Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Thank you.
40:59 thank you.
41:29 Thank you.
1:02:58 of how these kids had such a great time this summer in our
1:02:58 schools that we’re going to see
1:02:59 increased demand next year so have we also built in the
1:03:03 opportunity for expanding uh access seats
1:03:07 we welcome the challenge so we would love to to build that in
1:03:13 yeah they built in
1:03:14 i see a thumbs up even without my glasses coming perfect thank
1:03:18 you so much anybody else have
1:03:21 comments or questions for dr mullins okay i would just say first
1:03:25 of all yes absolutely thanks and
1:03:27 kudos to the summer programming it was it was spot on spot on
1:03:31 and i love the variety in particular
1:03:34 i have to you know the school grades i think the media and
1:03:39 social media which is not the whole world
1:03:42 but sometimes we start thinking that it is i think the piece
1:03:45 that they’re missing in all this is that
1:03:47 if you go to the department of education’s website all you can
1:03:51 see is this year’s grades and the grades
1:03:52 from 2019 because we decided to opt out of 2021 but it doesn’t
1:03:57 mean that we weren’t graded it doesn’t
1:03:59 mean we weren’t paying attention to those and so when we talk
1:04:01 about all this this improved and this
1:04:02 improved it was based off of those years because we need to
1:04:07 recognize how what the challenge was that
1:04:11 through three months of no school through the year with you know
1:04:15 anywhere from 40 you know
1:04:18 to 60 percent of our students doing e-learning at any one time
1:04:21 and all the quarantine everything
1:04:23 we lost a lot in that year and so our our grades and there were
1:04:26 some highlights but overall grades
1:04:29 last year that we made optional because we didn’t want to
1:04:31 discourage our students and staff and schools
1:04:34 um you know and the state gave us an opportunity to opt out that
1:04:38 we it was really um it was eye-opening
1:04:41 it gave us that uh that baseline for here’s here’s here’s how
1:04:46 far we have to go right and so we don’t need
1:04:51 to poopoo on any uh on these improvements because we look back
1:04:54 at 2019 and go oh you weren’t as good as
1:04:57 as you were 2019 we need to recognize the community needs to
1:05:00 recognize the huge dip that we all took
1:05:02 across the state across the nation and then the way that even
1:05:06 with this year’s many quarantines and
1:05:09 many um distractions and and all of that that our students and
1:05:13 staff did this great work with that
1:05:16 challenge continuing because it’s not like you know coveted in
1:05:20 september it didn’t in december january and
1:05:23 you know here we go again um so i i just want to emphasize that
1:05:27 because that all of that really
1:05:29 great work needs to be recognized by our community because we’ve
1:05:33 climbed out of a hole that was not
1:05:35 created by our own making um and our our teachers and staff our
1:05:39 students man they did great work
1:05:41 and i know that we’re we’re on the right path the trajectory is
1:05:45 is going in the right direction
1:05:46 in so many ways so appreciate all of you thank you miss campbell
1:05:50 great points anybody else
1:05:53 dr mullin miss belford if i may just add i should have i should
1:05:56 have made mention to the schools
1:05:57 there were five schools who were identified as incomplete grade
1:06:01 i just want to add some clarification
1:06:03 to that that doesn’t mean they will not receive a school grade
1:06:07 what that means is is that their percent
1:06:09 of students tested was below the state required 95 percent and
1:06:14 so the state initially says okay incomplete
1:06:17 now we have to validate and verify the enrollment and so one of
1:06:20 the first things they do is look at is the
1:06:23 participation and testing consistent with your average daily
1:06:27 attendance as a school and then second
1:06:30 is the distribution of students absent representative of the
1:06:34 student population in the school
1:06:37 so that it cannot be suggested a certain population of students
1:06:41 were uh not participating in testing
1:06:44 so we are we have every anticipation and expectation that once
1:06:48 the state validates or verifies that
1:06:50 uh that within the coming weeks those five schools will receive
1:06:54 a grade and we are as optimistic that
1:06:57 they will uh present some impressive accomplishment along with
1:07:02 some of our other schools so to my five schools
1:07:05 out there hang in there or uh we’re just we got to work through
1:07:08 the process but we have no anticipation
1:07:11 to be any any surprises there or that they would not receive a
1:07:13 school break and finally i uh i i would be
1:07:18 completely remiss if i didn’t take at least a moment and
1:07:22 acknowledge that going into closing a school year
1:07:26 doing a summer and getting ready to start a new school year you
1:07:31 know
1:07:34 taking this summer to catch our breath but i have to give a
1:07:37 shout out to our leadership in leading and
1:07:40 learning miss klein dr sullivan they not only didn’t take a
1:07:44 breath they put their foot on the
1:07:47 accelerator to make this expansive array of opportunities
1:07:51 available to our students so thank you to their
1:07:54 leadership and supporting our schools to make these
1:07:57 opportunities available absolutely thank you so much dr mullins
1:08:03 all right we are now at the public comment portion of the
1:08:05 meeting on agenda items we have two speakers
1:08:08 therefore each speaker will receive three minutes please note
1:08:10 that the time is per speaker not per
1:08:12 agenda item topics not specific to agenda items will be moved to
1:08:15 the non-agenda portion of the meeting
1:08:17 we have a clock in front of me to help you keep track of your
1:08:19 time when your time is over you’ll be
1:08:21 asked to stop and allow the next speaker his or her turn always
1:08:24 keep in mind that reasonable decorum is
1:08:26 expected and your statement should be directed to the board
1:08:29 chair the chair may interrupt warn or terminated
1:08:31 participants statement statement when time is up it’s personally
1:08:33 directed abusive obscene or relevant
1:08:35 should an individual not observe proper etiquette the chair may
1:08:39 request the individual to leave the meeting
1:08:41 we have two speakers this morning anthony calucci and katie delaney
1:08:47 if you all would not mind
1:08:49 getting on deck for me
1:09:01 my name is anthony calucci i’m the president of the brevard federation
1:09:08 of teachers
1:09:10 we are 20 days out from the start of school and had 231
1:09:16 instructional vacancies yesterday
1:09:19 we still have an elementary school with 21 vacancies what’s the
1:09:24 plan dr mullins what’s the plan school
1:09:27 board members from what i can tell the plan is the status quo
1:09:32 put more on teachers while offering them
1:09:35 raises far far below what other districts are offering their
1:09:38 teachers then tell us you wish you could do
1:09:42 more and maybe next year we’ll give you a competitive raise
1:09:45 board members you can try to ignore that
1:09:48 synopsis all you want but that’s the message our teachers are
1:09:52 hearing loudly and clearly again this year
1:09:55 and to be frank every misstep you take you lose more and more
1:09:59 teachers to retirement charter schools other
1:10:02 counties and other industries at negotiations yesterday i
1:10:07 requested that any of you show up to the bargaining
1:10:10 table and explain to your teachers that although they’re amongst
1:10:14 the worst paid teachers in the state
1:10:16 and in the nation why they should accept a lower recurring raise
1:10:21 than teachers in other districts
1:10:23 please dr mullins please board chair belford we’ll be at the
1:10:27 table at two o’clock today
1:10:29 come explain your rationale to our teachers the boogeyman you’re
1:10:33 creating around health insurance
1:10:35 isn’t cutting it anymore you can’t use that excuse for three
1:10:38 years and counting
1:10:39 at this point our insurance issues are uniquely a bps problem
1:10:44 and it doesn’t mean our teachers
1:10:46 shouldn’t get a competitive raise because you can’t manage the
1:10:50 plan this year we are told the sky
1:10:52 was falling when it came to insurance only now to see the data
1:10:56 shows a surplus in the trust fund for
1:10:58 june and once again board it’s the day-to-day bad management you
1:11:03 allow to happen that drives teachers
1:11:05 away for instance not one of you is willing to question why the
1:11:10 district is going to arbitration
1:11:11 for the same exact issue you lost five years ago none of the
1:11:16 fiscal conservatives question the expense
1:11:18 associated with outside counsel none of the moral warriors on
1:11:22 this board questioned the ignoring the
1:11:24 ruling of a neutral party instead you’re content to swindle a
1:11:28 teacher out of a deserved coaching position
1:11:31 and to prop up a community coach and a difficult difficult
1:11:34 principal at this point we’re seeing this
1:11:37 district on a downward trajectory in many ways board own what
1:11:42 you’re doing own the mess you’re in
1:11:44 it’s the result of the decisions you make thank you mr lucy miss
1:11:49 delaney
1:11:54 the first thing i’d like to speak on a5 when the chair talked
1:12:06 about giving parents kudos
1:12:12 after we’ve literally been talking about parent involvement for
1:12:15 the past two years so i just
1:12:17 it’s a little bit too late for that
1:12:21 um f-12 the budget recently i did a public records request for
1:12:27 expenditures over a thousand dollars
1:12:29 um looking for invoices from a particular um account that uh was
1:12:37 going to cost me almost four hundred
1:12:40 dollars on something that i should have access to
1:12:45 because it’s it’s it’s for the public i shouldn’t have to spend
1:12:49 four hundred dollars to see the budget
1:12:51 and to see where our money is going um and i’m here to ask that
1:12:55 you please change the way that the
1:12:57 budget is presented to the public to include invoices contracts
1:13:02 all that stuff that is public record anyway
1:13:06 um now on to f-20 the citizens uh the independent citizens
1:13:11 oversight committee can you please publish the
1:13:15 dates of the meetings um better uh either through your website
1:13:20 where you post the meetings um like the
1:13:23 school board meetings or on your facebook um just so that it’s
1:13:27 easier for people to find
1:13:30 and lastly age 32a the studies weekly contract which was almost
1:13:38 180 000 which that doesn’t seem too
1:13:42 outrageous for a curriculum purchase but my questions are when
1:13:47 are parents able to review the material and
1:13:51 what have you all done as a board to ensure that this curriculum
1:13:55 follows the new laws
1:13:57 that became active on july 1st i don’t know if anybody wants to
1:14:01 answer any of those questions
1:14:04 all right not surprised thank you thank you mr delaney
1:14:11 all right that concludes our public comments on agenda items we
1:14:17 thank you for your willingness to
1:14:18 address us um and we will move on to our if i may uh may i have
1:14:23 permission to make a response to one
1:14:26 comment reference that was made uh warrants clarification it was
1:14:30 it was referenced in public
1:14:32 comment that our health insurance trust fund fund balance is in
1:14:36 the positive i do want to give
1:14:39 perspective to that yes uh our health insurance trust fund as of
1:14:44 june 30th shows a positive balance but
1:14:48 that is directly the result of brevard public schools this
1:14:52 district at the direction of the board infusing
1:14:55 that will be able to save several millions of dollars into the
1:14:57 trust fund to make that possible in addition
1:15:00 the sciac superintendents insurance advisory committee has
1:15:06 agreed to our consultants projections that as of january we face
1:15:14 upwards of a 12 approaching 13 million dollar revenue shortfall
1:15:20 to the plan for the coming year
1:15:22 so yes in a moment of time we have a positive fund balance uh
1:15:27 for the health fund that’s that’s good news
1:15:30 uh but to suggest that there is not a significant revenue uh
1:15:36 obligation to maintain a healthy
1:15:40 uh trust fund on behalf of our employees i just wanted to
1:15:45 provide that it is not
1:15:47 uh accurate reflection of that and uh just wanted to make sure
1:15:51 that the board understood that which i know
1:15:54 you do but also the those in attendance as well as our viewing
1:15:58 public understand just some perspective
1:16:00 to our health insurance trust fund thank you thank you dr mullins
1:16:06 can i have some follow-up mr susan um dr mullins did the trend
1:16:12 rate for the uh health
1:16:14 for our health care fund to go down meaning that we projected an
1:16:20 increase of four five six seven
1:16:22 percent over two years did that change its trajectory is all i
1:16:27 ask the the projection is based on both actuals and
1:16:33 projections of increased revenue for the coming year uh the only
1:16:39 change in projections that
1:16:42 are i think you’re referencing is january through may we did for
1:16:47 the first time in a long time
1:16:49 experience less less expenses than revenue so normally we have
1:16:57 historically run expenses above
1:17:00 our revenue each month but in 2022 january through i believe may
1:17:06 we show or we realized
1:17:08 that for the first time a long time the expenses were slightly
1:17:13 below our revenue was it
1:17:16 projections shifting in and what uh our consultant provided us
1:17:23 prior to that reality
1:17:25 no but that has taken been taken into consideration in that
1:17:28 projection of approximately 12 million
1:17:30 dollar revenue needed uh for plan year 23. so in the quarter and
1:17:36 i’m sorry to get into it just
1:17:38 because we opened the box so in a quarter the first quarter of
1:17:42 this year we were in a five million dollar
1:17:45 uh revenue increase because of the deficit or is that a
1:17:50 projection over an entire year meaning
1:17:53 for three months we pulled the data and then we reported that
1:17:56 data the question i had was is was
1:17:59 that a five million dollar increase with revenue over expenses
1:18:02 or is that a five in that 90 days or is
1:18:05 that a five year a five million dollar increase with revenue
1:18:09 over expenses for an entire year does that
1:18:11 make sense to you let me let me try and clarify are you are you
1:18:14 speaking specifically january february march
1:18:17 as first quarter yeah 22 that would be the first quarter of plan
1:18:21 year 22. so there was somewhere where
1:18:23 the projections came in where it was five million dollars was
1:18:26 that an entire year of it or was that
1:18:28 a quarter of it oh that’s a year i see so last year the
1:18:31 projected increase in expenses annually is in the
1:18:34 five to six percent range which is somewhere it’s around four to
1:18:38 five million dollars if i remember correctly
1:18:41 annually an increase in expenses so the expenses so because we
1:18:45 received more revenue than expenses during
1:18:48 a certain period we were able to receive five million dollars
1:18:52 more in revenue than expenses than last year
1:18:56 but our expenses still out supersede our revenues for the entire
1:19:00 year meaning that we have a five
1:19:04 million dollar expense plus but over the year we’re still in a
1:19:08 negative
1:19:09 i think i understand what yeah yes i think you are it’s you took
1:19:15 the five million dollars over last
1:19:16 year it wasn’t quite five million i believe it’s more closer to
1:19:19 four okay if you’re talking about the
1:19:20 projected increase in expenses so it’s four million dollars less
1:19:24 than than it but the overall expenses
1:19:27 are still more correct hang on miss miss i got you i got you
1:19:31 hang on but the overall expenses are still
1:19:34 more than the revenue that we received correct and we do we have
1:19:38 the numbers for the first 90 days yet
1:19:41 for this one we got them all the way okay and is that trend can
1:19:46 remaining consistent well no we they they
1:19:50 won’t the consultant won’t project that those the trend is going
1:19:54 to change they have adjusted their
1:19:57 projection slightly because of those first four or five months
1:20:01 but it it was it was i would call it um
1:20:05 nominal and the overall projected impact all right let’s take a
1:20:09 look at it just to simplify it just
1:20:11 means that we’re not as in the hole as deep as we are correct
1:20:15 but the reason i was asking the question
1:20:17 is if we’re looking at the revenue trend over an entire year and
1:20:20 we saw a five million dollar increase
1:20:22 in revenue over expenses even though we have more expenses
1:20:24 sometimes that is because we’re coming out of
1:20:27 covid there may be a million anomalies that may happen so
1:20:30 looking at that first couple of months
1:20:32 to readjust trend rates also readjusts what we want to do in
1:20:36 different areas that’s all so i was just
1:20:38 asking those questions thank you dr mullins yeah it’s also not
1:20:41 uncommon for us going into the summer
1:20:43 months to actually experience a rise in expenses because many
1:20:47 employees take advantage of that time to
1:20:50 access medical procedures or follow-up that is necessary so it’s
1:20:55 hard to going into particularly this
1:20:56 period of time to anticipate that the trend that was evident in
1:21:01 the first four or five months of the
1:21:03 plan year will continue through the rest of the plan year
1:21:06 particularly in the summer months
1:21:08 if that makes sense and it’s also consistent to say that because
1:21:11 we implemented surgery plus
1:21:13 hinge health all the great things that we had that we may be
1:21:16 seeing a different trend rate
1:21:18 because all of the other trend rates were based on previous
1:21:21 things that didn’t have that in it
1:21:23 i think we’ve all got the piece where surgery plus save 1.3
1:21:26 million hinge health we don’t know those
1:21:27 numbers yet it’s some good stuff i mean and so we may see that
1:21:31 we may it may be a different
1:21:32 adjustment because of that that’s all just saying yeah to your
1:21:35 point mr susan that’s what we anticipate
1:21:38 we don’t have empirical data to validate at this point but the
1:21:43 improved the improved expenses or reduced
1:21:46 expenses in the first quarter four or five months of the plan
1:21:50 year uh are a direct result of these new
1:21:53 initiatives that we launched um just before the plan year
1:21:56 started so thank you and we should be able
1:21:58 to follow that trend based on the first five months of this year
1:22:02 versus the last three three years first
1:22:04 five months we should be able to see that trend rate even if we
1:22:07 do see more surgeries in the summer
1:22:09 whatever it is it’s pretty consistent over a five year every
1:22:11 five years there’s a bump we should be pretty good
1:22:13 thank you dr mullins and thank you to staff for putting together
1:22:15 those programs it’s great
1:22:16 all right that is going to move us into our consent agenda dr mullins
1:22:23 board members there are 20 agenda uh 20 agenda items under the
1:22:29 consent agenda does any board
1:22:30 member wish to pull any item from the consent agenda hearing
1:22:34 none i’ll entertain a motion to
1:22:35 approve the consent agenda as presented moved by ms mcdougall
1:22:39 seconded by ms campbell is there any
1:22:41 discussion all in favor please signify by saying aye aye any
1:22:45 opposed same sign motion passes five zero
1:22:49 all right dr mullinsby please let us know about items under the
1:22:53 action portion of today’s agenda
1:22:55 the first item is h31 procurement solicitations what are the
1:22:58 wishes of the board
1:23:01 moved by ms mcdougall seconded by ms jenkins all in favor please
1:23:07 signify by saying aye aye any opposed
1:23:09 same sign motion passes five zero dr mullins next is item h32
1:23:14 departments and school initiated agreements
1:23:17 what are the wishes of the board moved by ms campbell seconded
1:23:20 by ms mcdougall is there any discussion
1:23:22 discussion really quickly because it was brought up in a public
1:23:25 comment time i would just
1:23:27 um remind our public that if you look into the contract it’s
1:23:31 actually an extension of what we’ve
1:23:33 already had the five years because the state is not redoing this
1:23:37 is this coming year is our year to
1:23:39 do our next instructional materials adoption for social studies
1:23:43 and so that leaves us with a gap year so
1:23:45 this was actually just an extension of what we already had
1:23:48 materials that have already gone through the
1:23:50 instructional materials approval process and so parents
1:23:52 absolutely had the opportunity in fact i remember
1:23:55 that five years ago to go through these materials they came from
1:23:58 the state they’re recommended materials
1:24:00 from the state approved through the whole process and this is
1:24:02 just making it where we have one more
1:24:04 year as a gap year until we get our new materials approved for
1:24:08 the coming year so just to clarify that for us
1:24:12 and for the public thank you ms campbell i appreciate that any
1:24:15 additional discussion
1:24:17 all in favor please signify by saying aye aye any opposed same
1:24:21 sign motion passes five zero
1:24:22 all right we’ll move on to the information agenda which includes
1:24:26 items for board review and may be
1:24:27 brought back for action at a subsequent meeting no action will
1:24:30 be taken on these items today dr mullins
1:24:33 there are three items under the information category does any
1:24:35 board member wish to discuss any of the
1:24:37 information items all right then we are now at board member
1:24:43 reports mr susan added ekg testing requirements
1:24:47 and then i have a secondary uh request from mr susan adding
1:24:50 classroom library so uh mr susan the floor is
1:24:53 yours yeah thank you um madam chair and board and superintendent
1:24:57 what we have is is um
1:24:58 many of you know that i brought it up in another meeting that
1:25:01 there’s 25 000 that was given to us from
1:25:04 an entity so that we could do possible testing with elementary
1:25:07 school students if they wanted to for
1:25:10 their ekgs dr mullins um had not been engaged in that process um
1:25:15 and he came up to me the other
1:25:16 day and said hey what’s going on with this what are we doing um
1:25:18 and i thought it was appropriate
1:25:20 to have a you know have staff look at it but i didn’t i wanted
1:25:23 to have the board understand where
1:25:25 it was coming from i felt like it was not a i felt like we got
1:25:28 this check dr mullins and i were
1:25:30 talking about it but i had not come to you and just said hey
1:25:32 what is it for i didn’t i
1:25:34 felt like it was um you hadn’t been communicated to and over the
1:25:37 summer it’s been kind of franchised
1:25:39 and stuff like that so i wanted to kind of do a good job and
1:25:41 then also didn’t want to give dr
1:25:43 mullins instruction unless the board was in positive for it so
1:25:46 what happened is is leon county um they
1:25:49 went ahead and they funded a initiative to test their elementary
1:25:53 school teacher students in the sixth
1:25:55 grade for fifth grade sixth grade for their ekgs and it was a
1:25:59 movement they’re starting to see that if
1:26:01 they test earlier that they can catch other things and might be
1:26:03 able to save the student’s lives now
1:26:04 we all know that we were the first school district in the state
1:26:06 of florida and the nation to put
1:26:08 together a policy to do this so we lead the country in this so
1:26:11 what they did was they called and they
1:26:13 said hey matt um we have 25 000 that we would like to donate to
1:26:17 possibly test those kids and i said well
1:26:19 you can park it in the brevard schools foundation but we need to
1:26:22 talk about what we’re going to do
1:26:24 because it’s ultimately the majority of the board and the
1:26:25 superintendent that would do something with that
1:26:28 so what we did was um the idea is is that this entity gave 25
1:26:31 000 to test students
1:26:33 who would be interested in doing so inside of our late
1:26:35 elementary schools and we would have to engage
1:26:38 with staff to see how that would be implemented if we were
1:26:41 interested in doing that um the other thing
1:26:43 is is that leon county went and this is probably where the
1:26:46 discussion will go just to be completely
1:26:48 transparent with you all and leon county went a little bit
1:26:51 further and inside of their form in sixth
1:26:54 grade i think it is or fifth grade there’s a form in like a like
1:26:56 a physical form that they all have to
1:26:58 fill out they have to go get um physicals and all that stuff and
1:27:01 what they did was they put this as
1:27:03 part of theirs um so they had it inside there that you could opt
1:27:06 out during that time or you could have
1:27:09 your ekg test now what i engaged with them on was is i said hey
1:27:14 like when we did this we said we were going
1:27:16 to require it to be middle school and high school right well now
1:27:20 our sixth grade falls right in right
1:27:22 before middle school so are we going to test the kids there and
1:27:25 then require them to test and i kind
1:27:27 of ask them questions so what i would like to do is say twofold
1:27:31 is if you guys are interested engage with
1:27:33 have uh evan engage with dr moens to figure out if there’s a
1:27:38 possibility to use the 25 000 to test our
1:27:41 kids if they’re on a voluntary basis no forms no nothing and
1:27:45 then after that’s finished i would
1:27:47 like to see if there’s an engagement on requiring and what that
1:27:50 would be this is a separate thing to
1:27:53 um test the kids as part of that form but i would not the form
1:27:57 piece is a second step the first piece
1:27:59 is the 25 does that make any sense to you guys um and i just
1:28:02 didn’t want to do that by saying this and
1:28:04 then all of a sudden you guys find out and you’re like well what’s
1:28:06 matt doing right i want to be honest
1:28:08 with you guys in the front and engage with you guys the proper
1:28:11 process but i just didn’t want to
1:28:12 do it by telling them that’s all any questions i have a question
1:28:16 um mr susan i have a question about
1:28:20 when you say sixth grade are you talking about every sixth grade
1:28:24 student or a student who
1:28:25 isn’t going to be in some type of sport or i mean what’s the
1:28:28 parameter you’re right and that’s
1:28:30 that’s what i would like them to engage in um i think that dr mullins
1:28:35 and evan can work that out
1:28:37 and do background into the leon i don’t want to say here’s what
1:28:40 the parameters are here’s what we’re
1:28:43 doing because i think that gets into dr mullins’s job i think we
1:28:46 have this revenue we have a little
1:28:48 bit of opportunity to test our kids let’s see what staff has to
1:28:51 say about it dr mullins and go from
1:28:52 there i just didn’t want to do it without your guys’s guidance
1:28:55 it could be students could be students
1:28:57 they play sports and all that stuff but like in elementary
1:29:00 school we do have kids that do run like
1:29:03 they have like clubs and track and stuff like that um you could
1:29:06 do it there you could do it but but
1:29:08 i thought that the original amount of money that was coming was
1:29:11 to allow anybody who wanted to test
1:29:13 on a voluntary basis could do so not not specific to a sport or
1:29:17 anything like that but we can let
1:29:19 them figure that out and engage a conversation that’s all no
1:29:21 that makes perfect sense but i’m so we
1:29:25 i’m just looking at the process a little bit so if we let’s say
1:29:30 we that the staff agrees that we’re
1:29:32 going to do sixth grade um but don’t we test again in seventh
1:29:36 grade right so we need to do that that
1:29:39 that’s why i was like that gets a little redundant
1:29:47 it just i mean it depends on what it is but i know like my son
1:29:51 had an ekg for different reasons
1:29:52 separate from sports within his 12 months of his middle school
1:29:57 athletic opportunity he was in sixth
1:30:00 originally had it and so it counted counted then it counted
1:30:03 because i think it has to be if it’s within
1:30:05 a certain time period and i and i didn’t of course we wouldn’t
1:30:09 want somebody to have to test and test and
1:30:11 test and test right i just didn’t want to speak i have a feeling
1:30:14 on where it is but i felt like if i started
1:30:17 my thought process is without the entities that are going to do
1:30:20 it are involved but the most proper
1:30:21 thing was to come to you guys say hey here’s what it is we spoke
1:30:23 about it before um i think they’re
1:30:26 ready to engage in conversation with them and then have staff
1:30:28 and them bring something back to us i think
1:30:30 that’s the proper process that way we’re not creating any waves
1:30:34 i have a question um i think
1:30:36 everybody up here obviously would support more kids getting
1:30:40 tested i you mentioned the 25 000
1:30:42 in parking in brevard schools foundation so um i just want some
1:30:46 clarification here because we’re
1:30:48 involving bps brevard schools foundation and who we play for i’m
1:30:51 assuming this is what’s going to be
1:30:53 done under um so we’re like how do we have the authority to tell
1:30:56 brevard schools foundation how
1:30:58 to spend the 25 000 as parks there you don’t right so i guess i’m
1:31:02 just confused like how did it get
1:31:04 parched there and are they already a part of this conversation
1:31:07 for it being spent so this way perfect
1:31:09 perfect so it would act like a scholarship thing so if students
1:31:12 wanted to get tested this would be the
1:31:14 entity that pays for it we do that a lot with funding sources
1:31:17 rather than give it over to the school
1:31:18 district it has a and also just not giving a 25 000 check to the
1:31:22 school district and have them
1:31:24 set their hair on fire when it happened so the idea is to park
1:31:27 it there if we need the revenue for it
1:31:29 for them to test then they can pull from there if not it’s you
1:31:32 know what i mean that’s where it is
1:31:34 it’s a simple thing that they do on a regular basis i’m just
1:31:36 confused like has that conversation
1:31:38 happened already in an agreement happened with brevard schools
1:31:40 foundation brevard schools foundation
1:31:41 already has the 25 000 check it’s been deposited it’s sitting
1:31:44 inside of there waiting
1:31:45 or whatever the entities over here right so has that
1:31:47 conversation agreement already taken place
1:31:49 well just to provide additional mr susan i have had a a initial
1:31:53 conversation with miss kershaw
1:31:55 the president of the foundation she is aware that the money is
1:32:00 set aside for this ongoing conversation
1:32:02 around ekgs i explained to mrs kershaw i had to do some some
1:32:06 follow-up some homework and that type of
1:32:08 thing so no definitive outline or parameters have been said or
1:32:13 discussed exactly how the the funds would
1:32:17 be most beneficial to this initiative so we’re we’re both aware
1:32:22 of what the funds are appear to be
1:32:25 intended for but no decision has been proposed of exactly how
1:32:28 they would be distributed thank you i
1:32:31 just obviously they’re here to support brevard republic schools
1:32:33 as much as they can and they always do
1:32:35 i just wanted to understand and clarify where we were in the
1:32:38 conversation with them because we don’t
1:32:39 have authority over how they can spend that money if it’s
1:32:41 sitting in their foundation so thank you
1:32:43 appreciate it um i would just ask just thinking about the
1:32:47 expanding the ekgs because i know mr sema also
1:32:50 contacted us this last week about you know opportunities for
1:32:53 banned students and rtc and i would encourage
1:32:55 everybody who’s concerned about that i think they’re already
1:32:57 opening up the doors they’re not asking you
1:32:59 at the door are you here for athletics if you want to bring your
1:33:01 child who’s involved in those activities
1:33:05 to do the ekg testing which is you know low cost no cost um
1:33:10 those options are available especially
1:33:12 going through who we play for’s website um i so a couple of
1:33:17 things that i would be concerned about
1:33:19 one is do our local providers have capacity because when we when
1:33:22 we added it as a requirement for
1:33:24 athletics physicals you know we a lot of people stepped up in
1:33:28 the community to kind of enhance those
1:33:31 opportunities so we didn’t just have who we play for we had
1:33:33 different um chiropractors offices who
1:33:35 do physicals and and doctors offices local who were able who
1:33:38 stepped up to say you know what we’ll
1:33:40 also do them we’ll step up how many we can do and we’ll provide
1:33:42 it at the same cost that who we
1:33:45 play for uh was doing it for um so that is just making sure we
1:33:48 have capacity because we still have all our
1:33:50 athletes doing it as well on a rotating basis they don’t have to
1:33:54 do it every year but and then a concern that was just
1:33:57 brought to me this week is the cost for follow-up testing and
1:34:00 the reason why i bring this up you
1:34:01 know a parent reached out to me and said um their child was flagged
1:34:06 and uh in athletics and the
1:34:07 follow-up cost for them i don’t know how they negotiated with
1:34:10 those with their insurance company
1:34:11 was 1200 and the reason why i bring that up is if the word gets
1:34:14 out that oh if your child gets flagged
1:34:16 you have to pay all this and then you can’t play and i know if
1:34:18 we’re talking about sixth graders we’re not
1:34:19 talking about athletics necessarily then people are going to be
1:34:22 discouraged from take from doing the testing to
1:34:24 begin with um and might just do it go ahead and do the opt-out
1:34:27 and then we’ve you know we’ve kind
1:34:30 of defeated the purpose so um i i would like to see in the
1:34:34 research that they provide for us what
1:34:36 what are some ways that the community or whoever um can help
1:34:40 with those students who are flagged and i
1:34:43 don’t know if there’s anything we can do about that because
1:34:45 obviously if it’s if it’s flagged you
1:34:46 know as a parent i want to know even if it turns out to be oh it
1:34:49 wasn’t anything they’re fine um we just
1:34:51 we just needed to take that extra look but if that extra looks
1:34:55 costs hundreds of dollars um it might
1:34:58 discourage some families from even checking it out so i would
1:35:00 just if there’s some way they can
1:35:02 kind of share with us what what is being done for students who
1:35:06 especially for our financially struggling
1:35:08 families um that would be uh those would be my two concerns so i
1:35:13 can i can answer the capacity piece
1:35:16 those providers continued to do it afterwards which was awesome
1:35:19 because what ended up happening is
1:35:21 is that many of your pediatricians and your doctors and
1:35:23 everybody else that heard that this was out
1:35:25 beyond just stepping up they kind of wanted their kids to be a
1:35:29 part of what they look at you see what
1:35:31 i mean like their their people wanted them to look at them so i
1:35:35 mean i saw in my my uh office that i
1:35:37 have uh over at riverview tower there’s a pediatrician office
1:35:40 right below and they were doing it right
1:35:41 there and there’s i know medfest and other places all these
1:35:44 places opened up for it and now it’s kind
1:35:46 of consistent with what they’re doing so i think the capacity is
1:35:50 there um but the other thing is is
1:35:51 with the 1200 like cost and stuff like that um when we looked at
1:35:55 this originally and we passed this
1:35:58 thing originally um what we did was we said okay there’s going
1:36:01 to be 10 000 kids we’re going to flag
1:36:04 probably 50 of them and out of the 50 you know what i mean all
1:36:07 those things so there is some conversation
1:36:09 wrapped around how can we help somebody that may be in that spot
1:36:12 because we don’t want that but on
1:36:13 the other side of it and i respect that point 100 on the other
1:36:18 side of it is is that it’s the greatest
1:36:20 thing in the world if you find out that your child doesn’t have
1:36:22 it so it’s like going through the
1:36:24 process of checking and um you know i i think that there’s some
1:36:27 regard to it but at the same time i would
1:36:29 tell the parents that are out there right now if you are flagged
1:36:32 do everything you can to check it
1:36:33 because you know your child may get to a point where they may
1:36:37 pass because of it so thank you for
1:36:38 bringing those things up i i think that’s great i mean i think
1:36:40 they should have and i think where we’re
1:36:42 probably going to end up with this conversation is is kind of
1:36:44 just reevaluating the entire process
1:36:46 because they’re trying to bring on there is some statistics on
1:36:49 the kids and band and all that stuff
1:36:51 like we may end up in a place where we just sit down and say
1:36:53 okay here’s what’s best from
1:36:55 elementary school through high school let’s expand it let’s do
1:36:58 it right you know what i mean since we
1:36:59 are the leaders for the nation so that’s all just a thought can
1:37:03 i just um miss campbell you bring up
1:37:05 a very good point about the the follow-up cost but i believe um
1:37:08 that’s a conversation we should
1:37:10 definitely have with with evan and who we play for i know they
1:37:12 do their best they’re limited obviously
1:37:14 with their funds um to follow up with those those kiddos that
1:37:17 are flagged and going through these
1:37:19 processes they always stay in touch and they definitely try to
1:37:21 guide them through that process and help them
1:37:23 any way they can but this would if this continues to expand
1:37:26 which you know it should it benefits our kids
1:37:29 um we need to continue those conversations with community
1:37:32 partners and stuff to help with our
1:37:34 students who really can’t afford that so great point and i know
1:37:37 to your point miss campbell i the note
1:37:41 i made was capacity i had concerns about uh capacity and how
1:37:44 many we could bring on um but i know
1:37:47 previously when we ran into those issues i had some
1:37:49 conversations with evan and they were able to step
1:37:51 in and assist some of our families um with connections with the
1:37:54 doctors that are reading the ekgs and those sorts of
1:37:56 things so um i valid valid concern um and definitely something
1:38:02 we have to keep on our radar um as we
1:38:05 go forward but i think um you know i think we there’s kind of a
1:38:09 pathway there for the conversation to
1:38:11 have already started as well so um so mr susan it sounds like
1:38:14 the board is amenable to conversations
1:38:17 taking place let them take it allowing dr mullins to explore
1:38:20 those options and see where we need to go
1:38:23 so your next request was on uh board uh yeah that reading but i
1:38:29 did have something that just came across
1:38:31 the um the governor signed an executive order on pharmacy
1:38:34 benefit management and i just wanted to kind
1:38:36 to see your guys’s take but it just came out that he wants to
1:38:40 prohibit spread pricing prohibit reimbursement
1:38:43 clawbacks include data transparency review all rabia rebates
1:38:47 payments and relationships and literally
1:38:49 within the last 24 hours this came out um those are all things
1:38:52 that when we were looking at our contracts
1:38:55 we were like wow these may be some things so i would just like
1:38:59 to have staff aware that this happened and
1:39:02 have them look at what may be coming out of that that might
1:39:05 affect us in the event that we go through
1:39:08 contract negotiations for something like that but i did want to
1:39:10 make everybody aware that it just came
1:39:12 out and um i think it was well needed in one of the stuff so
1:39:16 that’s that thing um so all of a sudden
1:39:18 like i’m coming into thank you madam chair for giving me the
1:39:21 opportunity to do this so the all of a sudden i’m
1:39:24 coming into uh the school today and i get this texts are going
1:39:28 crazy on my phone what’s going on with the
1:39:30 elementary school libraries and all this stuff so i was just
1:39:34 trying to get one since there’s such a
1:39:36 public push for it there was an article written in the florida
1:39:38 today and we responded to it with
1:39:39 some of our information i was just going to ask a couple of
1:39:42 questions and just kind of beat around it
1:39:44 i pulled up the bill um i think that there’s some inconsistencies
1:39:49 or maybe misinterpretations of
1:39:50 what’s happening so i just kind of wanted to give us the
1:39:53 opportunity before the public runs around
1:39:55 thinking that we just shut down all of the library systems and
1:39:57 everything else to give us some
1:39:58 opportunity to go and dr mullins and i apologize about not
1:40:01 giving you an opportunity at a time
1:40:03 but i didn’t know if we could do something like that so miss
1:40:06 klein thank you yeah miss klein probably
1:40:11 best to start with context the legislation that mr susan is
1:40:15 referencing or referring to that led to
1:40:18 the article this morning in florida today and then if you would
1:40:22 provide the board a kind of a status of
1:40:24 where we are in responding or preparing for upholding the
1:40:28 legislation house bill 14
1:40:30 that wasn’t a mic drop
1:40:36 so on june 3rd um jacob eliva sent out directions for the
1:40:45 district on what we need to do
1:40:49 one of the things was to publish on the district website and
1:40:53 every school’s district page a link to
1:40:56 all of our elementary uh instructional materials and libraries
1:41:01 that was done on june 30th in all of our
1:41:04 schools so that piece is complete uh the other piece is the memos
1:41:13 is each book made available to students
1:41:16 through a school district library media center or included in a
1:41:20 recommended or assigned school or
1:41:24 grade level reading list must be selected by a school district
1:41:28 employee who holds a valid educational media
1:41:31 specialist certificate regardless of whether the book was
1:41:36 purchased donated or otherwise made available to
1:41:40 students so that little bullet gave me great pause so what are
1:41:47 we doing the state is creating a training
1:41:51 for our library media assist specialist however that training is
1:41:57 not going to
1:41:59 go into place until the earliest january 1 2023 so the statute
1:42:07 becomes our guiding on june on july 1 2022
1:42:13 however the training is not until to begin until january so what
1:42:18 missy slack our k-12
1:42:21 k-12 k-12 media specialist content specialist has been working
1:42:27 on our guidelines
1:42:29 we have not given any direction to schools to close down their
1:42:34 classroom library
1:42:36 in fact we’ve given no direction other than reads house bill 1467
1:42:44 and we will give guidance at our
1:42:47 principals meeting and then media specialists are getting
1:42:51 guidance i believe it is august the third there’s
1:42:55 going to be training we’ve been working across the state with
1:42:59 other districts to try to figure out
1:43:02 what will be the best way to vet um classroom libraries we
1:43:06 believe that there’s an option of just going
1:43:10 through what is already vetted through follet and that is the
1:43:14 system we use but we’ve given no direction
1:43:17 to schools um on what we’re going to do yet because we have not
1:43:21 completed that process
1:43:23 we are taking a pause on okay we until we go through the process
1:43:29 we can’t open up carte blanche in our
1:43:33 elementary schools you know when i was elementary teacher in
1:43:36 fact i still have all the books and my husband
1:43:38 goes why do you still have all the books uh my classroom library
1:43:42 was extensive i taught sixth grade ela
1:43:46 and so we love books and the thought of not having books out
1:43:52 gives me great pause when we walk into a
1:43:56 school i love seeing books there for a student to read as they’re
1:44:00 sitting by the door waiting to get in
1:44:02 or when they’re when they need free time so we’re not going to
1:44:07 try we’re trying to avoid that but we are
1:44:10 going to follow the statute so um just i think it was friday duval
1:44:20 um was talking to some colleagues in
1:44:23 duval they sent some documents that they’re working on like a
1:44:26 checklist that they’re working on with
1:44:29 with their teachers so we’re not there we’re going to be in
1:44:35 compliance uh we dr sullivan and i have
1:44:38 hired missy slack for the entire summer except she is on
1:44:43 vacation right now but that’s where we are so we are
1:44:48 meeting the legislative intent and the law but we are doing it
1:44:53 in the a slow steady process
1:44:56 so do i anticipate on the first day of school that every
1:45:01 classroom library will have every book
1:45:04 available probably not but will they have books available of
1:45:08 course they will because we’re going
1:45:10 to be able to go through fallout we’re pretty 99 sure we can do
1:45:15 that but we’re going to um make sure
1:45:18 we’re doing it correctly and making sure that we’re not uh in
1:45:22 violation of any part of the statute
1:45:25 thank you miss klein i wanted to um in amazing work and applaud
1:45:32 you for working on all the other
1:45:34 components to this bill because when i looked at it there’s all
1:45:36 of those other things that you said
1:45:38 that by june 30th we had them all complete like this was done
1:45:42 the last piece which is difficult because
1:45:45 and it what it calls for is on january 1st 2023 to have
1:45:49 everybody certified and understand the other
1:45:53 piece in there though says the department shall make this
1:45:55 training available no later than january 1st so
1:45:58 it’s not that they’re waiting until january 1st to do it they’re
1:46:00 going to do it and they’ve given the
1:46:02 the legislature has told the department of education you must
1:46:05 give this training before january 1st 2023
1:46:09 and then all districts must be compliant by january 1st 2023 so
1:46:13 there’s an opportunity inside of
1:46:14 there i didn’t want any misconfusion that right now all these
1:46:18 books are illegal there’s the state’s not
1:46:20 giving us ample time to get certified on something that they’re
1:46:23 doing there’s just miscommunication and
1:46:25 i wanted to say that our district is is doing the right thing we
1:46:29 are not holding back all of these
1:46:31 different things we’re doing what’s in compliance so both sides
1:46:34 can understand that we’re working
1:46:35 through this and you know that sometimes there’s some
1:46:38 communication that’s inside the news and
1:46:40 everything else that may be a little bit off and it’s up to us
1:46:43 to try to communicate that directly so
1:46:44 that we’re not getting killed with emails and things that aren’t
1:46:49 true so i have been in contact with
1:46:50 united way and the brevard schools foundation about the donated
1:46:54 books and also rolling readers
1:46:56 because they are donators of books to our children so i’ve asked
1:47:01 them to make certain that prior to
1:47:03 them donating a book it’s it’s on our approved list so um those
1:47:08 are other outreaches that i’ve made
1:47:10 to make sure that we’re in compliance thank you so much and i
1:47:14 think um ms jenkins and everybody that’s
1:47:16 been inside the classroom would say i lived off of my first
1:47:20 primary source documents like especially
1:47:22 in american history american government you have to have that
1:47:26 and if you’re not given that opportunity
1:47:28 then our children are going to be given a deficit on on reading
1:47:31 so i appreciate all your work i just
1:47:33 wanted to kind of clarify that with the community um and that’s
1:47:36 all so thank you thank you yeah so um
1:47:42 i just want to say to our media specialist uh i am sorry for the
1:47:48 stress and the pressure that is
1:47:50 going to be placed on you um it is not unrecognized um and i
1:47:55 sympathize with you uh as professionals that
1:48:00 the state is going to train our media specialists how to be
1:48:02 media specialist uh sarcasm implied um
1:48:06 but uh miss klein i with all due respect i just feel the need to
1:48:10 say this um i had this conversation
1:48:12 with dr mullins i’ve had this conversation with dr sullivan but
1:48:16 i have over the past couple of months
1:48:19 when this culture war has been hitting the stage um received
1:48:23 many emails from concerned teachers that
1:48:28 i understand that bps isn’t is doing its best to follow the law
1:48:31 i understand that the messaging is
1:48:33 getting mixed up in a game of telephone but i think we need to
1:48:36 be really really active um and and i
1:48:39 have no right to direct you guys what to do this is dr mullen’s
1:48:42 job but really really active and
1:48:43 diligent and following up with our administrators about the
1:48:46 communication that they’re putting out
1:48:47 there to their staff because it’s often getting maybe misinterpreted
1:48:52 um and or just presented the wrong way
1:48:54 they may not see the way it came off or um said but um i’ve had
1:48:57 concerned staff members come to me and
1:48:59 say i think i’m being told that i need to remove these things
1:49:02 from my classroom i’m being told to do
1:49:04 um a substitution for something that i don’t feel like i need to
1:49:07 um so again i know there’s no ill intent
1:49:10 there but just we can be as proactive as possible to follow up
1:49:13 with those administrators and make sure
1:49:15 that communication is as simple and clear and concise as
1:49:18 possible so that there’s no room for
1:49:20 misinterpretation so that we don’t get it leaked out that we
1:49:23 have library shutting down in our classroom
1:49:25 ms jenkins um after i was alerted to this um post this morning i
1:49:30 have already emailed all the elementary
1:49:33 principals and said again i’m going to remind you you take no
1:49:37 action at this point until we’ve gone
1:49:39 through training thank you i i appreciate that really thank you
1:49:42 ms klein i want to just add you know this is
1:49:46 this this this new legislation is challenging every district i
1:49:50 literally have superintendents contacting
1:49:53 me i i i would suggest it’s a kudo to the team that how they
1:49:57 have proactively been addressing it and
1:50:01 the responsiveness asking okay how are you doing this what
1:50:03 process are you following and can i reach
1:50:06 out to your people and of course we work very collaboratively
1:50:09 and i’ve offered their support and
1:50:10 miss klein and miss miss missy slack have been wonderful dr sullivan
1:50:15 about uh helping us all
1:50:17 navigate this this new this new situation so uh we’re hopeful
1:50:22 that we get additional direction along
1:50:25 the way but we will continue to be thoughtful intentional and
1:50:28 deliberate in uh how we implement
1:50:32 the expectations and the and the letter of the law moving
1:50:34 forward thank you dr mullins um miss klein you
1:50:39 probably are already on top of it but i happen to think our bft
1:50:44 retirees do that phenomenal program
1:50:46 for our littles where they pair the stuffed animal in the books
1:50:51 and so yeah i help them every year
1:50:54 i yeah so um we probably just need to make sure that we are are
1:50:59 working with them on that issue as well
1:51:01 i would also let the board know that the very first book we vetted
1:51:06 was the book that we
1:51:08 thrive by five brown bear brown bear which we have been
1:51:12 distributing prolifically to our new
1:51:15 families in the community through the thrive by five program and
1:51:18 it was cleared so we’re good
1:51:20 you know thank goodness that program i just want to tell you
1:51:23 used to be a clear lake and they were
1:51:25 expanding clear lake and they ran out of room so she called me
1:51:28 and she said we have nowhere to go
1:51:30 and um so this started this quest of saving where they could put
1:51:35 these books back and o’galley
1:51:37 high school gave a portable to save them and they are amazing
1:51:42 those ladies are well and they brought
1:51:45 them up and they’re big heart of mine so i love them to death
1:51:48 yes and now mr susan they’ve
1:51:50 outgrown old galley and we have relocated them um again because
1:51:54 they needed more space and so um at
1:51:57 their request it wasn’t we weren’t pushing them out but they
1:51:59 were like we just we don’t have enough
1:52:00 room to do what we have to do so uh we have we have once again
1:52:03 worked with them to provide them
1:52:05 additional space so yeah they are they’re amazing and such a
1:52:08 great program but uh all right so are we
1:52:11 done with board discussion anything anything else needed 16 more
1:52:15 items that i’d like to bring up no i’m fine we’re
1:52:17 good okay then we are going to hear the remaining speakers who
1:52:23 signed up to comment on non-agenda items
1:52:27 each speaker is limited to three minutes we have a clock in
1:52:29 front of me to help you keep track of
1:52:31 your time when your time is over you’ll be asked to stop and
1:52:33 allow the next speaker his or her turn
1:52:35 we’ll hear from the speakers in the order in which they signed
1:52:37 up including um anyone who might be
1:52:40 hanging out outside in the heat today which i don’t think is is
1:52:43 the case mr hawkman glad to see you
1:52:44 joined us um you are actually second i’m sorry i just i was
1:52:47 looking for you earlier and didn’t see
1:52:49 you uh as stated earlier reasonable decorum is expected at all
1:52:53 times and your statement should
1:52:54 be directed to the board chair should audience participation
1:52:57 interfere with the speakers being
1:52:58 heard or hearing me i will have to address it when i call your
1:53:01 name please line up along the east wall of
1:53:03 the board room to facilitate the smooth transition of speakers
1:53:06 our first three speakers are frank dinda
1:53:09 marcus hockman and becky mcgalanen i apologize if i said that
1:53:14 wrong um frank if you would not mind
1:53:17 approaching the podium for me and if the rest of you wouldn’t
1:53:20 mind lining up on that east wall
1:53:22 i’m frank dinda a public school teacher for 23 years the last 15
1:53:28 in brevard county
1:53:30 from self-contained gifted fifth grade at gemini elementary to
1:53:33 department chair of history and gifted
1:53:35 teacher for all of coco middle and high school hired there by dr
1:53:39 sullivan to work with and for her and then
1:53:41 mr rashad wilson this past year thanks to misty bland and shannon
1:53:46 shannon c jack i had the privilege of
1:53:48 teaching and learning at the south alc i’m filled with gratitude
1:53:52 for the opportunity and for the support
1:53:54 of those faculty and staff members committed to professional
1:53:57 integrity and community building
1:53:59 thank you dr mullins and assistant superintendent chris moore
1:54:03 for allowing us the flexibility to work
1:54:05 through solutions to best serve and meet the needs of a
1:54:08 population of children who are seemingly to
1:54:11 some a nuisance and then at best an afterthought to the
1:54:15 community at large i hope we project the
1:54:18 following beliefs and that we pride ourselves on these as truths
1:54:23 our chain of humanity is only as
1:54:25 strong as our weakest link and what we do for the least of one
1:54:28 another we do for ourselves
1:54:30 children come to us with different experiences but often commonalities
1:54:35 they and their families are scared
1:54:38 embarrassed angry broken they’re uncertain of what the future
1:54:43 holds for them
1:54:44 at the alc we suze the seize the opportunity to create a
1:54:48 structured safe space for children
1:54:51 we counsel them on an amended approach to school and life
1:54:55 through both their coursework and through
1:54:58 modeling of patterns of consistency structure and behavior it is
1:55:02 not easy
1:55:04 but contrary to flippant hyperbole it is not crazy at the alc
1:55:08 right now i reject that i am there every day
1:55:12 while a work in progress like anything else it’s actually quite
1:55:16 lovely in the short term we ate our
1:55:19 neighborhood schools by returning to them young minds with a new
1:55:22 perspective
1:55:24 on the longer arc we trust and believe our communities will be
1:55:28 safer with a growing number of functional
1:55:30 citizens concerned for themselves and their neighbors
1:55:33 i want to thank you the board for your interest in our community
1:55:37 while i certainly do not agree with
1:55:39 everything you say and do i believe each of you is convinced
1:55:42 that you are doing what is best for all
1:55:44 us all and that most of your hearts are in the right place dr mullins
1:55:51 at two minutes and 19 seconds of his
1:55:53 end of the year message stated that students with behavioral
1:55:56 issues will not be tossed aside
1:55:57 please hold our middle and high schools accountable for that
1:56:01 please understand and make it known to
1:56:03 administrators that the alcs are not to be used as dumping
1:56:06 grounds for challenging children and that
1:56:08 they should instead go to great lengths to maintain some semblance
1:56:12 of stability for these children and
1:56:13 families in crisis the alc is but a link in brevard’s chain of
1:56:18 humanity and we have our weaknesses
1:56:20 no one prompted me to share these thoughts with you they are
1:56:24 mine alone thank you thank you and thank you
1:56:27 for your service
1:56:36 marcus hockman all right um good morning school board and
1:56:40 superintendent um the reason i came to
1:56:42 speak this morning i actually wasn’t planning to until i read
1:56:45 part of the piece of the uh article about
1:56:48 the library so i appreciate uh the dialogue before coming up
1:56:51 here because that was one of my main
1:56:53 questions was was there a techno ta paper out basically which
1:56:57 sounds what but the question i have because i’m
1:56:59 some of you know me i’m tend to send to book things i’m like i’m
1:57:02 ready to book this anyway and just go ahead
1:57:05 and because first of all i have ind supportive class and
1:57:09 classroom books are extremely important
1:57:12 in my class because the ones i get purchase myself and use the
1:57:15 pictures and everything like one i just
1:57:17 purchased has a spinner in it where you can spin it so then the
1:57:20 story can go in different directions
1:57:22 so i was going to use that in my classroom and tie it in with
1:57:25 the standards of course and small group
1:57:27 instruction so my question is is i’m am i going to be able to
1:57:31 use that for curriculum
1:57:33 and if i decide you guys say no and i say i’m going to do it
1:57:36 anyway what are the consequences you’re
1:57:37 going to write me up i’m going to take my file in the state of
1:57:40 florida to get my teacher license away
1:57:42 et cetera et cetera because i’m at that point now when i read
1:57:47 stuff like this and i understand a little
1:57:49 bit of the intent of the law but it’s overreaching to me so that’s
1:57:52 my questions to you i know it’s not
1:57:55 you’re just taking care of your responsibilities that’s what you’re
1:57:57 supposed to do as policy
1:57:59 makers but i wanted to get confirmation on that because the
1:58:01 first day of school i was planning to
1:58:03 go over the books anyway to be quite honest that i picked myself
1:58:08 that i have responsibility
1:58:10 et cetera et cetera to do that’s all i was going to speak on
1:58:13 that topic since i was going to ask the
1:58:15 other questions because they already answered can i go on to
1:58:19 another topic or not okay my next topic that
1:58:21 i wasn’t planning to speak on but i did have some questions is
1:58:25 about uh the recall vote or potentially
1:58:28 some of you or the future board members that sit there um i’m
1:58:32 not in agreement with it because i don’t
1:58:34 think the law is weak i think it’s going to be a political
1:58:37 weapon but my question and the biggest
1:58:39 concern i have and i haven’t been able to find is for you what
1:58:45 is your due process rights because as a
1:58:48 board member as a governmental official official i believe that
1:58:51 you have due process rights what are
1:58:54 they if this charter of your views to the commission that passes
1:58:57 which it sounds like it can since it
1:58:59 passed last week with democrats and republican support on it and
1:59:04 when it comes to due process rights
1:59:07 whether you’re attorney or would you have to get a attorney
1:59:10 provided to you and will me as a taxpayer
1:59:14 have to pay for that so those are my questions i’m not sure if
1:59:18 you guys have had that conversation or
1:59:20 not but it looks like it’s coming down the pipe because honestly
1:59:23 i see a political weapon as getting
1:59:27 to her and getting to him from two different sides what i’ve
1:59:29 read what i’ve heard what i’ve been told
1:59:31 and i don’t like it because i don’t i don’t know what’s going to
1:59:34 be on the future
1:59:35 and your job is to do your votes and whatever you’re supposed to
1:59:40 do you’re supposed to be held
1:59:40 accountable but not be threatened thank you thanks marcus all
1:59:45 right becky
1:59:46 and then after becky is katie delaney miss delaney if you’d like
1:59:51 to go ahead and get ready
1:59:58 good morning um i hadn’t planned on speaking this morning when i
2:00:03 got my coffee and uh opened my
2:00:04 newspaper because i’m one of the 12 people that still subscribe
2:00:07 and pay a crazy amount of money
2:00:08 um some of you that have been in brevard county for a really
2:00:11 long time might recognize my last name as a
2:00:13 treasured author many years ago for florida today my name is becky
2:00:19 mcalinan i’m a product of brevard county
2:00:21 schools raider pride as are both of my children and my husband
2:00:26 as well as my upcoming granddaughter
2:00:29 will be starting kindergarten this year in brevard public
2:00:31 schools i’m also a former instructional
2:00:33 assistant here in brevard county uh a recipient of your i’m not
2:00:37 even sure if they still do it but um
2:00:39 career opportunity program which allowed instructional
2:00:42 assistants to go back to college
2:00:44 um and finish their degree as a military spouse i spent 20 years
2:00:49 traveling and got 12 credits that
2:00:50 i had to take over and over so i appreciate that i had the
2:00:53 ability to get it all in one time
2:00:55 and finally i became a teacher in this county for a brief time
2:00:59 so i believe standing before you i’m
2:01:02 coming from a place of experience as well as passion um today’s
2:01:06 headline and the implied decision that
2:01:09 teachers wouldn’t be allowed to express themselves and their
2:01:12 professional opinions about reading in the
2:01:14 classroom absolutely sent me into a place of darkness my first
2:01:19 year of teaching i personally accumulated
2:01:22 hundreds of books when people would come into my classroom they
2:01:25 thought i’d been teaching for 20 years
2:01:28 books are such a valuable important there’s no research to
2:01:32 support anything other than having books
2:01:34 in children’s hands books of all kinds how they represent them
2:01:37 in their free time enriching a curriculum
2:01:40 raising up lower children reading groups all of the things i
2:01:44 know standing before you that you know
2:01:47 that and that you care about that i also know that teachers are
2:01:51 incredibly stressed incredibly
2:01:53 overwhelmed as well as as jenkins said media specialists i hope
2:01:58 that um i i i hope that
2:02:03 this legislation that’s coming down will be interpreted in a way
2:02:06 that can support the ability for teachers to
2:02:08 use their professional opinion and stop being insulted that they
2:02:12 don’t know why are we teaching
2:02:13 media specialists again to do their job given the amount of
2:02:18 teachable minutes required which is
2:02:20 actually more minutes in a day than there are in the classroom
2:02:23 it is insanity to assume that teachers can go to
2:02:25 the media center to check out an approved book i implore you to
2:02:29 please support your teachers in whatever
2:02:32 way you possibly can given the ridiculous legislation that’s
2:02:35 coming down from people that aren’t in the
2:02:37 classroom please give voice to the teachers that care the
2:02:40 teachers that love your students please be
2:02:42 their their voice and their background against the minority of
2:02:45 loud ignorant people who aren’t even in a
2:02:48 classroom i implore you to do that and i thank you for your time
2:02:51 thank you becky miss delaney
2:02:54 the results of our school grade going down is no surprise going
2:03:04 from an a to a b the majority of this
2:03:07 board has been more focused on social and political issues
2:03:11 rather than the education of our children
2:03:15 i know that i’ve personally been speaking on the lack of
2:03:17 education going on in our schools
2:03:19 here in brevard for over a year this district has done nothing
2:03:23 to rectify the discipline problems
2:03:27 which is why our teachers are choosing other employment
2:03:30 opportunities and why parents are pulling their
2:03:33 kids out of brevard public schools at an alarming rate the
2:03:37 bullying issues are out of control
2:03:41 and most of them are repeat offenders we have some major issues
2:03:45 and it’s coming from the top down
2:03:48 it’s coming from the lack of leadership coming from this board
2:03:51 to the community school board elections
2:03:54 are coming august 23rd please get out and vote remember who
2:03:58 masked your kids against your will
2:04:00 remember who voted to allow boys and girls restrooms and locker
2:04:05 rooms and vice versa remember who got rid of
2:04:08 female sports by allowing boys and girls sports remember who silenced
2:04:12 the public and closed the doors on parents
2:04:15 remember who believes parents are a security risk
2:04:20 remember people that are okay with graphic pornography in our
2:04:26 school libraries
2:04:30 chairman belford you voted for all of these things you’ve had
2:04:34 eight years already and it’s time to make
2:04:37 the right change for berard thank you thank you miss delaney
2:04:41 hold your applause please audience
2:04:43 all right the board wishes to thank this morning’s speakers your
2:04:49 willingness to join us is appreciated
2:04:51 any board member have anything else for the good of the order
2:04:54 all right there being no further business this meeting is adjourned
2:05:14 all right you
2:05:44 all right you’re welcome you’re welcome you’re welcome you’re
2:05:48 welcome you’re welcome you’re welcome to the