Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Thank you.
4:30 Good afternoon.
4:30 The April 26, 2022 Board Work Session is now in order.
4:34 Russ, roll call, please.
4:36 Ms. Belford.
4:38 Present.
4:38 Ms. Campbell.
4:39 Present.
4:40 Ms. Jenkins.
4:41 Present.
4:42 Ms. McDougall.
4:43 Present.
4:44 Mr. Susan, we stand for the flag of the flag of the United
4:54 States of America and to the republic for which it stands.
5:00 Ms. Amity.
5:01 The nation, the nation, the nation, the nation, the nation, the
5:03 power, invisible, liberties and justice for all.
5:05 This afternoon’s work session is to hold three rule development
5:11 public hearings on policy 0169.1, 2521 and 5630.01, followed by
5:20 the youth survey results.
5:22 Is there anyone present.
5:24 Is there anyone present who wishes to address board policy 0169.1,
5:29 public participation at board meetings?
5:32 I have been going to a lot of government meetings over this past
5:40 year and the changes that were made to the school board’s policy
5:48 on public speaking is very restrictive to the public.
5:55 For example, the county commission, not only do they give people
5:59 the opportunity to speak for three minutes per agenda item, they
6:04 actually have two opportunities for general public comment once
6:09 in the middle and once at the end of the meeting.
6:11 And not only that, you’re allowed to sign up during the meeting,
6:17 during those agenda items.
6:20 So, the restrictive nature of this policy, you know, to the
6:26 public, it just goes further into breaking public trust.
6:28 And I request that we, that you all just look into that more,
6:36 and I’m not saying we have to go that in depth, but, I mean,
6:43 giving people three minutes to say their piece.
6:47 It’s not really asking for that much, so, um, I, I just hope
6:52 that you guys can, you know, consider that and, um, you know,
6:58 see how that goes.
7:00 Thank you.
7:01 Thank you, Ms. Delaney.
7:02 Is there anyone present who wishes to address board policy 0169.1,
7:06 public participation at board meetings?
7:14 Good afternoon, Madam Chair and board.
7:16 My name is Sarah Murski.
7:17 I’m a wife, mother of two children in BPS, registered voter,
7:21 taxpayer, constituent, stakeholder, and I’m in District 2 for
7:25 school board.
7:25 Uh, the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States
7:29 says, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
7:33 religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,
7:36 or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the
7:40 right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the
7:44 government for a redress of grievances.
7:47 You were sworn in as constitutional officers.
7:51 Your current public policy abridges the Constitution and freedom
7:54 of speech.
7:55 As the majority of the school board voted to limit public input
7:59 time, I have watched the trust between the public and the school
8:02 board continue to erode.
8:04 People who come to address the school board can’t even finish
8:07 their thoughts or sentences before they are cut off by the chairwoman.
8:10 It was heartbreaking watching families come to address serious
8:14 issues of bullying and or are awesome bus drivers being shut out
8:18 of the meeting and or unable to finish their sentence in their
8:22 one-minute address to the board.
8:25 It was and still disrespectful as I’ve mentioned before, all
8:29 public commenting should go back to three minutes and people who
8:32 are leaders of organizations should have six minutes to speak.
8:35 I understand people who are unruly and not wanting to adhere to
8:39 decorum, but part of your job as elected officials is to listen
8:43 to what everyone has to say who have taken time to come to have
8:47 their voices heard.
8:49 And I highly suggest if you don’t want to take the time and you
8:52 don’t want to be here all night to take the time to listen to
8:55 what your constituents have to say, you should resign so that
8:59 other officials could be elected in and really understand and
9:03 care what the public has to say of the people that they’re
9:06 representing.
9:06 I also request you live stream all board meetings and workshops
9:10 and work sessions.
9:11 Thank you for your time.
9:12 Ms. Marsky, is there anyone else that wishes to speak to policy
9:15 0169.1?
9:17 Hi, my name is Carrie Tkach. By the time people are standing
9:24 where I am to talk to you guys,
9:28 they’ve typically exhausted all other avenues. They’re at their
9:31 wits end. They want someone to
9:33 listen. And giving them only 60 seconds is not enough. I mean, I’ve
9:38 watched people, children be
9:40 cut off because they’re one minute. That’s ridiculous. They’re
9:44 here because they’ve
9:45 exhausted every other avenue that they know. And to not give
9:48 them the time, it’s
9:49 extremely unfair. So I would love if you would take that into
9:53 account. Thank you.
9:54 Thank you. Is there anyone else that wishes to address policy 0169.1,
10:00 public participation at
10:01 board? Anyone present who wishes to address board policy 0169.1,
10:07 public participation at
10:08 board? All right. Any board member have anything to discuss
10:12 pertaining to this particular policy?
10:15 All right. Is there anyone present who wishes to address board
10:20 policy 0169.1, instructional materials
10:22 program?
10:23 I would like to address the math textbooks that we just adopted.
10:26 That doesn’t have anything to do with the policy, Ms. Delaney.
10:30 So obtaining instructional materials? Well, it’s specific to
10:38 changes in the policy. It’s not relevant to specific
10:39 instructional materials. So the policy is how we choose our
10:42 materials, what the process is, specifically the changes to
10:43 challenge
10:43 information. Okay. Well, on that note, as far as what’s
11:02 happening with the books in the schools in our county, I
11:13 think, I think the changes in the schools, I think the changes
11:16 in this policy are a good first step. But I think that there
11:19 should be some kind of committee or group of people that I would
11:27 volunteer to be on to look at any book that’s purchased for the
11:32 school. That way it doesn’t fall on the media specialist to, you
11:37 know, do all of that work on their own.
11:41 Because not one person can review every single book that comes
11:45 into a school. So I think that if we really want to take this
11:49 seriously, a committee should be put forth to look at these
11:56 books before they’re even purchased and not simply go through
12:00 three reviews online that could, you know, honestly have nothing
12:05 to do with the book or the content that’s in the book.
12:08 Thank you. Thank you. Does anyone else wish to speak to policy
12:13 2521 instructional materials program?
12:15 I have a question. I know this isn’t a question to answer, but I
12:25 had a question, Madam Chair. Did you say that this is not about
12:28 curriculum that you purchase?
12:29 No, ma’am. I said it has nothing to do with our math textbooks.
12:32 It’s about the policy and the language of the policy.
12:35 Okay. So it has nothing to do, so it’s overall curriculum?
12:40 It’s asking her to speak to the policy as opposed to the math
12:45 textbook issue. So the language of the policy is what we’re
12:47 discussing today.
12:48 Got it. Would that include math? Sure. Okay. So I’m going to
12:54 speak to your district standards of choosing curriculum then. I
12:58 just would want the district, you got a lot of feedback on your
13:04 curriculum from parents over the past six months and you knew
13:09 kind of what the directives that Tallahassee was going to go
13:13 with the governor and our legislative session.
13:15 So I would just ask that this school board once again fall in
13:18 line with the law and fall under the directives of the
13:21 Department of Education and the laws that are passed statewide.
13:25 Thank you.
13:26 Thank you. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak to policy
13:30 2521 instructional materials? Does any board member have
13:35 anything to discuss pertaining to this policy?
13:38 We went around and around and under and through last time. I
13:42 just wanted to say thank you guys. And I know Paul probably had
13:45 a part of that for you guys to add the language that we
13:47 suggested last time. Thank you.
13:49 And Dr. Mullins, if I could give you guys a chance to address
13:55 our, I know we already have just like almost every other school
13:58 district that I’m aware of in the state has already approved the
14:02 math materials.
14:03 Um, but we are, we’re on the edge of purchasing, but we always
14:07 wait for the state DOE. So can you kind of give us an update?
14:10 You may have been, you know, doing that later, but as to where
14:14 we are, because we certainly haven’t purchased anything because
14:17 we were, we were on hold.
14:19 I’ll give it a shot, but I’m, I’ve got, uh, the two perfect
14:22 people sitting here that, um–
14:23 And before, before we do that, I just have to say, this is the
14:26 second time, I’ve only been on the board for three and a half
14:28 years, this is the second time that we’ve been on the edge of
14:31 getting new math textbooks, which we have not had in how many
14:33 years?
14:33 Ten? Are we approaching ten years?
14:37 Ten years. And this is the second time since I’ve been on the
14:40 board that we’ve been on the edge of purchasing and the state
14:42 has said, wait, wait, wait, wait, just a second.
14:43 And we have had to stick with what you guys, the best things you
14:45 guys can come up with and you have been fabulous. Um, so, but we
14:50 are going to follow, um, just to be really clear, we’re
14:52 following state law, we’re following the DOE. So now, toss it
14:55 back to you.
14:55 Yeah, thank you, Mrs. Campbell. I, um, I think you’re referring
15:01 to the state’s charge to, uh, invoke the textbook adoption
15:05 process for this year to put in place next year for mathematics
15:10 across grades K to 12.
15:12 Uh, consistent with board policy, we convened a textbook
15:16 committee where they met multiple times and reviewed all of the
15:21 materials from publishers that was available.
15:24 And then vetted those and, uh, made a recommendation, which we
15:30 put on a list, uh, all contingent upon state board approval.
15:37 We have not ordered any materials in anticipation of the state
15:41 board’s approved list. Um, they are quite late in providing the
15:46 list.
15:46 Normally that’s done, I want to say mid a year ago, uh, actually
15:51 a year before the process begins.
15:53 But they’re very late in providing their review of the textbooks
15:58 that are on the approved list.
16:00 But again, we had not made any, taken any moves, spent any
16:04 dollars to order textbooks until we knew what was going to come
16:06 from the state on the stated that adopted textbooks.
16:09 I will, um, I will, um, I will, um, also remind the board that
16:13 the committee that is made up to review the textbooks is
16:16 comprised of community members across our entire district.
16:20 Um, it is a very collaborative, uh, thorough process and we
16:26 brought forward their recommendations.
16:28 Um, the textbook that the committee recommended particularly for
16:35 grades K to five as well as kind of a smattering of our
16:40 secondary math textbooks were not on the, at least the current
16:45 state approved list.
16:47 It’s our understanding that the state is allowing some textbook
16:51 companies that, uh, were not initially approved to provide
16:55 amendments and they would be reconsidered.
16:58 So we’re kind of in a waiting pattern to see what the final
17:01 state approved list is before we, uh, move forward with ordering
17:05 any materials, uh, as we go forward.
17:08 There were some, some of our committees selected textbooks on
17:12 the approved list and of course we’ll move forward with getting
17:16 prepared for those.
17:17 But any textbook that our committee recommended that were not on
17:21 the state list will be in a holding pattern to see if they
17:24 become state approved.
17:26 If not, then we’ll go back through the process.
17:28 Thank you.
17:29 Ms. Klein or Dr. Sullivan, any, any gaps to fill in there?
17:33 Want to go first?
17:34 I just wanted to remind the board that, um, as we go through
17:40 that process of selecting textbooks, the district, the state
17:44 provides a rubric in which we follow.
17:47 So we followed the rubric in which we were given at the time.
17:50 And so the committee, um, first number one was alignment to
17:54 standards.
17:55 So when going through the materials it was looking at, are
17:59 students going to be exposed to all the standards?
18:03 That they have, uh, to be assessed on.
18:06 And then the components of, we did regional meetings.
18:11 We did, um, parent meetings, um, numerous open houses of the
18:17 textbooks for, to get feedback.
18:19 We also provided a digital platform.
18:21 And like Dr. Mullen says, we have not ordered a item, nothing.
18:28 And we will not until we receive the final list.
18:32 The, uh, publishers are in the appeal window right now.
18:36 And supposedly they have 20 days to do those appeals.
18:39 And, uh, to be re reviewed and then submitted to us.
18:44 Just to get a better idea of the process.
18:46 And I, I have served on the instruction materials review
18:49 committee myself prior to being on the board.
18:50 It was the music one, which would be my area.
18:52 More, more my area than math.
18:53 Um, when I knew we didn’t have the, the final approved list from
18:59 the state until last Friday, we could go Friday.
19:02 Um, but we had a preliminary list from the state that we started
19:06 with.
19:06 Like the state, even though they hadn’t finished their process,
19:08 they said, here are the books for you to do your process through.
19:11 Right.
19:12 So we weren’t just pulling these out of what the publisher said.
19:14 Right.
19:15 This was a state sent out list.
19:16 Here’s the books that we are considering.
19:17 Here, the, here are the books that you can choose from that you
19:20 can work with.
19:20 So we were going with their books and then they just reduced the
19:23 number of lists, books on their list.
19:25 That is correct.
19:26 Um, what you mentioned a little while earlier as far as the
19:29 timeline.
19:29 I know we’re next year, we’re going into social studies.
19:32 Yeah.
19:33 Correct.
19:34 If I can chime in.
19:35 Um, the state guidelines actually provide for an or you can, um,
19:42 simply purchase from the state
19:45 list, or you can go through the rigorous process we do in our
19:48 district for our community involvement.
19:51 So we typically run both, both of those processes.
19:55 So in a typical year, um, last April, we would have gotten the
20:01 state math list.
20:02 And then we then bring it out to our community to select from
20:07 those state identified texts.
20:09 As mentioned, we only had the short list.
20:12 So we started with the short list.
20:14 Um, it’s unprecedented to get the state list when we got it.
20:20 We kept waiting for it and kept checking.
20:23 Um, and so now we’re just going to adjust and, you know,
20:26 whatever adjustments need to be made
20:29 in compliance with that state list, we are a hundred percent on
20:33 board and super comfortable
20:34 waiting on those last details of the information from the state.
20:37 So just point of emphasis for our community.
20:40 Yeah, we’re going to wait.
20:42 And when it comes, it comes even our district approval had an asterisk
20:47 on it pending DOE approval.
20:48 There was never any question about us waiting for that list.
20:51 So for social studies, typically that would mean that right now
20:56 we would have the list for
20:58 our consideration next year.
21:00 And we don’t.
21:01 And given this new state flipping of timelines, we’re going to
21:08 wait in this case first for
21:10 the state to complete their process in full.
21:13 Um, because we really value the time of our community and our
21:16 stakeholders and our parents.
21:18 And we want them to feel that their feedback has been honored by
21:22 our district.
21:23 And so, um, given we had this flip flop and timeline without
21:27 notice, we’re just, we’re
21:28 going to wait now.
21:29 We, we now see that it’s on a bit of a delay potentially because
21:32 of the adoption of the new
21:34 standards.
21:35 And so in this case, we’ll wait until the state concludes its
21:39 process and then convene
21:40 our committees.
21:41 Um, so it’ll probably push it a year off given the state has
21:45 been late.
21:46 You know, this was new.
21:47 The state had never done it this way before.
21:49 And we’ll adjust.
21:50 Thank you.
21:51 Ms. Campbell.
21:52 Does any other board member have anything to address regarding
21:57 this policy?
21:57 All right.
21:58 Is there anyone present who wishes to address board policy 5630.01
22:02 seclusion and the other
22:03 restraint of students with disabilities?
22:08 Is there anyone present who wishes to address board policy 5630.01
22:12 seclusion and restraint
22:13 of students with disabilities?
22:17 Good afternoon, Madam Chair and board.
22:22 Um, I did have some questions about this policy and I know that
22:25 this isn’t a question and
22:27 answer session, but, um, I did have some confusion with reading
22:31 the changes proposed to this
22:32 policy.
22:33 My concern as a parent is that it seems that the language is
22:36 confusing as far as parents
22:39 not being a part of, um, if their child needs to be restrained,
22:43 um, and not be a part of that
22:44 process or not be known about that process.
22:47 As well as, um, I understand that there’s situations, mental
22:52 health care situations where, um, you know, um, usually a social
22:57 worker would be involved or a mental health expert would be
23:00 involved where a child would have to have to be involved.
23:01 be taken to a mental health facility and I understand that there’s,
23:06 um, usually restraints involved with that process with the
23:09 police needing to be called and everything.
23:11 My, um, my concern and my questions would be that the parents
23:17 would be notified and a part of that process and on board with
23:21 whichever plan that they lay out for their child with special
23:23 needs.
23:23 Thank you.
23:25 Is there anyone present who wishes to address board policy 5630.01,
23:30 seclusion and restraint of students with disabilities?
23:33 Is there anyone present who wishes to address board policy 5630.01,
23:38 seclusion and restraint of students with disabilities?
23:41 All right.
23:42 Does any board member have anything to discuss pertaining to
23:44 this policy?
23:45 Yes.
23:46 Um, I just would like if somebody from our staff can clarify, uh,
23:51 when parents are notified and kind of a scenario of, of how that
23:56 would take place.
23:56 Um, it does happen within 24 hours.
24:09 Um, the parent is notified given a letter, um, indicating, you
24:13 know, what took place.
24:14 Um, and then it’s reported to the DOE also within 24 hours.
24:21 Thank you.
24:22 That was my next question.
24:23 Thanks.
24:24 I knew that Ms. Moore had mentioned last time that there were
24:27 further updates.
24:28 Um, have you guys gotten those?
24:30 I knew we were kind of waiting.
24:31 Have you gotten any further updates that might change some of
24:33 the language?
24:34 Are we just going to have to wait until it is officially signed?
24:37 So the, um, house bill 235 had some additional language in it,
24:41 but after further review on the,
24:44 um, policy as it currently stands, it did not impact because we
24:48 do not conduct physical, mechanical restraints.
24:51 Um, and so it applied more to the, um, school resource officers,
24:55 school safety officers,
24:57 school guardians, school security guards, and their use of, um,
25:01 the mechanical restraints.
25:03 And so they were excluded from that.
25:05 We do not, um, do mechanical restraints unless it’s something
25:08 that’s prescribed by, um, could be medical,
25:10 it could be our therapist, um, for very specific reasons that
25:14 are identified in the policy.
25:16 Okay.
25:17 Thank you.
25:18 Anybody else?
25:19 Okay.
25:20 And that is going to conclude our public hearings.
25:25 Now Dr. Sullivan will provide the youth truth survey results.
25:28 Dr. Sullivan.
25:29 All right, good afternoon board members, Dr. Mullins, and of
25:56 course our visitors to the
25:56 district.
25:57 Really excited to share some additional information to you today.
25:59 And I would argue the most important data we get.
26:04 I know you guys know how much I love data, but there’s nothing
26:09 more powerful than the voices
26:11 of our students and what the students are telling us about their
26:15 experience in our schools.
26:17 And so our continued expectation to value student voice, um,
26:22 really thrilled about giving you
26:23 some updates.
26:24 Lots of information to cause us to reflect and professional and,
26:31 uh, growth opportunities.
26:32 I would say based on the data, but we’re always up for the
26:35 challenge to improve how we serve
26:37 our students.
26:38 And so today we’re going to quick, well, not quickly, the length
26:42 of your part will be an
26:44 overview of the findings for our elementary, middle and high
26:48 school students.
26:49 I’m going to give you just a quick refresher on the reporting
26:53 features and then talk a little
26:54 bit about how our schools use these resources to improve
26:58 outcomes for students and to improve
27:00 the student experience as a whole.
27:02 Along the way, I’m fortunate to say we’ve taken some pretty cool
27:06 actions on some of this data
27:08 already and share you some of the ways that we think we’re
27:11 improving experiences for our kids.
27:13 So elementary first, going to talk about the response of our
27:16 students.
27:17 Just as a reminder, this is data from third through sixth grade.
27:22 And the questions are different, framed a little different for
27:25 the different grade bands.
27:27 96% response rate.
27:30 That is a huge data set.
27:32 And as a statistics person, this gives us really strong, um,
27:38 reliable and valid data to make
27:39 some inferences on, on how we can do a better job.
27:42 Uh, we now have three years worth of data.
27:44 And I would like to point out that school year 2020 is pre COVID.
27:49 So it’s, it’s an interesting, uh, shift where you’ll have pre
27:53 COVID data.
27:54 Cause we do it in January.
27:56 You’ll have like right in the thick of things, uh, COVID in
27:59 school year 21, where many of our
28:01 students were being served in e-learning.
28:03 And then of course now school year 22, that we had hopes and
28:07 dreams to be, uh, returning to some of the, um, standards that
28:12 we had in the past.
28:13 But you know, it’s throwing us some curve balls.
28:15 Fortunately, our teachers are handling it.
28:17 Um, overall, um, you can see a pretty common return to school
28:23 year 20.
28:24 What I find really powerful is when you see patterns like this,
28:29 for example, the engagements are all 88 to 90.
28:33 Our culture is all within a span.
28:35 This tells you that the kids are reading the questions and they’re
28:39 reliable over the years and how they’re interpreting them.
28:41 So from a statistical point of view, it gives us a lot of faith
28:45 in the information.
28:46 I know everybody’s eyes are going right to that culture decline.
28:49 We’ll be talking about that and some of the things we’re doing
28:52 to improve that experience for our students.
28:54 But if you look back, it’s actually a return to school year 20.
28:58 And I don’t say that with value, good or bad, just more factual
29:02 based.
29:02 So we’ll talk a little bit more about some of the details.
29:05 And so again, we try to see what patterns of information does
29:10 our data tell us.
29:11 And so in this first set of summary data, I’ve given you by
29:14 grade level an opportunity to look at how our third, fourth,
29:19 fifth and sixth graders responded in general.
29:23 And you’ll start to see some patterns in our sixth graders.
29:28 And I’ll talk a little bit more about that as we get to the
29:31 middle school discussion and we’ll talk about it.
29:34 When we look at our self-identified racial and ethnic, you’ll
29:39 see not significant distinction amongst the data.
29:43 So that’s good information for us to know as well.
29:46 The results are fairly consistent against our ethnic and racial
29:50 groups.
29:51 So I was really interested in this question this year.
29:55 How much has the virus changed your life?
29:57 And so just as a point of note, that red bar on the bottom tells
30:03 you that it went down.
30:04 But I would suggest that’s a good went down, right?
30:06 So that’s a positive decline.
30:08 That 52 is just a little note for you letting you know this is
30:12 what it was last year.
30:13 So right now just under 50% of our elementary students are still
30:18 feeling a rather significant impact from how the virus has
30:23 impacted their lives.
30:24 Did a check across our racial and ethnic groups as well.
30:27 I’ll let you take a look at that data.
30:36 And then these words and these perspectives of our students are
30:41 just some of the most important.
30:43 Do you think your teacher wants you to work your hardest?
30:46 Right?
30:47 That’s an important question.
30:48 When we think about the research we know on teacher expectations,
30:52 right?
30:52 The importance of teacher expectations on student outcomes.
30:56 You got to love that 90%.
30:58 I mean, we have very few data points with that high of a number.
31:02 And although it’s a slight decline, it’s a decline from 91,
31:05 right?
31:05 So our students believe in their teachers’ belief in them.
31:10 We see a decline here.
31:12 Does your teacher ask you to keep trying when the work gets hard?
31:15 And I think that’s a pretty big decline in those two responses.
31:19 For me, one of the patterns that you’re going to see in all
31:22 three grade bands is potentially importance on metacognition.
31:26 The importance of having more explicit named conversations with
31:32 students on I want you to keep trying through this difficulty.
31:35 And the importance of being super explicit about those steps, I
31:40 think that reveals itself throughout much of the data.
31:43 And then again, does your teacher want you to do your best?
31:46 Huge number there.
31:47 So this is a gut punch one, right?
31:53 This is one that sucks you in the stomach.
31:56 And you guys know I love all data.
31:58 Some of it makes us celebrate.
32:00 Some of us gives us cause for reflection in how we can make some
32:03 adjustments.
32:04 Do you like attending your class?
32:06 And again, I think this is critical.
32:09 Students perform better when they have joy.
32:11 They have excitement going to class.
32:13 They feel valued.
32:14 They feel a sense of belonging.
32:16 And so that’s a data point that I know just by being right next
32:20 door to Ms. Klein.
32:21 I know for her schools and for my schools, we’ve had a lot of
32:24 conversations with principals.
32:25 Have some small student groups.
32:28 Have some follow-up discussions with your students on what are
32:32 the things that perhaps could impact that.
32:35 You know, point of emphasis, this isn’t a one and done set of
32:38 data.
32:38 This is, all right, let’s have some conversations.
32:41 Let’s explore that more.
32:43 And so that was a decline from 48%.
32:46 And then look at the grade bands.
32:48 That bar to the right.
32:50 Look at the sixth grade.
32:52 And I’m pointing out sixth grade because we are in the midst of,
32:58 I know many of you know,
32:59 a substantial year and a half long reimagining middle school
33:03 process.
33:04 We’re examining all sorts of data, best practices, research,
33:10 everything you can imagine with a cross-functional team to
33:12 include sixth grade.
33:14 So when we’re looking at our middle schools, we’re looking at
33:17 sixth, seventh, and eighth.
33:19 Our team has elementary principals as well as sixth grade
33:23 teachers on that team.
33:24 So we are working collectively to impact that experience of our
33:28 sixth and seventh and eighth graders based on the data that we’ve
33:32 seen.
33:33 So we’ve been working through that process all year and we’re
33:36 going to continue next year and even into the summer.
33:38 So additional questions there.
33:41 Does that work really make you think?
33:44 In case we weren’t feeling that one so much.
33:47 But do you learn a lot?
33:48 You did a pretty big number on learning a lot in your classes.
33:51 Do you learn interesting things?
33:54 Does what you learn in class help you outside of the school?
33:57 And I think that speaks to the need for an increase in relevancy.
34:02 One of the words that has stuck with us in our middle school
34:07 team is purposeful and the importance of a purposeful education,
34:12 especially for those intermediate grades.
34:15 Kids feeling connected to the purpose of the outcome.
34:18 We’re looking at things like service learning, project based
34:21 learning, and again, crossing over from elementary into middle
34:27 school to impact more and more students.
34:32 Take a look at this next set of questions.
34:35 And again, you’ll see school year 20, a rise in 21, and then
34:41 kind of a leveling off, I would say, in 22.
34:45 Some opportunities for our schools.
34:48 The question like, “Does your teacher ask if you understand what
34:51 you are learning?”
34:52 I think these questions in general speak to the power and
34:58 importance of questioning skills.
35:00 Of asking those probing questions.
35:03 Of restating questions for students.
35:05 And again, being really explicit on how we use our question
35:10 skills to understand areas for additional support, acceleration,
35:16 or remediation.
35:17 You know, we never want that, “Okay, does anybody have any
35:19 questions?”
35:20 Right?
35:21 So, again, being really much more specific about how you’re
35:26 using those opportunities to understand the student’s strengths
35:30 and weaknesses and targeting those in your work.
35:38 So, this is always an interesting one.
35:40 And you’re going to see this exact same pattern in elementary,
35:45 middle, and high.
35:46 And I feel like it’s worth highlighting.
35:49 You know, from the mouths of babes, if you will.
35:51 So, the question, “Do students in your class treat this teacher
35:56 with respect?”
35:57 These are students basically holding their peers accountable to
36:03 how they have been towards the adults.
36:06 These are students saying that about other students.
36:09 And then you look at the converse on how our teachers treat the
36:13 students.
36:14 So, frustrating but makes you smile at the same time that the
36:20 students really do recognize the efforts that our teachers are
36:24 making and treating all students respectfully.
36:26 And that much work needs to be done, again, in some of our
36:31 student spaces, working with our families, working with
36:34 community organizations, working with stakeholders to continue
36:38 to teach those behaviors that are much more productive in a
36:44 classroom environment.
36:46 And you’ll see this same pattern here, right?
36:49 “Do students behave well in your class?”
36:51 Like, you probably wouldn’t have guessed that the students would
36:55 be so exacting in their response.
36:57 So, again, I’d like to mention 97% of our students responded to
37:02 this survey.
37:03 And a significant portion of those students did not respond
37:07 favorably to that question.
37:09 I think you’re seeing a lot of work in leading and learning
37:13 student services and across the district.
37:17 And really, not only strengthening teachers, but really
37:22 responding to sort of some new circumstances that we’re seeing
37:26 in classrooms now.
37:27 Working with parents a little differently.
37:29 Working with those community agencies.
37:31 Making sure students have support for mental health services and
37:34 social workers and things like that.
37:36 As you can imagine, something we take very seriously is do you
37:42 feel safe in school?
37:44 And if you dug deeper into some of the dimensions, you can see a
37:47 little bit more information related to that.
37:50 But again, Maslow’s, right?
37:52 Students learn first when they feel safe.
37:55 When their basic needs are being met.
37:57 So we certainly want to, again, have more conversations with
38:01 students.
38:02 This has opened the door for us to say, what are those things
38:06 that make you feel unsafe?
38:07 What are some things we can do differently?
38:09 In some cases, it might just be how seating is in the cafeteria
38:13 during lunch, right?
38:15 There are things that we actually control that maybe we don’t
38:19 realize the students are responding to.
38:22 A great example is one of my middle schools earlier this year
38:27 separated out class change by 7th and 8th graders.
38:30 It was this tiny little change that transformed the school.
38:35 It was night and day.
38:37 And that was, again, listening to students tell us about the
38:40 things that cause them stress,
38:42 give them consternation, and maybe, you know, get them in a
38:46 condition where they’re not learning best.
38:48 Take a look at our grade bands there again.
38:52 And one day we’re going to switch that span in elementary school.
38:55 Those 6th graders are going to be highest soon enough.
38:57 I’m on a mission.
38:59 Love this question.
39:02 Do you feel a part of your school community?
39:05 And, you know, we’ve had a lot of hard conversations with our
39:09 school leaders, our school staff,
39:11 about really thinking about all the different types of students
39:16 in your school and do we have opportunities for them.
39:19 A couple things I want to mention with our ESSER, we’ll be
39:23 adding clubs next year.
39:25 in elementary middle and high school we’re having a lot of
39:29 additional funding
39:30 for programming to eliminate barriers so one of our big mantras
39:34 was utilize
39:35 funding to eliminate barriers so more students can be positively
39:39 engaged with
39:39 activities and hopefully by eliminating those barriers amplifying
39:44 programming
39:45 we’ll be able to strengthen that sense of community for our
39:50 students
39:50 you’ll see the sixth grade spread again you’ll see that top
39:55 right and then I
39:56 also gave you this data point in terms of our ethnic and racial
40:01 groups I would
40:02 like to point out although the the bans look significant when
40:05 you actually look
40:06 at the numbers it’s it’s not as large as perhaps the picture but
40:10 we do want to
40:11 target anywhere where any of our students are not feeling a part
40:16 of their school
40:16 community another big question we like to key in on is when I’m
40:23 feeling adult and
40:24 when I’m feeling upset there’s an adult from school I can talk
40:27 to you guys know
40:28 when somebody’s feeling upset when I’m feeling upset we’re not
40:31 in a space of
40:32 learning we’re not in a space of collegiality and we’re probably
40:35 not even
40:36 listening right like we our brain goes to another space and
40:41 having an ability to
40:43 talk to someone talk through your issues is really important we’re
40:48 seeing a lot of
40:48 work kind of what’s old is new again and looking at advisory
40:53 programs mentorships
40:54 the work we’ve done with our free volunteers and mentors on
40:59 campus we think
41:00 are really important and somebody having that reliable adult to
41:04 talk to
41:05 let you take a look at those questions by grade band
41:13 you know all of those are important somebody at my school
41:19 somebody in my
41:20 life right so when you look at look at the percentages of the
41:25 second question
41:26 the responses like for third graders was higher with somebody in
41:33 the school in some
41:36 cases it’s somebody outside of school that’s higher but we
41:39 certainly love
41:40 students having a little more self-efficacy and learning the
41:45 strategies on how to cope
41:47 when they’re upset as well it’s all very important
41:55 go ahead stop if you guys have any elementary questions and I
41:59 know you all have access to the full data set as well I just I
41:59 just wondered how much of the some of this is a lack of
41:59 engagement right it’s been because the last couple years
41:59 elementary school hasn’t been what it’s some of the things that
41:59 the kids live for they get excited for that build up in the
41:59 weeks our field trip and those kinds of things that the strings
41:59 programs and some of those things that they weren’t really able
41:59 to participate in as fully
41:59 and i know you all have access to the full data set as well i
42:03 just i just wondered um how much of
42:06 the some of this is a lack of engagement right it’s been because
42:09 the last couple years elementary
42:11 school hasn’t been what it’s some of the things that the kids
42:14 live for they get excited for that
42:15 build up in the weeks our field trips and those kinds of things
42:20 the the strings programs and some
42:22 of those things that they weren’t really able to participate in
42:25 as fully as we have in the past and
42:27 i know that’s that’s not just here in brevard you know i would
42:30 like to think in my mind that if we
42:32 hadn’t had covid these numbers could have gone up up but i know
42:35 you know having a kid who just got out
42:36 of elementary missing that sixth grade field trip to kennedy
42:40 space center you know it hurt um so you
42:43 know i it’s i’m glad to see that we are putting the the effort
42:48 and the resources into these clubs which
42:51 for some are just the it’s the trick the i don’t call it a trick
42:55 but that’s the thing to get them
42:56 engaged so that they’ll be more focused during the day as well
42:59 and have that sense that they want to be
43:01 there and and that what they’re doing is important yeah you know
43:06 i can only hypothesize but i would
43:10 suggest it’s the big things and the little things it’s the big
43:14 events it’s those opportunities it’s
43:16 it’s that stuff that becomes part of the culture of the school
43:20 community those things you’re speaking of
43:22 um but i would also suggest those little like micro
43:26 communications with children at school
43:29 how they get off the bus how they enter the cafeteria all of
43:33 those little things really matter too
43:35 and um you know i i think all of it’s a good opportunity taught
43:40 you know training in our
43:41 service staff that are either in our cafeteria our buses our
43:46 front office the school crossing guards right i i think
43:50 every single part of our organization can impact those positive
43:54 feelings of culture
43:56 so i would say the little and the big and certainly this fall
44:01 was not what we wanted in terms of how
44:03 seats were set up in classrooms all of those things that you’ve
44:07 mentioned that teachers have worked
44:09 really hard over the years to create a sense of community in the
44:12 classroom even some of the cooperative
44:14 learning structures um have diminished and so we’re really
44:18 looking forward to a lot of robust
44:21 uh training opportunities this summer summer school programming
44:25 um you know jane has expanded her summer
44:28 school program from her original schools to even more schools
44:31 even more teachers even more assistants
44:34 we’ve got a lot going on in secondary schools for the sole
44:38 purpose of creating those positive
44:40 connections for with school um so i would say yes to all of the
44:45 above and that we’ve got to consider
44:48 the big things and the little things
44:52 our middles boy our middles are a good time well can i and so i’m
44:56 sorry i i apologize i just started
44:59 rolling hey um so i i don’t necessarily disagree with you miss
45:03 campbell but i think what’s important
45:05 to take from this data um is something that you highlighted dr
45:08 sullivan that the data is giving
45:10 us interesting information it’s giving us pre-covid during covid
45:13 and post-covid and if you really look at
45:15 some of these numbers they are higher during covid and so i
45:18 think it’s important as a district and as a
45:20 community to recognize as awful as covid was and as difficult as
45:25 it was for our community and as a
45:27 school system what were the positive things that were impacting
45:30 these numbers to go up um and how
45:33 can we keep that going forward so was it because they were
45:35 engaging in technology was it because parents
45:38 were kind of forced to be really really involved in that
45:41 educational experience um i think it’s really
45:43 important that we that we look at that and not just only look at
45:46 it as a negative because clearly there
45:48 were some positive things going on for our students and maybe we
45:50 should dig a little deeper into what
45:52 those were for them and what the differences are now um and then
45:55 there was one other thing um that
45:58 question about uh students identifying whether or not their
46:01 peers respect their teachers um i think
46:05 another piece for us to pay attention to who could also be
46:09 students uh understanding and interpreting that
46:12 those students behaviors towards those teachers are also
46:14 impacting their learning experience and that’s kind of
46:16 their way of letting us know um that that’s a problem for them
46:19 and impacting them directly yeah i i certainly in all
46:24 the interviews that i do in terms of one-on-one students i hear
46:27 that often um so thank you miss jenkins i i
46:30 i couldn’t agree more that um our post-covid work is not
46:36 returned to before right it is taking all of the
46:42 strengths across different modalities structures and systems and
46:47 learn from it and kids are different
46:50 right so all of those things combined how do we use all of our
46:53 professionalism and knowledge to better serve
46:56 kids and i would i would absolutely echo lots of cool things
47:00 happen during covid and we saw resiliency
47:03 certainly on the rise from our staff and our students and our
47:05 families as we get to our middles
47:09 um we see a 91 response rate still a huge response rate giant
47:14 data set um with our middle schoolers and
47:18 lots of information for us to digest is here as well one of the
47:22 things dr mullins is it really culture
47:26 that low across the board i said unfortunately from our students
47:30 perspective it is and he’s like well
47:32 can you double check and i was like okay i’ll double check and
47:35 uh and it was right so it’s really sitting
47:37 with all of us that this is something that we’ve really got to
47:40 think about i want to mention elementary
47:42 middle and high school principals have all had you know
47:46 extensive information on how to use this data
47:49 get more information and actually improve these circumstances
47:53 for students hopefully this is a
47:55 number that we’re going to just see on the rise from this point
47:58 on um we have a few different other
48:03 demographic groups in our middles because again these are self-identified
48:08 data points
48:09 so you’ll see by grade level not a real difference i was
48:12 actually surprised by that
48:14 um expected to see eighth grade a little bit more substantially
48:19 impacted particularly because
48:20 those kids had a disrupted sixth grade and seventh grade
48:23 experience um when you look at
48:26 self-reported grades this this one gives me such such pause and
48:31 um students in middle school and high
48:34 school are able to respond to what they’ve selected as i get
48:37 mostly a’s i get mostly b’s i get
48:39 mostly c’s or the other and so then i i say to myself you know
48:44 which comes first the chicken or the egg
48:46 right what is uh are all of these cultural belonging um social
48:53 emotional whatever these factors are
48:57 impacting students ability in doing their best or because they’re
49:00 not doing their best just we don’t
49:03 know but again it’s information for us to ask more questions if
49:07 you take a look at by race or ethnicity
49:11 you’ll see those differences and then by academic challenge and
49:18 by program meaning general education or
49:21 those identifying as special education students and by and large
49:26 throughout most of the data sets in both
49:29 middle school and high school um we actually see a lot of our
49:33 special needs students rating higher
49:36 um it’s in part potentially i’m hypothesizing of course again
49:41 smaller classrooms teachers with an
49:44 intense focus on really meeting students needs instructional
49:47 assistance and some other services that are around
49:50 personalized education and so you’ll see as we do work in
49:54 transforming our district services over the next
49:57 couple years more personalized education conversations are going
50:00 to be coming up as well
50:02 how can we learn the best of all modalities to support our kids
50:10 and then again just a couple of the big data sets there i enjoy
50:14 school most of the time that that number
50:16 is a bit of a decline there for middle school um and again we
50:20 have a middle school team really digging
50:23 deeply into this area and working together collaboratively uh
50:28 again how has the covet pandemic affected you
50:31 again you’ll see a decline there that’s a good decline and a new
50:36 question to middle school
50:37 this year was i try to do my best in school so these are kids at
50:40 an eighty percent positivity rate saying
50:43 they’re trying to do their best in school and so then how do we
50:46 how do we consider they’re trying
50:49 to do their best but they don’t enjoy school most of the time
50:52 and their experience is very different
50:55 depending on the grades they earn in class right so those are
50:58 those are things for us to to take in
51:03 academic challenge questions so i gave you this information by
51:07 racial and ethnic groups and you’ll
51:10 see the response is pretty static across all groups again
51:14 sometimes when we think there might be
51:16 differences there aren’t differences in how students respond but
51:21 again if you look you’ll see most of
51:24 the answers are hovering just around that 50 percent mark so
51:28 about half our students responding positively
51:31 do my teachers don’t let me give up when the work gets hard my
51:35 teachers want me to use thinking skills
51:37 so i i want to mention this isn’t a true or false about teachers
51:44 this is a student perception
51:46 so again it potentially comes down to are we explicitly having
51:49 those conversations in classroom
51:52 i would venture to say i’m a bit of a gambler but i would
51:55 venture to say if i went into a classroom i would
51:59 see these things that the teacher is doing universally but
52:02 perhaps it’s just more explicit conversation
52:05 around it i think there’s room for that discussion
52:08 i like the last question a lot in most of my classes i learn to
52:15 correct mistakes if i could magic wand
52:20 a strategy really robust work around incorrect answers i think
52:25 is super important to the learning
52:27 process and i would i’d love to see some real uh in-depth work
52:32 whenever there’s answers missed in any
52:35 setting in math science anything because that really gives you
52:39 an insight into the misstep in learning so
52:42 love that question you’ll see that for years to come
52:45 these are two new questions as well the first one’s a new
52:51 question i feel like i will be ready for
52:53 high school when i finish middle school i love that question i
52:57 don’t love the 55 percent but i love the
53:00 question and we will definitely be keying in a little bit more
53:03 of that again i’ll say it again with our reimagining
53:06 middle school team and it’s a great metric for us because we
53:10 want students to leave eighth grade just
53:12 personally believing and having those skill sets to be
53:15 successful and again working hard it’s a pretty
53:19 high response there that i do have to work hard to be successful
53:23 i love that that’s a high response
53:27 again you’ll see a couple of the other ones uh from the
53:31 elementary i feel safe during school
53:33 in the survey itself we can see by classroom by lunchroom by
53:40 hallway in classroom is by and large
53:42 where they feel the safest and so working with principals and
53:46 looking at their student responses
53:49 to say okay most of our students feel unsafe in the locker room
53:55 or in the in the hallway or in the
53:57 cafeteria how can we then modify those spaces to have students
54:02 feel more safe adults from my schools
54:06 try to stop bullying and harassment 58 of our students responded
54:11 affirmatively to that
54:12 and then you’ll see a couple other culture indicators over the
54:17 years meaning the three-year span
54:19 discipline in this school is fair my classmates want to do well
54:27 in school and again you’ll see the two contrasting ones that we’ve
54:32 been talking about adults from my
54:34 school treat students respect pretty high response in the scale
54:38 of the middle school world and then
54:41 students from my school treat adults with respect that decline
54:45 there
54:46 and then again i feel a part of my school community
54:52 very aggressively going after that indicator adding intramurals
54:57 next year additional clubs
54:58 in the next week we are going to be rolling out 57 different
55:04 exciting enrichment programs for summer for
55:07 our students everything from learning to swim to robotics to
55:11 getting your pilot’s license and drones to
55:14 sewing to cooking all bunch of positive enrichment programs for
55:19 students to create those positive connections with school
55:22 and in some cases get an extremely relevant education so that’s
55:26 coming soon
55:27 i could be myself around students quite frankly for middle
55:31 school i was surprised with the 52
55:33 percent because that is the time where their self changes on a
55:37 daily basis and i say that with
55:38 great love i love our middles and most students are friendly to
55:43 me
55:43 moving on some additional questions regarding academic rigor you’ll
55:51 see that i had to put a box around
55:53 how many of your teachers believe that you can get a good grade
55:56 if you try
55:57 again i love that that’s our highest response we know how
56:01 critically important high teacher
56:03 expectations are so this isn’t even the teachers saying they
56:06 have high expectations because the
56:08 teachers would also say that but the students feel that their
56:11 teachers have high expectations
56:13 for them and we know how much power there is in that and i’ll
56:17 let you take a look at the other ones as well
56:19 you know one of the notes for our staff how many of your
56:23 teachers try to understand what your life is like
56:25 outside of school one of the you know everything’s a blessing
56:31 and a curse one of the the difficulties in a 47
56:34 minute period is we want that bell-to-bell instruction we want
56:38 student engagement and our teachers have
56:40 six cycles of classroom coming through and in really good
56:45 instructional focus they are getting those
56:49 kids engaged right from the start is there a way to honor that
56:53 but honor our students really
56:55 feeling that value from their teachers one of the things we talk
56:58 about a lot is our students being
57:00 known valued and inspired and i would say that known is first it’s
57:05 the first step in really feeling
57:07 valued and inspired this is a question we also mentioned with
57:12 our elementaries when i’m feeling upset
57:15 stressed or having problems there’s an adult from the school who
57:18 i can talk to about it
57:21 so when you look at all of these questions one of the things
57:23 that are not to give you a peek to the
57:26 reimagine middle school team but we are looking at a dedicated
57:30 period of time we’re not necessarily
57:33 landing on the word homeroom yet but some version of that where
57:37 students have a home base students
57:40 can get sorted if you will students can get help on additional
57:44 issues at the school and building that
57:47 into their schedule for all of our students one of the things we’re
57:50 trying to do is make sure every one
57:51 of our students experience that same level of support not just
57:55 what i know happens at this school or what
57:57 i know happens at that school we want all of our students to
58:00 have opportunities for support and focus
58:05 this is an important one for us
58:07 this is where the students are telling us their barriers to
58:12 being successful and there’s nothing
58:15 more important than that in my book and so this is where the
58:18 students have an opportunity on the
58:21 question to select what is their greatest barrier to success so
58:25 over 50 of our students selected
58:30 at least once feeling depressed stressed or anxious
58:34 and you’ll see some of the other highlights there’s a few other
58:39 categories as well
58:40 but at least more than half of our students selected that at
58:44 least once and the most of our students than
58:47 any other single criteria and then interestingly is that home
58:51 and family responsibility
58:56 if you’re like me that’s giving you a pause while you’re sitting
58:58 there looking at it because i had
58:59 a pause when i was sitting there looking at what does that look
59:02 like how can we help with that for
59:04 some of our older kids it’s often some caregiving
59:07 responsibilities getting the younger one out of the house
59:10 and obviously as they get older additional other
59:13 responsibilities to include being financial
59:17 contributors to the household but i was surprised by that number
59:21 and a pretty big increase from the year before
59:24 of home and family responsibilities causing student strife to me
59:28 as an educator that talks to the
59:31 critical role of social workers the critical role of our new our
59:35 new parent liaisons
59:37 the critical role of people that connect full services to our
59:42 families to make sure that
59:43 they’re getting those advantages
59:45 so i’m going to flip back for a minute for you so 55 percent of
59:54 our students expressed feeling
59:57 depressed strength or anxious only 32 percent of our students
1:00:02 reported that when they’re feeling
1:00:04 stressed or having problems my school has programs or services
1:00:07 that can help me and so they’re telling us
1:00:10 their number one barrier is stress and anxiousness so they’re
1:00:14 telling us that they’re not aware of
1:00:16 programming now we all know in the roles that we’re in there’s
1:00:19 an extraordinary amount of programs and services
1:00:22 and so again this speaks to being extremely explicit with all
1:00:27 students sometimes
1:00:30 we may key in on a group of students that we presume and we know
1:00:35 when they do need these services but
1:00:37 there’s a lot of silence too and one of the things that’s really
1:00:41 important i would say especially with
1:00:43 middle schoolers is to listen to the silence listen to what they’re
1:00:47 not telling us as much as they are
1:00:49 telling us and so there are a wide range of programs available
1:00:53 going to be talking to our principals
1:00:55 tomorrow about are they really putting that information out
1:01:02 there in a way that makes sense for
1:01:04 how students receive that information it’s super easy when you
1:01:08 see see news like this and it’s the same
1:01:11 conversation with college and coretti oh well we do this this
1:01:14 right we get into that list mode but the
1:01:17 problem is the students don’t feel it so we have to say and
1:01:21 understand from our students how can we give
1:01:23 you this information on your terms so where you’re aware of all
1:01:27 the programming available especially
1:01:29 our silent ones our ones that aren’t jumping out at us i need
1:01:33 support and those are the ones that we
1:01:35 want to make sure have the information as well and so uh the
1:01:39 questions to the right i always enjoy
1:01:42 particularly with our middles when talking to students at my
1:01:45 school i feel comfortable talking about my
1:01:47 religion disability i have how much fun money my family has if
1:01:51 you guys i don’t know if you remember
1:01:53 from last year you know i have one of those crazy memories both
1:01:58 years finance differences is the greatest
1:02:03 perceived differences in students they feel more strongly uh
1:02:07 stigma if you will from financial
1:02:10 differences and they do from cultural ethnic racial anything
1:02:13 else and that’s important for our
1:02:15 teachers right are you putting things out there where their
1:02:18 financial differences is going to reveal
1:02:20 itself is and then might be a barrier for a student like oh hey
1:02:24 i need you each to write a hundred dollar check
1:02:26 right um so you’ll see an arp esser uh we’ve virtually
1:02:30 eliminated all fees for the next couple years so
1:02:34 do that normally in a career in technical education might have
1:02:38 to pay a 20 fee they won’t under our arp esser
1:02:40 time they might need to pay a 10 art fee right so those programs
1:02:45 that we know are so very good for kids
1:02:48 have a little bit of financial gatekeeping we’re eliminating
1:02:52 those as we can supplement that with
1:02:54 our resources high school you know our response rate has gone
1:03:01 down a bit um but again anything 70
1:03:04 percent or over is really considered extraordinarily high um
1:03:07 youth truth reminded us that this is a super
1:03:10 high response rate um take a look at those aggregate datas boy
1:03:17 you’re seeing the same patterns right so we have
1:03:21 96 percent of elementary students 91 of middle 80 of our high
1:03:26 school students giving us almost an identical
1:03:29 pattern of response to me they’re talking to us they’re telling
1:03:34 us hey this is where we want to see
1:03:36 you know perhaps some improved services in our programming again
1:03:41 these are the big clusters to see
1:03:45 do our students perceive questions differently so again you’ll
1:03:49 see the mostly a’s mostly b’s mostly c’s
1:03:51 and mostly d’s and while you can see they perceive things
1:03:54 differently again the chicken or the egg is
1:03:57 really the the great question there um by special education and
1:04:01 general education program remember i mentioned
1:04:03 that in middles by and large our special education students have
1:04:07 a higher response in many of these categories
1:04:11 um you’ll see by race and ethnicity and that’s kind of up and
1:04:16 down right and often questions you’ll see
1:04:19 our african-american students rated highest some of our white
1:04:23 you know it it’s really indiscriminate
1:04:25 i i would say and that’s also interesting data when you take a
1:04:29 look at by grade level it’s almost identical
1:04:32 across the grade level spans which was actually a bit of a
1:04:35 surprise for me and not usually the case
1:04:39 we’re seeing a pretty big decline in how covid pandemic is
1:04:45 impacting you i thought this one might
1:04:47 also be interested uh by male female so in every one of these i
1:04:51 would look at all the distinguishers
1:04:54 and find something interesting almost everybody identified identically
1:04:58 with this one either by race
1:05:00 or by grade level or by income except our males and females this
1:05:04 was the only category the only breakdown
1:05:07 when we saw a really big difference in how they experienced
1:05:10 covid i have zero hypotheses for this
1:05:13 one um i just thought it was interesting and so i wanted to
1:05:17 share that data and you can uh also see
1:05:19 by our racial and ethnic groups as well and then our uh
1:05:24 questions around taking pride in school work
1:05:30 trying to do the best enjoying school teachers expectations and
1:05:35 what i learned and look at that
1:05:37 based on grades right so if we can impact a student’s perception
1:05:44 of these issues could we have an increase
1:05:47 in grades you know that those are the things to ponder on uh as
1:05:51 we look at strategies
1:05:58 i like this question for high school am i able to focus on my
1:06:02 schoolwork there’s so many competing
1:06:04 pressures that are going on in a high school student’s life just
1:06:09 under half of our kids felt like
1:06:11 they could focus and then take a look at the barriers again same
1:06:16 exact high barriers feeling depressed
1:06:20 strengths or anxious and those home and family responsibilities
1:06:25 the surprise also high one here
1:06:27 was their health and the health of their family as you know look
1:06:30 at if you look at this at least a third
1:06:33 of students selected that as a barrier to being successful in
1:06:37 school something for us to think about
1:06:42 and then on the bottom there that same contrast that 53 percent
1:06:47 of our student 57 percent of our students
1:06:50 responded that feeling depressed strengths or anxious is a
1:06:54 barrier for them to be successful
1:06:56 only 28 percent of our high school students felt that their
1:07:00 school has program or services that can help
1:07:03 them again this is in my opinion not a case of there are not
1:07:09 enough programs there’s not enough
1:07:12 connecting kids to the programs that we do have and making sure
1:07:16 all students that the silent ones
1:07:19 do understand the programs that are available to them
1:07:22 and again just a reflection on how hard they have to work i have
1:07:30 to work hard
1:07:30 the work makes me think i find that an interesting contrast but
1:07:34 it’s been the same contrast every year
1:07:38 obviously they feel pretty good about their teachers and the
1:07:41 assignments help me better understand the subject
1:07:44 couldn’t help but put this one on there in most of my classes we
1:07:49 learn a lot
1:07:50 almost every day i would have really liked 100 agree on that one
1:07:54 but you can trust that we’ll be monitoring that one to see if
1:07:59 that one goes up as we
1:08:01 as we get to better than normal and and that’s that’s our goals
1:08:05 for not just next year this summer
1:08:08 getting to better better than normal same contrast right not as
1:08:12 dramatic but still
1:08:15 students are seeing other students not show the respect that
1:08:19 they’d like to see in the classrooms
1:08:21 and seeing more of the adults giving those students respect
1:08:25 the i feel safe during school if you look at that light blue and
1:08:34 yellow those are your agree and
1:08:36 strongly agree so nearly half the students again we’d like to
1:08:39 see higher numbers there
1:08:42 how many of your students try to be fair uh this was actually a
1:08:46 bigger number than i expected you
1:08:48 know the age of that group is really keyed into uh being able to
1:08:53 you know argue for concerns and i i
1:08:56 would say that’s a tremendous attribute of a high school student
1:08:59 of a young adult
1:09:00 but most of them felt that the majority of their teachers try to
1:09:03 be fair
1:09:05 we look at are there clear rules against how students treat each
1:09:08 other do the adults intervene
1:09:10 and do i try to help other students
1:09:14 oh college and career readiness so this is the one that as you
1:09:22 guys know every year
1:09:23 has caused my emotional but we but we but we but obviously our
1:09:29 students don’t feel as supported as
1:09:31 they should feel in the college and career process a couple
1:09:34 things we’ve changed as you guys know we
1:09:37 added our sls dual enrollment program that we believe is going
1:09:41 to impact a lot of students positively
1:09:43 i believe on tonight’s board agenda you will see a job
1:09:46 description for a college and career
1:09:49 specialist and so each of our high schools will have that
1:09:53 position funded through categorical dual
1:09:55 enrollment funds so no impact to the general fund and have a
1:09:59 point person that’s really dedicated
1:10:01 to providing students that level of support and when you look at
1:10:05 our summer enrichment programs we have
1:10:07 at least five or six high schools that are running week and two
1:10:10 week long camps on everything from job
1:10:12 resumes to applying for colleges to scholarships to taxes to all
1:10:17 those life skills we’re going to see a lot
1:10:20 of those camps this summer really excited about all of those as
1:10:23 well um let you take a look and you
1:10:26 know i’d certainly like to see higher responses by our seniors
1:10:30 and juniors in particular and so that is
1:10:33 a trend again we’re carefully monitoring
1:10:35 just a couple of just different points to make with our youth
1:10:41 truth data as you all know in the report
1:10:45 you can create all kinds of combinations of information that you’d
1:10:49 like it’s a never-ending kind of click-through
1:10:52 comparisons and i do want to emphasize the backpack and our
1:10:57 backpack is our let’s see if this magically works
1:11:01 so in the backpack you will see resources for school so for
1:11:08 example where i said you know we really want to
1:11:12 improve a culture
1:11:22 i knew that was going to happen but maybe i can go to the
1:11:22 backpack without it oh yeah you can go to
1:11:27 the backpack without it so in the backpack teachers uh
1:11:31 principals teachers have resources how to understand
1:11:35 how to make meaning how to set goals so for example i could
1:11:39 click here and i could download some goal
1:11:41 setting matrices i could download some charts for my school
1:11:41 improvement planning process
1:11:48 and help me create solutions to the concerns that my students
1:11:53 are so loudly in some cases telling me
1:11:56 when we plan for improvement i can look at what are the
1:11:59 categories that i’m interested in
1:12:02 and what research-based tools are available for me to identify
1:12:07 those so you’ll see if you click on here
1:12:10 again it’ll take you through purposeful classroom we were just
1:12:14 talking about that
1:12:15 so it’ll take you through some research and strategies for our
1:12:19 school leaders and teachers to consider
1:12:22 we want to remind you our schools all do include some aspects of
1:12:26 the student survey in their school
1:12:28 improvement plan and there are several metrics in the student
1:12:32 survey in our strategic plan
1:12:33 because if not our students who indeed are the most important
1:12:37 people that we serve in our district so
1:12:41 again lots of little takeaways lots of hypotheses but those
1:12:46 create conversation conversations with families
1:12:49 conversations with students conversations with teachers about
1:12:52 how we can fill some of those gaps so
1:12:54 thank you so much for your time and happy to answer any more
1:12:57 questions thank you dr sullivan
1:13:00 anybody have questions comments i have i have one dr sullivan on
1:13:06 um you know we we’ve had some
1:13:09 conversation around this issue of students not being aware of
1:13:12 the resources available to them
1:13:13 and i love that you’re having the conversation with principals
1:13:16 tomorrow about like how can we really
1:13:18 get that information to our students in a way that they will be
1:13:21 receptive but i wonder too if we could
1:13:25 put some emphasis on ensuring that our parents are also aware of
1:13:29 those resources and maybe even community
1:13:33 because i feel like you know students might maybe they’re not
1:13:37 going to go to someone at school and
1:13:39 ask for it but a parent might notice that something’s wrong with
1:13:42 the student and not
1:13:43 have resources or not be aware of resources that they can can
1:13:47 access through the school and then you know we
1:13:51 have some mentor type people in the community that um you know
1:13:56 may even be you know i got a call the other day from
1:13:59 somebody who was talking to a parent whose child was having some
1:14:01 mental health struggles and um they
1:14:04 said you know i’m pretty sure that brevard public schools has
1:14:07 some mental health support available
1:14:09 but they couldn’t really find the information on it didn’t
1:14:11 really know where to go for it so they
1:14:13 called me and i was able to kind of connect them with you know
1:14:15 how to go about accessing those resources
1:14:17 at the school but i maybe it’s it really is just a general
1:14:22 awareness effort yeah i you’ve got my head
1:14:26 spinning with lots of ideas um a hundred percent i i would even
1:14:31 argue that some of our staff as well
1:14:33 right so you’re in a large high school and you teach english and
1:14:36 you’re teaching six and maybe seven
1:14:38 periods a day you may not always have an awareness i i think in
1:14:43 every communication every decision every
1:14:47 collaboration there’s there’s not i want to say trifecta but
1:14:51 there’s like five right so you know
1:14:54 students parents community um teachers and staff really kind of
1:14:59 all in this puzzle together and i’m
1:15:02 thinking of my friend mr brune over there and an opportunity for
1:15:05 us to collaborate on you know i think
1:15:09 about like the flowcharts right so like our flowcharts with
1:15:14 covid or flowcharts with other things we need
1:15:17 that information to be transparent we need it to be clear we
1:15:20 need to be regularly right readily accessible
1:15:23 i know one of the initiatives and kim might be able to help me
1:15:27 with esser is the find bertha
1:15:31 there’s a software platform that’s going to do a lot of resource
1:15:35 mapping for our families i know the
1:15:37 board’s doing some resource mapping um yeah i i think it’s an
1:15:41 important thing to think about and
1:15:44 even as we think about changes to the strategic plan like how do
1:15:49 we ensure that all of our community
1:15:52 really understands like i don’t know everything from answers to
1:15:58 questions but most importantly critical
1:16:00 connections when they’re struggling um yeah we’ll definitely
1:16:03 have a lot more conversations around
1:16:05 that and i’ll bring that conversation to cabinet on monday um
1:16:08 because i i i think it’s it’s a fair
1:16:12 issue we need to think about it thank you thank you um so just a
1:16:16 quick quick look up here so you have four
1:16:20 four days until mental health awareness month um so monday is a
1:16:24 perfect day to have that conversation
1:16:26 it sure is thank you i do have a question though uh so there i
1:16:31 saw over the weekend some conversation
1:16:33 about how the florida department of education was dropping out
1:16:37 of a mental health survey but did we
1:16:39 participate in that survey it was for high school i apologize i
1:16:43 can’t answer that question that’s okay
1:16:46 i know i’m bombarding with that i’m sorry her department works
1:16:49 more regularly with the doe
1:16:52 um and i don’t i don’t want to give you the wrong answer because
1:16:55 i too have the same i heard this in the
1:16:57 back of my head but i’m confident that miss moore would be happy
1:17:00 to follow up with the board on any uh
1:17:02 specifics regarding that okay i appreciate it just because i i
1:17:06 am aware of one of the help surveys
1:17:08 that we were doing through the cdc but i don’t know if it was
1:17:10 this one so i’m just curious whether
1:17:12 or not that’s going to attack that which is concerning when we’re
1:17:15 seeing the data that you’re presenting today so thanks
1:17:18 anybody else yeah thank you very much you’re welcome and i do
1:17:26 want to mention you’ve seen lena
1:17:27 why about sitting in there she is our expert um on navigating i
1:17:32 know uh i think she recently met with
1:17:35 ms mcdougall happy if you want to play with your access a little
1:17:39 bit and understand just reach out
1:17:41 and she loves to talk about those things and make sure you guys
1:17:44 have that information at your fingertips
1:17:46 as well dr sullivan thank you so much for always diving into the
1:17:52 data like you do i know that since
1:17:54 i’ve been here on the school board every time you get an
1:17:56 opportunity you’ve been like excited to look
1:17:58 at things like this so i just wanted to take a second and say
1:18:01 thank you you really go above
1:18:03 and beyond to make sure that everything we do here is followed
1:18:06 there and i wanted to say thank
1:18:07 you that’s all i appreciate it thank you thank you all very much
1:18:10 thank you all right anyone have
1:18:14 any additional business before i gavel us out all right hearing
1:18:18 no further business meeting is adjourned
1:18:24 um so