Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 Thank you.
3:37 Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
3:47 Thank you.
4:01 All right, at this time I’d like to offer my fellow board
4:05 members and Dr. Mullins an opportunity to recognize students,
4:08 staff, or members of the community who would like to kick us off
4:11 this evening.
4:11 Okay, Ms. Campbell.
4:14 Well, I wanted to, on tonight’s agenda, we are going to be
4:20 voting on revised contracts for all of our benefits, insurance,
4:27 FSA, dental, all those things.
4:30 And to reduce the amount of time that new employees have to wait
4:35 before those benefits kick in from 45 days to 15 days.
4:40 And I know that that was a Herculean effort put forth by Dr. Setti
4:44 and her team, Ms. Sipio, all of the benefits staff, procurement,
4:48 legal, I know.
4:49 So, I just, I think this is super awesome that we can put this
4:53 out there as we’re recruiting and so it’s exciting and I’m, you
4:57 know, we’ll happily vote yes.
4:59 So, yes, but I just want to thank all the people who did the
5:02 hard work behind the scenes to make it happen and to make it
5:05 happen quickly so that all of our new employees will be able,
5:08 once we pass it tonight, will be able to be benefits eligible
5:11 like after 15 days.
5:13 I think it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s very exciting good work that was
5:16 done.
5:16 Absolutely.
5:17 Yes.
5:19 I just had to echo that because the staff, Dr. Setti and her
5:25 staff have just worked so tremendously hard to make that happen
5:30 in such a quick turnaround.
5:31 So, I had to add to the acknowledgement.
5:33 Thank you.
5:33 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
5:35 Ms. McDougall.
5:36 So, I do have a couple of shout outs for our staff and the first
5:40 is I want to give a shout out to Kevin Thornton and the food
5:44 services department.
5:45 I was able to go to their cafeteria manager’s kickoff and the
5:49 slogan or the mantra for this year is serving healthy meals,
5:55 fueling student success.
5:57 And I just want to say, we have an amazing food service
6:01 department and they have served so many meals.
6:06 I don’t know the number, but you probably do.
6:08 Millions.
6:09 Over a hundred thousand just this summer.
6:11 Yes.
6:12 So, I just want to thank them all for all the hard work and how
6:16 much their role is so important to our student success.
6:19 So, I wanted to give a shout out to Kevin and his team and the
6:21 food services department.
6:23 I am wearing their shirt, which has this slogan on the back.
6:27 It’s really very cute.
6:28 So, thank you again to food services.
6:30 Then I also want to give a shout out to, there’s so many
6:32 departments here.
6:34 We’ve been having job fairs this whole week and probably before
6:38 this whole week.
6:40 Where staff from across all departments, we’re talking HR,
6:46 facilities, custodial, transportation.
6:50 I’m forgetting facilities, transportation, food services.
6:55 Am I forgetting somebody, Dr. Thetting?
6:59 Thank you.
7:00 This is.
7:04 And they’ve worked as a team and I was able to go to two, Titusville
7:07 and two here yesterday.
7:09 And we are getting people.
7:11 I’m very excited.
7:12 Thank goodness.
7:13 And I want to thank everyone who has worked longer than their
7:17 normal hours.
7:18 People stayed here until seven o’clock or until it was done.
7:21 So, thank you for all the departments and everybody who showed
7:24 up and made a difference to help get people on board.
7:28 So, thank you so very much.
7:30 Next.
7:31 Mr. Susan?
7:32 Oh, okay.
7:33 Well, I did want to say thank you to Kevin Thornton for the
7:39 great program that Kevin puts together.
7:44 We have a, we’re very blessed.
7:46 There’s been some misinformation in the news that said that the
7:49 federal government is cutting programs to the kids that are
7:52 receiving free and reduced lunch and all that stuff.
7:54 And it’s just not true.
7:55 What it is is they’re ending the COVID free lunch that they give
7:59 the children.
8:00 And that’s a big shout out goes to the federal government for
8:02 doing that because we were one of the leading districts in the
8:05 state of Florida to take advantage of that delivering, you know
8:08 what I mean, two different locations of low income homes during
8:11 civil.
8:11 I mean, he has knocked it out of the park.
8:13 And I’m just really proud of Kevin for all of his efforts.
8:16 I wanted to shadow your comments.
8:19 I wanted to say thank you to everybody who’s here who comes in.
8:22 We love having you guys because you’re ready to go.
8:25 And everybody gives the greatest speeches when you guys come in
8:26 here and talk about what you’re going to do next year.
8:29 And it’s nice to have that because that’s the next step is to
8:32 get in that excitement.
8:34 And I really appreciate that you actually brought flowers for
8:36 your significant other.
8:38 And that’s a very smart man.
8:40 If I did that more often, I probably wouldn’t be in as much
8:42 trouble.
8:43 So congratulations and thank you.
8:45 And all you guys that brought the kids, you know what I mean?
8:47 That’s our next generation.
8:48 So thank you for being here today.
8:50 I also wanted to say that I just got off the phone with the home
8:53 builders and contractors
8:55 and the associated builders and contractors, the plug roomers
8:57 and plate fitters today.
8:59 And we’re going to hold kind of a round table summit to figure
9:02 out how we can identify the children that graduated last year
9:05 and let them know what apprenticeships are being lent out this
9:08 year.
9:09 So I had a lot of family members that contacted me and said, hey,
9:12 we saw you on the trades.
9:13 What can I do for my kid?
9:14 He’s flipping burgers at McDonald’s.
9:15 He’s on my couch, you know, all these things.
9:17 And I said, well, let me give the guys a call.
9:19 So I’m good friends with associated builders and contractors,
9:21 home builders and all those guys.
9:23 So let’s just get together.
9:24 Let’s talk about what we can do to notify to say, hey, there’s a
9:28 lot of post-secondary programs that are career and technical
9:32 programs from the college and universities to all the
9:34 associations.
9:36 So we’re going to get that together and I’ll come talk to you
9:38 about it.
9:39 I love making announcements before Dr. Mullins actually knows
9:41 what I’m doing.
9:42 The other thing is, is that the I made an entire career out of
9:47 asking for forgiveness as a teacher rather than permission, just
9:52 so you know.
9:53 So it’s just been with me my whole life.
9:55 The other thing is, is the Brevard Athletic Association is a
9:58 loose knit of athletes that former athletes that were going to
10:01 come together.
10:03 We’ve officially kind of coined.
10:05 We’ve got the teams.
10:06 And what’s going to happen is, is football, baseball, track,
10:09 volleyball, all of them have sort of sub associations inside the
10:13 school, inside the county.
10:15 I’m going to pull them all together and do best practices.
10:17 And what that means is, right now you have, say in football, you
10:21 have a football coach at the high school level, and then you
10:24 have these coaches at the little league level.
10:27 So many of the coaches that are little league level are guys
10:29 that just said, I want to coach my kid, but they don’t know what
10:31 best practices are.
10:33 They don’t know how a kid should tackle.
10:35 They don’t know how a kid should, should do these things.
10:37 And it’s not their fault, right?
10:38 So we want to create a vertical alignment of programs to where
10:41 the coaches at the top are speaking to the ones at the bottom.
10:44 And they give, not so much like, here’s how you run an offense,
10:46 but here’s how you run a practice, man.
10:48 Like, how do you keep the kids engaged?
10:50 How do you keep moving throughout the practice?
10:52 And then bring in, contacted the FHSAA of all people.
10:55 Yeah, my friends over there.
10:57 And they, anyways, the FHSAA agreed to send in the new referee
11:02 or the head of the FHSAA to talk to the coaches about what the
11:06 new changes in rules are and everything else.
11:08 Worst case scenario is when you’re a coach out on the field and
11:11 all of a sudden you realize a rule change that you didn’t pay
11:14 attention to.
11:15 So that’s, it’s a really good thing.
11:17 So, and they’re going to host some combines and stuff like that.
11:20 It’s going to be a cool thing.
11:21 And then I wanted to tell you, hooray, many kids’ parents don’t
11:25 know their kids are not registered to vote.
11:28 And you don’t realize that until you start knocking doors as a
11:31 political candidate and you knock it and they’re like, I said,
11:34 hey, you know, you know, they say, oh, we’ll get my son to sign
11:38 it.
11:38 I’m like, no, kid’s not registered.
11:40 And I don’t know if you guys know, but a lot of our kids in this
11:42 next generation are pretty lazy.
11:44 And they haven’t even gotten their driver’s license.
11:46 So a lot of them don’t go out and get their driver’s licenses,
11:49 which is one of the precursors to get voter registration.
11:51 And then they just kind of roll.
11:52 So what I did was I requested the voter.
11:54 I requested every kid that’s going to turn 18 before this
11:57 November election, got their parents’ numbers and stuff like
12:00 that.
12:01 And I’m going to pen a letter to their house.
12:02 I got the voter registration office to say, hey, the legal way,
12:06 because gosh knows if you do it the wrong way, they’re going to
12:09 haul you down to jail.
12:10 But we’re going to send a letter out to each one of those
12:12 families and say, hey, your child is not registered yet.
12:15 Here’s the way you can do it.
12:16 Here’s a QR code.
12:17 Just click it, fill it out and go.
12:19 And if you don’t have a driver’s license, then here’s how you
12:21 can do that.
12:22 Great program.
12:23 You’re going to try to drive the voter registration.
12:25 And that comes from when I was a teacher years ago.
12:28 Miss Katie Delaney probably remembers, we had big voter
12:32 registration drives.
12:34 There’s a lot of politicians up in Titusville that got elected
12:37 because we drove the students at our schools.
12:40 We had about three, four hundred votes that actually voted for
12:42 them.
12:43 So it’s a big project.
12:44 And I just wanted to let you guys know about it.
12:45 And if there’s anybody that wants to help with it, I’m more than
12:47 willing to work with you guys.
12:49 Come on in.
12:50 It’s not a voting thing.
12:51 So we can do it.
12:52 Right, Paul?
12:53 Yeah, see?
12:54 That’s the first time he said yes since I’ve been on the board.
12:58 He didn’t even hear what I said.
12:59 He’s getting, he’s, yep.
13:00 All right.
13:01 All right, man.
13:02 Yep.
13:03 All right.
13:04 I’m done.
13:05 Thank you.
13:06 Thank you, Mr. Susan.
13:07 Ms. Jenkins?
13:08 All right.
13:09 So bear with me here.
13:11 It’ll be a few minutes.
13:14 I’ve had a secret for the past couple things.
13:20 That I have not been allowed to share.
13:22 I was sworn to secrecy.
13:23 And I have officially been given permission to let the cat out
13:26 of the bag.
13:27 And I am super excited.
13:29 Or the tiger.
13:30 I don’t know.
13:31 So bear with me.
13:33 I’m going to take my time here.
13:35 I’ve got notes because I don’t want to mess this up.
13:37 So for people who are listening, who may not understand, our
13:41 athletic programs are minimally funded by the state.
13:44 And that leaves districts like us to spread a little bit of
13:48 money across a lot of different organizations and schools.
13:52 This means our schools have to rely on their booster clubs, fundraisers,
13:56 PTOs, sometimes outside businesses and organizations to help
14:00 support those programs.
14:02 But it also exasperates a discrepancy between many of our
14:05 communities.
14:06 We’ve got some communities that are able to heavily fund their
14:08 programs.
14:09 And we have others that are really struggling.
14:11 So the city of Coco has a medium household income of $39,000.
14:17 They support their school with pride and service, but they
14:22 struggle to financially support their athletic programs.
14:27 They are not able to keep up at some of the rate of our other
14:29 schools.
14:30 A prime example of pride and service is they have an assistant
14:33 coach.
14:34 His name is Mr. James Falston.
14:36 He is a former NFL player.
14:38 He volunteers his time to coach their football team.
14:41 He refuses to take a salary.
14:43 He donates financial assistance to the team over and over again.
14:48 And he donates his time outside of the football field and
14:51 training as well.
14:52 They have a team that has mastered conditioning of football
14:56 players.
14:57 So let me give you some information here.
14:59 They won 16 consistent years of regional championships.
15:02 They have four state championships.
15:04 And one year they had the most NFL drafts in the entire nation
15:08 in one single year.
15:10 Cocoa High School.
15:12 It was pretty awesome.
15:13 Just in the last four years, they’ve got some pretty notable
15:15 players who made it to the Super Bowl.
15:17 They’ve got Jamal Dean with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
15:19 CJ Gardner Johnson with the New Orleans Saints.
15:21 Javion Hawkins with the Los Angeles Rams.
15:24 And again, two of them were in the Super Bowl the past two years.
15:27 Just last week, somebody sent me an article.
15:29 We’ve got a student right now currently at Cocoa High School, Mr.
15:33 Cedric Hawkins.
15:33 He was featured in the news as an incredible athlete that’s up
15:36 and coming outside of Cocoa High School who is currently being
15:38 scouted for Ohio State.
15:39 It sounded like he made his decision in that article, but I’m
15:42 pretty sure there’s going to be some other schools scouting him
15:45 out.
15:46 So for anyone who knows me, I am absolutely not a sports guru.
15:50 I was a drum major of a competitive marching band that didn’t
15:52 even go to football games.
15:54 But this is important to me because it’s important to our kids.
15:57 So when their environment doesn’t reflect their worth, I am
16:02 concerned we send messages that they aren’t worthy.
16:05 And I know that’s not how we feel here.
16:07 I know that’s not how Cocoa High School feels.
16:08 I absolutely know that’s not how their community feels about
16:10 those kids.
16:11 So I believe it’s time that Cocoa Junior Seniors High School
16:15 Athletics Facility reflects the quality of student athletes that
16:18 it serves.
16:19 So now I’m going to share the fun thing that I wasn’t allowed to
16:22 talk about for months.
16:24 I had invited somebody to be here.
16:26 I knew that they may not be able to make it.
16:28 And I don’t see him.
16:29 And if you’re here, please pop up and tell me you’re here.
16:32 But back in January, I got a call from a Cocoa City Councilman.
16:36 His name is Alex Goines.
16:37 He coaches our track team at Cocoa High School.
16:40 He reached out to me to complain about the track a little bit.
16:44 And then he also started to have a conversation with me about
16:46 their weight room.
16:47 And this is not something that was new to me.
16:49 I had heard about it over and over again, but I never made my
16:51 way up there.
16:52 So I did.
16:53 I met Alex up there.
16:54 I met some of the coaches up there.
16:55 And quite frankly, I was appalled by what I saw.
16:59 The conditions of that weight room were crazy.
17:02 They were unsafe.
17:04 They were absolutely not equitable.
17:06 They were missing pads.
17:07 It was dangerous.
17:08 There was rusted equipment.
17:09 I actually just took a visit there yesterday with Dr. Mullins.
17:12 And we were told that one of the bars literally snapped in half
17:14 when some of the students were using them.
17:16 So Alex and I began brainstorming.
17:18 What can we do?
17:19 So I reached out to a former satellite high school graduate.
17:23 He is a good friend of my husband’s.
17:25 He works for ESPN for college game day.
17:28 And I actually just asked him to connect me with those recent
17:30 players.
17:31 I wanted to do a fundraiser of some sort to help out.
17:34 But what happened over the next six months is pretty incredible.
17:38 So I pitched him a story.
17:40 I told him the history of the program, the history of the school,
17:42 the community pride,
17:43 the amazing Mr. Folston that is there himself helping out.
17:46 And I am officially allowed to announce that this week over $75,000
17:53 of brand new equipment was donated by Academy Sports to Coco
17:59 High School to completely refurbish their entire weight room.
18:02 They are not missing a single item at all.
18:07 And I just have to say, this was not just me at all.
18:11 This started with a phone call from a city councilman who cares
18:14 about his community, cares about those kids, and genuinely
18:18 wanted something done, wanted action to be taken place.
18:21 And so I thank you, Mr. Goines.
18:23 I wish you could be here.
18:25 I thank you for making that phone call because this was so heartwarming.
18:30 I worked with Mr. Wilson.
18:32 I worked with now Denise Stewart.
18:34 Everyone is excited.
18:35 The coaches are psyched.
18:36 The kids don’t really know about it.
18:38 The only kids who know about it are the kids that have kind of
18:40 been in their summer training.
18:42 They’re piled up in boxes right now.
18:44 Academy Sports is going to come together, put all the equipment
18:46 together, empty the room, put the room back together for them.
18:50 It’s pretty cool.
18:51 It’s pretty incredible.
18:52 And I have to say shout out to our facilities department.
18:55 Because the second I got confirmation that that stuff landed on
18:58 our campus, I said, we need flooring.
19:01 We can’t put this new equipment in with terrible flooring.
19:04 And Suhan pulled that off and reallocated those funds that they
19:07 already had designated for that school to make it happen.
19:10 So hopefully that will get done as well before all that new
19:13 equipment is in there.
19:15 I just want to say one more thing that Alex had said to me over
19:17 and over again in our conversations over six months.
19:20 Because we were like, we’ve got to do this.
19:22 It’s got to come together.
19:23 And he said over and over again, when good people come together
19:26 to do good things for the right reasons, they’re going to happen.
19:30 They’re absolutely going to happen because they have to happen.
19:33 And man, they sure did.
19:34 So thank you again to Alex.
19:35 Thank you to ESPN.
19:36 Thank you to Academy Sports.
19:37 We’re not done.
19:39 There’s another secret that I’m not allowed to talk about.
19:42 But when they give me the thumbs up to talk about it, I
19:44 absolutely will.
19:45 And lastly, when the official date is set for them to come and
19:48 build that weight room for us, I’m going to be reaching out to
19:51 all of the BPS community, but also Coco.
19:55 Because we really wanted this to be a Coco community event.
19:58 So we’re going to have community members come in, paint that
20:00 weight room together, build some community and support and joy
20:04 around these kids, give it a fresh look.
20:07 We’re in talks with some muralists to put a really sweet tiger
20:09 on the wall.
20:10 So I’m probably going to be posting a fundraiser to help pay for
20:13 that as well.
20:14 So I’m reaching out to everybody.
20:16 Let’s give a little love to our tigers.
20:18 Thanks.
20:19 Awesome stuff.
20:28 Dr. Mullins.
20:29 Thank you, Mrs. Belford.
20:32 I want to give a couple shout outs this evening.
20:35 Thanks to a teacher who we have recognized before, Mr. Bill McGinnish.
20:39 He is our career and technical education teacher at O’Galley
20:43 High School for the Aircraft and Aerospace Assembly Program at O’Galley
20:47 High School.
20:48 He was recently awarded the Florida Teacher of the Year for 2022
20:53 by the Florida Region of Air and Space Forces Association, or
20:57 the AFA.
20:58 So not a surprise that he is being acknowledged and recognized,
21:03 but we want to give a shout out to him again for his continued
21:05 devotion and dedication to an amazing program.
21:08 He is a game changer for kids.
21:11 He has 100% placement in the aviation industry for the last two
21:16 years for his graduating students.
21:19 I have to tell you that Embry Air is first in line every year to
21:23 tap our kids that are coming out of that program.
21:27 And that’s pretty amazing.
21:30 And then second, I want to recognize one of our very own that’s
21:33 always in the room with us in the evening.
21:36 Kind of a silent hero behind the scenes.
21:39 Mr. Russell Cheatham, as he, our Assistant Superintendent of
21:43 Educational Technology, our CIO.
21:46 What has been elected for the 2022-23 school year as Chairman of
21:53 the Board for FAMIS or Florida’s Association on Management
21:57 Information Systems.
21:59 This organization brings together the collection of CIOs across
22:03 the state, technology leaders, as well as the DOE, and helps
22:08 chart the path for the vision, the future of technology across
22:12 our schools.
22:13 So, Russell, not a surprise.
22:16 You are a leader among leaders.
22:18 Congratulations.
22:19 Thank you for representing Brevard.
22:22 Thank you, Dr. Mullins.
22:26 I have two pretty quick ones, I think.
22:29 One, just want to say a huge thank you to Dr. Mullins and all of
22:32 his team that put together the Superintendent Summit.
22:36 My days are all jumbled at this point.
22:38 I think it was last week that we went.
22:41 But really just a great day of focusing and energizing and
22:46 getting ready for the upcoming year.
22:50 And thanks to all of our school-based teams and district staff
22:54 that attended as well, directors and assistant superintendents.
22:58 The whole team that was there, the energy was great.
23:00 It was phenomenal and really a great way to kick off the year.
23:02 So, Dr. Mullins, thank you for your vision on that.
23:05 And thank you to your team for all the hard work to make it come
23:07 together.
23:08 Much appreciated.
23:09 And then the last one that I have is just a, you know, I talk
23:14 all the time about the way that our community comes around our
23:16 schools.
23:17 And we have so many back to school events that are going on this
23:21 weekend, next week.
23:23 I know the supply zone, I think, is Saturday morning or Saturday
23:27 early part of the day.
23:29 I know we’ve got a couple up on the north end as well that are
23:32 community groups that are coming around to provide school
23:35 supplies and haircuts and shoes and just you name it.
23:40 And so, just want to thank everyone in our community that’s
23:44 working on those types of activities for wrapping your arms
23:47 around our kids.
23:49 And making sure that they can start the year on a good footing.
23:53 So, much appreciated.
23:56 All right.
23:57 I believe that is going to bring us to the adoption of the
23:59 agenda.
24:00 Dr. Mullins.
24:01 Mrs. Belford and members of the board, on this evening’s agenda,
24:04 we have administrative staff recommendations,
24:06 the tentative budget hearing, which includes a presentation,
24:09 time for public comments, and three items for board action.
24:13 In addition to two presentations, then 12 consent items and two
24:17 action items.
24:18 Changes made to the agenda since released to the public include
24:21 the addition of items D13, ad valora millage update, D14,
24:26 recruitment update.
24:27 Also revisions were made to items A7, administrative staff
24:30 recommendations, A8, tentative budget hearing presentation,
24:35 A10, adopt proposed 2022-23 millage rates, A11, adopt proposed
24:42 2022-23 tentative budget, A12, authorize the superintendent to
24:48 take the following action,
24:50 H29, department school initiate agreements, and H30, procurement
24:54 solicitations.
24:55 What are the wishes of the board?
24:56 Moved to approve.
24:57 Second.
24:58 Moved by Mr. Susan.
24:59 Seconded by Ms. McDougall.
25:00 Is there any discussion?
25:01 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
25:03 Aye.
25:04 Any opposed?
25:05 Same sign.
25:06 Motion passes 5-0.
25:07 Dr. Mullins, will you please let us know about the
25:09 administrative staff recommendation?
25:12 Madam Chair and members of the board, there are six items for
25:14 your consideration.
25:16 What are the wishes of the board?
25:17 Moved to approve.
25:18 Second.
25:19 Moved by Mr. Susan.
25:22 Seconded by Ms. McDougall.
25:24 Any discussion?
25:25 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
25:28 Aye.
25:29 Any opposed?
25:30 Same sign.
25:31 Motion passes 5-0.
25:32 Dr. Mullins.
25:33 Well, I would like to echo some of Mr. Susan’s earlier comments.
25:37 We have three administrative promotions to recognize and
25:41 congratulate this evening.
25:43 So I’d like to start with Mr. James Sanders, who is reclassed
25:46 from the position of teacher at Oak Park Elementary School to
25:51 the position of assistant principal 10 month at Titusville High
25:55 School effective August 2, 2022.
25:58 Congratulations, Mr. Sanders.
26:05 Good evening to Dr. Mullins, school board members.
26:09 I’m truly grateful for this opportunity.
26:12 To Ms. Gonzalez and the numerous mentors that I’ve had since I’ve
26:15 been here in Beauvoir.
26:17 Thank you guys.
26:18 Last but not least, I would like to thank my wife, Felicia, for
26:21 30 years of putting up with me and supporting me.
26:24 Thank you and thank you all.
26:27 Next, I’d like us to join in congratulating Ms. Lysol.
26:36 I’m going to try.
26:37 Patchlow.
26:38 I practiced too and hopefully I got close.
26:42 Reclassed from the position of certified school counselor at
26:46 Anderson Elementary School to now the position of assistant
26:49 principal at Fairglen Elementary School effective August 2, 2022.
26:54 Please feel free to correct me.
26:57 Good evening, everyone.
27:01 My name is Lysol Petrillo.
27:03 Dr. Mullins, school board members, thank you so much for appointing
27:07 me to be the new assistant principal at Fairglen Elementary
27:08 School.
27:09 I am very excited and I can’t wait to meet all the students and
27:13 to work with the faculty for a great year of learning.
27:18 I wouldn’t be here without the help and support of a lot of
27:24 people.
27:26 I’m not going to list everyone.
27:27 But I am going to start by thanking God for all his grace and
27:31 mercies towards me and all my family and my friends that have
27:35 supported me.
27:36 My mom, my daughter, and my husband for their sacrifice and
27:41 their encouragement.
27:43 To my former principal, Mrs. Harris, for all the opportunities
27:47 she gave me for leadership.
27:49 To Christy Merez, principal of Fairglen and the interviewing
27:54 committee, thank you for choosing me to help lead Fairglen.
27:58 And to Candy Jones, my former assistant principal, now principal
28:03 of Audubon, especially because she saw leadership potential in
28:08 me and encouraged me to pursue administrator role.
28:14 And here I am today, so thank you all very much.
28:18 I am truly excited.
28:20 Go Indians!
28:22 And last but certainly not least, I want to congratulate Miss
28:30 Tammy Harvey, reclass from the position of Title I teacher at
28:33 Riviere Elementary School.
28:35 Now to the position of assistant principal at Riviere Elementary
28:38 School effective August 2nd, 2022.
28:41 Congratulations.
28:44 First of all, thank you to everyone on the board and Dr. Mullins.
28:50 I have to say this has been a long journey for me, but today I
28:54 feel truly blessed.
28:56 I am blessed to be able to begin this journey at a school I
28:59 already love and to be able to work under a principal that I
29:03 truly admire.
29:04 So I feel very blessed also because of the amazing family I have
29:07 sitting in front of me.
29:09 So I just want to say thank you.
29:10 I am so excited to be working at a school that I truly believe I
29:14 belong at.
29:15 So I’m really excited for the next year and thank you everyone.
29:19 Again, congratulations and my thanks and appreciation to the
29:29 extended families of these men and women who will be serving in
29:33 the ranks of administrator and continuing to give themselves
29:33 their hearts, their lives to serving the children of Brevard.
29:33 We know that it’s a demanding responsibility and it has impacts
29:40 on the family and we don’t take lightly the support that you
29:48 have back at your home.
29:51 So thank you for your continued devotion and dedication to our
29:54 kids and to the families that support you at home.
29:57 All right, we are going to be moving into our tentative budget
30:06 hearing.
30:07 For those of you who joined us tonight for the recognitions of
30:09 promotion, please don’t feel like you have to stay for the
30:11 remainder of the meeting.
30:13 I know you have a lot of work to do on your plate.
30:15 If you would like to stay, you’re welcome.
30:17 I don’t want you to think I’m throwing you out, but we certainly
30:22 understand if you have other places that you need to be at the
30:34 moment.
30:36 I don’t want you to think of it.
31:34 All right, we are now at the tentative budget hearing portion of
31:44 the agenda.
31:45 Dr. Mullen.
31:46 Thank you, Madam Chair.
31:48 First, Ms. Cindy Lisinski, our Chief Financial Officer, will
31:51 provide a presentation on the proposed 2022-2023 millage, levy,
31:57 and budget.
31:59 Ms. Lisinski?
32:00 Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board.
32:04 This is the first public hearing out of two to decide the
32:10 proposed millage or approve the proposed millage rates and the
32:14 tentative budget for FY23.
32:17 The tentative budget was built on our four guiding principles in
32:20 mind: protection of an excellent education, protection of an
32:25 effective workforce,
32:27 maintain the fiscal strength of the district, and protection of
32:31 the taxpayer interest.
32:34 So, tonight’s public hearing will include: presentation of
32:41 proposed millage and budget, an opportunity for public comment,
32:46 and board member discussion, a request that you adopt the
32:49 resolution setting the proposed total millage levy that was set
32:49 by the state to support the effort of the
32:49 FY23 tentative budget, a request that you adopt resolutions
33:03 approving the FY23 tentative budget as presented, request authorizing
33:09 the superintendent and staff to perform all necessary actions to
33:13 comply with truth and millage requirements, and then we will
33:15 announce that the
33:16 date of the final public hearing to adopt the budget for FY23.
33:23 The truth and millage legislation was enacted in 1980 to
33:30 redirect taxpayers’ concern over rising taxes from the property
33:34 appraisers who do not control the levying of taxes toward the
33:38 government taxing authorities that set the tax rates.
33:43 The truth and millage legislation requirements are detailed
33:47 under Florida statute.
33:50 Trim timelines are very prescriptive in law, and the clock
33:54 started on July 1st.
33:56 The total timeline to budget adoption is 80 days.
34:00 The statute dictates the order of business during the budget
34:03 hearings, as laid out in the previous slide, and trim requires
34:07 two public hearings for open discussion of millage rates and the
34:11 proposed budget.
34:12 Mr. Millage is a term that represents the tax rate levied on
34:19 real estate or property.
34:21 One mill is equivalent to $1 in taxes per $1,000 in taxable
34:26 value.
34:27 If your home has a taxable value of $100,000 and you’re assessed
34:33 a mill tax rate, you will pay $100 in taxes.
34:37 The Florida education finance program is the mechanism by which
34:44 state and local funds are allocated to Florida school districts.
34:52 The Florida legislature sets the required local effort millage
34:55 rates, and the school districts receive their rate no later than
35:00 July 19th in the FEFP second calculation.
35:04 The school board must levy the required local effort millage
35:08 rates in order to receive any state funding under the Florida
35:14 education finance program.
35:19 The total proposed millage related to school funding for FY 23
35:25 school year totals 5.495 mills.
35:30 This millage rate will generate revenue for the general
35:33 operating and capital outlay funds.
35:36 The required local effort rate adjusts year to year while the
35:40 discretionary and local capital remain fixed.
35:49 When you compare the FY 22 required local effort to the proposed
35:55 FY 23 required local effort millage rate, there is a decrease of
36:01 0.355 mills.
36:04 Therefore, the proposed total millage rate related to school
36:07 funding of 5.495 mills represents a decrease of 0.355 mills when
36:15 compared to last year’s rate.
36:19 This reduction in the required local effort from 3.602 to 3.247
36:29 mills equates to reduced local tax levy of $7 million when
36:34 applied to the current tax rule.
36:38 This slide depicts the historic millage rates over the last 13
36:46 years.
36:47 FY 12 is the high watermark.
36:50 Millage rates have continued to decline each year as our
36:54 property values continue to increase in the county.
36:59 As required by TRMM, we must compare the proposed millage rate
37:07 to the rollback rate.
37:10 When property values rise, property taxes generate more revenue.
37:15 For the total revenue generated to stay the same as the prior
37:19 year, the tax rate must decrease.
37:22 So, the rollback rate rolls back the rate as property values
37:27 increase.
37:28 It represents what the rate would be in order to levy the same
37:32 amount of tax dollars as the prior year.
37:35 Under TRMM, the rollback rate is the basis for determining if
37:39 tax rates have increased or decreased.
37:43 The rollback rate is normally less than the proposed tentative
37:47 rate,
37:48 because maintaining revenue at the same level as the previous
37:52 year does not provide for funding new student growth or basic
37:58 inflationary cost increases.
38:01 When the rollback rate is less than the proposed millage rate
38:04 set by the state, we must advertise a tax increase.
38:07 For Brevard Public Schools, the proposed millage rate is higher
38:11 than the rollback rate.
38:13 The notice of proposed tax increase was advertised in the
38:21 Florida Today on July 25th.
38:26 This slide depicts the annual certified school property tax
38:29 values going back 15 years.
38:32 FY 2009 was the highest annual tax roll prior to the Great Recession.
38:38 The property values continue to increase each year since FY ‘13
38:43 with the most significant change this year.
38:51 The required local effort and discretionary millage makes up the
38:57 district’s local operating funds at $240.1 million.
39:05 And on the capital side, the local capital improvement millage
39:10 generates $90.2 million at a 96% collection rate.
39:18 As stated in the prior slides, the board must levy the required
39:22 local effort in order to receive BPS’s total FY ‘23 school
39:28 operating funding from the state.
39:32 As the total FEFP calculation from the state is $610.8 million.
39:39 The discretionary local effort millage will garner $45 million.
39:45 When combined with the RLE, or the required local effort, we get
39:50 the district’s local portion of $240.1 million.
39:55 Which is 40% of our FY ‘23 FEFP school operating fund.
40:02 When a school district receives a .748 mills, or the discretionary
40:09 local effort, and it generates an amount of funds per FTE that
40:14 is less than the state average of $719.62.
40:20 The school district will receive a discretionary millage
40:25 compression supplement that will bring the district up to the
40:29 state average.
40:31 In the case of Brevard, our .748 mills generates $596.62 per FTE.
40:42 In order to get to the state average, the state provided an
40:46 additional $123 per FTE, which equates to $9.3 million.
40:55 The local capital improvement millage, or LCI, will provide the
41:01 district $90.1 million.
41:08 It comes off the top and is used to pay the district’s debt
41:12 service, which covers principal and interest payments for
41:15 previous bonded debt that was issued primarily between the years
41:21 of 1996 and 2008 to build schools and provide for major renovations
41:29 at our older schools.
41:31 LCI contributes $10.3 million towards maintenance costs for
41:35 labor.
41:36 LCI also pays for the district’s property insurance, which
41:40 leaves $36.2 million for capital project needs throughout the
41:48 district.
41:50 So, I taught my daughter last night how to calculate school
42:00 taxes using this example of a homesteaded home with an assessed
42:05 value of $100,000.
42:07 As a reminder, when someone owns property that makes it a
42:12 permanent resident, the property owner may be eligible to
42:18 receive a homestead exemption and up to $50,000 exemption.
42:25 The first $25,000 applies to all property taxes, including
42:29 school district taxes.
42:31 The additional exemption up to $25,000 does not include school
42:35 district taxes.
42:36 So, back to Madison.
42:38 She subtracted $25,000 from the assessed value of $100,000,
42:44 leaving a taxable value of $75,000.
42:48 Next, I said, okay, if one mill equals $1 for every taxable $1,000,
42:54 how much would be paid in taxes?
42:56 She’s like, oh, that’s easy, $75.
42:59 Then, I asked Madison to give me two strategies to check her
43:02 work.
43:03 She divided the taxable value by $1,000 to get the $75,000, and
43:09 she’s still working on the second street.
43:11 Now, since the millage rate is 5.495, she multiplied 775 by the
43:21 5.495 mills, which equates to $412.13.
43:31 So, this slide illustrates the changes in school-related
43:41 property taxes for a homeowner over a seven-year span.
43:50 In this example, we started with a home valued at $200,000 in
43:55 2016 and increased the assessed value by 3% each year, the
44:02 maximum allowable under Save Our Homes.
44:05 In 2016, the home would have generated roughly $1,210 in school-related
44:11 property tax.
44:13 If the owner qualified for Save Our Homes by 2022 school year,
44:21 the assessed value of the same home would be $238,810.
44:29 Based on the valuation, the school-related property tax would be
44:35 $1,174.89.
44:39 This is actually a decrease of $35.18 from the 2021 tax year.
44:46 And across five years, the total decrease is $35.41.
44:57 So, what does this mean for families?
45:01 You can see that $3.21 a day is critical in serving our children’s
45:08 education.
45:10 It’s less than the cost of a fancy Starbucks or not-so-fancy
45:15 Starbucks drink per day,
45:18 and it would pay for a tutor once a week for one hour for a
45:23 struggling reader.
45:26 So, in the last several years, we faced much uncertainty about
45:40 the economy
45:43 and how life after the pandemic would look like in the county,
45:47 state, nation, and globally.
45:50 Early 2022 has been challenging with massive supply disruptions
45:56 resulting from the ongoing pandemic and Russia’s invasion of
46:01 Ukraine.
46:02 Additionally, the conflict was a major driver in increased oil
46:05 and food prices.
46:07 Job openings across the nation are at an all-time high, which we
46:12 are all very aware as we prepare to open our doors for this
46:16 coming school year.
46:17 This is a long way of saying our proposed budget is our best
46:21 estimate of revenue against expenses and not money in the bank.
46:28 We are optimistic about our enrollment, and we will continue to
46:31 monitor and make every adjustment required to ensure we have
46:36 resources available to meet the needs of every student.
46:39 This is a district’s total proposed budget in summary form.
46:47 The general fund is where most operating expenses are paid.
46:52 That service fund is used to pay for the outstanding bonds of
47:00 the district.
47:03 Capital projects funds accounts for major construction and
47:06 renovation projects.
47:08 Special revenue fund consists of food service, federal grants
47:13 such as Title I, IDEA, ARP, ESSER, and schools’ internal
47:18 accounts.
47:19 Internal service fund includes the district’s health insurance,
47:23 property casualty, and workers’ compensation programs.
47:27 And the enterprise fund is our before and after school program.
47:34 We recommend that the board adopt the proposed FY23 budget.
47:40 The final public hearing on the FY23 millage and budget will be
47:51 held on Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 5:30 at the education
47:59 service facility.
48:00 Right here.
48:01 And this concludes my briefing.
48:02 Thank you, Ms. Leszinski.
48:03 I apologize for getting ahead of you there.
48:04 Ms. Jenkins, you had a question?
48:05 Yeah.
48:06 So I actually don’t have a question.
48:07 Thank you for everything that you did.
48:08 I love that you put real concrete examples for families to see
48:16 how it would impact them directly.
48:21 Of course, it’s just kind of a rough estimate and I appreciate
48:23 that.
48:24 I just want to reiterate to people who are listening at home or
48:27 watching these slides that your assessed
48:29 home value is not equal to your market value.
48:32 Because I know sometimes people are going to panic when they
48:35 hear that.
48:36 And so just to give an example, my home beachside is worth
48:39 probably double in this market than when it’s actually assessed
48:43 by the property appraiser.
48:44 So if you’re curious about what your house is assessed at, you
48:48 can go to the property appraiser’s website to get a real
48:50 accurate number there.
48:51 And then I also just want to double down.
48:54 You said it, but I want to say it one more time.
48:56 That proposed budget includes federal funds from COVID.
49:01 And that is not a reoccurring fund.
49:04 We only have it for a certain amount of time.
49:06 We have a certain amount of time to spend that money.
49:08 So just want to double down on that as well.
49:10 And I know you said it, but I just want to say it one more time.
49:12 So thank you.
49:13 Thank you, Ms. Jenkins.
49:15 Anyone else?
49:16 Yeah, I want to say thank you.
49:19 And I think one of the things that we’re not noticing is, is
49:22 that every single person in this district who owns their home,
49:28 not so much anything else, their taxes from the school district
49:31 are actually going to go down.
49:33 Period.
49:35 And so when I did mine, I did my assessed value on my house.
49:38 I will be paying less this year than I would have last year.
49:43 Even though, and on top of that, the amount of money that, this
49:46 is incredible.
49:47 So last year I paid $2,925 to taxes.
49:53 This year, even though my property increased with the Save Your
49:57 Homes Up, I now am paying less at $2,820.
50:01 And just so everybody knows, many people are like, well, wait a
50:04 minute.
50:04 The total assessed value, your mill goes up.
50:06 How the heck does that happen?
50:08 Had I not bought that house, because when I bought it, it went
50:11 from $300,000 to $500,000.
50:14 When I did that, they were paying $1,600.
50:17 So my house, had I not purchased it, would pay into the tax at $1,600.
50:21 But now that I purchased it and it set it up top, it’s now
50:23 paying $2,800, but it’s still less.
50:26 So like the message across to everybody is, you’re paying less
50:30 taxes this year than you did last year for the taxes for the
50:34 school district.
50:34 And we don’t tell enough people that.
50:36 Like everybody’s like, oh, it’s taxes, taxes.
50:38 You’re literally paying less.
50:39 In the middle of a recession, in the middle of us trying to
50:41 cover costs for things that we’re doing, and they’re paying less.
50:45 Just so they know.
50:46 It doesn’t go out there enough.
50:47 So thank you, Ms. Lucinski.
50:49 And the other thing, I want everybody to know that the reason we
50:53 are harbored by this debt is because past administrations, not
50:57 this one,
50:58 not a single person on this board has raised any kind of bonds
51:01 or anything while we’ve been on here.
51:04 But it’s the past administration from 2008 that really handcuffed
51:08 us in.
51:09 And they hit a recession.
51:10 And instead of really doing drastic cuts, they decided to debt
51:12 finance a lot of what they were losing.
51:14 So they were building schools in the middle of a recession.
51:17 So I think that that may not have been the smartest thing.
51:20 And we’re handcuffed by it in our capital outlay.
51:22 Thank gosh for the half pennies in sales tax.
51:24 But I just wanted to let everybody know.
51:26 If you own your home, you are paying less this year than you did
51:29 last year for school taxes.
51:31 Period.
51:32 That’s huge.
51:33 So thank you.
51:35 And I don’t like those other board members that voted in all
51:37 this debt on us.
51:38 Just so you know.
51:39 I know who they are.
51:40 Just to follow up on that.
51:42 And, you know, we did have explosive growth during those years.
51:46 So I can’t throw them all under the bus.
51:49 What?
51:50 You need to be thrown under the bus.
51:52 We’re hammering with $39 million.
51:53 No, I understand.
51:55 When we get our annual financial report in the fall, you usually
52:01 have updates on where our debt stands.
52:04 And when we first got on the board, it was $400 million.
52:06 But, you know, we’ve made those payments steadily.
52:08 Do you know off the top of your head where we are right now?
52:11 $300 million-ish.
52:12 Not off the top of my head.
52:13 I can get that to you.
52:14 Would you guys this week sometimes send us an update on where we
52:16 are right now?
52:18 Oh, absolutely.
52:19 Because I know the last time I looked, I want to say it was $330
52:19 million.
52:20 I think they said that.
52:21 Yeah.
52:22 Just where we are right now with whatever the last payments were
52:22 that we made.
52:23 Okay.
52:24 Thank you.
52:25 Anybody else?
52:26 I will just, to piggyback on what you said, Mr. Susan, if you go
52:35 back to the slide on how
52:39 will my taxes change that show like 2016 through 2022.
52:43 Yep.
52:44 This is actually the lowest tax rate in that entire chart.
52:48 So, not only is it less this year than it was last year, but it’s
52:52 been some time since we’ve seen a tax rate this low.
52:56 And then the other thing that I will point out, and as I have
52:58 been having this conversation and I don’t mean to mix issues,
53:03 but I’m going to point it out.
53:05 If you look at the slide that had our historical millage rates,
53:08 we talked about the fact that the state continues to roll back
53:11 our millage rate to ensure that people aren’t paying more in
53:17 taxes.
53:18 And when they started rolling this back, in addition to them
53:22 taking away the 0.5 mil for capital years ago, but when they
53:27 started rolling this back, if you look at the peak of 2013 of 8.096,
53:33 and now we’re down to 5.4, had they not rolled back even half of
53:39 what they rolled back in that timeframe, we wouldn’t be talking
53:44 about a millage rate.
53:45 So, I just think that’s an important recommendation.
53:50 And just so everybody understands, they flatline all of our
53:54 ability to raise anything.
53:56 It’s a good year.
54:00 We’re not charging more taxes.
54:02 So, and, but that’s a bad year because we need that revenue for.
54:07 Yeah.
54:08 And then finally, I will just say once again, Ms. Licinski,
54:12 thank you for always having such a student-centered focus.
54:14 You know, sometimes you can get lost in the numbers of all of
54:18 this, but you, you constantly keep it top of mind for us what
54:21 all of these numbers mean to our, our daily functioning.
54:25 So, thank you.
54:26 We appreciate it.
54:27 And we should also point out that Madison is how many years old?
54:30 She’s going to be 10 on the 6th of August.
54:33 I think that’s pretty awesome and happy birthday.
54:35 And tell her we nominate her to be math lead of the year.
54:39 Okay.
54:40 Give her an intern.
54:41 She’ll love that actually.
54:43 Do you need interns in finance?
54:45 Because it sounds like she’s, she’s ready to go.
54:47 I’m sorry?
54:48 I said, do you need interns in finance?
54:50 Because it sounds like she’s ready to go.
54:52 She is, especially budget because they have candy.
54:54 Yeah.
54:55 I didn’t know that.
54:56 Absolutely.
54:57 Thank you.
54:59 I don’t want to go there.
55:00 All right.
55:01 The hearing is now open for public comments.
55:02 We will, in accordance with Florida law, accept the speakers in
55:08 the following order.
55:13 The 2022-2023 proposed millage levy followed by the 2022-2023
55:19 tentative budget.
55:21 Is there any individual who would like to address the 2022-2023
55:26 proposed millage levy?
55:28 Mr. Harkman?
55:30 Good evening, board members and superintendent.
55:45 First, I’m not sure if I can go down this road or not.
55:47 So just stop me if I can with the millage.
55:49 Stop.
55:50 All right.
55:51 I’m cool with that.
55:52 You know?
55:53 For the millage, my, hang on.
55:56 Did you miss me on that?
55:57 For the millage, what I would have the conversation start going
56:02 on to is what entities can receive
56:05 the millage.
56:06 So what I was thinking of, and I’ve been thinking about this for
56:09 a while actually, for example,
56:10 the first one would be separate day schools.
56:12 And hopefully you understand the reason why maybe for the
56:14 separate day schools, because
56:16 of the situation that we’re in right now because of that.
56:19 Because when you think of separate day schools, whether they’re
56:21 a profit, non-profit, they
56:23 will say to you they have to have a certain number of students
56:26 in order to basically be level
56:28 up with their finances, et cetera, et cetera.
56:31 And we can’t always go by that because it’s unlawful.
56:34 And it’s not that cool.
56:35 We can’t say there’s going to be a certain number of students at
56:37 a separate day school.
56:38 But there’s things that we can do.
56:40 For example, talking to the state legislatures, having those
56:43 conversations about can separate
56:46 day schools receive the millage?
56:48 Okay.
56:49 And also the sales tax eventually.
56:50 Can they receive funding for that?
56:52 Because currently they cannot right now.
56:54 Okay.
56:55 So can they receive that?
56:56 That’s one of those things I was interested in talking about
56:59 eventually with the millage.
57:01 And the second one, which is going to be more probably
57:04 controversial, but is private schools.
57:09 Now I understand implications of what I’m saying and what the
57:12 consequences could be for that.
57:14 But the reason I brought up bringing up private schools and
57:17 having those initial conversations
57:19 in thinking about how they can support our students.
57:24 Because when I look at it, some of these kids, honestly, they
57:27 need, and I’m not a religious person
57:29 at all from any means, but some of these kids might need the
57:34 support of a faith-based program.
57:36 Okay.
57:37 But I also think if they do that, that private schools should be
57:41 able to, if they choose to receive
57:43 those funds from a millage or a sales tax also.
57:48 And some people can say, well, there’s, you want to keep it
57:52 church and separate, et cetera, et cetera.
57:55 We did the pledge.
57:56 We had God in it.
57:57 We have faith-based groups come into our schools.
58:00 We’ve had schools actually have on Sundays, let them have faith-based
58:05 church on Sundays.
58:07 You know?
58:08 So that’s the reason I was kind of thinking that because some of
58:11 these kids just need that
58:13 support.
58:14 And we might have to look, like I know there’s the whole thing
58:16 with co-parent.
58:17 We don’t want to co-parent with the government, but some of our
58:19 parents and some of our families
58:21 might want to co-parent with God.
58:22 And they might need that.
58:24 Okay?
58:25 So I’m just throwing out there, having those initial
58:27 conversations, you know, and eventually
58:29 lobbying for it.
58:30 Thank you very much.
58:31 Thank you, Mr. Hockman.
58:32 Yeah.
58:33 He might want to, hey, Mr. Hockman, you might want to go check
58:35 with Ms. Sullivan.
58:36 She understands the rules and regulations behind all of the ins
58:39 and outs of faith-based verses.
58:41 You know what I mean?
58:42 She’s one of the most in-depths.
58:43 She carries around the rules and regulations for the Department
58:46 of Education in a book.
58:47 Seen it.
58:48 So you can check with her.
58:49 I’d have a long conversation with her.
58:51 Is there any individual who would like to address the 2022-2023
58:56 proposed millage levy?
58:58 All right.
58:59 Is there any individual who would like to address the 2022-2023
59:10 tentative budget?
59:13 Is there any individual who would like to address the 2022-2023
59:18 tentative budget?
59:20 Delaney?
59:21 Okay.
59:22 I would just ask for the way that the budget is presented to the
59:31 public to be changed.
59:35 We don’t know where any of the money is going.
59:38 There’s just groups of where the money is going.
59:43 And that doesn’t tell us anything.
59:44 It doesn’t tell us where there may be waste, where there may be
59:47 things that we’re paying for
59:49 that possibly don’t line up with legislation.
59:53 So we just need more transparency, more accountability.
59:57 And it’s just not there.
1:00:00 Like I said at the last board meeting, I was going to be charged
1:00:03 almost $400 for a public records request
1:00:06 for a relatively small amount of information from the budget.
1:00:13 And that’s just not right.
1:00:15 This is all public knowledge.
1:00:17 It should be public knowledge and it should be easily accessible
1:00:21 by the public.
1:00:22 You cannot access invoices from anything that the board has
1:00:27 presented to the public.
1:00:30 So thank you.
1:00:31 Thank you, Ms. Delaney.
1:00:33 Is there any individual who would like to address the 2022-2023
1:00:37 tentative budget?
1:00:38 Ms. Mirski.
1:00:39 Good evening, Madam Chair and Board.
1:00:52 My name is Sarah Mirski.
1:00:53 I’m a wife, mother of two children in BPS, college student,
1:00:57 registered voter, taxpayer, constituent,
1:00:59 and I live in district two for school board.
1:01:02 As I have brought my concerns to this board in the past about
1:01:05 the millage issues, either a decrease or an increase,
1:01:10 I still have many questions and concerns.
1:01:13 One thing that I have brought to the board back in November was
1:01:16 about the inflation at the gas pump and grocery stores.
1:01:20 And now we are experiencing hyperinflation.
1:01:23 Today, with the, again, with GDP shrinking in the second quarter,
1:01:30 we are now in recession.
1:01:32 Also, something that I was told wasn’t, this board told me wasn’t
1:01:37 happening but then had to admit that it was happening was
1:01:41 declining enrollment.
1:01:43 So I just, you know, I echo what Ms. Delaney shared earlier.
1:01:49 We need more transparency in the budget.
1:01:52 I have asked for specific, for bids on specific contracts.
1:01:57 I haven’t gotten that.
1:01:59 I’m not paying $400 as a taxpayer to get that information and
1:02:05 taxpayers shouldn’t have to.
1:02:08 What, I feel this board is completely out of touch with the
1:02:11 everyday person, especially with people who do not have,
1:02:16 who live, are living below the poverty line.
1:02:19 We’re asking them, we’re asking everybody for more money.
1:02:22 This isn’t a left or right issue.
1:02:25 This is a bipartisan issue.
1:02:27 This is our tax money and we don’t know where our tax money is
1:02:29 going.
1:02:30 I voted for a millage increase in Seminole County.
1:02:33 I had no problems doing that.
1:02:34 I had no problems where the money was going.
1:02:36 I saw children well educated and well taken care of.
1:02:40 I will be not for the November millage increase.
1:02:48 You know, if we have state level issues where we need to talk
1:02:52 with our legislatures more about where the money is going.
1:02:56 If we need to fund our schools, that’s, that is an issue I’d be
1:03:00 willing to advocate for you guys on.
1:03:02 However, you have lost the public trust in many ways and I
1:03:05 suggest if our children really need that, if our schools really
1:03:09 need this money, please work with us and be transparent with us.
1:03:13 Thank you.
1:03:14 Thank you, Ms. Mercy.
1:03:15 Is there any individual who would like to address the 2022-2023
1:03:19 tentative budget?
1:03:20 Okay.
1:03:21 The public comment portion of the hearing is now closed.
1:03:27 That brings us to the recommendations for the adoption of the
1:03:30 proposed millage rates and tentative budget.
1:03:34 Dr. Mullins.
1:03:35 School board members, there are a total of three separate
1:03:37 motions for the board to consider.
1:03:39 I will read each of these recommendations into the record and
1:03:42 request board action.
1:03:44 The first is to adopt the proposed 2022-2023 millage rates of,
1:03:51 opt for operating fund, required local effort, 3.247.
1:03:56 Local discretionary, 0.748.
1:04:01 Capital outlay, 1.50.
1:04:05 Total, 5.495.
1:04:08 What are the wishes of the board?
1:04:09 Ms. McDougall.
1:04:10 Moved by Ms. McDougall.
1:04:11 Seconded by Ms. Campbell.
1:04:12 Is there any discussion?
1:04:13 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
1:04:14 Aye.
1:04:15 Any opposed?
1:04:16 Same sign.
1:04:17 Motion passes 5-0.
1:04:18 The next item is to adopt the proposed 2022-2023 tentative
1:04:20 budget.
1:04:21 General $679,332,076.
1:04:22 Special revenue $257,474,573.
1:04:34 Debt service $38,002,926.
1:04:39 Capital outlay $337,587,689.
1:04:58 Enterprise $1,492,287.
1:05:04 And internal service $83,435,888.
1:05:10 For a total budget of $1,397,325,439.
1:05:17 What are the wishes of the board?
1:05:19 Moved.
1:05:20 Go ahead.
1:05:21 Moved for both.
1:05:22 Seconded.
1:05:23 Moved by Ms. McDougall.
1:05:25 Seconded by Ms. Campbell.
1:05:26 Is there any discussion?
1:05:27 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
1:05:29 Aye.
1:05:30 Any opposed?
1:05:31 Same sign.
1:05:32 Motion passes 5-0.
1:05:33 Dr. Mullen.
1:05:35 And the last item is to authorize the superintendent to take the
1:05:38 following actions, which are three separate actions.
1:05:42 Notify both the property appraiser and the tax collector of the
1:05:46 proposed 2022-2023 millage and the following rollback rates.
1:05:52 Required local effort, 3.0520.
1:05:55 Local discretionary, 0.6338.
1:06:00 Capital outlay, 1.2710.
1:06:03 For a total rollback rate of 4.9568.
1:06:07 Second, notify both the property appraiser and tax collector of
1:06:11 the final public hearing on September 8, 2022 at 5:30 PM at the
1:06:16 educational services facility, Vieira.
1:06:19 And third, adjust the revenues and expenditures if necessary
1:06:23 prior to the final public hearing.
1:06:26 What are the wishes of the board?
1:06:28 Moved by Ms. Susan.
1:06:29 Seconded by Ms. McDougall.
1:06:30 Is there any discussion?
1:06:32 All in favor, please signify by saying aye.
1:06:34 Aye.
1:06:35 Any opposed?
1:06:36 Same time.
1:06:37 Motion passes 5-0.
1:06:38 Prior to the adjournment of this hearing, I must read the
1:06:42 following statement.
1:06:44 The proposed 2022-2023 millage rate necessary to fund the tentative
1:06:50 budget exceeds the rollback rate by 10.86%.
1:06:56 This public hearing is now adjourned.
1:06:59 All right.
1:07:00 We are now moving on to presentations.
1:07:01 Dr. Mullins.
1:07:02 Thank you, Mrs. Belford.
1:07:04 Yes.
1:07:05 First, the first presentation will be from actually I’m going to
1:07:09 before our budget folks leave.
1:07:12 I, Mr. Susan, I did miss recognizing someone who received an
1:07:16 advancement or promotion this evening.
1:07:18 I know.
1:07:19 It wasn’t in the script, but I have gotten some notes.
1:07:22 Ms. Lichtenstein, forgive me, at least I know how to pronounce
1:07:25 your last name correctly.
1:07:27 But congratulations to Ms. Diane Lichtenstein from the position
1:07:32 of Assistant Director of Budgeting, Cost Accounting, and FTE to
1:07:37 the position of Director of Budgeting, Cost Accounting, and FTE
1:07:41 on an annual contract effective July 29, 2022.
1:07:45 Congratulations, Mrs. Lichtenstein.
1:07:48 Please forgive me for not recognizing you when we had the masses
1:07:50 here.
1:07:51 But we know you two are a leader behind the scenes, helping us
1:07:55 be our best.
1:07:56 We thank you and appreciate you taking on this new
1:07:58 responsibility and role.
1:08:00 Congratulations.
1:08:01 I think Dr. Mullins owes you lunch and dinner.
1:08:08 Ms. Lichtenstein, would you like to say a few words?
1:08:10 I think Mr. Bruins is bringing you the mic.
1:08:11 Yeah.
1:08:12 We didn’t want to skip that opportunity for you.
1:08:14 Now she’s really mad at me.
1:08:16 Okay.
1:08:17 I was hoping you’d make a recommendation to get rid of the
1:08:19 armored car.
1:08:20 That’s what we were waiting on.
1:08:21 No?
1:08:22 Yeah, you still are.
1:08:23 Oh, I hate that.
1:08:24 Right.
1:08:25 All right.
1:08:26 Now, thank you, board.
1:08:29 The first presentation, I’ve asked Dr. Thetty to provide a very
1:08:33 brief update, but reference to the ad valora millage that will
1:08:37 be on the November 8th ballot, followed by a recruitment update.
1:08:41 Dr. Thetty, Deputy Superintendent, Chief Human Resources Officer
1:08:45 will present both in second.
1:08:47 Thank you, Dr. Thetty.
1:08:48 Thank you.
1:08:49 Good evening.
1:08:50 Thank you for the opportunity to provide some brief information
1:08:52 about the millage referendum.
1:08:54 And thank you, Ms. Belford, board members, and Dr. Mullins.
1:09:07 Thank you.
1:09:08 On April 26th, Dr. Mullins recommended and the board approved
1:09:10 the ad valorem millage resolution to forward to the Brevard
1:09:13 County Commission for approval and placement on the November
1:09:16 general election ballot.
1:09:18 That approval from Brevard County Commission was given on May 19th
1:09:21 to forward to the supervisor of elections.
1:09:24 The term is one mill for four years with initial revenue
1:09:26 received in the November, December timeframe 2023.
1:09:30 It is limited to operating expenses of the school district as
1:09:33 described in the resolution.
1:09:35 And it is also shared with charter schools based on enrollment
1:09:39 pursuant to section 1011.71 Flora statutes.
1:09:43 The resolution also calls for an oversight committee of
1:09:46 independent citizens appointed by the school board that will
1:09:49 include annual reporting of the status of our funded priorities,
1:09:52 which will be shared in just a moment.
1:09:54 As you will see in my next presentation, not this one, but my
1:09:59 next one, recruitment and retention of all staff is a priority
1:10:02 and the proposed allocation of the potential millage funds with
1:10:06 80% to compensation and benefits shows our commitment to that
1:10:10 priority.
1:10:11 Our priorities include retention and recruitment and retention
1:10:14 of all staff with competitive salaries, expanding staffing in
1:10:18 early childhood, maintaining and expanding career and technical
1:10:22 programs,
1:10:23 Enhancement of art, music, and athletic programs, expanded
1:10:26 access to educational programs, and the modernization of
1:10:30 classroom technology learning environments.
1:10:33 It’s also really important to note that our initiatives align
1:10:36 with our strategic plan.
1:10:38 The alignment, I want to take a moment and talk about that
1:10:40 alignment.
1:10:41 For goal one, academic excellence, to provide every student a
1:10:44 learning environment that empowers them to reach their full
1:10:47 potential.
1:10:48 Objective A2 aligns in ensuring every student is taught by
1:10:51 certified, skilled teachers who hold high expectations for all
1:10:55 learners.
1:10:56 For goal two, exceptional workforce, to attract, develop, and
1:10:59 retain exceptional talent to impact academic excellence.
1:11:04 Objective E1, recruit.
1:11:06 Objective E3, retain.
1:11:09 Objective E3, provide long-term compensation and benefits
1:11:13 packages for our employees.
1:11:16 For goal four, operational sustainability, ensure sustainable
1:11:19 district operations that contribute to the success of the
1:11:22 academic mission.
1:11:23 Objective 01, provide safe, healthy, and fully equipped working
1:11:27 and learning environments.
1:11:29 And back to the staff for just a moment.
1:11:31 As you know, Brevard Public Schools is currently, we have one of
1:11:34 the most experienced teacher workforces in the State of Florida,
1:11:38 who consistently provide high-quality learning experiences and
1:11:41 opportunities for our students.
1:11:43 However, national, regional, and local labor shortages are
1:11:46 affecting Brevard’s ability to serve students as critical,
1:11:52 instructional, and support positions remain vacant, which you’ll
1:11:54 hear a little bit later.
1:11:55 Funding is needed to increase teacher and staff compensation to
1:11:57 recruit and retain highly qualified workforce, which ultimately
1:12:02 benefits our community and our students.
1:12:06 Some next steps.
1:12:07 We know a high-quality education system benefits all residents
1:12:10 of Brevard County, whether they have children in the school
1:12:13 system or not.
1:12:14 To that end, we are working now to prepare should the referendum
1:12:17 be successful.
1:12:18 Compensation and benefits for all employee groups must be
1:12:20 negotiated, as you know, and will require development and refinement
1:12:23 of plans.
1:12:24 Given our focus on early childhood education, expanding staffing
1:12:28 of early childhood classrooms is paramount, as is maintaining
1:12:31 and expanding our CTE programs, enhancing art, music, and
1:12:34 athletic programs,
1:12:35 as well as the access for students to modern technology in our
1:12:39 classrooms.
1:12:40 These plans are being developed, as is the charter for the
1:12:43 Citizens’ Oversight Committee.
1:12:45 Thank you so much for your time tonight to present this really
1:12:48 brief overview of the proposed millage plans.
1:12:51 I’m available if you have any questions.
1:12:56 Ms. Jenkins?
1:12:57 Yeah.
1:12:58 So, again, you stated this, but I just want to reiterate it, and
1:13:01 then I’m going to kind of ask a follow-up question.
1:13:04 So, this will have a proportionate share for our charter schools,
1:13:09 correct?
1:13:10 It will, yes.
1:13:11 So, if you send your child to a charter school, if you work at a
1:13:14 charter school, if you own a charter school, this doesn’t only
1:13:17 impact Brevard Public Schools, it impacts you as well.
1:13:20 And I know we had estimates of the proposal of what we might see.
1:13:25 I’m going to give a blanket broad number here if I’m way off
1:13:27 base.
1:13:28 Somebody correct me.
1:13:29 But I think charter schools can see an increase of $5 to $7
1:13:31 million within the first year of that fitting, which is a
1:13:35 significant amount of money for those schools as well.
1:13:37 So, I would love all of the public to hear that loud and clear
1:13:40 because this impacts all of our students across many different
1:13:43 learning environments.
1:13:45 And so, then my follow-up question, because we did have a
1:13:47 speaker bring it up, and I don’t want to be wrong here, our
1:13:50 sales tax initiative, are we sharing that with charter schools
1:13:56 as well?
1:13:57 I can answer that.
1:13:58 Yes.
1:13:59 Our sales tax that was just renewed two years ago by statute
1:14:02 required charter schools to receive their proportional share.
1:14:06 Thank you.
1:14:07 Again, I felt pretty confident in that, but I didn’t want to
1:14:09 make a statement without clarifying it.
1:14:11 So, again, these things don’t just help BPS.
1:14:13 We’re definitely not getting raises up here.
1:14:15 It’s helping students across all different learning environments.
1:14:17 So, thank you.
1:14:18 Anyone else?
1:14:19 Questions coming?
1:14:20 Yeah.
1:14:21 Ms. Campbell?
1:14:22 So, when we – I know we’re going to get into the details later,
1:14:25 but when you talked about that early childhood part of, you know,
1:14:35 how staffing an early childhood program.
1:14:36 Right, staffing an early childhood program.
1:14:37 And if I recall, we had talked about before, as a board, we were,
1:14:40 you know, kind of thinking, what would we use this for?
1:14:43 That would – to add, like, instructional assistance in our
1:14:46 early childhood, those younger – those early years.
1:14:49 Is that still kind of the idea that we’re looking at?
1:14:53 Yeah.
1:14:55 I’ll jump in.
1:14:56 Yes, we’re still considering that, but to be honest with you,
1:14:59 not necessarily making any commitments at this point because of
1:15:03 the workforce situation we’re in.
1:15:04 Right.
1:15:05 We need to be relevant and mindful of where we are today or what
1:15:09 we want today may not be where we’re at when, you know, we’re
1:15:14 talking about a year from now, at the earliest.
1:15:17 Right.
1:15:18 Yeah, and I understand.
1:15:19 So, I mean, just to kind of put that in layman’s terms.
1:15:21 In other words, right now, if we’re sitting at – with 60 vacancies
1:15:24 for instructional assistance, we’d want to add another 60
1:15:27 instructional assistant jobs to be at our – in our primary
1:15:31 grades.
1:15:31 But the parameters of the – the resolution provides for
1:15:37 additional staffing.
1:15:40 So we’ll have flexibility.
1:15:41 It won’t – there won’t be flexibility that – it has to be for
1:15:44 additional staffing, but we’ll have some flexibility in terms of
1:15:47 where does that end up being most relevant and most appropriate
1:15:51 when we get closer to the time that – that revenue will be
1:15:54 available for staffing.
1:15:56 Which could potentially be – not this next school year, because
1:15:59 we wouldn’t receive revenue until December of ‘23, and we’ve
1:16:03 already done our staffing, so it may be delayed a year.
1:16:06 Right.
1:16:07 And I’ll touch on that in just a second.
1:16:09 Just a couple more comments just to wrap up.
1:16:11 You know, the Classroom of the Future initiative.
1:16:13 You know, we’ve got a couple – we’ve got one new elementary
1:16:17 school in VR Elementary, which you guys have been in there, you
1:16:20 know, just pretty amazing to walk into.
1:16:23 And then we have a few of our elementary schools that have had
1:16:26 some pretty serious renovations.
1:16:29 And Saturn, I believe, was one of the ones that, you know,
1:16:31 through our sales tax initiatives and capital funding or
1:16:34 whatever.
1:16:35 I think, you know, of course the technology side of things, we
1:16:38 have some sales tax things, and Mr. Cheatham’s department is
1:16:41 working on that.
1:16:42 But the difference between one school and another school is
1:16:46 pretty stark if you were to walk into one and then go down the
1:16:51 street and walk into another.
1:16:53 And so just the opportunity to have those same kinds of
1:16:56 resources, classrooms, honestly, just the way it looks.
1:17:00 Because you guys know when we walk – when you walk into an
1:17:03 environment that is – you know, people say, oh, well, that’s
1:17:05 where I went to school.
1:17:06 Well, it looks exactly like it did when you went to school there,
1:17:08 you know, if you’re a parent.
1:17:10 So maybe your kids are going to the same school.
1:17:11 Some of them, it’s the same.
1:17:12 You know, we’ve been able to tackle some of that, but some of
1:17:14 them, it’s very similar.
1:17:16 So I think that’s really important to think about.
1:17:19 We’re getting all those schools that have kind of been left
1:17:21 behind in the technology because they’re hitting the 30-year, 40-year,
1:17:25 50-year, 60-year.
1:17:26 And I think you said something yesterday.
1:17:28 We’ll be hitting some of our schools 70 years.
1:17:31 Very soon, right.
1:17:32 So, I mean, that’s – it makes a huge difference.
1:17:35 I mean, I know we want the best for all of our students.
1:17:38 And it really accelerates the implementation of that and
1:17:42 provides a more equitable response across our district.
1:17:45 Because right now we have schools that are using their own funds
1:17:49 that they’ve raised or in the community among parents and so on
1:17:53 to kind of inch forward in the classroom of the future
1:17:57 initiative, which kudos to our ET department for really doing a
1:18:01 great job researching and defining what that is.
1:18:03 So we know what we’re working toward, but we want to make sure
1:18:09 that we have an equitable implementation of that initiative.
1:18:15 And just my last comment would be really about the timing of all
1:18:18 this because one of the things that has been brought up in
1:18:21 public discussion of the millage vote is that, you know, this is
1:18:27 not the time, right?
1:18:28 The economy, the inflation, and all of that.
1:18:30 But I just want to point out – it was mentioned tonight, but I
1:18:32 don’t know that it was really clear when we had our
1:18:33 conversations back in April.
1:18:35 Because honestly, I had to wrap my brain around it.
1:18:37 We’re talking about not – I mean, if we vote – if it passes,
1:18:40 if the voters pass it in November, it doesn’t mean that your
1:18:43 bill that you usually get in the middle of November is going to
1:18:45 have that additional.
1:18:47 That’s not going to come until the bill that we will all receive
1:18:50 in November of 2023, which is not due until March, if you wait
1:18:55 and don’t get the discount, but until March of 2024.
1:19:01 So we’re talking about an impact to our community, and I’m an
1:19:04 optimist.
1:19:05 I’d like to say we’re all going to be in a better place, you
1:19:07 know, with everything.
1:19:09 I know optimists don’t always get their way, but we’re going to
1:19:13 be at a better place then, too.
1:19:15 But, you know, in the meantime, our employees are also dealing
1:19:19 with the impacts of all those things, the recession, the home
1:19:22 prices, the inflation, the gas, groceries, all of that.
1:19:25 But I just wanted to make sure it’s really clear with the public
1:19:29 – hear me say this – the impact of the millage, whether we
1:19:32 pass it, if it’s passed, is something that we will not really
1:19:38 receive until a year and a half from now, really.
1:19:43 And it’s likely – Mr. Seusson mentioned that this year’s taxes
1:19:45 are actually going down, right, a little bit at least for
1:19:48 everyone.
1:19:49 It’s likely because the legislature does it every year that they’ll
1:19:51 do it again.
1:19:52 And so all of that – the impact of that is yet to be seen.
1:19:56 So just – but I always want to make sure that the right
1:19:58 information is out there, the truth is out there, and not just
1:20:01 what everybody’s running away with because we’re getting a panic.
1:20:04 Can I just back off the technology conversation real quick?
1:20:09 So I also – I appreciate you bringing that up, the discrepancies
1:20:12 between some of our schools.
1:20:14 And I just want to put this out there, too, because we do have
1:20:15 some families that are probably listening and feel like, well,
1:20:18 we have this at our school.
1:20:19 But there’s a lot of amazing community partnerships that have
1:20:23 done an incredible amount of service providing some of that
1:20:26 technology to our schools or donating money so that technology
1:20:30 can be purchased.
1:20:31 But there’s something else we have to think about. We have to
1:20:33 think about replenishing that technology.
1:20:35 The lifespan of this technology is, like, six years maybe
1:20:39 nowadays.
1:20:40 They don’t make them like they used to.
1:20:42 So that’s something we really need to think about.
1:20:44 That’s a big, huge impact on schools that they can’t take over
1:20:46 that load on their own.
1:20:48 And another thing, it’s not just great for the students.
1:20:51 It’s also really great for recruitment and retainment of staff.
1:20:55 Because if you’re a new college grad who came out of college
1:20:58 learning all these amazing ways to engage your students with all
1:21:01 these different kinds of technologies, and then you come to a
1:21:05 school that still has a white board on the board or, God forbid,
1:21:09 a chalkboard, you’re not going to want to go work for that
1:21:12 district.
1:21:13 You’re going to want to go work for another district that has
1:21:15 innovation and technology that you’ve been experiencing over the
1:21:17 past four years.
1:21:18 So there’s just many different things to think about when it
1:21:20 comes to technology improvements within the school system.
1:21:23 It’s not just for kids to put their hands on iPads.
1:21:25 So thank you.
1:21:28 - Good observation, Ms. Jenkins.
1:21:30 And if I can just tag off of what you and Ms. Campbell both said.
1:21:33 Obviously, it’s that time of year where we’re out speaking to a
1:21:37 lot of people.
1:21:39 And I had the opportunity last week, not this past week, and the
1:21:42 weekend before, to speak with one of our former teachers.
1:21:46 And she’s a young teacher.
1:21:48 And she left Brevard County, and she went to Orange County.
1:21:51 And she said, you know, one of the big things is they have one-to-one
1:21:55 technology.
1:21:56 And it makes it so much, it just takes a lot of stress off of
1:22:00 the teaching and the classroom management and so many different
1:22:04 things.
1:22:05 And so I, you know, I echo, we need to do what we can to make
1:22:09 the jobs easier.
1:22:11 Because they definitely are uphill challenging jobs each and
1:22:14 every day.
1:22:15 And then to your point, Ms. Campbell, I think it’s also
1:22:17 important to point out, you know, we’ve talked over the years
1:22:21 significantly about how the way that the school looks impacts
1:22:25 the way that the school looks.
1:22:25 impacts the way that the students feel about their school
1:22:27 the pride they feel in their school and the same thing
1:22:30 for teachers walking into a nice building.
1:22:33 But I think we also have to be honest with ourselves
1:22:35 in that if you’re a company looking to come to Brevard
1:22:39 County and you drive around our neighborhoods
1:22:41 and look at our schools, it doesn’t look like a really
1:22:44 enticing place all the time for you to bring your employee.
1:22:47 And so I think there’s benefit to the overall enhancement
1:22:51 of the condition of our school.
1:22:53 So I just didn’t wanna let that go unrecognized.
1:22:57 Anyone else have anything for Dr. Thetty or Dr. Mullins
1:23:02 on this one?
1:23:03 All right, thank you, Dr. Thetty.
1:23:05 - Just to give a preempt to Dr. Thetty’s presentation next,
1:23:10 I thought it appropriate to provide to the board
1:23:12 and even to our community, just a update on where we are
1:23:15 with our workforce situation as it is first of mind
1:23:19 for all of us as we soon open our doors,
1:23:24 but also open our hearts to our kids coming back
1:23:27 in a couple of weeks.
1:23:28 So I asked Dr. Thetty to provide an update
1:23:30 and kind of make sure we keep things in perspective
1:23:33 as we manage some vacancies and moving forward.
1:23:36 So Dr. Thetty, please.
1:23:39 - Thank you and thank you for this opportunity
1:23:40 to give an update on what we’ve been doing,
1:23:42 not just in HR, but really district-wide.
1:23:44 This is not an effort that can be taken
1:23:47 just by human resources.
1:23:49 It is a cooperative effort of everybody
1:23:52 in this school district.
1:23:53 And we have seen that over the last,
1:23:55 especially four days with our career fairs,
1:23:58 the coming together of people has been amazing.
1:24:00 And it has reaped rewards.
1:24:03 So I’m gonna start with, you know,
1:24:07 what’s driving our work?
1:24:08 What is driving us to have another presentation
1:24:11 about recruitment?
1:24:12 Because we did just talk about this,
1:24:13 I wanna say two weeks ago or three weeks ago
1:24:15 at the last board meeting.
1:24:16 We do have persistent vacancies
1:24:18 and we have a desire obviously to ensure
1:24:20 that every single classroom in our school district
1:24:23 is staffed with a fully qualified teacher.
1:24:25 And not only every classroom,
1:24:27 but every school and department is also fully staffed
1:24:29 with the ancillary support personnel
1:24:31 that drive achievement as well.
1:24:34 While the numbers really look daunting on the screen,
1:24:37 and they are, there are targeted schools
1:24:39 where we are and have been providing concentrated efforts
1:24:44 to staff that account for the greatest number of vacancies.
1:24:47 So, you know, we talk about priority two
1:24:48 and priority three schools.
1:24:50 We look at those schools in particular,
1:24:52 and then look at the schools
1:24:54 that have the highest vacancies.
1:24:55 And two of our schools have high vacancies
1:24:57 and they’re not a priority two or priority three,
1:24:59 but they are targeted raised schools
1:25:01 as part of the state definition of raising achievement.
1:25:04 So you’ll hear about those schools a little bit later,
1:25:06 but you have to know that the efforts have been intentional.
1:25:10 And it’s also important to note that none of this is new.
1:25:13 We didn’t just decide last week
1:25:15 that we need to have career fairs.
1:25:17 We’ve been doing them.
1:25:18 We’ve been doing them prior, even during COVID,
1:25:20 we were handling them, handling them virtually,
1:25:23 not with the greatest of success through that method,
1:25:25 but we’ve been, for the last three years that I’ve been in HR,
1:25:29 we’ve been really hitting the career fairs hard.
1:25:31 It’s not the only thing we’re doing,
1:25:33 so I’m gonna take you through some other things.
1:25:35 Team HR has been working with all departments and divisions
1:25:39 in the school district to address vacancies
1:25:41 for the last several years, as I said.
1:25:44 There was a time when we really focused primarily
1:25:47 on teacher recruitment and teacher retention and teacher fairs.
1:25:51 And we realized that we needed to do a lot more outreach
1:25:54 to our support personnel as well.
1:25:56 And we have a wonderful support team,
1:25:58 food nutrition services, transportation, custodial, and
1:26:01 facilities.
1:26:02 I’m probably gonna leave somebody out and I hate to do that,
1:26:04 but they are on board for everything we want to do.
1:26:07 And we’ve been working closely with them
1:26:09 to facilitate career fairs as well over the last few years.
1:26:13 So I do wanna note that when you look at these vacancies,
1:26:17 we actually have 59 schools that have zero, one,
1:26:20 or two classroom vacancies.
1:26:23 I’m talking, you know, classrooms with kids.
1:26:25 We do have some non-classroom vacancies in those schools,
1:26:27 but they, 59 of them, as of Saturday, July 23rd,
1:26:31 when I pulled the data from the most recent survey,
1:26:33 have zero, one, or two vacancies.
1:26:36 Six schools have three vacancies,
1:26:37 and there are 15 priority schools
1:26:39 that have between four and 14 vacancies as of Saturday.
1:26:43 We actually have made some movement
1:26:45 with a couple of those schools last four nights.
1:26:47 I don’t have all the updated information,
1:26:49 but we are very hopeful,
1:26:51 and our principals are very hopeful,
1:26:52 that they’ve been able to attract some quality candidates
1:26:54 at our most recent fairs.
1:26:56 In anticipation of a growing need for staff
1:27:01 of all classifications in the school district,
1:27:04 we began targeted recruiting efforts last summer,
1:27:07 going back to actually last, not last spring,
1:27:09 but the spring of ‘21,
1:27:11 with custodial, food services, substitutes,
1:27:14 and bus driver fairs that have continued over this school year.
1:27:18 In fact, transportation, if you didn’t know it,
1:27:19 they run open, pretty much open hiring fairs
1:27:22 at all of their transportation depots.
1:27:26 They provide beacon support.
1:27:27 They will help people.
1:27:29 You’ve seen their advertisements everywhere.
1:27:33 Food service does the same thing.
1:27:35 They participate in the fairs that we facilitate,
1:27:37 but then they also participate in community job fairs as well.
1:27:41 Our staff in HR participates also in teacher fairs
1:27:46 that are sponsored by colleges of education and universities.
1:27:50 We’ve also made a lot of changes this year
1:27:52 to remove some barriers to people applying for jobs.
1:27:56 We have removed barriers for hiring managers
1:28:00 and some of that’s included in an initial entry pathway.
1:28:03 Instead of everybody being the same,
1:28:05 we recognize some positions are really initial entry kinds of
1:28:09 positions.
1:28:09 So we have made some updates and you guys all approve those
1:28:12 updates
1:28:13 in February, the February board meeting.
1:28:15 We updated policies and procedures.
1:28:17 We put a process in place so that resumes can be uploaded into
1:28:21 Beacon
1:28:21 for those positions that require resumes so that hiring managers
1:28:25 don’t have to solicit that information from the employee through
1:28:29 email
1:28:29 and it makes it easier for everybody.
1:28:32 We removed the email response from previous employers regarding,
1:28:36 oh my gosh, I lost my train of thought, I’m sorry, regarding
1:28:41 references.
1:28:41 And we’ve put in a process where they put the contact
1:28:44 information
1:28:45 for their previous employers so that we can call them
1:28:48 and we being the hiring manager can call them.
1:28:50 That was a barrier for a lot of people.
1:28:52 They would send out the email to their previous employer
1:28:55 and their previous employer would not respond.
1:28:57 And that would hold up their application in HR for quite some
1:29:00 time.
1:29:01 So we have eliminated those barriers.
1:29:03 We’ve updated job descriptions for clerical and other classifications
1:29:07 to bring the requirements more into the job that we have now
1:29:10 rather than the job that existed when the job description was
1:29:13 created.
1:29:13 And that’s made a big difference for our hiring managers too.
1:29:18 I won’t go through all of the fairs.
1:29:20 I think you guys know the fairs, but I wanted to just make sure
1:29:23 you knew
1:29:23 that we’ve been conducting these all throughout the year,
1:29:26 different venues,
1:29:27 different locations, different modalities.
1:29:29 Some are virtual, some are hybrid, some are face-to-face.
1:29:33 It has made a difference, not the big difference we want yet,
1:29:36 but it has made a difference.
1:29:38 I think something that’s really important to mention too is we
1:29:41 believe in the concept
1:29:42 of growing our own.
1:29:43 And IAs are one classification of employee where we really
1:29:46 focused on growing our own.
1:29:48 We also have developed career pathways for other classifications
1:29:52 of employees
1:29:52 so that even if they’re not on a trajectory potentially to
1:29:56 become a teacher,
1:29:57 they do have a path that they can advance in their own career
1:30:01 and they can see advancement opportunities within Brevard Public
1:30:04 Schools.
1:30:05 The IA to teacher pathway, and I have the spoiler alert, I just
1:30:08 have to tell you,
1:30:09 over the last two years, 97 IAs have become teachers in Brevard
1:30:13 Public Schools.
1:30:13 That’s a pretty big number.
1:30:16 So we did an event this past year that was really, I really want
1:30:19 to take a minute
1:30:20 and talk about it.
1:30:21 We’ve done a lot of outreach with IAs, but the event that we did
1:30:24 starting in December
1:30:25 that culminated in a session with IAs in February, we gave all
1:30:30 the principals postcards
1:30:31 to give to their IAs, inviting them specifically to this event.
1:30:35 And it was an IA to teacher pathway event.
1:30:37 Some of our principals took a step further and they wrote
1:30:40 personal notes on these cards.
1:30:42 And the impact that that had on those instructional assistants
1:30:46 that came to our meeting that night
1:30:48 was impressive.
1:30:49 I heard a lot about that.
1:30:50 And I wanted to mention that because that’s a little thing we
1:30:53 can do that doesn’t cost any money,
1:30:55 that means a lot to people.
1:30:57 And it was really critical.
1:30:59 So we’ve reached out.
1:31:00 I’ve emailed the IAs that came to our sessions, provided them
1:31:03 additional support.
1:31:04 I’ve connected them with the right staff.
1:31:07 And we have people working on their degrees.
1:31:10 We have people that are attending college.
1:31:13 We have Eastern Florida and University of Central Florida there
1:31:17 as well to assist.
1:31:18 And it has made a big difference for our IAs.
1:31:21 We’ve conducted Zoom sessions on how to become a teacher.
1:31:24 We’ve talked about certification.
1:31:25 We’ve worked through the PDCP program with them.
1:31:28 And I feel like that is an untapped resource because we have
1:31:32 such high quality staff in our
1:31:34 schools that are aspiring to be teachers.
1:31:37 And providing that little nudge of support has made a big
1:31:39 difference.
1:31:40 I’ll say that number again, 97.
1:31:41 That’s pretty good.
1:31:44 Some other recruitment efforts, I won’t read them all.
1:31:46 You heard this in the last presentation.
1:31:48 We are working with the NAACP and the Brevard Alliance of Black
1:31:52 School Educators to promote
1:31:55 our hiring events and to promote our openings and vacancies
1:31:57 through their social media platforms.
1:32:00 Our partners in GCR have been great at sending out blackboard
1:32:03 messages to parents to invite
1:32:05 them to hiring events because that’s an important resource, too.
1:32:09 People may not realize that we have opportunities that don’t
1:32:12 always include full-time work.
1:32:14 Some people don’t want full-time work.
1:32:16 We can accommodate substitute work.
1:32:18 We have part-time positions.
1:32:19 So we think that’s also an untapped resource.
1:32:22 We’re also working with our military partners at DOD Skill
1:32:26 Bridge.
1:32:26 We’ve been analyzing the new legislation related to military
1:32:29 veterans and we actually have somebody
1:32:31 in the pipeline right now on that process.
1:32:35 So to this week we did a large-scale recruitment effort that we
1:32:41 haven’t previously done.
1:32:44 Previously we’ve been at ESF.
1:32:46 There’s a huge barrier to having career fairs at ESF and that’s
1:32:49 transportation.
1:32:51 So we took our show on the road and I’m going to show you at the
1:32:54 end of the presentation how
1:32:56 many people it took to make that work and I’m talking about
1:33:00 human resources, secondary and
1:33:02 elementary, leading and learning, student services, educational
1:33:05 technology, finance, GCR.
1:33:08 I’ll look back there and make sure I didn’t hear anybody.
1:33:13 Operations.
1:33:14 The whole operations division.
1:33:16 It took a whole village to make this happen.
1:33:19 But I do also want to say that as of 5:40 this afternoon, the
1:33:23 last time I got an update
1:33:24 and I don’t have another update on my phone right now, but as of
1:33:27 5:40 we are tonight
1:33:29 at Clear Lake and at Bayside and the numbers at 5:40 this
1:33:33 afternoon for the whole week were
1:33:35 211 prospective employees.
1:33:38 That’s pretty impressive given our success with other fairs,
1:33:41 that’s pretty impressive.
1:33:43 Not only did we have staff at these hiring events to work with
1:33:48 Beacon and to make sure
1:33:50 people got their applications, we had principals and assistant
1:33:52 principals interviewing.
1:33:54 We had directors doing substitute interviews.
1:33:56 We talked to people who just came in and said, I don’t know what
1:33:59 you have to offer.
1:34:00 We talked to them, told them what we had to offer, looked at
1:34:02 their interests, tried to connect
1:34:04 them with principals that could best help them.
1:34:08 We focused on priority schools.
1:34:09 I will say that for this week.
1:34:11 That was our focus.
1:34:12 We invited those schools who were Tier 2 and Tier 3 priority
1:34:16 schools because we need to
1:34:18 fill their vacancies.
1:34:19 I was at Titusville High School one night this week, I don’t
1:34:22 remember which night, and we
1:34:24 stayed pretty late working with a young graduate who wasn’t sure
1:34:28 what he wanted to do.
1:34:29 And at the end of the day, he decided he was going to take a
1:34:32 certification test so he could
1:34:34 teach at Coquine Elementary School.
1:34:37 Ms. Lovelace was really excited.
1:34:39 She sent me a picture the next day, he came in to do his
1:34:41 paperwork and she was really excited.
1:34:43 Even though he has to start out as a substitute, we have the
1:34:46 supports in place to help him out
1:34:48 as he goes along.
1:34:50 I do have to take a moment though, and since I have the
1:34:52 microphone, I don’t know what Dr.
1:34:54 Mullins will say about this, but I have to, I have to give a
1:34:57 shout out and offer my sincere
1:34:59 gratitude to my HR team because I will tell you I’ve cleaned out
1:35:02 HR.
1:35:03 Every single one of them has been working these fairs, but we
1:35:06 haven’t shut down our operations
1:35:08 and human resources.
1:35:09 We’ve had key staff stay behind.
1:35:11 I had April in the front counter today, sitting there tonight
1:35:16 working through clearing
1:35:17 Beacon applications while she was on the phone with staff I have
1:35:20 at the hiring fairs, making sure
1:35:22 we’re getting everybody cleared as they come through.
1:35:25 I have to, I have to just take that moment because they really
1:35:28 came together and dropped
1:35:31 everything and made this happen.
1:35:33 But I also need to take the opportunity to thank my colleagues
1:35:35 in the back of the room because
1:35:37 they also offered staff.
1:35:39 They, they themselves came to the hiring events.
1:35:42 We had board members at the hiring events as well, but they
1:35:45 offered their staff to come
1:35:46 and do onboarding paperwork and to help people with Beacon.
1:35:50 They offered translators for, for speakers of other languages.
1:35:55 It really was a cooperative effort.
1:35:57 And I’m really grateful for the entire BPS team and how they
1:36:00 came together, especially
1:36:02 this week.
1:36:03 This has been a tough week.
1:36:05 It’s free, free planning for schools.
1:36:07 Principals were more than happy to open their buildings to us.
1:36:10 Satellite High School hosted a fair this week.
1:36:13 And they hosted both new teacher academies this week as well.
1:36:16 I’m just really thankful.
1:36:18 And I wanted you to know that because it, it was a cooperative
1:36:21 effort.
1:36:22 So something else that, that we’re trying, back in March, I
1:36:25 think it was March or April,
1:36:27 we were at a United Way Education Forum.
1:36:29 And I connected with some community members who wanted, wanted
1:36:33 us to come into their churches
1:36:35 to talk about opportunities.
1:36:36 So we are doing that.
1:36:38 We, we, I don’t know how many people, we haven’t taken the data
1:36:41 on how many people we’re
1:36:43 going to end up impacting with this.
1:36:45 But I took an opportunity, especially this past Sunday, to not
1:36:50 just talk to people about employment
1:36:52 opportunities, but to also talk about other ways they can
1:36:54 support Brevard Public Schools.
1:36:56 Because like I said, not everybody’s looking for a job, but I
1:36:59 can tell you everybody’s looking
1:37:00 for a way to support.
1:37:01 And that was really a positive affirmation of how invested our
1:37:05 community is in our schools.
1:37:08 So we are working through that.
1:37:10 The community outreach has been positive and valuable.
1:37:12 And this has been something that’s been on my radar screen for
1:37:15 quite some time.
1:37:16 Just was a little bit slow in getting together.
1:37:18 So we’ve got some other events planned.
1:37:20 Some of the different faith-based churches are willing to let us
1:37:25 put advertisements in their
1:37:27 bulletins.
1:37:28 They’re willing to have us come speak.
1:37:29 And others are just willing to let us man a table.
1:37:32 And anything is fine with us.
1:37:34 You all know about social media.
1:37:36 You’re reading everything.
1:37:37 You can see the, the, the things that GCR has put out.
1:37:40 You can see the things that HR has put out.
1:37:42 We are, the schools are doing a fabulous job of putting out
1:37:45 their advertisements as well.
1:37:47 And we are sending them out to the wider network.
1:37:50 Trying to make sure that we can attract as many qualified
1:37:53 candidates as we can.
1:37:55 We’ve even gone to some paid social media ads because that does
1:37:59 get a broader, a broader audience.
1:38:01 So before I go on to this one, I just wanted to tell you
1:38:05 something else that I have to brag
1:38:08 on with HR.
1:38:09 Just because I have a mic.
1:38:11 Our conversations in HR revolve around priority schools.
1:38:15 And they revolve around assisting principals and secretaries.
1:38:18 We’re not perfect.
1:38:19 By no means are we perfect.
1:38:20 But we’ve made a lot of progress in clearing candidates as expeditiously
1:38:25 as possible.
1:38:26 I have provided HR staff opportunities to substitute in schools.
1:38:30 To attend field trips like the Moore Center field trips this
1:38:32 year.
1:38:33 And the Proctor FSA.
1:38:34 Because I really believe it’s important for all of us to remain
1:38:37 connected to our mission.
1:38:39 And sometimes it’s easy in the role we’re in in human resources
1:38:42 to not be as connected.
1:38:44 Because we don’t see the day-to-day operations.
1:38:46 And so I’m happy to say that my school, my staff, my HR staff
1:38:50 has availed themselves of those opportunities.
1:38:53 And we have made sure it’s not been at any cost of service to
1:38:56 schools.
1:38:57 But I really appreciate that the work never stops.
1:39:01 But they are connected to our mission.
1:39:03 And that is really important.
1:39:05 So Eastern Florida, we had a list of AA graduates and BA/BS
1:39:10 graduates.
1:39:12 And we have reached out via constant contact with the AA
1:39:16 graduates.
1:39:17 Because there are 2100 of those.
1:39:19 And we don’t have the staff to call all of them.
1:39:21 But we did phone all of the BA/BS graduates from Eastern Florida.
1:39:26 But before I go there, I’ll talk about the AAs.
1:39:29 We’ve had Zoom meetings with them.
1:39:30 We have another one set up.
1:39:31 I believe it’s tomorrow at 3:00 or 3:30.
1:39:33 For anybody who’s interested in any of the opportunities that we
1:39:36 have.
1:39:37 If they’re interested in talking about a pathway to a career
1:39:40 with BPS, we’re talking with them about that.
1:39:43 That has made a difference.
1:39:46 With the BA/BS, again, this was a cooperative effort.
1:39:50 My staff couldn’t make all of these phone calls.
1:39:53 People sitting along the wall back here, they allowed staff to
1:39:56 help us make those phone calls.
1:39:58 We developed a script for them.
1:40:00 And we actually had, at last count, 67 of our Eastern Florida
1:40:05 graduates who wanted to participate in some webinars about being
1:40:09 a teacher in Brevard County.
1:40:11 And so we have one set up tomorrow.
1:40:13 And I believe we have another one coming up in August 4th.
1:40:17 And then we also had one already for people that responded to
1:40:20 our email.
1:40:21 We had 12 graduates on that particular call.
1:40:24 It was very engaging.
1:40:25 We had certification.
1:40:26 We had professional learning and development.
1:40:29 Our recruiters.
1:40:30 I was on the call.
1:40:31 It made a big difference for those people because they had a
1:40:34 connection.
1:40:35 They had, even though it was virtual, they had a connection with
1:40:37 us.
1:40:38 We’re working on former eligible BPS teachers that have left the
1:40:43 system for whatever reason.
1:40:46 There are lots of reasons people leave.
1:40:49 But they were not yet vested with FRS.
1:40:51 But with another year or two or three, they could be vested.
1:40:54 So we’re working through that.
1:40:56 The level of data is a little bit problematic because we just
1:40:58 have the home addresses.
1:41:00 So we’re mailing information to them.
1:41:02 And we’ve set up a meeting with them on August 4th.
1:41:10 We’ve already talked about this.
1:41:12 Pending approval, the waiting period for insurance for new hires
1:41:15 will be reduced from 45 to 15 days.
1:41:18 This is really critical in my mind because I have heard this as
1:41:20 a barrier for people.
1:41:22 When they say I have to wait 45 days and I’m coming here with a
1:41:25 family, and they may not have availability of any other coverage,
1:41:29 that has been a barrier for some.
1:41:31 And so eliminating this barrier is pretty exciting to me.
1:41:34 You know health care is vital in connecting our employees with
1:41:37 our wellness programs
1:41:39 and providing them benefits in a little more expedient manner.
1:41:42 I think will make a difference as well.
1:41:44 Substitutes.
1:41:47 All substitutes have been made aware multiple, multiple times
1:41:51 through multiple modalities about the new pay rates for subs.
1:41:54 And I can tell you we’ve got a lot of feedback about that.
1:41:57 All positive.
1:41:59 We have it in all of our promotional materials.
1:42:01 We have it posted on our website.
1:42:03 We have a new substitute program.
1:42:05 It’s called Red Rover.
1:42:06 It is a whole lot easier to use than Smart Find was.
1:42:10 Even I can use it.
1:42:11 And I have it on my phone.
1:42:12 And teachers can leave.
1:42:13 Lesson plans just using their phones.
1:42:16 Substitutes can pick up jobs.
1:42:17 I can monitor fill rates right from my phone.
1:42:20 And so we’re really excited about that.
1:42:21 And actually we saw a few substitutes come through our career
1:42:25 fairs who said I’ve already signed up on Red Rover.
1:42:27 I can’t wait.
1:42:28 I just wanted to hear what else I can do.
1:42:30 You know in addition to substituting.
1:42:33 We are making phone calls also to all 1100 active substitutes.
1:42:37 And we’re starting with our most prolific substitutes.
1:42:40 We have some substitutes who work for us every single day.
1:42:42 We’re making sure they have picked up jobs for the beginning of
1:42:44 school.
1:42:45 And we are I have done robocall for lack of a better term.
1:42:49 But a welcoming call to all of our substitutes.
1:42:52 I’m going to follow that up next week with another call.
1:42:55 And then finally right before school starts the night of August
1:42:57 9th.
1:42:58 I’m going to send out another call.
1:43:00 Just thanking them so much for their participation and their
1:43:02 assistance with the first day of school.
1:43:04 Let’s see.
1:43:07 There’s a lot we’ve done there.
1:43:08 So I’m not going to go into it because I feel I might be getting
1:43:10 the hook.
1:43:11 So I will go into everything with substitutes but we are giving
1:43:14 them a differential.
1:43:15 They’re in a priority school $20 a day for tier 2 and $25 a day
1:43:19 for tier 3.
1:43:20 That made a difference last year.
1:43:21 So we’re doing that again.
1:43:23 I do want to take a brief moment and talk about orientation.
1:43:26 Orientation is not just a recruitment technique but it is a
1:43:29 retention technique.
1:43:31 And we’ve gotten tons of positive feedback from everybody.
1:43:34 I open every single orientation session every single week.
1:43:38 Mr. Gibbs participates, student services participates, labor
1:43:43 relations, benefits, retirement, GCR, customer care, financial
1:43:48 services.
1:43:49 We take them from hire to retire in four hours.
1:43:53 And the feedback has been amazing.
1:43:55 I just want everybody to know it is not lost on me how much
1:43:58 effort that takes on the part of staff to make that happen.
1:44:02 But it was a dream of mine that we would have face to face
1:44:04 orientation and we’d be able to connect with our employees in
1:44:07 that way.
1:44:08 And it came to reality in October.
1:44:10 So I’m excited.
1:44:12 We’ve changed it from Fridays to Wednesdays.
1:44:14 But we are going to continue.
1:44:15 And just so you know, we have had just since June, we had
1:44:20 orientation like the second or third week of June.
1:44:23 And through now, we’ve had 208 teachers and 93 support staff
1:44:27 attend just in that timeframe.
1:44:29 Wow.
1:44:30 And then going out to the new teacher academy this morning.
1:44:33 And I know Dr. Mullins was at it yesterday.
1:44:35 But welcoming all of those new teachers was invigorating and
1:44:38 exciting too.
1:44:39 I won’t spend a lot of time talking about this.
1:44:42 We have ongoing efforts.
1:44:44 I’ve heard about them a couple of weeks ago.
1:44:45 But just so you know, I do have staff that reach out to people
1:44:48 who have incomplete beacon applications.
1:44:50 I have staff who monitor and target schools and send people who
1:44:56 meet requirements to those schools to interview.
1:45:00 They work with the principals.
1:45:01 They reach out to different colleges and universities and places
1:45:05 to find employees.
1:45:07 And they vet them for the priority schools.
1:45:10 They don’t vet for everybody.
1:45:11 But they vet for priority schools to monitor and assist our
1:45:14 schools with getting high-quality employees.
1:45:19 So this is the – there’s three slides here.
1:45:22 And these three slides are all about Team HR and Team BPS.
1:45:28 This is the group of people that made this week happen.
1:45:31 And I have everybody’s name on here.
1:45:33 And I want to give everybody due consideration.
1:45:36 So this – it’s not in any particular order.
1:45:39 But this includes school staff, principals, secretaries,
1:45:43 cafeteria managers, custodians, assistant principals.
1:45:48 It includes district staff from all of the divisions.
1:45:52 I – it’s a huge shout-out to the power of the team.
1:45:58 I do have to give, though, a specific shout-out to a couple of
1:46:01 people.
1:46:02 Katie Benny, Mike Alba, Tori Huss, Susan Kirk, Lisa Hyam, and
1:46:08 Elizabeth Torres are really the ones who coordinated the entire
1:46:11 process.
1:46:12 They were responsible for finding the schools, for making sure
1:46:14 all the tables were set up, for making sure we had all the
1:46:17 equipment we needed,
1:46:18 that we had all of the computers we needed so that we could do
1:46:21 the beacon applications with people.
1:46:23 So I want to give them a special shout-out.
1:46:26 It was one of those events where I said, wouldn’t it be nice if
1:46:28 we did this?
1:46:29 And they said, oh, wouldn’t it be nice?
1:46:31 And yes, we’re doing it.
1:46:32 They were very excited.
1:46:33 And they have been working really hard.
1:46:35 I think this is my third slide.
1:46:40 But you can see the number of people that participated in these
1:46:43 fairs.
1:46:44 And I just wanted to tell all of them how much I appreciate them.
1:46:50 I think that’s it.
1:46:51 So thank you very much.
1:46:52 I appreciate your time tonight.
1:46:53 It was a little longer than I had anticipated.
1:46:55 But I just want you to know we are on it.
1:46:57 We are working together as a team.
1:46:59 And we will persevere and we will have a great school year.
1:47:03 I’m confident.
1:47:04 Can I ask a question?
1:47:06 So one of the things we spoke about before, Dr. Thede, was the
1:47:11 Eastern Florida State College pipeline
1:47:13 from teachers into our program that keeps getting cut by UCF,
1:47:17 right?
1:47:18 UCF has said, like I said before, they have vetoed every time we’ve
1:47:22 had an application.
1:47:24 And I was thinking the other day, I was like, why are we still
1:47:26 dealing with this, right?
1:47:28 And you said that they were going to reach out and they’re going
1:47:30 to do another application?
1:47:31 Is that what you said?
1:47:32 Eastern Florida is always looking to expand their education.
1:47:34 So they’re going to put in another application to expand it?
1:47:37 I don’t know what they’re – I don’t want to overstate them.
1:47:40 Sure.
1:47:41 We’re losing them to Orange County.
1:47:43 I’m looking up here at the trends of the enrollment for UCF.
1:47:47 It’s increased thousands over the last 10 years.
1:47:49 They are not decreasing.
1:47:51 They are increasing.
1:47:52 There’s no reason why they would veto, because of regional
1:47:55 effects, our stuff,
1:47:57 other than they just want our kids.
1:48:00 So I think I – I got really mad, because I’m just like, we just
1:48:03 keep coming back to the situation.
1:48:05 It may have helped a little bit had I may have been a little bit
1:48:07 more forceful two years ago.
1:48:09 So I would really – I’m going to work with you, Dr. Mullins,
1:48:11 and I really want to try to push them to try to make an
1:48:13 application,
1:48:14 because we’ve got kids coming.
1:48:15 I started the program – I was one of the five teachers that
1:48:17 started the program in 2008, I think it was,
1:48:20 was it Space Coast for the teaching program.
1:48:23 And it was one of the ones that were on the wheel.
1:48:25 And I started it because I believed in it.
1:48:26 And then I see the kids going, and then they go to college, and
1:48:29 then they go to their first –
1:48:31 and then they finish up over UCF, and then they go over there.
1:48:33 So it’s not just me saying this because of the current crisis.
1:48:36 It’s just been happening since, you know.
1:48:39 So I just think it’s something that we need to address.
1:48:41 So I wanted to say that.
1:48:42 The other thing is, is, okay, we got – we’re doing all this
1:48:44 stuff, and you are way out ahead of other districts.
1:48:48 I was in Pasco County today and Pinellas County today with some
1:48:50 of their school board members,
1:48:52 and they have numbers that are worse than ours, okay?
1:48:55 I have a lady who came to visit me, one of my close friends from
1:48:59 Africa.
1:49:00 She teaches overseas, and they have the exact same problem.
1:49:04 And I applaud all of those efforts.
1:49:09 My question is, is what do we do in the event that we still have
1:49:13 50 vacancies at the end of the whole thing?
1:49:16 I mean, what is the plan?
1:49:17 Are we deploying people from ESF to cover?
1:49:19 Like, what are we going to do?
1:49:22 So we are working through all of that, and we met as a team, and
1:49:26 we generated some solutions.
1:49:27 Some of them we have to, you know, work with others in order to
1:49:30 implement.
1:49:31 We have already – to address part of what you said, we’ve
1:49:35 already allowed substitutes to pick up vacant jobs.
1:49:38 We put them all in there instead of waiting.
1:49:40 We put them all in Red Rover, and that was my first call.
1:49:43 Please pick up jobs at our schools.
1:49:44 Not that we want – we want to have the teacher in the classroom,
1:49:47 but if we don’t, we have that plan.
1:49:49 We do have a pretty decent fill rate already two weeks before
1:49:52 school starts, so that’s impressive.
1:49:54 We do have some other plans in the works related to classes,
1:49:58 class sizes, and, you know, working with our schools to mitigate
1:50:04 the problem.
1:50:06 And I know Dr. Sullivan has been working closely with her
1:50:09 elementary team and Jane Klein and Tara Harris – I’m sorry,
1:50:12 their secondary team.
1:50:13 Sorry about that.
1:50:14 You just got transferred.
1:50:15 Jane Klein and Tara Harris also have been working with the
1:50:18 elementary team to look at what the staffing is in the school.
1:50:22 Because sometimes we’re sitting on units that we don’t need to
1:50:24 sit on, or we have classes that are really small that we can
1:50:27 combine before kids even get here.
1:50:30 So we’re working through those, too.
1:50:31 That’s great.
1:50:32 One of the things – I know you want to jump at the opportunity
1:50:34 there, Dr. Mullins.
1:50:36 One of the problems we have with discipline is that if we have
1:50:39 students that come in and they don’t have a classroom, right,
1:50:43 then those students regularly, if you’re – when you have a
1:50:47 person that’s inside there that’s not a full-time teacher or
1:50:49 whatever it is, it makes it difficult for the teachers that are
1:50:51 in the next classroom.
1:50:53 So, like, if you have one for discipline issues, right, when we
1:50:56 have our principals coming in to cover some of the classes, then
1:50:59 you have a breakdown of that piece, right?
1:51:02 So, I applaud everything you’re doing, Dr. Thede.
1:51:04 You guys are amazing.
1:51:05 Like, what you’re doing is far above what everybody else is
1:51:07 doing across the state.
1:51:09 And I just hope everybody understands that it’s going to be all
1:51:12 hands on deck when that happens because of the, you know, we don’t
1:51:15 fill in what happens.
1:51:17 Dr. Mullins.
1:51:18 Yeah, I would just – I would just – not just say that is the
1:51:21 case, that we have an example of that.
1:51:24 If we remember this time a year ago, we had more vacancies than
1:51:28 we had ever experienced going into the school year.
1:51:31 And we were confronted with hundreds in the employment ranks of
1:51:35 quarantines.
1:51:37 And what did this organization do?
1:51:41 We rallied, it was all hands on deck, and we filled where the
1:51:44 needs were.
1:51:45 And that will be the case again this year.
1:51:47 Yes.
1:51:48 And we’re in pre-conversations about how to do that effectively
1:51:51 and proactively.
1:51:53 And we’re working closely with, you know, primarily the schools
1:51:57 that have – I think Dr. Thede may have understated the impact.
1:52:02 When you look at the big number, it can be rather ominous.
1:52:05 But we’re talking – we have 15 schools who are probably in the
1:52:08 most critical range of vacancies.
1:52:10 And that’s where we’re focusing our efforts and prioritizing
1:52:14 district time and staff to address those.
1:52:17 And not to neglect the other schools, we’re going to keep
1:52:19 working with them as well.
1:52:21 But that’s where we’re prioritizing our efforts.
1:52:24 So I’m confident that as we have in the past, we will once again
1:52:27 stand in the gap for our schools.
1:52:30 I will echo – I personally spoke to at least two superintendents
1:52:34 of like-sized districts.
1:52:37 And no less than 50 more just teacher vacancies, and as many as
1:52:45 150 more teacher vacancies in those districts as of less than
1:52:49 two weeks ago.
1:52:51 So I attribute the effort and the work of Team HR and Team BPS
1:52:56 to make the reality that we’re not where we want to be, but we’re
1:53:00 a lot better where we could be,
1:53:02 particularly in terms of where other districts are – you know,
1:53:04 they’re facing the same struggles.
1:53:06 So my congratulations and sincere appreciation of the team as
1:53:09 well.
1:53:10 Ms. Belford, if I can just add two thoughts on that.
1:53:13 First of all, it’s okay that you took this much time, because
1:53:15 considering that we’re 13 days away from the first day of school,
1:53:19 and this is – and we’re in crisis mode, this is the most
1:53:21 important thing that we have to focus on.
1:53:24 And so we needed to hear that update.
1:53:26 The community needed to hear that update.
1:53:28 And what I would add to the pages and pages of names of all the
1:53:31 people that help is all of Team BPS can be part of that.
1:53:38 When we have conversations with people who, you know, don’t look
1:53:41 like they have anything better to do with their lives, we can
1:53:45 say,
1:53:45 hey, I know somebody.
1:53:47 Would you like a job?
1:53:48 I’ve been doing it pretty regularly myself.
1:53:50 But we’re all – all of Team BPS can be a part of that,
1:53:53 recruiting your mother-in-law or your whatever, you know, your
1:53:57 neighbor to come be a sub to consider being a bus driver to, you
1:54:01 know, whatever it may be.
1:54:03 We all need to be a part of that.
1:54:05 And I’m just going to add – and sorry for the sermonizing –
1:54:08 sometimes we’re our own worst enemy when we have people who are
1:54:13 part of our organization who, for whatever reason, are disgruntled.
1:54:16 When we make that, especially social media, I see it regularly.
1:54:19 Oh, BPS is a horrible place to work for.
1:54:22 First of all, I think that is the small minority and we have the
1:54:26 exit interviews to prove it.
1:54:29 But we’re doing ourselves harm.
1:54:32 Are we a perfect place to work for?
1:54:35 Maybe not.
1:54:36 Do we have our problems?
1:54:37 Yes, we do.
1:54:38 But there are some really great opportunities and we have got to
1:54:41 be – everybody in this organization, I believe, needs to be a
1:54:44 recruiter.
1:54:45 Because we’re – you know, a teacher who’s recruiting other
1:54:48 teachers is really helping themselves, helping their building.
1:54:52 Because if they have fewer vacancies in their building, then
1:54:55 they have less classes they’re going to have to cover.
1:54:58 And they’re going to have better discipline behavior in the
1:55:02 building because they’re not going to be working with a
1:55:05 classroom that has a different teacher every day.
1:55:07 Because it has to be filled by a sub and all of that.
1:55:11 So I just challenge all of Team BPS to really – and I’m so
1:55:14 thankful for our churches and our nonprofit organizations that
1:55:18 are helping us with these efforts.
1:55:20 But we all have to be on this, you know, effort so that we can
1:55:24 get there.
1:55:25 And I’m really proud of you guys.
1:55:26 But I just want to add to those pages and pages more people who
1:55:29 are really jumping on the effort.
1:55:31 So thank you for what you’re doing.
1:55:37 I’m going to be super quick.
1:55:39 I just want to do a shout out to our substitutes who are
1:55:41 stepping it up.
1:55:42 Like you said, you and I had a conversation about how they’re
1:55:44 already filling those vacancies so that most of our schools are
1:55:47 going to have some kind of support system in the first days of
1:55:49 school this year, which is really comforting to know.
1:55:53 And, of course, we want a certified classroom teacher in all of
1:55:56 our classrooms.
1:55:57 But I’ve also been speaking to some principals that have already
1:56:00 locked down some long-term subs for those vacancies that they
1:56:03 just feel really confident are very likely going to be difficult
1:56:06 to fill.
1:56:07 And they have amazing substitutes who have already stepped up
1:56:09 saying, I’ll be a consistent person for these kiddos.
1:56:12 So hats off to those substitutes who are already making that
1:56:14 commitment.
1:56:15 I really appreciate it.
1:56:16 And just throwing it out there for people who might want to
1:56:18 consider that as well.
1:56:19 And I just want to say, job well done with those hiring fairs.
1:56:22 I appreciated being there.
1:56:23 I personally appreciated talking with staff members I’ve never
1:56:25 met before.
1:56:26 That was fun for me.
1:56:28 But also my own father stopped by one of those job fairs because
1:56:31 he’s technically challenged.
1:56:33 And he is transitioning from one position to just go back to
1:56:36 substituting.
1:56:37 And he really, really needed that support with Beacon and
1:56:39 everything and all the paperwork.
1:56:41 And he had nothing but positive things to say.
1:56:43 He said it was really smooth and he was so happy and pleased
1:56:45 with how kind everybody was to him.
1:56:47 So thank you for that and thank you for everyone that
1:56:52 participated.
1:56:54 Dr. Therese, I think you know what I’m going to say.
1:56:57 But when I was at the job fairs, the energy in the room was
1:57:02 really exciting.
1:57:04 And again, I can’t thank the whole staff who showed up and
1:57:08 stayed late for all the work they did to help us be the best
1:57:12 that we can be.
1:57:13 So thank you to the whole team.
1:57:15 Team DPS.
1:57:16 Thank you.
1:57:17 One thing that you mentioned, which I think is really important,
1:57:26 was the personal notes from the principals.
1:57:28 And we heard tonight when we were promoting our assistant
1:57:31 principals, there was a comment that, and we hear it just about
1:57:36 every time, right, that so-and-so encouraged me to go into an
1:57:39 administrative path.
1:57:40 So-and-so encouraged me.
1:57:43 And I think that is so critically important that, you know, as
1:57:46 Ms. Campbell said, we can all be recruiters.
1:57:47 And so, you know, the fact that our folks are looking for those
1:57:51 opportunities to encourage people to take a path, whether it be,
1:57:56 you know, going into teaching or becoming a substitute or all of
1:57:59 those things.
1:58:01 I think sometimes we get in our head that this is our path until
1:58:04 somebody says, hey, I’d like for you to think about doing this,
1:58:07 right?
1:58:08 So I think that’s super important.
1:58:10 And then one, I guess, kind of question for you, Dr. Thetty, you
1:58:14 mentioned the substitutes and the things that we have done
1:58:18 around that, and that the one new graduate was becoming a
1:58:23 substitute at Coquina with the hopes of becoming a teacher.
1:58:26 So we’ve talked about the IA to teacher pipeline, but we haven’t
1:58:29 really talked about what are our options for our substitutes to
1:58:33 potentially become classroom teachers.
1:58:35 So that’s a great question.
1:58:36 It’s actually something I had in my notes that I skipped.
1:58:39 We do have a process when we do those substitute interviews.
1:58:43 My Lisa, I am as she watches those interviews and gets the
1:58:46 feedback from the people who help her do those interviews.
1:58:49 If they have a bachelor’s degree, she reaches out directly to
1:58:51 them and she works with them, connects them with our recruiters
1:58:54 and tries to work them through that pathway.
1:58:57 Not everybody’s interested and that’s okay.
1:58:59 You know, we’re happy that they want to be subs, but that is one
1:59:02 pathway.
1:59:03 We have had some different virtual programs for our substitutes,
1:59:07 but we haven’t done a concerted, you have a bachelor’s degree,
1:59:12 we want you teaching, other than our reach out when we do those
1:59:15 interviews.
1:59:16 And you’ve all mentioned word of mouth.
1:59:19 Shockingly, that’s really important.
1:59:21 The word of mouth is really important.
1:59:23 I’ve heard from more people that they got a phone call or their
1:59:26 neighbor was talking up BPS and they wanted to come by and see
1:59:29 what it was like.
1:59:31 It really is important.
1:59:32 So thank you all for mentioning that.
1:59:34 But substitutes are an invaluable resource.
1:59:37 And I’ll tell you the other invaluable resource are our
1:59:39 principals.
1:59:40 I don’t think I gave them enough shout outs in this presentation.
1:59:43 They are rock stars.
1:59:45 We didn’t tell them to write personal notes.
1:59:47 Some of them did.
1:59:49 And so I appreciate that.
1:59:51 Yeah, absolutely.
1:59:53 And I’ll just close with echoing the sentiment, you know, having
1:59:56 been around for a while.
1:59:58 And so I’ve seen this trend multiple times, right, of the start
2:00:04 of the school year and our gaps and all of that stuff.
2:00:08 And I know you’re obviously thankful to all of Team BPS.
2:00:13 But I am confident in saying that this would not have happened
2:00:15 without your leadership.
2:00:17 So.
2:00:18 Thank you.
2:00:19 We are incredibly appreciative of that leadership along with all
2:00:23 the people that come alongside you to make those things happen.
2:00:26 So thank you.
2:00:27 Thank you.
2:00:28 All right.
2:00:29 We are moving into public comments, board members.
2:00:34 Do we need to take a comfort break before we.
2:00:37 So I have a request.
2:00:40 We’ll take about a 10 minute recess and then we’ll come back.
2:00:58 Thank you.
2:13:58 I would like to speak about the proposed millage and the way
2:14:02 that it was brought through the county commission.
2:14:05 It was snuck onto a zoning meeting and the public had no
2:14:23 knowledge.
2:14:28 Thank you.
2:25:27 All right.
2:25:57 Thank you.
2:26:57 It’s just, you know, that’s all.
2:27:27 Thank you.