2023-03-28 - School Board Meeting

8:57 What are you saying? I’m going to not read the motion. Good evening. The March 28, 2023 board meeting is now in order. I’m happy to welcome my fellow board members and the public.

14:34 I would like to take this opportunity to remind the public that the appropriate place for public participation in meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified within the agenda outside your individual public comment opportunity. Your role in the meeting is as an observer. Paul, roll call, please.

14:51 Mister Susan. Here. Miss Wright.

14:54 Here. Miss Jenkins. Here.

14:56 Miss Campbell. Here. Mister Tran.

14:58 Here. The board would like to now hold a moment of silent reflection and invite the audience to join. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.

15:29 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. At this time, I’d like to offer my fellow board members and doctor Shiller an opportunity to recognize student, staff or members of the community. Who would like to go first? Who’s grabbing it, Gene? I’m good.

15:57 Okay, I’ll go first. There it is. Okay, here we go.

16:00 All right. So I have a couple of recognitions that I want to make. Some of them are not necessarily positive recognitions, but something that we need to acknowledge as a school district.

16:12 And we need to just publicly say how sorry and how much our hearts break. So my first one is going to go out to Jackson Middle school. Jackson Middle school lost a student to suicide this last week.

16:24 That’s a middle school student. And there is no words that can make that better. There just isn’t.

16:30 And so all I will say is, students, if there is something you are struggling with, if you are hurting, if your heart is hurting and you need someone to talk to, there are adults that care. Never make a permanent decision to a temporary problem. And so I just want to give a shout out to the faith community that has come around that school.

16:46 I want to give a shout out to the principal there. Miss Susan has really gone above and beyond and just if there’s a way that you can love on a school intentionally this week, that school could use some additional love. With that same note, I am going to also speak about the Nashville shooting that just took place.

17:04 It is horrific. It is outrageous. I can’t even fathom what those families are going through.

17:10 And these are the realities of what our schools are facing daily. And so with that being said, I want to say thank you to our resource officers. Our resource officers are rock stars in our schools, and we could not be safe without them.

17:21 So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

17:23 Love on a resource officer. Love on a police officer. Tell them how much you appreciate them.

17:27 That goes a long way. Thank you to all of our officers that are helping keep our kids safe. I’m also going to speak about the love and sunblock, sun and safety skin cancer awareness event.

17:38 So there is a resident in Titusville who recently just lost her battle to skin cancer, and she has a child who attends ths. But instead of focusing on the battle she was against, she focused her energy on how can I educate kids? We live in a sunshine state, so how can I educate people on taking better care of their skin, protecting themselves? So I just want to. I want to give a shout out to Amanda Hunt that her legacy will go on, that we will make sure that we implement something within our schools, that we educate our kids, you know, with sun care.

18:10 Excuse me. And then the last one I’m going to give a shout out to is Space Coast. I had the opportunity to help chaperone a field trip for the financial literacy liftoff, which was a great event with multiple high schools, hundreds and hundreds of kids there.

18:23 They were able to see a group of entrepreneurs get up there and speak about their walks significantly different. Some of the entrepreneurs had gone through college, some of them had dropped out of high school. But it was a great perspective for students to get to see three very different career paths, all successful in their own way.

18:39 And I just want to thank community credit union. They were the ones that hosted that and put on that event for our hundreds of our students. So I think it was a great foot in the door on getting kids interested and excited about entrepreneurship.

18:50 And that’s all that I have. Mister Susan asked me to go next. First of all, I wanted to thank West Melbourne City council member Diana Adams for.

19:01 I asked her, hey, we’re supposed to bring our elected officials into the schools and which west? Here’s the first West Melbourne BPS schools. Which one do you want to go to? And she said, can we go to all four? So we trudged through. Actually, they’re all real close together.

19:15 We visited four schools in one day and just had a great time. So I’m thankful for our elected officials who are also interested in what’s going on in our community schools. I was able to visit with Diana Pittenger at our middle schools have, for our autism unit, different language, but they have home based programs for the students who are on the spectrum and where they’re coming in two periods a day to learn, do some learning strategies, but also some behavior strategies.

19:44 And she’s amazing. And it’s not the only school that has a home base program, but home base is a great program that we have for our kids on the spectrum, and we need to just. She does great work, and it was exciting to get to just spend those two periods with them.

19:57 That Friday, spring break, I got to go to Cambridge elementary for their first, at least first in a long time. Ja. In a day where junior achievement comes in, they did two schools in one day.

20:07 It took over endeavor and took over in Cambridge, and they’ve been to endeavor before. But Cambridge, the teachers were so appreciative of JA and just had a great experience. So many of them hadn’t had that experience before.

20:18 So thank you to the schools for letting us in, but thank you to the volunteers from junior achievement who come in. And if you’re a business person, you’d love to get involved. I know that junior achievement could use your help in coming in and teaching the principles of finance and entrepreneurship and good citizenship.

20:34 There’s so much that we cover. I love the citizenship second grade. So every time I do it, I say, I’ll do it as long as I get to do second grade.

20:42 You and I were thinking along the same lines. I actually, over between the workshop and the board meeting, actually watched the footage, the body cam footage, and I have the same exact thoughts. I want to thank our sros and our principals, and in this case, a custodian, I believe, who the people, our teachers, our staff at our schools, who hopefully will never, ever have to be in a situation, but yet they’re the ones who are willing to step in front of our students.

21:17 You guys are very much appreciated. And our law enforcement, whether it’s the county sheriff’s office or our municipalities. When Uvalde happened last year, I remember major Neal saying, that’s not going to happen here in Brevard.

21:39 It didn’t happen in Nashville. Those guys went in, they went in quickly, and they did their jobs. So I’m thankful to live in a place where I feel like if, God forbid, that ever happens, here we have the people who are going to do the right thing.

21:52 So sorry. All right, back to positive things. This last weekend was the 50th anniversary of astronaut High school being built.

22:03 And so they had a whole weekend of events. I got to learn a lot of history of our schools. And of course, you know, think about what was happening 50 years ago, right? Space, you know, blowing up.

22:14 Not space, blowing up. The industry was growing. The industry was growing.

22:21 And so it was so fun and just loved hearing the history. And when they asked the people who were the second and third generation attendees at astronaut High school, you wouldn’t believe all the students who stood up and all the people who are on faculty there and staff there who also were students at astronaut high school. So it was a lot of fun and so glad I got to be a part of that Friday morning time, and congratulations to astronaut and the good work that principal Miller is doing up there and all the staff up in the Titusville area.

22:51 So I actually went from north Titusville down to South, South Palm Bay in one day. Don’t do that. Try not to do that very often.

22:58 But it was a good reason to go to that area. Thank you very much, Jean or no Miss Jenkins. All right, I got a couple.

23:11 I’m gonna trump you. Surfside had their 60th anniversary last week. It was absolutely wonderful.

23:19 Were performing. That music teacher is just the most amazing gem of a human being who lives breeze die for her students. And one of my favorite parts was, first, there was a performance from kindergarten to third grade, and then she had the chorus students who were in the upper grades perform.

23:27 And one of the last songs, she encouraged two of her students to come down and start conducting, and she just walked away and let them take over. So it was like the perfect representation of what our educators do, scaffolding their students all the way to being. Being able to do that themselves.

23:50 And so shout out to Surfside elementary and also shout out to the city of Satellite beach, because they also hosted an event, I think it was the night before, for alumni as well as staff who had served that school over the past 60 years, which was pretty cool because it is a tight knit community school. And so I think they had a pretty good attendance there. So thank you for that.

24:10 I had an opportunity to sit down with Miss Chappie to have a conversation about our thrive by five program. And for those of you who aren’t really super engaged in what that is, it’s an amazing program that we. It’s kind of new, new ish.

24:22 It’s still growing and birthing. We have a strong connection with our medical providers and our nonprofits in the community to start engaging with our families as soon as a baby is born, just to open up their eyes to the importance of early literacy, as well as the benefits of the brevard Public schools access to intervention services for their students. So it was wonderful to hear from her that we’re still doing that, that it’s still thriving, pun intended.

24:51 And to talk about some of the things that they’re hoping to put into place in the future. Things like early literacy nights in some of our schools to offer free books for students, maybe making that a monthly thing for some of our young kiddos, talking about how we can really get those early intervention services and awareness of them in the hands of our parents who, who have students with disabilities at such a young age. And really fostering a connection with some of our nonprofits in the community that serve our adults with disabilities so they can come to the table with thrive by five and say, hey, these are some of the challenges our adults with disabilities meet when they leave the school system.

25:28 And they actually could have been remedied or prepared for if the parents had the information back when their child was only just five years. And not, not any disservice to old bps, but things like certain access to federal grants that they can apply for when they’re young children that they can carry all the way to their adulthood to access them some therapies and services and support. So that was a really awesome conversation and I’m really excited to see it to continue to grow.

25:53 I want to say shout out to GCR for the new signs on our walls. I appreciate you highlighting that we serve every student with excellence. I appreciate that so much.

26:03 I’ve complained about it since day I’ve been here. It’s wonderful to see that change. I want to thank the League of Women Voters for inviting me to come speak with them in their education caucus the other night.

26:16 And I’m going to toss this at Mister Susan. A conversation that came up was talking about registering our students to vote and civic engagement. And I know that this is something, I flat out said it in the meeting.

26:27 That’s something that you had talked about, especially it being a nice bipartisan initiative. And so I said, hey, go ahead and have a conversation with Mister Susan as well because. Cause he’s definitely been talking about that vocally.

26:37 So when they hit you up, there you go. All right. So my really exciting thing to talk about is what I did this morning.

26:46 So I got to celebrate. One of our school principals and one of our amazing students in district three, Principal Michael Mall from Palm Bay elementary was honored today by Florida tax watch. He was honored as one of our state’s most effective principals.

27:03 More on Mister Mall and his honor in just a few minutes. But during this ceremony this morning, Mister Mall had the opportunity to choose one of Pom Bay Elementary’s finest students. She received a two year college scholarship.

27:18 That’s right, elementary school. Pretty impressive this student is a fourth grader, Lauren Rosario. And she is here tonight with her family.

27:26 So can you please stand? I love your rainbow dress. You’re so cute. Lauren, you are such an impressive young lady.

27:54 And just having the tiny little bit of time I got to see you this morning. I know it’s because you come from such an incredible family. Seeing your mom burst into tears this morning when you got your award was the most precious thing I have ever seen.

28:07 I’m going to cry again. A few facts about Lauren. She is a top academic performer, a state participant in our future problem solving for global issues, a participant in our innovation games, and one of only two fourth graders who serve on the safety patrol.

28:23 In addition, Lauren lives the little pirate ethic by helping out teachers, welcoming new students to her classrooms, and being a leader. Lauren, congratulations. You have such a bright future ahead of you.

28:36 And I am so, so, so proud of you. Thank you. Thank you.

28:54 Miss Lauren, if you could come up here, I want to do something special. Come on up here. I’m going to let you take my seat and I want you to tell us what we could do.

29:02 This is something that’s never been done before, but she reminds me of one of my five children. So I’m going to give you the opportunity to address her. Can she stay here all night long? Yes.

29:12 And you are now Mister Mac. Thank you. That everyone that’s here, my mom, my family, my principal, my teacher, Misses Miller.

29:36 Everyone just here, here. Let’s give her a round of applause. Thank you everybody.

30:00 All right, Lauren, you’re in charge. Good job. Sorry about that.

30:10 Interlude. Anybody? No. So who’s next? Could you lead? Mister Mall is next, correct? Yep.

30:21 I’m supposed to give that over to. Okay, sorry. Doctor Shiller.

30:24 Schiller. Yeah. Doctor Schiller’s still like.

30:26 We’re not done. We’re not done. Did you have some before we.

30:30 No, no, I’m good. Doctor Schiller, you’re on deck here. Don’t worry about it.

30:35 You got plenty of time soon to have more. Doctor Schiller, I think you have something on Mister Mall. Yes, I do.

30:44 I have a couple of very special announcements. Thank you to Miss Jenkins that she and I were able to attend that wonderful ceremony today under the auspices of an amazing award for from tax watch. And let me just speak for a moment about that.

31:05 It was so great to spend so much time with Lorenz and misses Rosario and Grandma Maria. And we thank you so much. And I know your daughter given the wide type of academic experience and whatever needs to get home to do her homework.

31:23 And you may leave when you wish. But we thank you for contriving here. It’s such a remarkable family.

31:30 But I have two things to point out tonight. One is that we are in a very envious position here. BPS, unlike most any district.

31:43 I will ask staff member Miss Klein to talk a little bit about what the Florida tax watch program is. But I had received a call from official about maybe five, six weeks ago informing me that we have an individual who is going to be considered. And if I could check that individual out to make sure that everything is as it was.

32:06 And those people I turned to confidentially confirmed how outstanding of a principal, a gentleman with great humility, and that they couldn’t think of anyone better. Except what I’m about ready to say is this is a three peat, if you know what I mean. From a sports analogy.

32:26 Mister Mall’s recognition and award today falls on the heels of two other principals who have recently blazed the way, I don’t know, maybe there is of one other school district in Florida who has such an honor. And I’m going to turn this over to Miss Klein in a moment to talk about the Florida tax program and to do the official recognition. But this morning was a follow up visit when Miss Jenkins and I was there some weeks ago to talk to Mister Ma.

33:04 And I just want to say one thing about this gentleman. When I shared with him that he was going to be the selectee for one of three in central Florida, the first thing he said is not about me. It’s about my staff, my school, my students.

33:25 And in the same breath, it’s about his wife, his family, and his father and mother and mother in law. And father in law. But it was about Judge Mull.

33:39 Mister Mull served with distinction here in Brevard county as a judge. I did not know that when I met him and his lovely family. Judge, would you and your wife and family please rise for a moment? You may not be able to see the two lovely children that we have there of Mister Mull and misses Mull, but just in a remarkable family.

34:17 With that in mind, that school is one for us to see and visit like it is. I’m now rolling into making my 30th and 31st and second and third visitations tomorrow since I’ve been here. Why? Because I’d like to report out to this board and this community of what I observe.

34:39 The dedication of this staff, unparalleled in my experience. The programs and wraparound services that we’re offering every day go unheralded but they’re the finest I’ve seen in so many years. We need to applaud ourselves in BPS.

35:01 But the work that has been done by staff for the leadership of the boards and past is just phenomenal. Positioning the district for where it is. And now repositioning the district for the future.

35:12 Given some legislative changes that will in all likelihood change the nature of a place that we call school. But I’m certain that BPS is up to that challenge because we have such leadership as these principles now misses. Klein, would you mind? Give us the details.

35:32 Thank you. Doctor Schiller and the board. It is quite the honor to have yet again, another Florida tax watch school.

35:41 This initiative identifies nine principles across the state a year. The state the greatest impact on students in parts of the state where educational success can transform a community. Unlike more common award programs, tax watch annual winners are not nominated by colleagues, school boards or superintendents.

36:10 Florida tax Watch uses data and evidence to recommend policy reform. This award program is Florida’s only data driven principal recognition award. This program analyzes student performance data over three consecutive years.

36:30 And the results are weighted to find out those principals making a difference in communities that need the attention the most. Each principal recognized is truly making a difference in their school, their community, and the education of Florida’s next generation. While a few strategic changes can help boost achievement scores in schools, for success is the norm.

36:57 The dedication and innovation required to turn schools with limited resources into ones where success is expected and students lives are forever changed can be transformational. As doctor Shiller said, we are in our third consecutive principal. And so at this time, I’d like the three principals to please stand and I will introduce them.

37:25 Miss Corey Hurst was Florida tax watch year 2021. Corey was at Riviera. Now she serves us at Saturn.

37:34 We’ll be watching for that one to be Florida tax watch. Doctor Rachel Roberts was Florida tax watch principal 21 22. And that was under Columbia elementary.

37:48 And now she serves as a director for elementary leading and learning. And then Mister Mike Mall, this year’s recipient of Florida tax watch. And again nine across the state.

38:02 And we’ve had three consecutive years. I couldn’t be prouder. At this time, I’d like to have mister.

38:09 Well, please help me congratulate these three. Thank you so much for coming. Mister Mall, would you please come forward and share a little? Thank you board.

38:29 Doctor Schiller, I appreciate you having me today to celebrate this. This is fantastic. Doctor Roberts, Miss Hurst, they’re just two of the most amazing principals.

38:38 And boy, we have a lot of them. So I just. I can’t say enough about the folks that we work with here at Brevard Public schools.

38:43 When I got told about this, I was really interested in two facets of this. One, that it was data driven, because the truth of the matter is, it is about the teachers, the students and the families that make up Palm Bay elementary. About six years ago, maybe almost to the date, I was appointed as principal.

39:01 And I was surprised by a number of Palm Bay elementary teachers who showed up to support. And here we are back doing the exact same thing as they surprised me to do the same. But.

39:14 But this group of amazing people committed to the work of John Hattie and the belief in 1.57. John Hattie does a lot of research on effect size.

39:23 And he says, what are things that positively impact student achievement? And what he found was that teacher collective efficacy, the belief of teachers in their ability to drive student change, is one of the most significant, if not the most significant, just below the students beliefs themselves in the ability to drive that student impact change. We looked at the number of obstacles that we face, and we realized that the power of the 1.57 is three and four times greater than other socioeconomic factors, mobility rates and other things that we have to face.

39:52 And our teachers at Palm Bay elementary committed to that. And the result is exactly what you see. Our students continue to grow.

39:59 We moved out of state turnaround, and we continue to have impacts in five out of seven categories, year after year. And it’s impressive what they do, and it’s impressive what our students do. So the ability to.

40:10 We believe in shining a bright light on the outstanding achievements at Pompeii elementary. The ability to stand up here and shine the brightest lights on our faculty and our students and our staff is just the most amazing honor that I can have. Now, one of those students, and thank you for stealing my thunder, one of those students that we have, of course, is Miss Lorne.

40:29 Miss Lauren, will you join me one more time? We have just about 600 amazing students that attend Palm Bay Elementary School. So it was very difficult to select one student that met the criteria. But Lauren shows up every day committed to following the expectations, committed to being a leader.

40:51 We believe in developing great scholars, great leaders, and great citizens at Palm Bay elementary, and she found fits the mold of each one of those. Her teacher was quick to point out that she is a leader in the classroom. She welcomes the new students in her classroom, and she’s always working diligently, wanting to get better and better every day.

41:09 She is a member and will be competing in the state competition, in FPS, in global scenarios, in scenario writing and global issues. And she pitched her own invention to the sharks in the shark tank for the innovation games. She is truly a special young lady at Palm Bay elementary, and it’s just a privilege to be able to honor her.

41:39 And last, I just. I cannot do the things I do without the support staff that I have or the support group that I have. It starts with the teachers.

41:47 The teachers are amazing and continue to support us each and every day. The leadership team that joined our venture six years ago, and my family. As you pointed out, my father served as a judge.

41:58 You know, I believe in all the things that I was able to get from him, the path that he set me on. My mom also served. She is a retired Brevard county teacher.

42:06 And she helped me realize the benefits and what Brevard public schools is all about. And it’s something that I’m committed to. I want to thank my mother in law knowing that my children have a safe place to go and I can continue to do the work that I do every day.

42:22 She really helps us make those things possible. My beautiful little girls, I tried to convince them to go to volleyball and gymnastics practice like they belong, but they wanted to be here. For me, it just shows their commitment.

42:34 And then my wife. My wife is someone that just truly understands. She knows what we go through every day.

42:39 When she and she met me as I was a wrestling coach at Melbourne High School, she quickly realized that our time is not our time. It belongs to the students that we serve. And she was proud to honor that and continues to do so.

42:50 So thank you all for the work that you do. I really appreciate that. I really appreciate our families and all we do.

42:56 And I want to give a final thanks to the mentors that I’ve had at brevard public schools. Brevard Public Schools has always been about developing the next generation of leaders. There’s always been great mentors.

43:05 And I’ve got a list a mile long, but I’ll start with a few. Doctor Tom McIntyre. Jim Willcoxen.

43:12 Kathy Eward. Theresa Wright. Doctor Mullins.

43:16 Jane Klein. Doctor Ivory. It is amazing the people that we’re able to work with every day that help us learn and grow, and I can’t.

43:22 Doctor Sullivan, Doctor Green. I could go on forever. So thank you for making brevard public schools about developing leaders and developing great people.

43:30 I’m proud to be part of it. It. Can I just say something to Mister Maul? Where’d he go? There you are.

43:53 Sorry you’re hiding. Mister Maul, I appreciate you so greatly. It is not difficult to feel your heart and your passion for what you do every single day.

44:08 The second that you meet someone like you. Doctor Shiller already said this and I’m just going to double down on it. Literally.

44:19 Your first reaction was, well, this isn’t about me. This is about my staff and the students that we serve. It was so genuine and I really believe that.

44:28 You truly believe that every single day. And walking around your campus that day, you also said something that has stuck with me and will not leave me for a while. That one of your most important priorities is removing the stigma of a school that you walked into.

44:45 And I just want to say congratulations. Because highlighting how incredible your staff is, how. How supportive your staff is and how incredible your students are is how we remove the stigma from some of our schools in this community.

44:59 Because all of our kids are impressive, all of our teachers are impressive. And I thank you so much for being a leader to elevate that every single day. Thank you.

45:08 Anybody else have something on Mister Mike? I’m going to come to you in a second, but I didn’t know if anybody wants to say something on Mister Mike. I just want to let you guys know. I met Mike when I was over at Creel and he was an assistant principal over there.

45:23 And I met him and I went home and I told my wife, I was like, man, that is going to be a great transition into Creel. Because Miss Ewart was retiring. We knew she was coming, right? And then all of a sudden I hear the news that you got transferred down to Palm Bay and I was so upset because you are a dynamic leader, dynamic individual.

45:39 And I really appreciate everything you do. And you used to wrestle years ago, right? And a lot of your leadership comes from and I can see it inside of you, that and some of the other things. So thank you so much.

45:39 I really appreciate it. Doctor Schiller, you’re out. Thank you.

45:52 I just would like to close out that Mister Mall and his other tax watch principals who have been so honored and like so many of our folks, is a person to keep your eye on. Yes, he could do magic at the school. I would suggest that down the road he can do the same magic even on a larger scale.

46:13 And it feels good to know that he and so many others who are working here at BPS, who are outstanding, what they’re doing, that we can provide career opportunities for them to realize and reach higher, to impact more greatly in changing image or changing reputation or best basically transform. Forming our schools to meet the needs of their students to the very best. And again, I think he and Rachel and the principal and school I’m going to visit tomorrow are just wonderful exemplars of what’s happening here at BPS.

46:53 And we thank you all. Thank you again and congratulations. Thank you, thank you.

47:00 Now if I could make a transition from the Florida, Florida tax watch principal to another very important contributor, the individual who was selected as the BPS teacher of the year, who was honored some almost, well I guess almost two months ago that we all attended. And Mister Susan and I had talked about the idea that as wonderful as that event was that we need to take full advantage of these incredible people. And we had the opportunity at the last board meeting to hear from the employee of the year.

47:41 And tonight I’m very. And we’re going to have another presentation and next board meeting by the principal of the year. But tonight we have the honor to invite to the microphone Miss Pamela Brockmire from Cocoa High School, who is the teacher of the year with her specialty in math.

48:03 And I’ve taken her away from her golf match tonight and she’ll never forgive me, nor will her husband. And we’re joking about that. And she’s got a wonderful golf handicap.

48:16 I would not play against her. But be as it may, Pam, congratulations and we really looking forward to hearing your unfettered comments. Well, we’ll see what happens.

48:32 I don’t see Mister Susan inviting me to sit in his chair, so. Hey look, we can make that happen. You want to come up here and do it? You want to come here? No, I’m good.

48:43 But thank you. Where did I stand? I’ll stand. I’m a teacher.

48:47 We stand. So thank you to the board and doctor Shiller for this opportunity to speak tonight. Good evening, my name is Pam Brockmire and I am the Brevard county teacher of the year.

49:11 You really don’t know how hard that is to say. There are so many amazing educators in Brevard county doing spectacular things. As you guys recognize.

49:25 Mister Mall mentioned the exact same things. It’s the educators who sit in front of those kids every single day. It’s the educators that stand in front of your students and protect them from heinous acts.

49:41 Like what happened in Nashville. I found out last night that one of my former high school classmates is a pastor at that exact school. So he graduated a year before I did from high school.

50:00 But you know our little tiny close knit community, I knew him very well. And he’s safe. But their hearts are broken and any, you know, thank you, Miss Wright, for mentioning that this, you know, this evening, because, you know, it, it really tore my heart to go to school this morning and stand in front of my students and know that I was between the door and them every single day.

50:32 And that’s what every single teacher in Brevard county does for your students every day. So I stand here today as the body, face and voice for all of those teachers. It’s difficult for me to experience all of the schools in Brevard county because I do have a day job of teaching math.

50:57 I can give you some highlights of the fun that I have had these last two months and three days, by the way, but I’m not counting. Oh, wait, I am. I’m a math teacher.

51:08 I did get to volunteer at the poverty simulation that was led by Denise Gillich and Jenny Gleason. Miss Jenkins spoke about that in February about her experience, and if you have a chance to experience that for yourself, do it, is all I can say. I know we are planning to have a chance to experience that at Cocoa High School in the fall so that we can assist our school with a plan to improve relationships with our school and our community.

51:45 I’ve been celebrated at numerous places the last two months and three days. I’ve been celebrated at a golf tournament that was held by Moon Golf. I went to a concert from one of my former students in Marco island who’s now a police officer.

52:02 He graduated in zero six. But I’m dating myself and Mayor Mike Blake from the Cocoa City Council. Fun fact, Mister Blake married my husband and I on the beach in 2000.

52:17 So I have known that family for a while. And of course my current students and coworkers who are still recognizing me walking down the hall. Teacher there.

52:31 The one question that keeps coming up in all the essays and interviews that I’ve had to complete for the state teacher of the year has been, why did you become a teacher? Again, another very difficult question. Sometimes I wish I could say fame and fortune. Although fame has been very true recently, my response has been, and will continue to be, to make a difference.

52:57 Math, pun intended. I think back to my former teachers and remember how they made me feel. And that’s what I want my students to take away from me and my classes every single day.

53:11 Is teaching all roses, rainbows, and bubbles? Absolutely not. Can we do better with our profession? I absolutely hope so. Morale is low.

53:24 Teachers are learning the profession, are leaving the profession, and that’s hurting my heart because other teachers have to step in and take those positions. We have to cover classes. We have to do lesson plans.

53:37 We have to work double what we normally would do in a day. I want to help. I want to be part of a solution.

53:53 But of course we have to work together and find out what works. Retention and recruitment of teachers discipline solutions parent involvement at all levels volunteer. I invite you guys to volunteer.

54:11 Cover a class of a teacher that has not been in their classroom since October. Sign up to be a substitute. Get sponsors to help pay for fun things for students.

54:27 Of course, the list goes on and I could be here all night, but I’ve already missed my golf match. But thank you for that, doctor Schiller. This is now the time of year when teachers are tired, students get squirrely, administrators are looking to fill empty teacher positions.

54:46 So I have a suggestion. If you have ever watched the movie Pollyanna and I really am dating myself now. It is a Disney movie from way back in in the day.

54:58 The one thing that I have learned from that in my teaching profession is to play the GLAAD game. And if you don’t know what that is, by all means, please google Pollyanna glad game. So the glad game that you ask is you take any bad situation that you’re put in and you twist it.

55:18 It’s just a simple phrase that you have to say to yourself. Take the bad situation that happened in Nashville. I hate to bring that up, but it’s a bad situation.

55:32 I’m glad that we have the security that we have in schools. I’m glad that we have teachers protecting our students. I’m glad that we have a district that will back us.

55:32 I’m glad that I work for Bps. I’m glad that I have been in this county for 24 years. I’m super glad that I’m still a cocoa tiger.

55:32 I’m glad that I have had this opportunity to be the Brevard public school school’s teacher of the year. And I will continue to do so with as much grace as I can muster sometimes. But I have the glad game to look back on.

56:28 So I leave you with this. Find something to be glad about. Sometimes it’s hard.

56:35 It has taken me years of practice. It takes more than. Takes more wasted energy to be angry than it does to smile at someone and say hi.

56:47 Another fun fact, it’s more muscles to frown than it is to smile. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, so enjoy your time with each other. Doctor Shiller is coming to Coco High tomorrow.

57:03 I’m assuming he’ll probably have to come to my classroom at some point. So I leave you with this. I went to Disney one year.

57:13 It was the summer, I believe, just before COVID And there was a man outside of the laugh room at Monsters, Inc. And he was blowing bubbles. And if you have ever gone to Disney at any point, bubbles are everywhere.

57:31 Watch the reaction of everybody when they react to bubbles. I have never, ever seen anyone frown around a bubble. And of course, me being the 50 plus year person that I am, I was walking by, smile on my face, popping the bubbles, because who doesn’t do that? And the man stopped me.

57:51 And the cast member said, what do you do for a living? I said, well, I’m a school teacher. He said, what grade level? I said, high school. He said, I have a suggestion for you.

58:01 Blow bubbles for your students every day. Because who can enjoy a bubble? Thank you again for this opportunity. Being a teacher is hard, but I’m glad that I have a job, and I’m glad that I was asked to speak here.

58:26 I’m shaking like a leaf because I’m more comfortable standing in front of a class of some students than I am standing in front of a room full of grownups. So thank you. Thank you, Miss Brockmire.

58:44 Does anybody have anything to say? Miss Brockmire? Miss Brockmire, I just want to say that we. Questions, comments. I know, Miss Brockmire, I want to say that we are glad that you are part of BPS.

58:56 We are honored. And I am so, so wonderfully thankful for you as a teacher. You are a special teacher.

59:02 So thank you. You sat at the winning table, so, yeah, I did. I got to sit with you.

59:05 Yep. That’s right. Jane, from one math teacher to another, thank you so much for what you do.

59:18 I’m glad to have teachers like you on the other side over there, and we’ll continue to support you. So thank you so much. Thank you, Miss Campbell.

59:26 Thank you for the reminders. Thank you for the challenge. I’m going to challenge our support at some point in the evening when we start getting to the stressful stuff, everybody say something they’re glad at about.

59:37 So thank you for working for us and for setting such an example for the crew that you work with. And I know you’re one of many, many, many wonderful teachers, and I know they’re happy to have you represent them. So good luck in your future endeavors with the state competition.

59:53 And we are so proud of you, and you did a great job tonight. Thank you, Miss Jenkins. Yeah.

59:59 Miss Brockmire, I want to say congratulations again. I know that your colleagues and your administration adore you as well as yourself students. They are so proud of you and proud to elevate you as you continue through this journey over the next year.

1:00:14 And I love that you’re counting the days, and I love all of your pun jokes. Thank you so much for that. So I’m just going to finish off with.

1:00:21 I’m glad that you are brevard county’s teacher of the year. Thank you. Thank you.

1:00:29 Miss Brockmire, I just want to say, I don’t know if you know this, but this is an ongoing thing. Right? So we had communicated that to you that you’ll be coming back on a regular basis to give us an update inside the classrooms. So I am looking forward to possibly putting you in the chair and doing all kinds of fun stuff.

1:00:44 So I did want to just tell you from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for coming out. I really appreciate you being here. The things that you told us were exactly the reason that Doctor Schiller and I sat together and thought this was a great idea.

1:00:55 So thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And we’ll see you again in a couple of weeks.

1:00:59 We have to support each other and we have to like each other. Doctor Schiller has something to say, too. Pam, you hit the ball about 220 straight down the fairway.

1:01:11 I think it was like, with your remarks, it was about 300. 220 doesn’t make it up. I’m usually about a 2182.

1:01:17 Yeah. But that’s why I gave you 20 more yards. Outstanding.

1:01:20 And we thank you. And yes, I will see you tomorrow. And I think some of your students for lunch.

1:01:27 I think something’s like, that’s been arranged for me to. That’s what they told me. That’s what they.

1:01:32 I found out tonight, too. And so looking forward to it. Thank you.

1:01:36 And staff members from your school who have turned out in support and your husband and family and. Wow. Thank you.

1:01:44 Yeah, my family’s watching. And when do you go, when do you go into state competition? So that’s a great question. Oh, Coco, hi.

1:01:52 Is calling. So the, my state paperwork got submitted on February 13. Actually, I got submitted on the 12th, but the 13th was the deadline, so I got it in early, surprisingly.

1:02:07 I’m a math teacher. I’m not a writer. The finalists are announced sometime in May, so I’m hoping for that.

1:02:15 And then July 20 is the gala. So I just got the date for that. So July 20 is the gala, but I’m hoping to make finalist and then I may be too busy to come back.

1:02:26 So that’s. My students are not going to be happy if I’m selected as the state. Sorry.

1:02:36 When I’m selected as the state teacher of the year because they know that they want to take calculus next year and they may not have me as a teacher, but. So, win or lose, it’s an honor to represent Brevard county, but I really would love to represent state. Yeah, we would like for that, too.

1:02:56 Not out of the classroom, unfortunately. So it’s with mixed blessings, but you deserve it. That’s why we got virtual school.

1:03:02 Maybe we’ll set something up. Thank you, Pam. I’ll be too busy.

1:03:06 Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Pam. Thank you.

1:03:11 Just wanted to take a second because Miss Jenkins handed it off to Shiller and I never got a chance to say my recognition, so I just wanted to go real quick. Thank you to miss Suhan for the new signs. We’re trying to brand ourselves as the space coast, so this is a way to do it.

1:03:24 And the emphasis on every and excellence was amazing. I want to say thank you for the league of Women Voters. I did speak to them two months ago, and I brought up the project.

1:03:33 There is no reason why our school district should not push. And I tried to do it a couple about four years ago to try to get every student registered to vote, and there’s no other reason why we can’t. So in a collaborative effort, I look forward to all board members joining inside of that.

1:03:48 The other piece is that I want to say thank you to my school board for the commitment to the community. Many of the things that we discussed this afternoon and tonight are commitments to you as individuals. They make sure that there’s all kinds of surveys and stuff that go out to take input it, and they greatly appreciate it.

1:04:05 Also want to say, as a teacher, I was part of four code reds, which means that four times as a teacher, I was in lockdown. One time with. They had bank robbers that were armed, that had rolled over at Space coast and had come near campus.

1:04:21 And another time, when I was at Viera High School, they had the individual that was at the courthouse that was armed and was later shot. So I’ve been through four of them, two of them very intense. And I will tell you, there is nothing more fearful than putting your life in between yourself, the door, and the kids.

1:04:36 And that is a greatly appreciated for all teachers in what they do. But the main reason that I wanted to bring this up was that we had in Brevard and it was noticed by Miss Brotmire the largest increase of security of any other time in brevard public schools history. To make sure that we had single point entry.

1:04:57 We had camera systems, that we had fences around our projects, that we had. Not only that, but education on how each one of the lockdowns goes strict about locking doors. When you look at all the components of what happens in many of these schools, we’ve implemented already with success years ago, the things that are needed.

1:05:15 So I wanted to say thank you to all of those things. And that’s it. I got a ton of other stuff, but we got a meeting to get started, so let’s get moving.

1:05:23 That brings us to the adoption of the agenda. Doctor Schiller? Yes. On this evening’s agenda, we have administrative recommendations, one another recognition, which I’ll ask Doctor Sullivan to preside over.

1:05:41 Bye, family. And 22 consent items for your consideration. One action item, four information items, and a board member report.

1:05:51 And it’s also on the schedule of superintendent report. I’m not quite sure I could add anything to what the evening has offered. There have been some changes made to the agenda since release to the public, which include revisions to a seven administrative staff recommendations, d nine student achievement presentation and analysis, and f 17 support staff recommendations, and the addition of k 39, the interim superintendent contract.

1:06:23 Mister Susan, do I hear a motion move to approve 2nd? 2nd. Is there any discussion? No. Any discussion? I will.

1:06:40 One of the issues that I have on this administration administrative staff recommendation is that we have somebody that is being applied for to be an attorney and to be Doctor Shiller’s attorney. Oh, we’re tagged with the agenda. Okay.

1:06:53 Okay, I’ll signify by. Signify by saying aye. Any opposed? Say nay.

1:07:00 All right. Doctor Shiller, would you please let us know about the administrative staff recommendations? Yes, I’m very pleased to identify two individuals for your consideration. First, Miss Jessica Mosca is being reclassed from the position of payroll manager and accounting services.

1:07:17 Position of director of payroll services. Miss Mosca here. Congratulations.

1:07:23 But I think. Doctor Schiller, I think we’re going to get to those pieces. We just need to say yes.

1:07:27 Doctor Susan. Members of the board, there’s nine items for your consideration. Do I hear a motion? You got that? Do I hear a motion? Move to approve 2nd.

1:07:37 2nd, is there any discussion? Yeah, I have. I have some discussion about this one, too. One of the parts of governing that we have to do is we have to make decisions that are sometimes not the easiest of decisions.

1:07:49 And so I’m going to bring up the reclassification that we have of one of our certified counselors to the position of an attorney. And while I think this individual is possibly a wonderful attorney, I just cannot see how we would take a counselor out of a school to put her in that position when we are in such a need. So I think this is the discussion that we need to have as the board and find out where everyone is at on that.

1:08:18 Okay. What I’m hearing you say is that you would like to remove the staff attorney section from the actual approval. And so if we can, we need to seek the advice of our board counsel before we move forward in this conversation.

1:08:37 Because it’s my understanding, unless we have good cause, which has a legal definition, we cannot refuse the recommendation of the superintendent on the appointment of personnel. Absolutely. Go ahead, Mister Gibbs.

1:08:57 I can answer any questions you have the board need. The recommendation is Doctor Schiller’s transferring a staff member. I think you came down to grab Miss Campbell, right? No, she asked me.

1:09:09 Yeah, my question was, we are potentially getting to legal trouble if we don’t accept the recommendation. And he said yes because we have to have good cause. Yeah.

1:09:19 Okay, so you’re saying good cause. What is the definition of good cause? There it. There’s no set definition.

1:09:25 It’s case by case analysis. Right. So the good cause would be something like not moving somebody from one position to another based upon the need of the schools and stuff like that.

1:09:33 The other cases out there are. They don’t qualify. It would be illegal and that kind of thing.

1:09:39 So can we discuss this a little bit more as far as asking some questions? Is there a replacement for the counselor in the school? Yeah, you can certainly ask questions. I just. I think.

1:09:48 I think if we can just set aside the staff attorney piece, move to approve the rest of them and come back to that item, I think that would help out Mister Gibbs. Is that okay? You can certainly move to approve those and then you can split that out. But if you’re gonna.

1:10:04 I don’t know where the board’s gonna be at the end, so if the board’s gonna be, I wanna move to approve everybody. Then we can just do it here then. Go ahead.

1:10:14 I would recommend having the discussion. Go ahead. All right.

1:10:17 So, doctor Scheller, can you maybe answer that question? Because my concern is leaving a vacancy inside of a school for a counselor, which is something our schools are in dire need of. That’s not good. We’ve gone through a process.

1:10:32 First, when the board approved the change of the job description from, from an assistant to the board general counsel to that of a staff attorney who can serve to the cabinet and future superintendents and the current interim superintendent to provide necessary firewall between the board general counsel and also to provide incredibly important counsel to our expulsion process and hearings to personnel, HR to special education matters. And it goes on. It’s a position that had been vacant for almost 13 months and without successfully finding someone.

1:11:21 After you approved that and back in, I believe, February, as I laid out for you in this memo of the weekend that I sent, we advertised. I received nine applications. And of that nine, six of the individuals did not meet the minimum standard because of the fact that they were not admitted to the Florida bar.

1:11:44 I was very pleased that we went through a process. Mister Gibbs was part of that screening and interviews, as was Doctor Green, that interviewed three candidates, one twice who did not rise to the level of the quality or the knowledge of schools, and two other individuals. And when we had our last board meeting work session, I was very pleased, particularly as the board spoke to the fact of needing to create pathways, career advancements, and to recognize valued BPS employees for promotional opportunities.

1:12:28 Well, it so happens that my top nomination of those folks is one of our own. Someone who’s got deep roots in this community, whose parents are here, whose grandchildren are here, whose daughter’s here, whose sister is here tonight with her and her principal. We’ve talked with her principal.

1:12:51 I’ve spent multiple hours. We interviewed her in many ways. Here’s somebody who is, yes, a school counselor, formerly a teacher, the 504 coordinator, and a graduate of Barry University Law School.

1:13:11 And having attorney counselor experience prior to entering here in our classroom, starting off as a substitute teacher. The message that this sounds, that anyone can move forward is, I think, very, very important. Sends the right message.

1:13:30 That’s what the board said is a top initiative that you would want me to pursue. Here’s an exemplar. I spoke with a principal who’s here tonight.

1:13:39 I’ve also met. I’ve been at that school, and there are two counselors there. And we worked.

1:13:47 I worked with the principal, as did the candidate, to assure that for the rest of the year that the caseload would be able to be covered quite sufficiently and that the candidate has agreed. And we look forward to, as we’ve done any other transition, possibly to be on call and to assist at any time at that school during the next couple of months. This is an appointment for a transfer that would expire at the end of this particular school year in June 30.

1:14:28 The permanent superintendent can determine if that position is as required and necessary as we have. And I certainly stand by the need for it, as well as whether this individual who’s being nominated as highly qualified as she is, is the one who the permanent superintendent wants in that position next year. So on that basis, I feel very comfortable, been assured that the school is in very good order, has enough an adequate and satisfactory success to address what questions one would have.

1:15:04 Now, is this the most optimum time to make this transition? I’m not quite sure when it would be, yes. And so I feel very comfortable in making this recommendation and believe it’s in the best interest of the school district and the staff and will not provide a disservice to that school. Okay.

1:15:25 Thank you, Miss Megan. I guess the answer was yeah, go ahead. And again, not knowing the backstory of this, when I see this on, on the agenda that says we’re going to move a counselor from a school that’s in charge of the 504 plans and we’re going to make them attorney, there are some grave concerns there because we are so, we’re short and staffing on a lot of areas.

1:15:47 And as you’ve noted that this is a vacancy that’s been there for 13 months. And I don’t disagree that there is indeed need for this position. And I, and I’m not saying that this person is not the most qualified person.

1:15:55 It’s my concern is does it create another problem within our district by taking her from that school and putting her in this role? And you’re saying that the principal has assured you that this, this is completely fine, there will be no vacancy there and that the other counselor will be able to pick up the workload. Yes. And as I indicated, this particular nominee would be doing a transition as much as frequently as necessary, particularly with her hand in going to be in special services while here.

1:16:29 Like I said, no, I don’t like the timing, but I do think it’s necessary, it’s been long necessary to have this position filled and to find someone on staff who is ready for it, if you would. You know, and I really recommend that you give serious consideration because of the message that we’re trying to send and what you’ve charged me to do is to try to make sure we have adequate career pathways to grow from within and provide the opportunities. And I do hope that all what we’re saying and what my explanation would is that you would take under consideration this evening for this appointment.

1:17:12 I laid that out for you in that memo. I’m sure some of you may have not had a chance to look at it or follow up with me. But I do feel very confident that this individual is going to be very worthy of this opportunity for this period of time and would be a very strong candidate for an extended contract or appointment for all of next year and maybe thereafter.

1:17:40 And again, my questioning isn’t about her qualifications. I appreciate that. I think the question is.

1:17:45 The question is worthy. Okay? And I know that is the point, is worthy. And I’ve weighed this.

1:17:53 I’ve waited a number of weeks trying to satisfy myself that I’m robbing Peter to pay Paul, but making sure that indeed this service in the school for the next month and a half that the services will go uninterrupted. And if I sense or the principal tells us that indeed it’s they need particular assistance additional, then I will so reassign. May I jump into the discussion, please? Hang on.

1:18:26 Miss Campbell was going to go next. I hear what you’re saying about creating vacancies, but we could say that about any number of positions. Every board meeting, we approve promotions, transfer reclassifications to different positions and those.

1:18:43 This is not the first one and it won’t be the last. I have grave concerns about the board not accepting the recommendation when it means that we are cherry picking which positions that we say you can’t come out of. I think that we are going to actually be in legal trouble by denying someone the opportunity for advancement that they have chosen.

1:19:07 And just so you know, they’re in. I believe they’re in the room ready to be recognized. And I am not comfortable saying no.

1:19:14 I know you’re taking this opportunity to be advanced, but we’re not going to give it to you because we’ve decided that you need to be in your old position. We move people from being teachers. We move people from being teachers on assignment.

1:19:22 We move people from being assistant principals to principals to fill those positions. Mister Mall sat there and told us a few minutes ago that we are raising the next generation of leaders. This is a way that we’re doing it, but we don’t.

1:19:40 That it is not just a good. Look, it’s not good practice for us to deny someone the opportunity, because the next one could be a teacher, maybe the next person who takes an opportunity and they’re the most qualified. They need to be the next principal or assistant principal.

1:19:54 But we’re gonna say no, that school doesn’t is already down ten teachers, so you can’t have that opportunity. We will be setting a dangerous precedent. And I don’t think that’s what we want to do.

1:20:06 Okay. Thank you, Miss Jenkins. Yeah, I’m gonna keep it short because Miss Campbell basically said most of, if not all of what I wanted to say say so unless there’s something that not everyone up here is aware of, which happens often, so I might not be surprised by that.

1:20:21 It sounds like this was done so in good faith. It was advertised this person applied for this position, and they were offered it because they were deemed to be the best candidate. If somebody wants to apply for a different position and make a career change or a pathway change, if they’re the best candidate, we have no right to cherry pick, as Miss Campbell said, whether or not they can do that.

1:20:43 And again, I’m going to double down. We do it every single board meeting. We have teachers advancing into administrative positions.

1:20:49 Absolutely. Counselors are critical, but you don’t hold somebody hostage in the position that they’re serving in. Do you really think that that person who’s sitting in this room right now, if you denied their transfer, is going to be really excited to go back and do the best thing for our students? It’s the weirdest concept I’ve ever heard.

1:21:06 So again, unless there’s something to prove that something went amok here in the process that we’re not aware of, I don’t know why we’re having this conversation. Okay, Mister Trent? Yeah. I think we’re at the point where it would be maybe difficult to turn it around.

1:21:28 However, this isn’t governing. It sounds like we’re just giving our opinions here. Being in the school, it’s unfathomable to go the last two months without one or 50% of your counselors.

1:21:43 I don’t know why that idea was even thought that that was a rational idea. The position was available for 13 months. We are two months away from.

1:21:53 I thought that’s what we said. Former assistant to the board general counsel position was. Was available for that period of time and could not find one to be on the record.

1:22:04 We can just let Mister Trent go and then we’ll have. Yeah, it’s been available, but we’re 60 days away from getting some new leadership here. And of all the things that we could be doing here in Brevard, even though this is very important, I think we could have done more on our list and kept this well qualified person on top of the list for the new superintendent coming in.

1:22:26 I just had hoped it might have gone that way. But to this point, I don’t think there’s any turning around. But I just had hoped we had gone maybe in a different, we had a lot to do and I’m not quite sure if this was one that really benefits bps as a whole over the last, over the next two months.

1:22:47 That’s it. Thank you, Mister Trent. What I would say is a couple other things.

1:22:51 This got added on Friday, right? So on Friday this got added to the agenda. And I’ve asked doctor Shiller to meet with each one of the board members and just discuss some of the items coming forward and see if there’s pertinent need for it and everything else. The issue that I have is that I don’t think any of us did set up, had any meetings set to discuss any of these things.

1:23:14 The other thing is, is that we gave board direction at the last board meeting to put all hands on deck inside the schools, that we wanted to move everybody to go towards being inside the schools, that we wanted to help that. And there was this big move to start taking some of the. Well, it was a couple of board meetings ago, but we did give that direction.

1:23:31 And we said that doctor Schiller had given a big speech about how we wanted to have conversations. We even talked about volunteering into the schools. We had ESF people going into the schools.

1:23:40 There was a conversation about going and, and remoting. I will tell you as a former teacher, having that counselor inside of there, especially a 504 coordinator, gives me the cause to say that I don’t think that this is a good idea. The other thing is that there is no replacement that has not been identified.

1:23:57 The other piece is that we need an attorney, but this individual does not have any educational experience inside of our environment. So basically we are offering a job for somebody to be on the job training, when in fact what we’ve been looking for. And one of the reasons that we have not been able to hire anybody is because we’ve been trying to hire specifically for somebody that deals and has experience at the level that we have.

1:24:23 If we hire this person and they go through the training, that’s one way of looking at it. But the other piece is that this is, I have concerns over a person that doesn’t have the educational experience inside of this type of law, moving forward into a position that also at the end of it would be the superintendent that we are going to choose. Would you talk to any superintendents? And what they would say is that they would always like to choose their choice of who that is.

1:24:49 That’s a fact. They always would like to do that. And it’s going to cause a really tough situation in that the individual is going to.

1:24:56 The interim superintendent leaves and then the new superintendent comes in and he won’t wants to do that. And he realizes that the person that’s in here is on the job training. And it’s just difficult.

1:25:05 I am all about advancing people. I just think at this time, with the scope of what we’re looking at. I don’t think that this is something that I can endorse and I can save.

1:25:13 So I would like to host a vote to see if we want to pull the person off the agenda. And then maybe enjoy. Hang on, hang on.

1:25:20 And I have an idea. Let me finish my thing. Have the conversation with Doctor Schiller and others as we move forward and bring this person back on April 11.

1:25:29 If this is something that we feel comfortable about. But I don’t think that right now, on April 11, right now, this is a good opportunity to do so. I would like to have more time.

1:25:38 I’m not saying that we wouldn’t hire the person. What I’m saying is that I would like more time to evaluate the position with the regards to some of the issues that I have. We have gone around about hiring a staff attorney with experience.

1:25:50 And that’s the reason that we haven’t been able to get it. I’d like to make a motion to vote to postpone the floor. We have a motion on the floor.

1:25:56 Do I have a second? We have a motion on the floor, Mister Susan and everybody got one turn and I would like to have a second turn. But I was asking. The motion to move forward needs a second.

1:25:58 We have a motion on the floor. We’re in discussion for that motion. I’m just going to add two things.

1:26:15 One is the principal who. I’ve had the conversation, the principal at the school. She is aware, she’s prepared, she’s okay with it.

1:26:26 Second thing, if you will look in the description on the agenda item, it says temporary staff attorney effective March 29 through June 30. The candidate is aware of it. We are talking about a temporary position for three months.

1:26:46 That the new superintendent comes coming in, clearly has the opportunity to make their own choice to continue with this or not. And again, it just. You know, we’ve.

1:26:55 It’s. It’s been worked out. And I think we are.

1:26:58 We are in the potential to have some legal trouble with this decision. Mister Gibbs, can you weigh in on this? Just because again, this is nothing against the candidate whatsoever at all. No, this is.

1:27:10 I don’t want that to be the fact that it. It just got added on the agenda. There’s no backstory to what it creates in the school for any of us.

1:27:18 I don’t. I don’t know if Doctor Shiller’s had one on one meetings with any of them. I know I can speak to myself.

1:27:21 He is not with me. And so obviously there’s questions. And there has been a big push from this board to make sure that we are not taking people out of schools and putting them in the district building, but exact opposite, taking them from the district and putting them into the schools, because we need to fill those vacancies.

1:27:36 So, Mister Gibbs, could. Could you weigh in on this a little bit more and just give us sound counsel on the best way to move forward? Can we postpone the vote in two weeks? The board’s free to make motions and postpone items as they see fit. I don’t know what questions you want me to answer that you have.

1:27:53 I’m happy to answer questions. I have sat with Miss eybool for 2 hours and we talked. She’s lovely.

1:28:01 I have no questions that she could probably do the job. Does she have ed law experience? She does not. And she’ll tell you she does not have ed law experience.

1:28:09 That’s something she’s going to have to get. And our applicants, going back for the last two years that we’ve been trying, do not have ed law experience. Not.

1:28:19 I think we offered one attorney a position from Fort Worth, Texas, who happened to also be licensed in Florida. And he got a raise in Fort Worth and decided to stay in Dallas. So he stayed there because they were offering him more money.

1:28:34 That’s just the market right now. You can’t get attorneys. That’s unless you’re going to pay more than another school district to steal one.

1:28:41 That’s the current market. So you’re going to train them on Edlong. So from that side of the house, that’s where we are.

1:28:48 As far as whether the board wants to move forward, I mean, you have to have good cause to deny. Otherwise you’re liable for a lawsuit ordering the district to move forward with the choice. But whether Mister Susan’s grounds, if you agree with him, are good cause is a question for the board at this point weighed against the risk potential.

1:29:08 Well, I think if I can say it, it was not a motion to dismiss. It was a motion to just postpone to get these answers. We already have a motion on the question and then bring up.

1:29:17 No, I’m just clarifying it. And there was a motion by Katie Campbell and a second by Matt Susan. So? So I’m going to go for my second time here.

1:29:27 I’m going to apologize to Miss Seibel. This is embarrassing what we’re doing right now. This conversation.

1:29:39 As if it was a shock that it popped up on the agenda on Friday. We have reclassifications and transfers that pop up last minute all the time. All the time.

1:29:49 So to act like that was something strange is not being completely honest. I don’t know what we’re doing right now. Making statements of we’re putting people in schools from ESF.

1:30:02 No, we’re not. The district staff volunteered in our schools. Volunteered to help out in our schools that were struggling and had vacancies.

1:30:11 We’re not demanding that they do these things. Someone tried to have a conversation of that recently and it wasn’t a majority of support because there was data put in front of us that it’s already happening voluntarily from our incredible staff members at the district. What are we doing? It’s insane.

1:30:31 And it’s embarrassing. And I’m so sorry for this person sitting in the audience with their family. To have to sit here and take this.

1:30:38 It’s embarrassing. Keep looking at me. Mister Susan.

1:30:43 You should be ashamed of yourself. Did you ask these questions. Did you ask these questions of Mister Gibbs and Doctor Shiller prior to coming here today? So you didn’t have to embarrass somebody? This is embarrassing and I’m sorry.

1:31:00 We had zero applicants every single time this was advertised that had education law experience. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t qualified to learn and serve. Ridiculous.

1:31:12 I am sorry. Okay, so go ahead. Can I go for my second time? Yes.

1:31:20 And I won’t be so theatrical. So I’m gonna be theatrical. Mister Trent.

1:31:25 Point of order. Point of order? Come on, give me a break. So, point of order to our staff.

1:31:34 Mister Gibbs. Mister Gibbs. Mister Gibbs, can you please step in here and say point of order? Okay.

1:31:43 Miss Jenkins, I would remind you that while one board member speaking, if you cannot cut them off. Miss Jenkins, don’t even go. Miss Jenkins.

1:31:51 Mister Gibbs, you have the floor or. Mister Trent? Mister Trent. Sorry.

1:31:59 So shameful. So, just a couple things. It says temporary.

1:32:03 So my question would be on the date. Temporary in my definition would be when the interim superintendent contract is over. Because we’re going to be hiring a new superintendent.

1:32:17 And again, this isn’t anything about the applicant or about anything personal, or not even into the qualifications or if they have it. But if it’s a temporary position, it should coincide with our temporary or the interim superintendent leave in as well because it would influence a superintendent applicant because they do want somewhat of a clear Runway to maybe bring in or have say so. But there’s no need for that overlap.

1:32:45 So there’s things like that and talk about, I mean, I hope we’re this passionate about filling teacher vacancies that we have in BPS. We’ve had substitutes filling in as teachers since October or August of this year when we have potentially possibly somebody here in Viera that could be reclassified. And I do believe we did have that conversation in a meeting because if there’s anybody here that can be classified as a teacher, get back out in the classroom.

1:33:14 Thank you very much for doing that. And fill in so our children do not have to be taught by substitutes. We have yet to see that happen.

1:33:21 Have we? Did. We most certainly did. So nothing like that has happened.

1:33:28 That’s what we’re looking for. That’s the direction that we’re hoping is to put teachers in front of our students and not substitutes. So this is about the children.

1:33:38 Okay. So it’s timing. It’s the date on the contract.

1:33:43 That’s what I believe Miss Wright and myself are questioning just the timing of it. When we have positions that fill and we choose to fill positions that have been open for some time. Yep.

1:33:54 So I think Doctor Shiller had said that, that this was an interim position and that it was goaled to end at the end of the term as the interim. Would that be your direction? I’m trying. No, sir.

1:34:06 It was to end after June 30 so that your permanent superintendent would have someone in place I’d make a recommendation of, which is not binding for continuing. And that the interim, that the permanent superintendent is not bound to the person in place but would have a record of whether or not now, if the permit superintendent would rather walk in and go through a whole process again and maybe wind up looking to promote from within when it’s down in October, then what? Now all I’m saying is that I’m trying to do what I think is the best interest of the district. I’m trying to find the very best people.

1:34:43 I’m trying to mine the very best people and give those promotional opportunities as a pathway. And yes, I will not deny that. But as was pointed out, I believe this sets a very dangerous precedent.

1:35:06 Start talking about personnel matters like this at the board. I’ve been on record in emails and ever and I’ve met with many of you. That’s why I’m sending these memos out to try to explain some background information so we could avoid these things.

1:35:24 And, you know, okay, if each. If you want me to devote entirely Monday to setting up those meetings. Nothing has stopped from all of you or many of you coming in, whether scheduled or unscheduled, to see me.

1:35:39 And Miss Campbell came in last week after making an appointment to go over some matters with regard to board. Mister Susan, you and I generally meet at least a couple of hours on Mondays, going through board agendas and have continuing conversations. Mister Trent and each one of you wonderful board members will call on matters.

1:36:06 I just feel as though that trying to address personnel matters, and I understand the sunshine law, but it’s a very slippery slope to go down on in this respect. And I do believe strongly. I mean, I probably could have come here and made a recommendation for a full year appointment.

1:36:28 I did not do that. I did not want to bind. If indeed someone would have been appointed last year, appointed and recommended to be the assistant to the board general counsel.

1:36:41 It would have been a contract for a year, whether it was inside or outside. No, I didn’t go that line. I respect the fact that I will be exiting shortly and that a new interim superintendent.

1:36:54 You want to have a total clear landing strip. And that would mean, as we’ve been trying to talk about what will happen for all the recommendations and evaluations I make that will give no guarantee or assurance or. Or advance notice to any of our staff members.

1:37:16 If it’s going to be an open landing path for every administrative job that’s here, and if that is the route that the board wants to take. And you know, you had instructed me to do the evaluations on the process, do the recommendations, but that it leaves the door open to the new superintendent. I respect that.

1:37:35 That’s what I’m trying to do here. Plus try to pick up on the initiative of this board in terms of. In this very difficult environment of supply and demand in virtually every position, whether it be bus driver, custodian, IA, or teacher, or an administrator in most cases, to try to do what is best, in my professional judgment, for the welfare and the direction of this district.

1:38:01 And that’s where I stand on this. There’s nothing else I could say. It’s just.

1:38:08 I would professionally advise that the board take heed of how it’s proceeding when it comes to personnel matters of individuals in the public like this. And it’s not healthy for a board. So, Doctor Schiller, if I may ask a question real quick.

1:38:33 Mister Gibbs has been performing this duty for a while. What type of. What is it that you are needing as far as for yours, that she can fill that void.

1:38:42 Currently. What type of law? We are still cleaning up the backlog of expulsion from 2022. We are trying to put every kind of process and protocol that your board policies in the law into place.

1:38:59 Foreign policies. It’s consuming in an enormous amount of time by the interim assistant superintendent for special services directors, Mister Armstrong, myself, to try to address matters involving discipline and expulsions, particularly as it relates to special education and 504 accommodations, as an appropriate review. So that when recommendations are coming forward that have been in the past, not following board policy through appeals that they are being adhered to and examined.

1:39:43 Yeah, I do think someone who has served as a counselor, particularly since most of our issues that our students are going to ALCs about deal with first time and multiple time drug issues, that. And it’s a compound matter that we’re trying to solve, that we’ll be addressing. So that one particular area is absolutely critical.

1:40:06 I can go on if you’d like more examples. I just think that there’s a lot on this conversation, and that’s the reason I motioned to, so that we could postpone this appointment. Until everybody has a conversation and sits down and can do the deep dive.

1:40:20 Doesn’t mean that I in any way don’t find that this individual would be able to take the position after doing that. But I just laid out a lot of the issues that we would need a deep dive on for that. But that doesn’t mean that we have to go that route.

1:40:32 That does not go against. Cause that does not do anything because it just basically postpones it. But if the board does not want to move in that direction, then we approve her and we go and we can get to the.

1:40:41 The rest of our meeting. That has a lot of stuff on. So is there out of Mister Trent, are you willing to postpone or do you want to? I put the motion on the table.

1:40:56 We already have a motion. You have a motion, but when you amend a motion, then you say, I have a motion to amend the motion. That’s exactly what you do.

1:41:04 And that’s what it did. I did I make a motion to postpone the appointment until April 11. Not with the scope of denying, but just in the scope of having a deep dive into making sure this is the right appointment and make sure that the scope of the work is there.

1:41:21 And if I need a second, and if I don’t get a second, we move on. I’ll second it, because I honestly need a little bit more time to process this and go through it and look at it. We just were not given adequate backstory on this, so.

1:41:37 And I hear what you’re saying on doing what you think is best for the district. My decision solely is coming for what I think is best for children. And my concern is the vacancy.

1:41:45 Thank you, audience. That it leaves in a school, and especially coming to the end of a school year when we’re working out schedules and we’re trying to make plans for next year, I am concerned about what that potentially causes for that school. So without having even 48 hours of school time to go through this, I think it’s a fair request to ask for a little bit more time to process it.

1:42:07 Okay. I call a question for the motion to postpone the appointment until April 11. Can I hear everybody signify who’s in favor? Signify by saying aye.

1:42:19 Aye. Opposed. Okay, moving forward.

1:42:24 We now are back to the original process for the other eight items for consideration. Do I have any other discussion moving forward? All in favor? Signify by saying aye. Aye.

1:42:39 All those opposed? Motion passes. Doctor Schiller, I’d like to have you recognize the following who are with us this evening in your. Thank you, Doctor Stephanie Sullivan will induce her team to provide additional information with regard to extremely notable achievements, which we were chatting with many of these during the reception held earlier.

1:43:06 Please. Thank you, Mister Susan. Doctor Schiller, members of the board, I was going to say that I was honored to introduce our next guest.

1:43:18 But I must say that I’m glad to. I’m glad to introduce Minnie Orr to the board and to our viewing audience. Minnie Orr is our content specialist for K twelve Music in Brevard Public schools.

1:43:34 And she represents the excellence that has been historical in our county in our exemplary achievements in music. So at this time, I’m going to introduce Minnie who is going to recognize our award recipients. Thank you.

1:43:58 Thank you, Doctor Sullivan. And thank you, Doctor Schiller. Mister Stewson.

1:44:02 Members of the board, on behalf of Doctor Stephanie Sullivan, assistant superintendent of secondary leading in learning, and Miss Molly Vega, director, I am pleased to present to you this year’s award winners who represent a history of excellence in brevard public schools. The role that music education plays in the life of children must not be underestimated. We are fortunate to provide music education for all students, wherein students learn to become more musical, to appreciate music in all its forms, and to respect the challenging process of learning an instrument or learning to sing an immeasurable value in and of itself.

1:44:48 We are incredibly grateful for the board’s continued support of music for all students, and we honor our community for continuing to value this investment. Benjamin Zander, the music director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, summed it up by saying, the conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound. He depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful.

1:45:15 And that’s what our music teachers do each and every day, empower students, and we extend our thanks to them for providing an environment where students feel seen and heard. So, thank you, guys. Yeah, clap for them.

1:45:35 So tonight we recognize schools that continue to offer exemplary programs that draw in students to participate in the life changing experience of music. The Florida Music Education Association, FMEA promotes quality, comprehensive music education for all Florida students. Accordingly, they annually recognize schools that serve a significant percentage of students.

1:46:03 Students with music. Doctor Shiller and Mister Susan, please come forward to present the awards to our honorees who are with us today receiving the FMEA Middle School Music Education Enrollment award for having 55% of their school population enrolled in a music class. Delora Middle School principal Scott Corso, band director Jack Carr, chorus teacher Lisa Benicasa, orchestra teacher Amanda Lohan, and string specialist Carrie Mormon.

1:47:07 Also receiving the FMEA Middle School Music Education award for having 63% of the school population enrolled in a music class. Thomas Jefferson Middle School principal Mira Trine. And representing the music department tonight is chorus director Ava Braddock and orchestra director Bobby Jo Butler.

1:47:50 Receiving the FMEA Middle School Music Enrollment award for having 52% of the school population enrolled in a music class. Lyndon B. Johnson Middle School principal Marina Middleton.

1:48:02 And representing the music department tonight is chorus director Charlotte Walters, receiving the FMEA High School Music Education Enrollment award for having 31% of their high school student body enrolled in a music class this year. Edgewood Junior Senior High School assistant principal Nick Steward, band director Andrew Kropp, chorus and orchestra teacher Joseph Francois. And finally receiving the FMEA High School Music Education Enrollment award for having 35% of their high school student body enrolled in a music class this year.

1:48:57 Satellite high school principal Bobbi Pruitt. Representing the music department tonight is orchestra director Christopher Simons and string specialist Carrie Moriman. Thank you.

1:50:07 Doctor Schiller, I think you have to speak about Miss Jessica Mosca. Yes, I had introduced Miss Mosca earlier. Is Miss Mosca still in the audience? Miss Mosca, I’m nominating you tonight for this position.

1:50:25 I know you’re feeling going to leave a vacancy, but we do need you in this role, and I do hope that this board will approve. And so, congratulations. Yeah, it’s already been approved.

1:50:45 Good evening. Thank you to the board, Doctor Schiller. I’d also like to thank Cindy Lisinski and Rich Miller.

1:50:52 They believe in me and they have continued support and guidance for me. We currently have an amazing payroll team here at BPS and some of them are here with me today and I’m honored to work alongside them every day. My biggest cheerleaders are also here tonight.

1:51:10 My parents thank you for your constant support and unconditional love. I learned all my hard work and dedication from them and what they’ve taught me over the last x. We’re not going to say the name years.

1:51:25 Over the past 16 years I’ve been here at BPS, I have built very rewarding relationships with my colleagues and I look forward to our continued collaboration. Some of my colleagues are here supporting me tonight and I appreciate that more than you will ever know. I’m truly honored and excited for this new role and can’t wait to see what the future holds.

1:51:45 Thank you. Thank you. We are now at tonight’s presentation.

1:51:54 Doctor Schiller. Yes. There’s been a great deal of attention given to student achievement and other indicators of our student and school success, and also challenges.

1:52:14 One of the interesting things, which I’m going to turn over momentarily to staff, is taking a look at data as it’s been taking place. It’s on. It’s on.

1:52:24 Just don’t touch it, doctor. So you’re good, right. Taking place throughout the nation of taking a particular look at two things.

1:52:31 One, what has happened to student achievement and other indicators as a consequence of COVID and its interruption in schools? And that’s one of the filters that we’ll be looking at. And the second thing is, what can we learn of what we are looking at as particularly certain segments of our population, and where the board may wish to set priorities in order to address, so that all students have opportunities and great opportunities to be able to learn and go forward. And with that in mind, I would like, without further ado, to introduce people who have been spearheading this effort of looking at data from a different, through a different lens.

1:53:14 I’ve sent to you a preview of tonight’s data, and it may be, for some folks in the audience, I apologize if it may seem dry, but it’s data information that has to drive policymaking and decision making, particularly as it affects programs, students and the fiscal impact. So with that in mind, I’m very pleased with the incredible work that Doctor native Francis has provided as our data maven, and being able to go through many iterations of this as it’s been prepared through the leadership of our interim deputy superintendent, Doctor Anna Maria Cody. Ladies, it’s your show.

1:53:53 Thank you, Mister Susan. Thank you for this opportunity. Board members, Doctor Schiller, please understand as we go through these data, we know some of you, all of our board members have seen many of these statistics.

1:54:07 Them. We’re here tonight to be very transparent for our stakeholders. Brevard, in particular, in your search for a new superintendent, in your most recent priority setting initiatives, and in figuring out how to take what might appear to some to be a huge budget, how to look at that budget and prioritize for student achievement needs.

1:54:35 And I know you’re each committed to that. So we’d like to start by saying these are data that are all available at the Florida Department of Education website. These are not data that we created.

1:54:50 These are data that we’re reporting. One area for consideration is looking at not only proficiency, not only rates, but how you compare to the state. Because Brevard has been and certainly has the potential to be number one in the state of Florida that I know is every board member’s goal, because you have that wonderful potential, amazing staff, administrators and students.

1:55:23 And so as we look at these data sets, it’s important to remember we’re presenting facts. We know that over the last four years, the pre pandemic data has been significantly impacted by COVID-19 that’s a national problem. And we know in July of 22, the National center for Educational Statistics reported that 87% of public schools said their students social, emotional health, their behavior, their reactions to authority are all different.

1:56:08 So this isn’t about what your staff is doing about this data. They’re doing amazing work. I’ve had an opportunity to sit with Miss Klein and Doctor Sullivan and look at the progress monitoring efforts, all of that work that’s being done to help student achievement grow.

1:56:30 So this evening we’re going to talk about why these data and why now. Because it’s been requested that we look at subgroup data, that we’re very transparent, and that you’re still stakeholders have a chance to understand the academic performance of brevard public schools. We’ll go over the district grade, the graduation data.

1:56:55 I know you’ve seen that it’s important to look at state ranking, college and career acceleration. Brevard Public schools should be on a pedestal for national recognition. You’re awesome in that area.

1:57:09 And then we’re going to look at english language arts and math performance by grade and by subgroup. And just again, talk about where are we when we compare ourselves to the state and what opportunities do we have for growth and for support? And as a board, your student achievement metric is what serving every student with excellence is all about. So we’re hopeful to just share this with you.

1:57:41 We’re not talking about what your staff is doing or not doing. We’re talking about data. So, first, just.

1:57:54 I know the board knows. We want to make sure all stakeholders understand that Brevard Public Schools is currently a b. You know, and we want to say brevard public schools missed an a by one percentage point.

1:58:11 And that’s about ten points. That’s awesome. Many districts in the state had struggles with maintaining an a grade.

1:58:21 The fact that you’re that close is. Is wonderful. When we look at the ELA performance, I just want to point out a few things for you to look at in the future.

1:58:32 So we see your proficiency rates in ELA, and then when we look at your learning gains, for example, 55 in ELA, and then your lower quartile learning gains, 42. That’s interesting, because what you want to strive is all students to make a learning gain. So looking at those data sets, not quite all of the students made a learning gain.

1:59:02 That’s an area of opportunity. So that percent you hope is going to be higher than proficiency. Then when you look at your lower quartile again, those are your learners who have the most growth to make to be on grade level.

1:59:19 So your hope is that statistic is even higher than the learning gains. And those are metrics that can guide the discussions that you have with staff as you’re monitoring these data throughout the school year and you’ll see a similar performance in your mathematics. Doctor Webley shared with me, I wasn’t as current on the science metric, but usually that science metric is going to be more closely aligned to your ELA because of the reading.

1:59:54 And it’s about there. That’s where you might expect that to be, and that’ll go up as your ELA proficiency and your math proficiency improve. So let’s look at graduation data.

2:00:12 And I think there’s some great news to consider here when you go from pre pandemic, and many districts now in the state, throughout the country are stopping and looking at pre pandemic data. And where are we now? We’re all in a state of recovery, especially when we think about our students mental health and all of that work that needs to be done to get them back to where learning becomes the priority. Your teachers are doing exceptional work.

2:00:51 I have not been to as many schools as Doctor Shiller, but I’ve seen some quality instruction, wonderful administrative support, great district support. So you’re moving in the right direction. You can see that your grad rate increased over three years.

2:01:08 That’s a celebration. There was a slight decline for 22 and, you know, that’s, again, there’s lots of reasons for that. That’s not the purpose of this presentation, to do a deep dive into root cause.

2:01:25 I think an area that is important for you to look at is how do you rank in the and over the last four years, the ranking has declined to the point that this year, Brevard is just a little before the state mean, below the state mean. So that’s an area, again, of opportunity. No one’s saying you’re doing or anyone’s doing anything wrong.

2:01:53 This is to say, when you look at your data, if you, you keep doing what you’re doing, you know the end of that story, right? It’s going to stay the same. So what can you do as the leadership for this district, as a board to support ensuring as many students as possible graduate? You have it in your strategic plan. Graduation is a pre k through twelve metrics, 100%.

2:02:27 In my conversations with the assistant superintendents, it’s a cohesive effort to move all of the students forward so that you are graduating more students. I’m going to ask Miss Francis, as Doctor Schiller said, she’s had to do several iterations of this presentation. Our goal is to be friendly to our audience and put it out as simply and clearly as we can.

2:02:59 So folks all walk away with the same information, knowing where there are great strengths and where there are opportunities for improvement. So she will go over this subgroup data with you, and then we will be back with another topic. Good evening, Mister Susan, members of the board, Doctor Shiller, when we look at the graduation data, one of the things that we’re focusing on is the 2019 being the pre pandemic year.

2:03:27 And it’s really interesting when you start looking at the 2019 in comparison to 2021, where you see the greatest growth and then you’ll see the decline. So one of those, what is that telling us? There were, we had those COVID waivers in 2020 for the class of 2020, and the class of 2021 were recipients of those COVID waivers. So you’re going to see that spike and then a little bit of a decline.

2:03:52 But that’s just, that’s when you look at the rest of the state of Florida, that’s what’s happened in the state of Florida. So when you look at your white students, you see that there is one percentage point increase in compared to 2019. However, it was at three 10th of a point when compared to 2022.

2:04:13 When you look at the african american students, you see that from 2019 to 2021, there’s a 6.4 percentage point increase, which again is talking about those COVID waivers and the importance, and I failed to mention the COVID waivers waived the ELA and the algebra requirement for the student students during for the class of 2020 and the class of 2021. So that’s really key to focus in on why did we, why did we have the spike? And now we’re seeing a decline and the decline was 1.

2:05:07 7 points. When you look at the hispanic students, you’re looking at the same story. 3.

2:05:25 1 percentage point increase from 2019 to 2021. However, when you’re looking at 2019 compared to, you’re looking at 1.9 percentage point decrease.

2:06:01 When you’re looking at the economically disadvantaged, those are the students that are on free and reduced lunch. It’s pretty much the same story. An increase of 3.

2:06:12 1, a decrease of 3.2 when compared to 22. This is where the story gets a little bit interesting.

2:06:33 Your english language learners are your students. Students that are learning, that are in an ESO program, currently enrolled in an ESO program, or were enrolled in an ESO program when they graduated. So you’ll see the benefits of 13.

2:07:09 9 percentage point increase when those students did not have to pass the either the ELA or the algebra assessment. When we look now at what happened in 2022, we see that there was a 9.44 percentage point decrease, which was the largest for the subgroups, the students with disability.

2:07:41 There was an increase of 1.2 percentage points and a decrease of 0.9.

2:08:20 Board members, this is a summary of the information that Miss Francis just shared, shared with you. And again, it’s an opportunity for you, as well as other stakeholders, to look at the profile over time. Pre pandemic to now, and how you’re comparing with the state.

2:08:45 And again, for brevard public schools, being at the state mean is not where you want to be. It’s important that the work that you’re doing here puts you at the top of the state minimum, top 20%, so that those wonderful programs, amazing programs that you have, are accessible to students. They have the skills to be able to enjoy that kind of a program and graduate on time with the skills they need to move on to their futures.

2:09:01 So that summarizes the information with some of the state parameters indicating where you have opportunities of growth. As you look at your priorities, how you’re going to fund and even the skills of the individuals you’ll be considering for your permanent superintendent. So we’re looking at the dropout rate.

2:09:34 And one of the things to keep in mind when we’re looking at dropout rate is who are they? Who are those students? How are they classified? So your dropout students are students that are 16 years old and left school and with no intentions of ever coming back. Students who have court order actions against them, students that are not in attendance, whereabouts unknown, expelled students, just to name a few. So when we’re viewing the data, it’s obvious that if we have a decline slightly in our graduation rate, our dropout rate is going to increase slightly when we look at other non graduates because they’re not all just dropouts.

2:09:57 So you have the others that are non graduate, you have students that transfer out of cohort could go into adult education, and we’re unable to obtain a diploma. Students who receive a GED, students who are in a DJJ facility, whether it’s in Brevard or in another district, students who receive a certificate of completion, or students who are still currently enrolled as a fifth year senior. Those are all considered non graduates.

2:10:10 And those go count against the graduation rate for the schools board members. I know you’ve seen these data. Doctor Sullivan shared them with you.

2:10:48 Many, many of Florida’s districts have had similar profiles. As you can see, you have successes, you have opportunities for improvement. It’s been a challenging year, and again, I know there are plans in place by district and by school to address the areas of most concern.

2:11:10 So this is the area that, again, when we were going over the agenda for the presentation, we wanted to make sure we celebrated. It’s a privilege to be in this district and to learn about the programs that you have. And you’ve recognized many students who have benefited from these programs.

2:11:23 It’s an amazing metric that you have here, moving from 65.3% to 72.9% college and career acceleration components.

2:11:41 And you know, that includes the academic acceleration metrics on AP, IB or ACE, passing a dual enrollment course for college credit and earning an industry certification. All that’s moving in a phenomenal direction. So congratulations to all of you for supporting those programs, for your district staff, for the innovation, the foresight for knowing when to remove programs that students are no longer interested in.

2:12:03 It’s a great use of your resources and your talent here in Brevard public schools. May I just add one thing? So you’ll notice that the college and career acceleration, it says unofficial CCA college and career acceleration. We received the data a couple of weeks ago and doctor Sullivan has been working with us schools.

2:12:23 Right now the schools have the opportunity to look at the data to see if there are any errors. So I’ve been closely monitored working with the high schools to make sure that it is 100% accurate. That’s why we don’t have the state data.

2:12:38 The state data will not be released until school grade and it will be an unofficial school grade this year. But college and career acceleration cells will be in there. It will be reported for all, for all the schools and it’ll be a official, and then we’ll have the official state data.

2:13:08 So let’s look at english language arts proficiency. And again, we’re looking from a bit of a different lens where we’re showing you not only your metric, but your rank and state, so you get a sense of how you compare statewide. You can also have your team look at this by comparable districts.

2:13:20 That is very interesting to do as well. And for many years, a lot of the Central Florida districts collaborated and when we would see different data sets. I recall many conversations with folks in Brevard and saying, you’re doing awesome in ELA or mathematics.

2:14:16 Can you tell us what you’re doing? And we’ll share what we’re doing in some other areas. And it’s just wonderful when we all work together like that as a Central Florida team. So we obviously always look at grade six.

2:14:41 And for your audience, it’s important to know Brevard is at the top of the state. In grade six, Ela, we’re going to see the same thing in math and we always debate about that. And look at the research, how much of a contribution is being in elementary toward that grade six metric? Is it because the kids are comfortable, they know the teachers, they’re better prepared? But grade six for Brevard is the shining star.

2:14:50 And congratulations on that. There’s a lot of good work being done. As I said, as you look at your ranking, there’s improved ranking in some of your grades.

2:15:13 And that’s where you focus, focus on that positive, what are we doing that generated that improvement? And then you can go back and look how you could work a little bit differently in your other grades to attain that same type of a metric. So when we look at the overall student achievement for all grade levels and for all students, that we’re looking at the percentage level three and above, or the proficiency, which is what the state is calling, well, not proficiency now, they call it on grade level performance is what they call level three and above, we’ll see that there is an increase, that brevard is outperforming the state, and then there is a five 10th of a percentage point improvement from 2021. Although when it was graduation rate, we looked at 2019 as the baseline data.

2:15:22 2020 and 2021 were skewed because of the waivers. So when you’re looking at the overall achievement, whether it’s subgroup data or by race, you have to take into consideration the growth that happened between 2021 and 2022, not going back to 2019. Cause there weren’t really any mitigating circumstances like waivers at for all students.

2:15:44 So when we look at the white students, we noticed that it was a three percentage .3 tenths of a percentage point. I’m sorry, increase.

2:16:18 And again, we are outperforming the state. When we look at our black african american students, we note that they’ve increased two percentage points from 2021 to 2022. When we look at the hispanic students, we see that they are comparable to the state.

2:16:36 However, they too have seen an increase. Although it’s 410 of a point, it’s still an increase. It’s a movement in the right direction.

2:16:58 When you look at the subgroup data and ed is economically disadvantaged, those are your students that are free and reduced. Ells are your english language learners, and SWD are your students with disabilities. We note that the ELL and the economically disadvantaged students saw an increase.

2:17:17 However, the SWD students maintain their level of proficiency. Math proficiency is displayed in the same way so that you can see your performance over time and then how your state ranking is moving again. Many of your metrics for 22 improved when, especially when you look back at 2019, that’s the recovery that we’re looking for.

2:17:33 And then you have those areas where there’s opportunities for some growth. So when we look at mathematics again, we see that same grade six outstanding performance in the state. That is wonderful for grade eight.

2:17:50 I want to be very clear. Districts like Brevard that put the majority of their students who are in middle school in algebra and geometry have a low 8th grade grade percentage proficient. That, yes, we need to work with those students and improve that.

2:18:01 But it’s not the same population as districts who choose not to allow 7th or 8th graders to take high school level courses. So that’s the trade off there. And as long as you know that and your community knows that, that’s a strength.

2:18:11 Because once those 7th and 8th graders who are in your algebra and geometry courses successfully pass, they’re going to take calculus with your teacher of the year. That’s what they’re prepared for. So that’s a wonderful effort.

2:18:11 It makes a lot of sense. Again, that doesn’t mean we don’t want to work with the other 8th graders that are in that standard course course. But that’s why that number looks the way it does now.

2:19:28 Again, we’re going to look at the percent at level three, scoring at level three and above. Similar story. Like Ela math, we are outperforming the state.

2:19:38 And then there was a 2.5 percentage point increase. As you look at the slides, you’ll notice that we did slightly better in math when compared to 2021.

2:20:04 When you look at the white students, although we are not outperforming the state, we still saw an increase of 2.4 percentage points. When you look at the black african american students, they had an increase of 3.

2:20:16 1 percentage points, which is significantly higher than the students, the overall performance and the white peers. And remember, they also saw a two percentage point increase in ELA. So for our black african american students, they did much better when compared to 2021.

2:20:45 When you look at our hispanic students, we see that they had a gain of 3.4 percentage points, which is the most significant for the math categories. And when you look at the subgroup data, you’ll see that the economically disadvantaged students had a 3.

2:21:00 4 percentage point increase. So, in summary, what we could say about the data when compared to 2021 is that Brevard students are moving in the right direction. Well, thank you, Miss Francis, again, for all that hard work and for your support as we prepared this, this information.

2:21:17 Thank you, Doctor Schiller, for allowing us to share these data. We appreciate that. And as you can see, we’ve gone over the discussion points with you.

2:21:37 Very high level, just information, state data, not data that we generated, can be found on the state website. And you just pull together what you need to look at. So, in summary, what are some key opportunity metrics that you might consider as a board? Obviously, graduation rate and your ranking in the state.

2:21:56 You would want to celebrate that. College and career acceleration. Awesome, awesome work in the area of your academic performance.

2:22:00 We all, everyone’s working on proficiency, but in particular, looking at learning gains, every student, every year a learning gain, that’s how we move systems and move districts. With your lower quartile being a target population, because of all students, they have more opportunity to make a learning gain. And when they do make those gains, they’re getting closer and closer to proficiency.

2:22:14 You have these metrics in your strategic plan. They’re there. So you’re aware you’re working on them as you’re thinking about your budget priorities and board members.

2:22:24 I don’t envy you at all. And I’ve shared with some staff the hardest job is deciding among multiple goods that you’re being asked to support. But as an instructional leader, I have to say student achievement number one, and you know how to do that.

2:22:38 I trust that you’ll be able to align your budget. Another area for you to think about is monitoring in a very public forum like you’re doing tonight. So as you’re going through your progress monitoring this year, it’s all up in the air because no one knows really what all the numbers mean.

2:23:06 But as you progress into the next school year, it’s good to bring data to the board in a public way and let the stakeholders know. Then they’ll support the work that you’re committed to doing. Accountability for all staff, everybody owns it.

2:23:29 And transparency. These are data. They’re not good, they’re not bad.

2:24:00 They are. And what you do with them is what’s going to make a difference, to serve every student student with excellence as the standard. So thank you very much.

2:24:41 Thank you, Miss Cody and Miss Francis. Would any board members wish to discuss. Go ahead, Miss Jenkins.

2:25:17 Thank you. I appreciate you presenting that to the public. I want to make it clear that this isn’t the first time we’re seeing this information.

2:25:34 One time we had a very intentional, brutal presentation by Doctor Mullins where I feel like it was probably the first time we were, again, very intentional about the areas in which we are not performing. And back in October from doctor Sullivan and Miss Klein. So this information shouldn’t be shocking to anybody.

2:25:38 I think that it’s still worth highlighting the data that’s in here. That alarms me every single day. I talk about it every time I have an opportunity to talk about it, which is that our white students are either over performing or equally performing to our state, and our black and african american students are underperforming.

2:25:52 And we have a 30% gap now in our ELA performance of our black students, 14% for our hispanic students compared to their white peers. And in math, there’s a 33% gap for our african american students and 15% for our hispanic students. And of course, as we broke down to other subgroups, when it comes to economically disadvantaged as well as our students with disabilities, those gaps are just as wide, if not wider.

2:25:57 So I appreciate your comment of it’s important to be transparent, and I’m going to add the word intentional again, in order for our stakeholders to have buy in as to why we need to do the work that, that we need to do. Because as intentional as we’ve been to this information or with this information and as focused as our district leaders and our teachers have been, it’s difficult to feel we have buy in from the community that supports our schools to make a difference for these students lives. And clearly we need to make a change.

2:26:14 And I know certain communities have been screaming for a change, have been screaming for data, have been screaming for a plan. And I think those are the areas that we need to be more transparent and intentional about. I appreciate this data being presented again, but I would love for our staff to have the opportunity to present what they are actually doing right now in the moment to tackle these challenges so that our community is aware that we aren’t leaving them behind and that we’re not just reporting these numbers and ignoring it and trying to continue to do the same thing over and over again.

2:26:40 I think we need to have a really prime opportunity for our staff and our, and our teachers to highlight what it is they do on a daily basis to make a difference in every single one of our students lives. Thank you, Miss Campbell. Thank you, ladies and doctor.

2:26:57 Gentlemen. Cody. It was nice and to hear you from the microphone.

2:27:01 I just wanted to. For the public who’s not aware and you guys explained it was a difference with the dropout rate and the non graduates. But sometimes I think when the public sees even a graduation rate of 90% and we all celebrate, go, that’s so great.

2:27:27 That’s so wonderful. And they go, what? 10% of your kids are dropping out? And that’s not the case. That doesn’t mean.

2:27:49 That just means that 10% are not graduating on time with the class that they started with as freshmen. And there are some that drop out and some that even go onto adult Ed, but they don’t get countess. They may graduate not just with a GED, but with a high school diploma, but it’s not with their cohort and so they don’t get counted.

2:28:02 So it’s not that we’re not getting kids across the finish line into the workforce necessarily, but I think that’s just an important distinction to make because like sometimes that’s so low and it’s something we definitely need to work on. It’s interesting board, because this morning, our new charter school that’s coming next year is a unique charter school. They are specifically targeted to drop out prevention and they’re going to catch.

2:28:12 Their goal is to catch the kids who have such a low gpa and are so many credits behind that they literally cannot get across the finish line on time. And they’re affecting our grad rate. And as an organization, they’re affecting our grad rate in a negative way.

2:28:22 As an individual, they could potentially be on a path just to quit. And so it’s going to fill a niche that even, it will be even unique from adult ed. And so these are some kids that aren’t going anywhere.

2:28:37 And so it’s such a unique program if you haven’t gotten to talk with them. They were here this morning getting onboarded that is opening in the Melbourne area in the fall. And they’re already talking to our schools because they specifically target an area that has multiple schools in the area.

2:29:00 So they can work with our counselors at our schools and help identify who are those kids that are on the edge of dropping out for whatever reason. And they also provide things like transportation, help with childcare for those students who maybe are out because they’re having to take care of younger siblings or their own child. And so I think that is something that will help us move that target in a positive direction, even in a small way.

2:29:10 Thank you for pointing out our 6th grade success. Maybe that’s a model we don’t want to mess with. Miss Francis, I know this is, look into your crystal ball.

2:29:33 This year we’re doing fast and not FSA. And so I know we’re kind of starting all over again. So when we start talking about data next year, be able to compare to the state.

2:29:44 Not next year. Actually, with our current year data, we’ll be able to compare to the state because they’ll have theirs. But we really can’t do last year to this year.

2:29:52 Right. How do you think, how are we going to be able to see that progress in these groups or overall? Because the testing changed. So I think it’s really important to understand that this is the state standard settings.

2:30:12 Once the standards are set, then they’ll send out another file that’s a retrofitted file. And in that file, it will have the comparison of how the students scored this year in comparison to what the new standards are or the new cut scores are. And then we’ll be able to use the PM three new cut scores once that retrofitted file is released to compare it to PM one for next year.

2:30:41 Okay. So it’ll give us the ability to see how did the students end at the end of third grade in comparison to PM one for fourth grade. Okay.

2:30:49 And again, we will not have school grades for this year. Correct. We are going to have an informational school grade and there won’t be learning gains, which is always hurtful to our lower socioeconomic schools that depend on those learning gains because that’s, you know, they may not have 60% of their students scoring at level three or above, but they certainly have those high learning gains.

2:31:07 So this year it’ll only be based on the three categories of ELA, math and science for the elementary. Right. So, and then civics for middle school.

2:31:16 And so we can, we’ll kind of be able to see what we would have gotten, what grade we would have gotten if there had been grades. Kind of like during the COVID year. Yes.

2:31:32 Correct years, I should say. Okay. And then I appreciate the, I appreciate, doctor Cody, you challenging us as we move forward, thinking about the budget, because, you know, there are lots of things shouting out for our attention and shouting out for our priorities.

2:31:51 But, you know, I don’t know what the solutions are. I think the staff has been tasked to bring us some solutions when we talk about budget priorities. But, you know, these supporting the work in the classrooms, you know, whether it’s ias or the programs that work that, you know, that and, you know, the training, the, whatever it is getting more, you know, you know, whatever it might, you know, we’re gonna have to talk about the budget.

2:31:56 We’re gonna talk about what we’re doing at that last piece of the millage that we keep tossing around. We could do this, we could do that. There’s so many important factors to that.

2:31:58 But we really are going to have to focus in on this as our number one priority because this is, you know, it’s not just about, you know, getting to be an a rated school, but this is what our goal is to get these kids across the finish line. Thank you, Miss Campbell. Mister Trent.

2:32:15 Yes. Again, thanks for all your hard work. I know dealing with these numbers can be tedious and again, not good, not bad.

2:32:24 Just is. I’m going to say what you said, Miss Campbell, but we are now going to be tasked using this data to come up with our priorities in the budget. And it’s going to be hard to not do that now that we’ve seen these.

2:32:38 And like you said, they’re not new, but it’s, we’re kind of forced now, you know, to, you know, put our money where the data says we need to put it. And I look forward to that challenge, but it’s going to be very difficult to make some of those decisions. But again, thank you for all your work.

2:32:53 That you’ve been doing. Miss Wright. Yeah.

2:33:07 Thank you for this report. I think one of the things that we tend to measure success differently, right. So sometimes it’s graduation, it’s how well we’re doing on a test.

2:33:32 I think one of the things that we are seeing here is our college and career acceleration like that. That’s a successful route. Even if that means it’s not a graduation, it could still be.

2:33:53 I mean, if they got a GED and they went to college, it could still be a successful route. So I like what’s here. There’s room for improvement.

2:34:22 I think if we start younger, that k through three, we really can plant some seeds that we will see flourish as they go through the rest of their academic career. So thank you guys for taking the deep dive and giving us the report. I appreciate it.

2:34:33 Thank you for coming forward and presenting this. Doctor Shiller, I’m going to come to you next. I just wanted to say, Miss Campbell, and echoing what Miss Campbell and doctor Schiller have been saying is this is a charter school that’s coming in and innovating and taking some of our lowest people.

2:34:46 As a former teacher of, I used to teach all day and then I would go coach and then I would teach adult ed. Right. So many of the students that are in that dropout prevention and all those other pieces would end up in my adult ed class at night, up in cocoa.

2:35:22 And I know the struggles that we face to try to identify those people, pull them in, educate them and get them across the finish line. So I know that that was exacerbated by COVID. Many people know this, but if you don’t, many of our low sociology, economic areas were hurt by COVID because of the ability to understand, to log on, and everything else which hurt many of our overall grades and many of the advancements moving forward.

2:35:42 I do want to say that it echoes to everybody else that they said also teacher turnover, teacher vacancies, substitutes. You look at your most. The areas that Miss Jenkins was so explained so well is in those areas where those students are at, is where we see the most of those items.

2:36:06 And these are things that we as a board should be tasked that even though we can no longer say that’s just, it’s one of those things that everybody has it, that everybody has the vacancies we have to give 110% to get there. I think we can come up with innovative ways to attract more teachers back to the marketplace place, attract some programs to help out our low socioeconomic and african american families. Before the meeting, I went up to Mister Bryant and I said, it’s time now.

2:36:15 This is the time that we’re going to be calling on each other. What you see here is this will not get better until we all are together, until we all start identifying and really break it down. And I think that that’s needed in order to do this.

2:49:27 I think that we all in general, agree where we need to be focusing. And I think that we’re looking forward to many of the next school board meetings to do that. Mister Schiller or Doctor Shiller, your floor.

2:49:40 Yes, thank you. You summarized pretty much of what I would concur with is that this fine presentation of data that is extant in the district and taking a look at it, shines the spotlight so that when on Thursday we meet, the board can look at basically the data as an indicator. And you always have to use data to guide your thinking as to its priorities so that it can adjust and consider how some of the initiatives shall be funded, as well as the challenges.

2:50:06 And fortunately, that school is opening to serve a particular population. But to what extent, we need to be thinking about ahead of that, in terms of what else we can offer here. And so I thank you to professionals and all the staff who have contributed to this.

2:50:14 And I’m particularly appreciative of the board’s attention to the details. And you’re setting the stage for and recognizing we have work to do, you have work to do for the future. And now we can pinpoint and spotlight what can be done and then marshal the resources, if it is as it must be, a priority.

2:50:22 You know, we like to say all students count or no one counts, no one excluded. Thank you very much, ladies. Appreciate it.

2:50:53 Thank you everybody. I think what I would like to do is take a brief ten minute, five to ten minute break. If you guys can use the restroom and come back sa we are now onto the public comments portion of the meeting.

2:51:17 Agenda items disruptive, threatening or violent behavior will not be tolerated at the podium. Please address the chair. We have 30 speakers, which will each receive three minutes.

2:51:31 I will call up three speakers at a time. Pursuant to board policy and tonight’s motion, you are allowed to address board members by name, but not staff or the public. First three speakers are Angela Seider, Scott Jost, Bernard Bryant.

2:51:46 Angela, please come up. This is going to be fun. Here we go.

2:52:08 Thank you, board. And thank you, doctor Schiller. My name is Angela Seder and I’m the media specialist at Coquina Elementary.

2:52:22 A media specialist is a teacher in the media center that helps students learn to love reading by assisting them to find the right fit books, collaborates with staff, curates a collection of books, trains staff with technology and works with the SIP and SAC to analyze the needs of the school to help all be successful. The media center can be compared to a retail facility like Publix or Walgreens. Just like a retail facility, the media center has products that the end user, the students, parents and teachers need.

2:52:31 In both retail and the media center, products or books are checked out, returned, need reshelfing, repair, and to be processed. Unlike in our media centers, a retail outlet has different people doing each of the tasks. Could you imagine returning to a retail store that has one person helping 20 people at one time while performing other duties for retail? That is an epic fail.

2:52:50 Our previous board and superintendent decided to remove our part time media assistance to save funds. In doing so, all media specialists were left to perform the duties of two people. We were told only how volunteers could help run the media center.

2:52:58 Well imagine the complications of having volunteers run a retail facility. The lack of volunteers and consistent volunteers at that has put all of the responsibility on the media centers, at least at the elementary level. We have seven classes a day with one planning period.

2:53:06 My collection has over 9000 books. We have a required curriculum to teach and it is a different one for each grade level. Daily tasks include but are not limited to book check in and out, fixing books, placing them to the side for repair at a later time, collecting fines, assigning fines, aiding students and teachers with technology issues, attempting to put books away and organizing shelves and assisting students with finding books.

2:53:14 This is while teaching the state curriculum social skills and enrichment. Additionally, as needed, I teach the monique bar curriculum. State mandates above the standard curriculum, administer surveys for the county and in poll to test students.

2:53:25 Book processing and care is constant. Fundraising is necessary to purchase new books as the publishing world never sleeps. Lunch duty calls as does aiding other coverage.

2:53:39 If these tasks are not enough, the state has added vetting to our to do list and media specialists are the only ones by law that can vet and process books. Processing and reshuffling takes about approximately 1 minute per book. For example, just handling 500 books of repair reshelveing can add an additional 8 hours of work.

2:53:59 These are weekly tasks. The shelves are constantly need constant organizations. Students do not put books back where they belong.

2:54:17 Neither do customers when they change their mind. We need we can hire assistants to help with the daily tasks. This will help us with the customer service.

2:54:33 We can take media off the wheel at the elementary level for one day a week and not pull us to cover. Allow us the opportunity. Opportunity all.

2:54:52 The goal is to get books in the hands of students and this will. Thank you very much. Next speaker, Mister Scott Joss Mister Scott Joss.

2:55:13 Bernard Bryan, Kyle Savage, please. Good evening. I am a media specialist at an elementary school here in Brevard.

2:55:28 I come to you today to ask for your help. As a result of newly passed legislation, media specialists across the state are being required to do a tremendous amount of additional clerical work. Among these requirements is the expectation that media specialists personally know and vet every book in their school, including every book in their classroom.

2:55:50 We need to verify that the book is appropriate for school, but also appropriate for the age level of the students in each school class. This involves looking up every single book online, checking reviews, checking for age appropriateness and for its content. This work isn’t really difficult, but it takes an impossible amount of time to complete.

2:56:02 Last week, for example, on our teacher workday, I spent the entire day vetting classroom library books. The average time that it took me for each book was just over 1 minute. By the end of the workday, I hadn’t even finished the first 1st teacher’s list of 371 books.

2:56:28 The average class at my school has 286 books. Going with this 1 minute per book ratio, the average class takes a minimum 5 hours of vetting time. Assuming there are zero distractions or breaks on my part, multiply that by the 39 classrooms in my school and you can start to see my dilemma.

2:56:36 If I did nothing but vet books all day long, it it would take me 25 days of nonstop work. But I’m also required to teach eight grade level classes. I have VPK at my school, so it’s really 84 workdays of me vetting classroom library books during every spare moment of my planning time to complete the vetting process at my school.

2:56:42 I have 15,000 books in my school media center that need to be vetted as well, so we can add another 108 days. This is a total of 192 work days needed. That’s more than a whole year to review the books at my school.

2:56:51 In addition to vetting books, of course, I also have the responsibility of planning lessons, adding newly purchased books into my inventory, running a live morning news show every day, and reshoving about 2000 books a month that have been checked out by my students. As I mentioned at the beginning, we need your help. I’m fully aware that you, the board can’t change the state, but you can do your part in helping us follow the law.

2:56:55 I ask you a few things. I ask you to find the budget to bring back our assistance. This will alleviate the daily processing and shelving tasks that were placed on our shoulders last year when the assistant position was cut.

2:57:09 I would love for you to offer all media specialists a yearly stipend, just like you do for ESE. For all the added clerical work that we are now required to do. Another solution that can be done tomorrow is to place, or, sorry, to put into place tomorrow is to coordinate with our school leaders so we don’t get assigned intervention groups or as last minute substitutes, or in the case of one school, an ESOL coordinator, so that we can finish the tasks that are required to us.

2:57:27 Lastly, I invite all of you and all of the parents that are concerned about the books in our libraries to come visit our libraries. Come volunteer. There is absolutely plenty of work to be done.

2:57:41 Thank you, Mister Jos, appreciate your time. Mister Bryan, please come speak. Kyle Savage.

2:57:53 Bernie. Benny Jackson. Good evening.

2:58:22 Is it okay to start? Yes, sir. Okay. Good evening.

2:58:44 Thank you so much, Mister Susan and Mister Schiller, for, for what I saw today. Thank you for your transparency with the data. And to be honest with you, I think I have all of those different data memorized.

2:59:07 For the last three, four years. I’ve been studying the data, looking at where opportunities are, but I was very much encouraged today. And thank you, Mister Trent, with some of the words you said, that we’re going to invest in those areas that really need help the most.

2:59:27 I just want to remind you that when you look at the data, african american students, the gap is around 30% to 35%. And I’m losing sleep with that data every day. I work with a lot of children every day.

2:59:46 Working with them, mentoring them, trying to give them opportunities to really learn reading and math. If you can’t do reading and math, our kids are going to struggle. And when you look at the Clarence house data, a lot of our kids, only 40% of our african american kids are going to college and only 60% of our white kids are going to college.

2:59:55 And when you look at the poverty rate in our county, some subgroups are at 74% in poverty. So I really thank you so much. I really want you to give us some your strategic plan.

3:00:03 How you going to attack this? How are you going to help every child? Because every student matter. So if you will please consider this, if you will look at those title one schools that need help the most, that need opportunities in reference to resources and IAS. I think we have a tremendous opportunity there as well.

3:00:10 But I want to challenge you. I believe we have some difficult days ahead, but I think if we work together as a team, we can make that happen. I’m very concerned with HB one, how that’s going to impact our students, how it’s going to impact our public schools, and how it’s going to impact our facilities and how it’s going to impact our capital.

3:00:38 And I’m very concerned about that. So I would ask this board if you will do a trial budget on worst case scenario with some assumptions on what those impacts are going to be. Because when that time hits us, and it’s going to be very soon, we’re going to be reactive instead of proactive.

3:01:00 So the community is asking you to take some time, provide us some numbers on what the impact is going to be toward our staffing, what it’s going to be toward our capital, and what it’s going to be toward our resources. Because those days going to hurt us very, very soon. So thank you.

3:01:26 Thank you Doctor Schiller, for allowing the data to be presented today. And if Mister Bryan can do anything, let me know. Thank you very much, Mister Bryant.

3:01:36 Kyle Savage, then Benny Jackson. Kyle Savage, then Kyle. Sir, if we have Kyle go first.

3:02:00 You okay? You okay? All right, we’ll switch it around. Mister Jackson, go ahead. I’m sorry, I thought I was, thought I was next.

3:02:12 My name is Benny Jackson. I’m the current president of the southbound bar NAACP. And I would like to just follow on with what Mister Bryan had asked related to the data that was presented today and the mission of this board, to serve every student with excellence as the standard to be able to see that implemented with this budget that’s going to be made.

3:02:18 Because that addressing the equality and the equity means that where the problems are, additional resources and additional monies will be provided. And so I challenge this board to represent that, so that the community can see that. And then I have different topic.

3:02:40 I have a question related to the discipline policies related to hate speech. When I looked at the discipline policy, I didn’t see any language that was directly related to hate speech. And as a result of that, those situations are not being addressed, in my opinion, appropriately because it’s not being elevated to a level that it needs to be.

3:02:51 And so I would ask this board to be sure to include language that identifies that. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

3:03:05 Did you want to speak? Do you want to speak, Mister Savage? Thank you Mister Susan. Doctor Schiller, members of the board, I want to start by thanking Scott and Angela, the first two speakers that are amazing media specialists in Brevard county and also amazing BFT members. I want to point that out, but I think then, because they reached out with an issue they want to solve, they want to find a solution.

3:03:14 And they brought together a very large group of media specialists to me and our union to talk about the issues facing them. And they took the courage to come here tonight and talk. So I just want to say thank you for that.

3:03:19 I want to highlight what we’re asking for. We’re not asking for the change of law. We’re not asking you to do something you can’t do.

3:03:33 We’re asking for a clear expectation of what is expected out of media specialists and a plan on how they’re going to do that. Yes, that may be more dollars, that may be more financial resources, but it may be looking at what we’re currently asking them to do and adjusting that. It may be looking at what technology is available to help them with this process, because there’s a lot of school districts in Florida that are going through the same issue.

3:03:45 So we may be able to find some creative solutions to help them out. And then finally, I just want to state their goal. Our goal, and I know every board member is up there goal, is to put books in children’s hands.

3:04:07 And the research shows, I did a bunch of research on this. The state of South Carolina did a bunch of research on this. The research showed every dollar spent in media centers, on media specialists, on library collections, increased literacy scores.

3:04:31 Other states have found the same thing. The research shows every time we put a book in a child’s hand, that improves literacy scores. So that’s our ask.

3:04:47 Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Mister Savage.

3:04:59 Miss Julie Bywater, Diana Haynes, and Shane McCullough. Miss Julie good evening. I’m Julie Bywater.

3:05:07 I am a member of the local Brevard chapter of moms for Liberty. But tonight I am here about your signs. I have challenged this board for months on end.

3:05:15 Every time I got up here and spoke to you, I challenged you about these signs. And tonight it happened. We’ve got this great sign in the back of the room, and I know that the people watching on the video, the YouTube, they can’t see that sign, but you see the sign up front that says, to serve every student with excellence as the standard.

3:05:26 That sign is also in the back of the room. So when I challenged the board months and months ago to have that sign so that they were looking at it every time they were up there on the board, that sign is there and I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart, because I thought it was something that the community needed, the board needed, and it looks great. You guys did a great job.

3:05:29 I love the big sign in the back of the room. And I think it’s really important to take the time to recognize these wins where we have come together, where we have challenged each other, and we have said, hey, let’s do this. It’s the right thing to do.

3:05:34 I know that many people in this room don’t always come together in these situations, but, you know, we can. We can all work together. And I really appreciate you doing that for me.

3:05:38 Thank you. Thank you very much, Miss Diana Haynes. Shane McMull Cay and Elmer Roy, please.

3:05:42 Hello there. I’m a parent and one of my children is non binary. I don’t send kids to public schools.

3:05:51 What is your name? Sorry? What’s your name, ma’am? My name is Emer Mulcahy. Emer Roy Mulcahy. My child is going next right behind me.

3:05:57 Shane Mulcahy. Yeah. No, you’re.

3:06:33 Miss Diana Haynes is up next. Okay. Okay.

3:06:52 No, no, no. Okay, thank you. No, you’re good.

3:07:09 And it’s Elmer Roy after you. Yeah, I didn’t hear that. So Diana Haynes and Elmer Roy.

3:07:26 Thank you. Yeah. Actually, Mister Susan, would you mind waiting until people aren’t clapping because we don’t hear you when you call the names? Okay.

3:07:39 Yeah. Thanks. So I’m still a parent of a non binary youth.

3:08:16 I don’t send my kids to public ed for them to be hothouse flowers protected. How is it the mission statement for excellence for gay or trans existence to be removed from books, etcetera, showing them and peer students that humans like them belong in the world? It’s also dehumanizing to refuse to address students how they wish, not excellence, and then purport to be concerned for their survival and well being. As happened earlier, predetermination and censorship is proven by a board, reducing media specialists or assistance from their core expertise.

3:08:44 It’s like removing a surgeon from a brain surgery team and surprised when Frankenstein evolves. Isolating and targeting groups is foreseeable. They’ll be seen as different by peers, and no one wants their existence eradicated in school and society.

3:08:53 Unless you’re an extremist with an agenda most school taxpayers do not want. This is not serving every student with any excellence. Parents do not want academic, only focus the parts being removed.

3:08:59 Queer inclusion, growth from learning real history are key parts of social emotional education. Please keep in mind. Respect is two way, and asking students your policies are targeting to be respectful does not have a foundation.

3:09:14 In reality. We would rather be safe if focus was not excluding queer and non binary students. Sorry.

3:09:49 Last week I was in Tallahassee trying to have equality restored to queer students and to plead for their lives. Because right now they are in danger and books are being banned disproportionately to books banned for CIS peers. Earlier on in this meeting there was it showed no support for district staff and it undermined the superintendent staff oversight role.

3:10:06 Three members showed complete lack of compassion for a brevard employee and willingness to expose two lawsuits by not using a qualified legal counsel. Also, section 504 is a key part of education law, so that person had direct experience on its implementation. Finally, Mister Susan, I absolutely respect your chair and it looks very comfortable up there.

3:10:27 Thank you. Next up is Miss Diana Haynes, please. Then it’s Shane.

3:10:36 No. Who was she then? Good evening. Oh, okay.

3:11:03 Just come up and go. The Colorado Springs shooter was identified as nonbinary. The Denver shooter was identified as trans, the Aberdeen shooter was identified as trans, and the Nashville shooter was identified as trans.

3:11:11 What I witnessed here in this room at the last board meeting was beyond appalling. Usually I’m chastising you all regarding your decorum up there or some members, but this time I’m chastising the members in the audience because I want to know how dare they stand at this podium and threaten the chairperson, threaten Mister Trent, and just make the most outlandish, ridiculous statements. The threats were just unbelievable.

3:11:20 We should not allow that and they should be banned. There was a woman that stood here and not once, but twice referenced supporting the second amendment. Now, for those of us that conceal, carry, or avid gun users, we know what that means.

3:11:30 We all know what that means. So I see that as a direct threat. And I’d like to know that this board is going to take steps that when individuals come up here and make those types of physical threats against you or people in the audience or anyone, that they are barred from coming back into this room because you put us all at risk.

3:11:33 That’s one thing. The other thing I would like to talk about, since this kind of has to do with decorum. I know that I have spoken about Miss Jenkins in the past regarding comments.

3:11:35 I have spoken also about the lawsuit with the Steele family and the fact that she is the only member in a list of plaintiffs or defendants that is being sued for defamation because her posts were on her official page. But now we’ve gone to Twitter. And Twitter is just such a wonderful thing.

3:11:42 I’d like to get an opinion on this. Not only of the public, but maybe the board. Dear Florida legislatures, I currently have my period.

3:11:48 I talked to my six and a half year old about it when she saw the tampon string. Makes you uncomfortable. Try a middle.

3:12:03 Are you serious? You’re an adult woman. I feel for your six year old child that that is what she’s going to have to remember. She’ll address me as the school chair.

3:12:14 Thank you. I thought we could address board members. You just have to do it through me.

3:12:24 Oh, okay. Well, you just have to address me. Thank you.

3:12:39 So I’ve made my point. Last point. Public records, November.

3:12:50 I have been requesting for a videotape. We all know the conversation. Okay.

3:13:11 I would like that tape by tomorrow or I am going to have to pursue the state statute on failure to maintain public records. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Haynes.

3:13:19 Next up is Elmer Roy. Katherine Ebersberger. Kimberly Bothello.

3:13:23 Botello. Botello. Yep.

3:13:31 Elmer Roy, please. So, I don’t know what the speaker was on about. What the all trans people are spooky, violent and will literally murder your children thing.

3:13:38 I would like to point out that the Denver shooter was proc. I would like to point out that the Denver shooter was precariously identified as transgender by a single police chief in a press conference. It has not since been confirmed by anyone.

3:13:45 And it was. And the person above them made no comment about it when asked. Media specialists are really important.

3:13:55 You should probably not remove them from the process of banning books. Also, I don’t really know what the whole thing about book banning being a myth is. I guess you could say that it’s the unilateral removal of content from school libraries, but that’s kind of a mouthful.

3:14:03 And I know since. Maddie. Matt, your finger’s probably pretty itchy to mute me, given what happened last time.

3:14:16 Mister Roy, please stick to the topic. Please. Okay.

3:14:31 My topic was pretty vague. It was student issues. You’re a governing entity over schools.

3:14:35 I am a student, therefore. And I am in a school, therefore. You are part of the topic.

3:14:45 Cool. Please keep going, mister Roy. Okay.

3:14:54 School boards are allegedly apolitical. Don’t use them to campaign for DeSantis and Jeanne Weenie. You’re the.

3:15:09 You represent every. So, mister Roy, I’m going to stop for a second. Using coin terms and names and nicknames and all that stuff’s not appropriate.

3:15:28 If you can just speak to the topic, I’d greatly appreciate it. And thank you. Sorry I wasn’t aware that the rule was that I couldn’t hurt your feelings, I thought that it was that I couldn’t and say disruptive things or swears or stuff like that.

3:15:58 I guess that should have probably been made clear beforehand, but good to know. So, Jean Trent, representative of district two, over the thing you said a few meetings. Mister Roy, if you can address me as the chair, please just stop.

3:16:19 Just stop. Okay, cool. I’m really sorry.

3:16:36 To your chair. It has a really disgusting person on it. Very corrupt, inept, inebriated, invertebrate.

3:16:58 And bye. Since you seem to want to interrupt me at every single stage, over the most minor things you can do. Bye bye.

3:17:11 Good. Next up, Miss Katherine Ebersberger. My name is Kathy Eberts, worker, and I’m a concerned taxpayer and community member.

3:17:20 The 34% proficiency rate in ELA and 31% proficiency rate in math for black students cannot be tolerated. We have an awesome staff and teachers, and it’s not their fault. But clearly black students are being left behind.

3:17:52 And I ask, with this kind of rape, how is this different from the segregated schools that our students grandparents attended? We must do better for our african american students, and not only in the area of student achievement. This year, the board has heard repeatedly about the disproportionate number of african american students caught up in the discipline process. This disproportionality persists at every stage.

3:18:16 I’ve complimented you before on the energy you brought to attacking the discipline problem plaguing our schools. You brought community leaders and union representatives together in a workshop to discuss the problem. You heeded the union’s call for changes by reconvening the discipline committee.

3:18:26 Yet the black community leaders voices had no effect. They repeatedly stated that we needed to know why the policy had a disproportionate effect on black students. Mister Bryan and the NAACP have pled for an answer.

3:18:46 Why are black students being caught more than white students? And you have apparently done nothing to answer the important question. I don’t have any idea why there is this disparity. It might be innocent, but whether you intend to or not, your silence gives the appearance of not caring about black kids.

3:18:56 I pray this is merely a question of dropping the ball and is not intentional. But imagine what this says to our black students and families. They might think you don’t care.

3:19:14 You think black students behave. Behave worse than white kids. You think black students deserve to be punished more than white kids.

3:19:32 Critical race theory can be stated as a theory that the rules and regulation of government entities such as school boards are stacked against people of color. We aren’t allowed to teach CRT, but I want to remind you that there are different ways of teaching. And ignoring the fact that black students are disproportionately being caught up in our discipline rules just might teach our students that CRT is not a theory, but a fact.

3:19:50 Thank you Miss Elderham. Kimberly Botello. Christine Stannis, Karen Colby please go ahead.

3:20:02 All right, good evening. My name is Kimberly Votello and I’m a media specialist at Sunrise Elementary School. I was a classroom teacher for 18 years and have been a teacher librarian for eight years.

3:20:20 I am the 2012 Brevard County Teacher of the year. I only mention this title because I proudly represented Brevard county at the state level in 2012 and I stand before you now still proud of my profession. But I’m asking you to consider the heavy responsibilities of a media specialist with the passage of this news law.

3:20:41 Let me start by sharing you what my day looks like as a media specialist. Sunrise currently has 800 students. I start the morning with a live news program with students as anchors and Tesla technicians.

3:21:00 I write the script for the show during my planning, which airs each morning in every classroom in the school. Next, I teach seven classes a day from kindergarten through 6th grade, and I have 26 through 37 students in each class. I teach seven classes a day.

3:21:09 I start the class with a read aloud that supports a standard at a media connection. Then I tie a hands on STEM lesson that includes engineering and designing with kiva planks, force emotion with gears, building butterflies with kinects, just to name a few. In addition to teaching a lesson, I check out and reshelve books for 800 students.

3:21:16 My students can check out two books. That means I’m checking out and reshelveing as many as 1200 to 1600 books a week. I also purchase new books, put those books in the system, repair the books, send out late notices, run a reading incentive program, and schedule and run a book fair.

3:21:20 I do this all without a media assistant. The job was cut because of budgetary needs. Brevard county has had media assistance for 24 of the 26 years that I’ve been teaching.

3:21:32 There is an overwhelming need for assistance now more than ever. Now, on top of what I do daily, I need to vet 14,000 books in my library as well as classroom libraries. If each of the 40 teachers at Sunrise had 200 books in their classroom library, I need to vet an additional 8000 books.

3:21:45 I cannot do this without assistance. We need help to follow the new law because after all, we are the only ones at the school who can vet the book, since the state has deemed us the only qualified people in the state who can do the vetting. So we need assistance back in the library to do the clerical day to day duties so that we can properly vet the books.

3:21:55 Also, we deserve to be on the committee reviewing the books that are challenged. So you’re letting media specialists vet the books at the schools but not have a seat at the table when books are challenged? Does that make sense? I am on the state Ssyra junior committee. I reviewed 500 books to pick the top 15 books in the state.

3:22:27 Yet with my expertise, they say that’s a conflict. Isn’t that a bonus? Now, above all the things I do as a media specialist, my most important, important job is to foster. Oops.

3:22:45 So, in closing, I’m asking the board simply for help. We need your help to follow the new law. So look into the budget to find a way to add media assistance back.

3:22:57 Thank you. Miss Patello. Miss Christine Stannis.

3:23:10 Karen Colby. Albert Callahan. Hi, my name is Christine Staniak.

3:23:21 I’m the media specialist at satellite High school. I’m just coming to address questions to the board regarding the book consideration policy. Today I had the pleasure of listening briefly to the board meeting that you guys had.

3:23:33 When we talked about the library policy, I did not see any outside sources being brought in to address any of the issues or ask for any input. However, when the policy of dress code came up, I noticed Jean Trent said we needed to call on the principal’s experience. Matt, Susan, you said that we needed to bring stakeholders to come in and the principals know what’s best.

3:23:44 However, when the book reconsideration policy came out, nobody addressed anything with any media specialist, any principals, any stakeholders. It was just rewritten. As is, we do have experience, and I feel like our experience is being discounted.

3:24:06 The biggest issue I think teachers are facing right now, besides discipline and pay and lack of support, is that policy is done to us. Policy is not done with us. You are not including us in the conversations, and we are the people that know what is going on in the schools.

3:24:13 Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Next up, Miss Karen Colby, Albert Callahan and Lindsey Blair.

3:24:23 Hey, y’all. I’m a mom of six kids that all went through brevard public schools successfully, and most of them graduated with a 3.8 or higher GPA.

3:24:42 My kids were not discipline problems, not one of them. They also were good kids with volunteering in the community. Now, with that said, I am also an expert at this meeting.

3:24:58 Media material issue. Because of having to deal with six kids of different ages, different interests and everything. I became quite adept at looking at these books.

3:25:13 I’ve been helping read some of the ones that are questionable. I just want to assure anybody listening to me that there’s nothing personal in any of those books. It doesn’t matter if I like trans people or not.

3:25:30 What I don’t like to see is pictures of naked children in these books at schools and interacting with adults in a way that’s inappropriate. Most of the books that I reviewed have that in there. I can’t think of a single educational need for seeing a naked child interacting with an adult naked body at school or at home.

3:25:38 If people choose to do that at home, I respect it. Now, about vetting these books parents can vet. We make an interactive forum.

3:25:48 I heard y’all are making a new forum for the book challenges. We can do them online and have this issue handled in no time. We can do as many as 50 challenges a day, get them settled.

3:25:55 If you guys don’t have a problem with the books and the nudity that we’re finding and the words that I can’t say on this microphone, but you want a five year old to look at, I think that. I think that we can help you. We’ll go through the books, any books that need vetted, I will find a committee of people who will vet them fairly and accurately.

3:26:08 I like the way they’re laughing, you see, because we’re trying to keep the children as children. We don’t need to have kids violating ethics and other normalities of life just because they choose to be different. And I think different is great.

3:26:23 I wasn’t a normal child in that I wasn’t a bookish and I wasn’t an easily labeled child. I did a lot of things, and there are kids that you can’t label, and I respect that. But when they want label, by God, they’re up here ready to fight for it, and they’re insulting you.

3:26:31 And I apologize as a parent to anyone listening who heard the words coming out of these kids mouths directed at my respect. As school board members, we worked very hard to put you guys there. So if you need help from an experienced media specialist, I read every single book at the schools I went to.

3:26:35 I was their library aide all the time there. That’s ocean breeze, hoover and satellite. I read every stinking book.

3:26:44 I still remember my library card number, 4347. So I’m here to help, and I’m free, and I will include anybody you want and listen fairly. I will help you.

3:26:55 Nobody needs to be worried about needing media specialists and spending more money when we could get free. I’m free. I’ll help you.

3:27:17 Thank you. Thank you, Miss Colby. Next up, Albert Callahan, Lindsey Blair, Gregory Ross.

3:27:43 We have a much bigger problem than a few books that might not meet community standards. Whoever chose those books also had their chance to get rid of books that they didn’t like. And that was done quietly, without any input from the community, without any transparency.

3:27:52 I checked a few books to see what. What might be missing, and it’s alarming. I looked up our current supreme court justice, Clarence Thomas.

3:27:57 He’s written a number of books. You would expect that to be in our high schools. Nothing.

3:28:15 Not a single book by Clarence Thomas. Then I looked up his primary influence, Thomas Sowell. You would also expect that to be in our schools.

3:28:34 He’s been writing books since 1971, and his most recent is out in 2020. A long history of writing books, 51 of them. And a well known author writing primarily on economics.

3:28:45 But nothing, zero. Not a single one of Thomas Sowell’s books anywhere in the schools. You might wonder why these two, you could say, is it because they might be conservative black intellectuals? Or maybe because they share the name Thomas? I think we know the real reason here.

3:29:13 We have a problem of things being filtered. And if we get rid of a few of the most extreme, offensive books, we haven’t done anything to right the overall bias. We have a problem of an extreme bias to begin with, and we can get rid of the most extreme issues and say, okay, we’ve gotten rid of that, but we haven’t fixed the fundamental problem of the overall book selection.

3:29:25 Extremely biased. Somebody is getting a video on books. They are getting to ban books without any input from the public.

3:29:38 Nobody’s seeing the band. There’s no hearings. It doesn’t go up for a challenge.

3:29:49 Somebody is banning books like those of Thomas Sowell and Clarence Thomas. These books are just disappearing. And so that is a book ban that is active right now and has been ongoing for many years and has tainted the whole collection, creating a gigantic bias on the entire collection.

3:30:07 That is a book ban. Thank you, sir. Lindsey Blair, Gregory Ross, Peyton Smith, please.

3:30:32 Good evening, everyone. When I signed up for this, I intended to talk about volunteering and hoping that we could find a way to expand the fingerprinting aspect. It is hard to get here during the workday.

3:30:44 If there is a way we could find a way to partner with the Brevard county sheriffs so that I can go to my local precinct or some of these we can have events during school board meetings. You know, maybe we can pay a little overtime to people who would like it and expand our fingerprinting time so people that come here and want to be involved have the opportunity to get fingerprinted for the volunteer system. Now, as of course, you know, the meeting progressed.

3:30:55 I had other things I wanted to say. My daughter is in second grade. She has a speech delay that has impacted her, Ela, from the moment she started.

3:31:12 She started kindergarten in the COVID year. So her first year was over the computer and facing that challenge. At the beginning of this school year, she was on the watch list for ElA.

3:31:28 She improved from a 39 percentile to 81 over this course of this year. And I credit that to her teacher. It was wonderful.

3:31:33 And to her media specialist, who took the time to help her find cat books. Every single cat book in existence has come through my child’s backpack. I didn’t even know some of these cats existed.

3:31:38 So for that and these gains, which also great funding for this system, our media specialists are doing that. They’re instilling that love to create this understanding. She now knows some latin words because of this, because of studying this in second grade, but she can’t pronounce them.

3:31:45 She can’t sound out words. One other thing, though. Before I had enough wrinkles that I could hold a dime here from frowning.

3:31:52 Years ago, I work in defense contract. I wanted to move up my job. It wasn’t a great economy, but I tried.

3:32:05 I applied and I was the best candidate promotion from within. I got stopped by our president at the time saying, we need you and that lower job. We can’t afford to lose you.

3:32:24 We need that job filled. In that moment, I held a professional face. I walked back to my desk, I took PTO, and I immediately started applying for other jobs because I knew now I was no longer supported.

3:32:45 It wasn’t a great economy. I got fixed, things got better. But my time is up.

3:33:05 Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Gregory Ross.

3:33:16 Peyton Smith. Rachel Jolly. Mister Ross, thank you, board.

3:33:24 Good evening. I’m going to kind of ramble here for a little bit, Paul. I think you can appreciate that.

3:33:33 Quite a few topics to talk about tonight. First thing I want to talk about is my name is Greg Ross. My address is 1857 Thomasville Avenue, Southeast Palm Bay, Florida 32909.

3:33:39 So why do I put that in there? Mister Trent, in a workshop a couple of weeks ago, one of the requests you had on the book reconsideration meeting was for challenges to be anonymous. Well, I think I appreciate the intent, I have a real problem with it. Right.

3:33:54 If you’re going to get out in the public domain and you’re going to make accusations or you’re going to make challenges to books, that needs to be public. Right. It’s one of the great things about America is if you want to stand on the street corner, you can do that and you can preach to the.

3:34:02 Preach to the choir if you want. But what comes with that is the requirement that you have to listen to disagreement and condemnation of your opinion. Okay? If people want to get up here and they want challenge books, they need to stand up and say who they are.

3:34:15 Now, I appreciate that the board hasn’t necessarily put anything into policy about anonymous, right. But let’s just talk about that. It’s the american way.

3:34:21 You want to ban books. You want to. You want to challenge books, stand up and be counted.

3:34:27 I want to thank you, Miss Wright. Actually, I want to thank you because you at least sit here when somebody’s talking to you and you look them in the eye. Thank you.

3:34:29 That’s respectful. I appreciate it. Okay.

3:34:39 One of the other topics I want to talk about real quick was we’ve had a couple members of the NAACP get up here tonight and talk about the learning gaps and the learning gains. Right. And the issues they have.

3:34:53 I haven’t heard anybody up here talk about what’s the cause of these issues. Right. Hopefully, you guys will work towards that.

3:35:30 Right. All I would ask is, what are you gonna do when you find out the cause is systemic bias unintentional? But what are you going to do when that comes up? Right. That’s the question that they’re asking you.

3:35:52 What are you going to do when that. That is what happens. That that’s what you see as part of the problem or a driving force.

3:36:14 Right. If only there was some. Some way we could teach about systemic bias in our country.

3:36:45 Right. That would be great. Right.

3:37:00 We could all get educated and learn how to deal with this issue. So please, follow the science, follow the data, and do the right thing. Thank you.

3:37:22 Thank you. Peyton Smith. Rachel Jolly, Rebecca McAlleen.

3:37:44 There are a few things I would like to say about the new review committee for the books, but the main thing I need to focus on is that media specialists absolutely must have a vote on the new committee to review books. According to the Florida Department of Education, in order to become a certified media specialist, you must have, at minimum, a bachelor’s degree that includes at least 30 credit hours, the equivalent of a minor at university in education, media or library science. This includes courses in evaluating and selecting library media resources, books and literature for children and adolescents.

3:37:53 They take courses in child development and how to foster critical thinking and problem solving. Once they have the job, they are required to take multiple hours of personal development each year, including the most recent set of training from your bosses at the Florida department of Education. That requires media specialists to consider the broad racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and cultural diversity of the students in the state as they select instructional material.

3:38:06 They are subject matter experts that we should listen to. Our media specialists dedicate years of their lives, and I don’t even want to know how much money to helping children find ways to connect with books, to love reading, to grow into productive members of society. They don’t receive any kickbacks from publishers or special treatment for what books they have on the shelves.

3:38:08 So, misses Wright, when I read in an email that you wrote that you think that there’s a conflict of interest by placing individuals employed by the district district on your book review committee, I want to know what interests you think our media specialists have that conflict with yours. In that same email, you claimed that your goal is to protect children. How are our media specialists in conflict with that goal? What I have to infer when I read that you think that our librarians have a conflict of interest with your goal of protecting children is that you don’t trust the people our district has hired.

3:38:18 So why? Like all of our teachers, our media specialists want to see children succeed. They want our youth to grow up to be lifelong learners. Preparing a resilient, empathetic generation of students for life outside the classroom is protecting them.

3:38:26 Many of our students are already experiencing or witnessing the hardships of life like drug use or abuse that are described in the books that are being challenged. Trying to hide those struggles without any consideration for the merit of the work or the lessons learned by and from the characters in those stories. Stories is a myopic, foolish waste of time that we have to raise and prepare our children for the rest of their lives.

3:38:40 For the record, since some of the members of this board seem to misunderstand what a constituent is, this board represents everyone in this room and in the district, not just the people who voted for you. I have a student at Coquina elementary and another at Jackson Middle School, which makes me your constituent, misses Wright. And I say for the record that I don’t want someone who reflects your understanding of protection on the book review committee.

3:38:51 I want someone who has education and experience with children and literature. I want someone with expertise. Thank you.

3:39:15 Thank you, Miss Smith, Miss Jolly, Rebecca McMillan, and Michelle Beavers. Here we go. You did say Rochelle Jolly? Yeah, I did.

3:39:41 Okay. Because it’s just hard to hear. Hear you when everyone’s clapping.

3:39:58 Well, and that is a good point. If we can, as an audience, the cheering is carrying out a little bit. So if we can cheer and then end it so that we can call up the appropriate people, that’d be great.

3:40:15 Thank you. Thanks. I would like to address the board concerning the proposed change of 25 21 instructional materials program.

3:40:22 The removal of the voice or vote of the media specialists, content specialists, and school representatives from the book review committee will be a detriment to our children. We have amazing and wonderful teachers and media specialists serving our students. Their knowledge and experience are incredibly important and valuable.

3:40:54 I currently have a fifth grader in Brevard Public School. He does not like to read, and if he heard me say that, he would say that was an understatement. He hates to read.

3:41:13 At the beginning of each year, when we meet his teacher, I always inform them that he does not like to read. Every teacher has then immediately questioned me at what his interests are and what his favorite things are, because he or she would love to be able to find something that will spark the love of reading in my child. This is something I greatly appreciate.

3:41:35 The same thing happens with media specialists. I’ve had many children go through the Brevard public school system, and more than once they have come home and said that the media specialist, or what they call the librarian at their school, found them a book that they thought they might like. This is invaluable, especially when you have a child who struggles with reading or who does not like to read.

3:41:51 Our current media specialist knows my son and his interests and makes sure that those books are available to him because she, too, hopes to spark a love of reading. I imagine that she does this for all of the children in our school, which is a lot. Media specialists and teachers know each one of the children.

3:42:20 This provides them with a special knowledge of the diverse school population. This knowledge enables them to select books that will meet the many different interests of the students. Having a diverse media center that reflects the diverse student population is necessary for a well rounded education.

3:42:31 Their voices are invaluable in the book review process. I encourage you to include them on this process. Thank you.

3:42:38 Thank you very much, Rebecca. It’s Macaleen. In all the letters, I initially was going to come and talk about what I watched today during the workshop, specifically, obviously, about books, and then listening to the people who are very well versed and are amazing media specialists.

3:42:52 I think they’ve literally said everything they can possibly say to affect your opinions about why they should be included. One of the things that was interesting to me, and I know these comments are really literally an exercise in futility, because I really feel like you’ve already made up your mind. But we cannot let these things go unchallenged in a democracy.

3:43:22 So I’m going to say them anyway. Apparently we are supposed to err on the side of caution to protect our children. But in the opinion of the board here, only the people that you choose are able to protect our children, not the people who you hired as competent media specialists to help choose these books.

3:43:35 The books that are constantly being described with genitals, those are not in the curriculum, those are not being taught. And actually, that book that’s continually brought up that with genitals in it, isn’t it? Not even on the shelves anymore. So that probably should be taken off of the table.

3:43:53 Are some parents rights more valid than other parents? Is it my right to have a book in a library that speaks to my child’s needs, whether they have been abused, like we hear every meeting, or there are some sexual assaults or any of those things, those voices are so important. And so to have your picked, chosen people decide because they have six kids. If I have six kids and I read books, does that, if I’ve driven six cars in my life, am I an auto mechanic now? That’s not reasonable.

3:44:07 There are people who are trained to do this, and that’s what we need to do. A conflict of interest would be you guys voting for something for your children’s school, because that’s a conflict of interest. You wanted a.

3:44:13 A track update for your district. That’s a conflict of interest, but you’re doing your job and you’re doing it fairly. I assume so.

3:44:28 To assume that someone that you hired or that this board has hired is not qualified because it’s a conflict of interest for them to actually do their job is absolute insanity. It is insanity. I can’t even understand it.

3:44:53 I can’t understand it. And so I would hope that at some point, when you are clarifying the position, as you did during the workshop, of what you think we are believing that you’re doing about protecting the children that you would actually address, why you think this a conflict of interest and why you feel so strongly about keeping my children and other people’s children away from books that have nothing that your kid may not even look at, or some of these other people it’s not like that. You can’t say, go to the store and buy a book that’s called equity.

3:45:15 And we learned about that tonight in academics and how we are not serving our children with equity and how these schools are not doing it. How do you think these kids are going to go to the store and buy this books? Please do your job. Thank you, Rebecca.

3:45:39 Miss Michelle Beavers and Nicole Cannon, up next. Hello, board. I wanted to start with the glad moment that we talked about earlier when we had the teacher of the year.

3:45:53 I’m so glad we all came together today in this room, everybody, to help our kids and that everyone has the kids in the best interest of their heart when they come here. We don’t say we’re banning cigarettes. We make cigarettes available for 21 and up.

3:46:03 And we don’t say we’re banning alcohol when that’s available for 21 and up. We’re not banning books. We’re simply making them age appropriate.

3:46:19 And the best place for some of these books is our public library. Some of them just simply aren’t appropriate for our schools, and some aren’t appropriate for junior high and some are appropriate for elementary, depending on what we’re talking about. Media specialists are overburdened, and I really appreciate that.

3:46:26 They’re wonderful people and they have a lot on their plate, and they can’t possibly know what’s in all these books. So when we challenge a book, it’s not because the specialist necessarily even knows about that book, because we found the book and it’s inappropriate, and they wouldn’t have probably put that book on the shelf on purpose on some of these books. And in some cases, they still keep them after we have put in challenges.

3:46:35 So I appreciate the parents that will be on the committee helping decide what this book should stay or not because we already know the librarian’s opinion on that book is going to be keep it. I hope you can sit down with these librarians and hear what they have to say and try to help them, because they do have more than they can possibly do. And it is something that’s been overlooked.

3:46:59 And I would really appreciate it if you would get a room full of them together and brainstorm on how to fix the problem, because we don’t want to overburden that resource that we have. These people are the ones who help every child that comes to their door every day, and they shouldn’t have to choose between doing their paperwork and attending to a child. It just shouldn’t have to be that kind of a choice.

3:47:06 I also want to dispel a rumor that we have unproportionately targeted LGBTQ community in these books. There are 41 titles that I’m aware of that have been challenged. About four of those have LGBTQ themes.

3:47:10 So it is not an LGBTQ issue. It’s an inappropriate issue for what’s appropriate for children if they have. They’re having intercourse in a book, and it’s.

3:47:18 And it’s very descriptive and very detailed. It doesn’t really belong in our schools. There’s such great literature that I’m sure these librarians all know about that they can get in our schools, and that’s what we should be gearing our kids towards.

3:47:39 That was pretty much all of my points. I do hope that you assist these librarians, because they are drowning right now. Thank you.

3:47:57 Thank you, Miss Beavers. Next up is Miss Cannon. Richard Bieber, Crystal Cazy.

3:48:24 We are now on the Nicole Cannon. Miss Cannon is 21 out of 30. Let me just find where I. Sorry.

3:48:41 It’s okay. Would you like. Would you like Mister Bieber to go? Could he go first? I’m sorry.

3:49:07 No, no, no. We’ve been doing that at the beginning anyway. Doctor Bieber.

3:49:14 Mister Bieber. Hello, Rick Bieber. Two or three weeks ago.

3:49:59 So I stood here and read the first part of an article from the New Yorker. It was about a substitute teacher, part time, that was informed by his children that a book they were using in his class was no longer allowed to be used. The substitute teacher took pictures of empty bookshelves.

3:50:17 He was fired after the article of with the pictures of the empty bookshelves was published, and the governor called them misleading. The teacher worked for a contractor that provided substitute teachers for Jacksonville, Florida. They’re the ones that fired them.

3:50:21 Very recently, a Florida principal resigned over the introduction of images of the Renaissance statue of David to a 6th grade glass. This was in a private school. The Bible has been challenged in Utah to kill a mockingbird is challenged or banned in another state.

3:50:29 Teachers are covering bookshelves because of poorly defined legislation. A book used by a teacher that makes a student uncomfortable now makes a teacher uncomfortable about the consideration of liability. Hence, bookshelves are empty or covered.

3:50:47 Today, Megan Wright said only two books have been banned thus far in Brevard county. She seems to be missing the point that this book banning is making teachers teaching more difficult, and the consequences of this legislation to ban books is a nightmare. One mom’s for liberty person challenged 30 books but has withdrawn them.

3:51:13 Stop this from happening, please. This is crazy. We need media specialists overlooking this stuff.

3:51:48 It is wasteful and unreasonable. The same person’s facebook page shared that he or she was attracted to Trump and DeSantis in more salacious terms, I would be willing to bet, than any of the 30 challenge books that this person wanted reviewed about the teacher that resigned in the private school. Students in the Florida school were shown images of Michelangelo’s Renaissance period sculpture David, leading to complaints that the children were shown pornographic material.

3:53:38 Tallahassee Classical School, a private institution, gave his principal an ultimatum to quit or be fired after three parents complained. That was the school board chair that I think gave her the ultimate made him to quit or be fired. No ideas, please.

3:54:18 Mister Sisson. Thank you, mister Weber. Appreciate that.

3:54:39 Cole Cannon, if you would come back up. Thank you. Thank you.

3:55:17 I appreciate that opportunity to collect myself. I just want to say that I stand with all of these amazing media specialists that we have here, and I really hope that you guys can find the allocations for them to bring back their assistance. They need it more than anything.

3:55:53 With that said, I’m deeply saddened by the recent implosion of my children’s elementary school. Not only are we losing their wonderful administration at the end of this year, but we’re also losing eleven teachers and counting that are not going to be returning to our 2023 2024 school year. With so many open positions in our district, more than 300, I believe.

3:56:14 I’m extremely worried about what’s going to happen at my children’s elementary school next year. I would like to take a moment of silence in honor of the decades of service the students they leave behind, and the staff and teachers who deserve better than what the state of Florida and brevard public schools are giving them. I appreciate the eye contact.

3:56:50 Thank you. It it. Thank you.

3:57:18 Miss Crystal Cayze, Paul Raub, Samantha Kirvin, please. Okay, Miss Casey, if you can begin your speech, if you not prepared, then I can have Mister Rob come come up and complete it for you. And you can come up after him.

3:57:21 Good evening, distinguished board and superintendent. Doctor Schiller. I come before you as a mother to share information about a domestic terrorist threat that occurred today at Viera High School.

3:57:35 Today, during fourth period ceramics, a student named four students that she wished to bring a gun to school and kill those four students. One of those students named was my child. It was overheard by witnesses and therefore reported to administration the domestic terrorist threat to kill students at Viera High School with a weapon.

3:57:39 And so I’m standing before you, asking and begging for your help to protect the students of VR high school. And I’m pleading with you to do that, because as we all know, yesterday Audrey Hale murdered six people at a school in Nashville, three of which were children, innocent children, and three adults. So I’m.

3:57:48 I’ve come before you with concerns, different concerns, that have yet to be resolved. But this is different. I cannot impress upon you the value of each child’s life.

3:58:00 And what I am asking for you to do is to ensure the safety of the students at Viera High School. The principal of Viera High School said that she would have a meeting with me to instill a safety plan for my child. But he is terrified to attend school at Viera High School after knowing that this is actually a credible domestic terrorist threat of violence in Brevard public schools.

3:58:32 So this would be the very first time I come before you to beg you to protect these kids at VR high school. I’m begging you do everything that you can, because I. Even though the VR high school principal says that the threat is not credible, we don’t know that to be true or not. So please find it within yourself to protect these students.

3:58:53 Thank you. Miss Casey. Mister Paul Raub.

3:59:13 Samantha Kirvin. Kelly Kervin. I’m tired.

3:59:17 I mean, it’s been a long. I’ve been here. Not as long as you guys, and just the one day a week.

3:59:32 Honestly, your schedule is exhausting, all of you. I couldn’t do it, but I’m tired. I was going to be sarcastic.

3:59:44 I was going to be jokey, as I sometimes can be. I was going to joke about the circus that was happening out front, the sort of parody of an anti educational rally. But I’m tired of making so many of these same comments, complaints, suggestions.

4:00:00 I’m tired of hearing the same it’s been the bad faith olympics here this evening, talking about protecting the children, my children who you’ve never met, folks. I want to protect my children from oppression, from censorship, from fascism. I want to protect them from people who’ve never met them or me, but want to override our rights as parents of our own children, our parental rights.

4:00:05 I don’t want to take away someone else’s kid’s right to read a book which can be banned from the schools even if it exists elsewhere in the universe. Words mean things. I’m tired of hearing about challenges, about books, and will throw a lot of words in one sentence.

4:00:23 Nudity, pornography, children, elementary school kindergartners. As though those things were in anytime in contact with each other in the school district. As though the boards, as though the books that were challenged weren’t high school level books on high school shelves with no pictures of any kind.

4:00:29 I’m tired of hearing that only two books. Only two books. Only two books were removed.

4:00:32 Well, yeah. When you suspend the book review process after two meetings, things are going to slow down a bit. And then when those challenges are removed, waiting for the new wood chipper book policy.

4:00:36 Yeah, it will slow things down. I’m tired of talking about it, but I’m going to keep coming. I volunteered for that committee hoping that I might make a difference.

4:00:44 Because like many people, I was surprised again to find out that in this or the latter half of the previous century, book banning was a thing. The new proposals kind of gut that hope of actually making a difference. But I’ll still show up, I’ll still speak, I’ll still try to be heard, I will still read the whole book.

4:00:51 Even if the person’s challenging them. Don’t. If we ever have another meeting.

4:01:07 And I sincerely hope that some media specialists, again, the people who know what they are talking about, if those people are involved, that would be great, that would really be fantastic. Because again, to paraphrase what was said earlier, I’m not a media specialist, I’m a concerned parent. I’ve read a lot of books.

4:01:21 Not a media specialist. Flown on planes, not a pilot eating a lot of food, not a chef. We have people who really know what they’re doing.

4:01:33 Please give them a seat at a very important table. Thank you. Thank you.

4:01:38 Mister. Rao. Samantha Kirvin.

4:02:05 Kelly Kervin. Katie Delaney. Hey.

4:02:28 Hello. My name is Samantha. I think you all know me, I’ve been here sometimes.

4:02:34 I really have not count. Well, there’s been all this talk about book banning, I would be correct by saying that. And well, I’d like to talk about something according with that.

4:02:49 And there’s something before book banning that’s very important. Learning how to read. So when I started third grade, believe it or not, I wasn’t able to read.

4:03:15 I could not physically pick up a book, look at the letters or comprehend anything that’s on the page. It’s not because I’m stupid, I didn’t try. I tried a lot.

4:03:40 It’s. I physically couldn’t. I have something called dyslexia.

4:03:46 And even though my mother, bless her heart, she started the IEP process my second grade year, I only had any of the benefits by time my halfway between my third grade year. I know they take a while, but that’s not very great to me. So it was taking a very long time.

4:03:56 So my mother found a tutor for dyslexia, which is a lot easier said than done. There is very, very little of them out there to begin with, so it’s very difficult to find them as long can be more expensive. She would check me out every week so I can go to a tutor.

4:04:11 Her name was Bonnie. She does not live in America anymore. She was so amazing though.

4:04:31 She was able to figure out my way of learning because this way you tackle dyslexia is via the child’s way of learning. Me, I have more of a instead 2d mind, more like three d. I see things in 3d shapes.

4:04:39 I am visual, severely visual, and being, well, that much tutor. Instead of focusing on removing books from students, books that contain information that me and my peers need to know so we learn hard lessons without having to go through it ourselves. That Beamer preferred focus on teaching every student how to read.

4:04:52 And I would like to bring this up because, fun fact, if you didn’t know about 20% of your students before it, even walking in the door are bound to fail because they don’t know how to read. And because of the way you teach how to read, it’s not technically for everyone. Along with it’s not effective for everyone, especially kids with dyslexia.

4:05:05 You have no program and it was way too difficult. Thank you for your time. Bye.

4:05:17 Thank you very much, Miss Kelly Kervin. Katie Delaney. Mike Mueller.

4:05:31 I’d first like to address a comment that was made earlier today about books being written at lower levels. The United States ranks 125th in literacy. 21% of the american population is functionally illiterate, and 54% of Americans read below a 6th grade level.

4:05:46 Our gap in literacy is systemic in brevard public schools, schools continue to compound that problem by ignoring the 20% of students that have dyslexia and other language based reading disabilities. And now that that is out of the way, Miss Wright, you also didn’t come to us with educational leadership experience, and yet we’re stuck with you. And you’re also a liar and a hypocrite.

4:05:56 In your email response to parents this week, I’d like to point out a few things. You claim your position on book removals isn’t political. That’s a lie.

4:06:15 You specifically stated that you represent those who elected you, and the people you assigned to the review committee will have those same values. That is a political statement. It also suggests that the voices of people who didn’t vote for you don’t matter.

4:06:29 You represent all students. That is the job you signed up for you also did not run on the platform of firing Doctor Mullins and had you, you wouldn’t be sitting there. You claim that books aren’t going to be banned because they’re available elsewhere.

4:06:51 That’s also a lie. When you remove access to a book from a public school library, you’ve banned it from that space. You don’t get to change the meaning of a word just because it makes you uncomfortable to be considered a book band supporter.

4:07:09 It’s also a lie that only two books have been affected. Our own BPS website has a detailed list of books that were removed but didn’t necessarily go before the book review committee. The head of the book removal committee for Moms for Liberty has already outlined the future on her public Facebook page.

4:07:19 She pulled her other requests after the book review committee did not vote in favor of removing the first two books that went before the committee. She pulled those knowing that the policy was changing. The new policy which ensures there will be books, will be removed en masse.

4:07:50 You support the list of books that are going to be challenged is a mile high and you’re not prepared. Katie was smart earlier to say that the policy could be abused. It will be abused.

4:08:11 When we take information out of our children’s hands, even when the information isn’t comfortable, we open them up to be victims of abuse themselves. When they don’t know how to ask for help, when they don’t know that something is wrong, when they don’t know the names of things or how to express themselves, they become vulnerable. So do not tell me or any other parent that this policy is about keeping children safe.

4:08:30 What this board fails to do over and over again across the spectrum of policies, from self ins to discipline and book bands to dress code, is not taken into account that all students don’t come from the same background. Every student doesn’t have a parent or guardian who is protecting them. And it is the job of our schools to be their safety net.

4:08:53 By manipulating a policy to allow mass removal of books that teach and inform our students about how the world actually is, you are cutting the strings of that net. And it is the most vulnerable students who will fall through and experience trauma that will last their entire lives. Doctor Schiller, you may not have been my top pick for the interim superintendent position, but I have thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated watching you work so hard to write the BPS ship.

4:09:12 Thank you for all the time you spent here and I am thoroughly going to miss you once you are gone. Thank you. Katie Delaney Mike Mueller, Terry Takis and Ruth Coffell hold will be the last speakers.

4:09:19 Miss Delaney. Thank you. I am here to talk about money.

4:09:56 The way that procurements and capital improvements are brought forward to the board, I feel like is a huge problem. You all simply see the final phase of it, and it’s practically a rubber stamp based on what the staff says. And you all are the board, and one of your top responsibilities is deciding where the funding goes in our district.

4:10:11 I challenge this board to not just rely on staff for the budget, but deep dive into it on your own so that you know exactly where every dime is going. And the way that we deal with money needs an overhaul. It’s not working.

4:10:15 It hasn’t been working. So many things are so underfunded. Yet we have a $1.

4:10:26 5 billion budget. You know, we need to spend the money where it’s most needed. The teachers and the 1010, they need raises.

4:10:56 Frankly, anybody in our schools practically need raises. The money is going towards. The money needs to be going towards making sure that the children are achieving their academic goals and maintaining our crumbling schools, dare I say, more funding for music, athletics and extracurriculars.

4:11:12 We really need to overhaul the way that we’re doing things as far as the money goes. In light of recent events, and, I mean, we’ve been talking about this for how many years now, the discipline and the safety in our schools is. It’s out of control.

4:11:43 It’s out of control. I don’t care what you are. Left, right, center, it doesn’t matter.

4:12:06 All of us want a safe place for our kids to go to school. And frankly, I feel like leadership is undermining. Seriously, seriously undermining our, our board and our kids deserve to have a safe place to go to school, regardless of their skin color, regardless of their mental difficulties.

4:12:20 We need to put the priorities, we need to prioritize our kids and the safety of our kids and the well being of our kids. And this. I’m just speechless.

4:12:29 Thank you, Miss Delaney. Mike Mueller. Kerry Takis.

4:12:48 Ruth Cofford. Yeah. Good evening, board.

4:12:57 My name is Mike Muller and I’m a gay dad of two children who are currently enrolled in bps. As you can see from my t shirt, I am with gays against groomers, a nonpartisan coalition of gay, lesbian and transgender people who are fighting against the sexualization and medicalization of children. I am here this evening to let you know that we are completely and totally opposed to sexually explicit content in, to our public school libraries.

4:13:17 In a world where we have access to anything and everything on the Internet. I do not understand why certain people are hell bent on keeping pornographic material in our school libraries. To those individuals, and you know who you are.

4:13:29 Either you are trying hard to virtue signal to show everybody how wonderfully inclusive and progressive you are, or perhaps your motives are much more nefarious. In the latter case, we seriously have to wonder what exactly is on your computer’s hard drive. Stop using the LGBTQ community as a shield to promote your twisted agenda.

4:13:43 But if you’re virtue signaling, and I’d like to include certain members of the board here, please stop. You’re literally hurting the gay community and your efforts are backfiring. After finally achieving full equality, support for us and families like mine is now slipping.

4:14:14 Stop using the gay community as a proposal. It is not anti gay to remove sexually explicit books from school libraries. It’s just common sense.

4:14:27 On behalf of gays against groomers and myself, I thank you very much for your time. Thank you Mister Mueller. Kerry Takis.

4:14:42 Ruth Caufold, Carrie Takis. Firearms are prohibited from Brevard schools. Vapes are prohibited from brevard schools.

4:14:55 So there’s no reason that pornography shouldn’t be prohibited from brevard schools. Adults can go and get it outside of our schools. Doesn’t belong here.

4:24:35 I have not heard one person come to this school board and say they have a problem with banning guns or banning vapes. So I’m just mind blown why we wouldn’t apply that to pornography as well. The book policy parents are asking for is straightforward.

4:24:49 We want inappropriate, explicit pornography removed from school grounds. Doesn’t matter if it’s gay, straight, bi, whatever, it’s pornography. And that’s the problem.

4:24:54 The issue we should be focusing on, which was touched on by multiple people before me, is that our kids can’t read. In this county, that’s a huge problem. Only 58% of third graders are proficient.

4:25:11 In Ela, 60% of fourth graders, 61% of fifth graders, 64% of 7th graders, 52% of 8th graders, 55% of 9th graders, and 54% of 10th graders are proficient. They’re struggling, and they’ve taken a backseat to a culture war where adults rally with the heads of their local officials, taped to sticks where fake fire. They have fake fire, they insult our sheriff, and they wear costumes while accusing other people of being nazis.

4:25:22 We’re supposed to be here to prepare our children for adulthood. They will be hopelessly disadvantaged if they cannot read on grade level when they leave Brevard public school schools. All we want is this inappropriate content removed.

4:25:28 You’re free to buy it or check it out at the public library if you want it that bad. But it’s not appropriate, especially for our youngest kids. Thank you, Miss Ruth Coughhold.

4:25:40 Miss Ruth Coughhold, who’s no longer here. So that concludes our public speaking. I think I need a five minute break just to use the restroom real quick and come back.

4:25:42 Six. Taking adjournment. There it.

4:25:46 Thank you, everybody, for coming back. We are now on the consent agenda. This portion is supposed to be by doctor Schiller.

4:25:49 He’s going to say there’s 22 agenda items under this category. I’ll say. Thank you, doctor Shiller.

4:25:51 Does any of the board members wish to remove any of the items on the consent agenda? I would like to pull f 20 for discussion. Okay. Anybody else have any other ones they want to pull? Okay.

4:26:08 Items f 20 will be pulled for discussion. I will entertain a motion to accept the consent items with the exception of those pulled for discussion, if applicable. Move to approve.

4:26:18 Second. Is there any discussion? I’ll signify by saying aye. Aye.

4:26:31 Any opposed passes five to zero back onto item f 20. Okay. This is in regards to a lease agreement that we.

4:26:46 No, that’s okay. That’s okay. She’s right.

4:26:47 All right. Is there a move to approve? Second. Okay, got it.

4:26:54 All right, here we go. Sorry, guys. I’m just gonna roll.

4:27:01 Sorry. I apologize. Now it’s discussion.

4:27:10 I wanted to pull this item just because there were some things in this contract extension that were maybe not the most advantageous to our district. One of them is that we are changing the lease from a five year lease to a 50 year lease. That’s what’s in this, this agreement.

4:27:33 The other is in regards to the ability to terminate the lease. And that should be permissible by both parties, not just the lease. Those are the two main changes that I’m seeing in this.

4:27:56 And I. To me, I feel like this is something that probably should be brought back before the board on a regular basis, more than every 50 years. Thank you. Are there any other conversations to this item? Yes.

4:28:21 Miss Wright, have you had a conversation with Miss Hann about the contract? I have not. Is Miss Hand here or not? Well, it’s kind of if doctor Shiller would want her to come and. Wow.

4:28:39 Miss Hann, I spot. I apologize. Yes.

4:29:03 Come on up. I didn’t see you there. Go ahead.

4:29:23 Miss Hand, do you have. Can you just. For the public also to understand what this property is? What.

4:29:46 When’s the last time we used it? What they’re using it for, just, you know, maybe would be helpful and why such a long lease. Sure. Yes.

4:30:01 This is Kyler school up in the middle area, and we had been approached by Thule Community Development company. They’re a non profit to utilize the school for basically stem classes, adult education, also for students, and providing services to the community. And they had initially proposed a five year lease.

4:30:10 Part of that lease agreement is the Toole group will be doing any and all capital improvement to the building. So the other components of the lease agreement indicate that the district has no responsibility for doing anything to the building at all. So as they’ve gone through the design process with their architect, they have found that there’s some fairly significant capital investments they need to make for the building.

4:30:26 And in doing so, they’ve approached some potential funding partners, and their funding partners have told them that typically they prefer a longer lease term. So this was, this change was made at their request, and we kind of kicked it around and felt that we have not used the building. It really is not suitable for any purposes that the district might use it for.

4:30:38 It is. It’s not a technical out parcel at this point in time, but it is part of a larger parcel that is primarily used by Brevard county parks and recreation. There’s a community center on that site, so it’s not something that I think we would use in the foreseeable future.

4:30:44 Misses Wright, we had similar concerns about. This is a very, very long term agreement, but I didn’t see that it had a use for the district in the foreseeable future. The one clause that we modified basically said that if they, if they don’t do any work within the next five years, that we would have an opportunity to terminate.

4:30:53 So the way that I tried to structure it is if they come in and they invest and they make great capital improvements to the building and use it for its intended purpose. That was stated in their original lease agreement, that the longer term would apply. If they don’t do that, we would have that option within the first five, five years if they didn’t.

4:31:10 If they didn’t live up to their part of the agreement to terminate. So I tried to get through the middle of the road in that situation where we would facilitate the tule group getting financing, but also if they didn’t comply with their end of the bargain, that we would be able to terminate in the shorter term. Thank you, Miss Hand, for answering those questions.

4:31:36 So, if I’m understanding you correctly, we have a piece of property that we haven’t used for some time that we have no intention to use in the near future. Because it’s being used a significant amount of that property for other things. We have agreements with that.

4:32:12 We are not putting any money into that. They’re securing all their own funding to do something in the community. Okay, thank you.

4:32:24 Thank you, Mister Trent, you have anything to say, say on this? Miss Jenkins, I. Quick question, Miss Hand. Is there a. Do you have a list of those improvements somewhere that we can hold them accountable for? You know what I mean? Like, like if we’re going to do it in five years, like this is what you have to accomplish kind of stuff.

4:32:34 You know what I mean? Because I would be afraid. Like they redid one part and said, we’re good. You know what I mean? Because I love these people.

4:32:48 Like, I love this program. I think this is one of the best programs out there. I want to see it go, but I want to see how maybe we can help them too.

4:32:59 I don’t know. So the attachment to the lease agreement includes their plan. And their plan outlines the classes that they’re going to have at the facility.

4:33:23 So really the performance is around the classes. In order for them to have the classes, they must do some improvements to the building. If you’ve been in that building, the front is not in bad shape, but there’s some fairly significant improvements on the backside of the building that they need to make.

4:33:44 There’s some roof leaks. They’ve been working with our building official, and the scope of what they need to do is a little bit more than what they had originally thought was going to be necessary in order to operate anything in the building. So, as I said, the performance is really more around offering the classes, but they can’t offer the classes until they make enough improvements so that they can occupy the building.

4:33:48 And I have no question, is the financing that they’re going to get for these repairs contingent upon this lease? They cannot get the financing unless the lease is extended, is that correct? The finance, one of their financing partners? That is correct. I don’t know that that’s true for any and all financing, but that was what their funding partner suggested, that their typical relationship with other nonprofits is a long term lease. And then the financing partner, I’m just going to ask this for the record, is not going to be able to lien the property or anything of that nature, correct? No, that’s not permissible under the lease agreement.

4:33:59 Is there anything inside of here that in the event that they use it outside the scope of what they originally went to, that we. You know what I mean, like that 50 years. Years is, I mean, yes, that’s a lot of time.

4:34:15 That is one of the material default clauses in the original lease agreement. So they need to use it for its intended purpose. That’s described in the lease agreement.

4:34:31 And, Paul, you feel free to chime in if I’m going astray here, but I believe that’s correct. Okay. What’s your direction, Miss Wright? I mean, I love what they’re doing.

4:34:35 I love the vision for it. I was able to go and tour that facility with you, Miss Hannon, so I appreciate it. I think as far as, from a district standpoint, a 50 year lease is an extremely long lease.

4:34:39 I don’t know that the life of the building has 50 years left on it. So is this something that’s negotiable? That we can go back and say, hey, we’re not comfortable with 50 years, but maybe we could extend it longer? Would your financing partners be willing to meet there? I just feel like 50 years is an extremely long time, and as the changes of the community and growth in the area, things might change too. So that’s something to consider.

4:34:41 Okay. Is there a length of term that the board would be comfortable with that I can discuss with the Tooley group? Miss Wright, would you like to meet? I mean, I think a ten year lease is adequate. And then to just at least to be able to lay eyes on the lease and reevaluate it and re sign it every ten years, I think, is a fair request because we’re not.

4:35:06 We’re giving in that facility for a dollar a year. Right. I believe.

4:35:23 Or something of that nature. So it’s free for them to use as long as they do the renovations to it. So I think just to make sure that it’s the best interest for the district to lay Oz and the lease every ten years is a fair request.

4:35:34 I don’t know. What does the board feel like? Maybe ten year extensions, but just a review to make sure that it’s up to like, a couple of stipulations, like, say, hey, maybe we do do a 50 year or something like that, but it’s a review every ten years that they have accomplished their goals, that it’s in good working order. You know what I mean? That stuff.

4:35:40 So that that might be the angle. I’m just making suggestions. It’s so tough because, I don’t know, you guys weren’t around, but Melbourne High School, the old Melbourne High school, they tore it down, right? And I was trying so hard to create a group to come in and do exactly what these people are doing.

4:35:47 And I love what they’re doing. Like, I think that it’s phenomenal. I think that what.

4:35:51 Their vision is amazing. I just. Like you said, the 50 years is a little.

4:36:06 It stretches it for me. But I don’t know, maybe. Maybe if we can meet with you and then bring it back on the 11th with some sort of modifications that they may agree to real quick, I would say that there might be just, you know, ten year intervals of checking towards meeting the standards of, you know, keeping the place up to speed par and all these other things.

4:36:12 I don’t know, somewhere in there, if that helps. Miss Kim? Yeah. I don’t know how the financing works.

4:36:19 Ten seems like it might not be long enough, especially since, you know, because what the fight, if it’s going to take significant, I’m thinking we’re talking about in the millions, potentially, or probably in the several hundred thousand. Several hundred thousand, 500 to a million type of. And if they.

4:36:36 They supply that funding for the. This organization to do it, but then the lease is over, and then we take it back, and then we get the benefit of the money, which we weren’t going to use it for anything. So I hesitate, I mean, for us to.

4:36:54 We can give you. Hey, this is what we can. We work it down towards ten, but, you know, they need to see what.

4:37:08 How they can get it done. I mean, you know, I’m fine with this moving. You know, let’s, let’s.

4:37:23 Yeah. What. What motion do we need, Paul? To table this? Definitely.

4:37:40 Or whatever. There’s already a pending motion, so. Okay, so what? So what do we need to do? You can vote it down and then move to table till, or move to the, I would say, April 11 agenda.

4:38:00 Can we withdraw the motion? Yeah, you can. Yeah, you may not. Okay.

4:38:16 I’d like to withdraw real quick. Yeah, yeah. Yes.

4:38:27 Can I go first? I think it’s important for us to recognize where we’re not experts. And so I have a question for you, Miss Han. It seems like these conversations would have happened in this process.

4:38:40 Am I wrong to make that assumption? So, yes, in the sense that we. When misses curry brought this to me, we did talk about some of the concerns about a long term lease. It’s obviously a big commitment on the part of the district.

4:38:54 It’s an asset of the district that we would not have access to. So, yes, in that sense, we did talk through the pros and cons and the fact that they are trying to. Trying to bring in funding partners.

4:39:23 I think she felt that it was important to bring this proposed amendment to the board. So that’s why it’s on your agenda. But I believe that misses Curry would certainly be receptive to further discussions about the terms so that everyone can be comfortable.

4:39:39 And I’m not asking that question to say that 50 years isn’t a long time. Obviously it is. But I think it’s important for us to not quickly just throw out random numbers arbitrarily when we have no expertise in this area, when this goes through an entire process before it even comes to us in the first place.

4:40:04 Not that it can’t go back, but to throw out suggestions out there, I just. I don’t see the point in that. So if the recommendation is to ask them to bring this back to the table and figure out a different solution, let them propose that solution to people who already had this conversation, that’s their job.

4:40:37 Thank you for the process. I want to say one thing. So many of our group organizations that try to do these have these amazing intents, and then they have this big thing that they have to go raise money for and everything else, and it just.

4:40:41 It ends up not getting there. Right. And what I would say is, I’ve always tried to do this, and I don’t know if this is appropriate, but we have some massive contractors that are doing a whole lot of business for us.

4:40:48 And years ago, when I was at Space coast, we had one of those total home redos or whatever came into Coco. I worked for three days up there framing and stuff like that. And we did.

4:41:05 We did. If it’s not, if it’s 300,000, we might be able to engage with our and just say, hey, guys, is anybody willing to do one of, of these? I mean, you the can do, because this is a community piece. These are community members that want to do this.

4:41:23 It might be a better idea so that they don’t have to go out and get money to a loan that they have to go pay for that we try to initiate ourselves to help, that’s all. Like, I. I know you start getting kind of heart palpitations when I start talking about that, but I think that if I just know what they’re trying to do and I want them to succeed, and I don’t want it to be because of some stupid lease, and I don’t want them to take over too much money that they can’t get to on a fundraising, or they take out too much money and they fold. Like, I want this to happen, so I don’t know how to make that happen like this.

4:41:49 You know what I mean, so anyways, if we can go back to them, but I want to try to do something innovative here. So can we make a motion? Can we make a motion? Because I. We can’t. I have to resend my motion because the other option is voting this down, and I don’t think that we wanted the look of that right now.

4:41:55 So before I resend my motion, I was going to say since over the last year in my role on the board of the children’s hunger project, we bought a new building and had it renovated. The contractor who did the construction did do a lot of work, but we still had to pay for it. So nonprofits may get a pretty sweet deal, especially if they’re beloved by their community, whatever.

4:42:01 But the idea that somebody would come in and do all that work for free, significant work, I think probably a little unrealistic, but I’m sure they’re probably having those conversations. So with that, I would like to resend my motion and put forward a new motion that we table this decision until miss hand can take that back to the Kyler group and see if they can come with some with a reduced length of the term. I’ll second the motion.

4:42:10 We need to vote on that or no. I mean, yes. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

4:42:17 All opposed? All right, motion passes. Thank you. Thank you.

4:42:29 Okay, doctor Schiller, will you please let us know about the item under the action portion of today’s agenda? Yes. Tonight’s item is h 34, procurement solution solicitations. Do I hear a motion move to approve? Second.

4:42:36 Is there any discussion? I would like to discuss one portion of it and just for the public’s perception and to understand, because I. When I first saw this contract, I had heart palpitations on the amount of money. And I thought, oh, my goodness, what is it? And I. I worked with Doctor Green. She was very gracious in supplying all the things I asked for.

4:42:38 So what was extremely beneficial to me, and I don’t know if the. My fellow board members had a chance to review this or not, but they gave us all of the ratings from the people that were on the procurement bid there, and it was helpful to see what their ratings were. So I just want to say, after reading them and trusting the expertise of who was on that committee, I felt significantly more confident in saying, hey, this is the best contract for us to approve.

4:42:46 The million dollar one is the one that I was kind of about. Just wanted to clear that up. Okay.

4:42:53 Any other discussion? No. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye.

4:43:22 Aye. All in opposed say nay. Okay, we’re now move on to the information agenda, which includes items for board review and may not be brought back for these action at subsequent meetings.

4:43:38 No action will be taken at these items today. There are four items under this category. Do any members wish to discuss any of these items? Sorry, you gotta give me a second.

4:43:50 I’m trying to pull it up. Student services district operations elementary office and needing learning. Are we good? Yeah.

4:44:09 No, I don’t. Okay. All good.

4:44:23 Good. Okay. All right.

4:44:44 We are now at board member reports. The topic is interim superintendent contract amendment request. I just wanted to.

4:45:14 What was. I wanted to kind of give an overview of what it was. And I think it got kind of crazy and misconfused and misunderstood and everything else.

4:45:24 So what ended up happening is that Paul and I, and I’m going to ask Paul in a second to just go ahead and explain the back and forth that is that we’ve gone to, due to a couple of things, have had a couple of opportunities to discuss with Mister Schiller or Doctor Schiller his amendous contract to include some of the issues that we were dealing with. And we were going back and forth. And there was some, you know what I mean, requests for certain things that I felt like I didn’t have the board authority to do.

4:45:31 And then we came to a place where I told Mister Schiller, I said, mister Schiller, I would appreciate bringing that back to the board. And he had indicated that he didn’t want to bring it back to the board. And then what had happened is, is that most recently there was another request that came out.

4:45:42 And I was like, you know, I said, I just maybe need to get some board direction because we’ve been going back and forth with it for a little bit. And that’s why it’s here. So, Mister Gibbs, can you give kind of an overview as to what’s been going on? Yeah.

4:45:59 If you remember, at the January offsite, there were issues raised with the original contract that was entered into with Doctor Shiller and the board. And the board was amenable to amending that agreement to alleviate the concerns that were raised at that meeting. So Mister Susan and myself began negotiating with Doctor Shiller.

4:46:28 Doctor Shiller provided his suggestions for amending the contract. Mister Susan and I sat down and went through those suggestions. We came up with the revised proposed contract that was sent to Doctor Shiller.

4:46:48 Doctor Schiller responded with a list of his responses to that revised agreement that we sent to him, and that resulted in the final round that came out. I don’t remember when that came down but it’s been recent. So there was back and forth Mister Susan and I discussed.

4:46:59 We met several times with Doctor Schiller and discussed and that’s how we got to where we are. And my understanding is Mister, Mister Susan wants direction from the board on what he has direction to move forward with. So what we have is just so you know, to get into depth about it, Doctor Schiller had requested for a couple of reasons to, you know, to add extra sick days at the end of his contract so that he can cash it out.

4:47:28 Excuse me, sir, may I, may I. Mister Schiller, just let me finish before you get into details. I think it’s important, sir. Mister Shiller, I’m just going through and explaining this.

4:47:55 This is just part of the board but I do think I need to speak. Please, sir, I can give you the opportunity. I haven’t even finished introducing the topic.

4:48:11 You’re getting into the details, sir. And that is what the point of Mister Schiller. No, I’m going to explain the process and then I’ll give you an opportunity if you’d like to speak.

4:48:30 So the issue is, is that. So there were just some outside the box thought processes, right? And if you read some of it, which isn’t bad, I just wanted to say that I could go back. So one of them was that to have extra sick days at the end of his contract so that he could cash them out.

4:48:52 The other one was a series. And I asked him, I said, look, I can bring that to the board if you’ll make a series of requests for these, these reports. And with Doctor Shiller’s background and knowledge I thought maybe, you know what I mean? One of you guys would think that you guys may think that this is something that we may want to do, but the idea would be that there was a couple other issues but like these reports would be a series of dollars, 3000, 2000 depending on those things.

4:49:00 And I just didn’t feel like I had that power in order to say yes. So I asked to bring it to the board. And then, so then in the last, I think it was in February, was it, Paul, where we had the sick days and the extra requests was there, right, for the reports.

4:49:30 The last time we met there were proposals for, you know, adding sick days, but I don’t remember. And Doctor Shiller said no. He said I don’t want that to go to the board because I maybe.

4:49:43 And then he sent the most recent one which is Mister Susan and Mister Gibbs, where he talks about, and this is where we’ve been going back and forth, is there seems to be some confusion over the $300,000 total salary. Advertisement and then he says in here, you know, he would request three times the amount of total monthly contribution from medical gold plan, dental HMO PPO plan. It just got to the point where I thought there was.

4:50:27 So we have a series of requests that we’ve just keep kind of changing, and I just didn’t know. The original argument was we offer him exactly what Doctor Mullins was getting. And then inside of that, if there were any kind of confusion, which there was in the beginning, because we had not put all of the, like the healthcare and all that stuff together, so we amended that appropriately.

4:50:39 And then Doctor Shiller had added some of the other things. So we’ve gone back and forth a couple times, but I didn’t think it was appropriate at the time for me to actually start to have that conversation or approve any of it. That’s why I just brought it before the board with no disrespect to anybody, just what it is.

4:51:12 So with that, does anybody have anything to say? And then I was going to ask Doctor Schiller to explain. I would just, just say this is all, these are at least a little bit old. So, I mean, I want to give Doctor Shiller probably it’s good for him to have a chance.

4:51:15 It’s his contract, so it’d probably be good for him to have a chance to, one of the issues that we’re dealing with is we’re not in a negotiations with Doctor Shiller right now. Like, that’s not what we’re doing. We’re trying to get clarification as to, I just wanted to know if there’s requests in here that he says that I don’t think were inside of the original agreement.

4:51:21 And that’s why I was going to bring them to you. So I can clarify a little bit deeper. But Doctor Schiller, it’s just an informational thing.

4:51:34 You have the floor, Mister Susan, I have strongly advised you yesterday when I was told that you wanted to talk about this, not to proceed with this topic. I have not made this request that was attached to it. I have, I’ll be fact, to be honest with you, last night when I saw it for the first time at 722, Mister Schiller, this is your document.

4:51:40 No, sir, it is not my document. It is your document. I have sent to the full board my reasons, among which were many as to why not you should proceed with this.

4:51:45 And I asked you and implored you not to. You know, after all, I don’t want to get into the details of back and forth, but I would tell you that I’m appalled that my basic right of having legal representation present has been violated again, not allowing me adequate time to even have someone represent me tonight. I have not even seen this complete document until I was informed of it at the last minute and not opening it or being able to open it until 720 last night.

4:52:41 And I was receiving inquiries from the media of which I would not respond. Respond. To go forward at this time with this matter is unprofessional.

4:52:48 It violates your own adopted board guidelines of operations and policies, not to mention professional courtesy and basic human decency. And regarding BPS personnel, namely me, is this matter and the interim of the superintendent and the way it’s being handled tonight after, let me see you having an executive session beginning on or about 10:00 a.m.

4:53:24 A work session between one to 04:30 p.m.

4:53:36 A reception for honored guests between 445 and 05:25 p.m.

4:53:50 And after approximately 4 hours and 40 minutes of a board meeting. Is this the appropriate time? Which I would humbly suggest it is not. I started my day.

4:53:53 I have been since December 7. Please, sir, I am making. You’re like.

4:54:03 I’m making my point. I have started my day at 03:00 a.m.

4:54:17 As I have since I began and devoted solely between 18 and a half to 19 hours a day as documented hourly since the day that you called me and said that I was selected by the board to serve as interim to that time on weekends, I have fully documented hourly a minimum of 11 hours per Saturday and Sunday. I’m tired. Especially tonight, since I arrived for work in Brevard county at 06:10 a.

4:54:26 m. To go forward, to talk this through of a document that was put on at the last moment unilaterally, without my knowledge, much less. The document has not been the one that I agreed to have go forward.

4:54:55 It was something dated February 10. If I would point on. And then you cherry pick putting additional matters on.

4:55:16 This is a horrendous type of demonstration of HR personnel matters that potential candidates have been witnessing. Now, all I can say is that. Please, I just respectfully and forcibly request that this matter not just wait be proceeded with on this topic and or discussion tonight at 10:10 p.

4:55:26 m., please, sir. Thank you.

4:55:37 Doctor Schiller. Thank you. Just for point of clarification Mister Gibbs, the reference document in point was Doctor Schiller’s last send over to us as part of the conversation.

4:55:48 Correct? This is the two, Mister Susan and Mister Gibbs. I believe that is, that is his last document that was sent to us. I believe that is the last document that I received.

4:56:05 So. Hang on just a second, let me. Yes.

4:56:24 So this is. And this is why, Doctor Schiller, I don’t think, I respectfully don’t think that you understand what I was trying to get at here like this. This is the last document you sent over.

4:56:33 What happened is Doctor Schiller also made a public, made a request for a bunch of information related, related to dates that Paul and I had gotten together and all these other things. Paul did. We put that inside the book, the attachments today that everybody should review.

4:56:56 I don’t believe Tammy included that. Can you explain the document that we received from Doctor Shiller last week? It wasn’t us. It was myself.

4:57:04 Doctor Green and Miss Aguirre were asked for information, and we compiled the information to the best of our ability. What were some of those identified areas of conversation that he was requesting? Dates that we met to discuss the contract, dates that the board considered the contract, and his proposals that he had made and the terms that he had made. And there were a myriad of others, along with when the board meeting minutes and stuff.

4:57:11 So with that ramp up, is why I asked to have it brought before for you, is because I was made aware of those on Friday. And so on Friday, I was made aware that Doctor Shiller had made all of these requests for information, which were pretty intense as far as requesting when we had met and all these other things. And it made me kind of cause for concern.

4:57:28 So I wanted to bring this before the board so that we didn’t have any lapse of time where we’re coming back in April. So that is the reason of time. So I just wanted to kind of point those things out.

4:57:46 Miss Campbell, thank you. I think I can bring us back around, or at least I like to do that. I would like to do that.

4:57:57 You know, here’s the thing, is that we, when the original contract, we said we wanted the chair to negotiate. We’re not going to negotiate tonight. You don’t need your attorney because this is not going to be a negotiation.

4:58:20 We asked the chair to negotiate that he, along with our, our board counsel, they did that. And then from the Friday interviews to the Tuesday board meeting in December, we, you know, that was negotiated. And then we voted on it that Tuesday.

4:58:30 And it was, it’s all signed, it’s attached to the agenda. But if we’re going to make changes, it’s my understanding that the changes were extensive enough that the chairman didn’t feel comfortable making all those decisions by himself. And honestly, some of the changes that I’ve seen in here, I love you Mister chairman, but I’m not comfortable with you making all those decisions.

4:58:42 That’s by yourself either. And then the other option is if he did make all those decisions, negotiate, then it come back before the board. Then if we don’t agree with, then we’d have to vote it down.

4:58:52 So to me, what I see what’s happening here is there’s a couple of issues that we can just give you some direction as the chair so that you can go back and negotiate. I will go ahead and tell you, just looking at a few of the, I’m just going to touch on the request. You know, some of these things were just some really some cleaning up of how the benefits go, like the retirement.

4:59:05 Obviously Doctor Shiller is not in FRS and he doesn’t need FRS contributions. That was Carney, already worked out. Kind of already worked out, but it needs to be clarified.

4:59:22 He doesn’t have need of our insurance. That was already in there, but it needs to be clarified. The sick leaves needs to be clarified.

4:59:36 The original and then the part on number seven about civic associations needs to be clarified because we have made it very clear to him that we don’t intend him to join all kinds of things and attend all kinds of things. We’ll pay for the things we ask him to go to, but we want him to stay focused on internal. That was a great clarification.

4:59:48 You know, those kinds of things. There’s two big things to, to me that I feel like I need to give do direction to you, mister chair. I am not interested in extending the contract the length past May 31.

4:59:54 In the original contract we have in here that if we want to extend it, we have 45 days. 45 days, regular days, not working days, business days. Didn’t say in the contract it says 45 days, which would be the middle of April.

5:00:10 And I think if we feel a need at that point, we can give him 45 day notice, ask and he can always refuse, but I’d like to keep it at May 31. And the other thing that came through some of the documents was the opportunity to have, and I’m not even sure if he’s still interested in, but you guys can negotiate that to have a lot of extra projects kind of aside contracts. I’m not interested in that as well.

5:00:13 So I think we need to keep. The agreement was to come for the same, for equivalent benefits prorated as our former superintendent was receiving. And I think we need to leave that there.

5:00:25 And I would again, just prefer to keep the time of the contract to May 31 and not add any additional side projects, any kind of contracting deals. That would be my direction. Thank you.

5:00:34 And I think some of those things that you had mentioned. Paul and I had already worked out to define each one of those steps. As far as the insurance and everything else.

5:00:48 We went as far as finding out that Doctor Miller took the silver plan. And then we gave him the silver plan that Doctor Miller chose the OR. I’m sorry, Doctor Mullins chose this dental plan and literally put that all into scope.

5:00:52 Is that correct, Mister Gibbs? I think we came up with the dollar value and said, here’s what it is. We literally, painstakingly went through exactly what Doctor Mullins was because I felt that Doctor Shiller deserved that. And then what happened is that we started negotiating past that.

5:01:08 And that’s why I came. So you didn’t mention extra sick days. Are you comfortable with that? I let you guys negotiate that, but I think we have in here it’s beyond the sick days that he originally received.

5:01:16 I don’t. I think. Like I said, my feeling is that what we’ve offered and what has been agreed to by all parties is compensation commensurate to what our former superintendent was receiving.

5:01:28 And so that’s what I would. I think we need to stick with. Okay.

5:01:33 Does anybody else. Miss Jenkins, do you wish to have any kind of conversation on this? Yeah. Well, I have a question first, before I have conversation, and just before you start, the awkwardness of it is this is the only way we can have this conversation is we have to have out in the public.

5:01:51 And it is awkward. We’re just going to all acknowledge it. It’s awkward.

5:02:16 But this is the only way we can have this conversation. We can do bargaining behind closed doors, but we can’t have this conversation because he’s not in a bargaining unit. We can’t bargain inside of closed session because it’s not an executive session.

5:02:31 It’s like there’s no other way to do this but this way. And that’s why this was what it was. So, Miss Jenkins, I’m sorry, before I gather my thoughts, I have a question.

5:02:35 Because there’s a ton of documents in here, and I can assume some of the dates on these because they’re dated. But can I get some context to the order of these documents. Mister Gibbs can give that to you right now.

5:02:55 I don’t want to assume them incorrectly. Out of order? Yes. Yeah, yeah, that one I’ve got.

5:03:06 But like, I don’t understand the order of these, I guess, as well. Is there a date on this one? The last one? It was in the email. Sorry.

5:03:12 Okay. There was. There were pre and what Tammy sent out to everybody, included all of.

5:03:24 Okay, all of. I don’t know what you’re looking at. Then all of the correspondence back and forth, going back to the pre contract discussion, so that everybody could have a full understanding of the entire process.

5:03:36 So that’s what Tammy sent to everybody. I don’t know what document you’re looking at. No, that’s fine.

5:03:41 I thought these were. Yeah, I know, it’s fine. I’ll organize myself.

5:03:51 I have a lot of thoughts, so I’m going to take my first time around. Just to echo what Miss Campbell said. At this point, I don’t see the need to extend a timeframe, and I definitely don’t see the need for additional duties or contracting services, because that’s not what we hired our interim superintendent for.

5:04:06 I need to gather myself for the rest. Okay, so that’s two individuals that are willing to keep it the same way it is moving forward. Go ahead, Miss Wright.

5:04:18 That’s not exactly what I said. I’m sorry. I’m really not doing a good job there.

5:04:32 So I apologize. Go ahead, Mister Wright or Mister Trump. So, obviously, having got this very last minute and going through this with the heavy schedule that we had today, and again, this is awkward, because we do have to discuss this in the open.

5:04:46 And like you, Mister Schiller, I was reached out to by the media, too, because all of this stuff is public records. Welcome to Florida. That’s the way it is when it’s out there.

5:04:52 Here’s what I want to say. There are components of this letter that disappoint me beyond. They really do.

5:04:59 And. And this, the one that you wrote to Mister Gibbs and Mister Susan, the last ones. What date is that, please? I. It doesn’t have a date on it because I was never given this packet.

5:05:19 Well, that you’re referring to, this would be a letter that you sent. So I don’t know. Mister Gibbs, do you know the date on this? His last correspondence was February 24, 2013.

5:06:05 2023. So there. To go back to this.

5:07:01 There are components of this letter that they’re disappointing to me. They are. There’s no other way I can say anything other than that.

5:07:05 They, they’re openly speaking poorly of multiple. The board of. They are speaking poorly of our firm that we have hired to, to search for a new superintendent.

5:07:17 There’s just, to me, I don’t understand this. I don’t understand why this was needed to be put into writing format and for you to not have a discussion one on one. I have a struggle with it.

5:07:51 May I respond? I would love to hear your response, yes. Why is it. Who, who authorized putting these documents on the agenda? I did.

5:08:13 Who authorized taking off the second document? Somebody that did not have that authorization. So then it was put on, which I find out tonight was putting back on. For point of clarification, I actually gave mail.

5:08:18 I told you they were going on. I told you they were going on the agenda at 140. And then you were told that that was happening.

5:08:35 Right. And when did I see any of this? That’s not the fault of mine. When you checked it, we told you that it was going on at one time.

5:08:49 Why is it that late yesterday afternoon I got an addition to some of the requests that I made for data which I haven’t even read yet? There’s a simple matter. I asked for a question of clarification of four words. That is a threshold matter.

5:08:56 What does the legal interpretation, but not limited to mean? And I had a non response to that. If I would have gotten a response to this, I would not have advanced any of these things for months. And why is it that throughout January and February and March, over a series of emails and requests and conversations that only tonight this was put on over my objection late afternoon? Why not? When I first broached the matter, I mean, I just don’t understand this.

5:09:23 And I would say for the record, I gave to you in writing at 1230 today. I think it was my official acknowledgement to you that I was giving my 45 days notice to depart on May 31 as per the requirement in my EA. I only offered since the day we first talked to Lau, consistency to close out this school year, to complete myriad matters that need to be taken care of by June 30 and not to cause a second rupture in this school district within five months.

5:10:24 And I’m not doing this for the money. Lord, no. I’m not doing it for myself.

5:10:37 Health. I’ve been trying to do this for the best interests of bps. If you would like for me to leave tomorrow, there’s a clause and I’ll be, my wife would be very happy.

5:10:57 But the point being is that I don’t walk away from a commitment if you expect that you’re going to appoint someone, as I’ve been told by, on May 9, who will take operational authority of the district by May 10. And I’ve been told that I don’t have to worry about anything after May 10. Well, then I would be very happy to have that clarified, because I have lots and lots of employees that report to me waiting for recommendations regarding the July 1.

5:11:12 And now it’s very clear either I will not be here or I will not be in any position to do that. And we’re going to leave literally thousands of employees in a lurch without known. Now, I understand you want your new person to make all these appointments, all of them.

5:11:18 Fine. I understand you want me to do recommendations. That’s fine.

5:11:31 The recommendations carry no authority, have no weight. A new person will come in, as I’ve been told, the day after the appointment, it renders anything I do moot. If that’s the way it’s going to be, fine.

5:11:36 But I’m trying to do what is in the best interest of bps. Your board policy requires that I take on the collective bargaining. Read your board policy in the 1000 series.

5:11:42 I abide by policies. I abide by laws. I abide by statutes.

5:11:44 I was asked by both unions early on to try to work this all the way through. Obviously, I’ve wasted a lot of invested time because I’m trying to fulfill your policies, and that’s all. But what I’m most concerned about is that this very documents that you’re working on, I never even received it.

5:12:24 This very document that was released to. What about all of the other emails? What about the meetings that were scheduled, that were canceled to discuss these matters, or, and if mister, you know, I, you know, if it turns out now after three or four months, that none of this had been communicated with you and that Mister Susan did not, as board chair, have authorization to continue the negotiations from a problem that started the moment that you voted on a contract which I had not seen until the night before, and I was put under duress as all the media was here after you voted on it, to sign it. And I believed that honorable people who make proffers on behalf of the board had the authority to do so and ongoing for months.

5:12:36 If I did not, why wasn’t I told that your board chair, who had authorization, did not have that authorization? Now put yourself in my position. Okay. I’m an interim.

5:12:46 I’ve done my level best in devoting everything I could to this position. Good men or indifferent, I am leaving either earlier or before, as your contract prefers. I’ve notified you and I recognize.

5:13:12 And you have the option if you wanted to have a mutual extension. Clearly you don’t. That’s fine, but what I’m trying to do is not my interest.

5:13:18 Every day I’ve been here has not been in my best interest. It’s been in the best interest of my assignment. That’s what I do.

5:13:26 Within the law’s statutes. The only thing I ask is some professional common courtesy, and that has not been extended. So I. Mister Sherlock, doctor Stroller.

5:13:36 I would like to address a couple of things. One, you know, I don’t. I don’t know if she was finished.

5:13:43 Were you finished because you asked a question? I did. I don’t think it got answered, but it’s okay. What is the answer? Just.

5:14:08 I. Go ahead. Why was this one document you referred to? I’m sorry, Miss Wright, but you did ask that question. My counter question is, why was this one document included as an email, and not all the other emails, exchanges or conversations, which I keep very detailed, contemporaneous notes of every conversation that I have of great importance or meaning.

5:14:13 Why was this one added unilaterally? I think she can’t answer that because that wasn’t part of it. I had said that I would like to put this as an item for discussion. Miss Tammy said that of course, our board members would like to see all the documentation.

5:14:36 So per Mister Gibbs, I said, can you please send all the correspondence emails that we have with documentation? And Mister Gibbs did that. That’s why there’s no. There’s no.

5:14:51 This is your email to us in February. So there’s not like you didn’t write it, you didn’t understand it, you didn’t know it. I want to say this.

5:15:01 The document that sent me into doing this today to get board direction was a series of questions that Doctor Shiller had asked last week and demanded that they give the answers on Friday of last week. And this is some of the questions. Any file during the tenure of Doctor Mullen’s pertaining to the setting of performance goals, objectives, and the metrics and performance pay agreements with the Boeing and how they were processed when authorized.

5:15:13 What Doctor Shiller’s argument was, is that he was trying to. He said that he should be. He should.

5:15:18 He said he should be allowed to receive Doctor Mullins’s performance pay. Right. And I had told him that I didn’t think that that was appropriate.

5:15:31 Because the. Because of the fact that those are negotiated by the board, they are set forward towards the strategic plan. And then they were finished.

5:15:50 That was that piece. But he was asking for it, which is respectful. Please advise when the BoE will discuss and set performance objectives.

5:16:03 The next question is any language or protocols pertaining to Doctor Mullins allocation and payment of supplement for his doctorate and superintendent’s certification. The question that had been arised, that Doctor Mullins had been receiving a doctorate supplement and Miss Green had come back and said that that was basically from the DOE and that that would have to be from the, the doctorate would have to be certified in the state of Florida. And there was all these other stipulations so that one was still out.

5:16:21 Right. It just goes on. Please advise when these supplements were deposited.

5:16:41 It comes down here and it starts going. Please provide by March 24, close of business day, so I can may share with my attorney the following the minutes of all regular board or work session meetings between December 15 and December 19, when the board addresses a work session at a regular meeting and the terms and conditions of the the proposed EA to be offered to Robert Schiller. The minutes of BoE meetings reflecting the discussion of Doctor Schiller’s request.

5:16:43 Demands regarding EA provided the board member Susan to all his delegate, board counsel, board Gibbs, Paul Gibbs. During December 17 through March 19. The communications between board counsel and board member, Susan, both oral, written, this goes on and on.

5:16:49 And what that did was that freaked me out because I said if he’s asking all of these questions, questions, then he’s leveling it to the next level. So I need to get this to you guys for final decision. It goes on.

5:17:21 Please detail the allotted time that my attorney had in order to completely due diligence regarding the draft of EA before it was placed on it. Please detail the amount of time Mister Gibbs provided my attorney to review the board. You start talking about attorneys.

5:17:40 I had to bring it to the board immediately. So that’s the rush for it. So misses Wright, you asked a question.

5:17:50 Do you feel fulfilled in your question and answer? No, my question wasn’t answered. Do you want to ask it again or did you want to pass? I’m just going to pass at this point. Okay.

5:18:07 Did you want to speak or mister. Because he hasn’t spoken. Mister Trent, if you want to speak in reading this last document, which is for someone saying there’s, we’re not here for the money.

5:18:34 There’s a lot here detailing extra money. And that’s, that’s always, that’s concerning. That, that’s, this is my.

5:18:40 I haven’t had a whole lot of time to look at this myself. But it does seem like there’s a lot of effort put into. And if I were preparing to go on the offense, I would probably put something together like this myself.

5:18:46 Not saying that’s what is happening, but if I were going to do that, I would ask for minutes and conversations regarding a contract that I’m not here for the monetary value, but it seems like that’s what was being set up. That’s my fear. I would like to speak to it.

5:19:08 Oh, sorry. No, I’m done. I would like.

5:19:16 Hang on. I would like to suggest. I do want to address a couple of things Doctor Schiller said, because I think it’s important moving forward because we.

5:19:26 Just to clear up, but I would like to suggest since it’s late and my go to bed alarm just went off and we have a meeting on Thursday already scheduled, and it’s clear that all the board members haven’t read through everything and might need to, to have some conversations with Paul or Doctor Schiller or whoever before we have a full conversation. I would suggest we move it to Thursday to discussion. If you don’t feel like you have enough, if we don’t feel like we have enough direction to give.

5:19:27 Mister Susan, right now, I think you did a good job of giving direction. I mean, I did, but I mean, I don’t know if everybody agrees with me, but I would just address two things. I’m not going to question whether or not someone told you that the new superintendent will take office on May 10.

5:19:40 They shouldn’t have. They can make that assumption, that opinion. But we, you know, if there is a board member who thinks they already know who it’s going to be, the rest of us don’t know.

5:20:11 And it takes three. So I don’t question whether or not you were told that, because maybe you were. But as far as the realistic idea that somebody would be ready to step in and do it, it’s just not going to be there.

5:20:32 And I go back and I think I said this with you before, we actually have in the minutes from our meeting a couple meetings ago, that the board, the majority of the board asked you to go ahead and do the reappointments on May 9, to go ahead and do that and not to leave recommendations for the next superintendent. So we, I mean, I guess we could change our minds, but it’s my understanding, and I went back and checked the minutes that that’s what we asked you to do. So I. It keeps coming back up.

5:20:49 But I think that’s what we’ve. Because we do need to get people, we don’t want to leave people limbo. And so we can.

5:20:55 I’ll go back and pull that email and. Or find the minutes again. But that was not what our recommendation was.

5:20:58 But with that, I would say, can we move to Thursday? Or does anybody else want to just go ahead and give theirs right now? We can’t give board direction on a day that we’re not there. So that’s why it brought right here. I would like to say that at no time was Doctor Schiller told by me that May 9 was the last day that we would need them and that a new superintendent would be here, or that anybody would be named to be superintendent on that day or anywhere close to it.

5:21:08 So the superintendent will be named by the second. Right. But that’s taking a over and I don’t know.

5:21:29 Miss Jenkins, did you want to. I’ll be honest, Doctor Schiller, like, I was looking through this and I was concerned about. I was extremely concerned about.

5:21:40 Okay, there’s, there’s stuff here. Please provide the details of the salary offer. Please define.

5:22:02 Please provide the details of the salary offer. Proffer 300,000. As acting board chairman, Mister Susan had made Shiller multiple times.

5:22:08 Like, it starts speaking to that. But then where I got really concerned, and to be honest with you, sir, like, I had no problem with you, me bringing these to the board for you to make these relations, to possibly do this work as far as giving these reports, because that’s what you’ve done for a living. But when I got this, and I’m looking at it, and you’re asking three times the total amount contribution for short term disability, three times the amount for long term disability, three times his accident plan, three times all of the gold plan, which he didn’t take.

5:22:23 And Mullins only took the silver plan, it just started to get kind of out of control. But I think where misses Wright was speaking was that that gummet? I mean, you go on this die tribe on the FSBA, and then you also go on this where you attack us as board members. And it’s difficult to take that as part of a negotiation that you were sending across the team.

5:22:33 And I think that’s what Miss Wright was trying to ask you, was can you explain your illicit conversation? That says in this note, to illustrate some points. I have not received inquiry calls from prospective candidates, most superintendents. And it goes on and you attack the board here.

5:22:48 I mean, you go on and you move on the board. And I just. I’ve never.

5:23:04 It’s just. It just. It’s just that.

5:23:11 Anyways, Miss Jenkins, go ahead. I lost where it was at, so I was gonna refer to it, but I didn’t do a good job. I’m not opposed to moving to Thursday.

5:23:26 Cause I don’t know if everyone up here is ready to really give direction and have this conversation, but I do have some thoughts. So the reason I waited was. Cause I was trying to filter things.

5:23:42 I don’t have concerns what was said in the document, because, you know, nice things weren’t said about me either. Like, that. I honestly don’t care about when it comes to, like, personal comments.

5:23:51 I have concerns about other things that were in that document. I brought my concerns to this board on January 9 pretty explicitly, but I feel like we’re kind of reflected in that document. No one wanted to hear me about them.

5:24:00 Again. It’s not about the criticisms again. I’ve taken them personally myself.

5:24:04 I truly don’t care about the personal part of it. It’s the. I won’t forgive myself if I’m not honest.

5:24:13 So I’m just going to be honest. Listen, I was honest on January 9. I had concerns, like, immediately after we made this decision, no one wanted to hear me out.

5:24:29 I had concerns for our staff. I had concerns for some financial decisions about contracting services and how hiring a contractor. And when I asked questions about the contractor, then all of a sudden, the contractor didn’t have a contract anymore.

5:24:37 I brought all of these concerns to you guys. I asked you to have questions with staff to figure it out yourself. And so when I started seeing this stuff, like, I’m super glad you brought it to our attention.

5:24:40 I’m really glad you did. Like, thank you. Um, but, like, these are.

5:24:48 It literally rings bells for exactly what I was concerned about back on January 9. I’m concerned about the liability for the district. And that’s where I’m gonna leave it.

5:24:52 If we’re gonna table this to Thursday, I don’t think I need to process. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, like, stop and then start again, but there’s other things that were just sent to us that I didn’t have time to review, that I think I need to look at and understand and process more.

5:25:00 In the mix of all of this, what would you be referring to that was sent to us so that I know, so that I can. Yeah, sorry. It’s the.

5:25:09 What? You just read them out loud? But I need to process them and read them in totality. So the, like, the requests, the list of the requests. I guess I’ll call it.

5:25:34 I don’t know what to call it. There’s no, I don’t think there’s any concern over what those requests were. They were just.

5:25:43 What they were was just. I felt like it would gotten to a point that we just needed to address this issue because of those requests. No, I hear you.

5:25:51 I have concern about them in the totality of my own concerns I had starting in January, along with the other things that are presented. So I need time to process that in the timeline of everything that’s been happening. So.

5:26:16 I don’t think so. Just so everybody knows, the reason doctor Schiller had mentioned going to Thursday. We can’t give board direction on Thursday because it was noticed as a workshop.

5:26:37 We can’t do that. It’s a voting. It has to be a vote.

5:27:03 So like you guys have to say, we will write it, has to take it to negotiations. We can’t bargain with him. Sorry.

5:27:13 We can give you consensus. We do that all the time. We’re not going to be voting.

5:27:30 Voting on the contract. That will have to come back to us after you negotiate it. So we can have this conversation on Thursday.

5:27:58 Correct, Paul? You can provide consensus? Yes. The board can’t take any action. Okay.

5:28:06 Miss Jenkins, I appreciate what you say, what you said, and in January you did allude to some issues and you were vague. Vague enough that there, there’s problems, but wasn’t really clear on what the problems were. And I guess what I would say is at that point, you would have to realize and recognize that the relationship that our new board members, myself being one of them, had with staff at that time was significantly different than the one that you have.

5:28:39 And so I think that that might have hindered the research into. Is there issues? There are issues. You’re not wrong.

5:28:55 There are issues. And there, this email, this message, I don’t know how we recover from that. I don’t know how we say, hey, doctor Shiller, it’s awesome that you put an email out there for the world to see where you’ve bashed us and you bashed FSBA and you made comments that were just not favorable towards people that you’re working with.

5:29:28 I don’t know how you recover from that. And so my concern is, what does this look like if we don’t handle this tonight? What does this look like for staff? Because I do have concerns. So I think it needs to be addressed tonight.

5:30:04 I think it needs to be resolved tonight. May I respond? I did not put this document out. I’ve had hundreds of hours of conversations by phone and on emails with your board chair on a variety of things over the last four or five months.

5:30:32 Why this particular document was chosen to be identified, I don’t know. I don’t want to get into my observations, because there are a lot of observations that have been made in a lot of conversations with. Not just the board chair, with a number of board members.

5:30:53 You know, this was wrong from the first day. Absolutely wrong. It was wrong for me and it was wrong for you.

5:31:02 I was told in that one to one, first thing within the first 20 seconds. I was not that individual’s choice. Well, one down.

5:31:13 January. No. And from the moment of that lack of communication, or lack of full disclosure with regard to the contract, without being able to even see a copy of the draft contract before it was being ordered to be in front of me, a piece of paper to put on the board agenda.

5:31:24 My goodness. I mean, it’s been wrong from day one, but I persevered for this. I don’t walk away.

5:31:31 I’ll lose battles, but I’m going to win a war. I’ve been pushed to the point where, what else do I have to do in order to get some information? This matter you’re raising about opportunities to consider an expansion of beyond what a simple one time benefit rested on a hinge point of. What does a language mean when it says, I don’t have the exact language here? Because I don’t have the document that you have.

5:31:50 But what does it mean? What do the four words mean but not limited to. Of course I asked for a legal interpretation from your board counsel. And while I got back, you want to say it so I don’t put words in your mouth, Mister Gibbs.

5:31:59 I believe my response was the board has not asked me for a legal interpretation. I’m not going to advise you. So how do I frame then anything when I can’t get a simple response to four words, but not limited to folks, I’ve been trying to get these things done behind the scenes, but obviously, you know, for whatever political reason or personal reason it’s been expedited to tonight you’ve talked about no surprises.

5:32:09 Do you think this was a surprise to me? And not even getting the same documents you have and some document going on the agenda, then taking off the agenda and putting on again. I mean, it works two ways. If, you know, we should have walked away from each other that weekend after I got the phone call on, was it December 17 or so? But no.

5:32:23 Stupid me. I gave up other opportunities I was committed to because I thought I could help here of a district that was in a situation that was in. For the record, I asked for the documents to be removed from the agenda item, and they were the ones that, besides the contracts, because I didn’t think they were appropriate to be out on a public agenda.

5:32:39 Okay, but how did they get back in? The only things that are on the agenda are your original contract, which we voted on and signed. And there’s a redline version. And the reason that staff thought that it was appropriate to put it on there was because it was your last response during the conversation of all of these items.

5:32:53 It was not my last response. It’s the last. Mister Gibbs, is this the last response that we received from him regarding his contract? That’s the last formal counter proposal.

5:33:22 We did have that meeting between. On the phone and we’ve had. Yeah, there was like, I believe one other meeting that you were on the phone or you were in his office.

5:33:27 I don’t recall. No, but. And what about all the successive updates that I tried to offer so we didn’t have this moment throughout February and March? I’m not ready to have this.

5:33:35 This decision tonight. I don’t. I understand, but Doctor Shiller, you consistently changed the goalposts to move to.

5:34:04 Exactly. Trying to simplify it was not simplifying, and I’ll be honest. But then why did some of those conversations enter into this February 10 document as opposed to others not being there? Doctor Schiller, we put every document that was a correspondence back and forth that was there.

5:34:16 I don’t know why it is that you have conversations wrapped around not understanding the document they were. I mean, this is your document that you sent. You owned it because you did it.

5:34:52 I have some severe, complex problems with what I’m reading inside of it. And I keep reading it more and more and it becomes more and more evident. There’s been some other developments, most recently today.

5:34:55 Series of emails that we’ve received over and over again that have escalated the idea that misses Jenkins has mentioned. As far as a culture that we’re dealing with. Miss Jenkins, I wanted to let you know that I did reach out to staff that day.

5:35:04 And just so you know, on June 9, January 9, you had mentioned that. And I said explicitly, I said, I apologize for any of the actions that you may have taken the wrong way. And then I actually sat here for an entire week to make sure that everything went smooth for the entire week and that there wasn’t.

5:35:12 So I wanted to let you know that as board chair, I was committed to your request. The other thing is that there’s been some recent developments in both. Some accusations, Doctor Schiller, that have gone on.

5:35:32 And at this time, I just, my concern is that I truly believe that we’ve come to a place where we may have to put you on administrative leave just to get through all of these allegations, accusations and everything else to get them wrapped up and then bring you back if they clear out. But there’s, there’s a significant start in the pile that I got two today that I verified that I just, I’m starting to get that concern. So I would like to, like I said, the contract provides for.

5:35:47 I would, and I would be very happy. No, I wouldn’t be happy. Okay.

5:36:06 Doctor Shiller, if I could just finish my conversation, I’ll give you all the floor. I just. I would like to make it to where I’m concerned about a bunch of different things.

5:36:22 I think this is a opportunity that we have. I would like to say if we can move to put Doctor Shiller on administrative leave so that we can then evaluate all of the different accusations and all the different stuff, get it wrapped up and then bring them back on, or, you know what I mean? Based on the accusations that I’ve seen and I verified today, maybe move in a different direction. So you had even said in your here there’d be notice decisions tonight, and now you’re going to make a decision unilaterally when you’re just asking.

5:36:52 I’m just at a point where I think that that’s the best case. Well, I had offered to you, and you have a contract there that said you can terminate at any time you want and I could give notice. I gave you notice today.

5:36:59 If you wish for me not to be here, then abide by the terms of the contract. I mean, you know, why? Why now? Why now do you want to take this kind of unilateral action? I mean, and, you know, and I feel really badly wondering if some of the other actions have been taken now and what will be taken to some staff is because of some disagreement you have with me, no doubt some individual. Doctor Shiller.

5:37:14 Doctor Shiller, please. Like, I’m not. This is just snowballing.

5:37:25 And I’ve just at a point where I want to say, I would like this. So would snowball tonight. Can you? Well, Doctor Schiller, I brought up a simple facts and then all of a sudden moved into this.

5:37:37 Is there anybody else that wants to second that motion? Yeah, I’ll second. I’ll second it. All right.

5:37:47 Is there any discussion for the motion? Yeah, hold on. The motion was to put doctor Shiller on administrative leave, so we got a second, Miss Jenkins, I think I need to be so I. There is, you’re right, you’re right. Go ahead.

5:38:06 I keep hearing people are upset with like the personal attacks in here, and I’m going to circle back to. That doesn’t matter, right? It might hurt people’s feelings, but it doesn’t matter. It’s not like this was intentionally posted into the public.

5:38:16 What does matter is the other things inside of here. And because we are where we are right now, I’m going to bring up my concerns and be explicit again. On January 9, I brought up my concerns about, and then subsequently an email.

5:38:26 Mister, Mister Susan, you were cc’d on those emails. Not by me, obviously. My concern about the conversation about hiring a consultant, and I was very concerned about the relationship with this consultant.

5:38:35 I was concerned why we were hiring a consultant seven days and after, well, not even seven days, whatever, very small amount of time after we just got an interim superintendent, I was concerned that we were starting, we were already going to start this behavior in which we were going to start just creating opportunities for consulting businesses. That really concerned me. And when I asked very explicit questions, and it’s an email, it’s public record, I think I actually responded.

5:38:43 I voted on to all of you because it got sent to Mister Susan. I felt like that wasn’t fair. Those questions were never answered.

5:39:06 It was a response of, oh, this person fell ill and is no longer asking for the contract the next day. That always rubbed me the wrong way. I am always honest and I tell it like it is.

5:39:14 And I just, I feel like I have to, because we’re here, I have to do it. We hired two additional employees that I was very vocal about. I don’t understand, understand why we’re reorganizing.

5:39:36 And it has been said that these employees were instructed to write reports of the divisions that they’re overseeing as if they’re doing contracting services. That’s very strange to me. I don’t think we hired you for that.

5:39:41 I don’t think that’s in your job description. I’m sure you were told to do that. I’m not blaming the people who are doing it, but it’s weird to me, doesn’t make any sense.

5:39:45 And so the personal attacks in this document don’t bother me. What bothers me is like the subsequent potential solicitation for consult services. And the reason I was vague on January 9 was because it’s uncomfortable, because it was brand new.

5:39:54 And quite frankly, I didn’t think everybody was going to listen to me and agree and hear what I had to say. And also, I was really concerned about our staff. Really, really, really concerned.

5:39:59 And I was scared that there would be retaliation. I promised them I wouldn’t be explicit with the things that they had shared with me. That was why I was vague.

5:40:04 So I appreciate you reaching out on your own. And that’s why I said that, because I felt like it was not my. It was shared in confidence with me.

5:40:07 It wasn’t anyone complaining to me. I had reached out to them. I felt the need to say that on record because we got here.

5:40:11 Because again, I think it’s important to step away from the personal side of this document, because that’s not really relevant. It concerns me. And again, going back to the reorg and hiring and paying people more money than our employees that are already here, like, these were all things that I’ve said to you guys from day one since January 9.

5:40:17 It’s concerning to me. These decisions were concerning to me. I couldn’t justify them.

5:40:22 And as frustrated as I am that no one was listening to me, I am grateful again, that you brought these forward to us, because it does bother me. And I told you guys on January 9 that I was concerned about legal ramifications. And here we are.

5:40:43 I really was deeply, deeply concerned. I think that was pretty evident. I would.

5:40:50 I apologize. No, I’m. I would say that there are some other things that are there that I would like to not mention in public.

5:40:54 I would like to just investigate and then let Doctor Shiller know. So there’s a motion on the table. There’s a second.

5:41:02 Can I get. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Oh, Dee, would you like to speak? I’m sorry, I didn’t see you go for the mic.

5:41:05 No question. No, because I just. I just want to make sure that I understand.

5:41:18 We all understand what the ramifications of the, you know, leave. We haven’t. We just.

5:41:30 It’s an indefinite leave as of. No, it’s a. It’s a leave until we can.

5:41:33 There are other things that. Besides what Miss Jenkins had mentioned that I’d like to look into. I don’t want to say them publicly.

5:41:36 I would like to just work on those. And then I would. I would like to ask Mister Gibbs what that.

5:41:56 I mean, we. We have to have someone here to sign things and whatever. And would we have a deputy? It’s an interim deputy, but do would our interim deputy qualify for someone who can sign documents? And if she would accept the second part of this, she would have to accept that designation.

5:42:19 Okay, Miss Campbell, we would have to. I know, but I just want to. I just want to make sure we understand that we’re going to have to decide that tonight if we do that.

5:42:30 Thank you, Miss Campbell. You good? Yeah. Can I just.

5:42:36 I just want to make a clarifying statement about what I said, too. You know, and I know you’re talking about something different that you don’t want to talk about. Public ends.

5:42:43 Yes. Because you’ve already publicly said this, and I think that’s appropriate. Yeah.

5:42:52 And I wanted to say this publicly, right here, now. Because if we’re voting on something, I want to justify why I’m doing it, because it seems to be coming out of nowhere to the public. And I just want to make it clear, like, my opinion is not coming out of nowhere.

5:42:59 My opinion started back in January, and I felt like that was important. I don’t want to air it out. Which is why I took the opportunity at the off site, where there wasn’t a ton of public paying attention, to have that conversation. Because, again, it had to be in the sunshine. No, thank you very much. We have vote on the table. All signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed? Doctor Schiller, we’ll reach out to you. The next thing is that we have to choose to have somebody as an interim. I would like to suggest that sue Hand become the interim person to do exactly what you just said to fill the acting acting superintendent. We can have discussion about that, but I think that Miss Suhan is the only individual that we can all agree with. Miss Suhan, will you accept if we ask you to be the superintendent? Acting. Correct title? Paul, whatever it is at this point, it’s almost 11:00 at night. That would make more sense. Yeah, yeah, whatever costs us the least. Just so you know, even when the mics aren’t on, YouTube picks everything up. Yeah. Miss. Miss Hand. Yes, sir. Mister chairman, members of the board, if you would request my assistance, I’ll be happy to help. Okay. Thank you, sir. All right, I second that motion. Okay, since there’s no objections, and I don’t see any discussion on it, I’d like to call a question. All in favor, signify by saying aye. All opposed? Votes. I think we have board direction. Thank you very much. Everybody good? Any other issues? Anything else in the agenda? Nope, we’re done. All right, let’s go.