Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Music playing.
6:37 Good evening.
6:37 The April 26, 2022 board meeting is now in order.
6:40 I’m happy to welcome my fellow board members and the public.
6:43 This is a business meeting of the board held in the public.
6:45 As such, the board is authorized to adopt rules or policies to
6:48 maintain orderly conduct and proper decorum in a public meeting.
6:52 Please note, please note that your presence here, please note
6:54 that, please note, please note that your presence here is
6:57 subject to those rules and policies.
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7:04 that you are in the public.
7:07 The public, please note that you are in the public.
7:07 Please note that you are in the public.
7:11 You are in the public.
7:12 Please note that you are in the public.
7:16 Please note that you are in public.
11:03 And it was an event put on by the students.
11:06 It was student led, student driven, student organized.
11:08 It was really awesome.
11:10 And never mind the fact of how smart our kids are.
11:13 I am always impressed by how smart they are.
11:15 But their ability to have public speaking.
11:20 Their dedication to diversity and equity within their own
11:25 program.
11:25 And the fact that they don’t even have a robotic CTE program
11:29 there.
11:30 What they put together, a team of 45 students all on their own,
11:35 was really incredible.
11:36 And they just wanted to have this event just kind of wrap up the
11:39 year.
11:39 Let the public and the community members know what they did.
11:43 Kind of recruit some new members.
11:45 I was escorted around by some of the students to get to know all
11:48 the other students more.
11:49 They told me their favorite part about being part of that team.
11:53 Well, this one student I was talking to was a senior.
11:57 Is when the new meet came in during orientation every year.
12:01 They loved convincing those students that they can do whatever
12:05 they try.
12:06 They said it was really often they have students come and saying,
12:09 I can’t speak in front of groups of people.
12:11 I’m really good at finance and numbers.
12:13 I really want to be on the finance team.
12:15 And they trick them into joining.
12:16 And then once they join, they’re like, cool.
12:18 You’re going to be the one who presents our project in front of
12:21 a panelist of people.
12:22 And it was just so cool to see the students really supporting
12:25 each other and growing together.
12:28 It was a really unique family.
12:30 Hats off to those mentors.
12:33 Because only two of the mentors were teachers.
12:36 The rest of them were from the community and some of the big
12:39 corporations we have here.
12:40 And one of them was from Iowa.
12:43 And he flew down to surprise the kids last night because he was
12:46 working with them over COVID virtually.
12:48 So just really impressed with the community.
12:50 And just again, so impressed by those students because it was so
12:53 student led, student driven.
12:55 And yeah, they’re our future.
12:57 They’re awesome.
12:58 So thanks.
12:59 Awesome.
13:00 Thanks, Ms. Jenkins.
13:01 Campbell, you want to go?
13:02 I will.
13:03 First of all, the day after the last board meeting, we had our
13:09 next CTE tour.
13:10 We went to Bayside and led the community around.
13:13 They got to see one of the manufacturing programs.
13:17 And I’ll tell you what, that was the coolest thing.
13:20 And the students are so excited.
13:22 And some of them are already in the workplace, not just doing
13:24 internships.
13:25 Already have jobs at these companies with full-time jobs lined
13:28 up right after graduation.
13:29 So amazing programs for that.
13:31 We also went to one of the digital classes that offers multiple
13:35 certifications in digital design.
13:38 And we also visited the TV production program, the award-winning
13:43 TV production program with award-winning alumni.
13:46 I think Dr. Mullins may have mentioned we have an alumni who
13:50 just won an award for his presentation for ESPN.
13:55 Right?
13:56 A Tony?
13:57 No, not Tony.
13:58 It was an Emmy.
13:59 Emmy.
14:00 Sorry.
14:01 I don’t watch those shows.
14:02 But it was a big deal.
14:03 Very big deal.
14:04 So the community leaders who were there were very impressed.
14:08 Some of them are already offering those internship opportunities
14:12 to our students and jobs already.
14:14 Pointed out as we’re going through, I’ve already hired that kid.
14:17 I’ve already hired that kid.
14:18 So it’s really exciting.
14:20 Also, last Friday, you know, we do our school visits.
14:25 Right?
14:26 We each have our own district and we’ve challenged one another
14:28 over the last two years to try to visit schools outside of our
14:30 districts.
14:31 Right?
14:31 So we get to know the flavor of the whole county.
14:35 I did something different.
14:36 I’ve been, it’s been on my list for a while.
14:38 And that was I did a school visit to Brevard Virtual School.
14:40 And I want to challenge each of you guys to take the opportunity.
14:43 If you don’t get to have time before the end of the school year,
14:45 try to do it at the beginning of next school year.
14:47 Because Heather Price is the principal of Brevard Virtual School.
14:50 It’s a different kind of visit, right?
14:52 You’re not going to go around and see the kids doing choir
14:55 classes and all that.
14:56 But I went on a day when students were there.
14:58 They had what they call an SOS day.
15:00 It’s a day, they have different grade levels.
15:02 That was the day the high schoolers were on campus, the ones who
15:05 were behind and needed that one-on-one time.
15:08 And I tell you what, I just have to highlight some of the
15:10 differences because a lot of times people out in the community
15:13 get confused.
15:14 Is there a difference between Brevard Virtual and FLVS?
15:17 What’s better?
15:18 And I’m going to tell you some of the things.
15:20 The curriculum is the same.
15:21 The platform is the same.
15:23 It is Brevard teachers.
15:25 So your dollars stay in Brevard.
15:27 But it’s not just that.
15:28 The kids who were there participating in the SOS day had one-on-one
15:32 time.
15:33 They were literally a teacher sitting this close to a student
15:37 helping them with the things that they need to help on.
15:39 So they could get caught up in that time that they were there.
15:42 They also have community groups.
15:44 Just that fellowship because they’ll bring, for example, the
15:48 whole senior class in.
15:49 If they want to.
15:50 They don’t have to if they don’t want to.
15:51 But so they can meet together and have that.
15:53 They have field trips and they get to participate in the art
15:56 fair, the district art fair, in clubs, National Honor Society.
16:00 The counselor rates ratio is much lower rather than the
16:04 thousands that the FLVS counselors are dealing with.
16:07 It’s much lower.
16:08 I literally met both counselors.
16:10 I met the A through L counselor and the M through Z counselor
16:13 while I was there.
16:14 And you have a teacher and a principal who knows you.
16:17 They may not know your face all the time, but I would see
16:20 someone recognize the name and they knew the name because they
16:23 get to meet virtually.
16:23 So it was just such a wonderful program.
16:25 I hope you guys take the opportunity to go visit, especially if
16:28 there’s students on campus and some of the things they’re doing.
16:31 But I just want to thank Ms. Price and her whole team for the
16:36 amazing flexibility that they’ve had over the last year.
16:39 You know, we did two years in a row push and it was necessary
16:43 and they understood why push to have that enrollment be later
16:48 and later because of our COVID situations.
16:51 And so they really just just to give some numbers because I like
16:55 to talk about the numbers.
16:56 They’re full time.
16:57 Of course, they have over 5000 flex students every year taking
17:02 maybe just driver’s ed or hope or careers or Spanish.
17:06 Those are the top classes or other any other class, but full
17:09 time their usual pre-COVID was about 160 students a year.
17:14 Last year at the peak, they had 1600.
17:18 It surged from 160 to 1600 students.
17:21 And now they’re back down, but not all the way down to about 441
17:25 currently full time students.
17:26 And of course, students have been in and out depending on what
17:30 their situation was health wise, whether, you know, what was
17:33 worked out for them.
17:33 So just kudos to them for doing some great work over the year.
17:37 And then last thing, and somebody else, somebody else might be
17:40 talking about it, but this is After School Appreciation Week.
17:43 I just wanted to thank all of our Brevard After School employees
17:46 for the great work that they do, the enrichment programs.
17:49 It’s not just babysitting until the parents come and pick them
17:52 up.
17:52 I saw pictures on their Facebook page last week.
17:55 They were doing all kinds of fun things for Earth Day and
17:57 getting creative and making sure that that’s not just, it’s not
18:00 just childcare.
18:01 It’s an extension of the school day as far as learning.
18:05 And there’s tutoring going on, opportunities for students to get
18:08 help with homework as well as get outside and be active and all
18:11 that kind of thing.
18:11 And keeping them safe.
18:13 So we appreciate our after school, our Brevard after school
18:16 workers.
18:17 Thank you.
18:18 Good stuff, Mr. Campbell.
18:19 Thank you.
18:20 Mr. Susan.
18:21 That was, I think, the longest Ms. Campbell’s ever presented.
18:26 So much excitement.
18:27 I was standing down here enthralled by you’re just like, you’re
18:31 going.
18:31 And this and this.
18:32 I just, you know, I just want to remind you that sometimes I get
18:36 that way.
18:37 And if I do, to remember this moment.
18:39 Just once in a while I get that way.
18:40 I didn’t pound the table.
18:41 I think it’s great.
18:42 I think we should do more of it.
18:43 But I just wanted to kind of remind everybody that, you know, it
18:45 was a good job.
18:46 I like it.
18:47 And maybe we’re moving in a different direction here.
18:49 No, I just want to say thank you to everybody out there.
18:52 I spent a lot of time this last two weeks going and knocking on
18:56 doors, meeting with former school board members and stuff like
18:59 that over some of the agenda items that we have tonight.
19:01 And my heart goes out to reach out to those individuals who sat
19:05 down.
19:05 Some of them talked to me a lot longer.
19:07 I think some of our old school board members are missing the
19:09 fact that they haven’t been in here.
19:11 So they have a long conversation with me.
19:13 Maybe we invite them back to have a little bit of fun for
19:15 something.
19:16 But did want to talk to them, talk to a lot of teachers, talk to
19:19 a lot of different people throughout our community.
19:22 And I want to say thank you to everybody out there that took the
19:25 time to meet with me to discuss the different items that are on
19:27 our agenda.
19:28 The other thing is, I want to say that it is official.
19:31 Stewart Healthcare has announced that they’re going to put
19:35 together a nursing school and take our kids right out of our
19:38 program.
19:38 So I got the text that, hey, we’re finally ready to do this.
19:42 So I think they’re going to do a big announcement out of O’Galley
19:45 because that’s the school that’s appropriate.
19:47 But that’s a big deal, and that came right out of the trade
19:50 store.
19:50 They saw that.
19:51 I think that Health First’s little push where they said we’re
19:54 going to hire on these five areas and hundreds of kids when they
19:59 graduate.
19:59 So to say the least, the CTE tours that were all supportive, and
20:02 Dr. Mullins, thank you for putting that together, has been an
20:05 amazing thing for all of us.
20:06 So I wanted to say thank you to those two organizations, and
20:08 thank you to everybody that’s met with me over the time.
20:10 Thank you.
20:11 Thank you, Mr. Susan.
20:12 And Mr. Tugel?
20:13 I have a couple.
20:14 First, I want to give a shout out to the Qantas Club of Cocoa
20:19 Beach, and also the community of Cocoa Beach, and also our
20:23 facilities department.
20:24 They all came together, and they had a dedication of the track
20:29 that was redone, and it came together because of everybody
20:33 joining together to make it happen.
20:35 So kudos to the community, the Kiwanis Club, and our facility
20:39 department.
20:40 It couldn’t have happened without all three of you working
20:43 together.
20:43 So thank you for that.
20:44 Yes, it is.
20:46 I agree.
20:47 It’s long overdue, and I know that all the other tracks are on
20:52 schedule to be redone and refinished.
20:55 So we’ll get there.
20:56 We are going to get there.
20:58 So thanks again to the community.
21:00 The other thing I have is I want to give a shout out to the
21:05 students at Edgewood Junior Senior High School, because Ms.
21:10 Campbell and I, and Dr. Mullins, were judges for the senior
21:15 project.
21:15 And if you want to see some amazing projects, if you ever get a
21:19 chance to volunteer at any of the schools to be a judge, I
21:23 encourage you to do it.
21:25 One of the students that I was able to see her project, she has
21:33 won the state championship for projects.
21:37 She is going to the international science project, which is
21:42 happening fair.
21:44 Was that happening, I think, next week?
21:46 I think next week.
21:47 Yeah, it’s in May.
21:48 It’s in May.
21:49 And then she shared this with us.
21:52 National Geographic is following her around, and she’s one of
21:56 the students that they’re highlighting for science projects.
22:00 So she says, I’m bringing my film crew.
22:02 And we all said, what?
22:04 And so she shared that.
22:06 And her project, which I should share with you, is how to reduce
22:11 the algae in Indian River Lagoon.
22:13 Smart, smart students and well put together and very present.
22:19 And she brought it to a level where all of us judges could
22:22 understand what she was talking about.
22:24 And she’s thinking of patenting her procedure.
22:28 So this is one of our amazing students at Brevard Public Schools.
22:32 And I also want to give a reminder, because I don’t think we
22:37 have a board meeting on the week of the 6th.
22:40 But it is going to be School Lunch Hero Day on May 6th.
22:44 And if anyone needs a shout out, it is our cafeteria and our
22:50 school staff for what they do and how many students they feed,
22:54 how hard they work, they get up at the crack of dawn, and they
22:59 are phenomenal.
23:00 So I just want to make sure we all don’t forget about that.
23:02 That is on May 6th.
23:04 So celebrate your School Lunch Hero Day, if you can.
23:08 And the other thing, I’m so sorry, I’m not normally this long-winded.
23:11 But this is something I just got today from a constituent.
23:16 And I really thought I needed to share it.
23:19 So I have to read it because it’s something, again, this is a
23:22 shout out to the Merritt Island.
23:23 The Merritt Island Theater Group, they just finished the play Hunchback
23:29 of Notre Dame.
23:30 And they all went out to dinner at a local restaurant.
23:33 So I need to share with you what they did and how it affected
23:39 somebody in the community.
23:41 I just have to open up the email, so bear with me here a minute.
23:52 I’m so sorry.
23:53 Here we go.
23:55 So, and it was a Facebook post, which I normally never look at.
24:04 You’re on Facebook?
24:05 I’m not on Facebook.
24:06 Are you kidding?
24:07 And it says this is from the server.
24:13 And she said, bear with me here.
24:18 If this is the right place to put it, she’s talking about
24:21 Facebook.
24:21 If your child goes to Merritt Island High School and are in the
24:24 drama club, specifically
24:25 if they were at Chili’s tonight after the last Hunchback of
24:27 Notre Dame show, this message is for you.
24:30 I was their server.
24:32 I served all 30 of those kids tonight with the support of my
24:35 crew.
24:35 Let me just say they have restored my faith in humanity.
24:38 Their bill altogether came to just below $500.
24:42 And when all of a sudden done, these kids collectively tipped me
24:46 $300.
24:47 And she goes on to talk about how she’s a single mom and she’s
24:54 struggling and she’s working really hard.
24:56 And she said, she just wanted the community to know that she was
25:08 so overtaken that she was in tears and thanking these kids.
25:14 And she said, just so you know, you raised some darn good kids.
25:17 This is her quote.
25:19 You work your butt off.
25:20 You deserve this is what the kids said.
25:22 I was literally holding back tears.
25:24 I can’t thank them enough.
25:26 So hats off to Merritt Island drama club who did the Hunchback
25:30 of Notre Dame.
25:31 Well done.
25:32 Thank you, Ms. McDougall.
25:37 Good stuff.
25:38 Dr. Mullins.
25:39 Thank you, Mrs. Belfort.
25:41 I had the privilege of meeting with all of the city managers a
25:45 little over a week ago and share some of the exciting
25:48 initiatives that we’ve launched this year.
25:50 Thrive by five, which I’ll talk a little bit more about tonight.
25:53 We already have one of our cities that is adopting our
25:56 resolution and joining us in partnership in our students to
25:59 raising our community.
26:01 Kids are youngest to thrive by five and I met with my employee
26:05 of the year and teacher of the year superintendent ambassadors
26:10 over the last week and every conversation I have with them.
26:15 I always leave better and just want to do a shout out to my
26:18 employee of the year and teacher of the year ambassadors.
26:22 You inspire me every time we get to to spend it break bread
26:27 together and spend time.
26:29 I learned from you and I appreciate your tremendous service to
26:32 our kids and our community.
26:33 I want to add to the Edgewood shout out this week or last week.
26:37 We were notified that we have two of our high schools who are
26:43 recognized in the challenge index, which is the oldest high
26:47 school ranking system in the country beginning in 1998.
26:51 In both Newsweek and the Washington Post and they rank the top
26:57 50 schools in the nation and Edgewood Junior Senior High came in
27:03 at 23 and West Shore Junior Senior High came in at 20.
27:05 Excuse me 46.
27:06 So congratulations to our two high schools.
27:10 And then finally, I’ll add to the shout outs of our seat, our
27:17 career technical education tours.
27:19 Next week is the last two tours on the schedule.
27:24 So next Tuesday and Wednesday, we’re going to be at Titusville
27:28 High School.
27:29 We’re going to be way up north at THS and we’re going to tour
27:32 the 9-1-1 public safety telecommunications program, the culinary
27:37 arts program, and then the new cybersecurity program.
27:40 And then the next day, we’ll go all the way to the south end of
27:44 the county to Heritage High School, and we will tour the
27:48 environmental water program, the advanced manufacturing program,
27:52 and the medical administrative specialist programs at that high
27:56 school.
27:57 So if you are a community member and that is of interest to you
28:00 and you’re particularly a business that would align with one of
28:03 those programs, please reach out to my office.
28:06 We’d love to get you on the tour list so you can see the amazing
28:10 things that are happening behind the scenes, engaging with our
28:14 teachers and our students in our state-of-the-art CTE programs.
28:18 Thank you.
28:19 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
28:20 I have just one hopefully quick one this evening.
28:25 You all may recall that I started talking to, goodness, I think
28:30 it’s been two years ago, about the Junior Port Ambassador
28:34 Program.
28:35 And I have to give a huge shout out to Port Commissioner Robin Hadaway
28:40 who put the program together.
28:42 It was her brainchild.
28:43 She reached out to me and said, “I have this thought, and can we
28:46 figure out how to make it work?”
28:47 And so we worked together, and I worked with the school
28:52 principals getting the information out to them and, you know,
28:55 getting information to make it a doable experience for the
28:58 students.
28:59 So last Thursday I was able to go to the graduation, if you will,
29:03 for this year’s Junior Port Ambassadors.
29:06 It was, I think, 11 students from seven of our area high schools.
29:10 And it’s kind of the reverse of our CTE program.
29:13 So what they did was they took students from all of these high
29:17 schools that are in the port district, and the students came out
29:21 to the port once a month.
29:22 And they toured all of the different job opportunities at the
29:27 port and did videos about the different opportunities that are
29:30 out there.
29:31 And so, I mean, I think that sounds pretty cool.
29:35 But when you listen to the kids talk about it, like, they got to
29:39 ride on the new fire boat.
29:40 They weren’t, like, just sitting in offices talking to people.
29:43 They rode on the new fire boat.
29:45 They met with SpaceX.
29:46 They met with Space Force.
29:48 They met with Coast Guard.
29:50 They got to go on the Coast Guard boat.
29:53 The tugs.
29:54 I mean, they had so many awesome experiences while they were out
29:58 there and did just a wonderful job about, you know, the goal was
30:03 to get this information into the hands of our kids and spread it
30:06 among our students.
30:08 And so they’ve been sharing their videos on social media and all
30:11 of that stuff to really kind of tell people about all of the
30:14 different job opportunities that are out there.
30:16 And, I mean, they went into detail, like, this is, you know,
30:18 straight out of high school, this is how much money you can make
30:20 doing this job.
30:21 And this is what the requirements of this job are.
30:23 And, you know, here’s what commercial fishing looks like.
30:27 And it may not be for everybody, but somebody might want to be a
30:29 commercial fisherman.
30:30 And so really thanks to all of the partners out at the port that
30:34 made that opportunity available to our kids.
30:37 And especially to Robin Hadaway, to the parents that oftentimes
30:41 hauled those students.
30:42 We had a student from Titusville High School, so I know, you
30:45 know, some of them made a trek to get to the port on those days.
30:48 And to everyone out at the port that made it possible.
30:52 I’m hoping that we will continue to see that grow.
30:54 As you all may know, Commissioner Hadaway is running for state
30:57 office and so she’s not going to be there next year.
31:00 And I was very, very concerned that the program was going to go
31:02 by the wayside.
31:03 But Commissioner Michael Lloyd has said that he will continue
31:06 the program once Commissioner Hadaway is gone.
31:09 So looking forward to continuing to grow that and create those
31:13 opportunities.
31:14 And it was really a win-win.
31:15 The kids were offered jobs while they were out there, like on
31:18 the spot, many of them.
31:19 So, great opportunity.
31:22 So, yeah, awesome stuff.
31:24 Ms. Belford, are we considered, there are no other Space Force
31:28 places in Florida.
31:29 I’m almost convinced, correct?
31:30 But we are the Space Force Board.
31:32 Can we say we’re the Space Force Board?
31:34 I think we are.
31:35 That might be a stress.
31:36 Well, listen, we have kids.
31:37 We have them in our community.
31:38 We have kids interning for them.
31:40 I think we’re part of this.
31:42 The only Space Force School Board.
31:45 I mean, seriously, start thinking about it.
31:48 We launched one more check.
31:49 Can you get some little patches?
31:50 One more check.
31:51 I’ll get it.
31:52 I got this one from Rotary.
31:53 We’ll try to get one for that.
31:54 Okay.
31:55 I think we got it.
31:56 I’m all for it.
31:57 I’m telling you Space Force Board.
31:58 I like the way that sounds.
31:59 Okay.
32:00 Excellent.
32:01 All right.
32:02 With that, we are going to be at the adoption of the agenda.
32:04 Dr. Mullins.
32:05 Ms. Belford and members of the board, on this evening’s agenda,
32:07 we have administrative staff recommendations, one presentation,
32:10 23 consent items, one public hearing,
32:14 three action items, and four information items.
32:17 Changes made to the agenda since released to the public include
32:20 revisions to A7, administrative staff recommendations, F19,
32:24 renewal of the district’s property, boiler machinery and
32:28 terrorism sabotage insurance policies, and H37, department
32:33 school initiated agreements.
32:34 What are the wishes of the board?
32:36 Move to approve.
32:37 Second.
32:38 Moved by Mr. Susan.
32:39 Seconded by Ms. Campbell.
32:40 Is there any discussion?
32:41 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
32:43 Aye.
32:44 Any opposed?
32:45 Same sign.
32:46 Motion passes 5-0.
32:47 Dr. Mullins, will you please let us know about the
32:50 administrative staff recommendations this evening?
32:52 Madam Chair and members of the board, there are five items for
32:55 your consideration.
32:56 Do I hear a motion?
32:57 Second.
32:58 Moved by Ms. McDougall.
32:59 Seconded by Ms. Jenkins.
33:00 Is there any discussion?
33:01 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
33:02 Aye.
33:03 Any opposed?
33:04 Same sign.
33:05 Motion passes 5-0.
33:06 Ms. Belford, can I say one thing about that?
33:07 Of course.
33:08 So, regretfully, I have an eye on that one.
33:17 We have an amazing principal at Delora Middle School that I know
33:22 the staff there was in shock
33:23 and devastated to hear that he will be leaving.
33:26 It’s for good reasons and he’s moving on to something really
33:29 awesome, a really awesome opportunity for him and his family.
33:32 But, just a little special shout out to Mr. LeBrun to know that
33:36 his staff is really sad and really going to miss him.
33:38 And a lot of people up here at the district said the same as
33:41 well.
33:41 Thank you, Ms. Jenkins.
33:43 All right.
33:44 The next item on the agenda is a superintendent report on early
33:48 childhood education.
33:49 Dr. Mullins.
33:50 Thank you, Mrs. Belford and members of the board and our
33:53 audience and viewing public.
33:54 As I provide the superintendent reports periodically, we’ve had
34:00 an opportunity to celebrate our end of K-12 career students
34:06 through,
34:07 we saw junior achievement and we’ve been celebrating career
34:10 technical education.
34:11 And I wanted to also make sure that we recognize, celebrate and
34:18 acknowledge all of the programs and efforts we make with our
34:23 earliest learners.
34:23 So, this evening, I’m going to talk for a few minutes about our
34:27 early childhood programs and priorities.
34:30 And it really all begins at birth as we know.
34:33 The why behind the Brevard Thrive by Five program.
34:38 We launched it almost six months ago.
34:40 And I’ll be able to provide some numbers and some update to
34:44 impact.
34:45 I think you’re going to be excited to hear the impact we’ve
34:49 already had in the community.
34:51 But before we do that, for those who aren’t familiar with Thrive
34:55 by Five, it focuses on the first days of life as a young learner.
35:00 Because we know the first five years of life are critical and in
35:04 many cases, and the majority of our kids don’t come to us until
35:07 age five.
35:07 And we really wanted to try and connect and reach out to our
35:11 families and our youngest learners as soon as possible.
35:15 So, we developed this Thrive by Five program because we wanted
35:19 to take advantage of the more than a million neural connections
35:23 per second that are happening and firing in a little child, a
35:27 baby’s brain, which we could bottle that sometimes and kind of
35:32 just absorb that once in a while when the neurons don’t feel
35:36 like they’re firing as well as they used to.
35:37 And we want to make sure that every child is in a home where
35:43 reading is happening every day.
35:47 So, we put together the Thrive by Five program where, as the
35:51 board knows, and hopefully it’s growing in knowledge and
35:55 momentum, that we provide every child that is born through one
36:01 of the three major birthing centers in Brevard,
36:03 either through Stewart Medical Group, Parish Hospital, or Health
36:08 First Hospitals.
36:09 With their first book, you might recognize Brown Bear, Brown
36:12 Bear, What Do You See?
36:13 We still have our copy at home that’s got teeth marks in it from
36:17 our kids’ youngest years, and we’re now saving it for our grandkids.
36:21 But you can see here that we’ve distributed over 2100 bags
36:26 already since November through the different medical centers
36:32 across Brevard, so very exciting.
36:35 Interesting note, you might recognize the gal that’s in the
36:39 picture with her baby.
36:41 And just as a special shout-out to Kathy Lott, our principal at
36:46 Freedom 7.
36:47 Her daughter and her granddaughter are showcased here, and they
36:50 went home recently with their Thrive by Five bag.
36:55 Included in the bag is also a congratulations and a card from
36:59 Brevard Public Schools, wishing them well on their new journey
37:04 with their new loved one.
37:05 And within the bag is some printed materials as well as you’ll
37:11 see there the QR code where parents can scan and go directly to
37:16 our website where we have a whole list of resources.
37:21 Information on early literacy and why it’s important to start
37:26 early, a host of family resources, information for all ages and
37:32 stages of a child’s life, as well as a whole video library
37:36 assisting parents through those stages of raising a young child
37:41 and supporting them in their journey of literacy with their
37:46 newborn.
37:47 And before I move on, we talk about the next program or the next
37:54 stage of Pre-K, just want to emphasize that the Thrive by Five
38:00 program, the vision, if you will, is that every child that is
38:04 born in Brevard gets the opportunity to start with a real
38:09 priority of literacy in the home.
38:11 And regardless of where you go, whether it’s the doctor’s office,
38:14 the grocery store or the dentist, you see reminders of our Thrive
38:19 by Five.
38:19 So I don’t see any window cleans out here tonight, but I’ll get
38:23 them after I’m done during the board meeting and welcome our
38:26 community to take them with you, put them in your store windows
38:30 and or give them to a place that you patron so that our
38:36 community knows that we support our youngest families.
38:38 Our cities across Brevard County are also adopting our
38:42 resolution that prioritizes early literacy and we are moving
38:46 toward the development of an app that our families can download
38:51 and if they choose register their child and every year we’ll
38:55 send them a new book to their little one as they continue to
39:01 grow in literacy.
39:02 So next we have our Pre-K programs. I know our board is very
39:05 aware of why our Pre-K programs are important to our kids and
39:13 our community as you serve as the advisory board to our Head
39:17 Start program. But it’s there’s some real powerful statistics
39:20 here that Pre-K students show a 61% improvement in letter word
39:26 recognition compared to students who did not enroll in or
39:29 participate in Pre-K.
39:30 As well as students are more than twice as likely to be ready
39:33 for kindergarten compared to students who are not attending a
39:35 Pre-K program. And I want to emphasize that our Pre-K programs
39:43 are full time and they are a diverse learning experience for our
39:49 kids.
39:50 It is our Pre-K teachers do an amazing job developing lessons
39:55 and activities for our kids to be engaged that not only begin to
39:59 hone their reading skills, but also their math skills and so on.
40:02 And you can see that kids who participate in Pre-K are more
40:07 likely to go on to higher learning after high school.
40:10 So we have a wide variety of Pre-K programs across Brevard
40:15 actually four different programs. One is the Step Forward VPK
40:19 program and that starts with kiddos as early as four years old.
40:22 We have 15 classrooms across 12 different elementary schools in
40:28 Brevard with our Step Forward VPK program. We also have the Blended
40:28 VPK, which is a class consisting of both VPK students and ESE
40:28 students.
40:28 So it’s students who are identified early as having a learning
40:32 disability and we work closely with them, but they’re also in a
40:35 mainstream environment with non-disabled peers. And we have 16
40:39 classes of that program. And then of course, we have our Head
40:43 Start VPK. That’s another four year old program.
40:46 Uh, for families who meet the federal qualifications and we have
40:49 19 classrooms across our elementary schools, uh, with a Head
40:51 Start program and then Head Start three. We got little ones as
40:54 young as three years old, uh, who also have to meet the Head
40:59 Start qualifications, but we have a Head Start program and then
41:07 Head Start three.
41:07 We got little ones as young as three years old, uh, who also
41:10 have to meet the Head Start qualifications, but we have 15
41:14 classrooms, uh, of, uh, Head Start three. So we have 65 VPK
41:21 classrooms across Brevard. So we have hundreds of, uh, the, the
41:28 youngest and littlest learners, but that’s not all of them
41:31 because we actually also have our CTE, uh, programs for early
41:36 child.
41:36 Uh, development and VPK. So we’ve got five high schools that
41:41 have a early childhood program where they are actually working
41:45 with these littlest guys, uh, O’Galley High School, Merritt
41:50 Island, Palm Bay, Satellite and Vieira High Schools. I had the
41:54 privilege of visiting the satellite program a couple of weeks
41:57 ago, actually on one of our CTE tours. The teacher there is
42:00 absolutely amazing. I sent her a letter of, uh, recognition and
42:04 commendation, but I also engage with her.
42:05 I also engaged with about four seniors who were working in the
42:10 class. And these young people were absolutely amazing. These
42:15 kids are literally writing lesson plans one week, and then they’re
42:19 delivering the lesson plans to these three and four year olds
42:23 the next week.
42:24 And I got to tell you, we, so there was one group delivering
42:27 instruction, another group planning instruction. The planning
42:31 was impressive. They were, uh, they had a lesson plan template
42:35 that they were using as a guide. The teacher was the, the formal
42:39 teacher was interacting and coaching them.
42:41 And then I, we also saw the other group of kids delivering the
42:43 instruction. These kids were doing, um, like math by paint
42:48 colors and it, it was so creative. Every one of the kids was
42:55 engaged. So when I got back to the office, I wrote a letter to
42:58 all of the seniors and said, you have a job after college, come
43:02 back to Brevard and teach for us.
43:03 So, uh, that was, uh, that was, uh, that was a very fun time. So
43:07 if you haven’t caught on already, Brevard Public Schools
43:13 priority is to create a meaningful transition for children and
43:15 families as they begin the journey of kindergarten long before
43:19 they come to us in kindergarten.
43:21 And so we want to make sure that our kids have a positive
43:24 experience on day one when they come into kindergarten and they
43:29 look forward to going to school. We talked about our student
43:32 feedback surveys, and this all contributes to the culture and
43:35 the environment we set at our schools so that our kids, when
43:39 they walk onto our campuses for kindergarten, some of them still
43:42 for the first time, they are set on a path of steady growth and
43:46 academic and social skills.
43:47 And that we promote and encourage and engage early with our
43:51 families, uh, of our kids to be a part of the learning and the
43:55 campus. So to, uh, contribute to that and to promote that every
44:01 one of our elementary schools as a kindergarten orientation that
44:06 they’re going on right now. So you can see the schedule there.
44:09 They’ve been going on for some weeks, but there’s still a couple
44:12 more coming up.
44:13 Uh, and so board members, you are welcome to visit any one of
44:17 these, uh, kindergarten orientations. If you haven’t already
44:21 seen it, I have to tell you, it is, it is so fun to see these
44:26 little ones getting introduced to the school environment. Uh,
44:30 they’ve got their little best outfits on and, and, uh, they’re
44:34 just getting excited about, uh, getting to go to big school.
44:37 So, uh, so, uh, want to encourage all of our families. Uh, if
44:42 you haven’t participated in a kindergarten orientation, I
44:45 promise you, all you need to do is call your child school, talk
44:49 to the administration.
44:51 They would love to, uh, welcome you into their school and give
44:55 you a tour, give you orientation, uh, with your, uh, rising
44:59 kindergartener as well.
45:01 In addition, in preparation for, uh, the summer, all of our VPK
45:06 students will receive a summer backpack that is, uh, packed with
45:11 activities, books for them to, uh, utilize over the summer in
45:16 preparation for kindergarten as well.
45:18 This is the packing party that would, that takes over this room
45:21 here in just a couple of weeks as we prepare to send them home
45:25 with our VPK kids this summer.
45:27 Here’s just some, uh, a fun snapshots of our kids looking
45:31 forward to, uh, becoming a kindergartner.
45:35 And just want to emphasize that, uh, we, uh, will continue to
45:41 invest in our youngest kids because they are the future of Brevard
45:46 and we want their future to be bright and positive.
45:48 And I want to thank and commend this board for, uh, prioritizing
45:52 and committing resources as well as your own efforts to
45:56 prioritize our youngest learners across Brevard.
46:00 Not just in kindergarten and not just even in VPK, but all the
46:04 way to our early, our firstborns, uh, first day of birth kids
46:08 across Brevard as well.
46:10 So thank you for the opportunity to share the, the great work we’re
46:13 doing with our youngest learners.
46:15 Happy to answer any questions if the board has any.
46:17 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
46:18 Any board members have questions or comments?
46:20 I will just say thank you for your leadership on this effort.
46:24 Um, I, I know you guys, uh, have heard that I’ve been quite the
46:27 Thrive by Five cheerleader everywhere I go.
46:30 I, I carry my Thrive by Five bag and, and hand out the materials
46:33 because I think it is so critically important.
46:35 And, um, you know, I, I think we can all just from like our, our,
46:39 our heart feeling about it.
46:41 We know it’s the right thing to do, but I think that we also
46:45 have to look at, um, the long-term impact of that.
46:48 And if students are coming into kindergarten, kindergarten ready,
46:51 the difference that makes for their school experience.
46:54 Um, as we saw in the youth group survey earlier today, the
46:57 students who are performing lower academically are not as
47:00 engaged in school,
47:01 don’t feel as safe, all of those things.
47:03 And so I would say that that there’s certainly an impact there.
47:06 But we also know that if our students aren’t on grade level by
47:08 third grade, the chances that they’re going to end up dropping
47:12 out of high school is significantly higher.
47:14 So having them come in to kindergarten, kindergarten ready makes
47:18 it really easy for us to ensure that they stay on grade level
47:21 and making that progress instead of closing gaps at that early
47:24 age.
47:24 So thank you for, for starting them off right.
47:27 I think it’s going to pay off in the long run.
47:29 Well, thank you.
47:30 And you’re, you’re very welcome.
47:31 I, I, if I may, I have to do a shout out.
47:34 I don’t think I gave enough kudos to our health, uh, partners,
47:38 the hospitals, you know, some have asked, well, how are you, how
47:41 are you paying for this?
47:42 And, and when I first went to, uh, the CEOs at the three
47:46 hospitals, I said, we’d love to give the gift of literacy to
47:51 children when they’re born, but we don’t know who they are or
47:56 where, when they come to us.
47:57 And, but you do, would you allow us to give, to give you these
48:01 bags to give to young families?
48:04 And they said, absolutely.
48:06 If you’ll deliver them, we’ll make sure they, they have them.
48:09 You can see that they’re doing it because we’ve got thousands
48:11 going out.
48:12 Um, birth is alive and well in Brevard.
48:15 Um, so, um, but they also said, how are you funding it?
48:22 And I said, well, there’s an opportunity.
48:24 And between the three hospitals, they have underwritten the
48:27 entire cost for the next five years.
48:29 So that’s impressive.
48:34 And Dr. Mullins, I’ll just add to that quickly.
48:36 I know I was speaking with Marsha Gadke from the Titusville
48:38 Chamber the other day,
48:39 and she is also working on funding from the Rotary Clubs
48:42 throughout the county, um,
48:44 to continue to purchase the books for the birthdays.
48:47 Awesome.
48:48 So that, so that we can have some support there.
48:50 So really the whole community coming together on it is awesome.
48:53 Great job.
48:54 Thank you.
48:55 All right.
49:02 We are now at the public comment portion of the meeting on
49:06 agenda items.
49:07 We have nine agenda item speakers this evening.
49:10 Therefore, each speaker will receive three minutes.
49:13 Please note that time is per speaker, not per agenda item.
49:16 Topics not specific to agenda items will be moved to the non-agenda
49:19 portion of the meeting.
49:20 We have a clock in front of me to help you keep track of your
49:23 time.
49:23 When your time is over, you will be asked to stop and allow the
49:26 next speaker his or her turn.
49:28 Always keep in mind that reasonable decorum is expected and your
49:31 statement should be directed to the board chair.
49:33 The chair may interrupt, warn, or terminate a participant’s
49:36 statement when time is up.
49:37 It’s personally directed, abusive, obscene, or irrelevant.
49:41 Should an individual not observe proper etiquette, the chair may
49:43 request the individual to leave the meeting.
49:46 I’ll call up three speakers at a time.
49:48 And if you all could line up on the east wall over there so that
49:51 we can move through everyone.
49:53 Our first three speakers are Karen Colby, Connie Rook, and Katie
50:04 Delaney.
50:06 Good afternoon, board.
50:11 Thank you for your time, as always.
50:16 I wanted to talk about three different things very quickly.
50:20 One is L-41, public participation.
50:23 One is L-38, seclusion and restraint of students with
50:26 disabilities.
50:27 And the last is age 35, ad valorem, millage resolution.
50:31 The information that I have regarding L-41, public participation
50:35 during the meetings, I would strongly suggest, please do not
50:40 limit us anymore.
50:41 Our First Amendment rights are at play here.
50:43 The second item to speak – that was fast.
50:46 The second item to speak about is the restraining students with
50:50 disabilities.
50:51 This is a very, very tight area where you don’t want to have any
50:54 errors.
50:55 I would like to be a part of a committee if there is such a one
50:57 that’s formed to discuss this process.
51:00 Because I seriously feel that the means to restrain some of the
51:04 children would absolutely blow some people’s minds if we all
51:08 knew what was really going on there.
51:09 Which is something I would like to suggest having cameras in
51:13 these special needs classrooms because of a certain individual
51:17 young woman named Sophia.
51:19 Now on to age 35, ad valorem, millage resolution.
51:23 I’ve done a lot of research on this as a homeowner in Brevard
51:26 County and a lifetime resident.
51:28 If you own property in Florida, that property is going to be taxed
51:32 by a certain method that’s too complicated to go into here.
51:37 But what it comes down to is that this school board thinks they’re
51:41 going to raise our taxes on our homes.
51:43 We get a homeowner discount for one house, the one we live in.
51:47 But if we’re investment owners and we have property that is
51:51 rented out to people in the audience, this is going to make the
51:55 rents go up.
51:56 This is a pandemic year when everything is going up.
51:59 The cost of food, the cost of living, the cost of utilities has
52:04 more than tripled in the past three years of what we used to pay
52:08 to now.
52:09 It costs more to live anywhere, but here exponentially so.
52:13 So let’s discuss a house worth $250,000.
52:17 Your millage rate is $2150 annually.
52:19 That’s $2,150 annually.
52:23 The price of houses, that same house, is now worth $429,000.
52:27 And I’m speaking about my house.
52:29 Okay, so my millage rate went from $2150 to $3689 without y’all
52:35 doing anything.
52:37 I would like to anticipate everybody agreeing with me here that
52:40 that was a huge raise and that we are going to ask that you do
52:44 not raise our millage rate.
52:45 We just had it raised because of these inflationary numbers of
52:49 our house’s value.
52:51 Raising it 1% would be another couple thousand dollars a year.
52:55 If you’re a landlord, that’s going to go right down to the trickle
52:58 down of the ones that you don’t want to impact the most, the renters.
53:01 Our renters can’t afford to live now.
53:03 The renters used to pay $1250 for a two bedroom, three bedroom
53:06 house.
53:06 Now they’re paying $3,000 each side.
53:09 Got to go.
53:10 Thank you.
53:11 Thanks, Karen.
53:12 Connie?
53:13 Good evening.
53:14 Hi, members of the board.
53:15 My name is Connie Rook and I’m the mother to three children.
53:28 Our oldest just graduated UF and our youngest is still in high
53:30 school.
53:31 One of my favorite parenting memories is sitting around the
53:33 family table at dinner and sharing our day.
53:35 I remember our oldest telling us about her U.S. history teacher,
53:39 having the students draw the outline of a slave ship in the
53:41 school’s courtyard,
53:42 and having all the students lay side by side on the ground in
53:45 the outline.
53:46 We talked that evening about how traumatic it must have been to
53:48 be torn from one’s family and sold into slavery.
53:51 I can’t help to think that there are people that would protest
53:54 that history lesson today.
53:55 Very often our discussions would fall to books, Tales of the
53:59 Fourth Great Nothing, Animal Farm, Hunger Games, To Kill a Mockingbird,
54:02 Harry Potter.
54:04 And now that I’m finding that some of the books that we read and
54:06 discussed are showing up on banned books lists across the
54:09 country.
54:10 Those books portrayed poverty, hate, sex, drugs, politics,
54:15 homosexuality, pain, fear, desperation.
54:18 Do you know what else those same books portrayed?
54:22 The power of the human spirit, of love, and kindness, and
54:25 inclusion, and perseverance, and bravery, and the ability of a
54:29 person and a community to empathize and overcome in the worst of
54:34 adversity and the worst of humans.
54:36 Discussions like this is how you raise good humans.
54:39 If I’ve learned anything from these discussions is that we must
54:42 never judge a book by a few excerpts.
54:44 Those books have been praised and recognized and many have won
54:47 awards.
54:48 One of the books that has been presented to you has been made
54:50 into a movie and is honored at several international film
54:53 festivals and has won two Oscars.
54:55 Intellectual freedom in books are powerful and necessary to the
54:59 education of not only our kids but our society as a whole.
55:02 I have a lot of respect for our librarians.
55:04 They are a crucial profession in our schools and it takes about
55:07 six years of full-time study to become a librarian.
55:09 And I’ve said this before.
55:10 You need a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in library
55:13 and information science.
55:14 The selection of books is not something they take lightly given
55:17 the limited space and funding in our schools.
55:19 Librarians consider a range of factors and review
55:21 recommendations from a host of professional organizations.
55:24 I would like to also add that school libraries are for all
55:27 students but not all students are the same.
55:30 They have diverse interests, abilities, maturity levels, and
55:33 varied cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
55:35 Our school library connections must be relevant to the students
55:38 and the campus they serve.
55:40 No one book is right for every child but one book can make the
55:43 difference in the life of a child.
55:45 We respect those school professionals and I hope that you do too.
55:49 When it comes to removing books from our schools, I do not want
55:52 my children’s education whitewashed by a few loud but narrow
55:55 minds that do not represent me and they do not represent the
55:58 majority of Brevard County.
55:59 Thank you.
56:00 Thank you Connie.
56:01 As Katie is approaching, our next three speakers will be Carrie
56:05 Takacs, Jean Trent, and Sarah Mirsky, if you guys wouldn’t mind
56:08 lining up on the east wall.
56:10 Katie, whenever you’re ready.
56:12 Well, I had some other things to speak about but I will spend
56:17 most of my time speaking about the public comment policy.
56:23 Earlier today I was stopped when I brought up the math books and
56:28 I didn’t even get a chance to get to my point.
56:31 Yet the last speaker just got to go on a whole long rant and
56:35 didn’t bring up the policy at all.
56:38 The way that this board stops and lets other people go on and on
56:46 but then stops others, that’s what the problem is.
56:52 The way that this board starts to talk about three minutes,
56:57 treat everyone equally.
56:59 This is why there are lawsuits.
57:02 Treat everyone equally.
57:05 We should all have our three minutes to say our piece.
57:09 And even though I may or may not agree with some certain people
57:12 about what they want to speak about, I think that they should
57:16 have their three minutes.
57:17 But I should also have my three minutes.
57:22 Thank you.
57:23 Carrie?
57:24 Hi, Carrie Tkach.
57:25 I actually was looking for clarification on I-38 seclusion and
57:34 restraint of students with disabilities.
57:39 Earlier at the workshop, a board member stated that they had to
57:43 notify parents within 24 hours and not the end of the school day.
57:47 I had read it, so maybe afterwards someone could clarify that.
57:52 That would be great.
57:54 I’m also speaking on I-41 public participation at board meetings.
58:00 Every citizen, taxpayer, and parent has a right to speak at the
58:03 school board meetings and share their input.
58:06 The constant limiting of public speaking time is a tyrannical
58:09 form of censorship, targeting parents and eliminating dissent.
58:13 The board was elected by the people.
58:16 The taxpayers pay the board salaries.
58:18 They pay for the money to run and operate the entire district
58:21 and educate the students.
58:22 To ask them for more money, more of their money with this millage
58:29 while also silencing them.
58:31 It’s abhorrent and it’s unconstitutional.
58:33 Thank you.
58:34 Thanks, Carrie.
58:35 Dean?
58:36 Okay.
58:37 Thank you.
58:38 Dean Trent.
58:39 So I’ll be speaking on the millage increase or the proposed millage
58:46 increase.
58:48 When I first heard about this, it was for employee pay, future
58:55 pay.
58:56 And let me be clear, I am all for Brevard employees to be paid
59:01 fairly and fight for fair compensation.
59:05 That goes for cafeteria workers.
59:07 That goes for custodians, clerks, and of course, teachers.
59:11 I, myself, am a teacher in a family.
59:14 I have a family and a father of five.
59:16 So we’re all for fair compensation.
59:20 But that might be for a fight for another day.
59:23 And this isn’t about that.
59:24 This is about public trust.
59:26 Over the last few years, it’s been very clear, abundantly clear,
59:31 that this board as a whole
59:33 has not valued the input received from the very same people they
59:35 are now asking for more money.
59:40 Where you have gone out of your way to shut the public out of
59:44 your meetings, both literally
59:47 and figuratively, from reducing the amount of time one can speak
59:52 on a topic, to literally
59:54 asking for the room to be cleared so you can continue your
59:57 meetings without the public being
59:59 present.
1:00:00 All of this has to come with a price.
1:00:03 It pains me to say that because of your actions, I’m afraid you
1:00:11 lost the public trust.
1:00:15 And as you move forward, in closing, I hope you have a plan to
1:00:20 restore that public trust.
1:00:22 And maybe that plan is the elections in August.
1:00:25 But an idea to increase the millage at this point is actually
1:00:32 just an idea that is destined
1:00:35 to fail.
1:00:36 Thanks, Gene.
1:00:37 As Sarah is approaching, the next two speakers after that will
1:00:43 be Wyatt Stumbo and Jennifer
1:00:43 Strafford.
1:00:44 Sarah?
1:00:45 Good evening, Madam Chair and Board.
1:00:49 My name is Sarah Murski.
1:00:50 I have two children in BPS.
1:00:52 I’m a registered voter, taxpayer, constituent, stakeholder, and
1:00:55 I’m in District 2 for School
1:00:57 Board.
1:00:58 The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States
1:01:01 says Congress shall make no law
1:01:03 respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free
1:01:06 exercise thereof or abridging the
1:01:08 freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people
1:01:12 peaceably to assemble and petition
1:01:15 the government for a redress of grievances.
1:01:18 You were sworn in as constitutional officers.
1:01:21 Your current public policy abridges the Constitution and freedom
1:01:24 of speech.
1:01:25 As the majority of the school board voted to limit public input
1:01:28 time, I have watched the
1:01:30 trust between the public and the school board continue to erode.
1:01:33 People who come to address the school board can’t even finish
1:01:36 their thoughts and sentences
1:01:37 before they are cut off by the chairwoman.
1:01:39 It was heartbreaking watching families come to address serious
1:01:43 issues of bullying and our
1:01:44 Austin bus drivers being shut out of the meeting and/or unable
1:01:48 to finish their sentence in one
1:01:50 minute, in their one-minute address to the board.
1:01:53 It was and still is disrespectful.
1:01:55 Madam Chair, you interrupted me to say one agenda item had
1:01:59 nothing to do with what my concern
1:02:01 was before I could explain how they were connected, which was
1:02:05 rude.
1:02:06 I request you live stream at all board meetings and workshops
1:02:10 and work sessions.
1:02:12 H 35, I ask we table this until the public better understands
1:02:16 where our tax dollars are going.
1:02:19 I 39, I ask which is the instructional materials.
1:02:24 I ask that the board take the directives from the FDOE to not go
1:02:28 back to having funding taken away from our district.
1:02:32 And I think that is it.
1:02:35 Thank you for your time.
1:02:36 Thank you, Sarah.
1:02:37 Wyatt.
1:02:38 Sorry.
1:02:39 I’m going to speak on millage.
1:02:51 To me, it’s an interesting idea to tax the whole community of
1:02:55 homeowners for students that go to school.
1:02:59 And as we look at what’s going on in the community, we look at
1:03:02 the government saying we have a 7% to 8.5% inflation,
1:03:06 which I think we all know is a little under the exact number.
1:03:10 If you go to whycharge.com, our gas is up 43% year over year.
1:03:15 If you go to Redfin, we know that Berkshire is a little under
1:03:17 the exact number.
1:03:17 County is up roughly 19 to 23% year-over-year in housing values,
1:03:21 we know that if you go to
1:03:25 MarketWatch, one in five Americans didn’t save at all in 2021,
1:03:31 didn’t contribute at all to their
1:03:32 savings, 20% in the United States. 48% contributed less than $5,000
1:03:38 for their savings. You just go on
1:03:41 and on, you look at the state of Florida’s population increase
1:03:45 is roughly 1.12% net, where a net
1:03:48 increased population state, our county, is 1.1%. So we’re taking
1:03:54 in, in the top 10 of all states,
1:03:57 more population, which means more tax dollars, which means more
1:04:01 sales tax. So I say all that to
1:04:04 say, you get over to the budget, and you’ll get last year’s
1:04:06 budget, and this is probably open to
1:04:08 interpretation, but we’re somewhere between a $900 million
1:04:12 budget and a $1.2 billion budget.
1:04:14 When you look at the PDF online, we’ve got, what, 72,000
1:04:18 students. So simple math is somewhere around
1:04:22 $14,000 to $16,000 per student is the budget, when you look at
1:04:25 it, per student. I said this last time
1:04:29 I was here, I could send my kid to a private school for less
1:04:32 money than that, and that should be a
1:04:34 concern that we’re going to look at taxing the community more
1:04:38 money when we already have more
1:04:40 money allocated per student, in theory, than cost to send a
1:04:43 private school. So my ask is, we look at
1:04:48 the current budget, we find the money we need, and we take some
1:04:51 stuff away like we would a business,
1:04:52 we move it to the areas we need it. It’s taking from people that
1:04:58 have probably, I mean, I can’t find this
1:05:01 percentage, but we know that, or we could assume, sorry, we have
1:05:05 more people here that have been here
1:05:07 over the years that have seen their taxes on their housing
1:05:10 increase year over year, as opposed to new
1:05:12 people coming from the north. That’s probably a safe assumption.
1:05:15 So those that have been here are those
1:05:18 that continue to pay increased tax and have less money. Those
1:05:21 are the same people that we’re talking
1:05:22 about Thrive for Five, those people that aren’t reading to their
1:05:25 kids who are providing books.
1:05:27 You can’t tax those people more. Lastly, real quick, I would say
1:05:32 the only thing on the speaking time
1:05:34 is the drivers from a few meetings ago. If you have employees
1:05:37 that can’t make it in time to sign up,
1:05:40 that should be addressed because they should know how to come
1:05:42 speak and use their time.
1:05:44 - Thanks, Wyatt. Jennifer.
1:05:47 - Sorry, it’s all good. Thank you. Good evening. Over the past
1:06:00 several months to a year that I have
1:06:01 attended and witnessed these meetings, the public comments
1:06:06 section has been cut from three minutes to
1:06:09 one minutes on non-agenda topics. This further makes us feel
1:06:12 like you don’t want to hear from us,
1:06:14 your constituents. It is so frustrating when those of you up
1:06:16 there don’t even acknowledge some of us
1:06:18 when we are at the podium, which is contributing to the division
1:06:21 between the parents and the school
1:06:22 board. The students and parents are the ones you are supposed to
1:06:26 represent, but when we are getting
1:06:27 threatened with jail time at the start of every meeting, that
1:06:30 further proves that all of you need a
1:06:31 reminder of just that. We are aware that there are other ways to
1:06:35 express ourselves, such as a call or an email,
1:06:37 but this is our public forum to air our grievances, and this
1:06:40 time is public record and the community
1:06:42 is able to hear what we have to say. I ask at the very least you
1:06:46 consider giving the speakers on
1:06:47 non-agenda items the additional two minutes back.
1:06:50 - Thank you, Jennifer. All right. That concludes our public
1:06:56 comment on agenda items.
1:06:59 I do want to make a point of clarification that the policy
1:07:03 modification that is on the agenda this evening
1:07:05 actually increases the time for non-agenda speakers to mirror
1:07:11 the time for the agenda speakers.
1:07:13 So we go back to the 3-2-1 instead of one minute for non-agenda
1:07:17 speakers when that policy is passed.
1:07:19 And I think there is some confusion on that point.
1:07:22 Dr. Mullins, anything that you wanted to address before I move
1:07:28 on?
1:07:28 - Not at this time, thank you. - Okay.
1:07:31 So that is going to move us into the consent agenda. Dr. Mullins.
1:07:35 - There are 23 agenda items under this category.
1:07:40 - Thank you, Dr. Mullins. Does any board member wish to pull any
1:07:43 item from the consent agenda?
1:07:44 Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to approve the consent
1:07:49 agenda as presented.
1:07:50 Moved by Ms. Campbell, seconded by Ms. McDougall. Is there any
1:07:55 discussion?
1:07:56 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
1:07:59 - Aye. - All opposed, same sign.
1:08:01 And the motion passes 5-0.
1:08:04 Now we will hold a public hearing on item G34.
1:08:09 Is there anyone present who wishes to address the board
1:08:11 regarding the elementary and secondary
1:08:13 emergency relief ESSER fund under the American Rescue Plan ARP
1:08:17 Act updated instructional continuity plans?
1:08:20 Okay. Does any board member have anything to discuss pertaining
1:08:26 to this policy?
1:08:28 That will conclude the public hearing on that.
1:08:44 Dr. Mullins, will you please let us know about the item under
1:08:47 the action portion of tonight’s agenda?
1:08:49 - The first item is F-35, ad valorem millage resolution.
1:08:53 - Do I hear a motion?
1:08:54 - I move.
1:08:55 - Moved by Ms. McDougall. Is there a second?
1:08:58 - Second.
1:08:58 - Seconded by Ms. Jenkins. Is there any discussion?
1:09:01 Ms. Campbell?
1:09:04 - Thank you, Madam Chair.
1:09:07 So I just wanted to thank the people who have reached out to me.
1:09:12 I’ve had some personal conversations with people in person,
1:09:15 phone calls, emails,
1:09:17 because they’re participating in the process, right?
1:09:20 Their input is valuable and I just want to say your part in the
1:09:25 process is not over
1:09:26 because I just want to clarify some things because I, you know,
1:09:30 it’s really important
1:09:32 for people to know what we’re doing because the process
1:09:36 continues with the public.
1:09:38 If it passes tonight, you know, this school board can do nothing
1:09:43 to raise the taxes for the people
1:09:46 of Brevard County.
1:09:47 We could do nothing on our own to initiate the half-cent sales
1:09:53 tax or to renew the half-cent sales tax.
1:09:55 We can send it out to the voters.
1:09:58 And so the process, the public participation, your input
1:10:02 continues on.
1:10:04 I also, it’s really important to me, I don’t know if it’s just
1:10:07 the teacher in me,
1:10:08 but I want to make sure too that people have accurate
1:10:10 information because I understand there
1:10:12 are some people that it doesn’t matter what it’s for or what it
1:10:14 is, they’re just not going to be
1:10:16 for a tax increase regardless.
1:10:17 And I get that.
1:10:18 I understand that.
1:10:19 So I just want to make sure that as you’re making your decision,
1:10:24 as people are making their decision,
1:10:25 as I’m making my decision as a board member on what we’re going
1:10:28 to do tonight,
1:10:29 that I look for accurate information.
1:10:31 And so, you know, some of that is we don’t, everybody doesn’t
1:10:35 always understand millage
1:10:36 and what is a mill and I had to do my own research on that back
1:10:40 in the, you know,
1:10:40 a couple of years ago to try to figure out what exactly does
1:10:43 that mean.
1:10:43 So, you know, we do all have somebody mentioned it tonight.
1:10:47 We have on your home where you live, right?
1:10:49 That you own, if you own it and that is your residence, you get
1:10:52 your homestead exemption.
1:10:55 But also we have a cap on how much your home can be appraised.
1:10:59 So even though my house that we built in 2014 now is worth, you
1:11:05 know, like not quite twice
1:11:06 as much as it was when we, when we bought it because of the
1:11:10 market values increase,
1:11:11 your appraisal can go only up by just a small percentage every
1:11:14 year.
1:11:15 And that’s what your tax is based on, subtracting your home,
1:11:18 your homestead exemption.
1:11:20 So a home, a house that is valued at 200,000, just to keep it
1:11:24 super simple.
1:11:25 I’m going to use it with super round numbers.
1:11:26 If your home is valued around 200,000 on your tax appraisals
1:11:29 website,
1:11:29 the increase of one mill would be $200.
1:11:33 So I just want to make sure people understand, it’s not a
1:11:37 percentage of your total tax bill,
1:11:39 but it is literally 0.1% of whatever that is.
1:11:44 That’s what a mill is of whatever your home is valued at.
1:11:47 So like I said, anybody’s home in the county who is assessed at
1:11:50 200,000 after the homestead exemption,
1:11:52 the increase of one mill would be $200 a year.
1:11:56 I’ve already, you can go on the tax if you forgot what your
1:11:59 bills are over the year,
1:12:00 you can, you can go.
1:12:01 And I’ve already been on the tax collectors, Brevard County tax
1:12:05 collectors website this week,
1:12:06 looking up all kinds of people.
1:12:07 I’ve looked up some of the people in this room just to see what
1:12:09 would it be for you
1:12:10 and what would it be for you?
1:12:11 Am I, am I giving the right information?
1:12:13 I’ve got somebody who’s renting across the street from me.
1:12:16 And that’s been a concern that people have brought up to me.
1:12:17 So I’m like, okay, what does that look like?
1:12:19 And actually, because the thing that they don’t have is the homestead
1:12:24 exemption, right?
1:12:25 And so just, you know, not being nosy, it’s all public record
1:12:30 and I won’t tell you who it is,
1:12:31 but their assessment will go up about $240 a year.
1:12:38 And that’s for, you know, a relatively nice neighborhood in West
1:12:41 Melbourne.
1:12:41 So I just want to make sure that people understand because one,
1:12:48 like I said, it’s been tossed out.
1:12:50 Somebody has even said, a couple of actually people have said,
1:12:52 you’re actually taking money away from the people you want to
1:12:55 give the raises to.
1:12:56 And I’ll, I, but I think we need to recognize what an increase,
1:13:00 what size of increase that is.
1:13:03 And how much will we, and I understand that to pass it on to the
1:13:06 renters, I do.
1:13:07 And that was something that I had to take consideration as I was
1:13:09 thinking through this.
1:13:10 I also want to, we’ve said it before, but not everybody watches
1:13:13 all the board meetings,
1:13:14 government who wants to watch the school board meetings.
1:13:15 Sometimes they’re fun and sometimes they’re boring,
1:13:17 even for those of us who were sitting up here.
1:13:19 But I want to make sure people understand that we actually have
1:13:23 very little,
1:13:24 not only can we not increase taxes on our community, we can’t
1:13:27 even set the original ones.
1:13:29 That’s another misconception that happens a lot.
1:13:32 We have had so much growth in Brevard County, shouldn’t your,
1:13:34 aren’t your,
1:13:35 isn’t your revenue growing because we have all these new houses
1:13:37 going up?
1:13:38 And the answer is no, because we don’t set our tax rate.
1:13:43 Not like the county across the street, not like the cities.
1:13:46 This school board can do nothing to change the rate.
1:13:48 Our rate is set by the state.
1:13:52 And so that’s why, and it’s in the agenda item, but that’s why I
1:13:54 just,
1:13:55 my records, I just went back to 2015.
1:13:57 Maybe it’s because that’s your, you know, I built my, we built
1:14:01 our house.
1:14:01 But in 2015, the millage rate was 5.027 for the discretionary,
1:14:07 the required local effort
1:14:09 that we have for the school board.
1:14:12 In 2021, it was 3.602.
1:14:16 So again, 5.027 down to 3.602.
1:14:20 So what the state has done to all of our benefit is, while our
1:14:24 property values have
1:14:25 continued to increase, even just a little bit because of the cap,
1:14:28 they’ve lowered the tax
1:14:30 rate so that, and I’m just going, I’m not going to tell you what
1:14:34 I pay in taxes.
1:14:34 You can look it up your own, if you are that curious.
1:14:37 But my family’s house, even though, like I said, the market
1:14:40 value has gone through the roof,
1:14:42 our taxes have varied over the last eight years by about $140
1:14:47 from a low point, actually,
1:14:49 in 2020, the high point was in 2015.
1:14:53 So $140 difference between the highest year and the lowest point.
1:14:57 It’s gone up, down, up, down, but those are the highs and the
1:14:59 lows.
1:14:59 $140 difference.
1:15:01 And so the state adjusts that down, down, down.
1:15:06 And so actually, if a mill is added, we’ll actually be back up
1:15:09 to around where we were
1:15:11 around 2016.
1:15:13 So I just want to, again, I, it’s really important if people are
1:15:18 opposed to a tax,
1:15:19 I totally get that.
1:15:20 But I want to make sure we get an accurate information out there.
1:15:22 I am certainly grateful for the increases that the legislature
1:15:27 has given us over this
1:15:28 last couple of years to address our salary, our compensation
1:15:32 problems.
1:15:33 But we still have some holes.
1:15:35 And just to, just to, to replay some of those that we have given,
1:15:39 the state gave us the teacher salary increase allocation,
1:15:43 so that across the state, school districts can get their minimum
1:15:47 salary up to $47,500.
1:15:50 We were able the first year to get up to $46,500 and then this
1:15:54 year to $46,800.
1:15:55 And if governor signs the budget, it looks like we should be
1:15:57 able to hit that $47,500 minimum
1:15:59 in this coming school year.
1:16:00 This year, I’m so grateful for the addition to the base, base
1:16:05 student allocation with the requirement
1:16:08 that we get all our salaries up to a minimum of $15 an hour four
1:16:13 years early from, or three years,
1:16:15 three or four years early from, because the voters of the state
1:16:18 of Florida approved the minimum wage
1:16:21 to increase $1 a year until we get to $15 an hour.
1:16:23 And the state gave us some extra money to address that.
1:16:25 But again, we, we have some holes and part of, one of the holes
1:16:30 is that we have the wage compression issue,
1:16:33 that we have people who are, who are brand new out of college
1:16:36 all the way up to having taught for
1:16:38 10, 12 plus years and they’re making the exact same amount.
1:16:43 We have people who, when we get to the $15 an hour next year,
1:16:46 are going to be supervised by someone
1:16:48 who’s only making 40 or 50 cents an hour more than they are.
1:16:51 We also have holes in healthcare for our budget.
1:16:56 Now, we could have as a board, and you know, I’ve only been on
1:17:00 the board for three and a half years,
1:17:01 but as the board over the last eight years could have increased
1:17:04 premiums every year for the last eight
1:17:06 years.
1:17:06 I want you to think about what happened eight years ago, 2014.
1:17:08 Anybody, anything ring a bell in healthcare?
1:17:11 The Affordable Care Act.
1:17:12 I don’t know anybody else in the country who has not had a
1:17:16 healthcare premium increase
1:17:18 on their health insurance over the last eight years.
1:17:20 But BPS.
1:17:23 Now, if you chose the silver plan, your rates are the same as
1:17:27 they were eight years ago.
1:17:28 Now, we could have increased those premiums a little bit every
1:17:33 year, but we didn’t.
1:17:35 We, and the previous boards, we probably should have done some
1:17:39 of that a little bit year to year.
1:17:40 But truth be told, it would have been counterproductive to
1:17:45 increasing compensation for our employees
1:17:47 because some of those years, there was nothing or next to
1:17:51 nothing to give for recurring raises.
1:17:54 So, I understand why previous boards didn’t do it.
1:17:56 And even though we’ve been able to give some pretty good raises
1:17:59 over the last couple of years,
1:18:01 the first two years, you know, $1,100 and then the $2,000 and
1:18:04 the longevity supplement last year,
1:18:06 dealing with the teacher salary allocation, which didn’t help
1:18:08 all teachers,
1:18:09 but, you know, our other employees didn’t get anything.
1:18:11 You know, and that increase is just one of the things that we
1:18:20 have that’s whole.
1:18:23 The biggest thing, I’ve heard people talk about, you know,
1:18:26 continue to cut,
1:18:27 and we have continued to cut.
1:18:30 We have cut, I want to say this again, $39 million over the last
1:18:33 six years,
1:18:34 29 million since I’ve been on the board.
1:18:36 Those have come from all departments, 10% across the board,
1:18:41 where Dr. Mullins has come to departments
1:18:43 and said, “You’ve got to come to 10%, figure out where it’s
1:18:45 going to come from.”
1:18:46 We’ve cut positions, we’ve done hiring freezes up here at the
1:18:48 district office.
1:18:49 And I’m sorry if I’ve said this before, but it needs to be said
1:18:52 again.
1:18:52 Part of those cuts that we’re going to continue to do are going
1:18:58 to have to deal with things
1:18:59 that a millage, a potential millage, can’t deal with.
1:19:02 The inflation that people have talked about a lot.
1:19:04 I have lost count of how many contracts we’ve had to renegotiate
1:19:09 already,
1:19:10 because our vendors are coming back to us and say, “I’m sorry,
1:19:12 we can’t continue that contract.
1:19:14 We can’t extend the contract.
1:19:15 The current rates are going to have to pay more because their
1:19:17 costs are higher.”
1:19:18 From charter buses to construction costs,
1:19:21 and we’re renegotiating a couple of contracts tonight, food
1:19:25 service.
1:19:25 So we’re not going to stop cutting.
1:19:31 But we, having looked at this over the last three and a half
1:19:39 years,
1:19:40 I don’t believe that we can cut our way to the kind of
1:19:42 additional revenue that a millage can provide.
1:19:45 And I am certain that we can’t cut our way to the significant
1:19:49 increases in compensation
1:19:51 that our employees, who are also facing the same inflation that
1:19:55 everybody’s talked about tonight,
1:19:58 that they need.
1:20:01 It is still around $4 million for us to give a 1% raise to all
1:20:08 our employees.
1:20:09 Roughly around $4 million.
1:20:11 It’s probably a little bit more now that the teacher salaries
1:20:13 have increased,
1:20:14 and we’re going to get to the $15 an hour.
1:20:15 It’ll go up a little bit.
1:20:16 But a little over $4 million to give all employees across the
1:20:20 district a 1% raise.
1:20:21 1%.
1:20:23 1% that we’ve heard from the first year that Cheryl and I got on
1:20:26 the board
1:20:26 is not enough to deal with inflation, normal inflation, much
1:20:30 less what we have going on.
1:20:32 I just want to point out tonight, board, as we go through our
1:20:37 department in our action agenda,
1:20:40 we’ve got a department-initiated agreement with the Florida
1:20:42 Department of Health.
1:20:43 The Department of Health is a state agency, and they also have
1:20:46 to get up to the $15 per hour minimum
1:20:48 wage.
1:20:48 But I don’t know if you noticed this in the agenda item.
1:20:50 It says they’re going to be increasing the pay to $15 an hour
1:20:54 for those who are under it.
1:20:56 Then it says all other employees are to be awarded a 5.38%
1:21:02 increase to their base rate of pay
1:21:04 to address rising inflation.
1:21:09 So our nurses and our health techs in our clinics are going to
1:21:13 be getting either up to $15 an hour
1:21:16 or 5.38% raise to deal with inflation, the same inflation, again,
1:21:20 that our teachers and our staff,
1:21:23 our bus drivers, our cafeteria workers are also dealing with.
1:21:27 And I apologize for going long, but this is really, this is one
1:21:29 of the most significant decisions
1:21:31 that we will have made in my time on the board.
1:21:34 We have vacancies.
1:21:41 We have workforce foreshortage.
1:21:43 A lot of other industries do as well.
1:21:45 A lot of other industries have the opportunity to do things
1:21:48 about increasing revenue.
1:21:51 If you have a successful company, you generate more revenue and
1:21:58 you can pay your employees more.
1:21:59 If we have students, if we have, you know, schools that rate as
1:22:05 A and we have students who are
1:22:06 national merit finalists and all that, we’re going to
1:22:08 congratulate them.
1:22:09 We’re going to make a big, huge deal about it, but we don’t get
1:22:12 paid anymore.
1:22:13 And our teachers and our bus drivers and all that, we just, they
1:22:21 can go to any other job in their
1:22:24 industry.
1:22:25 They can leave us and go to a job in their industry, whether it’s
1:22:28 science, and we’ve certainly got
1:22:29 plenty of those opportunities around here, engineering firms.
1:22:31 Russell Cheatham’s tech staff going off to work other computer
1:22:36 jobs.
1:22:37 The bus drivers, Matt talked about this before, they go work for
1:22:40 the county or somewhere else,
1:22:42 private bus companies.
1:22:43 They can leave us and go work for another employer in their
1:22:47 field and make thousands,
1:22:48 if not tens of thousands more per year.
1:22:53 Why would they stay with us?
1:22:54 And the ones who stay, I’m so thankful that they do, but they’ve
1:22:56 got to help.
1:22:58 They’ve got to pay for their families as well.
1:23:00 You know, I just have to address one more thing, and that is, it’s
1:23:08 been said in different forums that
1:23:12 we would be asking for this increase because of loss of student
1:23:17 enrollment, and that it’s our fault.
1:23:20 And if we, because of BPS policies, the board policies, that
1:23:25 that’s why we’re losing students.
1:23:26 And I get it, and I know why some of the losses were.
1:23:29 We lost students in 2020 because we had a mask mandate.
1:23:32 We lost students because we didn’t have a mask mandate.
1:23:34 We lost them this year because we didn’t have one at the
1:23:35 beginning of the year.
1:23:36 And then we lost them because we did have one again, and then
1:23:38 back and forth.
1:23:39 And we have lost students, but I just want to point out, and
1:23:41 again, I’m a numbers person.
1:23:42 If you look at the BPS plus the charter, because we’ve lost some
1:23:46 of them to charter,
1:23:47 BPS has, if you add the BPS plus the charter enrollment from pre-pandemic
1:23:54 in 2019-20,
1:23:55 it was about 71, a little over 71,000 students in Brevard.
1:23:59 Going to skip the pandemic year because that was an anomaly for
1:24:04 all of us.
1:24:05 But this school year, we’re almost back up to 70,000.
1:24:08 Next year, we’re projected by the state to be back up to 71,000,
1:24:12 and the year after that
1:24:13 to be up to 72,000.
1:24:14 So in other words, the total number of students across the
1:24:17 district between the BPS and the
1:24:19 charter schools has stayed relatively the same.
1:24:21 And the millage by law has to be shared with the charter schools.
1:24:26 So we’re talking about funding students.
1:24:29 And by the way, as a charter school liaison, I can tell you,
1:24:32 they’re desperately in need of
1:24:35 employees and being able to compensate them competitively so
1:24:40 that their employees will stay
1:24:41 across all employee groups.
1:24:42 So I’ll just say, our total enrollment has changed.
1:24:47 It’s not changed, really.
1:24:48 We’re going to be sharing this to benefit all the students in
1:24:52 Brevard County that are
1:24:52 attending our public schools, whether charter or BPS.
1:24:56 So again, I just want to make sure people have accurate
1:24:58 information.
1:24:58 And again, the process is not over.
1:25:02 The public is going to have their time.
1:25:06 But I want to make sure people have accurate information.
1:25:09 And I’m certainly willing to spare any more information if
1:25:12 somebody wants to reach out,
1:25:14 ask me about what’s going on with everybody.
1:25:15 - Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
1:25:17 Any other word members wish to speak to the agenda item?
1:25:20 Thank you.
1:25:22 - Yeah, I’m going to keep it pretty short.
1:25:24 Thank you, Ms. Campbell, for clarifying a lot of that stuff that
1:25:26 I definitely wanted to talk about as well.
1:25:28 I just kind of want to keep it human for a moment and kind of
1:25:31 reiterate something that you were talking about.
1:25:33 So I’m a household, two educators.
1:25:36 My husband has been educating in Brevard Public Schools for 12
1:25:40 years.
1:25:40 He is making $46,800, which is exactly the same as a brand new
1:25:46 that is a problem.
1:25:47 We are the second most experienced workforce in the state of
1:25:49 Florida,
1:25:50 which means the majority of our teachers are teaching 12 years
1:25:53 and above.
1:25:54 That’s the thing you want.
1:25:55 That’s a great quality to have.
1:25:57 The problem is we aren’t compensating them enough.
1:26:00 And once they hit that amazing threshold of 12 years, they’re
1:26:03 leaving.
1:26:04 They’re leaving for other businesses, other industries, because
1:26:08 they’re not making enough money.
1:26:10 But now it’s been made worse because they’re making the same as
1:26:10 the brand new teacher.
1:26:15 Walking into the building.
1:26:16 Never mind all the other responsibilities have been placed on
1:26:20 top of them,
1:26:20 that they’ve just kind of pummeled through like they always do.
1:26:23 Someone made a really good point, and I completely agree with it,
1:26:28 during public comment about how families have been struggling to
1:26:31 save.
1:26:31 Everyone’s been hit hard financially, and I completely agree
1:26:34 with that.
1:26:38 Again, a household of two educators.
1:26:39 We legitimately have to make decisions whether or not we’re
1:26:43 going to be able to save for our own
1:26:44 daughter’s college.
1:26:45 There’s a household of educators.
1:26:47 And it’s just a weird concept.
1:26:50 You know, we’ve got master’s degrees.
1:26:52 We’ve got 12 years of experience.
1:26:54 We’re dedicating our lives to these children, and we can’t plan
1:26:57 for the future of our own daughter.
1:26:59 That’s a problem.
1:27:00 And then, needless to say, I mean, when we start talking about
1:27:05 our other staff members
1:27:06 that are making hourly wages, they are struggling.
1:27:12 The fact that they’re even still here with us is more than
1:27:15 commendable.
1:27:15 And they need to be rewarded.
1:27:18 And no, we cannot do it with the current budget that we have.
1:27:21 There isn’t some secret hidden money that we’ve been using
1:27:23 inappropriately.
1:27:24 I agree with Ms. Campbell.
1:27:27 I think it’s really important for the public to be aware that,
1:27:29 no, it’s not our decision.
1:27:30 Majority rules.
1:27:32 It goes to the voters.
1:27:33 But every other county in the state of Florida, I think it’s 22
1:27:37 at this point,
1:27:38 it’s gone to the voters, and they did the right thing for their
1:27:42 community.
1:27:43 Because it impacts their families, their neighbors, and the
1:27:46 future of their community.
1:27:48 And what I think is really unique about Brevard that we really
1:27:51 need to take a minute and think about,
1:27:52 that’s different than those other counties, is that we are the
1:27:55 space coach.
1:27:56 And we offer so many employment opportunities for all levels of
1:28:03 our staff to just leave.
1:28:08 And that’s a problem because you want teachers in front of your
1:28:10 students.
1:28:11 You want staff members in those classrooms.
1:28:14 You need bus drivers.
1:28:15 You need people in our cafeterias.
1:28:17 We can’t be without those people because we cannot function as
1:28:21 an organization without those people.
1:28:23 The other thing that I think is really important, and you know,
1:28:28 if this goes forward,
1:28:29 I know that BPS is going to have a messaging plan and talk about
1:28:32 all the other things other
1:28:33 than teacher compensation and staff wages.
1:28:36 But this is going to support all staffing.
1:28:40 One of the things that, Dr. Mullins, sorry if I’m jumping the
1:28:44 gun here.
1:28:45 But every time I bring it up to people, it makes them really
1:28:47 excited because there’s really innovative
1:28:50 things we can be doing with this money that we don’t have the
1:28:53 money to do right now.
1:28:54 We can have an assistant in every K-2 classroom to support a
1:28:59 teacher so that we can get in there
1:29:01 when those kids are young and struggling and get in there and
1:29:03 get them on grade level before they
1:29:05 hit the third grade.
1:29:07 We cannot do that right now with the budget that we have.
1:29:10 These are the important things that this millage could provide
1:29:13 to our students and to our community
1:29:15 and to our staff.
1:29:16 And even something as simple as adding an IA in a classroom, not
1:29:21 only does that benefit our students,
1:29:22 but that makes the day of our teacher better.
1:29:25 It makes the morale for that teacher better.
1:29:27 And it will help us retain them and also recruit from other
1:29:31 counties where they may not have that support
1:29:33 in their classroom because it’s a unique ability to them.
1:29:35 So that’s just one little thing that I had discussed with Dr.
1:29:39 Mullins.
1:29:40 And I’m sorry if I wasn’t supposed to say that out loud.
1:29:41 But I think it’s really important because it’s not just about
1:29:45 the wages.
1:29:46 Yes, that’s so critical.
1:29:47 That’s so important.
1:29:48 That’s what we’re going to talk about on the forefront.
1:29:50 But there’s so many other benefits to this millage passing.
1:29:53 But again, it goes to the voters.
1:29:56 And the voters of Brevard County get to make this decision
1:29:58 ultimately.
1:29:58 Thank you, Ms. Jenkins.
1:30:02 Anyone else?
1:30:05 I will just add one thing.
1:30:07 And thank you, Ms. Campbell, for a very thorough explanation of
1:30:11 the parts and pieces.
1:30:13 No, no, no.
1:30:15 It was great.
1:30:16 It was all important information to share.
1:30:18 And much of it I had planned on sharing as well.
1:30:20 The only additional thing that I’ll throw out there is, and
1:30:25 primarily because people don’t
1:30:27 understand it, is that our tax dollars that we pay for education
1:30:31 in the state of Florida
1:30:32 don’t come directly to our schools.
1:30:34 So when we pay millage on our property for education, those
1:30:40 dollars for our RLE, our required
1:30:44 local effort, the 3.6 that Ms. Campbell referenced earlier,
1:30:47 actually go to Titusville.
1:30:50 Not to Titusville, I wish to Titusville, go to Tallahassee, and
1:30:54 the legislature decides how
1:30:56 they’re going to send those dollars back to us.
1:30:57 Right.
1:30:57 And so we don’t necessarily get all of those dollars back.
1:31:03 And when we get those dollars back, we get them in the way that
1:31:08 the state wants to give them to us.
1:31:10 And so with categoricals that require us to spend them in a
1:31:13 certain way, like the $15 per hour minimum wage.
1:31:16 So in looking at the record funding that education is receiving
1:31:20 this year,
1:31:21 absolutely, you can’t deny that the dollars are going up.
1:31:28 But there are a couple of things that we have to consider, I
1:31:30 think.
1:31:30 And that is, how much of those dollars, and it was covered very
1:31:33 thoroughly in our budget workshop,
1:31:35 how much of those dollars are we being told how we have to spend?
1:31:40 Because we can’t determine how we’re going to spend the bulk of
1:31:44 those dollars.
1:31:45 We went from, Dr. Mullins, help me out on numbers, because you’re
1:31:48 the one who has that brain that never forgets it.
1:31:50 But we went from like a $43 million increase to, by the time we
1:31:56 addressed the categoricals,
1:31:58 the additional dollars to charter schools, all of those things
1:32:01 were down to $3.6 million available from the budget.
1:32:05 Oh, I got the numbers right.
1:32:07 Look at that.
1:32:09 Which, if you all were listening, Ms. Campbell mentioned, over $4
1:32:12 million should do a 1% raise.
1:32:15 So not even enough additional dollars from the state funding to
1:32:18 do a 1% raise across the board.
1:32:20 And that is really problematic.
1:32:23 The other thing that is a part of the state funding formula,
1:32:25 which this is,
1:32:26 I just think this is an interesting fact that a lot of people
1:32:28 are not aware of.
1:32:29 We’ve talked about it a few times.
1:32:30 And that is the district cost differential.
1:32:32 So what our state does is they identify a multiplier.
1:32:37 And it’s based on the cost of living per county.
1:32:39 And if our cost of living in Brevard County is lower than the
1:32:44 cost of living in other counties,
1:32:46 our multiplier is below 1.
1:32:48 So what they do is they go through all of the FEFP funding,
1:32:52 Florida Education Finance Program funding
1:32:54 formula, and they determine how many dollars are going to come
1:32:58 to Brevard County.
1:32:59 And then they multiply it by our cost of living figure.
1:33:03 If we’re under 1, for those of you who are math people, we’re
1:33:08 losing dollars.
1:33:10 And we’re under 1.
1:33:12 So every year we lose millions of dollars to other counties that
1:33:16 have a higher cost of living.
1:33:17 Oh, and by the way, most of the time, those counties that are
1:33:21 above 1 on their multiplier,
1:33:23 because they have a higher cost of living, also have additional
1:33:26 millage.
1:33:26 So when we’re looking at providing a competitive salary to our
1:33:31 workforce,
1:33:32 we are facing multiple challenges in being able to do that.
1:33:36 In addition, the structure of Brevard County, because we’re long
1:33:40 and thin,
1:33:40 we have multiple counties that surround us.
1:33:43 If you look at the average teacher salary of Indian River, Seminole
1:33:46 County, and Orange County,
1:33:48 all of them have a higher average teacher salary than what we
1:33:51 have here in Brevard County.
1:33:53 Which means, not only do we have the competition of all of the
1:33:57 space boom that’s going on,
1:33:59 but we also have the competition of the other districts,
1:34:02 especially those who have passed a millage,
1:34:04 and are getting additional dollars through the district cost
1:34:06 difference.
1:34:07 So, I just, you know, there’s so many intricacies to the budget,
1:34:12 and the way that we’re funded, and the restrictions on the
1:34:14 dollars.
1:34:15 And then the last thing that I will say, and, you know, to echo
1:34:19 what everyone else said,
1:34:20 the board is not making this choice for our community.
1:34:23 The board is making a decision tonight,
1:34:26 whether to give our community the opportunity to weigh in on it.
1:34:29 And I think that’s a critically important difference.
1:34:32 The bottom line is that a lot of people look at it and say,
1:34:39 we got all this additional federal funding.
1:34:42 And I think that’s an important aspect to discuss too.
1:34:45 In that we did get a lot of federal funding that has allowed us
1:34:49 to do some great things for our students.
1:34:51 The challenge with it is, those are not recurring dollars.
1:34:54 So, we can’t use one-time money to make a long-term commitment
1:34:58 on a raise.
1:34:59 And that’s where we run into problems.
1:35:01 And we’ve heard, you know, if you’ve heard the sound bites over
1:35:04 the past couple of years,
1:35:04 when we’ve only been able to give a bonus to our employees,
1:35:07 that’s because we only have one-time money.
1:35:10 And when that money goes away, we don’t have the dollars to keep
1:35:13 paying it.
1:35:13 So, we’ve been forced to give bonuses as opposed to raises.
1:35:17 And I’m going to throw one more intricate thing out there.
1:35:20 And then I’m going to hush up and let you guys get to it.
1:35:23 But I think it’s also important to note that the issue that we’re
1:35:26 facing with salary compression,
1:35:28 especially for our teachers, it’s difficult enough with our
1:35:32 staff,
1:35:33 who are being raised to $15 an hour three years before we had
1:35:37 anticipated it happening.
1:35:39 But for our teachers, we have additional statutory limitations
1:35:43 that are creating some real issues.
1:35:44 And that is that once we reach $47,500 as our minimum teacher
1:35:51 salary,
1:35:51 for every dollar that we give to a teacher who’s making more
1:35:56 than $47,500,
1:35:58 we must give $0.75 to the teacher making $47,500.
1:36:05 Which means that it is incredibly difficult for us to be able to
1:36:09 close that gap.
1:36:10 Part of what we have been doing is been giving bonuses to try to
1:36:15 make up for the fact that
1:36:18 those people haven’t gotten raises.
1:36:19 And the same people that are currently making a little bit over
1:36:23 $47,500 that are going to be making
1:36:26 maybe $400 more than the teacher in the next room to them that
1:36:30 just came into the district,
1:36:32 those are the same people that lived with pay raises for four
1:36:36 years.
1:36:36 Pay freezes.
1:36:38 Did I say raises?
1:36:39 Yeah.
1:36:40 Pay freezes for four years during the recession.
1:36:42 And so they are truly getting a double whammy.
1:36:47 And quite frankly, it makes it difficult to entice people to
1:36:52 stay in the classroom and serve our kids.
1:36:53 So with that, I’m going to get off of my soapbox.
1:36:56 And anyone else want to speak?
1:36:58 Otherwise, I’ll call the question.
1:37:01 Go ahead.
1:37:02 I think everybody has covered it very well.
1:37:07 I think it’s up to the community to decide if they value their
1:37:10 public schools and if they value their teachers.
1:37:13 And I think this is why we are wanting to put this forward and
1:37:18 put it on the ballot.
1:37:23 All right, any additional discussion?
1:37:25 All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
1:37:28 Aye.
1:37:28 All opposed, same sign?
1:37:30 Nay.
1:37:31 And the motion passes four to one.
1:37:33 All right, Dr. Mullins.
1:37:41 The next item is F36, procurement solicitation.
1:37:46 What are the wishes of the board?
1:37:47 Move to approve.
1:37:47 Second.
1:37:47 Moved by Mr. Susan.
1:37:50 Seconded by Ms. McDougal.
1:37:52 Is there any discussion?
1:37:53 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
1:37:55 Aye.
1:37:56 Any opposed, same sign?
1:37:57 The last item is F37, department school initiated agreements.
1:38:05 Do I hear a motion?
1:38:07 Move to approve.
1:38:07 Second.
1:38:08 Moved by Mr. Susan.
1:38:10 Seconded by Ms. McDougal.
1:38:11 Is there any discussion?
1:38:12 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
1:38:15 Aye.
1:38:15 Any opposed, same sign?
1:38:17 Motion passes 5-0.
1:38:19 All right, we will move on to the information agenda which
1:38:22 includes items for board review and
1:38:24 may be brought back for action at a subsequent meeting.
1:38:26 No action will be taken on these items tonight.
1:38:28 Dr. Mullins.
1:38:29 There are four items under the information category.
1:38:32 Does any board member wish to discuss any of the information
1:38:34 items on the agenda this evening?
1:38:36 All right, do any other board members have information to report
1:38:41 or discuss for board discussion?
1:38:43 I do.
1:38:43 Ms. Jenkins?
1:38:44 Yeah, thanks.
1:38:45 I have two things.
1:38:46 So, I forgot to say in the beginning that I promised the
1:38:50 students from Vera High School
1:38:51 that I would make you guys, but I’m going to ask you instead, if
1:38:56 they can bring their robot here.
1:38:58 They really want to show it off.
1:39:00 They said they’ll get it here.
1:39:02 Just let us know when we can come.
1:39:03 And I said I would make that happen.
1:39:04 So, let’s not break their hearts.
1:39:08 You let me know, Dr. Mullins.
1:39:09 You let me know when and I will tell them when.
1:39:12 But no, so on a serious note, I do want to have a conversation.
1:39:16 And ironically, somebody brought it up in public comment earlier
1:39:18 today and in public comment during this meeting.
1:39:20 But it’s something that I feel passionate about and I planned on
1:39:24 bringing it up anyway.
1:39:27 I would like this board to consider the recording of any of our
1:39:31 meetings that are open to the public.
1:39:33 Obviously, we have executive sessions that the public is not
1:39:36 privy to that information.
1:39:38 But I think it’s completely appropriate.
1:39:40 It doesn’t have to necessarily be live streamed because I know
1:39:42 that would include certain staff members and probably we would
1:39:44 have to be in this room every single time.
1:39:46 But I don’t understand why we can’t record it and upload it at a
1:39:50 bare minimum audio record it.
1:39:52 I think that the public has a right to hear what people are
1:39:56 saying.
1:39:56 I think it holds certain accountability measures for what is
1:40:01 being said and presented and how it gets out to the public.
1:40:05 And I just was wondering if you guys are on board with that.
1:40:10 I like it.
1:40:12 We’ve done it in the past where we record it and we can upload
1:40:14 it in places where there’s no.
1:40:16 I’m sorry in places where there’s no Wi-Fi and stuff like that.
1:40:19 Throw down an audio.
1:40:20 I think it’s great.
1:40:21 Good idea.
1:40:22 I think it’s something that we need to do.
1:40:23 I’m in favor of it.
1:40:25 Sounds good.
1:40:26 Just start seeing what the infrastructure is.
1:40:28 Sometimes we run into places where it’s difficult to.
1:40:30 Sometimes, just so you know, we might throw down a microphone
1:40:33 and the places where we’re in that may be difficult to pick up a
1:40:36 speech.
1:40:36 But the fact that it’s there and doing it.
1:40:39 Yeah.
1:40:39 I mean, there’s no, you know, my only fear would be that
1:40:42 somebody says, well, I can’t hear you on the microphone.
1:40:44 Well, sometimes that might happen.
1:40:45 That’s it.
1:40:46 That’s all.
1:40:47 But I’m in favor of it.
1:40:48 I just want to make sure that people understand that we, you
1:40:55 know, we are, we already, in case there’s any question, we are
1:40:59 already doing what is required.
1:41:00 Yes.
1:41:00 We take minutes at every meeting and they’re publicly available.
1:41:03 They’re announced and all that stuff.
1:41:06 The biggest issue for me would be the ability to do it.
1:41:15 But, you know, because I don’t, it’s not, we can’t always have
1:41:17 our meetings in here because this room gets used a lot during
1:41:20 the week.
1:41:20 So, and we do our superintendent evaluations and our board
1:41:23 evaluations and whatever.
1:41:25 And we usually do those in smaller rooms because we’re not
1:41:27 taking up so much space when this room has to be used for
1:41:30 conferences and stuff.
1:41:31 So we can record them on a cell phone.
1:41:33 We can use our phones.
1:41:34 Yeah.
1:41:35 We can literally live stream if we have to.
1:41:37 I love it.
1:41:37 It’s more transparency.
1:41:38 It’s great.
1:41:39 I just want to just, that’s a good point, Ms. Campbell, though.
1:41:41 I do want to clarify.
1:41:43 We are completely following every single state statute when it
1:41:46 comes to open meetings and recording and stuff.
1:41:48 This would be going above and beyonds, but I don’t see why there
1:41:50 would be an issue to do it.
1:41:52 And it’s something that I felt like we should have been doing a
1:41:55 long time ago.
1:41:56 So, thank you.
1:41:58 Mr. Cheatham, I was wondering, didn’t we used to, I thought when
1:42:06 we first started, when we were in the conference room, didn’t we
1:42:10 take those?
1:42:10 Was I dreaming that?
1:42:12 I thought we taped it.
1:42:13 No, I really thought we were taping those.
1:42:15 I thought we did.
1:42:16 I thought they were live streamed, but I think they uploaded it
1:42:22 after.
1:42:23 Absolutely.
1:42:23 So, yeah.
1:42:24 I just want to make sure I know that we have done that.
1:42:26 Yeah.
1:42:27 We did have set up in the superintendent’s conference room for
1:42:30 when we meet in there that we could record.
1:42:32 I think where we may run into problems is when we do off-site.
1:42:36 Then, you know, we may have some issues with audio and video
1:42:41 quality and all of those things.
1:42:42 So, yeah.
1:42:44 Okay.
1:42:46 Any other board discussion item?
1:42:47 Yep.
1:42:47 I got one.
1:42:48 Mr. Susan.
1:42:49 Are we all clear?
1:42:50 I think we’re good on that, right?
1:42:51 All right.
1:42:52 So, many of you guys don’t know, but there’s been an ongoing
1:42:55 situation that I’ve had with the Florida
1:42:57 High School Athletic Association in dealing with private schools
1:43:00 that we’re playing.
1:43:01 Last year, we ran into a situation where one of our baseball
1:43:05 programs went down, all the way down
1:43:07 into Miami, played a game, and then found—literally, they were
1:43:11 not supposed to play a game for seven days.
1:43:13 They practiced for four days running all their pitchers, and
1:43:18 then because a private school
1:43:19 overturned with a judge that the FHSA’s ruling was not fair, our
1:43:24 kids were forced to go within 24
1:43:26 hours and go up against a team in Miami, and we lost by a couple
1:43:29 of runs.
1:43:30 We remember that.
1:43:30 It was very upsetting.
1:43:31 Now, we have another situation where private schools down in
1:43:35 South Florida, what they do is
1:43:38 they take a lot of the students from a lot of these travel teams,
1:43:40 and they put them on private school
1:43:41 teams, and it’s an acoustic nature, like environment.
1:43:45 Like, our kids are going down there to play baseball, and the
1:43:47 crowds and everybody else are engaging with
1:43:49 our kids, and it’s getting to be out of control.
1:43:51 So, one in particular case came up with Vieira High School, and
1:43:55 what ended up happening is,
1:43:56 one of the players ended up in the middle of playing, and the
1:44:01 catcher touched our guy,
1:44:04 and then he turned around to try to touch the ref and say, “Hey,
1:44:06 here’s what he did,”
1:44:07 and threw him out, and then gave him a 12-month suspension, all
1:44:10 right?
1:44:11 So, I wouldn’t have brought this up had my athletic director, my
1:44:16 principal, the coach,
1:44:18 and the family’s all been in unison and saying, “This is absurd.”
1:44:20 So, this is just an FYI that I’m going to start getting involved
1:44:25 with pulling
1:44:26 I’m actually going to ask for all disciplinary actions in the
1:44:29 state of Florida over the last two
1:44:30 years in both private and public school, both division level one,
1:44:34 two, and three, and to try
1:44:35 to see if there’s any inconsistencies. If they’re consistent
1:44:38 with what they do,
1:44:38 then that’s one thing. But I will promise you to end a kid’s
1:44:41 career because he’s a junior right now,
1:44:44 and it’ll run into next year, is horrible for what that is. That’s
1:44:48 the same offense as some kid
1:44:49 turning around and punching somebody in the face. That is absurd,
1:44:54 and it’s not fair for the rest of
1:44:56 us to have to go through that. It’s not fair for us to have to
1:44:58 go down to these private schools
1:44:59 where they can’t control the community that we’re playing
1:45:02 against, and our kids are in a hostile
1:45:03 environment. This is number two, and I’m just, I mean, I’m just
1:45:06 sick of it. So, I just wanted to let
1:45:07 you guys know I wasn’t going to bring it up. I apologize not
1:45:10 putting it on, but I started getting
1:45:11 texts from the parents as I was walking in that the decisions
1:45:14 come down. So, I’m going to look to see the
1:45:16 validity, and if not, I’m just going to get loud. That’s all.
1:45:19 Just to let you guys know.
1:45:20 Well, let’s know how we can support it, Mr. Susan.
1:45:22 Thank you. Thank you.
1:45:24 Any other board discussion? Dr. Mullins, do you have anything?
1:45:28 Ms. Belford, if I could just do a quick appendix add-on footnote
1:45:32 to my presentation earlier. I
1:45:34 realized that I skipped over recognizing one of our pre-K
1:45:38 programs. It was on the slide with the
1:45:40 high school CTE programs. I got so excited about that, I skipped
1:45:43 over a bullet. But it’s our, and I don’t want our
1:45:46 pre-K VE classrooms to go unacknowledged. We have 49 classrooms
1:45:51 across 35 elementary schools. It
1:45:53 was the bullet on the slide. But, and those are our pre-K
1:45:57 programs for our students with disabilities
1:45:58 based on the IEP team recommendations. And just another great
1:46:02 testament of the support and resources
1:46:05 that we provide our littlest ones who may have a learning
1:46:08 disability already. And just a huge shout out,
1:46:12 and thank you to our pre-K VE teachers who are inspiring our
1:46:16 kids in Lebanon. Thank you.
1:46:18 Can I double down on that real quick? Kind of goes hand in hand
1:46:22 with that millage and how we
1:46:24 have the opportunity to offer unique situations for some of our
1:46:26 students. But that is something you’re
1:46:28 talking about. It’s a, part of that was a program that I was
1:46:31 part of. And that is not offered in every
1:46:34 county across the state. We offer special education services to
1:46:37 our kiddos that are three and four
1:46:39 years old even if they aren’t inside a VPS, VPK classroom. So,
1:46:44 these are things to
1:46:46 think about about the amazing services that we offer.
1:46:50 And I would say critically important to get them started off on
1:46:53 the right foot,
1:46:54 especially if they’re facing additional challenges coming into
1:46:56 kindergarten.
1:46:57 Unidentified that what they end up doing, if they’re not
1:47:00 identified,
1:47:01 helped with inclusion. Everything is chaos and something that we
1:47:06 have committed. Kudos.
1:47:07 Unidentified that we have committed to.