Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
4:15 Sa sa, everybody. This is Miss Ainsley, whose mother is about to become the new principal of Viera Middle school. The middle school in Viera. Sorry.
9:05 Sorry. Gotta be careful about naming and stuff like that. We know that there’s gonna be a different name, but as of right now.
9:10 But I want to say thank you, Ainsley, for doing that. And that may be the best gavel that we’ve had in a long time. We really appreciate it.
9:17 If that’s any kind of indication of how the meeting’s gonna go, we’re gonna have some fun here. So anyways, Miss McNutt, we welcome you to the meeting, and we’re very excited to have you here. Good morning.
9:27 The April 18, 2023 special board meeting is now in order. I’m happy to welcome my fellow board members and the public. I would like to take the opportunity to remind the public that your appropriate place for public participation in the meeting is during your individual public comment opportunity as identified in the agenda outside of your individual public comment opportunity, your role in the meeting as an observer.
9:48 Paul, roll call, please. Mister Susan. Here.
9:51 Miss Wright. Here. Miss Jenkins.
9:53 Here. Mister Trent. Here.
9:54 Miss Campbell. Here. All rise for the pledge of allegiance.
10:02 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. That brings us to the adoption of the agenda. On this morning’s agenda, we have one action item and one discussion item.
10:25 Changes made to the agenda since release to the public include the addition item six, administrative staff recommendations, and a revision to item seven. Superintendent search. Do I hear a motion? Is there any discussion? All in favor, signify by saying aye.
10:42 Any opposed say nay. All right, we’re now on the public comments portion of this morning’s special meeting. Comments will be limited to the agenda items only.
10:50 We have two number of speakers, and each will receive three minutes. I will call up two speakers at a time. Pursuant to board policy and tonight’s motion, you are allowed to address the board members by name, but not by staff or the public.
11:01 The first two speakers are Katie Delaney and Susan Minch. Good morning. I am here to speak about the superintendent’s.
11:16 I hope that this board chooses somebody that reflects the community. And not just that, but starts healing the lack of community, lack of culture in our schools that we’ve seen from the youth truth surveys. We want somebody who not only is going to focus on, of course, the education of our children, bringing all the students up in their math and reading scores, but we want our kids to feel like school is home away from home, that their families are welcome, that, you know, that it’s a safe place to go.
12:07 And so discipline needs to be high on the top priorities of this next superintendent, in addition to, you know, the education of our kids. And again, a safe place for our kids to go. Thank you.
12:23 Thank you. Next up, Miss Minch. Good morning.
12:35 I told Miss right that I would be the white haired lady at the back of the room, but here I am in the front row. My name is Susan Minch, and I live at 3020 Coral Avenue in Mims in the village of Scotsmore. I really want to commend you for doing a nationwide search for the next superintendent of Brevard county.
13:01 I’m a former school board member myself in St. Lucie county many years ago, and when we changed from elected superintendent to appointed, all of a sudden we had this tremendous responsibility of not choosing someone locally, necessarily, but perhaps, but doing a nationwide search to find the very best person for our students. And I believe we did a good job. I am very pleased that you are using Doctor Vogel as a consultant.
13:39 He’s a former superintendent of St. Lucie county. Did an admirable job when he served us. I want to praise you for your timeframe.
13:51 I think you’ve done a very sensible job in the amount of time that you have allotted to prepare for your vote. I do have a son that teaches at astronaut High, previously at Merritt island high. He loves being a teacher in the system.
14:16 I also have two grandchildren that attend Brevard county schools. I encourage you to speak with the people who have actually worked with the applicants, because sometimes people can look very good on paper. And then when you actually get to talk with people who have worked with them, you might learn some new information that’s critical to your vote.
14:47 I wish you well. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Minch.
14:51 And thank you for your service as a school board member years ago. That brings us to the adoption. That brings us.
14:57 That concludes public comment. We’re there for your willingness to address this public manner. Miss Hand, would you please let us know about the item under the next action portion of today’s agenda? Today’s action item is administrative recommendations.
15:09 Do I hear a motion? Move to approve second. There we go. Is there any discussion? None.
15:17 All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Miss Anne? Thank you, mister chairman.
15:24 I just want to take an opportunity to thank misses McNaught for your service to brevard public schools and to tell you how proud I am to have you coming in as the principal of our new middle school in Viera. This is such an exciting project. I’ve been honored to work at it from the facilities perspective and then to have you come in as our school leader.
15:44 Having worked with you at Hoover Middle School, I’m just so excited for the great things that you are going to do for our community. Your work at Hoover has been exemplary. You have all of those great community connections that you’re going to need and will be so important here in this area.
15:59 And I just know that you’ll be just a tremendous leader, including your work on the reimagining middle school project where you’re going with that going to be awesome. And to be able to bring that to the forefront at our new middle school is just so exciting for me. So congratulations and thank you.
16:32 Thank you Mister Susan, school board members, Miss Hannah, Doctor Sullivan, my directors and district leaders for trusting me with this opportunity. I am humbled and honored to be selected as the new principal of the new unnamed Central Area Middle School and I look forward to partnering with our community to build an amazing school. I have lived in Viera for over 13 years, so I know the excitement and anticipation surrounding this build.
17:07 There was talk of this middle school when our housing developments were still cow pastures, and this school will be our neighborhood school. It will be the place that my own children will eventually attend. So the work is very important and personal to me.
17:25 But anyone who knows me will tell you that I feel that way about every school I’ve ever been at. I pour my heart into my schools and the staff and the teachers, the families, the students, the community members are truly extended family. I’m so grateful to have worked alongside incredible people at all of the schools that I’ve worked at, and I adore them all so much.
17:52 I need to give a special shout out to my Hoover Middle school family. It has been an honor to serve at that school for the last six years and the outpouring of love and support that I’ve received from all of them is just overwhelming. My biggest fans though, are here with me today.
18:15 Without the selfless sacrifice of my family and my closest friends, I could never do the work that I do. So thank you so much. I’m so excited to build a new school at a time that we are reimagining middle school for all of Brevard County’s students.
18:35 Thank you so much again for this opportunity and I can’t wait to get started. Does anybody want to talk about the opportunity? The middle school? Anything else to miss hand? Would you like to like, let some tidbits out about what’s coming, or are we still holding that behind the black wall and all this other stuff? What’s going on? We’re doing some great stuff there. I just leave it at that.
18:59 Miss Hand, we met, we had a meeting with all the suntree parents the other night, and that was a packed cafeteria full, and they were concerned about being a part of it. And they were happy that the board had moved forward with the way the direction did. And I was sitting there and I kept trying to say, like, can I tell them what’s coming? And they were like, Miss Hann keeps saying, no.
19:18 No. So when you’re ready, let us know, because there’s some of the most incredible things that we’re doing there. But then what everybody needs to also understand is not only are we doing those at Viera, but the reimagining that you are leading throughout the entire county ensures that this isn’t just we’re dumping a bunch of resources towards one school that we’re actually reimagining across the district.
19:38 And I think that it’s well deserved. I think it’s well needed. And your leadership in that perspective is going to be amazing, not only for our middle school, but then also for the rest.
19:47 So, did anybody want to say anything? You guys? Miss Jenkins. Another one bites the dust in district three. Misses McNutt.
19:59 Your students adore you. Your staff respects you and loves you, and most importantly, you do the same right back to them. You are the most genuine, kind person I have ever met in my life, and you couldn’t have said it any better.
20:14 But you pour your heart and soul into every single thing that you do. And one of my first real moments with you when I visited Hoover was kind of during the holiday season, and you were pouring your heart out to me about how sometimes people forget. You know, you’re in a beachside community, and we often expect some of those students to come from the most affluent families, and we forget about those kids that don’t.
20:40 And your office was just stacked with wrapped presents, and presents to be wrapped for those kids. And I know it’s not just you. I know it’s the staff there at Hoover and the amazing pto that you have, but you truly exhibit what every educator believes that they care about when they come into this profession.
21:01 And I respect that so deeply. And I respect your leadership ability. Joining the reimagining middle schools, being an integral part of that conversation.
21:09 I think you are the perfect person to move us forward into this new school. And I’m happy for you that you’re in your home community where your children are going to go. So you will be missed.
21:18 I know you’ll be missed by your staff and your students. But congratulations. And I’m really proud of you, mister.
21:29 Susan, would you like to do a group photo? Yeah, I think. I think we want to do that. Miss Sullivan, did you want to say anything about the new things that are coming out in the middle school? Like, put her on? Because you seem to be.
21:42 What? What’s that? Did you hear that? So there is. I don’t know if you guys heard, but she just said that satellites are coming. And that’s not like some.
21:52 There is actual satellites for NASA. There’s are coming and going to be a part of it. So we’re going to.
21:56 There’s some really cool stuff. Thank you for breaking a little bit outside the box. This miss hand won’t do.
22:00 I promise you. I’ll cover for you. Thank you.
22:03 Yeah. Let’s get a picture of you guys. Jake is making play.
22:28 Pepper. What’s public? Family. Look at her.
22:55 All right. One, two, three. How do you smile? Vocal dance back there.
23:06 So he laughs. All right, now a couple more. Look at this.
23:12 One, two, three. We’re doing it. We’re doing it.
23:15 Thank you, guys. Good job. Thank you.
23:23 Hey, Ross. I literally was like, do I wear heels or flats? I’m like, no one’s gonna sit. I’m sitting down, so I wore flats.
23:34 At least you had your shoes on. There’s that. No, I did.
23:40 No, we joked about how sometimes I take them off up here just like you take them now. We take a while. Thank you, everybody.
23:55 We will now move on to today’s discussion item pertaining to the superintendent search. FSBA will lead the discussion. Does any board member have anything further to report or discuss before we get started? Nope.
24:06 Go ahead. Okay. We are here today to move forward in our superintendent search.
24:14 First, we’re going to have board discussion similar to what we did when you decided who your semi finalists were going to be. We’re going to ask you who you believe the board ought to bring in for a face to face interview. And then we’ll reach consensus over how many and which applicants you’d like to see in face to face interviews.
24:32 From there, we’re going to talk about how that interview process is going to go because that’s next week and I’ve got a number of questions. I mentioned to you before that I’ve arranged thematically to fit into your strategic plan. So we’ll ask each of you to take a category from the strategic plan.
24:51 And for the public interview, you’ll be the person asking the same questions of each of the applicants within that thematic area. So we’ll talk about that. And Mister Reichert is also going to talk about some of the logistics related to next week.
25:05 Okay. All right, so each of you should have a tally sheet that was prepared for you, that has all of the semi finalists, applicant numbers and names. And what we’d like to do is find out from each of you which of these applicants you believe the board ought to continue to consider.
25:26 Bring in for a face to face interview. You should have read all of the written responses to the questions you provided. You should have seen the videos.
25:34 I know that those were provided for you last week. So it gave you some. An opportunity to really spend some time kind of hearing a little bit more from each of the applicants from their original packets.
25:47 And you also should have spoken with me, Mister Gibbs, one on one related to the applicants. So is there any board member who would like to start? If I can. If.
25:57 When you guys are talking about, before you get started, if there’s something you would like to say about the overall process, things like that. You know what I mean? Bring it up to speed. Honoring each one of the applicants that may or may not be discussed and stuff like that.
26:08 But. Yep, go ahead. I’m gonna go last.
26:11 I wanna thank you, because, honestly, those video responses, I feel like, were tremendous when it comes to really being able to see, hey, is this person able to answer a question genuinely, from the heart and give us, you know, their perspective? I appreciated that part of it more so than the written response. And I felt like that was very useful to me as a school board member in helping make my decision over who would serve our district. Thank you.
26:32 We didn’t always do the video responses, but we just before COVID we had started it, and then people are just more comfortable now doing that. So we really believe it’s a important for you to see applicants in different sort of scenarios. Absolutely.
26:46 It was beneficial. Thank you. You want to jump in there since you’re on the mic? What? You want to go first? Oh, with my.
26:54 Okay, well, just to be clear, are we going to narrow this down to our top three? How do you see this going? Okay, so when we were here last time, we said there was no minimum, no maximum. And so I would say the same thing too, today. But once we have everyone’s identification of who they believe the board ought to consider, my guess is things will happen similar to the way they did before.
27:15 There will be a few applicants that multiple, or at least a majority of the board believe ought to come in for an interview. But once we see where everything is, then the board can decide. Do we want to bring in 3452? Whatever.
27:27 I would recommend more than two. We really, right now, with the market the way it is, think you need to look to three to five that the board can agree are the, are the ones that you really want to focus your time and energies on. Okay.
27:42 Thank you. Mm hmm. I have to narrow mine down a little.
27:46 Close more. I have one. I have to.
27:48 Miss Campbell. Yeah. Well, I just wanted to say, also just appreciate the process.
27:54 I think this was great, and I know some of the candidates will maybe either watching this now or later. Just want to give my personal thanks for the effort that was put forward. It’s continued to be exciting for me to see the quality of candidates that we have.
28:10 I know there’s been a lot of, you know, mess in the news and the public and the social media about the small number of candidates. But again, I have to just point out we receive more than some of our fellow districts around the state who are also looking and just some really quality people with great experiences. So I appreciate all the work and effort that was put in.
28:31 So I have three that I, and I could maybe be talked into a fourth one. Okay. But I have three that I’m going to give you.
28:40 And let me just make sure I’ve got the right numbers here. Number nine. If you want numbers or if you want names, I can do the two.
28:51 I just want to confirm. Number nine, Scott Schneider. Scott Schneider.
28:54 Yes. Number 22, Jason Wysong. Number 22, Jason Wysong.
29:01 Yes. And number 26, Pete Licata. And number 26, Pete Licata.
29:06 So I’ve got numbers 922 and 26. Yes. Thank you.
29:19 Miss Jenkins. Mister Trent. You guys ready to go, Miss Jenkins? Okay, Mister Trent, you ready to go? No, same here.
29:35 I feel a bit pressured with her only doing three now. I’m like, oh, my gosh, I have six. You can have more than three.
29:39 You can have six. No minimum. No maximum.
29:43 Okay. I could have just one for everybody. Last time I had twelve and, you know, was just about more than anybody, so it’s okay.
29:51 Again, I echo your sentiments on the fact that this was hard to narrow down because there were so many good candidates that applied that I was very pleased. I thought, oh, my goodness. After looking at these, we had a lot of really great options here.
30:02 Like Miss Campbell, I had number nine as well, on my list I also had number 15. On my list, this particular candidate, I received a lot of letters of recommendation, emails and references, which I think speaks volumes to the candidate from different people in the community business. Some were churches, some were just all over the, you know, a lot of references that were referring him.
30:29 All right, I have to toss it up between these two and I don’t know what that is. You don’t have to. All right, I had number 18 on my list.
30:49 What’s this one? Sorry. I’m going to stop there for right this minute and then I have one more that I’m. I just want a couple more minutes of pause and I’ll come back to it.
31:05 So for right now, I have numbers 915 and 18. Yes. And Miss Campbell, I’m a little concerned.
31:11 You said last night you had twelve. There’s only eleven. Last time.
31:15 Oh, last time, last time. Last time. No, I had a whole bunch.
31:19 I was like, wait a minute, how did this happen? Okay, we’re good. No, no, no. All right, anybody else ready? I feel like this is poker or something.
31:31 Like where you trying to. No, this is just a starting point. No.
31:34 Yeah, I always. Yeah. Mister Trent, you ready or Miss Jenkins.
31:41 No, I’m always gonna go last, Mister Trent. All right. Why not? And I guess I’ll be like Miss Campbell.
31:50 I could be talked into another one once we go through this first round of the draft. But I do want to thank you for. For the setup, the work that you guys have put into this.
32:03 I too valued the video response much, much more than the written putting a face, also seeing the effort that the candidates put into the videos. So go with that. It was really good.
32:26 Alright. That being said, as you know, I only had four at the beginning, so I won’t be expanding it. I actually had to reduce it here.
32:38 So I’m going to go with number 15 as well and number 24. And I’m going to stop there. Okay.
32:56 I have numbers 15 and 24. Okay. I have more.
33:13 Okay, so I’ve got 911 2122-2526 let me review those numbers for you. I have 911 2122-2526 yep. Okay, mister chairman.
33:38 Thank you, Miss Jenkins. I have 915, 1821 22. If you need me to read those, I can read them.
33:49 Scott Schneider. Mark Rendell. Rebecca Ralson.
33:56 John Stratton. Doctor Jason Wysong. Okay, thank you.
34:01 Numbers 915, 1821 22. All right, so some of you wanted another moment. Anybody want to add a tally? Mark, I’m not asking for you to.
34:17 I just know some of you said you wanted another moment. I have one more that I want to add, and I’m going to speak to this individual just because they have been in the news quite a bit lately. This county has been, but we only had two people that applied that were actually have been or are superintendents.
34:36 One of them is Hernando county superintendent. And I’ve had the opportunity to meet this gentleman on several different occasions through FSBA and then also through space, Florida. And there is some news going on there that doesn’t look good right now in Hernando county.
34:52 And I would like for him to come here and just share with us what’s going on there and walk through that, because I think there’s some concern with the community over this individual, but I can see speak to the fact that he is a very good individual, has been, you know, has had a stellar record and up until this last little bit of thing here that happened. So I’m going to go ahead and add number 21 to my list. Okay, so, Megan, for you I have 915 1821.
35:19 Yes. Anybody else? Because we only have. All right, can I just.
35:28 Because I don’t know if this is breaking sunshine or not, so I just want to say it in public, just in case. I think it was this morning. I don’t know if you saw it yet, but, yeah, they sent us an email regarding that, too.
35:38 That kind of goes along what you’re saying. So just so you can take a peek at it. Yeah, I know you will, but, yeah.
35:43 Thank you. Anybody else? All right, so let’s look at what we have. We have applicant number nine, Scott Schneider, who has four board members that would like to bring him in for an interview.
35:48 We have applicant eleven, Mister James Larson, that has one. We have applicant 15, Doctor Mark Rendell with three. We have Rebecca Rawlerson, number 18 with two.
36:11 We have John Stratton, number 21 with three. We have Doctor Jason Wysong with three. He’s number 22.
36:22 We have captain Stephen Kingston, number 24 with one. Doctor Kim Moore, number 25 with one. And Doctor Peter Licata, number 26 with two.
36:34 So Mister Schneider has four. Is it the consensus of the board that we should bring in Mister Schneider? Yes. Yes.
36:43 Okay, so that would be applicant number nine. Then we have three applicants who have three tally marks each. One would be Doctor Mark Rendell, one would be John Stratton, and one would be Doctor Jason C. Wysong.
37:00 Is it the consensus of the board that those three should come in for interviews? Yes, sir. I would be for the majority. If there’s three, you know, they’re going to move forward, but I just want to make it publicly stated that with the concern that we do have with one of the applicants in their current role as superintendent.
37:27 I know it’s just my view, but I would prefer that us as brevard to stay away from that. And I just want to make it publicly stated that I’m just surprised that he’s allowing or he’s putting himself out there right now during this process. But, no, I won’t be saying yes on all of those, but that’s just me.
37:53 I see a majority, and I heard you supporting the majority, so. Okay, so then that would be applicants number 1521 22. At this point, we have four that you’re bringing in for interviews.
38:10 We have a few additional applicants, Rebecca Rollerson and Peter Lakata, that each have two board members who wanted to bring them in for an interview. How do you want me to move forward with those two, Miss Jenkins? I’ll jump in there. I think it’s very clear the way this board functions doesn’t waiver very much.
38:30 So I don’t think it benefits us to add more to the mix and waste people’s time bringing them here, their time, their energy, putting them out in the public like that. I think it’s best to leave it at the fore. Okay.
38:45 I. To be honest with you, I mean, when we looked at all of these, I left it open to having an in depth conversation with the top five, which we were kind of setting as part of the direction or three. So I would be in favor of moving Miss Raulston in as an applicant, like I had on the piece of paper before. But the main reason is, is that when I looked at the size of the district, when I looked at all of the attributes and stuff like that, I thought that was a good opportunity.
39:16 So that’s where I stand, is I would like to bring back Raulson, but keep it at five. That’s all. That’s my thought.
39:26 Other thoughts? I’m a big fan of four. I think we’ve got, you know, between the resumes we’ve been able to look at and the videos, the written responses, the background information, our own, you know, getting on the phone, you know, people. I very much appreciate Miss Minch’s comment of talking to people who work with these people.
39:48 And I’ve had the, you know, the blessing of knowing some people who know some people and be able to ask those questions. And I think we can do some more of that over the next few weeks, but I’d like to stick with these four, because if we start justifying one, honestly, the level of experience, I very much. I think that Miss Rollers in particular is a rising star.
40:08 We have some great candidates who have even more experience. I feel like that. And just, you know, from what I’ve seen, and nothing against her, I think she’s fantastic and so definitely heading on the right path towards district leadership.
40:21 I just think with the four that we’ve got, they’ve so fantastic and so much experience, I’d rather keep it at these four right here, you know, because then I don’t want to go to six. And we had two. That had two.
40:33 I know it sounds like you were withdrawing your one, so then we end up with Doctor Licada with just one, but. Oh, no, I wasn’t withdrawing it. I was just saying I don’t think we need to add the two.
40:42 Right, right. Yeah, I’d rather stick with four. I think it keeps it a simpler process.
40:45 If I can just say one thing that I didn’t state before, this is a male dominated superintendent searches. And I understand that we go with the best experience and everything else. And everything you said, Miss Campbell, is duly noted and well respected and every point you made was there.
41:04 I just think that there’s a perspective that a female superintendent or an applicant can give that maybe sometimes some of the male applicants can’t. And where I fell, where I feel adamant about having Miss Raulston come forward is not only that, but she may see some things that maybe others don’t. And I don’t mean to say it that way, but that’s just where my perspective was, is that she comes from a large district.
41:27 Our entire demographics of our school district are majority female. And I think that there’s something to be said for that. So that’s where I hung my head.
41:36 Not that it’s what everybody else says, but it’s what I wanted to say. Thank you for giving me a second. Other thoughts, Gene? Yeah.
41:48 At this point, I think we’ve done our homework, and I agree with Miss Jenkins. At this point, our minds are probably pretty set on who we have to see. I know there’s.
42:02 This was a very well qualified group of candidates and many of these are going to be superintendents here in the next month, including one we’re talking about now. There’s no doubt. But this is where experience matters.
42:18 Me personally, experience in brevard matters, and I wish all the candidates the best of luck, but I’m going to stick with four. There’s no reason. There’s no reason to waste anyone’s time.
42:31 That’s where I’m at. Alright, so I’ve heard three people who are comfortable with four. Miss Jenkins, did you want to say something? Yeah, I have to.
42:40 I’m sorry. As a young woman with a daughter, I have to say this. If the priority was to have female representation, there would have been more than two females in the top eleven in the first place.
42:49 It’s wonderful to think about that during the process. But that is not justification to push somebody forward that actually doesn’t benefit females to do that. She’s a wonderful woman.
43:02 She’s an up and coming rising star. She has a bright future ahead of her. We can say wonderful things about her, but we don’t need to say that we need her to go forward because she’s a female.
43:10 Thank you. Okay, so I have four applicants that you’d like to invite for interviews next week. Based on what I’m hearing, applicants number nine, miss.
43:20 Mister Scott Schneider. Applicant number 15, doctor Mark Rendell. Applicant 21, John Stratton.
43:26 And applicant 22, Doctor Jason Wysong. So I know you look forward as much as you thought the videos were helpful. I can promise you that the one on one interviews, the group interview, will be insightful and that will give you some perspective on what you want to follow up with on the one on one.
43:44 But nothing will give you what you need more than the one on one with each one of these applicants. So we really look forward to doing that. But for the board group interview, we have categories of questions and I have broken them up, as I mentioned, thematically, based on your strategic plan.
44:11 So what we need is actually for each of you to. To take one of the categories. And I don’t want to suggest that you don’t know your strategic plan, but we have academic excellence, exceptional workforce, community connection, and operational sustainability.
44:27 And I can count like you can. That’s four categories. So we also have a general leadership and board.
44:35 Let’s see, what is it called? Board superintendent relationship. That’s the final category. So we have five.
44:40 Board superintendent relationship, general leadership, and then your four from your strategic plan. Academic excellence, exceptional workforce, community connection, and operational sustainability. So, mister chair, I’m going to need each board member to let me know what their priorities are.
44:58 We can do a thumb war. We can see if anybody objects because somebody feels strongly about one or another. How would you like me to move forward with this? I think the first thing is to say, is there anything that anybody would like to be, you know, that they feel strong about? I would like to take the board superintendent relationship.
45:19 That portion of it. Is anybody against her taking the board? Superintendent relationship. And that also goes with general leadership.
45:25 They’re combined. All right, perfect, Megan, we’ll get you in that category. I would like to take academic excellence.
45:32 Everybody okay with her taking academic excellence? If everybody’s okay with it. Workforce has always been my thing, so I’d love to take that one. If that’s okay with everybody.
45:32 Everybody okay with workforce? For Mister Susan, that leaves us with community connection and operations. Are you ready to take the leftovers? Yeah, well, the community relations has been my champion area for the last four years, so I’m happy to take those questions. All right, Miss Campbell, I’m going to put you down for community connections, which means, Mister Trent, you’re going to bring us home with operational sustainability, which is facilities, finance, business, all the business operations.
46:12 That’s what I would have chosen. Perfect. I think they knew that.
46:15 They’re just making sure that it was there for you. Available. All right, I’m going to ask Mister Reichert to come up.
46:20 I’m going to. Before each of you leave today, if you’ll stop by and let me give you your little section of questions so we can talk about that. And Mister Reichert, you have a few logistics you’d like to cover.
46:33 Thank you, Miss Messina. Good morning, members of the board. I just wanted to give you a quick update on the interview schedule.
46:40 As you know, any out of area candidates will come here next Wednesday. Your interview with the board as a sitting body will begin on next Thursday. That would be the 28th start.
46:55 Your first interview will be at 830 that Friday. You do your one on ones. Your first interviews on that day will be 830 as well.
47:06 I do want to tell you that I’ll be preparing now that we have the number of finalists identified, more or less a personal schedule for each of you for both days, the Thursday and the Friday. I will send that to Tammy and ask her to get that to you to move forward with so you can set your schedule. But the overall schedule, I know we’ve shared it with you multiple times, but again, I’ll prepare a personal schedule for each of you and get that to Tammy.
47:33 I have worked with Tammy. We have identified a hotel for any out of area folks that may need that. As far as the tours, we have identified staff members to lead the tours.
47:48 While one finalist is interviewing with the board, the staff will kind of work with Russell to kind of set up tours. I hope to kind of have a quick meeting with those folks next Wednesday before the Thursday Friday and I don’t know if Russell has any updates on the community people at this point. I know some of the community folks were kind of waiting on the schedules and what times and how many we would need.
48:15 So if I could ask Russell to give a quick update. Thank you, Russell. Good morning, board.
48:21 We’ve worked with the school’s foundation to identify six community leaders to have freed up their schedule to take part in the tours. And so based on the first interview started at 830, some of them will be able to make it. So we have Sharon Barry from community Credit Union, Christine Noel Rond from car Riggs Ingram, Andy Day from herd construction, Jim Klaymans, who’s retired from Harris L three Harris, Jonathan Wilkes from Morton Smith, and Richard Miller from Miller and Hert wealth advisors.
48:53 They’re eager to play a role in showing off Brevard County. John, hang on a second. Can I ask a question? You guys mind turn on your mic if I. If I. That’s my daughter’s prom day.
49:11 It’s okay with you guys if I do the interview? Interview. Interview. And then on whatever work.
49:15 Yeah, whatever you want. When we do the interview schedule for the one on ones. I know you had it arranged just like by district or whatever, but if you could do.
49:23 If the board grants me permission for me to do the interview back to back to back and then have the fourth off, because I have a commitment that day, if I can be done and get out of here. Okay. So I just need to do the shortest schedule I can for you on that Friday.
49:40 Yeah, the earliest done. That would be great. Thank you.
49:42 Okay. Only if we got pictures. Allison.
49:51 Okay. Thank you. Any other questions from the board? Thank you so much.
49:57 I have a question. Well, maybe we’re getting to this. I don’t know.
49:59 Are we going to talk about the community piece next? The forum? I’m sorry? Are we going to talk about the forum? The forum? The community meet and greet. Yes. Yes.
50:09 I’m sorry. No, that’s okay. Yes.
50:12 That will be on Thursday night, April 27, starting at 06:00 we’re going to have it here in this room. We’ll have, as we’ve talked about before, we’ll have the. The four finalists do a quick intro for six to eight minutes.
50:27 And then once all the finalists kind of go through their intro, we’ll have them kind of on stage and off and rotate through. And then we’ll basically have four corners set up for the finalists to kind of station themselves at. And then after the introductions, then we’ll let the community kind of mingle around and speak with those candidates until around 730.
50:50 So we’ll start about 06:00 and finish up about 730. So we had talked in the past, the community would have some kind of form or something to fill out. Is it going to be paper based or electronic? No, ma’am, it’ll be electronic.
51:04 Actually, I spoke to Tammy this morning. Miss Messini will create the QR codes. We’ll get those to Tammy and then we’ll have those codes posted around the room here.
51:16 So as the evening proceeds, those in attendance can go and access that QR code and submit any thoughts they have about the candidates. Miss Messina will kind of collect those that evening and then as soon as possible, get them to Tammy so she can get them to y’all. Hopefully prior to your Friday morning interviews.
51:37 So you’ll have some feeling of some of the comments that might have come from the community that Thursday evening. Thank you. Can I ask a question on that same.
51:48 On that same topic. So, Mister Gibbs, you had sent an email to the board suggesting that it would not be a good idea for board members to attend this community forum. Is that still the consensus that we will stick to? So even if the board is not near each other or.
52:03 That’s my recommendation. Just because, Noel, it’s not even the board being near each other. If the board were to participate, I think the board would have to be together throughout the evening.
52:12 You cannot leave. The problem is if you are rotating individually around the room, then the community cannot participate with the board as a whole. They can’t hear what you’re talking about with candidate a or what Miss Campbell’s talking about with candidate, you know, c at the same time.
52:32 And I think that’s where the sunshine violation is a concern. It’s just like when Pasco got hit with the sunshine violation for breaking their board into subcommittees that all met at the same time. The ruling was the community can’t follow those committee meetings at the same time, so they don’t know what’s going on in the other committee meetings.
52:51 So if the board were to attend and have a table that was designated that we were to sit at and not leave. I’m just asking if we want to come and hear what they are saying, saying at the community forum, would that be acceptable and would that mitigate that? I think you would have to stay together the whole time. You cannot rotate around the room.
53:07 If the board’s interested in that, I will. I mean, we might be able to solve some of this problem to figure out. I was not planning on attending if like, that’s the communities event.
53:14 So I’m. I will remove myself from the situation. So, I mean, if there was one of us who wanted to tend and the other four promised not to come.
53:22 Right. We just know we’d probably be okay. You don’t have a sunshine issue at all.
53:27 We also could just notice the meeting and everybody could go. I think it’s already advertised. The problem is even advertised meeting, if you’re separate around the room, they can’t follow all of you at the same time.
53:38 We would have to be designated to a certain area. That’s what I’m. The only way to avoid a sunshine issue is to make sure everybody can hear what the board is hearing all at the same time or discussing at the same time.
53:49 So it’s okay because. Because it’s already been noticed. If multiple board members go, they just have to sit in.
53:54 Yeah. You can’t walk around the room or talk individually with anybody. You’d have to be at a table together attached to a rope or something.
54:01 Yes. Okay. Thank you.
54:03 I just want a clarification on that process. And I also wanted to say that we’re talking about a feedback loop. In addition to having the QR code for the meet and greet, we’ll also have a feedback loop for people who watch the interviews.
54:19 And that loop will stay open throughout kind of the whole weekend. And we’ll get that information back to you. I’ll get as much as I can to you the morning before you do your one on ones, but then some additional information will come as people are able to spend some time and watch those interviews.
54:25 And we’ll get that information to you before you make your final delivery. So there’ll be a few opportunities for feedback from the community. Thank you.
54:47 Okay, can I ask one more question about the board? So with the six to eight minute intro, are they just going to go back to back and then it’s going to break out? Yes, that’s the way it would typically work. That’s the part I want to be here for. I mean, obviously, if we can’t mingle with the community, I don’t, you know, I can’t see what they’re saying to the community, but I just want to be there for that beginning part of this.
55:04 Yeah, that’s exactly how it will happen. We’ll have. We’ll introduce each 11234 and we’ll do them in order of their applicant number.
55:13 That’s one reason we use applicant numbers. So even in the public interview, you’ll start with applicant nine, Scott Schneider. He’ll be the first one to interview because he was the first one to get his application in.
55:22 We’ll do the same thing at the community meet and greet. Each one of them has a few minutes. As you know, the gentlemen will typically keep one out, like in a green room or, you know, out so that they don’t hear what each other says.
55:34 The person says, hello, I’m so and so, so and so. They do their two to three minutes, whatever. Then they leave.
55:39 The next one comes in, and then after all of them have spoken, they’ll go to their corners. Thanks. You’re welcome.
55:47 And then also, just so you know, for the public interview, the board group interview, once I get from each of you the questions that you’re going to add, that you’re prepared to ask, and I would ask you to choose maybe between five and six. You don’t have to choose my questions, but they’re to help you kind of think in this thematic area. Then we will be creating almost like worksheets so that it’ll have each category.
56:12 You’ll know the questions that are going to be asked. You’ll have a space where you can take notes from each applicant. And so you’ll have a packet for each applicant with all the questions from each of your peers so that you can take notes.
56:25 And then you’ll have apples to apple comparison. So we’ll be preparing that as soon as I get the questions from you. Then for your one on one interviews, you’ll actually have the whole question bank.
56:38 All of the questions. In all of the categories, there’s about 200 questions that you can choose. You don’t have to, but I also want to point out that document that we provided previously, the questions not to ask.
56:51 And a general rule, and I think Doctor Reichert is the one who said it, but a general rule is when you’re interviewing somebody for a job, you ask them questions about the job. You don’t ask about the family. You don’t ask about health.
57:03 You don’t ask about personal things. You ask about the job. However, like Miss Campbell, your category of questions is community connections.
57:14 So there’ll be some pieces that are relevant, especially for the superintendent position, but by and large, to stay above the fray. Look at those questions that should not be asked. In fact, in another.
57:27 Resend that to us, please. Pardon? Resend that to us, please. We’ll make sure that you have that.
57:33 Yes, ma’am. But no, in another county, one of the questions, they were looking at the list, and one of them said something about, tell me about your children. And the board member said, how is that a bad question? And I said, well, I want you to consider somebody that may have reproductive challenges and maybe wanted children their whole lives and don’t have children.
57:52 So then, you know, as an educator, do you assume that because they don’t have children, that for some reason, you know, there’s all sorts of things that you don’t know about when you ask some of those questions. So if you can just stick to the little guidelines. Now, if they volunteer, that’s a whole different ballgame.
58:08 But you asking is the problem. Okay. And then any other questions? I don’t have questions.
58:17 But I know that you guys are walking through the same process in the same timeframe with several other counties. So I know we’ve got you hopping all over the state. Very much appreciate your pretty much April and May, or toast for whatever else you want to do in your life and your jobs that you do.
58:33 So I very much just want to give my thanks again because. Because we’re keeping you guys busy. And also, I’d like to say on the record that I’m glad that we’re making our decision first.
58:45 Well, you are first, so. That is true. Can we.
58:49 I know Mister Gibbs had shared a little bit with me, but can we get like emailed a list of some of these now that we’ve narrowed it down, some of these applicants who are in potentially other counties right now in the running and their finals, if we get information about that as well. Well. Oh, yes, Doctor Vogel actually has that correct.
59:05 Doctor Vogel? Yeah, I’ve talked with Doctor Vogel. I’ll send that out to everybody. Yeah, thank you.
59:11 Any other questions I can answer for you? No. Okay. Thank you.
59:17 Thank you, Miss Messina. So I think that that is pretty much the rest of today’s issue. What I would like to do is if anybody else has any other further report, we’re good.
59:30 I did want to say that we have. Oh, you have something to say, Miss Campbell? I know we talked about it last week, but we were reminded today. Thank you for the reminder.
59:36 Tomorrow is the purple up for the military child. So we have an audit committee meeting. Remind everybody who’s listening is going to be here tomorrow.
59:41 We’re purple. Or if you’re here or not here, we’re purple to honor our military children. Yep.
59:46 And I did want to echo some of what some of the other board members have said in the fact that we have had some individuals that. That have come out and said, you guys are rushing this process and everything else. And what you’re finding out is that we’re perfectly in line with everything else that everybody’s doing, and it puts us in a position ahead of everybody else to select the best candidates.
1:00:04 So us, you know what I mean? Hurrying in the beginning was the success that we’re going to have by having the largest amount. So we really appreciate the opportunity, and if nobody else has anything, that’s the end of the meeting.