Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 We’ll be right back.
1:30 Good morning.
1:39 The December 16th special board meeting is now in order.
1:41 I’d like to take the opportunity to remind the public that the
1:44 appropriate place for public participation in the meeting is
1:47 during the individual public comment opportunity identified in
1:50 the agenda.
1:51 Outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role
1:54 in the meeting is to be an observer.
1:55 Paul, roll call, please.
1:56 Mr. Susan?
1:57 Here.
1:58 Ms. Wright?
1:58 Here.
1:59 Ms. Campbell?
2:00 Here.
2:00 Ms. Jenkins?
2:01 Here.
2:01 Mr. Trent?
2:02 Here.
2:03 Please stand for the pledge.
2:05 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
2:11 and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
2:16 indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
2:22 That brings us to the adoption of the agenda.
2:24 Can I get a motion?
2:25 Move to approve.
2:27 Second.
2:28 Any discussion?
2:30 Please vote.
2:32 All in favor signify by saying aye.
2:34 Aye.
2:34 All opposed?
2:35 All right.
2:37 Got that call?
2:38 Yep.
2:39 We’re now at public comments during this morning’s meeting.
2:41 Comments will be limited to the agenda items only.
2:44 I’m assuming because I…
2:46 Wait a minute.
2:47 Yeah.
2:47 We have two public comments.
2:50 First, can I get a motion to allow all three minutes in the
2:56 ability to address the board by name?
3:00 Motion to approve.
3:02 Thank you.
3:04 Is there any discussion?
3:05 Please vote.
3:07 All in favor signify by saying aye.
3:08 Aye.
3:09 No nays.
3:11 We have three number of speakers and each will receive three
3:14 minutes.
3:15 I will call up three speakers, but this is going to be two
3:18 speakers at a time.
3:19 The first three speakers are Kelly Curvin and then Michael Dorn.
3:24 So, Kelly Curvin, you have the floor.
3:26 Did you want to set up the clock, Mr. Seusson?
3:34 Yeah.
3:34 I mean, at this point, you’re only a couple of these.
3:38 Good morning, everyone.
3:42 I overheard a little bit of remarks about the ID and naming
3:47 things.
3:48 So, for the purpose of…
3:49 My name is Kelly Curvin.
3:50 I live in Palm Bay, Florida.
3:51 Ms. Campbell, by address, is my representative.
3:54 My oldest goes to a school represented by Ms. Jenkins.
3:57 And my youngest goes to a school that would be in Mr. Trent’s
4:00 district.
4:01 So, three out of five of you.
4:03 Yesterday, I sat in here and listened to all the interviews,
4:07 just like everybody else did.
4:09 And when I walked in the door yesterday, I firmly believed that
4:13 I knew who was going to be picked.
4:16 And then I left feeling differently.
4:17 And I felt differently because I felt like Robert Schiller gave
4:23 a part of the board a Hail Mary, in a way.
4:27 And what I mean by that is, Dr. Rendell is who I genuinely
4:30 thought was going to be offered this position when I walked in.
4:33 He has passed, has some checkered marks to it.
4:37 To be fair, I haven’t heard any negatives coming out of Poco
4:40 Beach Junior Senior High School.
4:43 Maybe a principalship is where he shines the most.
4:46 But his time in Indian River County has some question marks.
4:49 However, Mr. Schiller, on the other hand, with his educational
4:55 consulting background, provides the board a very unique
5:00 perspective of putting everything together before it’s handed
5:04 off to the permanent.
5:06 And he flat out said, he wouldn’t take a permanent position
5:09 regardless.
5:11 So he’s not going to fight to stay, whereas Dr. Rendell would be
5:14 given the opportunity, who I do firmly believe will be our
5:16 permanent superintendent.
5:18 He could finish out his principalship.
5:21 The media surrounding him will die down.
5:25 And it gives the public the appearance of, okay, well, maybe the
5:29 naysayers were wrong, which can go either way.
5:33 I have a daughter with ESE.
5:37 In the first grade, she was that little kid who was given the
5:41 wrong breakfast straw and was hiding under a desk at the start
5:44 of class.
5:45 And it was our AP, now current principal at Lockmar, who got on
5:50 the floor with her and formed a relationship and formed a bond
5:55 that the other day she left at her baby box.
5:59 And there was a shirt that this assistant principal bought her
6:02 so that they could twin and get through school.
6:04 And I felt like listening to the three of them, James Larson
6:08 came off the most human.
6:09 He came off four students and four staff and four teachers.
6:13 His track record showed in Orange County that he can handle a
6:17 district of our size with our budget.
6:21 I think he’s the best choice.
6:23 I want to be wrong.
6:26 I know it sounds paranoid.
6:27 And I generally am a facts-based person.
6:31 But I like to see things from all possible perspectives.
6:34 So I really, really hope that that’s who you guys pick.
6:38 That’s all.
6:40 Thanks.
6:41 Thank you, Ms. Carvin.
6:45 Michael Dorn.
6:51 Hi.
6:52 Thank you for letting me speak here today.
6:56 My name is Michael Dorn.
6:57 I’m a professional safety assurance manager.
7:00 I work on trains and rail signaling and stuff like that.
7:04 But I’m here talking about a different kind of safety problem
7:07 today.
7:07 I didn’t expect to come here until just a few minutes ago.
7:11 But I’m glad to have an opportunity here to talk about this.
7:13 I found out yesterday that there was a safety problem at Vieira
7:18 Elementary.
7:21 And I had three kids that go there.
7:24 They sent one of my kids home and said he was on the playground.
7:28 There was an incident where kids are tying each other up with
7:32 jump ropes,
7:33 restraining them physically with ropes.
7:35 Teachers don’t even notice this is going on.
7:37 They weren’t even aware of it until after the fact.
7:41 I heard about this.
7:43 No, it can’t be true.
7:44 Of course the teachers are watching the kids, right?
7:46 Of course, the kids make up stories.
7:49 No, I just came from a few minutes ago from the principal’s
7:51 office and they corroborated.
7:52 Yes, this did happen.
7:54 This has happened.
7:55 I have a written report saying that this happened.
7:57 There are parts of the playground where kids do it.
8:00 They’re just not able to supervise them.
8:01 And this is happening.
8:03 It’s been happening.
8:03 In fact, I’ve been doing more research about it.
8:05 I realized that this has actually happened.
8:07 It’s been going on for months.
8:08 Apparently, a couple of months ago, there was an incident where
8:11 a kid got tied up so severely,
8:13 knotted.
8:13 The teacher couldn’t remove the knot.
8:17 She had to get, the teacher, Mr. Nagel, had to get scissors and
8:19 cut the kid out of the ropes.
8:21 After this happened months ago, you mean to tell me that they’re
8:24 still able to play with jump ropes
8:25 on the playground and not have the proper supervision?
8:28 Blew my mind.
8:29 And then the principal’s trying to, oh, whoa, look, downplayed.
8:33 They’re playing a game.
8:34 I don’t know.
8:34 It doesn’t matter.
8:35 You’re playing a game.
8:37 I think the responsible parents, the teachers, the
8:41 administration has responsibility to watch
8:45 the kids and supervise them and make sure that the other kids
8:48 are not tying each other up
8:50 with jump ropes, for goodness sake.
8:51 So I’m here today to advocate on behalf of safety and who, I don’t
8:56 know which candidates you have
8:59 to select from, but if one of them in particular has a better
9:03 background on safety, then I would
9:07 advocate for that, for that, for kids’ safety, I would advocate
9:09 for that candidate.
9:10 And of course, of course, there needs to be some kind of
9:15 training, some kind of announcement,
9:19 some kind of, and I’m glad I have the opportunity to make a
9:22 speech today, but there needs to be
9:25 some better control and some better supervision in general, not
9:28 just at VLA Elementary School,
9:30 but in general, from the top down, needs to be sent a strong
9:34 message to the staff, to the
9:36 principals, to the teachers, to the faculty.
9:40 Watch the kids on the playground, for goodness sakes, and don’t
9:44 let them tie each other up
9:46 with jump ropes.
9:47 If you’re going to play with ropes at all, then teach them about
9:50 the safety of ropes.
9:52 Ropes are very, very dangerous.
9:53 Of course, everyone here understands that.
9:55 Thank you, Mr. Dorn.
9:57 If you get a chance after this meeting, if you’re still here, I’ll
10:00 meet with you.
10:00 Otherwise, it’s my district, so I’ll go call.
10:04 Okay, very good.
10:05 I don’t know how long the meeting lasts, but I can hang around.
10:07 Thank you, Mr. Dorn.
10:07 Okay.
10:09 No, it was just a…
10:12 That concludes the public comments.
10:15 We thank you for your willingness to address us in this public
10:17 matter.
10:18 Today’s meeting is to deliberate and select the district’s
10:20 interim superintendent.
10:21 I’m going to open the floor for conversation.
10:25 Does anybody wish to speak first, second, third?
10:29 Anybody want to open up the floor and start discussing?
10:33 Okay, Ms. Campbell.
10:33 So I just want to start off by saying I was very pleased,
10:41 considering how fast we moved,
10:44 and to be quite frank, you know, the negative attention that our
10:49 district has gotten over the last month,
10:51 that we had such…
10:54 that we had some high-quality candidates apply.
10:58 I think we ended up with the three best finalists.
11:01 We all have vast amounts of experience at many levels, and was…
11:07 you know, the whole process yesterday, I think, was good.
11:09 I think that our district can do well with any of the three.
11:19 I’m just going to say that right up front.
11:21 I think they’re all qualified.
11:24 I have…
11:27 I want to say two favorites, because I got to…
11:31 you know, this is an awkward process.
11:33 Let’s just acknowledge right up front.
11:34 It’s an awkward process.
11:35 We’re going to be talking about people, not behind their backs.
11:37 Let’s just acknowledge this is awkward.
11:38 Yeah, let’s just acknowledge it.
11:40 You know, and so I really want to focus rather than…
11:43 for me, you know, rather than talking about the negatives,
11:45 anyone can…
11:46 the positives that caused two of them, at least, to rise above
11:49 the others.
11:50 I do think that…
11:53 It’s interesting, as our public commenter mentioned, that Dr.
11:56 Schiller represents a really unique opportunity.
11:58 He is the only one who clearly is only…
12:01 The other two might be interested in the full… in the
12:03 permanent position.
12:03 He is clearly only interested in the interim, and he has so much
12:10 experience in doing what we see that we need to do,
12:14 which is turning us around.
12:15 And to be, you know, to be honest, again, we have a very young…
12:18 I don’t say young board, but like…
12:20 Yeah, yes, we’re very young.
12:21 A very new board.
12:24 Most experienced person only has six years.
12:26 I’ve got five.
12:27 Ms. Jenkins has two.
12:28 You guys are just starting.
12:29 He has that experience of working with boards to get them ready
12:35 to go, right?
12:36 To move forward.
12:37 It’s almost like we would be getting a twofer, you know, an
12:40 interim superintendent who clearly has experience in helping a
12:43 district move forward,
12:44 but also experience in training boards, kind of in addition,
12:47 like our own personal FSBA every day, you know?
12:50 So I think that is a really…
12:53 Free consulting is what you’re saying.
12:54 Right, right.
12:55 Free consulting that we’re paying for, that we’re paying for it.
12:59 You know, that kind of energy.
13:01 And to come from the outside, and I know I emphasized last week,
13:04 I thought we needed an internal candidate.
13:06 Honestly, I know even though our Dr. Rendell is an internal
13:08 candidate, I know, that’s kind of a balance.
13:10 Is he an internal candidate?
13:11 Yes, he’s from BPS, but he’s not completely because he’s had
13:14 experience outside the district.
13:15 But when I was thinking of an internal candidate, I was thinking
13:17 like a cabinet-level position.
13:19 Clearly, none of them applied.
13:20 Because they already know the inner workings and it would be
13:23 smoother.
13:24 But since that didn’t happen, to me, this is a really good
13:28 opportunity to really get that, get the ship turned right, work
13:35 with us.
13:36 You know, I think he has, I’ll just say, I think all, you know,
13:42 he has opportunity to, the ability to stay neutral when it comes
13:45 to politics.
13:46 If he’s worked in LA and he’s worked in Houston and he’s worked
13:48 in some of these other places, he’s been able to do that.
13:51 And, you know, the letters of recommendation, I don’t know if
13:53 you guys were able to look through.
13:54 I mean, he’s continued to be sought after to do the very thing
13:59 that we are wanting to do.
14:02 And I think would really set us up well for whoever we choose.
14:06 That being said, that being said, I was really excited about Dr.
14:12 Larson.
14:13 I think that, you know, even though he hasn’t been a
14:15 superintendent and out of the three, he’s not been a
14:18 superintendent.
14:19 To be an area superintendent in Orange, you know, which is the
14:23 size of a small country, you know, really gives him, and because
14:27 of the positions he served in that, he’s got a vast amount of
14:31 experience also in, including some significant time overseeing
14:36 discipline for Orange County.
14:38 And, you know, we’re not unaware, Orange County is in some ways
14:42 similar as far as, you know, we’re all here in Central Florida,
14:45 but in some ways, you know, even more challenging.
14:48 Because they do have even more schools that are high needs, you
14:52 know, free and reduced lunch rates and all those kinds of things.
14:57 They have unique challenges of inner city, which we don’t
15:00 necessarily have here in Brevard.
15:01 And so that kind of experience, you know, and the energy that he
15:05 brings, the passion that he brings.
15:08 I don’t think any of them were not passionate, but I was really
15:11 excited about that.
15:12 The ability to just engage with the staff, engage with the
15:17 community, that was exciting to me.
15:20 Not that Dr. Rundell could not do those things.
15:24 I do, for me, I’m just going to just put this out there, because,
15:26 like, we have to have this awkward conversation out in the
15:28 public.
15:29 I do like the consistency of staying in one place for a good
15:33 amount of time, that you can kind of build that practice and get
15:37 to touch so many things.
15:39 You know, clearly, Dr. Schiller has not been doing that for the
15:43 last several years, but I think his role is different, because
15:46 he is, that is, I mean, you know, he’s in retirement time.
15:49 And so his whole focus has been on out helping districts turn
15:54 around.
15:55 So I see him, view him a little bit differently in that, not
15:57 staying in one place at any given time, because he was
15:59 intentional about that.
16:01 So I, you know, I’m not, those are my two, and they’re very
16:06 different.
16:07 And I honestly, through the night, have not been able to really
16:12 settle on one of those as my number one.
16:16 But, you know, they’re kind of tied for number one and two for
16:19 me.
16:19 Ms. Jenkins?
16:22 No, I’m not ready.
16:25 Do I?
16:25 I’ll jump in there.
16:26 I think that we are very lucky.
16:28 We did get three highly qualified candidates, and they’re very
16:31 unique and different.
16:33 So I think that was one of the really cool things to see
16:35 yesterday, from my perspective.
16:37 What I walked away from yesterday is that we are hiring for an
16:41 interim superintendent.
16:43 That is what we have been advertising.
16:45 That is what we are looking for, with the understanding we are
16:47 going to go to look for a full-time superintendent.
16:51 I think Mr. Schiller brings a unique, I do think he brings a
16:55 unique opportunity for us, because he does have that history of
16:58 turning districts around.
16:59 He doesn’t want full-time.
17:01 He’s not looking to stay here.
17:03 He’s looking to help us get on the right track.
17:05 And then I think that the other part that’s good is that when we
17:08 go to advertise for the permanent superintendent, people may not
17:12 be willing to throw their name in if they know that one of our—the
17:17 other two candidates express the fact that they are looking for
17:20 a permanent superintendent position.
17:23 So I think that that is something that could hinder us on
17:25 getting all the best candidates that are going to throw their
17:28 name in the hat, so to speak.
17:29 Plus, his experience is extensive.
17:32 I will say for Dr. Rendell, he offers a level of stability,
17:37 though.
17:37 So that is one of the perks that he has coming from a BPS
17:40 culture, that he understands what’s going on.
17:43 He understands how these policies that we have in place are
17:46 affecting the schools, because he’s there.
17:48 So for the comfort level, I think he brings that benefit.
17:53 And then when you look at Dr. Larson, that’s why I said these
17:56 are all great options.
17:58 They really are.
17:59 Dr. Larson, I liked what Ms. Kervin said when she said he was
18:02 the most human, and I agree.
18:04 I mean, you could connect with him.
18:06 He’s got a lot of experience, too.
18:08 I just keep going back to the fact that we are hiring for an
18:11 interim superintendent, and I think that we should make our
18:16 decision based on who is the best interim superintendent.
18:18 Not who is the best long-term superintendent.
18:20 So for that reason, for me, it would be Mr. Schiller that would
18:24 rise to the top, because of the fact that we’re looking for
18:27 interim.
18:28 All three candidates were excellent.
18:30 I don’t think we would go wrong with any one of them.
18:32 They would all be able to do the job.
18:34 But focusing on that interim aspect of it, I think he is the one
18:38 that provides our district with the best direction on being able
18:42 to straighten out some stuff,
18:44 and get us set up for the next superintendent that’s going to
18:47 come in.
18:48 Thank you, Mr. Wright.
18:50 Mr. Kenton, ready to go?
18:53 Thank you.
18:56 All right.
18:57 So I echo the same.
19:01 We were blessed to have three quality candidates, and I told
19:06 each and every one of them that our district would be in a
19:09 better place tomorrow
19:11 if any of the three at 8 a.m. would be our interim
19:15 superintendent.
19:16 Mr. Larson, for example, most human, I do believe he is going to
19:21 be a superintendent here real soon.
19:25 We are hiring for an interim, and that would need some
19:31 experience.
19:32 And I know he’s an area, but that’s why Dr. Schiller and Dr.
19:36 Rendell, who had that experience, immediately rose to the top
19:41 there.
19:42 But honestly, I had the best teacher conversation with Mr. Larson.
19:45 He’s going to be somewhere really soon, and he’ll do a fine job.
19:52 We had talked about as a board that if we could find somebody
19:55 internal, that would be wonderful.
19:59 And we have someone internal, and that would be Dr. Rendell.
20:03 Even as an interim, you know, you say it’s a safe pick or a
20:07 comfortable pick, and it is true.
20:10 You know, he’s taught in the South.
20:13 He was a principal in the North and the Central, arguably the
20:16 best non-choice high school in Brevard.
20:19 I mean, his numbers from Indian River County, as far as results,
20:25 it’s there.
20:26 But as an interim, you know, I don’t believe our district is in
20:31 such situation that Dr. Schiller’s expertise would even be
20:38 needed.
20:39 He’s an expert at rebuilding district.
20:43 I don’t think that’s where we’re at.
20:46 I mean, if you’ve ever been overqualified for a position, it’s
20:50 obviously him.
20:51 It’s amazing, you know, the amount of experience we would have
20:55 there.
20:56 I mean, he had mentioned that our county had tanked.
21:00 I don’t believe we’re at that point.
21:02 I don’t think we’re waving a white flag saying that we would
21:06 need to be built up from the ground, which he has experience in
21:10 doing that.
21:11 This would be an easy transition to move to someone that already
21:16 knows the stakeholders involved, the local.
21:21 And if we did not select someone such as Dr. Rendell for the
21:29 permanent, it would be an easy transition for him to go back to
21:33 where he was.
21:34 And he’s lending his years of experience in service to our
21:37 district.
21:38 And he didn’t have to do that.
21:39 This isn’t someone that’s going to go out and try to be a
21:43 superintendent at another county.
21:46 He is going to retire in Brevard County.
21:48 And that just, I believe it just sends a message that I don’t
21:53 want to be a part of, is that when we are faced with an open
21:57 position, be it an assistant principal and principalship, that
22:00 we constantly look outside the district.
22:04 And that’s what’s been happening, in my opinion, in some of our
22:09 administrative jobs, that we’ve been questioning our bench.
22:14 Where’s our young leaders of our new assistant principals and deans
22:19 and principals?
22:20 And it has, it has come off with an appearance around the
22:24 district.
22:25 Guys, I’m the one that’s fresh out of the schools, that too many
22:30 of our new positions have been outside the county, outside the
22:34 state.
22:36 And not that we’re looking for a babysitter for a few months,
22:39 but, geez, if we can’t look inside our own county and pick
22:43 someone that obviously is the most qualified person that we have
22:46 in Brevard at this point,
22:48 with the superintendent and deputy superintendent and his
22:52 experience on budget and HR position, obviously our talented Dr.
22:58 Thede Levin, Dr. Rendell, seemed to be, in my eyes, the obvious
23:05 choice.
23:06 If this place was burned to the ground, I would be calling Dr.
23:10 Schiller in a heartbeat.
23:11 But I just don’t believe our district is there, and I don’t
23:14 believe we would be headed in the right direction moving forward
23:18 if we did not select Dr. Rendell.
23:24 Ms. Jenkins?
23:24 All right.
23:28 Bear with me, because I’m assuming this is, like, the only time
23:30 we’re talking, and I’m being off.
23:32 No, we can go back.
23:33 Okay.
23:33 Well, I’m going to be honest.
23:34 I’m, like, all over the place.
23:36 So, bear with me.
23:38 Giving you a heads up here.
23:39 If I’m being perfectly one off the get-go, this train has been
23:46 moving at a high pace.
23:48 It has been coming off the rails.
23:50 The wind is pushing it back on the rails as much as possible.
23:54 It’s hard for me to feel genuinely confident about any decision
23:58 today, if I’m being perfectly honest.
24:01 I’m going to say that.
24:02 I’ve thought a lot about this.
24:03 I’m not.
24:03 I’m going to go into my picks and my whys, but I’m going to talk
24:07 it out loud with you, because I genuinely did not come in today
24:12 with a, this is the decision I’m coming to the table with today,
24:16 which is why I wanted to go last, because we can’t talk about it
24:20 afterwards.
24:22 And it’s a really weird process to spend an entire day
24:24 interviewing three candidates and not be able to talk about it
24:27 with somebody else who went through that experience with them.
24:30 Also, we never got to discuss what happened in our one-on-ones,
24:33 which probably were all unique experiences for each and every
24:36 one of us.
24:37 So I apologize for the rambling, but bear with me here.
24:42 All right, where do I begin?
24:48 So I thought about yesterday’s group interview, and I felt like,
24:51 well, first and foremost, thank you to the three candidates for
24:55 being here yesterday.
24:56 Yes, Katie, this is incredibly awkward.
25:01 All are kind human beings, and I appreciate them, and I don’t, I
25:05 hate that this is like a public forum.
25:08 So I thought about the three candidates, and I tried to like
25:12 quickly categorize them in my mind.
25:16 And so I feel like we had one who was energetic and hopeful and
25:21 passionate, and we had one that was, and I literally wrote this
25:26 down, like, because I’ve been literally thinking about this
25:29 since we left yesterday.
25:30 I feel like we have one that’s practical and realistic and in
25:33 the moment right now.
25:34 And if I’m being honest, you know, the other one, I guess I
25:39 would use the word comfortable.
25:43 I’m not comfortable, but I acknowledge some people are.
25:48 But I also felt like there was a little bit of a negative
25:53 feeling in terms of the district from that group interview.
26:00 I also was hopeful, like Ms. Campbell, for an internal candidate
26:08 for this position.
26:10 But I was also thinking someone who is at a cabinet position,
26:14 somebody who will quickly jump into the ranks, understand the
26:18 day-to-day of that operation side, their colleagues, stabilize
26:23 the cabinet that’s hanging on by a thread at this point with two
26:27 vacancies in the near future.
26:29 That was an internal candidate that I was thinking would rise to
26:32 the rank.
26:33 Even if I thought it was the best candidate, I can’t rationalize
26:43 removing someone as a leadership position in our district,
26:48 creating a new problem within our district at this time of the
26:52 year.
26:54 We would then have a vacancy at a junior-senior high school with
26:57 the beginning of a second semester starting when all of the
27:01 testing begins.
27:02 Just got a new testing coordinator, no less.
27:06 I just don’t think that that’s the right thing to do.
27:09 I think we’re going to create more problems by attempting to
27:12 solve problems.
27:21 The thing that’s hard for me is the comfort that people are
27:29 feeling.
27:30 I have to be honest about why I don’t feel that way.
27:33 And I was very open and honest in my one-on-ones with every
27:37 single candidate.
27:38 I said to the one that honestly wasn’t at the top of my list,
27:42 point blank in the beginning,
27:44 I’m going to ask you uncomfortable questions because if I don’t,
27:47 I’m not giving you a fair shake.
27:49 Because I’m going to leave this room with some kind of judgment
27:52 or thought that I might have had.
27:53 And I need to give you the opportunity to be able to speak for
27:56 that.
27:58 And so I asked tough questions, mostly forecoming answers, which
28:04 was pleasant to hear.
28:08 But they still weren’t answers I was comfortable with.
28:11 You know, one of the questions I asked all the candidates was
28:18 about, in any role that you were in in the past,
28:23 you know, what was something you were shown that maybe you could
28:26 develop or have some personal growth in?
28:29 And that answer just didn’t sit well with me because when you
28:34 make such a hard decision to leave a district from such an
28:38 important role,
28:39 I find it hard to believe that you can’t remember the negatives
28:44 or be prepared to answer why that’s no longer a thing.
28:53 That was hard for me.
28:54 That was hard for me to see, like, the growth there.
28:56 And again, I asked again in the 101 because I wanted to give
28:59 that opportunity because I understand this is an awkward setting
29:02 to sit in this room.
29:03 And he was a little more open and forthcoming.
29:07 I’m not going to say that he wasn’t.
29:09 But I was a little uncomfortable with that.
29:21 So, Mr. Larson was my top pick on paper before they even came in.
29:32 I acknowledge that.
29:33 I was even more impressed when he came in here and spoke.
29:38 I feel like a lot of times, sometimes resumes sound really good
29:41 and they’re filled with all of these amazing experiences.
29:44 But then sometimes it just doesn’t match the person.
29:48 There’s no really validity behind the actions and positions that
29:51 they’ve held.
29:52 I feel like he was that.
29:54 I believed that he served those roles because he wanted to serve
29:57 those roles.
29:58 He was human.
30:00 I like that somebody said that.
30:01 He gives me the confidence that he would be able to successfully
30:07 portray this district in a positive light.
30:12 Not only to the community, but also to our very fragile cabinet
30:16 members and employees at the district level right now, which
30:20 would hopefully then trickle down into the schools.
30:26 I like that he has a diverse experience when it comes to
30:29 population.
30:30 I like that he’s kind of touched a little bit of everything.
30:35 I think he was the one, and if he wasn’t, I apologize.
30:38 I think he was the one that he had a very, he said, I had a very
30:41 linear trajectory in my career, but I also had a lateral one.
30:44 And I respect that, because like Ms. Campbell said, it shows
30:48 that consistency.
30:49 If you’re able to stay with a district that long, but also kind
30:53 of navigate through it to stay fresh and new and challenge
30:57 yourself with new experiences, that’s something I can absolutely
30:59 appreciate.
31:10 But then I have this other thought process.
31:14 I was one of the ones who argued, no, our interim absolutely
31:19 needs to be able to apply for the full-time position.
31:23 I’m one of the ones who thought, that doesn’t make any sense,
31:27 because to be fair, my thought process was, if our best internal
31:31 candidate applied for that position,
31:33 then that best internal candidate, who would be the best to
31:35 carry us through this interim, should have had the opportunity
31:38 to apply for full term.
31:40 That’s really where my mindset was, but that’s not where we are.
31:43 None of them, none of those people that I thought would apply,
31:45 applied.
31:46 Mr. Schiller made a really good case as to why it might be
31:50 important to have someone in this position who isn’t seeking the
31:55 full term.
31:56 Not only here in this room, but I do want to share with you guys
31:59 some of the things he said to me in my one-on-one that really
32:03 put me in the place I am right now, why I’m just confused.
32:09 Again, this is awkward, but I’m going to tell it like it is.
32:16 One of the first things he said to me, and it wasn’t in a
32:18 judgment way, it was very neutral like he was in this board room,
32:22 was, listen, you guys made a major mistake in the timing and the
32:26 way in which the superintendent was fired.
32:29 And it wasn’t based on simply emotion and respect for that
32:33 individual.
32:34 It was based on practicality.
32:36 Here we are rushed to make this decision because we’ve got
32:39 holiday break coming up and winter break coming up.
32:44 And we looked at contracts for searching for the full-time
32:48 superintendent that said four to six months.
32:52 But in all honesty, we shouldn’t really be finding anyone until
32:55 the summertime because most school districts in America, if we’re
32:59 going to go nationwide, don’t end in May.
33:02 And the likelihood of a candidate willing to just jump ship from
33:06 probably a very good position in a place they’ve been very long
33:10 in the middle of the most critical times of their school
33:14 district, if we’re looking at educational backgrounds, is kind
33:18 of slim or rare.
33:20 Or also makes you question their ability to want to stay and be
33:24 dedicated to a certain area.
33:26 Having them come in around June, summertime, gives them the
33:30 opportunity over the summer to acclimate, to set a plan, to get
33:34 out in the community, to start making relationships with
33:37 administrators, and then start the new year off fresh.
33:41 Kind of like a, we’re in this together, we’re all new, let’s do
33:46 this.
33:47 And I agree with that mindset.
33:49 And I appreciate him being blunt about it.
33:51 The next thing that motivated me in my one-on-one was he said,
34:00 listen, my number one priority would be your cabinet.
34:04 And I don’t want to give away exactly what he said to me.
34:17 He said the first thing I would do is sit down with each and
34:20 every single one of those cabinet members, get to know them, get
34:23 to know their why of why they’re here, and ensure that they feel
34:27 secure right now while I’m here as just the interim.
34:30 My goal would be to make sure they’re hanging on at least for
34:33 that six months with me and let them know they’ve got a team
34:36 player.
34:37 So, in order to ensure we have stabilization in this district,
34:40 we can’t lose any more people in those top positions.
34:43 We just can’t.
34:46 And I love that he acknowledged that himself.
34:48 I love that he literally admitted that’s going to be my number
34:52 one priority.
34:54 And then he said to me, and I don’t know if he said it to you
35:01 guys.
35:02 He kind of made it sound like he did, but I don’t know, because
35:04 as you saw, he was very conversational, so it was kind of just
35:07 like a natural back and forth.
35:09 But he said to me, you have to think about the fact that you
35:14 have to go to the public now.
35:17 You know, the public saw what happened.
35:18 The public had a response to what happened.
35:21 Your community, your leaders, your nonprofit organizations, your
35:25 businesses, they were watching you.
35:27 So they’re watching you right now in this decision.
35:30 And this is one of the most critical decisions we’re going to be
35:33 making as this new board together,
35:34 because this could right the ship or stabilize the ship.
35:39 And he said, how are you going to feel comfortable justifying
35:45 your decision?
35:46 And what I took from that was we got rid of a man that,
35:52 obviously, I felt like had no business being fired.
35:57 His evaluations were exceptional.
36:00 The community relations were exceptional.
36:03 The businesses, the nonprofits, the schools, the administrators,
36:06 even our teachers.
36:09 We’re shook by that decision.
36:11 And how do I then say, how do I advocate for someone who may not
36:18 live up to that?
36:21 Someone who may have already had that opportunity somewhere else
36:24 that I can point to results of?
36:25 Or somebody that I just genuinely don’t know, because they weren’t
36:30 in that role at all before?
36:33 I don’t have the evaluations or results to even point to.
36:36 And when he said that to me, I thought, you’re right.
36:41 You’re completely right.
36:43 This moment right now is to, the primary focus is to stabilize
36:47 this district, to carry us to the end of this school year.
36:50 There have been some grave missteps and bad decisions to get us
36:55 where we are right now.
36:57 And my personal concern and priority is our cabinet.
37:01 That is my personal concern.
37:03 And I said that the day that we talked about getting rid of Dr.
37:05 Mullins.
37:07 And my predictions came true.
37:08 And I’m really scared, because I’ve got other ones.
37:11 I’m really scared that that’s going to continue to happen.
37:14 And I don’t know how we move forward as a district if we have
37:16 all these vacancies in all these really significant places.
37:20 I’m with Ms. Campbell in the fact of, you know, this guy has a
37:23 wealth of experience.
37:25 He’s up front about not wanting the long-term position.
37:29 So really, he’s going to come in here to guide us, to hold hands
37:33 of certain staff members, and to hold our hands, honestly.
37:37 I mean, in my one-on-one, I mean, he was super blunt.
37:39 I mean, he’s going to tell it like it is.
37:41 He’s going to do what we tell him to do, because we’re his boss.
37:44 But he’s going to advise us why that may not be the best idea,
37:47 or situations in which he’s seen this play out before,
37:51 and why, you know, why maybe we should think twice.
37:53 And I think that’s, I think that’s important.
37:55 And when we say that he’s overqualified, and…
38:14 we don’t need to rebuild, I just, I actually disagree so deeply
38:19 on that one.
38:20 And I also make the argument that one of the candidates kind of
38:24 painted that picture for us as well,
38:26 that we aren’t where we used to be.
38:28 And so I feel like those are two conflicting arguments.
38:32 I do think we need to rebuild, in many areas.
38:37 And it’s not because of the performance of our staff members,
38:41 they’re incredible,
38:42 or the performance of our students.
38:43 But man, there are fractures in this community and in this
38:48 organization
38:49 that absolutely need to be healed and or rebuilt.
38:52 And so I apologize for ranting, I warned you,
38:57 because I really am trying to figure this out myself,
39:00 because I feel positively about two people.
39:04 I am fearful to get rid of this bright human who’s worked in ESC
39:10 and diverse populations,
39:11 but also managing a billion-dollar budget of ESSER funds.
39:17 I mean, the likelihood of us getting candidates who even
39:20 comprehend that kind of a budget
39:22 is kind of slim as well.
39:24 And so I’m nervous to let them go,
39:26 but I understand they can reapply for the full-time position as
39:30 well.
39:30 So I asked to go last because I really wanted to have that.
39:34 I wanted to hear everyone else’s perspectives.
39:36 If I’m being honest now, after thinking out loud with all of you
39:41 and verbal diarrhea-ing right now,
39:43 I think my gut is slightly ticking towards Mr. Schiller a little
39:48 bit more.
39:49 I think that that’s the right choice for our district at this
39:53 point,
39:53 to focus in a small step, tiny, tiny time frame,
39:58 not worry about the long-term picture right now,
40:02 worry about getting through this tumultuous time,
40:04 and then figuring that out when things die down a little bit.
40:08 And honestly, everyone can reapply for the position as well.
40:12 Because, I mean, I heard that public comment as well.
40:16 I mean, I don’t necessarily disagree with what was said.
40:18 So, okay.
40:21 I’m sorry.
40:22 I’m done.
40:22 Jenkins, I think you made some great points.
40:26 Thank you so much for taking the time.
40:28 It didn’t sound really that bad.
40:30 I think it was okay.
40:31 I think you did a good job.
40:32 I come from a different perspective than many of you guys do.
40:37 This is my fifth superintendent in this school district that I’ve
40:40 been a part of.
40:41 Dr. DiPatri started it off in 2005 when I was a teacher.
40:46 And we moved through, and this would be the fifth change.
40:48 I was a nine-year teacher.
40:50 I sat on the half-cent sales tax review committee.
40:53 And as a board member, I’ve been here for six years.
40:56 So inwards of 17 years, I’ve been a part of or moved around this
41:00 district.
41:01 Between, you know, I just, my thing is, is that I’ve seen a lot
41:06 of things from when I was a coach.
41:09 And we had a booster club.
41:11 I coached for many years, and we’d see the transition of many of
41:15 the booster clubs,
41:16 and stuff like that.
41:16 And you want to talk about some fighting going on, right?
41:19 I’ve seen principals come in and have new principals into areas.
41:23 I’ve seen a lot of transition take place.
41:27 And one of the things people look immediately towards is towards
41:32 their qualifications, which is where we all want to go.
41:35 Very good qualifications.
41:37 What is it that makes them the next best leader?
41:40 And one of the things that we fall on that we don’t do very well,
41:43 and it’s not anybody’s fault, but it’s the transition and how
41:47 they will collaborate with staff and tie in with staff,
41:51 and how does their two styles work, and how do all those other
41:55 pieces do?
41:55 Because I’ve seen it where we have the best coach in the world
41:59 comes in, and it doesn’t work with the actual staff.
42:03 So what ends up happening is you have a break, right?
42:05 Okay.
42:06 So one of the things that I run into is that as many of those
42:10 superintendents have come through,
42:14 I can tell you absolutely the most positive and absolutely the
42:16 most negative of every one of them.
42:18 I will also say that the majority of them were all selected
42:21 during the year,
42:23 and that there are six other school districts that are going out
42:27 to decide right now that are right now going to be choosing
42:31 right during the year.
42:32 So the applicant pool process, depending on who throws their
42:36 name in where,
42:37 if we are to wait until the end of that, this is just a reminder,
42:41 that makes it very dangerous for us in the fact that we may not
42:43 get the best person that may want to come.
42:45 So there’s that.
42:47 I also heard some of the conversation wrapped around, you know,
42:51 each one of them and what they’ve done.
42:53 I couldn’t agree with you more.
42:54 I think Mr. Wright has literally turned around entire states.
42:58 He’s done all those things, right?
43:00 And he’s done it in very good areas.
43:01 And one of the things we didn’t focus on yesterday that I feel
43:04 is probably going to become in the month of January our number
43:08 one target
43:09 is how we deal with the lowest socioeconomic and diverse, you
43:12 know what I mean, achievement levels.
43:15 And when I looked at that, Mr. Wright has some deliverables.
43:18 You mean Schiller?
43:18 I mean, I’m sorry, Schiller.
43:19 Who are you talking about right now?
43:20 Sorry, I’m looking at your name on my forehead.
43:22 But Mr. Schiller had all of that.
43:24 And Mr. Larson had some of it too because he talked about the
43:26 nine schools and the 11.
43:28 But there was one thing that I saw on Rendell’s paper was that
43:32 if you saw that number,
43:34 and it just jumped out to me, graduation for black students
43:37 increased from 65 to 82%.
43:39 And he’s got some other stuff in there.
43:41 So I could say that pretty much all of them have the same
43:44 qualifications one way or the other.
43:46 Some have had more experiences in areas.
43:48 Some have had less.
43:49 I think that each one of them could qualify to argue that they’re
43:53 the best in those areas.
43:55 The one area that I kept coming back to was how are they going
43:58 to come in in the short amount of time that we have, set a
44:01 direction,
44:02 understand everybody that’s inside of this county, and then move
44:06 forward with an agenda that we decide that we want to move for.
44:10 And I think that a lot of that has to come from a homegrown
44:13 candidate.
44:13 Now, I, from the beginning, said that if we are going to make a
44:18 pitch to say that we keep this as interim and they could apply
44:22 as the other one,
44:23 but, like, I didn’t want the interim to apply for the superintendentship
44:27 just because of what has been said here and everything else.
44:31 I have always thought that whoever is the interim would stay
44:34 that way and then we would apply outside to draw in the best
44:37 talent.
44:38 I always thought that.
44:39 But when I look at all three candidates, my three is Rendell,
44:43 Wright, and Larson.
44:45 And it’s not.
44:46 I’m sorry, Schiller.
44:47 I keep saying that.
44:48 Let me get rid of this.
44:49 Hang on, Schiller.
44:51 So, Schiller would be second, Larson would be third, and Rendell
44:55 would be first.
44:56 And the main reason is, is that I can point to many different
44:59 areas where they all have achieved in many of the composites
45:03 that we look at.
45:04 They all presented very well.
45:06 The difference is, is that Rendell is here.
45:08 He came from a county that’s right below us.
45:11 He understands the dynamic where you may have this theory, this
45:16 process in this, but actually making it come to fruition becomes
45:19 very,
45:20 difficult because of the the culture that surrounds it and I
45:23 think that
45:24 knowing the culture is a as big of a component as a resume too
45:28 and he had
45:28 that also so those were mine that’s all anybody else want to go
45:32 we’re gonna move
45:32 around a little bit yeah miss Campbell so
45:40 I just you know just kind of thinking about I was good even even
45:46 for me to go
45:46 first you know I don’t mind going first but it’s also good for
45:50 me to hear from
45:52 everybody else because I honestly because I told you I had the
45:54 top two and
45:55 I kind of what was gonna help me was what is everybody else
45:58 thinking about and
45:59 who were comfortable with working because even it’s not just who
46:02 I’m
46:02 comfortable working with even though I could work with any of
46:06 them it’s who are
46:08 you you know all comfortable working with and you know I I Megan
46:12 kind of
46:13 reiterated excuse me miss right reiterated something that you
46:16 know that
46:16 this this interim we really need and they all talked about
46:19 healing they all talked
46:20 about fractures I think they almost I think every single one of
46:23 them uses those
46:24 words of something in some way honestly you know mr. Trump gonna
46:32 challenge
46:32 something you said because you said the perception out there’s
46:34 we’re always
46:34 looking outside I have much more often I don’t know that I’ve
46:37 ever heard that
46:38 actually what I have very frequently heard is that we are always
46:42 looking internal
46:43 and not thinking outside the box and right now and I would also
46:47 challenge the
46:48 and not just a direct challenge to you but about the overqualified
46:51 you know what
46:51 Brevard is a tenth largest district in this state and you know
46:54 what we deserve
46:55 someone who’s overqualified I’m not I’m not can’t buy into that
46:59 one because honestly
47:01 you know we even had and mr. Jenkins actually mentioned that you
47:06 know we
47:06 even had a candidate sit there and say and talk about our missteps
47:11 and I think we
47:13 need somebody that the community can that will be uniting to our
47:19 community even if
47:20 they’re an outsider nobody knows them there is a downside of of
47:26 someone you
47:29 know being I think we’ve already seen some disunity I think I
47:34 think that we can
47:35 have one of these you know honestly I’m just gonna because I was
47:40 had those two and
47:41 I’m clearly and everybody’s got great respect for dr. Larson but
47:45 it looks like
47:46 he’s not rising to the top enough I’m gonna just throw
47:50 all my chips and on to the side of dr. Schiller because I you
47:54 know I think that
47:55 I think that for all the reasons I’ve already said his great
47:59 expertise his
48:00 ability to get boards to work together and we have got to work
48:04 together and while I
48:05 have to applaud us because ever this week board we’ve done
48:10 really well and we’re
48:13 all laughing because we know it’s true
48:15 I think we’ve done well this week I think we’re we’re but we’re
48:23 so far from rowing in
48:24 the same stream we’ve got a lot of controversial issues coming
48:27 up in the
48:27 near future we just talked about even though we may not be we’re
48:30 not well not
48:31 Baltimore we’re not a hot mess like Baltimore but we did just
48:35 have a meeting
48:36 with our community last Thursday that now the whole nation has
48:38 turned their
48:39 attention to us that says oh yeah we are a hot mess I think that
48:42 was a
48:42 mischaracterization of our district a great mischaracterization
48:45 I think we did
48:45 our district a disservice in that but we clearly have problems
48:50 and I don’t think
48:51 the interim is going to be able to come and solve all of our
48:53 problems but I think
48:54 an interim like dr. Schiller will help us to focus on what do we
48:58 need to do first
48:59 and and he didn’t come and he made very clear together and in
49:03 our one-on-ones that
49:04 that’s not going to be he has a plan that he does with other
49:06 districts and he’s
49:06 going to come and do that plan and tell us you’re going to do
49:08 this this and this
49:09 he’s got the plan to come and work with the board and help us
49:11 figure out what our
49:12 priorities are he’s got expertise in that and so and also I have
49:16 to say I was
49:17 greatly impressed with the amount of research that he had
49:21 already done before
49:22 he ever walked in the door he had seen our our budgets which are
49:27 not small our
49:28 strategic plan which is not small and I don’t even know if the
49:31 two new members
49:31 have taken a look at it it’s and honestly I was disappointed
49:35 actually that our first
49:36 candidate wonder had some questions about strategic plan and
49:40 some questions about the
49:41 CAFR and I’m like yes we have a CAFR of course we have a CAFR I
49:44 mean why but I understand
49:46 what they wouldn’t because you know if you’re in the district
49:48 you’re doing you got your head
49:49 down you’re doing a great job at your own school but if you know
49:51 even dr. Larson mentioned
49:54 he’d already done some research too in about a 24-hour period
49:57 gone and looked at everything
49:58 that we had online so I you know the amount of research to art
50:01 to be familiar to to jump
50:04 in there that’s the way the dr. Schilder operates he’s gonna
50:07 know he already said he
50:08 wants to jump in I mean if we make this decision today even
50:11 though we’re not gonna
50:11 vote on a contract and pick him even though we wouldn’t vote on
50:14 a contract for
50:14 any of them until next Tuesday I guarantee you he’s gonna be on
50:18 the phone with
50:18 people this afternoon getting a you know getting a running start
50:23 so so I just I
50:26 think he would be a stabilizing influence and when you talk
50:29 about mr. Schultz talk
50:30 about who collaborates best I heard that again and again again
50:36 the
50:36 collaboration and he knows how to do it he knows how to do he
50:40 knows how to unify
50:41 people so after having heard everybody I just you know because I
50:45 did have that hi I
50:46 truly hope and I hope the doctor if they’re listening dr. Larson
50:51 hears me say
50:51 this I hope that he will apply but I agree mr. Trent I he’s
50:54 gonna be a
50:55 superintendent somewhere probably in the state of Florida in the
50:59 next eight to nine
51:00 months I have no doubt he’s he is he’s an exciting candidate and
51:04 I you know even
51:05 if he’s not here with us I hope that he would would apply
51:08 because I think he’s
51:09 very highly qualified and would do a good job for Bard but maybe
51:12 this is just a
51:13 stepping stone for him to in the process and I wished him I you
51:17 know wherever he
51:18 ends up the best I I do think that dr. Schuller would be really
51:25 I’ll go necessary unless you want to go I just I feel bad I
51:32 usually looked at who
51:33 has their hand on the thing is what it is no it doesn’t matter
51:37 go ahead mr. Jenkins
51:38 no go ahead check it it’s fine okay
51:44 okay I appreciate you bringing out bringing out the strategic
51:47 plan and the
51:48 CAPR thing because again this is awkward like I don’t want to
51:51 sit here and like
51:52 talk about the negative of an experience so much but honestly
51:56 that was one of the
51:57 things that was most uncomfortable with me is you know we talk
52:00 about we say things
52:00 like we want a homegrown candidate they argue we had one we had
52:03 a man with 29
52:04 years experience in Brevard Public Schools and we let him go and
52:08 that
52:09 candidate isn’t necessarily a homegrown candidate because his
52:12 resume shows him
52:13 moving around and there’s nothing wrong with that but that
52:15 argument isn’t really
52:17 justifiable so that one candidate I would have expected it to be
52:24 more focused on
52:25 Brevard Public Schools instead of a binder of the strategic plan
52:28 of Indian River I
52:28 would have expected to see our strategic plan and his full
52:32 strategic plan and how
52:34 those are tied together and the advances he’s made within his
52:37 school with that
52:37 strategic plan that would have made a little bit more sense to
52:40 me not being
52:42 aware of the things that we were already doing in the district
52:46 concerned me as
52:46 well does that maybe say yeah we need to communicate it a little
52:50 bit better yeah
52:51 sure but also if you’re applying for this position and you’re
52:54 here I would hope
52:55 that you would be more aware I mean you’re in a leadership
52:57 position too it’s a
52:58 little bit different so that concerned me a little bit
53:03 you made me laugh about mr. Schiller not getting a contract
53:09 signed until Tuesday but
53:10 yeah I agree I think five minutes after a decision is made he’ll
53:14 be on the phone
53:14 probably calling dr. Teddy so I agree we deserve someone over
53:21 qualify we deserve
53:21 somebody who is very strategic and focus for the 10th largest
53:26 school district in
53:27 the state of Florida but we’re also finding 49th in the nation
53:31 I have grave concerns about one of one of the candidates I have
53:40 grave concerns
53:41 about the integrity of the process and
53:44 I’m doing my best to not speak about them if I don’t have to
53:50 but it’s frustrating to hear things being said I care so deeply
54:01 about this
54:02 position and this district I care so deeply I am very
54:07 uncomfortable very
54:08 disturbed by everything that has happened in the past month for
54:11 this
54:11 district I am deeply deeply concerned and I again said the one
54:18 thing that mr.
54:19 Schiller said this is one of the most critical decisions your
54:23 board is going
54:23 to be making after the month that has happened and I agree with
54:27 him wholeheartedly
54:27 I really really do I think the most strategic and the most
54:35 beneficial decision
54:36 we can make right now is to you put someone in place like mr.
54:40 Schiller you
54:41 temper everything that’s happening within our organization and
54:46 outside of it
54:49 as much as I like dr. Dr. Larson as well I hope he reapplies for
54:53 the full time I
54:54 really do one of my reservations and why I was on the fence was
54:59 like he excites me I
55:00 feel like he’s an amazing candidate I think I’m a little scared
55:03 he will get taken away
55:04 by somebody else and may not be here to apply for that but I
55:08 also don’t feel
55:09 wholeheartedly in my heart that if even if he was nominated to
55:12 get this interim that he
55:14 could even be successful right now in the climate that we have
55:18 in the timing of the
55:19 year I would be nervous that that would be setting him up for
55:23 failure because I
55:24 don’t know if he would be given the time and the resources and
55:28 honestly the staff to
55:31 be successful and so I think someone who knows how to manage
55:34 those crisis situations
55:35 would be the best decision for us I don’t really play poker too
55:39 often miss Campbell
55:40 but I and I know you really don’t either but uh I think after
55:45 having this
55:46 discussion I I think I feel comfortable putting all my chips in
55:49 in mr. Schiller’s
55:50 basket as well thank you miss Jenkins did I I told you I don’t
55:56 play all right so
56:00 mr. Susan how many counties are up for they’re sick it seems
56:13 like one of the candidates it’s just an
56:14 easy decision make all of us feel fine the community will get
56:20 off our backs for
56:21 making tough decisions but we signed up for this to make tough
56:25 decisions and I’m not
56:28 going to stop now to just say yeah that’s that feels good it
56:32 feels easy and and we
56:34 can make up for maybe some of the decisions some of us didn’t
56:39 like
56:39 that we’ve made up to this point
56:43 even though one of the candidates said that they would like to
56:46 stay here for the
56:47 rest of their career there’s six counties looking for someone
56:52 with the
56:53 qualifications of all three of those candidates that we had and
56:57 it is just
56:59 going to come back at us if we pass up on something that we had
57:04 here in our own
57:05 backyard and winds up across the state this person’s not as
57:10 locked into this area
57:12 as they once were because they have no kids in the district
57:14 anymore and you can
57:15 move around and this is a different time so I I’m I’m pretty
57:22 straightforward and some
57:23 things but if you look at some numbers and when we have a person
57:29 that’s solely
57:30 responsible I mean that’s a superintendent that the grad rate
57:34 you already mentioned in
57:35 Indian River County went from 65% to 82% and for Hispanic
57:40 students 79% to 88% let’s
57:45 see AV AP and IB enrollment for all students increased from 21
57:50 to 29% which is
57:52 important here AP and IB enrollment for black students African
57:56 American students
57:57 increased from 15 to 25% and it also increased AP and IB
58:10 enrollment for white students increased
58:11 27 to 34% this person was also heavily involved in the creation
58:17 of the technical college which
58:20 was big on that the campaign trail we hear that from many people
58:24 we talked about knocked on their
58:26 doors and the community asked for a possible technical college
58:31 or something and we do
58:32 a great job already but that’s just the expansion of it where it
58:37 said 87% of his
58:38 new employees stated that the employer treats him treats them
58:43 fairly another
58:45 district is going to come knocking at this person’s door and he
58:48 should yeah all three
58:50 of them and again I’m not talking about mr. Larson in this case
58:55 because he
58:56 he’s you know for an interim he hasn’t been that head person yet
59:00 and he’s going to be gobbled
59:01 up I’m telling you you know out of the three conversations he
59:04 had the teacher conversation with
59:06 me which was wonderful and dr. Schiller had the life experience
59:12 conversation and then they
59:14 had a conversation of who can who can lead this district
59:17 tomorrow this district not a district when I
59:20 I mentioned the overqualified not overqualified for the position
59:24 that we currently are there but he’s overqualified I think for a
59:27 bigger position than this not that this is not happening if five
59:32 of us walked out tomorrow because you know our district was on
59:36 fire that’s who I would be calling so I don’t I’m not trying to
59:39 diminish
59:39 Brevard County in any way but I’m just afraid we’re going to
59:45 look back in and say we had something
59:48 here when when dr. Larson or mr. Larson’s gone dr. Rendell is
59:53 gone and we’re six months down the road or eight whatever it is
59:58 I think it can be shorter than that you know I don’t want to say
1:00:01 professional salesman but dr. Schiller he can he can he can he
1:00:05 can talk about his experience very well and
1:00:08 and you know I’m just hoping that’s that isn’t just our decision-making
1:00:14 there that the more our conversation progressed on our one-on-ones
1:00:18 I don’t want to get too much into those
1:00:19 it is good a job as he was talking about what he would do here
1:00:24 and in our timing of getting a superintendent and what we need
1:00:28 to do with the community he actually was solidifying my decision
1:00:31 on the person that I thought would be
1:00:35 right for that job we’re talking about a person who is familiar
1:00:39 with the stakeholders the community that already has the that
1:00:43 relationship and if we’re trying to repair anything
1:00:46 you know bringing someone from the outside has that negative
1:00:49 appearance too is
1:00:50 you are so mixed up here in this county and you got to bring
1:00:54 somebody from the outside and I don’t believe we’re at that that
1:00:58 point I just don’t I think we still are
1:01:01 one of the best performing schools school districts in the state
1:01:04 and I’m going to keep it that way
1:01:05 my fear is we get somebody such Dr. Schiller he comes in here
1:01:12 and I don’t want to say waste time but we have work to do and
1:01:17 and he we’re not building from the ground up I don’t believe if
1:01:21 Mr. Jenkins if you think our
1:01:23 our cabinet is so strong uh and I you know we have lots of good
1:01:29 people in there there’s just not that
1:01:31 we’re not in dire straits to to we need to move forward I know
1:01:36 it’s an interim position but we have
1:01:38 somebody in our backyard that could seamlessly come in here
1:01:42 connect the community back with uh with our board
1:01:45 in our in our staff and I just I just I hope we don’t look back
1:01:49 at this and say we had someone here
1:01:52 and we didn’t take advantage of his uh qualifications and and
1:01:56 his willingness to step up and help
1:01:58 our district when a time you didn’t need to do
1:02:01 that’s all
1:02:04 am I able to jump in there okay okay um I think that we are in a
1:02:11 unique position because we have three
1:02:13 candidates that that were right they they are all exceptionally
1:02:16 great um here’s what I would say
1:02:18 I think that an outside perspective is sometimes a really
1:02:21 healthy thing because sometimes we just
1:02:23 get so tunnel visioned and where we are at that it would be nice
1:02:27 to have a fresh set of eyes that
1:02:28 comes in that hasn’t been here who says hey this is what I see
1:02:31 this is how we can improve some things
1:02:33 this is what’s worked in other districts that are you know have
1:02:36 gone through comparable things
1:02:37 as what you’re going through right now um Dr. Schiller brought
1:02:41 with him a ton of research
1:02:42 he did a ton of upfront work and for me I appreciate that
1:02:45 because he came in knowing
1:02:47 our district he wasn’t blind to it and I know that you know
1:02:50 obviously um Dr. Rendell has that
1:02:52 experience too so he’s he knows what’s going on as well uh for
1:02:56 me again I just I like all three of
1:02:58 them I think they’re all exceptional men I think that all three
1:03:01 of them will be successful wherever
1:03:02 they’re at that’s a good thing right like even though whatever
1:03:05 decision we make we know that those
1:03:06 three men will succeed somewhere whether it’s here um we we’re
1:03:09 deciding that now or somewhere else uh for me I just
1:03:12 keep going back to the fact that we are hiring for an interim
1:03:15 and if we hire an interim that could
1:03:19 potentially transition to a permanent I think Mr. Susan you were
1:03:22 the one that mentioned this I think
1:03:24 that you were you were concerned with us opening that up and I
1:03:27 think I even advocated at that point
1:03:29 saying hey if they’re doing an exceptional job why would we not
1:03:32 at least make that option available to
1:03:34 them um so but when Dr. Schiller talks to you and explains these
1:03:38 things and I think Mr. Gibbs you’ve explained it as well
1:03:40 it will limit further applicants from applying because they’re
1:03:44 not going to put their name out there
1:03:46 knowing hey they may have someone that’s going to stay
1:03:49 permanently um and I understand that so I just
1:03:52 think that Dr. Schiller has what it’s what it’s going to take to
1:03:54 get us on the right track right now
1:03:56 and he has a fresh perspective uh and a ton of experience I I
1:04:00 will say you know the only negative I would
1:04:02 say and I think Jean you kind of hit on it a little bit is his
1:04:05 ability to answer a question before it
1:04:07 was asked I think we all saw that yesterday we were going wait
1:04:09 wait a minute what are we going to ask
1:04:11 him next he’s already answered it um so you know I think that’s
1:04:14 the only negative but again having
1:04:16 done what he’s done he knows the questions that are going to be
1:04:18 asked which is why he’s able to
1:04:19 offer those answers um before the question is even asked and
1:04:23 sometimes he was kind of telling us
1:04:24 the answers to questions we should be asking and maybe didn’t uh
1:04:27 you know what I mean so
1:04:29 it is true so I just I just go back to I think he has what it
1:04:34 takes for this interim position
1:04:36 um to really get us back on track and and get us moving the
1:04:40 right direction so for that reason
1:04:42 that that’s that’s really why I’m standing behind that decision
1:04:45 you know I think he did that because
1:04:47 he’s he’s been the one who’s uh hired the people so many times
1:04:51 he did and um so right so I kind of
1:04:57 I mean I can continue to make arguments on both sides and
1:05:01 everything else but I think what I’m hearing
1:05:03 you guys say is there’s a majority that would like to um go on
1:05:07 with Mr. Schiller right is that pretty
1:05:10 pretty consistent um yeah um because again like we can only have
1:05:15 these conversations in this forum
1:05:18 and there’s no point of hashing this conversation back out in
1:05:23 the future so um I would like the
1:05:25 opportunity just to say some things about some things that were
1:05:27 said because I think it’s I think
1:05:29 it’s important because it’s I think it’s necessary for moving
1:05:31 forward um so saying that we don’t believe
1:05:37 that we’re at like at that certain point that honestly that is
1:05:40 one of my biggest concerns is
1:05:41 that we have board members who don’t even acknowledge where we
1:05:44 actually are uh because
1:05:46 I haven’t met a person who tells me that we don’t feel like we’re
1:05:52 there we don’t feel like we’re
1:05:53 fragmented we don’t feel like our cabinet’s hanging on by a
1:05:57 string or some of the people at the district
1:06:00 I mean guys I’m gonna be honest with you I’m walking through the
1:06:02 halls and people are whispering like
1:06:04 thank you for having me because they’re uncomfortable with what’s
1:06:08 happening whether or not they agree
1:06:09 with the decision at the top is made or they may some of them
1:06:12 may but they’re still uncomfortable
1:06:14 with where we’re going it’s unpredictable um and so I encourage
1:06:18 you to have those conversations with
1:06:21 people blatantly ask them let them feel comfortable to tell you
1:06:24 the truth they may agree with you
1:06:26 but they still may feel uncomfortable where where we’re heading
1:06:29 um and I encourage you
1:06:33 to have one-on-one connections with our cabinet members if you
1:06:38 haven’t already I’m assuming maybe you
1:06:41 have we haven’t had much so sorry if you haven’t I’m making an
1:06:44 assumption but but I encourage you
1:06:48 because it’s really critical to understand the pulse of what’s
1:06:52 going on at the top of our district
1:06:54 because they’re the glue that’s holding us together I mean yeah
1:06:57 the superintendent leads them
1:06:59 but they’re the people who are really making those day-to-day
1:07:03 major decisions and presenting it to the
1:07:05 superintendent they’re so important to our district they’re all
1:07:09 amazing people have a pulse with them
1:07:11 please if you haven’t already um
1:07:18 um
1:07:22 and I just I appreciate the the tunnel vision comment I
1:07:26 appreciate that because I think that’s exactly
1:07:28 what Mr. Shuler will provide us is the opportunity to just like
1:07:31 take a step back a minute um and to
1:07:33 calm down and get the train back on the track so thank you I
1:07:36 just I don’t want to hash this stuff out
1:07:38 later on for no reason so thank you thank you Ms. Jenkins one
1:07:42 second yeah Mr. Trent
1:07:48 I think that maybe some people here at district should feel
1:07:52 uncomfortable okay we had we had quite a year
1:08:00 in our campaigning we had three elections um our community has
1:08:06 spoken all right I’m just not
1:08:09 letting this go without comment there is things that need to be
1:08:12 changed and that’s that’s okay when the outside
1:08:17 is getting involved and the inside is uncomfortable that means
1:08:21 we’re doing our job that doesn’t mean it’s
1:08:24 going to change the outcome that just means we’re bringing in
1:08:28 the stakeholders
1:08:29 I fully support Dr. Schiller for the interim of Broward County
1:08:36 he did call us Broward County
1:08:38 that’s a concern moving forward might have been an accident but
1:08:42 it just goes back to
1:08:45 we’re missing an opportunity to get somebody that understands Broward
1:08:48 County has taught has been a
1:08:52 principal has had the outside perspective that we were also
1:08:56 looking for I don’t think a linear
1:08:59 progression of a career is is always the best Mr. Larson pointed
1:09:04 that out
1:09:04 so yes we’ve had one-on-ones we have some wonderful individual
1:09:10 people
1:09:13 but here again we’ve wanted change shake up you’ve seen that it’s
1:09:19 needed we’ve been asked by our
1:09:23 teachers our staff our IAs our parents please do something and I’m
1:09:29 not I’m not going to stop saying
1:09:32 that we’ve had an opportunity to do something here and my fear
1:09:36 is we’re going to have an overseer for
1:09:40 months as a wonderful person but an overseer and we’re going to
1:09:44 have to start over again when this new
1:09:47 superintendent comes in here
1:09:49 thank you Mr. Trent um I think we have a majority that I I would
1:09:56 like to follow up again because I
1:09:58 think it’s Jenkins I would just like to just let that go no we’re
1:10:01 trying to create you need to move ahead
1:10:02 no sir if we can if we can just move on I’m I’m actually no I
1:10:06 understand you’re the chair Mr.
1:10:08 Susan but this is the only opportunity Ms. Jenkins can I just
1:10:11 speak this is the only opportunity for
1:10:13 us to have this conversation we can have a back and forth about
1:10:16 where we’re at Mr. Susan it’s ironic
1:10:18 that I am the only person that you try to quiet Ms. Jenkins I’m
1:10:23 the board chair I understand you’re the
1:10:25 chair Mr. Susan okay go ahead and explain it called on yeah
1:10:29 absolutely all right um looks like we have a
1:10:32 majority of um people that want uh Mr. Schifrin so what I would
1:10:37 like Schiller sorry listen we’re
1:10:40 concerned about Brevard and Broward but we can’t remember now
1:10:42 what it is is that I was out last
1:10:43 night until uh one o’clock in the morning with my son I took him
1:10:46 to Disney World so we had the Disney
1:10:48 conversation so I’m just a little bit tired today so um I did
1:10:51 want to tell you guys um I think that’s
1:10:53 the direction that the board wants to go um I’ll be honest with
1:10:57 you he’s a he is very qualified to do
1:11:00 what he’s about to do um I was even last night with my wife
1:11:03 going back and forth about where the decision
1:11:05 would be made you know what I mean and he was the top two and I
1:11:09 was sitting there um going back and forth
1:11:11 so I think we’re in a good place um I appreciate everybody’s
1:11:15 comments like I think that we all feel
1:11:18 comfortable with amounting what our comments are going to be Ms.
1:11:21 Wright I really appreciate where
1:11:22 you’re coming from um I appreciate some people um were willing
1:11:26 to on one topic or another decide
1:11:28 hey I might not have been right about that before but now this
1:11:31 is the direction so
1:11:32 I think we’re moving together in a good direction and I think I
1:11:34 just wanted to say thank you for that
1:11:37 um I did want to say that um it does sort of take a motion to um
1:11:41 to hire the next person so if you guys
1:11:45 want to um you know somebody wants to make a motion to hire him
1:11:49 and then we can go back to Ms. Jenkins
1:11:51 conversation afterwards I’ll make the motion to to hire Mr. Schiller
1:11:55 as the interim superintendent second
1:11:57 all in favor of oh yeah I mean does anybody have any further
1:12:02 discussion about Mr. Schiller
1:12:07 yeah I’d like to okay Mr. Trent is we said from the beginning of
1:12:12 today our district will be better off
1:12:16 tomorrow with any one of the three okay
1:12:20 I’ve heard all the positives of why we’re moving more we’re
1:12:29 moving and
1:12:32 I meant when I said is we will be better off okay it doesn’t
1:12:37 matter if I felt personally that I think
1:12:39 our district would better be better off I know it’s not a
1:12:42 personal issue I’m publicly stating it not
1:12:47 any one board member’s position um that I will now attack
1:12:53 because they didn’t vote or pick my person I’m not
1:12:59 going to do that up here I’m not going to do it online because I
1:13:02 think we had all three good candidates
1:13:05 and I don’t care how we’ve come to this decision it’s it should
1:13:09 it’s going to stay here and and that’s
1:13:13 how we get this board moving forward even though I think we
1:13:17 could have done it differently but that’s
1:13:19 just how we need to do we’re going to be making lots of
1:13:21 decisions like this and I’m not going to continue
1:13:23 this conversation on why we picked a certain person after this
1:13:27 and I’m hoping we all do the same thing
1:13:30 yeah and that’s the appropriate way to go about doing it Mr.
1:13:34 Trent is that once we make a decision
1:13:36 we cannot do that Ms. Campbell yeah you know I we have a clear
1:13:41 direction of the majority we’re about
1:13:43 to take a vote I I would suggest you know I’m not your mom tell
1:13:47 anybody what to do but I would suggest
1:13:49 that it would be a good gesture to start this off by giving a
1:13:55 unanimous vote to present to the community
1:14:00 that whatever disagreements we may have had and different
1:14:03 perspectives we may have had that you
1:14:05 know we’re we’re we’re moving together I’m just going to offer
1:14:09 that up as a as a suggestion an encouragement
1:14:11 Ms. Jenkins anything about that you’d like to speak to nope all
1:14:17 right um so when Dr. Mullins got hired
1:14:20 they made a motion to hire him ahead of interviewing everybody
1:14:24 which I thought was disingenuous at the
1:14:26 time so I voted against it and then I had another vote where
1:14:29 they said would you like to re-vote that
1:14:31 and vote together unanimously so what I would like to do is
1:14:35 exactly what Ms. Campbell said but we can
1:14:39 go both directions you know what I mean so I’m not I’m not
1:14:42 following what you’re saying sorry if you are
1:14:43 very positive about not voting for for one or the other there’s
1:14:47 the opportunity to show that but then
1:14:50 come back as a unanimous vote too that’s all I wanted to say so
1:14:54 we have a call to vote all those in
1:14:57 favor of Mr. Schiller signify by saying aye aye aye all those
1:15:01 opposed nay for Trent okay um you looked at
1:15:08 me as a nay and I said no I’m not voting nay I said aye oh I’m
1:15:11 sorry I’m so sorry so Mr. Trent says
1:15:13 we have a 5-0 vote for Mr. Schiller I oppose that I within about
1:15:17 30 seconds all of our phones will
1:15:19 start um ringing and um good luck with Dr. Thetting I’m gonna I
1:15:25 had I had called all the candidates
1:15:27 ahead of time and I think I’m gonna forward your phone number to
1:15:30 Mr. Schiller right now so that he
1:15:32 can uh get started because that’s what he wanted to do could I
1:15:34 say something to that and I want to just
1:15:35 I want to let you know that um one of the things that Mr. Schiller
1:15:38 said during the interview process
1:15:40 which I thought was very very good and I want to I want to
1:15:42 commend you on this because he said I was on the
1:15:45 fence honestly on this he said I hadn’t really heard anything
1:15:47 except for hey here’s your interview time
1:15:50 uh I think Mr. Gibbs had made you know minimal contact
1:15:53 communication uh and then he said he received
1:15:55 a message from the chair and that was what pushed him over and
1:15:58 said you know what I’m going to go and
1:15:59 help this district and so I just want to commend you on reaching
1:16:02 out to him because that personal touch
1:16:03 really didn’t make a difference and in this case I think it’s
1:16:05 going to make a huge difference for our
1:16:06 district yeah he um and and just so now that we can talk about
1:16:11 it I was in a conversation with him
1:16:13 wrapped around political theory and everything else and we were
1:16:15 going back and forth because
1:16:17 intellectually you don’t get stimulated too much in those
1:16:20 regards in some areas in our world right
1:16:23 and um I said man you could rewrite your entire I mean you could
1:16:26 get hired by any governor inside the
1:16:27 state of in the country to restructure their health systems you’ve
1:16:30 rewritten 40 or 50 of these things
1:16:33 what is it that you’re doing here man like why are you here
1:16:36 coming here to brevard and what’s the gig
1:16:39 and he said I want one last run that’s what he said he says I
1:16:43 want to be able to do this one last time
1:16:46 and I want to show that and I think that’s when you see that
1:16:49 inside that person that’s what was running
1:16:51 so um I’m happy that everybody had the conversations Ms.
1:16:54 Campbell yes ma’am
1:16:55 the discussion um that I would like to bring up I want to okay
1:16:58 go ahead are we done with him or yeah
1:17:02 oh okay I do have something on him who are you going to be my
1:17:06 contact to negotiate his contract
1:17:07 details yeah I’ll negotiate it okay that’s appropriate um so I
1:17:11 wanted to bring a recommendation I think we
1:17:15 wouldn’t be able to vote on it today but um in the past when we
1:17:18 have had a staff member step up to fill in
1:17:21 an empty role um especially if they were continuing to serve in
1:17:24 their current or their current role
1:17:27 um we have recognized that with a bonus or a stipend of some
1:17:31 sort so I would recommend that we
1:17:33 recognize Dr. Thetti for her time I mean she is the deputy
1:17:36 superintendent but usually what that entails is
1:17:38 you know if the superintendent was out she filled in for a
1:17:41 meeting but in this case there is not a single
1:17:43 thing that she’s let drop with HR and in addition she’s had to
1:17:46 do this so I would recommend that we
1:17:48 that we recognize and honor that time of filling in as um
1:17:54 basically acting uh superintendent um with
1:17:57 monetary uh bonus at some kind so is that where you were going
1:18:02 so I I um no that I had something else
1:18:05 I want to talk to you guys about but I did want to say um have
1:18:08 you talked to Dr. Thetti about that
1:18:10 because I have a feeling that she will be like no I don’t want
1:18:12 that you know and there’s a reason for
1:18:15 it not because she’s there but I just I there’s because I have
1:18:18 been saying the same thing for Tammy
1:18:20 because she’s been covering two since February yeah I also been
1:18:23 saying the same thing about the
1:18:24 transportation guys that have been driving the buses and stuff
1:18:27 like that so hey I’m all about it
1:18:29 let’s roll like let’s start adding it to it because you know it’s
1:18:32 not good practice to surprise
1:18:34 people on the dais and especially not to surprise Dr. Thetti so
1:18:37 I did um talk to her right before the
1:18:39 meeting I mean she’s not the boss of me so um she can’t tell me
1:18:43 not to bring it up so um no I did I
1:18:45 did mention uh talk to her about it I also asked Dr. Gibbs uh Dr.
1:18:48 Gibbs Mr. Gibbs to see if there was
1:18:50 anything that we need he suggested that maybe if if the board
1:18:53 would had a consensus that um they would
1:18:55 bring something forward for us to officially vote on on on
1:19:00 Tuesday um but I don’t know if anybody else has
1:19:03 similar thoughts I like the idea I’d also like to do it for um
1:19:07 Tammy who’s been doing it and then I
1:19:09 would also like to um have that conversation in January about
1:19:12 some of the other people have been
1:19:14 doing the same thing so I’m all in favor um I do have a memo
1:19:17 that Tammy just gave me from Dr. Mullins
1:19:20 suggesting the same thing um if there’s consensus it is within
1:19:24 Dr. Mullins’s ability to pay and
1:19:27 authorize that so I can have Mr. Susan sign approving the
1:19:31 consensus I won’t sign a darn thing unless she
1:19:32 takes care of Tammy too so yeah have we have we ever overcompensated
1:19:36 Tammy for the fact that she
1:19:37 stepped in and became our secretary I’ve been asking for it
1:19:40 since yeah I mean it’s insanity because
1:19:44 she’s literally doing two jobs at the exact same time for a year
1:19:46 so do Mullins and Tammy right and then
1:19:50 we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll talk about it that name’s all right what
1:19:54 day is it where are you at right
1:19:55 now more coffee all right so that’s good sounds good anything
1:19:59 else do we have an amount are we
1:20:01 going to let no we’re going to let them do that okay all right
1:20:05 the other um oh well that’s I mean
1:20:08 he knows the best thing I mean if we start throwing out numbers
1:20:10 it’s inappropriate if we were throwing out numbers
1:20:12 right um yeah all right so one of the things that I I wanted to
1:20:17 do is um suggest that we we hired FSBA
1:20:20 as our search firm right and what I would like to do is have for
1:20:24 the for the main superintendent what
1:20:27 I’d like to do is on Tuesday um right after we sign real quick
1:20:31 give the opportunity that if you would
1:20:34 like and I would like to just have them as part of the
1:20:36 discussion tell you some of the things you need
1:20:38 to think about over a Christmas break not you know we’re going
1:20:41 to meet we’re going to discuss it all
1:20:43 and everything else but that way we um there’s a lot of
1:20:46 conversation here today wrapped around
1:20:48 um we’re moving pretty quick and everything like that I didn’t
1:20:50 want to come back and then say
1:20:51 hey we gotta you know so it gives us like three weeks to sit
1:20:54 down digest and talk about what we really
1:20:56 want um FSBA uh Ms. Messina said that she would be available if
1:21:00 we wanted that so if you guys wanted to it
1:21:03 would only take 10 minutes she would just get up there and say
1:21:06 it and then that way we can at least
1:21:07 plan on what we really want to do and say what’s that I said let’s
1:21:11 let them start earning their money
1:21:12 yeah so we don’t have it um published yet so the agenda for
1:21:17 Tuesday will be just be a board discussion
1:21:20 approving the contract um for Dr. Schiller and having a
1:21:24 discussion with FSBA yeah and it can
1:21:27 just be on the board discussion that we had to as far as the
1:21:29 process we we when we when we advertised it was
1:21:34 for interim selection and a selection of uh a search firm so it
1:21:39 was advertised as such so it would be
1:21:41 appropriate if you wanted to I know at the prior at Tuesday’s
1:21:45 meeting there was discussion of moving
1:21:47 that to the new year but if you guys just want to have a an
1:21:49 informal conversation with them on what
1:21:52 the board was kind of looking for so they can structure
1:21:54 something to bring back to the board
1:21:56 maybe in the new year I just want everybody to realize we’re not
1:21:59 going to have a break because
1:22:00 Mr. Schiller is going to be calling us I’m kind of like afraid
1:22:04 why did I use my oh I have a question
1:22:06 about um the reason their FSBA coming here on Tuesday because
1:22:09 technically we didn’t vote to hire them
1:22:11 yet right the contract has not come the board selected that it’s
1:22:15 uh yeah so but the contract is going to be
1:22:17 dependent on what the board wants so if you’re adding stuff on
1:22:20 their contract is actually under
1:22:22 the school board’s need to vote so Dr. Thetty could sign that
1:22:26 contract because with the maximum add-ons
1:22:28 to that contract the total came to 49.5 that’s in the
1:22:32 superintendent authority which Dr. Thetty is
1:22:34 wielding for the board right now so unless you’re adding
1:22:37 additional costs on there so if you say hey
1:22:39 we really want you to add five community meetings around the
1:22:43 district and they say well that’s going
1:22:45 to add you know two thousand dollars to it now you’re over that
1:22:48 threshold and we’d have to bring
1:22:49 that contract right which i think is part of the conversation so
1:22:54 i just want to throw this back
1:22:56 at you guys i was cautious about this conversation we had about
1:22:59 who we were selecting already because
1:23:01 i think it’s i think it’s a little bit rushed to not have the
1:23:04 top two come back and present us a full
1:23:07 package a full presentation of their plan and what they’re going
1:23:10 to do um because one of the things
1:23:12 lacking on fsba side was actually explicitly telling us how they
1:23:16 would engage the community
1:23:17 and that increase from 35 000 to 49 000 already happened
1:23:22 overnight without us even having a
1:23:24 conversation about community engagement i think we need to do
1:23:27 our due diligence and just make sure that
1:23:30 we’re comfortable with it know what it’s going to cost us number
1:23:33 one um but also make sure we’re
1:23:35 comfortable with the process as well because just that’s a huge
1:23:39 jump like overnight and it’s not
1:23:40 even including community involvement if i can just clarify that
1:23:43 it didn’t jump it was in their proposal we
1:23:46 to do the contract language we assumed that at the maximum level
1:23:51 that they proposed they would not
1:23:53 exceed 49.5 so procurements proceeding with a not to exceed
1:23:57 contract okay so we we took all their numbers
1:24:00 and built it in they were very up front it could be as little as
1:24:03 35 or as much as 49.5 if we took the
1:24:06 maximum of every package that they did yeah based on what this
1:24:10 board but so just to clarify for me
1:24:13 not finished mr susan so just to clarify for me those packages
1:24:17 though did not include
1:24:18 the community events other than just facilitating a conversation
1:24:24 off the top i don’t remember what
1:24:25 it all was i know you did comment that yeah and so i think it’s
1:24:28 important for us to have that conversation
1:24:31 because we don’t we don’t know what that looks like i mean that’s
1:24:35 not that’s not good due diligence
1:24:36 for us to be like full-fledged let’s do this um and have no idea
1:24:39 what we’re walking into i think
1:24:41 that’s a bad idea i think we need to talk about that so
1:24:43 everything that was inside of there that
1:24:46 he just spoke of travel for them um covering the cost of
1:24:49 applicants all of those different things is
1:24:52 inside of there um there’s many components to what we’re about
1:24:57 to do um and community involvement i
1:25:00 mean fsba has done you saw all the ones in the state of florida
1:25:03 that they’ve done so it’s not it what
1:25:06 what it is with these search firms is the same thing as any
1:25:08 other firm is you say this is what we would
1:25:10 like they would take the package that they had over here put it
1:25:13 in then they take this package over
1:25:15 here put it in devise it and then they set it it’s not like we’re
1:25:18 going to be creating something that’s
1:25:19 completely outside the box um they did a max of 49.5 and that’s
1:25:23 one of the reasons i wanted to have
1:25:24 the conversation with them i would go against making two people
1:25:28 fly here to have a presentation when we
1:25:29 already set direction that this was the one we were going to
1:25:32 select on top um and i think that i have
1:25:36 full confidence that fsba would be able to do it so that’s why i
1:25:39 was asking if you guys wanted to be
1:25:41 able to see it that’s all i’m not i’m not judging their
1:25:44 inability to do it there’s no reason to be
1:25:46 defensive about i’m not saying that it is our due diligence to
1:25:49 be clear about the direction going
1:25:51 forward and and know what we’re walking into that’s all i’m
1:25:54 asking and i understand how the process works
1:25:56 i know that they’ve done this before and they’re going to pull
1:25:59 packages from one place that they’ve done
1:26:00 somewhere and presented to us i understand that completely but
1:26:03 they have not done that yet their
1:26:05 initial offer to us did not lay out how they would do community
1:26:08 engagement and the way one district is
1:26:12 structured versus another will impact costs will impact the
1:26:15 amount of staff that they have to send
1:26:17 here and so i think it’s the right thing to do to at least ask
1:26:19 it’s not to say that we’re not going to
1:26:21 hire them by any means but we absolutely need to know what we’re
1:26:24 walking into before we move forward
1:26:26 that makes no sense at all well what we did was we set direction
1:26:30 that we were going to choose fsba okay
1:26:32 and what i did was i said let’s have a conversation wrapped
1:26:35 around what we should be working for
1:26:37 moving forward um you know and we we had had wrapped around
1:26:41 conversation about fsba was the best fit
1:26:45 because of x y and z that was they work inside the state of florida
1:26:48 they have the best connections there
1:26:50 the other ones had one reason or another that they weren’t we
1:26:52 had that discussion we set the direction
1:26:54 that we were going to move with fsba i would like to have the
1:26:56 conversation wrapped around what we can
1:26:58 do to prepare for next year so that’s all i i think that um
1:27:02 maybe what they lacked was maybe a more
1:27:05 the they weren’t necessarily the most um explicit explicit
1:27:09 laying out how they’re going to do it i don’t
1:27:12 think that means they don’t do it or that it’s going to cost us
1:27:14 extra and it probably would be good
1:27:15 just for um to feel comfortable with maybe a calling contacting
1:27:18 some of the districts that have most
1:27:20 recently used them and ask them what did this look like in your
1:27:23 district and obviously it’s going to
1:27:24 look different i think that’s maybe that’s one of the reasons
1:27:26 why they didn’t explicitly lay it out
1:27:28 because it is different in when they worked with orange as it
1:27:31 would have been if they worked in i’m just
1:27:34 going to you know escambia so um but it would probably there’s a
1:27:38 list of people that you know if you
1:27:39 contacts you know call us i think we need to make make contact
1:27:42 with those other districts and just find out
1:27:45 so we feel comfortable but are we vote so we don’t have to vote
1:27:47 on that you said because it’s under 50.
1:27:49 um okay well i think it’ll be good to have them have this
1:27:52 initial conversation with them
1:27:54 on tuesday and and make very clear we want to know right and
1:27:57 that’s my intention if they’re coming
1:27:58 tuesday this is why i’m asking if they’re coming they’re going
1:28:01 to be virtual what whatever if they’re
1:28:03 they’re with us some way or the other tuesday we i think it’s
1:28:07 okay for us to ask them to come back and
1:28:09 tell us what they would do i mean i don’t think that’s a weird
1:28:12 thing to ask them if we know they’re
1:28:14 coming tuesday already let’s just ask them to tell us how they
1:28:17 could fill in the gaps there because
1:28:18 it wasn’t presented in the initial in the initial plan and what
1:28:22 i would say is is that i’m going to
1:28:23 give them direction to listen to kind of give us the overview of
1:28:27 what is exactly um needed in a search
1:28:30 right then we can say exactly like what you were saying miss jenkins
1:28:34 is this is what we feel from our
1:28:35 community and then we can and they can be going back to
1:28:39 formulate a plan and come back exactly like
1:28:41 what you’re saying miss jenkins is to make sure that we’re in dovetail
1:28:44 because i have a feeling that
1:28:46 that’s going to take maybe more than one meeting because we’re
1:28:48 going to be going back and forth and
1:28:50 that’s why i wanted us to have enough time to present before
1:28:53 that that’s all all right we’re okay with
1:28:55 that yeah all right um does everybody else anybody else have any
1:28:59 other one question on that um
1:29:02 i don’t know if it’s possible the the screen in the
1:29:05 superintendent’s conference room would we
1:29:08 rather have like a teams thing where we can see andrea if
1:29:12 possible that might be a rust cheatham
1:29:14 question but if we can set it up we’ve done it yeah it’s great
1:29:18 point mr gibbs what i from my limited
1:29:20 knowledge we had a redistricting where we had that one time
1:29:24 where we brought that screen in here or we
1:29:26 have like six of them in the building yeah the idea would be
1:29:28 that we put it there and we can communicate but
1:29:31 i think it just it behooves us to kind of start that process of
1:29:35 understanding so is everybody else
1:29:37 has any other and one more on that because i just got a question
1:29:41 from uh procurement on this contract
1:29:43 they structure their pay a little different they usually do one-third
1:29:46 one-third one-third is the
1:29:48 board good with that or would you rather have all services
1:29:51 rendered than pay at the end oh i’d rather
1:29:54 get paid as they’re traveling okay that’s just me though i don’t
1:29:58 speak yeah i think that makes sense
1:30:01 looks like you got a majority there all right thank you thanks
1:30:04 all right anything else for the good of
1:30:06 all right thank you all right all right we’re done thank you
1:30:36 Thank you.