

22:50 Your job is to educate our children. We keep them safe. You guys educate them.

23:04 That’s why we send them to school. And that’s why so many parents in this county have pulled their kids out of your district. Over the past couple weeks because you’re not educating our kids and you’re not keeping our kids safe.

23:19 There is a kindergartener that I know of that is doing suicide intervention because of all of this. A kindergartener. Do the right thing, please.

23:30 Thank you. Thanks, Laneyen. All right, as Molly is approaching, our next three speakers are going to be Shannon Marsh, Susan Richards, and Jennifer Strafford.

23:34 Molly, whenever you’re ready. Hi. My name is Molly Williams.

23:45 I’m a mom of two and my oldest recently started kindergarten. So we are brand new to the public school system. So I have done my research on why each of you are sitting in those seats as school board members.

24:01 And while, while I believe that you all bring something different to the table, I do feel that you share a passion surrounding our children’s education and our school system. So, stranger to strangers, I have entrusted you with the decision making of my child’s education while in a school setting. And I’ve entrusted you because I’ve done my research.

24:17 I’ve seen your reasoning for campaigning, and I feel that you’re fit for the job. But tonight, I stand up here letting you know that that trust has been completely broken. I have no trust for this school board, and I can stand up here and tell you why, and you probably know why, and you might not even care.

24:47 But I still felt led to get up here tonight and share my heart with you all because this is about our children and that’s what matters. So when you made that illegal decision, the first thought that popped up into my brain as a parent is moving forward. Are you genuinely going to have my child’s education in your best interest? How do I know, week after week or meeting after meeting, someone says, this isn’t personal, this isn’t political, but that’s exactly what your decision was.

25:03 And so I’m not quite sure that you, as a school board members, fully understand why so many parents are feeling frustrated and feeling defeated and sad and angry and are pulling their kids from bps. And that’s because this goes so much deeper than your illegal mask mandate. This is about trust between the parents and the school board.

25:33 And right now, that trust has been completely broken. And so if this broken trust doesn’t bother you, if it doesn’t motivate you to want to fix it, or if you just don’t care, then I’m going to implore you to please give up your seat to someone who is genuinely going to have my child’s education, their best interest and who is going to focus on what’s most important, while my child is in a school setting, because honestly, right now, I’m not sure that you have my child’s education in your best interest. This broken trust speaks volumes for how you are doing your job.

25:50 The amount of parents who have pulled their kids from BPS speaks volumes on how you are doing your job. This abuse of power speaks volumes on how you’re doing your job. And the fact that you have a parent who’s brand new to the public school system standing up here and telling you that I have a backup plan for my child’s education speaks volumes on how you are doing your job.

26:00 We elected and entrusted you with the decision making of our children’s education. We did not elect you to make medical decisions for our children. So right now, you are in territory where you do not belong.

26:17 And worse, you did it illegally. So I would hope that we can agree that trust is important and pushing aside your political and personal agendas while decision making is important and placing our children’s education in your best interest is important. And if we cannot agree on any of that, then you do not deserve a seat up there.

26:23 Thank you. Thank you. Shannon Marsh.

26:41 Once again, guys, I will ask you, please hold your applause so that everyone can hear their names called and everyone can get their opportunity to speak. Okay, Shannon, I have a master’s in public health epidemiology. I’ve done infectious disease epidemic control around the world, and I closely follow the COVID data, research and guidance.

27:07 I also have an unvaccinated nine year old Brevard student who cannot return to in person until the transmission risks significantly. I’m concerned that the school board is considering lifting the mask mandate after only 30 days. The school board should lift the mask mandate only when Brevard achieves certain public health indicators using Florida DOH and CDC data, and not just until 30 days from implementation or 30 more days from now.

27:44 While we’ve seen a positive effect from the universal masking requirement for brevard schools on numbers of cases in quarantines, we are not yet where we need to be to keep our schools safe from COVID transmission, lifting it now is premature and would cause a rise in numbers again. I don’t think any of us want to see another child hospitalized or another staff member die. With deaths and hospitalizations having increased due to delta and long haul Covid and MIS C complications appearing in up to 52% of pediatric cases, even asymptomatic ones, we should do everything possible to prevent infection in the first place.

27:57 Overall, Covid case numbers are decreasing. But pediatric cases are at an all time high. Brevard’s fully vaccinated rate is low at 54%, and our community transmission risk is still very high.

28:16 For the unvaccinated kids under twelve. The risk is exponentially higher because community transmission affects school transmission and the only other mitigation at schools is hand washing and distancing. We should not remove the universal mask requirement until our transmission risk is low and vaccination rate is high.

28:26 Otherwise, we risk having another surge. While a seven day case rate of ten per 100,000 people is considered low risk of community transmission and 100 is high risk, Brevard is even higher at 360. The CDC’s chart on risk of transmission in schools puts low risk below 20 new cases per 100,000 over 14 days and high risk above 50 cases.

28:52 Brevard is even higher at 707 and even just our school community is at 210. A test positivity rate below 5% is low and over 10% is high. Brevard is at eleven.

29:20 Because vaccinated people can also transmit, masking should remain universal until we reach at least 80% fully vaccinated, which would then provide some herd immunity. Vaccinations will likely be available to children under twelve after Halloween, but it may still take quite some time to reach 80%. We could lower the risk of COVID transmission in schools to almost nil if we implemented a multilayered prevention approach which includes masking, distancing required vaccination, at least for staff.

29:29 Improved air quality, screening, testing and hand washing. Until we do that, masking and vaccination are our only way out of this epidemic. Thank you.

29:42 Thank you, Shannon. As Susan Richards approaches, ma’am, in the back of the room, pinkish, maybe colored dress. If you could please put your mask on for me.

29:55 You back there, the one not wearing a mask in the back of the room. If you would please put it on for me. Joanne, could you.

30:05 You see the one I’m talking about? I’m not asking you to do anything, just so she’s aware of who I’m talking to. If she has an exemption, take a look for me. All right, Susan.

30:13 Okay, I’ll start with my doctor’s note. Okay. I wanted to begin with some numbers from Governor Ron DeSantis.

30:30 Since Florida opened monoclonal antibody treatment sites in August, 100,000 floridians have received treatments. Covid hospital admissions have fallen by 60%. Covid hospital census has declined for 28 consecutive days.

30:47 Er visits for Covid have declined by over 70%. I don’t want you to think that the reason the numbers are down now is because of the mass change. It’s because of the monoclonal antibody infusion at the meeting where we voted and doctor, geez, I hate doing this.

30:55 Mister Susan gave numbers and he showed Florida Department of Health back in July. You can see that the cases were very low. By August 20, it started going up by, well, 910.

31:15 You can see that the numbers are way down. These are the death numbers. They’re back to where they were before.

31:25 And by the way, if you can see the pattern, it went up last year in July also. Florida is the place where people go on vacation. We have a lot more cases in the summer.

31:43 It’s going way down right now as far as numbers go. CDC on August 25, the seven day average, 151,234 cases, 921. Seven day average, 61,682 cases.

32:04 That’s a decrease of 59%. Okay, and the final thing I wanted to talk about is the mask that the kids wear. They clearly say on the box, non medical grade face mask is not intended for a replacement for a medical grade personal protective equipment.

32:19 So anybody that thinks that the kids wearing these masks are protecting anybody they are not, I would ask that you would please give us a parent mandate so we can opt out from asking our kids. Thank you. Thanks, Susan.

32:33 As Jennifer is approaching, our next three speakers will be Chris Paganoni, Julie O’Neill, and Jerry Nurt. Maybe Jennifer. Good evening, board.

32:47 I wanted to bring up what recently went into effect at Indian River county as a tiered mitigation strategy for CoVIDs. I will leave a copy for each of you up here as well as for your council. And you can also find it on the district website.

33:05 Basically, instead of putting a blanket one size fits all mask mandate at all the schools, they address it school by school. You will see they have different guidelines for school case criteria with active Covid cases for 5% and over three to 4%, one to 2%. And I would appreciate if I could have everybody’s attention.

33:22 I know you probably don’t care what I’m saying, but you could make believe that you do care since you’re up there saying it’s in the best interest of our children. One to 2% and under 1%. They are looking at each school and addressing where there are hot spots.

33:40 Should they arise more aggressively. I would ask that this board consider discussion and implementation of a similar course with our district. If the numbers are higher, say at astronaut or Viera High School, why would you want to massage the students in Satellite beach who literally is on an island.

34:02 Even though the kids may be wearing masks during the day at school, I’m sure most of them are not wearing them once they leave school. They’re not wearing them when they’re with their family or friends or in the community with the information that we have from the COVID dashboard. Since you won’t show us daily cases by school, the trends of positive cases within the school and communities are almost running identical.

34:48 So unless the entire community is masking up, which they are not, the students wearing them at school is not making the difference. The trend of the community as a whole shows the number going down. If it was really about the health of the children, wouldn’t you want to know where the hot spots are and take care of those head on? Rather than saying everybody in the district needs to wear a mask, I also like to say that those of us that are pro mask optional, should our children not to follow the mask rule at school if they don’t want to? Since the board is setting the example by not following the law they don’t agree with, even when told by their general counsel that putting a mask mandate in place was potential and you could potentially get sued, then why should the students follow a rule that they don’t agree with? If the students don’t want to follow that rule, then they shouldn’t have to without any repercussion.

35:06 I’ve heard the story from parents whose children who got very sick and even hospitalized because of COVID and that does break my heart. It is scary how it can affect different people on such different levels. I hadn’t and was down for maybe 36 hours with no lasting symptoms even to date.

35:27 This is a virus that can be very harmful, but so is the flu and pneumonia. But we don’t expect the community, and especially our children to mask up because of them, do we? Thank you. Thank you, Chris Paganoni.

35:35 And here we are again. I’m going to actually leave some documents up here on the table. I’ll go over those.

36:01 Those are for the board members. First off, I have to agree with some people that spoke earlier were beginning to lose trust in the board. Why do I say that? Tonight I should be sitting at home with my daughter, helping her with her geometry homework and her foreign language homework, but I’m here having to babysit a school board and making sure that something crazy doesn’t just suddenly appear.

36:08 That’s beyond what the school board really should be doing. You should be worried about the budget. You should be worried about whether or not our facilities are up to grade.

36:17 And you should be worried about what the curriculum these students are learning in class should be. So, you know, I just. I lose faith.

36:33 I shouldn’t be here unless there’s something about curriculum, about the building, or about the budget. But I’m here because everyone wants to play politics with a disease. Second, we all argue about science.

36:37 Everybody keeps going, well, we’re going to follow the science. We’re going to follow the science. Well, I’m an engineer.

36:44 I have been for 30 years. I have a master’s degree in systems engineering. I do data fusion, and I am also a PII expert.

37:15 Okay, so we know how data works. Very simply, if you look at the community spread and you look at the students and you compare the two trends of the percent of cases per day, in each of those two, you have to compare apples to apples. So percentage against percentage, we have a correlation of 0.

37:31 75,538 somewhere in that region. If you have a correlation above a 0.7 in a biological system, that is referred to as a strong correlation, which means that things are related.

37:48 The community’s drop is what is driving the students drop and the decreases. And this is true with our school, with Hillsborough county, with Orange county. We all are running in that same bandaid.

38:15 The other two school districts I mentioned were 100% masked from the beginning of their years at the same time we were. So you’re not seeing a significant drop in cases for any reason with a mask, because kids aren’t wearing the masks. Right.

38:29 You will see a great drop in masks when they’re used properly. If you don’t wear these paper masks, if you’re wearing well fitted masks, they’re sealed properly, that you’re changing your mask every time it gets soiled or over temperature, if you have humidity or anything of that fashion in it. Anyone who has been paying attention to what the who, CDC, and every mask manufacturer says, if you’re following the rules, the masks are effective.

38:41 But no one is following the rules. That’s what the large paper is that I’ve got out there is from the who with what they’re saying on masks. So please, please follow science, not your gut feeling, in your opinion.

38:53 Thank you, Chris. Thank you. Julie O’Neill.

39:01 Good evening. I’m a parent at Melbourne High School, and first, I just want to say thank you to Miss Belford, Miss Jenkins and Miss McDougall. I applaud you for standing your ground and protecting our students, students, staff and community.

39:09 Community cases have decreased as well as our school cases and quarantines. And this is because of the mass mandate that you voted for. So again, I say thank you.

39:21 Please vote to continue the mask mandate and continue protecting our students, staff and community. Thank you. Thank you.

39:35 As Jerry’s approaching, our next three speakers will be Terry Hart, Shannon Deledon, and Natalie twine. Jerry, good evening. Board.

39:51 First, I want to say I’m a full time substitute teacher. I teach at Riviera elementary. I’m proud to say at that school, everybody is masked from start of school to the end of school.

40:20 So that’s one of where my school I’m at Monday through Friday, UC, everybody is mathematic. The group I want to talk about now is what we didn’t hear a lot about. It’s children with disabilities.

40:33 If anybody is breaking the law, the governor’s executive order violates the law for the American Disability act. It reads, america’s Disability act prohibits the exclusion of students with disabilities from public educational programs and activities. Children with certain disabilities are most vulnerable to serious illnesses or viruses.

40:38 A lot of you, some say, don’t tread on me. I’m saying don’t tread on children with disabilities. They earn the same equal education as your children.

40:47 Don’t expect. Expose them to the viruses. And that’s all I have to say.

41:01 Thank you. Thanks, Jerry. Terry Hart.

41:33 Hi. Thank you. I know you all are aware of this, but I just thought I’d read off some numbers from your own dashboard as far as how numbers have been going within the school.

42:13 On August, on August 24 through August 26, we had 784 cases in our school on nine seven to nine nine, the number went down to 413, 910 to 914, the number went down to 213. On 915 to 916, the number went down to 104. And from 917 to 920, the cases within the schools are 85.

42:25 So we went from 784 cases down to 85. What changed other than masking? As far as quarantines? I won’t go through the whole list because there’s a lot, but where we started on 824, we were quarantining 4021 students from 824 to 826, the numbers that came out from 917 to 900 and 2300 and twelve. So from 4021 to 312, quarantines.

42:46 Now, for me personally, I got a call from the school saying my son was exposed. Luckily, it was after the masks were in place. He was wearing a mask.

42:54 The other students were wearing a mask. Plus he was vaccinated, so he did not have to be quarantined, thank God, because his grades would have plummeted if he went home. And that might be the reason, you know, I know one person said that they noticed the scores had been going down since last year.

43:18 Well, it was a tough year. The kids weren’t being taught last year the best the teachers could do. But you know the story.

43:31 The best thing we can do for our kids is keep them safe, keep them from getting sick, keep them from getting their parents sick, keep them from being quarantined. And I appreciate, agree with other people who said, you know, why do we have to keep going through this, coming here, babysitting, blah, blah, blah. I agree 100%.

43:40 I think this, we should extend the mask mandate, make it be at least through the end of the year until our numbers really come down. We’ve made great progress. Let’s not blow it now.

43:56 Thank you. Thanks, Terry. Shannon.

44:09 Hello, and thank you again for the opportunity and thank you very much for your vote last time for the mask mandate. I’m here on behalf of my children, two of whom are high schoolers at satellite one is a middle schooler. And I apologize.

44:22 I have to keep taking my glasses off because I can’t see because of the fog, but it is what it is. So my children also thank you. They appreciate you very much because they are Covid free.

44:48 And does my daughter, who’s 16, want to wear her mask? Absolutely not. But does she every single day? Yes, because she’s Covid free because she’s healthy. My son, same thing.

44:55 My 13 year old. She says, well, mom, when you go, can you please tell them thank you and please ask them to extend it again? Because, you know, I have friends who even qualify for medical exemptions, and they don’t do it because they really feel like we need to do this together and we need to take care of each other, and they’re taking care of each other. I appreciate you very, very much.

45:10 And I have one last set of things to talk about. Liberty, freedom and independence. Values.

45:27 Our country was founded on values that make us all american. I love my freedom. I love my freedom to breathe freely and unrestricted, to see, to move about and pursue happiness.

45:57 I’m independent and free. I’m also Covid free. I, unlike my neighborhood, unlike many clients of mine, family members, can exercise my fundamental human rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

46:21 Because I’m not on a ventilator, I’m not in an intensive care bed, along with hundreds of other people who’ve been stripped of their basic freedoms and liberty because of COVID I’m not being cared for by overstretched doctors. Nurses and staff in hospitals because of COVID masks. Protect my freedoms, your freedoms and everyone’s freedoms.

46:33 Please, please vote to extend it. We’re going to get through this and if we just band together for a short period of time, we’ll get through it. And I also just want to say thank you to the teachers for all their incredible hard work that they’re putting in because it’s just so much more than would be expected on a normal basis.

46:44 I mean, they’re incredible human beings and we love the public schools. I was public school always will send my kids to public school. Public school and public health are intertwined and interconnected.

46:54 Please extend thank you very much. Thanks Shannon. As Natalie’s approaching, our next three speakers are going to be Jacob French, Cindy Merton, and Janice Crisp.

47:19 Natalie hi, my name is Natalie Twine. I’m a Brevard county resident and published molecular scientist. I started my career in the late nineties.

47:35 Some might say I’m an expert, but I know what my training really means. Early in my career, my mentors taught me that we all have biases and advised to let the data lead to the conclusions, not to rely on it to prove your hypotheses. During this pandemic, I watched proponents of unmasking our children throw out scientific data and reference publications.

48:05 When I tried to engage one of the well known unmasking groups time and time again, the answer was, do your own research. I did. One member of this group posted on social media linked to an article that she encouraged the group to email board members.

48:28 Yet when I clicked on the link, I discovered that the article had been retracted. This example demonstrates it is critically important to rely on those with scientific training to evaluate scientific publications. The school board heard from a panel of those trained in the scientific method that uniformly testified that the great weight of the credible scientific data led them to conclude that it is essential that masks be worn in schools to protect the school community.

48:45 I was appalled when one of the school board members stated, we will look at the data, but the panel had just interpreted that data. One school board member is particularly cavalier about bastardizing the scientific method. He has even gone so far as to be quoted in a newspaper providing an analysis before even obtaining the underlying data.

49:06 Not learning from his mistake, he took published data out of context, and the organization compiling that data sternly corrected his misinterpretation. Keep it focused on center, ok? Yep. So as a political official, his words have consequences.

49:25 It is defensible that a school board member would knowingly or unknowingly mislead our community on a matter of. A matter of public health. In the examples I presented, laypeople, to my knowledge, were not working with scientists, but were using scientific data to spread misinformation as a result of their lack of training.

49:37 Scientific publications are truly not meant for consumption by general public. I think it is commendable that people wish to not be fed a digested media interpretation of this data. The danger lies in not accepting that without scientists, you might not have the skills to accurately make informed.

50:07 Conclusion I encourage everyone to always challenge science with scientists. In the meantime, for the sake of public health, trust us on this one. The scientific data overwhelmingly says to wear a mask.

50:26 Thank you. Thanks, Natalie. Jacob, we should not have to wear masks because when my class comes in from recess, we’re really hot and we all take down our masks because we’re too hot and sweaty and it hurts and sticks to our face.

50:53 And then when we go home, well, and last year, none of me, me and the rest of my class didn’t want to wear a mask. So we always took it down and then we had to have these plastic folders put up. Bye.

51:20 Thanks, Jacob. All right, as Cindy is approaching, our next three speakers will be Julia Anton, Martin McClellan and Sarah Schivario. Hello ladies and gentlemen and members of the jury, I usually have a prepared statement.

51:36 I’d like to thank the two board members of vps for voting against the mask mandate. Because at the time that you, the board was voting on the mask mandate, August 30, 2021. Your own attorney, under advice of Mister Gibbs, who is with us this evening, stated that Judge Cooper had not yet signed the order.

51:59 And Mister Susan seconded that by saying he didn’t know if it was legal to vote on a mask mandate since this was being litigated. And it was not. Actually, the order was not signed.

52:41 As of right now, there’s still a stay on this. So my understanding of the law is that it’s unlawful to impose the mask mandate while it’s under a stay, and it’s still being litigated. I don’t know how everybody else feels, but that’s just my general feeling about the matter.

53:08 So also, the test results from the mask that’s been sent off to the independent lab will not yet be back for about four weeks. And we’re going to be able to see what’s on the exterior of that mask and what that mask actually does to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in brevard public schools. It’s my understanding that as of right now, Brevard Public Schools has not released a study to back up the mask mandate and the fact that masks that are being distributed at the schools are indeed working.

53:33 I’d like for the school system and the board to produce for parents any study that demonstrates that these masks are effective against Covid-19 we’re hearing a lot of science that’s contrary to that. So I’m not going to take up any more of your time this evening. Let your citizens choose.

53:49 Florida is a stronghold of liberty, freedom, justice for all. And so many people have fought to stay here because they believe in the rule of law, and so do I. I believe in the rule of law, and there are many like me that do as well. So I’m just imploring you to follow the rule of law in the state of Florida.

54:03 Thank you. Thank you. Cindy, Julia, board members, you’re hearing a lot of disinformation today.

54:16 It’s your job to sort through and use only facts to make a choice that saves lives rather than taking them while sorting relevant from irrelevant. Let’s start with this recurring claim. Little Johnny’s my kid, so I can decide whatever I want for him.

54:28 But little Johnny’s teacher is not their childhood. They don’t get to do whatever they want with little Johnny’s teacher. Little Johnny’s bus driver, cafeteria workers, janitor and classmates are not their kid.

54:52 And their health isn’t collateral damage for little Johnny’s parents to take away. There’s a public health issue here. It’s called contagion disease transmission.

55:05 It’s not just little Johnny who’s affected by his parents decision. It’s the granny of the checkout clerk at the grocery store who got Covid from the bus driver’s wife, who got it from the bus driver, who got it from little Johnny’s classmate, who got it from little Johnny who wasn’t wearing a mask. Yes, making health decisions for one’s own child absolutely is a parental right, no question.

55:12 But no, making them for other people is not. It’s your job board to remember that and to decide accordingly. And while we’re sorting out fact from fiction, let’s talk about this trigger word.

55:26 Tyranny. Tyranny. I have friends who lived under apartheid in South Africa.

55:40 A former client who barely escaped the Prague spring while the borders closed around him. I celebrated with haitian exiles the day that baby doc was overthrown. Old polish men have showed me their tattoos.

56:09 Tyranny. A black friend’s father was paraded past the rotting corpse of a lynching victim and told boy, don’t let this happen to you. This is me with romanian friends at the Berlin Wall.

56:21 That day totally changed my life as they told me of the actual horrors that they endured under a real dictator named Ceausescu. And real tyranny, which has nothing to do with wearing a mask to save your neighbors. Tyranny wearing a mask to protect one’s community during a pandemic, is not it? And in two previous meetings that I’ve been to, I keep hearing the claim that masks are equal to yellow star for jews.

56:36 Before trivializing 6 million murders, perhaps we should ask some Holocaust victims families. I did that, and they were not amused. I have a response from a friend who doesn’t agree.

56:46 And spoiler alert, she says it is not the same thing, and she finds it very offensive. Your job, board, to be mindful that false narratives, politics, mean chanting and ugly threats have no relevance here. Your job, to sort through all that.

56:54 Hand a decision that’s compliant with legal requirements for safe workplace and safe schools. Do that job. No one should be collateral damage to bad decision making.

56:59 For every one person infected, another five to eight can be infected. And thank you, Julia. We appreciate you joining us this evening.

57:12 Quick check in with my. Thank you, ma’am. Quick check in with my board members.

57:31 We will, after Sarah will be our 18th speaker. So we’re about halfway through our speakers for this evening. Before I call up another three, are you guys going to want a break after this grouping? Okay.

57:55 All right. So, Martin McClellan. My name is Martin McClellan.

58:16 I live at 3595 Grantline Road, Nims, Florida. I have an extensive background in contamination control for highly sensitive hardware, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Space shuttle crew module. This included dealing with pneumonia pathogens found in the space shuttle crew module.

58:24 I wrote the procedure to sterilize that crew module. The crew would be sampled crew module would be sampled 30 days before launch and then again 24 hours before launch. The second result is generally known 48 hours afterwards.

58:26 They postponed me. I got to 48 hours, and they said, we’ll tell you tomorrow. Then we got to tomorrow.

58:49 And they said, we’ll tell you in a couple hours. And I said, what’s the problem? He says, well, there was a new crew that was sampling it. We think they may have goofed.

59:02 And I said, wasn’t that the same crew that did the sampling 30 days before where they found levels of 2 million pneumonia pathogens? And they said, yes. And so 2 hours later, finally they did give it because they didn’t believe the result. The result was zero.

59:33 So you can clean things up very nicely. And I have done my research. The University College of London did a study on the effects of COVID it on children.

1:00:20 Studying 12 million total cases, they found that the survival rate among those under 18 is 99.998%. Another thing that I’d like to mention is, by the way, if this were a great pandemic, what would be happening to all the homeless? They’d be dying on the streets.

1:00:31 You’re not finding that in the study, 60% of those that did die had comorbidities. Also, by putting a mask on children, you’re creating germ factories. In Alachua, masks worn for an average of 5.

1:00:37 7 hours were sent to a lab. The bacteria that was found on those, and it was extensive, were that for pneumonia, meningitis, food poisoning, Lyme disease, legionnaires disease, as well as others. When you put the masks on the teachers, you are interfering with the child’s learning experience, looking at expressions and how the teacher is conveying certain ideas.

1:00:52 Another curious fact I want to leave you with. In 2016 to 2017, there were 29 million flu cases, then 45 million. The next 30 million.

1:00:56 Thank you, sir. We appreciate you joining us this evening. Unfortunately, your time is up.

1:01:14 Sarah, that’s an officer. Sarah, good evening. I’m so glad I get to follow after the NASA scientist.

1:01:44 I’m Sarah. I have two children, vps. As Brevard county parents.

1:01:59 We are doctors, lawyers, professionals, educators, scientists, researchers, athletes, celebrities, innovators, publishers, PhDs, and have many degrees. Between us, we are well educated and well informed. I truly believe we are raising and educating generation Mars.

1:02:20 This is my fifth time speaking at a BPS board meeting, and to be honest, I’m disappointed by the hostility being presented by certain board members and your spokesperson to the parents who came to have their voices heard. I was verbally assaulted in one meeting, sitting in my seat and following decorum by someone who disagreed with the speaker while the meeting was in process. Another incident, myself and many others, including a child, was called an expletive right before the emergency meeting in the boardroom by the teacher union president.

1:02:32 I don’t appreciate being accused of using my children as political pawns by bps when I am not the person who put my children in the middle of this illegal mess. By the way, the stay was reinstated by the DCA. So your mask mandate is back to being illegal.

1:02:55 Madam Chair, you stated that you want to get the masks off the kids ASAP. I support you in being a woman of your word and doing that tonight by voting to not extend the mask mandate and start to begin to build trust with the parents you blindsided with your illegal mask mandate. We are in unprecedented times when science and information are some of our most important commodities.

1:03:19 And yet only one side of the science is being shown. For every study there is about a mask, about protecting others. There is a different study on the risks and detrimental health effects of masks, and other studies on how masks are ineffective at stopping viral spread.

1:03:27 And yet nobody is talking about those studies and taking those risks into consideration. And where there is risk, there must be choice. I never hear the board talk about how masks gravely affect educational intelligence and how that could be linked to all the learning gaps bps is now facing, or how that scientific fact played any part in this illegal emergency mask mandate.

1:03:37 I implore you tonight to have that discussion tonight as a board as you consider voting on the mask mandate to discuss the scientific fact that masks impede a child’s education and that choosing to continue the mask mandate is contributing to learning gaps. There is science on both sides of this debate and it seems that the board is not acknowledging this. You are making public policy based on one side of the science and one side of the politics.

1:18:32 There is zero consideration for long term physical and psychological effects on our kids. And that’s not fair to anybody. Most importantly to our children.

1:20:49 Going back to mask choice is the solution and creates equity in our schools. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah.

1:21:11 All right, all at this time we are going to take about a ten minute recess and we will return. Sadeena. Sadeena.

1:21:19 Sadeena. Sadeena. Sadeena.

1:22:06 Sadeena. Sadeena. All right, we are back in session and we’ll resume with our public speakers.

1:22:27 Our next three speakers will be Michelle Barineau, Ronald Bollinger and Nicholas Carrington. If you all would please get on deck for me. All right, Michelle, whenever you’re ready.

1:22:44 Hello again. My name is Michelle Barineau. I’m the parent of an elementary school child in the Brevard county public school system.

1:22:54 I’m sorry your workplace has turned into a circus. I’m sorry for everyone who works in this building that has to deal with this insanity all the time. And I want to say thank you for continuing to show up and do your jobs.

1:23:08 We do appreciate it. Well, we tried it both ways, right in the age of Delta, we started school without masks. And that was, no pun intended, an unmitigated disaster.

1:23:28 We had schools that were starting to close, quarantines that were off the charts, not to mention, oh yeah, all the sick kids and teachers. Things are starting to improve. We’re not there yet, but the mitigation has done its job.

1:23:45 It is helping. I’m no longer getting daily or multiple emails from my school now warning me that there are active cases where my daughter is sitting. And that’s a huge relief.

1:23:54 So I want to say thank you. I have been able to relax a few degrees these last few weeks, not feeling like I’m playing russian roulette every time I send my child off to the school room. I know there’s still a danger, but at least we’re doing something about it instead of just throwing our hands up and saying, oh, well, not everybody’s going to do it, so we shouldn’t even try.

1:24:00 So thank you. I’m begging you to keep the mitigation in place at least another 30 days if we can’t beat this thing down a little bit longer. And finally, I want to spend the rest of my time addressing data experts, which apparently is everybody in this room.

1:24:15 Isn’t that amazing? Everybody. Everybody with access to the Internet is suddenly a data expert. Well, I’ve been a paid professional data, now an analyst for ten years.

1:24:29 I don’t pretend to know what all the numbers mean. I’ve learned enough about data analysis to know that you can pretty much spin anything to show what you want if you have an agenda. And I know that there are all sorts of things that don’t get taken into account.

1:24:53 There are outliers, there are unique situations. And the good news is that you don’t have to be data experts. You don’t have to listen to all the reports that everyone in this room is talking about because we have national recognized experts, we have the CDC, and all you really have to do is listen to their guidelines.

1:25:15 Okay? I don’t expect you to be mechanical experts inspecting all the school buses our children are wearing or riding in to get to schools. I don’t expect you to be nutritional experts checking every lunch that’s served in the school building. Your job is to listen to expert advice.

1:25:24 You had a panel here several meetings ago. Their advice was really clear. You are perfectly well justified to listen to their expertise and no one else’s.

1:26:13 I don’t expect you to check the lead levels and the paint in every building. That is not your job. Your job is not to focus on the minutiae, on the details.

1:26:56 Your job is to listen to the experts and make the best decision for the safety of our students. Thank you. Thanks, Michelle Ronnell.

1:27:12 And is Nicholas here? Nicholas Carrington. Okay, then after Ronnell, our next three speakers are going to be Elliot Davison, Erin Davison, and Julie Bywater. Hi.

1:27:15 Hi, missy. I happened to see you on the news as I was leaving my house this evening to come here, and the news reported that the, the numbers have gone so far down. And I was very excited and I’m very hopeful that you guys will be able to, in good conscience remove the mask mandate or at least give a parent a knock down.

1:27:33 I do just want to kind of restate some facts that I think most of us know. The Department of Education operates through the public school board system, right? So the Department of Education is your boss, so to speak, right. Or your superior.

1:27:54 And the Department of Education, along with the Department of Health. So the Department of Health are our experts, our local experts, right. In our state.

1:28:02 I mean, tell me if I’m wrong, but this is what I’m understanding when I read this. So the Department of Education and the Department of Health said to you and to us as citizens that there is an emergency rule that conforms to the executive order number 21 175, which ordered the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Department of Education to ensure safety protocols for controlling the spread of Covid-19 in schools. That, one, do not violate Floridians constitutional freedoms, two, do not violate parents rights under Florida law to make healthcare decisions for their minor children and three, protect children with disabilities or health conditions who would be harmed by certain protocols, such as face masking requirements.

1:28:07 The order, which is incorporated by reference, directs that any Covid-19 mitigation actions taken by school districts comply with the parents Bill of Rights and protects parents right to make decisions regarding masking of their children in relation to Covid-19 as we all know, you went against the Department of Education and the Department of Health when you made your decision on August 30. I’m hopeful that you’re at a place now that you can reverse that decision. You want to refer to the Florida Bill of rights that was mentioned by the Department of Health and Education.

1:28:28 As a Florida parent, you have the right to direct the education and care of your minor child. And I’m going to run out of time. So I just want, if anybody doesn’t know about this law, I do have some pamphlets here, or you can go to parental rights.

1:28:38 FSDEV. Thank you. Thanks.

1:28:49 Renell. Elliot my name is Elliot Davidson and I am a student in Brevard public school system. I’m also a dual enrollment student at eastern Florida.

1:29:04 I’m in class in the beginning of the day where most people wear a mask. Then I’m bussed over to EFSC, where most students from satellite high, Viera High, Ogalley High and Melbourne High School do not wear a mask there. And yet when we arrive back to our BPS schools, they’re forced to wear a mask again, just as the state colleges did.

1:29:29 I believe masks should be a free choice in all of our schools. At all of our schools. I’m speaking for the majority of the student body.

1:29:29 Thank you. And I waive the rest of my time in support of a mask choice. Thanks, Elliott.

1:29:41 Erin, being here again discussing the same topic. So I don’t want to beat a dead horse. I want you guys to follow the law, and I’m waiving the rest of my time in support of a parental opt out and amendments that Miss Campbell suggested before.

1:30:10 Thank you. Thanks, Erin. All right, as Julie’s approaching, our next next three will be Deborah Clark, Michelle Smith and Joey Kaliwa.

1:30:29 Sorry if I mispronounce that, Julie, whenever you’re ready. Hi, I’m Julie Pywater. I’m with moms for Liberty, but I’m also a parent of three students at PPS schools.

1:30:42 I want to thank the board members that voted against mandate. I appreciate both of you listening to all sides of the mask issue. As for the rest of the board, I could come up here and talk about the places that kids are going that don’t require masks.

1:30:55 Church, sports stores, restaurants, friends houses, football stadiums, met galas, birthday parties, movies, the Emmys. But you’re not going to listen to me. I spoke before about how the deaf and hard of hearing cannot read lips or communicate with masks on every face, and how that the speech issues with kids who have speech issues cannot practice mimicry.

1:31:16 You didn’t listen to that either. I brought up alternative ideas for the loss of homecoming and other events. Did you pursue those? Did you reach out? Yeah.

1:31:28 You didn’t listen to those. I could talk about the case numbers, how they were dropping before the mandate. I could talk about how most other countries do not mask children, but you’re not going to listen to that either.

1:31:34 I could talk about how mask rules aren’t even being followed at many schools, how even when many are wearing the masks, they’re barely on their face. Or I could talk about the ridiculous quarantine rules that subject athletes to a higher standard than their peers. But you’re not listening to that either.

1:31:45 So let me tell you something. You were elected to listen to me, to the students, to every constituent in this county. You’re breaking the law that a simple parent opt out would fix amenda and add the opt out for parents that allow for choice and follow the law.

1:32:03 You’ve been told this and you’re not listening. Why should any of the students in this school district follow your rules when you’re breaking them? If you think they don’t know, then I suggest you think again. These kids know.

1:32:17 I’m going to leave you with this. You may not be worried about your school board paycheck, and that’s good, because these high schoolers that are messed up in canceling homecomings, healthy quarantines and more, they’re going to be voting soon. They will vote you out.

1:32:26 Gen Z is way more invested and involved than you may realize. My freshman daughter wants to run for school board when she graduates because she’s sick and tired of being ignored and knowing her peers are ignored as well. Enjoy your time up there not listening to your constituents because it likely won’t last any longer than the next election because you’re not listening.

1:32:46 Thanks, Julie. Deborah Clarke Audience members, if you would please hold your applause so that we can get through the speakers. I called a name and no one even heard that.

1:33:11 I called the name because of the applause. Some people are looking at me like I’m crazy. Why am I asking that? But.

1:33:31 Deborah Clark? Yes. Deborah Clark, if you would please approach. My name is Deborah Clark and I’m a bps parent.

1:33:55 I’d like to thank the board for implementing a mask requirement last month, and I urge you to keep it in place. The number of student quarantines has gone down in the short time the requirement has been in place, which is a reason to celebrate. Students need to be in school, which means they need to wear masks.

1:34:18 We are still in the dark days of this pandemic. Our hospitals are full, care is being rationed, and people are dying of COVID Since August of this year, five BPS employees have died. Not since August.

1:34:39 That was last month. Students are sick. Some will suffer from long haul Covid, possibly for years.

1:34:52 And we haven’t lost any BPS students, for which I know we are all so grateful. But several students have suffered the tragic loss of a parent to Covid, and in the past month alone, two of our students have lost both their parents. This is a devastating, life changing tragedy for these young people.

1:35:47 How we react to the pain and suffering like this says a lot about us as a community and as individuals. Masks protect students, teachers and staff from bringing Covid home to their loved ones. Rescinding the mask requirement now is the same as looking at a child suffering the loss of both parents within days of each other and saying, sorry, kid, we could have done more to protect everyone.

1:36:11 But wearing a mask is just so inconvenient. People who care about their community, who care about others, make personal sacrifices, like wearing a mask to protect vulnerable people. I don’t need to remind you that our schools are charged with providing a safe environment for our students, teachers and staff.

1:36:27 Please remember, however, no one has been hospitalized or died from wearing a mask, but too many have died from contracting Covid because others chose not to mask. Please maintain the mask requirement until children ages five and older are eligible to receive a COVID vaccine, and the transmission rate in our community is less than 20 per 100,000. Thank you.

1:36:42 Thank you. Deborah Michelle my name is Michelle, proud parent of two children and BPS C. Diff E. Coli, hepatitis A, salmonella, and over 100 other viruses are spread through contact with human feces.

1:36:57 Why am I telling you this? Because today I was notified by my 17 year old that, quote, most of the bathrooms are closed until further notice because people are stealing soap dispensers, hand dryers and defecating in sinks. End quote. But thank God they’re wearing their masks.

1:37:07 By the way, my 17 year old was the one that told me of this. I still have not received anything from his principal. That is what is going on in your school, and I blame each and every one of you.

1:37:15 I blame you because this is exactly the behavior you have spawned by choosing to have blatant and total disregard for the laws set forth by our governor. Your reckless political choices to deem yourselves above the Florida Parents Bill of Rights law has helped enable and empower the children in your schools to behave with blatant disregard of any roles, policies, expectations, or anything that your principals and staff have worked so hard for so many years to implement and gain respect over, you’ve destroyed all of that. Maybe if you redirect your focus back onto the students and back onto the laws written for everyone and in this ridiculous mask mandate, without parental opt out, we can regain some sense of what the ultimate vision here is, and that’s to serve every student with excellence as the standard.

1:37:29 I urge you to end the mask mandate so we can get back to the real pandemic which is educating our children and closing any education gaps that are in urgent need of your attention. Additionally, I’d like to say that a teacher in Brevard has asked me to address you for thinking down the road. The conflict between federal and state will continue.

1:37:49 Vaccine mandates are next. Are you going to mandate them for all employees? If so, you’re going to have to fire teachers and employees. Are you going to go along with vaccine mandates for kids? For what age? Kindergarten? Where does it end? It is time to take a stand.

1:37:57 Now, please vote in favor of personal freedoms for students and employees. And what is the most simplest form of an act of kindness? It’s a smile, which you’re depriving every single child, staff, and employee regard from having. Thank you.

1:38:04 Thank you, Joey. And then after Joey, we have Chris McGill, Michelle Beavers, and then Ron McClellan. Before you start my time, I just wanted to.

1:38:18 My last name is pronounced Chalawa. Just for future, not about freedom. That’s a direct quote from the current president of the United States of America.

1:38:24 He’s a Democrat and a bully. Definitely about politics, but it’s not about science or freedom. I wonder what it was about.

1:38:30 For those who fought against slavery and discrimination, or anyone who has ever fought and died serving our military, it’s always been about freedom. Freedom is the bedrock of our country. But according to our current president, it’s not about freedom.

1:38:50 That’s the current mindset of the administration and the White House. Their shameful ideologies have seemed to have trickled down into our school boards. Remember when classic liberalism used to advocate for the protection of civil liberties, unlimited government? Now it’s mutated into a toxic woke progressivism, infecting our country like a plague.

1:38:57 But they made a very big mistake, and they decided they’re going to come after our children. They cross a serious line. Now.

1:39:03 I’m pissed. I’m not having it. You know, Democrats don’t care about freedom when it comes to raising and caring for children.

1:39:10 Let’s look at some of the other disgusting leftist ideologies we’re fighting. Talking about a party who accepts the murder of babies at full term abortion. A party who says babies are white, babies are born racist and oppressive.

1:39:20 You’re pushing the limit. Please be respectful. Okay, well, you know, it’s not about freedom of speech.

1:39:26 Currently. Party who believes in masking children. I’m sorry.

1:39:38 It’s a party who believes political activism and indoctrination by teachers is acceptable in schools. A party who believes in masking children to silence them and turn them into faceless and emotionless drones. A party who thinks if a child plays with toys or dresses and clothes of the opposite sex, they should immediately be confirmed as transgender and put on hormone blocking drugs so that their parents can show them off like a fashion accessory.

1:39:41 Because really, all that matters to them is the praise and acceptance of their woke friends. Enough. What? Enough.

1:39:44 Please stop. You are insulting half of our audience. I am not saying anything inappropriate.

1:39:56 And you guys need to stop, or I’m going to clear the boardroom. I’m not referring to. Sir.

1:40:17 I’m asking you to be respectful of people who. I’m asking you to be respectful of people who view things differently. I can’t talk about their views.

1:40:31 I literally just want to measure out the same without telling you what I can. You did this to me the night before. I can’t even acknowledge my.

1:40:43 What my district person did for an entire year because you go on to silence people. You don’t want to hear the truth, and it’s going to come out, and I will fight you. I’ll be here every weekend, and I will be yelling at you and screaming at you and telling you things that you don’t want to hear.

1:40:57 Guess right. This is America. I know you don’t like freedom.

1:41:13 I don’t like liberty. I know you don’t like the constitution. All right, guess what.

1:41:25 I’m gonna keep talking. Leave, please. Have a good night.

1:41:35 Chris McGill. How’s it going, school board members? I’m back with my lovely girlfriend, Lindsey new, my daughter Adeline, who attends Suntree. I’m gonna have to defend this young man because it was shameful.

1:41:54 I was offended. I know I haven’t reached out to you or any of you school board members, but I know that one of you school board members recently did comment after Florida today did reach out to you. But a lot of these parents that have reached out to you have not replied back to them.

1:42:14 It’s funny how you can get back into contact with journalists and news outlets, but you can’t get back to parents. But we’ll talk about it at a different time. So today I’m here because I wanted to speak about numbers.

1:42:28 And I crunched numbers in regards to Covid cases in Brevard county, and I compared them to Pinellas County. Pinellas county does not have a mask mandate for students or staff. Pinellas county has a population of 978,872 people.

1:42:44 Brevard county has a population of 615,420 residents. September 7 through the 9th, Pinellas county school had 595 positive Covid cases. September 7 to the 9th, Brevard county schools had 413 positive Covid cases.

1:42:53 Pinellas county has 363,452 more residents than Brevard County. Pinellas county is the 8th largest school district in Florida with 157 schools. Pillas County county is around 104,000 students as well.

1:43:04 Brevard County, I want to say, is the 11th largest school district in Florida with 113 schools. Brevard county has around 75,000 students as well. As you can see, Pinellas county has 44 more schools within its county compared to Brevard.

1:43:05 Pinellas county has around 29,000 more students within its county compared to Brevard. One would expect Pinellas county to have far more positive Covid cases within a school due to having more students schools and not mandating masks, but it does not. One out of every 174 students within Pinellas county result in a COVID positive case.

1:43:35 One out of every 181 students within Brevard county result in a COVID positive case. Data shows masks do not work, nor do they slow the spread. Pinellas county school positive Covid cases have hovered between 54 to 272 over the past week.

1:43:41 This is not just the beginning. I will continue to crunch numbers from counties within our state of Florida and outside of the state of Florida as well, because people like statistics. It’s not the mask that’s doing, it’s reducing the COVID cases.

1:43:56 It’s the treatment being given across the state. That’s why both masks and maskless counties are seeing a reduction in the COVID cases. And for the school board members actions that they’ve taken, which they don’t, it’s not justifiable.

1:44:02 It’s not. The science is not behind it either. We are going to be filing FOIA requests for certain institution agencies, school board members and other people to see what you’re communicating with.

1:44:12 Because we believe you’re not representing us, the people you’re representing, personal interests and self other people that really don’t have our best interest in mind. And I’m going to yield my time. But I hope you guys make the right decision today.

1:44:28 God bless you all. Thank you, sir. Michelle Beaver and Joey, if you would please put your mask back on, we would appreciate it.

1:44:42 Thank you, sir. Whenever you’re ready, Michelle. I’m going to start off with talking about Martin McCullenhouse.

1:45:00 Mentioned before, he’s a contamination control engineer. He’s an expert. He’s not just some number on a page.

1:45:12 Somewhere off a dubious website. He said the surgical masks, like the one that he’s wearing that we give the kids in the school if they don’t have a mask, are 63% effective at filtering out particles of 0.3 microns or larger.

1:45:35 This virus is 0.12 microns. So here’s a visual just in case you guys need to see that.

1:45:52 I just drew that for you guys so you could see that there’s a huge difference between what that filters out and what this. This is. So this little one right here is what the virus is.

1:46:13 This large one is what they actually filter out. It’s 63% effective if it’s done in a clinical test where they hermetically seal that mask. Okay, so that doesn’t mean when we put it on a kid, it’s hermetically sealed.

1:46:21 Obviously, like my daughter explained to me at lunchtime, this is what they’re doing with their masks. They’re putting them in their pockets, they’re putting them on their lunchboxes. They’re twirling them in the air, they’re putting them on the counters, they’re picking them back up, putting them on their faces again.

1:46:25 So in a school setting, what you’re doing is useless because these are children, and I have to add in here. So let me finish with what he said, because he’s an expert and I’m not. Airflow is, of course, in the path of least resistance.

1:46:31 And these are going to come in the side pockets and the nose area and the chin, because when you breathe in, you can feel that coming in through all those spaces. That’s what you’re breathing in. You’re not breathing in the stuff so much from your mask.

1:46:42 He said up until 2020, millions of people, 20 to 40 million people a year, had flu, and suddenly, in 2020 to 2021, it went out to 2000 people and 2038 people. That should tell you something right there. Okay, I have to say that I felt cheated and lied to you guys, said, there’s gonna be no mask.

1:47:04 And then the last minute after we actually get the kids in school, so that these parents have already made plans and these kids have already signed up for clubs, and they’ve already established new relationships again, you yank it back out from them and said, nope, we’re putting a mask on again. I don’t think that was an accident. I think that was planned, really planned.

1:47:24 And I’m ashamed of what you guys did. Also ashamed to hear that when I was sitting here, when you passed it, you put it on three and four year old kids. Do you really think a three year old kid is going to listen to you and put that mask on correctly? Really? Like, you could have left at least kindergarteners on on down, out.

1:47:37 I mean, that’s just ridiculous. A five year old, putting on a mask, leaving on all day. You’ve got to be kidding me.

1:47:48 What you’ve done is illegal. I want to make that clear. What you’ve done is illegal.

1:48:07 Quarantine numbers are down, by the way. Because it was six foot apart, you would say you’d quarantine them. Now it’s three.

1:48:19 That’s why the numbers are down. Thank you, Michelle. All right, as Ron is approaching, our last three speakers will be Debbie Parsons, Jabari Hosey, and then Edward Lawton and Miss Delaney.

1:48:28 I’m going to ask that you discontinue verbalizing during the speaker’s please. Ron McClellan. Madam chair, members of the board, Doctor Susan, neighbors and friends here to talk to you about another contentious item.

1:48:41 Hold on 1 second, Mister McLellan. I think we’re going to raise the mic for you. How do we do that? We just want to make sure we can hear you.

1:48:47 Thank you. Madam chair, members of the board, Doctor Susan, neighbors and friends here to talk to you tonight about a different contentious topic. Critical race theory.

1:49:13 Aren’t you just thrilled? Okay, everybody, don’t answer at once. You know, I’ve been looking at this for quite a while. I’ve been trying to be intellectually honest and academically correct.

1:49:36 And a lot of the noise that I hear on the other side is intellectually dishonest and academically incorrect. Why do I have any authority? Well, I just sent you links to everything that I’m going to be talking about this evening. So is it just noise? No, it’s a strategy.

1:50:00 It’s dark whistles. Well, what’s a dark whistle? I find dog quilts the same way as Professor Ian Haney Lopez. Basically, it’s a coded mess meant to engage and enrage kindred spirits.

1:50:12 Well, do I have an example of what that’s like? Sure do. 1981, Lee Atwater gave an interview. Now, I’m going to paraphrase what he said.

1:50:23 Number one, for the sake of time, but number two, not to offend anyone’s delicate sensibilities. So, effectively, what he said in 1954 is that you start off by using racial epithets. 1968, you can’t do that.

1:50:39 It hurts you. It backfires. So you start talking about something abstract, like forced busing or let’s say states rights.

1:50:49 Now you’re talking about something abstract. So you talk about these economic things are so abstract, race comes on the back burner, but the byproduct of it is that black people, brown people, or get hurt worse than whites. So now you’re talking about all these economic things and definitely a hell of a lot more abstract than those racial epithets that we talked about earlier.

1:51:12 Interesting side note is that the purse holder for brevard Public Schools promised that he was going to to hurt revard public schools. So what I encourage you, I challenged you to do, starting at this moment, focus on your goal of closing the gap between performance and promise. Just like it says on the sign right behind you.

1:51:42 Serve every student with excellence as a standard. If we’re going to teach history, let’s teach it all. If we’re going to talk about liberty, let’s talk about not only the liberties that we have as adults, as grown ups, let’s teach and show our children that they have the liberty to go to school, get their damn education, and not be political pawns just because it’s an election year.

1:51:55 Madam chair, yield back. Thank you, Mister McClellan. Debbie Parsons.

1:52:00 Thank you for letting me speak tonight. I’m going to give you something else to listen to other than Covid, even though that’s important too. I want to talk to you about the busing situation.

1:52:17 My daughter, she’s in middle school and we live in North Merritt island. Both my husband and I would both work outside the home. So when the bus finally comes for her, she’s had to walk to the bus stop on her own.

1:52:28 The bus does not stop right in front of our house. It stops at the end of our neighborhood where she can’t see the bus from our house, so she has to walk to the bus. It has a normal time.

1:52:35 It’s supposed to be there. But due to the lack of bus drivers, they’ve had to combine routes. They’ve had to combine high school route with middle school route, which in turn will cause my daughter to have to wait at the bus stop with mosquitoes, okay? With the danger of being by a main road and all the dangers that come along with that.

1:53:04 And then if there’s inclemental weather, she’s stuck in inclemental weather. Because if she leaves that bus stop, she will miss the bus and she won’t be able to go to school and she’ll lose the right to education. So my concern is if we know that we have this problem with a shortage of bus drivers, why don’t we use some of the COVID relief money that the district gets put in a bonus, a signing bonus for potential bus drivers, just like Orange county did.

1:53:21 Get us some more bus drivers. So we lose the problem of having bus drivers having to do double routes and causing students to get to school late. My daughter just on Friday, she was late to school.

1:53:36 The bus picked her up 45 minutes late. She sent me a message. That’s another thing.

1:53:50 I had to get her a cell phone number so that when I’m at work I have her message. Me, I’m at the bus stop. I got on the bus and then on the way home she lets me know I’m at the end of our road so I know when my daughter is going to be home.

1:54:15 I had no clue otherwise because it was always late, I would call the school. The school would not have any answers if they were even there at that time because it’s so late. I called the bus office.

1:54:36 No one at the bus office could give me any information. So I had no clue where my daughter was. It’s an item of safety.

1:55:02 Another thing that we can do, we can add, just like Volusia county has where’s my bus? App that works along with gps’s that are in the buses at any time, a parent can know if they’re on that bus, where they are and when they’re going to get picked up, if they haven’t been picked up yet, and when they might get home. So we’re not worrying, where’s my kid? I shouldn’t have had to get my daughter a cell phone number so I know she’s safe when it comes to riding the bus. Thank you.

1:55:14 Thank you, Debbie. Jabari Hosi hi, my name is Jabari Hosey. I’m here to discuss the health crisis we are sadly still in.

1:55:25 But we could get out of this as a community if we do what’s necessary. Masks have been the major solution, though we know it’s not the only answer. Along with social distancing, hand washing and airflow, masks is pretty much our only weapon against Covid.

1:55:34 With the rules in play, and guess what? They work. Numbers have shown a dramatic downturn because masks work in Brevard county. The community spread is extremely high, but the masks are helping mitigate that within our schools.

1:55:51 So thank you for following the science and listening to subject matter experts and not just loud voices. Here we are yet again at a crossroads where we either continue with the progress we’ve made or return back to where we were when thousands were quarantined, hundreds were testing positive. Liberty is something we all appreciate, but in exercising our freedom, we have to do so within the confines of law, public health, and public safety.

1:56:01 Right now, Brevard Public Schools needs the majority of the school board to continue making the right decision to continue to keep our students and staff safe. I have confidence that the right decision will be made to extend the mask requirement for the next 30 days. And like one of our board members stated, we are not out of the woods and it isn’t over yet.

1:56:19 And even for the board members who don’t believe masks were the reason, cases declined to, even though this has been the only additional factor. Less quarantines means more students can learn in person, more teachers can teach in person and we are seeing good progress. Sorry, I lost it.

1:56:32 The goal is not for masks to be permanent, but a temporary tool that will help navigate us through Covid. Masks are effective, they work and we need this to continue in provider public schools. Thank you.

1:56:45 Thank you Mister Hosi. Edward Lawton. Hello.

1:57:09 Covid-19. Not going to talk about it right now. There’s other stuff going on in the meantime, particularly the school lunch program.

1:57:26 I just want to address that. I have a child at Jefferson Middle School now. They have about 30 minutes from what I understand from the end of the class to get their lunch and to eat their lunch and get back to the next class.

1:57:44 Now repeatedly she comes home. There’s not enough time for kids to get a lunch. The lines are very long.

1:58:04 They don’t have time to get their lunch, let alone eat it. Sometimes they get the lunch and it goes right in the garbage because they have to go. Now I don’t know if that’s a faculty thing, if it’s, you know, not enough people on staff scheduling.

1:58:30 Something needs to be addressed because you know, everyone’s worried about the safety of the kids and the health of the kids. If they’re hungry during the day, they’re not getting lunch. That’s a big factor.

1:58:44 I don’t know if that happens in other schools or if it’s this school in particular. Do you have other schools that run smooth where there’s not a problem? Maybe you could base something on that. I don’t know.

1:58:47 This is new to me because we just started in the school just past the year and something that needs to be addressed. So I don’t know if there’s anything that can be done, looked into, but I’m sure it’s a big taxpayer amount of money that is just going in the garbage. I like to see the numbers on that.

1:58:59 If things can’t be fixed on that. I’m sure everyone would be interested in seeing how much money is wasted, how much food is wasted if these kids aren’t even getting to eat lunch. Just a little break from the COVID Thank you Mister Lawton.

1:59:13 And Mister Lawton can I just ask you really quickly, have you spoken with your child’s principal on that issue yet? Okay, our staff will certainly follow up with you. But if you would please reach out to the principal so that they’re aware and can take a look at the specifics at their school, that would be perfect. Okay.

1:59:34 Miss Belford. Yes? If Mister Lawton hasn’t provided his contact information on the cardinal Mister lawn, would you please provide it to Miss Escobar before you leave this evening? And I will ask our principal from Jefferson Middle School to follow up with you tomorrow. Thank you, Doctor Mullins.

1:59:40 And our do we have contact information for Miss Parsons? Do you know? Yes. Okay, so Miss Parsons, we will ask staff to follow up with you as well. All right, so board members, that is going to wrap up our speakers for this evening.

1:59:51 Are we good to move into our consent agenda? Does anyone need a break? All right then. That is going to move us into the consent agenda. Doctor Mullins, there are 14.

1:59:59 There are 14 agenda items under this category. Thank you. Doctor Mullins.

2:00:21 Is any board member wish to pull any item from the consent agenda hearing? None. I’ll entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented. Second moved by Mister Susan, seconded by Miss McDougall.

2:00:25 Is there any discussion? Hearing? None. Please vote. Hey, look at that.

2:00:36 I had to refresh. I think I got yours with the hand crank on it. There it is.

2:00:50 All right. And the motion passes. 50.

2:01:04 Doctor Mullins, will you please let us know about the items under action, keeping in mind that we are moving item g 25 and 26 ahead of 24. Please, sir. There are three items under this category.

2:01:15 The first one is G 25. Department school initiated agreements. What are the wishes of the board? Move to approve.

2:01:33 Second moved by Mister Susan, seconded by Miss McDougall. Is there any discussion hearing? None. Please vote.

2:01:57 The motion passes. 50. Doctor Mullins.

2:02:03 The next item is G 26 on procurement solicitation. What are the wishes of the board? Second moved by Mister Susan, seconded by Miss Campbell. Any discussion hearing? None.

2:02:10 Please vote. I haven’t gotten anything yet. I have attachments, but nothing else yet.

2:02:28 There we go. I knew yours was faster. I knew that mine didn’t even show that yet.

2:02:46 The motion passes. 50. Doctor Mullins, item.

2:02:55 We are now at item g 24 on emergency k. Twelve face covering requirements. During the emergency meeting held on August 30, 2021, the board approved a limited in time and limited in scope emergency mandate requiring all students, employees, vendors and visitors to wear face masks while indoors on any school district property.

2:03:17 The board also agreed to reevaluate Covid-19 levels within the schools to determine if it is safe to move the mandate back to an optional model with a strong encouragement to use a face covering within the 30 day timeframe. Since this item does not come with a superintendent recommendation, I will need a full motion from the board to open for discussion. Do I have a motion move to approve.

2:03:51 Mister Susan has moved. Open it for discussion. So what is your.

2:04:05 So I need a full motion because it’s not a. There’s no recommendation. So I would like to make a motion to re implement the emergency k through twelve phase covering.

2:04:17 Hold on 1 second. Mister Jenkins, I’d like to open up a motion to add an opt out into the plan so that we can. So audience, if you all could please stop so that we can get through process.

2:04:42 So Mister Susan, what I’m understanding is that you are making a motion to extend the current mask requirement with a parental opt out. So I have a motion by Mister Susan, is there a second hearing? No second. The motion fails.

2:05:03 I’ll entertain a second motion. Can we just wait a second? Well, it was a question. I just want to make sure I understand the motion as stated.

2:05:40 You actually want to extend it another 30 days beyond the 30 days we’re in, but this time with an opt out is what you’re saying. Yes, I’ll second that. All right, so I have a motion and a second that will open for discussion.

2:06:03 So to clarify, Mister Susan, for recordkeeping, state my understanding is that you are making a motion to extend the current mask requirement from September 30 to October 30 with a parental opt out option, giving any parent who wishes to fill out an opt out form the ability to not have to learn more. Okay, so I have a motion and a second and I open for discussion. Is there any discussion? Yeah, I could, but I could defer to the end.

2:06:11 So that’s what we normally do. I’ll take anybody else’s and then I’ll go. Okay, so typically Mister Susan would speak first since it’s his motion, but he is yielding, excuse me, allowing other board members to speak.

2:06:26 No discussion. Miss Campbell, you have discussion. Yeah, I’ll go ahead and there may be other motions, but I’ll go ahead and share my thoughts on any that might be coming now.

2:06:39 So you may regret that you let somebody else go first. So when I think about this, and as we’ve heard, you know, a lot, obviously from lots of people in comments and emails and phone calls and things like that, I’m actually not going to talk about the governor’s orders. Or the emergency rule, for a couple reasons.

2:06:48 One, these have been my thoughts all along, regardless of the legal cases. And the other thing is, there’s at least ten cases going on in the state right now besides the one everybody’s familiar with. The majority of those cases are questioning the legality of the governor’s executive order and or the Department of Health’s emergency rule.

2:06:58 So I’m just setting that to the side for right now. When we talk about the mask mandate and the safety I have to go back to, it really correlates for me, as I was thinking over the last week, what we think about and what we do in practice when it comes to student safety, other kinds of safety. And over the past many years, when there have been tragic events, school shootings and things like that across the country, not just across our state, but across the country, school leaders start thinking about that and make changes.

2:07:16 Legislators meet and make new laws and we revise and up our game when it comes to school security. And so that we have that priority, that we’re going to keep our students as safe as possible, within reason. And I add those words because if we really wanted to keep our students as safe as possible, there would be more things that we would do.

2:07:31 There would be. We could, we would cut funding for certain areas because we are limited in funding so that we can put more funding into things of safety. We would have fences instead of 8ft higher or 10ft high.

2:08:03 We would have metal detectors for students to go in through before they walk into class in a safe way. For them to do that, we’d have either clear backpacks or no backpacks. We’d have, you know, all, you know, more cameras and all this kind of thing.

2:08:23 But the reason why we don’t have all those things is because our, we have other priorities as an organization. The education of our students, you know, all the social activities that go along with that. It’s a whole picture.

2:08:51 We can’t just look at one lane. We have to look at the totality of our mission, which the number one mission for us is nothing. The mission is not safety.

2:08:59 We’re going to keep them safe while we’re accomplishing our mission. And so that’s why we have to add that within reason. So when I think about our Covid safety, I’m thinking about it in the same way.

2:09:19 We want to keep our kids as safe as possible, within reason. And so my question for myself as I think through this, is what is reasonable. And I really think, even though people have been so back and forth and even as a board, we have all had these different thoughts, and we’re looking at.

2:09:31 And we say, oh, just nothing. That’s why it’s not so clear. You just look at the science, and the science says this, we’re all looking at the same science, but our level of tolerance for what is reasonable, we all have a different definition for what’s reasonable.

2:09:43 But for me personally, to continue the mask mandate is becoming less and less reasonable. And I think when we have looked over the past year, this will be tonight our fifth vote, official vote on masks since the beginning of this whole thing. And even I, for one of those votes last October, changed course and voted to put the policy in place.

2:09:47 And the reason why is at the time, I’ve gone back and listened to that, and I many times say, okay, do I still feel that way? How do I feel the way, you know, what’s changed? And a lot of. Lots of things have changed. But at the time, when I looked at what was reasonable, we were only knowing what we knew a year ago, we did not have a vaccine.

2:10:05 We were seeing at the time, our cases in our schools spread far less than out in the community. And we were also right at the moment when we had so many families who had started the year e learning, who were wanting to come back, who we needed to come back, because we saw how our e learning students were just not thriving, most of them, and really needed to come back into our schools. And for us to pull that, it was almost like pulling the rug out from under those parents.

2:10:21 We’re like, I want my kid to be back, but not with that. So we had. So even at that time, I thought, you know what? This is reasonable.

2:10:43 But as the year went on and we had a whole entire school year with that, and then we started and we said, no, we’re done. And everybody has a choice now. And we have the vaccine now for the people who are most at risk, which are adults, and the people who have certain health conditions.

2:11:06 And we had the whole summer for parents to make changes in their plans for the school year. Now, nobody saw Delta coming. Well, most of us did not see Delta coming, and Delta came.

2:11:44 But again, to put our students in that situation again, I just. It’s becoming less and less reasonable for a couple of reasons. One, you know, some people will say, oh, it’s just a piece of cloth.

2:12:08 A piece of cloth over their. Over your kid’s face. It’s really not that big of a deal.

2:12:30 As they sit there and struggle to take in the breath to have to focus more on that breath that they’re taking so they can tell us that masks make breathing more difficult. I’m not talking about carbon dioxide studies, all that. They make breathing more difficult.

2:12:36 We all experience that. They make speaking more difficult, they make hearing more difficult, and so they make teaching more difficult, and they make learning more difficult. And that is the big picture of what we do, is education.

2:12:42 And so it’s becoming less and less reasonable. It’s especially becoming less and less reasonable for me, considering that this policy is the most restrictive policy that we’ve had in place. Not only do we don’t have the exemptions for the younger students, because we dropped the words that we had last year, and I don’t even know if anybody really paid attention to it in the meeting.

2:13:07 And I wish I could go back and add these words back in. I don’t know if that would have found consensus, but we dropped the words that said, when social distancing cannot be adhered to. And so just understand what that means is any of our employees who work in this building, in their own office, not even just in a cubicle, but in their own office, if they’re sitting in their own office by themselves, they better have their mask on, because that’s what our policy says.

2:13:21 If a teacher gets to school in the morning and they’re sitting in their classroom by themselves, and no students have even been in there to breathe any of the air and, you know, let any of their germs in there, they have to have their mask on, because our policy says when you’re indoors, you have to have your mask on. And so we have the most restrictive policy that we’ve ever had, and I believe that is not reasonable. In addition, we have large numbers of students, larger than ever before, unfortunately, who have had Covid in the last 90 days, at least.

2:13:30 And I’m just going to remind you guys about reinfection, and I’ve gotten slammed for not listening to the science, but I want you to know that on the top of the CDC page for reinfection in a blue box, and it was updated on August 6 of this year, it says in the blue box, cases of reinfection with Covid-19 have been reported, but remaindereze rare. There was a science update that CDC put out. This one was from June.

2:13:40 They do them, I think, quarterly. They had top two articles, peer reviewed studies that talked about reinfection being low. The final implications, both studies suggest that SARS CoV two reinfections are rare events and that persons who have recovered from Covid-19 have minimal risk of reinfection for at least least eight months after the primary infection.

2:13:53 The data on reinfection due to variance is still emerging. So that is still emerging. These were studies that ended.

2:14:01 One of them was from Italy. So some of them were countries that were already experiencing the delta surge. My point in that is even the CDC says in 90 days.

2:14:25 So we have all these thousands of people who have had Covid in the last 90 days, more than we know, because many of them had it in the summer, including my family, before the school year started. And we have to have them wearing a mask because we don’t walk around with t shirts that say had Covid in the last 90 days. But all those people are having to, are forced to wear one when there’s really no medically necessary reason for them to do it.

2:14:40 So again, it’s becoming less and less reasonable. So I appreciate Mister Susan’s motion. I will say my hesitancy is because I just wanted us to let this thing expire and end and go back to where we were.

2:14:51 And we’re going to have people who are going to continue. As one of the parents said, we want people to do this because they care about people and they care about their. Yes, I want them to do that for the same reason.

2:14:56 I want them to wear that mask for the same reason. But not again. I’m going back to my same thing as I felt all the way since last summer, that we don’t need to mandate it.

2:15:13 And so I’d rather just get to the point where we let this expire. I certainly don’t want us to extend it. I think it would actually not only break the trust of our parents who.

2:15:21 It’s been hard, you know, difficult for us, you know, over the last few days, especially for administrators. I don’t want to say it’s difficult for us. I mean, we get paid to get yelled at.

2:15:49 Our administrators don’t. But I also think that by extending it, we are going to have a hard time defending our position in the letter that our chair and Mister Gibbs so actually wonderfully wrote. I thought it was a very well written letter, whether I agree with all of it or not, to the commissioner of education, saying that we’re keeping it, that it’s limited in scope.

2:16:23 If we go beyond the 30 days, we’re going to have a harder time defining that as limited in scope. So I’ll stop there. Yes.

2:16:29 Does anyone else wish to respond to Miss Campbell? So technically, we should go to and for. Is it just a clarification question, or is it. But I can wait until I go.

2:16:41 It’s okay. Okay. You could make a note on it so we can follow procedure.

2:16:45 Miss Jenkins, you indicated you would like to respond. Sure. I’m gonna be pretty quick about this just because of this motion, but, you know, a lot has been said tonight about making it difficult for our students to speak, to hear, to learn.

2:16:59 I have a master’s degree in communication sciences and disorders. I’m a yemenite speech language pathologist. I did that in Brevard public schools for six and a half years.

2:17:18 I did it last year when we had a mask mandate in place, like 180 other slps in Brevard county do every single day for nearly 60 to 100 students a week. I do it privately as well, still in a private practice, mast and my students masked. I work on articulation, phonology, expressive language, receptive language, and pragmatic, which for some people who don’t know what that is, that’s social skills, that’s facial expressions.

2:17:29 And so the idea that these things are inhibited or can’t be taught or are going to be delayed because of that goes against what I do for a profession and what I do every single day. You know, I think it’s foolish for us to use the fact that we allowed thousands of our students and our staff to be exposed to a virus because we didn’t make a vote on a mass mandate before school started as a reason to remove the mitigation strategies. Now, to me, that’s just an emphasis of herd immunity.

2:17:47 And I did not sign up to allow my child to be part of that. My daughter is five years old. She does wear a mask all day.

2:18:01 And, no, she doesn’t like it, and neither do I, but she does it. I have not gotten one phone call from her teacher to say that she can’t handle it, or her students in that kindergarten class cannot handle it. It is going well.

2:18:24 My husband is an educator. I’ve said it time and time again. He works with middle schoolers.

2:18:42 They are probably the most difficult population of students to deal with behavior. And they are as compliant as they were last year. Yes, you have to remind them, just like you have to remind them to turn in their homework.

2:18:49 And I have one last question, so I just want to clarify. This motion is the exact same motion I made back in August that everyone on this board emphatically was against because you said the opt out was useless. And I’m not going to forget that.

2:19:12 And at this point, when our numbers have dramatically decreased. Dramatically decreased. Let me give you some concrete numbers.

2:19:22 On September 1, the day after the mass mandate was put in place. So, clearly, those numbers were not impacted by the mass mandate. That day, we had 1176 positive cases active and 7319 quarantines active.

2:19:29 Today, we have 194 cases active and 904 quarantines active. That is an 84% decrease in cases and an 87% decrease in quarantine. Yes, our county has seen a decrease.

2:19:43 We went from over 700 and 100,000 cases of transmission to about 350 in 100,000. That is a 53% decrease. So we have exponentially decreased transmission in brevard public schools when compared to our county.

2:19:56 Another thing to keep in mind, not only do we decline exponentially, we have way more kids in our schools now because we are not quarantining thousands and thousands of children every single week. So really we should have seen equal to the community or even more. And we actually saw a larger decrease.

2:20:09 So I am absolutely against an opt out option, just like every single one of you were back in August. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Jenkins.

2:20:30 Mister Susan. So I also had the same figures with where we were and where we are with the quarantines. And I know we talked at the last meeting about, and we heard from our community that quarantines were extremely high.

2:20:47 And parents said, we want our children in school. We want them in school. Why are you quarantined? And with the mask mandate, when people are wearing a mask, everyone is.

2:21:20 We don’t. And somebody in the classroom has Covid and people are wearing masks. We don’t have to quarantine those children.

2:21:45 So I, we want them in school. And one of the ways that is helping us have us children in school is our mask policy at this time. Do I want this forever? Absolutely not.

2:22:05 Do any of us up here enjoy wearing a mask? No, but I think we can. I would like at least another 30 days to see if we can bring these down. I don’t want this forever.

2:22:14 We had a mask mandate when we were last year, when we were at, I think, 8%, 10%. We’re way above that now. Positivity, and we’re thinking about removing it.

2:22:22 Wearing a mask is to protect our community, to connect our other people in our area. So when I sneeze or cough, my droplets are big and they’re going to be in my mask. But if I didn’t have my mask on, they’re going to start big and then go small, and then they’re easily passed through.

2:22:29 So a mask protects my fellow board members, people that I’m with, and I am not in favor of an opt out at this time. Mister Susan. Thank you.

2:22:41 What I wanted to do was put together a package of not only data, but also efficacy and also bearing on students, bearing on staff, just like I did when we were doing this originally on August 30. So the numbers situation, according to the exact same places that I’ve been quoting from the beginning, which is. And I’ve actually never quoted outside of the CDC Facebook pages from our local hospitals and the DOH in our own numbers.

2:22:56 So, currently, health first, on August 26, had 291 hospitalizations. Now September 15, because they went to a seven day roll, they have 165, which is down 43%. And once they come out with the seven days, which I think is going to be tomorrow, I’ve got indication it’s significantly less than that.

2:23:11 So we’ll probably break 50% from the COVID for health first parish for their defense that they said that the reason that the numbers came down was because of the deaths. Okay, that’s not from what health first and other hospitals have had, but that’s a legitimate argument. Their last number showed that they were down 25%.

2:23:46 Can’t say if they’re down or up because they haven’t produced those. If you look at the DOH, you can kind of follow some other theories. So I wanted to put that inside there.

2:24:18 Currently, we are 48th in transmission rates in the state of Florida. So out of all of the counties throughout the entire state of Florida, we’re 48th. We’re not in the top ten.

2:24:27 We’re not in the top 20. We’re not in the top 30. We’re not in the top 40.

2:24:44 Last time, we had the current number of cases per 100,000. So, Mike, I appreciate the percentage of positivities, right. But there’s so many anomalies that happen with that.

2:24:56 With how many are testing who’s a. I think that the true number, which I’ve always kind of gone by, is how many per hundred thousand are we having per day, right. On a seven day rolling average currently, right now, we’re at 03:09.

2:25:06 So 309 people every day in this county get Covid. The last time we had that number was July 23 through the 25th. So what I’m about to lay out for you guys as we move through this is that consistency.

2:25:16 The consistency of one fact is that not only are all of our numbers coming down, not only did they start on roughly about August 20, not only are they consistent with school districts and counties that had and didn’t have mask mandates. But they’re also right around the July 15 to the 23rd numbers, depending on which number we go to. So we, as a school district, are imposing a mask mandate on the numbers that we didn’t feel was strong enough to pass a mask mandate through the summer.

2:25:37 And then when we opened the school, the next one is our daily quarantines by Tammy show that on August 30, we had 141 employees and 1245 students that were contact traced because they were closest to an actual employee or a COVID test. And I was told that that was the COVID kids. 20 now for the employee and 174 for the students.

2:25:49 That’s 96% drop in both. And some of you guys may say that’s because we have a different mask policy and we’re quarantining less kids. Right.

2:26:10 That’s also because that’s consistent with the numbers of COVID numbers that are coming down our own BPS Covid dashboard. On eight five, which was August 5, we had 58 employees, 95 students. That was prior to school opening up.

2:26:23 Right? So we’re finding test positives because those were only in sports, band, that kind of stuff. On 830, we had 67 positive tests. This is the day that we voted.

2:26:50 And we had 435 students currently on our own BPS Covid dashboard. This is not quarantines. This is people that test positive.

2:27:25 We have six employees and 79 students. That’s down 91% employees and down 91% students. Pretty consistent.

2:27:59 So we have a situation where our Covid positivity rate in our schools has declined 91% since the day we moved on the mask mandate. Next, CDC’s Covid Brevard numbers. So this is an interesting thing that happens.

2:28:30 The CDC. I sent you guys the link just recently, and it’s what I referenced before and is inside the minutes. CDC has up to date numbers, which the DOH is, like, lagging by a week.

2:28:45 So what ends up happening is that you can go to the CDC site and see pretty much up to date within the last three days. Their current total cases in Brevard are 2165 over a three day period or over a seven day period rolling seven day average. And the hospitalizations are 125 over a seven day.

2:29:09 That’s new. At hospital admits, the total cases, when we announced that we were going to do the mask mandate was 4520. And the total hospitalizations over a rolling seven day period of admits new were 310.

2:29:30 So if you look at those numbers, those are significantly reducing by 50%. Also, the DOH had new cases the last time that we saw the numbers that we have currently was July 16. So on the bell curve of cases going up, cases going down, July 16 was the time that we have now.

2:29:57 So when we look at our school board members making decisions on should we or shouldn’t we wear masks, all of the numbers are coming down. And the last time we had these numbers was consistent with between July 13 and July 20, 20th right in there, depending on which one you pull. All right, so if you also, there was some kind of look at, there’s people that were saying that the masks are the reason that the numbers came down and it might have some kind of an impact.

2:30:06 I don’t know. That’s not, that’s not, I’m not going to sit and say yes or no, but I will tell you, consistent with every single number that’s on the CDC website and on the DOH, whether it’s students, whether it’s twelve and older, is that it all started on August 20. And the other thing that is consistent on it is whether you look at Escambia County, Santa Rosa county, all of the counties that don’t have a mask mandate, or you look at the ones that did, the bell curves are all consistent.

2:30:14 So to say that we are going to not have more cases if we have the masks, I would argue against that with the consistency that the other bell curves in those counties have been adjusted. So everything that I just said, I have emailed Miss Escobar, referred to the CDC, the DOH and those Facebook pages, they are consistent with other. All across the state of Florida.

2:30:29 And I find it hard for us to believe that we as school board members would open schools under one piece. But then on the other side, when we get there, we end up saying no. Okay.

2:30:41 I would argue that if you look at Bell curves of COVID throughout the last two spikes that we’ve had over the last year and a half, the curves of COVID follow pretty much the same. So whether we were masked, unmasked in different counties, once it starts going down, it’s consistently going down. Whether you had masks or not in other counties, that’s a consistent argument.

2:30:53 Now, the next piece is that we’re still violating the DOH order by the governor and by the commissioner who sent us the letter. I asked Paul ahead of time. I wanted to say he had stated before when we did this originally that we were in violation of the DOH order.

2:31:07 Paul, are we still in violation of the DOH order, depending on the outcome of lawsuits potential that we found in violation at this time, I understand what you’re saying. And this was that seesaw effect I was telling you about. But, Paul, consistently, right now, are we in violation of the DOH letter, the plain language of the DOH rule? I would say there’s a good possibility of violating the plain language.

2:31:15 Is that a violation of the law and illegal? There’s a whole lot of analysis that goes into that conclusion. Okay. All right.

2:31:38 Okay. Just so everybody knows, Paul likes to tell me no on everything. So this is consistent with probably Paul is.

2:31:54 Paul, I appreciate you as an attorney. Thank you very much. I just don’t want anybody to say, I’m saying it’s illegal because that’s like a whole nother argument and conversation because that takes more into account of other actions in place.

2:32:14 All right. Next thing is that the efficacy of the masks inside of our school is being worn. And I appreciate the hard work and the determination of our staff.

2:32:35 I really do. Our principals, our staff for trying to push what our board, with the majority, pushed through. But to say that all of the kids are actually wearing the masks is not.

2:32:48 Is not fair to say that we have students that are dropping their masks below their faces. They’re pretending like they have water on top of their desks. There’s consistently not a consistent message of wearing masks.

2:33:17 Now, I will tell you, that’s not a ding on anybody. That’s not disrespectful to anybody. It’s just what it is.

2:33:42 You can’t force the kids to completely follow the mask mandate. There’s kids that just aren’t, and there’s going to be prince or teachers that don’t have. And so what we end up having is that we’re forcing the kids to have a mask mandate at the same time as we don’t actually have it being implemented 100%.

2:34:10 Now, with that said, and I actually have an email that I wanted to read to you guys, which backs up this. And this is consistent with a couple of them today as I was taking my third grader to school after he was well checked, we were chatting. He’s complaining that not everyone wears a mask.

2:34:39 I said, but your teacher wears a mask, right? He replies, no, not always, which is why I feel unsafe and really wish that I had e learning again. Why the hell should he follow any of his teachers rules if he doesn’t follow the ones implemented by the county? I did immediately speak with one of the assistant principals because this is not okay. She’s eight years old and it goes on.

2:35:03 We received a couple of these emails, but the fact is that the efficacy of the masks and having people can’t look at me and tell me that kids in pre k kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, that they’re all wearing their masks, it’s difficult. And so what’s ended up happening is our teachers are playing the put your mask up. Stop that.

2:35:10 The ones that are actually trying to do exactly what our school district does, they’re losing education time. On top of that. One of the things that I am extremely upset about, and I’m gonna.

2:35:21 And I’m gonna follow up with Doctor Mullins on this afterwards, is the fact that I’m hearing that some of our teachers are being told that if they don’t follow the actual mask mandate and do it to efficacy with kids that don’t want to, that their evaluations are gonna be dinged. And I need to make sure that we are sending a clear message that they are to push it. But if somebody’s gonna turn and start dinging them on their evaluations, that’s not fair.

2:35:37 The other piece that we have running right now is that we have in school suspensions for kids that are deciding not to wear it or that are wearing it down below or doing different things. We’re losing kids education and the education of the teachers inside the class while we’re trying to enforce this. And I’m not making this up, this is happening in our school district.

2:35:47 And anybody that ever says that this thing is 100% being followed is wrong, there’s always going to be an anomaly. Now, we can push, and yes, the majority of the board said so, we’re going to push and make it happen, but it’s not actually 100%. So with a policy that’s not 100%, with numbers that are consistent, that it peaked and started coming down ten days before we actually voted.

2:35:59 With l curves that are consistent with other school districts that have no mask mandate, with the effect of education and the things that are happening inside. I wanted to make a pitch because I did not feel that this board was ready to do no mask. So my thought process was, if I put across this, I might be able to get somebody to vote for a third to give an opt out.

2:36:11 And in the event that this doesn’t work or does work, we can make a motion to actually go the full route, but at least we could get an opt out. Because if you go with the full route and then it’s voted down completely, and then the mask mandate is implemented, we can’t go backwards. So I wanted to make an opt out, then come to the actual vote.

2:36:20 If we could on the other one. That’s what my thought process was. That’s it.

2:36:28 Thank you. Thank you. Mister Souza, any additional discussion, any follow up needed on that motion? Yes, please, Miss Jenkins.

2:36:42 I just, you know, I find it so interesting because we had a mask mandate in place since August of 2020 and nobody had a problem with the inconsistency of staff and students wearing masks back then. We had it for an entire year. Yes, it’s not 100%.

2:36:55 We have children in schools. That is not an excuse not to be wearing a mask. I also have an issue with one of the numbers that was presented.

2:37:09 We are not in the same place that we were in July. Our cases in July were 100, you know, depending on the day within the hundred range. In 100,000 cases, that was our transmission.

2:37:13 It was absolutely not 300. And so that is a huge, huge, huge difference. On Friday, the county had an update with the Department of Health, Health for Covid, for Brevard.

2:37:34 And they made it very clear. Yes, our numbers have dropped significantly. But 350 on Friday, you say we’re 309 today.

2:37:53 That’s fine. It’s still not good. But at the time on Friday, 350 is still in the high risk transmission category.

2:38:09 So instead of doing horrendous, we’re doing horrible. And so because it’s a bell curve and we assume it’s going to go down great. I hope we do, and I hope that 30 days from now we did go down and we don’t need these masks anymore.

2:38:27 But what we’re deciding to do today and what it sounds like some people are thinking is the same thing that we did back in May. We assumed what it would look like in two to three months. And boy were we wrong.

2:38:48 I wasn’t wrong, but the rest of us. Thank you, Miss Bedford. Can I. If I could follow one with my follow up with the numbers so I could show what that difference is.

2:38:54 Yeah. Do you want to hear from Miss McDougall first? Absolutely. And that way you can respond to both.

2:39:02 Miss McDougall. Yes, ma’am. Yeah, so I get concerned because what I have heard from our principals and I went and visited several of them this week, that they’re excited because they’re not quarantining kids and more kids are in school is great.

2:39:19 And if we remember when we didn’t have our mask mandate, they were spending, along with many of their admin staff, doing nothing but calling families and saying, come get your kid. You need to be quarantined over and over again. And they were at their wit’s end.

2:39:24 I am very concerned if we should remove this that they are going to be back right where we were before. I know Mister Seuss, I know another fellow board member has talked about that. We are.

2:39:41 And people have thrown the word illegal around. I just want to remind us in this country we have always had laws that were not so great and people stood up to them. And we are trying to keep our students and communities safe.

2:40:00 And thats all were trying to do. And I don’t think that we always have that as a state, country, whatever, we pass laws that are in the best interest and that has been shown in history as they have been overturned. So I just want us to kind of remember that.

2:40:04 Thank you, Miss McDougall. Mister Susan. Yeah, so Miss Jenkins is 100% right.

2:40:09 In July, on July 15 there were 100 cases per day, average. She’s right. There’s no doubt.

2:40:13 And exactly what I said was that on July 23 there was 309. So she’s right. The data says that on July 15, July 14, heck, all the way from July 9 all the way through to July 15 was 100.

2:40:22 And then in July 23 it was 300. Now I’m right. She’s right.

2:40:33 That’s a good point. But it also goes into the other point that I made is that if you look at all of the bell curves, throughout all of the COVID bell curves, whether that’s whatever county, they go up and they go down. Almost pretty consistent.

2:40:46 So that’s a great point to make, Miss Jenkins, in that. Yes, those days are 100 and then it goes 200, then it goes 300. So if we are following every single bell curve that we have had consistent with the current one, chances are we’re going to drop right there too.

2:40:55 That’s all. Miss Belford, may I just really quickly also. Hang on, hang on.

2:41:15 I’m not done. I’m not done. I totally understand, Miss McDougall.

2:41:37 The illegal piece I do. Like, I get you. That is you as a school board member.

2:41:40 You’re right. As an individual and I. I support your views and what you make your decisions on as an individual. I do, 100%.

2:41:48 I would never take that away from you. That is why you were elected to do that. My only point is, is that we’ve never as a board, made decisions to go against the rules.

2:41:56 We’ve always tried to amend those rules properly. That’s all. So from my perspective, not from yours, and I understand yours, I truly believe that we should follow that until it’s found illegal through the courts.

2:42:05 I just would like to clarify that for you. Thank you, mister and then the last piece, the quarantining issues. Absolutely.

2:42:22 Like you are 100% right again, Miss McDougall. The quarantining policies that we had were 100% difficult and our staff was plowed. But there are other counties which have been pointed out by multiple people that they’ve adjusted their quarantining rules.

2:42:27 And there’s a lot of data to suggest that the six foot rule is not as effective as people may have thought. And that’s why I was trying to request the data over the quarantine, so that we could take a look at it. So, in the event that the vote doesn’t go my way, I would still love to try to grab the data so that we could take a look at it to see the efficacy of it.

2:42:52 If we could say that. That’s all. Thank you, Miss Belford.

2:43:05 Thank you, Mister Susan. So, Miss Jenkins, I heard your request with our updated guidelines of following Robert’s rules. There’s only.

2:43:11 We only speak twice on each issue. So if it’s okay with the board, I will go ahead and call the question on this motion. That’s fine.

2:43:34 Okay, so. Not yet. So, Miss Escobar, do you need.

2:43:44 Since it was a board motion, do you need a verbal. She’s gonna need it. All right, so all those in favor of the motion on the floor, please signify by saying aye.

2:43:52 Aye. All those opposed, signify by saying nay. Nay.

2:44:09 The motion fails, two to three. All right, hearing that motion has failed, I will entertain another motion. I would like to make a motion to reinstate the emergency k twelve face covering requirement with the addition to the mask being able to be removed when social distancing is able to be adhered to.

2:44:30 All right, I have a motion on the floor from Miss Jenkins. And I have a second from Miss McDougall that will open for discussion. Miss Jenkins, your motion.

2:44:45 Thank you. I just. I need to clarify something that was said because I think it’s really, really important.

2:44:55 So, you know, when we’re talking about that bell curve, if you’re looking at the history of COVID in Brevard county, we’ve never really had bell curves. We had weird mountain peaks and valleys and hills and staggered nonsense. And the only time we have anything that is even like a symbol of a bell curve was this past July when we were at a low point and we started to get up to a peak at the end of August.

2:45:13 And yes, it’s starting to look like a bell curve. Like it’s coming down. But we have no trend to prove that it’s going to continue to go down like a bell because it hasn’t happened since the beginning of COVID in Brevard.

2:45:33 And that is why I brought that point up. Yes, you are correct. It jumped to 300 towards the end of July.

2:45:48 Absolutely. But we have absolutely no idea how it’s going to continue to move. And that’s why I’m harping so hard on that, because I don’t want the public to hear that and just think that we’ve gone up and down, up and down, when really we were just kind of on a roller coaster, making different squiggly lines.

2:46:00 You all know where I stand on this issue when it comes to masks. One of the things I think is really important to ask, though, is, Doctor Mullins, I know you’re probably not going to be able to answer this fully, but I’m going to ask you anyway. Did we have a mass exodus of students after we put the mass mandate in place on August 30? We have been monitoring enrollment.

2:46:18 It has not declined since. Thank you. And have you been getting phone calls from administration with massive concerns about being able to handle discipline of mass on both staff and students? I have not.

2:46:30 Thank you. Okay. The only other thing I’ll say is, you know, we hear a lot of people saying it’s illegal.

2:46:34 I’ve heard our lawyer say very clearly that is not a term that he is using at this point. And even if it is, I’ve said it before, $40,000 is never going to tempt me to make the wrong decision for 80,000 students and staff and the community members that they interact with. And I think that right now, we clearly know that these are making a difference.

2:46:52 This is not the time to remove them, especially now, as opposed to last year, when we have a 30 day limit on it and we have to talk about it again. I think it’s really important that we stay on the right track, do the right thing for our students, staff, and community, and talk about it in 30 days, and hopefully, we will be at that bottom of a bell and we can just move on from this. So, thank you.

2:47:08 Thank you, Miss Jenkins. Is there any board member that wants to speak in opposition? Miss Campbell. So I appreciate the amendment to add the language back in that we had last year when social distancing cannot be adhered to.

2:47:42 I go back to what you were talking about earlier when I said it was difficult to speak, and you said it’s not difficult to speak. Here’s what I’m talking about. I’ve subbed in our schools filled in for people before we put the mandate in place.

2:48:03 And after. And before we put the mandate in place, I could, when I had little first graders and we were doing phonics back up to the chalkboard, take my mask down and let them see my lips and let them hear me. Also, because it’s hard to talk very loudly through a mask all day afterwards.

2:48:14 When I subbed in a middle school classroom the following week, I couldn’t. And at the end of the day, and I’m not the only one, people are doing it day by day by day. Teachers are talking louder and louder and louder, especially the bigger the classroom or the bigger the classroom.

2:48:26 It is difficult to speak. Our numbers have increased. Absolutely.

2:48:35 And I have shared with several people that, you know, the disappointing thing is we will never know. We really won’t. And if we say the people who are trumpeting it was all the masks, we really can’t know that for sure, because our data beyond our county, our county was going down.

2:48:51 And Miss Belford correctly pointed out, the chair correctly pointed out when we had the emergency meeting that our county numbers started going down. Before we had that meeting, our school or our school numbers, they had just started going down. They’d gone down one week.

2:48:57 Our school numbers had not gone down yet. But our very first dashboard after the meeting, which was the next day, the very next day, which the mask mandate could not possibly have affected, we dropped from our highest number of 698 cases over three days to 435 over four days. The next dashboard on September 2, dropped again to 416, which at that point, the mask mandate had been in place for three days.

2:49:08 So those were kids who were testing positive on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday after we put the mandate in place on Monday. So, again, those numbers very highly unlikely that any of that impact was due to the mask mandate. The numbers then the next dashboard was 118.

2:49:14 That was Labor Day weekend. We didn’t even get all the cases and tests, but then it went right back up to 361, which was still lower. And we’ve continued to drop significantly.

2:49:35 We won’t ever really know. But the numbers in our schools, in addition to the county, were already going down. And so I. You know, as I’ve also said before, too, the quarantines.

2:49:41 Absolutely. If there’s a. For me, if there’s a silver lining for all this, is that we were able to put in place, which, by the way, we did not make up the seat.

2:49:59 We were able to put in place the CDC guidelines for the definition of close contact in our k twelve schools. Which says when the person who’s infected is wearing a mask and the person who’s exposed is wearing a mask, you can drop the radius from 6ft to 3ft that. We didn’t make that up.

2:50:16 That was not a Bps thing. We just were finally able to put it in place. I’m sorry, I had to say that because even I heard it on the radio this morning.

2:50:18 Where’d they get that? We didn’t make that up. That was the silver lining for me. And I’m so glad, so, so glad we were able to reduce our quarantines because of that.

2:50:26 And I have. I talked to Miss Moore. I’m not gonna, you know, she’s not here tonight, so I want to, you know, bring this up.

2:50:39 I did talk to her. How, if we. If the mask mandate expires, can we continue to do that? It causes a lot of problems because then who is tracking who had their mask on and who didn’t? But then again, when we’re down to our dashboard, that came out today of six employees and 79 students.

2:50:53 It’s a lot more manageable. And I understand. I hear you.

2:51:11 It was ridiculous and we had a tough month to get through, but we’re in a much better place than we were. And I expect this to continue to go down. Just like everywhere around the world has seen things go down once their Delta spike peak pass.

2:51:23 Thank you, Miss Campbell. Any board member want to speak in support of the motion against? Well, if there’s no one who wants to speak and if Miss McDougall doesn’t want to speak in support, then. Okay then, Mister Susan, if you’d like to speak against.

2:51:52 I am. I was. Okay.

2:52:13 But she started out. Yeah, we were trying to alternate. Yeah, I was just trying for process.

2:52:25 I don’t know. Okay, so again, Miss Jenkins, you are 100% right. The bell curve, when we had the before, when we had numbers before.

2:52:38 So miss Jenkins, you’re 100% right. If you look at the bell curves that occurred before on the CDC website, they are choppy, right? That’s right. But the reason for that is, is that we were doing daily Covid tests.

2:52:49 So it’s going to up, up, up, down, up, down like this. So if you look at that, you can still see some curves. But if you go to the DOH data, okay, go to the COVID weekly Covid-19 data and look where they started putting it as seven day rolling averages.

2:52:59 And you will see very good bell curves. And the reason for that is because they’re seven day rolling averages. As opposed to daily averages.

2:53:24 So I want you to tell that there’s two different types of the data that we’re looking at is that one is daily, which is going to jump, and then one is a seven day curve. And if you look at the numbers on page three of the current Covid-19 weekly situation report, actually page two, page three, you’ll find that the curves are there. And in actuality, they are pretty close to being a pretty strong bell curve.

2:53:38 Yep, there it is. Okay, so, yeah, so I understand where you were coming from, but I would like you to look at the DOH pages two and three and look at those Covid curves because you’ll find that those are pretty good bell curves. The next thing is that I didn’t say that administration was complaining at all.

2:53:45 No, no, no. I’m telling you that teachers are complaining that they are being told that they are going to be deemed their evaluation if they don’t push this thing forward. And they’re having difficulty trying to push that forward.

2:53:57 Now, there is no way that an administrator is going to talk to Doctor Mullins and say, hey, this is what’s happening. They are supposed to enforce it, but we have to have a connection to our teachers. And those teachers are the ones that are telling me that’s all.

2:54:07 So you are 100% right again, Miss Jenkins. The administration is not saying that that is right, but that’s not what I said. I just wanted to reiterate the fact that the students.

2:54:23 Right or I’m sorry. The teachers are telling me that it is difficult to enforce and now they’re being told by their principals in open meetings and I haven’t verified that yet. That’s why I want to check with Doctor Mullins.

2:54:37 But it shows to the fact of how hard it is to enforce this. The other piece is that I have not heard anybody say that the data shows anything different than an extreme decline that started on August 20 as opposed to anywhere else. Now, every one of these curves, every one of the pieces shows that it starts on that day.

2:54:59 So consistently with that, I also have hard. Have not found anybody to say that. The other school districts, there might be one or two, but the majority of them are all following a curve that is consistent with ours when they do or don’t have mask mandates.

2:55:13 So I am coming forward and saying, these are the facts. These are what I see. And I haven’t heard anybody debate that.

2:55:27 What I’m hearing is people say those might be right, but they’re at a point where we can’t let up because we’re concerned. And I can take that from you guys. I don’t agree with it, but I understand that.

2:55:55 I think that’s it. That’s all I got. Thank you, Mister Susan.

2:56:53 All right, so obviously, like all of you, I’m thrilled to see the promising changes and our numbers in the district as a community. And I do want to address, you know, there’s been much reference to our quarantine numbers declining because of the change in the protocols. And I think that is absolutely undeniable.

2:57:19 Right. We knew the quarantine numbers were going to go down when we changed those protocols, and that was simply by nature of you’re going to have less people, you have to draw a bigger circle around the infected student. Right.

2:57:30 And so common sense tells us those quarantine numbers are absolutely, absolutely going to go down. However, I would suggest that a lot of our other indicators are looking much, much better than they were as well. You’ll probably remember the last meeting I shared that we were experiencing 1980 positive cases per 100,000 for that week in our schools.

2:58:05 And that was as of August 26. And it was roughly two and a half times at that point, higher than the community transmission level of 735.9.

2:59:11 For the week of September 16, we dropped to 445 per hundred thousand in our schools, and our community numbers dropped to 351.1. And that’s the week ending the 16th.

2:59:33 And I referenced that simply because the way that the data is reported by the DOH, it’s reported on a weekly trend. And so if you combined our two dashboards for the same period, we have like numbers. Does that make sense to everybody? So for the week of 916, we dropped to 445 per 100,000, and our community numbers were 351 per 100,000 for the same period.

2:59:57 So obviously we’re still outpacing the community with our positives in our schools, but we’re much closer to that community transmission rate, which is phenomenal. I also mentioned as of August 26 that 31% of the cases in our community were associated with our schools, while our schools made up only approximately 11% of the county population. And I am pleased to report that for the week of September 16, that number has dropped to 14.

3:00:18 77%. Of the cases coming out of our schools, I would suggest, is also phenomenal. While it certainly is easy, and this has been mentioned a couple times, to suggest that community transmission decline is the sole driver of the changes in the numbers, I believe it’s important to note that while positive cases in our community declined 16.

3:01:03 56% for the week of 910 to 916. Our school numbers declined 41.75% for that same week period, more than double the decrease within our schools compared to the decrease that we saw in our community.

3:01:22 And while obviously we’ve talked about we see fluctuations between reporting periods, even if you look at our dashboard, you’ll see, you know, from from the beginning of the week to the end of the week of what or whatever. If you look at the timeframe from August 26, our community positive cases have declined roughly 52.2% from the August 26 dashboard reporting to the 916 dashboard reporting.

3:02:04 And over those same reporting periods, our district positive cases actually declined 77.5%. So a significant difference in the rate of decline within our schools compared to within our community.

3:02:26 I’m also happy to share that while we do mourn the loss of some of our team members causing hospitalized numbers to go down in some instances, as of Friday, we were down to one student in the hospital and one employee in the hospital. And you all may recall that at one point we had twelve employees in the hospital and a handful of students during this time, I won’t begin to claim that any of this is solely a result of our mask mandate, as we are clearly seeing a decline in our community spread, but I do believe you can argue it has nothing. I don’t believe that you can argue it has not had an impact either when you look at the difference between the rapid decline in our schools and the rapid decline in the community.

3:02:48 So with that being said, and I’ve been quoted as saying we’re not there yet, I’d like to take just a few minutes to discuss the legality of our mask mandate, and that has been brought into question by many, as indicated in a letter sent to the state, it is the opinion of our general counsel and myself, as we both of our names were on the letter, that we are in fact in compliance with both our or with all our constitutional duties, the statutory language of the parents Bill of Rights and the Department of Health rule with our current mask requirement, including multiple opt out avenues. Additionally, there are multiple cases, as was mentioned by one of my peers at the administrative, state and federal level, that are currently working their way through the system, some of which indicate without a mask requirement we would be violating federal requirements. And I would be remiss if I failed to mention that the chancellor of education who is responsible for ensuring district compliance in Florida provided in his sworn testimony that the DOH rule simply provided much appreciated guidance to districts and that they did not have to follow the guidance, if they were willing to face the consequences of not following it.

3:02:58 After having said all of that, I still suggest I don’t want this mask mandate to be long term. I’m incredibly encouraged by the numbers we are seeing. But, you know, we put a caveat in the policy that when we reach 50 cases per hundred thousand, that the mask mandate could be lifted without even having to reconvene the board.

3:03:09 And the reason that that number was chosen and was discussed at the time was because that’s the definition of dropping from high to moderate community transmission. And we’ve heard all along throughout this that community transmission is absolutely going to impact what we see in our schools. So I will support a 30 day extension of the mask mandate until October 30, or when we reach that threshold, whichever comes first, as the policy states.

3:03:42 I don’t think it requires a change to the motion. The only question that I have, and I don’t know. I don’t know, Doctor Thetti, if you can answer this, because the motion on the floor goes back to social distancing, providing an opportunity for masks to be taken off indoors.

3:04:01 On the CDC exception for k twelve, it states in the k twelve indoor classroom setting or a structured outdoor setting where mask use can be observed. The close contact definition excludes students who are between three to 6ft of an infected student if both the infected student and the exposed student correctly and consistently wore well fitting masks the entire time. So my question is, you know, part of, we’ve talked a lot and I’m so thankful for the varying perspectives of all of us up here and the obvious commitment to doing the right thing.

3:04:07 Even if we see that the right thing, we see the right thing to be done is different. My concern is we, you know, each and every one of us talked about the importance of being able to educate our children, to continue to provide that educational support. And I think a big part of that is the decrease in our quarantines.

3:04:10 So my question is, do you know, Doctor Thetti, or perhaps Miss Jenkins, if you had an opportunity to speak with Miss Moore prior to this in preparation and would like to weigh in, if we move to allowing masks to be taken off when social distancing can be maintained, do we then have to go back to the three foot corner, the six foot quarantine number? As I understand from discussing with Misses Moore, we would go back to the 6ft quarantine where we were before we had the mask mandated place. Okay, thank you for that clarification, Miss Jenkins. You look like you’re signaling.

3:04:27 Did you have something to add? I have like a. A little bit of a follow up to that though. So when you say that we’d have to go back to the six foot, is that if that student was on or staff was unmasked or is that just overall for everybody? As I understand it, if we do not have a mask mandate in place, we are at 6ft.

3:04:37 So to be clear, my understanding was that if, if you were socially distanced and you were unmasked for some reason you came together, my assumption was then those would be the ones taken into consideration to bring it back out to 6ft. So that’s different. So thank you for asking that.

3:04:44 Yeah, so I just. I think that’s an important point of clarification because. Yeah, I want this to go away as much as everyone and I am super, super hopeful.

3:05:11 If we continue to see 50% decreases, we will be at that 50 per 100,000 in virtually no time. Right. And that is truly my hope.

3:05:22 But what I don’t want to do is to support a motion that’s going to make us lose the benefit of our quarantine. So can I was a point of clarification? I think that got a little mixed, convoluted, but I think we’re. If we go back to what you’re talking about is if the mask mandate ends, then we go back to 6ft.

3:05:31 I think what Miss Jenkins is asking is if we continue with the mask mandate, but just put back in the language of if you’re far, if you’re 6ft or more apart, you can, you can take your. Like we had last year. Does that make that, does that void that? Okay.

3:05:36 Thank you for that clarification. I can’t answer if that would void that or not. Okay, and I say void that.

3:05:56 It’s up to us. We’re making the decisions. That’s.

3:06:09 Those are guidelines, not rules. So. Okay, so is there any further discussion on where we are? Miss Jenkins, you had requested if you could amend your motion.

3:06:21 So, Mister Gibbs, can she offer an amendment? She can’t. Well, she can make a new motion if she wanted to, but the amendment. I would prefer to come from someone else.

3:06:24 But just to clarify, you said October 3030 day extension would be October 29. Thank you. October 29.

3:06:28 So can I. So do I. Do we need to take a vote on the motion that’s on the floor and then allow another motion to be offered? If that somebody can make a friendly amendment if Miss Jenkins is open to it. I don’t know what the modification would be to modify the six foot language. Or like, if Miss McDougall or Miss Campbell or somebody that wanted to amend or make a friendly amendment.

3:06:32 They could make a friendly amendment if Miss Jenkins would accept it, to modify it so that it was accepted. Okay, did you under. Did you all understand that? Yeah, but I’m not sure we need to.

3:06:38 I don’t know if we need to. You should just fill the amendment. Okay, but except for if we don’t.

3:06:41 If nobody really wants to. So the. So the motion.

3:06:43 Can you reiterate, Miss Belford, what the original motion was? Yes. The motion made by Miss Jenkins was to extend the mask mandate for 30 days, requiring masks indoors, except when social distancing can be maintained. Okay, Mister Susan has called the question.

3:06:48 Do you need a voice vote, Miss Escobar? Oh, we did, but it’s not the same. She’s ahead of us. Oh, she already put it in there.

3:07:01 Really? I think my computer. I’m confused, though, because I don’t think we have to change anything. It’s not.

3:07:06 Mine’s not there. Mine’s not up if you’re working. Yep.

3:07:12 No, Katie’s works. I had to refresh. I can’t even get down the mine.

3:07:14 Katie’s just blessed. I’m just letting you know. I can’t even get the mine.

3:07:36 You don’t have a slider on the right. All the way down. All the way down.

3:07:54 Use your. Your roller thing. It won’t go.

3:08:01 Oh, come on. There’s that. There’s that one.

3:08:05 There’s that one. Refresh. Come on.

3:08:30 Here we go. I don’t mind. I mean, Pam, can you vote for me if I tell you what I want to do? No, I can’t get down there either.

3:08:47 I just can’t get to it, man. I know what you’re talking about. I can’t either.

3:08:51 You’re on mine. Maybe I’ll vote for you. I can’t.

3:09:00 Oh, never mind. I’m lying to you. Here we go.

3:09:04 Hang on a second. You got it. But I shared.

3:09:10 Okay. And the motion fails, two to three. All right, so I will open the floor for an additional motion.

3:09:37 No, we need a. We gotta have a motion to vote on. You just rejected the last motion, so there’s no motion pending.

3:09:44 Somebody’s got to make a mistake. Just says we review it. Oh, yeah, you don’t have to.

3:10:04 But then it’s going to go. It’ll expire September 29. So I’m going to make a motion to reinstitute the emergency k twelve face covering requirement, except when social distancing of 6ft or more can be maintained so long as we can keep our rules for quarantining that we have in place now.

3:10:18 So if both parties are masked within three to 6ft, if they are unmasked, we have to revert back to the six foot rule. Just clarification. You said reinstate where you just meant extend.

3:10:32 Sorry. Sure. Yep.

3:10:39 Totally. Hold on. I need a.

3:10:46 I need a second. Okay, so I have a motion. And Mister Gibbs, you’re comfortable with the motion on the floor? With substituting reinstate for sick.

3:10:55 For extension. Okay. I am substituting reinstate for extension.

3:11:40 Extension for reinstate. Getting late. And I have a.

3:12:06 So just to make sure we understand what that motion would do, in the event that we are told that we would have to revert back to our old quarantining policy, the social distancing portion of that motion would be removed. Is that correct? Is that your intent, Miss Jenkins? I don’t understand. Could you read the motion just one more time for me? Your motion.

3:12:10 Okay. Okay. I want to extend the emergency k through twelve face covering requirement.

3:12:30 Except when social distancing of 6ft or more can be maintained. With our quarantining rules being the same as they are now. If both parties are masked, if they are unmasked, then it has to revert to the six foot rule.

3:13:02 That makes sense. So is everyone clear as to what that is on the floor? Okay, so, Doctor Mullins, I just. With the assistance of Doctor Theta, I just want to ask some clarifying questions.

3:13:10 I understand. If this motion is approved, what the expectations are of staff, I think it’s beneficial for all of the board to make sure we know exactly what this means moving forward. If.

3:13:19 Can I clarify that I have a second on the motion prior to opening it up for questioning? Because I’m with you. Absolutely. I just want to make sure.

3:13:24 Miss McDougall, with the clarification on the motion. Are you still offering a second? Yeah. All right, so I have a motion on the floor and I have a second.

3:13:27 Doctor Mullins, if you would like to clarify or request clarification. And Doctor Theta, I’m going to ask. You know this better than I do.

3:13:43 So I want you to listen carefully and make sure I cover all possible scenarios so I can give, if it is approved, correct direction to our staff. If students are socially distanced at least 6ft with supervisor approval, they can remove their mask. If students are within three to 6ft and unmasked and in close contact to a case, they would be required to quarantine the rules set up by the guidelines of CDC.

3:13:46 If they’re within three to 6ft and mask and in close contact with a case, they would not be required to quarantine consistent with the exception provided by the guidelines of the CDC. Is that the intent of your motion, Miss Jenkins? Yes. Just one thing I just want to clarify.

3:13:49 Both parties have to be. Yes. Yes, okay.

3:14:29 Yes, that’s what I meant. Thank you. And if I may, Doctor Theti, did I cover the permutations of what is different from what was previously our policy? You did, Miss Campbell.

3:14:43 So, on that note, I think what Miss Jenkins is trying to put out is that we. We continue our quarantine practices as we have now. Because currently, if it was a student who, let’s say, had a medical opt out and they weren’t masked, the 6ft rule applies, correct? To my knowledge, after talking with Chris Moore, they are not isolated if they have a medical exemption.

3:15:05 So we’re not isolating students who have medical exemptions, if that’s your question. Just people who aren’t masked for whatever reason. The six foot rule she’s asking.

3:15:12 The six foot rule applies if we have even a medical exemption. They have to be 6ft. Otherwise, regular quarantine requirements are in play.

3:15:17 Yes. Over the last few weeks. So, in other words, we want to continue the quarantining practices as we’ve had over the last few weeks.

3:15:20 Yes. And not change them. I thought that’s what you were doing with the last motion.

3:15:20 But we want to make it crystal clear, because we’re not changing anything for staff is what it seems like for their quarantine procedures. Right now, the only thing we’re changing is allowing staff and students to remove their masks if they’re socially distanced or more indoors. Indoors.

3:15:40 Socially distanced. At least 6ft. Right? Outdoors.

3:15:47 We’re still up. Everything is the same. Else is the same.

3:16:01 If I may just clarify, last year’s policy was at the direction of the supervisor, the teacher, etcetera. Is that still the expectation of the board? So students could be directed that they do not have to have their mask because the teacher has, or the supervisor has verified that they are socially distanced appropriately at 6ft, the students, with supervisor approvals already in the policy. So we would just be adding the component of indoors.

3:16:14 You can take it off as long as you may. And employees. So are you comfortable, Doctor Mullins, with the clarity, doctor Thetti, are we good? We are the.

3:16:32 As Mister Gibbs said, the employee piece is already in the emergency k twelve face covering. And the supervisor’s approval for students is already in that the employees is not. So I’m going to ask again.

3:16:39 Doctor thet. Doctor Gibbs, you’re good or we need additional discussion. I’m good.

3:16:44 Did I say doctor Gibbs? No. Mister Gibbs. Doctor Thetti.

3:16:51 Doctor Mullins. Okay. Is there any.

3:16:55 Is there any additional clarity? I’m good. Thank you. Okay.

3:17:00 Is there any board member who wishes to speak to the motion on the table you would like to, Mister Susan? Okay. Unless everybody else, go ahead. So I can.

3:17:09 I applaud you for trying to loosen it up a little bit there, Miss Jenkins. The only problem is that. But the CDC speaks specifically to indoor mask mandating.

3:17:14 And when we have. When we’re trying to follow that piece, I think when we look at that, we’re also doing medical opt outs and all that stuff, which is not part of what the CDC says. They don’t say.

3:17:18 Well, you can if you have these people and all that other stuff. So my issue that I have. So I would not be so concerned about violating the CDC memo and everything else, because we’re already doing that in different ways a little bit.

3:17:29 But the issue that I have is making sure that the staff is now responsible for some new guidance and clarity and making sure that they allow kids to do this and to stay out. And then if they’re violating. Then you weren’t 6ft, you were 5ft, and now you have to be quarantined and everything else.

3:17:41 I just. That’s the issue that I have, so I’m not going to vote for it. Plus, I don’t want the mask mandate, so I’m voting against that too.

3:17:59 I’ll just let you know. Thank you, Susan. But I applaud her for loosening it up.

3:18:05 Yeah, I appreciate your honesty. Anyone else want to speak to the motion on the floor? Okay. Hearing none.

3:18:09 I. Miss Belfort, I apologize. If I may interrupt. Sure.

3:18:15 Just. Doctor thet, did we get. Did we clarify the employee related.

3:18:40 Yes, yes. Employees are covered under her motion as long as they’re indoors. Anybody 6ft and maintaining that distance can be unmasked.

3:19:02 They’re not in the emergency policy. I was looking at the wrong piece. My apologies.

3:19:09 So, doctor, thati. Are we. Are you.

3:19:15 Are we good on exactly what the intent of the board is moving forward if this motion is approved? I think so, yes. Okay. Thank you, madam Chair.

3:19:24 Okay, may I call the question? Just wanted to follow up real quick, Mister Susan. The issue that I have is that we’re passing a policy without actually knowing what is possible or not. We haven’t gotten clarification of it.

3:19:30 And it’s kind of like throwing, I have extreme issue with setting precedent on passing policies if it’s legal over here and then coming back. So that’s another reason I’ll vote against it. I think that actually this she’s, it’s, I think we removed the.

3:19:36 If it can be done. I think the motion was, this is what we’re doing. That we can and that we continue.

3:19:40 I think we took out the. If it can be done. Correct.

3:19:53 I mean, we make, we make the rules. Okay. All right.

3:20:00 May I call the question? All right, please vote. Katie’s faster than all of us. No, she just gets a computer that comes up quicker for her.

3:20:14 I got you. Okay, hold on, folks. I am, I cannot.

3:20:26 Alright. And the motion passes four to one. No.

3:20:37 Am I. I think it was three to one. Yeah, there’s no way three to two. I was expecting three to two, but I’m.

3:20:51 Hold on, let me. Mine should be. So if it was the wrong way, mine’s name and I don’t have a breakdown on who.

3:21:11 Yeah, you change it to nay. Thank you. I said it like nine times.

3:21:30 Yes. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye.

3:21:41 All those opposed, please signify same sign. Nay. Nay.

3:22:02 Okay, three to two. Pam, are we good there? Okay, that would have been cool. Thanks for your patience as we work through that board.

3:22:07 All right, Mister Susan, you asked. I have two items put on the agenda for discussion this evening. A social media challenge and board member redistricting.

3:22:20 Yes, thank you so much. The social media challenge has, I think it’s called the sidious lick or there’s some kind of a name to it that we felt was not appropriate to put on our Internet. So, but basically what people don’t understand is right now, devious.

3:22:38 That’s what it is. And those of you that don’t know about this, it has hit every major news organization in the country. It’s across Fox, CNN, MSNBC, all of it.

3:23:07 Okay. What it is right now in our county is we have students who are running into the bathrooms, ripping off toilet seats for whatever reason, they want to touch a toilet seat. It’s disgusting.

3:23:15 And then they take them home with them and take pictures with them. They’re destroying soap boxes, they’re doing all these other things inside of our bathrooms. And across campus, I had one of our teachers had their laptop destroyed.

3:23:20 They’re taking stuff out of their, off their desks and everything else. Okay? So I wanted to have this discussion to set direction, because if you are a thief of school board property, teacher property, or anything else. I want our principals to know that you can expel them because that’s what we should do.

3:23:24 So it is our policy consistent. And the issue that we have is that these kids think that this is funny, right? So unless we set direction that we are going to firmly say that we are going to expel these students and this is wrong, and push it out on social media so that the parents know. There’s a lot of parents that didn’t even know about this.

3:23:30 There’s a lot of people that don’t know about this. So the issue is, is my daughter came home about two and a half weeks ago, three weeks ago, and told me about it. And I was like, yeah, whatever.

3:23:40 And then all of a sudden, my principals, I checked in with them and they said, absolutely, this is a bad problem. At Viera High school, there’s situations, and some of our principals are forced to shut down bathrooms, except for, like, two of them. The kids from around the entire school are coming in and trying to use two bathrooms, and then we have staff monitoring them.

3:23:53 It’s ridiculous. It’s stupid. I mean, I’ve never seen anybody want to go steal stuff out of a bathroom.

3:24:12 I mean, these kids have. I mean, Covid has really messed with our kids heads. So what I’m trying to do is make sure that our principals know, which is probably consistent with everything else, but it might need a board direction that they can expel these kids for doing it.

3:24:22 And then I’d also like to allow us to offer up a reward for kids who turn in other kids that are doing it. I’d like to do that. So the first piece I want to do is, I want to say, is that consistent with our policy, Doctor Mullins, that if they deface or steal or do something to both teachers and school district, we expel.

3:24:37 Yeah. Our discipline plan absolutely supports the district taking actions that can include suspension, investigation, and exploitation leading to that that is related to vandalism and or theft. We have a due process that is built into our discipline plan, and I can assure the board that our administrators have received full support in holding students accountable for their behavior related to these incidents.

3:24:51 Okay, so if that’s consistent, then I don’t have to say anything, but. Okay, go ahead. Mister McDonald, Mister Susan.

3:25:04 This has been in the news. It’s from TikTok. It’s a TikTok.

3:25:34 I’m glad you know TikTok. Hey, I’m with it. I’m telling you, like, I’m not on it.

3:25:58 And I was like, geez, mister McDougall is more hip than I am. This is cool. So it’s a TikTok thing that’s going across the whole country.

3:26:03 Yeah. And I know that people have pressured TikTok to take this down, but it, this is what’s going on. I can’t say it makes any sense to me at all.

3:26:25 And yes, we do have a policy for that. And I would not want to have rewards for people to tell on other people. It’s effective offering up rewards for people to be, to turn in murderers and everybody else.

3:26:37 Well, and I’m, and I’m not sure, and I don’t know, Joanne, if you can answer this, but you know, we have our speak out hotline and our, not our rave app, but what’s our p three app? Campus p three app, where they certainly can report. I don’t know if there is. Joanne’s giving me a head nod.

3:26:42 Yes, that certainly they can report through that. And they may actually get money through crime line for reporting a crime on our campus. So we would encourage them.

3:26:46 Does the sheriff pay for that? Does the sheriff pay for that crime line? The award? Oh, this is great. This is great. Yes.

3:26:52 So those, you know, as our k nine officers, go out and promote that p three campus app and those, and the crime line. And I, you know, for any, for any parents or students who are listening, I would encourage you that that is completely anonymous. You don’t give your name.

3:27:01 What happens is if you give information, they give you a secret way to go and retrieve the funds. And so you don’t ever have to even submit your name. So completely anonymous.

3:27:15 And you can certainly let us know if you know that your peers are doing things like that in our schools, we would encourage it. Miss Campbell, I’d just add our thanks to district security, who have been combing social media and actually finding some of these, if any of our students post it. So I don’t think students at 09:07 on a Tuesday night are probably watching the school board meeting, but if you are or your parents are, we have people working for us who are scouring social media and you’ll get caught and should.

3:27:35 And as you were talking about that, I think we have a point where things rise to the level when we do our expulsions here of major campus disruption. So it goes from, you know, we’re normally stealing, you know, a soap dispenser would, because it’s a low cost, would not be. But when it causes a major campus disruption like it is now, where we’re having to close down bathrooms, then that ups the ante for the level in our code of conduct.

3:27:53 That’s correct. Laptops. Laptops are not small.

3:28:12 That’s ridiculous. Yeah, and good point, Miss Campbell, that people are probably not watching the meeting this late or, you know, students are not watching the meeting. But perhaps Mister Brune could help us with getting reminders out to our families that that campus p three app or crime line could, you know, potentially be used to share information as well, because you’re right.

3:28:35 Thank you for the correction on that. Probably did very little good sharing it at this time of night with anyone. Yeah, I can’t believe somebody would steal a toilet seat, for crying out loud.

3:28:52 I think that we should have the canine units. I don’t know. Forget it.

3:29:01 I just think this is how they’re going to do that. So that’s it. We’re good.

3:29:17 We’re going to go, we’re going to offer up the money through the hotline, we’re going to catch the kids and we’re going to finish this thing. Right. Good.

3:29:32 Next. So I discussed before about board member redistricting. So we had talked before about, hey, we’re possibly doing this.

3:29:40 I put this on here just so that I could say I’m going to bring forward a couple of proposals at the next board meeting that we could look at. Right. I wanted to give you guys enough time so that we could really think, yes, we would like to, or no, we wouldn’t like to.

3:29:45 I will probably be bringing forward. I will be bringing forward one that just says whatever the county puts together, we follow, and that’s it. So whether it’s crazy, member meandering, whatever those things are that we follow, that the reason is whether I meant to say not meandering, but deciding on who does it.

3:29:54 Because the bottom line is that right now the supervisor of elections is going to have to reset a bunch of precincts, the rezonings and everything else. And if we’re consistent with the county, it opens up for transparency for our voters. That’s the first level.

3:30:03 The second level is, is that if you guys weren’t interested in that, then I would like to propose cleaning up some of our districts that are gerrymandered. I’ll flat out say it. You look at our districts that I have between, I think, you and I in Rockledge, it’s a big zigzag, right? And I’ve brought forward all those other issues before.

3:30:10 So maybe there’s an idea that we can clean those up to at least make them consistent with some of the other precincts that are straight lined. And what I was going to do today is hear from you all, if there’s concerns that you have over either of those, that I might be able to do the research and put together so that when I’m coming back in two weeks, I can possibly answer some of those questions. That’s all.

3:30:23 Like there was one that said, well, what if we have two of us put in the same district? That was a great question. What I did was I went and researched and found out that the county’s charter, which we could do, just puts the two people in the same district until the terms out. So, same as Jenkins and I got put into the same, same one.

3:30:31 I’m not rerunning. I’ll say that again, I’m not rerunning. But the thing is, is that she would then after my terms up and her terms up, she would just become that person running in there.

3:30:41 Does that make sense to you? So there’s no conflict we can work through if there’s two board members in the same one. That’s all. And really and truly, this just comes with transparency and clarity and actually saves money for the taxpayers on the, on the voting precincts.

3:31:07 It does. So does anybody have any questions or concerns or just to clarify, the statute says you cannot move lines that unseat another board member. So you could not combine two board members lines.

3:31:12 You’d be in violation statute. I believe it governed school districts. No, school, it’s state statute says you cannot.

3:31:25 You can’t unseat. You can’t unseat a sitting board member by drawing the line. Right.

3:31:32 You’re not unseating them, you’re not taking them off. You’re combining districts and continuing them. It happens over at the county and I can look at it.

3:31:46 But if that’s a concern still, I mean, look, I’m all about it. What I’m trying to do is say, here’s an idea. I’d like to hear what you guys have and then come back in two weeks.

3:32:04 So, Miss Campbell, you had said something? Yes, I have some issues. Same issues I mentioned before. Mister Gibbs just touched on it.

3:32:25 The reason why it would unseat. And I’m the member that would be unseated because I believe both Miss Jenkins and I live in county commission district three. You know, I live in county commission four.

3:32:40 Okay, I’m in three, you guys are both in four. But it people. But district three does run three and five both run within district five school district.

3:33:08 So there is potential for me to be unseated. But it’s not about me personally. But what it does is it would make that board member.

3:33:19 If you did something like that, it would make one of the board members have to. We’ve already had two school board members in the last few months across the state remove from office because then they were living outside of their district and one of them was living just across the street. And they were removed and replaced, including our former chair of the Central Florida school board’s coalition from Marion county.

3:33:21 And so that causes a problem. The problem that I have. I don’t mind looking at some cleanup.

3:33:42 I think it’s a lot more than just us taking a look at it in a workshop. I mean, I had a very short conversation with Dave Lindemann or Sue Hannan and just talked about the process we have to go through. We have to get community feedback and all that.

3:33:58 But you know, I’m not unwilling to look at that. We do have a timeframe, right, Mister Gibbs? We have to look at it in odd years. Yes.

3:34:13 It can only be changed in odd years. And I also talked with sue and she said our capacity to do it in house is extremely limited. If all we were doing were moving lines over a couple neighborhoods, they could probably do that.

3:34:27 Anything more extensive would they would need to go outside for a firm. Districts that are doing that now in the state are estimating $100 to $150,000, depending on how many community forums you want to hold around the district. There’s another.

3:35:07 I’ve been looking at this since Mister Susan brought it up originally. There’s other statutes in play, such as the federal one vote, one person, one vote doctrine. And there are percentages that are in play there, such as if you are under 10%, you’re presumed to be in compliance.

3:35:20 If you get into the ten to 12%, they’ll assume you’re still good. But as you get closer to 15%, you have to start having really good reasons to justify that. So there might be some basis to look hard, depending on.

3:35:29 I have not looked at what the census numbers are for our district broken down, but I know the old data. Before the census numbers came out, we were getting close to 10%, especially with, I believe, Mister Susan’s district and some of the other districts. So we might be getting into that zone where maybe not for 21 given the timeframe, but around 23 we need to start looking hard at potentially redistricting anyways to get back down under that 10%.

3:35:41 Thank you for that. So I almost done going back to my original thing. I actually would, if we did go strictly with the county, I would be unstated because it wouldn’t matter if somebody else in district three, I would no longer be.

3:35:57 I would not live. Don’t be so sure yet. Okay.

3:36:09 Well, and I’m really close to the line, but my problem with adopting, saying, with the idea of just saying, hey, we’re going to follow commission line is they have a meeting in a few days, I think Monday, maybe. They have two meetings on October that I saw on the calendar, a couple meetings in November. They are very far from making their final decision.

3:36:24 And if we have to do it in 2023, I am not agreeable to making our decision that we’ll just go with whatever they go with without knowing what it is. So that’s a hard no for me. Like I said, I’m willing to look at some little lines.

3:36:37 I will say again, as I mentioned when you brought this up before, is that we are closer. Even though we may be getting to that threshold, we are a lot closer. The school board districts are a lot more evenly split than the county commission.

3:36:52 I think that’s actually from data you gave and the county commission and districts are together. And the other thing that going back to the county commission lines is our lines are drawn to keep an even number of schools. It’s not a requirement.

3:37:15 We don’t have to do this. We do this as a school district, but so that we have an even number of schools between the five of us that we are over now, we make decisions for the whole district, but we have kind of our mother hen, our father hen that we keep up, that we keep up with and come visit and have that regular interaction with, so that we have an even number. And one of the reasons why our lines were drawn that way is so that we could incorporate an even number of secondary schools, elementary schools, and keep it as even as possible with the number of schools that we have, which I like personally and I think is good governance.

3:37:42 Anyone else wish to speak to the issue? Miss Jenkins? Yeah, I’m with Miss Campbell on this. I. You know, we all fought hard to be in these seats. We were elected to these seats.

3:37:54 We have governing power for the school board. I’m not going to relinquish it to county commission across the street to assume what they’re going to do in the future with their lines. Absolutely.

3:38:16 Would unseat me, could make me removed. Don’t really see justification for that one. My other concern is I understand what Mister Gibbs is saying.

3:38:37 It’s very likely in 2023. As, as West Vera starts to build up and palm Fay continues to grow, we’re going to see these weird discrepancies between the districts and it’s going to have to be redistrict and it’s going to cost money. And so at this point to do it now, I don’t see the benefit to our students.

3:38:59 So I don’t really understand why we do it. If we can do small lines that don’t cost us anything, obviously that isn’t a big deal. But I don’t really understand the transparency piece either.

3:39:06 I know that it’s confusing sometimes. You know, as candidates, you go out, you inform your voters, they get a sample ballot before election. And when they go in to vote, it’s only the people from their district on that voting ballot anyway.

3:39:14 So I’d like, you know, have you. Yeah. Miss McDougall, did you want to before.

3:39:21 I pretty much. Miss Campbell and Miss Jenkins said pretty much all. And my thought was the way it’s divided now, we have, as Miss Campbell pointed out, we’ve divided the school so it’s more equal.

3:39:24 I can see if we change lines it would not be, it could throw something off. And I agree with Miss Jenkins that our voters are very cognizant of who they’re voting for when they get the ballot. So I. At this point I’m not seeing the need for it.

3:39:35 So, Mister Susan, I am happy to look at some information and proposals. I will tell you that cost is a major concern for me, especially given the fact that I feel like we are in a growth period and it might be something that we would have to redo very soon. I am not a fan of following the county commission based on, now let me do an asterisk on there.

3:39:53 Based on what I have heard that the county commission may be considering and maybe they can come back with something fabulous. I don’t know. But based on some of the things that I have heard, I’m not in favor of just mirroring them.

3:40:01 And so that’s why the cost issue comes into play. So interestingly enough, me up on my, my, my remote north end, my south Volusia, South Jacksonville community up there. The only thing I think I’m the only one that has, I mean my lines aren’t super clean, but they’re, they’re all mainland.

3:40:19 And so the only place that my lines can go is further south. So I’m not, you know, it’s not a major issue for me, but if you all feel like it would be beneficial for you, I would, would certainly be willing to support it. But as I said, I’m not interested in taking on an enormous amount of expense.

3:40:31 And I agree that for the most part, they’re drawn based on schools being pretty equal. But that changes all the time with new schools being built in growth areas if we get to a point where we see decline, and we have to look at school closures, so. And I think.

3:40:53 I feel like you have a lot more schools if you come. The alternative learning center. I have 20.

3:41:17 Yeah. So, yeah, I feel like we. I mean, I’ve got two of the largest.

3:41:21 I’ve got number two and number three of the largest high schools in the county. And the largest. And the two of the largest middle schools, if not the two largest middle schools.

3:41:32 I only have two, but I mean, they’re the biggest ones. So it’s. Right.

3:41:42 It’s not exactly even with size, but because you guys have a lot smaller high schools up on your end. Well, I have three. I have the three.

3:41:47 I have two high schools and a junior senior, which, if I went south, I would take in Coco. So Cheryl says I can’t have Coco. So, yeah, anyway, those, those would be my primary concerns, Mister Susan.

3:41:58 But if you would like to present us with some information, I’d certainly be happy to look at it and we can go from there. Okay. Gonna follow up real quick.

3:42:05 Yeah. So what I think I’m hearing is equal schools is part of it. The cost of going out to a firm? Are we required to do that? I mean, I have voter data on the entire county bike, like where, however you want to draw districts, you’re gonna have to do, like, precise measurements.

3:42:09 And to know how many voters you’re getting, you’re gonna have to have those. Sue, I was relying on that piece. I was relying on miss hands or examination of what they could do in house.

3:42:17 And she said they have very limited capacity to do it in house, so anything major would have to go outside. And the estimate was 100 to 150. Yeah, but what I’m hearing you say is, I mean, I’m sure Miss Jenkins, Miss Belford, Miss McDougall, Miss Campbell, there are services that do that and we don’t have to go to.

3:42:25 I’ll have to look at that. Because the cost to pay somebody $100,000 to look at data, information that we can get, and it’s for the public forums as well. That’s why sue said it would be dependent on how many, because she was envisioning everybody having at least one in their district that’s affected with new lines, having some sort of public forum that they would show up and discuss and go over the line changes.

3:42:51 Okay. And then the other piece is bumping out or unseating a current member. That’s a concern.

3:43:06 Right. But there is a little bit of an appetite for cleaning up possibly some of the old pieces and gerrymandering and stuff like that. I don’t care.

3:43:11 Whoever drew it up, they carved up the districts, especially mine. And then, let me see. Hard fought to benefit to the students.

3:43:30 So I don’t know how to go with that. The benefits of the students, the transparency. Okay.

3:43:48 I’ll work on the answer to transparency, the answer to cost. I’ll pull those together. And then I think the idea is that we just look at it and if we’re willing to come back and say we can clean up, great.

3:44:08 If we come back, back and say no. And I just wanted to make sure I could address all your guests. So thank you.

3:44:20 All right. Oh, I have one more thing. You’re out of things, Mister Susan.

3:44:26 I got one more because I already talked to Paul about it. Okay, Mister Susan, go ahead and wrap up with your last. And then Miss McDougall has a board report.

3:44:36 And then Miss Jenkins, did you indicate you needed to speak as well? Nope. Okay, so Mister Susan. And then miss McDougall.

3:44:40 Sure. So there’s, we’re about to go into negotiations between the unions and everybody else, right? And every time we do that, we hear from all of them, why’d you do this and why’d you do that? And they, so I called Paul today and I was like, Paul, listen, talk to me about this. What’s going on? Paul says, your job as a school board member is to allow the superintendent, because it’s his job, to negotiate with the unions and then bring back those things.

3:44:43 So what I said is, I said, okay, thank you for that. That helps us out tremendously. So if we’re not supposed to be a part of the process until it’s all over with us, then if we can just forward our questions that we get, so somebody says, why did you do this? We say, no, no, no, that’s not us.

3:44:53 That’s negotiations between the district. We are the last step. And I just need somebody to.

3:44:56 Am I consistent with what I’m saying, Paul? Yeah. In short, it’s like this year we tried to straighten things out. We had a pre bargaining executive session where the board members all went over what their priorities were for district staff and the bargaining team to, you know, achieve with collective bargaining.

3:45:06 So now the superintendent by statute, is charged with negotiating contracts to bring back to the board as a collective bargaining agreement for approval. So at this stage, if it’s the bargaining stage, the superintendent’s job is to negotiate an acceptable contract that he will recommend to the board for approval. That does not mean you have to approve it.

3:45:12 But yes, staff should not be calling you guys saying, hey, why aren’t you accepting this proposal or that proposal? So while bargaining is going on, they should be contacting Doctor Mullins or his designee for bargaining on any issues with bargaining or questions about the process. So, like, we put in our stuff, right? We haven’t seen the proposal that goes to the union. The union.

3:45:24 We haven’t seen the proposals that they give to us. We don’t have any part of that. But when it’s all said and done, they bring it to us and say, we negotiated this between us, this is what we would like to do.

3:45:29 That’s when we engage. Right? Right. You guys are the final decision makers on what is presented.

3:45:33 That’s why we gave Doctor Mullins and his team guidance on from the beginning as to what the board expected and wanted. Sure. Doctor Mullins, would that those emails go to Miss Green? Or.

3:45:45 I mean, like, we get. We get them, right? We get called. So I’m.

3:46:05 I’m just gonna say, look, we. I didn’t see the proposal. I didn’t see the union’s proposal.

3:46:12 I’m not supposed to see it until we actually, actually come back with the board. Who should they. Who should I just defer to? Sir? I would request that the board send anything to me and I’ll make sure the appropriate staff has it.

3:46:22 Beautiful. All right. That’s it.

3:46:29 That’s all I have. I just needed that direction because we’re getting ready to go into negotiations and I wanted to make sure that we had proper processes. Hey, Paul, did you just say that I was right? Did you just tell me.

3:46:43 Yes. You summarized my conversation with you correctly. That was very good.

3:46:55 Miss Escobar, I would like, for the first time in Brevard county history, that you put in the note that Mister Gibbs agreed with. Matt. Susan, stop.

3:47:10 Would you stop with that piece? Do not. Please omit Miss Campbell. Please omit those notes.

3:47:15 That was a mumble. All right. The other attorney’s laughing.

3:47:29 She agrees. All right, thank you. So the school health advisory committee meets four times a year, and part of the charter is that a board member is part of it.

3:47:37 I am the person at this point, and we just report out to the board. So one thing that’s come up that they’re working on is there’s a new legislation that went through about the CPR requirements. So we, they are working very hard to be able to make sure all our 9th and 11th graders are getting, are trained in CPR.

3:47:49 That was one of the things that just passed this year. So I just wanted to let everyone know that the meeting happened. There’s another one in December.

3:47:56 And if people are not familiar with this meeting, we have people from the community, we have administrators, we have staff. It’s a large committee. They work really hard.

3:48:05 And hats off to Rachel who heads it. She does a heck of a lot of work. She truly is.

3:48:18 And so, just so you know, if you have a 9th and 11th grader, they will know CPR. Thank you, Miss McDougall. Doctor Mullins, do you have anything else to add? Y’all are killing me.

3:48:23 I’m sorry. I think this one thing, and I think this is important before we walk out, we made with the extension that the majority of the board voted. The extension of the emergency face cover requirement.

3:48:33 We made some changes. Did those changes take place? The one change, basically. Does that change take place immediately or only with a 30 day extension? The motion was for an extension, so I would say it would apply after the 29th.

3:48:39 So the 30th. So we’re close. That’s the day today.

3:48:53 Thank you. Can we amend that? Do it right now. Their Roberts rules allows someone from the prevailing side to recall and do a reconsideration.

3:49:02 So if you want to make it effective immediately. Immediately. Somebody could implement a effective immediately.

3:49:07 I can’t make that. It would have to be one of the three two or one of the three that voted. Three two.

3:49:15 I’m not, I’m not looking at anyone. I don’t, I don’t offer up the motion. So that is among you all.

3:49:20 Like, that’s not my, as chair. I can’t read all my own. What do you think? All right.

3:49:22 I will make. Go ahead and help me out here. Make a motion to reconsider the mask mandate motion to make it effective immediately or tomorrow.

3:49:27 Okay. All right. Come on.

3:49:31 Oh really? Okay. I’m going to recall. Make an amendment, move to reconsider.

3:49:36 Thank you. The approved motion to make it effective. Okay.

3:49:46 Just because I want to make sure we know where we’re going. So does that mean that the extension begins tomorrow as opposed to the 29th? Yes, it would extend the. You already have a mandate in place tomorrow.

3:49:48 You would just make the modification effective tomorrow. So the, then the end date. When’s the end date? Right.

3:49:51 The end date is still going to be the 29th. Okay. You have 90 days.

3:49:57 It’s an emergency policy. So we only have 90 days for the entire emergency policy. That’s the life cycle of an emergency policy.

3:50:01 Okay. So. No, I’m just going to stop.

3:50:08 I’m trying to do this. Campbell. I know.

3:50:11 It was the right question to ask. It was the right question. It is the right question to ask.

3:50:22 That was a good question. Check in with Miss Moore on this. No, we’re just going to do it.

3:50:30 So I am going to. We check in with the dealers. Move to reconsider.

3:50:44 Move to reconsider the start date of our amendment for the mass policy. Just move to reconsider. You’ll need a second move to reconsider the mask policy.

3:50:48 Start date. Oh, come on. Somebody.

3:50:59 We have a second 2nd. Thank you. Miss Jenkins.

3:51:04 Open for discussion. I think that let’s just. We don’t have to discuss.

3:51:17 Okay, good. The opportunity is there if we need it. I just think.

3:51:20 Let’s just do it. No, we can start talking just as a point, just to make sure. Because it could be confusing for people who are watching.

3:51:26 Including people in the room. Right. So tomorrow.

3:51:29 So you are amending it. You want to approve the 30 day extension of the emergency k twelve face covering requirement. Except when social distancing.

3:51:37 Except when social. She wants to make the social distancing piece effective immediately. Yes.

3:51:45 Can you guys hang on just a second? Can you give staff a day? Because people that are watching this right now are going to show up tomorrow and the staff may not have already told the teachers by the time we get in there. Just a thought. Maybe 4 hours. You have a good point. Hey, read your email. Okay. Effective. If the board is willing to take a suggestion. I would ask for the sake of communicating effectively with the organization, we would need to. I would propose at least not making it effective before Monday. Okay. And the 29th is Wednesday. So that’s when it would be effective anyways. So if you left it alone, are we checking? I am going to recall my. No, really, I am. I’m done. You’re going to recall a recall. I don’t know what. Miss McDougall, if you don’t get a second on the recall motion, then it still stays. Thank you. We just needed some clarity on that. Yeah. So we are all changes effective the 29th. Correct. Paul, that’s where we stand. I have a motion recalled. So I have no motion on the table? Correct. Does any board member have anything else? Doctor Mullins, do you have anything else for us this evening? No, madam. Chair. Thank heavens. Good night. All up.